A Follow Up: Best Self Journal

A few months ago, I wrote a post about the Best Self Journal and how they used social media marketing to get me to buy one. You can read that post here.

Starting the Best Self Journal a few months ago was a little bit out of my comfort zone. I do not normally use journals or paper products to push me to improve. Also with a name like Best Self Journal it kinda feels like a product sold after a cheesy motivational seminar.

via GIPHY

But I have been very pleased with how the Best Self Journal has helped me improve and challenged me. At this current moment in my life, I am in the process of scaling a marketing firm. This means lots of work, lots of time, and lots of different clients. Trying to grow enough cash flow to bring teammates on is exhausting on the front end. It’s really easy for my time to get away from me.

This affects all areas of my life: work, home, fitness, and community. I think the Journal has helped me stay focused on many of these areas better and helped me keep perspective. These things will help me from, ‘living in a van down by the river‘, hopefully!

Let’s talk specifics:

    1. Scheduling: The biggest thing that the BSJ has helped me with is time blocking out my day. I am really good with schedules and meetings. But how I spend the time around those usually was just spent putting out fires or whatever is the most urgent thing on my plate. This prevented me from making progress in balanced ways across my schedule. It also allowed me to get distracted from projects that I was already working on. The BSJ uses 30 minute time chunks through the day to help you block out time.Usually, at the end of the workday, I take a few minutes and look through my Asana task manager and my meetings for tomorrow and plan out my work schedule for the next day. I am able to allocate time for each of the projects I need to work on and even constrain email checking to specific time periods. This factor alone has increased my productivity considerably. For no other reason, other than this calendar function, this book is worth buying for me.
    2. Targets: Causing me to set targets for the day, 1-3 super important things to get done for the day, has allowed me to rest easier at night. Sometimes during the rush, it can be easy to forget how much you accomplished during the day and feel like you need to continue working all night. With these targets, it has given me the ability to look back and see that I have accomplished something and that it is okay to rest (at least occasionally). Conversely, if I have gotten distracted or lazy during the day, the targets can push me to get back on track and get important things accomplished even if takes a little extra time.
    3. Goal setting. I traditionally like big picture goals, like buying a house, but am not good at milestone goals to get there or progress toward those goals. The BSJ has a great goal mapping and follow up system. For example, every day, you write out your goals for the 13-week session. This helps to keep the goals on top of your mind. I am currently behind on two my three goals for this session, but it’s not because I have forgotten about them!

The way it breaks down your goals into steps and habits to accomplish them has been very helpful to me toward working on these goals and helping to become more of the person and business that I want to be.

 

How To Respond to Facebook’s News Feed Change

You may have heard about the Facebook news feed change. Here’s the announcement.
The question for those of us who create social media content is: now what?
The full truth is we don’t really know. We’ll watch as Facebook implements their new algorithm to see how it impacts our organic reaches and watch our own Newsfeeds transform.
In the meantime, I believe there are several key items to consider as we create content:
1. The death of organic reach has arrived. Organic reach has been dying for years. This is why I have said for a while now that Facebook marketing plans without a budget is not sufficient/modern. For example, I don’t take social clients without a decent social ads budget. Organic reach has dropped a lot over the last couple of years and this might be the death blow. That doesn’t mean organic reach will go away all together. But I believe it’s safe to say that it will no longer be enough to depend on organic reach to get your content to your customers.
2. Bad content will further restrict your pages reach. The restriction of organic reach will most likely effect pages that produce bad content. I think those who don’t do a good job at social media will be hurt worse than the good players. I explained myself in greater detail in my previous blog regarding this announcement. Facebook’s goal is to keep more people on Facebook and that means providing the best experience possible. So if the Facebook algorithm detects that people don’t like your posts on a regular basis, you will be punished for it. I think this is also a reaction to the polarized political content and *legitimate* fake news. The danger of Facebook is that we are building houses on rented land. I think this will most adversely affect small businesses who do a bad job with social media or do not know how to use social ads effectively.
3. Ad costs will continue to increase. Facebook’s ad inventory on its newsfeed filled up last summer and they were looking for new ad revenue. Facebook will continue to place ads because it’s their revenue stream. The cost may go up to weed out some ads but overall I don’t see a change in this coming quickly. Over time expect ad costs to continue to rise. Remember above all else, create quality content so that your customers are excited about the value your posts give them.

