Create the New School: Live. Learn. Create.

Live. Learn. Create.

That’s the concept behind Create the New School.  Create was founded with the goal to provide exceptional education opportunities for creatives.  With a focus on photography, design, fine arts and music, Create exists to provide unparalleled resources and education opportunities in a workshop format.  Workshops are available for beginner creatives or creatives who are looking to develop their new or existing business.

Create will be offering workshops in the areas of business, photography (theory & editing), printing and music and will be hosting them in a variety of local venues around Edmonton.

Lucky for us, the ladies behind Create came to us and asked us to teach the curriculum for their social media marketing classes and of course, we were more than excited to do so!  AND the amazing Erin Walker, of Erin Walker Photography, who is the talent behind the design and photography for Hello Media Co. (and many of our our amazing clients!) will be teaching some of the photography workshops (and an awesome photography for bloggers course!) for Create!

If you would like to explore the classes that Create will be offering for their fall schedule, check them out!

Ask the People!

“Finding” content is rarely a simple task for companies.  Although each and every business owner has tons things they want to say about their business and different ways they wish to promote it, finding the words to pull it through is often challenging and very honestly, sometimes what we, as business owners, want to say isn’t necessarily what our audience wants to hear.

I learnt long ago that if we don’t ask, we won’t receive and this is why I believe crowdsourcing to be one of the most effective ways to learn what your clients want to hear from you on your social media channels.  Of course there are tools that we can use to help us understand what kind of content really gets our audience interested, but one of the most effective ways to find out what your audience wants from you is to ask them.  This doesn’t only relate to your social media content but to your business as a whole.  If you are a retailer trying to figure out what type of water bottle to bring into your store, allow your customers to vote on the bottle they love best!  Simple yet effective.

Imagine how effective your social media content strategy would be if you could pulled out all the stops by using tools AND people! *gasp*

If you are interested in learning about some social media management tools to help make your social media content strategy that much more effective, click here to join us at our next social media workshop!

Why It’s Important to Get A Social Media Audit

You’ve heard me say it a million times already, planning is important.  But one thing that I haven’t talked about at all is why it is so important to modify and update that plan from time to time.  When we become too submerged in something, whatever that something may be, it is far too easy to become complaisant and comfortable.  When that happens, we are very weary about making changes, but in the words of Shrek, “change is good Donkey” and the more accepting we are to change, the more opportunities we have to improve.  It is for this reason that it is so important to reevaluate and adjust your social media on a regular basis.

Although something worked for your company a year ago, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s working for your company today.  As your business evolves your audience will evolve.  As this happens, it’s important to recognize that what they want now may not necessarily be the same as it was before.  For example, if you are a new company, your business goals may be focused on educating your audience on the benefits of your products whereas if you’re in your third year of business, your audience is now educated and and wants to know unique ways to use your products.  Take a minute to stop and think about how these changes will influence your social media initiatives.  While Facebook may have been the answer to aid in educating your audience, Pinterest may be a better way to demonstrate unique ways to use your product.

But let’s get back to that idea about getting too close to something and becoming complaisant.  It is for this exact reason that it is often best to have someone else sit down with you and evaluate your social media efforts.  I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I’ve sat down with an organization for a social media audit and their reaction to my feedback has been “I didn’t realize I was doing that” or “after looking at this further, it makes no sense why we’re doing this.”  Heck, sometimes I even have social media audit clients say that they didn’t know how to use certain functions of the different platforms that then increases their abilities to use the platforms effectively.

Moral of the story, a social media audit can genuinely change the way you look at your online presence.  If you are not in the position to hire someone to develop a strategy for your company, this is the next best thing!  We come in, dig around your social media platforms, and then give you some key takeaways to make some big changes to your social media presence.  A fresh set of eyes can make all the difference.  True story.

If you are interested in booking a social media audit, click here.  Let me buy you some coffee and let’s dig into it!

Planning Your Social Media Content

So, here’s the scoop.  If you’ve been managing a Facebook Page, a Twitter account, or maybe a Pinterest Board, chances are that you’ve sat in front of your computer screen at one point or another thinking, “I don’t know what heck to say next.”  Quite frankly, when I talk to clients about the challenges that they face with their social media initiatives, this is the number “challenge” that I hear.  So… let’s talk about this!

