Photo by Adobe Shortcuts What is Juneteenth? Why is Juneteenth Important? 10 Ways to Celebrate Juneteenth on Social Media Final Tips - Use Social Media Scheduling Tool Implementing relevant trends and holidays into your social media marketing strategy can significantly increase visibility and the opportunity for your brand to be seen. When it comes to observing holidays with historical significance like Juneteenth, there are several approaches you can take to become part of the conversation in a respectful manner. Whether this is your first year celebrating Juneteenth or are simply looking for creative ways to highlight this historical day, let’s take a look at 10 different approaches you can take for your social media strategy. What is Juneteenth? Since 1865, Juneteenth (short for “June Nineteenth”) has been observed as a celebration to commemorate the emancipation of slaves in the United States. Juneteenth is a federal holiday celebrated on June 19th This federal holiday references the day, June 19th, when federal troops arrived in the town of Galveston, Texas to take control of the state and ensure that all enslaved people were freed. It officially became a federal holiday on June 17th, 2021. Why is Juneteenth Important? As the longest-running African American holiday, Juneteenth is an important holiday where communities come together to acknowledge the injustices that Black Americans endured but also to celebrate their rich cultures and accomplishments since then. Juneteenth is an important holiday to acknowledge the injustices that Black Americans endured This is also a time where activists raise awareness of the injustices that are still affecting African American communities to this day and of ways that people can come together to establish change. 10 Ways to Celebrate Juneteenth on Social Media Educate Your Followers Allow Your Followers to Interact Highlight Black Historical Figures Promote Black-Owned Businesses Amplify Black Voices Share Traditional Recipes Utilize Appropriate Graphics and Images Share Employee Stories Show How You Will Continue to Support Do Not Use Juneteenth as an Opportunity to Sell 1. Educate Your Followers Photo by Lyft on Twitter There is a likelihood that not all of your followers might know what Juneteenth is or its relevance. If you want to have a greater effect, schedule a variety of posts throughout your social channels with information about the holiday and its importance, including key dates and figures. 2. Allow Your Followers to Interact Photo by Twitter Instead of just posting written facts about the holiday, make the experience more interactive with videos, dynamic graphics, Instagram carousel posts, and even polls. Make the experience more interactive with videos, dynamic graphics, carousel posts, and polls Better yet, allow your audience to ask questions or spark respectful conversations within the comments section to increase engagement. 3. Highlight Black Historical Figures Photo by OUAI on Instagram From Martin Luther King to Rosa Parks, highlight the achievements of historical African American heroes that have made a positive influence within the Black community. These key figures are not only inspirational, but they also deserve to be celebrated for their significance in African American history. 4. Promote Black-Owned Businesses Photo by Adobe Another great way to show your support is to promote Black-owned businesses that may not be already well-known or prominent. Showcase their products, mission statements, and the people behind that work behind the scenes to make it all happen. Another great way to show your support is to promote Black-owned businesses Allow them to share their stories of navigating the process of becoming a Black business owner to encourage others within the community to follow a similar path. 5. Amplify Black Voices Photo by Twitter Aside from promoting Black-owned businesses make an effort to spotlight African American creators, influences, artisans, and organizations. Get creative with a live interview, a social media takeover, or any significant quotes they may have offered. Collaborations tend to lead to more engagement in visibility for both parties involved. 6. Share Traditional Recipes Photo by ourplace on Instagram Dive deeper into the African American culture by sharing traditional cuisine recipes to encourage your followers to engage in the celebration. This may also encourage them to go out and do more research on their own and thus educate themselves in the process. 7. Utilize Appropriate Graphics and Images Photo by Pixabay (with Pan-African flag colors) Juneteenth utilizes a recognizable color palette of red, green, black, and yellow. The red, black, and green represent the Pan-African flag adopted by many in the Black community to represent the blood, soil, and prosperity of Africa and its people. Staying consistent with these colors in your social media posts will make the subject easily recognizable. 8. Share Employee Stories Photo by Salesforce Show appreciation to your African American employees and allow them to be part of the conversation in your social media posts. Perhaps they can share what the day means to them or how they will be celebrating the holiday. Your followers will appreciate seeing some of the human faces behind your brand Your followers will appreciate seeing some of the human faces behind your brand and hearing their stories. 9. Show How You Will Continue to Support Photo by Twitter Share links to organizations where your followers can get involved in promoting solutions to the issues that African Americans face today but also how your business will take part in the effort. You can perhaps start a fundraiser for local community-led organizations or encourage volunteer work among your staff members. 10. Do Not Use Juneteenth as an Opportunity to Sell Understand that Juneteenth is a time for celebrating the African American community and a day to observe their historical adversity. The focus should not be on the products or services that you are trying to sell. Final Tips - Use Social Media Scheduling Tool Organize your posts ahead of time with an online social media tool, such as Hookle, that allows you to better manage both your posts and your time. Hookle is fast to adopt and easy to use. With Hookle users can plan, publish, and schedule posts to multiple social media channels using a monthly calendar view—all with one tool.

Photo by bruce mars on Unsplash Shortcuts Diversify Your Communities Sharpen Your Skills Learn About Your Clientele Time Management Advanced Visual Marketing and SEO Put Yourself in the Customer's Shoes It goes without saying that all entrepreneurs need to understand the power of social media management. Without large advertising budgets, social media marketing is essentially the best way for a small business to connect with its clientele - these platforms are often free and readily accessible. It goes without saying that all entrepreneurs need to understand the power of social media management Indeed, small business owners shouldn't skimp on their social media presence because the world is more connected than ever before. Social media marketing may seem very daunting at first, but once you break it down into a series of small steps, it'll quickly become evident that it's not as bad as it seems. Being a social media manager is actually very rewarding due to your daily connections with other people as well as the high degree of task variety! So how do we professionally manage our social media presence? We've prepared six easy steps that you can follow: 1. Diversify Your Communities Photo by Daria Nepriakhina 🇺🇦 on Unsplash The first step is not only to create your actual social media communities but also to make sure that you are on as many platforms as possible. Setting up business accounts such as LinkedIn pages or Facebook pages is super easy, and a tech-savvy social media manager could probably establish a presence on more than a dozen social media platforms in a single workday. If you aren't reaching a large number of potential customers, then you really aren't trying. Setting up business accounts such as LinkedIn pages or Facebook pages is super easy Some prioritization is for the best, of course. A business geared toward artistic endeavors may want a presence on Etsy and Pinterest, whereas a construction firm may not get as much value there. It would be wise to discuss potential diversification strategies with your colleagues. Always have a game plan in mind. 2. Sharpen Your Skills Photo by Jess Bailey on Unsplash The framework of your social media empire is established, and you've cast a wide net. What now? It's time to look intrinsically. Social media managers must have a wide variety of soft and hard skills in their arsenal, such as emotional intelligence, video editing, networking, visual design, writing, and much more. A good social media manager is versatile; this will save a small company thousands of dollars in commissioning specialized workers It's not exactly the kind of career that favors specialization or putting all your eggs in one basket. Some of these skills can be practiced on the job, while others will require attending seminars or lectures geared toward self-improvement. Why is it important to strengthen your skillset? A good social media manager is versatile; this will save a small company thousands of dollars in commissioning specialized workers. A social media manager who can design their own videos, write copy, or even run a website will allow the company to channel that payroll expense into other areas. 3. Learn About Your Clientele Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash Traditional marketing relied heavily on segmentation, focus groups, and other Marketing 101 concepts to figure out who they should attend to and where they should center their energies. Thanks to the Internet, we're just a click away from our customers. But how do we get their attention in the digital age? Obviously, it helps to have targeted social media presences, but social circles are always shifting platforms. Video gamers are often on Discord and Reddit these days instead of Mumble or AOL like they were 20 years ago. Be sure to attend conferences and get-togethers and scour the internet to find social circles where your target audience frequents. Prioritize those hot spots while also diversifying on other sides. 4. Time Management Photo by Milad Fakurian on Unsplash Social media management might be very time-consuming. Sure, it may be easy to set up a wide variety of accounts on every social media site imaginable, but what happens when your firm really takes off? Each of those platforms will have customers reaching out, and each will require prompt responses. The workload can be daunting and the temptation to hire additional hands or outsource production or copywriting will be tempting. But that may not be the cheapest way to solve the challenge. How do we minimize the amount of wasted time (and money)? Set up a calendar or schedule in place so that you are devoting a specific time a day to each of your platforms instead of bouncing between them all. It's very easy to get lost in your own social media presence - just look at how much time we waste on our own feeds in our free time. There are plenty of third-party scheduling apps which you can use to plan and automate your publishing Be disciplined and do not allocate more time than needed for each platform. There are plenty of third-party scheduling apps which you can use to plan and automate your publishing. Thus, you'll save considerable amount of time. Ultimately, you'll have to figure out what works best for you, whether it be a schedule in Google Drive, a specialized calendar, social media scheduling app, or even a weekly priority system in a spreadsheet. Find out also our tips on how to better manage your time with social media management. 5. Advanced Visual Marketing and SEO If you're confident in your diverse set of skills as outlined in step two, you may want to consider enhancing the creative side even more. Visuals are what really help a company stand out. New logos, special keywords, and phrases to drive SEO; fancy headers and special hashtags will really help your social media marketing stand head and shoulders above the rest. Learn more detail how social media helps SEO. 6. Put Yourself in the Customer's Shoes Photo by Shelbey Fordyce on Unsplash Sometimes we'll get lost in the sauce of managing our social media that we may lose track of what it's like to be on the other side. Each of us has multiple social media accounts, and we're bombarded by thousands of posts and pins every day. Determine what YOU like to see in a post and try to replicate that in your own work. Alternatively, what if your tastes are different from those of your customers? It may be worth polling your clients on what they want to see to help you tailor their social media experience and ensure your posts stand out. If all else fails, pick peoples' brains at seminars and conferences to really get a feel for what stands out for the "normal" customer. Ultimately, you could have a very well-designed social media campaign, but if it's tone-deaf or not to the customers' tastes, they'll just scroll right by it. Final Thoughts These 6 points are just the tip of the iceberg, but they should be able to get you oriented. It's safe to say that all the people on our success stories page - social media managers, small business owners, entrepreneurs, or all of the above - employ these strategies on a day-to-day basis. And do not get disheartened if you still find it challenging. Like several other successful business owners before you, you can engage professional digital marketing agencies if you have resources to do so. Alternatively, be experimental and check out scheduling tools - such as Hookle - that can make managing your social media easier and more efficient than ever before!

