Let’s say it out loud: social media is dead.
No, not the way you might think, and it’s not going away anytime (too) soon but you don’t have to be an industry expert to realize that it’s changed from what it was and reached peak saturation across most of the major platforms. And I’m not just talking about this impacting individual users’ experiences, but for business users as well.
Your average user will complain that the platform – take your pick – is nothing but ads now when they remember seeing more content from their friends and other connections previously.
While simultaneously business users – especially on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube – are puzzled at why their marketing dollars aren’t getting the results they once did, regardless of the content they’re creating.
It’s all pay to play and the users are paying the tax.
Because of the drop in the quality of user experience, as well as censorship and owner politics, there’s been a rise in new up and coming platforms like Bluesky that promise something new.
While these new platforms have found a varied measure of success, despite some innovative features, they’ve proven to be little more than echo chambers for users who are accustomed to higher volumes of content to consume.
Don’t Call It a Comeback, Baby…
In consideration of these things, and with the ease at which even people without tech savvy can create a basic website it’s no wonder that personal blogs, mini business sites, and digital storefronts have begun to pop up more and more.
Don’t Delete Your Facebook (yet)
The instability of social media, along with censorship controls, and unpredictable changes to “pay to be seen” algorithms should be a strong signal for the return to digital presence ownership. Your website is the most powerful online resource you possess.
A website that you own, that you can control and change, has always been key to online success, and as the landscape of how business is done online continues to change it is vital to establishing yourself as a resource to the audiences you serve.
In the meantime, a website (no matter how good) isn’t enough by itself, and it never has been! There is no one silver bullet fix-all push button thing to make online success just happen – but the next closest thing is working with PICKWICK.
I’m here to help!
You don’t have to struggle with figuring out social media or web design anymore! I am experienced in many industries and systems. Whether you are just starting out and don’t know where to begin, or a long time business owner who doesn’t have the time to handle marketing while running the show, I hope you will get in touch with your ideas so that we can make them happen!
Category: social media marketing
NO! Your Facebook Page Hasn’t Been Disabled!
If you admin a page on Facebook these days chances are you’ve recently received a message seemingly from the system telling you that your page has violated a copyright, or other terms of service and is due to be deleted, or have its ability to post removed.
In most cases, these are patently false.
Not only should you disregard them but by all means report the accounts that send them and the message itself. It’s hard to believe that a platform with the amount of resources that Facebook has available to it that they are unable to regulate these kinds of clearly fraudulent messages and accounts.
The accounts that send these messages are if nothing else damaging the reputability of Facebook itself in the fact that they can’t even protect the validity of their own identity – so how then should we trust them with the details of ours?
Now imagine being a social media manager. One who manages dozens of pages for a variety of businesses… Not only do you get theses messages every day, you get multiples of them every day, and have to meditate them in the client inbox – and often when they understandable receive a disturbing message about their Facebook business page!
These messages can seem very real! They can be frightening, after all you’ve likely invested a lot of time, if not a lot of money in developing your social media presence on Facebook.
I bring items like this to the forefront of the attention of the online community in order to help business owners be aware of potential threats as well as how to avoid them. The scammers and spammers are getting smarter every day! It’s hard enough work to run your business online without knowing how to handle these sort of things.
Don’t Panic! PICKWICK is here to help!
I provide online consulting when you have questions, and have well developed skills ,like web design and social media management, that will prove invaluable if troubles arise that you aren’t able to handle on your own. I strive to take the fear out of technology for business owners and hope that you won’t hesitate to get in touch – even if you just have questions! I’m always happy to talk shop!
What Your Social Media Manager ISN’T Doing And Why It Matters!
You can throw a rock these days and hit six people who claim to be “social media experts” in one shot. My recommendation is that next time, throw the rock harder and help eliminate some of the flotsam that is choking the industry. (rimshot)
Seriously though, beyond just taking their word for it there are a few key things that I offer as standard services that you can use to validate a social media manager in a few quick steps without having to listen to them uhm and haw about “ROI”.
Qualify Your Social Media “Expert”
1 – Examine their experience in the industry. Hopefully you are not their first client.
2 – Ask to see examples of the kinds of content they’ve created to make sure it fits your voice.
3 – Ask how their services will impact your business; if they promise sales and the stars above overnight, RUN.
4 – Make sure you will be the owner of the content they are creating, this means they’re writing unique content for you, using royalty free or validly purchased stock images not stolen clip-art from the web, and are willing to provide copies of all generated content.
5 – Make sure they provide services beyond just Facebook and understand how elements of social media, search engines, and your website need to all work in harmony.
Even considering those factors, and even if you find a fairly qualified, experienced social media manager who provides good content and is responsive to your requests while creating a strong voice for your brand…there’s still a few things I can almost guarantee you that they are not doing.
Engaging Your Audience
You can post the cutest kitten pictures and most delicious bacon photos in the world, get a thousand likes, and a hundred comments, and it won’t matter one bit if there’s no engagement.
Your social media manager should be interacting with fans any time they can; this means liking and replying to all comments from your audience – especially the less than nice ones. Hopefully they are monitoring your page heavily as well to keep spam and the flood of expletives from trolls out of your marketing.
Nurturing Your Community
Posting is great. Social media has created a platform where anyone with something to say can blast it out to the world to reach thousands of people in seconds. That doesn’t really do much for your local community or your local businesses visibility either.
What does? Interacting with other local businesses and news sources, being active in conversations and a source of assistance to the social media community at large.
Supporting Your Partners
One way my services excel, whether it be in web development or social media services, is that I get to know you and your business. It would be easy to push buttons, throw up a template and call it good – you just wanted a website after all, right? – but I do more than that. By spending the extra time to gain more insight into who you are and how your company works I am able to strategically work with other partners and like-minded companies to create a natural synergy of support.
You may be surprised to get ‘thank yous’ from the business partners you’ve mentioned to me; while I would love to help them with their own social media needs too, I’m more than glad to like, comment, and share their posts as a way to serve you better as well – even if they are not my clients directly!
Anybody Can Do It!
If you’re just looking for someone to manage your Facebook page by posting inspirational photos and quotes that’s fine – there are plenty of entry level social media mavens more than willing to help you out – that may be the extent of the services you need. But if you’re looking for more, wanting to build the face of your brand in a powerful way that not only increases the awareness of your business but also builds equity in your branding PICKWICK is here to help!
I’m not your dad’s consultancy and I don’t provide the same stale services that are so commonly found throughout the net. I am driven to help the people I serve because I know how strongly they feel about what they do; putting a spotlight on that passion is one of the things I love most about what I do as well.
Struggling With Social Media?
Today’s business world is non-stop. You’ve got a million and one details to keep track of just to keep the invoices going out and the money coming in. You want to be running your business, not worried about watching updates. Thankfully you don’t have to be plugged in 24 hours a day to get results from your social media marketing when you hire PICKWICK!
In addition to exceptional web development we also provide social media management custom suited to your needs!
We do things a little differently than a lot of social media management companies. First, we listen to what you want, make suggestions to get the best results, and then get to work. We never up-sell and we always show the metrics for our work so you can see where your dollars are going.
Some of the services that are part of the social media options we provide include:
Custom graphics for banners
Custom graphics and content for special events
Reputation management
Fan engagement nurturing
Local engagement interaction
Social Media Activity Analysis
Not ready for someone else to take the reigns but still need help?
We can also provide social media consultation and training to help you take control all on your own!
No matter what your need we have the skills to capture your unique voice and speak to your audience as if you were making the posts yourself – even your own mother won’t know it’s us cranking out that killer content. Get in touch today to see what we can do to get your social media snapping!