We are blogging maniacs at 8THIRTYFOUR, we blog twice a week or more depending on breaking industry news. That is a lot of content to create, which means we have learned a thing or two along the way.

Here are some of our blogging non-negotiables.

1. It’s all about the relationship. Readers need to feel a personal connection to a brand, and that means you gotta give a little of yourself to build loyalty. We blog a lot about marketing, PR, digital, design…but we also talk about our favorite patios, stuff we do to unwind and more. Communication is all about building relationships, and to do that you have to foster a connection on a deeper level.
2. Provide value. Think ‘how-tos’ or checklists. Just recently we wrote a blog about the best times to post to social media, broken down by network. Readers could download an infographic, that they could use as a guide when scheduling social media. See…value.
3. Be funny (no pressure). Don’t take yourself too seriously, brands that incorporate humor into their content come across as more relatable and engaging.
4. Share the responsibility. No one person in our company is expected to generate all the content and we often will collaborate on blogs with each person inputting their piece.
5. Share real world results. Any company can talk about how great they are, it is when you show results of a project or campaign that readers will take notice.

These are just a few of the things we have learned from 11 years of blogging. What do you think?

If you are not writing, do you even exist? Kidding…sort of. In the world of business ownership, you have to write – emails, blogs, notes, strategies, press releases, newsletters…the list goes on. No matter the audience you are trying to reach, the content needs to be engaging, fresh and relevant.

Here are a few tips to keep your content game sharp.

1. Get to the point. I say this to my brother all the time, is there a point to this story? We all like a good lead, but it shouldn’t be more than a paragraph to build up to the key takeaways.
2. Write first, edit it later…and sometimes ignore grammar rules. Great writing isn’t overly structured, you are not writing a research paper. You can start a sentence with a preposition and fragments are not always bad. Get it all out, then go back and reread and clean up.
3. Be passionate about it. Don’t write about something that bores the hell out of you. You won’t ever see me writing about accounting or cross-stitching (little known fact, I used to cross-stitch). You will see me writing about my small business journey, integrated communications, relationships and leadership.
4. Read up. I use Feedly to stay-up-to-date on marketing, business, public relations, digital, etc. news. It often sparks ideas for an article, blog or email.

The best piece of advice I have is, don’t overthink it. If it interests you, write about it. It doesn’t have to be rocket science, you are not curing cancer…you are writing from your perspective.

What ways do you stay motivated and inspired to write?

I had a great conversation this past week with good friend of mine, who is in an influential and important role in Grand Rapids. She was looking to amplify her brand, meaning raise her profile in the community. Although she is very involved in the community, which is a huge part of her job, not a lot of people realize her level of engagement or the breadth of that involvement. Why? Because if it didn’t happen on social media, then did it really happen at all?

I know this sounds utterly ridiculous and in some ways it absolutely is, however we now live in the digital age which affords us a lot of opportunities but also takes away anonymity. Unfortunately, you can’t have it both ways.

My advice to my friend on increasing her visibility within the community, was the following.

• Utilize social media to educate, inform and share your life. There are multiple ways to do so, which I’ll cover in the next few bullet points. Start with Facebook and Instagram, Twitter is a time suck and the network is losing the relevancy it once had.
• When you attend events, go to meetings or are giving a presentation; be sure to check-in on social media with an explanation of what you are doing. This broadcasts your involvement to the community and also allows those attending the same event to find you and network.
• Share photos of your adventures. If you are walking in downtown Grand Rapids, grabbing coffee, attending an event, grab a photo and share with your followers. This showcases you are out and about and involved. I realize this may seem silly, but how often do you check social media in a day? 12 times? 15 times? Too many to count?
• Post articles or blogs you have written or feel will educate on a certain issue that is important to you or relevant to your job. This will help position you as knowledgeable, informed and thoughtful.
• Take advantage of either Facebook or Instagram Stories. Have fun with it! Show a more personal side, take pictures with your dogs, put on those damn bunny or dog ears/nose, make a video, get your emoji game on…the possibilities are endless.

For this blog, I focused on social media as a tool to increase your visibility, there are so many ways to do so, but all roads lead back to social media when it comes down to communicating what you are up to.

Looking for more resources or articles on personal brand, check out the below blogs.

