Category: Social Blog

Our Thanksgiving Week Content Strategy

Happy Thanksgiving Week! We thought it would be fun to share with you our social media content strategy for the week and tell you a little bit about how we are pulling it off!

What would be fun and interesting content for our audience and team?

This was the first question we asked when trying to come up with content this week. We settled on creating a Thanksgiving survey to hear what our employees loved about the holiday, what they ate, where they spent the day, what their traditions are. We sent this out 1 and a half weeks prior to the holiday to collect the data.

How do we share the info on social media?

Our team puts the “vision” in Vision Creative Group, so we turned to our designers with the data in hand and let them create some fun pieces of content that we could share throughout the week.

What is the cadence and in what order do we share the graphics?

In setting up our survey, we really tried to keep things in order. So, where are you spending Thanksgiving, then how do you prepare the turkey, then a question about sides, a question about dinner. We are going to be following the survey questions primarily since that order make the most sense to us.

Is there anything we can do with the data to bring it to life in the office?

Based on some of the results we thought it would be fun to bring in the staff’s favorite side and dessert! In the office today, we’re going to be enjoying stuffing (out of the box is the office preference) and pumpkin pie.

What can you learn from our strategy?

Plan ahead! The whole process to get to this week of content took over 2 weeks to come up with the survey, distribute, put together results and design content. While we are enjoying stuffing and pie today, you won’t see that photo until later in the week – case in point that you just have to plan ahead!

Where can you see all of our content for the week?

Check us out on Facebook and Instagram!

How are you celebrating Thanksgiving with your employees? What are you sharing on social media?

Providing Value In Your Social Media Content

“Content is king.”

The more social media grows into every facet of every day life, this now cliched phrase has never been more true. Content, is, in fact, king. But good content is queen, and the queen rules the house.

Whenever we talk to clients about content, we talk about it in terms of providing value. At Vision, we believe that providing value with your social media content means you are either educating your customer or entertaining them. Sometimes when you strike gold, you are able to do both.

Providing value with your social media content means you are either educating your customer or entertaining them.

Educating customers can mean:

  • Teaching your customers about your product
  • Introducing your product to a new audience
  • Sharing information about something related to your product/business (i.e., how to use a french press with your company’s coffee grinds)

Entertaining customers can mean:

  • Sharing a fun anecdote about your business/industry
  • Sharing behind the scenes looks at your factory, office, stores
  • Giving insight to the people who run your day to day business
  • Sharing articles, posts, videos related to your business

When coming up with your content for every month we challenge you to ask of every piece of content, “how does this provide value to my customer?”

Continually challenging yourself and/or your team to ensure every piece of content either educates or entertains will help you create more powerful content for your audiences.

79 Hashtags For Every Day Of The Week

It’s Monday, you’re rushing, you forgot to create a post for today, what do you do?! Check your handy list of hashtags to help you spark that Monday post and even frame out your full week of content.

Daily hashtags can help you decide what to post based on the tags relevant to your brand. We always recommend checking out any hashtag you think you may want to use to make sure you are comfortable with your business being found within the hashtags. Bonus: when you’re light on content, like a Monday morning (I mean, #MondayBlues, amirite?), using a daily hashtag can help you create a timely piece of content.

Keep this list handy to hashtag your way through the week:

Monday

#MondayMotivation #MotivationMonday #MondayBlues #MarketingMonday #MusicMonday #MeatlessMonday #MaxoutMonday #MondayRun #MondayOutfit #MindfulMonday #ManicureMonday #MancrushMonday (or #MCM) #MondayFunday #ManicMonday

Tuesday

#TravelTuesday #TransformationTuesday #TipTuesday #TechTuesday #TuesdayTasting #TuesdayShoesday #GoodNewsTues #TuesdayTunes #TakeMeBackTuesday #TastyTuesday

Wednesday

#WomancrushWednesday (or #WCW) #Humpday #WorkoutWednesday #WisdomWednesday #WellnessWednesday #WayBackWednesday #WoofWednesday #Winesday #WineWednesday #WackyWednesday #WomenWednesday #WinItWednesday

