How to be a “brand community”

Article: Moana Lutton

Humans are social creatures. Once upon a time we lived in communities where values of commitment, mutuality and trust kept us in closer, warmer, more harmonious types of bonds between one another. As our journey from ‘social member’ (of the community) to ‘social media’ advances, businesses often forget that marketing on social media still needs to perform in a social way. By keeping your eye on the socially-relevant prize, you create a platform rich with communal activity.  

Creating a “brand community” will widen your funnel, attract positive press, build brand loyalty, ultimately convert more customers and help lead you to the Social Media Marketing Jackpot Prize… the on-sharing of your content!

Here are some tips for curating a community from your content.

Involve other benefactors

Develop relationships with those who would benefit from bringing your audience and theirs together. Keep it social and natural, and choose those who align with your brand values.

A great example of this is successfully promoting a live music event, like The Courtyard Club. The event cross-pollinates many benefactors by involving multiple organisations as co-hosts and connecting the venue, the artists and a selection of local radio programs.

Try: The same principles used in common-practice Instagram collaboration are applicable to Facebook, too.

Make shareable assets

You need to create stuff that your target audience will love and want to share.

Visual content is the best way to grab an audience’s attention and is highly shareable. Create albums that engage your audience – whether it be photos of customers or unique stylings of your products or services. Easy-to-use apps such as Ripl and Filmora can help you create super effective slideshows and videos.

And make sure your creations are accessible for everyone in your brand community too, not just singular parties.

Be inclusive

Factors such as gender, race, language, income, sexuality, age, religion, ability, and ethnicity need to be considered in modern marketing.

When copywriting use simplistic language, neutral pronouns, don’t assume knowledge and be wary of cultural references and metaphors so as not to confuse or insult your audience. If a brand is non-inclusive, the public can (and will!) notice. Take the poorly-timed Levi’s Campaign which saw them under heavy social criticism for choosing to deploy its rich music-industry aesthetic in a strictly menswear campaign, excluding the representation of women and non-gender conforming people in the music scene.

Generosity

As a brand it is incredibly important to be generous and support others – even your competitors.

No, this will not detract from the value of your brand or divert your customers elsewhere. Rather, it shows you are a community leader, confident in your brand. Nobody relates to the person at the party who spends the whole time talking about themselves. Be social!

TRY: Adding other events to your Event’s Tab, share the good news of others and support ventures that align with your brand values.

Hike Up Your Visibilty and Engagement.

Recent algorithm changes, affecting organic serving of content to individual Facebook newsfeeds, are openly prioritising video. The preference to video is in direct response to overwhelming preferences of audiences in their engagement with the video medium.

Much of this is aimed at users via mobile device interactions; 90% of daily user interactions take place on mobile devices. Video allows for transportable, easy-to-consume and potentially highly sophisticated product communication, and develops both brand identification and product knowledge in target audiences.

 “…a 360% increase in videos populating everyone’s news feeds represents a significant uptick and trend.”

http://mediakix.com/2016/08/facebook-video-statistics-everyone-needs-know/

Decrease Your Overall Marketing Spend.

Case Study:

Comparison of two, consecutive 42 day Facebook campaigns (2016/17) saw a 376% increase in reach with the utilisation of video. Budget for paid advertising was reduced by 90%. This trend was reflected across several other campaigns, reducing annual advertising spend by $8000 and delivering a 600% flow-on to web traffic.

Case Study Comparison: Same Event Campaign run without, then with, video.

Video Has Branding Advantages, and Durabilty.

The use of video across digital platforms reinforces brand consistency, with clear visual style branding. Alongside this, video engages the individual at a more personal level, evoking a sense of transparency, generosity and approachability – persuasive factors in driving customers to a direct brand interaction, including on-sharing, which has an exponential impact on audience reach.

The lifespan of video assets, significantly more enduring than other cultural products, can be utilised across multiple contexts with little to no adjustment.

Creating Effective Video Content.

As with all content creation, the best approach will be one that identifies your brand as authentically as possible. Production can be as simple, or elaborate as your budget allows, but if you’re going DIY, use your smartphone! The on-board camera, coupled with a host of downloadable in-app tech, can see you creating video content which speaks to your brand, in the most effective and visible way.

Need More Help? We have a workshop for that.

Do Re Media has the perfect Workshop for you! Our Smartphone-ography – Video Workshop will unlock all the hidden wonders of your smartphone, seeing you create branded, well constructed video to get on board with an algorithm assisted boost ion your online visibility.

Note: The Smartphone-ography – Video Workshop also has a Photography and Graphic Design counterpart. These workshops are typically run together as a whole day immersive, and you get a discount for attending both.

