Tag: social media marketing

Social

How to Conduct a Social Media Competitive Analysis in 5 Easy Steps

Post author By Rallio
Post date March 30, 2021

When you’re working to build your brand on social media, it’s important to know what your competitors are up to. A social media competitive analysis will help you see how you stack up against them and identify opportunities to get ahead.

The purpose of a social media competitive analysis is to reveal both your strengths and weaknesses on social platforms, as compared to your top competitors. You can use your social media competitive analysis to:

Identify your primary competitors on social media
See which platforms they’re on and how they’re using them
Stack-rank yourself against your competitors
Do more of what’s working well in terms of content, ads and lead generation
Determine any threats to your business on social media, i.e., any potential ways your competitors might outperform you
Eliminate underperforming content and ads
Add in new content and strategies to strengthen your position on social media

With billions of people around the world using social media, a social media competitive analysis can become an indispensable weapon in your social media arsenal. Follow the tips below to get it done in five easy steps.

“In 2020, an estimated 3.6 billion people were using social media worldwide, a number projected to increase to almost 4.41 billion in 2025.” — Statista

Step 1: Conduct Keyword Research

First and foremost, you’ll need to identify the major keywords for which you wish to rank in search engines. Google AdWords Keyword Planner is a useful free tool for developing a keyword inventory and determining which brands you’re competing against online. Keyword Planner will help you:

Analyze your website for keywords
Conduct keyword research
Narrow down the best terms for your brand
Estimate the level of competition for those keywords
Obtain bid estimates for each keyword so you can set an ad budget
Refine search campaigns as keywords shift over time

Even if you don’t advertise with Google AdWords, Keyword Planner will help you ensure that your social media competitive analysis is analyzing brands that are actually competitors of yours.

You can furthermore enter those keywords into search engines to get a feel for your online competition. Try clicking through to their websites to locate their social media profiles, and make a note of these links in a spreadsheet (or your social media competitive analysis tracker of choice).

Lastly, make sure you enter these keywords into the social media platforms themselves. For example, enter a search term into the Facebook search bar and filter by “Pages” to see which businesses are associated with those keywords. You might find the results differ from the search engines, so it’s important to conduct both types of searches.

Step 2: Hone In on Your Audience

Head over to your analytics pages on the social media platforms for insights into the types of brands your ideal audience follows. If any of these brands are similar to yours, you might consider them to be competitors.

However, make sure you check out any given page itself, along with their website, to make sure it’s a true competitor. In other words, some pages may be irrelevant.

Limit your list of competitors to five of the top threats, so you can be thorough with your social media competitive analysis. This way, you can stay focused on the brands with which you’re most closely competing on social media.

Step 3: Be a Spy

Now that you have your list of competitors, it’s time to snoop around on them. Click over to their social media pages and make note of:

Their number of followers
Levels of engagement on their posts, such as likes, comments and shares
How frequently they post and at what times of day
The types of content they’re posting
Any ads they’re running, viewable in the Ad Library under the Page Transparency section
The calls to action they’re using, such as Learn More or Shop Now buttons

Throughout this process, you will find that your competitors might not be doing certain things, too. Let’s say they have a large following but low engagement rates — posts with little to no comments or likes, for instance. Maybe they’re not running any ads, or the quality of the posts is poor.

You can learn more about the types of quality content you should be posting, plus why you should be advertising, in this post.

Step 4: Dig In to Your Data

Now that you have all this data, what do you do with it? Analyze it, of course. Here’s where your social media competitive analysis really starts to take shape.

Note that in this step, you’ll be performing a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis based on your own internal factors. We’ve detailed the SWOT process in How to Do a Social Media SWOT Analysis and Amplify Your Results. It should identify:

Strengths — Anything you’re doing well, like posting local content and engaging with your audience when they comment, direct-message you or submit online reviews; account for metrics like higher rates of engagement and/or followers
Weaknesses — Anything that could stand to improve, like posting higher-quality content and replying to your followers anytime they engage; account for metrics like lower rates of engagement and/or followers
Opportunities — Based on the numbers above, any areas where you could stand to improve
Threats — Accounts for any anticipated changes that could impact your competitive advantage, such as competitor with a rapid rate of growth on social media

Step 5: Revisit Your Social Media Competitive Analysis

In order to keep your social media competitive analysis current, you’ll need to revisit it periodically to update the information. There could be new competitors who come on the horizon, or otherwise non-threats that transform into bigger competitors.

With the help of technology, you can make sure you’re posting highly relevant, engaging content and keeping track of the conversations around your brand. As you do so, you’ll pull ahead of the competition and find that your social media competitive analysis evolves over time.

Rallio’s SaaS platform includes one dashboard with one login for all your social profiles, where you can keep track of all your content, ads, engagements and online reviews. Our inbox/outbox feature pulls in all your incoming and outgoing content and conversations. By organizing all this information in one place, your social media competitive analysis will become easier and easier.

By repeating this process regularly, you’ll be able to continue refining your strategy and creating the best content for your audience. And you’ll likely find that your competitors are the ones trying to keep up with you.

Rallio

Rallio | Powered by Ignite Visibility is a powerful SaaS platform designed to help multi-location and franchise brands streamline their social media, online reputation, and directory listings management. With AI-driven content creation, scheduling, and analytics, Rallio ensures brand consistency while allowing localized engagement. The platform also features employee advocacy tools, review generation, and seamless integration with social ecosystems, making it the ideal solution for brands looking to optimize their digital presence across multiple locations.

Tags social media marketing

Social

4 Big Reasons You Should Outsource Your Social Media Marketing

Post author By Rallio
Post date March 26, 2021

As a business owner, eventually you may come to the realization that you can’t do everything yourself. Late nights, early mornings and a nonstop busy schedule catch up with you at some point. That’s when you might decide to outsource your social media and certain other responsibilities.

Why outsource your social media? The real question is, why not let the experts do the heavy lifting of curating, posting, advertising, and engaging with your social media content?