Thursday

#ThrowbackThursday (or #TBT) #ThankfulThursday #Thursdate #ThirstyThursday #ThoughtfulThursday #ThursdayThoughts #TGIT (Thank God It’s Thursday)

Friday

#FlashBackFriday #FearlessFriday #FashionFriday #FictionFriday #FridayReads #FollowFriday (or #FF) #FeatureFriday #FitnessFriday #FridayFun #FridayNight #FactFriday #FreebieFriday #TGIF (Thank God It’s Friday)

Saturday

#Caturday #SaturdayStyle #SaturdaySweat #SaturdaySpecial #SaturdaySale #SaturdayNight #SaturdayNightFever #SaturdayShoutOut (or #SS)

Sunday

#SundayFunday #SundayRead #SpotlightSunday #StartupSunday #SundaySweat #SelfieSunday #WeekendVibes #ScienceSunday #SundayBrunch

Using Social Media On Black Friday & Cyber Monday

If you head to, well, anywhere, you will already be seeing signs of the holidays! Target, Home Depot, even Michael’s and JoAnn Fabrics have all been in the holiday spirit since before Halloween. For most shoppers, they’ll hold out until Black Friday or Cyber Monday to start making holiday purchases.

Here are a few ways you can use social media for your Black Friday and Cyber Monday marketing!

#1. Run a Sweepstakes or Giveaway!

There’s nothing more exciting than the chance to win something from your favorite retailer! Ask users to post their holiday gift finds with a branded hashtag for a chance to win something – $100 or even $1,000! Not only will this get your customers excited about the potential to win something fabulous, their followers will see all their great finds!

#2. Create a Gift Guide

This not only showcases your amazing products, but also the value you bring your customers. Put together a gift guide, or a few based on personalities, and feature your own products as well as others. (And when you do, let us know what we should buy for our grandparents!)

#3. Gift Hunt

Ask your audience to share their unexpected finds with a branded hashtag! This will make sure their networks are seeing what amazing gifts can be found with your business.

#4. Salefies!

In 2014, Target asked their audience to share #salefies from their stores, highlighting the amazing deals found at the retailer. This could be a cute idea to resurrect for your own business!

#5. Stand Out from the Pack

Does your company go against the grain and you are actually closed on Black Friday? Will you have sales a different day or all season long? Let your followers know and let them know early how you are different! REI promotes a day outside rather than a day of shopping!

How are you marketing your business on Black Friday and Cyber Monday?

Wacky November Holidays To Use In Your Social Media Posts

Happy November! With the start of the holiday season, it’s a big month for social media! Here are our picks for the best wacky holidays and a few ideas to get you started:

Sandwich Day – November 3

Who doesn’t love a great sandwich?! Have your users share their favorite creations with a photo! Sharing a variety of recipes for sandwiches, showing a fun sandwich to make lunchtime a little more special, or even a promotion on sandwiches for your restaurant on the 3rd can be a great way to get people excited for this “holiday.”

Book Lovers Day – November 4

Have your audience share ideas for their favorite books, books to gift for the holidays, or even those face-book cover sharing photos!

Veteran’s Day – November 11 (November 10 Observed)

Acknowledging Veteran’s Day is always a must, just remember that it is the holiday that recognizes those who have served in our armed forces, not those who have made the ultimate sacrifice.

World Kindness Day – November 13

This is a great way to inspire your audience to do random acts of kindness! Hold the door for someone, bring a treat to a neighbor, buy coffee for the person behind you. How is your company celebrating World Kindness Day? Ask your audience how they have been nice on this day to start a conversation!

World Diabetes Day – November 14

Health care practitioners can benefit from the use of this day. While delicate, you can share content around living with Diabetes, why awareness is important, etc.

Clean Your Refrigerator Day – November 15

People love seeing the inside of others’ refrigerators. Ask your audience to show off the inside of their fridges! You can have them use a hashtag and then share your favorites on Instagram or Twitter, and comment on a post on Facebook.

