Mediaboss Marketing

ST. CLOUD St. Cloud-area businesses have a new tool forrecruiting new people to the community.

StCloudShines.com, a website launched this month by Greater St. Cloud Development Corp., is all about marketing the region, GSDC President Patti Gartland said this week.

"This is really kind of art the heart and soul of talent attraction," Gartland said.

St. Cloud Shines started as a social media campaign in January 2019 focused on showcasing positive stories and features of the region, Gartland said. It's been "wildly successful' garnering more than 100 million impressions since its debuton Facebook and Instagram.

StCloudShines.com is a rebrand and refresh of some existing resources provided on GSDC's website, and one that groups many of the region's information from different sources into one place to help share about the area. Much of the information was already on the website, Gartland said; it was a matter of putting it into one place.

The website is intended to help those considering moving to the community to find a range of information in one place.(Photo: stcloudshines.com)

It focuses on the greater St. Cloud area, including surrounding communities, but retained the St. Cloud name for recognition marketability, Gartland said.

"St. Cloud Shines provides a stronger geographic focus than Greater St. Cloud Shines or Central Minnesota Shines, and thats an important aspect of a memorable marketing effort, GSDC board Chair Brian Myres said in a press release. Just as there are more communities in the Twin Cities than Minneapolis and St. Paul, St. Cloud Shines encompasses and highlights our nearby cities and counties.

Gartland said GSDC began this work several years ago after conversations with local businesses. It was easy to share information about the company.

"But when it came time to share information about the community ... they were having to send them to a lot of different resources," Gartland said.

StCloudShines.com's homepage allows the visitor to navigate through different aspects of community life, from childcare to transportation to recreation and more. The website includes links to local organizations' pages in their respective sections.

It also populates some of the St. Cloud Shines stories from social media. StCloudShines.com had several sponsors funding its creation.

The website also has a specific page for people trying to access the site in five languages other than English, directing readers in other languages to email Greater St. Cloud Development Corporation with questions.

Sarah Kocher is thebusiness reporter for the St. Cloud Times. Reach her at 320-255-8799or skocher@stcloudtimes.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahAKocher.

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St. Cloud Shines now has a website designed to market the area to newcomers - SC Times

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I interviewed Elisabeth Charles and was intrigued by her career. She has worked at Victorias Secret, Athleta, Petco, Old Navy, Rodan + Fields, and Taco Bell, among others. During the interview, it was interesting how she was able to weave a story that connected all of these experiences. Since I work with a number of marketers at every level of the organizational spectrum, I often get questions regarding the right next career move. People want to learn about different career paths and understand the best way. At the heart of a lot of the questioning is a desire to understand whether staying in a single industry is better than exploring different industries. I posed this question to Charles.

Kimberly A. Whitler: Youve had a lot of terrific, blue chip company experiences. However, interestingly, they cut across a number of different industries. Did you find this beneficial as you progressed throughout your career?

Elisabeth Charles: I found that across my career, when you are a brand marketer, you are trying to create a vision for the brand and then determine your unique selling proposition. The skill of being able to develop a vision to create more value for more consumers (so that you grow your business) transcends all industries. The methodology, approach, thinking and skill is universally applicable. However, it needs to be adapted to the specific business context. One thing that you can see about my career is that all of the companies are B2C, in highly competitive, crowded marketplaces. Many are market leaders who are being attacked by big and small competitors. The job of figuring out how to win in this context is what is transferrable and universal. Many people think that you need to deeply know the industry, but what matters more than this is to have the skill to figure out how to generate growthbecause you apply core principles.

Whitler: Is there any advice or learning youd have about navigating such a career?

Charles: One important thing Ive learned is to make sure that I have the right people and the right capabilities around me. In many cases, even with strong brands, they havent fully exploited what makes the brand special or strong. They tend to rely too much on their functional benefits and not enough tapping into their emotional benefits. Many big companies are still getting their toes wet in social or they havent exploited CRM.