To give you a better understanding of what exactly is entailed with creating an impactful social media presence, we’ve outlined the basics of each step in the process. The key point to keep in mind is that posting on social media is no longer a “nice to have” for any business today. Your customers expect to be able to find you, engage with you, and report customer service issues on social media platforms. So it’s imperative that you do it right and deliver on their expectations — or they’ll head over to one of your competitor’s pages instead.

Curating Content

In order to have a vibrant, engaging social media page for your business, you need great content to put on it. Photos and videos featuring you, your team members, your customers and your community are all perfect types of content that you should be curating.

These real, authentic assets are what give life to your social media pages and distinguish you as a brand that people want to follow. It’s important you have someone dedicated to taking these types of photos and videos. It could be you or a team member — just make sure it gets done at least a few times a week.

Tips to make sure it gets done:

Put it in your calendar with a reminder to snap photos.
Make a habit of pulling out your phone anytime you have a workplace celebration or a special event at your business.
Delegate the task to someone on your team, and ask them to carve out time to take photos.
Create an employee advocacy program that gets your whole team involved in crowdsourcing photos. Rallio Activate allows you to set up employee logins on our mobile app, so they can upload photos, post them on their personal profiles, and even earn rewards.

Posting on the Major Platforms

Now that you have all that great content, what do you do with it? Get it on your pages, of course!

It sounds simple enough, but the truth is that many business owners simply get too busy to think about posting on social media. As important as it is, social media marketing might get pushed to the back burner if you’re busy with sales, hiring, inventory management, customer retention and other areas of your business.

Yet in reality, many other parts of your business can function more smoothly if you get your social media pages working the way they should be. We’ll get into that more in the next couple of steps, but for now let’s just talk about how you can make sure the assets you’re compiling are getting onto your pages.

Tips to make sure it gets done:

If you can’t do it yourself, delegate the work to the same person you’ve tasked with snapping photos and videos.
Again, use employee advocacy programs to outsource your social media “in-house.”
Use technology like the Rallio platform, and the Rallio Local team of social media gurus, to schedule your content ahead of time, compile your assets in one database, and keep track of your content calendar. In this way, you can outsource your social media to a technology platform.

Advertising Your Content

Don’t let all that hard work of curating and posting content go to waste. Make sure people actually see your posts by allocating ad dollars toward your content.

Every social media platform has advertising options to let you get your content in front of more people. That’s because having followers doesn’t equate to people actually viewing your posts. By advertising, you ensure more people see your content.

You can learn more about advertising in this article, but in the meantime, you’ll want to make sure you budget for ads.

Tips to make sure it gets done:

If you can’t do it yourself, delegate the work to the same person you’ve tasked with snapping photos and videos and posting your content. They’re already working with your assets, so they might as well promote your posts.
Engage the Rallio Local program to outsource your social media boosting and creation of ad campaigns.

Engaging With Your Audience

The final piece you need to make sure you have covered is engaging with your followers. As you curate, post and boost your content, you’ll hopefully get more people interacting with your posts. Their likes, shares, comments and direct messages shouldn’t be ignored, nor should their online reviews.

Tips to make sure it gets done:

Delegate the work to the same person you’ve tasked with snapping photos and videos, posting your content, and promoting your posts. The added benefit here is that they’ll get a good idea of what’s working and what’s not in terms of engagement, so future posts can get even better.
Engage the Rallio Local program to get help responding to your engagements and online reviews.

Ready to Outsource Your Social Media?

Looking over the steps above, by now you might be drawing the conclusion that you need someone dedicated to your social media marketing. You could do it all in-house, but then you have to consider:

If you delegate the work to a team member, that person might not be an expert in social media marketing. For example, asking your receptionist or human resources manager to handle your social media might not get you the results you desire.
If you choose to hire a social media manager, you’ll be taking on the responsibility of adding someone to the payroll.
Even if you hire someone, you need the right technology to streamline the process.

Now consider the flip side of bringing in the experts at Rallio:

You won’t be taking time away from other team members, and you won’t be in charge of the work yourself. Everyone can do the jobs they’re best suited to do.
You’ll pay one flat fee, and it’s customized to what you need in terms of technology and services, as well as how involved you want to be.
You can lean on our expertise to amplify your social media results, potentially leading to more leads and sales. Remember what we said earlier about other parts of your business running more efficiently with proper social media marketing?

As a top-ranked provider of social media technology, employee advocacy and local social media services, Rallio not only lets you outsource your social media, but also bring in the technology and team you need. If you’re ready to outsource your social media and focus on other parts of your business, contact sales@rallio.com and visit rallio.com.

Learn more: Should I Outsource My Social Media? 6 Questions to Ask Yourself

Rallio

Tags social media management tools, social media marketing

Social

3 Marketing Lessons From the Pandemic: One Year Later

Post author By Rallio
Post date March 16, 2021

If you’re looking for marketing lessons from the pandemic, you don’t have to look far. Just one year ago, businesses were forced to adapt to lockdowns, closures and a new way of doing business. Those that have survived are using marketing lessons from the pandemic to continue growing and staying resilient despite tumultuous times.

With the initial cuts, layoffs and closures behind them, many businesses are using the marketing lessons to better their businesses. With the help of marketing and technology, business owners have been able to continue providing their products and services to customers. Hang on to these lessons as you move forward and plan for a brighter 2021.

Lesson #1: You Need to Go Digital

With the pandemic, there’s been an increased demand for online shopping, contactless pickup and delivery, and “buy online, pick up curbside/in store” ordering experiences. Businesses that did not previously offer these types of buying options have had to add them into their processes. Consumers not only expect them now, but they’re also critical to your bottom line.

Even businesses that don’t rely on retail purchases have had to rely more on digital offerings. Fitness clubs, concert venues, art galleries and other brick-and-mortar entities found that livestream and on-demand experiences let them swing open their digital doors, if not their physical spaces.

By meeting your customers where they are, so to speak, you’re able to identify any weaknesses in your businesses. Maybe you’ve had to upgrade your ordering processes, implement an ecommerce system or develop an app for your business. Whatever the case may be, giving your business much-needed upgrades can only be good for your bottom line.

