How to Create Social Media Consistency for Your Company

May 8, 2019

Consistency is key in social media marketing. If you’re marketing your brand on social media, it’s important to make sure that your social media profiles and content align with your brand goals. Who you are, what you do and why you’re different should all be highlighted on social media just like it would be your website.

Here are some things to consider when tracking your marketing efforts to see if you have a consistent brand presence on your social media channels.

Completing Your Profiles

Your social profiles are a representation of your brand, they should attract and encourage prospective clients and candidates to learn more about you.

Just like a website, within 5-10 seconds of being on the page, they should know exactly what you do and how you can help them.

Here are a few tips to help optimize your profiles:

Determine your tagline and pitch.
Keep your messaging describing your company consistent on all profiles, this should mirror and be a summary of your website About Us page.
Use keywords, just like your website your social profiles should be SEO optimized. You want to make sure that your page appears when a client or customers enter relevant keywords into the search bar and that Google can pick up your social pages like it would your website.

Branding Your Posts and Images

Brand consistency is important for brand recall, when people see your brand enough times, they should know it’s you, even without a logo. A clear brand voice and consistent presence will ultimately reinforce your brand identity and will drive positive sentiment among candidates and clients.

If your company doesn’t have brand guidelines in place, I would strongly suggest creating a document for reference. This document should include brand color codes, font types, approved logos, tone of voice and goals of your brand.

Here a few need to know for creating images for your posts.

Images – Decide your style type, for example, will you use photographs or animated images?
Brand Colors – Select 2-3 colors that represent your brand that you will use when creating images for social media posts.
Fonts – Use fonts that match the style of your website. You can get creative with the images but don’t get creative with wacky fonts that can take away from your brand image.

Related Post: 5 Reasons Your Brand Needs a Social Media Strategy ➢

Posting Consistently

Did you know that 63% of consumers who search for a company online are more likely to contact ones with an informative and active social media presence? Staying active and follow best practices when posting on your social media channels will help you connect with your audience, increase brand awareness, develop thought leadership, and boost website traffic.

Posting on social media helps to validate your brand, letting potential clients and candidates know your brand is active and open to communication and establishes you as thought leaders. There are many free tools out there that can help companies stay consistent in posting by allowing them to schedule out posts in advance, that way when the daily grind of the office is higher than normal, your online presence stays consistent.

Here are a few best practices when posting on social media:

Post at optimal times for your business, match times when your audience is online and browsing social channels.
Determine the number of posts you plan to publish each week for each platform. On average I would recommend 4-5 for LinkedIn, 3-4 to Facebook and 3-5 a day for Twitter.
Focus on the right content for the right platform, don’t just blast out the same post, with the same content, all at the same time.

If you’re looking for more information about your online presence or you’d like to hand over the reins to your social media plan we can help. At Parqa, we can help plan, publish and manage your company’s social media. Get in contact today to schedule a free consultation. [/vc_column_text][vc_column_text] [vc_column_text]Watch Parqa’s Free 30-Minute Webinar: Growing Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn For Recruiters. LinkedIn is the go-to social network for recruiters, it’s never been more important to make sure your personal brand stands out online. Learn how to grow your business, and gain traction on LinkedIn, in this 30-Minute How-To Guide for Recruiters.

5 Ways To Recruit Millennial Talent Using Instagram

February 5, 2019

Sometimes, reaching the highest level of millennial talent can be difficult for recruiters. The good news is that social media has made things a little bit easier. Nearly 88% of people aged 18 to 29 indicated using any form of social media, according to Pew Research Center Study conducted in early 2018.

Businesses aren’t using Instagram as an active recruitment tool, that’s what LinkedIn is for. Companies rely on Instagram as a platform to showcase their brand. Recruiters can utilize Instagram in several ways to broadcast their brand to their target audiences, especially younger generations, like millennials.

Here are five ways you can give your brand the boost it needs to reach top millennial talent using Instagram.

Customize Your Business Profile

If you’re not familiar with Instagram, one of the first things you’ll want to do is create a business profile. This profile is very important as it’s what people will see when they stumble across your business.

