by Sarah K Perlman | Sep 13, 2021 | Uncategorized
Age is nothing but a number. It only matters how young you feel. The platitudes go on, but as people get older, it’s generally accepted that they lose touch with what’s cool to younger generations.
Technically, I’m a millennial. Being born at the cusp, however, means I’m in a super special subset referred to as “elder millennials” or even “geriatric millennials” (thanks, internet). As such, I am slowly losing sight of what’s cool—including social media trends—despite trying to stay informed.
TikTok is one of those things that I’ve known about for years but never got into. To me, it is all silly dances and young people being young. What relevance could it possibly have to the business world?
I recently spoke to a friend on the other end of the millennial range to help me understand. Patrick Maercklein, a marketing specialist at Employment Enterprises, is young and cool. His explanation of Tiktok and its potential for business use was enlightening, and now I’m passing those tips on to other geriatrics like me!
What Even is TikTok?
With 689 million active users worldwide, it would shock me if you’ve never heard TikTok mentioned. If you watch Instagram reels, you’ve likely even seen repurposed content from TikTok. While I’ve been out of the loop, I’ve at least been near it.
TikTok was created in China in 2016 and was originally called Douyin. The company then acquired a lip-sync app called Musical.ly in 2017 and started gaining traction in the United States. TikTok took off in popularity due to trendy dances that users copied and shared. Over time, and with rapid adoption, content has evolved to—as Patrick says—”anything and everything.” (If you want to go down a rabbit hole, there’s a longer history by Big 3 Media that covers the app in depth.)
“In simple terms it’s a video platform that is the inverse of Instagram.” Patrick explains. “Instead of your feed being filled with people you follow, TikTok is the opposite. Your go-to feed is other people’s videos and then the algorithm mixes in content from people you’re following.”
I already have Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram accounts that I interact with every day. So I asked Patrick, why should I get TikTok? “Because it’s less of a social media platform with your connections and more entertainment,” he replies. In essence, it’s tailored to you but it’s not curated content by your friends.
How Do You Create a TikTok Video?
To create a TikTok, you can either upload video from your camera roll (on a smartphone) or shoot video within the app. “TikTok has a very basic video editor with lots of available effects as well as a library of sounds (music, sound clips, etc.), says Patrick. The app tells you what sounds are trending so you can capitalize on the music of the moment. You can also save sounds for later when you’re viewing a video and like what you hear. (Pro Tip: Using the right sounds has a lot to do with how well your posts perform. If you’re using a trending sound, the algorithm is more likely to put your video in front of people.)
What Type of Content Is a Good Fit for TikTok?
Patrick emphasizes the ability of TikTok to show the personality of the brand. “Behind the scenes videos perform really well because they show the faces behind the brand,” he says. In short, TikTok is a platform that is grounded in reality. There’s no need for perfect lighting and color schemes.
He also shares that TikTok is super engaging and has a wide variety of engagement tools built in. “Typical Google searches are saturated and people are recycling the same types of content. On TikTok, you can respond to a comment with a new video and engage directly with the audience.”
How Does Content Get Shared?
Patrick says, “The TikTok algorithm is unreal because it knows exactly what types of content you want. I’d argue that hashtags on TikTok are more valuable than hashtags anywhere else.” The platform shows you content not only just from hashtags you follow, but also from trending hashtags. This way, users can go viral by jumping on a hashtag bandwagon of sorts.
“Because of the way TikTok is formatted and a random person is thrown on your discover page, it is so, so easy to to blow up. You can grow TikTok faster than any other platform,” Patrick explains. He believes that this ability to go viral is a big reason why businesses are tapping into it. “At my internship, I had a video that had 500,000 views! It was as simple a topic as “top 5 highest paying jobs.”
You can’t share someone else’s content to your feed the way you can on Facebook. You can, however, send videos to a group chat with friends or email or text a video to others through your address book.
What Is Your Ultimate Advice for Businesses Looking to Use TikTok?
“My main recommendation for businesses is that you have to be sure your target audience is active on the platform.” Patrick notes that the TikTok audience is nationwide and you can’t target local audiences specifically. “I also think you have to have the right audience demographics. It’s very much geared toward younger generations so be sure that’s the audience you want before you invest time in developing the channel for your business.”
Patrick also has doubts about sponsoring content on the platform. “You can pay to sponsor content on TikTok, but I don’t know if it’s worth it. Leveraging hashtags and popular sounds gives you the opportunity to reach your audience without paying. I grew my employer’s TikTok to over 1,000 followers within a few months.” He also says that posting consistently and trying new things are the keys to getting people to catch on and follow your brand. “It takes a lot more work than you would think.”
What do you all think? Was this as helpful to you as it was for me? Thanks so much, Patrick!
by Sarah K Perlman | Sep 6, 2021 | Content Creation
Did you know that 37% of the United States population—104 million people—listened to at least one podcast in the last month? The format is more popular than ever, with more than 700,000 podcasts available online.
