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Social

3 Steps to Knock Your Product Launch Out of the Park on Social Media

It’s the moment you’ve been waiting for — you’re finally ready to launch your product. Whether you have a brand-new startup or a seasoned business, the success of your product launch depends largely on how you market it. 

Social media plays a huge role in whether your product launch will be a major success — or a total flop. Among the many mediums available to enable consumers to discover new brands, social media gives your brand exposure to people who otherwise never would have heard of you — all while they’re casually scrolling through their feeds.

It’s not unlike TV advertising in that people who might be simply watching their favorite show suddenly get interrupted by an ad that catches their attention. Self-cleaning toilets? Brow growth serum? Personalized vitamins? Throw out an ad to the right audience at the right time, and suddenly people start to think that’s a product they need in their lives now. 

According to Global Web Index: “TV ads lead the field when it comes to brand discovery, cited by 36% of our respondents as the main way they find out about new products and services. But TV is even more important than this figure implies because, unlike search engines, it doesn’t rely on any existing need or interest in the product or its category.”

Now, consider the ways that social media mimics TV ads: “To some extent, brand discovery on social channels resembles the linear, semi-random nature of TV ads, which are interwoven throughout the content,” notes GWI. “By using social media and online display advertising, direct-to-consumer brands are reproducing many of the top strengths TV has enjoyed.”

Indeed, the nature of brand discovery has changed over the years. The numbers of people finding brands through recommendations or comments on social media, along with updates on brands’ social media pages, has been slowly climbing, says GWI. Take a look at the numbers:

brand discovery

Cost-effective, scalable, and readily able to connect directly with consumers, social media has the distinct advantage of immediacy over other mediums. See an ad for a product that catches your interest, and you can tap on it, maybe even purchase it on the spot from your phone. 

TV is starting to integrate this kind of interactivity, too — with QR codes and interactive experiences making their way onto people’s TV screens. However, there simply isn’t another medium like social media that lets you see what your friends are liking, sharing, commenting on, and talking about in their posts and stories. Nor is there any other medium that lets you talk directly to followers and prospects via comments, direct messages and online reviews.

Get Your Product Launch Right

As you can see, social media needs to be an integral part of your product launch plans. Ignore social media, and you’re ignoring an opportunity to make your brand a household name with your target audience. And if you’re too hasty or fail to think through your product launch strategy, you risk having your message get lost in the crowd.

With our steps below, you’ll ensure your product launch is successful and propels you into growth. 

Step 1: Create a content calendar that maps out your product launch timeline.

With all the moving parts that go along with a great social media marketing strategy, it’s essential that you organize everything in one central calendar. This way, you can stay on track as you march toward your launch date and make sure your entire team knows what content is needed and what kind of deadlines you have. Some of the things that should go on your content calendar include:

  • Product photos and explainer videos
  • Product descriptions for your website
  • Social media captions for various platforms
  • Email campaigns announcing your product launch
  • Ad copy with calls to action
  • Blog posts about your product
  • Pay-per-click advertising
  • In-store or online events

Assuming you aren’t going to handle all of the above yourself, make sure you have a team prepared to tackle these tasks. If you can’t or don’t want to hire a team, be willing to outsource the work. Rallio also gives you the technology needed to automate and organize your social media marketing in one central dashboard.

Step 2: Create a buzz.

Leading up to your launch, your social media should get people excited about your new product. Phrases like “coming soon” and “stay tuned” should be a regular part of your social media vernacular. 

At the same time, maintain a sense of mystery. Don’t give away all the details, but rather hint at what you have in store. Countdown posts, product previews, stories, Reels, giveaways and contests are great ways to give a glimpse of what’s to come.

Contests and giveaways (with clearly spelled out terms and conditions) can be particularly effective at building engagement. Ask your followers to like, comment and tag friends to be entered to win your product, and you’ll quickly extend your reach to new followers. Just don’t forget to set a deadline to enter and pick a winner!

Step 3: Run social ads.

First, some background on the current state of social media advertising. Apple is rolling out privacy changes in iOS 14 requiring users to opt in to ad tracking across different apps and websites. Google is weighing a similar option for Android devices.

In response, Facebook has now announced plans to prompt users to opt in to ad tracking in order to have more relevant ads served up to them and “to help people make a more informed decision.” 

Apple says it wants to provide privacy; Facebook thinks it can provide both privacy and personalized ads. If you look at the growth of Facebook ad revenue over the past few years, you can see that Facebook has a vested interest in maintaining its advertiser base:

Facebook ad revenue

Rather than panic about the changes, it’s important to take control as an advertiser. Here are a few things you can do to optimize your campaigns without relying entirely on the Facebook tracking pixel:

  • Run web-visit and lead-ad campaigns. Use your website’s internal tools to track whether a conversion occurred as a result of your Facebook ads.
  • Work in reverse, too. Capture leads on your website by requiring users to provide their email address in order to move through the sales funnel. You can then upload that information into Facebook to create a custom audience for your ads and remarketing purposes.
  • Explore advertising possibilities on other platforms like LinkedIn, Google and Bing.
  • Build relationships with your followers so they begin seeking out your content. Be hyper-responsive to their comments, direct messages and online reviews. The more you engage with them, the more they’ll engage with you.
  • Use employee advocacy to get your employees involved in sharing your content. When they share content on their personal pages, it’s more likely to be seen and engaged with than content from a business page. Our Rallio Activate employee advocacy platform is the exact solution you need to address any seismic changes to Facebook advertising. See it in action here with our client Pet Supplies Plus. 

