I I think I know all of you, except I haven't been.
Um, Melinda before, but welcome. Um.
To our this will be our 2nd training this.
This winter into spring, for the business, build our training series with park, local development core and I'm Cassy heron. I'm.
The coordinator of our, our training and education outreach work and.
I'm really excited to introduce Erica. Erica is the extension offices external relations and social media coordinator.
And she has an M, a in anthropology and 15 years of experience.
Communicating science to the public, uh, through many different digital outlets.
And Erica in this presentation is going to really focus on illustrating the power of.
Human connection through storytelling and kind of going through the steps of that.
Um, from her experience, so it's going to be.
Fun and engaging and I guess without further ado, I will go ahead and just.
Hand it over to you, Erica, and then as usual, if you.
Guys have any questions and want to toss them in the chat box.
Feel free, I can moderate that and let Erica kind of.
Just decide how to address questions or discussion as we go. So.
Right here I'm really excited to be here today.
Virtually and.
I was a good introduction, so I don't really have much to add. I'm, I'm with Emma.
Tension and, um, I'm in a new position here. We haven't had an external relations social media coordinator until I started about 8 months ago.
So, if you do follow us on social media, you may have seen that. We've been more active than usual. And that is because I have started my role and.
Extension has realized that, uh.
That social media, and how we, um, connect to the public and, um.
Is is really important, whether that's through what I do in our main account, or how I help empower our people in the field. So our extension agents.
and our specialists and training them to help
Tell their story and connect with the public and the people they serve.
I would really love to hear everybody's background. Why, you know, why are you here today? What? Um.
You know, what, what interests you in social media and, um, yeah, so.
We can go around I'm trying to think of his 1st. Um, I think she, I, you're the 1st person.
I, uh, in the in the screen for me.
Um, yeah, my name is Sheila.
And, um, I own a, what you were looking for the background I have eyeballs over here. This is 1 of my daughters props for a play with this, like, Super scary dog.
And, and I don't even know what else is up there, but too much stuff.
For my little space, I.
Small educational guiding business at a, at a Gardner for, in Yellowstone.
And, um, Melinda knows this Cassie knows this. I am.
The absolute like worst with social media. In fact, I just discovered yesterday.
That other people have been posting, like, clients have posted on my Facebook page and I just discovered them.
But I don't know how to make them visible on the page. Like, when I look at it, all I see are my post and, like, some of them are these fabulous reviews from last summer. And I.
Literally just discovered them, so I'm, I, I feel like I'm never ever, ever going to catch up.
Um, so I'm always grateful and interested in anything on social media, because I know I need to be a lot more active.
Well, hopefully we can give you some tools today to help with that.
Thanks all right. Chris.
Hi, um, I am the director of explore Livingston, which is the CDB.
The downtown business improvement district, and the tourism business improvement district.
And I also have a buzz media where I do social media marketing for small businesses.
Um, but I'm unable to do that as much because now I have all these other.
Jobs, so I have, um, kind of learned as I've gone along and I don't really know.
Practices per se, because they keep changing.
Um, and I do know about trying to find a specific voice.
And look and kind of feel for all the different.
Organizations I'm representing, but, um, I really struggled to keep up with all the new bells and whistles.
And so I know there's always something new and some fresh perspective and tricks.
Uh, to learn, so I'm excited to learn more wonderful. Wonderful thanks. Thanks for being here. Alright, Teresa.
I think you are muted. Sorry?
Sorry hi. Good thing. I didn't do too much. I say too much. Um, I'm the executive director for the garden.
Our Chamber of commerce DVB visitor information center here in gardener.
Um, I'm interested in this because I was extraordinary lucky and had a fabulous office manager who, uh, was hired in 2020 of April 2020. and she kind of.
Took all of the social media under her belt, but she left me.
So, uh, for all good reason. Um, but.
For that reason, I am struggling a little bit cause when she took everything over, it took that off of my plate. So I am not used used to having that, uh, ball in in my court again. So I'm just.
Needing a little refresh. Alright. All right. Well, I hope today we'll talk a little bit about them.
Planning tools that could help you, uh, make things a little more efficient and help you with that. All right Melinda.
Hi, Melinda.
Or Mel, and I have actually.
Worked for, um, Teresa and Chris.
And, um, I've given a, she had a lot of advice or some advice. I don't know if it's been good but, um.
So, I am a travel blogger and content creator, and I work with a lot of tourism regions on creating social media.
Content for them as well as I'm the social media manager.
I don't know if that's the title actually for part county environmental Council. Now.
And I was just sharing this to our page, um.
And thought, oh, I'll just jump on and see what I can.
I can learn because, you know, it's always changing and it's and it's all.
It's all good. It is. It is changing and I even have to say in the last couple of months, it's.
Like, so many rules, and things have been changing very quickly that it's.
Been an, an interesting thing to try to try to manage, um.
But the foundation is still there, and that's.
Actually, where we're going to start is real basic social media foundation, and then build on some.
Strategy and.
Strategy and planning, and it's storytelling, um, because there's a lot of power in using social media to.
To tell a story and, um, and there's wonderful tools out there, uh, to do that. And, um.
Particularly in the last couple of years, there's been a great big push of using.
Uh, creators like Melinda and and how to connect.
Your company or your organization.
And get the word out. Um, so we'll, we'll touch.
I'm that I'm going to share my screen here.
Right. Does everybody see that? Okay.
I always like to ask because I have gone.
Couple of slides in and people don't it doesn't work.
All right.
Well, I kind of already introduced myself, but, um, yeah, I'm extensions social media.
Coordinator and external relations, it's a, it's a new position and I'm excited to be here to talk with you guys.
Um, so 1st, we'll start off with that.
Foundation piece, um, I kind of touched on that already, but the foundation of.
Of understanding, social media is is essential, because it will provide that.
Base to build strategy.
And storytelling on too, and allow you to be effective in when you are doing storytelling.
Kind of the 1st thing to touch base on is.
Brands and I know that might be.
If look different for each of you, because you all kind of have different roles.
And, uh, different organizations, you know, and some of you are more.
Um, you know, it's more of a personal brand that you have to think of, versus a larger organizational brand.
But everybody should kind of try to think about what's.
What's your voice? And, um.
A place, and that helps provide a place where you can build trust with.