Photo by Lisa Fotios from Pexels So you’ve just created an Instagram account for your small business. Congratulations! Having an Instagram is an opportunity you don’t want to miss out on. It allows you to get in front of your target audience where they spend their free time, and to engage with them on a daily basis. Shortcuts What Is the Best Type of Content to Post on Instagram? 10 Post Ideas for Your Instagram Feed What Are the Best Times to Post on Instagram? How to Schedule Posts on Instagram Experiment with Instagram Post Ideas But you might be a bit stuck when it comes to getting started with Instagram, including ideas for what to post on your small business’s Instagram. This list of 10 awesome ideas for your Instagram feed should give you some inspiration for what to schedule in your social media calendar. Instagram allows you to get in front of your target audience where they spend their free time, and to engage with them on a daily basis No worries, if you don't have an Instagram account set up yet, you can read on this quick guide on how to set up different social networks and Instagram for your small business. What Is the Best Type of Content to Post on Instagram? Instagram is a very visual social media platform, where people go to look at and engage with images. That means you’ll want to concentrate on publishing beautiful, striking images and videos that capture your target audience’s attention. Instagram is a very visual social media platform, where people go to look at and engage with images You have lots of options when it comes to the type of images to post on your Instagram feed. It’s a good idea to experiment with them all in order to learn what type of content resonates most with your followers. Some of your format options are: Multi-image slideshows (a.k.a. Instagram galleries) Stories Gifs Photos with shoppable tags Videos Reels Here’s a handy cheat sheet for the image sizes to post on Instagram. 10 Post Ideas for Your Instagram Feed So let’s get into it. Here are our top 10 favorite Instagram content ideas to get you started on the right foot: Seasonal Posts Fill-in-the-Blank Posts User-Generated Content (UGC) GIF Posts Customer Success Stories Teasers for New Products Tag-a-Friend Posts Humorous Posts Behind-the-Scenes Posts Voting / Poll Posts 1. Seasonal Posts Photo by Chevy on Instagram Keep an eye out for holidays and special times of the year. Including seasonal images in your Instagram publishing schedule is an engaging way to connect to your target audience. People who are getting into festive mode will resonate and engage with your holiday images. This festive holiday post by Chewy is one of our favorite examples of seasonal content. They’ve created a slideshow of the adorable photoshoot that the audience can scroll through. In the caption, they playfully mention that their products make great gifts for pets, and guide the audience to click on a link in their bio. 2. Fill-in-the-Blank Posts Photo by Hubspot on Instagram Posting a fill-in-the-blank image will drive audience engagement and make people feel like their opinion counts. It’s also a great way to get more information about what makes your audience tick. This simple but striking post by Hubspot asks followers for their opinion, which encourages them to leave a comment. Hubspot also gives their opinion, as well as a call to action to click on a link to find out more. 3. User-Generated Content (UGC) Photo by Instagram Want to spread the word about your brand? User-generated content is the way to go. Invite your loyal followers to share images of themselves enjoying your product or service, then share their submissions with your audience. This UGC post by GAP shares how one of their loyal followers wears their brand of clothing. This puts a human face on their products and encourages others to use their hashtag to post their own outfits. 4. GIF Posts Photo by Rayban on Instagram GIFs are a great way to capture the attention of your audience, and can also highlight attractive features of your products in a way that static images can’t. In this awesome example posted by Rayban, we get to see a before-and-after shot of what their transition glasses look like by day and by night. This really lets followers see for themselves what’s great about the product. 5. Customer Success Stories Photo by Canva on Instagram Don’t keep your rave reviews a secret. Sharing your customers’ success stories helps others see the value in your product or service. This example posted by Canva uses video to introduce followers to a customer whose business went viral thanks to their design tools. They include a hashtag that followers can use to share their own projects they’ve created on Canva. 6. Teasers for New Products Photo by popeys on Instagram People love to feel like they’re getting a sneak peek at something exclusive. Use Instagram to give an inside look at what’s coming soon from your brand. Popeyes recently posted this exciting and mysterious video that really gets their audience excited to see what the soon-to-be-released chicken sandwich is going to be. They also include a CTA to visit their landing page where people can enter to be among the first to try the sandwich. 7. Tag-a-Friend Posts Photo by postit on Instagram One very effective way of increasing the reach of your Instagram content is to create tag-a-friend posts. Simply post a statement that a lot of people will resonate with, and encourage your audience to tag someone it makes them think of. In this example by Post-It, they use their product to make a broad statement of appreciation. Their audience naturally starts tagging their friends in the comments, significantly upping the organic reach of the post. 8. Humorous Posts Photo by zappos on Instagram There’s no reason to take yourself so seriously. In fact, your followers will probably respect you more if they see you’ve got a great sense of humor behind your brand. Find ways you can add a bit of humor to your Instagram content calendar. In this hilarious post by Zappos, the brand highlights a new product line with an exercise instruction video starring Bigfoot. The entertainment factor keeps people’s attention, and an invitation to “click the link in bio” draws in sales. 9. Behind-the-Scenes Posts Photo by barnesandnoble on Instagram Take some photos of what it’s like in your office, and post them to your Instagram feed. This is a great way to put a human face to your brand – and people like doing business with real people rather than faceless companies. In this playful behind-the-scenes post from Barnes and Noble, the employees are having a great time pretending to be in Star Wars. This post also celebrates a whimsical special occasion: Star Wars Day. 10. Voting / Poll Posts Photo by bublywater on Instagram No, we don’t mean voting in elections (although that is cool). We mean giving your followers a choice on what their favorite pick is. This is a fun way to get a lot of engagement from your followers because people feel excited to have their say. Bubly’s social media team are doing everything right with this Instagram post, which uses humor, user-generated content, and adorable pets to make everyone want to join in and vote for their favorite. What Are the Best Times to Post on Instagram Understanding the best times to post is essential to your Instagram scheduling efforts. You want to schedule posts at the right times so that they can be seen by as many people as possible. Take a look at this infographic we made, which shows you the best times for small businesses to post on all of the social media channels. Photo by Sprout Social As you can see, the best time to post on Instagram is between 10am and 11am, Monday to Friday. But, you may be asking yourself, how can you schedule posts on Instagram? How to Schedule Posts on Instagram Instagram scheduling allows small businesses and entrepreneurs to create their posts ahead of time, and schedule the content to automatically be published at the exact time they want. With a single tool, you can plan your social posts for all your social media accounts - awesome! You can do this with the help of a social media scheduling tool like Hookle above. Hookle is a user-friendly social media marketing app that’s easy to learn, and it’s created with small businesses and entrepreneurs like you in mind. With a single tool, you can plan, publish, and schedule your social posts for all your social media accounts - including Instagram. Isn't that awesome! Experiment with Instagram Post Ideas This list of our favorite post ideas for Instagram is just the start. Instagram allows small businesses and entrepreneurs to really get creative with their content. Add these cool ideas to your social media content calendar today and measure what content really hits home with your audience. Soon you’ll be confident knowing exactly what to post on Instagram for the best results.

Photo by Hookle It’s been a while since the need for social media marketing was even up for discussion. You need it — it’s just a fact of life. Shortcuts Choose The Right Platforms Follow The Right Metrics Use The Right Tools Use Call To Action Buttons Tell Inspirational Stories Create Your Brand’s Story Make The Most Of Videos Use Beautiful Images Are you a small or medium-sized business looking to grow an audience quickly? Or an entrepreneur on the prowl for new clients? Today, achieving your digital marketing goals without some kind of social media presence is practically impossible. Even the biggest corporations in the world are using social media marketing to show a more “human” face. The million-dollar question is — how do you use social media the right way as a small business Considering all of that, the million-dollar question is — how do you use social media the right way as a small business? What does it take to outperform the competition and do more to get and keep the attention of your target audience? We have listed a few basic but fundamental tips on how to improve the social media marketing performance of your small business. 1. Choose The Right Platforms Photo by Hookle Back when there were just a couple of social media platforms, things were relatively simple — and even the platforms that exist today were much more straightforward and less feature-packed. Today, there are almost too many choices. To help you, we collected some tips on how to choose the right platforms for your small business. To avoid being overwhelmed, keep things simple. At least in the beginning. Do some research on your audience and see where they are. To avoid being overwhelmed, keep things simple Teenage-focused brands will get more visibility on TikTok and YouTube, while a B2B SaaS brand will probably catch more of their target audience on LinkedIn and Twitter. Of course, there are still a couple of “mainstream” social media platforms that are used by pretty much everyone: such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. You should focus on having a visible presence on these first, and then slowly branch out when you notice you’re ready to. Once you've chosen platforms, read on how to set up different social platforms for your brand. 2. Follow The Right Metrics The Internet is filled with countless self-proclaimed social media marketing gurus — all of whom have their own “secret recipe” to success on social media. You’ll read stuff so complicated that it basically starts to sound like alchemy — and it’s probably just as untrue. In reality, you need to worry about two basic things at first: your reach and number of posts. In other words; you need to publish regularly (number of posts) and interesting content that your audience love (reach). Later on, you can expand monitoring more metrics if you feel the need for it. If you don't publish regularly or completely forgot for a while, your audience might think your business was shut down in the worse case. Interesting content in its turn will help your posts to be more visible, or even go viral, and thus reach a lot of people. Luckily there are tools to help. Let's talk more about it next. 3. Use The Right Tools Photo by Hookle You need to keep things simple — that’s the only way to avoid becoming overwhelmed with the world of social media marketing. You need to keep things simple There are countless tools for social media marketing and social media management that give you access to incredibly in-depth metrics and micromanagement like you wouldn’t believe. In the long run — they can drive you crazy. As a small business owner, you don’t have the luxury of spending every waking hour on your social media presence. That’s why you need tools that simplify things. For instance, Hookle provides you with a simple metric, Social Score, that summarizes the most important info about your social media marketing and social media presence — how much you’re posting, how many people you’re reaching, and how many are interacting with your brand online. Essentially, that’s all you need to know. And all of this is compiled into a single 0-100 social score that you can quickly glance at all times and see how you’re doing overall. Hookle might also be a good fit if you're running a small social media agency as you can manage clients' social channels at the same time. And offer clients the opportunity to see the results of your work independently using their own Hookle app. This gets really easy with the above mentioned score feature. Thus, include Hookle as part of your offering for your clients - and best of all, it's completely free! Additionally, with most of the management tools you can also schedule posts. Thus you save mental energy and time once your channels are kept active automatically. We have evaluated bunch of social media marketing tools to help you to choose from. 4. Use Call To Action Buttons Call-to-action buttons such as “Share this”, “Leave a comment”, or “Learn more” tell your audience what to do next after reading your posts on social media. These buttons encourage your audience to engage. Call-to-action buttons such as “Share this”, or “Leave a comment” tell your audience what to do next Remember also to add social media buttons to your website and Google Business Profile so that your audience can easily navigate to your social profiles. 5. Tell Inspirational Stories Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash At the end of the day, marketing is all about stories — so make sure that the stories you create for your brand inspire your target audience. Get creative and put yourself in the league! One of the best ways to do this is to publish behind-the-scenes stuff that makes your company more relatable. Get creative and put yourself in the league! 6. Create Your Brand’s Story While every individual piece of content you post on social media matters, it needs to combine into a beautiful mosaic that’s more than the sum of its parts. Everything you post needs to be part of an overall narrative you’re promoting — your brand’s story. 7. Make The Most Of Videos These days, videos are the most engaging type of marketing content you can post on social media. People prefer live videos and other kinds of footage to spending more time and effort on reading a blog or a lengthy Facebook post. So, create interviews, stream brand events, product presentations, and any other kind of video footage that brings instant value to your target audience. 8. Use Beautiful Images Photo by Héctor J. Rivas on Unsplash After videos, images are the second-best form of social media marketing content. With the short attention spans of the average Internet user, relying on easy-to-digest visual content is a surer bet than even the most well-written blog posts. Pictures are simply better at capturing people’s attention than just words — so use creative and beautiful imagery in all of your social media content. There are also many image galleries that you can utilize free pictures for your posts online. You can try for example Unsplash, Pixabay or Pexels. Here is also a great article of how to use Unsplash images to engage your followers together with social media marketing tool Hookle. Also take advantage of carousel posts (multi-image posts). With carousels, you can create beautiful stories with a few pictures about the process of making delicious salmon soup, for example. Conclusion Probably one of the best takeaways in this article is to simplify your workflows. Start improving by small and simple steps, such as the use of call to actions, videos, and carousels. Streamline your social media marketing processes with tools that simplify monitoring of your performance and help you automate routines. For example, instead of publishing randomly you can easily plan and schedule posts to be published automatically with the management tools mentioned above. Instead of publishing randomly you can easily plan and schedule posts to be published automatically with the management tools like Hookle After all, the most important thing is that you are regularly active on your channels consistent with the look and voice of your brand.