Get Excited About Your Product Launch

There’s a lot of work that goes into getting a new product to market. With the help of social media and the right technology tools from Rallio, you can make sure you hit the launch out of the park. 

Before, during and after your product launch, keep track of your progress toward the KPIs you’ve set. Make any necessary adjustments to ensure you’re building excitement, growing your following and meeting your sales goals.

Once the product launch is complete, don’t forget about all the hard work you put in. Keep in touch with your followers so you continue building a relationship with them. Over time, their loyalty will contribute to the success of future product launches.

Categories
Branding

Branding Your Business Is Easy Once You Handle These 4 Potential Pitfalls

This post is an updated repost of a previously published article.

As a franchisor, you put a lot of time and resources into branding your business. Logo development, brand guidelines, marketing materials and brand visuals are just a few of the ways you create an initial blueprint for your brand.

When franchisees join your organization, they gain access to those branded resources. They’re given permission to use your logo, your systems and your marketing materials. So when franchisees post on social media, naturally you want your brand image to stay consistent.

At the corporate level, your brand looks solid — and you may think the work of branding your business is done. But what happens at the local level when franchisees start posting on social media? Here are some possible scenarios:

  • They change your messaging, interpreting it in a way that doesn’t match your goals
  • They use your logo incorrectly or alter it
  • They post information that conflicts with your corporate page
  • They post randomly and inconsistently
  • They post imagery that isn’t in line with your brand guidelines
  • They fail to respond to customers’ comments, questions and online reviews
  • Their directly listings are inconsistent or missing information

The list goes on.

If you’re like many of the clients with whom we work at Rallio, giving the social-media car keys to franchisees is risky business at the local level. The branding and messaging you worked so hard to develop can easily become diluted, out of brand and unrecognizable from its original form.

So why does this brand disaster happen? Let’s look at three of the top reasons.

Read more: Brand Voice: What Is It and Why Does It Matter?

Branding voice for branding your business

Reason #1: They have no social media guidelines.

Do your franchisees have a “Wild West” mentality that causes them to think they can do whatever they want on social media? If so, then perhaps you haven’t clearly stated what they can and cannot do. Branding your business on social media begins with guidelines that define how franchisees should approach social media, as well as what the approval process is for their content.

What to do about it: You might already have guidelines in place for print and web marketing and advertising. Build on those guidelines by telling franchisees the parameters for social media. Do you want to be able to review their content before it gets posted? Or are you OK with supplying corporate content and letting them post at the local level without your approval? Spell it out so there’s no confusion.

The clearer you are with your social media guidelines, the less likely it is that franchisees will go rogue. (And rogue franchisees can not only destroy your brand, but your reputation as well.)

Reason #2: You haven’t prioritized social media yourself.

If you don’t see social media as important to your brand, then your franchisees won’t, either. At best, they’ll ignore the social platforms and potentially miss out on opportunities. At worst, they’ll ruin your brand and reputation, as mentioned above.

What to do about it: Whether you like or dislike social media, there’s no denying its existence. And once you make it a priority at the top level, you take back control of how your brand appears in the public eye.

You help your brand overall while also helping franchisees to post in the smartest, most efficient way possible. Remember, the goal is to have one brand and multiple locations … not multiple brands and multiple locations! Embrace this mentality, and everyone will have an easier time of branding your business.

Read more: Your Guide to 2021 Marketing Based on Current Consumer Trends

Guide to 2021 marketing

Reason #3: They lack technology.

Branding your business and managing social media can be time-consuming without the proper technologies in place. Franchisees often don’t have the time required to respond to reviews and engagements, post frequently and continue coming up with content ideas.

What to do about it: While we’re biased about our technology platform here at Rallio, it’s only because we see it working so well for hundreds of different franchisors and franchisees who use it. We recommend implementing our technology systemwide to help everyone stay organized.

With Rallio, you can set permissions for franchisees, while also giving them some control over their local social media. You can upload and store media assets, schedule posts, update your directory listings in a few clicks, view analytics, and run ad campaigns. Corporate can syndicate branded assets to franchisees.

Once you start using it, you’ll wonder how you ever got by without it. Branding your business will become much easier once you have the tools to manage your social media from the top down.

Nearly 50% of the world’s population uses social media, amounting to over 3 billion users worldwide. —Statista

Reason #4: They lack resources.

Even with the right technology, many franchisees don’t have the resources needed to post local content. They might have trouble coming up with ideas of what to post, or they simply don’t have the time.

What to do about it: Again, we’re biased, but the Rallio Local program has helped our clients who find themselves lacking the resources needed to post local content. Putting a great caption to a local photo, boosting content, interacting with followers, and assisting with online recruiting or other social media needs is the job of our Rallio Local division.

Some of our franchisor clients choose to fully cover this cost for their franchisees. Others leave it up to individual locations whether they want to join. Whatever the case may be, making these resources available to franchisees takes the burden off them of finding a social media manager. They can outsource this function without hiring someone full-time.

Branding Your Business Is Easier With Rallio

Our platform lets multi-unit businesses create a unified social media presence while still enabling individual owners to customize content to reach local customers. Post across thousands of locations, manage imagery, control messaging, monitor keywords, view analytics and generate new business — all from one convenient dashboard. Interested in a demo? Drop us a line here.

Categories
Branding

Brand Voice: What Is It and Why Does It Matter?

In the cluttered world of social media, distinguishing yourself from the competition is more important than ever. Brands are vying for attention, and your brand voice can help you stand out from the crowd.

