All Entries in the "Marketing" Category

Local Start-Up Ohanga™ Inc. Seeks Interns

CITY, RHODE ISLAND USA—Ohanga™ Inc. (www.ohanga.com), is seeking several spring semester interns to work in the communications and marketing departments. Must be eighteen years or older to apply and currently enrolled in or have graduated from an undergraduate program.

Title: Communications Intern

Responsibilities: posting on and engaging through Ohanga Inc.’s social media accounts, primarily including Instagram and Facebook, but also extending to LinkedIn, Twitter, and exploring potential on Tik Tok. This includes designing attractive and on-theme graphics, writing captions appropriate for the current social media campaign, and finding the right hashtags. Ohanga posts 1-2 times a day (including weekends) on Facebook and Instagram; posts can be made manually every morning, or can be scheduled ahead of time under the guidance of a manager. The intern will also be expected to scout and recruit potential Ohanga Creative applicants through social media, brainstorm future social media campaigns, and research best practices for paid social media advertisements, giveaways, etc. Interns might also be asked to assist Ohanga Creatives with their personal social media accounts on a case-by-case basis.

Ideal qualifications: very comfortable with social media; ideally familiar with Canva; willingness to generate and pitch ideas; superior organizational skills; enthusiastic about understanding the Ohanga brand; exceptional ability to communicate and meet deadlines; detail driven and independent worker; flexible and easily adapts to the rhythms of a fast paced work environment.

Length: spring semester internship starting January 11th (negotiable) and ending on May 7th. Exceptional interns will likely be invited to continue working at Ohanga throughout the summer.

Time commitment: 5 hours per week for social media work. If an intern is also interested in gaining experience in other departments (marketing, editorial, magazine, business development, sales, HR, etc.) they are more welcome to extend to 10 hours a week.

Compensation: while the internship is unpaid, communication interns will gain invaluable experience in a young, intersectional, fast-paced company, and the chance to grow their portfolio. Ohanga’s status as a startup also offers interns the rare opportunity to work closely with the CEOs and small founding team, consequently executing tasks whose impact is immediately recognizable and important. Furthermore, interns are encouraged to pitch and spearhead projects both within and beyond their departments—at Ohanga, your ideas can come to life faster than anywhere else.

Title: Marketing Intern

Location: Remote

Responsibilities: Writing and editing Ohanga Inc.’s blogs and online content, primarily focusing on final top-level edits for SEO best practices. A marketing intern will also have the chance to tackle special projects as assigned, including lead generation and potentially copywriting. Researching trending topics and compiling analytics reports to monitor website traffic will be another area of work a marketing intern will gain exposure to periodically throughout the course of the internship. Training on using and coordinating CRM databases will be provided.

Ideal qualifications: Exceptional organizational skills, a genuine talent for creative problem-solving, and an interest in learning about the intersection between writing and marketing and where that fits in with the Ohanga brand.

Length: Spring semester internship starting January 11th (negotiable) and ending on May 7th.

Time commitment: 10 hours a week for content writing and edits. If an intern is also interested in gaining additional marketing responsibilities (or business development or editorial work) they are welcome to extend the number of hours in their work week depending on the responsibilities they assume.

Compensation: While the internship is unpaid, marketing interns will gain invaluable experience in a young, intersectional, fast-paced company and the opportunity to apply their marketing skills in a very hands-on approach. Ohanga’s status as a startup also offers interns the rare opportunity to work closely with the CEOs and small founding team, consequently executing tasks whose impact is immediately recognizable and important. Furthermore, interns are encouraged to pitch and spearhead projects both within and beyond their departments—at Ohanga, your ideas can come to life faster than anywhere else.

To learn more about Ohanga, visit www.ohanga.com.

For questions, please contact info@ohanga.com.

Interested in applying? Please send your resume to info@ohanga.com by January 6th, 11:59 pm.

RISBJ Staff | Dec 15, 2020

4 Things You Must Consider Before Building Social Video

By Simply Measured

Featuring and distributing videos on social is becoming more and more popular. In the gallery below, we’ve got some stats to prove it.

Video is consuming content marketing and advertising strategy. It should start to consume your social strategy, too. But distributing video content on social willy-nilly, without a strategy for where and how you’re posting, will not produce the results you’re looking for. That’s why we hosted a webinar, Social Video Marketing in 2018: What Social Marketers Need to Know.

