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Jennifer Hatton May 18, 2020 Leave a Comment

Cleaning up your Social Media Channels

Part 1 of 2

There’s a lot going on in the world right now and that has resulted in some brands going dark, some changing their messaging, and others pushing on like everything was status quo. No matter what camp you find yourself in you may be analyzing your social profile, finetuning your messaging, and developing a go-forward strategy for the rest of the year.  

Are you ready to restart your channels, reinvigorate your commitment to social posting for your company or take your side gig to the next level? Let’s take some time to do some housekeeping that will help make your channels more secure, help you be more organized and put your best branding foot forward for new fans and followers.

Let’s review some things you can do right now to enhance your social media initiatives: 

Grab a pen and answer the questions below!

Social Media Channels

1. What channels do you have? 

A simple spreadsheet is a great tool to track this and help you stay on top of where and how you’re spending your time.  

2. What channels are you consistently posting content on? 

Analyze the last 3-12 months, look at number of posts, engagement metrics, and total ROI.  

3. What channels should you put on hold? 

Use your ROI analysis to determine if it makes sense to step away from a platform and focus your energy on the ones that are providing tangible results. 

You have an entire digital ecosystem that includes your website, blog and social media channels. Any time someone encounters your brand online, they should be able to easily get to your website. Afterall, your website is your home turf. You aren’t beholden to changes in algorithms, or other third-party issues that can impact or even devastate your traffic.  

Log In’s and Access

1. Do you have a password app or document? 

If so you need to be sure if it will keep your data safe in the event you’re hacked. 

2. Do you have a regularly updated back-up of the data in case of a breach?

It is also important that you know who all has access to that information. 

3. Have you updated your passwords recently? 

Most security experts agree changing passwords every 90 days is a solid way to reduce the risk of someone else getting access to your data. Are you using a password generator? The street you grew up on with your child’s birthdate won’t cut it. Most password apps have the ability to generate complex passwords for you.   

4. Who has access to your channels? 

We’ve all heard the stories of an employee who was terminated but still had access to social channels, or the consultant that was hired years ago that still has ownership of a brand’s Facebook page. Don’t let that be you!

The security aspect is important for many reasons, make sure your reputation is not at stake because you are hacked and inappropriate things are posted to your channels. You also don’t want to lose access to your channels and have to start over losing the branded URL’s that people will use to find your brand or business online.

Many of these things are simple, do take a little time but will pay off for you.

We would love to know which items you tackled – share below.

Check back for Part 2 of Cleaning up your Social Media Channels!

Filed Under: Social Strategy

Fran Stephenson April 27, 2020 Leave a Comment

Is It Time to Wake Up and Test Your Social Media Channels?

What happens after a disrupting event? Everything Changes. So Should You.

This is the fourth in the series on Managing Social Media through a Prolonged Crisis.

In the first post, we talked about what you should be doing during this time.

Then we tackled what happens when your strategy is altered.

Finally, we addressed changes in audience after a lengthy crisis.

Now it’s time to look at the thinking and process to wake up your social media channels so you are ready when country starts to open up too. 

We’re making the assumption here that you may have let your social media sit idle or may have pursued an interim schedule to assist your community or industry. We’re also assuming that you’ve studied your audience changes, their new consumption habits and can see what’s different from last year at this time.

The first thing to do is to test the limits of your social network. 

How to Test the Social Network

You can’t just go back to the way things were before this happened. Going into a full posting schedule for most organizations might make your audience’s heads explode. 

Instead, try this.

Try one or two test messages at what would normally be a peak time of day for your audience. You know, fly a trial balloon as the military would say.  Then heavily monitor the sentiment around those messages, including reactions, comments and shares. 

Analyze your results.

What are you seeing? Positivity or persecution? Thumbs up or angry emojis? Or the reaction could be really mixed.  Let the data from the reactions guide your next move.

How about another test at another peak time? It may or may not be “safe” to resume a full social media schedule.

Keep doing this until you find your new set point.  Hint: your pace, tone and message types could all change ….and might be different for each social network.

If you follow this process, for each social channel you were managing proactively BEFORE the health crisis, you will have sufficient data to justify your decisions going forward.