Your brand voice complements its visuals, and vice versa. While your logo, images, designs and other visual elements establish how you look, your brand voice uses specific words to convey your personality. Together, your brand voice and visual appearance work to create a brand identity. 

Why does brand voice matter? Let’s take a closer look so you can generate a brand voice of your own and appeal to your target customer.

What Is Brand Identity?

Think of your brand identity as the life of the party. In a crowded room, people can easily pick you out — with an easily recognizable appearance and tone of voice. 

In other words, your brand identity stands out. 

Your brand identity is unique to you. It sets you apart from all the others, like one pink sneaker in a closet filled with brown dress shoes.

It’s what allows your customers to think of you when they’re in the market for your products or services.

What About Brand Voice?

To support this brand identity, your brand voice takes on a personality through its communications. Imagine the same “life of the party” sneaker above opening its mouth and speaking. What words does it say? What type of story does it tell?

The words used in your communications — including your social media posts, emails, blog posts, website copy and ads — complement the visual story you’re telling. 

Maybe you are fun, edgy, quirky and lighthearted. Or there might be a need for you to be more professional and subdued.

It all depends on your target customer. But either way, your storytelling should capture their attention. Just because you’re a brown dress shoe doesn’t mean you have to be boring.

Consider Progressive Insurance with its range of quirky commercials. In a crowded, competitive insurance marketplace, the brand manages to make its ads memorable. 

There’s Flo, the iconic friendly female character who convinces people to save by switching to Progressive. And there’s Dr. Rick, who reminds people of the need for “unbecoming your parents.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WcqGMzy1s0&feature=youtu.be

When you have followers tweeting about your commercials, then you know you’ve established a strong, effective brand voice.

Why Is Brand Voice Important?

Not only does a distinct brand voice make you memorable, but it also helps to inform every piece of written content. From your social media posts and engagements, to review responses and email campaigns, your brand voice should be infused into everything you publish.

With a consistent brand voice, you become a familiar “friend” to your followers. They know that if they comment on your posts or ask a question, they can expect consistent replies. 

It shouldn’t feel like several different people are working on your social media. Even if that’s the case, it should feel like it’s “the brand” responding every time — like one human typing directly to followers.

Here are just a few places where you should have a consistent brand voice:

  • Replies to comments on your social media posts
  • Responses to direct messages and online reviews
  • The stories you tell via social media, i.e., compelling storylines that people will want to follow
  • Customer service questions submitted via social media 
  • Email campaigns and website copy
  • Ad copy

Without a distinctive brand voice infused into your content, you risk becoming irrelevant to your followers. They probably will not continue following you if your personality doesn’t shine through on your social profiles — no matter how great your product or service may be.

Read more: 7 Habits of Highly Successful Social Media Marketers

7 Habits of Highly Successful Social Media Marketers

How You Can Develop a Brand Voice of Your Own

If you’re struggling to find your own brand voice, the following tips will get you started.

Create brand guidelines that dictate your brand voice. 

These guidelines should include rules on how to present your brand both visually and with tone of voice. A good starting place is your brand’s core values and mission statement.

From those core values and mission statement, pull out some common words and phrases that describe your brand. Think of your brand as a person. What words describe your brand’s personality traits? 

Include examples of how to write various pieces of copy within those guidelines. Take five to 10 images, and caption them in your brand voice. This way, anyone who picks up these guidelines (either internally on your team or externally with an agency partner) will be able to understand how to present your brand in words and in visuals.

Look at brands you follow.

You don’t have to look just at competitors’ brands. Look at brands you follow on social media just for the mere fact that you are entertained, inspired or educated by their content. 

Jot down the words and phrases that come to mind when you see these posts. Study their content to understand how they pair words and images. How can you emulate their work with your own content? 

Create an audience persona.

Who are the people who make up your target audience? Are they younger, older? What kind of language and tone resonates with them? If you were talking to one of these audience members on the phone, what would you say? 

Imagine you’re sitting down to coffee with one of them. What topics of conversation would come up? What pop culture or generational references speak to them? Write down personality traits, slang words and vocabulary words associated with your ideal customer. 

Know how to adjust your tone for different situations.

The tone you use to address a customer complaint will differ greatly from the tone used to announce a new product. In your brand guidelines, include examples of how to handle different scenarios. Offer guidelines on responding to complaints. 

Have a few template-type responses that serve as a starting point for responses. Always tweak these responses to suit the situation! You don’t want to sound like a robot.

Review your brand voice from time to time. As with anything in marketing, it’s important to revisit your brand guidelines and brand voice periodically. This can be done annually or as needed. 

For instance, the pandemic or other life-changing events may prompt you to review the ways you interact with customers. By reviewing your brand voice, you can avoid sounding outdated or out of touch.

Give Your Brand Voice the Attention It Needs

By taking the time to develop your brand voice, you’ll have a better grasp of how to approach your social media. You’ll also be able to navigate different scenarios with your audience with a confident, consistent tone. 

If you’d like some help in developing your brand voice and presenting it on social media, turn to the experts at Rallio. We’ll be happy to lend a hand.

Read more: Top 9 Social Media Questions, Answered

Top 9 Social Media Questions, Answered

Categories
Social

5 Easy Ways to Power Up Your Social Media Presence in One Hour or Less

When you think about tidying up your social media pages, you might immediately think it’s going to take exorbitant amounts of time. Well, we’ve got some good news for you. Improving your social media presence can happen in minutes, not hours. 

