Friday, 29 September 2017

#SproutChat Recap: Managing a Social Crisis

It can happen in an instant. A seemingly harmless response to a snarky comment on social can spiral into a full blown reputation crisis for a brand. How you manage and de-escalate a social crisis, as well as the steps you take to prevent it from happening again, are crucial to your customer service blueprint.

In this week’s chat we turned to our #SproutChat community to explore some best practices for managing a social emergency effectively and how to take precautions ahead of time to be ready with a plan.

Create a Crisis Communication Plan

Take the time to plan out a social media crisis management plan not just with your team, but across your organization—like your legal team and customer support—to thoroughly handle the issue. Be in tune with your audience and understand that certain tones, content or messages may not resonate with them and cause backlash.

Loop in the Appropriate People

When creating your crisis management plan think of who should be looped in with each step. Think of when your technology, legal, PR and Executive teams need to be brought in to help when crafting these plans. Consult with the appropriate people within your organization who would need eyes on what’s happening.

Brand Guidelines Are Key

When launching a new social channel take the time to figure out if brand guidelines are necessary. If you offer social support on your channels coordinate with customer service to be looped in on the appropriate responses to comments. Offer your brand guidelines to anyone at your business who is externally facing.

Don’t Ignore the Situation

Ultimately your crisis management plan may have a “stay silent” rule, but it’s important to not ignore comments and communicate with your team to effectively move forward with the plan. Encourage social team members to take the conversation offline as quickly as possible.

Keep Track of Incoming Messages

Negative comments are the first indicator that a possible crisis is brewing. If you tag incoming messages in your social platform you can easily take note and figure out the root of the problem. This is an easy method to also share the situation with others in your organization.

Join us for #SproutChat next week to discuss managing online communities with Sprout All Star, Meagan DeMenna, Community Manager at ClearVoice. Until then, be sure to join our Facebook Community to connect with other folks in the industry and stay on top of the latest social media news.

This post #SproutChat Recap: Managing a Social Crisis originally appeared on Sprout Social.



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Understand social media — and make some serious cash — for only $29


You can learn how to reach out and communicate your brand messages directly to an open and receptive audience — on any number of top social media platforms — with the Social Media Rockstar learning package. The full seven-course bundle is available right now for $29 (over 90 percent off) from TNW Deals.

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Thursday, 28 September 2017

The consequences of online vigilantism


Like some kind of dark comic book movie, the internet has a problem with vigilantes — specifically, online justice-seekers who attempt to take the identification and punishment of alleged wrong-doers into their own hands. Online vigilantes seem to come from the same place as fictional ones — no one else is filling what they see as a gap in the law, so why not step in? But the fallout from vigilante social media “justice” can frequently be ruinous — especially when the mob is wrong. Detective work Internet denizens trying to police their own isn’t new, and often their ardor…

This story continues at The Next Web

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Tuesday, 26 September 2017

Twitter testing 280 character tweets


Twitter is testing a new feature that will double the character limit of tweets — which means you may soon have 280 characters to play with. According to Twitter, it made the changes to address the frustration most people have with trying to fit their thoughts into a 140-character limit. About 9 percent of tweets in English hit the limit. A company spokesperson says the company is confident most people will appreciate the change: We understand since many of you have been Tweeting for years, there may be an emotional attachment to 140 characters – we felt it, too. But…

This story continues at The Next Web

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Earn digital and social media marketing diplomas — for under $20


No area is morphing and exploding faster than how to market your products and services digitally. So get in on how the best of the best handle digital marketing online and on social media with this double-barreled learning bootcamp, available right now for only $19.99 (over 90 percent off) from TNW Deals.

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Friday, 22 September 2017

#SproutChat Recap: Social Recruiting for Higher Education

Ask any college student about social media, they’ll tell you that it’s an integral part of their school experience, both on and off campus. Social media marketers already understand the importance of tailoring messaging for audiences and focusing on the platforms that their audience consumes the most, but for colleges and universities it’s goes a little beyond that.

This week at #SproutChat, we were joined by Sprout All Star, Phil Hughes of NYU Admissions, to chat about where schools ideally allocate social efforts and the types of content that compliment an institution of higher education’s messaging.

Craft Content With Audience in Mind

It’s important to share content that will resonate with your audience and ensure that you’re delivering your institution’s messaging effectively. Depending on the platform, try exploring video and images and see what performs best.

