Author: Rallio

Social

Why Employee Advocacy Works for Even the Most Unusual Businesses

Post author By Rallio
Post date February 5, 2021

If you’re familiar with employee advocacy, then you might be aware of some of the benefits. By engaging your employees as brand ambassadors on social media, you’re able to increase engagement and reach for your brand. Employees who share both their own images and videos, along with those of your brand, help to spread the word — often more organically and effectively than brands sharing content from their own pages.

That being said, we know there are still companies that are reluctant to implement an employee advocacy program. Whether they aren’t familiar with the concept, or they don’t want to devote resources toward it, or they don’t believe it works for their particular industry, there are businesses that haven’t embraced the concept of employee advocacy.

As such, we’ve devoted this blog post to explaining how employee advocacy can work for any type of business — no matter how odd. It might just get you thinking how an employee advocacy program could benefit your business.

Note that the businesses mentioned in this article are for example purposes only and not to point out the existence or lack thereof of any type of employee advocacy program. Rather, we’re simply demonstrating that there are, in fact, lots of unusual businesses out there — and having some fun with describing how we’d approach employee advocacy if this were our own business.

Custom Spuds

Who knew there was a demand for potatoes with custom messages on them, sent in the mail to special someones? Potato Parcel did. That’s right — the company, which touts its one-of-a-kind potatoes as “The Most Unexpected Gift in the Mail,” will imprint custom messages or images on a potato and deliver it to anyone you’d like. They even got Shark Tank on board with their concept.

The company claims “100% laughter or confusion guaranteed.” Sounds about right.

Kinda makes you want some French fries, no?

But seriously though, imagine the employee advocacy posts for this one. Let’s say James from Potato Parcel sends his girlfriend a Valentine’s Day Potato Bundle. He films the exact moment she opens the gift and posts this on his Instagram Stories, tagging @potatoparcel.

Now James’ friends see the Story and think it’s hilarious. They start thinking about potential potato recipients. Next thing you know, they’re following @potatoparcel and ordering a Potato Birthday Bundle for their buddy.

The more potato-promoting people on the Potato Parcel team, the more laughter and confusion will ensue. And of course, the more Potato Parcel will grow.

Eyewear for Your Fur Buddy

In a world where dogs are family and not just pets, it should come as no huge surprise that Doggles exist. Imagine playing a game of Frisbee on a sunny day and having your pup struggle to make a catch because the sun is in his eyes. Or imagine having a dog who needs prescription eyewear so she’s not bumping into furniture all day long.

Here’s where Doggles (goggles for dogs) come in.

This concept screams “social,” and we’d venture to guess they have team members whose pups are proud owners of several pairs of Doggles. All they need to do is head out to the park and snap some photos and videos as their fur babies run around wearing Doggles, nailing every Frisbee catch. Or capture the moment their vision-challenged pooch slips on prescription Doggles for the first time.

Tag Doggles in the post, and there you have it: lots more people seeing Doggles and deciding they better get some nice eyewear for their doggos. It’s the content we didn’t know we needed — and we’re soooo here for it.

Employee advocacy is easy when you have a cool product like Doggles. Judging from their Facebook page, people — and their pups — are loving them, too.

Weddings on Wheels

Nowadays, nearly everything you could ever want can be ordered online and delivered to your door. Whether you’ve got a craving for wings or, hey, you want to order a complete wedding on wheels, you don’t have to look far to find what you need in just a few clicks.

Las Vegas Wedding Wagon, for one, will come directly to the happy couple with a wedding officiant, a photographer and even a witness if needed. Starting at $129, the Wedding Wagon is a convenient, no-frills option for couples that want to avoid the high costs and stress of planning a big wedding.

The @lasvegasweddingwagon Instagram shows how easy it can be to get hitched and still keep it classy. Imagine how beautiful this Red Rock Canyon ceremony must have been for this couple.

For the team members who make these events happen, there’s an opportunity to capture special moments on camera and share them with their network. (Note that businesses who use Rallio Activate for their employee advocacy program have built-in model release forms in cases like these where there would be a need to get permission to post.)

Employee Advocacy Works for All Types of Businesses

The businesses above are just a few examples of how employee advocacy could be used, even in unusual businesses. What type of business do you have? How do you think your team members could help spread the word? The Rallio Activate platform is designed specifically to help organize assets, activate employees to be brand ambassadors, expand brand reach and engagement, and reward and incentivize employees who contribute.

And it doesn’t matter if you sell everyday widgets or you’re participating in a Squirrel Census. Every type of business and industry can use employee advocacy. That’s because behind every business, there are real people doing real things, and that’s what makes a business interesting.

If you read through our case study of how one of our clients has made use of Rallio Activate for employee advocacy, you’ll see how effective and cost-efficient it can be. Schedule a no-obligation demo of Rallio Activate to learn more and see how it can benefit your business.

Tags employee advocacy

Social

Case Study: How Rallio’s Employee Advocacy Platform Boosted Engagement for Pet Supplies Plus

Post author By Rallio
Post date January 29, 2021

Pet Supplies Plus (PSP) is a multi-location retail franchise organization with over 520 locations nationwide. As the preferred technology supplier for PSP, Rallio provides the social media SaaS and employee advocacy platform needed to manage, schedule, optimize and grow the chain’s entire social media presence — from corporate down to the location level.

While PSP has competitors in the pet retailer industry, the company’s unique selling proposition is their relationships in their local communities. Customers, and their animal companions, are considered “neighbors” and are treated as such anytime they walk through the doors of their local PSP. When you visit PSP, you can expect friendly service, helpful answers to questions, and plenty of love for any animal friends who accompany their humans on their visits.

With the rise in use of social media, particularly during the pandemic, PSP needed a way to generate more hyper-local images from team members in order to properly showcase individual locations on their social media pages. These images would provide the visual proof of PSP’s commitment to their local communities and their neighborly approach to providing the highest quality pet supplies and services. The assets would also further PSP’s reach on social media — with content shared by employees receiving up to eight times the engagement of content shared on brand channels.

