Crystal Media

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What’s Still Working on Social in 2020

Welcome to the first Crystal Media blog of 2020! I’m actually writing this during our winter break because I wanted to wait until the last minute to get the feedback from the team. We all collaborated for you this week on what’s still working in 2020. Keep reading to see if you discover a few themes.

“I think we’re going to see the use of Instagram Stories continue to grow. With Instagram adding fun Stickers, Filters and more, the IG user is not only posting Stories, but they’re also watching. In fact, 500 million people use Stories every day. Stories are a great way to stay top of mind daily. If you’re new to Stories, don’t overthink it! It seriously takes a minute or less to post. Just be you, relate to your audience, and be consistent. As you keep posting, you’ll start picking up what’s performing well and what your audience wants to see.” – Crystal, Founder of Crystal Media and Retail Social Media Expert

“Humanized content and behind the scenes will continue to capture your audience and grow your brand in 2020. People buy from people and it’s a HUGE advantage small businesses have over the big box. Don’t shy away from sharing your story, what makes you unique, your funny quirks, passions, and interest. Sharing behind the scenes videos of you and the team will help potential customers get to know you. If you’re stuck one simple tip is to talk to the camera like you would talk to a customer in your store, it doesn’t have to be perfect but it does have to be real.”  – Pauline, Director of Operations and Retail Social Media Mentor

“Authenticity is going to be key when creating content for Instagram. Consumers want to get to know the face behind the business, so don’t be afraid to tell your story whether that be through video in Stories or a long-form written caption. The more connected your customer feels to your brand/business the more likely they’ll share your content with others on their own accounts.” – Erika, Marketing Coordinator

“Video! Using videos as ads, especially Video View ads as an objective continues to be the most engaging and cost-efficient content. Take it one step further and go Live on Facebook and then turn that into an ad.” – Jess, Facebook and Instagram Ads Manager

“Videos are definitely still working today, as they are engaging and memorable: Your message is more likely to stick! Posting interactive humanized content or sharing user-generated content are also great tools. You want your viewers to be engaged and feel included!” – Maddie, Facebook and Instagram Ads Manager

There you have it, without knowing it all 5 of us predicted very similar trends to continue in 2020. Are you taking advantage of video? Facebook ads? Instagram Stories? Humanized and authentic content? If not be sure to add it to your plan and leave a comment with how you’ll use these tips in 2020.

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Top 3 Updates from Social Media Marketing World

The Social Edge team and I attended the world’s largest social media marketing conference last week in San Diego, called the Social Media Marketing World. We learned from people at Disney, Facebook, Dell, Buffer and many others, and below you’ll find my top takeaways. We also shared a few live updates on our Facebook page here and here. It’s an exciting time to be a marketer, you’ll learn why in this post.

If you have any questions about what’s listed below, please ask in a comment below. If you’re an Insider, March’s theme is Instagram! I’ll be adding training and tips on this topic throughout the month.

1. Bots are our future. The number one thing I’m excited about is bots. Bot simply defined: software that interacts with people in chat apps. For example: on Facebook, you can go to the Domino’s Facebook page, click Send Message and the chat box will open, giving you the option to place a new order or track an order. 

With tools like Many Chat, you can set up a bot that can be used for things like automating customer service questions on Facebook or on your website, lead generation, set appointments, notify of new products or sales, stay in touch with your audience, order tracking, and you can even sell products through Messenger using a bot!

Here’s why I’m so excited about bots: we’re in the early stages, meaning it’s not over-populated, there’s a lot of opportunities for your business to launch a bot and stand out from the competition. It can also save you time, and help build your leads and sales. Plus, open rates are extremely high. An average open rate for an email is 20%. The average open rate for bots is 80%!

Screenshot from seminar at the conference:

Plus, it can save you time, and since I’ve worked with retailers for over 7 years, I know the number one challenge is having the time to focus on your social media. With some time up front to set up, you can have a bot acting as a customer service rep, and you don’t have to pay them!

At Social Edge, we’ll be releasing more information and training on how to set up, things to do with your bot and more, but for now, brainstorm some ideas on how you can use one for your business. Tip: don’t over complicate it. Think simply. For example: maybe you have a bot that greets people when they message you on Facebook, and if they type a keyword like “hours” your bot will automatically provide your hours.

2. Overcoming the Facebook Algorithm. On January 11th, Mark Zuckerberg announced major changes coming to Facebook. Most of them affect business pages and your organic reach. Some people freaked out, some jumped ship, and some are not worried. I don’t think you should be worried, here’s why. If you’re posting relevant content, that creates meaningful conversation (which is what I teach you to do!), you’re using ads to increase exposure for your page and posts (for example, the Most Recent ad I always reference), and you’re using video (especially live streaming videos), your strategy won’t change.