Gain Interest of Senior Leadership

Show senior leadership how other colleges, universities or brands use social to boost recruiting. Get them involved in the process to show prospective students what can’t be shown in glossy recruiting print materials.

Focus on Authenticity

Remember the audience that you’re communicating with. Keep your social platforms conversational and play with posts featuring less copy and more visuals to better capture your audiences attention.

Target Audiences Means Separate Accounts

Not all messages can or should be published from general accounts. If you’re looking to give prospective students an inside look into your institution or, for example, have a robust athletics program to promote, creating separate social accounts can be useful.

Be sure to know your objectives with each audience before creating accounts specific to them and line up your strategy.

Tune in to #SproutChat next Wednesday, 9/27 at 2 p.m CT, to talk about effective actions during a social crisis. Until then join our Facebook community to interact with other folks in the industry.

This post #SproutChat Recap: Social Recruiting for Higher Education originally appeared on Sprout Social.



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Thursday, 21 September 2017

Color Theory for Sign Up Form Design

Color tends to trip a lot of “non-designers” up. It can lead to confusion, doubt and, often, poor color combinations. Besides causing jarring color pairings, poor color choice can make your marketing less effective. (Up to 90 percent of people make decisions based on color alone!) This is especially true of email sign up forms. To get people to complete your forms, they need to notice them first. And color plays a big role in whether or not visitors see a form on your site. But here's the good news: You can easily avoid sign up form color mistakes. With a basic understanding of how colors relate, a design novice can create beautiful color combinations that catch people's attention. In this post, I'll teach you three color theories you can use to choose sign up form colors. Plus, I'll explain how your brand colors affect the design choices you make. While I'll be applying the color theories in this post to sign up forms, you can use them for other things too (like your emails, for example!).

Analogous colors provide an easy-to-implement aesthetic

Analogous colors are those that are adjacent on the color wheel. Depending on how many color segments you break the wheel into, this could be blue, green and yellow or even three shades of any one color This makes the color picking process a little easier. If you find one color you like, you can quickly identify the other two colors you should use just by looking at adjacent colors on the color wheel. Here’s an example of what an analogous shade approach using three shades of green would look like: And here's another example of an analogous family using shades of yellow and green: If you're not sure how to find analogous colors, you can use the free tool Adobe Color CC to easily identify them.

Complimentary color schemes feel like smooth jazz

If you'd like to make your forms more interesting, consider a complimentary color arrangement. Complimentary colors are those that are on opposite sides of the color wheel. For instance, blue and orange, green and red or purple and yellow. These pairings make for beautiful arrangements, especially when moving away from the primary colors. They are visually appealing and add visual contrast. (We’ll talk about that below.) Here are some (non-primary) examples of how this could look on a signup form:     To find complementary colors, you can use the same tool I recommended for finding analogous colors: Adobe Color CC.

Contrast silently screams to your audience “Look at me!”

Life would be pretty boring without contrast in it. We’d be stuck in a bland world with limited exposure to life-giving diversity. When the principle of contrast is applied to sign up forms, your visitors pay attention to what you want them to. This is powerful, as it can lead to something as simple, yet important, as more people noticing your call-to-action button and clicking on it. There are two ways to utilize contrast in sign up forms:

1. Contrast between the form and the site itself

The idea here is to make the signup form’s background a highly contrasted color from the site itself. This draws the eye to the form naturally. Here’s an example of what that could look like:

2. Contrast within the form

Once you have their attention on your form, your visitor should know exactly what they need to do next – complete the form! To make this more likely, both the form fields and the button should be very noticeable. Contrast has a lot to do with this. Notice how this form example below uses contrasting shades of black, yellow and white to draw the eye to the form, the fields and the button all at once: And if you chose to use complimentary colors, this is a great opportunity to make your button and form background both compliment each other yet contrast. There’s no quicker way to say “click here” than with color!

But what about my brand?

That’s a great question! When it comes to applying these concepts to an existing brand aesthetic, there may be hesitation or misunderstanding on how the two can coexist. If you already have established brand colors, no fear! The most complex and the simplest brand color schemes can apply these principles. How? By accepting that sometimes you’ll need to break free of a brand color to choose the right colors. Or, you may realize that a new color should be added to your brand to adapt to the way your site is growing and changing. Picture a brand as a person. Over time people change. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that. I don’t wear the same styles today that I did five or 10 years ago, but people still know who I am. In the same way, your brand should also be flexible enough to weather time. Adding a new color on your site outside of your brand standards document might just begin a new, better era for your business. If you’d like to use new colors that work with your brand colors but you’re not sure how to choose them, try Coolors. With Coolors, you can add your brand colors to a palette and the tool will choose colors that work with them.