Your profile should be welcoming and professional. If someone comes across your profile, they should be able to figure out who you are, where you’re located, contact information, and what you specialize in. Keep in mind, you’re trying to reach millennials, so your profile should be very engaging.

Focus on Your Culture

Culture is one of the biggest factors when making a career decision amongst millennials. Make it a priority to capture photographs of things happening around the office, events, candid pictures, birthdays, etc. Anything that makes your business unique, post it.

If a millennial seeking a career stumbles upon your profile, make sure your posts honestly reflect the work culture you have created.

Inspire Others

Instagram has become a great tool to show inspiration. Incorporating inspiration into your Instagram activities can help people associate stories with your brand. A great way you can do this is by curating inspirational stories your audience will read.

Use storytelling to attract millennial talent to your business by using quotes, telling gratifying stories of employees, and volunteer experiences.

Be Active as Much as You Can

Like LinkedIn, you should be as active as you can on Instagram. You want people to know you’re staying active. You can achieve this by:

Commenting or liking other posts; creating conversations and relationships, which help to boost your brand
Post Instagram stories
Streaming Instagram live videos

Enhance Your Recruiting Efforts to Other Social Platforms

Since there are other social platforms that are just as engagement-heavy as Instagram, consider combining your Instagram efforts with other platforms.

Posting appealing content on other platforms helps lead to potential candidates interested in your brand seeking you out on other social media, such as LinkedIn, or heading to your website to get in contact.

To remain competitive in the recruiting industry, you must continuously be looking at new tools and methods to attract top talent. Now, more than ever, you need millennial talent on your team, especially in this digital age. Adding Instagram to your marketing portfolio is a great start in doing so.

5 Reasons Your Brand Needs a Social Media Strategy

January 30, 2019

Social media, once viewed as a passing fad, is now a must-have marketing tool for businesses. It’s no longer a question of whether your business needs social media, but is your company using social media to its fullest potential? The days of setting up social profiles and publishing some random content, expecting to get results, are gone.

Social media is now an integrated part of a business’s overall marketing strategy. So many businesses are missing key opportunities to see results from social media marketing because they don’t have a strategy in place. Just as your business has financial goals and plans to achieve them, your social media presence should be treated the same way.

Showing up isn’t enough anymore. If you truly want to see results, build your brand, develop relationships, strengthen your fan base, and increase word-of-mouth advocacy, it’s time to put a social media strategy in place. Still not convinced? Here are five reasons why.

Brand Authenticity

Social media gives your brand the opportunity to authentically talk to your target audience. You’re able to show them who you are as a company beyond the products you sell or the services you provide. It also provides a way to tell your story and values.

Although the about section on your website is very important and tells about your overall journey, it might not be the consumers’ first choice for reading. Through organic posts you can showcase your culture and mission, giving your consumers a genuine look into what makes up your organization.

Brand Awareness & Recognition

By applying a social media strategy, you can significantly increase your brand awareness and recognition. We all know that our consumers at any point are in different parts of the buyers’ journey. Social media is one tool that can elevate each stage in the buyers’ journey.

Community Engagement

Community engagement is a way for your brand to build relationships, strengthen brand loyalty and increase brand advocacy. The goal is to be engaging, attractive, fun and thought-provoking to your audience so that your business is always top of mind.

SEO + Social Media – Yes it really helps

Just like your website, it’s important to optimize your social profiles for SEO. Make sure you incorporate all the keywords that you want to be found for, just like you would for different pages on your website. SEO not only helps people find you but also provides you with valuable information on what people are searching for.

Reach Your Marketing Goals

A custom social media strategy compliments almost any marketing goals that your company is pursuing. From branding to thought leadership to generating leads and increasing revenue, it is one of the most versatile and cost-effective methods a business can use to reach their target audience and accomplish goals.

Being active on social media is no longer a competitive advantage, it’s required. By using social media correctly to tell your story, your company can showcase what makes your brand unique.

