Month: January 2017

Empower your team to be creative on social media.While in some situations a centralized social media creator is a good idea, more and more the idea of having members of your team be empowered create seems like a better idea.

While you should have a gate keeper to ensure that all content is appropriate and on message, that does not mean you can’t allow other’s good ideas to surface. One of the things I see when working with different organizations with social media is that a lot of non-marketing employees have really good content ideas. It is a very old school business model to keep people siloed in how they contribute to the business. If a production employee has a good marketing idea they should be allowed to be shared with marketing and given the time of day.

Silos prevent collaboration and collaboration creates amazing results! Communicate to your team that their ideas are valuable and try them every once in a while.

It could be a lot of fun to work with a big brand. In this spot, Budweiser capitalized on a long-suffering franchise winning the world series. They released this video, before sunrise on the morning after the Cubs won.

Let’s just pause and think about that: They took video during the game and had the footage up in a fabulous spot the late late late the same night. This took a lot of planning and execution. This Google case study is a great breakdown of how Vayner Media was prepared to execute on this video.

The video garnered a lot of attention and unless you are a Cardinals or Indians fan, it will warm your heart! What a great brand association! Winning and warm feelings are great things to associate your brand with! Check out the video below and the case study here.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nApTGkLd2hs

https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/case-studies/budweiser-world-series-campaign.html?utm_medium=email-d&utm_source=weekly-insight&utm_team=twg-us&utm_campaign=20170116-twg-us-think-letter-weekly-insight-a2-OT-GM-CS&utm_content=Video-img&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTnpVME9EYzBaamhqWlRnMyIsInQiOiJ1ZjZqXC9cL3dvRjRWeUY1czlzcUtYaFhOdmtMWkVkZVdieXFBaHpGRzlqd3VhQjVlSDF3bVhVajVcL3E3K2I4aHgxQmljMmMzNnQ2M0UzKzZFcFRydElLTmFVNWc5eCtkaVlqa3k2QlBCbmdtRXRsR1J2SmdvSEhuOFpSc0xMVUtmOCJ9

This is one great way to create content in our digital age. This video is every bit of a right hook that Gary Vee talks about. This T-Shirt brand creates videos of communities showing support for memebers of their community. The kind of videos that go viral and bring up all the feels. Like this one:

 

What a super cool thing. But Dude Be Nice takes it to the next level and uses it to sell t-shirts! Connecting your brand with these types of feelings is a great move to help the brand grow. What amazing advertising! This video had over 6 million views on Youtube and almost 4 on Facebook.

Additionally you help your purchasers feel like they are apart of a movement. Good feels and a movement? That is a great recipe for a strong brand and strong sales!

What kind of good feelings can you associate your brand with?

 

2017 is getting into full swing and it’s a great time of year to start looking at how we can do things better! One of them is on our social media. Social Media is no longer just for young people or the next big thing, it is the big thing and is the best form of marketing and has been for a few years.

But it does require that you put in the time or hire someone to do it for you (I know a guy). Creating content takes a lot of time so I wanted to share three quick tips that I gleaned from GaryVee.

1. Document and create. Creating is crafting this blog post or filming a new video. Documenting is taking a picture of meetings that are happening or showing what the day to day is like in your business. Documenting doesn’t have to be super polished to have an effect. Gary uses both to build his platform. Documenting on social and with the DailyVee show and creating with his team of creators to pump out fresh content.
2. Repurpose. Creating content takes a lot of effort, so make the best of it. Turn a comment in a video into a blog post, into quote pictures, into a podcast. Ask the question, how can I get every ounce of life out of this content while providing value to my listeners.
3. Just do it. Start now and build it into your schedule. When running your own business, it can be hard to make time to work on the business instead of just in the business. In the immortal words of Admiral Ackbar, “it’s a trap!”.
   via GIPHY

   This will stifle your long-term growth. Investing in creating content is a long term play, but long term plays always pay off more!

   Here are two super valuable articles from Gary on this topic: Content on Content on Content and Document V. Create

 

Burnout is a real thing. It affects people in all walks of life and in all different industries. If you are anything like me, the holidays are such a busy time, I can increase your stress levels and make burnout more likely. I am a big fan of Planet Money and recently they had an episode on burnout and what one call center was doing to curb it. 

If you are an entrepreneur or a leader in your business, you need to be proactive about preventing burnout. How can you do that?

There are some great lessons from the Planet Money podcast but I would lay some out like this:

1. Take breaks. Especially as an entrepreneur it’s hard to take breaks. If you lead a team, make sure they have the opportunity to take breaks without guilt or punishment. I take one day off a week. For me this is Sundays, Sundays I do not do any work (unless it is an emergency). My wife and I take one vacation that does not involve staying at families houses. During that time, I plan ahead to do as little as possible.

   This also means not checking your email all the time! Try and make a good clear distinction between being at work and not at work.

2. Reward Sucess: If you or your team has a win, ie: new contract, big press win, customer loves your work, celebrate it! Go for a nice lunch or dinner, take an afternoon off, or even a bonus/gift. We need to all celebrate success! It will help stave off burnout.
3. Realize failure is real and can destroy morale. Think about ways to help people who have failed. Give them a light load or some easy wins to help them get back on the right track mentally. Take an afternoon off to take focus off the business for a while.

If you get burned out it could spell the end of your business. If your employees get burned out, it could spell the end of customers! Be proactive.