Photo by Pixabay Shortcuts Main Occasions of the Month June 2022 Celebrations by Day Remember to Schedule Celebrations in Advance Creating strong social media content as a small business owner takes time and practice. A great way to draw attention online is by highlighting monthly holidays and celebrations. A great way to draw attention online is by highlighting monthly holidays and celebrations Are you searching for ideas? Without further ado, find excellent content for June 2022 with the following celebrations below. 1. Main Occasions of the Month Pride Month #pridemonth #pride #lgbtqia The month of June is celebrated as Pride Month throughout the world. The month of June is celebrated as Pride Month throughout the world To participate, run a social media campaign to highlight the impact of people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, and agender in society. Men’s Health Month #MensHealthMonth #WearBlue #ShowUsYourBlue June is also Men’s Health Month in Canada and the US. This includes Men’s Health Week June 10-16, and Wear Blue for Men’s Health on June 14. Show your support and help raise awareness about men’s HPV, men’s cancers, and more. National Safety Month with the National Safety Council #GoGreenforSafety #NSM In 2020, over 4 million injuries happened in the workplace that needed medical attention. Draw attention to the need for increased workplace safety throughout June. Highlight the need to prevent injuries, reduce workplace distress and fatigue, and prevent slips, trips, and falls. 2. June Celebrations by Day June 3: National Donut Day #NationalDonutDay Photo by ELISA KERSCHBAUMER on Unsplash Grab a donut and take a selfie to celebrate! This day celebrates the Salvation Army Lassies. Grab a donut and take a selfie to celebrate! These were women who risked their lives to serve donuts to soldiers during World War I to remind the troops of home. Express thanks for peaceful times and tasty treats. June 5: World Environment Day #WorldEnvironmentDay Developed by the United Nations, this day aims to encourage the protection of the natural environment. Create a post focused on recycling and reducing waste, walking to work, or planting flowers bees love. Read on for more specific social media marketing tips if you are a florist or have a flower shop. June 5: National Cancer Survivors Day #NationalCancerSurvivorsDay, and #CancerSurvivors Highlight the journey of cancer survivors on the first Sunday in June. Share a post about a cancer survivor, or create one that links to the Cancer Research Institute for more information. June 6: Higher Education Day #HigherEducationDay Celebrate a recent graduate you know to show your support for higher education. Share your own journey and any academic goals you have Share your own journey and any academic goals you have. Promote scholarship opportunities and programs in your area that support higher education. June 8: World Oceans Day #WorldOceansDay Photo by Cédric Frixon on Unsplash The oceans are a vast resource we need to protect. Oceanic plankton generate between 50% to 80% of the world’s oxygen. Be an advocate for cleaner oceans with an informative post on social media. June 12: International Children’s Day #ChildrensDay Celebrate investing in children for a better future on June 12! Share information about children’s programs in your area and about special discounts offered Share information about children’s programs in your area and about special discounts offered. Every child has the right to love, support, education, basic needs, and happiness. June 14: National Flag Day #FlagDay In the US, June 14 is National Flag Day. Share your feelings about what being American means to you and your business with a patriotic post on social media. June 19: Juneteenth (Freedom Day) #Juneteenth Photo by Pixabay (with Pan-African flag colors) Juneteenth is being increasingly recognized as an important holiday in the US. This day commemorates the end of slavery in the US and it became a federal holiday in 2021. Spread awareness about slavery by educating your community about the difficult history of African Americans. Create a social media post describing how federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865 to free all slaves. Read also these 10 Awesome Tips for Celebrating Juneteenth on Social Media. June 19: Father's Day (Third Sunday of June) #FathersDay This year, Juneteenth faces some competition as the 19th is also Father’s Day! Promote discounts and products from your business on your social media that fathers will love as gifts. June 21: First Day of Summer #FirstDayofSummer Create a post around products and services your business offers that are great for summer. Show an image of the warm weather. Highlight promotions that are now available. June 24: Take Your Dog to Work Day (First Friday after Juneteenth) #TakeYourDogToWorkDay If you own a dog and can take your pet to work safely, today is the perfect day! Share photos of your dog at work for fun. June 27: National PTSD Awareness Day #NationalPTSDAwarenessDay About 12 million adults in the US are now living with PTSD. Show your support for those suffering by spreading information. Create a post that links to the National PTSD Awareness Day page to share symptoms, and ways to get help. June 30: National Handshake Day #HandshakeDay Many good business deals are sealed with a handshake. Celebrate by sharing a photo of the deal being sealed Since the pandemic began, shaking hands has fallen into elbow-bumping but the spirit of connectedness remains the same. Celebrate by sharing a photo of your business shaking hands with customers and describing the deal being sealed. 3. Remember to Schedule Celebrations in Advance Are you struggling to remember publishing celebrations on your social feeds? Don't worry, there are many scheduling tools like Hookle that take your burden away by doing it automatically to all your social channels. Planning, posting, and scheduling on multiple social media channels at once is easy with Hookle. Social media scheduling can be effortless - creating your social media content calendar doesn’t have to be difficult. Increase your presence online and reach more customers starting already today!

Marketing is a central component of any business that wants to survive in the competitive market. Summary Who Are Independent Distributors and Consultants? Why is Social Media Important to Independent Distributors and Consultants? Leveraging on Social Media to Promote Your Small Business 12 tips on using social media to market your products as an independent consultant Way Forward You can only have the kind of attention and presence you deserve if more and more people know about your business. To boost your traffic, it’s advisable to drive traffic to your website so that many can discover what you’ve for them. One strategy to use in marketing is social media. Many businesses are harnessing the power of social media to bring their offerings to the attention of buyers. As an Independent distributor or consultant, you must carefully plan your content on social media platforms like Instagram and FB. Who Are Independent Distributors and Consultants? In most cases, these individuals or independent consultants apply to become partners to distribute the Brand's products. They choose to become Brand partners distribute the partner products in their own time and from their location. You can distribute products like Mary Kay beauty products. Oriflame is another brand with beauty products that you can apply to distribute as an independent distributor. You can quickly gather your customer base for these products. Yet another example is Herbalife, which products you can also distribute in the same way and establish a business of your own in no time. Why is Social Media Important to Independent Distributors and Consultants? The Covid 19 pandemic changed the way businesses relate to their customers. The numerous lockdowns and travel restrictions threw out the one-on-one mode of marketing. So, the need for reaching consumers through social media quickly translated from being a luxury venture to a business survival tactic. In essence, social media will drive traffic towards your site and make your business visible to would-be customers Different social media platforms will put your business products where your customers and consumers can see them. The platforms will also help you engage with your clientele and prospective customers for more business. Read more here how to set up different social media platforms for your business. In essence, social media will drive traffic towards your site and make your business visible to would-be customers. Tip: read the in-depth article about what Is social media marketing and why is it important for small businesses. Leveraging on Social Media to Promote Your Small Business Are you new on social media? If you have recently launched your new business and are trying to figure a way to bring your story to your customers, don't worry—harness this vitality by; Create business social media accounts in addition to personal accounts. Use the business accounts to reach out to your target audience better. Advertise your business through your business social media. Most Distributor Brands also offer you training, guides, and different tools to make it easier for you to speed on social marketing and reach new customers. Here are twelve tips on using social media to market your products as an independent consultant and distributor. Create a Profile Make Your Voice Consistent Make Your Content Relevant Use Video and Multi-images Use Emojis and Hashtags Create a Contest Respond Quickly to Reviews and Comments Make Use of Reels and Stories Harness Social Media Planning tools Make Use of Social Media Monitoring Make Use of Location-Based Advertising Consider Influencer Marketing 1. Create a Profile Your first step towards social media product marketing is to create your profile. Your first step towards social media product marketing is to create your profile Many Distributor Brands, such as Oriflame, offer you a ready-made website or an online store. It is basically a copy of their own professional online store - except it's linked under your name. That helps a lot as you don't have to set up everything by yourself. Additionally, the branding and part of marketing have been taken care of by the Brand. Thus, you can share your personal online store link and earn your customer orders straight away. Add all this information if the Brand doesn't offer you a ready-made site or profile; A link to your web address Correct address A short description of what you are providing and who you are. A good story about you works usually well. Opening and closing hours, especially for Google Business Profile Don't forget to make your profile attractive, as people usually judge a book by the cover. Brand it, make it easy to read and recognize. 2. Make Your Voice Consistent You must have consistent imagery and message for your products. People do not want something inconsistent. They will lose interest in your post and move on if your content is flighty. 3. Make Your Content Relevant Share only relevant content. Don't just focus on advertisements. Give relevant information about the products you are marketing and how they are used. Offer something deeper and more productive about them. 4. Use Video and Multi-images Photo by Good Faces on Unsplash Using Video will generate 1200% more shares than both images and texts combined. Therefore, it is only logical that you make a video a part of your marketing strategy. The use of Video will allow you to show 'Behind the Scenes' and feature your fellow marketers. Another handy way is to use multiple images to create a story/theme of your product, event, or your small business. Learn more about how to utilize multi-images in such cases. 5. Use Emojis and Hashtags Photo by Domingo Alvarez E on Unsplash Emojis serve as a fun way to improve on the levels of how you engage with your customers. The emojis make them feel the human behind the account. That is positive on the account. Hashtags are short words with a giant impact. Research reveals that posts with relevant hashtags get 10x more engagement than posts without hashtags. Learn how to use hashtags on social media. 6. Create a Contest Photo by Ariel on Unsplash Creating a contest will ensure that you build a rapport with your customers and customers-to-be. It will improve your customers' and followers' engagement and increase their loyalty to your product. Followers, as well as customers, will share contests widely and enjoy the post. 7. Respond Quickly to Reviews and Comments If one of your customers or followers leaves a comment or review on your page, respond soonest. Your response will tell your customers and followers that their thoughts matter to you. When they leave a less than positive comment or review about your products, you must respond and try to remain positive nevertheless. 8. Make Use of Reels and Stories While short-form videos have taken center stage in the digital space, reels and stories are favorites, especially on Instagram. The algorithm favors them, and they get a lot more exposure as a result. You can positively engage with your target audience and stay in touch using short stories along with your feed posts. Furthermore, reels will direct even people who are not following you to find you easily. If they like what you have shared, they will find your page and possibly become your customers. Let your reels center around the product you are distributing. 9. Harness Social Media Planning tools Photo by Hookle While creating beautiful reels and stories to maximize engagement, you also need to keep your social feeds alive. Countless social media tools, like Hookle, can help you organize and strategize your social media marketing. They simplify your marketing and program your posts on social media for maximum effect. Putting your profile and sharing it online will give you access to your product's local and global businesses. Don't limit your social media contact to friends and family. Expand it to encompass your small business. Create a social media account in forums and get groups, e.g. Facebook groups, and communities for the product you distribute. 10. Make Use of Social Media Monitoring Photo by Hookle You must monitor your efforts to determine whether or not they are effective. Invest in monitoring to know how effective you are and when to make changes. Don't worry, there is no need to be a pro or understand all complex analytics to monitor and improve performance. There is no need to be a pro or understand all complex analytics to monitor and improve performance Some social media management tools, like Hookle above, simplify monitoring into one simple metric (Social Score). Such a feature is handy, especially for busy entrepreneurs. Not only does it make it super easy to stay on track but it also suggests how to improve for better performance on social. 11. Make Use of Location-Based Advertising Location-based advertising gives you control of your ads. You can control when people see your ads and adjust the radius as needed when you want to target just the people around you. For example, someone passing by your location on Facebook will receive the ad and choose to walk in. 12. Consider Influencer Marketing You can collaborate with someone who influences social media. These influencers can post your products and encourage your followers to buy from you. Your influencer's views on your products will matter to their followers. Thus it will boost your business tremendously. Many Brands also have programs, where you can recruit other Brand partners to come along. Thus you are eligible to get a commission from all those you recruited. Additionally, they act as your influencers in a long run. Along the way, you can try also influencer marketing tools that you can utilize to recruit influencers for your small business. Way Forward Leveraging Social media can quickly turn your small business into a booming business. However, you could have challenges organizing and planning your posts and how to prepare the timing for their posting. Don't fret. Leveraging Social media can quickly turn your small business into a booming business A social media management app could help you plan and organize your social media posts. In addition, it will save you tons of hours in time. We have listed the 10 best mobile apps for social media management for you to choose from - check it out!

