Exposure (Audience). A strong, quality social audience and following on any platform is a good starting point. Ensure you have a quality audience who will work to your advantage and enhance your overall brand awareness. Obtaining 1M followers on Twitter will do nothing for your business if they aren’t engaging with you.

Influence (Impressions). Get your content seen by audience members. That requires developing relevant and interesting content, you will influence your audience, causing a chain reaction of mentions to their own networks, audiences and groups. Influence through creative imagery, brand promotions and an ability for your fans to feel a part of the brand community you build both on and offline.

Engagement (Likes, RTs, Shares, Pins). That same strong content will engage with your audience, causing them to retweet, click like, share, comment on what you produce. Impressions are great; however, you want to strive for large amounts of engagement. That means you’re connecting with your audience — they’re receiving your message, processing it and doing something with it.

Action (Sale). The action phase usually occurs in two parts: the first in a lead generation form that allows you to acquire the user’s contact information. The second part is the sale itself. The sale can occur without the first phase of action occurring. Either way, it results in revenue for the company.

By catching the attention of a fan through your awesome Facebook page, captivating Pinterest board, or intriguing Twitter feed, you’ve accomplished step one and already enhanced your exposure. However, you still need to follow through the rest of the chain reaction to ensure that your audience member does, in fact, enhance sales.

The post How to Translate Your Social Media Metrics into Sales appeared first on tcapushnpull.com.

We’ve laid out the pros and cons of allowing franchisees to have social accounts.  If you have decided that this works for your business, then the next step to having a successful campaign is creating social media guidelines for your employees and community managers.  Creating a social media marketing guide is incredibly useful, but developing it is no easy feat. (This goes back to our previous post that discusses 5 Reasons to Hire an Agency for Digital Management, but I digress.)

Here is a short glimpse into what developing a social media marketing guide would look like.

• Develop a Consistent Image: Your image, be it your logo or any creative you have on your social media accounts (cover photos, backgrounds, etc.) represent who you are. If your brand image is not consistent across all of your social media platforms and accounts, the power of your message is lost.
  • Profile Picture: Make sure that your employees are aware of the approved profile picture for both Facebook and Twitter. This simple step will help the brand image resonate with your customers.
  • Cover Photos for Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube: Too many times have we seen community managers post their own cover-photos which are blown out, blurry images, that are completely off brand.  You can manage this by having standard cover-photos for your community members to choose from. Communicating this with your employees help ensure they will follow guidelines.
• Set The Tone: Setting proper tone for your franchisee social accounts is just as important as having one for your corporate account. If your community managers are writing content that does not sound like your company, your message will be lost. You want to determine exactly what your community managers are allowed to post, how you want them to say it, and how much local vs. corporate content you want them to share. The tone of the accounts should sound like your brand, but have the flare of the local franchisee. It is a fine line to walk on.
• Train Your Community Managers: One of the biggest misconceptions when it comes to managing franchisee social accounts is the idea that anyone can do it. Unfortunately, we see way too many businesses allowing their employees to run company social accounts like their own person accounts. Training your community managers will not only enlighten them on how important social media marketing is for the brand, it will also make them feel as if they have a bigger role in the company.

Having a cohesive social media marketing guideline will catapult your online marketing into success. So many companies have beautifully managed corporate accounts, but fall short on local franchisee accounts. The idea is to always stay on brand, but add individual content to create a unique, and personal experience for your local customer.

The post So, Your Franchisees Have Social Media Accounts; What Now? appeared first on tcapushnpull.com.

But as all social media platforms evolve into strategic marketing tools, Instagram has also become an effective social asset for brands. We recommend it as part of a social media strategy if it fits with the overall marketing strategy. Nike, Starbucks and MTV — Instagram’s top performing brand accounts — have embraced this platform and are each leading the way with well over a following of 1M consumers. So how does it work?

With Instagram’s seamless integration alongside Facebook, users saw enhanced web profiles and online pictorial timelines earlier this year. But best of all, and probably the most useful for brands, is the “Photos of You” application which debuted in the spring and allows users to tag themselves, friends, brands, locations, etc in their photos. This, in turn, encourages consumer participation in your brand’s online conversation and creates excellent user-generated content.

