Saffire Blog

3 Ways to Get More Comments on Your Facebook Posts

If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it a trillion times: engagement on your Facebook posts is important. However, all engagement is not created equal. Lately, Facebook has been showing special treatment to posts with lots of comments by catapulting them to the top of our newsfeeds and awarding “Top Fan” and “Valued Commenter” badges. … Continue reading “3 Ways to Get More Comments on Your Facebook Posts”

It makes sense. There’s something special about posts that get people talking. While posts with a lot of likes perform well in the algorithm, stats show that posts with tons of comments get 4x more clicks!

That’s why encouraging comments is the top way to increase your visibility and customer engagement. Just make sure you’re not trying to game the system by using “engagement-bait” posts that Facebook counts as spam. (For example: “Tag 3 of your friends who would agree with this post!” or “Comment “YES” if you really love candy apples!”)

So, what should you do to create meaningful conversations in your comment sections?

Try These 3 Tips to Get More Comments on Your Facebook Posts:

Engage with and Reply to your Followers

Responding to your followers is an easy trick that so many organizations forget to do! Too many people spend time planning, creating and posting content then drop the ball when it comes to the fun part – engaging with and responding to fans! It is still social media, after all.

A study of more than 1,200 Facebook users found that personalized responses are more satisfying to the receiver than a simple Like. Think about it, who wants to talk to someone who never talks back? On top of that, you miss the opportunity to start conversations, create positive memories with your customers and possibly resolve customer service problems.

The juicy part is that Facebook wants you to reply to your followers, so they view your comments and your followers’ comments as equally important. That means if you reply to each and every comment on your post, you double your comment count and your opportunity to move up in the algorithm.

Ask authentic questions

Asking questions just works. Don’t get us wrong – asking spammy questions with no rhyme or reason is always a no-no, but asking real, genuine questions almost always gets great responses. Try asking your followers for recommendations or advice: “What is your favorite food to eat at the festival?” or “Which topping would you prefer, chocolate or bananas?”

The best thing about this tactic is not only that it encourages comments, but it also gives insight into the personalities and preferences of your customers.

Create Interactive Posts

Another great way to get people to interact with your posts is to craft posts that are fun and engaging. To do this, play games with your followers by asking them to engage in fun ways with your content. Remember to make it entertaining and easy! Here are some fun ideas to get you started:

Caption This
Fill in the blank
Would you rather
Poll
Guessing game

What type of tips have helped you get more comments? Stop by our Facebook page and drop a comment under this article!

Analytics Don’t Have to be Scary: What to Measure for Social Media

So, you’ve got great graphics, interesting content and even some fun videos, but your posts aren’t performing as well as you expected. What gives, and where do you go from here? Analytics can be scary for beginners. With so many numbers and terms, how do you know what’s important? Using analytics to drive better social … Continue reading “Analytics Don’t Have to be Scary: What to Measure for Social Media”

So, you’ve got great graphics, interesting content and even some fun videos, but your posts aren’t performing as well as you expected. What gives, and where do you go from here?

Analytics can be scary for beginners. With so many numbers and terms, how do you know what’s important? Using analytics to drive better social media performance can take some time to get right, but when you do, it can make a huge difference!

The most important thing to remember is that, just like the rest of your marketing strategies, everything you do on social media should tie back to your company’s audiences and goals. Take some time to figure out just what it is that you want from your social media pages – is it brand recognition, sales or maybe to provide important information to customers? Then, you can use analytics to assess how close you are to meeting your goals.

Audience

Audience size does matter, and often it’s the first thing that people see when they click on your profile. While there is much more to social media than your follower count, having a sizeable and targeted audience is the easiest way to make sure your posts are reaching the right the people. Although it might seem easier to quickly build your audience through family, friends or other filler accounts, your goal should always be to shoot for quality and not just quantity. That means gaining followers that are likely to appreciate and engage with your content, and ultimately support your business both on and offline.

