What are social selling and social commerce, and how do they differ? Would your business benefit from adding one of these practices to your sales efforts? If you’re like most small businesses, then you may have started with a storefront. Next you built a website. And after last year, your website became a much larger part of your sales strategy, as most of the world turned to ecommerce over in-person shopping.

As you plan your marketing strategy for the rest of the year and beyond, recognize that your social media can also be a part of your ecommerce strategy. In addition to being a personification of your branding, your social channels now have the functionality to make sales directly on each platform.

Expanding your brand conversations into making sales on social media is the goal of these tools. Social Selling refers to cultivating a relationship with your customers on social media with the goal of eventually making a sale. While Social Commerce means your customer is buying your product or service directly from the social media app. There are many ways to execute a social selling strategy on social media platforms. But currently, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest offer Social Commerce, and Twitter is testing this functionality. Here’s an overview of what sales tools are available on some of your social channels.

Facebook Social Selling and Social Commerce Tools

By 2017, a quarter of the world’s population was using Facebook monthly. As a small business thinking about expanding your customer base, it makes the most sense to start on this platform. With tools like Messenger, Groups, Insights, Shop and Marketplace many small businesses can leverage their local fanbase into larger audiences and make sales with social selling. In addition, brands can create active product catalogs right on Facebook with Facebook Shop for social commerce direct sales.

Facebook’s potential customer base combined with specific targeting tools makes this platform an easy place to start. A retailer or restaurant could post a limited time offer for instance, and then boost that content for a nominal charge, getting it seen by more people. Posts can even include a button to take an action.

Companies can sell products and services – including things like webinars and online classes – in the marketplace or in their Facebook Shop. And with insights and targeting tools available, brands can create ads as well, tailoring the audience for each ad deployment.

Instagram Social Selling and Social Commerce Tools

Instagram upgraded their social selling and social commerce tools in 2019 (look for the shopping bag icon in the nav bar of a business profile). Audiences like GenZ now rely on this platform to find and purchase new products right in the app. And, brands with a business page enjoy sales functionality that regular Instagram users don’t have including follower insights.

Selling on Instagram can be as simple as posting beautiful images of product, with an offer, and steering customers to a specific website link to purchase. Or companies can employ ad types like Carousels and Stories. Tools like LinkInBio or LInkInProfile enable Instagram accounts to post a specific website link for each post. (Otherwise there is only the one link in the bio for the entire account).

Using hashtags on Instagram is key. Small businesses can create their own hashtag, and then encourage customers to use it when they photograph and share pictures of the company’s product, place of business or service. Brands can then use that hashtag to find new customers – reposting their user generated content (with permission), engaging with that user’s followers, and tagging the customer. These activities increase the reach of the post.

Next, businesses can set up an Instagram Shop, just like on Facebook. The in-app checkout means customers can buy directly from a brand from their Instagram account. Once a business account reaches 10,000 followers, even more social selling and social commerce tools are unlocked to use, for instance, in Stories.

Pinterest Social Selling and Social Commerce Tools

Pinterest is always a place to collect and save favorite ideas and bookmark things for later. It also has social selling tools – beyond just bookmarking. Three types of “Rich Pins” (pins with extra content) are available to set up your social selling system: Recipes, Articles and Products.

As with all social channels, set up your business Pinterest account with a combination of pins of your own products as well as pins of brand-representative images that are not sales-oriented. To be part of the Pinterest community it is a best practice to pin other people’s images as well. Then leave comments and like others’ content while on the platform. Pinterest business accounts also feature analytics to glean insights into your top pins, impressions, and other KPIs.

In April 2021, Pinterest and Shopify expanded their partnership to make social commerce easier on the platform. And Pinterest also features functionality called Catalogues, allowing businesses to basically set up a virtual version of their stores complete with collections, aisle browsing and even price comparisons. 27 countries worldwide currently have all of this new functionality.

Twitter Social Selling and Up-And-Coming Social Commerce Tools

According to TechCrunch, Twitter is now testing ecommerce features for tweets. In the Twitter “card” system, the product card will link to a shop’s website and feature the product as well as a “SHOP” button. This type of Twitter post could be used not just as an ad, but also as an organic social commerce post.

