17:34:50 Welcome, everybody. Welcome to practice best practices, essential marketing for creatives, workshops.
17:34:58 I' Denn Santoro the program manager for practice. Best practice, among other things, and I'll be hosting the workshop tonight.
17:35:03 Hey? We'd like to start off by thanking our principal sponsor, for river arts and culture coalition.
17:35:10 Frank, who's running an ignition project for artist grants, which tonight it is a part of Ashley.
17:35:14 Okino, the director of Frack, will tell you a little bit about that, and a minute.
17:35:18 We also want to thank our generous funders. Rockland Charitable Trust Foundation, the Carver, Dartmouth, and New Bedford.
17:35:26 Local Cultural councils, local agencies which are supported by the mass cultural Council and the Mass Cultural Council itself, which is a State agency.
17:35:33 We also are supported by generous in- support from our partners.
17:35:38 The National Park Service, new Bedford Art Museum. Art works with that co-creative center, New Bedford Creative and Sng project project project Gallery.
17:35:47 Our brokerage. We also want to thank Helen Granger.
17:35:49 Patty Rigo and Allison Welles for taking time from their busy lives to create the workshop content and take the time to answer your questions tonight.
17:35:57 A few notes before we begin. If you have questions during the workshop, please type into the chat.
17:36:05 Some of our board members, and I will be monitoring the chat.
17:36:08 When we select your question, we'll ask you to unmute, so you can ask your question out loud.
17:36:14 This will also give you the ability to ask follow-up questions if needed.
17:36:18 If you prefer for us to read them rather than go on screen yourself, tell us when you type it into your quote, your question into the chat.
17:36:25 Please keep yourselves on mute during the presentations.
17:36:28 You can unmute when asking questions we suggest. You put your zoom in speaker mode rather than galaxy mode during the presentation.
17:36:35 Those captioning is available, and you can turn it on for yourself with the CC.
17:36:39 Icon at the bottom of your screen we'll have a short survey online which you can take right here in the meeting, which we will put up near the end of the session feedback is really important to us.
17:36:49 So please fill it out. Also, you can add comments about the workshop in the chat as we are wrapping up, or you can email them to contact that practice.
17:36:58 Best practice.com. We'll be recording tonight, and we'll also put the recording of this workshop and the resources and the Transcript online at practice.
17:37:06 Best practice com within a few days for those who missed it.
17:37:09 I wish to review. If you're on our email list or social media, you'll see the notices.
17:37:14 All pass workshops are also there for your viewing.
17:37:17 We hope you liked us on Facebook and Instagram and sign up for our email list, although our workshops are always free, they do cost us to produce them if you would like to make a tax deductible contribution to practice.
17:37:29 Best practice you can find a donate button on the top of every page on our website.
17:37:33 All that money goes to us. None of it is taken out by the by, Paypal.
17:37:37 Now, here's Ashley Aquino, director of Frack, to tell you a little bit about the ignition project.
17:37:42 Hmm, thanks, Dan, and Hello, everyone. I'm really thrilled to see so many people here participating tonight, and in the workshop.
17:37:50 So practice very. Oh, let me say that again.
17:37:54 Frack is very proud. There we go to have launched our pilot ignition project and what we were able to do with this project we've presented.
17:38:03 This will be the third workshop of 4 in a series that we're collaborating with practice.
17:38:08 Best practice on. But this project also has awarded 10 grants of $2,500 to creatives in Fall River, and some of those creatives are on the on the call tonight.
17:38:20 So congratulations again on your grant award, and what they're doing with this award is they are implementing public facing projects throughout the summer and fall here in Florida.
17:38:31 And so I do encourage everyone to visit the fracs website, which is the frac.org, and you can learn a little bit more about what we're doing with the ignition project and also visit us on social media.
17:38:44 You can visit us on Facebook and on Instagram, through the Fall River arts and culture coalition, and you can learn a lot more about what the 10 projects are that are happening.
17:38:55 And you'll learn about the upcoming workshop that we'll be offering again with practice.
17:38:58 Best practice, and when the recording for this workshop is available, online.
17:39:04 So thank you again, everyone for attending, and I do also wanna just recognize that this would not be possible.
17:39:10 I know we're a sponsor of this, but this would not be possible without the support of the creative catalyst grant which comes from the Tdi program from mass development which is funded by the bar foundation.
17:39:22 So we think them again for their generosity and supports for arts and culture. And so den I will turn it back to you.
17:39:29 Okay. Great. Now, without further ado, let me introduce you to our presenters tonight.
17:39:35 Helen Granger is an artist, and design professional, with skills and website, design and development brand building print, digital production, graphic design, information organization production production management and so much more.
17:39:48 Fanny Rigo is the executive director of Eva Fall River, a community based commerce, culture, and creative economy initiative that draws on the city's unique and diverse assets to foster economic revitalization, support, active community engagement, inspire of vibrantizing and elevate the profile of the city
17:40:06 as a premier South coast, destination. Allison, Welles is the owner of Allison, Welles, Fine Art Gallery, and Studio.
17:40:12 In a historic downtown New Bedford, where she showcases her paintings and features, guests, artists throughout the year.
17:40:17 She's in many public and private collections, and has exhibited around the world.
17:40:21 We suggest. You read their full bios on our website for more info on the panels background.
17:40:27 Now, without further ado, let me turn things over to Alison to begin.
17:40:31 Hello! Everyone! It's lovely to be here. Thank you.
17:40:35 So today, I'm going to be talking about social media.
17:40:39 Specifically Instagram, because that is my main, my focus platform.
17:40:45 I do post on other platforms, but that is my focus platform, and what I wanted to say about that is, I also post on Tiktok, and that if you look at my followers on Tiktok, it's it's way higher than Instagram but I don't want you to confuse
17:41:03 the numbers. It's about quality over quantity. So today I'm really going to focus in on Instagram some of the best practices and some of the things that have worked for me.
17:41:16 So let me share my screen and begin.
17:41:29 Okay. Great. Everybody. Seeing my screen.
17:41:34 Yes, okay. Alright. So by going through with the tips and tricks.
17:41:39 Okay. Here are the this down here are the topics. I'm gonna go through, and these, the first 2 are priority.
17:41:50 The first 2 I really want you to focus in on that, and then I will go into the others.
17:41:54 I know a lot of people. Want to talk about wheels, and all of these things, but the first 2, your profile pick and your bio very important, and then we'll go straight into types of posts.
17:42:06 What's the post? And rules of engagement? All right.
17:42:08 So, without further ado, let's go straight to profile. Pick.
17:42:13 Okay, this is very, very important. It's a photo of yourself or a local.
17:42:18 But I will suggest that you do not only use your logo if only if you are marketing a brand not associated to a person.
17:42:29 So, if you are the face of the brand, you are behind the brand, I would, you know, strongly suggest that you show your face if you are Brand, where there are many different people, or it's a institution, then the Logo works.
17:42:44 But I really wouldn't do that if you were an artist, especially, or small business owner.
17:42:52 For me. I used to post my logo many times a.
17:42:55 My logo is one of my paintings, so I thought that was great.
17:42:58 I loved it, but it still wasn't too clear about what it was that I was showing, and I remember doing one of these Instagram courses, and they did suggest, especially for artists and people who own their own business.
17:43:13 And you are the face to put a photo of yourself, and I know some of you don't want to show yourself, and a lot of artists are like, well, why can't I just show a painting?
17:43:22 So it just makes people relate to you, more especially if you are creative person.
17:43:27 People want to see who is behind, that those beautiful paintings, or those beautiful sculptures, or, you know, a product that you make also close up photos.
17:43:39 You want to make sure you can see your face, or if it's a logo, you see the logo close and bright, not, you know, wobbly or it's it's not dim.
17:43:52 You want to be make it sure it's crisp.
17:43:53 Make sense with your brand. So for me, I'm a mixed media painter or educator.
17:43:59 I'm not gonna have in my local a picture of my cat, you know.
17:44:04 It's it doesn't go with my brand like, what is it? And I've seen things like that.
17:44:07 And you're confused. So you don't want to confuse your viewer as what your brand is.
17:44:13 Okay, I'm gonna go straight into your bio. So the bio now is the lines that you have under your your profile.
17:44:22 Pick. It can be a few different things, but I recommend anywhere in between there.
17:44:30 So name you want to have your name. Sometimes people might start with.
17:44:34 You know what they do as their first line, and that is, if your name is in your handle.
17:44:41 So usually at the top, you would have the handle. What your name is.
17:44:46 My handle is Allison Wells art, so I don't necessarily have to put Allison Wells again, but I like to have it there.
17:44:52 So Allison Wells, and then what what do you do?
17:44:55 What's your credibility? So what's your credibility? So what do you offer?
17:44:59 What do you serve? So that's so important, you know many times before I I think I had a wrong, and it was all about well, sale, sale, sale.
17:45:08 What am I gonna get? But it's more about what can you do what can you give your viewer?
17:45:15 Okay, how can you serve that? And the credibility is like, you know, if you I'm a New York Times bestselling author, or you know, I was in this magazine or that.
17:45:24 And so those things help when somebody is deciding if to follow you, call to action.
17:45:30 Cta. Those are so important. You must give a call to action.
17:45:35 So you're telling them to do something. Usually your pointing them to the link which is the next line.
17:45:41 You should always have some link. You always want to take people off the sites, take them off, of course, Instagram ticked out all of these social media platforms.
17:45:53 They don't want people to come onto the site. They want you to just keep straight.
17:45:57 You wanna stop the scroll. And when people read that Bio you've engaged them, I'm like, Oh, okay.
17:46:04 And then they will click so you might check out my website.
17:46:08 That's kind of general, but support you have a course online course now, or a free book, usually free things help and people wanna click it. And then you take it.
17:46:19 Straight, to, you know a webinar, or it takes them to your email.
17:46:26 So you sign up for the email, you will get them on that email list.
17:46:31 And then again, Helen will talk to you more about the importance of the email.
17:46:34 So those are the 4 steps there for your bio, and I'm going to give you some examples.
17:46:41 So these are some people I've followed that I've learned from them this woman, Kenya Kelly Griffin.
17:46:47 She's actually huge on Tiktok, and she gives a lot of advice of how to run your Tiktok, etc.
17:46:54 But this is her Instagram page, and she her profile is very clear.
17:46:59 Look at her, Bio! Look at her! Sorry! Her couple a profile, pick her face.
17:47:06 She's there you can see her face. It's clear.
17:47:08 It's a bright photo, and it's up big.
17:47:11 She's not standing on a rock far, far away, waving, and you don't even see who it is right now.
17:47:16 Let's look at her, bio. See there, Kelly, her name is Claire on the top.
17:47:23 The next one, the next line is what she does, what she does, what she offers, her credibility, teaching vertical video strategies to business owners, past clients.
17:47:32 Tiktok, quick books and vista print.
17:47:35 Those were her clients. So she's enticing you with this her credibility.
17:47:40 So in case you want to work with her, then call to action.
17:47:43 C. Ta, right underneath there, with arrows, marketing tools below, and then you click her link, and it takes you.
17:47:52 Okay, this is another one, the Lucas O'keefe that's his handle.
17:47:58 His name is in full right under his photo is Photo.
17:48:02 You can see the picture of him now. He's one.
17:48:05 I've learned a lot of tips just from I didn't even do any of his paid stuff, but just from his post his post, a pact, and yes, he does. Reels.
17:48:14 But he does a lot of carousels and informational carousels.
17:48:20 Carousels like a picture. But you have. You keep swiping?
17:48:24 So there are many images you can do up to 10. So sometimes you can do photos and picks.
17:48:29 I do photos of my artwork, and then people who have educational things to sell, to, to tell, give people they do that.
17:48:38 So look at his body, Lucas O'keefe, social media marketing, and then in the side he has his pronouns.
17:48:45 Then underneath that, sharing, easy tips and tricks.
17:48:50 So, you know, sharing easy, tips and tricks to help you grow your Instagram.
17:48:55 So you know exactly what he's about. Then the Cta call to action.
17:49:00 Get my free ebook right. You have something free right there. Boom!
17:49:05 Arrows pointing down to the link. He's taking them off.
17:49:09 If you're, you know, if you caught his attention, and you want to go further, you click the link.
17:49:15 Okay, here's another one, a local one for everybody to see.