When investing in a high-quality audience, look for analytics that tell more of the story than just follower count. Who are your followers? Facebook Insights, Instagram Insights and Twitter Analytics all allow you to view simple demographics for your followers. Check out your demographics tab to make sure your followers are in line with your company or event’s preferred audiences. If not, try running targeted ads, using growth tactics to target specific groups, or even switching up your content strategy to attract the right people.

Post Reach

When it comes to social media, “reach” refers to the number of people who viewed your post. It used to be a sure thing when you posted something that your followers would see it. Now, thanks to tricky algorithms, it isn’t quite that simple! Watch your reach to see how many people are paying attention to your content. On popular sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, reach typically works like a snowball effect. The more people that view, like and positively engage with your post, the more people your post will reach. More people reached can mean more followers and ultimately more customers!

Engagement

If you take a photo and nobody likes it, was it ever really posted? Likes, reactions, comments, clicks, shares, ect… all count as engagement. High engagement is a sign that your audience feels connected with your content. It can be hard to predict which posts will get the most engagement or even “go viral,” but by looking at previous patterns of success, you can get a better idea of what your audience is interested in. Which kinds of posts are your followers most likely to engage with? What text did you use? What kind of content did you feature? See if you can link periods of high engagement and growth to specific posts or events. You can also calculate your engagement rate or percentage to get a better idea of which posts are doing best. Use this knowledge in the future to help build a more successful content strategy.

Facebook Videos Made Easy

The mere thought of creating and starring in a marketing video can be terrifying! Well, guess what? Times are changing! You no longer have to star in a video to have perfectly curated video clips! Did you know that 85% of Facebook videos are viewed without sound? That’s right – that mean’s there’s no pressure fur us as marketers to stand in front of the camera! Not only that, but native videos on Facebook have 10 times higher reach compared to YouTube links you might share in your Facebook post! We are going to focus on what YOU CAN DO TODAY to get a native Facebook video planned, created and posted.

The best part is that you don’t even need any video editing software! It’s as simple as choosing some of your photos, sticking some text on them, building the video on Facebook and adding some music to it!

Create a Storyboard: Since this is a quick and easy exercise, we will keep the storyboard creation short and simple. First, you will need to decide what you want to showcase in your video. Then, decide how many images you would like to showcase in your video (you can choose between 3 – 10 images). Then, if you want the graphics to deliver a message, write out what you want each image to say. Remember, all images will be on the screen for the same duration, so keep the text SHORT and impactful. You can choose between 0.5 and 5 seconds per image. Finally, decide what kind of feel you want the video to have (upbeat, chill, funny, country/western, etc.).
Select your Background Music: Based on what kind of feel you want your video to have, now is the time to select your music! Don’t worry, you don’t need a guitar! In December of 2017, Facebook rolled out Sound Collection, which is a collection of royalty free and high-quality audio tracks and sound effects. The only limit here is that these audio files can only be used on Facebook and Instagram. Sound Collection allows you to search and filter songs by genres, moods, lengths, vocal type and sound effects by categories and lengths. Check out the variety of options here.
Add Some Text: Saffire recommends using a simple, free photo editing tool like Canva.com. You can quickly and easily put together stunning graphics with your message on them. Check out Canva’s How-To Guide here.
Create your slideshow in Facebook! Once logged into Facebook, click on “Write a Post” and select the camera icon. From the drop-down menu, click on “Create a Slideshow”. A pop-up window will appear. This is where you can upload your own images, chose your music, image duration and transition options of the slides. When you are happy with your slideshow, you can select “Create Slideshow” in the bottom right corner of the page. In a matter of two minutes, you will have a video slideshow on your page. Ta-da!Facebook also gives you the option to boost the post so that your video slideshow will be seen by even more of your target audience! If you have any other questions about the process you can follow this easy step-by-step guide here.

The Saffire Marketing team wanted to show you just how easy and quick you can create a video, so we put together a slideshow video of our own! We only used Canva and made this in less than an hour. Check it out below!

Making an effective social media video does not have to be a daunting task. Facebook’s slideshow video generator is the easiest way to make an eye-catching video that will resonate with your audience!

Seven Tips to up your Ratings Online!

