Month: April 2020

10 Mistakes a Social Media Manager Made So You Don’t Have To

Posted on by Avery Carson

Social media is the place to be this season — or we think, any season — to connect with your community. Every day, See.Spark.Go’s team of social media specialists explores innovative ways to post, stream, create, connect and respond using the diverse, ever-changing and intentional uses of each platform. We may or may not hit a few speed bumps along the way. However, these obstacles provide helpful insight once we navigate through them.

Basically, we do it all for you. Learn 10 things we tried and failed so you don’t have to.

1. Instagram doesn’t support GIFs.
Crazy, right? What are all those moving images I see? GIF files are not supported on Instagram. If you have created a motion graphic, make sure to convert it to an MP4. When posting as an in-feed post, Instagram will automatically replay your video, giving it the appearance of a GIF in your feed.

Facebook supports a variety of photo and video formats (find the full list here).

2. Make sure to save your IG Live to your camera roll… or else.
After your Live broadcast ends, tap Save in the upper right corner immediately. It might take a minute for a live video to save to your camera roll, especially for longer videos. Also, you’ll only be able to save video — not comments, likes or any interactions, and your Live video will no longer be available within the Instagram app. Even if you don’t have a use for it now, you might. Better SAVE, than sorry.

3. If your image resolution is less than 1080 x 1920, it might show up blurry on your Instagram feed.
To ensure that all of the beautiful content you’re posting is fully appreciated on social media, make sure that your image resolution and dimensions are correct per platform. We LOVE our friends at Sprout Social (s/o to Becca, the best customer support specialist around) and they have a great guide we use all.the.time to stay up-to-date in this ever-changing space. Avoid using screenshots; cropping and downsizing the original image to the preferred dimensions will always work better.

4. You can’t go Live on Facebook with a scheduled video from a mobile device.
Did you know that you can schedule a Facebook Live video ahead of time? Facebook’s Business Manager Publishing Tools allows you to set up your video, title and caption ahead of time and schedule it for the broadcast date and time of your choosing. So helpful, right? With this being said, whenever you do schedule a Facebook Live, remember that when the time comes, you can only go live and stream the video from desktop instead of a mobile device.

5. Cropping a video on IGTV isn’t the same as filming it vertically.
The official aspect ratio for IGTV, along with IG stories and the Facebook Feed is 9:16. This means your video should be a ratio of 1080 x 1920 pixels. To be extra safe when repurposing a horizontal video used on other platforms for IGTV, shoot wide in general to ensure you have room to crop down to the right size.

6. You can’t use YouTube end cards on “Made for Kids” videos.
YouTube recently made this change because of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. YouTube is trying to start limiting the data it collects on children viewers, which means that content creators using the platform to target a younger audience won’t be able to take advantage of end cards.

7. You can’t go Live on Facebook and Instagram at the same time from the same device.
Even though Instagram Live and Facebook Live are both owned by Facebook, they are two different live video streaming platforms with different features. While you’re planning innovative ways to connect during this season through live streams, prepare to go live on both platforms on different devices or at different times.

8. Sharing an Instagram Story to Facebook Stories doesn’t necessarily mean it will look the same on both platforms.

And while we’re at it, when you share an Instagram Story to Facebook Stories, it works — kind of, sometimes. Features such as quizzes, polls, countdowns and more don’t sync with the Facebook platform in the same way. We recommend posting stories natively within their respective applications for the best use of platform tools.

9. Don’t ignore the importance of optimal video orientation per platform.

If you’re filming content for social, know the channel or channels where you are going to want to leverage it and film accordingly! If you have the time and resources, it’s always best to create different versions of the videos for different channels post-filming but you can always choose the one that you think is the highest priority (i.e., if your highest views are on Stories, film vertically) and make it work for the others.

10. Your Facebook ad could be rejected if it uses keywords that relate to an issue of “national importance.”
Facebook ads that share information about public health, religion, sustainability or civic issues take longer to be approved because new Facebook restrictions can flag these for further review, delaying your ad launch. That means any of your ads or promoted posts featuring relevant COVID-19 content could take a bit longer, as well as all sorts of other keywords that you can learn about here.

We hope we’ve saved you a swing and a miss or helped you find a working solution to the social media barriers you’ve run into. In order to ease your social media management even more, our team has created 9 graphics and captions that you can download for FREE and use on your social media. They are written and designed to engage audiences working and staying at home in this COVID-19 season.

Download the free 9-grid of social media images and captions here and tell us how you like them on Instagram @SeeSparkGo.

Embracing the 90 Percent

Posted on by SSG Team

The longer I live, the more we realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do…We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is attitude — I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.

Chuck Swindoll

We are living in a world that looks drastically different than it did 30 days ago. Restaurants, gyms, bars and gathering places have closed their doors. Schools have gone virtual. Sporting and entertainment events have been cancelled. Parks, sidewalks, interstates and biking paths are vacant. Employees have been laid off. Families have filed for unemployment. Loved ones are suffering and healthcare workers are answering the call to serve in ways we’ve never seen before. We are staring into a long tunnel without an inkling of when we’ll see light at the end. 