So, when I land at a company, I assess the tools, methods, people, and look for opportunities to quickly have an impact by taking advantage of low-hanging fruit. By company, there is a vast difference in the tools and processes. I try to quickly find untapped value in the business and unlock it to help drive the business. Ive seen a lot of growth come from the basics: 1) what strengths do we have? 2)what do we need, and 3) how can we drive growth. Even in what appear to be well run companies youd be surprised there is always more that you can do to up your game to accelerate the business. Its about a quick assessment, get a lay of the land, and move quickly on the things that will make the biggest difference.

Whitler: I run into a number of young professionals who would love to work in beauty. Any advice?

Charles: Its more about your passion to make a difference, to add value, to be a creative thinker. The beauty business is an emotional business. It is about storytelling and creating excitement and belief in your products. You can do that without having a beauty background. But you would have to take what you have done and connect it to the beauty spaceexplain how it relates. I worked in the pet space and the lingerie space, both of which are emotional, and so I can link those experiences with what is needed in beauty.

If you want a crazy idea, go work at a beauty counter for a summer. My daughter worked in retail and the next summer, she was able to convert that into a job at Sephora headquarters. They loved that she had retaildirect consumer experience and knew how to sell to consumers. There are other clever ways you can both show how you belong and how passionate you are. My son wants to be in sportscasting. He started a blog a few years ago and writes about sports every week he is demonstrating his commitment, time, and passion. At some point, this will benefit him in the future.

Join the Discussion: @KimWhitler

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The Benefits Of A Multi-Industry Marketing Career (Spanning Pet, Beauty, Fashion, And Food) - Forbes

September17, 20204 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

As the technological evolution advances, social media and digital marketing represent increasing strength a powerful commercial tool that, if properly managed, can lead any entrepreneur in that environment to succeed. However, it is not an easy job, much less fast. Consistency and learning are key to the development of an adequate brand to stand out in a wide and complex digital environment. Riley Hillin, no doubt, has experience in this area.

For several years, Hillin has been involved in digital marketing and social media management, a business that has allowed him to reap great successes. However, his career has not been easy, the constant work and continuous learning are what led him to position himself in and out of social media.

What started as a way for Hillin to spend his time became, sometime later, a permanent income. Now it's his lifestyle, a business he has kept working on growing websites, contributing to high profile entrepreneurs, and participating in medium and large sales.

Set Your Goals

Considering digital marketing as a simple process, or a simple job is a common mistake. Generating success in social media represents a challenge, but above all, a progressive work, which begins by establishing as a priority the objectives they want to achieve and establishing a differentiating element.

Let's remember that the field of social media is vast, so a differentiating element will allow anyone to stand out from the rest. This is precisely the case with Hillin, not only did he determine that this hobby in his life would become a successful business that would allow him to earn an income, but also to establish patterns that would help him differentiate himself from other entrepreneurs in the area.

His path began with the purpose of learning how to invest in accounts and digital marketing. Also, how to manage the business side of social media. Once he acquired these two skills, he was more confident in the path that has led him to the success of his business.

Build Confidence

For Hillin, a brand must not only generate content or sell, he says that primarily transmitting trust and creating a true connection with the target audience must be the most elemental. This is another key reason why he has remained in constant ascendancy in the business.

He is not only focused on offering a service based on numbers or quantifiable strategies, but in transmitting confidence, showing the results of his work, and establishing the objectives of each one of his clients, whether they are beginners or users with millions of followers and great influence.

He points out that trust is the first step in establishing a work path that leads to reliable objectives. "I help users to achieve brand, influence, and trust with their business dealings, safely."

Quality and Quantity

For Hillin, these two aspects play a key role in the social media and digital marketing environment. In order of priority, for this expert, the quality of content in everything related to the brand is what will provide a reputation that, in turn, will allow you to highlight your reputation even over time.

"My services and reputation have always been there for social media users and have grown more and more overtime." He emphasizes that his reputation and the services that he offers have contributed to establishing value agreements over five figures with influential people within social media.