Then you can look at waking up the channels.

Waking Up the Channels

Our team has frequently taken over a brand’s social media after a key event or taken on a brand’s social network after a period of dormancy.  The process described above is part of what we call “waking up the channels.” It’s different for every brand we’ve managed and the pace is wildly different for different industries – health care organizations and travel brands have different audience types and expectations.

When should you do this?

  • After a crisis and ESPECIALLY, after a global crisis
  • After a change in management team or focus
  • After long periods of dormancy in a network or network ecosystem.

By testing before going into “normal” mode, you will get a better sense of what your audience is expecting and what they need.

Resuming a Normal Posting Schedule

Because everything has changed in the ways we do business and our online communication skills have been tested and refined during stay at home time, it’s important to take time to build your new posting schedule.

It might take longer than a couple days. It may be weeks or months before you’re at full capacity again.   

It’s important to watch for the clues that your message is resonating with your audience and that you’re giving them what they need. Focus on service information and above all, continue to be a helper in your community. Humility and gratitude will go a long way in this environment. Be extremely cautious when putting on your marketing and sales hats for your brand. 

While we all were consuming content at a staggering rate while staying at home, consumers will come out of this more discerning. And by discerning, I don’t mean the technical quality of the content. I mean discerning from the standpoint of authenticity in messaging.

We admired the ability of news media and talk show hosts to carry on from home and we were okay with cell phone quality video and their children’s homemade graphics.  Why? Because they had something important to say and they said it creatively.  Whether it was graphics made by Jimmy Fallon’s kids or Sesame Street’s ability to do a Zoom call with Elmo and friends for a Playdate, we had empathy for our shared situation. Because we were adapting too. MAYBE SOME OTHER EXAMPLES HERE.

Data to Inform Your Decisions

There are three key points to help inform your decisions on your posting schedule and content.

Engagement Level

Engagement is defined differently by each network. And we spend a lot of time analyzing engagement level with our clients for their reporting. You need to look at if the content has been seen or content views or reach.  Then you need to review if people have done something about it.  Did they click on it, comment on it, like it or share it? Write all these down on a piece of paper. Now ask these questions:

  • Is anyone at all engaging with your content?
  • Is it higher or lower than the great “before?”
  • Compare the same numbers with a similar piece of content from last year. What do you see?

Incoming Comments

The number of incoming comments can be very enlightening when waking up your social media channels. We’ve seen it take a long time for people to come back and chat, but for other brands, the social audience is there and waiting and so happy to see you. Here are the questions to ask:

  • How many comments do you have on this piece of content? Also, look at the shares and count them IF they added a covering comment above your post.
  • Compare the total number to a similar piece of content from before. Is it higher or lower?

Sentiment

Sentiment is often defined as the degree of positivity or negativity toward a piece of content or a brand. It is a controversial metric, but it’s useful when you’re testing a new schedule. Look at the comments on your content test piece and rank them as positive, negative, or neutral. Likewise for the reactions on Facebook to see how many likes and loves versus sad and angry reactions. Write all these down on a piece of paper.  Ask these questions:

  • What is the ratio of positive, negative and neutral on your sheet?
  • Compare the same numbers with a similar piece of content from last year. What do you see?
  • If it is predominantly negative, dig deeper for the cause. Is it the content type or is it the tone? Is it the timing? If it’s predominantly positive, try another similar piece of content and follow the same process.

By taking the time to test your content and then evaluating the engagement level, incoming comments and sentiments, you are using smart evaluation skills and making data-driven decisions on how to proceed with your social media channels and future scheduling.

Is there anything we haven’t covered in this series which could help you get ready to relaunch your business? We’d love to hear from you.

Filed Under: Crisis Communication, Social Strategy

Fran Stephenson April 20, 2020 Leave a Comment

Will My Audience Change Because of this Crisis?

For many of us, we are at four plus weeks staying at home.  It’s given us a lot of time to think, or maybe too much time to think.  If you’re holding on to the old notions of how your social channels worked prior to a worldwide crisis, it might be time to start thinking of how it will change your social strategy in the future.

It’s certain you will see changes in your audience as this crisis lingers. Even more so as we slowly begin to re-open business channels.  But how do you know? What should you be looking for?

