Social media mastery

Where do you spend most of your screen time – Instagram, Twitter, maybe Tinder?
We’ve all got our favorites.

But your personal favorite isn’t always the best platform to market your business on!
To reach your customers online, you have to go where they go.

Personally my favorite platform is Twitter, but I don’t always think that that’s the best platform to go with for business, you know?

It wouldn’t make sense if you’re, let’s say, a financial advising firm, for you to be on Twitter or even Instagram. You might just focus more on Facebook because it’s more of like a customer service type of platform.

So I think you have to take into consideration who are you speaking to what type of business are you promoting and then from there kind of look at the platform.

You might think, the best way to reach the most people, is to be on every social platform there is – right? But if you’re a workforce of one, this may not be the best use of your time.

On Instagram – #foodie has been used over 130 million times.

So if you’re about to open a hip new cafe, this platform would be a great place to start. That’s because it’s highly visual – and what better way to attract an audience that share mouth-watering photos of what they could be eating for brunch.

LinkedIn is the world’s largest network of professionals.

So if you’re a freelance marketeer and need to reach new clients, this would be a great place to start. Get noticed by posting informative content – that clearly shows just how much you know about the thing that you do.

Pick the platform that offers you the biggest opportunity first, and grow from there.

There’s only one way to keep track of the progress you’re making. That’s by setting out some goals – and measuring them.

There are tons of things you can measure on social media – but it comes down to what you’re trying to achieve. What’s going to get you closer to where you want to be?

Measure that.

People talk a lot about return on investment with social media, and in that marketing space it’s so hard because return on investment it is kind of like an airy-fairy concept.

The one beauty with social media is that you can get those facts and figures specific to how many people have seen that post, what is the age bracket. You know, what is their relationship status, you can really drill down into that and particularly with social media you can see who is engaging with your post and get an idea of who your audience is as well.

So how do you decide on your goals?

If you’re just starting out, you want to get your business noticed. So brand awareness could be your goal.

Make sure your content clearly expresses who you are and what you do. Then measure awareness by tracking how many people you reach with each post.

If you’re a more established business your goal might be deepen the relationships you have with your community.

Create content that adds value to their lives by inspiring, educating or entertaining them. Then measure engagement by tracking how many positive comments you receive.

Each social platform has built in analytics to help you measure and keep track.

So you’ve got all the insights you need at your fingertips!

I love the outdoors so I follow Patagonia on Insta. Their feed is full of inspiring images of people exploring the wild. I love what I see, and I know what to expect.

Everything you post to social media is an extension of your brand. So you want to make sure your content is unmistakably, you!

So when people are landing on that feed particularly when it comes to Instagram, that is a shopfront for your business when you’re looking at the feed without even looking at individual posts, what does that say about you? Is it clean, inspirational, you know, fresh. Is it busy, colorful, fun.

So as a starting point we always tell our clients to create a mood board for the kind of imagery and the kind of you know brand ethos that they want to espouse as part of that strategy.

In a social world crowded with content, how will your post stand out from the rest?
How will it be recognized by the community who follow you?

Make sure there’s a thread of consistency that runs through all your designs.
Maybe that’s your color palette, your font style, or using the same photo filter.

By the way, consistent design doesn’t have to be boring design!

A great way to achieve a unified look, but also keep it interesting, is to create one template style for each of the content types you post.
So, one style for memes, another for videos, another for inspirational quotes.

Having a few pre-made templates will also save you time when you’re posting on the go!

The goal is to create your own unique look and feel that your community will instantly recognize and love. Define your style and stick with it.

Every social channel gives you different ways and tools to vizualise your ideas.
Express them – with a tweet on Twitter – or a glimpse behind-the-scenes on Insta stories.

It’s all about visualizing your ideas in the most engaging way possible.

you need to think about the format that will best communicate your message. There’s so many different post formats and types out there now, I think it’s very easy to just pick something new and something innovative but you really need to think back to the objective of your post. What are you trying to communicate and what’s the best way for your audience to understand that.

Our brains love visuals.
We actually process images 60,000 times faster than words!

The good news is, social platforms offer lots of ways to transform your message into engaging content.