17:49:19 Third, i. And the reason I chose this one is because that's the logo.
17:49:24 This is where a logo works. Okay, it's an organization.
17:49:28 So it's not one person behind. As the face of the brand.
17:49:33 And so their logo. Now your local wants to be catchy.
17:49:37 It wants to be strong, and this is a very strong logo.
17:49:40 It's a nice contrast. The dark blue against the white so catches your eye immediately.
17:49:46 Now let's look at the Bio third. I unlimited the name.
17:49:50 Nice and bold on the night. If anybody was thinking, Well, what is that I do underneath youth, empowerment, community organization, hip, hop, culture, boom right there.
17:50:03 Very clear, very precise. I know exactly what I'm getting into.
17:50:08 Okay. And then underneath they have the address. Now, if you have a business, you have a mortar brick and mortar business on organization, you put the address.
17:50:19 That is fine, and then they have their link. The only thing I would say is the call to action just between the address and the link.
17:50:28 So if you look at the link, you can tell it's a donor link, so it's for donations.
17:50:33 So I would just suggest something like Donate now, or donate with a arrow.
17:50:39 You know it just calls to actions. Sometimes people need to be updated what to do.
17:50:45 You just say it a few words of what to do.
17:50:46 And you'll do it because it's just. It's the easy thing.
17:50:49 Okay, the next. So this is mine. For an example. And, as you can see, look at the circle.
17:50:58 My image is big now. Before I had my logo, and let me tell you, I love my logo but it really it was up close.
17:51:04 You couldn't really see what it was. I wanted people to know.
17:51:09 People wanted to relate with me the artists, so I use the photo of myself, and then the same gentlemen over here I learned from him how to do the background, and so you can learn from different people.
17:51:22 So he walked. You through. I think it was a carousel something how you can use a picture you edit around you picture, and it was pretty simple, you know.
17:51:32 I'm not gonna go through that now, because I don't have the time.
17:51:34 But these are the things I thought it stood out so, and I remember when I learned it from him, he had a blue background behind him, it matched with his brand, and when he commented on people's posts, it stood out, and I noticed ever since I've had that it makes me stand out, if I'm commenting
17:51:52 or you know, even if somebody comes to my page, and that orange is part of my colors, of my brand.
17:51:58 Okay, first line. I have my name. I use a little emoji.
17:52:02 You can use Emojis through the whole thing. Art gallery owner, mixed media, painter, art, education right away.
17:52:09 You know what I do. That's my credibility. Underneath that I have a brick and mortar gallery, so I put the address.
17:52:16 Then next call to action, art workshops are all pointing down online store arrow pointing down.
17:52:23 Now you can change this around right? I have art workshops, because right now I'm giving art workshops, but it ends next week.
17:52:30 So I'll probably take that out and just have the online store, because I have new things in my store.
17:52:36 My link is a link tree before I would just have my website.
17:52:40 But I noticed that sometimes, if I have a lot of things, people have to click, get the dropdown and chew and look for what I'm talking about.
17:52:50 So link, 3. Very easy to get. You can Google, it.
17:52:54 And take you through the steps. It's free. You have a link, and you have all your different links in a row.
17:53:02 So when you click that I usually like to put the ones that I have on my profile right at the top.
17:53:07 Okay, so those are just some examples. And so those are the most important things.
17:53:12 The profile. Pick and your bio, because when people are scrolling and they see your posts, let's say your post catches their eyes.
17:53:22 They like it, but then they want to know more about you.
17:53:25 They want to follow you, but they want to know more. So they clicked the profile.
17:53:30 That is, when you want to hold them with your pick and with your the other information in your bio, telling them exactly what're going to get from you.
17:53:40 Okay, so here, types of posts, we hear about reels, single photos, tower cells.
17:53:47 Now the reals, you know. Everybody is real now, all of you who are on Instagram.
17:53:54 Before we were including myself. I was mad when they came out with reels, because we just felt Instagram was copy and Tiktok Instagram was not meant to be like that.
17:54:05 It was always meant to be photo sharing. And so this really pissed off a lot of people.
17:54:11 But the algorithm. They wanted people. They wanted to post reals and so that's what they were pushing.
17:54:17 They were not pushing anything else. The good news is just a few months ago.
17:54:22 They have started, they release that. They've started to push single photos again.
17:54:27 So for those who are nervous about the reals, you can still get some traction from single photos, but I would suggest you try with the reals, you know.
17:54:37 It's not too hard. You can keep it very simple.
17:54:40 You don't have to do all the advanced things.
17:54:42 You see some people doing power cells. We talked about that. That's photos.
17:54:47 But more than one and you're swiping through story stories are not post stories of what you see at the top of your home page, but their people that you follow.
17:54:58 So the good thing is that if you wanna grow, you wanna post.
17:55:03 So you're posting reals. You're posting single photo, superstring carousel, whichever ones really move you.
17:55:10 The most. But then, stories you cannot grow from your stories. People who don't follow you don't see your stories.
17:55:17 Only people follow you will see your stories so that is when you get they get to know you more.
17:55:24 They can see a little bit behind the stage. What goes on on your morning routine, or you know, if walks through the woods you can make it as private as you don't have to do very private things, but you could just tell them a little more about you or maybe your process.
17:55:39 Behind the scenes in my studio. Sometimes I love to ride my bike down the south end of New Bedford, and so I would take photos of the beach, and you know, for table and stuff and stuff like that, and that only goes in my stories some of you who'd love to post your pets that should go
17:55:59 in your stories. Now, it's okay. If you show your patience on your page or with you, but let it relate to your brand.
17:56:05 If you're constantly showing your pat, and it's not relating at all.
17:56:10 Then, you know, it's taking people away it's confusing them at what your brand is and what you are trying to present.
17:56:17 Okay. So then we go to what to post. And these are just some ideas and there's a long ideas of what you can do.
17:56:26 Trends. There are lots of trends, especially in reals, because some of you might be like, what would I post?
17:56:35 So if you go into click on reels and just scroll through people's reals, sometimes you would see a trend so they might be using a trending sound.
17:56:45 They might be lip syncing something they might be talking about something, but then you could just insert your brand, you know, and you don't have to do anything that's uncomfortable to you, so you don't feel you can still grow without dancing.
17:57:00 I know you see, a lot of people dancing on there and doing all sorts of stuff.
17:57:05 Do what's comfortable with you, and what's best for your brand.
17:57:08 But you can do a trend and relate it to your brand.
17:57:11 Top, 3. So suppose I was a travel blogger, and I have, like top, 3 destinations for honeymooners.
17:57:19 You know you can do that in carousels.
17:57:22 You can do that in reals. How to's and tutorials.
17:57:26 I do a lot of how toos and tutorials in reals where it's the cameras just facing down in my hands, and I have it, you know, like very fast, you know.
17:57:39 So it's quickened, and you're seeing me collaging, painting.
17:57:42 Whatever, on my journals. I love to do that. So a little.
17:57:46 How to people like that kind of thing. It's still within my brand, because I teach those things in my gallery and online.
17:57:53 Your products. Please show us your products. But remember this, we do not want to get sales.
17:57:59 We do not want to get super salty. I used to do that, and I've learned it's about giving.
17:58:05 It's about educating and your products. You can come up with all sorts of creative ways of showing your artwork or your products of what you do, what you offer.
17:58:16 Okay, before and after. That's always a great one.
17:58:22 How something looked before, and then, after dues and don'ts, and also a little humor, you know.
17:58:26 Sometimes I always throw in a little humor. It's usually related to my theme.
17:58:31 I love doing like humorous stuff about artists like what artists do.
17:58:35 The quirky things, or sometimes I tell a funny story of something in art school, but I'm relating it.
17:58:40 Sometimes my husband makes a cameo, and people love that they're like, oh, I want to see your husband, and they're making.
17:58:49 He makes him laugh, and we can relate it, and a little bit, and it's number too much just a little bit often on once every every 3 months, or something.
17:58:57 I might pop that in. What it does. It makes you relatable.
17:59:01 I didn't like a lot of people would say, you know, such a business person, and I'm you know, serious.
17:59:07 And whatever, and then they saw the real with my hubby, and it made them realize, oh, yeah, you're human, you know.
17:59:16 It just really you're relatable. And that's what you're doing, because you are creating, you are creating.
17:59:22 Communication and relationships through what you're posting.
17:59:27 So you don't want to just be cold with it, and 5, which is my last slide.
17:59:32 Rules of engagement. Yes, now, are you a poster and a ghosta?
17:59:39 Do you? Post and goals? Please do not do that, and trust me.
17:59:43 I did in the past, but you must be consistent if you wanna grow, you wanna market your business.
17:59:50 You want to market yourself, you need to be consistent, and I know there are a lot of people out there saying post 3 times a day, 2 times a day, and you know it scares us.
17:59:59 So we just don't do anything. But please be consistent if you don't post every day.
18:00:06 Sometimes I post 5 times a week, and I might take a break on the weekends, you know, and there might be a day in between.
18:00:12 I don't post, and then I post again, but I'm constantly on there.
18:00:15 I try to post every day, but you can decide. You want to post every other day, you know, but be consistent and be thoughtful about what you want to post.
18:00:27 Reply to all comments. I see people have comments.
18:00:30 They're now. I understand the big, the ones who have a lot of followings have hundreds and thousands of comments.
18:00:40 You cannot answer all, but you if you have like 5 or 3, please comment to them, of course, except if they're spam or hitters right.
18:00:49 You just delete and block. Now ask a question in your caption.
18:00:55 Very important. I love to do this. When I learned about this is like, Oh, yeah, this is perfect. People love that.
18:01:01 And you would be amazed that people respond not all the time, but usually you're asked a question because you are involving them.
18:01:09 Now, whatever the post was, you are bringing them in to get their opinion, or to give them for them, to give you an example of what you were talking about, that happened in their life, whatever they love to be feeling included, and then the last part use Cta's we talked about Cta's call to Actions in
18:01:29 your bio. You want to do it in the caption as well.
18:01:33 Everybody knows what caption is. Those are the words where you would describing what your post is, and it's underneath.
18:01:40 And so at the end of what you write, you want to say, you know.
18:01:45 Please, share, or see link and bio, or whatever, or let me know your thoughts on X.
18:01:51 Y and z, that is a call to action. It's including them, and it's oxing them to do something specific.
18:01:57 So that is it. But we I want you to know is that please pay attention to your profile.
18:02:03 Pack and your bio. Those are the first things people see when they go to your profile and also have fun with it.
18:02:10 I know it could be overwhelming and scary, but have fun with it.
18:02:15 Be creative with it. And you know, know many times the algorithm, it's just crazy.
18:02:21 Sometimes it's up, sometimes it's down. It's taking us all over the place.
18:02:26 That is why it's important to take people off, and you get them on like an email list.
18:02:33 And Helen will talk more about that where you can control that you remember the time when Facebook and Instagram were down.
18:02:40 Per day, and people are going crazy. What they're going to do with their business, or whatever.
18:02:45 Yeah. Well, if you have a proper email list or something else where they are, then you don't have to worry about that.
18:02:52 So thank you very much, and that's it for me.
18:02:57 And Dean Dan. I bring it back to you.
18:03:01 Okay, thank you. Allison, and your screen sharing. Thank you.
18:03:07 That's great, Allison, and we'll have plenty of time for questions afterwards.
18:03:11 I remember, if you have questions, if you think about them at time, simply type them into the chat next up.
18:03:17 We have Patty Rigo, who's going to be talking about Facebook?
18:03:22 Right let me unmute, and then so it's like, it's like the first time I've ever used this medium.
18:03:30 Every time, every time, it's the first time. So Hi, good evening, everybody!
18:03:36 So yes, Facebook, the least that the redheaded stepchild of social media.
18:03:46 So the purpose of this presentation is to explore the various ways that you can leverage Facebook to grow your network, increase your exposure, which will hopefully translate into more work, and or more compensation.
18:03:56 So what I'm gonna offer you is my experience with Facebook, my knowledge of the platform and how I use Facebook to Market Faul River.
18:04:05 And more specifically, the it's not gonna be a commentary on the company that runs Facebook and then scram and its practices.
18:04:12 And it's policies, or you know we all have our opinions.
18:04:17 It's strictly functional, not moral, but love it or hate it.