Your followers, or your customers or consumers, you know, whoever you are trying your audience who you're trying to reach when you build a.
Brands it, it can help build that trust.
Um, it allows people to quickly recognize you your company.
And a, a brand can involve things like, you know, fonts, colors logos.
But it goes even deeper than that and so thinking about words what what words can represent.
You or your organization at at extension, we try to use words.
I am the example here of, like, explore serve.
Discover create Excel, connect.
And just that line of of jotting down some words.
That can represent you your, your organization.
Um, can help focus when you get to, um, planning posts and engaging people and and using kind of those words that are core and important for your.
Voice it also helps you if you have multiple people involved in your social media.
Because I know some places might have 23 or more. I'd be wonderful. Right uh, people doing social media and when that happens.
Having that those core kind of.
Focus words can really help the voice be.
Assistance, um, throughout.
And if you don't have a brand, or you're thinking about rebranding.
Um, research, get out there, start looking at.
Um, brands that you enjoy, why do you enjoy them? What attracts you to them?
Um, what brands are people you're trying to attract already following.
You know, cause you can help under, like, look at well, I wonder.
Maybe, they're being attracted to this kind of voice.
Or, um, you know.
Image and and and try to try to research your audience a little bit.
When you're creating a brand or rebranding, cause, you know, sometimes it's good every once in a while to start thinking about your brand if you haven't visited it and.
5 years 10 years it's.
It's a good time to sit down and think about that.
The Anatomy of a post.
Um, I'm sure there's people out there. This is.
This is old news, but this is so important.
To when you are reaching out in social media and you're creating something, right?
Because think about when you're on social media and you're scrolling, you know, on your feed and.
You're like, okay. Okay. Um, you know, blah, blah, blah, and something catches your eye. Why does it catch your eye? And.
What are the things that you expect.
Well, most people expect certain parts.
Of of an anatomy of a certain parts and a post and your their brains.
Look for it automatically. So if you can kind of meet those needs.
People will, uh, they'll know where the information is, and they'll be able to digest it easier.
Versus being like, well, what's going on here? Where am I supposed to find information? What what's happening?
If you can relieve that by following a structure.
Then, um, then people can really focus on that engagement aspect.
Of of what you're getting out there, so having a graphic that captures people's attention, that's, um, if you use text.
Don't put a ton of texts on there, you know, that that's where you're caption.
Or your expansion on your caption.
So, involving a call to action, you know, learn more include a link.
You know, drive people if you've got a website that's for, you.
Can drive traffic to your website.
If you have a partner tag them.
Um, this is, I think what's so cool about, uh, Montana in particular and actually talking with all of you, you're like, hey, we all know each other.
And we've worked together, um, and that's this is the.
This that is something you want to focus on, you know, that.
You are involved in your community, you have partners.
You you work together and we'll talk a little bit about social media trend in the future, but that's what people want to see.
They're really into community and finding community digitally and so when you can show how you, um.
Are partnering with people, you're showing them you're part of community.
Hashtags.
Don't need to go crazy with them, but be intentional.
Um, think about what they are, if you're going to use the hashtag.
Search it, um, cause you want to see what's been populating.
That hashtag because it can be something completely different.
From what you expect it to be, and maybe you want to use something different.
But that can help drive people to your post extension about.
10% of our new traffic new users that come to.
To us through social media, find a through hashtag.
Which is substantial, I mean.
10% might not seem a lot, but in my world, that's that's huge. Traffic derive.
Um, so I get really excited to see that.
Um, videos, people.
People are really engaging with videos right now and.
Particularly, you know, some of the fastest growing platforms.
Tick tock, Instagram and Instagram kind of started the.
Plateau a little bit, but a lot of the fastest.
Growing platforms, we're seeing right now utilized video.
Is their content creation, so thinking about if that's something you can engage in and do and that's.
Not going to be the case for everybody, you know, each of you have different audiences and different needs. So, understanding that.
Post link I think this is the scariest part for me when you really look at what the average person.
Reads on a post 1 to 80 characters.
What can you get across in 1 to 80 characters? You know, that's the average what the average person is going to read on.
Book and what I try to tell people is.
You don't need to fit your entire content in 80 characters.
But, no, that's what most people are gonna read.
So, that's where you want your, that's where you want to capture people.
You, you know, if you want to draw people in to click the read more on your post, you got to do it in that 1 to 80 characters.
Um, and, you know, you've or if you have really.
Important information you want to get out there, lead that in your post.
You can also see in this, that people read more on Instagram.
So, when you're creating content.
Uh, maybe you want to create more more post links in your Instagram posts. If you have multiple social media accounts.
So, again, thinking about these platforms and and how they're utilized.
And how people how your audience utilizes them.
But, yeah, that 1 to 80 characters is, uh, is intimidating.
Accessibility is really important.
And something that a lot of people don't think about in social media.
So, writing in plain language, um, as you heard, I'm a science I work in science communication, and I worked.
With a lot of people who like to use a really big words.
And acronyms and so.
I always like to put this in there, you know, don't assume that people know what you're acronym. You're putting.
In a social media post is always spell it out.
Um, avoid run on sentences, keep your sentence structure short.
Precise clear right in the act of voice.
Um, another thing is not using emojis in place of words.
But, alongside words, so I think about an Instagram, you often see.
Uh, the photo buy and someone's name, a lot of people will do.
The camera, the in an emoji of a camera and then by.
Erica, um, and screen readers won't read that.
And so thinking of people who are visually impaired in, or.
Or otherwise using a screen reader, so you can do the camera, but then write photo.
Bye, um, so thinking about keeping your doors open to.
Your audience who's who's brought up an audience that you can right? Um, you don't want to close doors.
To people, because they use it, they're using a screen reader or visually impaired.
When you use hashtags capitalized each word that way, people can distinguish that their.
Separate words, I use an example here learn something new.
The capitalized the assets capitalized, the NS capitalized.
Um, that's something that.
Isn't used as much, but it's a really important accessibility. Um.
Applications really, it's important and then using all texts for your images.
All platforms allow you to put all text in now for your images.
And it's really important if you have text on an image, make sure it's included.
And writing cat, glad all text for an image just how I like to.
Plain it is, you've got someone sitting on the other side of your computer screen and they can't.
