It’s Time to Marie Kondo your Communications Strategy – and Here’s How.

If I hear about Marie Kondo one more time, I am going to scream.   As someone who appreciates a minimalist aesthetic, I don’t have an underlying issue with her approach – simplifying and eliminating that which does not ‘spark joy’ is commendable and something that most people need. But the question that remains to be asked in the KonMarie method is the most important one – why did you have the stuff in the first place?   There are plenty of blog posts floating around announcing that 2019 is the year to ‘Marie Kondo’ your communications strategy. And I am completely on board with the idea. But the bigger question has to be asked – why did you have this element in your strategy to begin with, and what are you doing with the platforms that remain?   There is no sense in having additional social platforms “just because”. If your audience doesn’t exist there or arent open to influence on a particular platform (hello SnapChat) then there is no point in taking the time and effort to publish content on the platform. And if publishing content on the platform takes no time and effort, then that is a bigger issue.   Investigate your communications or ‘amplification’ strategy at all levels. Be critical and analytical, review results and make sure it aligns with your business’ long-term goals. Create specific content for the platform that engages your audience and is appropriate for the platform. Don’t just duplicate the same content for each platform because its easy.   There are two things that all businesses, no matter what industry or market, should be doing – creating content that is housed in your website (be that with a blog, newsfeed or video stream) and an email list that is being communicated to regularly. But consider who the audience is for those communications. If you’re running an email marketing campaign for a wedding venue, are you targeting future brides? Probably not. But you might be sharing great case studies with your industry peers who could be recommenders for your venue. You could be inviting them to industry specific events that you’re hosting to create influence. There are lots of ways you could be engaging with them – but its important to remember that is a sub section of your audience.   As for the others, consider whether or not you’re adding value to…

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DON’T JUST WRITE YOUR BLOG – AMPLIFY IT

I spoke last week about how important it is to be blogging for your brand, but it’s important to note that no one wants to be putting in all the effort of blogging without sharing it with the intended audience. While content being live on your website is a good thing for increasing your search results or giving you kudos in the eyes of Google, ultimately what we should be trying to do with any blog post is to deliver value for your customers – so we have to get the content to the people!   What are you doing to amplify your blog posts?   Firstly, you need to consider the lifecycle of your blog post when writing it. Is it a piece of evergreen or cornerstone content – a blog post on a topic that will continue to be relevant for an extended period of time? Or is it really topical and will only be relevant for a little while? If your content is evergreen, share it a little bit now, but anticipate that you will be able to share and promote that content for as much as years afterwards. If your content is only going to be relevant for a short period, share and amplify it quickly and regularly over a shorter space of time to get maximum mileage out of your posts.   Then consider your amplification platforms. Where does your blog go once it’s live on your website? Pick and mix from the list, depending on what your marketing strategy looks like right now: Email newsletter  |  Affiliate or partner websites  |  Social media  |  As an article on LinkedIn  |  as part of a campaign promoting another piece of content  |  via direct email to customers (usually in an email signature)  |  As a printed fact sheet  |   Now consider the piece of content itself – what are the ways that we can get maximum mileage out of this one idea? Some of these I touched on earlier in the article. You can share a blog post with your suppliers or partners in the hope that they will share it with their audience. You can turn a brief (350 words or so for best results) blog post into a longer report or fact sheet. Turn quotes from the blog post into images to go onto your social media. Create an explainer video that…

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WHY BRANDS SHOULD WRITE BLOGS

Whether you call it copy, content, news, updates, articles or blogs, writing words that you share regularly with your customers is becoming more and more important for businesses.   Blogs generally fall into one of the below topics: Product information  |  Service information  |  News  |  Corporate messaging  |  Industry education  |  Work reviews  |  Industry updates  |    Blogging was once considered the domain of young people who wanted to share their every thought, sort of like a diary online. Now, bloggers are major influencers online and writing a corporate blog has a host of benefits for your brand. Here’s why you should be putting pen to paper (or keys to screen) for your business.   Become an expert voice in your industry or space Blogs provide an excellent avenue for brands to share insights on your product, service or corporate mission and culture – heck, it can provide you with an opportunity to criticise your competitors or call for greater legislation. A blog provides you with an opportunity to share your knowledge with your customer base and allows you to position yourself as an expert within your field. But with great power comes great responsibility – make sure that you have a clear, strong, correct message and take time to really consider what it is you want to say, who you’re targeting and what you want them to get out of it.   Contributions to SEO – particularly with googles new changes Blogging contributes in a number of different ways to your search engine optimisation – it provides more keywords for Google to index from your site and updating content attracts users to your website in the first place. The Google algorithms are constantly changing, and in the latest update in June of 2018, Google announced that they will be giving greater search results to those brands who create engaging, regularly updated content that people want to read. So whether you’re publishing blogs on topics that people regularly search relative to your business, or whether you’re explaining concepts, strategies and processes, what you write will contribute more than ever to the discoverability of your brand.   Forced consideration Sometimes, particularly with new products or services, brands just create these things out of a perceived customer need. The marketing strategy, the communication strategy, where precisely the product or service fits in the market – that can be a bit…

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WHAT VALUE DO YOU BRING?