The internet can just be a cruel place sometimes. It doesn’t take long for people to realize that they need to sensor what they post on their personal social media accounts and work hard on their personal reputation. What is surprising is that some marketing and PR teams are not as concerned about what is being posted about the organizations that they represent. With every incident being recorded and shared across social media, a brand’s reputation can be tarnished very quickly. Just ask United Airlines! You should always have a PR plan in place to deal with whatever might be thrown your way. In today’s digital world where photos, social media and news stories are everlasting, upholding your reputation online is more important than ever. Remember that without a positive reputation, no brand can truly flourish.

How exactly does a consumer judge your reputation?

Think about when you plan a trip out of town, or even pick a new event to attend, do you make the decision yourself? Most of us talk these ideas overwith friends and family. If they respond positively you are more likely to pull the trigger and buy your tickets or book your travel! If they don’t, you will seek out another option, many times a competitor of yours. This thought process is how people are determining your online reputation. They are looking for recommendations, online reviews, ratings and feedback. The opinions of people that are not associated with your brand have a much greater impact on your future customers than your branded marketing efforts.

According to a 2015 Connected Consumer Survey, nearly 80% of people report that the internet is the first place they look when they need information, and over 50% are using search engines to look up brands. While you would prefer to control what potential customers see about your brand online, search engines allow them to access a variety of other information that you don’t control including reviews, non-branded social media posts, consumer photos and more.

Do you know where you are being rated?

Some review sites require you to create a business page with them while others are created by the people leaving the reviews. The top 3 review sites that you should be on is yelp.com, tripadvisor.com, and google+. Make sure to create a page for your business so that you can monitor your online presence as well as post photos, hours, website links, and more. Receiving positive reviews can not only get you free advertising on these platforms, but it also gives credibility to your brand.

Promote the good and fix the bad. Capitalize on the positive reviews and use the negative ones to improve upon what you’re doing. Constructive criticism is not always easy to receive, but these reviews are a direct reflection of how people see you. Take negative reviews as a wakeup call and appreciate how it may be enabling you to improve.
Make sure all your positive reviews are seen. Yelp uses an algorithm to hide reviews that appear fake. Unfortunately, many real reviews get stuck in this filter. To avoid this, you can ask your reviewers to make their profile seem more legitimate. They could add a profile picture or check into local places near you.
Don’t ignore negative reviews. This is going to happen. It is impossible to meet everyone’s wishes. It’s important to acknowledge what wrong doing has been done or to clarify anything that may not be correct. Approach these reviews in a diplomatic fashion. Lastly, invite the reviewers to give you a chance to improve their experience in the future.
Fight fire with fire. In some, very rare instances you can respond to negative reviews with humor. We don’t advise that you respond immediately after reading the post, but to wait until you have cooled off and can efficiently add some humor to your review. This will not only show other customers that you are paying attention to their opinions but that you also have a sense of humor. A great example of a brand responding with humor is the video, Visit Lubbock Mean Tweets https://youtu.be/8i0bHJBnxBo
Keep them coming back for more. Share how you have improved your services based on the customer feedback. Show your customers how your brand welcomes their opinions and encourages repeat visits.
Amplify your reach. Get engaging content in front of your audience to help drive traffic and positive reviews. Running a few $5 per day Facebook ads, for example, can allow you to significantly increase your followers and can help improve your rating on Facebook. When someone is a fan, they are usually less likely to leave a negative review. Be sure and post your content on all your social media platforms.
Improve your reputation by exceeding expectation offline. Don’t let all the time spent on perfecting your online image go to waste by not performing in person. Insure that your employees are practicing what you preach online.

The secret to keeping up with your online reputation is to stay true to who you are as a brand. Customer service should be your number one concern. Provide an excellent experience from start to finish. Stay engaged with your customers and you will see your rating begin to creep up closer to a 5-star average! Do you have a tactic that you use to increase your rating? Let us know in the comments below!

Contests to Increase Social Engagement!

While contests have been around for centuries, they have recently taken on a new life with the evolution of social media. Contests are not the answer to every marketing challenge, but you should consider making them a part of your social media plans. Whether your event, venue or destination is big or small, contests can … Continue reading “Contests to Increase Social Engagement!”