18:04:19 Facebook is still the most widely used social media platform in the world.
18:04:23 So I'm gonna start off with a stack because I do like good stats now and again, based on figures.
18:04:29 Reported in May on data reportal.com. Facebook had 2.9 8 9 billion monthly monthly app users in April 2023, which makes it the first, the most active social media platform in the world.
18:04:44 And that is, that indicates that roughly 37% of all people on Earth today use Facebook just slightly scared.
18:04:53 And who are those people? You know? I can tell you, just on the surface level, that the according to these stats, the audience skews a little male, but only slightly by 56%.
18:05:05 But I think the big elephant in the room that needs to be addressed is age.
18:05:11 You hear it all the time. Facebook's for old people.
18:05:15 So you know, media hype and headlines, they make it really difficult to understand who's really using Facebook and Facebook doesn't make it any easier.
18:05:26 They don't provide a detailed breakdown of the advertising audience by ages so there's really no easy answer.
18:05:31 There's no easy way to calculate the average age of its active user base.
18:05:36 But despite, you know various articles telling you that there's an exodus of of younger users, data still shows that young people are still the heaviest users of Facebook around the world.
18:05:46 So based on as you can see on my slide, based on the the latest available, data, the Median age or Facebook's advertising audience is 32 years, and 51.7% of their total audiences under the age of 35 34 so if
18:06:03 that's old that I am ancient. So you know, and it's true, though, that I mean I'm not gonna lie.
18:06:10 There are obviously more engaging or maybe not in engaging more hip and visually stimulating social media platforms, particularly for creators whose work is really visual in nature.
18:06:21 You know, Instagram, it can really create attention.
18:06:23 And it's it's definitely, you know, a sexier platform, for sure.
18:06:27 But why do I prefer Facebook? I personally think it's easier to tell a story, and I also think that having that ability in the caption to put a direct link that somebody can just click on without having to do the whole Lincoln Biio thing I personally, think that that's you
18:06:45 know, I still think that that's really powerful, although you know, to Allison's point I also use Linktree, I think, linked tree.
18:06:52 It's so easy it could not be easier, and the nice thing about Link Tree is, you can see you can disable the links and keep them up.
18:07:00 If you wanna go back and use them again. But then you can also see who linked, who clicked on those.
18:07:05 And so like, you know, did you do better? Did did you drive more traffic through, you know, to your website?
18:07:12 Or was it to your art workshop? So did you drive more traffic through, you know, to your website? Or was it to your art workshop?
18:07:15 So it's just another layer of metrics, but it's free and get the free version.
18:07:18 And it's great, and I don't think there's any harm in doing both meetings or multiple mediums.
18:07:22 But if you only have time for one, then you should just consider your audience at the end of the day.
18:07:26 It's what's right, like, you know. And when I say audience, it's also includes their age.
18:07:31 And another factors like how the people in your area area, the people, if you markets people in the south coast, and that's your area, how do they consume media like?
18:07:40 What is it? What are the trends and and what is the time zone also, you know, in the south Post I personally think that people there's still a big reliance on Facebook?
18:07:49 And then for me it gives my brand better results than Instagram but that's, I think, due to the nature of the work that we do.
18:07:56 So, you know, that's my I also, and I actually will say Facebook for me is also really relevant because it allows you to create Facebook event pages and also join groups and create your own groups and we're going to go into that a little bit later on this presentation so those are the reasons why.
18:08:14 I personally think you know, Facebook is still, you know, in the running for something that you should use for your business.
18:08:18 So we're gonna start from the very beginning. And that's establishing your businesses. Brand.
18:08:24 And I know that might be a hard thing sometimes for creatives, because your are in your work or your writing is so integral to who you are, it is an extension of yourself, and it's highly personal, but it's essential to establish a business page and create content.
18:08:37 About your business, not your personal life. So there's definitely a lot of what I'm gonna say, that's gonna echo.
18:08:43 What? Else, and said, you know, and of course that's within reason, you know, behind the scenes, or get to know the artist that's like little snippets.
18:08:50 And you know little glimpses into your life that's awesome that gets people to, you know, kind of endear themselves to you. But I'm talking about, you know, repeated birthday party polls, or like memes, or you know, jokes that maybe don't belong you know, that.
18:09:03 Yeah, get. You might stay with your friends that just don't belong with people who you want to buy your art.
18:09:07 So I think, establishing boundaries between you know your business and your personal pages is really important, and I know that a lot of people have started out with personal pages, and you might be worried about losing followers.
18:09:20 The easiest thing that you do is you the minute you set up your business page you go to your personal page, and you invite this button that says, invite friends, invite every single person on there to like your business page, and you'll probably get a good portion of them, and I haven't
18:09:32 really I've never really heard of anybody having, like, you know, a bad read a bad result from that.
18:09:39 So so that's the first thing you do is if when you said after you set up your business page, it's really easy, you just go on to your Facebook, create a business page right on there, you just the that's the first thing you're gonna do is invite all your friends.
18:09:55 The second thing you're gonna do. And I and I say to do this right away in your privacy settings whenever I've set up a profile, I go right to my privacy settings or my settings, and I look at everything please make sure that your posts are shareable, and there.
18:10:07 There's the able to be seen by the general public super important.
18:10:10 I can't tell you the number of times I look at somebody's post and say, Can you please make this share what I'm trying to share with my friends?
18:10:18 And right there, you know. You might miss that comment. Then you've missed that opportunity for that person to share your message.
18:10:21 So those are just 2 little things right off the bat and I will also caution you if once you have your business and your personal page, always make sure, as you can.
18:10:29 See here where it says, share on the page you manage. Make sure you're sharing on your own timeline and not on a page that you manage because it's you don't want to confuse that and post something that you meant for your personal page, and your business I think the most important
18:10:44 reason, though, to have a business page is the meta-business suite, and I could probably do a whole presentation on that.
18:10:51 And I'm still exploring all the different things that you can do with that.
18:10:54 But the meta-business suite is where you do all your business.
18:10:57 So it's your insights, your analytics, your ad account, your your boosted posts, ways to message your add account, your business. We is where you do all your business, so it's your insights, your analytics, your ad account, your your boost right on the
18:11:14 business page. And Facebook has. I checked it out.
18:11:18 They have a couple of really quick tutorials at different levels from just you know how to. You know.
18:11:22 Just get it and do the basics to. Really, you know, you can really dig in on there and get some good insights.
18:11:29 So I definitely think that creating a business page is something you should consider.
18:11:31 And the one of the first things that you should do if you're looking to actually make a go of this for your business.
18:11:37 So. And this is this part is definitely gonna echo something.
18:11:41 Some of the things that Allison said building your creative presence online comes down to a couple things person foremost is your profile, and as far as like what your profile picture what constitutes a visually stimulating photograph, I think that's subjective.
18:11:58 But the one thing that's not subjective is the size of those images.
18:12:02 If you have the wrong size image it, could it just doesn't look professional.
18:12:07 It could look blurry it you could cut, you know things out had it cropped in a way that isn't.
18:12:12 You know the way that you intended it to look so in this case size doesn't matter.
18:12:16 And you need to make sure that the images are the correct size and resolution.
18:12:20 So it's kind of like, you know, you're looking for an image that has that like Goldilocks, potentially, you know, it's like, just right.
18:12:28 So the profile photos should be 400 by 150 pixels and cover photos, which are the ones at the top. So your profile picture is the one that goes in this in the circle that can be a little bit challenging to find the right one.
18:12:41 So I think you know, using your I think the logo is always the best way to go with those on Facebook. At least.
18:12:48 But I mean I've seen people do other.
18:12:52 I've seen people do like art work. And that's okay, too.
18:12:54 Their cover photos eat 20 by 3 12. But remember, you know, I took me a long time to realize that people are not accessing media the way I am.
18:13:04 I'm on my computer all day. So I'm accessing it on my desktop.
18:13:07 A lot of people most of the people are accessing it on my desktop. A lot of people. Most of the people are accessing it on their mobile phone.
18:13:10 So you want to find an image that could also be able to be seen at the mobile view, which is 6, 40 by 3, 60.
18:13:16 So you know, it's just kind of like, you know, finding those I tell you to use canva canva has been I my best friend.
18:13:26 I can't believe I ever got through it before.
18:13:28 I'm sorry to all the graphic designers out there.
18:13:29 I still use you for the big things, and also remember that Facebook cover photos don't need to just be photos anymore.
18:13:37 You don't need to just use static images. You can use videos which I think really for some, I think, for artists could be extremely beneficial especially if you want to do process.
18:13:48 So your bio I mean just the other things that a lot of things, Alison said. Just be authentic.
18:13:52 Be engaging. Be who you are. Don't worry about sounding too professional.
18:13:56 You are, you are a creative, you know you you should. Your personality should shine through and what you're writing.
18:14:02 I think you know, it's always a good idea to kind of.
18:14:06 Say what sets you apart from other people in your fields, and what makes your creative journey special?
18:14:12 And I think just as an artist that's something good for you to know and to have, you know, to kind of fuel.
18:14:18 You and I do agree with putting any achievements or accolades in there, because that does establish credibility. I think that's super important.
18:14:25 It shows your expertise. I also think that incorporating relevant keywords so identifying like keywords or phrases that that are relevant to your artistic style or your niche, or what you do because when people are searching for things that can help you
18:14:43 end up in search results, or you can end up in those suggested.
18:14:49 You know those in people. You may know things you may like you know, for hashtags.
18:14:53 I mean, I'm still I'm on the fence about hashtags, I think, in Instagram it makes a little more sense in Facebook.
18:15:01 I'll throw a couple in there, but I think it's not just about creating your own.
18:15:04 If you are a painter, go on a couple other, you know.
18:15:08 Just search online and see what are popular happiness hashtags for painting, or popular hashtags for painting, or how popular hashtags for painting, or how popular hashtags for painters, and use those and pick one or 2 can't or popular hashtags for painting or popular hashtags for painters and use those and pick one or 2
18:15:25 it can't hurt. But I definitely in the days of like having lines and lines of hashtags.
18:15:29 I don't think anybody's again echoing Alison a call to action, even in your bio on Facebook you should always be telling people what to do and whether that's go on your you know, check out my work.
18:15:39 Go to my event, you know. Give me your feedback, whatever it is, sign up for my email newsletter, always giving them like that next step, because one after you're finished reading the bio.
18:15:49 It's like, Well, what do I do next? So giving them that suggestion, and then also, it's important to update it as you grow as an artist or as a creative going in there and letting people know what's what's the latest thing that happened and if they're engaged with you that's going
18:16:03 to show up in their feed. That's it's some new engagement content.
18:16:07 So it's important to do that and then the last thing is showcasing your work.
18:16:11 And obviously, that's a big dot. But I say this because don't just dump all your photos in.
18:16:17 It's important how you present them. And you know you can say you can either select your best work and use quality versus quantity it, or if you like, quantity, that's great, too.
18:16:28 But the most important thing is to create albums and collections that will help people to easily navigate and choose out of that album.
18:16:37 Choose a cover photo that is like a like that will stop people that will make them wanna go in and click on that album.
18:16:44 And when I say cover photo, and you've got all your pictures that you once you've loaded, the minute you can choose one of the measure, cover photo.
18:16:49 And that way, when all your albums are up, people can kind of scan, and you know you can arrange them chronologically.
18:16:55 You can range them thematically. You can arrange them according to your journey.
18:17:00 Like, this is my stuff when I started. This is my blue period.
18:17:03 This is my metal period, but just in a way, that kind of helps guide people I mean, there's so much on social media all the time, and between the videos and this and that that anything that you can do to help guide people I mean there's so much on social media all the time and between the videos and this and that that anything that
18:17:20 you can do to ease people's navigation is really gonna help them want to engage with you more and I think also it can be a pain.
18:17:24 And I know I myself have been. I haven't done this a lot when it comes to event photos a caption or a description that's why I say, if you if you kind of curate and don't put it so much quantity and a little more quality, people want to read that
18:17:38 you know, especially when it comes to art, because not everybody's an artist, and people find that fascinating.
18:17:42 So it's just like, How did you know? What about this work?
18:17:46 And you know, what what were you thinking when you made it so?
18:17:50 Just providing a little context in that caption can be really important.
