Social Media Marketing Archives | Page 5 of 15 | Rosewood Marketing

Business, Educational, How-To Guides, Marketing, Online Marketing, Online Presence, Online Strategies, Small Business, Social Media, Social Media Marketing

Rosewood’s Guide To Influencer Relationships

An influencer happy in her relationship with a business

You probably have found and started a relationship with an influencer for your business’ social media marketing. Maybe you followed our recent advice about the benefits of micro-influencers for small businesses. Like any relationship, those with influencers require maintenance. You want to manage and maintain that relationship properly because influencer marketing is valuable for your business and expanding your reach on social media. At least 61% of people’s trust in a brand grows because of an influencer’s recommendations. That value only increases over time as your partnership with your influencers and their audience strengthens. The more an influencer trusts you, so will their audience. Here’s Rosewood’s guide to influencer relationships to keep that partnership with your influencers strong and productive into the long term.

Communicate regularly

For any relationship to continue and thrive, you need to maintain open communication. This is no less true for the your business’ influencer relationships. Regularly and openly communicate with any of your influencers, so that you both have essential information. If you are sending them products, are launching a new product or service, or have some advice for reaching your own audience, you will want to update them. Maintaining this open line of communication will also allow you to ask questions and receive key information. Similarly, if they have questions about your business and its products, services, or values, answer them promptly.

Check on what they need

It might not always be clear what an influencer needs from your business for a certain campaign or to create content. Regularly check if there is anything they need. They might require some more information, product details, brand statements, certain products, content materials, etc. They may expect an affiliate code or link to provide their followers. Rosewood’s sites, such as those built on WordPress and Shopify, have plugins that make affiliate programs easy to manage. Inquire with influencers to see what resources they need to produce content that will engage their audience for your business. Asking will help maintain open and constant communication with an influencer so that your partnership can have lasting results.

Clear objectives and strategies

Your business’ objectives and strategies are essential information for influencers to create effective campaigns for your business. Provide them with them this information as they start a campaign or create content in association with your business. If they are providing content about certain products or services, be sure to provide them with any key details you want them to highlight. If there is certain branding information you want emphasized, make that clear to your influencer. Just like you need this information to strategize advertising, so do influencers to create impactful campaigns that benefit your business. Giving them those essentials will prolong successful influencer relationships.

Feedback

It’s useful for influencers to know how effective their campaign or content has been for your business. Provide them with insights about performance. Statistics like number of conversions and how many times their affiliate code or link has been used after a certain series of posts or campaign are informative metrics. Provide feedback for what worked, what did not, and any clarifications. When articulating this information, focus on the results. Celebrate successes and don’t assign blame for any disappointing outcomes. Again, trust they are knowledgeable about their work. Influencers can use good and bad results to improve future campaigns. They just need that information.

Trust their expertise

Don’t let your communication with an influencer turn into oversight or micromanagement. Trust their expertise and listen to their input. Remember this is a partnership created on their established platform. They’ve built their substantial and engaged following precisely because they understand how to create impactful content. Influencers understand what their audience likes and how it will resonate with them. Their job relies on understanding the intricate and mutable workings of social media. That knowledge is precisely why an influencer relationship and partnership is valuable to your business. When an influencer provides your business with information or their insights, be sure to listen.

Compensation

Influencers will expect compensation. From the start, communicate openly with them how much and what kind of compensation they expect, and you can provide. Some might expect payment, while others may also want to create an affiliate link from which they derive commission. Remember that this aspect of the partnership will develop over time, especially as you start measuring results from each. Make sure to keep compensation an open discussion.

Influencer Marketing Software

When starting your influencer relationships, we recommend contacting and managing them the old-fashioned way. Eventually, you will likely have multiple influencers providing their services for your company and will want to keep track of all of them. Fortunately, there is software that helps you manage your relationships, discover new ones, and manage content. These programs also track important data like budgets, spending, and provide reports and analytics for performance and ROIs. Some of the best include GRIN, LTK Connect, and Influence.co.

It’s a Relationship

Influencers are effective because they play a prominent social role. Agreements with influencers are partnerships and reciprocal relationships. Those take time and clear communication to develop. Keep those channels open and properly manage and maintain these relationships with influencers, benefiting your business in the long run. Need more information about managing relationships with influencers or maybe you are looking to start? Speak with Rosewood’s social media marketing team. They can help you find the right influencers and use their own social media expertise to effectively collaborate with your business’ partnerships. If you haven’t gotten to this point already stay tuned for our upcoming blog on hiring your own influencers.