Contests aren’t always successful and don’t always magically drive engagement. The most successful contests are usually very simple, while the contests that fail are usually too complicated for the participants to understand and engage.

So, what is the key to keeping your audience engaged? Simplicity! Ease! Fun!

The most effective way to keep your contest simple is setting an easily manageable objective. What results are you shooting for? What do you want to gain from the post? Be sure to think it through logically by following these steps:

Set Goals: What are you trying to achieve? For example, do you want to gain more likes, comments, views on your video, or acquire new email addresses?
Consider your Audience: Who are you targeting? It is important to hone in on who your demographic is for the post. Are you trying to reach men or women, kids, teenagers or maybe basketball fans? It will be easier to generate your contest once you have narrowed down on who you want your message to reach.
Determine the Contest Time Frame: For small contests where your only objective is to receive likes and comments, we suggest that you run daily contests. For a more complex contest that you want to acquire more personal information or a lengthy submission, we advise that you run the contest for a longer period.
Create a Prize Package: Everyone wants to win, especially when they can win multiple prizes in one giveaway! The bigger the prize, the more information you can require from participants. Plan a budget on how much the prize will cost your venue, event, or destination.
Execute – Plan the Fulfillment: Know how you can deliver the prize and how to execute the entire plan. Do you need to mail the prize to the winner? Do they need to pick it up?
Prizes: To have a great contest, you need to provide prizes. Everyone loves to win things. What is it that you can afford to give away? It doesn’t need to be expensive, but it does need to be relevant to your venue, event, or destination. You can work with local partners in giving away hotel stays, restaurant gift certificates, concert tickets, etc.

Here are 5 simple ideas to get you inspired for your next event!

Contest #1 – Likes and Follows

Facebook likes and follows are simple and easy contests to execute with hundreds of options and ideas:

Help us get to 12,000 fans! When we get there, we’ll give away FREE _____ (concert ticket, 2-night hotel stay, etc.)! SHARE this status for your chance to win!
Be sure and ALWAYS use compelling images.

Contest #2 – Caption This

Caption This Contests are always a hit! From our experience, caption contests generate more responses than any other contest. Find photos from your past event or images from around your destination. Make sure they are fun, a little goofy and generally aesthetically appealing. Fan favorites are usually animal photos. (explain what this is a little more. Maybe give an example?)

Contest #3 – Photo Comments

Generating interaction among your fans is a great way to build community. Posting a colorful photo will catch their attention in their News Feed. Here are a couple of easy examples:

FOOD! Everyone loves food. Post a photo of a unique food item.
KIDS! Post a photo of a young kid having fun at your event or destination.
HISTORY! Post an image of a historical building or spot.

Then have them post a photo in the comments with their favorite food, in front of a landmark, etc.

Contest #4 – Instagram

Instagram has become the social media platform of choice for many Millennials and Gen Zs (people born between 1980 and 2012). When engaging with this age group, make sure your prizes are things they would want to win and are “trendy”! Don’t be afraid to use hashtags.

Double tap and win: Post photos on Instagram. “Double tap this photo and follow us on Instagram to automatically be entered to win a prize pack. Winner announced Monday.
Tag three friends to win: “We’re giving away ____ (ride tickets, a hotel stay, gate admission, etc)!! Tag 3 friends to win. #Giveaway #Tag3 #Fun #Friends

Contest #5 – Re-Tweets

Twitter contests are super easy to execute and don’t take a lot of time. Here are few examples:

Re-Tweet: We’re giving away a 2-night getaway at our seaside hotel. Retweet to win #VayCay #Fun #GetAway
Creative Answer: Explain in 140 characters or less why you deserve to win free tickets to our event. Make sure you tag us to be eligible #TheEvent

So, there you have it, a few simple ways to get more social engagement. If you haven’t run a contest yet, give it a shot and let us know how it goes!