Determining your social media content may not always be easy, but there are some things that we can do to help simplify the process.  The number one tip that I can give you is to take the time at the beginning of the week to plan out your social media content for the upcoming week.  This doesn’t mean go through and schedule absolutely everything, it just means create a plan!  Think about all of the things that are going on in your business’ world.  Now I know this sounds kind of funny by itself but try it.  Right now!  Take two minutes to think about what is going on in your business this week.  Maybe you have a meeting with a buyer.  Maybe you’re taking your staff out for supper for all their hard work.  Maybe your new billboards are going up around town.  Think about all those things and THEN think about how those are relevant to your audience.  Some of those items may be important to them while some of them may not be.

Once you’ve determined those key “events” going on in your business, you’ll be able to plan out your social media for the week accordingly.  Think about the individuals goals and audiences of each of your social media platforms and go from there.  Although it will take some time at the beginning of the week, you’ll spend far less time in front of a blinking cursor wondering, “what the heck should I say!”

On May 2nd, we’ll be hosting the 2nd social media workshop of our 3-part mini-series with WECAN.  This workshop will focus on helping you go through the process of planning out your social media content for the next month!  If you want to join us at next social media workshop, click the link to save your seat!

A Little Lesson in Social Media From the Edmonton Oilers

Last Wednesday, I had the opportunity to attend the Edmonton Oilers game and boy, oh boy, was I ever excited.  The thing about being a die-hard Oilers fan is that even though you go to the game half expecting them to lose, you act like they’re going to win right up until the last whistle.  (don’t mind me, I’m still slightly bitter … I really, really wanted them to win)

The Oilers do such an amazing job with their social media presence.  On Twitter alone, they have a corporate account (@EdmontonOilers), many of the players have individual accounts which they personally tweet from and the Oiler Octane also have a main account as well as individual accounts for each of the members of their team.  Not only do these accounts keep fans up-to-date with the latest in Oilers news, but they also allow us to take a peek into the daily lives of our favourite Edmonton team.

So how is all of this relevant to your business?  Well, just as we feel like Ryan Jones’ (@Jonesry28) friend when he tweets pictures of him playing street hockey with some kids on his block, your community will feel connected to your business when they get that little glimpse into your life.  Too often businesses are concerned about all of the negative “what ifs” of social media and the amount of personal content that they share, but what about all of the positive “what ifs”?  Quite frankly, there are far more positives to the transparency that social media provides to your business by allowing your customers to get to know you!  Not only will this help you develop a relationship with your customers but it will help them trust you and ultimately trust your business.

We are seeing more and more big box businesses try to be personable and relatable like independent businesses so why not stay true to that!  Engage with your audience.  Listen to what they have to say.  Answer their questions.  Respond to their comments.  BE THERE!  If we take the “social” out of social media, we just have media… and wouldn’t that be taking a step backwards rather than forward?

So, the next time you visit your Twitter feed, your Facebook Page, or even your Instagram feed, stop for a second and think back to your friend, Ryan Jones and his game of street hockey.  And well, don’t try to be like Jonesy but… well you get the picture  : )

Choosing Social Media Platforms for Your Business

If there is anything that I can ever promise you it’s that social media is here to stay.  It isn’t a fad.  It isn’t a faze.  It isn’t “only a matter of time before we find something new”.  It’s here and it isn’t going anywhere.  So, let’s embrace it and figure out how we can use this new-ish way of communicating to reach out to our target audience!

Whenever I talk to clients about where they should start with their social media journey, the first thing we do is figure out a.) their social media goals and b.) determine their target audience.  Without knowing either of those, it is nearly impossible to implement the next stage of the process which is determining which social media platforms they are going to use to help them achieve those goals and reach their desired audience.

One of the most important things to remember when choosing social media platforms for your business is that the “answer” for one company may not necessarily be the answer for your company.  It is very important to understand the key differences between each social media platform and how (or if)  your audience is using each of those platforms.  For example: if you are selling skateboards and your target market is 15 year old males, Pinterest probably isn’t your best bet.

If you’ve been sitting there and asking yourself, “where the heck to I start with all of this,” on April 18th, we’ll be hosting the 1st social media workshop of a 3-part mini-series that speaks exactly to this question.  We’ll walk you through some key steps to setting those important social media goals, to understanding your target market, and choosing the platforms that will help you achieve success in your company.