In the webinar, Lucy Hitz, Head of Marketing Communications, and Matt Tesmond, Product Marketer, reviewed everything you need to know about building and measuring your social video program. Here are three techniques you absolutely must use as you do this.

1. Consider the Stage

As you create a social video marketing strategy, you must nail down which audience you are trying to target and which themes will resonate with this audience.

We like to think of this in terms of the marketing funnel.

Are you trying to create awareness for your brand, or convert your audience into buyers, or do you want people to continue to buy your products/services and become advocates? Your intention here is super important, because it shapes the direction you go when you’re creating your content.

Here are some examples we reviewed that apply to different stages of the funnel.

Awareness

In this example, Everlane is introducing a pair of flats, which are versatile and can be dressed up or dressed down. The video uses a blend of aspirational and audience-relevant messaging to achieve its awareness aim. It’s important to note here that, with this video, Everlane is expanding awareness of both their brand and this specific product.

This video could be used with equal success to reach both new audiences of likely buyers and audiences who already know and care about the Everlane brand.

Consideration

Daily Harvest is a subscription service that will send pre-made smoothies to your door. Here, they are introducing another box size with 9 cups.

They are targeting an audience that knows about their brand and service, but may have been on the fence about purchasing from them.

By showing that they are adding more subscription options, they are educating their audience to push them through the consideration stage into the conversion stage.

This is also a great example of a low-lift but still aesthetically appealing video. You don’t need the bells and whistles to be successful on social video—as long as you understand your goals and audience.

Advocacy/Loyalty

Many times, brands build video content to keep customers happy about their decision to use their products/services, and to deepen this connection.

In this example, we see Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson advocating for Alaska Airlines.

2. Consider Video Length

You want to make sure your video is capturing your audience’s attention, and length plays a huge part in that. Here are some tips for optimizing on your video length.

Capture the audience’s attention within the first 3-5 seconds
Long-form videos should live on YouTube
Auto-play social videos should be no more than 60 seconds
Link to long-form videos if you want people to see more
The shorter the better, but make sure you’re getting your key points across

With Simply Measured Social Analytics, you can measure video consumption across all active social channels in one place, to see what your audience is watching. Having these metrics is important when you want to determine which lengths or types of videos are resonating the most with your audience.

3. Consider Your Reporting Structure

We talk a little bit about how you can report on your own videos in a recent video marketing blog post, but I wanted to reiterate some of the reporting formats.

Options:

High-Level vs. Deep Dive
Channel vs. Channel
Owned vs. Earned
Paid vs. Organic
Dynamic vs. Static

You can track video metrics, such as videos posted, impressions, views, and engagement on one single channel or across multiple.

Competitors and Industries

While you feel like you might be confined to creating video content that’s specific to your industry, it’s okay to do some digging in other industries to see what’s working best for their audience.

You can track accounts outside of your industry or your competitors with Simply Measured. You’re able to see engagement metrics and top video posts. Use these stats as a way to benchmark against how your videos are performing, or as maybe a starting point if you’re new to social video marketing.

4. Inhabit the Testing Mindset

The great part about social video marketing and trying something new is that you have the ability to test your strategies and make tweaks accordingly.

Continue to try new video features, and explore different strategies across channels. Social video marketing is a train you want to get on; we’re rooting for you! For extra guidance, download the guide below.

RISBJ Staff | Jun 01, 2018

Why Social Should Be the Nucleus of Every Matrix Organization

By Simply Measured

As a Xennial mom who’s lucky if I get out to run once a week, I never thought I’d be able say something like this: A major lifestyle brand taught me how to skateboard.

Seriously. A Facebook friend shared the RSVP page for a free, women-and-girls-only skateboard clinic that Vans was hosting at an indoor skatepark the shoe company recently opened in Chicago. My body had its concerns but my mind likes to think that I’m not too old to learn new tricks, so I laced up my Sk8-Hi’s and signed up.

Instructors at the event taught women of various ages and skill levels everything from balancing on a board to dropping into a ramp. That afternoon, Vans not only brought together a group of women with similar interests and priorities but they expertly rallied this group around their brand.

