Hi! I'm Shelli… 👋

Tag: social media marketing

  • The Social Media Sales Funnel

    With the proper blend of strategy, community management and paid campaigns….

    …Social media can help you:

    • Increase brand awareness and visibility
    • Improve customer loyalty and retention
    • Launch new products
    • Gain marketing insights
    • Increase site traffic and conversions
    • Answer your client’s customer service questions

    But what does the process look like? I’ve put together a quick infographic using Canva to illustrate:

    Social Media Sales

    #1) Awareness

    • Objective: Introduce your product to potential customers. (Re)Introduce to current customers.
    • Key Metrics: Impressions, Reach, Video Views

    #2) Interest/Engagement Stage:

    • Objective: Create relationships and engage with your tribe
    • Key Metrics: Engagement (likes, comments, shares), Clicks, Friends/Fans/Followers, Newsletter Subscribers

    #3) Conversion Stage:

    • Objective: Convert interested people into leads by offering them something for (almost) nothing.
    • Key Metrics: Conversion Rate, Email opens, App Downloads

    #4) Sales

    #5) Loyalty

    • Objective: Turn those who have purchased into repeat customers.
    • Key Metrics: Same as engagement (likes, comments, clicks). # of Participants in a loyalty program.

  • The only 5 rules you need to know about social media marketing

    1. Talk like a human not a used car salesman (i.e. LISTEN and respond).
    2. Trends are cool, thoughtful planning is better.
    3. If you wouldn’t read something your audience probably wouldn’t either. So, don’t link to crap, don’t use just any picture, and don’t be lazy.
    4. Check your grammar and spelling. Twice.
    5. The rules of improv apply. When in doubt, add value.

  • 20 Helpful Tools for Social Media Marketers

    Here it is: A small (yet mighty!) list of tools anyone can use to grow business, reach more people, or get to know an audience better.

    pablo

    Research + Learn

    Manage + Build

    Design + Images

  • Roundup: Top Social Media Marketing Links

    Social Brew is monthly curated post full of links you can check out while having your morning coffee. It contains the goods I find on social media, content marketing, writing, and other stuff that is interesting, relevant, newsworthy, helpful or just plain cool.

    Link Inspiration:

    • BUZZWORTHY: This week the big buzz has been about two new, easy to use, live streaming apps: Meerkat and Periscope. Both apps are still in their infancy, but Meerkat had a big boost at launch thanks to buzz at SXSW.
    • CLICKABLE: My most popular post this week was about Flock to Unlock campaigns which boost awareness, engagement, and help make room for new inventory. Check it out. 

    Lastly, anybody else just feel like dancin’?

     

    – Shelli

    P.S. Don’t forget to Subscribe to Social Brew and never miss a future Content & Social Media Marketing Roundup. Have a happy week!

  • Roundup: Marketing with Video

    Social Brew is monthly curated post full of links you can check out while having your morning coffee. It contains the goods I find on social media, content marketing, writing, and other stuff that is interesting, relevant, newsworthy, helpful or just plain cool.

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    Across the board my clients have been noticing impressive organic reach when it comes to posting video to Facebook. In some cases, video posts have had 4-5 times the organic reach of their picture and link counterparts– amazing!

    If you haven’t considered it already, I highly recommend you start creating more videos for your marketing efforts. In fact, email me if you’re interested in creating a video campaign for your organization.

    Also, don’t forget you can now create and share video playlists on Facebook.

    This Week’s Link Inspiration:

    • Speaking of cool new things, Buffer just came out with a new image creation tool called ‘Pablo’. Check it out. With Pablo and Canva in your back pocket, it is now easier than ever to make your posts look more interesting.
    • AdWeek reports that a JC Penney video campaign got startlingly good results on Twitter. Sean Ryan, director of social media at JCPenney, wrote, “the native placement was much more effective in cost per view … marketers now need to think across the board when it comes to promoting video.”
    • It’s not video, but I’d feel remiss if I didn’t mention this really cool, curated showcase of Really Good Email designs from MailChimp. Lots of inspiration to be had!

    Lastly, speaking of awesome video, have you seen This is Water?. If not, give it a watch!

    – Shelli

    P.S. Don’t forget to Subscribe to Social Brew and never miss a future Content & Social Media Marketing Roundup. Have a happy week!

  • Instagram Ads are Now Clickable

    Kind of a big deal for those of us who use Instagram as a marketing channel. Until very recently, Instagram never allowed URLs to open. They wanted people to stay on their platform browsing photos. But after pressure from advertisers wanting, “meaningful results for their businesses,” Instagram has caved.

