Use these tools for creative connections with your target audience

Greetings Creatives!

Thanks again for joining me in this third iteration on the series highlighting social media in your community, importance of developing strategies and honing in your creative side.

In every one of us there’s an inherent need to be accepted by our peers, neighbors, friends, family, and in the case of many of you, your target audience. This acceptance especially becomes a necessity when we’re talking about the bottom line. How are you creatively connecting with your target audience on social when views and engagement matters to driving sales?

That’s a tricky question for many and isn’t all that hard to answer if you take the time to learn creative ways to craft your message. Enter your issue—you don’t have time to figure it out for yourself. Welcome! Glad you’re here!

“Creative marketing is essential in 2017’s fast paced social media reach and engagement age where the rules of marketing from the last century don’t apply anymore.”

For the most part anyway, we’re still here to connect, but now we have to be creative. There are a ton of free tools you can use to enhance your creativity. I know you’ve got it, we’re all creative in our own right, but here’s a list of just a few I’m always recommending folks take a look at because they really strip away the technical aspect of creative marketing and place it in your hands to knock it out for yourself.

• Wix.com (simple, intuitive content management system and web host)
• Weebly.com (similar to Wix.com in that it’s a simple, intuitive content management system and web host, but it also has education and non-profit pricing if your organization falls into that tax bracket)
• Canva.com (quick, easy way to creatively marketing your business through engaging graphics on social media or print—the free option is great, but they also have a business model that lets you setup custom logo and color palettes for continuity across posts)
• Adobe Spark (similar to Canva, but lacks the paid business model)

Here’s just a few to get you started on your path to a more creative and engaging content marketing strategy. Happy engaging!

Stay creative!Ben

You need a marketing strategy that wins brand advocates

Greetings Creatives!

Today’s communications mediums span a myriad of tools, applications, and devices our audience members use to keep in touch. As marketers and small business leaders we need to develop strategies that connect us with those potential brand advocates who’ll do the marketing for us.

In this way we’re personally connecting with them on those applications they’re already communicating with family, friends, neighbors, and coworkers.

The juggernaut? Facebook. If your brand, whether it be for business or personal, must have a Facebook if you hope to have a voice in the crowded space that is the internet. An emerging tool gaining traction is Instagram, which just happens to be owned by Facebook. With Instagram, you can connect with your audience members in a truly personal form of communication and it’s all thanks to the medium’s focus on visual content.

Just like we talked about in the last post, your brand’s visual content is the key strategyfor making the connection. Amy Schmittauer (@Schmittastic) in her “Vlog Like a Boss” book says, “The key is to focus on what makes you great and keep doing the work.” So if you’re a baker, and you love what you do, keep on baking and share that passion with the world. If you’re a butcher, you love what you do, share some insight into your work and your passion for your career. If you’re a handyman, and, again, you got it, you’re passionate about your craft, then share with others that passion and they’ll come to you for advice because they can visually see just how connected you are to the craft and them.

Amy continues with, “If your audience feels closer to you by being part of your journey, that’s a win for you no matter what you teach or sell.”

She hits the nail right on the nose encouraging all of us to reach out and really connect with our audiences. That’s a winning strategy that builds a community of trust around the content you’re sharing.

Finally, use your website or blog as the hub for everything you’re doing. Link back to this site and make it your central repository for all your efforts online, whether that be on social media or elsewhere, you want this website to ooze with your personality and shine through the crowded space of your subject matter expertise.

Stay creative!Ben

How to connect with your millennial audience, customers

Greetings creatives!

Scrolling through your feed on your favorite social media platform, what catches your eye? What causes you to stop scrolling and really pay attention to the content you’re consuming? Visually appealing content. It’s the lifeblood of every marketer’s marketing campaign plan.

How do different forms of visual content rack and stack for most social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter? Video first and always followed by photos, graphics and links with visual components. It’s all about those algorithms. A recent(ish) news article released by Facebook itself explained how your newsfeed’s algorithms determine what graces your feed and which posts it avoids altogether. Video remains the king of content.

So many of us considered among the millennial generation may be cord-cutters, but that doesn’t mean we’ve completely dropped the need for video content. We may not be receiving our content from originally-aired television, but we are accessing it on social platforms. Today’s digital marketing leaders could go on and on explaining the importance of visual content in a marketing campaign and it’s warranted. Most social network profile feeds populate based on our interests, past likes, comments and other forms of engagement. What does this mean for you? Be visual.

Small business owners and non-profit leaders need to understand the best way to connect with your audience and potential customer base is where they’re at. Meet with them on the device they carry around in their pocket daily. We’re on it on work breaks, during work, in the bathroom (yes, I know you, you’re on Facebook while sitting down in the stall—I don’t blame you, we’ve all been there), at the dinner table and sadly the list gets too long that I’m worried for society as a whole, but that’s not the point of this post. We’re here to talk about how you should be connecting with your audience.