How fast has this year gone already? I can’t believe it’s May! And if you’ve been hanging out in the Instagram sphere, you’ll have noticed some HUGE changes. All of which you can use to your advantage when it comes to connecting with your tribe (community) and converting them into customers.

1. Algorithms – So previously the Instagram feed was all in real time and you were seeing posts of who you were following WHEN they were posting them. Super cool. Downfall: you’d miss out on seeing majority of who you were following because you’d be asleep or at work for some of that time. The theory behind the addition of the algorithm, is that you now see more of what you click on or what you’re interested in. The more you click, the more you see kinda deal.

2. Instagram Stories – the takeover from Snapchat. Found in the top left of your profile and across the top of the News Feed. Such a great way to give your tribe some insight into your product, life, technique and/or creative process. LOVE InstaStories because it’s an easy way to be authentic and genuine with your brand.

3. Instagram Live – another fantastic way to connect with your audience and what better way to do that but live and unfiltered. Great for feedback and answering questions plus allowing the feeling of being right there with you. Great for events and workshops.

4. Instagram profile links – these details have been added recently so now you can also add your email, phone and address as a link on your business profile. But this is only for business accounts, not personal.

5. Instagram ads – you now don’t HAVE to have a Facebook account to pay for advertising on Instagram. It can all be done in the app. However, there are more specific parameters if you advertise through Facebook. Promote individual posts by tapping on the blue Promote button, bottom right of your post.

6. Multiple photos in one post – You can now post more than one photo as an individual post. Great for showing a series of photos in one post and doesn’t clog up people’s news feeds.

7. Boomerang – a fun video option that does what it says. Boomerang’s a moment in time and plays it over and over. Really great to showcase moments. Only available in InstaStories or Direct Messaging but you CAN then save to your phone and post as a regular post.

8. Video lengths – these have increased over time from 15 seconds to 1 minute. Brilliant.

9. Direct messaging – used to connect to individual’s (just like Facebook Messenger) or influencers by talking directly to them. You also have the option to send photos, boomerangs and video’s as a direct message that disappear once they’ve seen it.

Stay tuned for our workshops on Instagram or subscribe to our email to find out more.

See you soon!
Delilah Walsh, Creative Director @ Do Re Media 

Things sure have changed over the past 20 years! Reaching your audience as a musician has never been easier…or has it? Here are a few tips we’ve learnt on marketing your music in the digital space.

Social Media Platforms
If you’re just starting out, Facebook is a great place to start. Create a band/music page if you haven’t already and start by inviting your family and friends. You really

Do you need a website? A website is your shopfront. If you don’t have anything to sell, don’t bother spending a bunch of money on this until you’ve got stuff to put in your shop i.e. merch, recordings, signed teaspoons, records.

Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and Vimeo can all follow but only set up what you can maintain. If that’s only one platform, stick to it.

Content
Start posting content to your platform. Think outside the box. It’s getting harder and harder to get noticed online so you need to catch your audience attention and create something share worthy! Likes are great but AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT is even better.

We’re a huge sucker for video because it’s is a GREAT way to showcase your story and what goes on behind the scenes as a creative. Showing the time and effort that goes into your work is a great way for your audience to understand value as well. We have a great list of Content Ideas for Musicians here if you get stuck.

Building Community: Audience and Industry Relationships/Development
This is SO important. The creative industries (and many others for that matter) are all built on relationship, community and collaboration. Are you plugged into your community? Who are your people? Are you plugged into your industry scene? Are you engaging with your audience online and at shows? Do you know where they’re hanging out online? Which “venues” or Facebook groups are they in? Are you liking other bands’ Facebook pages as your own? Here’s how:

WHY? It shows those you like that you’re supporting them as a creative, it shows others your interests as a musician and shows you’re plugged into community. There’s no use being in a music silo (especially here in Perth, it’s a small town!)

Accessibility
Giving your audience, industry and key stakeholders easy access to your music is KEY! Why would you make it hard for them to hear your craft? There are a bunch of online platforms you can upload your music to including Soundcloud, CD Baby, Bandcamp and Tune core. Be brave! Even if it’s demo stuff. Getting your tunes online will form a part of your Musician Ninja Pack…

Musician Ninja Pack
These are great tools for you to have online when you’re applying for festivals, releasing music, talking to promoters and getting out there. At the end of the day you’re running a creative business, so looking professional is pretty important.