18:17:54 But when it comes down to it, you know your setup is great, but it on Facebook.
18:18:15 Oh, Patty froze, Patty, if you can hear us, you're back.
18:18:19 That have a lot of engagement. Oh, my back! Oh!
18:18:25 You froze briefly.
18:18:27 Oh, I'm like good now. I never have an unstable connection.
18:18:30 I think Facebook doesn't like that. I'm giving you all these tips and tricks.
18:18:35 Yeah.
18:18:36 So, yeah. And the minute I said, you beat the algorithm, look how that happened.
18:18:42 That was crazy, you know. So one of those things that you can do when you're engaging it.
18:18:47 Your audience, the very, very simple, enabling content like, make sure your comments are turned on.
18:18:51 Make sure that your that people are able to interact with with your posts with me by putting.
18:18:59 And the next thing is also to not ghosts them right to respond to comments and engage in those conversations.
18:19:05 But at this, at the risk of getting shut down completely, I do want to talk about the Facebook algorithm, because this was something that I even was kind of, like, I thought I had some.
18:19:16 You know I knew some things, but when I was doing some research for this presentation, I said, Let me really get into it.
18:19:21 So essentially the algorithm decides what content is relevant to show in each user's feed based on a couple different factors.
18:19:30 So every body's feeds going to look different, based on because it's personalized just for them, which makes it even more confounding to like kind of like.
18:19:37 Figure it out. So the there's these are the factors.
18:19:42 The first is inventory. First, Facebook takes an inventory of all the content that could show up in your feed, and that includes posts from people that from people that are your friends or people, that you're friends with and it.
18:19:53 Also includes content from pages that you like or groups that you're a part of.
18:19:58 So it kind of just takes this inventory. Then the algorithm assesses the relevance of that copy to you that content to based on your interaction with that content whether you've liked it, whether you've you know saved it.
18:20:11 That kind of thing. And how often you interact. It also looks at when the post was published.
18:20:14 And so that's why, when people talk about timing, it's like, you know, I I use Facebook all day.
18:20:19 But some people only use it at certain times of the day, so certain users are gonna have content, based on that timing.
18:20:26 Then after that, then the algorithm decides to make some predictions.
18:20:30 It gets all swamy and uses those signals to make predictions about what you want to see.
18:20:36 So it analyzed past behavior to try to understand how likely you are to engage with a piece of content.
18:20:43 So let's say that you regularly interact with a certain friends.
18:20:48 Post the Facebook algorithm will take that as a sign that you want to see more content from that friend.
18:20:54 So that's why, right there, having people engage with you and having those people that are constantly they're gonna you're gonna be on their feed all the time.
18:21:01 If if you see that somebody drops off an engagement.
18:21:02 Let me engage them, and there are, you know, the there are couple of tips that I found for being a Facebook algorithm.
18:21:11 I think what I from what I can see, they Facebook, seems to be prioritizing quality and authenticity of above everything, so that's why you need to create quality content.
18:21:24 That is on that quality. Content that drives interactions and quality content, that you create, sharing other people's content is great.
18:21:31 Just from a engagement standpoint. But you need to actually create your own content as well.
18:21:35 So your own pictures, and not just constantly just sharing what other people have out.
18:21:40 So you know, high quality and original videos videos are videos are king, Facebook loves videos.
18:21:46 But they also want you. They a typical that I found out from somebody, is they don't want you to share.
18:21:52 If you have a video on Vimeo, they don't want you to share the Vimeo video, they want you to upload the video to Facebook and share it from Facebook.
18:21:57 So that's a little tip that somebody told me recently because I couldn't understand why my videos weren't doing that great cause.
18:22:03 I was using Vimeo so and then also huge, is roping in brand advocates people who those people are talking about that are engaging with you all the time.
18:22:12 They will be your best bet I get at that algorithm.
18:22:16 They will help to share your content. Then their friends see that you know it's kind of like a like.
18:22:20 What does that kind of like a pyramid scheme?
18:22:22 But in a nice way, that people are just kind of multiplying the content as we go along.
18:22:28 So what makes a good post? There's obviously, you know, again, it all really comes down to your audience.
18:22:34 You have to. You're gonna have to look into your analytics, and I'll talk about that in a quick second.
18:22:38 So you got to consider your intent. Obviously, is it? You know what is?
18:22:41 What do you want? What is the desired intent of the post?
18:22:43 Is it just to tell people what's going on? Is it to get them to go somewhere?
18:22:48 So whatever that is, though you match the match, that compelling call to action to the intent it has to be clear I don't mind a good rambling post from the beginning to the end.
18:22:59 You that the people should be able to follow like like after you've read the whole story.
18:23:03 What is it that you want them to do? I do think branded graphics.
18:23:07 I don't think everything has to look matchy matchy, but if you've got a logo, pop it in there, if you have a color palette that you like, put put it on the back of it, but if you've got a logo pop it in there, if you have a color, palette
18:23:18 that you like. Put put it on the background, like Alice in the same. You know the guy that she had liked his post, the blue that he uses from his brand.
18:23:28 So, having those little identifying characteristics as people are scrolling through their palette that you like.
18:23:34 Put put it on the background, like Allison, to saying, you know the guy that she had liked his post, the blue that he uses from his brand.
18:23:38 So having those, I'd say, with visuals, you know, it's easy to say use standout visuals.
18:23:44 But when you consider that people literally, it takes about 2.6 s for people to sizeize, to choose what they want to settle on like you've got this much time.
18:23:57 So I would say, always high res our camera phones are awesome it's like having like a professional camera in your hands.
18:24:04 Sometimes skip the stock images unless it completely makes sense with what you're doing.
18:24:09 And always think about mobile, 88% of Facebook users use mobile to access the platform.
18:24:15 So sometimes, you know, I like to test the images on Mobile instead of just publishing to my desktop.
18:24:21 I like to see how it's going to. Look here.
18:24:22 And then also you know your tone. Make your tone conversational. I know you want. If you want.
18:24:27 If it's your business page, you want to be professional, but it also has to be union.
18:24:32 And you're creating this like brand voice so just write how you talk, you know, and I mean sometimes that are like you spell check and stuff and ultimately it depends on your audience and just analyzeing and see what resonates with your audience.
18:24:51 So I know I already said. It's about engagement, but it's true.
18:24:55 It's absolutely true. So you want immersive content, so immersive, content is like behind the scenes showing your process sneak, peek into who you are as a creative, bringing people in. And if you're uncomfortable with being on camera and you don't want to have you don't want to be in your videos
18:25:13 or and if you're uncomfortable with being on camera, and you don't want to have, you don't want to be in your photos together to create a video so it doesn't have to be this content thing yet.
18:25:26 You don't have to be Martin Fors easy going out there and like creating these amazing videos.
18:25:29 But Facebook's been pretty transparent. That video is the top performer on the top, performing content on the platform you're gonna want to involve people ask questions, simple questions.
18:25:41 Polls involve people in decision making like which things should I make next?
18:25:45 Which one do you like better? That kind of thing really helps people feel like they're like you're invested in them, and they become invested in you.
18:25:52 And then internal like. How Alison said, trending topics, you know this can increase your chances of appearing in people's feeds, but people are also more likely to comment because it's something that they've been seeing it's relevant.
18:26:05 I personally like to use national Days calendar, which tells you which every day like it's national popcorn Day.
18:26:12 It's national Fajita day, and I kind of connect that to themes, and I find that's a really easy way for me to be fun without having to try too hard.
18:26:22 And believe me, there are. There are at least 8 or 9 national things per day.
18:26:26 You will find something that works with you. It's awesome.
18:26:31 Some of the best things I found, and I also think that contests or giveaways are great to, especially for lead generation.
18:26:35 If you want to grow your email list, if you want to, you know if you want, it can be something as simple as entering a random drawing or a free art class or a ticket to an event.
18:26:47 But it's definitely that's the way to get people to to get their email address as which is something you obviously don't get from just their interaction on Facebook.
18:26:55 So we talked a lot about getting people to engage with you.
18:27:00 But how do you get the audience in the first place? So you have to build your audience.
18:27:05 So the number one thing is, you need to hit the follow button you need to follow other people.
18:27:09 I follow a ton of people on Instagram. Specifically, I follow way.
18:27:12 More people than follow me. I'm hoping someday, that even that out a little bit more.
18:27:16 But you have to follow others. Join. A lot of things or just, you know, make sure that you interact.
18:27:22 And then also engage on other people's posts. I'm not saying you have to engage on everybody's post, but if there are people you've identified, or or brands or artists that you've identified as important to you, I suggest that you engage with them so that you can so that their
18:27:36 followers will start to see your things and whatnot. So it's just a good idea.
18:27:41 And then Facebook groups is something that I absolutely think has helped viva a lot.
18:27:48 There's a lot of, especially, I think, locally people locally themed groups.
18:27:51 People are very in tune to those. Obviously it can be hard.
18:27:55 There's a lot of negative news on those, but maybe in some ways that makes your stuff stand out a little bit more, because it's not.
18:28:00 It's not the same old, same old typing, but I also think it's great, because you know it.
18:28:07 Obviously, you can join groups that will give you the audience that are in line with what you are putting out or what your interests are, and like with any group any group that you're a part of your active participation is required.
18:28:20 So don't just join a group and like, stand in the shadows and just watch what happens. You have to like.
18:28:24 Engage with the group, and the one thing I've noticed, too, is so face allows each group admin to decide whether or not they want to let business pages join, so you might not be you might find that as a business page or not able to join, I find that all the time with Viva so I actually end up joining with
18:28:41 my my own page. So that's just one of those little quirks I join as my personal page.
18:28:48 But then I'll share my business content, and also I will tell you.
18:28:51 Be sure to read the group, admin rules because some of them do not like, even if it's some of them don't like ticketing events so like, for instance, I'm blocked on one Facebook group and Fall River, because I was selling tickets to taste of Fall River.
18:29:05 And they don't allow you to sell. And I didn't know.
18:29:07 And now I'm blocked so and then that's why, you know, it's also a good idea to start your own group, and then you can make your own rules.
18:29:14 So starting your own group is kind of like. What Alison was talking about with stories like.
18:29:21 Now, that's your group, and you can like with stories like, now that's your group. And you can like offer exclusive or offer like, you know, if you haven't a sale special percentages off.
18:29:26 And it's just a way for you to interact in a sale a special percentages off. And it's just a way for you to interact and kind of maybe have private sales.
18:29:31 And what to kind of create like your tribe, your online tribe.
18:29:37 So yeah, going back to timing, a lot of people say that timing affects engagement.
18:29:42 I just think the most important thing in the book. It really all comes back to analytics, and your audience.
18:29:46 What what might be the right time for somebody else's brand is not necessarily the right time for your brand.
18:29:52 There's no one signs fits all answer.
18:29:55 So the business suite is really good because they have an audience tab, and it's easier to understand you know, where your face, where your Facebook followers are located what time zone they're in.
18:30:07 And you can also, if you've been posting regularly your contents.
18:30:11 Tab can look for patterns. So I think you know, you just use those learnings to post content when you're audiences most likely to be active and engage in the only way you can see that is by posting and testing and then looking at the metrics it is a little bit of a
18:30:26 process, but Facebook makes it really easy that it's not like Google analytics where you have to really dive in. I'll I'll be figuring out Google analytics for many years.
18:30:35 Frequency again, test, what works best for your audience. I mean, I think I I a good rule of thumb, I like to say, is once a day, but if that's a little too cumbersome, then you know it doesn't don't let that be the reason you don't post
18:30:48 it all. If you can only post 3 times a week in that's what you post.
18:30:51 But I do think consistency is a good thing, like some people do like motivation Monday, or or the deep thoughts on painting, and that's every Wednesday every Wednesday I get on the camera, and I talk about my latest painting or like every Friday.
18:31:06 I'm going to unveil a new sketch.
18:31:08 So that builds excitement and expectation. And so people are like, oh, I wonder what sketch she's going to do today, and so they'll look for you.
18:31:15 So building consistency is a really great thing, and then I also think to make it easier for you if, especially on the posting once a day, scheduling Facebook, the business suite allows you to schedule, and you can schedule up to 90 days in advance.
18:31:30 So I mean I always my content. People try to schedule at least a week in advance, because things happen. You know you.
