Category: Marketing

User-Generated Content: Your 2022 Marketing Key

Dana PhelpsBlog, Marketing, Social Media + Influencer Engagement, , , , ,

User-generated content is the strongest marketing tool you’re not using.

Amidst a tumultuous social political and economic landscape, people are craving something they can trust. Research shows that transparency and authenticity are the leading social currencies for consumers. In fact, according to Stackla, 90 percent of consumers evaluate authenticity when deciding to purchase from a brand, and Label Insight points out that 94 percent of consumers are more likely to support a brand that offers transparency. Quippy taglines or eye-catching visuals alone will no longer forge a meaningful and lasting connection with your audience.

User-Generated Content: Transparent Talk

User-generated content (UGC) provides that unvarnished, unedited peek into the experiences and words of “people just like me”. UGC consists of pictures, videos and quotes directly from current customers. A well-curated library of UGC automatically showcases a variety of demographics offering brand advocacy that consumers know isn’t paid or polished. UGC can build your brand champion base as well as educate your audience about the daily uses of your product. And as a considerable benefit, User-generated content is easy to maintain and relatively inexpensive (or free) in comparison to paid advertising or influencer partnerships.

The proof is in the pudding on this one. Stackla shares that consumers are 2.4 times more likely to view UGC as authentic compared to content created by brands, and 79 percent of people say UGC highly impacts their purchasing decisions. Now is the time to focus on your UGC strategy, strengthen customer loyalty and broaden your market share.

Curating the Content

The online realm is ripe with avenues to effectively gather UGC from customers, brand champions and even employees themselves. When crafting a UGC campaign, gather content for a social media platform that highlights not only your product but also the product’s adjacent lifestyle. For example, a women’s fashion shoe brand won’t just show photography or videos of its latest stilettos; it might also showcase the pumps in a snazzy wine bar at a girl’s night out, on date night or in a posh salon—hinting at the social cache that comes with wearing these shoes. To start using user-generated content:

  • Launch a branded hashtag on social media: ask followers to share experiences marked by a hashtag. Instagram is the front-runner platform for a hashtag campaign, followed by Twitter and TikTok. Create a consistent ethos for your campaign with a corner overlay or border for UGC reposts.
  • Roll out an email campaign: directly ask fans for their pictures, videos and quotes.
  • Leverage a landing page or personalized app: craft a contest, challenging fans to submit their best take on your product for a chance to win swag, experiences and discounts.
  • Tap product reviews: encourage photos in reviews for a one-stop shop. (Fun tip: More than 70 percent of consumers say they look at product reviews prior to purchase.)
  • Host a daily photo challenge: make each 24-hour period an opportunity to submit fresh takes (like this one from GoPro).
  • Create a TikTok challenge: for richer content complete with ready-made music, sound effects and built-in video editing.
  • Gamify the goods: require users to complete a series of tasks (including submitting content!) to earn rewards.

Utilizing Your User-Generated Content

The beauty of UGC is its versatility and applicability throughout the customer relationship, and options abound for how to leverage your UGC library. Once collected, certain content formats perform better on various platforms. Facebook, for example, works best for longer-form video, which can also be featured in paid ads for greater and more targeted reach. For shorter-form content, use the Regram app to repost to Instagram. Share Reels and challenge followers to “react to this person’s video” or ask them to repost as a duet.

But don’t be afraid to branch beyond social media. UGC can be featured on employee uniforms, fan swag or product packaging. Connect with brick-and-mortar foot traffic by spotlighting images in your store (checkout lines, store backdrops and even floor decals).

While UGC yields impact at every stage of the buying cycle, stats show that it is distinctly effective at the final stage of the journey—the tipping point where consumers are weighing options. For example, include UGC photos on the landing page for a specific product that garners ad traffic. Feature quotes on an abandoned cart landing page or email. Build review testimonials into a nurture campaign for warm audiences.

Important note before posting any user content:

Be sure to ask your consumers’ permission before sharing their content. If launching a formal campaign, build in a consent form in the entry process, or reach out to individuals via direct messages. Ensure that you also confirm how they would like to be credited, especially if sharing content across multiple mediums.

Ready to beef up your UGC strategy? Email us for a consult!

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PR + Marketing in a Post-COVID World

Dana PhelpsBlog, Hiring a PR Firm, Marketing, , , ,

Things have changed. Has your marketing strategy followed suit?