See, what you're seeing and you have to describe it to them.
It doesn't have to be an incredible detail.
But, you know, give give the.
If you've got.
12 sentences, you have to describe this image that's what you want to do it and so be concise, but make sure you use all text and all the platforms have.
Um, have a have great ways of putting this in, um, also captions for videos.
Those are if you don't have them already.
They're automatically generated and make sure you have that selected.
But review your captions, I can not.
Emphasize that enough platforms are really great. You know, youtube's really great at making.
Um, automatic captions now, but it's not perfect.
Um, and so making sure you don't have enough I think the biggest thing is right like an inappropriate language.
Use, um, or just a complete mess representation of what a word is.
Um, is is important to think about Here's an example where you can find that alternative text.
Um, selection, when you're posting an image.
I just it's, it's important to to reach.
As many people as you can there, and keeping those doors open.
Graphics, I'm not going to touch. This is not a graphic design. Um.
Poc, so it's going to be a real basic here, but keeping your images.
Eye catching and you can see at the top here.
The element of extension branding, right? We have, um, that that.
Colors and our fonts.
In there, um, but they still looked at, you know, distinct, you.
From me from 1. another right they're, they're engaging in different ways.
And so you can still apply your brand in ways.
Oh, I don't know what just happened. Um, ways that.
Are visually distinguished.
I mean, this is where you want to catch people to read your post, cause most people, they're looking at the image and then they decide whether it's worth it.
To pause and read and so this is, this is where you want to. Wow. People.
Trends.
So this is, I think my next 2 sections are gonna be really great and hopefully helpful for all of, you.
Um, when thinking thinking about how you can use social media and what what you do.
So, understanding trends is an important aspect to consider when you're building a social media strategy, cause they change over time.
And, um, they grow and.
Basically, this year, what social media predictions are, or that it's.
Going to take kind of what was happening last year and continue to grow.
So, last year we saw a lot of digital community building.
And we're gonna see that growing. That's the predictions.
Um, so picking which social media platform you want to use for your business.
Is just as much a part of your strategy is your brand.
Each platform attracts different people.
Is there growing at different rates? You can kind of see, Facebook has leveled off a little, you know, you can see that.
YouTube is rising Instagram is for you to look actually pretty flat, but Instagram is rising. What's not on here is.
Um, I don't know why they haven't included it.
I mean, it's pretty new, but, um.
That 1 is also increasing dramatically, so.
Thinking about what platform you used to talk about, your brand, your organization, and that's gonna be different. Right? So tick tock might be wonderful for creators or people who are manufacturing.
Something, you know, something, you're making a product, and you can show how that product.
Can you can show the people behind it?
You know, it's an active creative process.
Um, you want to give people a 300.
60 degree view of old faithful.
Um, uh, you know, of you, this is a place where you can really.
Bring people to that visual engaging element.
And, um, Facebook, man, I mean.
It's most people are you using that? Right? So, thinking about.
We've got a big audience there, but is it the right audience?
You might want to attract a certain age group.
So understanding who you're trying to target.
And we'll get into a little bit of audience planning here in a 2nd.
Um, who you're trying to talk target.
The op, like the Pew Research Center you'll see is.
Cited here at the bottom collects all this social media data and it's a great place to just go and.
Dig around him, they have great these great graphics.
That take a ton of data and.
Put it out in a visual way. So, um.
You can kind of see here, the breadth and depth of social media use.
Just by age, and they look at many other.
Demographics, um, so you can use this chart in the previous 1. like, we saw.
To kind of look at what's growing what's stabilizing you know what?
Social media platforms are starting to shrink and which age groups are engaging in, in which platforms.
And then when you are trying to decide your audience.
As an organization you can kind of, hopefully.
Help pick a platform that you think would be best with your voice and your purpose.
Quick.
Question on that last graph yeah. Okay.
Sorry. Um, can you.
I'm sorry, having a little trouble just understanding.
So, the percentages across the bottom.
0 to 100%. Yeah and so are the numbers then up here?
That's the percentage of that.
Age like, 18 to 29 saying, 65% of 18 to 29 year olds are on Snapchat.
That's exactly. Okay, exactly. And so you can see, like.
There is a big age gap here. Yes. Okay. In Snapchat you know, you're.
30+there is not a big percentage of people on on Snapchat, but.
Quite a few of the 18 to 29.
Um, okay, like tick tock, for instance, is that saying that.
48% of the 18 to 29th are.
Using tick tock. Oh, okay. Cause that's the color. Oh, yeah. Got it. So that caller is 18 to 29. that's the blue. Oh, right. Yeah. Yeah.
So it's like, kind of in there, like big jam packed the Pew research.
Center packs a lot of data into these graphs.
So, you kind of have to sit down and digest them? Yeah, a little bit.
And, um, but I really like how they present it.
And it's a great tool when you're thinking about.
You know, next year's social media strategy, or even a campaign.
So, let's say you're wanting to put you want to get an event out there and you want to draw.
A younger audience, this is where you can go and say, okay, we're gonna want to put our advertising dollars.
Or or extra time this month.
Into, you know, Twitter.
Into Instagram, you know, or maybe we want to read.
Reach, uh, pretty equally represented wider.
You know, age group, then your Facebook, you know, would be because you have.
Age group's pretty well represented.
You know, in the similar percentage area, and it really helps you kind of.
I think you can think of it on the larger scale of where does my company want to be?
Um, and even down to okay, we're on these platforms, which 1 do I want to put my time and effort into for this, you know, strategy.
All right.
Cool. Thank you. Yeah. No worries. Yeah. Feel free to shout out because I get going.
And, um.
It's like I said, they look this chart is just 1 little clip.
Of a much larger thing where they look into socio economic, you know, um, oh, gosh, education all.
Just, it's a big list of who is, um, who are on these platforms.
And it just, it's not.
Like, I don't think it should dictate every decision you make. Right? You know, your audience too. If you're on there and you're engaging with them, you can kind of get an idea of who's following you and we'll talk about looking at your own.
Personal insights in a bit, but this gives you a really kind of a nice broad look when you're trying.
In particular, I think when your social media is feeling big and out of control.
Of of of being like, okay, we need to focus.
On Instagram and Twitter, or, you know.
Wh, whatever that, it, it's, it's a helpful tool.