December 6, 2022/0 Comments/by Paige

Business, Holidays, How-To Guides, Marketing, Online Marketing, Social Media, Social Media Marketing

2022’s Holiday Social Media Trends

Couple using self stick to get content ready for holiday social media trends

Halloween is over. Ghosts and the Monster Mash have been dethroned by the holiday spirt and Mariah Carey. It’s also time for social media channels to shift into holiday gear. So, to start the season, Rosewood is gifting to a list of the major trends that you should consider while creating your social media content for the holiday season of 2022.

Visual Content

Nearly half of consumers want to see images and video of the products they might buy. As a result, visual social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok are especially suited for holiday content. Livestreams on these platforms are also a great opportunity for engagement where you answer questions or provide personalized recommendations to your followers. Overall, ensure your holiday content is going on the right channels.

Experiences and Outside

The last two years have left many wanting for moments outside that the pandemic prevented. As a result, people are putting increasing value in experiences over things. Content that appeals to this desire is perfect for the holidays, especially as many seasonal activities will be resuming this year. People are far less worried it’s cold outside than they are excited about getting to go to holiday markets and winter festivals. Content that includes these holiday experiences is likely to resonate well with your audience. Connect products and/or services you provide to holiday experiences. This product or service might be the perfect thing to unwrap! You can also invite followers to comment about their holiday plans and hopes to create engagement.

Influencer Gift Guides

More than half of social media users buy products based on influencer recommendations. Many influencers now provide gift guides or recommendations as the holidays approach. If you have relationships with influencers, send them a gift or see about the possibility of them recommending one of your products or services as one. If an influencer organically recommends you, be sure to share their content on your own page. Lastly, if you aren’t working with any influencers yet, it can be a good idea. Even for small businesses, micro-influencers can give you a huge social media boost.

User-Generated Content

You might not just have influencers creating content for you. The holidays are a particularly active time on social media. Users will regularly be posting about gifts and services they are giving or receiving. These users are actively making your business a part of their holiday celebrations and experiences, which will lend your brand more authenticity and interest others to do the same. If they tag your business and praise your business, products, or services, then be sure to repost their content on your own page,

Sharing is Caring

You can also use your followers to help spread your business. Many of your followers are those who are interested in your products or services already. This means they probably would like those as gifts this holiday season. Create content that highlights popular products and services with call to actions for followers to share as a gift idea. They can provide a family member or friend a not-so-subtle hint while sharing your content.

Shopping Early

For the last two years, the major surge in holiday shopping has begun in November and now, over half of holiday shopping is done by December 1. Most shoppers look for early holiday sales by November 1 so that’s more and earlier than just black Friday. Highlight deals and offerings now so that they capture your audience’s attention when they are starting their holiday searches.

Last Minute Reminders and “Super Saturday”

While most shopping happens in November, plenty still happens during the quintessential holiday month of December itself. Plus, there are always last-minute purchases happening in-store. Super Saturday, the last Saturday before Christmas, is still a big last-minute shopping day. Continue to highlight special offerings as well as smaller products or services that make perfect last-minute gifts.

Online and In-Store

Most holiday shopping now happens online, especially the first wave in November. Thankfully it is much easier to convert social media engagement into online purchases, so ensure holiday posts include call to actions that direct followers to your e-commerce marketplace.

Delivery Woes

On the other hand, the last two years have also familiarized folks with the constraints of shipping around the holidays. Canada Post and other shipping companies become quickly bogged down by the onslaught of orders. As people have now learned the lesson that holiday gifts might not arrive in time, they are more likely to shop in-person as the holidays get closer. Content that highlights your storefront may induce more to come. Alternatively, if you can guarantee shipping times or use a more local delivery option, highlight that advantage in your content.

Services are Timely

If you’re business focuses on services, the holiday’s delivery woes won’t be an issue, something you can emphasize in your content. However, your business is still limited by its availability and the holidays can be busy. Provide content that highlights your availability and its limits. For both product or service-based businesses, it’s a good practice to communicate when your business is taking its own time to celebrate the holidays.

Enjoy!

The holidays are festive, so have fun with creating this season’s content. If you’re looking for more tips or want some support on your holiday social media trends and content, our marketing team are masters of every social media season.