18:31:38 Oh, I'm gonna post. You get turn. I know you get. You have something else you need to do.
18:31:42 Then you don't get to the post. If you schedule it, you're all set, and then usually Facebook will give you some suggested times based on your audience.
18:31:49 So give that a shot too.
18:31:53 Yes, this is one of my favorites. I love a good Facebook event. Page.
18:31:57 I think you should always do one and I mean I don't always use absolute, but I always do.
18:32:04 Facebook event page. And it's also because when somebody says that they're interested in your event, they're gonna get anytime, that you post in that event, they're gonna get those updates.
18:32:13 So it's really important that you know that you post back on that page and let people know the updates.
18:32:18 And it's also good just for you to know that you know, especially if you're having a small event like who's coming. And once you have that, then those are people that you can further engage with in different ways, it's usually going to be a much smaller group.
18:32:32 Than on your regular page. It's also easier for people to share, and it's easier for them to help you promote.
18:32:37 It's just a you know. Click of the button, and I think that I also would say that I am really a big fan of event, bright as well.
18:32:49 Event right? Even if it's a free, free event.
18:32:52 I still like to do it. I still like to provide people for a method of of Rsvping.
18:32:58 And it's also just, you know you can. People can also follow you on event bright, so that every time you have a new event they get notified, which is just another an additional way to kind of build a following of people who are really interested in knowing what you're doing and just like instagram
18:33:13 has stories. Facebook has stories, and I have learned that but through some of my research that face that stories is a good way to skip the line of the Facebook algorithm.
18:33:24 So if you post a lot that can kind of be considered like not spamming, but like clogging people's news feeds.
18:33:32 So this is a great way to put out just quick content if you put out a couple of posts and you wanna put out a story.
18:33:38 It's a quick way of skipping that, especially since it's only their temporary by nature.
18:33:41 They're only usually up for 24 h.
18:33:44 So those types of posts on the storage should kind of create like a sense of urgency or exclusivity, like encouraging them to do something or encourage like like letting them know.
18:33:54 Oh, like, I'm gonna be putting out a new sketch on on Friday, you know. Check it out.
18:33:58 So it's it's just an easy like touch base with people.
18:34:02 And it's really, it's it's a good way to supplement your main feed and not get people like if you're if you're just that type of person that's pulling all the time, and which we do on which we do on, viva and i've started to
18:34:13 you know we have. We not only do the store, but we do the regular posts.
18:34:17 That can be a lot for some people. So we try. And we're trying to use stories more to kind of like, break it up.
18:34:23 And it's also Facebook stories can be cross posted to Instagram stories.
18:34:27 So it's a great way to have that cross platform without having to change the size of your graphic.
18:34:34 Because if you try to post the same thing that you post on Facebook and Instagram, it's not gonna work because of the links, because of the size of the images.
18:34:40 So Facebook stories, though, isn't the same. So that's an easy way.
18:34:44 If you just have a couple of minutes there you go. Put one, you get 2 out of that, and then metrics.
18:34:51 I will tell you. They are the most valuable, but they are easily my least favorite part of social media, and I don't do it nearly enough.
18:34:59 So I'm telling you something that I should follow myself, which is, you know, classic.
18:35:04 But if you have a professional dashboard, which literally shows you, it kind of breaks down. The more important thing.
18:35:11 So your post, reach your post engagement, and your page likes.
18:35:14 So you're really, you know, those are like the Holy Grails of what you need to know from metrics but, as you can see, there, it says, see more insights.
18:35:20 So you can get. Really, you can really delve in deep here, you know, you've got your engagement.
18:35:26 You've got your follower growth. Those are all your these are all your page, you know your overall page.
18:35:31 But then this is this is something I've really been getting into is the recent content is like, who's engaging.
18:35:38 And then obviously this one right here, you know, taste the portal.
18:35:41 I got way more post reach on that. So I that means that's means to me like my first impressions.
18:35:46 People like that culinary content. So it's like kind of, you know, keeping a list.
18:35:50 And you can be as detailed as you want, and how you how you figure that out.
18:35:54 But I don't know how you record those things, but just giving you some insight into the types of things that people like about what you're posting, or, you know, change things up one time.
18:36:05 Post a long 1, one time post a short one, and see like, what are people reacting to more it's nice to it's like a fun little social media experiment.
18:36:14 And also this, this here, this professional dashboard will also tell you that your conversion rate.
18:36:24 So if you have like specific goals, it's for that call to action.
18:36:27 If your conversion, if the thing that you wanted them to do was go to your website, it'll show you, you know it'll track that it'll track like, you know which of the content actually set people to your website, or was it better with you know did people were they more Engaged.
18:36:44 With the content where you told them to go to your online store.
18:36:47 So it's kind of like it's an easy way to see, like, you know.
18:36:50 How am I? How am I achieving that desired reaction?
18:36:52 That I desired action, that I wanted them to do, and the all important audience demographics that they do provide audience insights like age, gender location, intrs.
18:37:04 And that's also another way for you to better tailor your content is by taking a look at this it doesn't take long.
18:37:10 I usually pop in every every so often, just to see what you can see on your page as well.
18:37:15 But this will aggregate it for you, and it's obviously so much easier that way.
18:37:21 So we've obviously come to the end and I know that we're doing questions at the end.
18:37:25 And so I will. I will kind of table this, but I I will kind of table this, but I thank you so much for allowing me to talk about Facebook I think you so much for allowing me to talk about Facebook I do spend an inordinate amount of time on Facebook so
18:37:35 I'm happy to be able to share the the learnings. And I'm gonna turn it over to Helen, who's gonna talk about email?
18:37:48 Awesome. Thank you so much, Patty. So here we are.
18:37:55 We're going to talk about email marketing and email marketing services. Why, you need them.
18:37:58 Why you use them. My experience is in a little graphic design, so, but I'm not actually gonna talk about too much about content.
18:38:06 And talk about all the other basics about getting started. There's a lot of what Patty and Allison have already said applies, so I will now share my screen.
18:38:20 And here we are. The basics. Yeah, they need more marketing.
18:38:24 So today, I'm gonna talk about, what is it? Why would we use it?
18:38:31 And why using email marketing service, particularly finding an email marketing service, how to build your subscriber list.
18:38:40 Whoopsie, try that again, learning how to use your service, and then what are the best practices with sending emails and some design basics basics, basically basics.
18:38:55 So what is email marketing email marketing is the practice of using a subscriber list and sending out emails regularly to that list update your subscriers on your creative work upcoming events, activities and anything else that is relevant to your creative work and that might interest your
18:39:13 subscribers. So the good news is all this content that you're creating, and Instagram and Facebook can be used and should be reused in your email marketing.
18:39:23 You wanna tie all of this together? Because why do we use it?
18:39:29 It's one part of your marketing strategy. You should have many fingers out there, as many as you can handle.
18:39:36 Because social media is ephemeral. Things go by, people miss them.
18:39:40 Your email will always be in their inbox, and let's say, delete it.
18:39:44 So you need to cover a lot of different areas to get attention.
18:39:50 So why do we use an email marketing service? You see some scary words up there?
18:39:56 Legality and spam. There are legal issues in running a list.
18:40:02 Our subscriber list, so it is not illegal to send marketing emails from a personal account.
18:40:08 I could send to 20 people an email about my next sale.
18:40:12 That's not illegal to do. But there are strict laws in place.
18:40:19 About sending emails to people. So why are those loss so strict?
18:40:28 Because spam, spam is a big problem, as we all know from our own inboxes, and the laws are strict.
18:40:35 The very by country they change often, so you don't want to keep track of all that on your own little 20 person list.
18:40:42 You want an email marketing service that must comply with those rules, watches, and change and keep track of them and their job is to keep your email out of spam folders.
18:40:54 So it's much better than trying to do it on your own.
18:40:57 So how do you select one, or how do you find them?
18:41:01 The important thing is, there are free options. So I do.
18:41:06 A simple search. Best email marketing services for this year should always put the year in.
18:41:13 And then you want to review those available review site. That'll say these are the 7 best or these are the 10 best, and I'll have some links to things like that for you.
18:41:22 Do you want to review that information and look for the free plan and see what it gives you?
18:41:27 Because the details are important. Now, there's a couple things to look at.
18:41:33 This is a table from a review site you can see that some free services have an unlimited amount of subscribers and very high numbers and emails.
18:41:42 You, can send in a month. Some are very low like Mailchimp, so if you're starting out with 20 people on your list, you might want to start with Mailchimp, or one of the better known ones to learn what you need to learn and doing this but you can look for free service, as
18:41:59 you grow that gives you more. If you want to do it that way, or if you're already have a large list, or you think you do, you want to look into some of these other ones?
18:42:07 So again, I'll put links to that in the chat at the end, but always look at your details a little bit.
18:42:13 Just look and see what if this makes sense to you and what you're doing?
18:42:22 So there are legacy services. So, for instance, right now, all of these that you're looking at in this list, are new except for Mailchimp, and even this one send in blue has recently changed its name to Brevo.
18:42:37 So these services change often, and you want to be aware of that.
18:42:42 So this is one reason. When you do a review search you want this year.
18:42:45 But Mailchimp and constant contact are legacy.
18:42:49 They've been around for a very long time, particularly constant content.
18:42:52 They're not highly rated to use, but they are stable and consistent.
18:42:57 So, and if you wanted, if you wanted that, then I would go with Mailchimp, and the reason you want to do that is because they're going to be the best people to keep you out of the spam folder in people's inboxes because they've been doing it
18:43:10 longest, and they know it best, but some of the newer ones like I said, you get much better plans.
18:43:15 You get a lot better. Service really need to try them out and see which one you like.
18:43:19 What you need from it. Okay, the next most important thing is once you've selected a service is, you need some subscribers. Now.
18:43:27 You may be all already. Have some. You may need to know how to build them you've talked if you've heard Allison and Patty talk about that as being part of your social media strategy.
18:43:37 So. But first for a lot of us, we get our email sign ups in person on the ground.
18:43:42 When we go, do something out in the world, so always have your clipboard and sign up.
18:43:47 She ready or if you're more advanced, ipad, with a signup, with something where people where you can say to somebody, Oh, if you wanna know more about what I'm doing, sign up here always get people that chance when you're in person and directly relating to them also good tip from den when you have a
18:44:04 sign up sheet and you see somebody sign up, go over, engage with them, read it, make sure you can understand what they've written, because so often when people handwrite it, you look at it later in your no idea what they wrote.
18:44:17 So it's also a way to engage people. But yeah, it's good to know.
18:44:21 Okay, you can use signup buttons on social media.
18:44:25 You'll have seen them all over the place if you don't have them already.
18:44:28 If you have a good email marketing service, this will be part of it.
18:44:32 It will help you build the buttons and tell and help you get them integrated with your social media.
18:44:38 This is where you. The service is wonderful. You're not doing this for yourself.
18:44:42 You can also have them on your website. And it's the same thing.
18:44:45 You can create it within your email marketing service.
18:44:49 Now, if you know how, if you're running your website and how to put it on there, there is another option if that's just not your thing, and that's creating a landing page which will have a sign-up, form and it can be branded to you and you can give people that link if
18:45:02 you need. So you don't have to have a website in order to have a place where people can sign up.
18:45:08 So learning how to build emails and do all that, it can be very overwhelming if something you've never done before.
18:45:17 But this is where your help button your question. Mark your how the heck do. I do.
18:45:23 That is your friend, because almost all these email marketing services have great video and text tutorials.
18:45:30 They're there to help you make a good email. So just go in and use them. I know.
18:45:35 Don't read the documentation. Don't be like that.
18:45:37 Go in, watch it. It will help you use the service, and the other thing you're gonna hear me say over and over again, especially if you need to do this is go ahead and use their templates. Now, if you go in.
18:45:49 You've you've logged into your service, they will definitely want you to use their templates.
18:45:54 They will show them to you. They will have templates for all kinds of things, holiday greetings, you know.
18:45:59 A big event, etc., etc. The best thing to do is find a general template that you like, and then use that consistently for your emails can change colors.
18:46:09 You can do all kinds of things, but it can keep you very consistent, and the other reason to use the template is now people look at email on all kinds of devices, and it does not look the same on everything.
18:46:23 These templates are created so things will look good on phones and tablets.
18:46:29 And your computer again. You don't have to think about it.