Unlock the designer within

Whether you’re struggling to get your first sign up form created or performing your hundredth split test, try using some of these principles today. I hope they unlock the designer in you and help you design beautiful, converting forms. Want to learn how to turn ordinary sign up forms into extraordinary ones that convert more visitors into subscribers? Join our free video course "Email List Growth Blueprint." email list growth course

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Tuesday, 19 September 2017

Twitter claims it’s removed 95% of extremist content with no one noticing


Twitter today released its biannual transparency report, one section of which detailed requests it receives from government officials around the world to remove content that violates the site’s Terms of Service. Of particular note in the report is that, according to Twitter, it now receives 80 percent fewer TOS requests relating to the promotion of terrorism, apparently thanks to more rigorous internal checks. The report covers the period from January 1, 2017 through June 30. In that time, Twitter received 338 reports on 1,200 accounts. That’s down from the 716 reports they received on the previous report. That’s a major…

This story continues at The Next Web

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Sending the Right Email at the Right Time with AWeber

A field with different flowers and plants.

There’s an old adage in marketing. It’s all about getting the right message to the right person at the right time. With AWeber’s ability to trigger automated email sequences with tags and then create segmented audiences to send one-time broadcast emails, you can be even more relevant and successful in a subscriber’s inbox. But wait a minute, automated sequences, tagging, segmentation … how does this actually work in practical examples? Wow, I’m so glad you asked. Let me break down a few common use cases. 😉

Using tags to send automated campaigns

One of the most practical applications of tagging subscribers is to trigger a contextual welcome campaign – a series of automated emails that are crafted to welcome your new subscribers and meet their needs. You can easily do this in AWeber. Watch this video to learn how:
 
  To do this, simply add a tag to your AWeber web form, or use one of our trusted integration partners that support tagging. When your subscriber is added to your list, the appropriate tag will be added as well. Then, create an automated sequence of emails using AWeber’s Campaigns. Set the campaign to trigger (or launch) when a subscriber has the applied tag, and this specific campaign will be delivered to your new subscriber.

Delivering segmented campaigns using tags

In many cases, a single welcome series will meet your audience’s needs, but there will be times when you want to send more targeted and personalized content to your new subscribers. To learn how to do this in AWeber, watch this short video:
 
  Here’s an example: Let’s say you sell digital courses for people who want to write and publish their own books. You may have a course for individuals who are just getting started, and separate courses for those who have already written their book, or at least are a bit further along. If you send tips for writing your first book to people who are already successfully published, you’ll lose relevancy. If you send advanced publishing tips to those who haven’t written their book yet, you’ll potentially overwhelm new subscribers. To deliver the best value and promote the right products, this is the perfect opportunity to segment your audience. Here’s how you can send targeted automated emails to your new subscribers using tags: First, create a new sign up form that asks a question which allows subscribers to self-select based on their needs. Using the example above, you might include a question “Can you tell me about yourself?” Here you can include options that include your two subscriber personas. Your audience can choose: “I’m just getting started with writing my first book,” or “I’ve already written my first book.” When setting up this form, add a tag for beginner if the subscriber is just getting started, and a tag for advanced if the subscriber is further along. Many of our integrations that support tags can accommodate this functionality as well. Using Campaigns, you’ll follow the same process outlined above, creating an automated welcome sequence to deliver emails to your new subscribers based on a tag. However, you’ll now create two distinct campaigns to be sent based on the two distinct tags we’ve set up. Voila! The right messages to the right person, which can then promote the right products and services that will help you grow your business.