Mari Smith shared a great quote: If the marketers move in, the members move out. Act like a member! This means you need to humanize your content, share your story, post behind the scenes pictures, ask meaningful questions and engage. I’ve been teaching this since I started in social media over 10 years ago, but a lot of marketers have hacked the system and started posting irrelevant content, almost spamming their audiences, and attracted (organically and through paid platforms) unqualified leads to create social proof, which actually hurt them in the long run. Just be you! Know your perfect customer groups, post content to enrich their lives, and use tools like Live Streaming and Ads to further your reach.

NOTE: People gaze at video posts 5 times longer than a static image. If you want people on your content longer, use video!

3. Instagram Advertising. There are over 300 million daily active users on Instagram, however only 25 million businesses, and only 2 million of them are advertising. Not only do businesses have the opportunity to get more exposure by advertising to a quality audience on Instagram, they have an opportunity to stand out in Stories with content that feels like a Story. If you’re not sure what “feels like a Story”, just start watching other people’s Stories, and brainstorm content ideas for your business to share, that doesn’t feel like an ad. A benefit of a Story ad is it’s linkable, so people can scroll up and be taken to your website, a specific product page, your Facebook page, an opt-in form, etc. Story ads on Instagram tend to be a lower cost because the demand is lower, click here to learn more about setting one up.

Other notes:

  • 60% of the buying cycle is over before people even talk to you – meaning they are making decisions based on online experiences and what they see the brand doing online.

  • When writing emails, social media posts or blogs, use concrete nouns that hurt if they’re dropped on your foot. Use active verbs you can see in your head. Listen up – use “talk” not “converse”. Rewrite in the second person and hit the return button every 2 or 3 sentences to give you content space to breathe.

  • Facebook is increasing their investments in live streaming shows to compete with Netflix, Hulu and Amazon.

  • Creating a show on Facebook was a hot topic – doing a show the same day and time, give it a name, and be consistent. How could your business offer a show each week? What would you talk about it? Is it worth the time investment? It might be 🙂

  • “The opposite of Bravery is not Cowardice, it’s Conformity.”

  • Use emojis in buttons.

  • When going live, start with saying “Welcome to the replay!” because no one will be live with you right at the very beginning.

  • Two video editing software: Screenflow and iMovie.

Let a comment below sharing what you’re most excited about!

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Social Edge Live, Episode 33: 2017 Recap

What a year 2017 has been for social media. Although we didn’t see any new platforms emerge there were quite a few changes and updates to the sites we know and love. Let’s recap some of the most notable changes below:

  • Snapchat introduced the SnapMap and context cards
  • Facebook integrated stories across its entire platform (personal profiles, business pages, groups, and event pages)
  • Twitter increased its iconic character count from 140 to 240
  • Instagram introduced Story Highlights and Archives

Watch the full episode below:

Outside of changes made to the platforms, there were some key social media trends worth talking about that emerged in 2017. To recap, video reigned supreme. We saw major enhancements in video quality and there are a number of video tools out there to help small businesses and retailers to help improve your video marketing efforts. Live streaming videos have some of the heaviest weight on Facebook, and this trend doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon.

Facebook wants to provide the best user experience possible which is why the platform has to be strategic about who sees what when. Facebook’s algorithm makes it extremely difficult to get your content seen, but ads can be a workaround which is crucial for marketers. Having a pixel set up is beneficial for remarketing to people who have interacted with pages on your website. Groups have become more popular. This is because people are more likely to see the content posted in the group than on the business page. They also help create an online community and can be extremely high value when it comes to providing the best customer experience.

We’ve seen experience marketing emerge as a way to overcome online shopping. The better the experience a customer has with you not only online, but offline the more likely you’ll be able to keep them as a loyal customer.

Now let’s take a look at some things you should be looking out for in 2018:

  • Offline Conversion Tracking
    • This feature built into Facebook Ads helps track if someone saw your online ad and came into your story and bought from you. It’s still in its early stages but can be crucial when reporting on the effectiveness of your Facebook ads.
  • Messenger
    • This tool allows for automation in certain areas of your business and can provide an enhanced customer experience and customer service.
  • Video
    • A Facebook exec stated that the platform would be completely video within the next 5 years (and this statement was made a couple years ago). If this rings true it’s time to get started on using it and to get comfortable because it’s not going anywhere.
  • Back to Basics
    • This has everything to do with your social media strategy.  Everything you do on social media needs to connect back to your business goals. If you don’t have a solid strategy then it’s time to take a step back and really set up a plan for your success.

Social Edge is making some major changes in 2018. We’ve been very retail-specific since we started 5 years ago, but we felt everything we were teaching could be applied to all types of small businesses, so we decided to widen the net in order to help as many types of small businesses as we can. So be on the lookout for the newly redesigned Social to Sale – this training is meant to help build a social media strategy that can help support your business goals in the New Year.