Belle Strategies - Business Consultant

AI Ethics and Tech Trends


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Crafting The Perfect Social Media Post

the perfect social media post

What does the perfect social media post contain? I have found that including these three key elements ensures you can achieve perfection every time.

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3 Must-Know Tricks for Successful Social Media eCommerce

SOCIAL MEDIA ECOMMERCE belle strategies

Does social media eCommerce matter to your brand? Well, if your brand sells something (a product, an experience, a service) then of course it does! Put simply, your presence on social media plays a significant role in consumer purchasing behavior. [Read more…]


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How Do I Know If My Social Media Is Working?

How do I know if my social media is working

Have you ever asked yourself, “How do I know if my social media is working?” If you own a business or work in digital marketing, you probably have.

Measuring social media can seem difficult because there are so many metrics to review. Who has the time? It probably doesn’t feel this way, but you have the time.   [Read more…]


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How To Choose The Right Social Media Influencer

CHOOSING THE RIGHT SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCER

Choosing the right social media influencer may seem tedious to a first-timer, so I want to share the selection process I use on behalf of my clients.

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Facebook Videos: Ad Revenue for You?

facebook videos

I recently learned that Facebook is testing a dedicated video channel. YouTube, the leader in online video, has been feeling a pinch ever since Facebook released the option to directly upload videos to the platform.

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How Do I Target an Instagram Ad? Avoid This Blunder!

TARGETING

Targeting your ads is the most important piece of your paid strategy when it comes to attracting your ideal clients. Instagram ads rolled out a few months back, and I had to write this quick post to make sure everyone knows NOT to use this targeting feature:

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Social Media Report: What To Show Your Clients

social media report belle strategies

Creating a social media report can be excruciatingly tedious if you don’t know what to measure.

Collecting and reporting data has two main benefits:

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Why the Unfollowers Don’t Matter

It’s pretty easy to get caught up with the “vanity metrics” on social media. You work hard to provide value to your followers, and with a good strategy and tons of effort, you slowly grow your follower count. So how come there seems to be an ongoing up and down? Followers come and then followers go. This is especially prevalent on Instagram and Twitter, and we’d be lying if we said it wasn’t a bummer!

BUT! [Read more…]


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Don’t Make These Instagram Mistakes!

This blog about Instagram Mistakes is a feature from my good friend Michi Moore, founder of the Pretty+Profesh Community!

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Live Streaming Tips: Setting Professional Boundaries

Live streaming has quickly become one of the best ways to reach your current and potential customers.

This week, I have partnered up with Michi from Pretty+Profesh and I’ll be taking over her Periscope stream every day at 4:30 pm EST to talk about some of my most effective live streaming tips!

live streaming tips

On today’s (Thursday) stream, we’ll discuss how to determine what you will and won’t do when streaming. If you miss the broadcast, that’s ok! Check out my tips below:

What You Will Do

When it comes to setting yourself apart from your competitors, passion and knowledge are the keys to success. Utilizing live streaming to convey your passion and knowledge is opening up an entirely new platform for service providers like marketers (of course), but also artists, chefs, singers and so many other “service-based” professions. Sharing is caring, and part of the way to attract new business is to share tips and tricks. I’m doing it right now. But you don’t want to give away all your secrets in your streams. You may be wondering, “Well what happens when someone asks a topical question? Are you telling me to ignore them Rachel?” No, I most certainly think you should acknowledge and answer every topical question – let’s explore that further in the next section.

What You Won’t Do

If you’re delivering valuable content, people are going to ask you questions during the stream. It’s probably already happened to you, right? In my opinion, the best way to respond to questions is by providing a basic answer, then follow up by saying something like, “I have a few strategies for (insert topic)…if you want to talk more about it, email me and let’s get on a call!” It’s surprisingly easy to go into specific detail answering a question when it’s about your passion. You likely scope about something you LOVE – and it’s human nature to gush about the things we love. Don’t get stuck giving away the type of knowledge people will pay you to share with them for free when you live stream.

Be sure to check out the the tips from the rest of the week: Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday

For more live streaming tips and other social media marketing trends, keep up with me on Twitter and Periscope @bellestrategies.

Belle Strategies is a boutique Social Media Marketing company based in South Florida. Our team mixes innovative strategies with attention to detail for an online presence that produces tangible results. For assistance growing your brand on social media, contact us!


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Live Streaming Tips: Three Things to Do Every Time You Stream

Live Streaming Tips: Three Things to Do Every Time You Stream

Live streaming has quickly become one of the best ways to reach your current and potential customers.