“Instant” Marketing Success with User Generated Content

Crockpots and Saffire go together like Velveeta and Ro-Tel. We couldn’t serve up our World Famous Saffire Queso without that handy appliance. Recently, the Saffire Team has noticed a new crockpot in town that was making waves throughout our social media feeds. After doing a little more research, we found that we stumbled upon a … Continue reading ““Instant” Marketing Success with User Generated Content”

Crockpots and Saffire go together like Velveeta and Ro-Tel. We couldn’t serve up our World Famous Saffire Queso without that handy appliance. Recently, the Saffire Team has noticed a new crockpot in town that was making waves throughout our social media feeds. After doing a little more research, we found that we stumbled upon a raging marketing success story that our Saffire friends and family can implement in their own marketing efforts.

The Instant Pot has taken the world by storm and is even number one on the Amazon best sellers list. Ever heard of it? Even though Instant Pot has never been advertised on TV or print, we are sure that many of you have seen it on social media or heard about it at a holiday party. Millions learned of this electric pressure cooker/Crockpot/rice cooker combo because of the power of word of mouth
marketing and user generated content. Instant Pot has been in business since 2010, but it wasn’t until late last year that they started flying off the shelves and piling up on front porches. Instant Pot was savvy enough to know that social media is a crucial component to reaching out to their customers. So, they sent 200 bloggers and cookbook authors the Instant Pot to try it out for themselves. This strategy not only helped get their name out to the public but they also received tons of FREE product placement on many of the blogger’s and author’s websites, blogs, and social media pages. By using these social influencers, they were able to become a household name, go viral and sell over 250,000 units on Amazon Prime day, all without having to pay for expensive print and TV ads.

So, you are now thinking that’s great for Instant Pot, but that will never work for my event, venue, or destination. Don’t be silly! User generated content is easier to integrate into your marketing plans than you think. It is also a more organic way of reaching your customers. Many consumers today will trust a third party much more than they trust content from brands.

THE SOCIAL INFLUENCER

Your first step is to identify your audience and influencers. Find an influencer that will accurately represent the messages you want your audience to see. This could be a famous Instagram teenager, travel or column writers, or even a local news or DJ personality. Once you have established your influencer, events, venues and destinations can work together on providing that person with a unique experience of attending events, staying in trendy hotels and eating at local restaurants, all while broadcasting out their experiences to their followers.

It is also important to let your social influencers have creative control and be engaged in the planning process. These influencers did not just coincidentally gain thousands (or even millions) of followers. They built their large and engaged followers base by knowing what their audience wanted. They are experts on what is appealing to their followers. By giving the creative license to your influencers they will be able to introduce your event, venue, or destination authentically.

Finally, you need to be consistent and live up to this newly generated hype. There is not a one size fits all plan to building brand reputation. Your community involvement needs to focus on long-term benefits rather than quick marketing attempts.

It’s easy to understand why so many companies are taking advantage of user generated content marketing. Don’t let this simple & affordable opportunity to reach out to your audience pass you by. You will be surprised at the additional business word of mouth marketing will generate for your event, venue, or destination this year.

InstaChanges & Upgrades

Have you been overwhelmed with Millennial Marketing Trends and Statistics? Well, let’s talk about Generation Z (aka Post-Millennials, iGens or Plurals). Generation Z is shifting away from Facebook at an alarming rate! Generation Z says, “I can’t be myself on Facebook because it is full of MOMS…that’s why I like to use Instagram and … Continue reading “InstaChanges & Upgrades”

Instagram has 400 million worldwide users. There have been over 40 billion photos shared at a rate of 80 million per day and with an average 3.5 billion daily “likes.”

So now what are marketers going to do? How can we be on so many platforms and still not reach who we need to?

Well, Facebook has had you covered since 2012. Facebook saw the trends and heard the feedback and knew they needed to do something drastic. In April of 2012, Facebook bought Instagram for $1 Billion, which many thought was a bad move for a product with no business model. However, after years of growing Instagram, Facebook has integrated their advertising platform into the app. This allows marketers to catch the “Moms”, Generation Z, Millennials and Boomers, all in one integrated platform!

To get setup, all you need to do is go into your Facebook settings and connect your Instagram account so that the ads can be pushed over to the app.