It depends on how you – or your channels — acted during the global health crisis, which I’ve already addressed in part 2 of the guide.

If you were serving the community in some way during the nation’s shutdown, you have quite possibly won new fans, ones who are already developing loyalty and pride in what you did.

If you went dark during the uncertainty, you are exactly where you were before the shutdown, or may have lost fans.

If your communication was tentative or marketing heavy or shared the wrong message, you may have lost parts of your audience and will essentially, be starting over with a smaller group. 

Assuming your audience mix will be new, your message, approach and channel preference needs to change with it.  Some people left you; some people joined you.

Start thinking about your new audience. 

Messages: your tone and type of message will need to change when your demographic changes.  Your audience may be younger or older, more urban or rural, so look at your breakout and adjust.

Approach: the pace of your messaging should be dictated by audience need.  What do they want know? Look at the demographics from your tools and compare it to last year to see what is different.

Channel preference:  Not all your channels changed equally.  Maybe Facebook is up and Instagram is down.  Or Twitter is stagnant but Pinterest has grown.  While you’re looking at your demographic changes, look at each individual channel to see what’s different from before.

Taking the time to get to know your new audience is key to your future social media success.   

Next time: Is it time to wake up your social channels?

In case you missed it:

Part 1 in our series: What Should I Be Doing On My Social Channels?  

Here’s a refresher: Not Sure Who Your Audience is? It’s Right Under Your Nose

Filed Under: Crisis Communication, Social Strategy

Fran Stephenson April 10, 2020 Leave a Comment

What Can You Do when your Social Schedule Is Altered by a Global Crisis?

Part 2 in a Series

No one ever expects the kind of crisis that is pervasive to every community and industry like this health care epidemic is right now. So if you’re struggling with how to cope, you are not alone. A lot of organizations are using their social media channels as their first, or maybe their only, method of communication right now.

If you are pursuing a schedule on your social channels during this crisis, MAKE IT COUNT.

Say Less, Share More

Stop promoting yourself and start helping your community. What can you do to be part of the solution? Here are some examples you may have seen in your community.  

Restaurants who cannot fully operate have moved to online ordering, contactless delivery and even “make at home” meal kits with key add-ons, like eggs and toilet paper.  

Arts organizations are sharing live concerts, behind the scenes tours and developing curriculum to be consumed from home.

Sports teams, who were among the first to take action, have propped up their service workers with pay checks; many sports celebrities are doing public service announcements and other work to help their communities.  

Nonprofits have pursued a variety of options – some are fundraising to assist in the health care space or keep vital services going while others are being creative to fulfill new challenges.

Large scale manufacturers have rapidly re-tooled their plants to make key goods and services available to frontline health care workers.  Smaller cottage industries have redirected machinery to sew masks and create face shields, which are in severe shortage.

Someone in your online community is doing these things. Instead of talking about yourself, talk about them. And what they’re doing to help us get through this crisis. Because sharing their work can help them. 

Say Less, Do More

Be a link in the chain of helpers around the world.  Everyone can do their part. Can your organization support one of these community helpers?

If you’ve already shared good works happening in your community on your social channels, what else can you do? 

Can you match these organizations with the resources they need to continue?

Can you donate money or help them raise money for what they are doing?

That is what real community is about. This is what the social networks were built to do. Connect each other and help each other. Forget selling, and start helping.

We’d love to hear your creative ideas for helping your community.

ICYMI: What Should I Be Doing on My Social Channels During a Pandemic?

Next time: Will Your Get Your Audience Back?

To read more about social strategy from Step In Communication, check out our social strategy posts.

Filed Under: Crisis Communication, Social Strategy

Fran Stephenson April 8, 2020 Leave a Comment

What Should I be Doing on My Social Media Channels During this Pandemic?

Part 1 in a Series

As the public health crisis of 2020 began to unfold, many communicators struggled with how to manage communications in an ever-changing environment.  By the time you had something drafted and in the approval pipeline, the recommendations or guidelines changed.

It’s really hard to pivot so quickly. And in case you were wondering, crisis communications is not usually that fluid.  Even skilled crisis communicators have been challenged to stay on top of a virus which we seem to know nothing about. 