• Why you can’t afford to ignore personal branding
• The value in speaking
• Make your own opportunities
• Becoming the salesperson of you

Strategies are hard.

Where the hell do you even start? Whether you are the one responsible for creating a marketing plan or you are working with an agency, you need to understand the components.

The following outline is what I start with when crafting a strategy and then I customize based on the client, industry and overall goals. This will give you a starting point, and you can then add and subtract from there.

Marketing Plan Overview:
This is just a paragraph or two of what is included in the plan. What are the components and sections that are outlined in the strategy.

Goals & Objectives:
It is imperative that you map out measurable goals, break it out into internal and external goals. Below are some examples:

• Increase leads through website by 10 a month.
• Map out internal processes to streamline the customer service experience.

You will also want to outline how you plan to measure each of these goals. Obviously with the website lead generation, it will be how many forms are filled out, calls made, traffic on page, etc. For the internal processes, you can set a timeline of when each section will be completed.

SWOT Analysis:
SWOT Analysis is a tool for examining the current status of a company in a particular marketplace. This is not expected to be timeliness, but to give a snapshot of the company and the market forces at this point in time.

Competitor Analysis:
This may seem redundant year after year, but it is important to revisit ever year. Look at what your major competitors are doing well or not so well in the marketing realm, so look at their website, social media, search rank, blogging, email marketing and more. Learn from what they are doing well and avoid what they are not doing well.

Research:
This section will vary based on your industry. However, if you have done surveys or client interviews in the past, that is a great starting point. You can also indicate in the strategy that surveys are going to be implemented as part of the strategy. By gathering as much intel as you can on your current and past customers, you can effectively plan out tools and tactics within the plan. This section is also where you map out buyer/audience personals. Below is an example, if the client was a home builder or realty company:

• Millennial Couple with Young Kinds, a Dog
  • Clear pricing is important for this group so they can manage budget, although they are often willing to stretch.
  • Space is important for kids to be close and have places to play, desire to entertain family and friends is also important.
  • They research every buying decision online before moving forward. This is often done on a tablet or mobile phone.
  • They are avid watchers of HGTV, especially Fixer Upper as they can relate to Chip and Joanna Gaines.

Messaging:
Clear and consistent messaging is a must for all brands. By maintaining consistence across all communication mediums, you ensure that everyone is receiving the right message. In this section outline your brand attributes, positioning statement, elevator speech, tagline, tone and voice and sample language.

Tactics:
This is the section where you map out how you are going to achieve the goals you mapped out early on in the strategy. Depending on what the research, competitor analysis and other sections reveal this can include, but is not limited to:

• Community engagement
• Digital – SEO/SEM
• Email marketing
• Social media
• Video
• Advertising
• Public relations
• Blogging

The next section is implementation. I recommend breaking this out first quarterly, then monthly, then weekly and finally daily. Be sure everyone on your team knows what they are responsible for and revisit the strategy often in bi-weekly meetings to adjust as needed.

The use of social media is a hot topic around our office lately. We have a social media policy at 8THIRTYFOUR, it is all of one paragraph and states that employees are expected to engage with our brand, share our content and be good ambassadors. What it fails to get into is the type of content, posts, expectations, etc. to ensure the company brand is protected.

It is important to me that each employee feels free to express their opinions, share their personal stories and utilize social media how they want. However, as a business owner, I also have to manage and protect my brand.

When I rewrite our policy, I will be sure to include the following and I encourage you to do the same.

1. Indicate what is confidential to the company. For example, sharing information on a RFP response, client work, financial information, etc. Make sure an employee understands what content they need to ask approval on before sharing. A good rule of thumb is mirroring the content shared on the company social channels.
2. What are the consequences? It is fascinating to me the stuff people will share online without considering the ramifications. Social media does not happen in a vacuum, something you share with a few hundred friends can easily go viral. Be sure your employees are clear on the repercussions. Firing? Suspension?
3. Encourage an open dialogue. As I said earlier in this blog, we are having this discussion internally. Employees have to feel they can come to you with questions as it relates to social media.
4. Social media is a reflection of your culture. I ask employees to use their best judgment and to remember they are ambassadors of our brand. We are a progressive agency and do not shy away from uncomfortable topics, that being said inform, educate and share. Use the platform to appropriately and stop with the damn selfies.
5. Avoid the illegal. Nothing much to say about this one, except don’t do it. It is necessary for a company to state “don’t use social media for illegal activities.”