And 1 that I visit probably every 6 months, just to get a.
Just to get a broad understanding of where, where the world is that where the U. S. is that in social media?
All right, so we're going to talk about trends now.
So, every year big social media companies, and.
Think tanks try to put out their projections.
For the year based on surveys, and, like the P research and.
Bring it all together and try to see, okay how are people going to be interacting on social media?
And in 2022, there are a few major themes and trends that I think are helpful to.
Center when making a marketing strategy.
1 of the biggest shifts we've seen in the last few years is the.
The growing digital community, so people are going online.
Um, to to feel a sense of community to be a part of a group, be a part of a community. Um.
I'm sure this partially has to do with the fact that many of us were at home for a very long time. Right?
Um, as well is just the new generation of people who've grown up connecting, um, in different ways.
So, we're, we're seeing that small businesses are connecting to people.
Through existing bribing communities online.
So, social media can provide an opportunity for you to.
Listen and get out there and start getting involved in.
In groups, or, you know, following hashtags or, uh, pages that people are involved in that have to do with the content you're creating.
Or your, you know, your organization.
Um, it's a place where you can connect with creators.
So, like, Melinda, you might find her because you're.
Following a travel.
You know, a travel group, um, and.
And see her content and be like, wow, I really like this.
Person and their voice and what they're saying, the content they're capturing.
Maybe I can connect with them and start having them, you know.
Be part of, um, our help be a voice for our company right? Be a partner.
Maybe you, you know, there's, there's so many different ways. You can partner with creators.
And but the 1st step is reaching out and and.
Seeing and Melinda can probably speak more to that, uh, side of things because extension we're not.
Allowed to use creators, but it's a great tool for small businesses.
Um, so thinking about that, and that, that's a way of, of creating community of being part of community.
And I think a really another important.
Thing to think about, is that your number of followers does.
Not equal engagements or community.
Um, you know, it's it's how are your followers engaging?
With your content, how are you.
Engaging with comments followers.
Online communities, so it's that connection.
That's the community, unless the number of people who are following, you.
So, um.
Community is where you want to see active engagement. Like, I kind of said people talking about your business who's tagging, you.
Um, you know, who's sleeping you reviews? Um, that's.
That's where you build up your community, you know, get those reviews on your, you know, on your social media.
Sites get them, pull them from social media, utilize them on your website, you know.
Try to have all of your digital content kind of.
Support each other, um, and that that's really helpful for small businesses. Um, it's, it's something we have to use at extension as well is cause there's.
It's only 1 of me, and, you know, it's if the more you can kind of help have.
All these things support each other is is, will help you and your valuable time.
Advertising that this is.
The part that is constantly moving.
Right. So if you decide to.
Pay to boost posts, or do advertising on social media platforms. What do you choose? What do you, you know.
How do you target that? And that goes back to kind of.
What we were talking about earlier with looking at who's using your platform.
Who's using these different platforms? Um.
While most people are using Facebook and Instagram.
These platforms are, we're seeing a lot of stagnation, you know, they're not growing.
So, actually a lot of advertising is, is.
Just being maintained in Facebook and Instagram, and a lot of companies are many more companies are going to choosing to.
Spend their money on other platforms where you can get more bang for your buck.
Um, an example to.
Be investing in advertising on tick, talk or Twitter, because you're trying to target a.
Consumer that also utilizes that platform. So we can see that.
When we were looking at those ages and different demographics that.
You know, there might be quite a few people in that demographic on, on Twitter.
And so you can actually, because there's fewer people.
If you were less advertising going on in.
Less advertised dollars being spent in those areas by other companies that you can actually reach more people.
Um, so thinking about that, um, I also think.
It's a good idea.
To if you can have more than.
1, social media account to try to be outside of.
The have 1 in the Facebook Instagram, or have both.
Because they have great tools to be able to manage both of those and then have another and another.
Platform because.
Facebook and Instagram are now under.
The, the, the, they are, they're, you know, they're under the same company.
And and it's really gotten where it's hard to advertise on those without pain.
Paying money to advertise on those platforms.
Um, where the other platforms aren't there yet.
So, your Twitter or your tick tock.
You know, the, the, the great list, um.
Linkedin, you know, if you're trying to connect more on a business level, that's growing rapidly.
Um, and and so trying to think about diversifying how you reach people and not putting your eggs and.
In just 1 basket, if you can.
And I also realized this is not possible for a lot of people who are.
Running a business, and you're the only person there and, um.
You know, you just got to kind of make those decisions and it's also where maybe you can start connecting with.
Creators who are on those platforms that might be able to do that kind of marketing.
For you, if you can't be active.
On those other platforms, so there there are.
Don't be afraid don't be afraid to explore other platforms and just because you get on them.
Doesn't mean, that's where, you know, you, you are forced to be on there forever, you know um.
Just get used to it figure out how does this conversation happened?
Where are communities, you know, get get used to it um.
That's incredibly important.
Trend 3, and we're gonna kind of build off this. Um, when we're done is human connection and storytelling.
People want to connect to the story behind.
Behind you behind your company behind your organization behind your.
You know, if you're self branded behind what you're doing, your family, your story, you know, your story might be.
Hurt like part of your brand and.
And the real consumers are really motivated.
By learning that story and understanding that it's a person, it's a.
Person behind that storefront, it's a.
Person helping lift up businesses in their community. It's a, it's a person who helps.
Organize your trips of paradise Valley and Yellowstone it's, um.
That that is a very growing trend that we've.
It's probably been going on for about 5 years, um, that.
That that connection and so you can.
Utilize this.
To come full circle circle to that community as well. I think they're very tied together. Right? You're finding digital community and the community involved.
People and people all over the world.
Storytelling is that is a human universal.
So, I'm gonna anthropologist say, you know, I.
Say humans and how we interact and our culture.
And story is a, is a.
Cultural universal, it's, it's how we connect. I mean, think about if you have children.
What are some of your 1st interactions with them? It's telling them stories.
Um, so this is where you can bring that.
Human connection into community and really come full circle.
So, how do you create your story? Um.
And how do you create a story that's going to connect.
To people and people in your community, your audience that you want to connect to.
1st step define your audience.
This is key.
Who are you trying to reach.
Remember this can change you might be trying to reach a different audience.