Stop blasting your subscribers by waiting until a campaign is over

Sending one-time broadcast emails to subscribers who are also in an automated sequence can be a very successful strategy. For example, if you send evergreen content every Thursday for 10 weeks, and a weekly newsletter on Mondays, you’ll have two opportunities to engage with your subscribers. As long as you set the expectation that your subscribers will hear from you twice a week, you’ll be good to go. However, there may be times where you don’t want to send any broadcasts to subscribers who are currently in the middle of an automated campaign. Perhaps you are delivering a six-week email course, and don’t want to confuse your subscribers with other content. Here’s how to use tags to prevent subscribers within a campaign from receiving your other broadcasts:
 
  You’ll need a way to indicate that your subscriber has completed the campaign. At the end of the campaign, add an Apply Tag action. Create a tag that is easy to remember, such as "completed-course." Next, on your Subscriber Management page, create a segment that includes tag is "completed-course." Give this segment a name, and save it. This segment will grow as new subscribers are added to your list and complete the campaign. The segment itself will dynamically update; it’s not simply a snapshot of subscribers at the time that you create it. When scheduling a broadcast, select the new segment, and you can be assured that only subscribers who have finished your campaign will receive the message. This is a great way to send more strategically, and even offer relevant follow up promotions to subscribers who finished a course or series. (Note: Only subscribers that have gone through the campaign received this final tag. Any existing subscribers on the list before the campaign was created would not have it, and therefore would not be included in the segment. You can manually or bulk apply the tag to your subscribers if you’d like to include them.)

Get started with targeted emails and segmentation

Log in to your AWeber account today to start implementing these strategies. Or, reach out to our award-winning customer solutions team if you have any questions!

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Friday, 15 September 2017

New in AWeber: Even More Apps that Support Tags

A photograph of colored doors.

Email marketing still remains one of the most effective, affordable and reliable marketing channels to reach, grow and engage your audience. It’s no surprise that much of the software you use everyday integrates with your email service provider. In fact, AWeber integrates with hundreds of custom applications to help you grow your list and send automated email sequences that can fuel your business. We’re excited to share even more applications that support tagging your subscribers in AWeber, which will allow you to better segment your audience, send targeted one-time broadcasts to the right people at the right time and also trigger targeted automated campaigns. Check out the list below. You might find your new favorite app. :)

Lead generation forms

Using your lead generation app of choice, you can tag your subscribers from your website as soon as they opt-in. With advanced targeting options, and different design options, these applications will be sure to boost your conversion rate in no time.

Mailmunch

MailMunch offers a simple solution for building attractive and performant sign up forms. Create your forms, link the app to your AWeber account and list, add your tags and simply install the MailMunch Wordpress plugin, or MailMunch form code on your site. We recently teamed up with MailMunch to deliver an awesome webinar to help you maximize your current marketing channels. Check it out.

Hello Bar

Want to catch your website visitors’ attention right away? Hello Bar allows you to create a horizontal form or call-to-action that will appear at the top of your site. These simple forms can help you convert traffic into loyal email subscribers.

MiloTree

MiloTree allows you to create pop-ups to promote signups for your Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook and YouTube accounts, as well as your email newsletter.

WPForms

Level up your Wordpress web forms using WPForms. Take advantage of advanced features, like smart conditional display logic and payment collection, that accompany easy-to-use features like WPForms’ drag & drop form builder and templates. Read more about WPForms’ integration with AWeber and tags on their blog.

Upscribe

Publishing written content on Medium.com is a fantastic way to attract new followers. Upscribe is one of the few solutions that allows you to create and embed a signup form directly on your post. Using tags, you can tag your new subscribers based on the articles they’ve opted in from.

Sleeknote

If you’re looking for a solution to create attractive popups, slide ins, top bars, exit boxes and more with premium features like advanced targeting, exit intent, split testing and analytics, be sure to check out Sleeknote. This app now supports tags to allow you to hyper-target subscribers based on their browsing or buying behavior.

Vidvision

Using video to engage your audience? Try VidVision, which allows you to add a sign up form on top of any embedded YouTube video in order to capture your viewer’s email address. Using tags, you can tag your subscribers based on the videos they’re watching.

ConvertFlow

Using ConvertFlow, you can display personalized forms to attract new subscribers and targeted calls-to-action on your website using your AWeber list data! This powerful feature allows you to prompt your prospects with the next ideal action when they visit your site. Pro-tip: Want to learn all of the awesome things you can do with ConvertFlow? Check out this recent webinar that I co-hosted with ConvertFlow's CEO, Ethan Denney.

Landing page and website builders

For marketers without a dedicated website, or those that need specific landing pages, these builders can save you an immense amount of time and effort. With tag support, directly send your subscribers the perfect email campaign based on the page or form they completed.

Landing Lion

Landing Lion is the perfect landing page service for advanced marketers and beginners alike! This service gives you the tools you need to consolidate your design, product and marketing workflows into a single platform. After you build and launch your pages with Landing Lion's intuitive builder, you can rapidly conduct limitless A/B split tests and analyze your visitor's behavior with a comprehensive set of tracking tools.