Staying Focused

One of the biggest challenges for Hillin, besides learning, has been to keep waiting for results. Making users understand that it is a progressive advance is important because having results overnight is not possible in this environment.

He ensures that handled in the right way social media represent a path to success. However, staying focused on results is the priority. Otherwise, if you deviate, you may get tired without having achieved what you set out to do.

Today, Hillin is more focused than ever on his work. He points out that constant growth is his greatest purpose and he prepares himself for it every day.

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Perseverance Is Power: How This Entrepreneur Achieved Success in Marketing and Social Media - Entrepreneur

No one really wins when a pandemic hits, but 2020 has been huge for social media. Entire populations have been encouraged or required to stay at home, concerned about infection risks, and feeling the need for connection even more than usual due to heightened uncertainty and anxiety. As a result, the shift of living our social lives online instead of IRL has sustained an alarming acceleration period.

And Im not just talking about the massive growth in engaged usership on TikTok and Instagram. LinkedIn, the B2B social network, has also shown a huge spike in both the amount of published content and the volume of engagement with that content, according to data compiled by Transmission.

Credit: TransmissionThis opens up opportunities for marketers to enlarge their share of social attention, but only if you pay attention to the changing ways that consumers are using social media.

You cant just unpause your social and expect the same kind of response that you enjoyed pre-pandemic. Heres what to do instead.

People who are living in the shadow of the coronavirus, adjusting to working from home and deprived of regular social activities interact differently with social media than they did back in January. Initially, there was a massive spike in virus-related news and stories as people struggled to understand their new reality.

But the infodemic quickly tapered off, and people looked for ways to relieve serious anxieties and fears. Research by Taboola found that engagement with pandemic-related material peaked in March. By mid-April, the mood had already changed.

Engagement data from PathFactorys user base since the beginning of the pandemic, on the other hand, shows that interest in COVID-19-related topics in the context of B2B content attention minutes has endured. Its worth noticing here that the long tail is in content not directly related to the virus itself but rather in content related to how businesses should content with the new normal. Topics such as virtual events, cybersecurity and the need to adapt have commanded attention well into the summer.

Credit: PathFactoryMental health, joining an online community, and a desire to distract and self-educate became the driving factors for social media usage. Marketers who overlook these patterns risk facing something of a backlash. Consumers and B2B decision-makers may be too preoccupied to make precise comparisons between products or consider the merits of new solutions. You cant expect too much deep thought from leads who have precious little emotional bandwidth to spare. Thats why the top and middle of the funnel are where its at nowadays.

B2B marketers have to tread a fine line. You need to be sensitive to the pandemic and the toll its taking on your audience, but you cant be seen to be milking it. Some humor is great, but only the right kind of humor. Oh yes, and CoronaCommFatigue is a real thing.

Although marketing might seem like a minefield today, its really not as tricky as it sounds. Just go back to the basics of what youre doing. Understand your audience and deliver value. Its just not the time for promotions, self-congratulation or aggressive hard-sells.

Create the content your audience craves to lighten the burden of lockdown, whether thats diverting them with entertainment, building a creative online community, or helping people improve their emotional health. Save messaging meant for the bottom of the funnel for a later date, while you build brand equity by responding to the mood of the moment.

Mental health has been coming out of the shadows and making an appearance in marketing for a while now, with marketing campaigns like Nikes 2019 In My Feels, which raised funds for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and a collaboration between Sweaty Betty and River Island with anti-bullying charity Ditch the Lie.

COVID-19 pushed this trend to greater prominence, with 40% of consumers aged 13 to 39 saying they appreciate brands addressing mental health during the pandemic.

The social media platform companies themselves are meeting the need, too. Snapchat launched a Here for You tool a week earlier than originally planned, together with extra resources to help people cope with the coronavirus. TikTok, meanwhile, promoted a #MentalHealthAwareness hashtag, scheduled live sessions with mental health experts, and invited people to share their states of mind.