This week, I have partnered up with Michi from Pretty+Profesh and I’ll be taking over her Periscope stream every day at 4:30 pm EST to talk about some of my most effective live streaming tips!

live streaming tips

On today’s (Wednesday) stream, we’ll discuss three things to do every time you stream. If you miss the broadcast, that’s ok! I’ve listed out those three things right here for you:

Say Hello!

Don’t forget to let your viewers know who you are. Include your name and the name of your business right off the bat. Jumping right into the content is so important – but I think we should all consider our name and/or our business name part of our content, right? Ultimately, you’re using live streaming to grow your business, so if people don’t know what your business IS – that poses and obvious problem. You’ll reach a point where lots of your followers know who you are

Prepare Them, Tell Them, Recap for Them

It has been said that every good presentation or speech comes down to this: “Tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you told them.” This is not new and has been around for decades. But it wasn’t until I learned it (in debate class? who can remember) that it ever occurred to me. So if you haven’t heard about constructing your periscopes like this, I’m glad I could introduce you to the age-old recipe for success. RECAPPING at the end of your stream is especially important for the people who come in late.

End with a CTA

If you’re streaming for business, you have an underlying mission. Attracting new customers to your restaurant, selling tickets to your upcoming event, personal branding – whatever it may be – you need to end your broadcast with a call-to-action. It can be as simple as asking your viewers to find you on Twitter (you can always go find them too, you know). I have a little sign with my email address on it and tell my viewers I’d love to hear from them. It works! Soon, I will have a course to sell – and you can believe I’ll be letting them know where to get it. Don’t lose out on these branding opportunities by closing the stream without even the softest of CTAs.

Be sure to check out the the tips from the rest of the week: Monday | Tuesday | Thursday

For more live streaming tips and other social media marketing trends, keep up with me on Twitter and Periscope @bellestrategies.

Belle Strategies is a boutique Social Media Marketing company based in South Florida. Our team mixes innovative strategies with attention to detail for an online presence that produces tangible results. For assistance growing your brand on social media, contact us!


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Live Streaming Tips: Picking a Platform

Live streaming has quickly become one of the best ways to reach your current and potential customers.

This week, I have partnered up with Michi from Pretty+Profesh and I’ll be taking over her Periscope stream every day at 4:30 pm EST to talk about some of my most effective live streaming tips!

live streaming tips

On today’s (Tuesday) stream, we’ll discuss picking a platform. If you miss the broadcast, that’s ok! Here are my top three live streaming platforms and why they could work for you.

Periscope

One of two mainstream apps, Periscope is Twitter’s live streaming platform that offers users the ability to jump on a live broadcast anywhere, anytime. Unless told otherwise, it automatically shares a LIVE notification with your Twitter followers, and offers viewers the ability to share your broadcast with their Periscope, Twitter or Facebook followers. The interface is extremely user-friendly, and it offers tons of great opportunities to connect with new, like-minded people.

Meerkat

The other mainstream app, Meerkat was introduced first but has not been able to keep it’s users coming back as regularly as Periscope. Ironically, Meerkat has a few capabilities that most brands/marketers love, but it seems they MAY not be enough to keep this platform on the up and up. Meerkat allows you to pre-schedule a stream up to 24 hours in advance. It also allows for a takeover where a viewer can jump in and control the stream. These are two hugely useful tools for any marketing campaign, but when it comes to the data – more live streamers use Periscope on a daily basis.

Blab.im

Some may not consider Blab.im a “live streaming” platform, but I do think it falls under that category because it allows it’s users to broadcast live – sooo, there’s that! If you haven’t tried out blab yet, you’re missing out. It’s Google Hangouts meets AIM Instant Messenger meets Periscope – and it’s as fun as it sounds. You can have your own “show” with up to three other guests (four people in the room at once) and there is a sidebar chat area where all the viewers can participate in the show. Users can jump in and out of seats creating a rotating round table feel. With users blabbing from all over the world, the networking opportunities should not be underestimated.

Be sure to check out the the tips from the rest of the week: Monday | Wednesday | Thursday

For more live streaming tips and other social media marketing trends, keep up with me on Twitter and Periscope @bellestrategies.

Belle Strategies is a boutique Social Media Marketing company based in South Florida. Our team mixes innovative strategies with attention to detail for an online presence that produces tangible results. For assistance growing your brand on social media, contact us!


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Gain Targeted Followers: Three Quick Hacks

I’m going to give it to you straight here friends. Are you prepared for this?

It does not matter how many TOTAL followers you have; it matters how many TARGETED followers you have.

Anyone in the social media marketing field knows this (and preaches it loudly from mountain tops) but outside of our bubble, many business owners haven’t realized this important fact. Targeted followers are the type of people who are most likely to engage with and buy from your company.

