We love our planet!

If you are a human living on this planet, you have probably had a moment where you were truly awe-struck by its beauty. This Earth Day, our team chatted about our favorite places on earth, and one way that we are each going to reduce our environmental impact this year.

Keep reading for travel + earth day inspo!

Justine Myers – Project Coordinator

Justine spent a year in Europe, and says that after experiencing all of the different destinations, the Canary Islands of Spain are her absolute favorite place on earth. One way Justine plans to reduce her impact this year is by purchasing a reusable straw. “I’m going to start keeping a reusable straw in my purse for whenever I’m out, so I can stop using plastic straws at restaurants and bars.” Smart idea! #SaveTheTurtles

Caitlin Harder – Copywriter + Digital Marketing Strategist

Originally from Oregon, Caitlin’s natural escape is close to where she grew up. “I always feel most connected to nature at Silver Falls State Park. It’s only about 30 minutes from the house I grew up in, and has a beautiful 177 foot waterfall surrounded by dense Douglas Firs. Some of the forest scenes from the movie Twilight were filmed there.” This Earth Day, Caitlin is thinking a lot about how much waste she creates every day when she removes her makeup. “I’m going to stop buying wipes to remove my makeup. I use one every day and it’s definitely a wasteful method.”

Lindsay Helms – Graphic Designer

Lindsay spent 3 months interning in Switzerland last year, and found her favorite place on earth an hour train ride away from where she stayed. This year, Lindsay is going to tackle a problem that many of us share—forgetting the reusable grocery bag at home! “I’m going to start keeping my reusable bag with me or in my car so that I always have it on hand when I go shopping.”

April Schroeder – Founder + President

Our founder and boss lady, April, has earth day goals directly tied to her favorite place on our awesome planet—the springs right here in North Central Florida! April enjoys boating in the springs with her family, and swimming with the friendly manatees, at every opportunity. April’s Earth Day goal is to focus on water conservation. “My goal is to reduce my usage of water as much as I can to help preserve our Florida Springs and Florida Aquifer water source.”

Emily Purvis – Lead Graphic Designer

Emily grew up in Florida, and her favorite place on earth is a family destination. “Mine is my family’s condo on the Withlacoochee River in Dunnellon, Florida!” Emily’s Earth Day goal is one that our whole city is working towards. “I want to focus on purchasing more sustainable products instead of being so dependent on single-use plastic products.”

Marionne Patel – Web + Graphic Designer

Marionne has two adorable dogs, and her favorite place to get outside is the dog park. This Earth Day, Marionne set a goal to learn more about composting. “Our house has a composite bin from a previous owner, so my goal is to learn more about composting and put that bin to use!”

Amy Thomas – Account Manager

Amy’s favorite place on earth is a spot her family frequently vacationed to growing up, the Blue Ridge Mountains in Georgia. When asked about her goals to reduce her environmental impact, Amy says “I’m going to try and use less Ziploc and sandwich bags and start using reusable ones. I found these Stasher bags that are really cool!”

Karalyne Stacey – Project Coordinator

Big Sky, Montana is Karalyne’s favorite place to experience nature. To cut back on her impact on the earth, Karalyne plans to use her car less. “I’m going to bike around town more often rather than drive to cut down on fuel use and emissions.”

 

Don’t Forget the 4 R’s!

At Liquid Creative, we’re a big believer in the 4 R’s—Reduce, reuse, recycle, Rihanna! We hope that you’re inspired to think about your conservation efforts this Earth Day, whether that means setting goals for your business or setting goals for yourself. Together, our efforts will add up! Happy Earth Day!

How to Use Influencer Marketing

We’ve all witnessed the rise of influencer marketing over the years, and it’s projected to only keep getting bigger. Countless companies have implemented influencer marketing in their social media strategies, leveraging their chosen influencer’s connection with their target audience to cultivate new, positive relationships with their brand. Generating real results through influencer marketing, however, is contingent on carrying out an effective, purposeful strategy. 

What exactly is an influencer?