In fact, we’d bet you can perform some light housekeeping without a ton of time or effort. Making even a few small tweaks will instantly help you start making a bigger impact online.

Granted, if you invest a little more time on your social media presence — or pay an agency like Rallio to help — your results will be exponential. Rather than get overwhelmed with the idea of tearing yourself away from your business for a day, however, simply get started with the five power moves below.

Size Your Images Correctly

Every platform has its own image size requirements. For instance, on Facebook, you have a profile image, a cover photo and shared images — each with its own set of image guidelines. Your images will also look different depending on the placement and the device used to view them. 

Knowing the ideal dimensions, file sizes and file types will help you optimize images for each platform. It’ll also help you avoid having any part of your image cut off or uploading low-resolution photos that don’t display properly.

Rallio also offers a simple image editing tool if you need to crop an image or touch it up before uploading it. 

The link below has complete guidelines on image sizes for the different platforms. Once you’ve familiarized yourself with them, download the Rallio app to start posting! We offer both mobile and desktop technology to make it easy to post to your pages.

Read more: Your Bookmarkable Guide to Social Media Image Sizes in 2020

Facebook photos

Brand Yourself Across Platforms

Nothing says “branded” for your social media presence like having the same profile images across social media platforms. Whether it’s your logo or a branded image, make sure you’re using the most updated version on all your pages. 

That goes for franchises, too. Keeping a consistent social media image across all your locations builds brand awareness and makes you look more professional for your followers.

If possible, you should also keep your social media handles the same across platforms — like @rallio does on Facebook and Instagram. Even better, make sure it matches your website URL. This makes you easier to find and prevents anyone confusing you with a similar-sounding handle.

If someone already owns the handle you want, you can try reaching out directly to that account owner and see if they’ll let you take it over. To learn more, check out this article, “The Importance of Having Consistent Social Media Handles.”

For individual locations, keep a consistent pattern. For instance, if Rallio had individual franchisees (we don’t, but we work with a lot of them from other companies!), we might want them to use something like @ralliolosangeles or whatever the city name is.

Rallio makes this process easier for franchises because you can control everything from one dashboard. Need to update the cover photo for corporate, plus 400 franchisees? Do it in just a few clicks. Everything is centralized.

We also encourage brands to develop social media brand guidelines for themselves and their locations. Tell everyone what they can and cannot do on social media so everyone gets (and stays) on the same page.

Improve Your Profile

Your profile description and business information are some of the first things people see when they land on your page. Make sure it’s not only accurate, but also fully optimized to work hard for you as people are searching for businesses like yours.

Here are a few quick upgrades you can make:

  • Update your directory listings. Your hours, contact information and location need to be consistent everywhere your business information appears online. Using a directory listings service like Rallio’s will help you get this done in a few clicks.
  • Update your bio. Add keywords to make you more discoverable — a keyword planner like Google’s will help you choose the right ones. Work these keywords naturally into the text; don’t just stuff them in there, hoping something will stick.
  • Fill in every field. Don’t skip over anything — it might take more effort, but you’ll appear more professional and “on the ball” if you provide helpful details about your business.
  • Get creative with your bio, too. Your bio should represent who you are and what you’re all about in a fun, memorable way. Hootsuite’s guide gives you templates to get you started.

Instagram bio

Highlight Important Content

Take advantage of opportunities to highlight content at the top of pages. On Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, you can “pin” important posts up at the top. This could be a special offer or updates about your business. Maybe it’s an invitation to join your subscriber list. 

On Instagram, you can add content to Story Highlights after you post to your Stories. Create a fun Highlight Cover image for different sections (you can download an app or use Canva.com), and generate interest for people who visit your profile. 

For example, a fitness trainer who posts workouts to their Stories could create a Story Highlight called Workouts. This way, your Stories — which disappear from feeds after 24 hours — will still live on and potentially attract new business.

You can also update your website URL on Instagram to point to different types of content. If you have a new blog post up, add a link in your bio and point to that content in your Stories or in a post.

Automate Where You Can

Do the work to automate upfront, and then you won’t have as much upkeep to do over time. Facebook autoresponses to direct messages are one example. In Messenger, you can set up answers to frequently asked questions. 

Make sure you provide customer service contact information even if you have autoreponses set up. Give people a way to contact you if their question isn’t addressed properly by an FAQ.

Reviews are another opportunity for automation, but proceed with caution. Rallio lets you set up pre-approved messages you might want to send out if someone leaves a five-star review, for instance — maybe a simple “Thanks for the great review!” 

However, you always want to be sure a real human is monitoring these conversations. If someone leaves a one-star review and includes details about their experience, it’s not enough to say “We’re sorry you had a bad experience.” You’ll want someone — either on your staff or from our Rallio Local division — to craft up a response that helps to ease tensions with the customer.

Start Improving Your Social Media Presence Today

Do a little light housekeeping on your social media pages, and you’ll find they start working harder for you. Especially when you add great content to those pages, your social media presence has the ability to go from “meh” to “wow!” within a short period of time.

Categories
Social Uncategorized

Step Up Your Instagram Game: Pro Tips, Tricks & Ideas

If you’re new to posting on Instagram, you might be a little overwhelmed at the prospect of growing your following, creating great content, converting followers to customers and making the best use of your sponsored-ad dollars. This article roundup is your starting point to making a real impact on this popular social platform. So without further adieu, let’s dive in to the top tips and tricks!

