Check Your Work

In the wake of all of the covid-19 craziness, it’s easy to get wrapped up in the news, your new schedule, and the thought that you’ll be enjoying your Guinness and corned beef at home tonight.

Given everything going on, this is a good time to check all of scheduled social media posts, blog posts, email messages, and scheduled advertisements. Are you advertising an event that’s no longer happening? Have your hours changed? There’s no time like the present to look over all of these things and make sure that posts and ads are still relevant.

If you run a business or non-profit with posted walk-in hours, be sure to update your website and social media accounts as well. And while we think it’s great to notify your subscribers about changes via email, it’s good to remember that even the best email is still only read by a portion of your subscribers.

On a related note, there’s no time like the present to remind your staff about your expectations for communication for your organization. People love to share information and though intentions are usually good, this is where misinformation and rumors begin. My practice in the retail world was to: a. limit information shared with our staff who had the “gift of gab” and b. remind everyone that our messaging will be available to customers on a set date and that it will go out through our normal channels.

We know that marketing can be a moving target at times. If you need help with your creative and communication, please don’t hesitate to drop us a line!

2 Minutes of Social Media: Hashtag Overload

We’ve enjoyed Instagram since it’s inception. It’s pure visual simplicity allows your images to lead and drive your story. Simple. Clean. Uncluttered. Perhaps even “real” at times.

But those #hashtags! Are you overdoing it?

Much like the old trick of hiding keywords and links on websites (don’t do this), many Instagram users throw down a long list of hashtags with each post. Surely if one hashtag draws a little traffic, 50 will draw 50x more, right? Right?

Much like the old adage, some studies suggest that less is indeed more.  As much as you might want the world to know that you “#love having a #beer with a #beautiful #friend,” perhaps it’s time to reevaluate those hashtags and find tags that really fit. As with anything on the old “Information Superhighway” being relevant is key.

Love? Beautiful? Friend? Entirely overplayed. And as much as we like beer, perhaps mentioning that you’re enjoying #MNBeer or giving the brewery in your photo an @whatevertheirnameis might give you some more traction.

Our advice, take some time to evaluate your hashtags. Don’t just paste the same 30 tags on each of your posts. Take a look at your photo and decide what’s relevant. Does it fit the photo? Does it fit my business?

It’s also worth noting that users who follow hashtags have the ability to mark your tagged posts with “Don’t show for this hashtag.” Though this reporting doesn’t seem to lead to an immediate ban, it seems logical that this sort of information could be a useful tool for Instagram.

 


 

Looking for help with your social media? Whether you’re just getting started or looking for some help evaluating your current plan-of-attack, we can help. Drop us a line today!