Photo by Ijaz Rafi on Unsplash Mother's Day is coming up, and it's an excellent opportunity for your business to connect with your audience. Summary What is Mother's Day? When is Mother's Day? But why should you market for Mother's Day? Marketing Mother's Day by Industry 10 Social Media Content Ideas for Your Mother's Day Campaign Important Tip! Conclusion What is Mother's Day? Mother's Day is a holiday honoring motherhood that is observed in different forms throughout the world. In its modern form the holiday originated in the United States, where it is observed on the second Sunday in May. When is Mother's Day? Mother’s Day is celebrated on different days in many parts of the world, most commonly in the months of March or May. In the United States, Mother’s Day 2023 will occur on Sunday, May 14, and in UK the Mother's Day 2023 will be celebrated on Sunday, March 19. But why should you market for Mother's Day? According to the National Retail Federation, more than 80% of Americans say they celebrate Mother's Day, and their total spending for Mother's Day this year is expected to reach $31.7 billion. That's a lot of people celebrating their mom! It presents an excellent opportunity to engage with your audience, generate sales, and boost brand awareness. You may think that this is an extra task that you don't have time for, but it doesn't have to be. By creating your own holiday-themed social media content, you'll be able to reach a whole new audience and keep the conversation going throughout the year. Marketing Mother's Day by Industry Photo by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels You can use Mother's Day to promote your business, no matter what industry you are in. You can use Mother's Day to promote your business, no matter what industry you are in While you may need to be creative about how you approach your niche, here are some marketing ideas that may jumpstart your creativity: Arts & Crafts Industry Create a unique DIY gift station where kids can create inexpensive gifts for their moms. You could also hold a workshop on creating handmade cards, scrapbooks, and picture frames. Real Estate Hold a Mother's Day contest! Your real estate clients can send photos of their homes with elaborate decorations for Mother's Day. The winner will receive a free home inspection or appraisal. A contest is sure to get your site some attention. Plus, you'll also have fun choosing the winner! E-commerce Your e-commerce business is probably one of the most obvious choices for marketing Mother's Day. It is an excellent opportunity to offer special products and gifts. If you sell something that fits, try offering flowers or a gift basket with your products. Bakery Bake something special for mom—such as chocolate chip cookies or cupcakes—and send it to her with a Mother's Day card. It could also be an opportunity to promote an upcoming event or sale that you'll have later in the month. Fashion Mother’s Day is an opportunity to showcase your newest lines. For inspiration, you could highlight the most stylish mother in your company. Another idea is to put out a blog post about the best looks for Mother’s Day and offer some tips for style. Beauty Industry Offer free massages for mothers at local spas and fitness centers. Then post about it on social media with pictures of the women receiving treatment and their names, ages, and stories about why they deserve a break from their busy schedules. You can do this as a giveaway that promotes your business as being helpful for others' health and well-being. There are plenty of social media marketing ideas you can curate when you look at it from the niche level. The main idea is to find a space your customers will relate to and share their love for their mom by purchasing from you The main idea is to find a space your customers will relate to and share their love for their mom by purchasing from you. Photo by humberto chavez on Unsplash 10 Social Media Content Ideas for Your Mother's Day Campaign Here are ten ideas for your Mother's Day social media content to help you connect with your followers and drive action. Mother's Day Polls/Surveys Make use of Stories Ask for Ratings Promote Giveaways Create A Mother's Day Video Host a Live Chat Run a contest Send out a special Mother’s Day newsletter Share Mother's Day Quotes Offer A Mother's Day coupon code 1. Mother's Day Polls/Surveys Photo by askmen.com What is your favorite thing about your mom? Take a poll and ask your audience to share what they love about their moms. Use polls to get to know your audience better, what they like, want, and their favorite aspects of Mother's Day. 2. Make use of Stories Photo by eShakti.com Share stories about the best or most memorable things that have happened between you and your mom. Your audience will be able to relate and feel closer to you, which will lead them to want to come back for more! You can also ask your followers on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram to share their stories of how they celebrated their first Mother's Day - then choose one lucky winner! The winner will receive a special prize from your business. 3. Ask for Ratings Photo by chewy.com Ask your audience for their ratings and reviews of products or services related to Mother's Day. Doing this helps you get more sales and promote the industry at the same time by showing off your products. 4. Promote Giveaways Photo by Instagram Have a giveaway on your website or social media pages that runs during the week leading up to Mother's Day. Showcase your products for sale and reward your audience for liking and sharing with their mom. 5. Create A Mother's Day Video Video by Youtube Make a short video about the best thing your mom has done for you in your life. This could be a personal story or even a funny moment that you've thought about over time. You can also share some of your memories or personal experiences with your audience so that they can relate to what you're saying and feel comfortable sharing theirs as well! 6. Host a Live Chat Have a Q&A on your business website about Mother's Day. Make it easy for your audience to ask questions, post their photos and stories, and find out what they can do to celebrate. 7. Run a contest Photo by Instagram Run a contest on social media where your followers can nominate the best mom and why they think she deserves to win. Choose one winner at random and offer her a special prize coupon so that she can buy something nice for herself or her family on Mother's Day. Don't forget to announce the winner publicly, so everyone can see who won and how you honored the winner. 8. Send out a special Mother’s Day newsletter Photo by Pinterest Email marketing may not be the sexiest marketing channel, but it works well when used correctly. The good news is that with so many people regularly checking their emails, it's easy to get your message across. If you don't have an email list yet, make sure to start building one before making your first email newsletter campaign. 9. Share Mother's Day Quotes Photo by Instagram Your audience will love quotes that celebrate motherhood and mother figures in our lives. Many quotes are perfect for sharing on Mother's Day. You can search through Pinterest, magazines, and other websites to find quotes that stand out to you. Make sure that you give credit where credit is due! 10. Offer A Mother's Day coupon code Photo by Zazzle.com Everyone loves a good coupon, and Mother's Day is the perfect excuse to give one out! Offer your audience a particular discount or promotion on items that are perfect gifts for moms. That way, they'll be able to get something special for mom and get a great deal, too! Important Tip! When you're working on social media, it can be easy to feel like there's never enough time in the day (or even the month). That's why it's so important to be as efficient as possible when planning your content. Use a handy planning tool like Hookle to streamline your efforts and keep your social media channels vibrant with well-crafted social media content. Use a handy planning tool like Hookle to streamline your efforts and keep your social media channels vibrant with well-crafted social media content. Hookle simplifies social media management for businesses with its AI-powered features. Creating and publishing posts across multiple channels takes only seconds. With Hookle, you can create and publish content across all your channels, all from one convenient platform. Its intuitive AI-powered features make posting to multiple channels a breeze, giving you more time to focus on growing your business. Conclusion Social media is an easy way to connect with people far away or near you who share common interests. It's also an affordable way for businesses to get ahead in the game and connect with customers who want to reach out to them online. If you're looking for original content to share with your followers on Mother's Day, check out this list of 10 exciting ideas with examples. As always, don't forget to be creative! Just because you're in an industry that may not seem obvious doesn't mean you can't use Mother's Day to boost business. Are you concerned about how you’ll manage all of your social media accounts effectively and efficiently? Try out the Hookle App today to make planning your content a breeze!

Shortcuts Choose Your Platforms Find Your Voice (And Keep It) Discover Your Audience Vary Your Content Between Platforms Show Your Customers How Much They Matter! Start Two-Way Conversations Provide Success Stories and Customer Testimonials Use AI Powered Tool for Content Creation and Scheduling Posts to Easy Your Day 💡 Why is Social Media Important for Realtors? It might seem obvious, but real estate digital marketing and especially marketing on social media is one of the most powerful tools for marketing in any industry in the 21st century. Social media is one of the most powerful tools for marketing in any industry in the 21st century Restaurants use social media to post menus and images of food, nail salons show off their best work and promote deals online, and realtors market their booming properties and discounts on social media platforms as well. Sure, you can use real estate marketplaces or platforms like Zillow USA (if you are in the USA). So, why should you be using social media as a realtor? Social media marketing is a great opportunity to expand your audience and create a portfolio of your work, including properties, customer service reviews, and best features with regard to your small business. To get even more local visibility you should definitely set up your own free Google Business Profile Social media allows you to expand your reach from those who live in your area to anyone who uses a given platform. To get even more local visibility you should definitely get to know and set up your own free Google Business Profile as well! Social Media Marketing for Real Estate The real estate industry is booming as people realize that their homes are where they spend most of their time during the COVID-19 pandemic. This mentality will likely continue to trend along with the shift towards working from home. Not only has the pandemic affected the housing market, but it's made life less affordable, so it's becoming important for realtors and other housing providers to maximize their sales in order to keep the real estate market alive and well. Realtor marketing and listings marketing on social media is a great way to do this, in contrast to the in-person sales pitches, billboards, and other signage methods often used by realtors. So what are the real estate marketing strategies that you should choose? If you’re a real estate marketing agency looking to improve your marketing game, read on to discover 8 social media marketing tips for the real estate industry. 1. Choose Your Platforms When it comes to social media marketing, it's extremely important to choose the right platforms that will help you achieve your goals. While Instagram and TikTok might be the most widely used platforms across the world, the demographic you're looking to engage with may be more likely to use Facebook, LinkedIn or YouTube. For example, many realtors use a combination of Facebook, Instagram, and Linkedin to promote their businesses and listings, with an emphasis on photo and video content paired with compelling details in the caption that allow them to connect with their clients. Many have also started using the Google Business Profile, which we mentioned above. Publishing content to your Google profile will improve search results and online creditability for your business, especially locally. Consider the pros and cons of each platform with regards to your real estate promotion goals, and choose a few that are most likely to serve you. 2. Find Your Voice (And Keep It) Social media marketing is different from any other form of marketing because it has the potential to be instantaneous. This can be a major convenience compared to the more outdated methods of marketing, but it can also be risky when you take into account the impulsivity associated with many social media platforms. Maintaining a consistent voice helps your customers to recognize your work and minimize surprises Find a voice that works with your brand and carry it through to every aspect of your social media as an extended form of branding. Maintaining a consistent voice helps your customers to recognize your work and minimize surprises because they can come to expect a certain kind of content from you and your company. 3. Discover Your Audience Photo by Maria Ziegler on Unsplash Your social media audience, or your target market, should consist of prospective and current clients who have something to gain from your work. In the real estate industry, this might look like a community of people with something in common: Some of them looking to move into the area, some of the small business owners searching for commercial space, and some of the current clients shopping for a new or secondary property. Once you find your target audience, you'll be able to tailor content specifically to them and their needs, making it easier to make connections with clients. 4. Vary Your Content Between Platforms Different platforms have different purposes and foci, so it's important to create content with the platform to which it’s going to be posted in mind. For example, Instagram is highly photo and video-centric, while Facebook and Linkedin are designed for written content, often in longer form. Varying your content from platform to platform is crucial to making connections with the users of each platform, and in turn building relationships and making sales that will benefit your company. 5. Show Your Customers How Much They Matter! People like to feel valued, and they often turn to social media for such validation. Social media marketing is a great opportunity for you to show your customers how much they matter to you, to your mission, and to your team. An example of this would be posting just a story or photos of your most recent clients An example of this would be posting just a story or photos of your most recent clients along with reviews written by them, or sharing your gratitude for your clients by throwing a party or hosting a (virtual) raffle! 6. Start Two-Way Conversations Nobody likes to be “talked at” – I would much rather engage with social media users who are not only sharing opportunities with us but listening to our needs, desires, and concerns. When it comes to social media marketing for real estate, Starting two-way conversations is a great way to engage with potential home buyers without overwhelming them with invasive, in-your-face promotion. Who knows? Maybe this two-way conversation will lead to a long-standing business partnership or realtor-client relationship. 7. Provide Success Stories and Customer Testimonials Photo by krakenimages on Unsplash One great benefit of real estate social media posts is the ability to highlight your success stories to connect with new customers. There are so many options to choose from when customers search for realtors online. When you can stand out with great customer testimonials then you are likely to be selected in the finals or be chosen at the end of the day. When you can stand out with great customer testimonials then you are likely to be selected For example, one of the best working practices is to post a picture or video insert of your customer with whom you have just done a housing deal. 8. Use AI Powered Tool for Content Creation and Scheduling Posts to Easy Your Day 💡 Managing multiple platforms can be overwhelming for any professional working to build their community online. When you're handling not only Instagram but Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube, many nuances that are important to your marketing scheme can get lost in translation between platforms. You can solve this problem by using scheduling tools, such as Hookle, to keep track of future posts on multiple platforms. Hookle is also absolutely incredible how it can create relevant social media posts for your real estate business with just the click of a button, powered by ChatGPT, a cutting-edge AI technology that ensures your posts are always on point and tailored to your audience's preferences. With Hookle, you'll never have to worry about coming up with fresh content ideas again - it does all the heavy lifting for you! Create content in seconds with Hookle AI Give it a try, you can download Hookle app here – we like to think this is one of the best tips of the bunch. No matter how you choose to promote your properties and services, social media marketing is a powerful and popular tool to expand your audience and help you build relationships with potential home buyers and other clients.

