Social Media Platforms for Non-Profits: Which is Right for You?

Deciding which of the social media platforms your organization should jump on is Social Media Marketing 2a difficult decision. It can make it even harder when you’re a nonprofit organization.

There are several marketing challenges that are unique to nonprofits. From figuring out which platform hosts the majority of your target market to which option provides the best outcomes at the most frugal price.

According to Eileen Brown, Facebook consistently beats all other platforms, by quite a large margin. Eighty-two percent of the organizations who responded to her survey stated they use Facebook as their main social media platform. The next most commonly used platform was Twitter, sitting at 54 percent of respondents. That’s a pretty large gap.

Why is Facebook so great for nonprofits?

1. Great access to behind-the-scenes
When it comes to a great brand, we know it is all about the emotional connection. Gathering and posting to Facebook the behind-the-scenes photos and video clips is a great way to make this connection with your target audience.

2. Use of tabs
Tabs on Facebook is a simple and quick way to create mini-web pages. It gets the information to your audience and also lessens the number of pages they have to go through before reading the important stuff.

3. 
Links to articles
Facebook is an avenue to collect and post all of the articles relevant to your organization. Again, means less work for your audience and means they are more likely to read them.

But don’t forget to take into consideration that while Facebook is a powerhouse, Twitter and YouTube are excellent ways to get your organization’s message to your audience. With 54 percent on Twitter and 42 percent on YouTube, there might just be something to these other social media platforms.

If you’re looking into social media platforms for your organization, give Susan J. Campbell a call today. We’re ready to see what platforms will work the best for you, put together a plan, and reach out to the community around us.

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Find Your Brand’s Story and You’ll Find Your Message

Do you ever feel like you are saying too much? Or worse, not enough? Oftentimes, we get so caught up in feeding as much information as possible to our consumers that we share information just for the sake of sharing. As you put together your marketing plan, it is important for you to remember the most important information you have to share with your clients: your unique story.

9569702_mWhat’s so important about it, you may ask? Well, for starters, it’s unique. There is really good reason you are choosing to do what you do. It important is to remind yourself what elements of your product and brand story set you apart from the rest. These days, news is reported more by people on the street with their smartphones than from actual reporters and others are sharing information left and right on social media. How can your brand story not only fit into your consumer’s stream of information, but also stand out?

There are stories you already have right at your fingertips to tell your unique brand story, and here are just a few tips to help you recognize them:

1. Remember your history: There’s a strong possibility you have an interesting story to tell how your brand got its start. Did it begin from inside your great grandmother’s kitchen? Did your love for TinkerToys spark your interest in construction? Personal stories are vital to connecting with your customers. It opens the door to making connections with them and helping them understand why you are so passionate about what you do, setting your brand apart from competitors who are just trying to make a sale.

2. Know your main characters: Tell your consumers more about the people who helped create your company. Giving them a personal connection and a behind-the-scenes look at the brains and brawns of your company will strengthen the bond you have with them.

3. Keep your mission in mind. When you started your company, you had a vision in mind and goal to work towards. It’s important to keep that mission in the forefront of your conscious. Remembering why you are in business in the first place is the best way to keep your ultimate goal in sight.

At Susan J. Campbell Copywriting Solutions, our favorite part of our job is hearing about your story and implementing into a unique brand strategy. Call us today and let’s create something together.

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Know the Power of the Hashtag

Have you heard the story of the 10-year-old girl who saw “#4” on a sign and asked what “4” stood for? It is a scary thought that because of social media, there are entire generations growing up who will have completely different definitions for punctuation marks.

The fact that she identified it as a hashtag instead of the more commonly known numerical symbol is testament to the fact that the specific mark has now transformed itself.

Fun fact: The formal term for the symbol most people identify as the number or hashtag symbol is actually called the octothorpe, according to Webster’s Dictionary. The shape got its name from the makers of the first telephone, who named it such to honor its eight protruding edges.

There’s an important lesson to be learned about how the hashtag became so popular lately.

Take the Oscars for example. Thanks to Twitter, the broadcast of the Academy10329547_m Awards broke records when it became the most hashtagged, favorited and shared event in social media history. During the ceremony, over 14 million tweets were posted using “#oscars and #oscars2014. That means that there was a specific stream of tweets where you could read millions of tweets all about the Oscars in one place.

The fact that these tweets were in real time is just one of the novelties. Fans could feel like they were a part of the action from across the country on their couches. Engaging the masses and making them feel included in the star-studded affair is a genius way of connecting with consumers.