As I nursed the numerous (and I do mean, numerous) bruises the day after, I realized that in addition to affirming that I’m probably past my skateboarding days the clinic also reminded me that the idea of the homogenous audience no longer exists.

Highly-segmented, persona-driven marketing is clearly the most effective means of creating relevance and brand affinity. And while investing in major experiential executions to reach a specific geographic/demographic audience may not be realistic for most brands, using social to find, understand and reach those same audiences is.

With its array of audience targeting capabilities and rich demographic data, social is the only scalable engine that can drive a segmented audience strategy. That’s why the way social is positioned internally is a direct reflection of your organization’s level of digital sophistication.

The Social Transformation

You know the history. When social was first introduced to the mainstream it was a place where Ashton Kutcher used 140 characters to tell fans what he had for lunch. But it wasn’t long before the major social platforms rapidly transformed from scrappy startups into publicly traded companies powered by big data and beholden to Wall Street.

Brands have struggled to keep pace with this shift. Unlike other traditional marketing functions, social’s astronomical rise to prominence and myriad business use cases has resulted in ambiguity about which teams are best positioned to “own” it:

Is social PR?

Content?

Acquisition?

Customer Marketing?

Events?

The case could be made for any one of these, because social is arguably the one marketing channel that has the capabilities and functionality to impact everything from product design to brand advocacy.

That’s because social is a cross-functional hybrid of of research and development, HR, corporate communications, content, PR, digital advertising and customer care. This lucidity and ability to affect so many parts of a business should be embraced as the platform’s primary strength, but so frequently it’s not.

Instead of placing social at the center and building outward to construct a consistent, transformative digital brand strategy, matrix organizations routinely silo social as a standalone team that is usually limited to one or two areas of marketing focus. That’s a miss, because social has the power to transform the way you approach and act on the most important decisions your business makes.

Beyond Marketing: Broadening the Scope of Social

You already know that the impact of social extends beyond your marketing department. So how do you take full advantage by shifting your organization to a social-first model?

Put Your Customer Experience First

To successfully move social from the sidelines to the center of your business, you have to rethink and remap your customer journey. Highlight the recurring touchpoints where social can support and amplify purchasing decisions in an agile and cost-effective way.

Track the existing points along the path to purchase – from awareness all the way through retention – where your target audience is likely to interact with your brand on social. And be cognizant that this is different than identifying where your audience could interact with your brand.

Sure, there’s a chance a subset of your target persona identified YouTube as their number one source for educational content. But that doesn’t mean you need to invest in a series of highly-produced tutorials just to reach that limited audience. That isn’t a strategic or scalable approach. Instead, focus on your core audience’s experience.

Think Outside the Dialogue Box

Thinking about how your audience uses social includes thinking about how you use social. From venture capitalists in the boardroom to interns in the mailroom–most of us are using social personally to cultivate relationships, find information or share what’s important to us. Making a concerted effort to use the skills you’ve developed as a social user will help you think differently as a social marketer.

Here’s a personal example: One of our sales guys was recently debating what color t-shirt to bring to his prospect as swag. One of our colleagues suggested that he look at the prospect’s public Instagram profile, where we found a post of him in full St. Patrick’s Day attire with the caption, “I love this day because green is my favorite color.” No joke. He loved the t-shirt.

So why not encourage your B2B sales team to use social as a search engine to learn about what makes a prospect tick when they’re not on the clock? Building a rapport over a shared love of perfect ski powder is a lot more effective than opening your email with a bland comment about the weather.

Social can’t become a critical, cross-functional practice until it becomes integral. Relationship building is just one of social’s many strengths outside of marketing, but it’s one that can amplify your efforts in everything from sales to recruiting.

“Always On” Is the New Norm

Your audience uses social consistently so if your current social strategy only consists of large and infrequent one-off campaigns, you may have some heavy lifting to do. Social cannot be seen as the nucleus of a matrix organization unless it’s demonstrated itself as a yearound driver of ROI.

That requires your brand to prioritize a proactive engagement strategy that is rooted in human to human interaction and dedicated to providing value.

Your audience’s use of Facebook doesn’t revolve around seasonal campaigns so why does your strategy?