But perhaps what everyone is hoping for when they follow and like their favorite brands is a view behind the brand. Instagram offers businesses the chance to show, rather than tell, fans what it’s like to work in your offices, be a part of your brand and give a sneak peek into your brand culture. Visual marketing is on the rise and Instagram is definitely leading the way. Trust us when we say this is one bandwagon worth jumping on.

The post Instagram: Revolutionizing Brand’s Visual Marketing Campaigns appeared first on tcapushnpull.com.

Many people still believe that managing a brand’s social media accounts are the same as managing your own personal accounts. Unfortunately accounts that follow the “fly by the seat of your pants” method tend to fall short. Users are left wondering what they’re actually getting out of being a fan. If you don’t have the budget or manpower to run a full-on social media campaign, the best thing to do to keep your page lively and on point is to run a mini campaign.

Mini-campaigns are different from traditional social media campaigns in that they are in fact, mini. They typically run for a shorter amount of time, include a lot less creative, and they don’t usually require any outside program building (IE Facebook tabs or micro-sites). A mini-campaign is one of the most effective ways to engage your fans, and integrate your brand strategy. Here are some steps we like to follow when planning a mini-campaign:

1. Determine Your Goal: The first step to creating a mini campaign is to determine what you hope to achieve. Is it more fans, more engagement, brand awareness, all of the above? Make sure you nail down specific goals, and track them throughout the campaign.
2. Develop a Concept: This might seem like an obvious one, but your campaign will need an overall concept. Make sure your concept is 1. On strategy for your brand and 2. On point with your goal. This past spring we developed a March Madness Campaign for our client, The National Chicken Council.  The March Madness campaign had users voting on types of chicken marinades. Fans voted for their favorite and the marinade with the most, won. This campaign was both timely with the NCAA March Madness, and it was on strategy for the brand.
3. Get Creative Involved: Campaigns with consistent, visually appealing components tend to resonate the most with fans. Get the creative team to develop imagery, videos, logos, etc. to help set your campaign apart from the rest of your content. But, remember to keep it simple as a mini-campaign is meant to be less time (and budget) consuming.
4. Integrate your platforms: Make sure your mini-campaign goes across all of your social media platforms. If you have Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter, use them all but make sure you cater the campaign to each platform specifically.
5. Track your Progress: Finally, make sure you track your progress. Go back to your original goal, and see if you were able to reach it. Take screen shots, run analytics, and take notes on what worked and what didn’t .

If you would like to check out some of our mini-campaigns, check out this Facebook page.

The post How to Host a Mini-Campaign on Social Media appeared first on tcapushnpull.com.

1. Research. Conducting a significant amount of leg work and research is necessary in order to build a convincing and effective strategy. As an agency, we dive deep into our projects and do the necessary research to ensure we do the very best work we can for you and your brand.
2. Strategy. Everything we do has an underlying strategy. At The Cyphers Agency, it’s what we do best. Rather than just posting goofy pictures on Facebook or re-tweeting articles we find on Twitter, each action plays a role, no matter how small, in a larger, overall marketing strategy.
3. Integration. Many times, social media is an after-thought. People think it’s just an online space where teens and young adults hang out to connect with other users. That assumption is so far from the truth, that if your social media does stand alone, you’re killing your brand. With your larger marketing strategy in mind, we seamlessly integrate each element of your social media presence with the larger strategy to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of your marketing and advertising campaigns.
4. Crisis Communication. Having a crisis communication plan is critical for any brand with an established social media presence. There will inevitably be unhappy customers and the situation can turn sour pretty quickly if not handled properly. As professionals, we create plans for when these situations occur, kick into auto-pilot and work to diffuse negative situations, in turn keeping bad press and attention away so you can keep your doors open.
5. Professional. At our agency, we are writers, creators, designers and artists and we’re pretty darn good at our jobs. Whether it’s designing a website, developing strategic content, or developing an online ad, we are skilled and trained in this profession. You wouldn’t hire someone off the street to rewire the electrical system in your office, right? So don’t hire someone to do the same for your social media.

While you may think that your marketing and advertising are things you can handle on your own, it is so crucial to have an agency help you. It alleviates the pressure and stress placed on you and your staff and it allows professionals to do an awesome job that will, in the long run, create more revenue for you. And after all, isn’t that what it’s all about?