What can we learn about the hashtag that can benefit our marketing strategies? It is a priceless tool you can use to connect with your consumers by giving them real-time feedback, interacting with them and giving them a resource to read and share your brand. When you give your consumers something they are excited to tweet about, that hashtag will do major marketing leg work for you.

If you are as intrigued by the hashtag as we are, give us a call and let’s find out more together. If there’s one thing the professionals at Susan J. Campbell Copywriting Solutions love, it’s talking about ways we can up the ante on your social media presence.

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How the New Facebook Algorithm is Effecting the Marketing Strategy

FacebookFacebook changes their algorithm more times than a teenage girl changes clothes for picture day. However, this last change in December was a complete makeover. How has it impacted how we put together a social media marketing strategy?

Back in the day, creating a Facebook page, posting on a regular basis, and connecting with your followers was the simple, quick, and efficient way to integrate social media into your marketing strategy. Now, to get the same great exposure, you need both eye-catching and engaging content, of course. Additionally you need to keep up with the changes Facebook makes, dial into the different strategies you might need to use to grow your audience, and you might need to invest in some paid advertising.

Facebook wants to see more posts with links and photos, less posts that are only text and links. Visually engaging posts have always performed better than non-visual content. Now, Facebook has decided that they should limit the exposure of simple text updates from business pages. Here are some simple ways to ensure you have great visual posts, without all the cost that is usually associated with photos:

  1. Create a DropBox folder where employees can contribute relevant photos.
    Offer a gift card to the person who contributes the most photos in a month. Check out Starbucks. They do a great job of posting photos. And, we would be willing to bet our gift card that employees take them.
  2. Ask your customers to share photos.
    Really what better way to obtain some awesome photos and get your customers involved in the culture you’re creating. Prompt them with some unique rewards.
  3. Use office hours and events.
    This will humanize your brand (awesome!) and it is a super easy way to get photos quickly.
  4. Find alternative ways to drive your visitors.
    Sometimes the answer isn’t Facebook and learning to play the game according to their new (and ever-changing) rules. Perhaps your marketing strategy should include other social media platforms and different ways to leverage them. You could always use a contest to get some excitement on your page.

It is always a challenge to keep up with social media and ensure that your marketing strategy is going to move mountains for your company. Susan J. Campbell is always up for it, because that is part of what we love so much about marketing. Contact us today and we will discover the best way to incorporate social media into your marketing strategy!

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Monday Morning Coffee with SBG Midwest: Taking the “Scary Second Guessing” Out of Managing HR Duties for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses

SBG Midwest 1Who can forget the hilarious scene from the 1990s hit “Office Space” where the staunch HR review team arranges an interview with each employee. Face to face in the conference room, they find out with raised eyebrows that some employees are immersed in low morale and poor productivity, and performing outrageous tasks to voice their frustration (including carving fish on their desks, or admitting they only do about 15 minutes of “real, actual work in a given week”).

While the setup is truly comical, the reality of managing HR duties for a small or medium-sized company without formal training isn’t funny at all. In fact, it can be downright scary. For more than a year, SBG Midwest has been helping businesses across northwest Missouri avoid HR crisis, pitfalls, fines and unexpected surprises – along with relieving their anxieties about managing areas like hiring, benefits and internal HR reviews.

“Whether you have four employees or 200, if guiding your team toward managing multiple roles for your company’s success also means someone is serving as the HR director – without the knowledge and experience of all the HR ins and outs – you could be putting yourself in a position to face some serious challenges that cost your business precious time, money toward fines, your reputation and employee outcomes,” says Chuck Davis, Partner/Owner, SBG Midwest. “Not to mention, HR can be pretty stressful and performing this task in the midst of guesswork and multiple roles takes you and your team away from what you love to do.”

SBG Midwest was created to take the guesswork out of managing employees.SBG Midwest 2 Services include a one-time human resources evaluation, employee training and handbook creation or review. The SBG team can also provide ongoing HR assistance for a set rate per employee, so the solution can fit every business. This can include managing time-consuming and complex tasks like hiring new employees, or help with letting employees go when necessary. Many businesses use the handbook creation and review services from SBG to get this daunting, “I’ll do it next week” task off the corner of their desk.

Alongside these options, SBG Midwest can provide guidance and solutions for group employee benefits or individual insurance, making the team a one-stop resource for taking the stress out of HR management. “Many people have a fear of doing something wrong when it comes to employee benefits, hiring or firing, and everyday issues concerning their team,” says Davis. “This causes a lot of second-guessing, fear and lost time. We take that off their plate with our experience and provide a lot of peace of mind, not to mention high-value outcomes like boosts in productivity and morale.