Generally speaking, an influencer is someone that inspires change. Such change can take form through emotion or action, and often starts a domino effect. Instagram has been deemed “the influencer platform,” and is where most influencer campaign ad dollars are spent.

As marketers continue to spend ad dollars to have their brands promoted by social media influencers, there have been changing trends in who constitutes as an influencer. More recently, marketers have come to find that most of the time it’s not the number of followers that matters most, but engagement rates.

In many situations, advertisers would rather use a micro-influencer—defined as a user with as few as 900 and as many as 500,000 followers—who is relatable to their audience and more engaged with them than a widely-followed, less accessible figure.

What can an influencer do for you?

If your goal is to increase your social media presence, consumer brand awareness, and overall sales, influencer marketing is a great tactic to consider adding to your social media strategy. (Don’t have a social media strategy yet? Learn how to make a content calendar!)

Marketers love influencers so much because influencers build their business by creating a relationship with their audience, and that audience trusts them.

Here are some quick stats that demonstrate the value of influencer marketing:

• 70% of teens trust influencers more than traditional celebrities
• 40% of users have purchased something because they saw an influencer use it on social media
• The average ROI on an influencer campaign is $6.50 for every dollar spent

When using an influencer, writing the copy yourself or discussing the key points that will be included in their post allows you to share on-brand information with your audience, via a messenger that they already trust.

When an influencer shares their positive opinion of your brand, it builds interest among their followers. It’s key to include a call to action that directs the influencer’s followers to learn more about what they are promoting, allowing you to maximize conversions—not just brand awareness.

Selecting the right influencer

Choosing the right influencer for your business is an essential part of the process. For local small businesses, the first place to scout influencer talent is in the followers that have engaged with your business online. Customers that have geotagged their posts at your business, shared pictures of their experience, or liked or commented on your previous posts are great places to start your search. These customers are already engaged with your brand, and would be a natural partner in promoting it.

If that process seems to be a dead end, search your city name on Instagram. Searching Gainesville, Florida on Instagram brings up the top recent posts in the area, many relating to fitness, beauty, or fashion. You can browse these posts for users who seem like they appeal to your audience and would serve as a strong representative for your brand.

When sifting through potential influencer accounts, compare each user’s number of followers and their average likes per post. A user who has 3,000 followers, posts regularly, and generates a few thousand engagements per month is more valuable than a user who has 5,000 followers but doesn’t have an engaged audience.

The influencers that you choose will reflect your brand, and should pose minimal risks to your reputation. They should also promote a lifestyle or interest that relates to your industry or appeals to your target demographic. For example, a company selling workout gear should probably use a fitness influencer to reach people who are not only interested in fitness, but also trust that influencer for advice on the topic.

When selecting an influencer, remember:

• They should have a strong following and strong engagement
• Their followers should be members of your target audience
• Their values should be in line with your brand’s values

Not sure how to define your brand? See if it’s time to rebrand your business.

How much does influencer marketing cost?

Some national brands dedicate large portions of their marketing budgets to influencer marketing. Small businesses may be deterred from influencer marketing due to its implied high financial requirements. In reality, compensating influencers isn’t always a large expenditure.

So, how much does influencer marketing cost? The truth is, it depends. According to digitalmarketing.org, an influencer with 2,000 to 10,000 Instagram followers charges $75 to $250 per post on average. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Kylie Jenner is famously reported to make $1 million per sponsored post. 

So you’ve debuted your influencers… now what?

Once your newly acquired influencers have posted their content, it is time to monitor how effective they really are. Key performance indicators (KPIs) vary across platforms, but it’s always about the numbers. Monitoring the number of likes and comments on the post, traffic to the page that you are promoting, and new followers for your business page are all basic ways to get an idea of the overall effectiveness of your influencer campaign.

Take Social Media to the Next Level with Liquid Creative

Serving Gainesville since 2007, our team brings fresh ideas and effective strategies to each of the social media accounts that we manage. We can help you implement a purposeful influencer marketing campaign that will maximize your ROI. Contact us to get started!

