Blog - Crystal Media

June 29, 2020 By Pauline Blasetti Leave a Comment

Maximizing Your Virtual Conference Experience 💻

In a few weeks, Crystal will be speaking at the Retail Success Summit, and like most events these days, it will be virtual. While virtual events have their pluses (hello, no airport security!), if you don’t prepare you might have a hard time adjusting. Luckily, like most things, the right mindset and some prep is all you need.

Here are some simple tips to help you maximize your time at a virtual event.

Test logging into the event- make sure you know where and how to log in.
Keep the event coordinators information handy: If you’re stuck or need help with something, make sure you know who to reach out to.
Print or download any pre-work or notebooks provided.
Create a comfortable space in your house or office to “attend” the conference.
Treat this as an in-person event when choosing what to wear and what snacks to have on hand.
Set an out-of-office on your email to eliminate distractions, and turn off unnecessary notifications on your phone.
Allow yourself to be present. Don’t gyp yourself by trying to multi-task just because you’re at home.
Set clear goals on what you’d like to learn or accomplish while attending the conference.
Have a dedicated page(s) for action items so you can easily reference it after the event and start taking action.
Budget in time after the event to debrief with your team.

Bonus Tip: Tell your friends, family, and/or roommates you’re invisible. 😝

If you’re interested in attending the Retail Success Summit you can learn more here. I hope to ‘see’ you there!

I’d love to hear. your tips for attending virtual events, please share in the comments below.

June 15, 2020 By Pauline Blasetti Leave a Comment

How to Respond to Negative Comments 👍🏻

Recently on one of Crystal’s weekly Facebook Lives, Crystal shared how to deal with bullies. If you missed the video we rounded up the points Crystal talked about to help you navigate a situation where you are faced with a mean comment or bad review.

1. It’s not about you. 🙅‍♀️ Always try to keep this in mind when you read a negative comment. If a person is being cruel online, try to remember there is usually a deeper-rooted personal reason they are trying to deal with. Unfortunately, they are taking their anger out on you, but it’s not about you.

2. Have empathy. 💓 It goes without saying that emotions are running high when there is a mean comment said about your business. Try to take a moment to think of a thoughtful answer that won’t provoke more anger. Letting a customer know you have received their message and then approaching with empathy can de-escalate the situation.

3. Is there a lesson to be learned? 🤔 Admit when you are wrong. Own up, and move forward. This can be a chance for you to take something away and do better next time.

4. Respond to facts. ❗️Try to leave out emotion and defense while responding to a comment. Respond to their statement with facts.

5. Respond from the heart. ❤️If a person has gotten to the point where they want to publicly humiliate or bad mouth your company, they have likely been hurt, even if it was from a misunderstanding. You can take this opportunity to mend the situation with love. Responding genuinely and from your heart feels more authentic.

6. Monitor the comments. 📲Be sure to monitor comments on your post so you can quickly respond or remove a comment. Also, if you engaged in a conversation, it is kinder to respond to further comments rather than to just leave them unread.

7. Have a pre-made document with answers. 📝This can be helpful when you get asked a common question or have a lot of similar feedback. Creating a document with pre-written responses can help you quickly answer a comment. Also, you are likely writing out the responses in a time when your emotions aren’t running so high, so you have time to formulate a professional message.

8. Defer to trusted resources. 📋This can be extra true currently during the COVID-19 pandemic. If a customer is leaving a nasty comment about certain precautions you are taking, be sure to defer them to regulations you have to abide by as a business to stay open.

9. Don’t be afraid to hide or delete a comment. 🚫Usually, we would encourage you to leave a comment up and try to respond to it the best you can, but if a comment is particularly unfair, rude, untrue, or includes profanities, don’t be afraid to remove that negativity from your page.

To check out Crystal’s video about Responding To Bullies, follow this link! 📹

June 8, 2020 By Steph Bechard 2 Comments

Using Instagram’s Story Filters as a Business or Service

You may ask us “Why in the world would you post a public video of you using a silly Instagram effect for everyone to see?” 🙋‍♀️ Well, that’s a great question, and I’m here to answer it! Instagram filters are a great way to humanize your brand. The reason you would want to do this is to help your viewers recognize your company as an entity, and not a store or corporation whose only mission is to sell you something. Humanizing your brand shows your customers that there are real people working hard to provide great customer service, and it shows them you’re doing everything in your means to make your customers happy. After all, this is what differentiates you as a small business from a Big Box Store.

Here are 3️⃣ ways you can use IG Story Filters as a small business or local service:

1. Connect with your customers. 👭 Showing up on your stories is a great way to introduce yourself and your personality to your customers. People are spending hours per day browsing Instagram for consumable and relatable content. Showing up on your stories is a great way to put yourself in front of these viewers, and using filters is a great way to make that content more interesting. Try asking your followers to use a filter quiz and tag you in the results. Try finding filters that relate to your brand and asking people their opinion. Just try to put yourself out there and get comfortable with connecting with your customers.

2. Strengthen your brand identity. 💪 Use filters to show the look and feel of your brand. This helps personify the brand image that you work so hard to embody. Choosing a select few filters that you use consistently can help viewers recognize your content faster, and choosing filters that relate to your brand help convey your brand identity. For instance, you may choose a funny face filter or a quiz if your brand’s personality is fun and relatable. Whereas if you are more focused on being helpful and informative, you might want to share a filter with a questionnaire, or a face filter that you can use to feel comfortable showing up on camera and giving tips to your customers.