Photo by Rahul Pandit on Unsplash Summary Free Graphics and Design Resources Social Media Content Ideas for May 2022 Time-saving Social Scheduling Tools Most small business owners know that keeping social media channels active and engaging by posting regularly is important to their business. What they don’t always know is the best way to access the three resources required to make that happen, namely, where to find: Photos, graphics, music, and design tools with which to create posts Creative ideas and topics about which to post The time or tools to publish posts across multiple social channels, several times a week In may 2022 social media content calendar, we provide answers to all three. We’ve handpicked some of the best resources for business owners to create professional, affordable social media content. It’s an embarrassment of riches, really! 1. Free Graphics and Design Resources Gone are the days when you had to hire a graphic designer, invest in expensive software, and purchase expensive copyrighted images or music to create a compelling design. With the explosion of social media and digital marketing over the last decade, dozens of cloud-based content providers have cropped up. Gone are the days when you had to hire a graphic designer, invest in expensive software, and purchase expensive copyrighted images Many of them offer free resources or “light” subscriptions that you can upgrade over time as your business grows. Here are some of our favorites. Design: Canva is a comprehensive design platform that offers thousands of eye-catching templates for social media headers, Facebook ads, blog posts, videos and so much more. The free version comes with an abundance of photos, illustrations, fonts, and designs, but you can also start from scratch and create your own. Photos: For free photos and videos clips, two popular sites are Unsplash and Pexels. Artists from across the world contribute their work to these sites, and generally only ask for an attribution in return. Music: Of all the creative assets, using music is the most challenging, at least as it relates to licensing. If you’re ever unsure whether you can use a particular piece of music in your post, it’s better to err on the side of caution. This article provides more context. That said, two places you can go for free music are Free Music Archive and the YouTube Audio Library. The latter is a great way to add music to videos you’re adding t1o YouTube, and in some cases, you may be able to download it for use elsewhere. 2. Social Media Content Ideas for May 2022 You probably already have a few industry-related events, upcoming promotions, or seasonal activities included in your social media content calendar. Chances are you also have a few gaps in it. We’ve pulled together these “national days” and suggested accompanying themes that will help round out your May content calendar. List of Days in May 2022 Social Media Content Calendar May 1: May Day May 1: Labor Day May 2: National Brothers and Sisters Day May 4: National Teacher Day May 5: Cinco de Mayo May 7: National Fitness Day May 8: Mother’s Day May 10 – 16: Mental Health Awareness Week May 18: National Visit Your Relatives Day May 20: Bike to Work Day May 21: National Waitstaff Day May 24: Scavenger Hunt Day May 30: Memorial Day May 1: May Day #MayDay May Day celebrates the return of Spring. Traditions include making flower crowns and baskets, planting flowers, decorating their homes in bright colors, or enjoying nature. Ask followers to tag you with photos of their flower crowns or newly planted gardens. May 1: Labor Day #laborday #happylaborday #labourday #smallbusiness #workers Labor Day is dedicated to celebrating workers across all industries. One of the best ways you can celebrate Labor Day through social media is by highlighting some of your own employees’ achievements in their field. See also these 10 Quick Labor Day Social Media Posts Ideas for Small Businesses. You don't actually need to remember Labor Day if you are using scheduling tools, such as Hookle Bonus tip You don't actually need to remember Labor Day if you are using scheduling tools, such as Hookle. These tools are great to help for publishing posts automatically on your behalf on the set date and time. Clicking the button below you can use the template with all its texts, hashtags and picture in Hookle right away. Template "Today, let’s celebrate those who make our team a team. Each one of you deserves to be praised for your special talents. You are what makes our success. Thank you, and Happy Labor Day! 👨‍🌾🛠 #laborday #happylaborday #holiday #labourday #mayday #smallbusiness #workers" May 2: National Brothers and Sisters Day #nationalsiblingsday #happynationalsiblingsday Photo by Elmer Cañas on Unsplash This day honors the unconditional bond between brothers and sisters. For a good laugh, ask your staff to re-enact outfits and poses from memorable childhood photos with their siblings, and post the side-by-side images of the two photos. May 4: National Teacher Day #TeacherAppreciationDay This day honors the teachers and mentors who have inspired us. Your content should encourage people to express gratitude to the teachers in their lives. You can suggest they take the time to write a personal note describing the impact the person has had on them. May 5: Cinco de Mayo #CincodeMayo Cinco de Mayo commemorates the Mexican victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. (It is not Mexican Independence Day, as commonly thought.) A social media post about the historic significance of the day might provide a nice touch. May 7: National Fitness Day #NationalFitnessDay Use today’s post to challenge people to step out of their normal routine and do something that will improve their health and fitness. Maybe it’s eating a salad for lunch, taking a 3-mile walk, or getting the entire family to the park for a game of frisbee. May 8: Mother’s Day #MothersDay Photo by Ijaz Rafi on Unsplash This is a day to pay tribute to the mothers or mother figures in our lives. Consider a month- or two-week-long “special offer” campaign leading up to the day and tie it into your brand. For example, suggest the best gifts for the occasion from your product line. May 10 – 16: Mental Health Awareness Week #MentalHealthAwareness This week is focused on having conversations about mental health and the issues in our daily lives that can affect our sanity. Social content can focus on resources for helping us and others achieve better mental health. May 18: National Visit Your Relatives Day #NationalVisitYourRelativesDay Although the Internet has made it easier to connect with relatives, it has also meant spending less time in their physical presence. This day is dedicated to spending time with family. Your post can encourage people to pay a visit to an aunt or uncle or to pick up the phone and call a relative they haven’t spoken to in years and plan a get-together. May 20: Bike to Work Day #BikeToWorkDay The name pretty much says it all. Ask your followers to tag photos of themselves biking to work. May 21: National Waitstaff Day #NationalWaitstaffDay With many restaurants only now getting back up to full staffing, use this opportunity to post about supporting local restaurants and waitstaff. Suggest they give an extra-generous tip today and consider including the kitchen staff while they’re at it! May 24: Scavenger Hunt Day #ScavengerHuntDay Photo by Suhash Villuri on Unsplash This day was created to send people off to find random items, all in the name of good fun. If your small business has a physical location, use your social media posts to create an event that draws people to your store to find hidden items. Use clues in the posts leading up to the day and offer rewards for winners. May 30: Memorial Day #MemorialDay A federal holiday, Memorial Day honors all men and women who died while serving in the US Armed Forces as well as all loved ones who have passed away. Posts remembering service or family members are fitting for this day. 3. Time-saving Social Scheduling Tools Armed with dozens of ideas for your social posts and with the graphic assets to create the actual designs, your last hurdle is finding an efficient way to get them all published across your channels. Scheduling posts to multiple social media channels, shaves hours off your workload each week That’s where scheduling tools, such as Hookle, come in. Hookle makes social media scheduling simple and hassle-free for a small business owner. It allows you to plan and build your social media posting schedule easily. Scheduling posts to multiple social media channels, shaves hours off your workload each week. We have evaluated and picked 10 different scheduling apps, especially those that might fit for small business purposes. Check it out and enjoy scheduling your May 2022 posts!