Thanksgiving, November 23

Schedule a few “Happy Thanksgiving” posts and go enjoy your family! Not as many people are active on social media on big holidays, so you can expect to have a less-than-normal day of engagement. If your brand is related to any food that would be served on Thanksgiving, ask for photos! We would recommend asking for photos mid-afternoon or after dinnertime when people are either prepping their food or finally relaxing and ready to share photos from their day.

Black Friday, November 24

While an obvious one for your broader marketing, make sure you have a solid social media plan! If you own a retail business, make sure you have extra eyes on your social media to ensure someone is catching any comments that need immediate attention. Black Friday will be a day where consumers experience frustration in general and can end up taking to social media to air their grievances.

Cyber Monday, November 27

We would recommend if you are engaging in Cyber Monday sales to ensure your team is monitoring social channels at a higher frequency than regular days. With so many people shopping online on this day, you can expect questions and comments that will need to be answered quickly. Use your channels to promote your sales and deals as well as any updates a customer needs, such as an item being out of stock (or back in stock!).

Using Emojis In Your Social Media

We have major ???? when it comes to emojis! Emojis are everywhere, from text messages to marketing messages, and we think you should ???? be using them in your business’ social media content.

Did You Know: On any given day, 60 million emojis are used on Facebook?!

That’s a ???? load of ????! Here are some more amazing stats:

  • Using emojis in your Tweets increases engagement by 25%
  • Using emojis on Facebook increases your likes by 57% and comments/shares by 33%
  • Nearly half of Instagram comments include emojis

There are a few things you have to keep in mind when using emojis in your social media marketing:

  • Understand the meaning of each emoji before you use it; Emojipedia is great for this.
  • Be aware of some emojis that have double meanings.
  • Don’t force it! If it feels unnatural or isn’t quite right, leave them out.
  • Don’t make light of a serious situation with an emoji, just leave it out.
  • Max out your use of emojis to 4 in one post.
  • Make sure it’s clear what you are trying to say with your emojis – we would recommend not trying to create a sentence (or even try to tell a story) solely with emojis.

How will you use emojis in your social media marketing?

Best Podcasts To Up Your Company’s Social Media Game

Podcast popularity seems to ebb and flow and right now they are hot, hot, hot. Podcasts are a great way to get a variety of opinions on any subject in which you are interested, but especially social media. A marketer, especially a social media manager, reads content all. day. long.

Sometimes reading something about the discipline is tough, but our team 100% gets behind listening to a good podcast in the car. So if you are a social media manager or a marketing manager that needs to step up your company’s social media game, this post is for you!

These are our team’s favorite social media podcasts:

  1. The #AskGaryVee Show

Gary Vaynerchuck (multi-millionaire startup geniuis) answers audience questions about marketing, social media, entrepreneurship and startups. It’s a great catch all, especially for newbie social media managers.

  1. Hootcast

Hootsuite is an amazing resource and we love their podcast because they talk to company’s about how they are using social media.

  1. SocialPros

This podcast gives insight into how social media managers manage some of the world’s biggest social media accounts.

  1. Social Media Marketing with Michael Stelzner

Owner of the Social Media Examiner, Stelzner gets the questions answered you actually want to ask people behind the big, big brands.

  1. Hashtagged

This Podcast focuses solely on Instagram and works to teach listeners how to grow a following, build a community and make an impact with Instagram.

  1. This American Life

While not the most traditional of choices, this podcast does one thing every social media marketer needs to be able to do: tell a story and tell it well. PS – it’s also good fodder for conversations outside of the work world.

  1. Stuff You Should Know

Another un-related to social media specifically, however, good content- and good content can lead to creative ideas.

And a bonus for you! Check out this list of 11 pop culture podcasts. Social media marketing is a little easier when you know what is going on in pop culture. Know the trends, know when something big is on TV, know when important news hits. This will always ensure your daily content is appropriate for what is at the top of people’s minds each day.

How To Handle Tragedy On Your Company’s Social Media Channel

In light of the recent hurricanes, earth quake and tragic events in Las Vegas, we thought it would be an appropriate time to discuss how to handle a tragedy with your company’s social media. Above all else, you want to make sure that you are being respectful. Less is more and simple is best.