The post Five Reasons to Hire an Agency for Digital Management appeared first on tcapushnpull.com.

Strategy.The objective for the campaign should absolutely fit smoothly into your larger marketing strategy and achieve at least one of your overall marketing objectives. Utilize other platforms and online assets to promote your campaign, spread the word and peak interest.

Easy Entry.Make it super simple for your users to enter the contest. A popular mechanism is to ask them to create a themed board and then re-pin a prescribed number of pins from a board of images that you provide (of course in keeping with the overall theme of the contest).

Tag It.The use of the hashtag is quickly permeating other social platforms — and that’s ok! Require your entrants to tag each pin with a hashtag that you create, as well as label their board a name you require.

Entry Form Required.If you are using this campaign to build your Pinterest following, require your audience to enter the campaign on the platform where you have the largest following. For instance, Facebook tabs are programmable to be used as a contest entry mechanism. Require entrants to submit their email addresses (so you can notify them if they win), their Pinterest name and a link to their board.

Sweet Swag. Always offer great prize options. If you’re going to ask your audience members to go to lengths to create a pinboard, re-pin a few pins and then submit their info, offer them a great incentive that is relevant to the theme of your campaign.

If you are present on Pinterest, contests are great ways to peak interest and increase your following. It may seem like a convoluted logistical nightmare, but running a Pinterest contest really can be a breeze. We are always watching other brands to see what they’re doing on social media and think David’s Bridal, HP and CountryLiving have done an swell job at running successful Pinterest contests.

The post The Art of Hosting a Pinterest Contest appeared first on tcapushnpull.com.

When we’re sitting down to brainstorm a social media campaign for a client, one of the first things that comes to mind is “how can we make sure this campaign is completely integrated into the existing marketing strategy?” One of the biggest challenges we face in this process is when working with franchises. From a strategic standpoint, it is essential for a franchise to be on social media, at least on the national level. However, many problems can arise when a franchise opens up social media communications to their local franchisees. We see some pros and cons to having local franchise social media accounts, and some suggestions for how to properly manage these communications.

Pros:

• The ability to provide the audience with tailor made content. For example, Chick Fil A corporate could run a nationwide coupon for a sandwich. Whereas Chick Fil A Edgewater, MD could run a local coupon for a product that sells particularly well in the area. By knowing their target audience they are able to capitalize on what works in their region.
• Having a Facebook or Twitter account gives the franchise the opportunity to breathe personality into their business and build a strong bond with the audience by promoting work they do within the local community.
• A well maintained social media account will help to grow a business, and potentially increase revenue.

However, we have seen some badly managed social media accounts that can give the corporate headquarters a huge headache.

Cons:

• As a franchise, you want your messaging to be as fluid as possible. When you have multiple different social accounts, run by many different community managers it can sometimes be hard to control the content.
• One of the problems you can face is having a local social account that is pushing out content that is completely off brand and unprofessional.

Steps to Take:

Despite these setbacks, there are a few steps you can take to prevent off-brand messaging.

• Start by developing national messaging for your local franchises to include in their regular content. Include your community managers in your planning so they are excited to push the content.
• Send your community managers a social media marketing guide so that they know specifically what they can, and cannot post. In our experience in working with Phillips Seafood, we saw that providing a guide really helped to promote messaging consistency in franchisee social media content.
• Finally, have a crisis communication plan in place. If something was to go wrong, you will have the steps prepared on how to handle the situation.

Allowing your local franchisees the opportunity to have their own social accounts can be a great marketing tool, but it’s not for everyone. Evaluate your current marketing plan and see if this strategy might work for your business.

The post Franchises: Should you Have Local Social Media Accounts? appeared first on tcapushnpull.com.

Now, with several social media platforms and networks, there’s a plethora of options where you can choose to be present and relevant — both for individuals and brands. Whether you’re tweeting, Facebook messaging, Gchatting, pinning or just sending an “old-fashioned” email, how far have we let social media affect how we foster our personal and professional relationships?

Don’t get me wrong, I love and appreciate social media, the connections it offers and the way we, as a consumer, can communicate with big-name brands. I love being able to post either a rave review or a poor experience on a brand’s page and receive almost immediate customer service feedback — much faster and more personal than waiting on  hold with the 1-800-customer-service line for two hours. On the flip-side, as a community manager, I feel empowered when I’m able to help a customer have a better brand experience through social media communication.