Then you will create your Facebook ad as usual, except you’ll also need to select Instagram Ads… it’s THAT easy!

For those of you that fully utilize Instagram already, a common complaint has been that you cannot switch between your personal Instagram account and your Business Account, requiring you to sign in and out every time. However, now Instagram lets users switch between several different accounts within the app. You can even switch between FIVE different accounts!

With these new changes, expect the number of Instagram users and accounts to continue to climb.

Online Tools to Harvest Success

For many of us, the pressure to create a successful marketing campaign can be intimidating. Whether you’re new to the game or more seasoned, it’s a fascinating process of reaching our customers and connecting with their wants and needs. Retaining their interest, however, is more important than we may think in our fast-paced society! It’s important to be open to new technology and to put those tools to work for you to stay on top. We’ve compiled a list of five “necessary” online tools to harvest success with your customers this fall, making it “easy pickins” for you and your business!

Some marketing tactics may work better for your organization than, say, a big corporate business like Coca-Cola. Dependent on the size and budget of your marketing department, we recommend trying the free tools first, or at least tools with a trial period or low cost to see if it’s something necessary you want to invest long-term in. It’s nice to get a little feedback of how your campaigns are going, and if you are comfortable with it.

Speaking of a little feedback, that brings us to our list….

1. Let’s talk about surveys and their value to you and your customers. Little Feedback is a fabulous survey tool that discreetly pops up in the bottom right corner of the screen, so it’s not big, annoying and in your visitors faces as they browse your site. As the user, you can set up exactly which questions it wants to ask every unique visitor (age, gender, what events are most interesting, how they found out about your site, etc.) and it collects that information for you to view when you log in. You can have open-ended questions in which they fill in a box with their answer, one-click answers, or multiple-click answers. Here’s an example below:

After you’re finished creating your feedback questions, simply follow the instructions to implement the HTML code into your website in the footer section. There’s not a lot of legwork involved, and a trial period of twenty answers compiled into a snazzy data format so you can easily see what’s on your visitors’ minds and where they’re coming from. Literally.

2. Bufferapp can really simplify your life if you let it. Essentially, it’s a social media manager that allows you to connect most of your accounts together. If you’re a business that ever posts to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, etc., this is a much more efficient way to conserve your energy (and sanity) for the things that really matter. Say you want to post a “Thank you for coming to our event” link to your followers on social media after a big event is over, simply click on the desired channels (i.e. Facebook and Twitter) and set the times you want it to post based on when your customers are on their social media (see “Other tools to check out” at the end for one that simplifies that, too!). It launches for you at the set time, and as your campaigns age it tracks the success of each post on your individual social media channels. It has proven to be a great way to track analytics and social success for us here at Saffire!

3. Additionally, Commun.it is a relationship management dashboard solely dedicated to Twitter. This company is serious about their business and knows what you didn’t even know you wanted from your tweets! It gives you: applicable analytics that help measure your Twitter efforts, the ability to manage multiple accounts and schedule tweets from a single dashboard, one-glance campaigns summaries in which to thank, follow and respond to your followers, plus the ability to automate insights with your campaigns, a better and easier list to build an engaged community, division of those lists into custom categories, and the time to focus on your top influencers and supporters without missing their engagements and following them. Whew, what a mouthful! It really all boils down to this: prioritizing your Twitter accounts and tasks. If you’re an active organization with a lot of followers and are giving them a chance to voice their opinions, some may get lost in all the noise. Commun.it allows you to quickly and efficiently respond to those lost souls. It may be worth it to you to invest in this.

4. There have been lots of discussions on the subject of email marketing. Is it valuable, worth your company’s time, effective, etc.? The answer is, quite simply, yes! While some may opt in for a company like Mail Chimp, SaffireMail can be an even better and more efficient marketing tool, as your campaigns are sent using addresses that your site’s viewers have input into your website’s database. These people WANT to be contacted! This is like shooting fish in a barrel, people! Instead of using an outside source, with SaffireMail you get a beautifully formatted design that looks like your site, and an easy-to-use campaign builder. Even if you only want to use SaffireMail for upcoming events or promotional deals, this cohesive branding almost guarantees you positive click-through rates and statistics, which is marketing gold. Hooray!