The COVID-19 pandemic has left indelible imprints on every sector of life. Social values, beliefs and behavior patterns have evolved as people reevaluated what they truly want and who they trust to partner with them.

As communication professionals, you can no longer rely on the stalwart strategies, formulas and personas that guided your pre-pandemic marketing strategy. Growth won’t spring from a dry well. Instead, it’s time to rediscover your customer base and the most effective means to meet their needs. Things have changed… and so has marketing in a post-COVID world.

Your Audience Demographic Has Changed

Start with the basics and rebuild your audiences’ demographics and psychographics. Granted, many of your trends might remain the same, but according to McKinsey, a surprisingly 36 percent of consumers are experimenting with new products or brands — including yours. One plastic surgery center, for example, noticed a dramatic increase in its male clientele from 10 to 25 percent during the pandemic, spurred by the rise of self-reflection on Zoom. Likewise, has your consumer base shifted to include a new audience segment since 2020? Ensure that you’re precision-targeting active, warm audiences that find value in your product or service.

Your Audience Location Has Changed

While buildings are still standing, brick-and-mortar shopping took a significant hit during COVID, a trend that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. According to Deloitte, online grocery shopping grew 40 percent year-over-year during the pandemic; Chipotle saw a 134-percent growth on digital orders, and Walmart saw a 79-percent online increase in the latter half of 2020 alone.

The familiar faces in your store have now transformed into IP addresses on your webpage, and with such a migration, companies need to perfect their audience’s online experience. In addition to investing in e-commerce, online chat support and strong SEO, work to increase high-quality touchpoints across multiple channels. Kasaa revealed that 70 percent of consumers use three or more channels when researching a purchase, and nearly 14 percent of consumers shop on social media, according to Deloitte. So if you’ve been waiting to dive into Instagram Reels or TikTok as a nurturing tactic or sales channel, now’s your time. 

Also, use this opportunity to snag a bigger piece of the content pie. Create, target and remarket DIY and how-to blogs, videos and podcasts to snag more of your audience’s virtual attention; since they’ll be online anyways, they might as well be reading your content, valuing your expertise and falling in love with your brand!

Your Audience’s Motivation Has Changed

At first, virtual shopping increased out of necessity and safety, and 75 percent of U.S. consumers changed their purchasing behaviors. Now, nearly two years later, people have grown accustomed to the ease and speed of online shopping, making accessibility the leading motivation for buying, according to McKinsey. The bronze and silver medals for purchase drivers were safety and value; people put a premium on health and hygiene along stretching each dollar further amidst an unpredictable economic climate.

Audit your connection points. Are you readily offering the products or experience you promise? If products are backlogged, slow or unavailable, audiences will look elsewhere. Under-gird your messages with transparency, showing your company’s commitment to safety, health and social responsibility. Ensure you are offering strong value and highlighting the quality that the consumer gains from your brand. 

Now what?

Dig into your data. Pore over the items you already have in place (Google Analytics or purchasing records, for example) and launch data collection methods to garner new insights:

  • Interview customers in-person or over the phone with open-ended questions.
  • Provide concise surveys via email to recent buyers or conduct web exit surveys when a consumer leaves. (Use quick, single pop-up questions on this one.)
  • Carve out a strategy for meticulous social listening; through basic grounded theory research, you can mine a wealth of information from your social media comments and online reviews.
  • Interview your front-line personnel regarding their customer interactions.
  • Track the customer’s digital journey using Google Analytics.

And…

Partner with an expert.

We’re here, and we’re adept at helping you craft a PR, marketing communications and social media strategy to reach these ready-and-waiting audiences. Ready to tackle the next steps in your growth?

Drop us a line!

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2022 recent Instagram updates

Olivia NolesBlog, Marketing, Social Media + Influencer Engagement, , , ,

Instagram is constantly changing and evolving to compete with other social media platforms and meet all the wants and needs of its users. As the app continues to change, your strategy needs to continue to change as well. Keep reading to learn the 2022 recent Instagram updates and how your strategy should change.

Instagram updates app to have multiple feeds

A recent Instagram update that will launch in 2022 is multiple feeds, similar to the layout that TikTok uses. The Instagram feed options include: “Following,” “Favorites” and “Home.” Following includes only accounts users actually follow and is chronological, a setting users have been begging Instagram to bring back. Favorites is a smaller, more curated feed that includes only accounts users have gone through and personally favorited. Home is “the Instagram you know today,” meaning all of the above along with Instagram’s recommended content for you, like curated ads and suggested users.