Here are the major things to consider:

Look at your social media calendar for that day. Pause all content for any major disasters or tragedies. You do not want to be the brand posting about your newest #MeatlessMonday when every other brand is either not publishing or publishing messages of support and/or condolences.

Craft a post. Write a post for your platforms that expresses a point of view from your company. Do you use family-related tone, for example? You would want a post that read something like, “From our family to yours…” or “Our hearts are heavy” or “We are all thinking and praying for [community] today.” Make it heartfelt. Do not use it as a chance to market your products. Ever.

Do not make it about you. Post-hurricane is not a time for “retail therapy.” Refrain from inserting your products or business into this conversation unless it is directly related. For example, a foundation raising funds or sending its staff to help.

Refrain from commenting about specifics. Discussing details of the event will be read as inappropriate.

Tie to a charity or cause if appropriate. Share how the company is going to be involved in any subsequent efforts. We would recommend sharing this information after the first day of a tragic event. For example, thoughts and prayers to hurricane victims the day of and a few days later discuss how your company intends to help. Always follow up and share how you helped if you are asking your customers to participate with you or make a contribution through you.

Being in the moment when you are managing your company’s social media channels is crucial to avoiding any missteps in tragic situations. For this reason, our team has news alerts set, combs trending hashtags on Facebook and Twitter and watches the news daily. Being aware of what is happening in the world is so important to your brand’s social media success.

October Holidays To Use In Your Social Media Content

October brings a whole host of big “holidays” – Halloween, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, National Kale Day (yes, it’s a thing). Using these holidays when they’re appropriate for your brand or business can be a great way to stir up engagement. Slotting these days into your calendar in advance also allows you to develop strong content ahead of time and fill out your calendar.

Let’s get to it!

Adopt a Shelter Dog Month

If you want to have a fun internal communications play, or showcase what it’s like to work for your company, utilizing this month theme can be great! Have a photo contest at the office – let your employees submit their fav pet photos and everyone vote on the cutest (or have different criteria, i.e., cutest, smallest, biggest, most handsome/prettiest, etc.). It’s something fun for your staff and it shows a fun side to your company culture.

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

While this is the biggest and most likely best known October Month ‘holiday,’ we would implore you to treat this one delicately. Make sure that you are participating in this content in a genuine way and providing value to the cause (not just your audience). Make a donation. Show your internal team participating in a walk. Have everyone wear pink one day at the office in solidarity and share those images across social media.

National Vegetarian Month

If you are a food brand or retail location, think about sharing content all month long that features vegetarian products and/or recipes! It does not need to be the only focus, but it can be front and center for the month. You know people love their #MeatLessMondays! Also, if you manage a Pinterest account, move a Vegetarian board to the first slot in October. If you don’t have one yet, create one! And, make it the first board you see when you look at your account.

National Homemade Cookies Day – October 1

Cooler weather will have people ready to bake! This is a great chance to start a contest if appropriate for your brand. You could even use it to have a fun little internal battle for the best homemade cookie! If you don’t want to run a contest for National Homemade Cookies Day, sharing photos across social media that will have everyone drooling will suffice! You can also share recipes prior to the day to help your customer prepare themselves for the ‘holiday’ celebration.

World Vegetarian Day – October 1

The perfect day to launch your Vegetarian Month campaign! If you don’t focus on Vegetarian Month, sharing recipes and general content around the day is perfect.

National Kale Day – October 4

We weren’t kidding, it’s a thing! Share all those recipes that make people actually want to eat kale! (Can you tell one or two of us aren’t that into kale over here? We really do want you to share delish kale recipes, just for our sake!)

Columbus Day – October 9

Everyone loves those Columbus Day sales! Make sure to promote the sales ahead of time (before that weekend shopping routine kicks in) and again the day-of.

National Angel Food Cake Day – October 10

If you are a food brand or retail location that can make use of this day, go for it! Share how your products can be used in an Angel Food Cake recipe, share beautiful photos, or even challenge your customers to share their own creations!

Friday the 13th – October 13th

Is it bad luck? Is it good luck? Ask your customers!

World Egg Day – October 13th

There are so many things one can do with the simple egg. Share your brand’s favorites with your customers, ask for photos, etc.