Brands that are rising to the occasion are getting it right to a surprising degree. Jansport already has a large following of Gen Z and Millennials, so its made the most of that by stepping up to meet their mental and emotional needs through the hashtag #LightenTheLoad. Beginning in May, Jansport hosted weekly open conversations with mental health experts on Instagram Live.

Credit: #LightenTheLoadIts the perfect blend of referencing the difficult reality and delivering real value, without overdoing the corona-theme or ruining it by pushing in a discount offer at the end.

Staying at home means isolation and loneliness for many people. Acknowledge it by finding ways to bring people together through your content.

Hashtag challenges on TikTok stimulate users to create and share content, making them part of a larger global community. A Lightricks survey found that over 70% of participants said that using a creativity app helped them overcome anxiety.

The company is arguably best known for its Facetune and Videoleap mobile apps for visual manipulation, but research that eventually informed its new Quickart product found that people are not only bent on creating content a key part of the experience is about using it to connect with others. During the pandemic, the amount of creators using Lightricks apps shared 90% more visuals than they had prior.

Credit: LightricksThe same need to connect is evident in the B2B world too, as the summer conference season has gone virtual. TrustRadius has found that the professional community is unlikely to return to in-person conferences for several months, with 72% of respondents saying that they expect to resume attendance in 2021 or later.

B2B networking and professional development has taken place both on social media and in meat space for decades now, but in 2020, its virtual-only. But smart B2B brands are finding ways to ensure that going virtual actually enhances the conference experience, while also scaling up on the conversational community aspects of their social media presences. The TrustRadius study shows that Q&A sessions and other interactive elements are among the top draws attracting people to virtual events during the COVID-19 crisis.

The Content Marketing Institute, for example, has been promoting its newly online-only #CMIWorld conference with a themed series of pre-conference webinars, Slack community discussions and Twitter chats, and the engagement has been impressive.

Marketers today would do well to remember that sometimes community is about more than serving the interests of a brand. When the pandemic first hit and layoffs were starting to snowball, Michael King, a B2B marketing influencer and founder of iPullRank, wrote this tweet as a way to help the wider marketing talent ecosystem.

The posts and the resource he promoted in them went on to blow up. The spreadsheet now has around 1,000 rows, a testament to the power of trade professionals helping one another.

Social content doesnt have to be heavy to help users deal with big issues. Boredom is a real burden and one that younger workers have found especially hard to bear. Some 50% of Gen Z respondents to one recent poll said they feel bored and want to see more entertaining ad content.

You dont have to leave it all to TikTok to raise the mood, either. B2B marketers can and should allow some lightness into their feed. Instagram is becoming increasingly popular for B2B marketing, and the very nature of the platform lends itself to a more playful approach.

Credit: Mark SchaeferB2B thought leader Mark Schaefer shows how to do it. Hes been more personal than ever on his Instagram profile, posting photos of nature views from his home. Even when he promotes an upcoming content asset, he manages to poke some gentle fun at his own home decor choices.

The coronavirus changed every area of our lives, so its not surprising that it also changed the way we use social media. Brands can and should still use social media marketing to keep their company top of mind, rather than going dark, but marketers need to pay attention to the new expectations of social media audiences.

Content that delivers value by addressing mental health issues, building a community, or entertaining your audience will add to your brand reputation and serve you well in the long term, even if sales need to take a back seat for the time being.

So youre interested in marketing? Then join our online event, TNW2020, to explore the latest brand marketing tech, trends, and challenges.

Published September 14, 2020 08:00 UTC

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Marketers: Change how you approach social media in the post-COVID-19 world - TNW

September15, 20205 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Sixty-two percent of Americans wereworking from homeas of late spring, according to a May 2020 Gallup survey, makingecommerceeven more critical toany successful marketing campaign. Social channels are especially helpful in encouraging customer demand, which offsets risk amid a deep recession.