Digital Marketing Case Study—Carbonxt

Carbonxt, a global activated carbon manufacturer, had a problem. They had a beautiful, recently redesigned website, but no way to get it in front of their target market: the key decision-makers for mercury compliance solutions at large utility plants. Their audience was also unaware of their unique product—non-corrosive activated carbons that do not cause plant damage, unlike competing products that create erosion over time.

The Challenges

• To develop an effective targeting strategy to reach Carbonxt’s niche target audience
• Create intriguing ads that inspire users to click and educate themselves on this new product
• Use just $25 a week in digital spend

The Results

We determined that a Google display campaign would be the best way to reach this small audience of decision makers, who are not all actively searching for a new compliance solution. Our team developed the key messaging, “Is Compliance Destroying Your Plant?” This headline, paired with “Source non-corrosive, domestically produced activated carbon” called attention to an industry problem, and offered a clear solution.

With $25 a week, we achieved…

66 clicks / week

Thanks to effective targeting methods and our straightforward ad, we achieved a $0.37 cost per click

11,782 impressions / week

Our ad was seen over 11,000 times per week on average, at an average cost of $0.0019 per impression

+99.77% increase in landing pageviews

There was a large jump in the number of people who viewed the page that our ad linked to

+34.29% increase in pages viewed per session

Users who came to the site via the campaign clicked around, boosting the page views per session for the period

Reduced bounce rate from 39% to 4.5%

The percentage of people who exited the site without interacting with it declined due to the influx of engaged users from the campaign

The data shows…

These results demonstrate that not only were we able to entice users to click on the ad, but they were the right users who were interested in the product.

Ready to dive into digital marketing? Make a splash with Liquid Creative!

Eye-Catching Ads We design ads that turn heads and inspire conversions
Compelling Copy Our team knows how to speak your customers’ language
Killer Strategy We get the message to the right people at the right time

Learn more about digital marketing with Liquid Creative.

A Strong Brand Presence Starts Within

While customers are an immensely important asset to a company’s success, their employees are what makes it all possible. Providing branded merchandise for employees is a great way to promote internal marketing and increase workplace moral. These products unify team members within the workplace and establish a more integrated company culture. That is why it is important to offer both customers and employees the ability to get your branded merchandise when they want it.

Our sister company, Liquid Creative Studio, offers a variety of marketing services for companies wanting to take their brands to the next level. Their previous work with Brammer Bio, a biotech company working out of various regions of the US, gave their employees around access to their company’s branded merchandise through an intranet. Brammer Bio’s intranet offers employees the ability to purchase a variety of merchandise. Giving employees the choice of picking their branded merchandise promotes engagement.

Easier for everyone!

Overall, giving your employees the ability to access their own work apparel streamlines workplace integration and save valuable time. Before, a large portion of time was consumed by having to take employee apparel preferences, submit their orders, and then wait for their delivery to the business and later the employees. Now, employees can take control of their order and relieve their supervisors from this extra responsibility.

Setting up your company’s online store for branded merchandise is a simple, engaging process!

1. The Meet Up

In a consultation with the Liquid Creative and Marketing Mud teams, we’ll be able to pinpoint your company’s goals for the online store.

2. Keeping it Brief

We will deliver a brief of products based on preferences discussed in the initial consultation. In this

3. Signed, Sealed, Delivered… Online!

Once the product offerings, web-design, and logistics are agreed upon, we are ready to launch your company’s online branded merchandise store! Finally, your customers and employees will be able to sport your company brand at any time.

Now is the time to strengthen your company culture with a strong workforce of unified employees. Marketing Mud is here to guide you through the process of strengthening your company’s brand from the inside out!

 

Ready to take your workforce to the next level? Call Marketing Mud today at (352) 281-8156 or visit our website to strengthen your business.

 

 

Do You Need to Rebrand?

A brand does so much more for your business than simply provide a “look” or logo. A brand is an important tool that differentiates your company from its competitors and establishes a tone for consistent communications.

Not sure if your brand is strong enough to stand out in the crowd? Here are 3 signs it’s time to consider a rebrand.