With a certain events and then.
You are trying, you know, and then it's going to be a different audience. If you have.
Some educational programming, or, you know, a product you're trying to sell.
This can shift, but always knowing before you start a strategy or a plan, who is your audience.
What are their needs? What do they need.
What motivates.
Do they have any barriers.
This is an important 1 that I think often gets left out when you're creating a plan.
So, it can be things like financial barriers.
It can be time barriers so maybe, you.
Create a discount for people to remove that financial barrier.
Or you, if you're in a company, um.
You can set up a, maybe can set up a way to do pick up orders to help people with time, you know, and so thinking about your audience and any barriers and how you can help.
Maybe not, you probably can't remove barriers entire entirely, but help.
Help with those barriers in how you are strategizing and marketing.
What's your purpose? This is 1.
That I can tell you, a scientist isn't really difficult.
Difficult with they're great with experiments and creating purpose.
Uh, when they're doing that, but, uh, when it comes to marketing, it's like, well, I'm I dunno I wanted to.
Get it out there and it's like, okay, well, do you want to get more people.
I don't know why he keeps doing that to me. Do you want to get more people?
In the seats at programming at an event.
Do you want more products sold? Do you want more people coming through your door to ask questions?
Do you want people engaging more with the content you're creating online? So.
Understanding your audience and your goal, um, is is the place to start.
And you get to a brainstorm.
And I'm pretty basic in my brainstorming. I like a good wheel and spoke model. Um.
You can start, I don't know, I'm really individual brainstorming, but I'm sure everybody here has different ways. They brainstorm.
But this is, this is how I do it. I think it's a carry over from elementary school for me.
At the center of the wheel and spoke, I put the topic that is based on that purpose. An audience.
Here, um, I selected an online webinar that puts on.
And I'm going to say that my target audience are people new to managing finances.
So maybe montana's age 18 to 45.
Hopefully by 45 you're getting there, but maybe not.
Um, I'm a millennial after all um.
And and then so I've created my audience and then I want the goal of.
More people attending the live version.
And maybe it can trickle over into that, expanding that after the fact video watching.
But I'm going to put that, you know, people in seats.
Is my defined goal here?
And now that I know that I can make the spokes.
That go out from the center of the wheel and.
That's where I can come up with content ideas. Each of these little bubbles around here are the spokes.
Can be a different post with different content, or you can realize that. Oh, I can combine some of those. Maybe I can.
Bring in my partners here and then add a website.
You know, but this is where you just start jotting down, who are my partners on this? What graphics are out there.
Do I need to create graphics? Are there publications I can link to.
Um, are there any re SHARES so, um.
For me, that would be like, um.
Are there news articles about this past fall advance, finances webinar I can link to, you know, from past are there people that attended that have.
Put things on social media about it that I can reshare.
Are there event fliers I can put up, um.
Are there people I can tag? This is a process.
I literally just write down every idea and resource I can think of. And then the next 2 steps we're going to talk about.
Are how you take these items and kind of put them in a.
Story and a storyline to create that beginning, middle and end.
So.
Stories have a beginning middle and an end, right? I mean, I think that's a basic thing. Um.
And that might look different, but essentially, that's how you lead people, uh, along in what they expect.
So, when you think about that and social media, it will, it has a very similar structure.
So, how are you going to introduce that topic?
That goal, um, that you and the brainstorm content, how are you gonna introduce that to people?
And then the middle, I have no idea why it keeps doing that. How are you going to.
Band on that, um.
And then, how are you going to create some sort of conclusion to bring an end.
To your content and you get to.
Um, populate that with all that content you brainstorm.
There are so many different 5 piece. If you Google this, you will find.
So, many of the different ways of the 5 piece for storytelling, but this is what I've.
Kind of created for for myself and when I do it extension.
Um, but then this could, you know.
Google it, if it doesn't fit you, because there's so many other ways to kind of.
Structure your ideas, um.
So, I like to get, uh, help guide me through the creation process through going through these 5 P's.
Every story has a purpose.
Um, and for that, like an extension.
This means that the story must do 2 things for.
For us, uh, show how extension improves the lives of Montana.
And to teach others about how to do something.
Or inspire them to make positive change, you know, gets back to our mission.
So, if you have a mission as an organization, that's.
Your purpose, and you can kind of create different purpose steps.
Um, but it's a really helpful guide.
For you and then on top of purpose.
It has to fulfill 1 or more of the other piece that are in there.
So, who are the people involved in the story?
The people the human that human connection.
Get people connected to your story through who's involved.
And that might not even be you, that might be somebody you're working with or a client's.
You know, think about that who, who are the people involved in what I'm trying to tell.
And who are those partners? Who are you working with community?
So, that's that trend of community get get engaged in that.
Um, programs or products, so how are you addressing people's needs with what you're doing?
And the, obviously I can look different.
Um, I'm thinking, you know, how are you addressing the needs.
Of, you know, tourism in your community of getting getting.
People in your community engaged and discovering the, the wonder.
Of Montana, and then, you know, and for someone like a creator that might look very different if.
Were you might be helping address the needs of not only.
People looking to adventure in Montana, but those organizations that are trying to draw people, but I think the core of all of those is, you're.
Community, so, um, all of you are kind of.
Serving your community in a, in a, in a way. So thinking about that, how are you doing that? And what process.
Did you use people love to know like.
That story that, you know, what, what made you become a travel blogger.
You know, what made, you know, what makes.
Paradise Valley what makes park county special.
And the process of of.
Of creation, this is where you, you can tell the part of that story.
And so take ideas that you came up with the wheel and spoke.
Brainstorm start fitting them into the 5 PS.
And within when you're doing that, think about how they fit into a beginning, middle and end.
So, I'm a big fan of sticky notes here.
So, when I create my wheel and spoke model, I do it on sticky notes.
And then from there, I can be like, okay, this 1 fits into.
Purpose this is a good way. I can show purpose. This is where my partners are.
Okay, and then how do they fit into beginning, middle and end.
And it really helps me have a fluid process.
Of moving these ideas around and, um, and putting them into a format that you can be effective.
Free tools are out there.
So this is an important thing, and they're all, you can also get paid tools.
But, um, hey, we're gonna kind of focus here on some free free ones. You've laid out this plan now what um.