Engagement Bait: Big Facebook Update

via Facebook

 

Engagement Bait, what is it and how does it affect you?

 

Engagement Bait is a term that Facebook has rolled out that indicates how to get people to engage with your content via comments or likes. The graphic above shows three examples of engagement bait. Here is a list of five types of engagement bait:

  1. Vote Baiting: Asking users to vote via reaction to encourage engagement.
  2. React Baiting: Do this thing to show us what you think or get a result.
  3. Share Baiting: Share this post to enter a contest.
  4. Tag Baiting: Tag a friend who looks like this
  5. Comment baiting: Comment ‘yes’ if you love pie, or comment to enter

Why do people do this? It helps game the almighty algorithm. How? Well the Facebook Algorithm looks at how people are interacting with posts to see if it is any good. If people are sharing, liking, and commenting on a post, it signals to the algorithm that people want to see this post. So by artificially calling people to interact with a post instead of them interacting on their own free will because of the awesomeness of the content, they can get a boost in the newsfeed.

Why make this change? Facebook has two things it needs to do. Keep you on Facebook and make money. Engagement Bait is dangerous for both of those. To keep you on Facebook it needs to be a great experience and you need to see things that are interesting to you. Most of the time, items that are engagement bait are not that, they are spammy. Secondly, Facebook needs to continue to shorten the reach of pages so that they can sell ads. If you can get noticed by gaming the algorithm, you may be less likely to spend money.

Why is this now a big deal for marketers? Because now, Facebook is going to penalize you for doing this. Up to this point you could do engagement bait for posts or most likely contests and never have a problem. That is what is changing. Facebook is going to start actively demoting pages that break these rules. Not just the posts that break the rules, but the pages that do it. The Pages that break these rules will see the organic reach and paid reach drop even more if they break these rules. If they break these rules repeatedly, the may even see their page suspended.

What should you do now?

  1. Make better content. Make content people want to interact with.
  2. Spend money on reach: You need to have a Facebook boosting budget for your company. If you do not, you are living in the past!

For more information visit Facebook’s announcement. 

Social Media Win: Haltom Home Team

And what a win it was! The Haltom Home Team had the most viral video in Jackson (probably) ever. The Haltoms brought in Austin and Colin from That’s Classic Media, to create the “Relaxin in Jackson” video that went viral in fall of 2017. Check it out:

Though not super familiar with their careers, Austin and Colin are clearly super talented with both video production and music. I thought these guys looked familiar and then I realized they hit it big with a Nashville themed song a few years ago.

When I say it went viral, it has at least 406,000 views on Facebook. That excludes any dark posts that might have gone with advertising. More than 3,000 likes and reactions and more than 6 thousand shares! Those are unheard of statistics in Jackson.

What can we learn from this?

  1. Investing in content is smart. The Haltoms knew if they wanted to make an impact they were going to need to hire help. They found a great team to work with. Now, I am sure they also paid handsomely for this video, but to bring in experts, it costs money!
  2. The content they used was not necessarily reality based but their jobs are easier when people are excited about the territory where they are selling property.
  3. This should give them a great start in increasing name recognition. Not only did all those people just see the Haltoms name and see the team on camera, they interacted with a video from their page. This is a great opportunity to follow up with retargeting advertising based on that video interaction. They started to create a warm market and they have an opportunity to increase that brand recognition for a lower dollar amount by targeting folks who watched a portion of that video.
  4. Social Media Content goes quickly: The video went viral which is amazing. The next level of that is to continue to put out high-quality content. It would have been great to have a behind the scenes video to release on the back end of this video to target folks with. Social Media content is not just a one-time investment, it is a reoccurring investment.

Way to go Haltom’s and Austin and Colin!