Lesson #2: Communication Is Key

With in-person interaction being more limited during the pandemic, businesses have had to communicate more frequently through social media and other online technologies. The use of social media has become particularly important, with people turning to their feeds for information and entertainment from business’ social media pages.

Moreover, they’re finding out basic information such as hours of operation from “near me” searches. This means it’s imperative that businesses have their directory listings up-to-date with details on hours of operation, in-store or curbside buying options, and health and safety guidelines.

No matter what kind of business you have, the pandemic has made it clear that maintaining an up-to-date online presence is critical to your survival. If you’re not already updating your social media and keeping your directory listings current, people will go somewhere else — somewhere that’s making life easier for them.

Lesson #3: Keep It Real in Your Campaigns

There’s nothing worse than a tone-deaf marketer failing to see the reality of the world around them. The pandemic has taught marketers to stay in touch with the current situation while looking for ways to market their brands.

An example of being tone-deaf might be showing images of people gathering in large crowds in the height of the pandemic. On the flip side, showing clips of people videoconferencing with friends and family from home is an example of keeping up with the times.

Another way to “keep it real” is by posting hyper-local images of people and customers from your location. They can be photos and videos that you snap yourself, those that your employees snap if you utilize them as employee advocates, or those from social media influencers. These are the kinds of authentic images your followers want to see and interact with.

This marketing lesson from the pandemic applies even if in the absence of a global health crisis. Marketers who are sensitive and in touch with people’s current realities appear more trustworthy and relatable. Those are the brands people will remember long after the pandemic is gone.

It’s a real opportunity to uplift others instead of focusing on selling. The end result could very well be increased sales simply because people like and respect your messaging. See how that works?

Let the Marketing Lessons Carry You Forward

This month marks one year since the pandemic changed our world forever. The marketing lessons learned since that time will stay relevant in the months and years to come.

Perhaps the most important marketing lesson of all — one that overarches all the others — is that it’s necessary to establish trust, transparency and relevancy with your audience. You can never go wrong if that’s your guidepost for every marketing campaign.

And while there are many other marketing lessons to be gleaned from the past year, we want to leave you with the above three. They’re so critical to your success that it’s imperative you focus on implementing them right away. We’ve helped hundreds of business owners thrive during the pandemic using our SaaS platforms and local social media solutions.

At Rallio, we have an entire suite of technology applications designed to help you manage your entire social media presence. Whether you’re a franchisor with multiple locations or an independent small-business owner, we have the right technology to meet your needs, which may include:

Getting more online reviews
Responding to online reviews, social media engagements and direct messages
Updating your directory listings quickly across the web, in just a few clicks
Posting local content on your social media pages
Increasing your following
Keeping track of your analytics so you know what’s working and what’s not

To find out more and schedule a demo that walks you through our various solutions, start at rallio.com or email sales@rallio.com.

Further reading: Why You Need to Keep Up Your Marketing Despite the Coronavirus

Rallio

Tags coronavirus, social media marketing

Social

Boosted Posts Vs. Facebook Ads: How It Works and Why You Should Advertise

Post author By Rallio
Post date March 12, 2021

Advertising on Facebook and other social media channels helps you to build brand awareness, generate leads and grow your following. If you’re not familiar with boosted posts and other types of ads, this article will help you understand how it works and why you should consider doing it for your business.

Why advertise on Facebook? As we discuss in this article:

When you have a business Facebook page, the content you publish doesn’t necessarily get seen by all your followers. Even people who have chosen to follow your page might initially see your content organically, but they won’t continue to see it unless:

You regularly post engaging content that interests them and inspires them to interact with it; and
You pay to get it seen. Yes, Facebook is a “pay to play” platform.

This winning combination of great content, coupled with ad spend, increases the likelihood of making your content visible in newsfeeds.

Boosting is a form of advertising that differs from Facebook ads, and each ad type has its own unique objectives. Let’s review the basics of each so you can decide when to boost and when a different kind of Facebook ad might be more appropriate.

Boosted Posts

With boosted posts, you take a post from your page’s timeline and pay to expose it to an audience of your choosing. You can also create a new post and click “boost” instead of “publish” to boost a new piece of content.

You can think of boosting as the simplest way to advertise your content. You can customize your boosts for various goals — such as boosting website traffic, getting more calls or messages, or getting more leads through fillable forms.

Once you boost a post, it will show up in your audience’s newsfeed as an ad. You can also choose Instagram as an ad placement for a boosted post.

To boost a post, you’ll need to know:

The target audience you want to reach
Your max budget for the course of the campaign
The duration of time you want to run your boosted ad

Boosted posts are ads in the sense that they require an advertising budget. However, there are some differences between boosted posts and other types of Facebook ads you should know. For starters, boosted posts are not created in Ads Manager and don’t have all the same customization features as a Facebook ad. Still, they can be quite effective at boosting brand awareness, increasing engagement and follower count, and showcasing the personality behind your brand via local content.

Facebook Ads

Because they’re created in Facebook’s Ads Manager, Facebook ads provide more advanced customization and placement options. You may choose to select placements in side ads, Messenger ads, Instagram Stories, instant articles and Audience Network. In addition, you can customize the look and feel of your ad with various formatting solutions.

Lastly, you’ll have advanced targeting capabilities. While boosted posts allow you to choose interests, age and gender for your ad targets, Facebook ads also let you create overlapping audience types, lookalike audiences and more.

Note that with Facebook ads, in addition to some of the more advanced features, you can use retargeted ads to reconnect with certain users who have already shown an interest in your product or service. These might be people who interacted with your brand in some way, either on or off Facebook, including those who have:

Interacted with your Facebook page or Instagram page
Shared their email with you and joined your customer list
Watched your videos
Engaged with your Facebook events in some way
Viewed or interacted with your website

Learn more: The Difference Between Boosted Posts and Facebook Ads

When to Boost Versus Use Facebook Ads

Both boosted posts and Facebook ads should have their place in your advertising budget. Boosted posts are great for quickly exposing a post to more people in newsfeeds than you would organically.