You got to create that engaging visual and it might just be a photograph and in that.
Point you don't really need, um, you know, a template or anything, but these free tools, like.
Adobe Creative Cloud Express, which used to be called Spark.
But they decided to make it really complicated, put a whole bunch of words in there. Now.
Um, in canvas, or you can create.
Free online accounts that have social media templates.
That you can literally put in text.
Dragging an image, um, and.
And it's sized for the social media platform, you want to use.
Um, it's a really nice product. Um, I, I think it helps with that time management.
It cuts down on how much time you have to spend on graphics.
Um, but they look really professional and and nice.
And then writing, um, I'm a fan of grammerly.
They have free accounts you can put them on your browser.
So, if you are on your on your phone, and you don't have time to write something up, that has.
Spell check, or whatever, whatever you're utilizing. Grammarly has a keyboard you can have on your phone.
It has a, um, it's integrated in your browser, so we can do the.
Spell check grammar punctuation on what you're writing on your post on Facebook.
The other thing that every social media platform will has a, has.
Available for you, or looking at your insights and so thinking about those goals you've created is it engagement? Is it reach.
So, I'm going to focus on better business week, because I only have a few minutes and I'm going to start getting fast. Um.
At a business suites is great.
For if you're on Facebook and Instagram saving time.
It's everything for both platforms in 1 place.
So, I know with small businesses, this is key.
Um, how can we help save time and meta business suites.
Is where you can look at your insights.
So, how you can see how posted, like, if I look at this.
I want to know what I did on Facebook on January 26.
That got such a, you know, so many hits and then on Instagram on January 6.
What was the contents? What did I do? Oh, is it about? Did I use.
Certain hashtags for partners tagged in there. Did it get shared.
Why do I think it'd be shared? And how can I replicate that?
Um, it's just kind of a great way to to look and plan it in the future.
Well, look at your audience.
So you had the big queue, right? Which is the whole United States.
Here you can look at who's already following you so, um, if you want to get something out and reach.
You can see the kind of age on our Facebook and Instagram actually mimics.
The Pew Research pretty well, where our Instagram that.
You know, 25 to 34 is.
You know, the majority of people on Instagram and on Facebook, that's.
That 35 to 44.
Um, and so it helps you kind of think about what kind of content you're putting on your platforms.
It also has the handy planner.
Um, this is where you can see.
Oh, goodness, the most people like my ad, my followers are most.
Active at 80 P. M. on Tuesday.
That's when you want to post, if you're going to do 1 post a week.
Post it there, so they can tell you who, you know, your followers are on at this time.
Um, it also lets you plan in advance so, my strategy is every 2 weeks.
I sit down I brainstorm 2 weeks worth of posts.
Create the content and then I just load it in a planner.
And then I checked my account every day to look for.
You know, if it's how it's how people are engaging with it. If there's comments I try to comment back, have I gotten any messages.
But this is just that tool if you make, you know, a chunk of time, you can get it done.
Um, which is really convenient and nice.
And it's for both Facebook and Instagram, so you can kind of balance and manage to accounts from 1 thing, which is very helpful.
Okay, um, I think.
So, the important thing to remember is that the way people interact is constantly changing.
And so keeping an eye on those things that we looked at will help you tell your story.
Right and reach the people you're trying to reach.
And trying to things can be kind of intimidating.
Um, you don't need this.
Massive social media presence overnight.
It takes time, it's, it takes time.
And I, a big believer in prioritizing quality over quantity.
Um, thinking about what you're posting, making sure it's high quality.
That you're getting that audience, you want, you have that goal and purpose.
Um, and versus just.
Trying to fill up your, um, your timeline, you know, you're trying to fill up your content, you know.
Quality over quantity is really important and I think.
Remembering to be adaptable. Uh, this is audiences are changing. I mean, you're all.
Business owners and running mass and, you know, really important organizations and.
You're all about adaptability. That's that's what you have to be right?
And so social media is very, very similar.
And build trust with your audience and try to have a little fun in the process.
Oh, and we'll get that.
I'm sure I like, spoke to the last minute I was going to do questions.
Okay.
That's totally fine. Yeah, we can we can take a little later. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
I have to go because I have a thing right now, but thank you so much.
And it was nice seeing all of you guys get to me, Linda. Linda.
Yeah, well, let's, um.
If any of you ladies want to have any questions or want to.
I have a question about oh, I'm sorry. Do you want to go ahead Chris?
That's okay. Okay. Just real quick. Well, maybe the.
So my audience would be, you know, people that can afford a pretty high end day trip. So it's not.
You know, it's not the, it's, you know, younger kids for sure.
I am actually starting to realize that.
I think I probably need to expand a little bit because.
Some of my families are younger, like, definitely not my generation, you know, like, even though I have a young daughter, like, they're.
More like your age, you know, with younger kids that are coming in.
And so Facebook and Instagram are the only things I have and usually when I so my question is.
When I make an Instagram post, which is very rarely, I.
Connected with my Facebook page and so.
Basically, the same thing and then I manually go into Facebook and get rid of.
Some of the hashtags, because it just looks stupid on Facebook to have.
You know, 15, or how many are we supposed to have 10? You know, and so it's.
Like, not very efficient, and I actually have a younger gal working for me.
This summer that might try to get her head around. Some of it's just like my own bandwidth.
The lack of care about it and, you know, but I really need to be advertising a little more than I am. I'm not getting the numbers.
That I want to be so anyway, thoughts on that, like the.
Just basically streamlining versus, you know, taking an easy way out.
Yeah, you know, it's kind of a hard 1 because.
There are kind of 2 separate audiences on Facebook.
An Instagram in terms of.
Age group are they that far apart? No.
You know, you're not looking at an age difference of tech talk and Facebook, you know, like it.
So, you kind of got to do where your bandwidth is out like you said, but I, I do like to.
Adjust my content for each of the platforms.
That doesn't have to be much.
But, um, like you said, thinking about, you know, you probably don't want 15 hash tags on Facebook cause that's.
Just not not part of that following.
Um, but I think you can.
Simple, you can.
Change it in certain ways, like, you might use more words.
On Instagram, you know, people are more likely to read a longer.
Text and it was amazing I thought it was the opposite so that's interesting.
Yeah, yeah, it's a very, um.