Customer Spotlight: Care Center

We love nonprofits at Adelsberger Marketing. My (Kevin) background is from nonprofits. It’s even better when that nonprofit does work to expand the work of the kingdom of God! The Care Center fills a very specific and important niche in Jackson and West Tennessee. We had the pleasure to work with Nathan Young, Director of the Care Center and his board members to create a new website and two videos for their Christmas Banquet.

You can check out the website here: https://www.carecenterofjackson.org/  (Photography provided by www.leleandbeane.com)

You can watch one of the videos here:

If you are interested in getting more involved with the Care Center, check out the “Ways to Help” page on their website.

Our Values: Doing the Right Thing

Blog #4 in 4 Part Series. Read the series from the beginning.

Doing the right thing is always the right thing. Enough said. Right? But our human brains start spinning when it comes to actually doing the right thing. Because doing the right thing isn’t necessarily always the easiest thing. Doing the right thing isn’t always the fun thing. Or the most efficient, cost-effective, or even the most impressive thing.

But doing the right thing is always the right thing – especially when no one is watching. We all mess up so we let’s go ahead and put it out there. We as individuals and as a company are not perfect. We’ve made mistakes along the way. Being able to own your mistakes is vital.

In the world of social media and digital marketing, it could be easy to tell the customers what they want to hear instead of doing the thing that is best for their business. We strive to always put into action the plan that is right for the client, even if it’s not what’s best or easiest for us. Ultimately, if it’s bad for our customer, it will end up being bad for us also. We strive to be a reputable company that you trust with your business.

So that means we’ve taken some financial hits along the way. We may not do this every time, but there have been times when a client has approved an item for print. Once printed, they noticed a mistake and we have covered the cost and labor of reprinting.

It also means that we’ve turned clients away or referred them to other services. Our social media plan may not align with what’s best for your needs at this moment. And that’s fine. We’ll do what we can to get you pointed in the right direction rather than force you into a contract with us.

So even when the right thing is difficult, we hope it’s the choice that we make. Not every company would be willing to say that they strive to do the right thing. But who wants to do business with those guys? Not me. I want to do business with people and brands that I trust. That’s why I strive daily to build a reliable business as well.

Our Values: Relationships

Blog #3 in 4 Part Series
Click here to read from the beginning.

 

We love everything about small businesses! We love learning their history, getting to know the owners, and helping them grow. We love small business so much that we started this one!

We know that the key to business is relationships. We believe that once you are an Adelsberger Marketing customer, you are in the family (though occasionally you might be the that awkward uncle that doesn’t come to Christmas parties anymore because of what happened in ’98.)

For example, I know WAY too much about pet cremation. That’s because Turner Pet Cremation was one of my first customers. In order to tell the story of their business to their customers, I needed to learn everything about them. I learned how they operated, how they handled their products, and what the owners valued. They, in turn, opened up their lives and their business to me. We built a relationship through working together.

Whoever coined the phrase “business isn’t personal” must not have owned, operated, or founded a business. One of the foundations of business is relationships. Your relationships with your customers, employees, competition, office suite neighbors, and vendors. Each one of these relationships is a personal relationship that we don’t take lightly. You are trusting us with one of the most personal possessions you have – your business. And we will work hard to build a relationship with you so that everyone’s business will succeed.

Our Values: Speed

To start this blog, I thought I would google the definition of “speed” to see what Webster had to say about the word. And my internet spun and spun without loading the page. I found myself increasingly irritated that I was still waiting for an answer.

I wanted speed.We value speed and have to come to expect a “faster speed” than even our parents’ generations ever imagined possible.

Which is why “speed” is one of the tenets of our company. There are two ways that speed applies to us. The first is the way we help you communicate and work with your clients. The second is the way that we communicate and work with you.

First, we know your customers also expect you to communicate and do business with them in a speedy fashion. We’re a society that wants updates and news instantly. We don’t go online to see what deals have already happened. We rarely even go online to see what deals are happening next week. We want to know what’s happening right now. We expect social media to tell update us instantly without making us wait.