Oftentimes, it’s best to boost high-performing, hyper-local posts that have already earned engagements such as comments, shares, likes and clicks. Other goals might require you creating an ad in Ads Manager.

When you create an ad on Facebook, the app will help you choose your ad type based on your goals, such as:

Get more leads
Get more bookings
Get more messages or calls
Get more website visitors

This takes some of the guesswork out of knowing which type of ad to use.

New to Facebook Advertising? Jump Into Boosting

If you’re new to Facebook advertising, boosted posts are a great place to start. It’s fairly simple to get started with boosting and start seeing results quickly, and it’s especially effective for newer pages that want to increase their following. Once you have more likes on your page, the more advanced ad tools might make more sense in tandem with your boosting campaigns.

With any type of Facebook ads, you’ll need to set up an ad account for your business page to start boosting. Then you can pick which content you want to promote, such as:

Real photos or videos from your location, including the owners, employees or customers, behind-the-scenes content and other authentic, hyper-local posts
Events you are hosting at your location
Job postings if you have them
Photos or videos of anything new at your location

Once your boosted posts appear in newsfeeds and earn engagements, your page will be deemed more “relevant,” meaning it’ll become more visible to your followers as well as their friends and people who aren’t following you yet.

General Guidelines for Boosted Posts

To further amplify the results of your boosted posts, follow these guidelines:

Avoid text-heavy posts. Facebook might reject your ad or limit its exposure if you have too many words. (Read this article to learn more.)
Be as specific as possible when choosing your audience. Make sure your audience includes people who are likely to engage with your content based on their location, gender, age or interests.
Limit the duration of your ad to five to seven days to avoid having your post decline in performance.
Continually monitor the performance of your ads throughout your campaigns. Make any necessary tweaks to better target the people you want to reach.

Be sure to check out our Social Spots video, featuring our pal Roscoe, for a quick breakdown of Facebook boosting. Need some extra guidance and the right social media technology to help automate and manage your social media marketing, visit rallio.com and request a demo to view all your options.

Rallio

Tags social media marketing

Social

Small-Business Technology Roundup: How Rallio Can Help You Run Smarter

Post author By Rallio
Post date February 18, 2021

Technology has changed the way companies conduct themselves today, allowing for greater efficiency and fewer headaches in all areas of business. One of the fastest-growing areas of technology is digital marketing, something that all businesses need to familiarize themselves with in order to succeed.

Rallio’s small-business technology tools take the guesswork out of your digital marketing plan — helping you run smarter and meet your goals. Take a look at the various options we offer, plus the numerous benefits, and you’ll see why we’re the technology provider of choice for hundreds of business owners nationwide.

Consider the Possibilities With Rallio’s Small-Business Technology Suite

With social media, email marketing, search engine marketing, pay per click and more, digital marketing has expanded the ability for businesses of all sizes to spread the word. We live in a world where social media and internet usage is at an all-time high, especially as we continue to navigate through pandemic times. And for many small businesses, technology has saved them during these challenging times.

With digital marketing, businesses have multiple ways to communicate with customers and prospects even when they’re not seeing them face to face. Rallio simplifies the entire process with our award-winning suite of small-business technology platforms, including:

Rallio Dashboard

Have one centralized place where all of your brand assets live. Syndicate, publish or schedule social content to your entire brand or a subset of locations. View analytics, respond to reviews and engagements, run ad campaigns, and control your brand message from one dashboard with one login.

Rallio Local

Pair our dashboard with our Rallio Local services to free yourself up from some of the many responsibilities in running a successful business. In recent years, social media and reputation management have become critical items for your success. The Rallio Local team of social gurus will automate the process of creating ridiculously engaging, hyper-local content; make sure local targeted audiences actually see and engage with that content; and respond to all your social comments and online reviews.

Rallio Activate

Leverage the power of your employees to reach your customers like never before. With Rallio Activate, your employees become your built-in brand ambassadors. Create reward programs to your exact specifications, and incentivize your workforce to submit their own images and videos for brand content or share your message across their own pages.

Business Listings

With just a few clicks, you can manage your digital profiles across global business locations, reaching over 98% of consumers across top media channels. Promote your brand across social media, traditional search, mobile marketing and voice search. Deliver a more engaging customer experience by updating your imagery and logos. Instantly update your key business content across locations, and control and optimize your data across third-party digital platforms. Measure and optimize the channels that are impacting your customer acquisition, and improve your brand discoverability and search rankings across your brand.

Revv

REVV is an innovative service designed to help you increase your positive social reviews and reduce negative reviews while improving your overall brand reputation online through a one-question post-sale survey sent to recent customers. Our platform generates a quick post-sale text survey to your customers so they can provide feedback about their experience in your store.

Customers who respond positively are prompted to leave a review and linked directly to that store’s Google, Facebook or Yelp page. Watch your brand reputation increase, along with the volume of positive reviews for your stores! If a customer responds to your survey with a rating of 3 or below, they will be prompted to leave a comment and request further assistance. Your team is alerted via email of the poor experience, and the customer can be contacted directly before they post a negative review about your company!

How Rallio Small-Business Technology Helps Small Business

If you were to implement our suite of small-business technology platforms and services, the benefits go beyond having access to advanced digital marketing tools. Consider the many ways these platforms can help you in other areas of your business:

Customer service — The Rallio inbox pulls all your comments, questions, reviews and engagements into one central location. Because you don’t have to log in to multiple platforms, you’re able to get back to customers more quickly, handle any customer service issues, and respond to positive feedback to thank your customers for their business. Over time, this translates into greater overall brand loyalty and brand awareness.
Company culture — By getting your employees involved in your branding via Rallio Activate, you’re able to build morale and grow your company culture. Activate makes it easy to reward and incentivize your employees for helping to share their experiences with your brand.
Greater efficiency and productivity — Needless to say, our small-business technology streamlines and automates processes you might otherwise be doing manually. Think about the time savings involved with updating your business listings in a few clicks, easily responding to your customers and followers from one dashboard, and managing and scheduling your assets from a single dashboard that eliminates the need to log in to multiple platforms.
Greater engagement across the board — Rallio is all about “rallying” around brands and bringing people together. Our small-business technology suite is designed to get everyone — from executive teams to individual small-business owners — engaged in using technology to make life easier, more productive and more fun.