Shoppable posts take priority in the Instagram algorithm

Instagram wants the app to be a one-stop shop. Users find the product on the app, then they can immediately buy it on the app. Instagram is adding additional incentives to shoppers, such as discounts and money off to encourage users to shop in the app.

If you are a business that sells products, look into utilizing the shoppable posts feature on Instagram. There are pros and cons to this feature, but a major pro is that the algorithm currently pushes shoppable content more than non-shoppable content.

All accounts can use the link feature

Another recent Instagram update is allowing all accounts to have the ability to link on stories. When Instagram launched the links feature, it was only available to users with 10k followers. Now, all accounts can link to external sites on Instagram stories.

A business should use Instagram stories to link to any external content it wants its audience to see. For example, blogs, websites, products, menus, reviews, events- the list goes on and on.

You can now search for content on Instagram

Like Pinterest, Instagram has rolled out the ability to search content based on keywords rather than just hashtags, locations and users. That means that when writing captions, you need to consider which keywords you are factoring in along with your hashtag strategy.

Instagram is primarily focusing on video

As mentioned in a previous blog post, Instagram has announced that it is no longer just a photo-sharing app. Since this announcement, Instagram has prioritized Reels by pushing them to new audiences and adding a monetization option for creators.

Reels is currently the best way to grow on Instagram. Any time Instagram launches a new feature or content format, the algorithm pushes that content to follow the agenda Instagram has. Because of this, businesses and creators trying to grow should use new features, like Reels, whenever possible.

Tips for growing on Instagram via Reels:

  • Use trending sounds: Trending sounds are those with an arrow beside them in the Instagram app. Some business accounts may not have access to all trending sounds due to usage rights.
  • Content trends: If you cannot use trending sounds, try trending styles of content instead. Finding current trends requires spending some time consuming short-form video content. When you see a common theme, think of how you can spin it to your niche.
  • Play around with how you post Reels: There is a theory that Reels posted only to the Reels page are pushed to new audiences while Reels posted on your feed are pushed to your followers. Another theory is that Reels are discoverable for a longer period of time when sharing to the feed, and that Reels shared only to the Reels tab experience a spike in reach that ultimately levels off and gets no views after roughly an hour. We recommend testing out both options over a period of time and seeing what works best for your account.
  • Share Reels on Facebook too: When posting a Reel, there is an option to also post the Reel to Facebook. Just like the other posting options, we reccomend playing around with this feature and seeing what works best for your account.

Instagram is adding Reel features similar to TikTok

Instagram has added the ability to respond to a comment with a video on Reels. The comment will appear as a sticker on the new video, and the new video will be pinned in the comments of the original Reel. This is a very popular feature on TikTok and a great way to earn more views for both videos since viewers that have only seen the comment response will wonder what the original post was.

Need help launching your own Instagram account for your business or organization? Reach out to us; we’d love to help!

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How TikTok took over: using short-form video for business

Olivia NolesBlog, Marketing, Social Media + Influencer Engagement, , , ,

For the past few years, short-form video has been taking over social media. The algorithms built around these videos give creators the opportunity to go viral overnight. Read how TikTok took over and our tips for using short-form video for business.

How TikTok took over:

TikTok, a short-form video platform that currently has 1 billion active users worldwide, is at the head of the short-form video.

TikTok’s short-form video platform combines the successful features from other apps, such as the music library and lip-synching feature of Musically and the inside-joke culture around Vine, a short-form video app that thrived in the beginning but ultimately failed.

TikTok combined these loved features of previous apps with an algorithm that made creators and businesses blow up overnight. Unlike any other before, the TikTok algorithm rewards content above all else. It no longer matters how many subscribers or followers you have. Any valuable, quality content has a chance of going viral.

Other reasons TikTok has become so successful is because it is easy to use, the library of sounds creates a community, the short-form video caters to humans’ short attention spans and the custom “For You Page” shows users content they enjoy.

using short-form video for business

Since TikTok’s success, short-form videos and similar formatting and algorithms can now be found across nearly all social media sites. Instagram has Reels, Reels can be seen on Facebook and YouTube has launched YouTube Shorts.

You may be uncertain about the longevity of short-form videos because of Vine. Today’s platforms are different than Vine and more likely to succeed because the apps offer monetization options for creators and are pro-business. With how easy it is to reach new audiences, you should be using short-form video for your business.

How should I use short-form video for my business?