Challenge

PSP had already been utilizing Rallio’s software and mobile app to automate their content scheduling, ad boosting, review responses and engagements on their local social media pages. Yet PSP stores needed to generate more hyper-local photos and employee advocacy posts from team members.

At the same time, PSP owners did not want to provide full Rallio admin login information to team members. Rather, they needed a way to allow team members to submit their own photos via limited logins — photos they were already snapping from their own phones and sharing via their own networks on social media. Furthermore, PSP needed to incentivize PSP team members to share content on their personal pages, thereby extending their reach on social media.

Solution

To address the challenges above, Rallio first developed limited logins enabling employees to submit photos. With a built-in model release form and easy-to-use functionality, the app simplifies and streamlines the process of taking in-store photos/videos, uploading them with comments, and submitting them.

The robust limited logins were rolled out to all PSP locations and team members in 2018. Then, Rallio launched a 30-day pilot program with six different PSP locations on Rallio Activate, a fully mobile employee advocacy platform that enables brands to engage employees as brand ambassadors. Using Rallio Activate, PSP would collect team members’ photos and videos in one central image library, allowing the brand to build a robust database of employee-generated content for use on local PSP pages. They were also able to activate team members to share brand-approved assets on their personal pages.

Along with the simplicity of uploading, Rallio Activate enables PSP to encourage more uploads by incentivizing team members — awarding them with $10 gift cards for uploading at least 10 images or sharing at least three pieces of content to their personal profiles. The entire process was automated through Rallio Activate, with no extra work required by PSP.

Results

Since the rollout of the limited mobile logins over two years ago, 3,395 PSP team members have been activated, equating to 173,513 images and videos submitted. Ultimately, these uploads have resulted in over 2,541,965 social media engagements (such as likes, comments, clicks and shares) from posts, which leveraged those assets that PSP otherwise would have not received.

With just these six locations alone, the pilot program proved to be successful in activating team members as ambassadors, incentivizing them with rewards, and generating more hyper-local assets. On average, the six Activate pilot locations experienced the following results:

41% increase in local posts created
320% increase in team member logins
816% increase in employee advocacy posts
23% increase in daily engagement

We estimate that if Rallio Activate were rolled out brandwide, PSP would have approximately 8,160 team member logins total, at an average of 16 team member logins per store.

Conclusion: Rallio is the Employee Advocacy Platform You Need

Brands that launch employee advocacy programs with Rallio Activate have an opportunity to expand their reach via their own employees, activated as brand ambassadors. With an employee advocacy platform and a formalized advocacy program, you can expose your brand to more people and extend your brand’s reach.

If you’re ready to launch an employee advocacy program, Rallio can get you up and running. It all begins with helping your employees understand the benefits of sharing content on their social media pages. Contact sales@rallio.com to schedule a no-obligation demo of our employee advocacy platform and get your program up and running in 10 days or less.

Convince & Convert says 83% of Americans are more likely to purchase a product or service that’s recommended by a friend or family member.

Tags employee advocacy

Social

The 4 Types of Content Your Employees Should Post for You

Post author By Rallio
Post date January 26, 2021

One of the fastest-growing trends in social media is employee advocacy, in which employees become loyal ambassadors for your brand. With more and more companies adopting employee advocacy programs, you might be wondering what types of content your employees should be posting for you.

Of course, before you get to the posting part, you’ll need to implement an employee advocacy program of your own. We recommend reading our article 5 Big Reasons You Need an Employee Advocacy Program for the hows and whys of advocacy.

As you develop your employee advocacy program, it will be helpful to give your employees some guidelines on the types of content you’d like for them to post. While you want employees to have some freedom to be creative with their posts, you also want to be sure you’re protecting sensitive information and presenting your brand in the best possible light.

Gather together with your employees to brainstorm different ideas, and come prepared to share with them the types of content they should be posting. The five categories below will get you rolling.

Branded Assets

The first obvious category is branded assets that you create and provide to your employees. They might be professionally created marketing graphics or videos, how-to tips about your products or services, contests, events or special promotions.

At the same time you’re creating these assets, consider creating a branded hashtag that employees can use when sharing on their personal pages. A dedicated hashtag about your brand helps to categorize your content and create conversations around your brand. You can also use the hashtag to locate employees’ content that you can then share on your company’s official accounts.

Learn more: How To Encourage Employee Advocacy On Social Media

A Day in the Life at Work

Although branded content has its place, it should not be the bulk of what’s shared via employee advocates. In fact, you’ll see that the remaining four categories do not mention corporate-branded content.

On the contrary, it’s the unpolished, unbranded types of content that will earn the greatest engagement on social media. This content showcases the authentic, human side of your business and is more likely to earn the trust and affection of your audience. Moreover, these types of content are more likely to be shared by your employees on their personal pages.

Own a coffee shop? The barista behind the counter will resonate more with your audience than a branded photo of coffee beans. It’s that simple. No matter what type of business you have, you need hyper-local content of your team members and their typical “day in the life” photos at work.

As employees post about your company on their personal pages, they’re doing more than just generating greater engagement for your accounts. They’re also actively contributing to the building of positive sentiment about your brand. The more that prospective customers and future team members see this content, the more they begin to view your company as likeable, trustworthy, and even socially and environmentally responsible under the right circumstances.

Events In and Out of the Office

Along with day-to-day photos, employees can also share photos and videos from special occasions or events both in and out of the office. Remind them to snap photos of birthdays at the office, team building events, and “national day” holidays (see calendar here) like National Hot Chocolate Day.

Again, you have opportunities to build culture as you’re building awareness. Host “bring your dog to work day” if you’re a pet-friendly company, or host a team lunch on the last Friday of the month. When you find ways to infuse fun into your company, your employees will naturally be more inclined to capture these moments on film and post them to social media.