If you’re looking for smarter, faster small-business technology and services for your business, we would love to chat with you. Schedule some time on the calendar with us, and we’ll walk you through the best solutions for your needs.

Rallio

Tags social media marketing

Social

Top 5 Social Media Tips for Small Businesses

Post author By Rallio
Post date February 10, 2021

With our recent addition of Rallio Local for Small Business division at Rallio, we’ve been working with small businesses to help them optimize their social media pages. More often than not, we offer the same social media tips for small businesses over and over again.

Most small-business owners are so busy running their companies that they don’t have much time left over for social media marketing. Rallio helps them wear fewer hats and make a greater impact on social media. With our social media tips, technology and teamwork (hello, alliteration!), we’ve helped hundreds of business owners use social media to their advantage.

The following social media tips represent the five most common opportunities for greater success on social media.

#1 Post Local Content

Great social media marketers have local content at the forefront of their marketing efforts. As we discuss in this article: “The key element that makes local social media, well, local, is that it shows the real side of your business.”

Local posts consist of snapshots of the owners, employees, customers, product recommendations, how-tos, and other authentic-feeling images and videos.

It’s the difference between a post with a stock photo or a sales graphic versus a real photo or a video of a team member. When you see it, it’s instantly more relatable and engaging than something that feels like you’re being sold to.

Having local content on your page improves your engagement rates and reach with your target audience. As you post this content and boost it, you’ll ensure more of your content gets seen than it would with organic reach alone.

Make sure you:

Post real images and videos of your team, your products, your customers and your location.
Avoid stock photos.
If you’re a franchisee receiving corporate branded content, be sure you are also posting local content at least three or four times a week.
Read 31 Days of Social Media Content Ideas for more ideas.

Read the post: 7 Habits of Highly Successful Social Media Marketers

#2 Engage Your Employees as Brand Advocates

One of the fastest-growing trends in social media is employee advocacy, in which employees become loyal ambassadors for your brand. With more and more companies adopting employee advocacy programs, you might be wondering what types of content your employees should be posting for you.

Although branded content has its place, it should not be the bulk of what’s shared via employee advocates.

On the contrary, it’s the unpolished, unbranded types of content that will earn the greatest engagement on social media. This content showcases the authentic, human side of your business and is more likely to earn the trust and affection of your audience. Moreover, these types of content are more likely to be shared by your employees on their personal pages.

Own a coffee shop? The barista behind the counter will resonate more with your audience than a branded photo of coffee beans. It’s that simple. No matter what type of business you have, you need hyper-local content of your team members and their typical “day in the life” photos at work.

As employees post about your company on their personal pages, they’re doing more than just generating greater engagement for your accounts. They’re also actively contributing to the building of positive sentiment about your brand. The more that prospective customers and future team members see this content, the more they begin to view your company as likeable, trustworthy, and even socially and environmentally responsible under the right circumstances.

Read the post: The 4 Types of Content Your Employees Should Post for You

#3 Respond to Online Reviews

The cost of ignoring customer service issues can be huge. Nothing will tarnish your online reputation faster than reviews without responses from the brand, comments and messages that get ignored, and poorly crafted responses to customer questions or complaints.

Your response time matters, too. Consumers expect rapid answers — just as rapid as if they picked up the phone and called. Within minutes is ideal if you have the bandwidth, but you should at least be responding within 24 hours.

With a system for responding to customer inquiries, you can handle their requests quickly and build customer loyalty. You’ll also make it known that you’re a trustworthy brand when you post public responses to reviews, questions or complaints.

Read the post: 4 Social Media Marketing Lessons Learned in 2020

#4 Outsource Anything You Can’t Do Yourself

Here at Rallio, we’re on social media all day, every day. We live, breathe, eat and sleep social media. That’s because it’s our business to do so — just as it’s your business to live, breathe, eat and sleep your own business.

So if you’re busy running your own business, it’s likely that you don’t have the time to manage your social media. You also might not particularly want to manage this task, much less become an expert in it.

That’s all OK, because when you outsource, you can hire people who are experts in social media like Rallio. You don’t have to waste time or resources on something that draws you away from your core functions as a business owner.

Rallio, an Entrepreneur Top Franchise Supplier and an Inc.com fastest-growing company, has earned nationwide recognition for its service of the franchise sector, from corporate down to the franchisee level. With its new Rallio Local for Small Business division, Rallio is able to lend its expertise to small businesses that are independently owned and operated.

Read the post: Should You Outsource Your Small-Business Social Media? 4 Compelling Reasons It Makes Sense

#5 Use Technology to Automate

Rallio’s solutions include a social media management platform where users can access and manage all their social media accounts, in one central dashboard with a single login. Along with a mobile app, the platform enables clients to upload and schedule content, implement employee advocacy programs, reply to comments, messages and reviews, and much more.

Basically, Rallio makes small-business social media management a much smoother, easier process. Rather than having to log in to multiple platforms with different logins, you can simply log in to your Rallio Dashboard.

You’ll also avoid letting anything slip through the cracks like a negative customer review or an important sales lead. Everything will be in your inbox to review and respond to.

Read the post: Should You Outsource Your Small-Business Social Media? 4 Compelling Reasons It Makes Sense

Want More Social Media Tips? Get in Touch With Rallio

If you’re looking for more social media tips, we’re here to help. Our Rallio Local for Small Business division is an extension of our existing social media management and marketing solutions. As a top-ranked provider of social media technology, employee advocacy and local social media services, we’re thrilled to be offering our all-in-one social media solutions to small, independently owned businesses.

If you’re ready to outsource your small-business social media and focus on other parts of your business, contact localsales@rallio.com, and visit www.rallio.com/getlocal or www.rallio.com.