November 15, 2022/0 Comments/by Paige

Business, Facebook, Marketing, Online Directories, Online Marketing, Online Presence, Small Business, Social Media Marketing, Website

5 Essential Places to List Your Business

Phone screen showing various online directory apps

Today, it’s typical that people find businesses through internet searches. Whether it is through search engines, map apps, or social media, it is crucial to list your business on various services for your business’ discoverability.

Listing services or online directories populate your business into search results and are the main way users and potential customers will learn about your business. Most of these will allow you to add important information about your business, such as its name, logo, location, hours, contact information, and any other pertinent information, e.g. a restaurant can include its menu. Depending on the service, you can also include photos, make regular posts, announce events, and provide offers.

Listings are a great way to establish a good reputation. On some, like Google and Facebook, users can leave reviews and ratings of your business. On other directories, they can also recommend your businesses in comments. These reviews boost consumer trust, with at least 73% of consumers trusting other customer reviews. By creating a listing, you also take control of this reputation. You can verify and take steps to remove false, negative reviews. You can similarly upload high quality photos and remove users’ poor-quality ones to ensure a good impression.

These listings are also a great way to connect with your customers. You can respond to the reviews, thank those celebrating your services or attempt to address those who may have complaints. Users and customers can also contact you through direct messaging on these services with questions, and you can respond to them directly.

Local Matters

While online directories allow people from a wider geographic range to find your business digitally, they’re extremely important for local business. Research shows that 97% of users search for local business, with 46% of all searches aimed at finding a local answer. Similarly, 76% of customers look at a business’ online presence before they physically visit. So even if your business’ operations are entirely physical and in-person, your discoverability among a local clientele still depends on these listings.

Listing Services/Online Directories

There is a myriad of places where you could list your business on the internet. It would be impossible to put your business everywhere, besides an ineffective use of your time. Let’s be honest, no one’s using the yellow pages anymore. Here are first five services where you should be listing your business.

Google Business Profile

Previously Google My Business, a Google Business Profile is listing for your business that appears in Google Search and Maps. Creating a Google profile for your business should be your first step to listing your business online. Google still holds more than 79% of all desktop searches, and on mobile it accounts for 60% of all searches, making a Google Business Profile is an easy way to immediately improve discoverability.

Apple Places

While Google Maps is the primary service for desktop and Android searches, many iOS users prefer the default Apple Maps app for searching their area. As a result, it’s a good idea to also register a Business Place on Apple, which will list your business on Apple Maps and populate it in Safari and Siri search recommendations.

Bing Places

Google may be king, but don’t count out Bing. Microsoft’s search engine still has over 1.114 billion users, part of which stems from the fact that it is built into every Windows install. 55% of those users search for products and businesses. For full search coverage, it’s best to add your business as a Bing Place.

Facebook Pages

Facebook Pages for businesses are aimed at increasing their discoverability among an audience. Users can become fans of your business. This means they will see any updates, posts, or new photos you upload in their feed. Any post they like or engage with will also populate into their friends’ feeds, and Facebook can also populate your page into their feed as a recommendation.

LinkedIn Pages

LinkedIn pages, like Facebook pages allow you create posts and have followers. A LinkedIn page also creates and builds a network for your business among your employees and their connections. It also allows you to connect to other business’ pages. While general consumers are less likely to find a business through LinkedIn, it is especially advantageous if your business regularly partners with or provides services for other businesses or professionals.

Some other recommendations

Tripadvisor

Many users refer to Tripadvisor for customer reviews, especially in the hospitality industry. If your business is in this industry, it’s a good idea to create or take control of your business’ listing.

Instagram and TikTok

You are probably all too aware that social media is extremely important for your business and customer outreach. However, a business page on Instagram and TikTok is only becoming increasingly important for discoverability. A Google senior vice president recently referenced an internal study that found 40% of young people search for local businesses, especially restaurants, through TikTok and Instagram rather than through Google.

Getting Your Listings Together

Creating these listings can take some work. Reach out to Rosewood Marketing, and we can also help you discover more specialized online directories suitable to list your business. We can also help you develop your brand to create cohesive and consistent listings. Our photography and videography team can help you create striking visual content. Lastly, our Digital Marketing and Social Media Marketing teams are masters of creating content and engagement to help you create productive listings.