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Be A Star! It’s a tool in your marketing toolbox…

By Nancy Thomas

I wish I had videoed the heated exchange at a recent networking group – what a missed
opportunity! A little over done debate about video and if video was marketing or was it really
advertising. The discussion festered into a debate over email, and on and on. What’s the big
deal? The difference is, of course, are you paying a 3 rd party to have your video put in front of
people – or are you using a longer form of video to tell a story over channels that are for the
most part free and accessible in the “new world” of marketing?

In today’s world of marketing and public relations – and yes, advertising – the messages are
becoming shorter and shorter. No longer is “long form” the most desirable way to get your
message across. Yesterday’s Facebook posts – are today’s Snapchat, Instagram, or even
Pinterest posts. Sometimes they are even a quick 5-10 seconds over a text-video message!
Just listen to these social media channel names – SNAPChat – and INSTAgram. Quick. Today. In
my face, give it to me – quick – so I can move on to the next thing. And it better be compelling,
or it won’t even reach the part of my brain that has room left to remember in this over-
communicated world.

So how does video come to play in all this rush to quick messaging. It has become even the
lowest common denominator – appealing to someone’s sense of visual processing – I don’t
even have to read this – just show me.

Now that we now WHY we are all rushing to video – HOW do we do it? Is it a quick Facebook
live? Or is it a painstakingly laborious and expensive 30 second commercial for a medium that
is losing audience numbers exponentially with each ratings period that goes by?

Video is part of marketing. If your marketing company isn’t doing it – or pushing you into
thinking all must be PERFECT to do it – then seek other advice. You don’t need to best lighting,
the best copy, the perfect scenario. Even the perfect technology. But you do need to catch
someone’s attention. And you need to speak in sound bites with grabbing visuals.

What to video?

Speak right straight into the camera and tell your story, talk about an upcoming event or sale,
or give them some useful information they need. Take a tour of your company, or store. Stop
and talk to people along the way. Do something unrelated to your company, too, to
personalize the message – show someone how to safely shovel snow – or how to pick out the
best apples in the grocery store. If you have a new product, video opening up the package as it
comes into your building. A nonprofit? Interview a client about what going to their fundraising
event will mean to them…the sky’s the limit – and don’t be all just about business.

 

Of course there are those times when things might not be “popping” about your message – or
the message is just too serious and well, mundane. In that case, tell the viewer right up front –
you’re going to talk at them, give them necessary information – and it’s information that they
want.

Cut it into segments – 3 minutes or less. The attention span has to be kept top of mind. Break
your mundane “lesson” or “message” into a series – 3 parts – or 6 parts – or once a week, even.
But keep to that 3 minutes or less video marketing message. Otherwise? Make a mini-movie –
or a 20-minute YouTube video – and place it appropriately with a little teaser up front – some
people will take the time to watch, but you have to literally lead them there.

What to do with it now?
Once you’ve done this little 3 minute video, now what do you do with it? Think multi-use. You
can put it on your website. Upload it to all your social media. Don’t forget LinkedIn. Send it out
to your client base in an email link. Upload it to a Constant Contact mailing or an e-newsletter.
Nothing you do today should be done for one simple format. Think multiple use – multiple
channels.

So – is video marketing advertising? I suppose it can be if you want to run a long form video ad
on someone’s website…but I would never advise it – that should look much more like the 30
second commercial you would see on traditional television.
Another tool for your toolbox.

Video is a tool. Just like a podcast is a tool. Or photographer is a tool. It is a great, short,
informal way to tell your story. Make it short – but longer than a TV ad (that no one is watching)
…think about the multiple channels of use. Don’t fuss and fret to make it perfect. If you’re
really bold do some Facebook LIVE – and again, repurpose it after the fact.

In this over-communicating world, take your message to video – let them see you, hear you,
and always leave them wanting for more – and give them a website or a click through with how
they can get the information.

If you move to traditional TV advertising or even YouTube production, then that is where you
will want to invest in lighting, professional sound and production – because you’ll be paying for
some of these placements – and you’ll want to make sure you look your Sunday best!

Otherwise, it’s super casual, super easy, right in your face, and wow them. Try it
today…remember, no fussing, just don’t it! Start right with that phone in your hand, set that
photo app to video – and have some fun.

You can be a star…and it starts with video marketing. Go for it! And – smile…
Nancy Thomas is public relations and marketing consultant, and is the owner of Tapestry
Communications, in Cranston, RI.

A Marketer’s Guide to Instagram Stories for Business

Since its launch in 2016, Instagram Stories has connected millions of users to the brands they love and follow in eye-catching and finger-tapping ways.