Rallio

Tags social media marketing

Social

The 4 Types of Content Your Employees Should Post for You

Post author By Rallio
Post date January 26, 2021

Of course, before you get to the posting part, you’ll need to implement an employee advocacy program of your own. We recommend reading our article 5 Big Reasons You Need an Employee Advocacy Program for the hows and whys of advocacy.

As you develop your employee advocacy program, it will be helpful to give your employees some guidelines on the types of content you’d like for them to post. While you want employees to have some freedom to be creative with their posts, you also want to be sure you’re protecting sensitive information and presenting your brand in the best possible light.

Gather together with your employees to brainstorm different ideas, and come prepared to share with them the types of content they should be posting. The five categories below will get you rolling.

Branded Assets

The first obvious category is branded assets that you create and provide to your employees. They might be professionally created marketing graphics or videos, how-to tips about your products or services, contests, events or special promotions.

At the same time you’re creating these assets, consider creating a branded hashtag that employees can use when sharing on their personal pages. A dedicated hashtag about your brand helps to categorize your content and create conversations around your brand. You can also use the hashtag to locate employees’ content that you can then share on your company’s official accounts.

Learn more: How To Encourage Employee Advocacy On Social Media

A Day in the Life at Work

Although branded content has its place, it should not be the bulk of what’s shared via employee advocates. In fact, you’ll see that the remaining four categories do not mention corporate-branded content.

Events In and Out of the Office

Along with day-to-day photos, employees can also share photos and videos from special occasions or events both in and out of the office. Remind them to snap photos of birthdays at the office, team building events, and “national day” holidays (see calendar here) like National Hot Chocolate Day.

Again, you have opportunities to build culture as you’re building awareness. Host “bring your dog to work day” if you’re a pet-friendly company, or host a team lunch on the last Friday of the month. When you find ways to infuse fun into your company, your employees will naturally be more inclined to capture these moments on film and post them to social media.

The coolest part about these types of content — both candid moments and organized events — is that employees’ posts have a way of informing a company’s core values and culture. If employees are happy at work and posting about it, it’s a great indicator that you’re doing something right. If they’re not, and they don’t, it’s an opportunity to right the ship and make sure yours is a company that employees are proud to post about.

Answers to FAQ

Somewhere on your website, you might have a list of FAQ about your company. These FAQ can serve as ideas for the types of content your audience wants to see. Have an employee answer these FAQ, and the questions instantly become more interesting and engaging.

Any kind of company has certain FAQ that customers tend to ask. However, answers to FAQ work especially well for companies that have products or services that require explaining or step-by-step instructions.

If you have a furniture store that sells items requiring assembly, you can have employees be the experts and share their how-to instructions. Not only can your employees upload these videos to their own pages, but you can also use them on your corporate accounts.

Make sure you have clear answers to all your FAQ handy for employees so they’re giving “official” instructions. They’ll be more confident filming answers to FAQ if they have the correct tone and verbiage you want used for various situations. At the same time, encourage employees to use their own words and speak authentically to avoid sounding canned.

What Types of Content Should Your Employees Post?

Although each company is unique in the types of content they want employees to share, the common thread is authenticity. As long as your employees speak and write from the heart, and as long as they’re not sharing information you want kept private about your company, they should be successful as employee advocates.

A few final takeaways:

Create social media guidelines about what employees can and cannot post about
Have a social media policy that states when and how employees may use social media at work
Create a culture of advocacy by partnering with your employees and incentivizing them with rewards for promoting your brand
Use Rallio Activate technology to organize and streamline posting and collecting assets from employees that you otherwise wouldn’t have

The little moments at work are often the most meaningful for your employees. They spend a large part of their day working for you, and employee advocacy allows them to feel recognized, valued and heard.

Rallio

Tags social media marketing

Social

4 Types of Social Media Influencers to Power Up Your Brand

Post author By Rallio
Post date January 22, 2021

The concept behind social media influencers isn’t exactly new, as brands have long used influential figures to promote their products. Look back into the previous century, and you’ll see Coco Chanel as one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people, or even Santa back in the 1930s getting his caffeine fix with a bottle of Coca-Cola in his hand.

As far as modern-day social media influencers, Instagram as well as TikTok have been largely responsible for their rise in popularity. You can’t open these apps without seeing both familiar and not-so-familiar faces promoting brands’ products and services.

Influencer programs are a cost-effective way to spread brand awareness and increase your engagement, reach and followers on social media. In exchange for their promotional posts, these influencers may be given product, gift cards, affiliate commissions, direct compensation or other rewards, depending on how a company sets up its program.

With visual imagery, short videos and Reels, Stories and Live features, today’s social media apps allow multiple ways to help these social media influencers engage with their audiences. Keep in mind, your influencers can be people not affiliated with the company, or they could be employees who act as brand ambassadors. Rallio has specific technology (Rallio Activate) that helps you activate employees to post branded content on their personal pages, as well as build an image database to pull from.

If you’re wondering what type of influencer you need for your brand, check out the quick rundown below to find the right fit for your goals and budget.

Social Media Influencer 1: Nano

Follower count: 1K to 10K

Who they are: Nano influencers tend to have a highly engaged social media following, and they are vocal advocates for the brands and products they’re promoting. Given their smaller following, they have an opportunity to get to know their followers on a more personal level. Their authentic content and recommendations resonate with their small community, who appreciates nano influencers’ genuine tips and transparency.

Who should use them: Small and midsize businesses are a good fit for these social media influencers. Start with your own network of followers and even employees to identify possible nano influencers who would be willing to work with you.

Social Media Influencer 2: Micro

Follower count: 10K to 100K

Who they are: With 10K to 100K followers, micro influencers have a larger network but are still viewed as relatable, authentic and genuine with their audience, who enjoys engaging with and sharing their content. They tend to have a specialized audience base that’s open to hearing marketing messages about the products and services used by these micro influencers.