Your social channels might be idle already, so this piece might help you reinforce why to your leadership. 

But if you’re struggling with how to remind your audiences that you’re still alive, here are some suggestions and ideas to make that happen.

At this point, you should be evaluating three things:

Should I be posting at all?

Do we have something helpful to add?

Do we need help right now?

Are You Part of the Problem or Part of the Solution?

This is a tough question to answer.  If you’re a school district, health care system, public information office of a local or state government, then you are no doubt churning out information, resources and links at a more rapid rate than ever before. As well, there are numerous nonprofits who have vital services that need to continue. Recommendation: you should be posting, frequently, humbly and honestly.

But if you’re not, what are you doing? What should you talk about?

If you’re a local-based brand, you can point people to those local resources and reiterate the current “stay at home” guidelines.  You can also express a degree of emotion at how much you miss “seeing” your audience, especially if you’re a business that is closed or altered because of the guidelines.

But before you do that, ask yourself another question. 

Will your customer cringe if they hear from you now?

It’s really easy to get your messaging wrong right now.  Like everyone else, I’ve seen countless businesses that are using the public health scare as a value proposition. This is risky, especially for high ticket consumer goods and services. Many consumers are limiting their spending to draw out their paychecks or manage savings amid uncertain income. Some have already lost their income, so tread carefully on any overt marketing messages.

When Communicating is the Right Thing

Depending on your industry and brand, it might be the right thing to continue communicating with your audiences.  Examine what you were doing before and compare that to today’s environment. That comparison should help you decide.  

If you can be helpful and offer something of value to your audience while they are staying home, what is that?  We’ve already seen numerous museums and zoos doing virtual tours with surprising elements that would certainly keep people entertained.  We’ve also seen entertainers of all types doing mini concerts, musical challenges, puzzles and amazing creative content to keep us distracted.  Some of those creative challenges have also raised money for causes too.

If you can find a creative way to connect with your audience, you may find a receptive audience. Recommendation: always check your tone before posting. Your audience’s needs and capacity to absorb information is changing so rapidly that what might seem humble and service-oriented one day could be considered tone deaf the next.

Beware of Overscheduling

This is not business as usual, so set aside the usual pace and pulse of your channels.  Create mental space and distance around your channels, by looking critically at your schedule and determining what people really want to see right now.  Recommendation: use a thick red Sharpie marker (virtual or real!) to edit your schedule, providing your audience with quality content.

Later This Week: What Can You Do when your Social Schedule Is Altered by a Global Crisis?

Filed Under: Crisis Communication, Social Strategy

Fran Stephenson February 13, 2020 Leave a Comment

Four Tips to Manage A Facebook Page in Meltdown

I recently assisted two small business owners with crisis response.  While I’m still processing everything that happened for one of them, we could actually see it coming and were able to do several things on social media to prepare for critics bombarding their Facebook page (which they did for 7 straight days!)

This owner posted a response to a tragedy that happened at her place of business. We all thought this would give a bit of closure to everyone involved. Nope.

Within the hour, a very long, inflamed and inaccurate post was shared by someone who was a third party to the tragedy. We starting watching the page very closely. Soon, the mob appeared and started a cycle of heated words, accusations and (wait for it) more inaccurate information.

While the response was complicated and involved, here are the four things we did to mitigate the public outcry.

  1. Enhanced monitoring on the channel for 48 hours and aggressively remove anything that was clearly profane, spam or plagiarized.  
  2. Used the “three strikes” rule. Any person who posts the same message three times on the page, is banned. This is a common protest tactic and is meant to spike the Facebook algorithm.
  3. Turned off the Reviews function because they cannot be removed and in crisis, people leaving a rating have rarely used the business. They are merely expressing their discontent.
  4. Changed the page settings to moderated. So no one could make a post to the wall, only comment on existing posts.

So how can this help you during your next crisis? Now is a great time to check your settings and make sure you know how to turn on and off all these features if and when you need them.


Filed Under: Crisis Communication, Social Strategy

Jennifer Hatton February 10, 2020 Leave a Comment

Using Twitter Lists For Content Ideas and Industry Monitoring

Twitter lists should be an important part of your 2020 marketing strategy.