Infographic, poll, carousel – the possibilities are endless!
Are you sharing your latest exercise routine? Show a step-by-step guide with a carousel post!

Deciding on colors for next season’s activewear range?
Use an Instagram poll to put the choice in your customer’s hands!

Whatever the idea for your next post – get creative with tools you have at hand, and make it visual.

How often do you scroll through your feed and suddenly have to pause, because that post is just so good.

A beautifully designed social media post can help your content stand out from the crowd. Let’s find out how!

If you’re ready to take your designs to the next level,
Focus the three C’s – Color. Contrast. And Clarity.

Bright block colours stand out against the white page and grab attention.
So have fun with simple colours combos that are the right fit for your brand.

Contrast helps your designs pop out of the feed.
Try contrasting lights against darks – and create impact with SCALE.

Clarity matters, because the audience needs to understand your message at a glance.
Keep words to a minimum,
font size to a maximum,
and let the visuals do the talking.

Follow the three C’s and you’ll be designing posts that stand out from the crowd.

Videos are what we like to call – thumb stopping content. The movement, the animation, the emotion! We just can’t look away.

And here’s a fact: video gets three times as many shares as text and images combined.
The word is out: video is in!

So we have so many clients that want, you know, one minute two minute videos. It’s great for a brand story on your website no problem.

Social media short short short. Most videos, people drop off at three seconds, that’s when most people it’s like 80% of people are not watching your video after three seconds. So short snappy, grab people’s attention straight away because that’s what it is, people are scrolling through, it’s it got to be an instant thing with social media and if you’re asking them to take to take action as well you’ve got to ask them to do that, it’s got to be a short process.

There are so many ways to create engaging videos, the approach really depends on the purpose.

Telling a story about your ethical supply chain,
will be different to promoting a mid-season sale.

Sometimes all you need is a snappy video that stands out.

Other times you need a bit more of a story:

A story should stir emotions in people.
Whether that’s tears of laughter or sadness – emotions will form connections with your community.
So ask yourself – what do you want your audience to feel.

Use your time wisely. Those first 3 seconds matter most.
That’s your opportunity to inspire the audience to keep on watching.

And if you don’t have the budget for high end production – don’t worry!
Your phone camera, and Canva’s video tool, will become your best friends.

When it comes to social media – one size does not fit all. If you’re posting across lots of channels like Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, you’ll need to tailor your content for each.

If you want to look like a social media master, make sure your posts are the right size and your text is the right length.

So let’s say you own a small business, it’s it’s a restaurant or something, and you’re capturing content that you want to be posting on social media, there’s a lot of different angles and and types of content that you can get from the same scene.

So let’s say you let’s say you’re trying to capture a specific plate, you know, you could take like some close-ups, some faraway like table shots, some like panning videos and those are things that you can post like in different platforms at the same time so you have a little bit of everything instead of just getting the same square picture and posting it on every platform.

Every platform does things a little different – from the dimensions of your image, to the character limits of your text.

Twitter gives you 280 characters per tweet.
On Instagram, the world is your oyster.
Just make sure the words you use, complement the images you show.

When it comes to design dimensions, Canva is your guru.
All our templates are set to the right size so you don’t have to do the guesswork.

If you’re on Canva Pro try out Magic Resize.
Select the platforms you want to post to, and with one click, it’ll transform your one design into many.
Just like magic!

My top tip: keep important elements away from the edges of the page.
This way it won’t be cut off once posted.

If in doubt, test it out!

Standing out on social media is no easy feat. You have to post consistently. But you can’t post the same thing over and over again.

Continually coming up with new ideas for content, that your community will love, takes some serious creativity!

So I think the inspiration process is a big part of it. You should follow accounts that aren’t brands that are doing really cool things that you like and see like how can I take some learnings from that and apply them to my, you know, social media strategy.

So if you see a brand that’s doing like really cool video work or not a brand but an account, you can think okay how do I apply this into what I’m doing with like my food or my clothing line or whatever it is that your brand is.

But I think at the end of the day is about putting yourself outside of the business box and thinking more from a creative perspective and then try to marry the two that you’re gonna come up with creative content.