18:46:32 The template does it for you. So it's a really good reason to use.
18:46:36 If in your learning process, you Google or use a Youtube search to find more information about how to do something in your on your email marketing service or anything about email marketing check, the date, the laws change, all the time, you wanna be in this year, whenever you're looking for instruction or information and then a handy tip which I
18:46:56 should have followed myself. As Patty said, is that you could keep email good emails that you see, you always get emails I mean, we get Ll be in every day.
18:47:05 We get, you know, so much. Some of them are good, some of them are good, some of them are good.
18:47:09 Put it in a separate folder. Good emails for inspiration and design, content.
18:47:14 Any reason. It's handy I didn't do it, so I don't have good emails.
18:47:20 Okay, everything has best practices, right? And email is marketing has some as well.
18:47:28 The biggest is only send emails to subscribers. Don't spam.
18:47:34 What does that mean? That means when you build a list. It's legal cause.
18:47:38 You people have said yes, I want you to send me an email.
18:47:42 But if you think oh, it'd be fun to send one to Joe Biden and put him on your list without his permission.
18:47:49 That's illegal, so don't do it.
18:47:52 And this people do this a lot. Oh, I just I, you know.
18:47:56 Maybe I'll just add this person. You can do it, of course you can do it, but it's essentially illegal, so don't do it.
18:48:02 Keep them short and less if there's a reason for it to be long.
18:48:05 Obviously, if it's a long newsletter, or you know something that goes on.
18:48:10 But essentially, although we have unlimited pixels, we do not have an unlimited attention span these are not so quite often people read the beginning or the end of your email skip the end. Everything in the middle.
18:48:24 If it's very long, and that doesn't apply to newsletters and all that sort of thing.
18:48:29 Generally speaking, keep it to 2 emails a month, unless it's some big deal, or it's something that's serial.
18:48:34 And there's a reason to do it more often again, we get a lot of stuff in our backs.
18:48:40 You want to stand out because you're not there all the time, but when you show up it's interesting.
18:48:43 Something like that.
18:48:46 Many services, provide scheduling. So you can set up your email, get all ready to go.
18:48:51 And they say I want it to go out Friday morning, or that sort of thing.
18:48:55 This really helps you manage all this stuff.
18:48:59 Always have a link to website version of your email. That is what you see at the top of me is this view, this email in your browser?
18:49:07 There are a number of reasons to do this, and I'm not even going to go through all the many reasons there might be a connection.
18:49:13 They may not be on this the device they really want to see it on, but they really are then maybe it doesn't look quick.
18:49:18 Because he'd screwed something up. So maybe something's not in sewing up, but if they can see it on the browser, you know, when they go to the browser, so it's a good practice, because you just never it's very handy and it'll always give people another
18:49:29 one to see your content. Subject lines. A lot of people tell you it's the most important thing.
18:49:36 In a sense it is. But remember, these people signed up for your list.
18:49:40 So they're interested in you. And what you're doing.
18:49:42 So as long as it matches your personality and your stuck creative style, and says something about you, it's a good subject line, however, I think this one's awesome.
18:49:52 That's on here. Ice skating pigs, a baby and pork share sign-ups that got me interested.
18:49:58 So if you can do something like that, and you can't forever email, it's ridiculous.
18:50:03 But every once in a while you can have an inspiration, and that's a good idea to use it.
18:50:08 The other thing is to add preview text, that your email services will show that to you.
18:50:13 But it's essentially what you see.
18:50:17 When you're on the phone and you have your email up and you'll see the subject line, and then you'll see a few sentences.
18:50:24 Now, if you don't put in a preview text, it will be something from your email.
18:50:29 How have you started your email? So it's better to put the previews text in.
18:50:34 So you can really kind of give people a clue to what's in it without them seeing the whole thing kind of thing.
18:50:45 Okay. Design. P, 6. Again, you're gonna use those templates.
18:50:51 Don't convey important information and graphic. Here's why this is an email in which all of the information, all the content, is essentially in this graphic, however, I'm annoying. And I block content.
18:51:06 And email, so that they don't have to wait for them to load.
18:51:09 It's just a geeky thing I do. Lots of people do so I don't know what this email's about until I load it.
18:51:16 Am. I decide not to, because they made it too hard for me already.
18:51:20 I want something that lets me know what's going on without having to look at the images or load them.
18:51:28 If I'm on a slow connection, and always you alt text on images.
18:51:32 Same thing here. There's no alt text. So I don't see what's there, but also somebody with low vision or blindness is using a screen.
18:51:42 Reader, sees a blank email just like I'm seeing it now, just like your seeing now, because the screen leader needs alt text to know what's in that image.
18:51:53 So please use zoom a little text in your emails.
18:51:56 Don't make it all images, and always put all texting.
18:52:02 The other very important thing for us old folks is fonts large enough for everyone to read.
18:52:07 This is an actual design rule that on digital devices you should never have a font that's less than 16 pixels.
18:52:17 High, or that's it size? Because there are lots of folks who can't read anything that small and you want people to engage.
18:52:26 You want people to read. So this is an important rule to keep in mind.
18:52:28 Your templates should help you with it. They're not perfect in that regard, contrasting colors for easy reading.
18:52:34 Why? Because approximately 8% of our population are colorblind, which mean they can't see things the same way you and I see them some folks don't have any color and a vision completely black and white.
18:52:47 So a headline, and some folks have a what's called red, green, colorblindness, and things like that.
18:52:52 So for a lot of folks they couldn't see the word headline in there, because it's red on black, and for them that would just look like all black or all red, or something like that.
18:53:02 So we always want to have contrast. You want to see something brightly against the background in order to help people get your message.
18:53:14 You need a balance between us and text. Keep interest again, unless you're writing a newsletter, or you're a writer, and the whole point is that it's all text you want to do this, and you're templates.
18:53:25 Will help you with that they will, most of them will show you a balance of text and images.
18:53:31 People, skim. They don't read through everything except another reason to keep it short.
18:53:37 So, if you have to be long in your email. But the important information top and bottom, just like people open a magazine from the back.
18:53:47 Some people always go to the bottom, so make sure, with the most important thing.
18:53:52 If it's your Cta. If it's your event, something about that is it? Both at the top and the bottom?
18:53:56 If you have a long email.
18:53:58 I call it te's and click! We'll hear it as Cta.
18:54:01 It's essentially the same thing. A little bit of information and a button and a lot of what you wanna do when you're putting in some links in your email is you're sending people back to your social media or to your event page, or to your event broad event or to your website another way
18:54:20 to engage them and connect with them, and show them that you have cool content on your Instagram, or you know there's a new portfolio on your website, but you always want to get people just like everything else out of this email.
18:54:35 And into another part of your marketing. And, generally speaking, okay, you want to send test emails and check your email on phones on tablets and computers.
18:54:49 Again, your email service should help you with this, it will have a way for you to preview things.
18:54:54 You will be able to test, send test emails and so on.
18:54:59 Alright. So here's a little good stuff.
18:55:03 So this is a ups email, not very exciting, you would think, but it's got all the things I've talked about it's got a click here to view. They.
18:55:15 This is how your Alts look when you don't, when you have them on the image and the image doesn't load.
18:55:21 So you know right away what this is about. If you're reading and if you've got a screen, reader, it's very quick and easy, and you know exactly what's happening.
18:55:30 If we add, if we load the images, you can see how much an image for visual people brings you into this email immediately, a way that it didn't when there were no images.
18:55:41 So let me just as important in that regard. Oops that wasn't supposed to come up so fast.
18:55:47 Anyway, here's Aa, and this again is designed professional designer.
18:55:51 All that sort of thing. So it's something to aspire to in these cases, but it gives you again all the good stuff.
18:55:56 Is there? There's views. A web page. If there's a strong will, you know immediately who it's from, and then it's quick.
18:56:03 And it's easy. And here's your keys, and click, or Cta.
18:56:08 They tell you what's going on, and then, hey, see the full list events gets you out of the email and back into either their website or wherever the link goes now, of course, there's always information at the bottom of your email again, this is something your email service will help you with this is called the footer and it
18:56:24 will always have an information in here, and it should have, for instance, a link to your website.
18:56:28 If you have it. You know social media links. If you have them and all that sort of thing, I would think, why is this a good stuff?
18:56:39 Well, this is Professor Harp. Obviously, the man's not into templates.
18:56:44 But again, this is simple, and it has everything you can view.
18:56:48 The email on your browser, you know who sent it, and you know.
18:56:50 Because you're on his list. He's sending you things about when he's playing.
18:56:55 So the first thing he's gonna tell you is where and when and what time, and then he'll get into the details and all that sort of stuff.
18:57:04 So it's not beautiful, but it's very clear.
18:57:06 It's very short. And if you want to know where he's playing this weekend, you've got it.
18:57:10 And then there's also a nice little Cta about, hey?
18:57:13 I have CD, you can visit my website. You can share my stuff.
18:57:17 So these are 3 that you can see. Have things going on that are like what I've been trying to show in this.
18:57:27 Okay. So I will send these resources out in the chat for anybody who might be looking to do this sort of thing, and then I will pass this back to Den.
18:57:45 Okay. Thank you all very much. That was great. A lot of information.
18:57:51 We have a few questions. I'm already in the chat.
18:57:53 Feel free to add more. I also want to say that those slide decks that you just saw will all be up on the website in the resources section of our of this workshop.
18:58:05 When we do the updates. The slide decks will probably show up tomorrow.
18:58:10 But the video will be a little while after that, so you'll be able to get to various links that are available in those slide decks.
18:58:20 And I think we've covered an awful lot of ground.
18:58:22 We have a couple of questions. Let's say we'll start off with.
18:58:27 I have to scroll back up here, jasmine can't.
18:58:31 Can you unmute yourself? I believe this question was for Patty, but I'm not 100% sure.
18:58:41 Hello!
18:58:43 Yes, you're there.
18:58:44 Hi, yeah. I was wondering, how can you preview on a mobile device?
18:59:01 No go ahead!
18:58:54 So I think well, I mean, I'm gonna if you don't mind if I share my screen done really quick cause I have something to show.
18:59:05 Okay. So I assume I don't usually use the meta-suite on my phone but I know that it's set up the same way.
18:59:14 So if you look here, this is the back end. This is, it's just business.
18:59:17 Dot Facebook. This is your Meta business suite, and that.
18:59:21 So when you click create a post, you know I have my Facebook and my Instagram here.
18:59:28 But obviously I only wanna do you know, if I only wanted to do my Facebook, it allows you to put everything in.
18:59:36 And then you can it show it has a feed preview.
18:59:39 And if you see here you can look at it how? How is it going to appear on Facebook?
18:59:44 And how is it going to appear on Mobile? So I think that even though it's so, if you're trying to access it for Mobile, that might be a little difficult. I don't do a lot of that.
18:59:52 I don't do a lot of that posting on my phone just because I really do need to like, see?
18:59:56 Like the full screen, see all the things but if you wanna see how something's gonna look on mobile, there's definitely previews.
19:00:02 I mean, I'm not obviously not putting stuff in.
19:00:05 But if you had a photo it shows you exactly how it's going to come up, which is really, which is really beneficial if you want to know if you're putting something in. And you're like, how is this going to look is it gonna get cut off.
19:00:14 And whatnot. I don't know if that was exactly your question or okay, great.
19:00:17 Yeah, that was it. I wasn't sure how to go about that like, can you use your phone?
19:00:22 Do you need to use a laptop? Will it go back and forth?
19:00:23 I think I'm pretty positive that you know.
19:00:26 I mean now you've got me curious, so I'll go and take a look at it.
19:00:30 But yeah, I really try to do like I course, I post from my phone.
19:00:34 But I really like to use my desktop when it comes to this kind of stuff.
19:00:39 Because, as you can see here, you can add a link. You can do all kinds of different things.
19:00:41 Okay.
19:00:42 Add emojis, and then this is what I was talking about.
19:00:45 Your scheduling, options, so you can publish, now you can schedule, but if you schedule, it also tells you the this is the times when your audience is most active.
19:00:55 Now I don't always believe on that. I think that might. I can see in my eye analytics, but I've tested it, and it's a good way to.
19:01:03 It's just a good way to, you know, to test things out and see how it looks.
19:01:06 And then, of course, here you can also schedule your Instagram posts.
