Tag: social media marketing

It’s a question that any small-business owner faces sooner or later: Why does social media matter for small businesses? It’s easy to put off the answer when you have other priorities, such as hiring and retention, lead generation and customer acquisition.

But when you start really digging into what social media is and what it can do for your business, you can’t ignore the fact that social media matters a great deal for small businesses. Not only can it help with all of the priorities mentioned above, but it can allow your business to grow consistently and build a strong online reputation. 

To answer the question posed in our headline, we turned to our in-house experts, the Social Strategists who help our clients navigate the social media space.

Specialized Social Strategist, Phoebe

Rallio Local is a technology that allows business owners to manage and monitor all their social media platforms in one dashboard with a single login. Our Social Strategists are the creative geniuses who create a personalized strategy and custom content, as well as respond to and monitor all your reviews, comments and messages.

“Social media is really important for small businesses to increase brand awareness, create strong relationships with customers, and story-tell on these platforms that allow you to be so authentic,” Phoebe explains. “Small businesses have really unique and interesting messages to share, and they have these fans out there waiting to find them. So you want them to have a really strong, positive first impression when they see what you’re doing online and read about you and come across your page.

“And once that happens and they interact with you and you engage back with them, you’re creating this foundation and this relationship for them to then do business with you in real life and become a loyal customer for life and share your name with friends and family.”

See the complete interview here.

Kayla, Social Strategist

“Rallio Local is a local-specific technology that performs agency-like work; however, us Strategists then come in and we oversee the brand’s marketing plan and we give ideas for what we’d want to promote on social media,” says Kayla. “I think it’s great because you can really build a relationship with your Strategist here at Rallio, and we as strategists really get to know our clients on a personal basis.”

See Kayla’s complete interview here.

Laynie, Social Strategist

Rallio Local is “super effective for business owners because it makes their lives so much easier,” says Laynie. “They don’t have to deal with the kind of complicated and annoying process that marketing and social marketing can be. We deal with the reviews; we create the content; we come up with out-of-box ideas; we do all of that to make their life easier.”

See the complete interview here.

Why Does Social Media Matter for Small Businesses?

If you’ve made it this far and watched the videos above, you should be answering “yes” to the question, does social media matter for small businesses? We’d also like to show you how Rallio can help lighten your load. When you allow our team of experts and our technology to do the heavy lifting for you, you have more time to put back into your business.

Plus, working with our team is pretty dang fun, if we do say so ourselves. Check out the library of video content in our YouTube channel for Social Spots with Roscoe, our “Just Makes Sense” series and lots of other entertaining (and informative) content.

And don’t forget to head over to rallio.com to see our full suite of products and services, including our Revv reputation management app that integrates with your POS system and makes it easy to increase your positive online reviews immediately after every sale.

Related: Revv: Increase Positive Social Reviews

People are using social media all day, every day, all around the world. As a small-business owner, you might be wondering how to reach the right people on different social media platforms. It all begins with creative, compelling social media content ideas.

And we’ve got plenty of them for you.

Why is it important to post great content, you ask? Statista reports, “In 2020, over 3.6 billion people were using social media worldwide, a number projected to increase to almost 4.41 billion in 2025.” The numbers are only growing, so it’s critical that you tap into opportunities to connect with your desired audience.

The way to do that is with content that’s memorable, informative, entertaining and even inspiring. That way not to do that is with content that’s forgettable, self-promoting, canned and even boring. 

In the interest of helping you post the best content on your business social media pages, we’ve rounded up some of our best content ideas from previous blog articles — along with a few new ones to keep you busy. If you start posting this type of content regularly, and pair it with an advertising budget, you should see your follower and engagement growth start to climb.

Related: 31 Days of Social Media Content Ideas

1. Team Member Spotlights

Whether it’s “Team member Tuesday” or any other day of the week, spotlighting your employees makes for great social media content. Ideas can include snapping photos of star employees and sharing a few fun facts about them, inviting your followers to share any testimonials about favorite team members, and filming videos with your team to ask for their product or service recommendations.

Not only do these spotlights help to generate engagement, but they also can help you share about your products or services in a non-promotional way. For example, having a team member recommend a top-selling product is a subtle way to promote your product without coming across as salesy.

2. Throwback Posts

You’ve heard of throwback Thursday, right? Try digging up old photos from your first days in business, or even of yourself before you even thought about going into business for yourself. Tell your followers who’s in the photo and what’s going on, and use the #tbt hashtag to spark conversations around the topic.

3. Holidays and National Days

Are there any holidays or “national” days, weeks or months happening right now? See National Day Calendar or Days of the Year for social media content ideas throughout the year. Look for opportunities to tie these days into your business, too. For instance, Relaxation Day on Aug. 15 is perfect for massage businesses or other companies focused on self-care.

You can also post about in-house birthdays, engagements, baby showers and other special events. Make it even more special by hosting a lunch for your team or sending flowers!