So how do you gain targeted followers? The principles are simple, but like anything worth having, it takes time and effort and doesn’t happen over night.

Here are my three favorite hacks to gain targeted followers:

1) Post Relevant Content

You can call me Captain Obvious on this one, but it bears repeating. I see too many businesses that COULD be making waves within their markets posting all the wrong content.

If you can’t determine what is relevant and what is not, look at your proposed options as if you were a consumer. In the words of the amazing influencer Brian Fanzo, think like a fan!

What would you want to see if you had no vested interest in your company yet? Go from there.

2) Get Your Hashtags Down

If you aren’t familiar with how Hashtags work, it’s very simple! Potential followers are using them to find your business. You read that right. Hashtagging your content properly means you show up where your potential followers can find you.

Research other businesses like yours to see which hashtags work for them and use analytics like hashtracker.com to determine the best ones for you. General rule of thumb: Facebook and Twitter – 3-ish hashtags; Instagram allows up to 30 and I recommend using them all up.

3) Engage Authentically

Every company, no matter how large, is run by people. Your consumers buy from you because somewhere along the way, they made an emotional connection to your brand or product. How does one make an emotional connection to paper towels you ask? I buy the same brand my mom always had around, don’t you?

Humanize your brand by engaging regularly with your followers. Respond to comments; thank people who take the time to appreciate what you’re doing; answer questions thoughtfully for everyone to see; reward them for their loyalty.

Last but not least, share! Share relevant content created by others in your industry. I cannot overstate this! Sharing is caring, and when you engage with purpose, the good karma comes back to you.

I have a fourth hack for those of you who want to gain targeted followers and have a budget to spend…

4) Utilize Facebook Advertising

Facebook has the most robust advertising platform of all the networks, and while many argue that the demographics are skewing too “old” nowadays, it’s the “old people” who have all the money.

If you are trying to gain targeted followers in the 25+ demo, you should be using Facebook Ads. They recently redesigned the Ads Manager UI, so bypass that enticing “boost” button and dig into their seemingly endless targeting options. Stretch your dollars by targeted location, age, gender, interests, purchase behavior and so much more.

That’s it! Just remember: There is no quick fix. And don’t even ask me about buying followers, just get outta here with that!

If my tips helped you, feel free to share them. Also, you can find me on Periscope @bellestrategies streaming all about this and other social media topics; find me there if you have questions – it’s always fun to engage live.  It’s my new addition!

Belle Strategies is a boutique Social Media Marketing company based in South Florida. Our team mixes innovative strategies with attention to detail for an online presence that produces tangible results. For assistance growing your brand on social media, contact us!


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Live Streaming Tips: Keeping It Real

Live streaming has quickly become one of the best ways to reach your current and potential customers.

This week, I have partnered up with Michi from Pretty+Profesh and I’ll be taking over her Periscope stream every day at 4:30 pm EST to talk about some of my most effective live streaming tips!

live streaming tips

On today’s (Monday) stream, we’ll discuss keeping it real. Specifically – how to inject your personality into your streams. If you miss the broadcast, that’s ok! Here are my top tips for being authentic on live streaming:

Introduce Yourself

It’s crazy how often people forget to introduce themselves when they stream. The most important thing you can do to get off on the right foot is let the viewers know who you ARE! Name, reason for streaming, and a little personal anecdote – short and sweet but perfect for every intro. For example:

Hey guys it’s Rachel from Belle Strategies! Today we’re talking “Keeping it Real on Live Streaming” and I’m extra excited because this topic is super fun AND…after I’m done, I’m going to get some tacos.

Now don’t go off on some random taco tangent of course! I’m simply saying that sharing something a little silly about yourself is an easy way to break the ice and not go into robot broadcaster mode.

Don’t Overdo the Pre-Production

Ladies I’m talking to you here (mostly). Live streaming is supposed to be in the moment. You don’t need “night on the town” hair and makeup or the perfect outfit. People are going to connect with you a lot more if you’re just being the real you – it makes you so much more relatable. That’s not to say you shouldn’t look put together if you’re streaming for business purposes, but don’t feel like you need to overdo it.

Ignore the Trolls

This might not seem like something you need to do to “be yourself” but consider the alternative: You’re in the middle of a stream where you’re delivering awesome content…then you stop to engage in the negativity. You end up wasting time and energy blocking the accounts; and worse, you’re wasting your viewers’ time. In my opinion, ignore the trolls. Engage with the supporters, and forget the rest!

Be sure to check out the the tips from the rest of the week: Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday

For more on this and other social media marketing trends, keep up with me on Twitter and Periscope @bellestrategies.