5. IFTTT, stands for If This Then That. It’s a service that lets you create powerful connections with channels. There are over 130 channels to connect with your recipe with triggers and actions. The this part of the recipe is a trigger. An example of a trigger is “Someone mentioned me in a comment on Facebook” or “____ started following me on Instagram.” The that part of a recipe is an action. An example of this might be “Email me” or “Post to Twitter.” The components of data from a trigger are called ingredients. For example, an email ingredient could be anything from your subject line to the body of your message to the recipient or sender of your email. Essentially, your personal recipes are a combination of a trigger and an action from your channels. They can be turned off or on, which is nice if you want something that can be picked back up easily after you took a break from it. Your “recipe” scans the internet every 15 minutes or so for you, and notifies you by the action you chose when your recipe is activated by the triggers. This can be a powerful ally for you and your social media management! Kendra, our president, uses this as a favorite tool of hers, and so do a lot of our team members. Check out their blog for very useful recipes and put them to work for you! An example of one below is more for fun, but should give you an idea of how many recipes you can create.

Other tools to check out:

Fiverr – starting at just $5, this company offers video, online marketing and graphic design services that could help keep your business on track. If you want a video from your last major event to upload to YouTube, Fiverr would be a good place to go, leaving you with more time on your hands!
Bit.ly – a handy tool for social media users who want to use the space given to them wisely. It shortens URLs and also can track click information on your links, such as the global location of who clicked and also where they were referred from (email, website, social media). Pretty cool feature!
Tweriod – if you want your posts to be noticed, you need to be posting when your followers are looking at their accounts, right? This tool analyzes both your tweets and your followers’ tweets, allowing you to set your Bufferapp account to the best times to automatically post to your Twitter, but also other social medias.

So there you have it. Some of the best in the business, according to us here at Saffire. Remember to let us know if any of these tools worked well or not-so-well for you. We love hearing from our friends!

The Calm After the Storm: Keeping Your Customers Engaged After Your Big Event Has Passed

The most exciting, exhilarating and exhausting efforts of our job come down to the “big day.” We spend the entire year prepping and promoting our biggest events and then it’s over, but not really! As many of you wrap up your summer marketing and start planning for next year, or maybe your event is just … Continue reading “The Calm After the Storm: Keeping Your Customers Engaged After Your Big Event Has Passed”

The most exciting, exhilarating and exhausting efforts of our job come down to the “big day.” We spend the entire year prepping and promoting our biggest events and then it’s over, but not really! As many of you wrap up your summer marketing and start planning for next year, or maybe your event is just around the corner, we want you to be prepared for the “downtime” afterwards. There is an opportunity to gain returning and loyal customers the moment they leave your grounds. Here are our recommendations for engaging and retaining your customers online after your big day has passed!

Say “THANK YOU!” It’s as simple as that. Acknowledge, appreciate and express your gratitude to your sponsors, volunteers, vendors and especially your attendees the moment your event ends. An email, social media post and graphic on your homepage are the easiest ways to get this message across, so make a plan to execute this in advance. For bonus points, use BufferApp for your social media, an email marketing system and a scheduling feature on your website to get things done long before your event arrives, thus keeping your organization organized post-event.

Update your website. Be sure to take down any info that is no longer relevant, such as last year’s dates or ticket sales to an event that is no longer available. You’ll also want to make your event results easily accessible on your homepage–like rodeo, pageant and cook-off winners.
Send a recap to your email list. Let folks know about the thrilling things that happened throughout the course of your event with images, links to your website, posted articles and social media posts (again, these can all be created ahead of time). This will increase your customers’ desire to attend next year and support the idea that your event is the best thing to do in town!
Add event photos to a gallery on your website. This is the best way to get people coming back to your website and clicking after the fact! You can even advertise this on social media so that you can convert your social audience into a website audience. Want more bonus points? Create a post-event contest for “BEST EVENT PICTURE” to motivate people to share and be a part of next year’s marketing efforts!
Announce any records broken. Posting milestones like attendance, donations or revenue increased lets your participants know the impact they had on your successes this year, and motivates them to contribute again next year (hello, sponsors!).