Growtheme

Growtheme is one of the more popular and highly reviewed WordPress solutions for building high-converting blogs and landing pages. This site theme incorporates a variety of conversion practices and techniques. Learn more and request an invitation.

Sweepstakes, quizzes, and contests

Get ready to expand your reach and build your email list with these apps that now support tagging.

Interact

Leverage personality quizzes, assessments and giveaways to rapidly grow your email list using Interact. By integrating your quiz or giveaway with tags, you can deliver targeted content to your audience based on what you learn about them. Check out this bonus podcast episode we recorded with Interact’s awesome co-founder, Josh Haynam.

Gleam

Supercharge your reach, shareability and subscriber growth by embedding a competition or contest on your site using Gleam. In addition to unlimited competitions, a Gleam Pro account will also give you access to on-site image galleries and custom rewards.

Outgrow

Have you ever considered how a calculator or other interactive content can help you grow your email list? Check out Outgrow, an exciting and unique integration that now supports tags.

eCommerce

Have a digital or physical product? This latest integration will help you sell efficiently and effectively.

Sendowl

Selling digital products isn’t simply a great way to grow your business. For many, selling digital products is your business. Using an easy-to-use platform like SendOwl can help you save time and sell your digital products however you’d like.

Ready to segment your subscribers?

Take advantage of tagging and segmenting your subscribers today and begin sending relevant, remarkable and high-converting emails that will grow your business. Don’t see an app you love here? Be sure to check out our previous blog post or let us know if you there’s an integration you are looking for. We’re always working with our partners to add tagging support to more apps.

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9 Inspiring Sign Up Form Ideas to Grow Your Email List

inspiring sign up forms

Your sign up form is the first step to gaining new email subscribers, and it can make or break a visitor’s decision to receive your emails. So it's important that the copy and design of your form is effective and converts. But often, it's challenging to know what to write on your form and how to design it for conversion. To give you direction, we've collected some of our favorite sign up forms in this post and explained what makes them work. Take inspiration for your own form from these nine examples and tips.

1. Visually represent your incentive

A sign up form with a visual representation of your incentive, like this one from Spoon Graphics, is an effective way to entice visitors to subscribe. Image in sign up form   Being able to envision the tangible benefits of signing up to your email list can often be that extra push over the edge in a person’s decision to subscribe. Not to mention that sign up forms with images receive 94 percent more views than those without images. [bctt tweet="The sign up form alone can make or break a visitor’s decision to receive your emails." username="aweber"]

2. Present an unfavorable alternative

This sign up form from Boast gives subscribers a discount just for signing up, like many retailers do. What makes this copy different is the alternative Boast gives to those who choose not to sign up. sign up form example If visitors don’t want to sign up, they can click “No thanks, I prefer paying full price.” at the bottom of the form. Who wants to pay full price? Not many people would like that alternative. By positioning opting out as an unfavorable alternative, Boast gets visitors to think about the negative consequences of not subscribing and gives visitors a compelling reason to join their list. This copy can increase opt-in rates, because it positions subscribing as the better option.

3. Display a percentage complete tracker

The top of this sign up form from Amy Schmittauer shows visitors how close they are to completing the sign up process. percent complete tracker in sign up form With this strategy, visitors may be more likely to complete your form, because they can visualize how close they are to being finished. Plus, it demonstrates that they’ve already done half the work, which will make them more inclined to finish the form.

4. Use one form field

Privy uses a sign up form that’s quick and simple with a single form field to make the subscription process easy for visitors. form fields in sign up form This works because forms with less fields are more likely to increase your conversion rates since visitors spend less time signing up. One thing to keep in mind is that without asking for the subscriber’s name you can’t personalize your emails. Think about your business’s needs and goals to determine how many form fields are right for you.

5. Let subscribers choose their preferences

Wistia’s sign up form lets subscribers choose their newsletter preferences, which can give them a more personalized email experience. preferences in sign up forms This can also help with form conversion rates as it allows subscribers to choose what kind of content they want in their inbox. When subscribers are able to personalize their experience, they’ll get more value and engage more.

6. Create color contrast

BizChix uses a simple sign up form relying on the brand reputation as the incentive for joining the community while the color contrast attracts the attention of visitors. color contrast in sign up forms The contrasting colors of this form stands out on the website. Using a bright color, like yellow, on a black and white website draws attention to the sign up form, which can increase the number of people who complete it.