Photo by CardMapr on Unsplash Starting an online business can be daunting. You need to know your way around digital marketing practices, social media etiquette, web traffic analytics, and more. Before all this, however, comes the foundation: your website. If you’re selling products online, you’re going to be using an eCommerce platform and like most industries, there are a number of different options on the market. If you’re selling products online, you’re going to be using an eCommerce platform We’ve sifted through the eCommerce contenders and whittled them down to these great platforms. Each eCommerce platform on this list is feature-rich, well-supported, and has a stellar track record – which isn’t to say they’ll be a match for your business. Each one has its pros and cons and will fit some businesses better than others. Read on to see how these platforms might meet (or miss) your business’s needs. Wix WooCommerce Shopify Magento Etsy Squarespace Lastly, Choose the right eCommerce platform and focus next on marketing 1. Wix Wix is very similar to Squarespace in that they’re both subscription-based and aimed at non-developer audiences. If you want to set up a quick and easy eCommerce website with very little learning curve then Wix might just fit your needs. That said, Wix is very limited in its scale. Industry leaders recommend its use as an eCommerce platform for only small to mid-weight businesses due to its issues with limited loading speeds. They also limit you in how you can customize your theme. Wix does have the capacity to support users beyond its basic features with different user tiers which can be a plus for businesses who need more digital professionals in their corner. You’ll obviously pay more for this support but for someone with little digital experience it can be instrumental in getting your eCommerce brand off the ground. 2. WooCommerce Photo by Rubaitul Azad on Unsplash WooCommerce is an extension of WordPress – one of the biggest and most popular website Content Management Systems (CMSs) in the world. Its major benefit is that it’s free to install and use. Like WordPress, WooCommerce is open source, meaning its code is freely available to download, repurpose, and make use of. With millions of users worldwide, WooCommerce is well-maintained with an extensive documentation library and plenty of plugins/themes available from both official and third-party vendors. This makes scaling your eCommerce site incredibly easy and cost-effective. While some themes and plugins are paid, there are plenty of free options available to those businesses with little starting capital. The only costs you can’t avoid will be your hosting and your domain name registration. Also like WordPress, WooCommerce is completely customizable. That said, you have to know your way around code and WordPress development best practices to really rearrange under the hood. If you’re not comfortable with this level of access, installing a solid theme and recommended plugins will be enough to get you started. All in all, if you’re comfortable with WordPress and/or willing to learn the ins and outs of an open-source CMS then WooCommerce is a great, cost-effective option for starting an online eCommerce business. 3. Shopify Photo by charlesdeluvio on Unsplash Shopify is one of the leading eCommerce platforms operating today. They’re a subscription model service which means you pay a certain amount per month to host and run your eCommerce store. This subscription includes things like hosting and your domain name registration, keeping all your expenses in one basket. The platform itself makes it incredibly easy to set up your store. If you’re a layman when it comes to CMS management or code, then Shopify takes a lot of the stress off you. hat said, with that hand-holding comes a couple of caveats: You only have access to your shop and your data for as long as you pay your subscription. Exporting information or transferring to a different platform can be complicated and frustrating – often resulting in you having to hire a developer to help with the migration. You have very little ability to customize your chosen theme. Where other CMSs will allow you full access to your website’s front-end code, Shopify prefers you to stay hands-off. Extensive customizations to your website’s look or functionality can only be done by the Shopify team. If you’re someone who prefers to hand the technical reins to a third-party platform, Shopify will likely work very well for you. They have 24/7 customer support and maintain a reliable, secure platform. For what they charge, they run a tight ship. If, however, you want the ability to customize your store to your heart’s content or can’t justify a monthly expense, Shopify might not be a great choice. 4. Magento Magento is one of the most well-known eCommerce platforms in the world. Released in 2008, it started life as a Frankenstein monster of sorts – developed by a private company (Varien Inc) with assistance from volunteers and open source software contributors. Today, after passing through a few notable hands, the platform is owned by Adobe and is been rebranded as Adobe Commerce. This eCommerce platform is one of the more unique on this list in that it’s partly open-source and partly Software as a Service (SaaS). Users have the ability to download and implement the core files on their own servers (or those they’ve hired) making it similar to WordPress in the amount of freedom and ownership you have over your information. Alternatively, users can pay a subscription fee to access an already-hosted Magento instance. Which route you take will depend on your company’s requirements. If keeping control of your data is of great import or you want the ability to extend and customize your website, you’ll likely want to host Magento yourself. If you prefer to work hands-off with support from a knowledgeable SaaS company, then the hosted enterprise version will likely do the trick. Where Magento falls down a bit is in its complexity. It’s incredibly feature-intensive with a lot going on under the hood. This can be great for larger companies that need to handle a lot of products or want the ability to scale quickly. For eCommerce businesses just starting out, however, it can be a little bit overkill. Magento is also one of the more expensive options on this list (if you opt for the enterprise version). For businesses with limited capital, this can strike Magento off their list of possibilities. 5. Etsy Etsy is an online marketplace targeted toward vendors who sell unique or handcrafted items. They can be a good foot in the door for new businesses as everything is taken care of. There’s no need to set up your own domain or hosting and your payment gateways are all set up through Etsy itself. They do, however, charge their users a fee for listing items and they take a cut of whatever is sold. This can impact your takings on the platform significantly. For small, sole-trader businesses who are testing out the market for their handcrafted products, Etsy is a great place to start, but once you’re established you’ll likely want to forge your own path. 6. Squarespace Squarespace is one of the industry’s leading content management system platforms. They let even the most non-tech-savvy layman set up a functional website with very little coding knowledge or experience which can be a great benefit for small businesses looking to get their products on the market with very little complication. Like many front-end website builders, however, Squarespace can come with some pitfalls. Their model is subscription-based so you’re going to both spend more money over time and also risk having your content locked into a specific platform. Squarespace’s functionality also takes some time to get comfortable with. They give you more customization options than a lot of other SaaS eCommerce platforms but with that access comes complexity. For businesses looking for a purely intuitive design experience, Squarespace may not fit their needs. Choose the right eCommerce platform and focus next on marketing Hookle - social media marketing tool The eCommerce game is fast-paced and cut-throat. You have to launch your online store using the right tools. Each of the six platforms we’ve discussed today have their benefits and downfalls. Now you know their strengths and weaknesses a little better, you’ll be in a more knowledgeable position to decide which is right for your small business. Succeeding with an online store may start with a solid website, but the way you market it is just as important. Social media marketing and Influencer marketing are great way to start boost your brand and drive sales – read more about partnering with influencers here.

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash Labor Day is just around the corner which means it’s time to look at scheduling your Labor Day social media posts. But what if you’re stuck for inspiration? That’s where we come in! Summary Celebrate Employee Success Create Engaging Content With AI Welcome Fall or Spring Invoke the Power of the Barbecue Ring in Football Season Lean on Your Patriotism Use a Famous Quote Highlight an Important Cause Celebrate the Long Weekend Highlight a Hardworking Industry or Business Brainstorm Alternative Celebrations Remember to Celebrate Labor Day on social media (template included) What is Labor Day and why is it celebrated? Workers’ Day or International Workers’ Day, also called May Day, is commemorating the historic struggles and gains made by workers and the labor movement. In many countries, Labor Day is observed on May 1, while in the United States and Canada, a similar observance occurs on the first Monday of September. Workers’ Day is commemorating the historic struggles and gains made by workers and the labor movement So when is Labor Day 2024? In North America is celebrated on Monday, Sep 2, and Labor Day 2024 in many other countries falls on Wednesday, May 1. Quick Labor Day Social Media Posts Ideas Discover 11 Labor Day social media post ideas to inspire your creativity. Let's dive in below and keep your audience engaged this holiday. 1. Celebrate Employee Success Photo by oatawa via Canva Labor Day is dedicated to celebrating workers across all industries. One of the best ways you can celebrate Labor Day through social media is by highlighting some of your own employees’ achievements in their field. Did Dan in marketing do a great job on your most recent campaign? Celebrate him! Is your newest barista pulling shots like a pro? Give them a shout-out. A post celebrating your workers’ successes is a great way to humanize your brand A post celebrating your workers’ successes isn’t just on-theme for the holiday, it’s also a great way to humanize your brand. By giving your customers a glimpse at the people who keep your company ticking, you’re inviting them to develop a relationship with your business. People are drawn to people – by using that draw in your social presence, you’ll be able to forge better bonds with your customer base which will ultimately help you down the track. 2. Create Engaging Content With AI Hookle AI Smart Content Suggestion As Labor Day approaches, it's important to create engaging content that will capture your audience's attention. With the help of AI tools like ChatGPT or Hookle, you can make this task easier and more efficient. ChatGPT is a language model that can assist in generating content ideas, while Hookle is an AI-powered social media management app. In addition to helping you generate content ideas with the help of AI, Hookle also schedules and publishes your posts across multiple channels in one click. By utilizing these tools, you can create compelling captions, and tailor your content to resonate with your audience's interests and preferences. With AI as your ally, you can create social posts that stand out and make a lasting impression. 3. Welcome Fall or Spring Photo by Jeremy Thomas on Unsplash Labor Day is a celebration of workers but it’s also the beginning of Fall in the US and Spring in Europe/Asia. As always, the transition between seasons is an excellent inspiration for some aesthetically pleasing and interesting social media content. You might use some beautiful Fall or Spring imagery on your feeds or set up a photo shoot of the transition of the seasons with your team and/or products. You can also go the opposite direction, saying goodbye to Summer/Winter in a fun or clever manner. You can also go the opposite direction, saying goodbye to Summer/Winter in a fun or clever manner Fall is a cozy, comforting season for many, and Spring likewise. Fall is the season of big wool sweaters and crisp golden leaves. Spring is the time to dig out shorts and t-shirts from the closet. Linking the season to your social media presence is a great way to invoke those feelings and associations about your brand. 4. Invoke the Power of the Barbecue Photo by Evan Wise on Unsplash For many people, Labor Day is linked intrinsically to barbecue. Using barbecue-themed imagery and content on your social media feeds is, therefore, a great way to connect to your audience on Labor Day. You might share barbecue recipes or post photos of your team celebrating with their own work barbecue. The former is a particularly great idea if your business is in the culinary industry while the latter will serve to humanize your team and your brand in the eyes of your audience. 5. Ring in Football Season Photo by Riley McCullough on Unsplash Labor Day rings in Fall but it’s also the beginning of football season. This great American pass time makes for excellent social media content fodder. You might post a football-themed promotion to your social media feeds, invoking the feeling of comrade and sportsmanship of the season. If your workplace hosts employee football games then posting some photos from these events is a great way to celebrate Labor Day. 6. Lean on Your Patriotism Photo by Bermix Studio on Unsplash Labor Day invokes a lot of pride for many nations, especially Americans. It celebrates what makes America so great: its workers. For this reason, posting patriotic imagery and messaging on your social media channels is a great way to celebrate the holiday. Don’t be afraid to use the American flag or other patriotic images on your feeds. Prove to your audience that you’re one of them – an American company with American values. 7. Use a Famous Quote Photo by Millo Lin on Unsplash Quotes are a great go-to for social media feed content. They invoke powerful ideas and remind us that human beings are capable of great things. Quotes are a great go-to for social media feed content There are a number of powerful quotes from famous people concerning Labor Day and labor in general. A quick google will give you a slew of material – from there it’s just a case of working them into attention-grabbing imagery. 8. Highlight an Important Cause Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash Labor Day doesn’t just celebrate workers, it also celebrates their struggles for equality and fairness. Highlighting these causes on social media on Labor Day is a great way to tip your hat to the holiday. Congratulating advocates for diversity in the workplace is another sure winner You might want to use your platform to thank essential workers for their efforts or celebrate the successes of workers’ unions. Congratulating advocates for diversity in the workplace is another sure winner. If your company has any successes to share in this arena, a post about it on Labor Day will go down a treat. 9. Celebrate the Long Weekend Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash Labor Day is a holiday in most countries so many (though, not all) workers will have the day off. Posting content wishing your followers a happy long weekend is a great way to celebrate. If you’re in the leisure, recreation, or tourism industries, such a post can also be a great way to promote your products or services. For instance, a hotel business might invite followers to stay with them over the long weekend, perhaps offering a holiday discount as a bonus incentive. 10. Highlight a Hardworking Industry or Business Photo by MedicAlert UK on Unsplash Labor Day is a celebration of all workers across all industries. It’s a great opportunity to give another business or industry a shoutout for their hard work. You can be vague — perhaps thanking essential workers for their efforts — or you can be specific and name a particular business. If you’re opting for the latter, it can be a great opportunity to enter into a cross-promotion relationship with another brand wherein you both highlight each other on your company's social media feeds. 11. Brainstorm Alternative Celebrations Photo by Tyler Nix on Unsplash Workers (and your social media followers) are diverse. Not everyone is going to celebrate Labor Day with a barbecue and some might not get the day off at all. For those followers, it can be a good idea to break the mould and offer up some alternative ways to celebrate the holiday. This might look like an Instagram carousel with suggestions for after-work Labor Day activities or a Facebook post brainstorming at-work ways of celebrating. The key is variety! Remember to Celebrate Labor Day on Social Media (template below) Labor Day is a great opportunity to celebrate workers and connect with your followers. Using the above ideas, you’ll be able to schedule the perfect Labor Day post to engage your audience and boost your brand. You don't actually need to remember Labor Day if you are using scheduling tools, such as Hookle You don't actually need to remember Labor Day if you are using scheduling tools, such as Hookle. These tools are great to help for publishing posts automatically on your behalf on the set date and time. Clicking the button below you can use the template with all its texts, hashtags, and picture in Hookle right away. Template "Today, let’s celebrate those who make our team a team. Each one of you deserves to be praised for your special talents. You are what makes our success. Thank you, and Happy Labor Day! 👨‍🌾🛠 #laborday #happylaborday #holiday #labourday #mayday #smallbusiness #workers" Having said that, schedule your Labor Day post today so that you can celebrate the actual day worry-free. Happy Labor Day!