Instagram Stories, a feature of the Instagram platform, boasts more than 300 million active accounts. Instagram Stories put videos and photos that disappear after 24 hours in front of your target audience, and are a powerful business tool to engage with your fans and nurture lasting brand-consumer relationships. Here’s how you can best leverage Instagram Stories for your brand.

Popularity of Instagram Stories for Business

Instagram said 1 in 3 of its most-viewed Instagram Stories are from businesses. Brands are constantly updating their Instagram Stories with short videos, behind-the-scenes pictures, and more.

Instagram Stories showcase the voice and personality of brands in quick bursts, holding the attention of busy mobile phone users who are regularly scrolling through content and consuming mobile videos.

According to an Instagram study from 2017, the time users spent watching Instagram videos was up more than 80 percent compared to the previous year. Additionally, 60 percent of the platform’s users said they viewed more mobile videos on Instagram than in the previous two years.

How to Use Instagram Stories for Business

After opening the Instagram app that contains your business profile, users can either swipe to the right or click on the camera icon located on the top left of the screen to see options for Instagram Stories formats.

For brands who want to buy ads, there are three ways advertisers can create ads in Instagram Stories:

  • Ads Create Tool
  • Power Editor
  • API

For more information on using these tools and the design requirements for Instagram Storiesphotos and videos–including aspect ratio, resolution, and length–go to Facebook Blueprint.

When stories are updated, a ring appears around the profile picture to notify users of new content.

Brands often take advantage of the Stories Highlights feature to display stories at the top of their profiles. This helps categorize products or services together so consumers can quickly find content they’re interested in.

For example, Target’s Instagram account groups together seasonal items with its Spring Break and Easter stories. This also allows brands to organize and track the progress of their marketing campaigns.

Stories
Instagram Stories Analytics from Simply Measured

After posting a story, you can see view counts and other relevant key performance metrics via Instagram Stories analytics. See how Simply Measured and Sprout Social allow you track, analyze, and benchmark your most important Instagram data.

As for the ring that appears around profile images, this highlights when users search for accounts or hashtags using brand names. You can see that, when typing in “Starbucks” in the Instagram app, Starbucks Turkey has recently updated its Stories content because the ring draws users’ eyes to this account.

Users can interact with stories by messaging brands directly, sharing stories with their followers, or tapping on the screen to fast-forward content.

Instagram Stories Options for Content

Since its launch, Instagram Stories has added new features that make interacting and communicating with followers more fun and cost-effective. These features prove you don’t need a big ad budget or dozens of staff on a sound stage to create viral content.

This gives even the smallest businesses the ability to get a ton of views when armed with creativity and a smartphone. There are several ways to engage with users using Instagram Stories for business, including:

  • Type. Choose between different fonts to create text-only posts or add text to photos for captions or hashtags.
  • Live. Stream live video to your followers that will disappear from your feed in 24 hours. Or, if you want to replay or share videos for later, click Save after ending the video stream.
  • Boomerang. Record video that plays forward and then backward in a loop, similar to GIFs.

The other Instagram Stories options to explore are:

  • Normal
  • Superzoom
  • Rewind
  • Hands-Free
  • Stop-Motion

All of these options allow you personalize your content to fit into users’ feeds more organically. Plenty of users see these in action, and if your brand wants to get creative, you could use this to blend into a feed.

Display Full-Screen Ads

Source: Instagram Business

Instagram recently announced that it will support Instagram Stories ads in full-screen format. This allows businesses to go into Ads Manager and upload a photo or video on Instagram Stories. The ad will take up more screen space on cell phones, making more of an impression for mobile device users who are constantly scrolling through content.

Mobile-friendly features like full-screen Instagram Stories ads allow brands to take advantage of the growth of on-the-go social media users. With ads in full-screen format, businesses also have the option to include links that users can view by swiping up on their phones.

Play Video Stories

Videos on Instagram are versatile and can display short ads, customer testimonials, how-tos and tips, and other visuals. There are numerous ways to use videos of different lengths to highlight your brand, but videos that work with Stories are capped at 15 seconds.

When brands use Ads Manager to upload full-screen Instagram Stories video ads, they have 15 seconds or less to capture the attention of their followers. Add music or audio to the video to make more of an impact.

You can also share video ads on your Instagram profile that are in landscape or square format, and up to 60 seconds in length.

Stream Live Videos

Unlike videos uploaded to Ads Manager for Stories, live videos are not limited to a max of 15 seconds, allowing brands to stream product demonstrations, tutorials, Q&A sessions, and other long-form content.

Make a Stronger Call-to-Action

With the new ways brands are using Instagram Stories, they have to adapt their overall messaging to suit their audience, including their call-to-action. Since Instagram Stories caters to the mobile user crowd, there are CTAs that are made specifically for these devices to entice followers and hold their attention.

