4 Planning Tips for an Excellent Event

By Noelle Cutler, Leonard & Finco Public Relations

Make your presentation pop with these 4 tips

By Noelle Cutler, Leonard & Finco Public Relations

How should your business handle negativity on social media

By Noelle Cutler, Leonard and Finco Public Relations

5 tips to start your first "real" job the right way

By Noelle Cutler, Leonard & Finco Public Relations

Putting your social media ads to the test

By: Noelle Cutler, Account Executive
Leonard & Finco Public Relations

Becoming a resource for reporters

 By: Noelle Cutler, Leonard & Finco Public Relations

What does your (brand) voice sound like?

 By: Noelle Cutler, Leonard & Finco Public Relations

5 tips to learn new programs faster

By: Noelle Cutler, Social Media Specialist
Leonard & Finco Public Relations

If your business is on social media, you need a social media report

By: Noelle Cutler, Social Media Specialist, Leonard & Finco Public Relations

Let’s say your business uses social media, and you put in the time and effort to create content calendars, engaging posts and compelling graphics. But you’re missing one vital piece: a social media report. Skipping a social media report is like studying for a test, taking a test but then not bothering to have your test graded. If you’re not analyzing your social media success, what’s the point of trying to create successful posts? Here are three reasons why you need to conduct regular social media reports:

1. To determine the best content. If you have a good content calendar, then you know what kind of content you post each week; for instance, a Throwback Thursday or an employee spotlight each week. After a month or two of posting these, you should analyze how they’re performing. Are people sharing, liking and commenting on those posts? If the answer is yes, continue to post that kind of content. It’s pretty simple! 
2. To determine the best times/days. Here’s something you should be testing. If you’re posting similar content on Thursday at 8 a.m. and Saturday at 7 p.m., which post is reaching the most people and getting the most engagement? The answer can give you insight into when your audience is most likely to see your content. Facebook Insights actually shows you what days and times your followers are online. Compare this to the success of those two similar posts on different days and it should give you some additional insight. 
3. To determine what ISN’T working. If you have a great idea for a post, you should try it! Social media is a lot of trial and error to determine what your audience responds to. Don’t be scared to deviate from the normal routine, but don’t forget to look at the results of that new idea. With Facebook Insights, you can look at an individual post to see if you had anybody “hide” that post or unlike your page. That gives you some pretty good insight into what posts your followers don’t care to see.

A social media report doesn’t have to be extensive and super-detailed. You don’t need to see the results of every single thing you post. I recommend looking at the following on a monthly or quarterly basis: number of posts, likes and reach; time/date/content of top-performing posts; and follower demographics. After analyzing these areas, you can create posts for next month that are even better!  

4 tips to making an effective online video

By: Noelle Cutler, Social Media Manager, Leonard & Finco Public Relations

In 2015, users spent 100 million hours viewing videos on Facebook. If you think that’s a lot, you might be in store for more shock in the near future; some predict that video will account for over 80% of all internet traffic by 2019.

So video is and will continue be, a big deal. Whether it’s on Facebook or other platforms, the audience is there, and so is the potential to tell your brand’s story in a powerful way. Here are four tips to tell your story effectively through video:

1. Keep it short. You’ve heard it said that the attention span of humans is about seven seconds long, which is shorter than a goldfish’s attention span. Whether that exact statistic is accurate, the truth is we’re busy people and even the best-intentioned of us don’t always have the time or brain-space to devote to a long video. Best rule of thumb: keep your video between 1-3 minutes.
2. Don’t make sound a necessity. Not everyone enjoys that catchy music or detailed narration in the background of your video. Plus not everyone wants to subject the people around them to that audio. Don’t penalize the hearing-impaired or the viewers who don’t use audio; create the video in a way that makes it just as fun and informative with or without sound.
3. Be visual. This may seem like a no-brainer if you’re making a video, but it’s not as easy as you think. You may be tempted to just use a talking head for the entire length of your video, but you’ll end up with a video that isn’t visually compelling.
4. End it on the right note. What’s the point of your video? Ask yourself this question and make sure you drive home the answer at the end of the video. The purpose of your video is oftentimes to get viewers to take action, like visiting your website store or donating to your cause. Motivate the viewer to take these actions with strong messaging and easy to follow instructions.

Ready, set, run: breaking down the structure of Facebook advertising

By: Noelle Cutler, Social Media Specialist, Leonard & Finco Public Relations

What two steps come before you run? Get ready and get set. The same steps need to happen before running a Facebook ad. You have to get ready with a campaign plan and get the ad set up. Then, you can start running the ad!