The coolest part about these types of content — both candid moments and organized events — is that employees’ posts have a way of informing a company’s core values and culture. If employees are happy at work and posting about it, it’s a great indicator that you’re doing something right. If they’re not, and they don’t, it’s an opportunity to right the ship and make sure yours is a company that employees are proud to post about.

Answers to FAQ

Somewhere on your website, you might have a list of FAQ about your company. These FAQ can serve as ideas for the types of content your audience wants to see. Have an employee answer these FAQ, and the questions instantly become more interesting and engaging.

Any kind of company has certain FAQ that customers tend to ask. However, answers to FAQ work especially well for companies that have products or services that require explaining or step-by-step instructions.

If you have a furniture store that sells items requiring assembly, you can have employees be the experts and share their how-to instructions. Not only can your employees upload these videos to their own pages, but you can also use them on your corporate accounts.

Make sure you have clear answers to all your FAQ handy for employees so they’re giving “official” instructions. They’ll be more confident filming answers to FAQ if they have the correct tone and verbiage you want used for various situations. At the same time, encourage employees to use their own words and speak authentically to avoid sounding canned.

What Types of Content Should Your Employees Post?

Although each company is unique in the types of content they want employees to share, the common thread is authenticity. As long as your employees speak and write from the heart, and as long as they’re not sharing information you want kept private about your company, they should be successful as employee advocates.

A few final takeaways:

Create social media guidelines about what employees can and cannot post about
Have a social media policy that states when and how employees may use social media at work
Create a culture of advocacy by partnering with your employees and incentivizing them with rewards for promoting your brand
Use Rallio Activate technology to organize and streamline posting and collecting assets from employees that you otherwise wouldn’t have

The little moments at work are often the most meaningful for your employees. They spend a large part of their day working for you, and employee advocacy allows them to feel recognized, valued and heard.

Tags social media marketing

Social

4 Types of Social Media Influencers to Power Up Your Brand

Post author By Rallio
Post date January 22, 2021

The concept behind social media influencers isn’t exactly new, as brands have long used influential figures to promote their products. Look back into the previous century, and you’ll see Coco Chanel as one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people, or even Santa back in the 1930s getting his caffeine fix with a bottle of Coca-Cola in his hand.

As far as modern-day social media influencers, Instagram as well as TikTok have been largely responsible for their rise in popularity. You can’t open these apps without seeing both familiar and not-so-familiar faces promoting brands’ products and services.

Influencer programs are a cost-effective way to spread brand awareness and increase your engagement, reach and followers on social media. In exchange for their promotional posts, these influencers may be given product, gift cards, affiliate commissions, direct compensation or other rewards, depending on how a company sets up its program.

With visual imagery, short videos and Reels, Stories and Live features, today’s social media apps allow multiple ways to help these social media influencers engage with their audiences. Keep in mind, your influencers can be people not affiliated with the company, or they could be employees who act as brand ambassadors. Rallio has specific technology (Rallio Activate) that helps you activate employees to post branded content on their personal pages, as well as build an image database to pull from.

If you’re wondering what type of influencer you need for your brand, check out the quick rundown below to find the right fit for your goals and budget.

Social Media Influencer 1: Nano

Follower count: 1K to 10K

Who they are: Nano influencers tend to have a highly engaged social media following, and they are vocal advocates for the brands and products they’re promoting. Given their smaller following, they have an opportunity to get to know their followers on a more personal level. Their authentic content and recommendations resonate with their small community, who appreciates nano influencers’ genuine tips and transparency.

Who should use them: Small and midsize businesses are a good fit for these social media influencers. Start with your own network of followers and even employees to identify possible nano influencers who would be willing to work with you.

Social Media Influencer 2: Micro

Follower count: 10K to 100K

Who they are: With 10K to 100K followers, micro influencers have a larger network but are still viewed as relatable, authentic and genuine with their audience, who enjoys engaging with and sharing their content. They tend to have a specialized audience base that’s open to hearing marketing messages about the products and services used by these micro influencers.

Who should use them: Micro influencers work well for specific niches and a highly targeted audience. If you’re looking to create special promotions and sponsorships with your influencers, a micro influencer can be a good fit. Their high engagement rates mean more eyeballs on your content and more opportunities to convert casual followers into loyal customers. To find them, you can again look to your own followers who are already fans of yours, as well as search for certain hashtags related to your brand or niche.

Social Media Influencer 3: Macro

Follower count: 100K to 1M

Who they are: Macro influencers have a much larger network, with anywhere from 100K to 1 million followers. They appeal to a broader audience than micro influencers and may be established bloggers, vloggers, podcasters or social media celebrities who have made a name for themselves. They may also be more disconnected from their audience and won’t have the same personal relationships with their community as someone with a smaller following.

Who should use them: You may have a harder time getting your foot in the door with a macro influencer, who likely gets pitched every day from brands asking for representation. If your brand is more well-established and you’re prepared to meet a potential influx of new orders, then a macro influencer could be right for you. In other words, if you successfully land a macro influencer and they agree to promote your brand, you need to be prepared to meet the demand from new customers.

Social Media Influencer 4: Mega

Follower count: 1M and up

Who they are: Like macro influencers, mega influencers also have a much larger network of 1 million followers or more. They’ve worked to establish their name — they’re either big-time celebs that are household names, or celebrities within a certain niche, like the fitness community. Again, they may be more disconnected from their audience than someone with a smaller following.

Who should use them: You’ll need to have a large budget and an established brand with locked-down distribution to work with a mega influencer. If you’re set on going with a mega influencer, and you’re looking to cast a wider net with your audience, a mega influencer can help you get in front of a lot of potential followers. For small brands just starting out, however, smaller may be better.

Which Type of Social Media Influencer Is Right for You?

For the majority of brands we work with at Rallio, we recommend working with influencers and employee advocates who have a smaller, focused following. Although it can be tempting to dive in and try to work with a macro or mega influencer, you might want to “think small” when you’re just getting started. There will be fewer barriers if you contact people who are eager to represent you and will have a greater influence within their networks right out of the gate.