Who should use them: Micro influencers work well for specific niches and a highly targeted audience. If you’re looking to create special promotions and sponsorships with your influencers, a micro influencer can be a good fit. Their high engagement rates mean more eyeballs on your content and more opportunities to convert casual followers into loyal customers. To find them, you can again look to your own followers who are already fans of yours, as well as search for certain hashtags related to your brand or niche.

Social Media Influencer 3: Macro

Follower count: 100K to 1M

Who they are: Macro influencers have a much larger network, with anywhere from 100K to 1 million followers. They appeal to a broader audience than micro influencers and may be established bloggers, vloggers, podcasters or social media celebrities who have made a name for themselves. They may also be more disconnected from their audience and won’t have the same personal relationships with their community as someone with a smaller following.

Who should use them: You may have a harder time getting your foot in the door with a macro influencer, who likely gets pitched every day from brands asking for representation. If your brand is more well-established and you’re prepared to meet a potential influx of new orders, then a macro influencer could be right for you. In other words, if you successfully land a macro influencer and they agree to promote your brand, you need to be prepared to meet the demand from new customers.

Social Media Influencer 4: Mega

Follower count: 1M and up

Who they are: Like macro influencers, mega influencers also have a much larger network of 1 million followers or more. They’ve worked to establish their name — they’re either big-time celebs that are household names, or celebrities within a certain niche, like the fitness community. Again, they may be more disconnected from their audience than someone with a smaller following.

Who should use them: You’ll need to have a large budget and an established brand with locked-down distribution to work with a mega influencer. If you’re set on going with a mega influencer, and you’re looking to cast a wider net with your audience, a mega influencer can help you get in front of a lot of potential followers. For small brands just starting out, however, smaller may be better.

Which Type of Social Media Influencer Is Right for You?

For the majority of brands we work with at Rallio, we recommend working with influencers and employee advocates who have a smaller, focused following. Although it can be tempting to dive in and try to work with a macro or mega influencer, you might want to “think small” when you’re just getting started. There will be fewer barriers if you contact people who are eager to represent you and will have a greater influence within their networks right out of the gate.

Rallio Activate provides the perfect platform to create an employee advocacy and influencer program for your brand. We also have a new affiliate program with unlimited earning potential for those looking to earn one-time or recurring commissions off referrals. For more information about either of these options, click here to learn about Rallio Activate, and here to learn about our affiliate program.

Rallio

Tags social media marketing

Social

3 Surefire Ways to Get Your Social Media Content Ignored

Post author By Rallio
Post date January 15, 2021

Typically here at Rallio, our blog content focuses on practical tips and strategies you can use to amplify your social media presence. Every so often, we get the urge to knock down the guardrails of traditional content and throw a little parody post your way. Beneath the layers of sarcasm, you’ll find nuggets of truth that you can apply to your social media content strategy.

Today, we’re dishing out a gourmet platter of 3 surefire ways to get your social media content ignored. That’s right. If you want people to scroll past your content or not see it altogether, then the tips below are exactly what you need.

Call it keeping you on your toes. Call it word salad. Call it what you will, but just make sure you have a strong beverage of choice in your hand before you start reading. It’ll go nicely with today’s main course.

By the way, we don’t use recipes, but we do use metaphors. Heavily. Buckle up, buttercup.

1. Post Yawn-Worthy Content

When you first gain a follower, that follower might initially see your content in their newsfeed. Want to get rid of them? Just make sure you’re posting yawn-worthy content.

What do we mean by “yawn-worthy,” you ask? It’s pretty self-explanatory — it inspires nothing more than a big yawn upon viewing by an unsuspecting viewer. It might include a typical, generic stock photo, an ill-placed meme, or some type of sales post that’s overly promotional.

All those other pages that are posting local content showing the authentic people behind the business? Sure, they might be hanging on to their followers — even gaining new ones if they keep at it. But while they’re busy posting product spotlights, team member pictures, how-tos, videos and customer testimonials, you can sit back, relax, and shoo away any existing and new followers.

Phew, that’s a relief!

2. Ignore People

There’s another easy way to get your social media content ignored. Simply ignore your followers, and they’ll forget all about you!

If you happen to ignore tip #1 and decide to post interesting, relevant content, there’s a good chance people are going to engage with it. You know the book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie? “If you give a mouse a cookie, he’s going to ask for a glass of milk. When you give him the milk, he’ll probably ask for a straw. …”

The little boy keeps giving that mouse what he wants, and he keeps asking for more, and isn’t the boy tired of catering to that mouse already?

Likewise, if you keep giving your followers what they want in terms of content, they’re going to be vocal about letting you know they want more of it. Likes, comments, shares, direct messages, online reviews — expect it all.

But don’t worry! As with posting yawn-worthy content, you can simply ignore your followers if they post a comment, question or review. The more you ignore them, the more they’ll go away!

3. Lash Out

Now if you decide to ignore tip #2 above — i.e., you respond to people who submit a comment, question or review — there’s another easy way to make sure your content gets ignored: Lash out at anyone who disagrees with you!

This tip is especially useful if someone submits a negative online review. When you respond, make sure you argue publicly with the person. That way, the argument will be out there for all the world to see! (Honestly, why wouldn’t you want to be perceived as an unreasonable, argumentative business owner?)

There’s also the side benefit of scaring away new followers once they see not only a negative review, but also a negative response. Your existing followers might not be too keen on sticking around either! Great news for your “me time” — yet again, you’ll have fewer followers (and customers) to manage!

One Last Anti-Tip for Anyone Who Ignores the Social Media Content Tips Above

OK, you got us. We don’t actually recommend any of the tips above for anyone who actually wants to grow their business on social media.

The truth is, posting great content and keeping your followers takes work, but it’s work that’s worthwhile. With engaging social media content, thoughtful response management, and consistent effort, you can build a following and continue growing your business with the help of social media.

Actually, here at Rallio, we’re in the business of helping our clients create the kind of content that doesn’t get ignored. Their social media content looks like this:

It’s hyper-local, showing the real, authentic side of a business owner, their team and their customers.
It includes a wide variety of posts about team members, product spotlights and how-tos, blog posts, and videos featuring their people and customers.
It’s posted with some frequency, at least three to four times a week.
It sprinkles in promotions and boosted content.