What is a Twitter List?

A Twitter list is a curated list of Twitter handles within Twitter that allows you to view the tweets of those within that list only. You can create your own lists or subscribe to one created by someone else.

Public vs. Private Lists

Public lists are just that – public! They are searchable and those you include on the list will receive a notice they have been added. Public lists can be followed, and you can share the URL as a resource for others.

Private lists cannot be seen by anyone but you. The accounts included within the list will not receive a notice they have been added to your list and if someone has the list URL they will not still not be able to view it.

Follow vs. Add

You can add Twitter accounts to your list that you follow already, but you do not have to be following an account to add it to your list. This is a great way to keep your follower list down but still be able to keep up with all the accounts that interest you.

For more specifics on how to create, add, edit Twitter lists.

Ways to Utilize Twitter Lists

There are a variety of ways you can utilize Twitter lists and I find they are all helpful to the diverse group of clients we work with.

Monitoring

Twitter lists are a great way to monitor trends in your industry, media, a crisis and more. I always recommend a local media list (or multiple if you have locations or interests in different cities), national media list if you work nationwide, supporters/partners/sponsors and thought
leaders in your industry.

Scanning those lists weekly will help you catch up on what is going on or in the case of a crisis you have one place on Twitter to monitor sentiment.

Content Curation

This is one is my favorite. Creating lists takes time, but if you put in the effort to build great lists it will be a big time saver going forward. Creating lists for the different topics or industries you are interested in or focused on will allow you to scan and find great content to read and share across your social channels. I will share more ideas on different types of helpful lists to have in addition to the media lists mentioned above, below in the examples.

If you have created a list that you think would be helpful to others – share! While you can follow and subscribe to other people’s lists it is always great to create lists that others will follow as well. It helps to show your expertise as an expert and/or industry leader as well.

Examples of Twitter Lists

Medical Client – created lists of all locations, local partners, national health organizations
Sports Client – created lists of local teams both professional and amateur, national sports and coaching organizations, US professional and Olympic sports (during an Olympic year), local hotels and sports facilities

Final Thoughts on Twitter Lists

Twitter lists take time to build, so go slow and don’t try to do it all in a day. In my experience the time commitment is worth it!

Question

How do you plan to use Twitter Lists for your business in 2020?

Filed Under: Social Strategy

Fran Stephenson October 9, 2019 Leave a Comment

10 Questions to Help You Evaluate Your Social Media Performance This Year

It’s nearly the end of the year and many organizations are taking stock of how they did this year and making plans for next year.  If you’re a social media manager for an organization, you should be doing the same. But what questions should you ask? What should you look at to gain insight into what’s working and what’s not working? 

Social networks make changes all the time, so you need to continually look at your channels, evaluate results and make changes to stay ahead of the game.

Here are 10 questions you should be asking as you evaluate 2019 and begin to prepare for next year.

  1. How is my engagement on Facebook? Is it better or worse than it was at the beginning of the year? Should I trim the output on this channel?
  2. How are my posts doing on Instagram? Are they getting seen in the feed and getting lots of comments and likes? Am I overposting on this channel?>
  3. How are my Instagram stories doing? Are they getting seen more frequently or less frequently than my Instagram feed posts?
  4. How am I doing on Twitter? Can I see a difference now on RTs and likes compared to where I started earlier this year?
  5. Is LinkedIn a viable channel for my organization? How is it different? Did my content stick this year and what kinds of views, likes and comments did I get on my posts?
  6. If you’re on Pinterest, what is the standout pin of the year? Which boards are getting more traction? Can you see improvement over time?
  7. What types of content are the best performing content on each channel? Why?
  8. Are all my channels performing to set objectives? If not, what changes are indicated for next year?
  9. Should I launch a new channel or a new group in the coming year?
  10. How will I report on these successes and challenges? What metrics will help me explain success to my leadership?

Answering these ten questions will help you start evaluating your social channel performance this year. What other questions are you asking about your social media ecosystem this year?

Filed Under: Social Strategy

Fran Stephenson September 14, 2019 Leave a Comment

The Complete Guide to Disclosure for Brands and Influencers

Disclosure is the hottest topic in social and digital media and is the least understood by brands AND by influencers. 