The Instagram Rules: The Good, the Bad, and the Very Boring

This one’s about Instagram-worthy pictures, frequency of posting, filters, hashtags, likes, selfies and more. Is it beautiful, awesome, hilarious, amazing, inspiring? That’s your first question. Now stick to the rest of these rules, and you’ll instantly step up your Instagram game.

hayley bloomingdale's instagram rules / photo: @hayleybloom

hayley bloomingdale’s instagram rules / @hayleybloom

The Instagram Rules: The Good, the Bad, and the Very Boring

Why Instagram Captions Are the New Blogging

Take a cue from The Rock, and get a little long-winded in your Instagram captions. It might seem counter-intuitive to tell all on a platform that’s seemingly minimalist and mobile-focused on the surface. But ‘grammers are increasingly turning to Instagram as a place not only for their filtered selfies, but also their deepest musings. Note: Some of the original photos highlighted in this article have been removed from Instagram (and, therefore, this article), but the premise is still intact.


Why Instagram Captions Are the New Blogging

18 Times Blake Lively’s Instagram Captions Were Borderline Genius

When you find a celebrity crushing it on Instagram, sit up and take notice. Take Blake Lively, for instance. Her captions are consistently funny, likable and authentic … in other words, everything you want in a social media post. Inspire your inner genius by reading through some of her very best work.

18 Times Blake Lively’s Instagram Captions Were Borderline Genius

25 Funny Captions to Use For Your Selfies That Will Make Your Followers LOL

“Selfie” is now officially a word in the dictionary, and it’s no wonder: Scroll through your Instagram feed, and you’ll find dozens of them. The key to standing out among a sea of brunchin’, flexin’, yoga-posin’ peeps? Add a funny caption, of course. Get some inspiration from the quotes in this article, but remember to add your own unique flair so it doesn’t sound canned.

25 Funny Captions to Use For Your Selfies That Will Make Your Followers LOL

How to Write Good Instagram Captions: 8 Bookmarkable Tips for Perfecting Your Copy

As you know, the hard work doesn’t end once you’ve taken that beautiful photo and added your favorite filter. Your caption gives a voice to your content, and it’s also a place where you can include a call to action, memorable quips, and just the right verbiage that delights your followers and inspires them to double-tap. These go-to tips will keep you on the right track as you craft an awesome caption for that perfectly staged and edited photo.


How to Write Good Instagram Captions: 8 Bookmarkable Tips for Perfecting Your Copy

How to Use Instagram Stories Like an Expert

Introduced in August 2016, Instagram Stories allow you to tell your story in multiple frames using a combination of photos, videos, captions, gifs, music and more. These stories stay on your profile for 24 hours at a time and appear at the top of users’ Instagram feeds, making them ideal for highlighting a snapshot of your day that you don’t necessarily want to live on your profile page. Like telling a story in real life, these Stories are fresh, hyper-relevant to your current goals, and fun to watch. Here’s your definitive guide to getting it done like a true storytelling pro.

How to Use Instagram Stories Like an Expert

What other tips would you add to this list? Include a link to some of your best captions, and we’ll feature the top submissions in a future blog post.

Rallio now has a mobile app that lets you post from your dashboard to your Instagram profile! Get more details via support@www.rallio.com.

Categories
Social

Friday 5 Weekly Social Media Tips: Social ROI and the Marketing Ecosystem

Welcome to the first edition of the Friday 5, a weekly look at important things to know in the world of social media marketing. Today, our Director of Business Development, Avery McCaslin, offers deeper insight into how different marketing channels work in conjunction to improve your overall return on marketing investment. Happy Friday, all!

Social ROI and the Marketing Ecosystem

What are your favorite marketing mediums, and how do you use them together for the greatest return?

Categories
Branding Content Marketing Uncategorized

What Facebook’s Algorithm Changes Mean for Brands

If you read about the most recent changes to Facebook’s algorithm, then you might be wondering how the changes affect brands. As a social media and reputation management firm, Rallio always strives to help brands optimize their online presence and their advertising budgets. So if you’re in full-on panic mode, we’re here to tell you that these changes are not cause for alarm …

IF YOU ARE PUTTING AD DOLLARS BEHIND YOUR FACEBOOK CONTENT.

Pardon me. I don’t mean to yell. But it’s so important to understand that Facebook is a pay-to-play platform where if you want to have any kind of significant impact among your target audience, you need to pay to get in front of them.

If you find it difficult to wrap your head around this concept, think about it in terms of print advertising. Leaf through a magazine, and you see that the nicest, largest, glossiest ads at the front and back of the book. These are the big-money ads. The tiny little classifieds are small and hard to find because the advertisers didn’t pay as much for them.

And those that didn’t pay … well, do you even see them anywhere? Of course not, because nobody expects something for nothing. Or do they?

There are still brands out there that believe they can put up a Facebook page, post content and get it seen without ever paying a dime for advertising. Of course, there’s still something to be said for organic reach in terms of how your audience interacts with your content, particularly with Facebook’s new (or renewed?) emphasis on putting content in newsfeeds that’s community-oriented and focused on engagement among friends and family.

However, there’s an opportunity here for a powerful combination of paid posts and local engagement, one that we at Rallio are already using to help brands.

But Facebook stock dropped. What does it mean? 

It’s true that Facebook stock dropped 5 percent with the news of its algorithm change, because people are worried that some ad revenue will decrease. And, it probably will. However, it’s not going away, and shareholders will demand it doesn’t decrease too drastically.

What we stress with our clients is that we need to be continually considering ways to convert “business” posts into “personal” posts. That is, once a brand gets engagement on a post, that interaction can be seen by others and the content is now falling under the consumer newsfeed algorithm and isn’t simply viewed by Facebook as a business post. The same is true with check-ins: When a consumer checks in to a business via Facebook, it can create great organic reach.