However, have we taken it too far? Do you find yourself emailing an old friend rather than writing a letter? Or do you have a tendency to carry out ongoing text conversations that could easily be solved by a quick phone call? As a brand, have you replaced your customer service department with a variety of different social media platforms? While there will always be a time and place for effective and strategic social media use (hey, I’d be out of a job if it weren’t for Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc), have we perhaps taken it too far and let ourselves form our relationships and friendships, both professional and personal, around impersonal communication methods? Next time you need to get in touch with a friend, pick up the phone. Or, if you’re working with a customer to resolve an issue, give them a call. They’ll appreciate the personal touch so much more than another piece of digital junk mail.

The post Have we replaced face-to-face conversations with Twitter, Facebook messages and Gchats? appeared first on tcapushnpull.com.

On Monday April 15^th, I got an email from a friend who lives in Boston saying, “ Did you hear there were two explosions at the Boston Marathon?” I hadn’t and I quickly turned to the fastest news source I could think of – Twitter.  I was soon overwhelmed with a wealth of information; some of it was true, some rumors. I wanted answers, and I wanted them now. I found myself trying to cross-reference with CNN.com and became frustrated that they weren’t updating as quickly. I was reminded that news coverage isn’t instantaneous, and that real news must be verified before it can be published. But, in this age of instant gratification, I wasn’t satisfied.

Although I am grateful that social media exists in times of tragedy, precedence needs to be set for proper etiquette. In the days that followed the bombings, things on social media got out of hand. After the FBI released photos of the suspects, everyday people became detectives and journalists. The public craved answers, and they would search until they found them. One of the most devastating rumors that came out of Twitter was the accusation that missing Brown University student, Sunil Tripathi was the younger suspect. As we now know, he is not one of the suspects. In fact, his body was found earlier this week, which marks a terrible end to this tragic miscommunication. Now his family not only has to deal with the loss of their son, but his defamation.

Social media and smart phones allow the public to be a part of something bigger than themselves. In many ways this allows amazing things to happen like people offering their homes to displaced marathon victims, but it can also have negative affects. We can learn a lot from recent events, particularly that although we might crave them, the right answers aren’t instantaneous. We can also learn that sometimes, it is best to not jump to a public conclusion. We have come a long way to go in terms of how our news and media handle tragedy. I am confidant, however, that this incidence will only help to push us forward.

The post Social Media in the Aftermath of Tragedy appeared first on tcapushnpull.com.

We do a mix of quarterly, annual and semi-annual reports for a variety of our clients. These reports are customized documents that reflect and evaluate the social media ROI that we have for each client and translates that into terms that non-social media pros can understand. And while they (the reports, not our clients) are time consuming, they do help us justify that the money invested monthly in our services are doing things like enhancing brand awareness, increasing household penetration of products and services and impacting overall sales.

While our jobs require us to be on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest all day (everyone is jealous, it’s ok), there are times when we have to show that what we’re doing is actually work: it’s strategic, it’s important and it’s necessary. Reports, no matter how frequently or infrequently you do them, aren’t fun. But they are, nonetheless, essential at showing the positive strides you’re making for the brand, but also to account for dollars being devoted to social media marketing. 

If you’re not already doing regular reports, you probably should. But don’t worry, it’s not as scary as it may seem. There are lots of free and easy-to-use metric dashboards out there that can show you the numbers you’re looking for and that your client will want to see.  Three of those most important to pay attention to are: audience growth, impressions and interactions. Facebook and Pinterest offer internal dashboards for businesses and brands. For Twitter and Pinterest analytics, there are great resources such as Sprout Social and TweetDeck that provide basic metrics. However, there are great web-based services that are costly, but give you in-depth metrics analyses and reports.

Who knows — maybe your report is an indication that you need to change your strategy or maybe it’s telling you that what you’re doing is AMAZING (and keep doing it). Either way, a report is a great way to communicate that growth to your clients, show them where their money is going, and if things are going well, give yourself a pat on the back.

The post Metrics & Reports: A community manager’s nightmare made simple appeared first on tcapushnpull.com.