“Employee training not only increases your employees’ skill sets, it creates a more engaged and committed workforce. Let your employees know how valuable they are with employee training sessions. You’ll create a learning environment that increases productivity and improves morale,” says Davis.

With training topics ranging from harassment to business writing, team building, leadership and etiquette, Davis’ experience in journalism, insurance and human resources management is getting results for a growing list of companies across the region – freeing up company directors’ fears and giving them the ability to truly find scenes like Office Space a little more comical, and a lot less scary.

Learn more at SBG Midwest’s new website, http://sbgmidwest.com/index.html.

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Habits of Successful Marketing Strategies

One of the best things you can do for your business is to gain inspiration from successful branding strategies. In a review of the biggest brands’ marketing strategies during the Olympics, Rohit Bhargava, founder of The Influential Marketing Group, cultivated a list of habits of successful marketing strategies. By Marketing Strategy 6looking at these marketing strategies, you can see how other brands hit the mark.

Frequency: In the case of the Olympics, Bhargava gave a “thumbs up” to the brands whose messages were constant throughout the games. Take NBC for example. They didn’t miss a chance to integrate their brand into every nook and cranny. They found ways to promote their own programs without seeming too pushy. They created viral-ready promo ads for The Voice and Jimmy Fallon. They also hired former Olympic figure skaters Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinsky to provide commentary on the games. The pair was so dynamic that the two have sparked interest for their own show. So not only did NBC capitalize on a great marketing strategy, they created memorable content with lasting power.

Simplify: When you have a lot to say about your brand, don’t take the chance of being overwhelming and missing the big picture. Find your overall mission and stick with it.  Over time, your message will be well known to your target audience and you will gain more bang for your buck with a steady message.

Keep it in perspective: Yes, it’s effective for brands to have big name faces in their ads. But ultimately, there are other ways to be a make a big impression. Liberty Mutual chose to focus instead on the underdogs because of their mission to help the underdogs and told the story of Heidi Kloser. Heidi, an Olympic skier looking forward to her first chance at the gold, was severely injured right before the opening ceremonies in a practice run. Liberty Mutual was able to tell her story, almost in real time and used her determined spirit to help spread their message of encouragement.

There are ways your marketing strategies can make a habit of using successful tactics just like these brands. To get started, contact the marketing professionals at Susan J. Campbell Copywriting Solutions today.

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Is Your Brand Strategy Talking to the Right Generation?

We know a great target audience when we see one and the numbers aren’t lying: there is a reason why businesses are putting their brand strategies into overdrive in order to keep up with a certain generation; the Millennials.

Who are these “Millennials” and why should businesses take notice?Branding Strategies 6

Millennials are the generation known as anyone born between the 1980s and 2000s. They’ve been online for years and they were the first people to send text messages and are forward thinking in all things social media. Most importantly, for businesses, this generation wants to do something with the information brands have to offer. They don’t want big promises. They want interaction, engagement and personality from brands.

If you make the shift from the famous “return on investment” mindset and switch your company’s brand strategy to deliver a “return on involvement” you will undoubtedly see a positive change happen. Still not convinced? Consider this:

  •  84 percent of Millennials report that user-generated content usually influences their purchase choices
  • The influence the Millennials have on what others are purchasing has generated $500 billion each year
  • 74 percent of children aged 12-17 report using social networks to share their opinions about products
  • Compared to other generations, Millennials are nearly 250 percent more likely to be influenced by blogs and social networks
  • 43 percent of Millennials check for coupons or promotions via smartphone apps while shopping in a store
  • 60 percent of Millennials are actively rating products and services.

So where can you create a brand strategy that’s aimed at reaching these Millennials? That’s the easy part. Just contact the professional marketing team at Susan J. Campbell Copywriting Solutions, where brand strategies, social media strategies and unique content are created specifically for the needs of your business.

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Make a Great Mobile User Experience

Mobile Experience 1There is this great push for providing an excellent mobile user experience. However, these experiences are falling flat, to be quite honest. According to Elizabeth Rosenzweig, the principal usability consultant at Bentley University, part of this is due to the mobile user experience not being entirely through a mobile device. She expressed that it is part mobile and part desktop, forcing software professionals to take into consideration these two opposing experiences when creating a new app.

This can get complicated because the information provided is different. Providing a large amount of information on mobile is going to be too much, risking the user’s eminent frustration with the application. Providing too little and there is another kind of frustration.