These are facts. This is what has happened to all of us.

How have you reacted? How has your family, your community, your company reacted? We all have the power to choose how we respond to this current circumstance. 

At See.Spark.Go, we believe in the power of enthusiasm. Merriam-Webster defines enthusiasm as, “strong excitement of feeling; something inspiring zeal or fervor.” Not an idealistic, “Pollyanna” attitude, but seeing reality through a lens of grounded excitement for the day-to-day opportunity to do our work. 

SSGers choose to be hopeful in the face of adversity, believing that we either win or we learn — there is no losing. Now more than ever, an enthusiastic approach to client service means we take positive, intentional steps to provide high support in the moment, while also looking strategically toward the future. It means we see this time as an opportunity to grow, think outside the box and stretch our understanding of communications to support our clients’ needs. What does that look like in action?

  • Enthusiasm looks like pivoting a brick-and-mortar restaurant client’s social strategy to promote their local carry-out order service.
  • Enthusiasm means sharing how a national faith-based organization donated critical personal protective equipment to medical workers across the country.
  • Enthusiasm challenges us to explore how elementary school fun run activities could be reimagined virtually as the school year comes to an end.

Enthusiasm means looking past the current reality and continuing to plan expectantly for a bright future. 

What action have you taken to maintain an attitude of hope? Are you continuing to plan for the future? We know inertia can be hard to come by these days, so we’ve removed the guesswork for you. Let us help you navigate these uncertain times and maintain an attitude of enthusiasm in the months ahead.

Case Study: Farm Burger

Posted on by Natalie Matthews

2019 PR Results

226

SIGNIFICANT MENTIONS
BASED ON RELEVANCE + IMPACT

47MM

IMPRESSIONS
FROM SIGNIFICANT PLACEMENTS

$781K

MEDIA VALUE
ON SIGNIFICANT PLACEMENTS

 

“When Jason Mann was a rancher, he noticed that most of the buyers for grass-fed beef were fine-dining restaurants looking for specific cuts, inevitably leaving farmers with lesser-known cuts that they couldn’t sell. Mann found the solution to this dilemma in the humble burger. Farm Burger—which launched in 2010 and now has 12 locations—sources local grass-fed whole cattle that are broken down in-house.” – Bon Appétit

Nearly 230 placements in national and local outlets earned Farm Burger 47 million impressions and a media value of more than $780,000. Nurturing relationships with reporters covering food, sustainability and local markets — as well as creative promotions by Farm Burger like Furlough Fridays and a new catfish sandwich — allowed us to see national coverage in outlets ranging rom Bon Appétit to USA Today, as well as local coverage in all of our markets in 2019.

Our team capitalizes on national holidays as well as creating long-lead story lines from Farm Burger’s differentiators and core mission.

The Impact of COVID on Brick and Mortar

Posted on by SSG Team

It’s no surprise that brick-and-mortar businesses are among those hit the hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic. Google Ads data suggests that in-store conversions tied to advertising were down 90% across the board for the last half of March compared to just a month prior. Restaurants and retail shops are feeling the negative impact and looking for ways to maintain business during this time — and ensure that they are ready to serve their customers once we are all on the other side of social distancing and shelter-in-place orders. Here are some of the best strategies we’ve seen.

Maintain communication with fans and customers
Let your loyal followers know you are still here. Through social media, email and other marketing channels, let them know what you are doing for them during this time and what you are doing for yourselves and your employees. This is a rare situation that is affecting everyone in some capacity, which also means that everybody has different levels of impact to their lives. So be authentic, sensitive and honest as you find a way to connect your brand to your customers and your customers to one another. Columbia Sportswear has done a great job of being open with their community and coming up with creative campaigns to maintain and connect their fans during this time.

Find new ways to do business
When your business loses its ability to serve people in person, an obvious solution is to send your customers what they want and need or to meet them where they are. For retail stores, this could mean increasing your e-commerce focus capabilities (or finally launching that e-commerce store that you have been meaning to set up). Many e-commerce platforms are offering special deals during the coronavirus pandemic—like Shopify, which is offering 90-day extended free trials—so make sure to take advantage of these deals. Additionally, restaurants are increasing their online functionality, expanding delivery options, highlighting pickup options and proactively sharing safety precautions being taken with their food. Local and nationwide delivery services are taking extra steps to support restaurants during this time as well, with reduced commission rates, increased marketing options and more.

Launch gift card campaigns
E-commerce and delivery options may not be as feasible for some as others, so another way to maintain cash flow right now is to offer gift cards (or bonds) to customers to be used at a later date. Loyal fans are looking for ways to support their favorite local businesses, and this is a great, mutually beneficial option. Companies across the country are promoting offers like “Buy a $100 gift card now and redeem for $120 when we open again!” From New York, to Atlanta, to Los Angeles, restaurants in particular are seeing success with this strategy, and you can too.