Twitter is definitely a place for brands to gain insights and engage with their followers. Using practices like social listening and tools like Buffer, Brands can discover how customers talk about their brand. Brands can also use hashtags for locating information, and lists for grouping like-customers together and marketing to them.

Adding Social to Your eCommerce Strategy Can Pay Off

Social commerce is an $89.4 billion market right now. It is projected to grow 8x that over the next few years. Start small, test often and grow your business with social media using social selling and social commerce!

A winning marketing campaign is all about selecting choice plays from your marketing playbook to best reach a specific goal. It is a single piece of your overall marketing plan, not the whole playbook. You wouldn’t run all of your plays against every opposing team. Marketing campaigns are tailored to individual need(s), too.

Why do you need one?

Any brand looking to launch a new product or site, announce an expansion, celebrate a milestone or grow interest in a specific event can benefit from a marketing campaign.

One of our clients is a well-known and respected local healthcare facility. They needed to market an expansion project three years in the making. Children and their families are their focus, so they requested a game or an app. They wanted to reach more than just their internal audiences (patients and families) though. To reach external audiences (the community at large, donors, etc.), they really needed more than a single marketing tool. They needed a full court press campaign.

How do you create a winning campaign? Here are 5 key components to success:

1. Determine your why. What is your goal? Is it a successful event, increased sales numbers, greater foot or website traffic, or making your brand more recognizable? Once you know the endgame, you can start figuring out how to play it to win it.
2. Scout the roster. Who is your target audience? What are their likes, dislikes, and the mediums they are most responsive to? If you don’t know who is playing the game, you’re going in behind in the count.
3. Choose the right venue. Oftentimes when you think of marketing campaigns billboards, mailers or TV ads come to mind. It can be any (or all) of those, but it can also be so much more. Perhaps social media or e-mail marketing is a better choice. A combination of things may score the most points. It is all about appealing to your audience in the arena(s) they know best. Marketing campaigns are not one-stop shops.
4. Timing matters. If you are launching a product, you want to play the long game to develop interest beforehand and keep it rolling long after. This was the case for our client. They needed a three-year campaign to match their three-year expansion project. If you have a major event scheduled, then you have a “big game” situation. Hyping it up beforehand and making sure to have the right crowd in attendance means you have to watch the clock.
5. Create championship content. Remember the Rule of 7 and make sure your content is consistent, creative and compelling.

A winning marketing campaigns is all about learning what makes your crowd go wild. We’d love to join your team and help you plan for the dub.

Do you think you need a marketing audit? We’ve said it before, and we will say it a million times over – consistency in marketing equals recognition. You have to be consistent in your branding across all channels and materials. You also have to be relevant to your audience in the current marketing climate. 

There is a simple solution to ensure your marketing materials are current, accurate, and consistently following your branding guidelines – an audit of your marketing materials.

What is a marketing audit?

A marketing audit is designed to make sure your materials are aligned with your goals via a review (or creation of!) your brand’s marketing plan. It is a fabulous way to keep you on pace in the marketing marathon.

Here are five reasons you may need a marketing audit:

1. It has been a hot minute. Maybe you’ve never done an audit of your marketing materials or perhaps it has been a long while since your last one. If it has been a year since your last audit, it’s time to rock one!
2. Demand shifts. Products and/or services routinely go in and out of style. Your offerings need to be effective based on current supply and demand fluctuations.
3. Products or services have changed. If you’ve added or removed products and/or services, your marketing materials need to reflect those changes.
4. Competitive changes. This is one area you absolutely want to make sure you’re keeping up with the Joneses. You don’t want stale messages to hold your brand back while your competitors offer fresh and inspiring marketing.
5. Contact information updates. If your address, phone, website or e-mail has changed, your marketing materials need to as well. If you’ve added – or need to add – a social media presence then your marketing needs to reflect that, too.

The market is constantly evolving and changing. Don’t let the materials designed to boost your brand get behind the times. A marketing materials audit gives your brand the boost it needs to keep rocking. Give us a call – we’re always ready help your brand reset and refresh.

The Bigger Picture

Picture this. You have the perfect idea for an event, and you feel that it represents your brand’s vision to a T. Yet, there are so many steps to get from A to Z that you start feeling overwhelmed and as the date of the event looms nearer, you realize how many things you wish you had planned for. If you have ever felt this kind of stress before or are currently experiencing it, this is the blog for you.