Photo by Gama. Films on Unsplash Shortcuts Create Your Target Audience Find Your Niche Change Up Your Content Make Your Followers Feel Important Be Authentic & Transparent Show Off Your Team Engage, Engage, Engage Reveal (Some Of) Your Secrets Sell Merch Save Time By Using A Scheduling App If you've been on social media these days, you know that social media marketing is one of the most effective ways to boost content online. So how to start music marketing, promote your music or use social media for musicians? Musicians and those in music marketing can greatly benefit from using social media as a marketing tool, as you know how hard it can be to get the word out about what you do and why people should care. It's become easier than ever to market your content on social media with the help of the tools of today and the updates fostered by the COVID-19 pandemic. If we know anything about independent musicians, it's that they're very busy, so we'll make sure to keep this short and sweet. Read on to learn about 10 social media tips for musicians, whether you're a singer, DJ, composer, lyricist, or otherwise! 1. Create Your Target Audience Photo by Mauro Gigli on Unsplash When it comes to Marketing Online, the target audience is number one. It's a good investment early on to spend some time investigating who is your target audience. Most people think that your target audience will be obvious but something you need to define based on who might enjoy the content you offer and which populations will be the most productive for you to target. For musicians, on target audience could be anyone from a music fanatic to an agent, so find your target audience(s) and get to creating. 2. Find Your Niche If you're looking for advice on what to avoid when it comes to social media marketing, you've come to the wrong place. We're here to tell you how to best promote your music on social media, rather than focusing on failures. We're here to tell you how to best promote your music on social media That said, advertising too broadly is a rookie mistake because not enough people will relate to your content. A solution to this is finding your industry-specific niche. This might look like creating content for other aspiring musicians, connecting to the emotions of your listeners, or offering special opportunities to dedicated followers. 3. Change Up Your Content We know we just mentioned that focusing on failures is not what we do here, but many people fail to consider that different platforms require different kinds of content. It's crucial that your content lines up with the trends and patterns on any given platform The Instagram community functions much differently than that of Facebook or LinkedIn, so it's crucial that your content lines up with the trends and patterns on any given platform. For musicians specifically, we suggest using TikTok and other video- and audio-centered platforms to highlight your work. Some platforms, especially Facebook groups and Twitter, can work well to support the marketing of your creative content organically and to maintain conversation among interested audiences. 4. Make Your Followers Feel Important Another important facet of social media marketing is showing your audience that you value them. One of the ways you can leverage social media as a musician is by showing your fans that you love them to the moon and back. This can look like posting a feature when someone tags you in a post, offering a discount to your biggest fans, or surprising them with new music when they’re least expecting it. 5. Be Authentic & Transparent Photo by Adrian Swancar on Unsplash It might sound cheesy, but authenticity and transparency are extremely important in showing your target market they matter. Additionally, it builds trust between you and those who will engage with your content and maybe pay you money for it. It might sound cheesy, but authenticity and transparency are extremely important in showing your target market they matter This isn't to say you should just close every issue that you come across (please don’t do this), but talking through issues every once in a while helps customers trust you and feel that you're reliable when you're honest about production hiccups and personal life details. 6. Show Off Your Team Photo by Filip Mishevski on Unsplash When it comes to music, it's easy to think that the only person involved is the person making the music, but that’s not true! There are so many creative folks that contribute to creating good music, including agents, voice coaches, music teachers, backup vocalists and musicians, recording professionals, and those who master the music once it’s been recorded. Shout out the folks who helped you get to where you are! Shout out the folks who helped you get to where you are! We promise it’ll boost morale, not only your social media presence. 7. Engage, Engage, Engage Learning to effectively use social media as marketing is a crucial step in developing an audience for your music. The number one way to build a music-oriented community on social media is by engaging with your audience The number one way to build a music-oriented community on social media is by engaging with your audience; This can look like responding to comments, reposting the content people tag you in, and building a community in any way you can! Take a look of Suave how he masters his social media marketing and engages with his audiences. 8. Reveal (Some Of) Your Secrets Photo by Eric Awuy on Unsplash Strategically sharing behind-the-scenes secrets that make your business run smoothly can make your social media following feel like they're in the “gang” with your team and keep them coming back because they're part of the community. Try sharing a process video that reveals the production process of a song or an interview with the back-end staff. You’ll be surprised to see how much people like to know how things work! 9. Sell Merch When you're a musician, it can be hard to make money without hitting it big. Try selling merch through your social media channels to instigate another income stream Try selling merch through your social media channels to instigate another income stream. Sell t-shirts featuring your album cover, branded stickers, or accessories that go with your vibe as an artist. 10. Save Time By Using A Scheduling App When you're posting on multiple platforms, it can get overwhelming trying to manage all of your content. Save time by using a scheduling app like Hookle or Later. Designed for entrepreneurs like you, Hookle is easy-to-use, saving you tons of time and energy by allowing content publishing to multiple social media channels simultaneously. See how musician Suave masters his social media marketing – with some help from Hookle. Social media marketing is a demanding endeavor, and we know how complicated it can feel when you're just getting started. With this in mind, don't be afraid to dive in and benefit from social media marketing as a musician. Choose a few tips to try and let us know how they go!

Photo by Mateus Campos Felipe on Unsplash Shortcuts Make sure your audience is a match Vet your influencer thoroughly Lean into the influencer’s content creation skills Always measure your goals and ROI Keep your own online channels updated Influencer marketing is an incredibly powerful tool for any e-commerce business to employ. By partnering with the right influencer, you can build brand awareness, brand trust, and drive sales. But what exactly is influencer marketing and how can e-commerce brands use them to help their business succeed? Today we’re going to take a look at influencer marketing: what it is and how e-commerce brands can work effectively with influencers to help drive product sales. What is influencer marketing? Photo by Maddi Bazzocco on Unsplash Influencer marketing — a form of social media marketing — is the practice of partnering with a popular or well-known social media user to boost your sales and grow your brand. For instance, if you have a makeup line, you may approach a popular lifestyle influencer about trying your product and posting to their platform demonstrating their results. In essence, influencer marketing allows you to tap into the audience of someone whose influence will benefit your campaign efforts. By having them review or recommend your product, your brand is borrowing the positive reputation and relationship they have with their audience. In essence, influencer marketing allows you to tap into the audience of someone whose influence will benefit your campaign efforts Marketing through influencers is an exceptionally savvy marketing strategy. People tend to be swayed more by recommendations from people they trust – and influencer audiences have developed a level of trust with said influencers. Now you know what influencer marketing is, let’s take a look at how you can work most effectively with influencers to drive sales. 1. Make sure your audience is a match Photo by Melanie Deziel on Unsplash Influencers are diverse people with diverse interests. Just because someone has an established following doesn’t mean they’re going to automatically be a good fit for your brand. You wouldn’t ask a vector artist to try out your skincare range, for example. When partnering with an influencer, you have to ensure their audience is a match with your target market. In many cases, this means matching the influencer themself to your brand. You should ask yourself: Will this influencer use and love my product? Does this influencer’s content align with my brand’s goals and values? Will this influencer accurately represent my brand? If the answer to all the above questions is “yes” then you may be onto a winning partnership. There are some instances where an influencer may not fall within your target market but their audience does. These relationships ought to be approached carefully. If an influencer is seen to be peddling a product that they themself don’t personally use or endorse, it can hurt both their relationship with their audience and your brand’s image. 2. Vet your influencer thoroughly Photo by mostafa meraji on Unsplash Influencers aren’t always on the level. It’s very easy to buy followers these days and a lot of people do this to give the illusion of popularity or influence so that brands just like yours will seek to partner with them. There are a number of tools available that will let you analyze the quality and growth of a user’s following over time. If there’s a sudden spike, particularly at the beginning of their account’s growth, that’s a red flag. You also want to ensure your influencer’s audience is actively engaged. This means a percentage of their following is actively commenting, sharing, or liking their content. This number doesn’t have to be high – a wildly successful engagement rate is 4% and above. Generally, between 1-3% is a good rate so it’s beneficial to find influencers that fit this metric. 3. Lean into the influencer’s content creation skills Photo by Joey Huang on Unsplash Influencer marketing isn’t just a case of handing an influencer an advert or video and asking them to post it on their channel. In many ways, approaching it this way will actively put off users because it’s such a break from the content they expect from that particular influencer. It’s no longer authentic. It’s like sitting through a paid advertisement. When you partner with an influencer to boost your e-commerce sales, you want to lean into their existing aesthetic. They’ve built an audience that loves their content so you need to trust them to present your product in a way that will speak to that audience. This means letting them take the reins when it comes to developing the content that will advertise your product or brand. The audience trusts the influencer more than your brand (for now at least) and so they’re more receptive to a product that is presented to them authentically This hands-off approach can seem daunting, but it’s one of the reasons influencer marketing is so very successful. The audience trusts the influencer more than your brand (for now at least) and so they’re more receptive to a product that is presented to them authentically. As an added bonus, you’re basically outsourcing the content creation portion of the campaign. So long as you’ve chosen your influencer well, this can mean you get incredibly valuable content that sells your products to your audience – all for the price of partnering with a knowledgable creator. This can save you time, effort, and mental energy. 4. Always measure your goals and ROI Photo by path digital on Unsplash To achieve the best results from your influencer campaign you must set your marketing goals early on. In the context of this article, this means driving sales. Be clear with your team and your chosen influencer about what your aim is and ensure you measure the results of your efforts. For example, you might record the number of sales made through affiliate links. Tracking your campaign results in this way is the only way to assess which influencers are helping you achieve your objectives, and which ones you might want to part ways with. The aim, at the end of the day, is to develop long-term partnerships with influencers. Someone recommending a product once is one thing, but seeing an influencer promoting a brand consistently over time is more likely to encourage their audience to trust your brand and eventually take action. 5. Keep your own online channels updated It's important to keep all your own online channels up to date; such as social channels, e-Commerce sites, websites, and Google Business Profile. Your online creditability might take a hit if you don't take care of this constantly and in a systematic way. Keeping channels updated will not only help you drive your business but also your influencers to better understand and trust your brand. This encourages them also to create more interesting and engaging content. Keeping channels updated will not only help you drive your business but also your influencers to better understand and trust your brand A handy way to save time is to keep your channels active automatically using scheduling tools, such as Hookle. You can schedule posts to all your social accounts and Google Business Profiles with one tool. With Hookle, you can even see the overall performance of all connected channels with one simple score. This is very convenient as you don't really need to monitor channels separately by yourself. The tool notifies you of the performance movements and suggests actions on how to engage more with your audience, thus keeping channels active and improving your performance. Influencer marketing is great for any e-commerce brands Engaging influencers in your digital marketing campaigns is a great way to drive sales. By matching your audience, vetting your chosen influencer wisely, trusting in their skills, and measuring your ROI accurately, you’ll be able to leverage influencer marketing to help your business succeed. Looking for more ideas on what to post next on your own social media channels? We’ve handpicked 8 quick tips for just that purpose.