[bctt tweet=”Brands have a tremendous opportunity to capitalize on Facebook’s algorithm changes. Let the others leave, and you step in to reach more and more of your target audience and boost your visibility on the platform! #FacebookAlgorithm” username=”rallioHQ”]

So in actuality, brands have a tremendous opportunity to capitalize on Facebook’s algorithm changes. Let the others leave, and you step in to reach more and more of your target audience and boost your visibility on the platform!

The key is creating the kind of quality content that earns your customers’ comments, likes and shares as opposed to blatantly asking for them. Consider the words of Yuyu Chen in this Digiday article: “For starters, brands have treated Facebook like a pay-to-play platform for a long time, and Facebook said the new algorithm won’t affect paid posts on the platform, although CPM rates for Facebook ads may eventually increase, according to agency executives. However, they think the new Facebook algorithm will filter out clickbait-style promotions (‘Like our product if you think this dog is cute’), which will pressure brands to create more meaningful content over the long term.”
At Rallio, we’ve always stressed the importance of creating quality, relevant content that isn’t overly promotional or “me”-centric. Shift your focus to what your audience cares about, and you’ve got a whole world of opportunity as an advertiser. Do you want to be visible, engaging and relevant? Of course you do. Head over to ralliolocal.com, and we’ll help you get started making a major splash with your local customers.

 

 

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Uncategorized

11 Top Tips for Boosting Your Instagram Following

Instagram has millions of active monthly users, and businesses of all sizes are asking themselves how to tap into that user base and gain more followers. It’s an important question to ask as more and more Instagrammers engage with businesses both on and off the app, whether they’re visiting a brand’s website, commenting on posts or showing up in person at a business to claim a special offer.

The general rule to know is that, as with any social media platform, there are really just two ways to do it effectively for long-term success: 1) through organic growth where you’re interacting authentically and consistently with your audience, and 2) through targeted sponsored ads. There are strategies attached to those two methods, and we’ll get into those below, but first, you might be asking yourself, “Why not just buy followers or use bots to get more of them?”

Sure, that seems like a quick way to get a big boost, but it’s an artificial boost that won’t allow you to connect with real people who care about your brand. What you want is an ongoing relationship with your audience, people who are loyal to your brand and able to assist in growing your followers.

[bctt tweet=”Did you know? You could actually hurt your brand by buying artificial followers. #InstagramTips” username=”rallioHQ”]

Moreover, you could actually hurt your brand by buying artificial followers. Take a look at this Hootsuite experiment to see what might happen, i.e., zero engagement and a bunch of followers you don’t necessarily want associated with your brand.

At the end of the day, click-throughs and engagement are the best measures of your Instagram profile’s success. So toward that end, this post focuses on the top ways to build the kind of following you’d be proud to call home about.

1. Use hashtags

Hashtags are one of the best ways to make yourself findable. Choose hashtags that are relevant to your post and likely to be discovered in a search. Instagram makes it easy: Just type in your “#” and start typing a few letters of a hashtag, and Instagram will suggest hashtags that are popular and show you how many times it’s been used.

2. Cross-promote

Use your other social platforms, your website and your email campaigns to tell your audience about your Instagram account. Give them a glimpse of what to expect, such as special offers, behind-the-scenes scoop and advance notice of special events.

3. Hold a contest

I wrote about this topic extensively here, but in short, Instagram contests can be either standalone events you run on your own, or collaborative where you involve other brands in a “loop” type of contest. It’s a quick way to boost your followers among an audience that’s interested in your brand. Check out more examples of contests below.

4 Instagram Contest Ideas to Engage Your Followers

4. Engage with other users’ content

Set aside time daily, even 10 minutes, to like and comment on random photos from your target audience. Selectively follow those accounts that are well-aligned with and complement your brand.

5. Post quality content

Make your brand look sharp! Only post images that elevate your message, not random photos that you’re posting just for the sake of posting. Quality beats quantity every time.

[bctt tweet=”Only post images that elevate your message. Don’t post just for the sake of posting. #InstagramTips” username=”rallioHQ”]

6. Invite engagement

Ask a question or use the word “comment” to encourage engagement from your users. People love to voice their opinions! You can also ask users to “tag a friend,” e.g., “Tag a friend who would love these leggings!”

7. Post at the best times

What works for one brand doesn’t necessarily work for all. You might need to experiment to find the best time for you. You can always try out a scheduler such as Later, which will automatically calculate the best time to post for your account, or just go with a trial-and-error approach to see when you get the most engagement. Here’s a more detailed look at choosing the best times to post:

https://later.com/blog/best-time-to-post-on-instagram/

8. Complete your bio

Incorporate keywords and hashtags in your bio, and don’t forget a link back to your site. If you have specific posts where you want to direct users to a certain website or landing page, you can mention it in the post. For example, if you’re promoting a workshop series, you could say “Link in bio” within the caption of your post, and then swap out your bio link to feature a link to sign up for your workshop.

9. Sponsor your content

Look at your Insights on Instagram to see your most popular posts by impressions, and then throw some ad dollars behind your most popular posts. Just scroll down to the bottom and click on Create Promotion to get started.

10. Use the “Live” feature

Posting “live” on Instagram means you’re filming in real time, and your audience gets notified that you’re live. You have the option to keep these “Live” videos active for another 24 hours after airing.

