Category: Back to Basics

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Trends Volume II: Keeping it Personal

Vol. II brings you a new trend, keeping it personal; an insight into how you can share your brand’s personality – a marketing technique that is often overlooked + one that is often the easiest to achieve.

1: Get rid of robotics.

Firstly, try to avoid or limit usage of automated message generators when potential customers direct message you. These often produce impersonal, robotic responses to questions, sometimes not even providing a relevant response to your consumer. Although Facebook algorithms may love it, as you’re seen to be spending time on the platform, this can be frustrating for those needing help or support – or may be enough to turn once loyal customers away if they cannot speak to a ‘human’ member of your team.

Really, you have two options here: invest time into replying to individuals yourself OR hire someone to do this for you. Whilst we know that this may be something you are not looking to spend too much time on, the return on investment could be huge.

We’ve all seen those brands who are known for not responding to their consumers. This can build a bad reputation. On the other hand, so many consumers will ‘fangirl’ over the fact that you’ve personally taken the time to get to know them – in our eyes, it’s a no brainer!

2: Let them know that you are human too.

Show your followers behind the scenes, the faces of those that are running the brand! This is one that is often overlooked in today’s mass productive society. Showing the human side to your brand will only build rapport with your audience, making them feel part of what you do, a VIP insight.. allowing them to feel like part of the team too.

I recommend showing behind the scenes footage of what it is like to work within your business, think ‘a day in the life of’. Social media has rapidly changed to allow us to create so many different types of media – feed posts, Stories, Reels/TikToks, Boomerangs etc. Using these to your advantage, you can highlight the passion that your team has, achievements you have reached, new team members, occasions + commemorative posts. All of these different will help your audience engage with your team and your brand more seamlessly because of your online content being relatable, honest and authentic.

3: Make it special

It’s simple, people feel special when time has been spent to make things personalised. The positive of being a small brand is that you can often find the time to do this, even if it is for one hour a week.

Social Media Queen Lorna Luxe uses polls to get to know her audience + personalised competitions as well as taking several hours a week to interact with her followers and respond to private messages. With 1.1 million followers, it’s clear that being authentic achieves results.

Knowing your customers is a win-win, you can build your brand around your target audience and you build a loyal customer base at the same time. What more could you want?

We would love to see how you get on + email us your results! Stuck? Send us an email or book a FREE Discovery Call for a 1-1 with a You & Me expert today.

As always, if you are looking to take the step into getting more marketing assistance, we have a range of different resources + packages that can be tailored to help you and your business.

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Trends Volume I: Reels

We are eager to keep our wonderful friends up to date with all things social media. With algorithms ever-changing, we wanted to provide a platform for you to check regularly and learn all about the new trends and how to incorporate these into your business or entrepreneurial concepts, assisting your social success.

The latest trend to sky-rocket on our social platforms is user-generated short-clip videos, known as Reels. Originally created by TikTok, this style of video has quickly become the goto for businesses and influencers alike to deliver quirky, fun and informative content to their followers.

The possibilities of Reels are endless; from the Ocean Spray boarder, to InTheFrow fashion advice and easy recipes.. lending it to be a hugely beneficial marketing method. Benefits include:

• Little to no-budget needed
• Can be done with minimal effort and no Marketing Team (although, why would you want to do it alone? We’re here to be your Marketing besties after all!)
• Easy to personalise and target your desired demographics
• Quick and very easy for your audience to view. With 30 second clips, the task of grabbing a user’s attention is minimal.

On this, due to the short and shareable nature of these videos it is extremely easy for videos to go viral. The perfect example is our Ocean Spray lover, skating into 26 million views in a matter of days on TikTok. This means that they are able to reach a vast audience for little to no cost. Through another method, reaching such a large audience could only be possible with large Paid Advertising campaigns or Influencer Management tactics.

As a creative team, we love the idea of using Reels to showcase your brand, services and your personality. A fantastic example is Personal Shoppers utilising their platform to
showcase styling videos, first-hand providing an insight to their brand and a call to action resulting in future custom.

We all have to start somewhere – give your first Reel a try – top tip: review the performance. What works well? What is the outcome of the content? Always deliver with a purpose. We would love to know how you get on.

See you soon, Y&M x

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Content is King: Our 5 Best Kept Secrets

With social media taking the world by storm, I thought it was only fair that we share a few of our top tips when it comes to creating content on your favourite social platforms; ideal for those of you who are just starting out within the ever changing world of social media.

Secret One: Arguably one of the most important concepts is to keep your content at the basis of every post.

What do we mean by this? Think image resolution, feed aesthetics, use of colour and most importantly – does it fit the brand?

Secret Two: It isn’t essential for you to know everything when it comes to creative design and the confusing software which presumptively comes hand in hand.

Navigating programs such as Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator and the likes, takes a LOT of practice, can be tiresome and this method doesn’t work for everybody.

I recommend taking a look into what the AppStore can offer, in today’s day and age we have access to so many incredible creative programs – a lot of which are free (WIN!).

My top picks that we swear by at You and Me Collective have to include:

  • “Canva” – Create branded flyers, logos, images, invoices, you name it!
  • “Retouch” – Removes unwanted areas of images
  • “Unfold” or “Story Creator” – Perfect to use to create branded stories

Each of these apps have proven to be revolutionary on my journey within the social media marketing world and the fact that they are all able to be used on my iPhone makes working on the move SO much easier.

Secret Three: Numbers are not the be all and end all!