Calls-to-Action options for Instagram Stories ads include:

  • Apply Now
  • Book Now
  • Buy Now
  • Buy Tickets
  • Contact Us
  • Download
  • Shop Now
  • Watch More

You can include CTAs within the text of the video itself, including:

  • Swipe Up. Use the call-to-action “Swipe Up” to let users know there is a link to learn more about products or services.
  • Tap. Say “Tap” so users can tap the screen to speed up the story and get to the content they really want.
  • Share. Tell users to share the story by tapping on the paper airplane icon on the bottom right of the screen.

Ikea’s Instagram account encourages users to tap the screen to view images related to seasonal content. Mobile-driven calls-to-action bring to mind the more interactive features of Instagram, giving users reason to act now rather than later.

Another example of a brand employing creative Instagram Stories is J.Crew, which uses calls-to-action to convey a sense of urgency with its ads for “limited-time-only” sales, and they curate feedback from customers based on their own playful prompts.

Share Fan Photos & Videos

Starbucks frequently uses Instagram Stories to share follower images of its Instagram-worthy drinks.

Show your followers that you’re listening by sharing the photos tagged with or depicting your brand. Including follower photos in your feed or ads could encourage more followers to engage with you through likes and comments, or to share their own images.

If your brand works with influencers, ask these partners to record videos featuring or mentioning your brand in their Instagram Stories. These influencer videos can show the influencer using a product or service and giving a review. You can also highlight your brand’s relationship with influencers by interviewing the influencer on your brand’s Instagram Stories.

Instagram Stories & Analytics

Instagram Stories
Simply Measured Instagram Stories Analytics

With videos and photos widely viewed and shared on Instagram Stories for business every day, brands need to pinpoint which posts are actually success stories. Instagram has built-in analytics tools to get more insight on the number of impressions, reach, views, and other metrics connected to your posts.

Using analytics is crucial to understanding which posts are popular among your followers, how your audience is most likely to engage with your photos and videos, and if you are achieving your desired return on investment.

Whether it is for a single post or an entire marketing campaign, knowing the numbers behind engagement will help create more content with effective branding.

Cosmetics company CoverGirl used Instagram and Facebook to rebrand its image and tagline, reaching more than 30.1 million people combined on these platforms, according to Instagram’s Success Stories. CoverGirl found that it had five times higher message association compared with industry norms, and had 15 million video views.

The company created video ads for their target audiences, such as Hispanic and African-American women. This campaign includes a 15-second full-screen video ad in Instagram Stories that features a diverse group of women.

5 Ways to Prepare for a Launch with Social Media

I was talking to a coworker in the kitchen today. He’s co-writing a children’s book with his kids (aww!). The launch date is the end of this year, and he asked for some advice about how to promote the project on social.

A few ideas immediately came to mind. My coworker is a gifted artist and draws dragons on the whiteboards around our office. These dragons will also play a central part in his book. I suggested that he build affinity, attachment, and awareness for his book and the human story behind it—a dad writing a book with his kids—by posting images of the whiteboard drawings on Instagram, and behind-the-scenes content of the book creation process with his kids on Instagram Stories.

10 Social Lessons from Instagram Innovators

Instagram is a social network where a lot of parents spend time posting pictures of their children, as well as interacting with other parents and brands. It’s where his target audience is, and more importantly, where they are receptive to content like his.

As I continued the discussion with my coworker, it occurred to me that many of the principles I walked through with him could be useful to any business or individual launching just about anything. Here are the five noble truths of preparing for a product and/or brand launch with social media.

1. Get the Lay of the Land

Before you get too excited, take a deep breath. Survey your space. Get inspired by other innovators, from influencers and celebrities to brands. You’re looking for information in three categories:

  • What your target audience is talking about. This is the organic conversation happening between likely buyers in your industry and around major events in your industry.
  • What feelings provoke action in your target audience. Does your target audience engage most with content that inspires? That gets a laugh? That exposes vulnerability? That shows exactly what a product can do? That educates?
  • Which content types provoke action in your target audience. Does your target audience engage most with produced videos, more unpolished videos, photos, carousels, etc.?

Sure, you can scroll through your various feeds to get the lay of the land, but we suggest investing in a listening solution for a broader, deeper view—with less heavy lifting.

Simply Measured Social Listening

Taking the time to research and gather this information gives you a prescription for exactlywhat you should do as you prepare to launch.

2. What’s Your Goal?

What are you trying to accomplish on social media? More awareness of your brand among people who have never heard of it before? Consideration for buying your new product among people who already know about your brand? Get as specific as possible with both your goal (“Generate X% more awareness”) and your audience (“People who have never interacted with our brand before on social”).