1. Bio – your bio should be in several formats and lengths. 100 words, 250 words, 500 words. Never send a word doc. Always PDF before sending and send on appropriate letter head (perhaps with your logo?)
2. Media Release – keep this one up-to-date as you start to progress on your creative journey adding your accomplishments as you go. Media releases shouldn’t be much more than a page. If you’re stuck on how to write one, maybe google it.
3. Your music – get it up and digitalised! Soundcloud and Bandcamp are great places to start.
4. One Stop Shop: One Page Link and Bandpage are awesome websites where you can actually store all of this information in a central location. BandPage is free and also connects to Facebook.
5. Invoice header with your logo, ABN and up-to-date contact details.

Be persistent. Be patient.
Insert any one of the following: Rome wasn’t build in a day. If you build it, they will come. One day at a time.

If you’re in this for the long haul, keep on keeping on. To build anything online, takes time. To build real relationships, takes time. The music industry, just like many other industries, is built on the relationships and connections you make (both online and in real life). How do you make real connections? By going to other people’s gigs, talking to people in the industry, volunteering at local events and supporting other creatives in your town/city/country.

Outsource
Chances are, you also have a day job and can’t do it all yourself. Or you probably could but “burnout” might be your middle name. If you can’t do something, get someone else to do it. If you don’t know, ask. We’ve got to get out of the silo of “if I ask, then people will know I don’t know!”. Chances are they didn’t know at some stage as well.

Yes (insert shameless self-promotion) sorting out your digital marketing timeline and strategy is exactly what we do here at Do Re Media. We can create content for your next blog post, design a digital marketing plan for your next EP, create a social media calendar for your content or give you a lesson on HOW the hell all this works. Head to our workshops page for the latest workshop dates!

SO what are you waiting for?!

Delilah Walsh, Digital Communications

I had too many tabs open and it was doing my head in.

The constant noise of demands and requests and things unfinished and things yet to do. I knew it, but I didn’t know how to stop it. I thought I was being responsible, living a full life so that nothing was wasted.

But that was silly thinking.

No one can sustain the pace that we set for ourselves and measure ourselves by without having to make conscious choices to detach for a season, frequently. So that’s what I did. I switched off.

I turned off the:

• start eating raw foods/diet tab
• pray for my kids tab
• clean out my study tab
• check the notifications on facebook & instagram tab (important to do when you’re starting up a new venture)
• get the kids’ uniforms ready for school tab
• research my creative pursuits tab
• write more songs & do another album tab
• read more books tab
• plan writing my book tab
• pastor my church tab
• pastor the people tab
• attend to all the odd jobs that need doing tab
• return my emails & answer every text tab
• invest in important friendships tab
• run the bible college tab
• do more exercise tab
• make appointments with everyone tab
• …be a person tab

I closed them all.

For one week.

I literally wrote them all down, put them all in a file and closed it. I walked away from it all for one week and simply existed. I had a holiday some might say, without having to document every pic that I took on social media. How refreshing and liberating!

I enjoyed my moment. I left my physical surroundings and retreated to another location, amongst trees and rivers and the ocean. I smelt the rain on the earth. I read whole books in one day. Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic (what a treat!). I took photos for the simple pleasure of recalling memories, I played board games with my children and watched television til late. I ate chocolate and laughed with my husband. I mused and thought and considered and stepped back. Stepped back from the life I had created.

The whirlwind.

The too busy.

The crazy pace.

I’ve told myself that I have perspective. But having nothing on my agenda for one week has now given me true perspective. I have had the ability to de-clutter and simplify like I haven’t been able to for a long, long while. Yes, I want to steward my life well and the things that have been put in my hand, by giving my best to every inch of my day, but that kind of intensity is unsustainable in the long run and sometimes you just have to switch it all off, kind of like re-booting your system.

I even missed church.

That’s ok. It’s ok to do it sometimes in order for the big picture to become clearer again. In order to regain clarity over what should be taking my time and my emotional substance. Since returning, it’s like I’m firing on all cylinders. My vision is sharp. My head is not muddled with all the things that need to happen. I am poised for adventure and advancement. Without even trying, my diet has rebooted, my study is now clean, my life is literally in an A4 folder.

You won’t see me as much on social media.

But I’m still here.

Is it time for you to reboot your life?

Written by Perth Creative and Singer/Songwriter Cate Williams

Originally published on Cate Williams blog here

Once upon a time there were three little pigs. One pig built his business brand online made only from paid advertising while the second pig built his business brand online made only from social media. They built their houses very quickly and then sang and danced all day because they were lazy. The third little pig worked hard all day and built his business brand online from a website and a blog. He then filled them with the richest of content, and reinforced both with analytics.