Full Disclosure: I am not a lawyer and am not offering legal advice.  Anyone who has questions about disclosure and how the law applies to them, should consult a licensed attorney.

Now that’s out of the way. (See what I did there!)

So, what is disclosure? By definition, it’s identifying or exposing an act or instance of something. In today’s social media environment, its theoretical underpinning is this: to help social media users identify and separate organic posts, stories or videos from posts, stories or videos for which compensation has been given. But it’s not just about compensation. The law covers material relationships which include gift cards and discounts.  It also covers family and business relationships too.  

In practice, the term “Wild West” doesn’t even begin to describe how it’s really being used.

What is the Law?

The “law” comes from the Federal Trade Communication and has been revised several times, as social media has grown and changed. The most recent update was September, 2017. Their website features a set of Endorsement Guides which give examples for a wide range of situations including payments, contests and soliciting product reviews. 

You should bookmark this link FOREVER.

In case that feels like a bit too much to digest, the Truth In Advertising organization has distilled it to a set of bulleted lists that explain what they call the “material connection” and offers suggestions on how to comply with the law.

The Scoop on Social Media Influencer Disclosure Requirements

Disclosure for Agencies and Brand Representatives

Full Disclosure-AGAIN: I am not a lawyer and am not offering legal advice.  Anyone who has questions about disclosure should consult a licensed attorney.

As a communicator, I am extremely motivated to follow the law. So I counsel my clients to do the same. But every day, my team and I see examples that are clearly paid engagements that lack the necessary disclosure. 

Examples:

  • Facebook and Twitter posts that feature a company that the poster clearly represents with no disclosure.
  • Agency comments on an Instagram post where there is clearly a client relationship and no disclosure.
  • Sending products or services to influencers to use/share/discuss and telling them – don’t bother to thank us or mention we gifted this to you.

Disclosure for Influencers

If you accepted something, you need to disclose it. It’s that simple. Familiarize yourself with the guidelines and start to implement them on your next brand activation.

And you need to make sure that the contracts you sign with brands contain disclosure requirements. We use disclosure language with a link to the FTC Guidelines in every influencer contract we manage.

Our team is hyper-aware about this topic. One of our team members participated in a course by a major Instagram influencer who is making significant income from paid engagements there. She was horrified to see a thread in the accompanying private group in which the group advised in a q/a that there is no need for disclosure when a brand “gifts” something to you. Others in the chat advised “it’s up to you if you share that it’s a gift or not.” And they even suggested that you should post something about the gift, then show the post results and pitch further business to the brand. Every single piece of advice in that thread violates the disclosure laws.

My team member was horrified.

Besides the complete ignorance about the law, the additional issue is that this group is selling their “expertise” to others who are following their advice, perpetuating bad habits and encouraging others to do the same.  

Here are some examples of disclosure featuring influencers I know and have worked with regularly.

A disclosure from Jill Robbins of Ripped Jeans and Bifocals
The disclosure on a Facebook post from Sara Phillips of Sensibly Sara
Another disclosure on a Twitter post from Sara Phillips of Sensibly Sara

It’s not that hard.

“I see a lot of influencers use brand partner, hosted, or my personal favorite, “spon” to disclose the relationship with the brand, says Jill Robbins of Ripped Jeans and Bifocals. “My interpretation is that only “ad” or “sponsored” meet the FTC’s disclosure requirements.” 

What if You Are Not Sure?

It’s anyone’s guess who the FTC might fine when disclosure isn’t obvious.  The agency has been criticized for the guidelines being confusing and open to interpretation.  Government agencies are often very measured in the actions they take to enforce laws and this law is no exception.  Since the September 2017 guidelines have been released, they’ve sent 22 “educational” letters (which is the step prior to a warning letter) to celebrities, according to this story in the Morning Consult. 

Just because you’re not a celebrity doesn’t mean you should ignore the law. Overcommunicating your relationships in social and digital posts is better than no disclosure at all.