When it comes to event marketing, there are multiple moving pieces. At times there are so many pieces that it may seem like there are too many starting points. To help set a starting point for you, let’s focus on the big picture and then hone into the minute details that will lead your brand’s vision to the picture-perfect moment.

The First Focus: Scheduling

Imagine event marketing to be like a photographer setting up the most picturesque scene. To capture the moment perfectly, at times working backwards is best. In this case, thinking about what you want the vision to look like as a whole then mapping out how to get to that end goal. Although this may seem unorthodox, this process will lead you to a track record of success while also allowing you to tweak the planning breakdown to fit your needs.

At Front Porch Marketing, we start with writing everything down, especially anything that is time-sensitive i.e. inviting VIPs, scheduling speakers, printing deadlines, and booking sponsors. This timeline allows you to envision a clear reality and identify immediate “strikethroughs” or ideas that should be nixed.

Next, identify your audience, define your message, and determine the experience you want to provide. Having a clear vision is important, because all of the smaller event details and decisions will flow from it.

The Second Focus: Seamlessness

Once you have the deadlines and your audience in mind, choose a venue, food, music, entertainment, format, and feel that aligns best with your vision. Stay true to the experience you want to provide, and these decisions will flow easily.

When it comes to your deadlines, also keep geography in mind. Although it may seem natural to book an event near your location, for your professional partners, sponsors, or guests this location may be new terrain. As such, ensure the professional partners and sponsors you choose to assist you are on board with your vision. Your caterer, photographer, videographer, etc. should also be well versed in what your plans and expectations are for the event.

The Final Focus: Structure

Now that your event is on the horizon, it is time to hammer out the final details. Here are some of my final tips on how to create that picture-perfect moment for your future events.

1. Create an overall schedule for the day and share with all of your professional partners and staff.
2. Double-check with your staff on their roles and make sure that all loose ends are tied.
   • Examples of closing loose ties:
     • Posting check-in times to all communication platforms.
     • Pre-inspecting uniforms.
     • Finalizing catering details with the company of your choosing and making sure no cross-contamination occurred.
     • Securing all entrances and marking them accordingly.
     • Making sure that the exits are not blocked by staff or their respected station.
     • Posting last minute schedule changes to all social media platforms.
3. Notify staff and members who should be called in case of an emergency or in the event that something needs to be addressed.
4. Do an event run through the night before to make sure that all equipment is running smoothly. Also do another run through at least two hours prior to the event.
5. Check that social media has been posted and is shareable throughout the event. (A quick way for guests to get plugged in is to post QR codes throughout the location or on deliverables.)
6. Center the company’s brand at the forefront of the event from color schemes to logos to swag.
7.  Brand the sponsored content and products by making sure that they are explicitly seen.
8. Label Wi-Fi passwords and make them visible.
9. Double-check that all mandated COVID protocols are being followed. Have disposable masks and sanitation stations readily available to increase accessibility and comfort.
10. Promise a good time (and deliver)!

In Conclusion

We love planning, executing, and marketing events for our clients! Most recently, it has been our privilege to partner with Faith Family Academy to create a socially distanced graduation ceremony that is expandable for future success. We look forward to executing more events in the future and are proud of the recent 2021 graduates.

I hope that these tips are helpful and got your creative juices flowing! If you need help planning an event come see us on the Porch!

R Studio 101

You may be wondering, what is R Studio? Is it easy to learn? R Studio is a programming language for statistical computing and graphics. The overall goal of R Studio is to help you summarize and analyze data that will provide insights for making data-driven marketing decisions. While it is not initially easy, like most things, through practice and many trials you can hone your skills just as I have.

This past semester, at Baylor University, I had the pleasure of doing in-depth customer analysis through R Studio and learned how to create data visualizations and perform different statistical analyses using R codes.

Data Science

Data science is the future of business analytics, yet it is often difficult to figure out where to start. The last thing you want to do is waste time and money with the wrong tool or program. Making effective use of your time involves two pieces: 

(1) selecting the right tool for the job at hand

(2) efficiently learning how to use the tool to increase value for your business.

This blog focuses on the first part, explaining why R is the right choice in three points.