It's a, you can kind of adjust, but you can still.
Draw from the same content, right? Like, I will usually write the lengthy post. 1st.
So, we'll, we'll probably go on Instagram.
Um, you know, the lengthy post and then cut it down.
For Facebook.
And then cut it down even further for Twitter. Um.
And then I might change up some hashtags.
Or some of the wording, but generally, that's how I.
That's how my process feeds, feeds the beast.
Erica on that same question, can you do that in the meta?
Business we, then you can, you could just at the same time.
Side by side, you could be like, okay, here's the Instagram post and here's the yeah for all the.
Challenges right of the of the.
Ownership being under the same company of both platforms.
It has created some great streamlining. So if those are the 2 platforms that you use.
Using that planner, it's a great way to help.
Just organize your content and get it going out in 1 place.
And, um, yeah, I I strongly suggest.
Suggest using that, that a business planner and if you have a.
Business Facebook page, or a business Instagram you automatically have access to that. Um.
Yeah, and it's it's free.
Cool. Um, Chris, you were going to ask something.
Um, yeah, and it's I would love what I was paying someone to do our social media. She had completely different posts for our Facebook and Instagram.
Um, I just don't have the bandwidth to do that, so I'll tweak it sometimes, but.
Largely I use the same posts with the great intentions that I'm going to find an extra 20 hours a week.
And be able to schedule that out, uh, in, uh, in the business planner with.
Custom content for each 1 and so far those hours have not arrived.
Yeah, my question is that we get tagged a lot explore. Livingston gets tagged a lot with content.
Um, fantastic videos, photos and I know the best practices is to ask for.
Permission, but if somebody has already tagged you in something.
Isn't that their intention that you share it on your platform?
Again, this is a time, this is a total timesuck question, because if I can see it and share it, it's.
Done if I have to ask them go back and find where their answer is hidden somewhere in.
The, you know, like, back back end, then I will.
Be less likely to remember and to use it because.
Yeah, that's how time.
I can tell you my answer. They would require me.
To reach out, right but that's because of where I'm from. Right?
Um, where I'm working with, that's it. That's part of it. Um.
That said if it's somebody, you have a relationship with.
Or, um, you know, an ongoing relationship, you've shared stuff in the past.
You know, I think you can use some of your your judgments.
A bit there, um, but I think most people tag with the idea that you're going to share.
Um, yeah, if somebody knew, I, I do reach out, but it's usually the same. Um.
Fantastic photographers and videographers who are just giving me all this.
Amazing free content. Yeah. And, um, and part of my other big goal is to.
Really beef up my library.
And say, Here's my holes, reach out to the same photographers who've been sharing this free content.
And pay them, um, have it in my budget. And, uh, and that's part of that, but I just pray I was, I am shocked. I, we get tagged, probably, you know.
5 times a day. That's wonderful. Um, and it's, um, it's almost always.
Like, really great content, um, and that I would love to pay for it.
Um, if I could pay for that much volume. Yeah.
No, I think that's a wonderful plan. And, like, if yeah, you have established relationships, I don't think.
That's probably problematic. As long as you give credit, right? Mm. Hmm.
I think especially when you're getting in that visual content, always making sure that.
That you're crediting the person out there doing the tagging.
But, yeah, if you're going to utilize it for more than that.
Then yeah, reaching out and and making sure that people are compensated for.
Oh, yeah, if I was going to use the same image on any kind of print or website or anything, that's definitely something I would never do without paying them for it. Yeah, but.
Um, yeah, social media, I just wouldn't have any other people have that issue.
Yeah, social media kind of the squishy medium, right? Because.
With photographers are even on there, using it for marketing. Mm. Hmm. And then, um, and.
So, how do you how do you navigate that with copyright?
And staff and so establishing, if it's somebody you've never shared from.
Reach out, if it's somebody you have, even that 1st initial reach out, you can.
Say, hey, when you tag us in the future, is it okay that I just.
Share it or do you, would you like me to reach out every time?
Hmm, right that's a good idea. Yeah. Yeah. And I, I think a lot of photographers and videographers are using our platform.
Um, as as an advertising to reach their audience, if they're, you know, like wedding photographers or, you know, selling.
Uh, nature photos, um, so they're, they're benefiting from it also, or they wouldn't be tagging it.
Just because to be nice. Exactly.
Yeah, no, it's and that's where you get in that community, right? That community building.
Um, that's a pretty cool thing. Yeah, and it's a great it's like you were saying earlier, it's such a fantastic way to find.
Um, new talents and and start these relationships.
I mean, I already knew Mel, but, um, for a lot of other people, I, I wouldn't have run into them otherwise if they hadn't tagged.
Regarding that.
So, um, we haven't done it very recently, but Sarah, our.
The office manager here, she would take like.
30 minutes a day, or she would do it throughout the day and on Instagram she would.
All the people that we followed, and our business members, she would go on any post that they had. She would she.
Share it to our story, and that will automatically give them credit and I'm sure that you guys are doing this.
Too and I, it kind of answers your question, Chris, but not me.
Not really if you're going to use it in print medium obviously, but.
That really drove up engagement and obviously our business members loved that. And so that was a Super.
Fast way for us to kind of do a service to them and then, even if they weren't a member, like you're saying, you get tagged in a bunch of wildlife photos. If you share that to your story, that's still giving them credit. And that's them recognizing that.
You know, you saw the post, you shared it. Um, and then they might even reach out to.
You instead, um, but that that was something that I was gonna mention even but.
Or you did it cause like, that was super fast and easy for us to do. And the other thing I wanted to mention when you mentioned camba.
I love camba and unfortunately, even though I'm a nonprofit, I don't get the free version, but most.
Profits do have the prime for free.
So, I know like, our daycare uses it for free, like the prime version and they just.
And they're moving so much more stuff to that Prime version that it's.
It was like, making me nervous so I did sign up for it but, um, yeah, canvas.
Is amazing and they're also, like, I noticed too, they're.
Integrating a ton of stuff into Canva, like MailChimp and into it. I'm wondering if into.
Going to buy it eventually. Sorry I know that that's like a tangent.
There, but they're integrating a lot of stuff and I.
I'm wondering if that's gonna happen, which would be really awesome and.
Seamless yeah, the other thing about Canada that's so great is that they save your stuff so I had like, years.