A big bad wolf saw the two little pigs while they danced and played and thought, “What juicy tender meals they will make!” He chased the two pigs and they ran and hid in their houses. The big bad wolf went to the first house and huffed and puffed and blew the house down in minutes, for the pig had maxed-out his credit card to pay for his ads. The frightened little pig ran to the second pig’s house that was made of social media. The big bad wolf now came to this house and huffed and puffed and blew the house down in hardly any time, for it was wasn’t really the little pig’s house at all – it was owned by a third-party corporation located in America, and the terms of use had changed earlier that afternoon. Now, the two little pigs were terrified and ran to the third pig’s house that was made of the reinforced website and blog.

The big bad wolf tried to huff and puff and blow the house down, but he could not. He kept trying for hours but the house was very strong and the little pigs were safe inside. He tried to enter through the chimney but the third little pig boiled a big pot of analytic insights and kept it below the chimney. The wolf fell into it and died, just as the data had predicted.

The two little pigs now felt sorry for having been so lazy. They too built their business brands online with strong websites and blogs and lived happily ever after.

By Tim Martin. Blog first published at Net:101.

Tim Martin is the founder and principal trainer at NET:101, Australia’s largest social media educator.

1. Download the Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat and Pinterest apps to your phone so you can spend an hour in bed just after you wake up checking if anyone has liked, added, tweeted, shared anything to do with you. This way, time slips away and before you know it, you’re late for work…again.
2. Keep your phone next to your bed so you can check it throughout the night.
3. Make sure you take your phone to really important and pivotal moments in your life like dates, anniversaries, birthdays, funerals and meetings so you can tweet, snapchat and share it with all 789 of your closest mates online.
4. As soon as you get to work, open your Facebook page.
5. As soon as you get home from work, open your Facebook page.
6. Take your phone on holidays with you so you can make sure everyone is seeing what you’re doing and you waste your time on holidays online instead of actually being being away from home and getting all in the face of the moment you’re in.
7. Remember to turn on all your notifications so you can check your phone as soon as any form of beep, vibration, pop up or email comes through so you can respond straight away. Personal time and space are way over-rated.
8. Open your Instagram account. Close it. Re open it. Close it. Repeat.
9. Open Twitter. Scroll. Repeat.
10. Netflix.

The struggle is real.

Growing with your audience is tricky these days. In the days of face-to-face analogue business, we knew our customers by their first names, we had conversations with them about their lives, which often led to them being open and honest about what they thought about our product.

Of course if your business has a trade location then you are still able to have this genuine exchange. But how do we replicate this transaction in the digital world? How can we shape our digital product to suit them better?

Data

Let’s take a look at your data. This will tell you basic information about your demographic. There are lots of analytics tools out there for you to use on each and every platform. (Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Website)

Today’s blog isn’t as much about finding the information out, it’s more of a ‘what the heck do I do with it’ scenario.

Demographics

Knowing the age and gender of your audience is helpful. If you discover your online audience for your macramé kit is suddenly blossoming amongst the tween market, or over 30-45’s male market, you might approach your strategy differently to be more inclusive of them, or even direct a concurrent campaign toward them. Doing a bit of research on what is in your demographic cultural environment may also be helpful in developing product lines or new product use, designing packaging or simply using language that relates to them.

Jumping on a trend can get you access to new demograhics

Visitor Behaviour

Knowing how your visitors/followers flow and engage with your page is the best way to design effective content. This includes times of day your traffic is highest as well as which pages are being visited.

Topics

If you can see that you had a spike in interest around a particular topic, do a bit of research for what else is out there on this topic. Do you have a way of positioning your product within this market, with hashtags, or becoming active in comment? Are there businesses or advocates you can line up as your influencers within these marketplaces?

Video Views

We know video is king, but how are yours doing? Are people are watching it all the way through or are they scrolling away after the first 10 seconds? If you notice that a page or person is always liking on your videos, see if you can do a bit of investigation into who they are and what else they like. You may stumble into a whole network of brand alignment  opportunities you never knew were there.

Likes

Obviously things that garnered lots of likes is good feedback. But what was it that helped this happen? Keep a note of your best performing posts, what subject they were around, what time they were posted. If you can identify trends which help you with being more strategic you can take out a lot of guess work. But note that this is not a set-and-forget deal, trends can change daily!

Comment and Shares

The ultimate goal of engagement. Whatever you are doing to illicit this…keep it up. Comment and sharing are direct invitations for you to see the person interacting with you as an advocating individual. When people step out from behind the security of anonymity to publicly show themselves on your page, or share yours to their page, be sure to greet or thank them in the same way you would if they knocked on your front door. Try to personalise this as much as possible from information you can glean from their personal or business page. (But without being creepy. Do not go with “Thanks for the share! Btw we have the same Ikea bedside tables!)