Once you create a social media strategy you will be able to tailor your content based on your immediate results. The more time you spend on your social media platforms the more you will experience the benefits. Are you ready to drive business success with proven digital marketing tactics? Learn how Parqa can build your social media presence.

[vc_column_text]Watch Parqa’s Free 30-Minute Webinar: Growing Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn For Recruiters. LinkedIn is the go-to social network for recruiters, it’s never been more important to make sure your personal brand stands out online. Learn how to grow your business, and gain traction on LinkedIn, in this 30-Minute How-To Guide for Recruiters.

person looking at linkedin on their phone

5 LinkedIn Best Practices – To Become a Recruiter of Choice

December 19, 2018

Did you know that 87% of users trust LinkedIn as a source of information? Or that 75% of buyers use social media in their decision-making process?

It’s a fact. In today’s business world, both companies and their employees need to be active on social media. That doesn’t mean you have to be on every social platform and posting multiple times a day, but you do need to have a solid presence. Why? Because people are always searching online, and you need to ask yourself – What will they find if they come across your profile? Are you someone they would just glance at or does your online presence make you look like an industry expert?

Here are 5 best practices that you can utilize on LinkedIn to improve your professional brand, develop thought leadership and increase your credibility.

Best Practice #1 – Build Your Professional Brand

Optimizing your LinkedIn profile goes a long way toward establishing expertise. You can download our quick and easy profile optimization checklist here.

Best Practice #2 – Utilize and Build Your Network

Connect with the right people – the search function makes it easy to find people in your target market

Take advantage of “Who’s Viewed Your Profile”

Reach out to interesting connections

Leverage current connections to expand your network

Take advantage of 2nd connections and ask for an introduction

Share relevant content with individuals that would benefit from it

30 Minute How-To Guide: 5 Ways to Ramp Up Personal Branding Using LinkedIn ➢

Best Practice #3 – Build Relationships

Engage with your audience – by interacting with your connections’ content you increase visibility which helps to build relationships

Follow the “Three Golden Rules of Engagement;” Like – Share – Comment

Best Practice #4 – Thought Leadership

Be known for what you know – There are two great ways to provide thought leadership on LinkedIn:
- Focus on articles – These are a powerful way to showcase your expertise and are searchable by all LinkedIn members and Google
- Posts – Share relevant and valuable content

Best Practice #5 – Make Use of Analytics

Check your post insights to see how many views your posts have received. You can see where they work, their job titles and the area they are from.

You can see similar data about your profile with “Profile Insights.” Find out who’s viewed your profile, post views, search appearances, and who’s engaging.

30 Minute How-To Guide: Check out this webinar to learn how you can build your brand on LinkedIn ➢

These tactics will all help to build your reputation with both prospective clients and candidates. Don’t be intimidated, there’s no need to implement them all at once today, but if you follow these best practices, your LinkedIn profile will become another great tool in your arsenal.

Looking to build your brand and attract more candidates and clients? Contact Parqa today to learn how we can help you become a recruiter of choice.

How to Create the Right Blog Image

November 13, 2018

When you’re scrolling through social media, what catches your eye the most? For me personally, it’s the images. Striking, exciting, adventurous photos catch my eye – no matter what the topic is. In fact, a post that includes an image has a 650% higher engagement rate than a post that’s made up of only text. So clearly, it’s crucial to include images – but how?

Make it Appealing

Stock photos can be boring – we’ve all seen the two coworkers shaking hands, a group of people chatting & pointing at a computer, or fake doctors wearing stethoscopes around their necks with their arms crossed. They’ve been used hundreds of times and won’t necessarily catch the attention of a social media scroller. Instead of using basic stock images from anywhere on the internet, I recommend using websites such as Unsplash or Pixabay. On these sites, you can find stunning, high-quality images for free – and if you want to give a shout-out to the photographer, their information is included! But these images can be used free of charge with no worries of penalties or copyright infringement.

Adding Accents

Programs such as Canva or Lunapic have excellent programs that can help you edit photos. From filters to shapes & lines, these programs help create an eye-grabbing image for websites & social media. The best part – you definitely don’t need to be a designer to use them! These programs are free to use and have a very simple user experience.