Reason One: High Return on Value

The first reason for why R may be the right tool for the job is if you are looking to use a statistical programing language that lends itself well to an extensive infrastructure of big data. R covers a wide range of topics such as econometrics, finance, and time series. R has the best-in-class tools for visualization, reporting, and interactivity, which are just as important to business as they are to science. Because of this, R is well-suited for scientists, engineers, and business professionals.

With the analysis of customer analytics through R, business professionals can:

1. Increase sales to new and existing customers.
2. Increase response rates and customer loyalty.
3. Reduce campaign costs by targeting customers most likely to respond.
4. Increase sales force effectiveness by targeting qualified prospects.
5. Reduce customer churn by accurately predicting customers most likely to leave and developing the right proactive campaigns to retain them.
6. Deliver the right message by segmenting customers more effectively and better understanding target populations.
7. Deliver higher returns on marketing and promotions investments by contacting the right customers with highly relevant offers/messages.

These all important marks for a company and can be drastically improved through R.

Reason Two: Free Open-Source Tool

When downloading R for business use, one of the greatest pros is that it is an open-source program. Therefore, it can be modified and redistributed as per the user’s need. It is great for visualization and has far more capabilities, compared to other tools like Python.

Companies, such as Facebook, Microsoft, and Google, are using R programming as their core platform to make online advertising more effective. They also use R for economic forecasting and Big-Data statistical modeling. Due to the results that the ‘console’ and ‘plots’ provide in R, these big-name brands are able to make dutifully noted decisions.

Reason Three: Easy to Use

What is great about using R Studio is that once you understand the basics, you will be able to transcribe codes to more advanced stages since they have similar frameworks. Although it takes a couple tries to understand the statistical language, through failure comes success. To help create successful codes and interpretations, the RStudio Cheatsheets are a great reference guide for R syntax as well as YouTube videos.

Conclusion

Whether you use R or Python or another program, find out what your customer data strategy is and what your marketing strategy is to find that perfect balance between the two.

2021 moved consumer shopping from brick and mortar to eCommerce – most likely for good. Increased demand for online shopping turned retail into an Omnichannel experience over night. Right at the cusp of experiential retail taking over, many retailers pivoted to eCommerce. So online was the only experience in shopping last year for many. Some stores and services even stayed exclusively eCommerce for the better part of 2021 – and remain so still.

Moving a brick and mortar business to eCommerce – like a restaurant, a doctor’s office, a clothing boutique – isn’t easy, and in 2020 many retailers moved their businesses years into the future in an instant. How exactly did they do that?

Pivoting from bricks to clicks

While planning to add the services of tele-health such as video sessions and text therapy, our client Apple Counseling sped up their timeline when 2021 presented them with a situation where their services were more in demand than ever. Yet, in-person brick and mortar was not the preferred method for experiencing mental health services.

By putting the infrastructure in place to accommodate many types of digital health services, and a robust new website, Apple was able to pivot quickly from exclusively brick and mortar to ecommerce. Going forward, they’ll keep the digital services they’ve added as they open their offices back up to in-person sessions. This new hybrid model is one that is being replicated all over the world of retail.

How to incorporate brick and mortar to ecommerce into your business model

Making ecommerce part of your long-term strategy is a smart move. eMarketer estimates that ecommerce sales grew 27.6% in 2020. Start by assessing how your customers use your business. For instance, if you are a restaurant, what percentage of your business is already take-away and to-go orders? What are you doing to maximize this experience for your customers already, and how can you streamline it or plus it up to make it better? Increase your eCommerce sales by adding new ways to order like website, social, text or 3^rd party apps.

A consumer Incisiv survey  indicated that 80% of shoppers expect to continue to use contactless and curbside pickup this year. Can you repurpose part of your brick and mortar space to make it easier to fulfill your eCommerce orders? Instead of a clothing boutique, can you make your merchandise accessible on-line?

Our client GNB, a women’s clothing retailer, quickly built out website and Instagram last year to showcase her customer’s favorite brands and fulfilled orders in a new way. Now that she has opened her brick and mortar up in a new space, she is keeping the online store in place to continue to cater to the wider audience she developed when she was exclusively online.