Rallio Activate provides the perfect platform to create an employee advocacy and influencer program for your brand. We also have a new affiliate program with unlimited earning potential for those looking to earn one-time or recurring commissions off referrals. For more information about either of these options, click here to learn about Rallio Activate, and here to learn about our affiliate program.

Tags social media marketing

Directory Listings

Online Business Listings FAQ: What They Are, Why They Matter and How Technology Can Help

Post author By Rallio
Post date January 19, 2021

When it comes to reaching local customers, it’s imperative that your online business listings are up-to-date and consistent across the web. That’s easier than said than done unless you have the right technology helping you manage your online listings.

Rallio’s Business Listings technology makes the task quick and painless, letting you update your listings in just a few clicks. Before we get into that, however, let’s talk about why you need your online business listings to be correct in the first place.

What Are Online Business Listings?

Online business listings, aka directory listings, encompass all the different places where your business information — such as address, website, phone number and business hours — shows up online. That includes search engines, social networks, online directories, as well as certain apps and websites.

When your customers conduct a search through one of these mediums, either for your specific business or businesses like yours based on key search terms, naturally you want your business to show up in the related search results. With correct, consistent online business listings for your business, you’re more likely to appear in those results and reach your desired customer right at the moment they’re searching for you — often from their mobile phones when they’re on the go and ready to pay you a visit.

On the flip side, if your business information is out of date or inconsistent — maybe you have a couple of different addresses online — it makes your business less likely to appear in search results and also makes it harder for people to find you.

Clearly, then, it’s to your advantage to make sure that your business information is correct, everywhere it’s listed online.

Why Does My Local Business Listing Matter for Search?

With more and more people conducting searches from their smartphones, it’s crucial that your business is findable in search results. Imagine if you’re on the way home from work and have a craving for tacos. The quickest way to satisfy that craving is by typing a search into your browser or using voice search to locate the best tacos nearby.

The same is true whether you sell tacos, or luxury bedding, or wide-width shoes, or pancakes that look like celebrities, or injectable vitamins. People want to find what they want, when they want it, right then and there. According to a Hitwise “Consumer Insights Report,” “Mobile devices now account for a majority — or near majority — of online searches for almost every major industry.” The Food & Beverage industry alone accounts for 72% of searches conducted from a mobile device. The Health sector is a close second at 68%.

This means that no matter what your industry, your business needs to be thrown in the mix of search results for you to be considered by mobile searchers. Otherwise, it’s like you don’t even exist.

Particularly during the pandemic, when business hours may have been affected, it’s important to have a way of quickly communicating any changes. You don’t want a customer to drive all the way to your store if you’re closed, leave angrily, and maybe even leave a negative online review about you without even setting foot in your doors.

That brings us to another point. Your local SEO depends on much more than just your search rankings in Google. Online reviews, online business listings across the web, GPS services, social networks and more all play into your local SEO success.

In other words, you can’t focus solely on Google and Google My Business — which, while important, are just one aspect of your overall directory listings and local search functions.

Side note: As we discussed back in March 2020 when the pandemic first impacted businesses, GMB isn’t immune to technical difficulties. At that time, Google had announced that some of its GMB features had been suspended or limited, including new reviews, replying to reviews and Q&As. If 2020 taught us anything, it’s that you can’t rely on any one particular way of doing things if you want to survive in business. It’s so important to be able to pivot — and, in this case, to continue utilizing other review platforms.

What’s the Answer?

To have the greatest impact in searches across the web and turn local searches into real business, you need all of the following to be true:

You’re listed in as many online directories as possible.
You’ve removed any incorrect information about your business online.
You’ve also added or updated any information about you to make sure it’s the most accurate, up-to-date information available. If your business is operating under limited hours over a holiday weekend, for example, customers can easily find that out through local search.

To make the statements above true about your business, you can’t rely on manual methods of refreshing the information. Oftentimes, business information is added or updated without you even being aware of it — for instance, directory listings may be created from publicly available sources such as tax forms or government records.

To try and manually keep up with each and every instance of a change to your business’s online directory listings would be — well, exhausting, time-consuming and downright undoable as a busy entrepreneur. Plus, there’s a risk of making errors or omitting key details if you manually input the information. As mentioned earlier, having inconsistent information can be just as bad as having no information at all.

Makes Sense. Now What?

There’s a better way to manage your online business listings, and it doesn’t involve wearing down your fingertips as you try to type in your information on every directory listing site or app.

Save your digits and use Rallio’s Business Listings tool to create, correct and optimize your listings across all the different websites, apps, services and social media platforms. With our tool, you can easily:

Manage your business listings across global business locations from your desktop or our mobile app, in just a few clicks — with access to over 30 listing sites
Promote your brand across social media, search engines and voice search
Update your logos and imagery for a consistent brand image
Measure and optimize the channels that have the greatest impact on your customer acquisition efforts

With a partner like Rallio and our technology in your pocket, it’s much easier to find and retain your local customer base. Request a free, no-obligation demo to learn more about how we can help you make sure your online business listings are working hard — so you can focus on working hard for your business.

Tags online business listings

Social

3 Surefire Ways to Get Your Social Media Content Ignored

Post author By Rallio
Post date January 15, 2021

Typically here at Rallio, our blog content focuses on practical tips and strategies you can use to amplify your social media presence. Every so often, we get the urge to knock down the guardrails of traditional content and throw a little parody post your way. Beneath the layers of sarcasm, you’ll find nuggets of truth that you can apply to your social media content strategy.

Today, we’re dishing out a gourmet platter of 3 surefire ways to get your social media content ignored. That’s right. If you want people to scroll past your content or not see it altogether, then the tips below are exactly what you need.

Call it keeping you on your toes. Call it word salad. Call it what you will, but just make sure you have a strong beverage of choice in your hand before you start reading. It’ll go nicely with today’s main course.

By the way, we don’t use recipes, but we do use metaphors. Heavily. Buckle up, buttercup.