Belle Strategies is a boutique Social Media Marketing company based in South Florida. Our team mixes innovative strategies with attention to detail for an online presence that produces tangible results. For assistance growing your brand on social media, contact us!


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Social Media Marketing ROI: What to Measure

“How do you know it’s working?”

It’s likely the #1 question asked to social media managers – and it doesn’t have to be difficult to answer.

Social Media ROI (return on investment) is an important business metric; measuring the success of your campaigns is the only way to understand it’s level of efficiency. HOW to measure those campaigns is where things could get tricky. Social media ROI has proven to be difficult to measure because more than anything, it’s a branding tool.

The key to keeping your clients happy and feeling accomplished is setting the right expectations for success. It’s not just about “likes” anymore; here’s how to measure social media ROI:

Design | Execute | Analyze

  • Track the time you spend working on your posts and visual assets. Include research (like reading this post). Your platforms will track the money you invest in ads, but only you can keep tabs on the man hours.

  • Create custom links for your social media posts so you can see your best traffic referrers. Use bit.ly or google custom URLs if you’re fancy!

  • Use Google Analytics to see which platforms send the most traffic. You’ll be able to tell because of their robust metrics paired with your custom links.

Some of the other metrics you might consider are brand mentions, eCommerce conversions, profile/post engagement, customer service call reduction and more.

There is no “standard” for measuring social media ROI; each company should define their key objectives to determine which metrics to track.

social media ROI belle strategies

A great place to start are these four areas:

  • Financial: Have sales increased or operations costs decreased?

  • Brand: Has more credibility been established?

  • Audience: Is your audience happy and are you better serving them?

  • Digital: Have your efforts increased the company’s overall digital impact?

Belle Strategies is a boutique Social Media Marketing company based in South Florida. Our team mixes innovative strategies with attention to detail for an online presence that produces tangible results. For assistance growing your brand on social media, contact us!


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Don’t Make These Three Content Marketing Mistakes

Social media is a big piece in the content marketing puzzle. The best part about this content marketing “puzzle” is that it’s like one of those made-for-kids, easy-to-put-together kind of puzzles. The second you see how it all fits, it’s a cake walk. Here is all you need to know to be successful at content marketing:

Create Content With VALUE

Mistake to Avoid: Don’t blog about what’s going on at the office with Bob. No one besides (some of) your employees and Bob’s family really care at all about his office-related accomplishments. Cut the “company updates”!

Do it Right: Tap your knowledgeable employees for 20 minutes a week and have them craft relevant, valuable posts about their profession. Maybe Bob is a training manager; have him educate people on the best ways to freshen up outdated training content. Bob can inject his blogs with personality, but the focus should always be adding value and creating credibility.

Use eBlasts Sparingly

Mistake to Avoid: Don’t spam your subscribers with irrelevant “newsletters”. Can we all agree we get enough email? If your email isn’t giving your subscribers something that makes their lives easier, don’t even send it.

Do it Right: Instead of thinking of these correspondences as newsletters, think of them as “credibility-builders”. Going back to the first point, no one needs to know about the company 5k. Give your subscribers knowledge they can use. Try a discount code. Let them in on upcoming events with a pre-sale option. Provide insight into a new tool or product that will streamline their business. Once again, the focus is always adding value and creating credibility.

Pay Attention to Detail

Mistake to Avoid: Here’s a question for you: Have you put an intern, or anyone under 25, in charge of your content marketing? Blogs, social media posts, eBlasts – so many of us consider this “menial” work – so we push it off on the intern or we hire someone inexpensive and green to do it for us. The mistake here is that the content your company is creating makes an immeasurable impact on your brand, and grammatical errors, irrelevant copy, and a lack of cohesion will hurt you. Nothing about content marketing is menial, and businesses should give it as much effort as they give every other department. Don’t trust your digital credibility to someone inexperienced.

Do it Right: At this stage in the game, there are enough talented prospects for hire who understand the content marketing puzzle. Recognize that this person is wholly responsible for your brand outside of your four walls (unless you run commercials and print ads). Take time finding the right fit for your company, and bring them into the fold as much as possible so they can accurately market you throughout the interwebs.

When done correctly, your content marketing strategy will have your audience appreciating and expecting your killer content. Be the expert they can rely on; help them overcome hurdles. Companies who put the time and effort into cultivating awesome content can thrive; so get to it!

Belle Strategies is a boutique Social Media Marketing company based in South Florida. Our team mixes innovative strategies with attention to detail for an online presence that produces tangible results. For assistance growing your brand on social media, contact us!