Your Business Strategy Pivot

When you move from in-store to on-line you’ll need to perhaps rethink your business plan to accommodate a regional versus local audience. Rely on your social media analytics for demographic information to guide your choices. Cater to the right audience. Think about the yoga studios that pivoted to teaching class online, or the wineries that now offer Zoom tastings with professional sommeliers.

Your “physical” space might become an order fulfillment center, or a showroom only. Showrooms are a growing choice for retailers (like Sephora) to show off a smaller portion of their total inventory. Customers can then place their orders in the showroom. Or, return to pick them up in a few days or have them sent to their home. But the customer will have had the chance to interact with your retail brand in person to some extent.

Your New Brick and Mortar to eCommerce Product Mix

Products that factor into an eCommerce retail business versus an in-person retail business may vary. Consider shipping, logistics and storage when rethinking your product or service mix. Think about what consumers are looking for – the needs of the market. How your brand can make your customers’ lives easier in some way?

Marketing for a digital-first business

With an eCommerce-first model, more of your budget will go to digital improvements in your website, digital marketing and social media. Upgrade not just the look of your website to really give customers the feel of your brand – upgrade your SEO. Search engine optimization can help the right customers find you on search engines. Use a combination of keywords, content marketing, targeted digital marketing and social media. Optimizing how you talk about your business online can help new customers find you faster.

When your brand transitions from brick and mortar retail to eCommerce, you can reinforce your brand’s benefits with your current customers while growing a new audience online. Then the convenience of online retail opens up a whole new world of potential business. With some thoughtful strategy and a digital marketing plan, your retail business can capitalize on this trend, and you can double down on your brand smoothly and successfully moving from brick and mortar to eCommerce.

It’s time to evaluate your marketing strategy for the second half of the year. With Q1 in the rearview mirror, and thick in the midst of Q2 now is the time to plan what comes next.

Failing to plan is planning to fail

My kids hear Benjamin Franklin’s quote about planning often. They are teenage boys and the simplicity of “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail” strikes a chord. In October we talked about 2021 marketing planning – and it is absolutely crazy that the second half of 2021 is right around the corner. May is the perfect time to plus-delta your marketing plan to rock Q3 and Q4.  

We wax the marketing plan lyrical often, if you want some additional reading search Marketing Plan right here on Off Your Rocker, because it is a topic we keep coming back to because it is that important. Running through your activities, business, leisure or really anything without a plan to evaluate often leads to a failure.

Who could have planned for 2020!?!

For real. If you had pandemic marketing plan – ROCK ON! Many threw out the 2020 marketing plan and went into crisis or survival mode. Is it safe to say most everyone was scrambling in the unchartered time. Now that we are well into Q2, what lessons can we learn? Should we all write pandemic marketing plans? No! Should you have crisis plan? Maybe. Should you have a stop-gap strategy at-the-ready if everything falls apart? Yes.

Plan to evaluate a pivot

It was easier for teams to pivot from a plan versus starting from scratch in 2020. Existing plans guided and grounded activity for some, for others it gave a communication channel for policy and operation updates. We were reminded of the importance of staying positive in all marketing efforts and staying true to your brand. We celebrated the entrepreneurial spirit of our network and were honored to be a part of several brand launches in the back half of 2020.

Now is the time to look at the 2021 plan to evaluate what stays in, what stops and what needs to be added. Let’s get ready for the second half and move forward with purpose and intention to flourish the rest of the year.

Seamless, sharp, and sophisticated. That is the vision that Front Porch Marketing has for you and your brand as we share why you should style your Instagram highlights.

With the right color scheme, design, and icons, you can drive more views and engagement with your Instagram bio at little to no cost.

If you are looking for a push to execute this vision and wow your audience the next time, they see your page, this is the blog for you!

The Vision

When you open up your company’s Instagram page, what is the first thing you see? Most likely, your eyes go to the colorful posts or maybe a bold profile picture with a strong branding icon, but acting as an overlooked middleman is a row of highlight icons. Currently, there may be as little as 0 or as many as 100 on your page – the sky is the limit.

Truly, the only limit that is regarded is that only up to 100 pictures can be posted within a story highlight, but highlights – much like a reel – should be seamless, sharp, and sophisticated and not fragmented, sloppy, and cluttered. Most importantly, they should be an extension of your brand’s story.  