11. Use Instagram Stories

I saved the best (arguably) for last: Instagram Stories. These stories are accessible at the top of a user’s home page when opening the app and feature a 24-hour snapshot of what’s going on with a brand or a person. After 24 hours, the story disappears, giving them a type of urgency that doesn’t exist with photos alone. You can tap within your own story to see who’s viewed it, giving you a clear picture of engagement. They’ve become an integral part of brands’ success on Instagram, and many brands are getting creative with these stories to promote their products and services.

One stellar example is a recent Chipotle campaign promoting their new Queso dip. For the campaign, Chipotle archived all but a few posts so that only Queso photos appeared on the profile page. In the days thereafter, the brand rolled out more posts, a contest offering a year’s worth of free queso to winners, and a 100-part Instagram Story that saw a 70 percent completion rate, meaning 70 percent of users clicked through all 100 parts of the Story to the end (no easy feat!). Read about it in the link:

http://www.adweek.com/digital/chipotles-instagram-story-featuring-100-pictures-of-queso-generated-a-70-completion-rate/

 

 

There are many more strategies you can use on Instagram, but these 10 are a great starting point! What other methods have you used to grow your Insta following? Leave your comments below.

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Uncategorized

Quick Guide to Social Media Marketing: Q&A With Rallio’s Director of Business Development

In working with thousands of customers over the past few years, we’ve learned a lot about the best ways for businesses to use social media to their advantage. Those who have come on board to use the Rallio platform are able to pair our technology with social media strategy to produce incredible results.

Today, I sat down with our Director of Business Development, Avery McCaslin, to discuss our platform as well as the key trends for social media marketers to know today. But first, we had to grab Starbucks and wonder what was inside this Nasty Gal trailer parked behind me at the Irvine Spectrum near our office. They’ll be popping up later today, so we’ll just have to wait. In the meantime … here’s our Q&A.

Karen Spaeder, Director of Content, crushing it on social media

What is Rallio?

Rallio is a software technology that helps businesses create engagement online to increase local demand. For multi-location brands that want to turn on their local impact, our technology empowers them to connect authentically with customers, drive traffic and increase revenue at the local level.

What are the key online trends that multi-location businesses need to know today?

Reviews and online reputation are a huge piece of their SEO. Brand consistency is critical. Perhaps most important of all, they need to be aware of the importance of video content. According to an Animoto survey, four times as many consumers would rather watch a video about a product than read about it. Also, Facebook prefers video in their algorithm over traditional content.

Another huge thing for multi-location businesses to understand is that social media is not a free medium anymore, at least not if you want to make an impact with your brand. More than anything, it’s a pay-to-play system, yet it’s still much more cost-efficient than traditional channels.

If you want anyone to see the content you’re spending so much time creating, you should be boosting it! If you don’t, only roughly 15 percent of your followers will see it. But if you do, you get much better visibility.

[bctt tweet=”If you want anyone to see the #content you’re spending so much time creating, boost it!” username=”rallioHQ”]

Why is online reputation important?

Online reputation is so important for new customer acquisition. Before anyone will buy your product or service, the first thing they’ll do is go online to see what other people are saying about you. Your online reviews can either make or break you, and they need to be kept current. In fact, some 73 percent of consumers feel that reviews older than three months are no longer relevant. It’s an ongoing process.

How can businesses use digital coupons to their advantage?

With Rallio technology, you can use digital coupons to incentivize a survey that leads to a positive review. You can use coupons on social media to create full-blown national campaigns, but at a local level. That produces true ROI, all tracked through the Rallio system.

Another huge benefit to using our system is that each of our coupons has a unique tracking code, and it’s completely digital and mobile-friendly. The coupons can only be used once, so you’re getting better analytics and improved ROI. You can’t have the same person using the coupon or a local store manager scanning the same coupon over and over again, so it’s a better way to track the offer.

Also, in Rallio, you can share digital coupons with your friends and they get their own unique code. A map will even pop up to show the nearest store to that friend, so it becomes an interactive experience.

Sharing is caring with Rallio’s coupon integration.

How should businesses use social media to connect with customers?

The biggest thing to understand is that now more than ever, customers want companies to be transparent. Having a company be real and personable is really important to them, especially for millennials, who treat social media like a customer service channel. When they comment or ask a question on social media, you need to get back to them and respond right away.

[bctt tweet=”Nowadays, #millennials treat social media like a customer service channel. #smm” username=”rallioHQ”]

What are some of the biggest mistakes brands make on social media?

Not boosting posts is one of them. Also, not responding and interacting with potential and current customers. Finally, not posting local content that’s specific to each location’s needs. You can’t expect to sell the same lawn and garden products to a city dweller as you would to a farmer, for example. You have to tailor your content and offers to each geographic location.

What are some of the unique features of Rallio technology?

One of the coolest things about our technology is that manufacturers can syndicate content down to the corporate level, and corporate can dish it out to all end user locations. For example, we work with Samsung and Verizon. Before, Verizon had individual store owners Googling Samsung products and posting whatever content they wanted about them. Samsung wanted more control over what was being said about their brand, and Verizon wanted more control over what their retailers were pushing out. With Rallio, everyone can work together to stay on brand for both the manufacturers and the retailers. And retailers like it because they’re getting more engagement and customers.

Here’s an example:

What about independent business owners? How can they use the Rallio platform to their advantage? 

Rallio has a great offering for small business. Those that use our technology have all their social and review platforms located in one place, saving them time, which is important for a busy small-business owner. They’re utilizing a powerful system that billion-dollar businesses are using, at a fraction of the cost. Plus, they get the expertise of an awesome support team and strategy team.