When adding accents though, don’t overdo it. A few simple lines or shapes, and 1-2 fonts are all you need to make an image pop. Also, be sure to use high contrast to your benefit. Overlaying a darker filter over an image opens the door to use light text – and vice versa.

Brand Consistency

Once you start determining the style of images that match your brand & feel correctly, stick with it! By no means do they need to be boring templates every time you create one. But there should be some sort of brand consistency. Accent colors should correlate with your logo, prominence of your logo should be consistent & overall feel of the photos should match. When a person sees your images week after week, your brand should resonate with them.

Sizing is Key

I’ve seen so many images on the internet where the words are falling off the pages, and the image is cut in an odd spot, or there’s extra white space. I find there’s nothing more off-putting to the naked eye than an image that isn’t correctly sized. Be sure to research what size is needed before publishing – and then check yet again once live! For example, Facebook has a different size requirement than Instagram, and yet another size is used for every website on WordPress. Just be sure to double check your work so you aren’t kicking yourself after it’s been live for 3 days.

As you can see, adding an eye-catching image to your blog can make an impactful difference to the engagement of your blog posts.

Are you having issues coming up with images to match your brand? Talk to the Parqa team today to help make your content with imagery speak directly to your audience!

Case Study: Creating a Social Media Strategy

October 31, 2018

This case study represents the organic growth we saw from a client when implementing a custom social media strategy. Before partnering with Parqa Marketing, the company had occasionally been active on social media but lacked consistency and a true social strategy to measure their efforts. Our partnership included writing two custom blogs a month, social media management, and monthly reporting.

Case Study Breakdown

The Challenge: A national recruiting firm with 10 different specialized practice areas wanted to build a social media presence to increase brand awareness and stand out in a crowded market.

Our goal: To develop a social media and content strategy that would attract and engage new and existing audiences while building credibility, showcasing thought leadership and focusing in on their expertise.

Free On-Demand Webinar: How Content Marketing Can Grow Your Business ➢

1. Background Research

Before we started to build a strategy for the future, we had to look at what had been done in the past by conducting an audit. An audit informs us which profiles needed to be optimized, what strategies have been executed in the past, and what the client’s competitors were doing from a strategic standpoint. After analyzing this information, we were able to start developing the strategy outline.

2. Building the Strategy Outline

When beginning our research to develop the strategy, we had to start off by determining a few basics of any social media strategy. This included answering the who, what, when, where and why.

Who: Define the target audience
What: Determine what KPIs will be measured
When: Discover optimal posting days/time for our audience
Where: Choosing the correct social media platforms / where is your target audience
Why: Set the correct goals that align with the overall business objectives

These are questions that will help you build and define your strategy.

3. Understanding Your Target Audience

We broke our audience down into three different markets: clients, candidates, and brand advocates.

More importantly than identifying these markets was to discover what’s important to them. What images and content attract them? What are their pain points? What are they looking for on social media channels?

4. Testing the Content

Creating and testing content is a big part of having a successful social media strategy, it’s a process that you should continuously be fine-tuning. Understanding your audience is vital when developing a social media strategy that will resonate with the audience.

Throughout testing and research, we found that employee advocacy was a large part of the client’s brand. Their employees loved engaging with content that promoted the brand, what it stands for and shares what they do.

5. The Solution

Parqa devised a social media strategy that aligned with the client’s overall marketing goals. The strategy targeted their already active audience while also bringing creative ideas into the mix that would generate interest of new audiences.

To increase our client’s online presence, we knew we had created content that our audience would be interested in. We broke down the client’s target audiences into three main groups: candidates, clients, and employee advocates. This way we had an audience of brand advocates but also had a strategy to reach those who may not know about the brand and what they do.

The Result

137% Engagement Increased
545% Increase in Website Traffic from Social Media
100% Increase in LinkedIn Followers

Conclusion

Businesses are using social media in different ways, posting to post is merely a short activity to keep your brand presence alive, but when you implement and strategy, you can use social media to reach goals.

Social Media Strategy