In today’s society we are led to believe that it is ALL about the amount of ‘likes’ on a post. Whilst this can indicate success, there are far more important statistics to keep an eye on to really measure your growth rate of brand awareness – i.e. reach and impressions.

  • “Reach” – Number of users that have seen your posts.
  • “Impressions” – Number of times your post has been seen

If your impressions are a higher number than your reach, this indicates that successful performance. I recommend taking note of your stats monthly to enable you to create a fair comparison each month.

Secret Four: Stories make a bigger impact than you may think!

I recommend alternating between feed posts and Instagram stories, this will help ensure that you avoid overloading your followers with post after post of hard-hitting content. Whilst you do want to get your message across to your market, too many feed posts can create the undesired effect on your audience and turn them away.

By posting stories, you continue to build your brand awareness whilst not clogging up the Instagram homepage. Equally, Instagram stories allow businesses or influencers to show their fun side – something that we celebrate at You and Me! I am seeing more and more people wanting to interact with brands that they can relate to and what better way than this (and it is free – YAY!).

Some interesting ways to use Instagram Stories to engage your audience:

  • Wish Lists
  • How To’s/Step By Step Videos
  • Reviews
  • Menus
  • Price Lists

*Our top tip is to create logos for your Instagram Highlights – you can do this easily on Canva! This will help you streamline your Instagram page, ensuring it looks sleek and is easy to navigate for potential clients or consumers.*

Secret Five: Take advantage of websites and software which allow you to batch post.

Using websites that are specifically designed to help you pre-plan your Instagram feed and schedule your posts provide significant benefits, especially if you are working alone.

  • Saves HUGE amounts of time.
  • Allows your to view your feed before it is posted live, which allows you to ensure you are staying on-brand.
  • Able to drag and drop posts to alternative dates, should other content be more urgent to post at short notice.
  • Clients can log in and check that they are happy with scheduled content from any device, anywhere in the world (with WIFI of course!).

And there you go, our five best kept secrets to help you on your way to becoming a social media sensation. Let us know which secret you have found most insightful. Better yet, comment below with an original secret top tip of your own, we would love to hear!

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Just Trying to Stay Positive: How to Overcome the Negative Effects of Social Media

By now, most of you will have watched ‘The Social Dilemma’ or atleast have heard about or seen numerous social media posts about the Netflix Original movie. For those of you that have not, ‘The Social Dilemma’ is a docudrama about the truth behind today’s social media crazed world. I think that we all know that social media can have seriously negative impacts on our mental health when used inefficiently, however the docudrama brought to life many horrific scenarios, backed with absolutely shocking statistics which meant that it was something that the team at You and Me Collective feel VERY strongly about speaking out about.

As a business based in the social media industry, we love the freedom, enjoyment and connectivity in which this industry brings to so many people all over the world. However, we also have a responsibility to our clients, followers and readers to help and give our best advice when it comes to social media usage.

So here are our top tips on keeping your social media journey as positive as possible:

Tip One: Tailor your followers list.

What do i mean by this? Well to put it simply, only follow accounts that give you positive energy. Any accounts that bring you down – GET RID! This is the time to have a spring clean of your socials, you wouldn’t continue spending time with people who make you feel rubbish, so why do you continue to do this online.

Tip Two: Limit your time.

The amount of time that we as a population are spending on the internet and inevitably social media is only going UP, UP, UP! Especially for us, and those of you whose job IS social media, try to make sure when the working day is done, screentime is a low priority. There have been many studies to indicate the negative side effects of too much screen time, including:

  • Struggle Sleeping and Fatigue
  • Eye Strain
  • Mental Health Issues i.e Body Dysmorphia and Depression
  • Decline in Relationships

Now, this isn’t to put you off social media and the internet, this is to make you aware of the right choices to make for yourself. Recently, even social media sensation Joe Wicks has taken a well-needed rest from social media, and begun to explain the benefits that it can do for us as a population.

I recommend setting yourself a time allowance for screen time and social media usages. You can do this either by using your willpower and putting your phone down, or if you are like me and have ZERO willpower, go into your iPhone ‘settings’, ‘screen time’ and from there you can limit your screen time, app usage and even restrict contact from contacts that potentially eat into your R+R time. Remember you cannot be expected to work at your best, without taking some self-care time to recuperate!

Additionally, i personally recommend the following activities if you find that you are becoming disconnected to the world around you:

  • Go for long walks or submerge yourself in nature.
  • Try a new sport.
  • Meditation or Yoga.
  • Organise yourself for the next day.
  • See friends.
  • Read a new book or listen to an audiobook.

The list is really endless but i recommend trying to find some hobbies outside of the internet which can help you relax. All of these activities have been godsends when it feels like social media is beginning to take over my life.

Tip Three: Let your clients know.

For all of you workaholics, if you are struggling to let your clients know that you are OOO, I recommend sending an expectations email/text/etc out to clients detailing working hours and mutual expectations. This should allow you to put that phone down in time to relax after work.

Tip Four: Avoid screens and socials first thing and last thing.

Finally, STOP CHECKING YOUR PHONE FIRST THING IN THE MORNING AND LAST THING AT NIGHT!

This is making your sleep worse and your waking up schedule slowed! Try doing some wake up stretches and grabbing a bite to eat or a large glass of water to really start the day right. Maybe pick up a book before bed to allow you to wind down properly. If you find your social media feed draining, why pick it up as the first and last thing in your schedule?

I really hope that this gives you all some positive steps to take for when social media becomes slightly overwhelming for you. I’d be really interested to know whether you all have any tips that you swear by, so please do share these.