National Pasta Day – October 17 (also World Pasta Day, October 25)

Get your customers ready for the day ahead of time. Think about sharing instructional videos on pasta making. A Facebook Live with a chef where your customers can ask questions about making homemade pasta, pasta sauce, perfect ravioli stuffing – excellent value-added content! Also, now we are hungry.

National Candy Corn Day – October 30

Candy Corn crafts! Recipes! Photos! If your retail location sells Candy Corn or it’s relevant to your brand/business/audience, don’t skip it!

Halloween – October 31

There are so many things to do with Halloween! You can have a costume contest related to your brand (tease this early to prep your customer for participation). You can have a costume contest in your office and share the results. You can share costume ideas related to your brand! Be sure to plan a piece of content for this day regardless of your brand though – you don’t want to look like your company forgot the day!

Wacky September “Holidays” To Use For Your Food Brand

A new month means a new content calendar! September is another moment in the year that brings new fresh starts – new school years, new television, new football season, and the arrival of autumn.  September is full of great wacky “holidays” especially for food brands. Here are some ideas on how to use these holidays in your food brand’s favor this month.

September 1: Cherry Popover Day

Food brand or food store, a baked good holiday is a good holiday for you! If your brand is related to flour or baking supplies, or especially cherries, go on and post some cherry popover ideas!  We also recommend asking your customers to share photos of their creations and/or their favorite recipes. Think about photography! The more beautiful the photo, the more likely you are to interrupt their scroll.

September 2: International Bacon Day

Bacon is having its moment! Besides the obvious sharing photos and recipes, content around bacon products could also be shared. Bacon flavored floss, anyone? If there is a conflict with your brand, stick to recipes and photos. You could even ask for customers to drop a hands up emoji if they had their bacon today!

Sepember 4: Labor Day

It’s important to remember actual holidays for what they are intended (such as the difference between Memorial Day and Veteran’s day). Here are some examples from other brands who successful (and tastefully) celebrated labor day on their social channels.

September 5: Cheese Pizza Day

Pizza lovers will rally behind this one! Spend your day on every social platform you use and dedicate it to pizza: the history of, recipes, toppings, emojis. Make all your customers hungry!

September 6: Read a Book Day

If your brand has a CSR program related to education this is a big opportunity to show your customers how you support the organizations with which you’re involved. You could also use it as a moment to talk about cookbooks, food memoirs, healthy living books, etc.

September 7: National Salami Day

Salami brands, get ready! Challenge your customers to make a cheese dish for an appetizer tonight, share a recipe, show how to use salami in a unique, new or uncommon way.

September 10: Grandparents Day

What recipes did your grandparents always make for you? What foods remind you of your grandparents? Such a fun way to engage your customers! Making them nostalgic creates an emotional connection with your brand. Additionally, challenging your customers to call their grandparents, make them dinner, etc, can be a great way to engage them.

September 10: Swap Ideas Day

If you’re open to hearing what customers have to say about your brand, this can be a great way to get some feedback! Or you can present a challenge to them, such as, what should we do with this spot in our office?

September 13: Fortune Cookie Day

Give everyone in your office a fortune cookie and have them all post photos of their fortune cookies using a branded hashtag! Repost your favorite photos on your social channels.

September 13: Peanut Day

Allergy awareness? Making your own peanut butter? How to boil peanuts? Traditions of peanuts in a ballpark? If it works for your brand there are plenty of angles to take with this one!

September 18: National Cheeseburger Day

Get one more in before fall is here! Ask for recipes, share unique toppings, share ideas to take that all American classic into fall!

September 19: International Talk Like a Pirate Day

How long can your customers do it? Challenge them and find out! We wouldn’t recommend talking ALL day like a pirate on your channels, but the first post or most of the day on Twitter gets our approval.

September 22: First Day of Fall

Is it now socially acceptable to consume all of the pumpkin things? Hopefully if your food brand has pumpkin you’ve already been promoting it, but if you haven’t, now is the time! Tell people to be on the look out and ask them if they’ve started using their pumpkin candles and drinking pumpkin coffee already!