4. Pandemic Posts

Are you reopening after a closure, expanding your business with curbside and online shopping, or otherwise taking any special steps related to COVID-19? Be sure to share some details on any special services you’re offering or safety protocols you’re following during the pandemic.

5. A Day in the Life

Post pictures and photos showing what it’s like to run your business behind the scenes. Let your followers know what it takes to bring your products or services to life, including all the awesome team members who are a part of your business.

6. Personal Touches

What do you like to do when you’re not busy running your business? You’re probably busy all the time, but don’t forget to take a few moments every day to unwind — and snap some photos while you’re at it. Even if you just stop long enough to have a cup of tea and read a book, your followers will appreciate seeing how you “take five.”

7. Pets and Kids

While you’re at it, take some photos of your home life, kids, pets and neighborhood (if you’re comfortable doing so, of course). Rather not overshare? Take a photo of neighboring businesses you support, and give them a shoutout by tagging them.

8. Hashtags Galore

As mentioned above, hashtags can help to generate conversations around a certain topic. Look them up using the search feature or by viewing trending topics (especially on Twitter). You can also check out some of your favorite brands to see what kinds of hashtags they’re using for more inspiration.  

9. Contests and Giveaways

A contest can be a great way to inspire many different social media content ideas and generate engagement around your brand. Make it specific to your brand, or to a certain holiday or time of year. For example, it could be as simple as filling a jar with chocolates and asking people to guess how many are in the jar around Valentine’s Day. The winner gets a special gift — maybe a free product or service.

Be sure to ask your followers to like the post, tag friends and share with their own networks. The post will get even more organic traction when your followers get in on the fun.

10. Sneak Peeks

What lies on the road ahead? Do you have special products or services launching soon? Are you remodeling or upgrading your location?

Give your followers a hint of what’s to come! Share any progress photos or a glimpse of all the exciting things ahead (without giving away competitive intelligence, of course).

11. Customer Testimonials

Let your customers do the talking by featuring their testimonials on your page. If possible, get a photo of them and post it along with their kind words.

12. Influencer and Employee Posts

When you have employees and influencers posting brand-approved assets on your behalf, you’ll never run out of social media content ideas. They can also promote your brand on their personal pages, helping to build confidence and trust among people who aren’t familiar with you. 

As noted here, about half of employees in one Weber Shandwick study said they’re already posting messages, pictures or videos in social media about their employer. The Rallio Activate platform allows you to activate and incentivize employees and influencers to help spread awareness and reach for your brand. Schedule a no-obligation demo to learn more.

Related: 15 Holiday Content Ideas Every Marketer Needs in 2020

13. Entertainment Content

Invite any in-house musicians, singers, actors or other performance artists to create videos showing off their talents. With video content soaring in popularity, you can’t go wrong posting this type of fun, entertaining content for your followers.

14. Stories and Reels

Stories and Reels (Instagram’s answer to TikTok) will let you get creative with video content, too. Reach your audience in different ways by making yourself visible in these newer mediums.

15. Storytelling

Working on your storytelling skills is a surefire way to improve your social media. Think about the “story” behind any given post, and share those stories with your followers. For example, do you have a 90-year-old grandma who brings your team home-baked cookies? Or a mail carrier who goes above and beyond to deliver your mail? Feature these “unsung heroes” in your posts with a great story.

Go Beyond Social Media Content Ideas

Keep in mind, your work is not done once you post something to your social profiles. All the content ideas and social media posts in the world won’t mean much if you don’t engage with your followers. By engaging, we mean:

• Replying back to their social media comments, direct messages and reviews
• Boosting your content to make it more visible to followers and their friends
• Handling any customer service inquiries in a timely fashion (yes, social media is a customer service medium)
• Responding to job applications if you have an active recruiting campaign
• Basically staying on top of your social media 24/7

If all of the above sounds exhausting, and if even these content ideas seem overwhelming, feel free to schedule some time with us. We’d be happy to throw some ideas around of how Rallio can assist with your social media management.

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.

 

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: 

1. You regularly post engaging content that interests them and inspires them to interact with it; and
2. 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.

Read more: Facebook Boosting 101: How to Boost Content for Better Results

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. 

Related: Top 9 Social Media Questions, Answered

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

Related: Facebook Ads and Hyper-Local Content: Your Recipe for Social Media Success

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.

Related: What’s the difference between organic, paid and post reach?

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.

Related: 5 Big Reasons You Need an Employee Advocacy Program

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!

Related: Online Business Listings FAQ: What They Are, Why They Matter and How Technology Can Help

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.

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

Related: 4 Types of Social Media Influencers to Power Up Your Brand

#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.

 

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.

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.

Related: 5 Big Reasons You Need an Employee Advocacy Program

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.

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.

Related: 4 Types of Social Media Influencers to Power Up Your Brand

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.