With expectations that high from your customers, it’s difficult for a busy business owner to run the day-to-day operations as well as communicate to current and future customers well. We are here to help you communicate regularly and effectively to your client base so that you stay on the forefront of their mind.

For example, we have one customer who is a chef at a local restaurant. They make their weekend features on Thursday for us to photograph and record. We then spend Thursday evening editing, preparing, and posting because those features need to be posted before lunchtime on Friday.

Second, we want to complete your project in a speedy fashion. That doesn’t mean we rush through it haphazardly. We budget enough time to complete it well. From the beginning of a project, we do our best to communicate to you the realistic amount of time it will take to complete your project. Most of the time, a project requires your input. So we rely on you to return us the same favor of speed.

That also means we don’t let our emails sit unread or unanswered. Our phones get answered and our voicemails are returned. We value and respect your time. We know that you’re a busy business owner; so are we! In our relationship with you, we expect that we will respect each other’s time. That includes keeping you up-to-date on the progress of your project along the way. When we work together, your customers stay informed and in the know about you and your products.

Our Values: Fun Professionalism

This is the second blog in a five-blog series. To start from the beginning, click here.

Our team at Adelsberger Marketing are professionals first. We understand that your business is important and, in the case of many small businesses, intertwined into every aspect of your family’s life. We are thankful for you as a customer and will work diligently to complete the job to the best of our abilities.

At the same time, we are not robots. We like to have fun. When responding to an email or text, you will probably receive a gif at some point in the conversation. (For those who don’t know what a gif is: a gif is a short animation, often with a caption. Many gifs come from pop culture references and include celebrities) Oh, and we pronounce “gif” with a hard “g” rather than a “j” – because it’s not “jiff” like the peanut butter.

But don’t think for a second that we are not serious about your business. Helping your business succeed is how our business succeeds. We literally would not be here without you. We love getting to know you, your services, products, and passions. We then make it our passion to communicate your passion to your clients.

That’s what’s so fun about being in the world of creative content. Social media is a way to communicate creatively to your customers. It’s okay to have fun along the way. We laugh and joke but we take your project seriously.

Adding Value: from Ticket Stubs to Car Mechanics

“Value.” That’s one of those often overused words that companies throw at their consumers in an attempt to make them feel better about opening their wallet.

Fast food chains used to have the “Dollar Menu.” Everywhere you went, you could find a backlit panel offering smaller hamburgers and small fries, each for $1. But it’s been replaced by the “Value Menu.” But what qualifies $1.49 instead of a $1.00 as a “good value?”

What does “value” mean to you as a consumer and to us as a business owner? By definition, “value” is “the regard that something is held to deserve” or “the importance, worth, or usefulness of something.”

We can assign value to anything from a rare coin to a ticket stub that was from a special night.

At Adelsberger Marketing, our team strives to add value to your company. After all, it’s not worth hiring us if we don’t provide value.

There are several areas in my life in particular that I assign value to hiring a professional. When it comes to my vehicle, I could spend an entire weekend watching YouTube videos in order to diagnose the squeaking sound from a belt. I could even drive around town and find the part. And, with enough sweat-effort, I might even be able to put on the new belt. But it wouldn’t be a pleasant experience. Fixing cars is not on the list of things I do well. Therefore, a trusted car mechanic is extremely valuable to me. I want my vehicle to run reliably so I depend on them to keep me on the road. They are experts which means they can diagnose and repair my car quicker, easier, and better than I could.

The same idea is true when it comes to how you communicate with your clients. You could put any old website together so that you can say you have a “web presence.” You could even create a Facebook page. But, when not properly utilized, neither are of much “value” to you. That’s where we come in. We take the tools you already have and improve on your business’ strengths.

We seek to bring value whether we are speaking at your event, designing a business card for you, or helping you launch something for the first time. If we provide you value, we know you will come back and you will tell your friends about us.

Over the next four blogs, we’re going to share four of our “tenets” of how we do business each day. It’s our hope that, through these four ideals, we will be able to better communicate to you how our team can add value to your business.