Rosenzweig says that all too often, when the user begins to get frustrated with an application, they begin to lose trust in it as well. Wouldn’t it be great to get a message from the application that isn’t doing quite what we expected in that moment? Rosenzweig wishes that her navigation application would let her know why it chose a side road instead of a main road – perhaps there was traffic or an accident. Communication would build that trust, even during moments that these mistakes occur.

The mobile user experience is growing and becoming more sophisticated. As this continues, these apps will soon anticipate our needs, delivering us necessary information right away. This kind of sophistication is probably not as far off as we think, but until then we need to make sure we are providing the best mobile user experience we can.

This can be done by making sure that you are providing your customer with necessary and vital information, during both the desktop and the mobile user experience. Make sure that you have a way for the user to contact you with questions and be ready and willing to get them additional information. Until the computer can assist us with great customer service, we need to be right there, ready to help out.

If you’re ready to up your mobile user experience, contact Susan J. Campbell today. We are here to help you provide the best experience for your customers, whether it is through the creation of a responsive web design, awesome content created for your mobile site, or answering questions quickly.

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How to Tell Your Brand Story: Lego Shows Us How

I remember growing up with several different Lego sets, ranging from a medievalBranding Strategies 5 castle to modern day sets. I could build elaborate homes for my modern characters or go back in time and have to save the princess in the castle. Lego may have given suggestions for how to build certain things, but I always felt the freedom to create whatever story I wanted to play that day. I am very honored to pass along those ideas to my niece and nephew as we create new Lego stories together.

How has Lego inspired a brand story that was able to get its own movie? That is the power of storytelling. Here are some tips for how to build your own amazing brand story:

1. Ideas Inspire
We all know that it isn’t the product that truly inspires us. Lego’s, at first glance, are little plastic pieces that cause an enormous amount of pain when accidently stepped on. However, the imagination of a five year old little girl and a three year old little boy (and okay, a 23 year old woman) is what brings Lego to life. And this is what makes a movie possible.

2. Who is Buying and Why
What motivates your customers? For Lego, it is all about inspiring people to use their imaginations to build new creations and stories. Why are people engaged with your brand? Find that out and then build a story that will reflect that.

3. Play to the Brand’s Strengths
Think Nike. They have so many sports men and women wearing and promoting their brand. What does this make you think? “If I wear those Nike shoes, I’ll be able to run that half-marathon…”  Think about your own brand and how you might be able to use these types of messages.

4.
Emotion and Nostalgia
Lego has spanned many generations and will continue to do so. This is part of why the Lego move has been such a success. They, not only hit the eight-year old boy, but also the 20-something college student who remembers playing Lego’s, and grabbed the Gen Y and Baby Boomers because they’re playing with grandchildren again.

Needless to say, Lego has done a great job at creating an outstanding brand story. They have a movie, which is essentially a 100 minute long advertisement! Susan J. Campbell can’t guarantee a movie on the big screens for you, but we can definitely create an amazing brand story. Contact us today!

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Monday Morning Coffee With 1 Million Cups

1 Million CupsSince this is Monday Morning Coffee, let’s talk about coffee today. No, it’s not about a coffee shop, but rather a program called 1 Million Cups (1MC).

The St. Joseph Chamber held their annual CEO Roundtable event a few weeks ago and one of the tables was hosted by Melissa Roberts, the Executive Director at Partnership for Technology Innovation and a chairperson for the 1 Million Cups program in Kansas City, the city that started this entire program.

The hope of 1MC is to connect entrepreneurs to the communities around them. Each Wednesday at 9:00a.m., two local entrepreneurs give a six minute presentation to an audience of other entrepreneurs, advisers, and mentors. After the presentations, there is a great opportunity for feedback, networking, brainstorming and questions.

It is unique having a community come together to support these entrepreneurs, who are all brave souls, stepping out on a new adventure. Our team at SJC has a bit of a soft spot for these individuals, since we wouldn’t exist without Susan’s bravery and determination to create her own company eight years ago. 1MC is a program through the Kauffman Foundation run by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs. It has now grown out from Kansas City and hosts events in almost 30 cities around the nation.

The programs are administered by the city in which they are hosted, some of them in coffee shops and libraries, and others in larger venues like universities and convention centers. With as many as 200 business hopefuls in one room, these events are everything a blossoming entrepreneur desires!

If you can’t make a meeting, pour yourself a cup of coffee, and plug in to the livestream for your week’s inspiration. Here at Susan J. Campbell Copywriting Solutions, we are very excited about this program and looks forward to the possibility of St. Joseph starting up our own 1 Million Cups. ​

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