1. Your Brand Is Your Logo

A brand provides the overall feel of your business that you would like to convey to everyone involved with your company, from potential investors to potential customers. There is no way to accomplish this with only a logo! A brand identity is composed of several elements, and establishes guidelines for visual and verbal communications.

A brand identity document includes:

• Logo: a mark used to identify an organization or product
• Color Palette: the various colors and accents to be used in visual communications
• Typography: lists which fonts to use in various communication scenarios
• Graphic Collateral: graphic elements consistently used to complement your logo
• Word Cloud: a list of words that best represent the buying experience and differentiate the product or service
• Brand Rationale: a document establishing the tone of written communications

Your brand is bigger than your logo– it’s what differentiates your business from competitors. If you haven’t spent time thinking about and establishing what that is, it’s time for a rebrand!

2. Customers Confuse Your Logo, Signage, or Ads With Competitors

If your logo is easily confused with others in your industry, you’re never going to be able to stand out for the great work that you’re doing! While a logo can often indicate the types of goods and services offered, it should also have artistic elements that add personality to the brand and distinguish it from competitors.

 

There is more to representing your brand in an advertisement than simply using your logo. The color, style, and types of imagery used to advertise for your business should be consistent and easily recognizable, allowing for quick processing by those who are familiar with your brand.

The messaging you use to talk about your products or services should also be consistent– remember that every post that your business makes on social media reflects your brand. Make sure that you’re building a brand that your customers can relate to, and that adds value to your business. Consider creating a word cloud of adjectives and some nouns that you feel like capture the essence of your brand, and then consistently use these in your content. Try this free world cloud generator to get started.

3. Your Business Has Grown

Maybe you didn’t need a brand identity when you were working out of your home office, but now that your business has grown, there’s a lot more to think about. How will you help your employees convey what makes your business unique to new customers? If you’ve added new products or services since your founding, it’s almost certainly time for a rebrand– reevaluating existing verbiage is critical when entering new markets.

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Ready to Rebrand?

The team at Liquid Creative is ready to help you create a new brand for your business! We will go through our initial research process (known around here as “discovery”) to understand what differentiates your company from its competitors. From there, we’ll create a brand that conveys that message, and sparks a connection with your desired customers.

Start standing out with eye-catching graphics and compelling copy– learn more about branding with Liquid Creative.

What is Company Culture, and Why Does it Matter?

Company culture has become quite the buzz word lately… But what does it really mean? Company culture is what governs non-transactional workplace interactions. For instance, whether your office is collaborative or competitive, a slacks-only environment or sandal-friendly, pen-drop silent or playing the latest hits, is all determined by your company’s culture. It’s the combination of policies and unwritten rules that make a workplace “uptight,” “laidback,” or anything in between.

Company culture has become crucial to attracting top talent and keeping worker’s engaged. Gallup’s 2017 State of the Global Workplace report found that 67% of employees are “not engaged” at work. This recent drag in productivity has caused HR managers to reevaluate how they are motivating individuals, and create new policies aimed at increasing workplace flexibility, autonomy, and camaraderie.

Team Building Tips

We have a small (but talented!) group here at Liquid Creative, so having a close-knit team helps us keep our employees motivated, our open office space productive, and our work its most creative. Here are some team building activities that we use to keep our company culture strong that you can try out with your team!

1. Weekly Culture Hour

Our weekly culture hour is a chance for our team to take a creative break, share some laughs, and enjoy a planned activity together. Here are just a few of our activities that you can adapt for your office.

• • Milkshake Bar: We nominated the person with the best blender to bring it into the office, and then made delicious milkshakes with gourmet toppings. Cheers!
  • Outside Time: Our office is just down the road from Sweetwater Wetlands Park, so we drove there for a nice midday walk.
  • Play a Game: Our team’s favorite game to play together is Heads Up!

     

     

     

2. Bring Your Dog to Work Day

People love pets. If no one is allergic, allowing quiet, well-behaved dogs in the office can brighten everyone’s mood!