Photo by Alejandro Escamilla on Unsplash Shortcuts Approaching All Social Channels the Same Not Publishing Consistently Not Having an Editorial Calendar Lack of Quality/Too Much Brand Promotion Failing to Monitor Data Not Engaging with Followers Using Only Landscape Images & Videos Deleting Negative Comments Not Using Enough Video Not Managing All Channels in One Place You’ve probably been “doing” social media for some time now, but is all that effort positively impacting your bottom line? It’s an important question to ask, especially because there’s rarely a direct line from your social media spend to your sales revenue. Social media is a critical element of your overall digital marketing strategy. It gives small business owners and entrepreneurs the opportunity to reach millions of potential customers and compete against the largest brands. Social media is a critical element of your overall digital marketing strategy. To put the numbers in context, DigitalMarketing.org reports that nearly 53% of the world’s population is active on social media and that YouTube videos are viewed for more than 1 billion hours each day. The article also notes that in 2017, 80% of social media B2B leads came from LinkedIn. So, you know you should be active in social media, and that it’s generally cost-effective compared to other forms of advertising (e.g., print, television). But are you doing it “right?” To help you answer that question, we’ve pulled together 10 social media marketing mistakes that could be preventing you from achieving better results. 1. Approaching All Social Channels the Same This mistake can express itself in several ways, but the gist of it is that a brand identifies a bunch of different social platforms and posts the exact same content, in the same format, across all of them. While you can use the same piece of content across platforms, try to make the accompanying message distinctive for each audience. Here’s the problem with that. The user demographics of TikTok are very different than those of Facebook. More importantly, the features, marketing tools, audience interests, and behaviors of each platform are different. TikTok is video-oriented, LinkedIn is geared to work-related topics, Facebook skews middle age, and so on. The better strategy is to select fewer channels – the ones that are in best alignment with your target groups – and focus on delivering quality content. While you can use the same piece of content across platforms, try to make the accompanying message distinctive for each audience. 2. Not Publishing Consistently Every platform is different, but one thing is clear: whether you post three times a week or 12 times a week, strive to stay consistent with that pace. One reason is that your most loyal followers expect it, and when you fail to publish regularly and consistently, you risk damaging that loyalty. Just as important, when you fail to post at your regular interval, it can negatively impact your post impressions and engagement rates. This means your content that showed up in your followers’ feed one day doesn’t show up the next. One of the easiest ways to stay consistent is to use an automated social media scheduling app, like Hookle. 3. Not Having an Editorial Calendar Photo by Estée Janssens on Unsplash One of the reasons brands fail to publish consistently is that they don’t have a content publishing plan, also referred to as an editorial calendar. This calendar lets small businesses plan out their social posts from month to month, filling it with industry-related updates, sales events, or seasonal promotions happening throughout the year. Gaps in the calendar can be filled with user-generated content, behind-the-scenes content from the business itself, or from monthly content calendar ideas like this one. 4. Lack of Quality/Too Much Brand Promotion When people decide to follow you on social media, they generally do it for a handful of reasons: they know you or someone in the business personally, they get something of value out of the content you post (e.g., tips, education, skills, recipes), they’re a competitor, or they are entertained. When you bombard your feed with your products and services, many followers will lose interest. In fact, there used to be an 80/20 rule for social media stating that 80% of posts should inform, educate and entertain, while only 20% should directly promote your business, however the actual ratio is no longer hard and fast. Another common mistake is thinking any content is better than none at all, but brands that hastily slap up a post about the family pet may quickly find they’re losing followers. The best course of action is to stick to your editorial calendar and deliver high-quality content. 5. Failing to Monitor Data Photo by lilzidesigns on Unsplash Nearly every social platform now has an analytics or “dashboard” feature that offers valuable data on who is engaging with your posts, for how long, and other important insights. One best practice is to set up a notification to get an automated report at the end of each month so you can monitor the data to identify important trends. For example, you may find that certain end screens on your YouTube videos are converting more viewers than others. This could prompt you to use those same end screens in your other videos. Or, on Facebook, you might notice that users are engaging more with posts that feature videos than those that feature photos, which may cause you to schedule more video posts for the next month. Hookle even has a Social Score that aggregates your business’s performance across social media into one simple score. Additionally, it gives you personalized recommendations on how to improve your social media marketing. This simplifies your social media strategy and the need for monitoring data significantly. 6. Not Engaging with Followers Social media is called social for a reason. The more you engage, the better your performance will be. Your followers will appreciate being heard. You’ll be developing a sense of community with your followers. And, your content has a better likelihood of showing up in followers’ feeds because your engagement is higher. In contrast, when you don’t respond to users’ comments, you give the impression your brand isn’t interested in being part of a community or that you don’t care about them. 7. Using Only Landscape Images & Videos Photo by Eaters Collective on Unsplash When Facebook and Twitter were the primary social platforms, landscape videos and images were the norms. Instagram, an increase in mobile phone usage, and an explosion in digital ad formats have made square videos and images more the norm. The company Buffer did some testing and found that square videos and images generate higher views and engagement, especially on mobile phones, than landscape videos. Be sure to mix it up! 8. Deleting Negative Comments Believe it or not, receiving negative feedback is an opportunity to build trust within your brand community and deliver great customer service. Rather than ignoring these comments, deleting them, or worse yet, responding with snark, take the opportunity to give a thoughtful response to the person. Explain how you can (or cannot) resolve their issue, and there is a good chance you can turn that unhappy user into a loyal customer. Stranger things have happened! 9. Not Using Enough Video It started years ago with YouTube. In recent years, things accelerated with Vine and then TikTok. Now, with Reels, virtually every social platform is in the video game. One thing is clear: video is one of the most important mediums for social media consumers. It gets people’s attention, creates more engagement, and can be repurposed easily. The good news is that today’s mobile phone cameras can produce high-quality footage that can be quickly edited and uploaded into an effective social media post. 10. Not Managing All Channels in One Place The last faux pas busy entrepreneurs often make is spending dozens of hours each month doing social media marketing one channel, one post at a time. Instead, they could be using social media management apps like Hookle. “You’ll save valuable time and energy,” says Anne Silmälä, owner of the brewery, OlutMylly, in Finland. She and her husband, Mikko, use Hookle to manage their social sites in one place, schedule posts in advance, and cut down on administrative tasks each week.

Photo by Rasa Kasparaviciene on Unsplash Shortcuts What is a Social Media Content Calendar? Why Should Small Business Owners Use Content Calendars? How Do I Create A Content Calendar? What Can I Highlight on My Content Calendar? The Full April 2022 Social Media Content Calendar Wrapping up As a small business owner, it's crucial to leverage the power of social media to market your products and services, and to build relationships with clients. Not only does social media expand your reach to current clients, prospective buyers, and anyone else who may be interested in what you’re advertising, but social media marketing can be an impactful and productive way to build your brand. One of the most popular ways to do this is by building a following on multiple platforms, and managing said platforms with a social media content calendar for your small business. As a small business owner, it's crucial to leverage the power of social media to market your products and services Read on to learn why you shouldn’t miss out on using a social media content calendar as a small business owner in April 2022! 1. What is a Social Media Content Calendar? A social media content calendar is a visual representation of all posts, images, captions, and other relevant content that are designed with the intention of being posted to any number of social media platforms. Whether you want to offer holiday deals or keep track of what you post and when, a social media content calendar is a great opportunity to take the pressure off of posting and stick to a strategy that will allow you to better leverage your business offers. The ideas of a social media content calendar may seem foreign to those who are not in the social media advertising space, so we’ll give you an example. Consider Valentine's Day, occurring on February 14th. This national holiday is an opportunity to celebrate love, and gives you a reason to post – and you can tie in a special offer, just like the pros do! If you're curious about using a content calendar for your small business, check out the information below. 2. Why Should Small Business Owners Use Content Calendars? Content calendars can be productive for any kind of business, but small business owners are some of the few that can truly leverage the power of this tool to raise their sales and improve their relationships with customers. Not only does a content calendar help you keep track of what's being posted and where, but it gives you the opportunity to celebrate various holidays or observance days and tie them back to what your small business offers. 3. How Do I Create A Content Calendar? To create an April social media content calendar for 2022, start by finding a planning platform that supports The number of social media accounts you use regularly. As you probably know, many entrepreneurs are extremely busy people and struggle to keep track of the million and one things they need to do each day. Using a scheduling tools, such as Hookle, can help alleviate some of that pressure by keeping track of your schedule postings. Many of these tools even feature automatic posting Hookle including! Using a scheduling tools, such as Hookle, can help alleviate some of that pressure by keeping track of your schedule postings. For example, if you are consistently posting to Instagram and Facebook, you can use the app Later to visually layout, schedule, and auto-post to both platforms. Hookle is another option for social media scheduling, which has even more compatible platforms. When you have your platform in place, begin to drum up content based around your small business goals for the month at hand and see if you can tie any of your promotions to national holidays. You can find information on observance days with resources like Checkiday.com, NationalToday.com, and TimeAndDate.com. 4. What Can I Highlight on My Content Calendar? Photo by WTFast on Unsplash You can keep track of projects, product releases, media interviews, and other relevant information in a content calendar. For example, April is home to many religious holidays like Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday. Small businesses that sell religious literature or spiritual Goods might benefit from including these holidays in their social media content. Keep track of national holidays, observance days and other relevant events and happenings in your area and industry. These can be especially helpful when you're trying to create timely content that is relatable to your readers. 5. The Full April 2022 Social Media Content Calendar April 1: April Fool's Day #AprilFoolsDay Play a prank on your partner, your kids, or your boss (but be careful, this one can backfire)! This is about having fun, so keep it lighthearted. April 2: International Children's Book Day #IntlChildrensBookDay Read a classic children’s book or a modern twist on an oldie at bedtime on April 2! We celebrate not only authors, but the joy of reading and of children. April 4: #HugANewspersonDay Photo by Shawn Tung on Unsplash If you haven’t hugged your local newscaster lately, go give them a squeeze (with consent of course)! April 11: National Cheese Fondue Day #NationalCheeseFondueDay If your small business is based around food, this might be a great opportunity to leverage some sales with a lighthearted pitch. April 13: International Day of Pink #IntlDayOfPink This colorful holiday is observed on the second Wednesday in April! Wear pink, eat pink food, or paint your walls bright pink. Whatever you choose, it’s bound to make you feel better. April 15: Good Friday #GoodFriday Good Friday is observed two days before Easter, so if your business focuses on religious texts or family-oriented goods and services, this is your chance to make your message hit home. April 17: Easter Sunday #Easter #Easter2022 This is the day to wish your audience a happy Easter. Schedule the post already beforehand as it’s Sunday! April 18: Adult Autism Awareness Day #AdultAutismAwarenessDay Autism doesn’t just affect kids. Most people don’t recognize the impacts of autism on adults, so take this opportunity to begin thinking about how you can better support and include autistic folks! April 20: Volunteer Recognition Day #VolunteerRecognitionDay If your services rely on volunteers, recognize them today. Otherwise, support other causes by highlighting the impacts of volunteer work on your community April 21: Bulldogs Are Beautiful Day #BulldogsAreBeautifulDay Photo by Karsten Winegeart on Unsplash For something a bit sillier, check out the hashtag above to celebrate the beautiful bulldogs of the world. You can even post your own pooch if you so desire! April 25: National Mani-Pedi Day #NationalManiPediDay Use this opportunity to advertise beauty products, self-care services or to schedule appointments with clients! Alternatively, you can treat yourself…just saying. April 27: Holocaust Remembrance Day #HolocaustRemembranceDay Connect with your customer base on a universal tragedy, and be careful to use this as an opportunity to connect, not to sell. April 30: Adopt A Shelter Pet Day, International Jazz Day, & Independent Bookstore Day #AdoptAShelterPetDay #InternationalJazzDay #IndependentBookstoreDay There are plenty of opportunities to celebrate at the end of April, so pick one or a few that resonate and kick off spring with a party-positive attitude! Find plenty more (oddly specific) holidays online with a quick search for “April 2022 content calendar ideas.” 6. Wrapping up Whatever your small business sells or provides, creating a social media content calendar can be a crucial step in building your online customer base, virtual community and help to raise your sales and profit, as well as the fun in the workday. Contact us with any questions you may have about creating a content calendar for your social media platforms, and if you decide to use Hookle, let us know what you think. Happy celebrating!