I’m a community manager for Texas Travel Talk, a community of travel influencers.  We work with brands to bring bloggers to Texas destinations and tell the destination story through blog posts and social media blitzes. These are paid relationships. We’re not perfect but we constantly review and revise our disclosure guidelines. For example, we used to put the disclosure about our financial arrangement with a destination at the bottom of each post, but because the requirement is for a disclosure to be up front and clearly noticeable, we’ve moved those on all blog posts to be right after the first paragraph and in bold font. 

Disclosure on a blog post from Texas Travel Talk

We also struggle as to the appropriate disclosure that we, as community managers, need to pursue.  Since I’m not the actual influencer, I often use a more narrative disclosure like “So thrilled to be working with #client [insert name] or something like the tweet below. 

If you’re not working with influencers or find disclosure necessary, I am willing to bet that you’re following someone on Instagram or Twitter who talks about products, restaurants and experiences.  Are THEY getting paid to promote those things?  Maybe it’s worth asking. 

Just last week, The Truth in Advertisiing group (the same one we linked to earlier in this story) filed a complaint with the FTC against Ryan ToysReview  You Tube channel managed by the parents of 8-year-old Ryan who is often cited as You Tube’s highest performer with 21 million followers. They argued that children under age 5, the primary target of this channel, could not possibly know the difference between paid and organic content there.  Read the full story here on the Today show website.  

If there’s one thing you can take away from this discussion on disclosure, there’s a lot at stake. So, let’s go out there and be law abiding social media users.

How have you struggled with disclosure?

Filed Under: Influencer Outreach, Social Strategy

Jennifer Hatton August 28, 2019 Leave a Comment

Not Sure Who Your Audience Is? It’s Right Under Your Nose

Social media is a big part of getting the word out about your organization. You’ve spend considerable time and effort creating content and selecting the right images to get your message across. That makes it all the more important to know who your audience is, so you will know if your messages are getting to the right people.

Identify Your Desired Audience (if you haven’t already)

First you should identify your audience or target market. Who do you want to talk to, market to, educate, etc.? Write it down and keep it for reference!

Identify your Current Audience

Social media platforms have made it much easier to figure out who your fans and followers are. Let’s talk about Facebook and Instagram specifically. There are 3rd party tools that can help you understand your audience better, but using Facebook and Instagram directly is a quick and easy way to identify your audience.

Facebook

If you have a business page, the “Insights” tab should be your best friend.

Go to “Insights” across the top of your home page, then click “People” on the left-hand side of your screen.

From here you can see information on your fans including gender, age, country and city.

Instagram

If you have a business profile, you can find out everything from demographics to viewing habits of your current audience.

Go to your bio page, click the three lines in the upper right-hand corner and select “Insights”.

From here you can see insights on your content, activity and audience. Find out your top locations, age range and gender, plus when your fans are online by day and hour!

Speaking to your Current Audience

If your insights show your followers are your target – congratulations!!

If your insights show that your audience is not quite who you thought they were, you can make adjustments to include them.

Adjust Your Content to Reach your Desired Audience

If your current audience is not exactly who you thought it was that is ok, but you may need to adjust your content to make sure you are speaking to the fans you have in the best way possible.

Example: You are a health care provider targeting women 30-55 and mainly post content for women 40+. After reviewing your audience, you realize the majority of your followers are 25-35. Adjusting content to appeal to the audience you have is a good plan in this case. Most likely they are mothers with younger children – content that includes information on how to treat ear aches, healthy snack recipes and promoting services such as preschool TB tests or back to school physicals would help reach your audience more effectively.

There are some instances where despite who is currently on your channels you want to continue to talk to your intended audience to prevent confusion or a large change in tone or purpose. You don’t want to abandon your current audience completely, but make slow, incremental changes to start bringing in the demographic you desire.

Example: You are a hotel and your existing social media audience is mainly locals. In this instance you would want to continue to talk to visitors (your target) and possibly add in some messages on staycations or local events for your current audience. Switching to talk to the audience you have (locals) would be confusing and off-brand but adding in specific content to include the current audience of locals would be worthwhile as you continue to build your out of town fans and followers.

If you don’t currently have the audience you want, use targeted advertising to help you reach them!

Do you have your target audience clearly defined? What metrics do you use to know that you are effectively reaching them?

Filed Under: Social Strategy

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