Oh, I guess I can go back and tweak them and change the date. Um, I, I, I agree. Canva is a total game changer. Um, my boyfriend actually thinks I'm a, um, a graphic designer.
Because that's what he sees me to do with what happens to me too.
We had a graphic designer quit and everybody was like, well, can't you? And I was like.
No, not what I do.
Um, but, yeah, if you have a question too.
The Meta is men of business and creator studio. Is that all the same? Like, I was looking on my Facebook while we were talking.
About that I, I'm very Facebook and Instagram really make me mad with how much they have changed everything every single day.
But I have never seen met a business, but I go into create our studio all the time. So.
I was wondering if you could share, like, the direct link I was looking at. Yeah. Let me your platforms like.
What what am I missing here? Yeah, Lemme look up and I'll send you.
That.
Course, that brings me in some my specific account, because I'm logged in I got to log out.
I feel really silly for asking that question. It is not silly at all because this is man. No difficult.
It's been a moving target, Theresa miles and, like, you're not even on the same continent as me. So.
You're not even on the same continent as me. So so I'm like, barely catching.
Barely catching up on this, and it's embarrassing. This has been going on for.
A year and a half no, no, no, no I, I've trust me. I'm probably on the same continent.
Like I said, Sarah took everything over so, like, when she left all.
Of that knowledge, you know, went with her and she's been so nice and she even like.
Scheduled the entire month where it's supposed before she left so I didn't have to.
Do it Thank you so much, but now I'm kind of.
The week, so.
Teresa was really great to bring up stories. I was going to do something on that, but with.
Time I was like, oh, not going to work specifically on that but that is a great way. And I can see it being a.
Really great way to, like.
Do you have, you know, you're taking someone on a trip and.
They are creating contents of that. You could easily share that and.
Stories, but I think that would be really wonderful.
Well, for that, you know, travel, visual.
Engagement and but, yeah, and that is where a lot of engagement is happening.
And now we have reels in the mix.
I know oh, it's a super complicated and and Mel says the reels, which are like, a longer video.
Version that's sort of the pseudo to talk of, um.
Which story is also pseudo tick tock. Um, and so it's hard to say which 1 is gonna stay, but it's really hard to navigate.
Um, turning things into real length and the storyline.
And another thing, um, she had that.
In order to, like, share somebody else's content.
Um, like a story on Instagram.
You need to have a separate app you can't just.
Share like you can share between Instagram. Is am I missing? Is that not true?
I use Instagram to share people's posts on my story or are you thinking creating.
Some my story, or are you thinking creating.
Well, if I want to share a story or.
Um, like their Instagram on ours.
Um, did that yeah. I don't know. And maybe if somebody told me that this is like an Apple thing, like, if you don't have an Apple, you need an app. Oh, that might be I don't know.
Oh, that might be, I don't know.
That might be so I work on.
All Apple for.
That's part of I have a very narrow view.
Since that's not the majority, right? Um, but.
1 thing I will also say about.
The universe is, they have.
Great help resources online so they have.
If you go into that meta, the link that I sent, you'll be under meta for business.
And they have a bunch of resources and tools and.
You know, information to help, you learn how to make engage in content.
Including walking you through stories and reels and and all of.
That, um, I, I utilize it frequently and it's.
Is something I do on a daily basis, but because it's like, oh, wait.
Now, you can, you can like, stories and you.
You couldn't before and so now, how do I have to change my content?
Around that, and it's just a great way to kind of.
Up to date and learn the basics and so.
It's, it's nice to have everything in 1 spot for time.
Um, but it has created some marketing, um, challenges.
Um, just to be mindful of our time.
But also, I just wanted to follow up if you found that link Erica, that you were looking for. I put it in the case.
Looking for I put it in the.
Okay, oh, yeah, I see it. Okay. Did you get that to.
Yeah, yep. Okay. Perfect. Okay cool.
Um, I, uh, gosh, we could, we could keep talking. I'm sure. So I apologize.
To kind of cut this, but I do have to be the I need you to run too.
I need you to run too. I.
For 1 thing, Erica, thank you so much. It's always useful. I.
It always reminds me of how little I know. And I feel like I'm.
Trying to, like, merge into the fast lane and I still need like.
What's the story? What's a real so, Chris, I appreciate your comments.
Too and I am literally that infantile Cassie 1 of these days. I'm going to impress you the other thing.
Do the other thing you're fine? I am. Um.
I'm revisiting so and so if any of you have any suggestions for me, I would love to.
You somebody local I don't have a huge budget. I did have somebody go through the.
Site last year she was out of area and I think.
Did a good job on, like, a foundational thing, but I'd like to maybe.
Bump it up a little bit. So if any of you have any suggestions, you can email me.
Absolutely, well it's that's a really great timing that you should just.
You should say that, because I was just going to end this with our next training. Uh.
Next training we are doing in.
2 weeks Katie Jenkins from.
Tech solutions is going to be doing presentation on local.
Ceo, so she is going to walk through kind of the nuts and bolts.
Um, raising visibility, um.
Google and this other search engines so I would definitely recommend joining in on that 1. if you have.
Ashish, if you have time, will that be on the 16th? Yeah, 2 weeks.
That'll be on the 16th. Yeah, 2 weeks, 2 weeks from today. Same.
Same spot and I will, I'm going to be creating the Facebook event.
For that too, in the next couple of days. So That'll be there. And I'll send a reminder email and what.
So, yeah, I would definitely recommend that. And I know that J tech does that.
Kind of work too. This isn't like a pitch for their business.
There she's just going to talk about kind of things you can do to raise that visibility.
So, uh, but I do know that they offer those services as well.
Okay, yeah, right. So, um.
Oh, and we have these really lovely, uh.
The mouse pads with the calendar um, if any.
Wonder if anybody wants 1, I would be happy to mail to you. Uh.
And I think that was my last plug, so.
I want to thank you all for coming. It was great to.
To you and thank you, Erica for your time and.
Knowledge sharing is very beneficial.
I'm I'm I'm really I'm excited to meet all of you and.
serping a little more involved in the community now, so that's great.
All right, well, everyone has a fantastic day. Yeah, same to you. Take care of.
Seem to you take care. Okay.
Good morning.
Oh, I guess jerica.