7. Write conversational copy

When you use conversational copy in your sign up form like Kate Spade, it grabs the visitor’s attention and feels more personal. Kate spade sign up form Visitors don’t expect to see phrases like “Oh hey!” or “Hey you!” This copy attracts their attention, which you can use to hook them in and tell them what value they’ll get from being subscribed to your email list.

8. Be creative and witty

Justuno uses creative and witty copy on their sign up form to delight visitors. creative sign up forms Instead of using buttons that just say “yes” and “no,” this sign up form makes a joke with a personalized comparison. The visitor will imagine themselves as a sponge, which implies that they can soak up a ton of knowledge. Who wouldn’t want to be a sponge that soaks up a ton of knowledge, especially when it comes to getting more conversions?

9. Use social proof

Social proof is a strategy where you leverage herd mentality to convince people to take an action. Because if someone sees that everyone else is doing something, they’ll be more likely to do it themselves. social proof sign up form Jane Mukami’s sign up form lets new visitors know that over 4,000 people are subscribed to her email list. Besides leveraging social proof, this also works because it builds trust. If visitors know that other people have signed up for her list, they're more likely to believe that she publishes trustworthy and valuable content.

Implement these ideas for your next sign up form

Pin these sign up form ideas on Pinterest to save as inspiration for later! With these nine ideas for a creative, new sign up form, you can bring a breath of fresh air to your website and email list. If you’re looking for more strategies and resources for creating a sign up form and lead magnet, enroll in this short video course: Email List Growth Blueprint. It’ll help you build the perfect tools for growing your email list. email list growth course

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#SproutChat Recap: The Importance of Online Reviews & Reputation Management

A brand’s reputation can mean everything on the internet. Negative reviews and a poorly handled customer experiences can spiral into a public relations nightmare quickly. We know that consumers hold the buying power and often turn to reviews as a research touch point.

This week at #SproutChat we were joined by Sprout All Star, Mandy Yoh, Head of Communications for ReviewTrackers. In this chat, Mandy shared why reputation management is an important factor in any marketing strategy.

Reviews Can Impact a Consumer’s Decision

The importance of consumer reviews goes beyond the content of the review itself, it can become more about your organization’s response. Reviews are often a make or break deal with potential customers.

Online Reviews Impact a Brand’s Reputation

Reviews are like a padding of credibility and trust to your brand’s reputation. When potential customers see reviews that haven’t been engaged with, that reputation you’ve built can fall.

Be Nice

You’ve heard the saying, “the customer is always right,” before. When it comes to public reviews, it’s best to keep that in mind when crafting responses. Snark and sass can be misconstrued for hostility, so stick with a genuine approach.

Good Experiences Lend to Positive Reviews

Paying for positive reviews is a no-go and a practice that is definitely looked down upon. Providing a great experience for your customers organically yields the positive reviews you’re looking for and is the better plan for the long run.

Monitor & Strategize

If your business is consistently seeing poor reviews, make an effort to take that feedback to heart and rethink your current strategy. Monitoring reviews is an important aspect in keeping your brand’s reputation top of mind.

Tune in next Wednesday, September 20 at 2 p.m. CT to chat with Sprout All Star, Phil Hughes, of NYU Admissions when we’ll discuss engaging students through social media. Until then, check out our Facebook group to connect with others in the industry.

This post #SproutChat Recap: The Importance of Online Reviews & Reputation Management originally appeared on Sprout Social.



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#NoTwoDays: A Day in the Life of Susan Chang of Dropbox

Wednesday, 13 September 2017

Repost Instagram Content Using Sprout’s Mobile App

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#AgencyLife: 5 Tactics of Highly Effective Social Media Marketers

Oh, agency life. The mini-meetings on the way to meetings, after-hours brainstorms, free client swag and mandatory office parties that always seem to land on your busiest day (why does that always happen?!). It’s a strange, challenging yet incredibly rewarding career.

It goes without saying that when you work in this world, every minute matters–especially when you’re juggling multiple clients’ social media accounts. With social media ad spending forecasted to increase by 20% each year through 2020, there are no signs of things slowing down when it comes to the sheer volume of work associated with managing social on behalf of your agency’s clients.

Job security is a good thing, for sure, but you also need to have a method to the madness if you want to continue to thrive.

