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Three Practices a Business can use to combat COVID-19

As the COVID-19 #virus protocols have encouraged citizens to practice social distancing, many #businesses are concerned about a decrease in customer traffic.

Practicing the following will be important going forward:

Communication

Businesses should look to build trust with current and potential customers through proactive online #communication via #socialmedia, email newsletters, and through their website.

For example, using online tools to communicate your new hours of operation or a shortage in a particular product will be appreciated by customers.

If your website is dated and you have been considering a modern update, to include social media integration and mobile functionality, this would be the ideal time to do it.

Adding an online sales option for your customers may also help sustain revenue if their is a decline in foot traffic to your physical location. You will be able to use your website immediately and as a means to communicate with existing and new potential customers. This long-term investment can improve overall business operations and increase your brand identity.

Adaptability and Patience

We do not know the predictably or duration of these necessary protocols.

Adapting to change and exploring new ways to provide products or services to customers will require business owners to practice a “new way” of doing things and, through doing so, patience.  Adapt your services to the needs of the consumer and recognize that those needs have recently changed.

With this in mind, Trudeau said the federal government is “pulling out all the stops” to help Canadians through the global health crisis. The package includes $275 million for additional research, such as vaccine development, and $200 million for federal medical supplies, supports for Indigenous communities and education efforts as reported by CBC.ca

Compassion

Compassion – after all, we are all in this together. We have the ability to choose to be #grateful for today. The time we now have, even if not under ideal circumstances, to spend with our loved ones – is precious.

Acknowledging that we are surrounded by love, rest, and the opportunity to change the way we have always done things and explore alternative means to #growcommunity and #support one another, may be the silver lining.

Free Consultations (phone and video) for any duration

As always, CC Communications offers FREE 30 minute consultations, but during this time, I will accept an initial phone or video consultation for any duration of time, FREE of charge.

Let’s talk today!

FAQ’s from our #SocialBusiness Marketing Seminar 2020

On February 6th 2020, CC Communications hosted our #SocialBusiness Marketing Seminar to focus on igniting the marketing potential of our attendees and to provide advice on how to enhance their overall brand presence.

I recorded some of their questions with my responses to help provide this information to all of our followers. If you have a question regarding your use of social media or how to better enhance your online presence, please send it forward to connie@cccommunications.ca or request a FREE 30 minute consultation.

Thank you for attending CC Communication’s #SocialBusiness Marketing Seminar which focused on helping our attendees recognize their brand’s potential and identified ways to help them #ConnectMORE


Q) How do I carve out my identity within the guidelines of a brand?

A) If your business/brand has a series of guidelines or a social media policy in place, it is always a best practice to follow those guidelines. Review the particulars of the guidelines and work to establish yourself as an employee of the organization both in the professional workplace and online. Keeping a consistent brand identity within the overall brand identity is a professional action that can help build your credibility.

Communicating your specific skills and experience on social media platforms like LinkedIn can also serve to help you build your personal brand identity within the umbrella of your organization. As this social media platform allows you to receive testimonials personally, LinkedIn is a great option for someone looking to enhance their brand identity within a brand identity.


Q) Is there any way to have our clients become more engaged and interactive online?

A) The first step would be to define your target demographic and develop an emotional appeal or educational purpose for that audience.

Understand that your audience is human and will interact with social media content in a similar manner that you do. Think of social media posts that inspire you to become engaged and interactive. Visual posts that have vivid colour and short informative videos are often very well received.

Acknowledge that SEO (search engine optimization) is very important in the development of your online content and that a “marketing plan” that addresses your overall branding goals should be in place. This is highly recommended instead of publishing content “whenever you can,” with the hope to capture interactive followers.  


Q) I am not a big “social media person.” How do I get started in building connections so I do not lose interest in being connected?

A) Start building your social media following by creating posts that inspire you.

Learn to use social media as a tool to promote your products/services to a larger audience rather than cold calling or relying on traditional forms of advertising. Social media allows for you to start a two-way conversation with your followers and answer any questions they may have directly – you can’t do that will a sign or print ad!

Social media platforms have insights and data for you to analyze and use to create future sales leads. The conversations and insights you receive provide you with feedback and further information to help you work closely with potential customers who have an interest in your business, brand, and services which should motivate you to remain socially connected.


Q) For B2B services, do you think it is important to have a Facebook/Instagram account when most clients are likely not active on these social platforms?


A) Yes! Facebook and Instagram are ideal places for businesses to showcase their story and to target an audience in a compelling, memorable, and engaging way.

Understanding what types of content to post for B2B businesses, however, will be more important to plan out in your overall marketing strategy – which every business should have and revamp routinely. The demographics for both Instagram and Facebook will be different and catering your content to attract these audiences will be different than your approach for platforms like LinkedIn or your corporate website.