    So for the first time, they will start showing clickable links, but only in the new multi-photo carousel ads. These ads are meant to tell a small story by letting users swipe through four branded images in sequence followed by a “Learn More” button. The button will open an internal browser within Instagram. Don’t worry, they’ve made it easy for you to quickly jump back to the feed with a tap of the top bar.

    (Hat tip: Tech Crunch + Instagram)

  • Learn Something New: Content Marketing Roundup

    Social Brew is monthly curated post full of links you can check out while having your morning coffee. It contains the goods I find on social media, content marketing, writing, and other stuff that is interesting, relevant, newsworthy, helpful or just plain cool. This week the theme is “learn something new.”

    I was inspired by The One You Feed podcast,  specifically this week’s episode featuring Tony Stubblebine, creator of Coach.me (formerly Lift). If you’re sincerely interested in behavior design, learning something new, or putting a new habit into place, I highly recommend you check out this week’s episode.

    This Week’s Inspiration: 

    Books to Read in 2015

    Learn Something New This Week:

    Lastly, while it’s ALWAYS a great idea to better yourself by learning something new, let this serve as a reminder: You are not an imposter.

    – Shelli

    P.S. Don’t forget to Subscribe to Social Brew and never miss a future Content & Social Media Marketing Roundup. Have a happy week!

  • Buy Experiences, Not Things

    This Week’s Inspiration:

    Last week, in casual conversation, I heard no less than three separate parents lament that their kids have TOO MUCH STUFF.

    “WAY. TOO. MUCH…!”

    Their words echoed in my brain as I slowly went over my dwindling gift-giving options for their kids. I was reminded of the common-sense notion that we should buy experiences, not things (which was recently confirmed in newly published research). I was inspired to get the kids things they could DO versus things they could have.

    As the holidays draw near, I hope you can do the same and simplify your life during the holidays. It feels great to plan and discover ways you can anticipate, gather stories, & and collect memories instead of spending money on stuff.

    Last Week’s Link Love:
    • If you’re looking to enhance and grow your email marketing, but are tired of the same old pop-up suggestion lists, check out this post from Zapier with 10 Email Marketing tricks you’ve probably never tried.
    • Brands can tell rich and engaging stories. This Patagonia video is worth watching as a fascinating example of branding AND storytelling — it’s actually entertaining and very inspiring (especially for outdoorsy types)!
    • Upworthy has the goods when it comes to viral social media success and averages an incredible 60k+ shares per article (roughly 5x Buzzfeed’s rate). Heidi Cohen (don’t you just love her posts?) shares how you can recreate that success.
    • This post by Samuel King is packed full of information & how-to guides on Content Curation – it’s very comprehensive and an excellent primer to help get you started.
    • Is the future of Social Media Marketing pay to play? The signs point to YES. 

    News You Might Have Missed (Because You Were Too Busy Doing Real Work):

    Lastly, don’t let the holidays get you down. Make the season what you want it to be! If Joel, the Lump of Coal, can make it happy, so can you. 

    – Shelli

    P.S.  Social Brew is a  regular newsletter full of links you can check out while having your morning coffee. I share links about social media, content marketing, writing, and other interesting, relevant, newsworthy, helpful or just plain cool stuff.

    Subscribe now and never miss a post! 

  • Why your social media strategy should be built like a tiny house

    In America we’ve always loved big and flashy. This is especially true when it comes to where (and how) we choose to live. In the wake of the housing crisis, however, many people are now shifting their focus from large “McMansions” to minimalism and Tiny Houses. This shift in desirable housing size speaks to, in my opinion, a larger need for our collective society:

    We may like big and flashy, but we crave quality and heartfelt.

    In my opinion, building your social media strategy should be a lot like constructing your very own tiny house.

    What are “Tiny Houses” Exactly? 510px-Tiny_house,_Portland

    The Tiny Life explains, “[Tiny House] is a social movement where people are downsizing the space that they live in. The typical American home is around 2600 square feet, while the typical small or tiny house is around 100-400 square feet. Tiny Houses come in all shapes, sizes and forms but they focus on smaller spaces and simplified living.“