Publish next year’s dates – This is the easiest way to ingrain in your customers’ minds when they’ll get the opportunity to attend your awesome event again. Maybe the dates for next year haven’t been determined yet, but you can still let folks know when you’ll be announcing that–which keeps them coming back to you for more information. Most importantly, be sure that these dates go in the header of your website so that they’re on EVERY page, and be sure to update all of your social media.
Start planning for next year – Don’t worry, this sounds harder than it is. Start filling in an Editorial Calendar for how you’ll promote yourself and stay relevant year-round (if you’re not already an all year event center). What’s one of the best ways to stay relevant year-round? “Be bigger than yourself!” Here at Saffire, we use that phrase often because we really believe that showing your support for your community, promoting and participating in other events is the easiest way to gain traction in your area when your event is not the main focus.

Your event has the potential to be “out of sight out of mind” after your last day, so don’t let that happen! Be relevant and inviting online so that people continue to come to you as their source of entertainment.

All Gain, No Pain: Eliminate Guesswork on Facebook Ads

Living in a digital world that requires you to “pay to play” usually isn’t as wallet-friendly as we’d all like. Most of us are on a tight budget, which doesn’t always go well with our online marketing goals. The good news is, we’ve got a bullet proof plan to help you decide where your money … Continue reading “All Gain, No Pain: Eliminate Guesswork on Facebook Ads”

Living in a digital world that requires you to “pay to play” usually isn’t as wallet-friendly as we’d all like. Most of us are on a tight budget, which doesn’t always go well with our online marketing goals. The good news is, we’ve got a bullet proof plan to help you decide where your money is best spent. After all, we want you to have the biggest bang for your buck.

Where to spend money:

Offer ads. Whether you’re an event, venue, or destination, your main source of revenue is butts in seats. This means that your online ticket sales should be a main priority for your online marketing. The good news is, Facebook advertising has evolved to such an advanced level that you can actually drive traffic straight from Facebook to the page that you sell tickets. Hello, cash flow!

By clicking the “get offer” button, your page visitors are instantly directed to a revenue-generating place. When the average cost of a Facebook ad is somewhere around $0.25, you’re basically paying a quarter to get someone to make a purchase. That’s a pretty big return on investment compared to the cost of your tickets.

Posts that get visitors thinking about themselves. Posts like this tend to create more of relationship between viewers and your brand because they appeal to emotion. The more attached a consumer is to a brand, the more trusting they are of the brand and the more likely they are to spend money on that brand. For example:

Wording like this gets parents thinking about their kids as well as their own inner-child, thus tugging at their heart strings.

Posts that involve your partners and sponsors. This shows that you’re “bigger than yourself” and also helps to pull in from the fan base of the partner you’ve tagged. Your partners and sponsors are always going to have loyal followers, and if those followers see your affiliation, then you’ve already got your foot in the door!
Posts that are fun. First and foremost, you want to be a resource for entertainment. After all, people are coming to social media as an escape from boredom. So why not make your page one of the most fun to interact with? It’s okay to do a business plug every now and then, but remember the 80/20 rule. About 80% of your posts should be fun, and 20% should be promotional.

Where not to spend money:

Getting page likes. This is a “vanity statistic,” and it’s more valuable to spend money where you will make money. Unless you’re starting from scratch, chances are that you already have a large fan-base that you can use as an audience—this will only continue to grow as you post. When you create offer ads and link posts, there is a “like page” button built in, thus making it unnecessary to also spend money on page promotion ads. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t spend a little here and there, but you definitely shouldn’t put all your eggs (money) in this basket.

From our experience, spending (or not spending) money in these places has proved to give us the biggest bang for our buck. The most important thing is to pay attention to your fans and what they interact most with, and focus your dollars there. After all, if you’re not watching and listening, you’re not learning about your audience’s behavior. Facebook advertising involves quite a bit of trial and error, so we want to make sure that you had our inside scoop to help you stay ahead of the curve!