Social is where your prospective and existing brand loyalists are most vocal. That’s why you need to be constantly and consistently listening, analyzing, refining and communicating your social learnings at a regular cadence.

Even at the most mature organizations, this isn’t possible unless your social team is positioned and empowered to work laterally across a wide range of stakeholders and business units.

One way to ensure this? Rethink your social team’s role.

Consider re-allocating your team’s time spent on the day-to-day (i.e. “always on”) social management. Reevaluate what your team focuses on and when. This will ensure your team is involved in the cross-functional ideation of large, integrated marketing campaigns.

This gives your brand the best of both worlds: Your social team has a seat at the table for creative campaign execution and you’re still maintaining a dedicated internal stakeholder that is responsible for engaging, listening and distributing social learnings across your company.

Digital Follows on Social

Many smart marketers have their eye trained on the ‘digital transformation,’ but the smartest marketers know that rethinking the way we approach social is the real opportunity to be truly transformative.

Not only is social paving the way for what’s next, it’s swiftly impacting consumer behavior and expectations across demographics.

Putting your audience experience first (and thinking like they do on social), maintaining a consistent presence and rethinking how social is prioritized cross-functionally within your organization will put you on the path from being social-savvy to being social-driven, from the inside out.

RISBJ Staff | Jun 01, 2018

Social Storytelling: How to Do It Better

By Simply Measured

Often, the problem that brands have marketing themselves is not based on how good their product is or even how promising their marketing plan is. The barrier to connecting with audiences is failing to answer these questions clearly and specifically:

Who is my “built for you”? Who is my audience?
How do I get my idea into my audience’s head?
How do I change the way my audience thinks?
How do I change the way my audience behaves (ahem, buys)?

These are great questions to surface during your next campaign planning session. The bottom line for social marketers here is: to change the way your audience behaves, no matter what your goal is as a brand, you must change the way they feel and think.

Your Audience

Many brands fall into the trap of choosing too broad an audience. My first tip here is to get as specific as possible with your marketing personas.Social listening solutions can help you do this.

The more targeted the audience you have, the easier and more effective your work as a social marketer will be.

Once you’ve drilled down on the specific identities and proclivities of your audience(s), it’s time to get clear on each audience’s goal. What is the thing this audience wants that your brand will help them get?

Your Audience’s (New) Problems

Now that you understand your audience on a fundamental level, you can understand their problems. But don’t find just any problem. Don’t find the problem that all your competitors have found. Find the problem that your audience couldn’t see before, and aggressively go after both highlighting and prescribing the answer to that problem.

Easily run keyword and hashtag analysis with Simply Measured Social Listening.

Make the pain of the status quo seem more painful than the pain of acting.

Choose the Right Distribution Channels

And double down on them. Use social analytics to identify the most robust social channels for your audience and product-relevant conversation.

Did you forget to listen to what your audience wants before planning? With Simply Measured Listening, you can sort the conversation easily by posts, social channels, hashtags, conversation keywords, and even most influential people in the conversation.

Then be strategic about how you use these channels, and only focus on the channels where this conversation is already happening. This is especially important when you have limited resources for both content development and ads (which most of us do). Meet your audience where they are.

Think of it this way: You could have the best water in the world, but if it’s flowing through a leaking pipe, no one will ever taste it.

Use This Framework

This framework can help you tell better stories on social.

What’s the goal of your campaign and/or strategy?
What is the problem you solve? How can you tell that story?
What idea do you want to replace in your audience’s heads?
What change do you want to make?

Remember that the buying process is inherently emotional for every human being. Education is key, and delivering facts is important, but, ultimately, it’s changing the way people think and feel that will put the dollars in your brand’s bank and increase awareness, adoption, and advocacy for your brand.

Make Big Bets on Fewer Things

Most social marketers and brands pump out a ton of content, much of which is not valuable to their audiences. Instead, make big bets on fewer things: fewer pieces of content, fewer messages, fewer campaigns.

For example, if you are a B2B brand, put over half your time and promotion resources into a major industry study. If you are an eCommerce brand, put half your time and promotion resources into a particular photo shoot, video campaign, or narrative. Look at the analytics often to understand what’s working and what’s not so you can swiftly pivot.

RISBJ Staff | Jun 01, 2018

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