A company’s social media policy should educate employees on usage and give examples of what is and isn’t acceptable.

My advice to employees is, anything you put out there to be seen should be intelligent and well-thought out. Too often we use social media as a passive aggressive way to share our opinions. How about writing a blog and then encouraging the discussion to happen there.

Me Too. A powerful two word phrase that has been spreading like wildfire on social media started up on Sunday night. With the Harvey Weinstein sexual assault allegations dominating headlines, actress Alyssa Milano took to social media asking women to post “Me Too” if they had ever been a victim of sexual assault and/or harassment. She tweeted a note that read “Suggested by a friend: If all the women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote “Me too” as a status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem.”

That was all it took, for women across the nation and world to come forward and post “Me Too” to illustrate the sheer magnitude and reach of sexual assault and harassment. The goal of this movement, in my humble opinion, is to show how far-reaching and common this type of behavior is and to bring attention to it.

Utilizing social media for advocacy is nothing new and has been used by nonprofits, politicians and other groups for years.  Since 45 took office this past year, we have been experiencing an incredibly polarizing political environment. From women’s rights to Black Lives Matter to LGBTQ rights; social media is being used to advance political agendas and influence public policy.

Take the current president, 45 has used Twitter as a tool since the beginning of his campaign to incite action and spread his ‘truths.’ Social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are used predominantly for advocacy. A Huffington Post article notes that Facebook and Twitter break fifty percent for advocacy use. Twitter ranks first with slightly over three-fourths using that platform. Advocacy organizations may be using Twitter to attract media as those in television, radio, and print look to Twitter for breaking news and interesting story ideas.

You’ve heard the saying “evolve or die”, well it couldn’t be more true. If you are a business you can’t continue to do things the same way year after year because you’ve always done it that way. No one cares what you want or what makes you comfortable, if you don’t put your customers front and center you won’t have a business to run.

Take Toys R’ Us for example, the company just declared bankruptcy which has taken a lot of us (ok, me) by surprise. I don’t have kids, so I haven’t kept up with the retailer as I have no need to buy toys…besides checking out the latest in Star Wars action figures. So…the news came as a surprise to me until I started reading the reasons behind it.

1. The company was resistant to e-commerce. To this I say, know your audience. If I was a mom, there is no way in hell I am bringing my kid into a toy store when I can easily order it online and avoid the inevitable temper tantrum.
2. All of your competitors are in the digital space, refusing to compete is just idiotic. If you want to compete with Amazon, Target, Walmart, etc. then you have to be in the space they are in.
3. Brick and mortar is becoming extinct, that doesn’t mean there isn’t a place for it but it can’t be the only facet of your business.
4. If your audience is moms or young familes then you need to consider their lifestyle, buying patterns – you know do the market research.
5. A quick look at the company’s social media revealed that there are a lot of rogue Facebook pages out there. It would appear there is no company wide policy for individual stores. On top of that, several posts all publish at once, there is no strategy around it. On September 15th, 3 posts went live at 9:00 a.m. – how the hell does that make sense?

The company had so much opportunity to get it right. I mean you are a TOY STORE, what could be more fun to market? I’m talking video, charity outreach, Facebook live, Instagram, Pinterest, influencer outreach, celebrity endorsements…the jingle “I don’t wanna grow up, I’m a Toys R’ Us kid…” still plays in my head.

Toys R’ Us needs to grow up and fast. I hope they can turn this around.

Hello everyone seeking a job, connection, friend, mentor, advice – stop bugging everyone. Make it happen yourself.

No one owes you anything. They certainly don’t owe you their time, an introduction or advice.  This past week, I have received numerous emails from individuals relocating to the area. Apparently they googled and I came up, lucky me.

This blog isn’t to discourage you from reaching out and connecting with business owners or leaders in the community, but it is to tell you to develop a better strategy.