So how do you keep coming up with new ideas?
We’ve got three techniques to help: Educate. Inspire. Entertain.

Education is about empowerment.
You’re an expert at what you do!
Share what you know with your community – so they can learn from you!

If you’re a florist, you could teach them about what flowers in bloom this season.

Inspiration is getting creative and sharing new ideas Maybe an interesting new way to display flowers in your home…

You could even ask your community for suggestions –
they might have some inspiring ideas too!

Don’t be afraid to entertain, be witty or a bit wacky.

How many funny flower puns can you think of?
If it makes you smile, it’ll make your audience smile too.

So mix it up and try new things!I be-leaf in you 🙂

So, you’re clear on your goals. You’ve designed some beautiful posts. It’s time to go viral!

Not just yet. When it comes to social media content, how you plan is as important as what you post.

Because it’s not enough to just have a social account, you have to keep it active!

I think when you’re first starting out it can be a little hectic to track every month and a lot of times like things go very back and forth and you can drive yourself crazy, so I think you should set some short-term goals from a month-to-month perspective but also think in the long term, you know, a year from now what I want to achieve and just be working towards that.

Sometimes it’s hard to think of something unique to post when you wake up every day. That’s why it pays to plan ahead.

Put aside some time, pull out a calendar, and plot out your content.
You can plan weekly, monthly or quarterly – whatever suits.

Are there any national events or holidays coming up that you can create relevant content for?Pop these in.

If you’re proactive with your scheduling, it will give you the space to be reactive too
– because sometimes you don’t know what’s around the corner.

Here’s a tip to keep things simple:
You’ve already designed different templates for different content types, right?
Take these, and assign one type to one day of the week.

You could have: Meme Monday’s, Quote Tuesday’s and Fun Fact Friday’s.

Now you can sleep easy, knowing exactly what you’re posting next week!

Customers are great. But communities are next level!

If you can gain a loyal group of followers who like what you do, they’ll spread the word and do the marketing for you.

Growing a community isn’t easy though! It takes more than follows and likes – it’s all about human connection.

And I think the way you do that is you kind of include them in the journey of the brand. So you make it a back and forth conversation not you always speaking to your customers. You engage with them regularly you know if they comment on your photo you answer them, if they post something and they tag you, you repost it or you talk to them about it, you give them a shout-out. Like, those type of things make people feel like well like this brand appreciates that I’m also you know mentioning them or talking to them and that way you feel more of a strong connection.

Show your community you value them. If someone posts a comment – take the time to respond!

But don’t be a robot! Remember you’re connecting with real humans.

Before you push send, read your reply aloud. Is it something you’d say to a friend?
If not, maybe write it again, until it sounds right.

I know what you’re thinking: So many responses! So little time!

But find a routine that works for you.
You could start by dedicating 30 minutes a day – while you’re on the train or drinking your morning coffee.

Your goal is to grow a community, that interacts with you and with one another –
that’s what social media’s about.

Here’s a bonus: Content that gets people talking will help beat the algorithm and push your posts higher in the scroll.

All the more reason to get connecting!

You’ve found your focus, created tons of tailored content, and scheduled it all in.
Congratulations.

Now that you’ve put in all that hard work, what next?
No one will know it exists, unless you go out and promote it with avengence.

Yeah the one thing I will say about putting handles everywhere, like I think it’s that is something people have been doing for a while and that’s great but beyond that you’ve got to make people want to do it just putting a facebook logo somewhere is great but if people don’t love your products, your packaging isn’t awesome, your experience is amazing they’re not gonna do it.

You’re much better off making them go “oh my god” this packaging is unbelievable or this experience is so good I want to share it with my friends.

Social media is an important part of the marketing mix, but it shouldn’t work on it’s own!

Think about ALL the different ways your customers come into contact with your business – both online and offline. Those are all chances for you to make your mark.

For example, if you run a coffee shop you could add your social media handle to your menu, maybe add your hashtag too so customers can share a snap of your dreamy coffee art.

Or if someone’s ordered from your online shop, add a little thank you note in their package with your social handle and encourage them to follow and share a photo of their order.

These little touches can feel super personal..

The most important thing is to take advantage of every opportunity to reach your customers and make your mark on the world.