Blog - Crystal Media

July 22, 2019 By Jess Austin Leave a Comment

How Contests Can Help You Cut Through The Clutter

We all want our social media strategy to shine right? 🌟 Today’s cluttered feeds and constant algorithm changes can cause uncertainty about this. We’re always getting asked a) How can I tell if my social is working? and b) How can I get more in-store traffic? A contest! Why? You can achieve any marketing goal you set! 👉🏻 Boost online engagement, grow social media fans, promote in-store traffic, gather user-generated content, launch a new product. You can do it all.

Here are 4 tips to running a great contest:

Have a worthwhile incentive – People will enter if they actually want what’s on the other side.
Brand hashtags – Make it simple to search for entrants and gather content.
KISS – Keep It Simple Stupid. Don’t ask entrants to do anything you wouldn’t be motivated to do.
Advertise – Hit prospective customers as well as current fans.

Check out this post from one of our Insider’s asking for help on how to get people to share their photos in a contest she was running…

Well, I responded to her question in the video below. I cover some great contest ideas, how to make sure a contest drives traffic, and Facebook and Instagram rules surrounding contests.

July 15, 2019 By Erika Castorena Leave a Comment

How to Handle Negative Customer Feedback

We get it. Running a business is tough enough as it is. But then… BAM! There it is. That negative comment on your Facebook Page. That 1-star review notification from Google. That harsh criticism posted on Instagram. Ugh :(. You start to feel all the emotions – anger, frustration, confusion – but you’re not quite sure how to handle the negative customer feedback.

Check out these DOs and DON’Ts for responding to negative customer feedback online so you better understand just how to handle your next 1-star review.

DO Respond
Whether positive or negative, always respond to comments made about your business online. It’s a great way to show off your customer service skills. If a comment has got you heated, a good rule of thumb is to wait at least an hour before responding. This can allow for more clarity and professionalism rather than anger, denial or defensiveness overtaking the tone of your message.

DON’T Take Them Personally
I know, I know. This is really hard to do. Your business is your proverbial baby and every remark feels like a slight on how you’ve grown and nurtured it. But there could be many reasons why someone leaves a negative comment or review. Take it as your chance to respond constructively. If it’s a negative attack or out-of-line comment on you, your appearance or a staff member kindly respond that you don’t tolerate any form of bullying or negative speech on your pages.

DO Take Responsibility
The customer is always right, even when they aren’t. Never place blame on the customer but rather take responsibility to correct the situation. Apologize if necessary and then provide a solution to make things better.

DON’T Be Afraid to Take it Offline
You have the power to change the tone of your customer interaction. By reaching out to an upset customer you show that you take customer feedback seriously and value customer opinion. This also gives you the chance to talk with them in private, and you can potentially turn a negative comment into a positive one.

Remember, you’re not always going to be able to please everyone. Do what you can to handle the situation and then move on from it as quickly as possible. You (or your business) don’t need to hold on to any negativity!

To turning your next 1-star review into a 5-star!

Erika

July 1, 2019 By Pauline Leave a Comment

One Easy Tip to Getting Organized

I’m a huge fan of lists and tasks. I LOVE to check things off. In fact, I still write a grocery list each week and walk through Sprouts with it; my pen happily scratching things off as items land in my cart. I also write out a menu each week for dinners and lunches (breakfast doesn’t vary too much at my house) and, if I skip writing it, I always end up with a ton of random food I need to cook at the end of the week. Hmm…is this turning into a food blog?… Get…back…on…track. 🙂

My love of lists and tasks flows into work too so I was pretty excited when Crystal asked me to sign up for Asana. If you’re not familiar with Asana, it’s a platform to keep you organized, on task, and track and manage a team.

Here’s a peek at my dashboard.

With Asana, you can set up teams and projects, assign tasks to yourself or others, create tasks to recur, assign subtasks and, depending on the paid vs free version, the list goes on. There is also a mobile app so you can quickly and easily reference your list at any time. The best part once you’ve completed a task? You get to check it off!

If you’re looking to get more organized, Asana is a great tool for a small team. And, as I mentioned in the email, studies show that you’re 42% more likely to achieve goals if you write them down. Or in this case, type them down.

I put everything I need to get done on my Asana and I check my tasks for the following day at the end of each day. This eliminates the panic of “did I remember to do blank” and makes it easy for me to assign items to the team without a ton of back and forth emails. I rely so much on Asana that I told Crystal if the site ever went down she’d probably just find me walking in circles in my office. Don’t worry though. You can back up your tasks to your calendar so you won’t lose them if the site goes down. 🙂

And for the record, we’re not an affiliate of Asana. We just love sharing best practices and helpful tools with our small business community to stay organized and efficient. And this one checks both of those boxes!

June 24, 2019 By Jess Austin Leave a Comment

All About Ads Audiences

Earlier this month, I asked our Insiders about their biggest roadblocks when it comes to running their Facebook Ads. The answers are in! It turns out that determining which audiences to use, and building those audiences, causes the most headaches.

Which audiences should you be using? How many different ones are out there? To give you a little insight, here are the top audiences performing for my ad clients right now:

Fans Lookalike + Interest
Website Traffic/Website Traffic Lookalike
Video Views/Video Views Lookalike

**Pro Tip: You can create audiences based on specific Videos which means even MORE detailed targeting.

Three tips to making the most of your audiences:

Test, test, test – Start with 2-3 audiences and test to see which ones work for you. Introduce different audiences as you go and keep on testing.
Don’t be afraid to move audiences around to other ad objectives – Use a Video View audience for Traffic ads, Previous Event Engagement with Reach ads, etc.
Think outside the box! – When it comes to choosing Interests, consider everything that makes up your Perfect Customer Group. For instance, advertising furniture? Think about using Interests such as Newlyweds, Recently Moved or Have Small Children in addition to just choosing Furniture or Interior Design. Also, be sure to take advantage of Facebook’s suggestions.