If you are moving into a new city and need to find a job or build a network, here are a few tips:

1. Research organizations and groups to join. If you’re in marketing look at the American Marketing Association or the Public Relations Society of America. Google exists for a reason, so use it. Google “Networking events in Grand Rapids, MI” or “Professional associations in Grand Rapids, MI.” I just literally gave you the search terms, stop being lazy.
2. Use LinkedIn to connect to professionals in your new city. Are they involved in the orgs that you want to be involved with? If they are on the board of the association, then ask to sit on a committee or volunteer. Be useful, if you can offer value to another professional they will be willing to assist you.
3. Attend events. Go to local young professional or old professional gatherings. Join a hall and meet your neighbors, drinks help pave the way to great conversations.

These are just a few ideas, because you are capable of thinking of additional. Subscribe to the local business publications so you know who the major players are in town and get cracking.

Jerry Maguire, eat your heart out.

As a business owner you need to constantly ask yourself, “is this a good investment?” or “what is the ROI?” Marketing is one of those activities that proves more difficult to show return on investment, which is why it is usually the first to get chopped. I’m here to tell you not to do that.

According to The CMO Survey from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, only 31 percent feel they can prove the long-term impact of marketing spend quantitatively. Proving ROI is hard, but not impossible and we frankly love doing it. No really, we freaking love it.

Here is the deal; when determining return on investment for marketing activities, keep in mind the multiple variables that influence outcome. Brand awareness, customer lifetime value and touch points (over 7 are recommended) are all ROI factors. The easiest way to measure ROI is through analytics, which requires companies to invest in digital marketing such as SEO, SEM and social media. Traditional efforts such as billboards and print advertising are not trackable unless tied to inbound marketing.

Measuring and optimizing metrics on each marketing channel such as, email, social media and website provides early indicators of success (or failure) of marketing campaigns to better track and predict their cumulative impact on customers’ purchasing decisions in the long run.

With Google Analytics alone you can see:

• How many people are visiting your site
• Where your visitors live
• Which devices they are viewing your site from.
• Which websites are sending you referral traffic
• Which marketing tactics are driving the most traffic to your site
• Which pages on your website are the most popular
• How many visitors you have converted into leads or customers
• Where your converting visitors come from and go on your website
• How you can improve your website’s speed
• What blog content your visitors like the most

All of this information shows what marketing efforts are working and what isn’t. This then allows you to change your approach to increase ROI and concentrate efforts where the most impact is. What goals do you have set up for your company? What do you consider success?

So many stories.

I had a friend pose a question to me this past week on the future of social media. Will it remain an important tool for marketers? Has fake news, spam accounts and the ever present trolls reduced the value? I would also add changing algorithms and the trends towards pay to play to the list.

The networks we are all familiar with such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Instagram, etc. will exist in some form in the future. Each of these companies are working to address fake news, spam and the troll issue. Does it make these networks any less valuable?

Yes and no.

The Value:

1. A two-way conversation. Social media is unique as it gives customers a platform to interact and communicate with a company. Marketing is no longer a one-way interaction where companies push out a message and customers have no opportunity to respond. Social networks are often an extension of a company’s customer service or their main portal to deal with complaints.
2. SEO. A social presence enhances a company’s search engine optimization. The more content you share and traffic you drive back to your website the better your results will be. This won’t change in the foreseeable future, how social interacts with your online presence will.
3. Pay to play. As marketers we want to focus on organic growth and save our money. Social networks give preferential treatment to the company’s that advertise, which seems kind of shitty but in reality is still a great value. Running ads on Facebook or Instagram is much more beneficial than a billboard off the expressway.

What will change:

1. The networks we are so familiar with now will evolve or become extent. What you see now is a lot of copycatting. Take the ‘stories’ feature for example.
2. Third party apps. How we manage the networks will improve with better tools coming out to cut down on the amount of time dedicated to scheduling and monitoring.
3. How we use social will most definitely change, although I couldn’t tell you how. Whether a company is using it strictly for customer service, product sales or as brand awareness…the networks will change to better serve these needs.

We will never go back to the traditional ways of marketing. Consumers are demanding more from companies as it relates to transparency, service and communication. 20 years ago the United incident would have received little coverage. Companies now have to conscious of the fact that they are always being watched and held accountable. Social media plays a large role in this and will continue to do so in the future.