Visual content comes in the form of videos, photos, and graphics. All which are very easily accomplished by anyone wishing to connect with their target audience with nothing more than the camera you carry in your pocket every day, just like your audience.

This is the reality, in order to connect with today’s networked audience, we have to jump into that same space. Evaluate your audience, figure out where they spend most of their time, whether it’s on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, YouTube, etc., and produce the content they’re looking for. Poll the people who come into your shop. They’re your community. But that’s a topic for another post.

Be visually appealing and you can do that with your smartphone. Stay tuned for a post on the applications I like to use on my iPhone. Simple, effective, engaging—free marketing that doesn’t impact your bottom line.

Stay creative!Ben

The Zone

Have you ever gotten lost in a favorite activity? Whether that’s running, chopping vegetables, folding laundry, or for me: researching social media and marketing entrepreneurship strategies. Yeah, I’m weird, get over it; I love what I do.See that last sentence? It was a real doozy, I tried fitting in as many commas as I could and I even was able to fit a semi-colon in there! So anyway, when I’m in the zone it’s like I’m lost, mouth wide open, jaw every now and then drops, little bit of drool comes running out. But it’s okay! I’m in the zone, generally in my office or bed or the car or any place most people can’t help but stare at my complete and utter obliviousness to the world around me. That’s me researching digital media strategy.When I’m in the zone, I’m at home and can seemingly spend hours in said zone without really realizing how much time has gone by. I research this material all the while generally trying my best to avoid my homework. Eventually, hours later, I snap out of it and do what I’m supposed to, but still, yes, you’re staring at me right this very moment and if I had an emoji for the Vulcan hand gesture, I would send it your way and laugh.From the zone,Ben

Air Force contracting negotiates way to mission realization

by Staff Sgt. Benjamin W. Stratton379th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs10/3/2013 - SOUTHWEST ASIA -- Much like Ferengi in the Star Trek universe, Air Force contracting specialists have strict standards and practices they must follow before awarding any contract and must be master negotiators with exacting attention to detail following what any good Ferengi would call the "Rules of Acquisition.""The Air Force takes its use of taxpayer money very seriously," said Maj. Chad Sessler, the 379th Contracting Squadron commander, who is serving a one-year tour here and hails from Syracuse, N.Y. "Even though we are a smaller squadron, we are critical to the mission and have a huge impact on the sustainability of the base."While Air Force contractors aren't as ruthless as the Ferengi, they do ensure each party at the negotiations table is handled fairly while ensuring integrity and fairness of the procurement system and never award a contract at the expense of honesty."We take what you need and turn it into something," said Tech. Sgt. Ryan Laube, a 379th CONS contracting officer deployed from Incirlik Air Base, Turkey, and a Phoenix native. "A lot of trust is placed on our young Airmen. Each of us can obligate and/or write a contract totaling up to $1 million."These Airmen provide contracting support to a wide spectrum of missions, including major weapons, logistics and sustainment, installation and mission support, and contingency operations. They support national defense and humanitarian missions through global contracting operations by providing leadership, guidance, and execute contractual actions, for both goods and services in support of the warfighter both in garrison and down range."If a customer needs a wrench, we need to know exactly what color, size, make, model, etc., in order to work with the contracted companies to provide the customer exactly what they need to get the mission done," Laube said.Contracting here accomplishes their mission through means of two flights: services and construction.The services flight procures food services contracts, cell phones, vehicle leases, laundry, mail, etc. The construction flight helps civil engineering improve facilities, secures trench contracts and supports flight operations.Part of their job is also traveling downtown to negotiate deals with local vendors for things as simple as milk and linens."We are ambassadors," said Laube. "You're going to interact with the locals -- we have built up a great professional relationship with them as we project respect."Air Force Contracting must balance fulfilling the service's mission with upholding statutory law, the Federal Acquisition Regulation, and other Air Force policy and guidance."In our profession, the means and the ends carry equal weight," said Master Sgt. William Simpkins, the 379th ECONS superintendent and first sergeant serving a one-year tour and hails from San Angelo, Texas. "It's hard to think of a unit or squadron we haven't touched."Simpkins said his Airmen are always looking for the highest quality goods and services at the lowest cost in the shortest amount of time. These service members are charged with committing the nation's funds to provide for the warfighters around the globe."I'm extremely proud of my Airmen," Sessler said. "They are willing to go the extra mile to get the job done. I've witnessed their selfless dedication to the mission, the customer and the taxpayer. We will posture the Air Force as a demanding customer to our suppliers and ensure our Air Force Contracting processes and systems are able to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow."Referencing his copy of the Ferengi's "Rules of Acquisition," Laube made his wife proud when he explained rule number three, "Never spend more for an acquisition than you have to," noting the similarities between his work and their culture. And while Ferengi have never been lauded for their tenderness, they are, however, praised for their business, negotiating and accounting genius.