What is one key takeaway for businesses you’d like to mention?

Social media is not a trend. It’s not going anywhere, and it’s only going to get more important and more local. Rallio is the solution to the ever-changing market.

To learn more about Rallio or to request a demo, go to www.www.rallio.com.

Categories
Branding

Why Your Why Needs to Be Part of Your Marketing

Browsing my Twitter feed the other day, I came across a tweet that gave me pause. Here it is:

I responded:

And then received:

Claire Boyles went on to tweet: “An individual’s ‘why’ is not always the same as the value/result the customer wants from that purchase. I don’t care why Bill Gates created Microsoft operating systems, I just care that it does what I need.

“I don’t care why Jobs created the iphone [sic], I care that I have a smartphone. I care that I can create documents, that I can email, that I can design on my computer, I care that I have a pocket computer online.

“Why anyone invented them is irrelevant to my buying choice – do I need something to create documents? Then I’ll consider buying Word, do I need to know why someone was inspired to create a word processor on a computer? Nope. Do I care that it works? Absolutely.”

I can appreciate the sentiment, that ultimately the customer wants to buy something that does the thing it promises to do. However, what gave me pause is the idea that the “why” is independent of the benefit provided to customers by a product or service.

Your Why Must Be Inextricably Part of Your Product or Service

The tweet included mention of Steve Jobs. That’s a perfect example to use as I dive into why the why needs to be integrated throughout a company, not viewed as separate from the products/services. It’s true that customers don’t ponder why Steve Jobs started his company when they’re standing in line to purchase the latest iPhone. However, they most certainly have been influenced by that why as they’re making buying decisions.

It’s not about an entrepreneur blatantly telling customers, “Hey, here’s why I started my business,” but rather, subtly infusing that why into every bit of messaging, marketing and branding. That’s exactly what Jobs did by taking products that were basically already on the market and reinventing them in ways that made people gravitate to the Apple brand.

It’s about developing a why that matters more to the customer than you as the entrepreneur. In that sense, the why becomes the very thing that puts customers’ needs first, and the idea that “your why isn’t really that important to the customer” doesn’t hold true.

[bctt tweet=”Successful entrepreneurs let their #why evolve from being me-focused to being customer-focused.” username=”rallioHQ”]

Your Why Has to Be Bigger Than You

Oftentimes, people start a business for me-centric reasons: For example, they want to make more money, they want the freedom of being their own boss, they invented some fantastic thing they think everyone should buy, or they otherwise want some kind of personal gain. Those are not very good “whys” because they put the entrepreneur first and ignore what the customer needs or wants.

To be successful as an entrepreneur, your “why” must evolve from being me-focused to being customer-focused. It must move beyond ego and become a purpose serving some kind of greater good, something bigger than us.

So let’s put this in Steve Jobs terms. Let’s say his why was simply that he loved creating cool techie things. That’s a me-centric why, and of course, that’s not what Jobs did. Rather, he had a “bigger than me” why that puts customers before anyone else. As this Harvard Business Review article points out, “Apple existed to ‘delight customers’ first — benefits to other stakeholders, including shareholders, followed.”

Jobs did more than just delight customers, too. He generated an emotional connection to the brand that causes people to crave the next Apple product. That connection happened largely as a result of the “Think Different” campaign.

In this Forbes article, author Robert Hof writes about Bill Cleary, who worked for Jobs at Apple from 1981 to 1985 and later worked with both Apple and NeXT at CKS Partners. Here’s what Cleary had to say: “When Jobs returned to Apple, he instituted the Think Different ad campaign. Nobody else had the sheer chutzpah to say that people like Gandhi and Einstein would be using Apple Macintoshes if they were alive today.”

“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules … You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things … they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.” — Steve Jobs

Nowhere in that statement does Steve Jobs talk about iPads, iPhones or MacBooks or the benefits those products provide. But when you see an Apple product, you instantly feel the emotional connection to the brand. You feel the why, without it even being spoken in words.

As I tweeted:

 

Your Why Has to Be Connected to Your Company’s Values

I could go out and buy any word processing tool and still be able to type up this blog post, but I don’t want just any tool. I want the MacBook Pro I’m using because first and foremost, it’s an incredible product. It’s sleek, fast, easy to use, portable and fun.

Still, even if Microsoft created something similar, I’d turn to Apple because I’ve grown to trust and value the emotional connection I have to Apple products. I got excited to tell my tech-savvy brother about my new computer. I think the products are cutting-edge and cool. Delightful and beautiful even. And working at a tech company, naturally I want to be cutting-edge!

There’s no real way to treat the why as separate and apart from the product or service you’re providing. On the contrary, when you treat your why as an integral part of your branding, you create brand loyalty.

You build the emotional connection that makes people stand in line for your product, post about it on social media and engage with your brand. You give your brand a personality, something that every customer seeks out when they’re checking you out on social media and online.

Simply put: You create something that gets remembered.

“Marketing is about values. It’s a complicated and noisy world, and we’re not going to get a chance to get people to remember much about us. No company is. So we have to be really clear about what we want them to know about us.” — Steve Jobs

Update, July 12, 2017: My CEO, Chuck Goetschel, reminded me today of a great Simon Sinek TED Talk where he discusses the need for a why, how Apple inspires buying behavior, and why “People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.” It’s the perfect complement to my discussion above, and you should watch it here if you want to start elevating your thinking:

What is your why, and how do you infuse it into your marketing? Let’s hear your thoughts.

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