The other day, my colleague Amanda and I were leading an AMA Richmond small group conversation on social media. There were only six of us on the call, but half of the group actively said they were limiting social media use because it’s just too much. Some Hodgers have even quit, or greatly reduced, their social media use for the same reason. But what do you do when you’re responsible for social media management and operateing in the social media world is what you do…
Read MoreFacebook and Google remain powerhouses in online advertising, but Twitter is gaining ground in the social media space. Twitter reported $702 million in advertising revenue for Q3 2019 and reported 17% growth year-over-year for its Monetizable Daily Active Usage. Aside from being a place where more marketers are spending their ad dollars, Twitter offers advertisers the opportunity to target audiences in different ways than Facebook. Options like follower lookalike and keyword targeting can often provide a better way to reach potential customers than interest targeting…
Read MoreY’all. A lot is happening this year. And because it’s going to be a busy year, that means it will likely be an expensive one, especially in the digital marketing space. Why is that? It’s because digital marketers are basically competing with one another when it comes to digital advertising, and with a ton of big events on the horizon – from Virginia and beyond – there’s a lot that can impact your comms strategies, and that impact will likely mean having to dedicate more…
Read MoreRemember when people loved throwing around “big data” in every business meeting and presentation? Well, marketers and communicators are now dealing with the repercussions of all this big data integration, thanks to an influx of data privacy rules and regulations that have started trickling down from lawmakers. If you’ve noticed a deluge of “Accept,” “Opt-In,” “Opt-Out” and “Learn more about cookies” pop-up windows, these are just a few of the disclosures companies are now required to share with their readers and users. When did all…
Read MoreAsk any content creator how they approach building out editorial calendars, and I guarantee that a majority of them will say they start by checking for holidays and other events to write content around. And can you blame them? We know timeliness is one of the key ingredients to building valuable content. Real-time marketing is when an organization engages with consumers as newsworthy or when global events are actually happening, in real time. Timeliness is essential for a successful real-time marketing campaign, and while…
Read MoreIf your newsfeed is anything like mine, you don’t have to do more than a thumb swipe to find a friend posting about some product or service that is CHANGING MY LIFE, Y’ALL. In the 50s, you had Tupperware. The 60s, Mary Kay. But what was once contained to our living rooms has now inundated our social media worlds. Multi-level marketing (MLM), or network marketing, is the practice of recruiting an army of associates to sell products – nowadays, primarily on Facebook, Instagram and elsewhere,…
Read MoreEver feel like as soon as you finally get a handle on the latest and greatest in the social media world, one (or more) of the platforms just straight up laughs in your face? Same. Instagram just rolled out two new stickers for its Stories feature, and I’m not going to lie, for once I’m actually very excited about these new offerings. Instagram donation sticker for nonprofits If you work in the marketing department of a nonprofit that uses Instagram, your world is about to…
Read MoreMore than a few years back, we had a client that had an aversion to social media. A small government agency, it was intrigued by the idea of being able to post its news directly to its constituencies on platforms like Facebook and Twitter. After all, such tools were changing – and have changed – the face of public relations and put several target-seeking arrows into the PR quiver. But when the agency realized that citizens would be able to comment on its otherwise oh-so-positive…
Read MoreSocial media influencer marketing has become an increasingly popular tactic, with influencer campaigns on Instagram increasing nearly 200 percent last year. If your organization is new to the world of influencer marketing, you might be wondering what kind of results you can expect, especially if you work for a B2C company. Influencer marketing is a vague term that can mean different things to different people, but for the purpose of this blog post, influencer marketing is the practice of sharing your product with influential individuals…
Read MoreReaching the right people at the right time, with the right message is the pillar of a successful content marketing program. And with more organizations developing content these days, the competition to reach potential customers with tailored content is fierce. For many organizations, the challenge usually isn’t the creation of valuable content. The challenge is ensuring your content is breaking through the millions of pieces of content shared every minute. It used to be enough, for example, to share posts to your Facebook newsfeed or…
Read MoreYou know the old saying, “don’t put all your eggs in one basket,” right? This idiom perfectly applies to a lot of things in our industry, especially when it comes to social media advertising strategies. It’s easy to think your money should be spent on Facebook, one of the largest social media platforms and one of the earliest adopters to advertising, but if your audience is on multiple platforms, you should be, too. Here are four good reasons you should diversify your social media strategy….
Read MoreEvery year, for as long as I can remember (since 2005), Pew Research Center has released its annual report on social media usage. The organization recently released its report for 2018. No shock here, Facebook and YouTube are the juggernauts in the social media landscape with 68 percent of U.S. adults saying they use Facebook, and 73 percent using YouTube. One key question moving forward: how will the Cambridge Analytica scandal impact American’s use of Facebook if at all, or is the social network too…
Read More