TikTok:

TikTok may be right for your business if your target audience is younger (16-30). It’s a great platform to invest time in because the algorithm shows users content they are likely to enjoy, making your viewers more likely to be interested in your product or service.

To increase the chances of having a video go viral, use trending songs, content styles or jokes, and hook the viewer at the beginning of the video.

While consistent, organic content is a strategy we recommend for any social media platform, TikTok also offers many beneficial advertising opportunities through its TikTok for Business platform.

TikTok for Business serves as a marketing hub for businesses’ accounts and gives businesses the ability to create five different types of ads:

  • TopView: ads that users see when they first open the app
  • Infeed Videos: ads that pop up in between user content
  • Brand Takeovers: allow brands to create images, GIFs and videos that link to webpages or promote hashtag challenges
  • Hashtag Challenges: allow brands to promote a branded hashtag that you can craft to increase engagement and awareness
  • Branded Effects: branded lenses that businesses can put in the foreground or background of videos

Instagram and Facebook:

Instagram has announced that it is no longer just a photo-sharing app and introduced its own version of short-form content called Reels. With a similar algorithm to TikTok, Reels is one of the fastest ways to grow on Instagram.

using short-form video for business

Tips for successful, organic Reels:

  • Share your Reel only to the Reels tab to reach new audiences  
  • Share the Reel in your feed to reach your followers
  • Enable the “recommend on Facebook” setting when posting the Reel to make it viewable on Facebook
  • Use trending sounds, or sounds with a small arrow next to them, to increase your chance of going viral

Ad content can also be created for Reels and will help businesses reach greater audiences. Instagram Reel ads are a feed style, meaning they show up in between organic reels on the reels tab, explore and traditional feed.  

YouTube:

If your business is active on YouTube, you may want to implement YouTube Shorts in your strategy. Shorts is a relatively new feature on YouTube, and there are currently some pros and cons with utilizing the feature:

  • Pro: Can reach new audiences through suggested content
  • Pro: Can increase channel views
  • Con: On the desktop, Shorts are shown with your typical videos, which can clog your page and distract from your long-form content
  • Con: can decrease watch time analytics
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What Does A PR Agency Do? WGU North Carolina Student Scholarship Videos

Clairemont InternBlog, Case Studies, Marketing, , ,

WGU North Carolina, an affiliate of Western Governors University, is an online, competency-based university designed for busy adults who need to balance work, family and financial obligations. Since coming to North Carolina three years ago, WGU North Carolina has offered a chance for many individuals across the state to achieve their higher education goals.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, WGU North Carolina, often known for surprising its scholarship recipients on-site, faced a problem: How could they still present scholarships to unexpectant recipients and share the student’s story in a safe, impactful way? Even more, how could they maintain and even increase the social media engagement that often came with posting the reaction of these surprised scholarship recipients?

WGU North Carolina began setting up virtual “scholarship interviews” via Zoom that acted as a pretext for scholarship unveilings and recorded each one. As the raw footage of student testimonials – and their reactions of joy, relief, pride and tears – started pouring in, our team recognized the need to share these snippets of good news with a larger audience. Therefore, Clairemont launched a video campaign in response.

The WGU North Carolina student scholarship video campaign showcased the authenticity and personality of WGU North Carolina. Each student testimonial personalized individuals’ efforts, perseverance and successes reaching their higher education goals, while Zoom backgrounds often offered a peek into their own home and day-to-day reality, many times consisting of family members. The videos spotlighted stories of moonlighting gigs, mid-life career changes, stay-at-home moms’ dreams to head back to the workplace and those inspired to change their course of work and/or study due to the pandemic. A few of the video testimonials were so powerful, we decided to expand the “good news” beyond social media and reached out to the students asking if we could share the videos with local media outlets.

WGU North Carolina recorded and Clairemont edited 28 scholarship surprise videos in 2020 which garnered nearly 11,000 views (and counting!) and helped boost WGU North Carolina’s followers across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube by 5 percent. Several of the videos posted also received attention and praise from WGU North Carolina’s social media followers, WGU National, and even other WGU state affiliates. The video series now serves as a content cornerstone across each of WGU North Carolina’s social media platforms and is an example that is referenced state affiliates when discussing video content.

Interested in reading more about the creative ways we’ve helped our clients? Click here.

This campaign was recognized by the North Carolina Chapter of Public Relations Society of America (NCPRSA) with an Award of Excellence. Thanks to Glenn Gillen (one of our very favorite PR pros!) and WGU North Carolina for allowing us to do awarding-winning work with you!

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