19:01:09 I just don't suggest you do one. Size fits all cause.
19:01:12 Then you'll end up with bad Instagram like I used to do in the beginning.
19:01:15 Gotcha!
19:01:19 You're welcome.
19:01:18 Okay. Thank you. Hello.
19:01:20 Okay, great. We have other questions. You can type them in, or you can just raise your hand.
19:01:26 You can use little. Raise hand, icon, to ask other questions.
19:01:33 Or have we just very you in so much information? I do wanna add one thing about email marketing that that it's a pet peeve of mine.
19:01:49 Unfortunately, you cannot sell or pass your list to somebody else.
19:01:55 That is both illegal and really bad behavior. If I gave my permission for Paddy to have my list in viva for River, and then she sells it to Battleship Cove, and I start getting emails from battleship Cove that I never asked for I gotta
19:02:14 I'm gonna think I bet your Patty did that, or whatever.
19:02:19 And I'm quite likely to unsubscribe from both so besides the fact that it's illegal because she only gave he only gave her permission.
19:02:28 You didn't give Battleship Cove permission.
19:02:29 Yeah, that's the key thing. That is also illegal to do.
19:02:32 And people will ask you that they can buy your lists.
19:02:34 This will happen if you get popular.
19:02:36 Yeah. Awesome.
19:02:36 And after a while they you will get tagged enough on subscribers or not, people complaining, and you could possibly be banned from the.
19:02:44 Exactly.
19:02:45 I once worked for a place where we had a really old list, and it wasn't even that we were.
19:02:52 We people had opted in, but it was such an old list that we were getting so many like bounce facts that it would look like we were spanning people.
19:02:59 And we were like in email jail for a while. So.
19:02:59 Yes. Yeah. If you have been doing it for a while, you have to maintain your list and clean things out.
19:03:06 But again the services now are better, and they do that to a degree, for you.
19:03:09 If it's bounced 3 times, they're out of your list.
19:03:11 So you don't get that as much. That's all. Updated.
19:03:16 We have another question from Paula Robinson. Dear Paul, you wanna unmute yourself and ask.
19:03:25 Sure. Yeah, my question is, I've gotten away from all the stuff because I've been trying to figure out who I am.
19:03:32 And now sort of here who I am, and I so I wanted to know you know. I'm sure that you don't just suddenly decide that you want to start an email marketing campaign or or Facebook campaign or Instagram, or whatever.
19:03:45 And so this was sort of all of the speakers. How far ahead do you begin to plan your campaign before you list?
19:03:50 The first part of it. Do you were saying you post every day.
19:03:56 Some were saying post once a week. Do you put together like a week or a month's worth of stuff, so that you sort of know where you're going and how it's going to trailer.
19:04:05 Do you? Are you ad hoc!
19:04:09 So a lot of it depends on how organized you are a lot of people do things spontaneously.
19:04:17 But if you're serious about your marketing, then it's a good idea to plan out what you can plan out.
19:04:23 Be ready for spontaneity. Things. So any, I'm just gonna go from the artist point of view, because I know at best a lot of times we've got a lot of the year.
19:04:32 We know where we're going to be showing and what we're going to be doing is always things that come up.
19:04:36 But usually you've got a pretty good idea, and that's when you should start planning out when you're going to do a major push or what you're going to do.
19:04:45 You know, on any given time to type into what your activities are right.
19:04:50 So it really depends on what kind of creative you are. If you're a musician, it's almost the same, you know.
19:04:54 Most of your gigs so you know how you can plan out your marketing strategy.
19:04:58 That's how a marketing professional does it? You can decide to do it that way.
19:05:02 A lot of us don't, because it's just a lot to do.
19:05:06 It depends on where you're at in your own process.
19:05:09 But I highly recommend it. I always recommend it clients, but they rarely follow my suggestions that you do plan it out.
19:05:17 You know, because things can come up anytime, sure. But if you've got a planned and you break your leg, you're still able to get your marketing out because you're not going to be interrupted.
19:05:28 You've already got it planned out. So what you can plan I think it's great when you can do that.
19:05:33 It gives you a a piece of mind, a sense of stability, you know, and things, you know things are there, even if something happens.
19:05:40 So it's a good thing that can be hard to do.
19:05:44 Yes, I agree. It's it's quite hard to do, and a lot of the times I've just kind of waitinged it winged it.
19:05:53 But then you get very anxious but then you send it out.
19:05:55 If you feel good and then you win it again, and you're anxious all over.
19:05:58 So I remember one time I was traveling, and so I had to do a bunch.
19:06:03 I had to batch content, and I remember feeling, oh, such a light weight!
19:06:09 And so now I've been trying to do that, even with social media, with my posts on Instagram Batch, content like a certain day, I will do these videos or certain day I would do certain.
19:06:20 So I've been becoming better at it it's just really practice, and you will appreciate it in the end.
19:06:28 There are times when you're still like oh, I should send an email about this thing.
19:06:31 But you know, as time goes by for me, it's gotten better.
19:06:36 But you know, years and years of just like scrabbling, scrambling.
19:06:39 It does. It's not good for the the anxiety.
19:06:43 But once I've stopped to patch content. It's wow.
19:06:46 It's a game changer, it really is.
19:06:50 Yeah, I mean, in a perfect world, I would definitely, I think planning content is the best idea.
19:06:55 But I I operate at such a break next speed, and we are doing a million different things at once that I'd say 50% at least a good 50% of our content is just spontaneous because we're constantly getting new things in from people.
19:07:10 We're obviously obviously not putting posting about our own things.
19:07:14 But when I do something like restaurant week, that is something that we look at the month, and we have a content calendar, and we literally post hey, this week it's restaurant recruitment this week.
19:07:23 It's about introducing the restaurants this week.
19:07:25 We're going to do polls, and we kind of planned it out.
19:07:28 So that, like, they're like, there's really grouped engagement beforehand.
19:07:32 So that, like, there's really grouped engagement beforehand.
19:07:34 So with big things we definitely do. But I think, having that mix, you know, I mean, if you're a kind of plan it out.
19:07:41 So that, like, there's really grouped engagement beforehand.
19:07:41 So with big things, we definitely do. But I think, having that mix, you know, I mean, if some, if your person loves planning and control and that, and then that' oh, you know, this is something that I just found, I found I'm excited about I found interesting, I'm gonna pass that on
19:07:51 to you so. But yes, I think scheduling is amazing.
19:07:55 It's just. It's a nice thing to do for your mental health.
19:07:58 And I just want to mention that, Kareem said in in the chat.
19:08:02 Also plan a day to film and create content. That's a great thing, if especially if you've got more than one job.
19:08:08 So many of us do. You're gonna say that Friday?
19:08:12 I'm gonna go in my studio, take pictures, and I'll be able to use them for lots of things.
19:08:20 That's the other thing I want to mention again. You can reuse that content, chop it up a different way.
19:08:26 Repeating things doesn't hurt you on social media.
19:08:29 It's true you can keep posting the same thing. It's not too much.
19:08:34 Also, I'm gonna add, I work a little differently, but I have many iron in the fire practice.
19:08:41 Best practice, my art. You know my art brokerage, many different things.
19:08:45 So what I'm trying to do something around advertising, or an event, or whatever I create text documents for each thing.
19:08:57 And I re pre-write all of the things that I attach.
19:09:00 All the hashtags, and the call outs to other organizations, to those, and then I kind of put a rough schedule together.
19:09:09 So then I look at those in the morning, and I see, okay, today is a day I plan to do a, you know, shout out for practice.
19:09:17 Best practice, and do half a dozen different posts throughout the day, and they're going to be this post, and then I just have to copy it, paste it in and off it goes.
19:09:27 Now, sometimes I do that with scheduling, but sometimes I just do it with right straight from the straight from the text document, depending on how organized they happen to be in that particular week, but keeping it all rewritten, and where you can copy it and rewrite it or copy it, and
19:09:45 paste it, and you know things like the hashtags you're going to include.
19:09:49 So you don't forget some, and organizations or people you're going to call out.
19:09:52 So you don't forget them is extremely useful in terms of keeping yourself organized and keeping your marketing on track.
19:10:01 Okay, we have another question from Jasmine. Pop yourself back in and ask again, Jasmine.
19:10:06 On the screen.
19:10:15 Hi, so I currently work at a dispenser. I do our inventory, but I also hope one of the girls do some of our marketing.
19:10:25 And I've just gotten questions, not from staff or customers.
19:10:31 Just more people in my personal life wondering if it's a good idea to mix the 2.
19:10:37 And I know a lot of people in the industry keep their personal life separate when it comes to their cannabis life.
19:10:50 If that made any sense.
19:10:53 Yes, it did.
19:10:57 I mean, I guess it depends on what it is. I mean, if it's like videos of like you smoking, probably not.
19:11:14 Umhm.
19:11:05 But I mean, I think that you know, especially in this area, like last week from former perspective, I mean, we've got like all the dispensaries here, I mean, people are now starting to talk about how we should be looking to cannabis dispensaries as a way to they should be that they're the perfect events
19:11:21 sponsors like getting their in their business just like anybody else.
19:11:29 There. Yeah.
19:11:26 I mean, if they were illegal, then I would be like well, that's obviously, but I mean they're legal and I mean and I think that I mean, if you feel like your audience or your you know that they're super conservative then now.
19:11:36 But again that I would. That's one of those things again, with analytics like post, something.
19:11:41 And if you see that like, it gets crickets, and you know that the people who are on your page are not down with it.
19:11:47 But if you see a bunch of people like here, yeah, then, you know, I would test it out.
19:11:51 But I think the as as more and more we've got like 28 states now that are recreational marijuana, I think people are getting like more hip-hop like it's all right, like it's here.
19:12:02 It's not going anywhere. But no, it's always good to be cautious, and I test it out and see you know how people feel.
19:12:10 Well, and.
19:12:09 Okay, cool cause. I know oops. Sorry. Go for it.
19:12:14 No! Go ahead, Jasmine.
19:12:16 My work is working with the We. I work in Halifax, and we're partnering with the town.
19:12:24 Call to do a firework show, so I know they're trying to be more involved.
19:12:30 And I was like a community entity, not just the pot shop down the street.
19:12:37 And I think to, you know, and again, from my experience here in fall over it's it's medicinal, you know, and I think that's you have to look at it from like a health and wellness perspective.
19:12:49 And not just as like a recreational lifestyle. Choice.
19:12:51 And I think that's always the best that's always the best way to approach it is that this is like, you know, an alternative health lifestyle.
19:12:58 And if you can kind of do that and focus on those things and not focus on this is a great way to like, you know.
19:13:07 Okay.
19:13:02 Hang out on a Friday night. It's just how you position it, because there are 2 sides to that point.
19:13:09 Also, you can look at some of the dispensaries that have social media presence and see what kinds of things they're posting and sponsoring.
19:13:19 That'll give you some sense of the reactions to that will give you some sense of what kind of market they're reaching and whether it's connected to your market they're reaching, and whether it's connected to your marketing.
19:13:28 Okay. Thank you.
19:13:30 Okay, Brooke, you had a question.
19:13:34 No go ahead!
19:13:32 Oh, shit, Ben! I'm sorry I don't want to interrupt you, but before we get to before we get to Book's question, because it's very different.
19:13:39 I just wanted to piggyback on what?
19:13:42 On what Patty was saying, and kind of respond to Jasmine as well, and I think this is really just a question about what you want to share privately versus what you share publicly right?
19:13:52 So I mean I only know myself so myself, as an example.
19:13:58 I am very private on social media. I don't share a lot about myself.
19:14:03 I might share a few like big wins in my job that might go on there, but I don't talk about my employment in my work.
19:14:11 Within my social media. I share pictures of my dog right now.
19:14:15 Is that right or wrong? It's kind of how you want to approach it.
19:14:19 So this one of the things that you could consider is having 2 pages about yourself, like one.
19:14:24 Were, where you go all out, and you are the true, you to yourself, and perhaps you have another.
19:14:29 You know you can have as many accounts as you want as long as they're legal, and you could have another page where you talk a little bit more about the industry that you work in with a little bit of your own personal flair to it.
19:14:40 You know I have seen friends in colleagues that have that do have multiple profiles like that.
19:14:46 And, as Paddy was saying, it's kind of based on your audience.