Facebook advertising might seem simple because you can decide to run an ad on Facebook and actually start running it the very same day. But it really does require more planning than that. You have to make strategic decisions about marketing objectives, targeted audiences, budget and ad design. In Facebook Ad Manager, the ad structure is broken down to help you think strategically about each of those areas, from campaign to ad set to ad. Here’s the breakdown on each one:

1. Campaign. This is the highest level of your advertising plan. All you have to do at this level is name your campaign and choose your Objective. If you’ve never set up a Facebook ad before, I suggest using the Brand Awareness objective if you’re simply trying to spread your message or brand. If you’re trying to get people to go to your website, use the Traffic objective. There are eight other objectives, but those two are the broadest/easiest to set up.
2. Ad Set. The next step is to set up your ad set. Here you’ll determine the Audience, Placements and Budget & Schedule of your ads. You can have more than one ad set in a campaign. For example, if your campaign objective is to get people to visit the store page of your website (the Traffic objective), one ad set could target an audience ages 25 to 30 and the budget could be $50. Another ad set could target people who are 18 to 24-years-old and the budget could be $30. Those different ad set details can be programmed any way you want, but the campaign objective is the same: get people to your website.
3. Ads. Finally, you actually set up your ads. The Format is the first thing you have to decide; more or less the format is just a choice between one image, multiple images or video. The final thing to set up is the Page & Text, which is basically the ad itself; it’s the image and the text of your specific ad. It could also include the URL if your objective is to get people to go to a website. Again, you can have more than one ad in an ad set. Going back to the example of targeting 24 to 30-year-olds, you might want to use different texts and images. Same marketing objective, audience, placements, budget & schedule, but different actual ads.

There’s a lot more detail to each step, but hopefully, this helps explain the way Facebook structures their advertising. These are the things you need to decide before jumping in and running a Facebook ad. So get ready, get set and then run your Facebook ad!

Communication lessons learned from a bold Super Bowl ad

By: Noelle Cutler, Account Assistant, Leonard & Finco Public Relations

 

Every year, over a hundred million viewers tune in to the Super Bowl. And every year, advertisers pay millions to grab the attention of those viewers; inevitably some commercials try bolder techniques than others in order to accomplish that. This year, one advertisement that garnered a lion’s share of attention was 84 Lumber and their story of a Mexican mother and daughter on a journey to emigrate to America. The storyline was a bold choice given the current political and national debate over immigration. This bold communication choice certainly attracted attention and got people talking. If you’re considering going bold in your own communication efforts, consider these three major caveats we learned from the results of 84 Lumber’s commercial. 

1. Be bold…but only if you’re ready for backlash. A spokesperson for the ad agency that created the commercial said that about half of the feedback was positive and the other half was critical. The company was actually expecting that level of criticism, but were willing to accept that because they thought the issue was important enough. It’s also important to note that the company sells building supplies to mom-and-pop and midsize local contractors, and many of them are first generation immigrants to the United States. So, perhaps they were willing to deal with criticism from half of the viewers if the other half who reacted positively were actual potential customers. In your communications, always understand that the bolder and riskier you are, while you may gain very loyal customers, you’re also likely to alienate the people on the other side of the spectrum. 
2. Be bold…but only if you’re prepared for the volume of feedback. Within minutes of the commercial airing, there were 600,000 hits to 84 Lumber’s website. A total of six million people tried to watch the full length commercial available exclusively on their website in the first hour after it aired. Their overwhelmed website crashed, leaving visitors (and potential customers) in the dust. They weren’t ready to handle the volume of people who were interested in their commercial. With bold communication choices, not only do you have to be ready to handle the nature of the feedback, you also have to be ready to handle the amount of feedback. 
3. Be bold…but only if it doesn’t take away from your business. While the commercial itself was a memorable one, how many of the viewers remembered the company’s name? How many of those viewers remembered them in a positive light? And then how many of those viewers would actually buy their product or use their service? People were talking about the commercial, but the political message overshadowed their actual “product.” It’s worth noting that being bold can simultaneously draw attention towards your brand but away from your actual product.

Whether you watch the Super Bowl for the winning team or the winning commercials, there’s a lot to be gleaned from this year’s slew of advertisements. Consider these lessons from 84 Lumber before you risk being bold in your communication efforts.

3 ways to stand out in a sea of messages

By: Noelle Cutler, Leonard & Finco Public Relations

5,000. That’s the number of ads/branding messages we’re exposed to every day. So how in the world are you supposed to get your business’s message to the surface? 

Choose your messages wisely. If you’ve ever watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, you know the memorable line “Choose wisely,” from the scene where Indiana is trying to choose the cup that will heal his father. There are a lot of beautiful cups to choose from, but Indiana can choose just ONE. When choosing the focus of your advertising or outreach, remember to KISS. Keep It Short and Simple. That very acronym is short and to the point. I understand it; I remember it.  So, if you want to get through to your audience, choose ONE simple and memorable message. 

Get with the program. Or more accurately, get in the program. I always think of American Idol judges holding Coke cups during the show, as an example of this. Instead of a Coke commercial outside of the show that could be muted, this product integration can’t be ignored without missing the whole show. Not to mention, Coke gained some credibility when viewers saw celebrities using and enjoying the Coke product. Taking this principle away from the TV screen, perhaps your business needs more than just a sponsored logo at a trade show that could be ignored; instead someone from your business could give a presentation on a trade topic. Now your business is associated with an expert in that field. Not only is getting in the program more memorable than a logo or a flat-out advertisement, it builds credibility. 

Be a social media butterfly. Time to transform your regular social media posts into posts that get noticed. Start with a little research to find out which of your posts have gotten the most views and highest engagement rates. Then start experimenting with social media advertising. The key to social media advertising is choosing an already well-performing post and then spending a little dough to target it to a specific audience outside of your follower base. Targeting a post about your electronics recycling drive to users who like recycling means your audience is already interested in the issue. They’re primed to notice a post with a message they’re already interested in and less likely to tune you out. 

Targeting your simple, hard-to-ignore message to the right audience will no doubt help it stand out from the other 4,999 ads.