3. Celebrate Milestones

Acknowledging important professional and life milestones makes your employees feel appreciated. We always celebrate our teams’ yearly work anniversaries, birthdays, and weddings with an in-office gathering. We are lucky to have some wonderful and enthusiastic chefs on our team, so we rarely have to cater!

4. Hold a Friendly Competition

Our teammates give each other “snaps” for helping out, and at the end of the quarter the teammate with the most snaps is declared winner! Snaps can be given for serious accomplishments, such as writing an awesome new ad, or for something silly, like bringing in donuts.

 

 

 

 

5. Try Something New Together

Getting out of your comfort zone together can be an exciting, and bonding, experience! Our team went to the Gainesville Circus Center, where they took their talents to new heights. Check out this article on Gainesville team building activities from The Business Report of North Central Florida for more local ideas!

6. Have A Night On the Town

Out of office gatherings are the best way to get to know the people who are most important to your team, such as significant others or close friends, outside of work. You may think to yourself, “why does that matter?” It does if you want to create the type of culture where your employees know that you care about them as people. From a more bottomline-focused perspective, providing opportunities for your employees to cultivate friendships can reduce labor turnover.

Going to see a play, band, or attending another special event is always a fun time! We recently took our team and their significant others to see The Wolves at the Hippodrome Theatre.

7. Host Your Team

On the same note, hosting your team in your home is a great way to let them know that you care about them as people. We have an office holiday party held in our President’s home each December, where we play games, enjoy each other’s cooking, and exchange secret Santa gifts.

8. Dress Up

It’s so much fun to dress up as a group! This year our team has dressed up for our Christmas in July party, October 3rd (otherwise known as Mean Girls Day), and Halloween!

9. Volunteer Together

Volunteering is perfect for team bonding, because it gets everyone out of the office to do something meaningful together. Try to find a cause that matters to everyone in your office. Our team went “trick or treating” at the Humane Society of North Central Florida for Halloween.

Get Started with Team Building!

Now that your armed with these ideas, you’re ready to plan your team building events! Start using team building to increase workplace camaraderie, improve employee motivation, and enhance your company culture.

 

Happy National Read a Book Day!

Our team gets super-inspired by reading, so we decided to put together a list of book recommendations to share for National Read a Book Day! Let’s all pick up a good book today!

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

“Easy to read and incredibly funny, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is about the awkwardness of Eleanor’s human connections and how those instances don’t seem to bother her in the slightest. Everyone can relate to Eleanor is someway and you can’t help but fall in love with her blind confidence”

-Justine Myers, Account Coordinator

When you are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris

“Need a pick-me-up? This book of hilarious short stories will leave you gasping for air through fits of tear-inducing laughter. When I was younger, I used to try and be sneaky and stay up past my bedtime, reading whatever book I was obsessing over at the time. Whenever I’d read David Sedaris I got majorly busted– I could not stop myself from cracking up! Now, I continue to be inspired by the way Sedaris is able to fill life’s most mundane moments with his unique comedic flare. If you haven’t yet, definitely give his books a try. They’re super easy reads and so much fun!”

-Caitlin Harder, Copywriter & Digital Marketing Strategist

Lobster Is the Best Medicine by Liz Climo

“A dear friend of mine gifted this book to me for my birthday years ago and its charm and sincerity warmed my heart. It’s an adorable collection of comics about friendship that’s guaranteed to make you smile and brighten your day.”

-Emily Purvis, Graphic Designer

Sex, Dugs, and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman

“Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs is a hilarious deconstruction of all things pop culture with a critical and smart eye. Subjects include Saved By The Bell, The Sims video game, and kittens.”

-Hector Del Valle, Art Director

An Invisible Thread by Laura Schroff & Alex Tresniowski

“An inspiring read based on a true story of a child living on the streets of New York City. It’s surprisingly uplifting!”

-April Schroeder, President

Let’s get reading!

We hope we provided a good variety of titles for you to try out. Whether you like comics, poems, or novels, reading is a great way to get your creativity flowing, today and every day! Happy National Read a Book Day!