1. Post Yawn-Worthy Content

When you first gain a follower, that follower might initially see your content in their newsfeed. Want to get rid of them? Just make sure you’re posting yawn-worthy content.

What do we mean by “yawn-worthy,” you ask? It’s pretty self-explanatory — it inspires nothing more than a big yawn upon viewing by an unsuspecting viewer. It might include a typical, generic stock photo, an ill-placed meme, or some type of sales post that’s overly promotional.

All those other pages that are posting local content showing the authentic people behind the business? Sure, they might be hanging on to their followers — even gaining new ones if they keep at it. But while they’re busy posting product spotlights, team member pictures, how-tos, videos and customer testimonials, you can sit back, relax, and shoo away any existing and new followers.

Phew, that’s a relief!

2. Ignore People

There’s another easy way to get your social media content ignored. Simply ignore your followers, and they’ll forget all about you!

If you happen to ignore tip #1 and decide to post interesting, relevant content, there’s a good chance people are going to engage with it. You know the book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie? “If you give a mouse a cookie, he’s going to ask for a glass of milk. When you give him the milk, he’ll probably ask for a straw. …”

The little boy keeps giving that mouse what he wants, and he keeps asking for more, and isn’t the boy tired of catering to that mouse already?

Likewise, if you keep giving your followers what they want in terms of content, they’re going to be vocal about letting you know they want more of it. Likes, comments, shares, direct messages, online reviews — expect it all.

But don’t worry! As with posting yawn-worthy content, you can simply ignore your followers if they post a comment, question or review. The more you ignore them, the more they’ll go away!

3. Lash Out

Now if you decide to ignore tip #2 above — i.e., you respond to people who submit a comment, question or review — there’s another easy way to make sure your content gets ignored: Lash out at anyone who disagrees with you!

This tip is especially useful if someone submits a negative online review. When you respond, make sure you argue publicly with the person. That way, the argument will be out there for all the world to see! (Honestly, why wouldn’t you want to be perceived as an unreasonable, argumentative business owner?)

There’s also the side benefit of scaring away new followers once they see not only a negative review, but also a negative response. Your existing followers might not be too keen on sticking around either! Great news for your “me time” — yet again, you’ll have fewer followers (and customers) to manage!

One Last Anti-Tip for Anyone Who Ignores the Social Media Content Tips Above

OK, you got us. We don’t actually recommend any of the tips above for anyone who actually wants to grow their business on social media.

The truth is, posting great content and keeping your followers takes work, but it’s work that’s worthwhile. With engaging social media content, thoughtful response management, and consistent effort, you can build a following and continue growing your business with the help of social media.

Actually, here at Rallio, we’re in the business of helping our clients create the kind of content that doesn’t get ignored. Their social media content looks like this:

It’s hyper-local, showing the real, authentic side of a business owner, their team and their customers.
It includes a wide variety of posts about team members, product spotlights and how-tos, blog posts, and videos featuring their people and customers.
It’s posted with some frequency, at least three to four times a week.
It sprinkles in promotions and boosted content.

Rallio has perfected the process of creating engaging content, responding to online reviews and making sure our clients’ pages are performing optimally. If you’re ready to make sure your content gets the reactions and results you want, get in touch with us today.

Tags social media content, social media marketing

Uncategorized

4 Major Instagram Trends to Watch in 2021

Post author By Rallio
Post date January 8, 2021

We’re about a week into 2021, and we’re acutely aware of how quickly time is passing. For franchises and SMBs that are still wondering how to approach their social media marketing this year, it’s important to be aware of the top Instagram trends.

With expanded capabilities on the platform, you have an opportunity to fine-tune your marketing strategy and make the most of your social media presence in 2021. With Rallio as your SaaS provider, you can automate agency-like services and employee advocacy across your pages, improve your reach and take the guesswork out of social media ROI.

Read through these Instagram trends with a fine-toothed comb, and use our action items to start applying them to your own brand. It doesn’t take much extra effort — meaning you can simply work smarter, not necessarily harder, to get the results you desire.

Trend #1: Seek, and Ye Shall Find

Recent changes on Instagram have greatly expanded the platform’s search capabilities. Users can now search keywords in the search bar, not just hashtags, and find relevant profiles, posts, videos and more.

This is one of the major Instagram trends to get on board with as you’re creating posts and Reels, updating your bio and expanding organic exposure.

Action items:

Include keywords in your captions to help Instagram identify what you’re discussing in your post.
Consistently post content that’s relevant to your niche to help your account show up in search within your category. If someone searches for “home cleaners” and you provide these services, you want to make sure your content focus on house cleaning doesn’t stray too far into unrelated categories.
Update your bio with relevant keywords. “Plum Deluxe Loose Leaf Tea” (@plumdeluxe) is a lot more descriptive than just “Plum Deluxe.”

Trend #2: Reels, Reels, Baby

Open up your Instagram app and click over to the Reels tab at the bottom, and you’ll instantly see a variety of short-form video content. Reels, Instagram’s answer to TikTok, delivers 15- to 30-second videos designed to grab attention quickly and entertain the audience.

Given that Reels are front and center in the app (literally positioned smack-dab in the middle at the bottom, between the home, search and shopping pages), marketers need to pay attention to this Instagram trend going forward.

Just as engagement on Stories previously overtook feed-post engagement, Reels are now earning more views than both Stories and feed posts. Side note: This shift toward Reels can be to your benefit, given that they can live on your profile page indefinitely — as opposed to Stories, which disappear after 24 hours.

Action items:

Watch several Reels from different accounts to get an idea of the kind of content that’s being created.
Play around with creating Reels of your own. Keep them to 15 seconds; this is the maximum amount of time a Reel will play before a user has to tap “more” to see the rest of your content. Read: Keep it short and sweet.
Add text overlays in addition to music and voice sounds. Not everyone will have their sound turned on, and others may need closed captions. In addition, you can make the text a part of the Reel in fun ways — like timing the text to appear with the beat of a song, or to reveal your message piece by piece for a more dramatic effect.
Remember to create a value-add caption that encourages users to take an action, such as saving or sharing the Reel. Every action helps your content perform better with Instagram’s algorithm.