Rallio has perfected the process of creating engaging content, responding to online reviews and making sure our clients’ pages are performing optimally. If you’re ready to make sure your content gets the reactions and results you want, get in touch with us today.

Rallio

Tags social media content, social media marketing

Social

12 Days of Christmas Captions to Brighten Up Your Social Media

Post author By Rallio
Post date December 15, 2020

This is it, folks. We’re in the holiday home stretch. Now is the time to post local content and reach your followers with the 12 days of Christmas captions below.

We’ve taken the guesswork out of caption writing to help you get this content done quickly. For many businesses, that’s half the battle — creating a caption that makes sense and engages your audience.

The other half is snapping photos or videos, but don’t worry. We’ve got that covered, too.

In a future post, we’ll break down how to write captions in more detail. For now, grab your camera, customize the Christmas captions below to your business, and start posting.

Christmas Captions, Day 1: Post a Favorite Holiday Meal

Somewhere in your phone, there’s got to be a picture of an Insta-worthy holiday meal you made or someone else did. Pull it up. Or order takeout from your favorite local business and snap a photo of your dinner tonight. In your caption, you can give the business credit and tag them, and invite engagement from your followers:

“One of my favorite dishes from [insert name of restaurant]. Post a photo of your best delicious dishes in the comments! One random winner will be selected to receive a 20% discount voucher on a future purchase!”

Fill in the blanks above with the tagged restaurant name and your discount or offer of choice.

Christmas Captions, Day 2: Post a Gift Guide

What products do you sell that you can suggest as gifts? Snap some photos! If you have a service-based business, take photos of the results of your work, or you heading out on a job, or a before-and-after shot.

If you offer gift cards, create a fun display showing a gift card surrounded by holiday decorations. Here’s a sample caption for a product-based business:

“Still looking for that special gift for your mom, brother or bestie? A gift card is the perfect way to let your loved ones choose their own surprise. Grab yours online at [web address], or order through our app for quick curbside pickup.”

Customize the above according to your usual ordering options. If you don’t offer curbside pickup currently, consider offering it.

Christmas Captions, Day 3: Share a Christmas Memory

Dig up a photo of holidays past. Go back as far as your childhood if you like. Describe what’s going on in the photo. Here’s an option:

“Here I am at age 5 in 1987 paying Santa a visit. What do you think I asked for that year?”

Simple as that. If you like, you can pick a winner if anyone guesses correctly.

Christmas Captions, Day 4: Share a Tradition

What’s one of your holiday traditions? Making homemade cocoa and watching Christmas movies? Baking cookies? Looking at Christmas lights? Tell your followers about it!

“One of my favorite holiday traditions is baking Christmas cookies with my family. Here’s this year’s creations! Post your own photos of your favorite traditions in the comments.”

Christmas Captions, Day 5: Give to Charity

At this time of year, there are many local organizations collecting food, toys or essential goods for those in need. Pool your resources and see if you can make a big impact on one of these groups. Take a photo of something you plan to donate, and add a caption such as the following:

“We are currently collecting new, unused toys for [name of charity]. These toys will go directly to local families in need.”

Be sure to post any other details such as the specifications for types of toys and deadlines for donating. Take some photos on the day of your donation as well!

Christmas Captions, Day 6: Take a Team Photo

Gather together with your team and take a photo in front of your location, or inside by your holiday decorations. If gathering is not possible, post a throwback photo instead. Here’s a caption:

“We’re so grateful for our dedicated team members, who work tirelessly every day to serve our valued customers. Wishing you and yours a happy holiday season from all of us at [your company name].”

Christmas Captions, Day 7: Post a Challenge

Pick a favorite Christmas movie of yours and a quote from the movie. Turn it into a fun graphic design using a free tool like Canva.com or your graphic design program of choice. Don’t include the movie title — instead, have your followers guess the movie!

“Name that movie! The first person to guess correctly wins [your choice of freebie or discount].”

If you prefer, you can pick a riddle and have your followers try to guess the answer. Check out a few ideas here.

Christmas Captions, Day 8: Post Your New Year’s Resolutions

Are you hoping to run a marathon in 2021? Or learn to cook? Or volunteer more? Snap a selfie and tell your followers all about your resolutions!

“In 2021, I’d like to run my first marathon — even if it means running it on my own in my hometown! What are your New Year’s resolutions? Post them in the comments!”

Christmas Captions, Day 9: Post a Travel Memory

Have a favorite travel photo from holidays past? Tell your followers about a travel destination you can’t wait to visit again.

“Paris, circa 1998. Looking forward to traveling again soon! What’s on your travel bucket list?”

Christmas Captions, Day 10: Film a Video

Record a Christmas greeting for your followers! Send them some goodwill and cheer for the holidays. Pair it with a caption that will encourage them to click and watch, such as:

“My Christmas wish for all of you — plus a surprise coming in 2021!”

For that “surprise,” it could be a hint at a new product launch, or any kind of fun announcement you’re willing to share.

Christmas Captions, Day 11: Post a Last-Minute Offer

Snap a photo of a few more gift ideas for last-minute shoppers! Tell them your hours and how to purchase — again, consider contactless options such as curbside pickup or local doorstep delivery.

“Still have a few more gifts to buy? We’ve got something for everyone on your list, and we’ll be open today until 8 p.m. Order online for curbside pickup, or pick up an e-gift card in the link. Local delivery available for an additional fee.”

Christmas Captions, Day 12: Relax and Enjoy the Holidays

When the time comes to close your doors and enjoy your holiday, be sure to take a photo or two as you’re relaxing at home. Try a fireside selfie, a glass of wine to say cheers, or a simple picture of your decorations or gifts.

“From my home to yours, Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones!”

Customize Your Captions

The above captions and ideas are a starting point to help you fill your page with engaging content this holiday season. Feel free to tweak them as needed to suit your business and preferences.

And from all of us at Rallio, we wish you the happiest of holidays.

Rallio

Tags social media marketing