The Highlight

Many take a lot of time and effort to create the perfect “story” to post on Instagram. Whether it includes colorful gifs, a unique poll, engaging videos, or a giveaway you are extending a vision to viewers about your brand and its values. What is disheartening about all that time and effort is that it dwindles in significance alongside the 24-hour frame that stories are set on. Plus it requires the utmost strategic thinking.

Now, with story highlight reels you are able to make the stories on your Instagram stay permanently on your profile for viewers to enjoy at any given moment. By adding this extra step to your Instagram branding strategy, you are able to strategically use a prime location on your bio and create an immediate place of engagement with users.

Step 1: Be Seamless

What is great about engagement is that you can cast the vision for what viewers see and find different ways to resonate with them. For example, aesthetics are incredibly favored amongst millennials and are a growing target market for many companies. Thus, considering aesthetics on all social media platforms allows you to connect with this audience and others like it.

To create a seamless experience for users, use highlights to promote content that can showcase your products or services, express your brand, drive traffic and market your business. If your profile has bold colors, seamlessly transition the same color palette to your story highlights while also extending a nod to your brand as a whole. If your posts have a color scheme, extend it to your highlight to establish immediate brand recognition or go with a splash of color to draw in your audience with a double look. No matter what you choose, think about your brand as a whole and embody that within your highlight story covers – the first picture that viewers see on a highlight reel.

Step 2: Be Sharp

When it comes to your story highlight covers, always use high-definition content and think “succinct” when it comes to titles. There is a 10–11 character count rule of thumb when it comes to highlight covers. The more characters you use, the higher the chance that your highlight title will end up with an ellipsis instead of the word you were trying to promote. Whether you use CTA words like “events,” “promotions,” “sales,” or “giveaways,” be consistent and above all, do not be misleading in any way.

Step 3: Be Sophisticated

Last but not least, when it comes to Instagram story highlights create a look of sophistication. By using sites like Canva, Unsplash, and/or Pinterest, there are 100’s of highlight cover designs that are pre-made and ready to go at a moments notice for you and your company. No matter if you choose icons, HD pictures, graphic designs or a color palette, always keep your brand at the forefront.

In Conclusion

First, to bring your Instagram to the next level, revamp the look of your Instagram’s aesthetics with a seamless, sharp, and sophisticated look. Second, when it comes to highlight covers think about what story you want your viewers to plug into. Third, see your platform through the viewers eyes to see which highlights you want them to engage with first.  In summary, bring the middleman to the forefront.

Chances are you have seen a post or two about what days and what times are the best for posting on social media. And in fact, they are all probably right, and probably wrong. You see, the best time and place for YOUR social media is totally dependent upon your followers.

Short Cuts to an Optimal Social Media Time and Place Posting Schedule

What people want is a quick fix to their social media. A set-it-and-forget it system that they can follow that requires the least amount of work. But social media is not a broadcast channel like television, radio, or a print ad. Social media is supposed to be SOCIAL. Your social media channels are the place where you can actually have one-on-one conversations with people who love your brand already. How do you know they love you already? They’ve chosen to follow you, haven’t they? So talk with them when they are sitting there ready to have that conversation.

Sure, there are general guidelines for posting on social media channels, many of which have to do with putting yourself in someone else’s shoes for a moment. When are people most likely scrolling thru Instagram? What are people doing on their lunch break besides eating? (hint: scrolling thru Instagram) What’s the last thing that people do before they go to sleep at night, while they’re laying in bed? (another hint: scrolling thru Instagram) You get the picture. So how do you determine what social media channels and times are the best for your brand? When can you maximize a conversation with your followers going forward? The short answer is “the past”.

The Right Channel for Your Social Media

Each social media platform has a specific and different purpose. By offering a little bit different perspective and content on each channel of social media (instead of using the channels to broadcast like a tv or radio station) a company can show their many sides and offer a more nuanced look at their company, much like you would develop a friendship with a real person and grow to appreciate the many facets of their personality. So after you’ve given your social media channels a spring cleaning, start looking at your analytics.

Social Media Analytics

Every platform you post on for your brand has some form of analytics. You can see a surprising amount of information about your followers in the insights part of your dashboard, whatever the platform. One of the most valuable pieces of information in there is when your followers are on the platform. Start there. Your followers might be the breakfast crowd, in which case 6:15 – 8:30am is a good time for you. Maybe your followers are night owls in which case, program your posts (or manually post them) after 9:00pm.