3. They’re an easy way to create free content. 🆓 Instagram story filters can provide you with a more compelling way of posting content to your page. Viewers like consistency and when companies are posting good content and posting it often, viewers take notice. This can make your Instagram a more desirable account to follow. Instagram Filters are easy to use and totally free, and not to mention it may only take a few minutes to create and share a story to your page.

We encourage you to try out some different filters relating to your brand, and see if you find it makes a difference on your social media channels! I created a tutorial on how to use IG Story filters and how to search, save, share, and use these effects to benefit your company. Check it out here. 👈

Enjoy!

June 1, 2020 By Madeline Goode Leave a Comment

What To Do With Facebook Video Views 👀

VIDEO 📹 is all the talk recently. You’ve heard us talk about the significance of using Facebook Live to sell and show up for your audience. But did you know that you can take video even FURTHER with video ads and Facebook custom audiences? That’s right, using video pays twofold, you reach more people when you use video AND you can create highly targeted Facebook audiences from those views. Let’s talk about it 👇

Video View Engagement Ads: You’ve been creating a ton of videos during COVID-19, connecting with and selling to your audience. You’re likely getting more organic (free) reach with your video but you can take it a step further and get more exposure by advertising those videos in a Video View ad! Video View campaigns are optimized for thru-plays, so Facebook will show your videos to the people who are most likely to watch them and take in all your great info! They are also one of the most cost-effective ads we run our clients are seeing Video View ads at $.01 per thru-play.

Here’s where the Pros take it even further…

Custom Video View Audiences: You’ve established yourself as video kings and queens 👑 and you’ve trained your audience to tune in. Now you can actually create custom audiences out of people that have watched your past videos- lucky you! 🤩 In the Audience section of Ads Manager, you can choose specific videos and target people that have watched whichever videos you want! For example, let’s say you’ve been going Live every week with a video series you titled “Retail Therapy Tuesday”. You can go in and select all of your Retail Therapy Tuesday videos, and create a custom audience of these people and use this audience to retarget them with items from Retail Therapy Tuesday videos that are now on sale. Or use this audience for website Traffic ads to introduce a new similar product. You can choose how many seconds of the video you want people to have watched, from 3 seconds to 15+ seconds. And don’t forget to create a Lookalike from that audience to target similar people!

You can see why we stress the importance of video- the opportunities are endless, especially once you’ve become a regular video creator! Use these tips to take your videos to the next level, and share in the comments video tactics that have worked for you! 👆👍 Ready, set, ACTION! 📹

May 18, 2020 By Crystal Leave a Comment

3 Steps to Building an Awesome, Scalable eCommerce Website

In this current world climate riddled with COVID-19 shut downs, social distancing mandates, and skyrocketing consumer online shopping, it’s obvious eCommerce websites are a sales channel that you should be leveraging. 💻

Whether or not you have a dedicated website, I am dedicated to seeing small business owners succeed during this trying time. Here are 3 simple tips to either help give you a running start with a new site or provide fresh ideas to increase your current site’s effectiveness. (Psst… If you don’t have a website yet, we can build you one! Click here to join the waitlist.)

1. Pick your platform. 🤔 Thankfully, there are so many great companies that make it easy to build an eCommerce website. Not a coder? No problem! Don’t know a developer (or have a budget for one)? No worries! With sites like Shopify, WooCommerce and Wix, you can be up and running in no time. My personal favorite is Shopify, and that’s the platform we build websites for retailers on. A few reasons I love it:

- Their customer support is amazing– even for the absolute eCommerce beginner. Live chat, email option, and even jump on the phone.
- They have awesome Themes that make your website functionality user-friendly. The paid Themes are better than the free ones, mostly because they have more options for Navigation, Product Filtering and Marketing.
- Easy to customize. After you pick your Theme, you can still add your brand colors, fonts and custom pages.
- Easier to scale. Because Shopify has access to over 3,000 apps, it makes it easier to grow and scale your eCommerce website using apps. One of my favorites is ReConvert which allows you to upsell, cross sell, optimize thank you pages and more.

2. Start simply. 👍🏻 It’s easy to get stuck in the weeds with details (like uploading tons of product info, deciding on the best pictures, adding SEO rich copy, or choosing a Theme). If you’re just starting with a new website, keep it simple. Your eCommerce website will evolve over time. You’ll learn how customers navigate your website, what they’re buying, and become more comfortable with your platform to know what your next traffic and sales-driving steps are. I recommend starting with just 20-50 products. And when choosing a Theme, I recommend picking one you can grow into that has a multi-level sidebar menu for product filtering. It will make it easier for customers to shop your inventory (unless you sell 10 or less products).

3. Build with marketing in mind. 🧱 Once you launch your website, you still need to spend time (and often money) marketing and advertising your eCommerce website. Look for functionality that allows you to:

- Collect an email address and first name from website visitors
- Add your Facebook Pixel for remarketing Facebook and Instagram Ads
- Add apps that can upsell, cross sell, or gather reviews from customers
- Add loyalty possibilities so you can send special promotions or discounts to your top customers and/or feature them on your social media

Marketing and advertising your eCommerce website are of the utmost importance to your success, otherwise you’ll have a site that simply sits there producing anxiety because no one is buying from you.

Good luck to all of you endeavoring with online selling right now and, in case you missed it up top, my team and I can build you a Shopify website of your own! Click here to join the waitlist or email us at hello@crystalmediaco.com with any of your questions. We’re happy to help! 😁