Month: December 2017

Friday Five

Every week, we share our favorite links from across the world wide web. Find something you want us to see? Share it in the comments section!

Five things you cannot miss this week:

Add GIFs to your Facebook polls for an exciting new way to to engage.

Reddit has a lot to say about net neutrality.

Our guide to December “holidays” will help you build out your content calendar for the month.

Just how many characters, hashtags and emojis should you use in your social media?

Get ready for Social Media, 2018.

Image credit: pixelfit | Getty Images

December Holidays For Your Company’s Social Media

Ho Ho Ho, December is (almost) here, which means a brand new batch of fun “holidays” to leverage in your social calendar this month. Let’s jump right in!

Santa’s List Day – December 4th

It’s the day Santa checks that naughty or nice list – which list is your audience on? Be sure to ask them!

Recommended hashtags: #santaslistday #santaslist #checkingittwice

Letter Writing Day  – December 7th

What better day than this one to send out those Christmas cards! It’s a great day to send a “letter” via email to your customers, too.

National Cotton Candy Day  – December 7th

If your brand has anything to do with food, this could be a cute day to use! There are desserts and cocktails that feature cotton candy, so you could leverage those items. Or just give permission to your fans to eat cotton candy for no other reason than that it is National Cotton Candy Day!

Recommended hashtags: #cottoncandy #cottoncandyday

Pearl Harbor Day  – December 7th

If this is brand appropriate for you or relates to your staff or brand story in any way, it would be okay to acknowledge this day in social media. If not, we recommend staying away from it so as to not seem trite.

National Brownie Day  – December 8th

Share those brownie recipes! Do a round up, share on a dedicated Pinterest board, have a guest Pinner share a recipe, have a blogger create a recipe for you, ask for your audience’s favorite recipes and photos! You can even ask if your audience likes the ends for the crispiness or the middle for the chewiness.

Recommended hashtags: #brownieday #brownies #brownierecipe #baking

National Pastry Day – December 9th

Share an easy pastry recipe for Christmas morning, have a blogger create a recipe, curate a board on Pinterest, etc. You can leverage this day very similarly to National Brownie Day!

Recommended hashtags: #pastries #pastryday #baking #pastrydough #pastryrecipe

Channukah  – December 12th

Be sure to wish your audience celebrating the holiday a Happy Channukah!

Recommended hashtags: #happyhannukah #happychannukah #channukah #hannukah #8crazynights

Poinsettia Day  – December 12th

Ask your followers for pictures of how they decorate with poinsettias! If appropriate, remind your audience the plant can be poisonous to dogs.

Recommended hashtags: #poinsettia #christmasdecor #christmasdecorating #poinsettiaday

National Chocolate Covered Anything Day  – December 16th

What things are your audience’s favorite to cover with chocolate? Ask them! Run a promotion, share some ideas, put up some pretty photos, have a bunch of chocolate covered things in the kitchen for your staff and share a photo of it!

Recommended hashtags: #chocolatecovered #chocolate

National Bake Cookies Day  – December 18th

Leading up to this day, you can host a cookie recipe contest! If you own a store or bakery, have it be a contest to have the cookie produced in your business. You can also ask users to submit photos and recipes, pick your favorites, have the community vote on your top choices and then award the winner with a prize (a KitchenAid mixer, grocery gift card, a year’s supply of chocolate chips, etc.).

Recommended hashtags: #nationalbakecookiesday #bakecookies #[cookie emoji]

National Go Caroling Day – December 20th

This sounds like a day just primed for some great video content. Serenade your audience! Host a live caroling session with a local choir. Use the day to do something fun and different for your audience!

Recommended hashtags: #carolingday #gocaroling #singing #singinginthestreet #christmasmusic #christmassongs #holidaymusic

Winter Solstice  – December 21st

First day of winter! Who is excited? It’s also technically the shortest day of the year – from here on out, our sunlight will last longer!

Recommended hashtags: #firstdayofwinter #winteriscoming #wintersolstice #winter #bringonthesnow

Festivus  – December 23rd

Festivus – for the rest of us.

Recommended hashtags: #festivus #fortherestofus #festivusfortherestofus

National Egg Nog Day – December 24th

A perfect day to ask about holiday traditions and whether or not your audience enjoys egg nog. Nothing like a divisive drink to get that chatter going!

Recommended hashtags: #eggnogday #eggnog

Christmas Day  – December 25th

Be sure to wish your followers a Merry Christmas!

Recommended hashtags: #christmasday #merrychristmas #happychristmas #santa

Bacon Day  – December 30th

Oh, the possibilities are endless. Refer to National Brownie Day, Cotton Candy Day and Pastry Day for some thoughts!

Recommended hastags: #baconday #bacon #breakfast #givemeallthebacon

New Year’s Eve  – December 31st

Reflect on your year, share your brand’s biggest moments, etc. Wish your followers a Happy New Year!

Recommended hashtags: #newyearseve #happynewyear #happy2018 #goodbye2017 #peaceout2017 #welcome2018

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.