Value is a term that is often tossed around, mostly from people trying to sell you things. For me, value is about what I learn, grow or get enjoyment from – and that is a pretty broad set of standards. In the fast-paced, often vapid-seeming world of social media though, the question we should ALL be asking is “What VALUE does my social media bring to my customers lives?”

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HOW TO GET BETTER MILEAGE OUT OF YOUR BLOG POSTS

A blog post is not like a firework, one spark and it’s done. Blog posts can (and should!) attract customers for months after you write them. All it takes is a little planning and motivation to keep them working for you all year round. 1. Comments. You can and should be commenting on other people’s posts all over the Internet. On Facebook, Instagram, other blogs, LinkedIn, whatever platforms your brand operates on, create the conversation that social is supposed to be about. Be more subtle than “hey read my post”, but use it as an opportunity to contribute your own story, your own learnings or perspective. 2. Backlinks within your own posts This is one of my most effective tools as a social media manager. They say it costs 10x as much to attract a new customer as it takes to retain one – so why doesn’t the same rule apply for your blog? If you have an interested reader there, bounce them between posts and keep them on your site. This can be done in a few ways, including widgets that preview content you might be interested based on the tags attached to the post you are currently reading; or literal links in your post when that topic is mentioned. Both work well. 3. Emailing them out to clients when the question arises This is a great one for more corporate companies. How often us your customer service writing the same stupid response to a common question? Write a blog post, and cut your work in half and ensure that consistent quality information is given every time. 4. Flashback Friday, Throwback Thursday etc. This is a very visible Internet trend but is also just good advice. No-one else is going to talk about your older content if you don’t – and you didn’t write it for it to be a one and done deal did you? The idea of social media is also that your follower base is continually growing – so an older post will always have a new audience, and that might be the perfect piece of advice for that audience, who in turn will share and move the content, encouraging new followers who haven’t seen your content… See the cycle yet? So establish a flashback system – whether it’s #flashbackfriday #throwbackthursday or posting content that is exactly one year old; remember to push and hustle your…

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IS IT SAFE TO LIVE IN PARRAMATTA?

  Safety (or at least perceptions of it) has often been a hot button topic around Parramatta. When I first moved here in 2012 there was a real stigma attached to the area with lots of people I knew at the time asking the question – did I really know what I was doing? Didn’t I know it was unsafe to live there? Don’t you hear all that stuff in the news?

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WHY GEOFF LEE IS WINNING AT MARKETING

In the lead up to the election, campaigning is on everyone’s mind, from Malcolm Turnbull to Tony Abbott and even Bill Shorten has decided to get on the band wagon. And at a national level, its easy to assume that politicians are always campaigning, because they are so visible thanks to those media followers, photographers and their squillions of dollars. At a local member level, we see a stark difference. I have lived in a lot of different electorates in my life, and as such I have noticed that most local members want you to elect them based on the 2 or 3 weeks every couple of year they spend being visible in your community, showing off what they could do for you, in the hope to pull the wool over your eyes regarding their commitment. I’ve never bought into it, because it is exactly that – a bit of a sham, a con, a façade if you will of community engagement.

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WHY YOU SHOULD BE COMMENTING ON BLOGS

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Commenting on blogs is both my most utilised tool as a social media manager, and the most underrated tool I see in other’s social media activities. If the end goal of being involved in social media is to create conversation and dialogue, then a comment is the response YOU make to the question or statement being posed by the writer – without it, you aren’t fulfilling your end of the conversation. As a content creator of any kind, your aim is to develop a community of like-minded people, who are essentially picking up what you are putting down – whether that’s knowledge, reviews, experiences or warnings. So it’s absolutely natural for comments to happen, as people respond to your content. Think about the blogs that YOU read. How many times have you sat at your computer during your lunch break and verbally gone “Ugh YES” when the content is great, or “Pfft” when it’s a bit off. THIS is when, how and why you should comment. Be part of their conversation.

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How to brief in a Social Media Manager

How to brief in a social media manager small business advice em designs graphic designer social media manager parramatta western sydney

Once you have decided to brig a social media manager(or consultant or contractor, whatever you want to call it)  into your business, it can be a bit nerve wracking. This is someone who has access to all your customer facing information and who is going to go out there and represent your brand, without knowing the business inside and out like you do. How is that possibly going to work? In order for you to work together well with your new manager, it’s important to sit down together and discuss exactly what it is you are looking for out of that role.

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About EM DESIGNS

My name is Emma and I'm a graphic designer and social media manager who absolutely loves her job. I love working with people who are passionate about what they do, so if you think that we will work well together, I would love you to get in touch.

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