Trend #3: Insta-Shopping Is Eyeball Cardio

The popularity of online shopping and services is helping not just online retailers, but also brick-and-mortars impacted by the pandemic. With a reduction of foot traffic and in-store shopping, and with more eyeballs on social media than ever before, Instagram can help you pivot your business model and make more online sales.

The Shopping tab on Instagram lets users browse shops, view editors’ picks and buy directly on Instagram. Posts can be linked to products for in-app purchasing. Instagram Live enables live formats for classes, product reveals and announcements.

The more you can take your real-world products and services and translate them into online purchases, the better you’ll be prepared for this year of continuing contactless shopping. There’s a huge opportunity to capture sales right in the app without having to direct users over to your website — taking them from “casual scroller” to “customer” with fewer barriers.

Action items:

Make sure your account is set up for Instagram Shopping. Tap on the “Add Shop” tab from your profile page to get started.
Link products to your shop directly from your posts, Reels and Stories.

Trend #4: All Omnichannel, All the Time

The pandemic has made the need for an omnichannel approach more important than ever — whereby you’re delivering a consistent user experience across mobile, web and in-store shopping. Before the pandemic, omnichannel strategies seemed to be employed more as a “nice to have” rather than a necessity. Retail Dive reports Euromonitor’s 2019 Voice of the Retail Industry Survey findings:

Just 30% of retailers indicated that they allowed shoppers to reserve an item online and pick it up in-store
Fewer than 15% offered any option for delivery in two hours or less
Just 7% indicated they offered an option to get customer support through video chat

Oh, how times have changed. Real-world experiences have been replaced or augmented by digital offerings. Meanwhile, social media apps like Instagram have become an important part of marketers’ omnichannel approach. The same July 2020 survey indicates a new definition of omnichannel has emerged, and it’s no longer simply a neat marketing concept occasionally discussed at the marketing roundtable.

Retail Dive writes: “Even as retailers were looking to optimize their store- and web-based touchpoints to serve the new needs of shoppers as COVID-19 emerged, many were increasingly turning to third parties to drive digital sales as well. Fifty-six percent of respondents indicated in July that they thought one of the most likely effects of COVID-19 on their business was looking to sell through additional digital channels such as marketplaces or social media sites.”

Action items:

By today’s definition of omnichannel, social media sites like Instagram need to be included as one of your customer touchpoints. You’ll have more ability to scale than you would if you relied on your website alone.
Assume that your customers want seamless shopping experiences that limit or eliminate in-person contact. That trend will hold even when the pandemic is no longer an immediate concern.

These Instagram Trends Are Worth Watching

Although trends are just that, trends, the Instagram trends we’ve presented here are going to continue impacting business for the foreseeable future. Even in a post-pandemic world, the conveniences and entertainment value of Instagram will be important to your audience.

To make the most of these Instagram trends, make sure you have the right technology supporting your efforts. Rallio’s SaaS can help you automate your social media presence and optimize your pages in 2021 and beyond.

Social

5 Big Reasons You Need an Employee Advocacy Program

Post author By Rallio
Post date January 6, 2021

If you haven’t set up an employee advocacy program for your company yet, now is a great time to get things rolling as we begin a new year. With employee advocacy, you enable employees to publish branded content to their social media pages.

With a formalized employee advocacy program and the right technology to streamline things, you can expose your brand to more people. By some estimates, you’ll be extending your brand’s reach by 500%.

We’ve written on employee advocacy in the past, and we recommend reading some of those articles (linked below) if you’re looking to establish an employee advocacy program. If you’re in the camp that needs further proof that employee advocacy programs work, then this blog is the one for you.

The list of reasons you need an employee advocacy program is long. To make things easier, we’ve narrowed it down to five big reasons to get on board with advocacy and make it a part of your social media strategy.

1. People Will Trust You More

As we write in this article, third-party endorsements impact buying behavior. Convince & Convert says 83% of Americans are more likely to purchase a product or service that’s recommended by a friend or family member.

It’s not just friends and family who enable trust-building, either. Gartner adds that a lead generated through employee advocacy or social selling is seven times more likely to close than those originating from other lead-gen tactics.

Bottom line is that your followers and their friends and family will trust your brand more if you’re not the one advocating for yourself. If they trust you, they’ll follow you. If they follow you, you’ll have more opportunities to engage with them. Ultimately, you’ll have a greater chance of earning their business.

2. You’ll Get More Engagement

Along with trust comes engagement. Employee advocacy posts will generate more organic reach and expand your network faster than you posting alone. Social Media Today reports that content shared by employees receives eight times the engagement of content shared on brand channels.

Consider the difference between a friend of yours sharing something about their company, versus a company sharing something about itself. You’re probably going to be more interested in what your friend has to say, right? That’s the power of employee advocacy. Not only are you able to crowdsource your social media, alleviating some of the burden of posting, but you also get greater exposure. Win-win.

Additionally, with recent industry shifts toward consumer privacy, employee advocacy will become even more important. Currently, advertisers are scrambling to keep up with Apple’s latest changes to the mobile ad industry — which essentially makes it easier for consumers to opt out of having their data tracked for advertising purposes. With their ability to target consumers curtailed, brands will need to rely more heavily on employee advocacy to get their messages heard.

Learn more: Apple’s seismic change to the mobile ad industry is drawing near, and it’s rocking the ecosystem

3. You’ll Retain Employees

Employees who are part of an employee advocacy program are more likely to be highly engaged themselves. According to Altimeter research, employees of companies that encourage employee engagement on social media are:

27% more likely to feel optimistic about their companies’ future
20% more likely to feel inspired
20% more likely to stay at their companies
15% more likely to connect to co-workers beyond their core teams

It makes sense why employees would feel more engaged if they’re included in the company’s social strategy. It makes them feel valued — like they’re more than just a number. When you include rewards, such as gift cards and other incentives, as part of your employee advocacy program, they’ll feel even more appreciated.