Yes, it’s all terribly time-consuming. Yes, it can be a bit boring at first. But what you’ll find is you will become more deeply connected in the community around your brand. And THAT’S putting the SOCIAL in your Social Media.

If you feel you need to immerse yourself further in the world of strategic analytics or anything social media and beyond, sign up for updates about our online courses.

Mel Anastas, Do Re Media Consultant and Creative

Melanie Anastas specialises in inciting cultural growth and change through any form of media she can lay her hands on. She lives in Perth, Western Australia.

I’ve entered the world of instagram ads the past couple months and I’ve learnt a few things along the way so I thought I’d share with you guys. As you know Facebook owns Instagram, so setting up your ad audience, content and creative is all done via the Ads Manager on Facebook. If you haven’t already had a go at Facebook ads, you can find them here (see below):

However, there are a few lil tricks you need to have up your sleeve to place an ad on Instagram.

You need a Facebook account to use Instagram ads

Sounds obvious I know but it’s the only way that you are able to start an Instagram ad campaign. You need to have a personal account and a page that you’re wishing to link to Instagram as well. All very linked and convoluted but if you’re in this deep you’re already playing the Facebook game.

Your Facebook Page must be connected to your Instagram Account in order for it to work

This is really easy to do. Head to Settings in the top right hand side of the page you wish to connect. You can find it here:

Once you’re on your Settings page, click on Instagram Ads in the left hand column. A pop up will come up. Enter your Instagram login details. You’re logged in! Once you’re approved, you’re good to go onto the next step of setting up your content, creative and

There are only certain campaign objectives you can choose

The next step is setting up all of your parameters in your ad campaign. So you’ve clicked on Manage Ads or found your way to the Facebook Ads Manager page. On this page, Facebook isn’t very clear as to which objective you can choose to create an ad on Instagram. This is the list of objectives that support Instagram Ads. Choose one of these to suit your needs and continue on to the next page.

• Boost your posts (Page Post Engagement)
• Send people to your website (Clicks to Website)
• Increase conversions on your website (Website Conversions)
• Get Installs of your app (Mobile App Installs)
• Increase engagement in your app (Mobile App Engagement)
• Get video views (Video Views)

Define your Audience and Budget

Select your Ad Creative and Text
If you only want your ad to appear on Instagram (not Facebook) make sure the Instagram options are the only ones selected in the Ad Preview section on the right hand side.

N.B. Don’t forget to include relevant hashtags in the text

Click on Place Ad

Ta daa! That’s pretty much it! Why not do a test run and experiment with it?

Facebook has it’s own trouble shooting help centre should you need.

Delilah Walsh, Do Re Media Consultant and Creative

Storytelling seems to be the latest buzzword, and it’s here to stay. Improve your storytelling skills to keep up in business.

1. Be clear on your ‘why’

People connect with a story. It’s why videos go viral. If you think back to all the lectures and talks you’ve been to, it isn’t the facts and figures that stand out in your mind or change your thinking. It’s the story behind the speaker, it is their ‘why’. The next generation of employees want purpose driven organisations, they won’t connect to a company with a brand and communications based on increasing share profit, they will connect to the why.

2. Be clear in your impact

That ‘why’ needs to show positive impact. According to Forbes, “Millennials want to know how they will make a positive difference in the world if they join your business”. We have a growth of B-Corporations, Social Enterprises as well as start-ups focused on building social impact models. What impact is your business having and what partnerships can you create to improve your positive impact? Build this into your story. I loved walking into a restaurant the other night and seeing the Who Gives a Crap brand in their bathrooms.

3. Know everyones stories, practice empathy constantly

I recently ran a fundraising event with a local organisation called Barefaced Stories. It was overwhelmingly successful, beyond my expectations. We had 8 female storytellers sharing things about their life, something that had made an impact on them.

The night was an interesting reflection on what happens in peoples lives. You may not know your colleague just found out his wife has cancer, or that another’s husband was made redundant. Barefaced Stories tagline is ‘refreshingly honest, bold and brutally frank’. What goes on outside of our LinkedIn/ Facebook/ white-picket fence lives affect our stress, happiness and productivity at work.

While you shape your organisation’s story, don’t forget to be aware of everyone else’s stories. Make empathy and compassion a priority to create a positive working environment.

Storytelling is compassionate communication, it boosts connections between people and is a vital skill when we need to stand out from the crowd.

Blog first published at Rate My Space by Samantha Hall.

Samantha Hall is co-founder at SimplyCarbon, Rate My Space and a university Research Fellow. She is committed to building strong business outcomes for sustainability.