 

 

Life at Liquid

We are so excited to have Justine Myers join our team as Account Coordinator. Justine excels in her new role because of her passion for helping clients’ visions become a reality. She uses her exceptional organizational skills to manage our creative team’s schedules, ensuring that all client work in completed on time, and in accordance with client direction. She’s also a hoot to have in the office!

Returning to Gainesville

Originally from Gainesville, Justine recently moved back home after obtaining her two degrees – one of which she earned in England! She spent four years in Tallahassee at Florida State University for her Bachelors of Science in Criminology and her Bachelors of Arts and Sciences in Psychology, and then two years at the University of Exeter in England where she earned her Masters of Science in Social and Organizational Psychology.

An Interest in Company Culture

During her Master’s Degree, Justine gained analytical skills that taught her how to utilize multiple perspectives when creating a strategy for improving an organization’s ways of working, company culture and employee morale. She now uses this insight to provide ideas and strategies for Liquid’s team internally.

Travel & Hobbies

When Justine is not relishing in her coworkers’ constant banter at work, she enjoys spending time travelling. When asked how many countries she’s visited, she says, “22, I think?”

Her other passions include: tennis, daily yoga, writing her travel blog, finding any alternative music festivals nearby, singing at the top of her lungs, talking to her two dogs as if they are humans, skydiving (or finding anything that gets the adrenaline pumping) and eating (pretty much the only good reason to travel!).

Fun Facts About Justine

What is your absolute favorite food?

Ice cream… I can eat ice cream any time of the day. No fruity flavors though.. must include chocolate.

What is currently your favorite app and why?

Headspace, this beautiful Englishman’s voice teaches you how to meditate without falling asleep. After even a five minute session I experience a surge of energy!

If you were famous, what would you be famous for?

Comedy, I hope.. I feel like comedians live the most normal ‘famous people’ lives and I am about that.

Make A Content Calendar with Liquid Creative!

Keeping up with posting regular content across social media platforms can be challenging for any business owner or marketing manager. A content calendar is a useful tool to help plan what you will share and establish consistent messaging, ultimately allowing you to develop a social media strategy that will maximize post reach and engagement. Follow these 7 steps to make a content calendar that adds value to your brand.

Before we get started, you can download our content calendar template. You’ll see there are columns for date, time, purpose, copy, hashtags, links, graphics, and boosts, and that a different sheet is used for each platform.

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1. Select Relevant Social Media Platforms

Creating business accounts on social media platforms that are relevant to your industry will enable you to reach your target audience, but creating profiles on irrelevant platforms will waste your time and hurt your brand. So, how do you choose which platforms to focus your energy on? The answer– as with many things in marketing– is research. Before you make a content calendar, you should find out where your customers are online and the best way to get there. A good place to start is seeing what your competitors are up to.

2. Plan Timely Posts

Creating timely posts is critical for both engagement and conversions. It’s important to have a strategy behind the dates, times, and frequency of your posts. You can use platform insights to find out the days of the week and times of day that your audience is most likely to be active. Check out any competitors’ accounts, and think carefully about what you need to communicate to customers about your business. For instance, if you hold events or have timely sales, you should begin advertising over social media weeks in advance, or longer. Then, you should continue posting about the event as it approaches. Make sure that you are sending out friendly reminders, but not clogging followers’ newsfeeds.
Some ways to tell you’re oversharing:

• You’re losing followers
• Engagement is declining
• You’re posting for the sake of posting

3. Establish Clear Purpose

So, how do you avoid posting for the sake of posting? There should be a clear purpose behind each of your social media posts. Try to write posts with different purposes behind them to keep your content calendar diverse. The more purposes you can incorporate into one concise post, the better.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Provide a Timely Update: Announce an event, sale, opening of a new location, or other timely update
• Drive Website Traffic: Advertise a product or service with the goal of driving traffic to a specific webpage
• Educate Your Audience: Teach your audience about a product’s application or an aspect of your business services
• Demonstrate Expertise: Show your followers you’re an expert in your field with relevant and helpful information, such as how-to videos or, let’s see, an insightful blog post, perhaps? 😀
• Spark Engagement: Different platforms have different algorithms, and engaging users will help your content show up in their newsfeeds (tip: Instagram story polls earn easy engagement)
• Showcase Company Culture: Connect with followers and potential employees by providing a peek into your company’s unique culture