4. You Can Control the Narrative

Your employees are already using social media. Weber Shandwick reports that 98% of employees use at least one social media network for personal use, and of those, half of them are already posting about their company.

With an employee advocacy program, you can syndicate brand-approved content to your employees. And with a technology partner like Rallio, you can make it easy for them to access and share this content via our mobile app. You can also track employee posts on a leaderboard to gameify the process.

Formalizing an employee advocacy program is a natural next step for what’s already taking place. Your employees are posting content about you on their own channels, so why not be involved in deciding what gets shared about your company?

5. You’ll Build a Positive Online Reputation

As you build brand recognition with an employee advocacy program, along with subsequent engagement and reach, you’ll also bolster your online reputation. Followers who become customers will begin interacting with you more as a brand, through online reviews, direct messages, and comments and reactions.

With those engagements, you have an opportunity to engage back by responding to your followers and handling any customer service issues. The more you show you are listening to what your followers and customers have to say, the greater your online reputation will be.

Launch Your Employee Advocacy Program in 2021

To build that understanding, we suggest establishing or updating your company’s social media policy to include guidelines and best practices on social media posting. You can also spell out what types of rewards and incentives you plan to offer.

With your social media policy in place, you can then use Rallio’s Activate platform to bring everyone together in one central dashboard. Request a demo to learn more.

Tags employee advocacy

Inspiration

4 Good Things That Happened in 2020

Post author By Rallio
Post date December 29, 2020

There isn’t any modern year in history that’s impacted the world as monumentally as 2020. While it’s easy to get caught up in the difficulties, grief and sadness of the past year, there are also reasons to stay positive. There are many good things that happened in 2020. You just have to look for them.

This isn’t to say you should ignore what’s happening in the world around you. From a business perspective, there’s been a continual need to pivot in the face of closures, restrictions and other challenges.

As you’ve no doubt discovered, the plans you had both professionally and personally had to change in ways large and small. You don’t need us to tell you that. What you might need instead is a dose of good things that happened in 2020.

Turning your attention to these positives has a way of tricking your brain into looking for what’s going right — instead of what’s wrong. Are you in? Then happy reading.

We Learned to Appreciate the Little Things

Before the pandemic, many of us moved at a breakneck pace each and every day. Taking time to smell the roses was a luxury we couldn’t afford. The hustle was more important than the need to slow down, pause and be still.

Forced to be home more, many of us discovered that being still isn’t simply a luxury; it’s a necessity. In the moments of pause, we experienced life.

We waved hello to a neighbor from the front porch. We smelled banana bread fresh out of the oven. We discovered we can still exercise at home. Or we just got back an extra hour in the day to take a walk or read a book.

The good things that happened in 2020 revealed themselves as we peeled ourselves away from endless “busyness.”

We Rediscovered Family Time

Whether we were together at home with family or talking to them over Zoom or FaceTime, we got closer with the ones we love. We turned to each other to try and make sense of this uncertain time.

We went to drive-in movies and concerts together. (By the way, drive-in movies made a comeback — as did puzzles and board games.) We cooked, played and worked out together. We talked to relatives on Zoom we hadn’t talked to in years.

Parents who normally would be traveling frequently found themselves at home much more often. Kids who normally would be overbooked with schoolwork, socializing, sports and extracurricular activities found themselves getting to slow down, too.

Obviously we want to be able to find a healthy balance between time inside and outside the home. Kids need to be able to play and socialize at school. Travelers need to be able to vacation again or attend to business matters across the country. We all want some sense of normalcy to return, even as much as we want to hang on to the good things that happened in 2020.

But the pandemic has allowed us to appreciate the people who have been there all along in new ways — right in our own homes. And that’s a shift worth hanging onto.

We Saw People Pull Together

While there’s no shortage of bad-news stories in the media, there are also plenty of good-news reports to share. The phrase “we’re all in this together” might feel overused at this point. Yet it still rings true.

Whether it was seamstresses or companies pooling resources to make masks, or distilleries shifting to production of hand sanitizer, both individuals and companies found ways to support their communities.

There’s also been a greater connection with the community, and nature, itself. As people spent more time at home, they also spent more time walking, hiking, biking and generally increasing their outdoor activity.

United by a pandemic and the accompanying isolation that came with it, people discovered there could be joy in saying hello to a stranger on the street.

There could be satisfaction in being kind, in doing the right thing, even without being asked. Even when no one is watching. Even when it’s the harder thing to do.

Need more proof? See John Krasinski’s Some Good News.

We Confirmed That Not All Heroes Wear Capes

The heroes of the past year have come in many different forms, but some of them stand out as the ones who have truly saved us. Among the good things that happened in 2020, let’s never forget:

The frontline workers who have risked their lives to care for the ill
The teachers who have taught students over Zoom, and the parents homeschooling their kids
The grocery clerks who have worked overtime, dealt with customer service issues, and provided clean, safe spaces to buy our essentials
The delivery drivers who have brought packages and meals to our doorsteps
The food-service workers who have fulfilled our cravings for pizza, coffee and a really great margarita
The fitness professionals who gave us free home workouts or moved their operations outdoors to keep us moving
The scientists working as quickly as possible to find a treatment and cure
The musicians, artists, celebrities and other creatives who have kept us entertained
The pets, who have provided comfort, companionship and humor during dark times (it’s no wonder adoptions have skyrocketed in 2020)

Stay Focused on the Good Things That Happened in 2020

Focusing on the good things that happened in 2020 is not intended to minimize anyone’s pain, loss, heartbreak or economic devastation. The harsh realities of 2020 can feel much more prominent for those people feeling sad, frustrated or frightened for the future.

Rather, turning attention to these good things is meant to help us find gratitude even in face of hardship. We can remember the lessons of 2020 and grow from the challenges, while also staying thankful for the silver linings that have emerged.

We hope that 2021 proves to be a better year overall for everyone. We hope that the good things that happened in 2020 will pale in comparison to the amazing things that are coming.