    “But what does this have to do with social media strategy?” you ask. Well,

    • “Tiny housers,” as they are collectively known, deeply understand that pre-planning, care, and attention to detail are crucial. They take their time planning, preparing, and they measure twice before cutting (as the saying goes). They become experts at learning on the go and stay nimble in case unexpected problems arise. Your social strategy should be much the same. It is crucial and necessary to have a plan of action, steps, desired outcomes, and measurements before launching your social strategy. Your plan should also be nimble and flexible allowing for “a ha” moments of insight.
    • Tiny housers focus on quality and maximizing space. When faced with the proposition of living in less that 400 square feet of space, tiny housers must figure out who they are and what they really need to be successful.  So should you focus on priorities and ask: What is important? What do I need? With what do I want to surround myself? What can I let go?
    • We’ve all seen half-assed, lazy, ugly, tacky or downright boring and ineffective social content. The reasons for this are varied: many community managers just follow the beaten path, some don’t feel passionate about the topic they’re put in charge of, others are bored or have had their autonomy taken away, etc. etc. The list goes on!. As with a tiny home, your social strategy should be made with love, by people who take ownership of the task at hand; those who cares deeply about the end result. Social strategy should never be farmed out to uncaring, impatient interns just because they’re the biggest Instagram fans on your team.
    • Using sustainable, recycled, and renewable products helps cut cost and time for tiny homes. Your social strategy should absolutely take advantage of the resources you already have: repurpose content to get lots of traction, capitalize on work you’ve already done, ask employees for insights and watch what the competition is doing so you can discover tactics that suit your needs. This focus on sustainable and “recyclable” actions will help keep time and budget down.
    • As I mentioned earlier, social media is about people, community, and building relationships. Because of their chosen environment, those who live in small houses must interact with the people they live with. They can’t easily hide in another room when things get rough so they focus on relationships, improving communication, and working together for the collective happiness. So too should your social strategy focus on the people you hope to live, work, and sell to.
    • Lastly, though it’s not necessarily an overtly stated goal, many tiny housers understand and embrace the “WOW factor.”  there is nothing more deeply satisfying than putting hard work into something and proudly announcing, “I made this.” At the end of the day, you should look at your social strategy, tactics, and channels with that same feeling of a job well done.

    I could go on and on but I sense you probably now understand the metaphor. My favorite thing about Tiny House building is that there is no perfect or gold standard for building one’s home. In this, our digital age of fast, cheap and easy, I highly recommend embracing this same grass roots, heartfelt, focus on quality.


    P.S. Tiny house builders, ask for (and receive) help. If you have any social media marketing questions or comments feel free to share them. I love to pitch in where I can. 😉

  • Are Marketers Ruining Social Media?

    At the risk of sounding like a grumpy old person shouting at the kids on her lawn and complaining about the long-gone good old days, one question has been at the back of my mind for a while now:

    Are marketers ruining social media? Untitled design (2)

    When I first started working in social media 5 amazing years ago I was, admittedly, wildly optimistic. I loved my job because it was the chance to talk to people, to be creative, to listen, and to be a part of something different. Since then, I’ve held on to a few steadfast beliefs that have shaped my work over the years. They are (in part):

    • Social media is for talking with people who share a passion. It’s my job to facilitate a two way conversation between brand and fans.
    • If something is worth writing, it’s worth writing well.
    • Respect pays in dividends and people are not dollar signs.
    • An effective storyteller is also an excellent listener.
    • Social media gives us the opportunity to surprise, delight, inspire, help, gossip, serve, and tell a story.

    I’ve been fighting to hold on to these core values as social media has grown and evolved into something that people actively try to ween themselves off of.  Aside from a few radicals who are still holding out, social media is now something different:

    • Passion and conversation have been replaced by pragmatism and broadcasting.
    • Writing is cheap, generic and boring.
    • Respect and service can be automated.
    • Listening = Metrics
    • Stories are sales pitches.

    Admittedly, I saw this coming. We all did, right?  Social media is a way to harness an increasingly valuable commodity: attention. That said, I still believe the best social media marketers are the ones who stick to the core tenets that our social business was built on. There are still some who still understand the traditional, self-serving ‘all push’ method of marketing is dead. They deeply care about the end-user and don’t see people as merely prospects.

    So, I’d like to ask you….. no, beg you…. to remember the good old days of social before you hit ‘publish’ next time. If it helps, this is my litmus test for all posts, editorial calendars, and content plans I write:

    • If this came through my personal newsfeed would I like, comment on, or share this?
    • Is this content unique, entertaining, educational, informative, or inspirational?
    • Is this timely and relevant to fans of the page?
    • Would I call this a low quality image, post, or meme?
    • Would I complain about seeing this content in my News Feed?

    I’m curious. Do you agree? Are marketers ruining social media?