These are just a few basic ideas to get you started on your social media strategy. And remember, you can write your posts with more than one purpose in mind as long as you can keep the messages concise. The purpose of the post will determine where it links to, or if you shouldn’t have a link at all. If you’re posting to wish your customers a happy holiday, that isn’t the time to link to your website. Use a variety of purposes to prevent engagement from declining, and avoid planning many “sales-y” posts in a row when you make a content calendar.

4. Write Engaging Copy for Each Platform

Every post that you create should fit into your brand’s story. If you’re finding it hard to envision what exactly your brand’s story is, it might be time for you to rebrand. The copy you write should have a tone consistent with your brand, and its message should be driven by the purpose you have determined for the post.

You should also write different copy for different platforms. While Twitter is the only widely used platform with a character limit, there are other factors to consider. For instance, Instagram does not link to external pages other than on promoted posts and bios, and is a largely visual online community. Your copy for Instagram would be more concise and possibly more playful than your copy for Facebook, and would likely have a different call to action. When you make a content calendar, do some research so that you’re aware of effective call to action messages for the different platforms. Effective call to actions are a critical part of any marketing campaign, and should be used in your social media strategy.

5. Use Strategic Hashtags

Utilizing hashtags is the best way for companies to extend their organic reach on social media platforms, gain followers, and earn engagement. You should keep a list of hashtags relevant to your industry and location, and use these as they are relevant to your posts. For instance, if you are a hairdresser in Gainesville, Florida, you can browse Instagram to find the hashtags local Gainesville salons and residents are using to showcase their styles. Try adding hashtags as a comment on your post, instead of as a caption, to avoid cluttering the copy.

Here are some hashtags relevant to the Gainesville, Florida area:

• #theswamp
• #bestofgainesville
• #gnv
• #gainesvillebusiness
• #gainesville
• #gainesvillefl
• #gainesvilleflorida

Be sure to avoid using the same hashtags over and over again unless they match the post, otherwise users may request not to see your content for a specific hashtag, which could cause the algorithm to lower your reach.

Here, you can see that a user created a post and used the hashtag #Gainesville. Liquid Creative follows the Gainesville hashtag, so it showed up in our newsfeed. If we don’t think this post is particularly relevant to Gainesville, we can hit the “Don’t Show for This Hashtag” button.

 

When a user does this, a nice message thanking them for their feedback appears in their newsfeed in place of the post.

This feedback is used to block this account from appearing in my newsfeed for the hashtag, and likely lowers the reach for the post on that hashtag across the entire platform. Taking the time to research relevant, high traffic hashtags pays off. Learn how to increase your Instagram engagement with this quick read.

6. Post High Quality Graphics

Posting high quality, branded graphics to your account is not only important for consistency and professionalism, but also for communicating a clear message to your audience. Color alone increases brand recognition by 80%, and graphics are often able to deliver a more digestible and engaging message than copy by itself. This is especially critical on social media, where shares can greatly increase both your audience and the credibility of delivery. In general, you are more inclined to be interested in and trust a post that was shared by your cousin than a post that was shared by a company. It’s easy to measure your impressions with digital marketing, making high quality graphics an even more worthwhile investment.

One third of online time is spent watching video. It’s officially time to recognize the trend and invest in quality video content. Try to include different mediums when you make a content calendar, such as infographics, videos, and GIFs.

7. Promote Your Posts

As social media platforms have become more saturated with content, they’ve tweaked their algorithms to show users the most relevant posts. Most platforms now prioritize content from personal accounts over business accounts, causing reduced organic reach and engagement.