In the meantime, let’s agree to keep looking for the good. After all, if you consider the alternative, it’s a no-brainer.

Tags 2020

Uncategorized

Top 3 Tips to Battle Burnout as a Social Media Manager

Post author By Rallio
Post date December 22, 2020

As we trudge through the final days of 2020, many people are ready for this year to end and welcome in 2021. If you’re a social media manager (by name or by definition), the burnout can be real.

However, when the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve, that doesn’t mean the trials of 2020 will magically disappear.

Rather than think of leaving 2020 in the dust, try implementing the tips below for battling the burnout. These tips are not meant to downplay the substantial challenges we’ve experienced over the past year. Instead, they’re intended to prepare you to enter the new year strong as a social media manager, executive or business owner.

Tip #1: Take Time to Recharge

The always-on nature of our modern-day lives means that social media is perpetually only a tap away. If you’re a social media manager, that means your job never really ends.

You might publish a funny Instagram Story or Facebook post, but the work isn’t done upon publication. You have to interact with your followers, respond to their comments and questions, as well as reply to any negative feedback or reviews.

You also have to boost your content, monitor your analytics, pivot if you’re not getting the results you want, and continually think of creative ways to engage your audience.

That last bit — the creative part — can be one of the most challenging aspects of a social media manager’s job. Not only must you be a critical thinker, highly organized and collaborative across teams, but you also must find ways to keep the creative juices flowing.

To ensure you’re able to keep posting the best content, it’s important to step away from your social media pages and take time to recharge. Granted, the pandemic has made in-person contact more difficult or nonexistent for some. However, it’s imperative that you build time in your day for real-life experiences.

These moments of hitting your reset button don’t have to be elaborate. It might mean taking a walk, meeting up with a friend for a socially distanced coffee, or calling a friend or family member to check in. Maybe it means picking up a book or engaging in a hobby at the end of the day — instead of endlessly scrolling.

This type of mindful use of social media — choosing when and how you’ll engage — may contribute to positive health outcomes. In one study from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, researchers found that certain types of routine social media use are positively associated with social well-being, good mental health and self-rated health.

In contrast, social media use becomes problematic when it includes checking apps excessively due to fear of missing out or becoming disconnected from friends.

As Harvard puts it, “these findings suggest that as long as we are mindful users, routine use may not in itself be a problem. Indeed, it could be beneficial.”

We can also infer from these findings that for a social media manager, you have twofold responsibilities:

Stay on top of your social media
Carve out time in your day to disconnect

This brings us to our next tip: Get some help.

Tip #2: Build a Team

Whether you’re a social media manager working for someone else, or a small-business owner trying to manage social media on your own, one thing becomes crystal clear the longer you work on your social media: You need a team.

It doesn’t have to be a big team, but you need more than just yourself if you want to cover the two responsibilities mentioned above. You can’t do everything yourself and expect to be able to take time away.

As we discuss in The 5 Top Players You Need on Your Social Media Team:

“At the very least, assume you’ll need one or two people handling your social media posting, review responses, boosting and inbox replies.

Remember, too, that you can always outsource this function, and many business owners do so in an effort in order to dedicate their resources elsewhere.”

When you outsource, it doesn’t mean you’re stepping entirely away from your social media. Rather, you can partner with someone like Rallio to provide much-needed help, support and expertise. You’ll also be able to grow much faster on social media and gain new customers if you have more people working on your behalf.

Tip #3: Crowdsource Your Content

In line with tip #2 above, you as a social media manager can turn to employees and influencers. Our article 19 Jaw-Dropping Social Media Stats + Action Items for Marketers offers some insights on why the use of employees and influencers to promote brands continues to be on the rise:

“Weber Shandwick reports these jaw-dropping social media stats: 98% of employees use at least one social media network for personal use, and of those, half of them are already posting about their company.

These third-party endorsements, so to speak, impact buying behavior. Convince & Convert notes that 83% of Americans are more likely to purchase a product or service that’s recommended by a friend or family member.

Forbes further reports that brand messages shared by employees on social media reach 561 more people than those shared on a brand’s social media channels. They also earn eight times more engagement.

Need some dollar figures to wrap your head around? One November 2020 study in Public Relations Review found a correlation between employee advocacy and sales. “When people are talking about your organization, it helps elevate brand recognition, especially for companies that are in the sales realm and have growing goals,” states one study participant.

Gartner adds that a lead generated through employee advocacy or social selling is seven times more likely to close than those originating from other lead-gen tactics.

Bottom line: The evidence speaks volumes, and the stats above are just a fraction of the research showing the effectiveness of employee advocacy.”

To integrate employee advocacy, create a formal program that encourages employees to post brand-approved assets about your business. With Rallio’s technology, you can gamify the process with leaderboards and rewards for your top posters.

Not only does employee advocacy help you as a social media manager, but it also builds greater engagement and morale among employees.

The End Goal: Minimize Social Media Manager Burnout While Getting Results

Your social media manager role can be exciting, rewarding and fulfilling if you take the proper steps to minimize burnout. The three tips above can set you up for a prosperous year — and leave you with enough energy to enjoy a cute dog TikTok video or two.

Final takeaways for a social media manager:

Find a balance between work and play. Set boundaries for yourself so you’re not “always on” and you have the ability to recharge.
Maximize your most productive hours (it’s different for everyone). Fast Company recommends choosing high-protein foods that support brain function and incorporating aerobic exercise to boost creative potential.
Take a digital detox at specific times, too. Maybe you shut off your phone at night or completely unplug for lunch. Again, lean on your team to ensure you’re able to step away.
Make sure you’re engaging in activities that don’t include social media. Yes, you’re a social media manager, but perhaps you’re also a bicyclist, a painter, a baker, a gardener, a musician or a novelist.

At Rallio, our goal is to help brands — and you as a social media manager — avoid burnout while achieving incredible results. With our powerful combination of technology and a team by your side, you can’t help but be massively successful.