Step Up Your Social

In this episode of Step Up Your Social, we're delving into one of my favorite examples of content marketing on the entire internet. Traditional marketing highlights a product or feature that it thinks you’ll care about. Brand marketing tries to make you feel something about the advertiser. Content marketing looks to provide value as a way of getting into your feed or inbox and building trust over time. The Ad Professor is a master of creating content that's so good, I'm legitimately excited to see them hit my inbox. Is the whole thing an ad for their agency? Yup! Do I care? Nope! Because I know that there's value waiting for me in every single issue. Find links to their site, and a whole lot more at StepUpYourSocial.com.

If your social media engagement is down, you're not alone! Social media is an amazing tool to reach new people. But never forget, social media is rented land. Keep posting to your social channels, but also use them to grow on real estate you own. This can include newsletters, blogs, digital communities, podcasts and more. In this episode of Step UP Your Social, we talk about why this matters, and how you can use lead gen (short for lead generation) tools to start to move your audience from rented land on social media to real estate you actually own.

This is a short episode, adapted from an article I wrote 5 years, about the importance of engaging with positive comments on social media. It's as true today as it was the day I wrote it. So I wanted to share it with you, my podcast listeners. If someone goes out of their way to say something nice about you on social, and you can't be bothered to smash that like button, you should re-evaluate why you are on social in the first place!

If you use the internet, you’ve likely heard of WORDLE. According to Buzzfeed, there have been nearly 2 million tweets mentioning “WORDLE” since November of 2021. But here’s the thing: this game, that so many people play and talk about, had only 90 users in November. Not 90 thousand… 90. How did this viral phenomenon happen and what can we as digital marketers learn from it? A lot!

What do you do at the end of your customer lifecycle? Do you go above and beyond to ensure that the customer who is moving on never forgets just how much they love you? Chewy is a pet supply company. They know their customers will have to cancel their auto-renewal products... eventually 😢🐶🐈 But Chewy doesn't just offer canceling clients full refunds. They take their "marketing generosity" to the next level. They don’t just want to get out of the way. They want to be a part of the family. In this episode of Step Up Your Social, we take a look at how Chewy creates unyielding brand loyalty from their customers, even as those customers are canceling their orders. We then give some thought to how *you* can keep your client lifecycle going, even as it seems like it might be wrapping up for the foreseeable future.

In this episode I cover a bunch of free digital tools you should be using, but probably aren't. These free tools will help you step up your graphic design, your writing, your video storytelling and a whole lot more. You can stream all episodes of Step Up Your Social here, or at stepupyoursocial.com. Are there any free digital tools you use that I didn't cover? I'd love to hear about them. You can email me at suys@reverbalcommucations.com, hit me up on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn at Reverbal Communications or tweet at me using the hashtag #stepupyoursocial. Thanks for listening.

There are three primary reasons you should be blogging to grow your brand: 1) It's great for your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) 2) It positions you as an expert in your field 3) It creates endless bridges between your social media and your website In this episode of #StepUpYourSocial, we dig into all three of these reasons, as well as how to approach creating content, the difference between timely and evergreen content... and a whole lot more! Tune in today right here or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Instagram Stories just keep getting more popular. Over 500 million people now use them every single day! And their functionality keeps growing as well. In this episode of #StepUpYourSocial, we cover ten tips, tricks, hacks and strategies that you should be using to take your Instagram Story game to the next level. Are there any tricks or hacks you like that we didn't cover? We want to hear them! Hit us up on our website (stepupyoursocial.com), on Instagram (@jlemonsk) or on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn (we're Reverbal Communications) or share online them using the hashtag #stepupyoursocial. In the meantime, keep telling your story!

Warren Buffet is a better writer than you for one simple reason: he knows his audience and he writes directly for them. Are you doing the same? Don't write your content for "the world," rather write it for an individual. Don't try to make yourself *sound* smart. Try to make your reader *feel* smart. This episode covers some takeaways from Social Media Marketing World 2019 and pulls from a great presentation given by Ann Handley, the author of Everybody Writes.

There are 5 keywords that, when used in a post on Facebook, automatically limit your post's reach. Facebook has labeled the tactic in question as "Engagement Bait." While Engagement Bait first started being penalized in the Facebook algorithm over a year ago, Facebook just recently began applying their penalties to video content, as well as to text. In this episode, we cover the what, the why and the how of Engagement Bait, as well as some tips for avoiding it.

Are you leaving low hanging fruit on the table? Are you missing opportunities to encourage your current customers, fans or audience to start conversations with you online, thus promoting your brand to their own networks in the process. In this episode, we cover two inter-related topics: the importance of displaying your handles *everywhere* your audience is and the vital role that engagement plays in creating and managing a beneficial social media program. Never forget — social media is not a tool to speak TO the people. It’s a tool to speak WITH the people. The goal is to have conversations and to build relationships.

"Stories" are the Facebook response to Snapchat — fun, quirky bits of content that disappear after 24 hours. Instagram Stories alone has over 400 million daily active users — more than twice as many as Snapchat. In this episode of Step Up Your Social, we cover the what, the when and the how of Stories along with a bunch of tips, tricks and fun things you should try.