Facebook’s prioritization has been part of a big PR push. Zuckerberg announced in January 2018 that the algorithm would begin showing users more content from “friends, family, and groups.” This decline in organic reach on Facebook and across platforms has inspired companies to invest more in paid digital marketing efforts.

Social media platforms offer extensive data tools that enable advertisers to effectively reach their target audience. With a paid digital marketing campaign, you can target a “lookalike” audience of customers who are similar to those that already like your page. This shows your post to the audience most likely to take interest in your product or service. Incorporate promoted posts when you make a content calendar for the best return on your time spent developing a social media strategy.

Make A Content Calendar

Now that you know the basics behind social media strategy, it’s time to make a content calendar! Use the columns to plan out the date and time, purpose, copy, hashtags, links, graphics, and boosts of your posts, and add to the columns if there’s something else you want to include. If you’ll be running different ad types, add a column to keep track of that as well. We recommend using Excel or Google Sheets, and using a different sheet for each social media platform.

We’ll Handle Your Social Media Strategy

We’re the experts on Gainesville social media strategy. We’ve been managing social media for Gainesville businesses since 2011, and use our local knowledge to create engaging content that appeals to Alachua County residents. Focus on running your business, let us handle your social media strategy. Give Liquid Creative a call at (352) 600-5050, or visit our website to learn more about our social media management, digital marketing, branding, graphic design, and website development services.

Adapt to the Algorithm, Grow Your Instagram Presence

Instagram’s rapid growth has cemented its place as the cornerstone of a solid social media strategy, but has also caused the platform’s algorithm to quickly change. Instagram reached 800 million active monthly users in September 2017, a 100 million increase since that April. As a result, the newsfeed has evolved with the growth in user base as the company works to improve the user experience. 

So, how do we adapt to this changing algorithm?

Instagram is evolving with its growth by generating news feeds that contain the content that the algorithm deems most applicable to the user. This is largely measured through engagement– which poses a problem for businesses that are new to the platform or have few followers. Basically, the more engagement you already have, the easier it is to get more because your posts will show up in more news feeds. Fortunately, there are several tactics to get your posts appearing in more news feeds that don’t require gaining new followers, though you will definitely pick some up along the way.

Increasing Engagement– Even with Few Followers

Try these 5 simple strategies to boost your Instagram engagement, even if you don’t have many followers.

1. Share Instagram Stories

While you should have a solid content strategy for your Instagram posts, Instagram story views are a great way to indicate that your followers are interested in your content, and will increase your chances of your posts showing up in their newsfeed. Use the polling feature to further take advantage of this opportunity while receiving your customers’ valuable opinions!

2. Post When Followers Are Online

Some of the top factors the Instagram algorithm considers are the number of likes and comments received and how you engage with users. When you have few followers, it’s especially important to monitor overall activity metrics and post at the times that they are most active.

3. Engage With Users

Many business owners are surprised to learn that the algorithm also accounts for their reaction time to users’ comments and direct messages. Make sure that you are consistently monitoring the platform and remaining responsive to capitalize on your increased engagement.

4. Craft the Perfect Captions

Crafting the right caption is key to connecting with your audience and driving engagement. Make sure that your captions are concise and are written in the tone of your brand. 

5. Use Relevant Hashtags

Hashtags will expand the reach of your posts and connect you with new users. They’re even more critical now that users can follow hashtags. If they follow the hashtag that you use, your post can show up in their news feed regardless of whether they actually follow you.

Here are some hashtags that are relevant to the Gainesville, Florida area:

• #theswamp
• #bestofgainesville
• #gnv
• #gainesvillebusiness
• #gainesville
• #gainesvillefl
• #gainesvilleflorida

Grow Your Instagram

If you combine these tips with a strong content strategy, you will be well on your way to growing your Instagram presence, and gaining more brand recognition.

Need help managing your social media strategy? Liquid Creative is a full-service marketing agency in Gainesville, Florida with the local insight to effectively target residents of Gainesville and the greater Florida area. Call Liquid Creative today at (352) 600-5050, or visit our website to learn more about our social media packages!