Below are five tactics you can use–no matter your level of agency experience–to be highly effective as an agency professional with multiple clients on your social roster:

1. Designate Your Doppelganger

Social is always on, even when you can’t be. It can seem easier to do everything yourself all the time, but you need someone to steer the ship when you’re not available. New business pitches, last minute client lunches and vacation with *gasp* limited access to email…they all happen.

Find a person on your team that you trust and who can confidently jump in and manage your clients’ social accounts until you’re available again. All you need to do is download them periodically about the current state of affairs (campaigns, content calendar, etc.) and make sure they have access to the proper social profiles, brand guidelines and any other necessary resources to do your job effectively.

Speaking of social profile access, we highly recommend giving your doppelgänger specific user permissions within the Sprout platform to ensure they can get the job done when needed. Go the extra mile and show them the content that you have planned and scheduled in the shared calendar view.

2. Banish Email Approvals

Admit it: Email is one of the least effective methods for getting both internal and client approvals on new social content. Maybe it would work in the bizarro world of Inbox Zero, but this is Earth. The emails never stop and your time-sensitive message asking for feedback on the latest round of tomorrow’s copy just got buried 50 emails deep in your client’s inbox.

Skip the frustration and follow-up emails by adding key stakeholders to the message approval workflow in Sprout’s Publishing suite. Seems almost too easy, right? Collaboration on content approvals really doesn’t get more effective than this.

As for making sure the approvals happen on time? We recommend putting a recurring “meeting” on the approver’s calendar for the beginning of the day as a reminder.

3. Be More Mobile Optimized

Whether you’re a digital native or an analog expat, make sure you can handle any and every request your team may have when you’re not in front of your work computer.

This means having the following:

  • Every major social app including the companion apps like Facebook Ads and Boomerang
  • Access to a fully editable content calendar
  • Work email with calendar integration
  • Various photo, video and GIF editing apps
  • Asset management apps like Box or Dropbox
  • A password management app like Lastpass

Right now you may be thinking, “Yeah, every social media person already does this.” You’re right. But, does every social person know that Sprout’s mobile app can reduce home screen clutter and unify social workflow by handling the functionality of a more than a few of these apps? Give it a shot if you haven’t already.

4. Outsource Reporting, Internally

As if reporting on multiple clients’ social accounts wasn’t enough, there’s also cross-departmental and ad-hoc reporting requests to manage. You’re better off outsourcing any non-core reporting, internally. Or, in layperson terms, let other departments pull their own reports. That has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?

The two best ways to do this are:

  • Set up a Google Sheet dashboard that displays all your key metrics. Plug the raw social data into another tab on that sheet so that it updates the dashboard charts, tables and graphs automatically. There are a ton of YouTube tutorials that show how to do this if you’re not an Excel wizard, but depending on your client volume, the time investment up front on your end will still be somewhat large. Plus, you’ll have to manually add the raw data fairly often. After you’re set up, simply share the “read only” link with anyone that needs it. Over the long run, it’s a worthy investment.
  • The easier way to go is to grant reporting access to key department staff for Sprout’s Reporting suite, which includes a custom report builder and a host of ready-to-go reports on engagement, social referral traffic, competitive benchmarking and more. They can go in and get what they need, when they need it, all without even taking up one precious minute of your time.

5. Scale The Team Creatively

In order to be effective when taking on new clients, you have to scale your team. The smartest of agency folk know that working smarter doesn’t work at all if there aren’t team members available with free bandwidth.

A new full-time person is ideal but not always feasible, especially on project-based work or seasonal campaigns. Consider hiring a part-time person, contracting a freelancer from your local staffing agency, or tapping your best intern past or present to fill the role. Sprout makes scaling easy by offering extra seat add ons, on a month-to-month basis, at any time.

One more thing: If you’re considering just buckling down instead of scaling your team, there’s reason to rethink your position. Academic researchers at Harvard and Stanford are finding that “long hours, impossible demands from bosses and uncertain job security can take their toll on our mental and physical well-being…” to the tune of more than $125 billion in additional healthcare costs per year. Don’t get caught in this trap. Employee burnout is nothing to sneeze at.

There you have it: our five top tactics for being a highly effective social media marketer in the agency world. Have some of your own? We’d love to see them. Share with us on Twitter at @SproutSocial.

If you want more content like this be sure to check out Social Media Collaboration: Tips, Tools & Tactics to Work Smarter.

This post #AgencyLife: 5 Tactics of Highly Effective Social Media Marketers originally appeared on Sprout Social.



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