Instagram in particular is one of the most profitable sites for promoting goods and services, especially if you operate in a niche thinkfashion and beauty, travel, health and fitness, food, consumer goods, home and decor and digital services that makes heavy use of multimedia content. In fact, ecommerce makes up 15.8 percent of total interactions on Instagram, according to a January 2020 report by Socialbakers.

Heres how marketers, independent contractors, freelancers and small-business owners can expand their reach and acquire new customers on Instagram.

Instagram has 120 million U.S. users, according to analytics firm NapoleonCat. More than 200 million global users visit at least one business profile daily, according to Instagram, and 60 percent of people say they discover new products on the platform.

Create a business account so the Instagram marketplace knows that you exist, advisesTony Noskov, founder of Snoopreport, a firm that developed Instagram Activity Tracker for individuals and businesses. An Instagram business account lets you see real-time metrics on engagement so you can adjust strategy, interaction and content to attract inbound interest on goods and services. A business profile enables brands to publish location, store hours, website and phone number. Put a call-to-action button that moves consumers along the sales funnel to possible conversion.

Thirty-seven percent of U.S. adults are Instagrammers, and 63 percent of them visit the site daily, according to Pew Research. Noskovs Instagram Activity Tracker lets anyone monitor a public users likes, comments, follows and other activities.

For businesses, the tool is helpful for building a list of influencers and for benchmarking competitor strategies. Instagram also comes equipped with native tools that allow users to optimize photos and videos without having to pay for additional software or services.

Related: 10 Marketing Strategies to Fuel Your Business Growth

Between March 1 and July 10, 132,580 businesses closed around the country, according to Yelps Economic Impact Report. Social marketing can mitigate economic risks by unforeseen forces. Its prudent to seek deep-pocketed clients or customers who refresh the work pipeline so you can better sleep at night. Allocate one day per week to be actively engaged on social channels or with online promotion.

If youre busy with current projects, you should still commit at least 10 percent of your workweek to marketing. You may find higher-paying gigs that come with less headache. Delegate by hiring a low-cost intern who wont mind earning money and class credits to use Instagram for business.

An effective approach when using Instagram is to first define your target buyers. Businesses can define market segments in several waysm including demographics, values and lifestyle, consumer behavior, disposable income and geography. By identifying their ideal buyers, marketers can customize messages and offers, as well as concentrate on a smaller group of consumers who benefit the most from a product or service.

Companies are in a better position to optimize marketing efforts, pricing, product design, shipping and other aspects of their businesses when they better understand their customers. This can lead to improved key performance indicators (KPIs) like click-throughs, conversion rates, profit margins, customer satisfaction and other important business metrics.

Who is your ideal client or customer, and how do they interact with your Instagram content? What keywords, hashtags, photos and videos do they respond to? What communication styles best resonate with them? One helpful approach is to create a buyer persona a fictional representation of a few ideal customers based both on experience and data. By knowing who specifically youre targeting, you can improve content, sales and marketing, product design, delivery and other aspects of customer acquisition.

Related: How to Land the Digital Marketing Job of Your Dreams

An Instagram strategy shouldnt be set in stone; it should be liquid. You must continually optimize methods based on new preferences and trends, but once youve gained actionable insights from top accounts, you can begin to create aesthetic visuals for your brand.

The key is to capture amazing photos and videos and to tell stories that spark lively discussions from people who will like, comment and push your brand. Write compelling captions that convey the essence of your craft,i.e.what makes you tick and why youre the right person (or product) for the job. Display client stories or give audiences a behind-the-scenes look at how things operate at your place of business.

The end strategy you settle on will depend heavily on your industry and target buyers. Thats why its important to observe and understand why top performers are converting the way they are. Something in your approach resonates with them and aligns with how they consume and engage with your Instagram content.

Once youve found a good fit, keep your foot on the proverbial gas pedal.

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How Instagram Helps Marketers and Work-From-Home Professionals Increase Their Influence - Entrepreneur