So what does this mean for your nonprofit organization or association? In short, it means that you could be missing out on a lot more audience to receive your message.
The term podcast, in case you didn’t know, refers to a series of on-demand audio content that users can listen to. People subscribe to podcasts they like, and either listen online or download them to their computer or smartphone.
There are tons of how-to blogs out there on creating a podcast. A great one from Podcast Insights goes through each step with detailed information. What we’re tackling today is WHY your association needs a podcast.
Establish Your Nonprofit as an Industry Thought Leader
What better authority is there in your industry than your association? By creating a podcast, you can position your brand as the literal voice of your cause. Aim to answer questions your members, constituents, or the media have about industry practices and address timely and interesting topics.
You don’t need to completely reinvent the wheel to provide thought leadership. Blogs, whitepapers, and even video content can be repurposed to provide insight for a new audience.
Bolster Relationships With Your Key Stakeholders
Your board of directors likely meets regularly to guide the mission and strategic planning of your nonprofit. Recognize them for the experts they are and ask for topic ideas that will resonate with your members. Don’t stop at the highest level, either; chapter leaders make great resources, too!
Depending on the format you decide on, you might want to interview key players on the podcast. Fortunately, you have built-in connections within your organization who you can invite on the podcast. I guarantee they will be flattered at being asked, and you’ll capitalize on their involvement with your association. The beauty of this format is that each interviewee will market the podcast to their connections, exposing you to new potential followers.
Connect With Another Segment of Your Audience
Despite the 700,000 podcasts out already out there, you’ll actually encounter less competition with this format. There are approximately 2 million blog posts published daily and 500 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute. In comparison, the chances of reaching your audience via podcast are good.
You’ll also connect with people who are already aware of your organization but prefer to listen rather than read. Remember, we all learn and absorb information in different ways! This audience often multitasks while they listen, using your podcast to enhance what they are already doing—whether it’s their daily commute, working out at the gym, or doing house or yard work.
Develop Authentic Relationships Between Your Audience and Your Brand
You know how it’s so easy to misunderstand the tone or meaning behind a text message or email? The podcast format allows so much personality to shine through and creates familiarity with your listeners. While it’s important to maintain your brand’s voice and tone, the more casual and comfortable vibe of a podcast will resonate with your audience. You can even invite them to contribute by providing a form on your website. You can ask for topic ideas and other feedback to incorporate into future shows.
Generate Non-Dues Revenue for Your Association
It’s not always easy to raise money for a nonprofit organization, and many end up relying on membership dues to stay afloat. The problem with this comes when too much revenue is dependent on each member gained or lost. The more non-dues revenue streams an association can maintain, the easier it is to weather membership ebbs and flows.
Your association likely already has a media kit for sponsorship opportunities, so it’s easy to add your podcast. It could be difficult to sell at first without listener data, but creative pricing strategies might help a company get in at the ground level. Given the inexpensive startup cost of a podcast, even a minor sponsorship will create revenue in no time.
Boost Your SEO With Keywords and Links
According to Apple’s Podcast Best Practices, the title, author, and description tags are critical for growing your audience. (We need to listen to Apple; as much as 70% of a podcast’s listens and downloads are from iTunes.) While these tags apply to your listing within Apple itself, all roads should lead back to a landing page on your website. Make sure you have Google Analytics tied to your landing page so that you can track searches and referrals!
Creating a transcript for each podcast can help boost SEO, but in reality you don’t even have to create a full transcript. You can write a summary for each show full of long form keywords and featuring quotes from the audio. You’ll also benefit when your interviewees or other guests link back to your landing page to promote their appearance. High-quality links contribute to and raise your domain authority on Google.
Provide Growth For Your Marketing Team
Starting a podcast is simple, inexpensive, and effective. Behind the scenes, however, someone needs to organize topic ideas, edit the audio, promote each show, and track metrics. Because it’s so easy—and since 87% of millennials believe learning and development in the workplace is important—this is a perfect opportunity to help a junior-level marketing team member level up. Someone with initiative, good organization skills, and attention to detail can make the podcast their own and prove themselves.
Create Consistent Content For Other Marketing Channels
Ever wonder what you’re going to post on social media? Marketing your podcast is an easy way to continue repurposing content. Take quotes from each show, make YouTube videos with the audio, create graphics to promote the podcast. There are endless ways for your content to keep pointing back to each other. You’ll also want to submit your podcast to “podcatchers” and podcast aggregators—lists where it can be discovered by a wider audience.
Final Note: Persistence and Consistency Are Key
Launching a podcast can be an impactful strategic marketing move for your association. But like any inbound marketing tactics, it’s a long game of consistently producing quality content. You should build up at least 3-5 shows before you start marketing the launch of your podcast. Maintain promotion efforts and expect several months for your numbers to rise, even with a built-in audience of members. Trust in the engaging content you are creating and distributing, and have patience for the payoff.
by Sarah K Perlman | Sep 1, 2021 | Uncategorized
My social feeds—especially LinkedIn—are constantly filled with updates on the best time to post content to social media. As I read all these updates, I find myself wondering if they are truly applicable to today’s users.