19:14:49 And so I don't think there's any shame in being private.
19:14:53 I do think that is okay. But at the same time we're talking about marketing for creatives right?
19:14:59 So you want to be. You have some type of entity that you're trying to get out there.
19:15:01 So, you know, consider having maybe dual profiles beyond.
19:15:07 Just, you know, we're talking business profiles, but maybe personal profiles.
19:15:12 And now to Brooke's question, because it was a good one.
19:15:15 Thank you.
19:15:21 Brooke, on, mute yourself, and.
19:15:23 Pardon me not turning my camera on.
19:15:26 That's okay.
19:15:33 Have, we?
19:15:39 First.
19:15:49 Work, you muted.
19:16:01 She got kicked off. We lost her.
19:16:00 Whoops. Do we lose it? Oh, well, hopefully she'll jump back in, but I will read her question, because unless she pops herself back in, it's an important question, and I think we need to talk about it so she was asking how far in advance
19:16:22 of event. Do you recommend starting to promote it? And how many posts should one make in the days and weeks before the event?
19:16:30 The day of. And there was another piece to it a little for the depth also, which time period is most helpful to boost.
19:16:36 The post. If this is ever helpful.
19:16:41 I will say quickly that I always I like a good month for me.
19:16:48 I do at least having the event page up. I mean, I might not stop posting crazy, but always having, like the event page, just so that people like see it, so that when I start posting about it, they're like, Oh, yeah, I did see something about that but I mean, at the very least, I think a 3 weeks. Unless something comes up.
19:17:03 I mean, I have things that sometimes just pop up. And I'm like they're gonna do it.
19:17:07 And we're gonna do it heavy for a week, you know.
19:17:08 But I'd say 3 weeks is like probably the more like you wanna especially in the summer time.
19:17:15 There are certain time there are sometimes like in January you could do with the day before people might come, but, like this time of year, you gotta do it like a month.
19:17:22 3 weeks. I also think that the boosting posts I personally, it's crazy to me, my boosted post.
19:17:31 Do not do well, do as well as my organic reach.
19:17:34 I do great on organic reach, I still do not.
19:17:37 I haven't figured out like, you know, the boosting of the posts, and I do a little bit of Facebook advertising.
19:17:43 But I think it's just one of those things you gotta test it, you know, and I never put a lot of money into it.
19:17:48 Just test a little bit and see what, and see what you can get. I think if it's if it's local, you're all right with organic.
19:17:54 If if you're going to, you want to start going further afield.
19:17:57 That's when maybe a boosted post might help.
19:18:00 Because you need to like you need that, that extra oomph, because people might not be interacting with each other from there.
19:18:05 Yeah, I was, second, that we when we first started, we're using post-boosting and cut practically no traction from the boosted posts all all our engagement came from our organic stuff, and so we stopped and it our
19:18:28 engagement, and our reach has stayed as high as it always was, so I would say, don't waste the money also.
19:18:37 Another thing about the timing. If it's something that has an event that you're gonna create a Facebook event or whatever created.
19:18:49 As soon as you know. Put it up there, post it to your feed, but then leave it for a while.
19:18:54 So you start getting closer, and then slowly ramp your marketing up, putting it out there so people can find it, and so it might show up is a good thing.
19:19:05 There are people who may follow you who will see it because they follow you, and then they will tag it.
19:19:09 So they remember it later. It doesn't matter that you know it's it's months away.
19:19:15 We have our September workshop. We have an event.
19:19:20 And it's up on our website. It's in September.
19:19:25 We're not doing much in the webinar.
19:19:28 Workshop. We have an event. And it's up on our website. It's in September.
19:19:33 We're not doing much in the way of advertising it at this point, but it's there, and we've already gotten 3 registrations for the workshop, because it's there.
19:19:41 So you know, we'll start marketing it this summer. We'll mention it occasionally, like now, and you know.
19:19:43 But but it's not a thing we're gonna push. And then we ramp up.
19:19:47 So we start making posts, and we start calling people out in the organizations that work with us start putting stuff out there and then as we get closer, we ramp up, and the 2 weeks before we ramp up, and then the couple of days before we don't ramp up, but we get a little bit
19:20:00 more emphatic, like register. Now you know still time to register that kind of thing.
19:20:05 So think about how you're trying to interact with your audience.
19:20:09 And also look at how your engagement is going, but it's still certainly.
19:20:14 Can you know? Consider that when you know what it is letting the world know about it is not gonna hurt anything.
19:20:21 Yes, I agree. Give it a month, 3 weeks, but also you have to think about what's most important, because for a lot of us sometimes we have a lot of things going on, and a lot of things to advertise like certain months or more more busy.
19:20:37 Or things are coming up like June is very busy for me.
19:20:41 So you have to think about what is the biggest thing out of 3 or 4 events that you have or you think you want to tell people about, because you have to be careful that you are going to just like overwhelm them with with information.
19:20:56 And then they're mixing updates for this one and that one.
19:21:00 So you do want to think about what's most important and kind of spread it out.
19:21:05 And then, you know, ramp up the advertising for that main one.
19:21:09 You do have to put it in that hierarchy because it could just get all over the place.
19:21:14 And then people like I'm confused like a confused mind says, No, you know, so I see what's more important, and ramp up for that specific one.
19:21:23 And then you could piece things around it.
19:21:26 Yeah, that's same with the email. You start at least 3 weeks out with your first one to say this is coming, and then 2 weeks out, reminder.
19:21:36 And then that last week, a few days before another reminder.
19:21:40 Oh, it's it can be very steady.
19:21:44 The reminders really help, because sometimes you think you're annoying people.
19:21:48 But they would be like many of us. We're all human.
19:21:52 We leave things to the end, or we're like, oh, that we have 2 weeks for that!
19:21:57 And then often it's like, Oh, one more day to sign up like, Oh, my gosh!
19:22:01 And I'm so happy like many times, I'm thinking.
19:22:04 Oh, I hope they don't think I'm too pushy for this. And then I get 5 or 6 registering on that date, because I reminded them.
19:22:11 Yeah, we usually have our biggest registration date when we send out, we all do all our workshops on Wednesday.
19:22:17 We usually send out a reminder on Monday, and we usually, that's usually our biggest registration date.
19:22:24 For may not be the biggest like the total number, but it's the biggest single day.
19:22:29 Whoops. Karim has a question.
19:22:34 Unmute yourself, and ask away.
19:22:44 Green is still there.
19:22:46 Hey? It's yep, yes.
19:22:45 Hello! Can you hear me? Yeah. Can you hear me? Okay? Well, yes.
19:22:50 So I just started my podcast. Show and like lately, I've been, you know, like letting my followers and my fans know the date of that is like up and you know, uploaded on Youtube, do you suggest that I like promoted like that?
19:23:11 We or just. You know, our promoted that day. And also do you suggest that, like I sent messages to like my followers, cause like with the Instagram like before I post something or when I'm about to post something I always send like a positive message to like some of my followers which in in
19:23:32 which increases more engages on the posts, as well.
19:23:36 So, yeah, I just, you know, I just wanted to ask that.
19:23:39 Get some suggestions.
19:23:43 I think definitely. A week before promoting promoting is very good.
19:23:48 So just reminding them that this is coming up, especially if it's a podcast eventually they are going to be looking out for it because i'm assuming that you're posting the same time same day of the week, whether it's every week or once a month.
19:24:03 It'd be so they'll look out. But I think you do need to promote in terms of sending private messages to your followers.
19:24:08 I'm not too sure about that. I don't do that, so I would just, you know, put it out there, make a post.
19:24:15 I really can't say if that works, because I don't always like when people send those group messages.
19:24:22 So I'm not too show about that.
19:24:24 But maybe somebody else can talk about specifically that in sending the messages.
19:24:31 Yeah, I don't think you want to send me messages promoting something.
19:24:36 I think the idea of sending messages to connect and that the way you dove been using them sounds great.
19:24:40 And I would stick with that. But yeah, you want again.
19:24:45 This is where you want to tease. Right? So a week ahead of the podcast date is when you're gonna say, this is what I'm so excited about in this podcast.
19:24:53 I can't wait for you to hear this thing something like that to get people ready.
19:24:58 And then, as you get closer, let them know it's gonna be when it's gonna air.
19:25:03 Yes, especially if it's already in the camp, and you know what the content is, and you can tee some of the content.
19:25:09 That's a really good thing to do.
19:25:11 Yeah, I mean from a Facebook standpoint, that's the back.
19:25:15 This is like the where you would like, create a group.
19:25:17 If you really wanted a group of people like who, you know, wants to know about all the new things you have going on, or like content ideas at them. That's a great way to really create a group of people who you know wants to know about all the new things you have going on or like content that, or even if you want to like throw content ideas at them.
19:25:33 That' yeah.
19:25:34 Great, great. Thank you so much. I'm writing this all down.
19:25:38 Thank you so much.
19:25:41 Absolutely.
19:25:39 I'm sorry. Can I say something? I feel like a lot of times people are worried about.
19:25:49 What you wanna do right like you wanna like anticipate.
19:25:52 And you wanna promote right?
19:25:57 But I feel like people don't also follow up with that promotion right?
19:26:02 Like yeah, yeah, podcast aired right why don't you promote after as well? Right?
19:26:08 So it's like the back end as well. So you know, and looking at the numbers on your podcast like, what's podcast did better.
19:26:15 And then I think it was Helen who said it.
19:26:19 You know. Somebody said we posting, you know, old content right like, what podcast, did the best?
19:26:27 This one where I talked to. You know James well, reintroducing that, you know, because obviously it did well, more people are gonna be into it.
19:26:35 Yeah.
19:26:34 But I'm I'm interested in hearing your podcast.
19:26:36 Great. Thank you so much.
19:26:37 Yeah, that's great stuff. And yes, the other thing for artists for anyone after an event.
19:26:46 Post about it. Yeah. Gray, on putting show the pictures, you know.
19:26:51 This also is that's that follow-up to and keeping people engaged in what you're doing.
19:26:56 So, especially if you and I don't. I'm not a podcast person. Sorry.
19:27:00 But if you get a lot of engagement for something, or you learn something from that podcast something in post about it, afterwards to reflect back on it, keep people engaged.
19:27:08 It's also good. It's just another way to create content. In a sense.
19:27:14 Yeah, you wanna take advantage of any content that comes your way that's relevant to what you're trying to promote.
19:27:21 So, yeah, if you had a good event, if you're if you're an artist, and a way that's relevant to what you're trying to promote.
19:27:30 So yeah, if you you know, if you had a good event, if if you're an artist so the piece that they bought so you can post about that person, course, you could ask their permission to actually put it out there.
19:27:38 But you know, or just take a picture of a thing with a red dot, you know you want it.
19:27:46 Anything you can do to say, and you can go back and look at this, or and this went really well.
19:27:52 Stay tuned, for our next one is going to help your overall market.
19:28:01 Okay, we're getting down to the end of our our time period.
19:28:04 Any other questions. I don't want to cut anybody off, but I also don't want to keep us all here, you know, past our 2 h.
19:28:14 If there's no additional questions people wanted.
19:28:18 Okay. You don't see anybody jumping in, so I guess we have covered the ground.
19:28:25 I thank the presenters. You were all terrific. You covered incredible amount of stuff.
19:28:31 This video, I bet you will be rewatched a lot.
19:28:35 Just so people can go back and review what you all said.
19:28:38 I know I wouldn't have been able to take notes fast enough, but it's just the nature of things, but that's why we put post the transcripts, and why we post the videos later.
19:28:50 You can always go back. I'd like to encourage you all to spread the word about practice.
19:28:55 Best practice, join our our online. You know, social media, Instagram and Facebook.
19:29:03 Facebook is our primary. Get on our email list, check our website out on a regular basis.
19:29:10 Let the world know that we are out here. All of our workshops are recorded, and can be viewed again at any time for free, so you can always find that information from the website, and we keep all the resources that we produce up on the website forver as well so as long as we exist this content will
19:29:29 exist, and thank you all for coming.
19:29:31 Thank you.
19:29:33 Thank you. Bye.
19:29:37 Thank you.
19:31:50 Thank you, Dan. These have been great experiences.
19:31:53 Okay. I'm glad. Thanks.
19:31:55 Have a great night.