Social Media Marketing – Up Up & Away

Learning & Connecting

Well what can I say another amazing day of learning, inspiration and fun at the ‘Digg for Success’Under The Influence Event yesterday at the Glenavon House Hotel, Cookstown. And how nice for a change having such an amazing event like this on our doorstep.

Digg For Success

So just to give you a little background about the event, it was organised by the amazing Caroline from Digg Childrenswear and this is the second of the series, I missed the first one, so I was keen to attend when the next date came up.

Caroline needs very little introduction for those of you who know her, she is full of passion, motivation, drive and instils you with inspiration. Every time I hear Caroline speak, and that’s a few times now, she is so energetic, real and honest. She tells it how it is and is a great advocator of doing things yourself if you don’t’ have large budgets to hire in third parties.

Caroline recently established an online group on Facebook called ‘Digg for success’. The group aims to help you build your knowledge and confidence in all aspects of social media for business and includes little nuggets of info so you can take away and apply it. It’s also very focused on supporting members along their journey. The  name ‘Digg For Success’ sums  up any journey in business or end goal you may have ….if you want to achieve in anything in life you have to put in the hard work and ‘digg’ for that success as it certainly doesn’t come easy, and requires lots of effort and perseverance. The same applies for social media efforts, what you out in you get out.

Putting Yourself Out There

It can sometimes be very daunting attending these event as I normally attend by myself and whilst I always see some familiar faces, you have to be prepared to put yourself out there and ‘network’ ( I hate that word) lets use ‘connect’ with others. I love to support as many events as I can and go to ones that I know I will benefit from.  I always come away feeling really motivated and have lots of takeaways, giving me the little nudge I need from time to time, as well as getting me to tick a few off my ‘to do’s’ of my list.

Social media is constantly changing and unless you keep up to speed you will get left behind, so I don’t mind investing in taking time out to top up my knowledge  then I can go away with some actions to ultimately aid me in making some more noise on social mediaIt was so inspiring to sit in a room filled with so many successful business, each in their own right.

The day started with Niamh Taylor from Digital Twenty Four, award winning social media guru, who always offers a wealth of insights, tips and hints on social media. Niamh focused on Facebook advertising and how you have to ‘pay to play’, giving us a step by step guide on how to create a targeted campaign.  Next to the stage was Caroline herself sharing her journey on social media and how each of the platforms, facebook, instagram and snapchat were powerful in taking her business to new heights. She explained how she used them to reach new audiences and outlined how she engaged with her audience effectively through consistent and entertaining content. Then Louise McDonald took to the stage, From LMD Make-Up, to offer her experience in how she has established such an amazing brand and range of beauty products, again using social media as the key marketing tactic. For her snapchat was the most effective of the social media platforms in terms of connecting with her audience and getting direct sales as a result. Then local businesswoman  from Bellamianta took us thorough her social media activity  along with her social media team, and they talked about how they work very closely with influencers  and brand ambassadors to promote their product  through the various social media platforms. Last to the stage, but by no means least, was Anna Henry,  Former Miss NI and now new business ower of her own Gym, yet another inspiring story from such a young lady.

Getting first hand insights from each of the ladies behind their business journeys and successes was so encouraging to listen to and reinforced the critical role social media had to play in getting them to where they are in the business successes.

Local Businesses

One thing that really stuck me was the number of so many incredible businesses, big and small, that we have right on our doorstep. I am very much in favour of supporting local where possible, so it was great to meet and connect with so many businesses across the industries and hopefully it opens possibilities to work closer together to support and promote each other.

This is just some of the local businesses I met Grainne Maher Millinery, Olivia Muldoon Makeup, Crosshill Gallery, UptownBIBI, Solo Shoes Dungannon, Crystal Boutique Armagh and SnootyFox Boutique and Franks Fish Shop.  So as you can see I got speaking to a wide variety across different industries.

Faces Behind The Grid

We were also so lucky to be in a room with so many incredible bloggers and influencers, particularly rubbing shoulders with those I personally follow and am inspired by, so it was so great getting to meet in person so many of the fab faces behind the grid

Top Takeaways:

So I wanted to share with you my top takeaways form the day.

1. Don’t worry what others think of you, if you are doing positive things for you and your business, then keep doing them and don’t worry about what people say or think of you.
2. You will gain greater results from using ads manager in facebook versus ‘Boosted Post’ however you need to create targeted campaigns within the platform for your various target markets.
3. Video is king across all the platforms, with the ability to have a greater reach
4. The 5:3:2 Rule – The key thing not to do is talk about yourself all day, every day; this is a sure way to turn people off from your brand. The rule go’s:

5 should be content from other sources that are relevant to your audience, otherwise known as curation. 3 should be content you’ve created, that’s relevant to your audience, or creation. 2 should be personal, fun content that humanizes your brand to your audience, to be referred to as humanization. (Source – https://www.business.com/articles/explained-the-5-3-2-rule-for-social-media)

5. The 3 H’s Rule

• ⅓ of your social content promotes your business, converts readers, and generates profit.
• ⅓ of your social content should surface and share ideas and stories from thought leaders in your industry or like-minded businesses.
• ⅓ of your social content should be based on personal interactions and build your personal brand.

Source (https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-rule-of-thirds/)

6. Carry out regular research on the audience profile across your social media channels  so you understand who your audience, so you can in turn  target accordingly

7. Planoly is an excellent tool for social media planning so you can plan and schedule content in advance

8. Ask people what topics they might want you to focus on, that way you are producing content of interest to your existing audience

9. Tag and share  as much as you can in all your posts to help promote one another

10. Think local, we have so many amazing business on our doorstep so why not support one another, business and bloggers.

So if you missed the event I hope this gives you a little snapshot of what we were treated to.

What immediate action will you take to improve you social media activity?

Elaine x