The 2018 Metrics Map can help you determine how to match your goal with KPIs, so you know what to track as you go along.

Finally, you’ll want to get your social media analytics solution nailed down. This will enable you to track your progress towards goals, from 0…to infinity and beyond.

Simply Measured Cross-Channel Social Analytics

3. Choose Your Network(s) + Your Top 3

Once you’ve picked your specific goal, and gotten very specific about what achieving that goal looks like, it’s time to choose the social network(s) and three major strategies that ladder up to your goals. Here’s what you need to know.

  • Don’t choose too many social networks. Only choose as many social networks as you are able to nurture and/or maintain staff to focus on. Social media is not a second thought—it is a primary promotion and distribution channel. If you only have the time or resources to focus on one social channel, choose one social channel and make that your content hub.
  • Create unique content for each network. Posting the same content across various networks is rarely successful and will dilute your social success and results.
  • Choose the networks where your ads will be successful, too. Your social strategy should be a hybrid of organic and paid. That’s how you’ll have the most impact. Make sure that the social networks you focus on work well for brands like you for both organic and paid. That means it’s time to read some case studies.
  • Choose the three strategies you will focus on before, during, and immediately after your launch. Distill all your bold ideas and excitement about the launch down to three strategies you will employ over the course of your launch timeline: three in the lead-up to the launch, three during the launch phase, and three immediately post-launch.

4. Create a Launch Schedule

Did you know there’s an app for that? Use a solution like Sprout Social to plan out your pre-launch, launch, and post-launch schedule.

Upload all your visual content, and partner with stakeholders across different parts of the organization or geographical locations.

This process will ensure that your efforts are strategic and aligned—and that you’re not scrambling for content at the last minute and/or having to focus on social scheduling when there’s so much else to deal with on launch day/week/month.

5. Prime the Pump

Don’t wait. Get started now. Begin telling your story. Is your team spending long days and nights agonizing over the details of your upcoming launch? Share this experience on your social network of choice. When people see your struggle and passion, they are more likely to become invested in your success—and, ultimately, buy your product.

You can even ask your growing social audience for advice. Let’s say you’re opening a perfume shop. Should the walls be painted bright yellow or light green? Run a poll.

Offer a deluxe sample for the best advice.  Make your audience feel like they’re a part of your growth.

Instagram Stories
Simply Measured has Instagram Stories data. If you choose to invest in this channel, you can see how your launch efforts are performing. What you find out may even affect when, where, and how you launch.

Encourage content sharing—especially if awareness with totally new audiences is your primary goal. Build an in-person events schedule, and ask influencers and/or guests to share as much content as possible. Fuel your influencers/guests with everything they need to share your news, including messaging guidelines, images, video content, etc.

Twisted Networking Celebrates First Year With An April Party

PROVIDENCE — Capping off an incredible first year of connecting business people throughout the state, Twisted Networking will host their one-year anniversary event on Thursday, April 26, at the Regency Plaza, beginning at 6:00 P.M.

 

This event features interactive networking events to forge relationships between guests. Several people will receive awards for their efforts in getting Twisted Networking off the ground. They will also unveil their new website, www.twistednetworking.com.

 

Jevonya Allen, the brainchild of the Twisted Networking/Rhode Island event, said the concept fed off her personal experiences with various networking formats. Allen said some of the events she attended were structured, which she loved but, at times, were too stringent for her lifestyle. There were others that were fun, but were too relaxed for her liking, she added.

 

Twisted Networking is a fusion of the positive aspects of several networking event formats. This event is designed to be fun, informative, unique and a great use of time,” said Allen, who added there are similar events happening in Virginia, Florida and one coming soon to Massachusetts. “We have been getting a steady response from attendees from these events. We host monthly networking meetings. Here in Rhode Island, we have one in Providence at Brass Monkey and one at Jacky’s Galaxy in North Providence.”

 

Allen said there is some structure in how the night goes, but the response from guests has been positive. She noted that the events draw nearly 200 people from various industries and parts of the state. She added that being somewhat centrally located helps bring in different people and a chance to further their network.

 

The April soiree will also feature butler-style passed hors d’oeuvre’s, vendors, raffles including a 50/50 raffle and other activities. Allen said she is looking for raffle items, gift baskets and other donations from area merchants and individuals. She added that being somewhat centrally located helps bring in different people and a chance to expand their respective networks.

 

 

Tickets for this event are $20 each and may be purchased by contacting Jevonya Allen at 401-301-5938 or by e-mailing her at jsallen@gmail.com.

 

Anyone interested in learning more about the Twisted Networking monthly events, with the next event taking place on Tuesday, May 8, may contact Allen for more information.

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