With 63% of American users checking Instagram at least once a day, and 74% of American users checking Facebook once a day – according to Hootsuite – , you’re sure to find at least one and probably more than one heavy use time in your follower insights.

Scheduling platforms like Hootsuite, Buffer and Planoly make it even easier – they look at the analytics of your followers and tell you the best times to post without the research. Taking advantage of these low-cost automation platforms can save you valuable time, so you can concentrate your efforts on content creation.

Past Performance

Look at your social media feed on any channel as an indicator of what to post in the future. Which posts did well? What type of content got the most likes or comments? Do more of that. Look to your past performance to guide your future endeavors.

What are your competitors doing?

Competitive research is not just for branding and creative. Take a look at what your competitors are posting – what, when and where – when you’re setting up your optimal schedule. Look for patterns in not just your own feed, but in the similar feeds of your competitors and do more of what they are doing the best.

Post, Rinse, Repeat

Testing your content in different forms and at different times will also provide key insights when scheduling the best times and places for your social media as part of your content marketing plan. There is no one-size-fits-all best time solution that will fit every grand, as your brand’s best time and best platform are just as unique as your branding.

With a little effort upfront, you can glean insights into your audience that will not only increase your engagement, but actually help your followers even more. They have questions they want answered and you have the answer – so use the information that is readily available and answer that question sooner.

The Clean Up 

Spring cleaning comes in many forms but have you extended it to your social media? Although this sounds like an odd notion, tidying up your social media ensures that your online platforms are building up daily engagement and generating leads. 

When you don’t pay attention to your social pages, your platforms become dated – something that should always be a priority to avoid. 

By focusing on these five points in your social media, you can make sure to revamp your social presence, renew your look, and refocus your brand strategy.

The Logo

When it comes to spring cleaning, start out with the basics. Your logo! Are your colors dated? Should you go brighter? Bolder? Is your logo still considered modern? These are all questions you should ask yourself to make sure that your company is putting their best foot forward and aligning with today’s day and age. 

The Header 

The header is one of the first things that your viewers will see when they come to Facebook and LinkedIn! When you look at it, ask yourself if the picture is…

1. High quality? 
2. Modern or dated? 
3. Reflecting the season your company is in? 
4. Updated with the awards and certificates your company has gotten throughout the year? 
5. Used across all platforms? 

Once these questions are answered, your social media strategy is that much closer to being polished.

The Bio

The bio for your company may be short and sweet or long and informative but is it as updated as possible? Are there new hashtags you want to include that are easily found? Are there any typos you may have missed the first time you wrote it? 

No matter how fantastic your bio may be, the smallest writing error can cast doubt about your capabilities to be detail-oriented. This is a mistake you never want to have reflected in your platforms.

The Feed

When it comes to your feed you want to make sure that it is an extension of your latest brand strategy. If your brand is bold then extend that message through bold colors, sharp photos, and succinct captions. If your brand is playful then extend your brand through bright colors, whimsical photos, and emojis. 

Now that you know what you want your feed to look like, look at it from a grander scale.

Do the last posts reflect a past brand strategy? Do you want that to be the first thing that viewers note? Or do you have a new brand strategy that you want to promote and want that to be the focal point? 

Whatever the case, you will want the most current brand strategy to be noticeable at first glance. Take the time to see your company from the eyes of your viewers.

The Website

When your customers look for your website, are they able to find it easily? If not, you may need to revamp and renew the list of keywords that is used for your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) on each page.

By using the most up-to-date keywords, you’re able to make sure that your site is found in an easy manner. Decreasing the level of friction for customers to be able to locate your website and find the information they are looking for is important because it can be the difference of gaining or losing a lead. 

You’ll also want to make sure that all the tweaks that you make on your social media platforms are extended to your site. If you made the colors brighter on your logo, extend that color palette to your site. If you modernized your feed, make sure that your photos and messaging on your site reflect that change. For every action there will always be a reaction.

The Conclusion

No matter how big or small your spring cleaning is, always keep your brand at the forefront. Taking the time to be detail-oriented, using these focal points, and putting your brand first is sure to create a springtime glow for you and your company.