My belief is that the ultimate best time to post on your social media accounts is NOW. Why?
Don’t build your entire strategy on too many (or too few) users.
Most of the information on the best times to post to social media are reporting on data from the platforms users as a whole. This data set is so large that it draws generalities and paints a picture that is unreliable. It’s like saying “the best time to buy milk is before a storm.” Just because lots of people do it doesn’t mean it’s the right time for you.
A common best practice is to monitor your social analytics on each platform. Being able to see when your audience is most engaged with your content can lead to valuable insights. This is a great PART of your strategy, but shouldn’t be the final answer. If you want to engage new followers, who’s to say that they are on at the same times as your current followers?
Algorithms are changing constantly.
The number of updates to the LinkedIn algorithms is directly proportionate to the number of posts on how to beat them. With every change that comes out, experts are putting out new guidelines on how best to be seen. In practical use, however, you’ll drive yourself crazy trying to maintain all these tips and tricks. I interact on my LinkedIn account daily, and even with so many factors for what is shown in my feed I still end up viewing the same content more than once.
The best tip for being seen is to foster engagement. Every time someone reacts to a post or comments on it, others will be seeing it also. Find ways to delight and entertain your audience with your posts and you’ll reach a wider audience organically.
If you wait for the perfect time, you’ll miss your audience completely.
It can be tempting to craft a strategy that plans on reaching people at the “perfect” time. The problem with this is that while you’re spending so much time on your strategy, you’re missing opportunities to reach your audience! It’s inefficient and doesn’t allow for flexibility.
But what about scheduling your social posts, you say? This is a beneficial way to save time, so if you’re scheduling posts in advance, by all means follow your platform metrics as a guide. But if breaking news hits, you’re better off posting it right away than waiting for a magic window.
What do you think? Am I way off base? I’d love to hear feedback on these thoughts.
by Sarah K Perlman | Aug 26, 2021 | Uncategorized
We hear all about content creation these days and how important it is to provide value to your customers. But how can you get started if you don’t currently have a strategy around content?
- Just get started. I’m facing this myself right now. I have so many ideas for blog posts but I know the importance of having a strategy. But remembering Mark Twain’s advice, it’s best to just get started. If you have ideas, record them right away! Then flesh them out when you can. You want to get moving on your content strategy, but it won’t hurt to post while you’re developing it. You can categorize your posts as you build your strategy.
- Talk to your customers. The whole point of creating content is to provide your customers with beneficial information. What do they need to know? What are their pain points and how should they address those issues? What kind of solutions can they put into practice immediately? You want to position your business as a resource for learning more. Be the source of the answers they seek.
- Identify your content pillars. These are the large “buckets” that your content will fall into. You can always add more, but start somewhere. List the categories your posts will fall into. For example, my pillars include content creation (how meta), branding, and social media management, to name a few.
- Build out your web. Ideally, you’ll have overarching pillar posts that are connected to other, more specialized posts. For example, I plan to have a branding pillar post with general information all about how to brand your company or yourself. Then I’ll link within that post to all the more specific posts I create, like Using Color for Your Personal Brand. You can think of it as a web of connected content, with the more interlinking the better. The interlinking is key; it will identify your site as an expert in your pillar topics in Google’s algorithm. Creating a plan for building out your web will give you direction for the content you need to create.
- Don’t forget to repurpose content! If your leadership writes a blog post, share it! Link to it! This is helping to promote your brand and you can use this as “free” content in your strategy.
- Share on ALL your social accounts. Your content strategy should include sharing on all of your social media platforms. It can sometimes feel like overkill from a marketer’s standpoint because we are looking at every platform. But remember, you have different followers on different platforms and if you only post in some places, you’ll be missing out on visibility from other sources.
- Go with the flow. Remember that this is a fluid process and you’ll should be making constant adjustments to your content strategy. Always be on the lookout for new ideas that will help your customers achieve their goals.
by Sarah K Perlman | Aug 17, 2021 | Uncategorized
Would it surprise you to know that marketers often have a hard time marketing themselves? It’s a conundrum, for sure. You’re great at what you do for others—so why can’t you just do it for yourself?
I think the problem comes (at least for me) when overthinking takes over. If I’m writing for another company, I have a clear narrative, scope, and voice to adhere to. When I’m planning my own communications, there are so. many. decisions to be made: What is my brand’s voice? How do I stay true to myself while remaining professional? What the hell am I supposed to take pictures of for Instagram? What if no one likes what I’m doing? Should I do it anyway? There are so many questions, doubts, and concerns that it all becomes muddled and overwhelming.
So, I’ve decided to just be me… with a slight filter. I’m going to put information out and if you don’t like it, you probably wouldn’t like me. (Or maybe give me a chance and tell me why I’m wrong?)
I’m working harder on marketing Silverbrook and expanding my network, so let me know if you’d like to chat. People say I’m pretty cool and I’ve got a reputation for being good at what I do.
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