Considering the wide use of Facebook and Instagram, the decision makers of an organization you would like to interact with – are likely using these platforms socially – and being visible online is imperative in 2020. If you haven’t considered using these platforms previously, now is the time.


Q) How can I analyze social media data based on people’s life experience and genuine interests? How can I generate more followers/shares, overall?

A) Ask questions. Social media is the one form of marketing (advertising) that will allow you to receive insights and data you can use to generate a “plan of action” to retain future sales leads.

Focus on building a following of genuine customers versus trying to reach a million likes or followers. This will allow you to learn more about the people who follow you, why they are following you, and how your product/service can help them.

This idea of building a genuine and authentic following has encouraged Facebook and Instagram to rethink the use of “like counts” and examine how the profiles could operate without them. Yes, that’s right… “page likes” may disappear in 2020 and push business owners to be more authentic and organic with their overall social media strategies.

Q) Facebook has regulations against “like and share” giveaways. How can I host a compliant campaign that will ensure the integrity of my business page?

Like and Share contests violate the community guidelines Facebook has established as they do not allow for administrators to actively track who has participated. With high privacy settings, participants can like and share and you would have no knowledge of this interaction.

The like and share campaigns also do not provide an administrator with proof of participation and further can compromise the integrity of your participants information as there is no official rules or request for a collection of information. Some like and shares may be “hidden” by users. This sends a signal to Facebook that you are posting low quality content and they will show your posts to less people in the future or even worse, may render your page inaccessible. Some campaigns may also violate Ontario Promotional Law as alcohol and lottery tickets are not to be given away as “prizes.”

In a compliant campaign, participants are informed about their opportunity to participant, how and if their information will be used, and are provided with a fair and equal opportunity at winning. When hosting a compliant campaign with CC Communications, you also receive quality marketing feedback from your participants WITH their permission – something a like and share cannot provide.

Interested in attending a future seminar or hosting Connie as a guest speaker at your next event? Email connie@cccommunications.ca and let’s talk!

2020 is the PERFECT time for an online assessment

What is a Social Media Assessment?

With a variety of social media platforms out there, business owners often create profiles using a variety of email addresses and content. As a result, social media profiles can look “unclean” and provide misinformation to the public.

An assessment performed by CC Communications provides business owners with the opportunity to examine their current online presence and take a step back to evaluate their use of social media. It also allows for business owners to learn how to “streamline” their efforts. Taking the time to review what has worked well in the past and what can be redeveloped will allow business owners to develop future marketing plans. All major social networks provide access to analytics and insights. These tools can provide a wealth of information for the development of a marketing strategy.

Why should your business goals should align with your online efforts?

CC Communications offers a unique approach to marketing and communicating online. Our mission is to provide business owners with the opportunity to become comfortable using online technology and, to take it a step further, to use digital solutions to interact and create connections with their customers. By adding a “human aspect” to a technological world we live in, CC Communications offers a unique approach for our clients to #ConnectMORE through enhancing their brand influence.

In an assessment, we look at providing information regarding your current use and how you can effectively implement a plan of action to not only have a social media presence, but an effective social media presence. We examine your current use of social media and identify “red flags,” or problematic areas as well as look for weaknesses in content.

Where could your social media presence improve? What types of information are your customers looking for? How can we incorporate that into your marketing strategy online? in print? in your logo? in your overall brand?

Just “being on social media” and “flying by the seat of your pants” when developing content will not bring about the results you desire for your brand. With a massive amount of social content out there, you will want to create engaging content to stand above the noise.

Why choose to work with an agency?

Of course I could cut my own hair or change the oil in my car. I could also stay in and cook my own supper. However, I am not a hair stylist and for a good reason – this is not where my talent lies. I also do not know where to begin when looking under the hood of my car and, to be honest, although I love to cook, I really do enjoy the flavourful dishes a chef can introduce me to.

The same is true with your social media and online presence. At CC Communications, we dedicate our time to research and prepare strategy for our clients that incorporates a strong vision for their public purpose. We tell their story while scientifically looking at the analytics and it is something we have been doing since 2012.

As the social media landscape changes and technology advices, we work with our clients to ensure that their social media followers and online users are aware of their products and services and, more importantly, the VALUE of service our clients can provide.

CC Communications is a full-service marketing agency that provides market research, content creation and interactive solutions for the management of your social media profiles and website. This includes website design and development, online marketing strategy, logo design, advertising photography and more! From this experience, our clients have evolved their marketing practices to remain competitive and visible online.

Why get started now?

I often tell my clients – you should have started yesterday. As the digital marketing world continues to grow, you want to make sure you are making your statement and effectively!

So let’s talk about your business…

I am an avid coffee drinker – so let’s talk over a warm cup this new year.

Book your FREE 30 minute one-on-one consultation and let’s examine your current use of social media and discuss how I can help you #ConnectMORE with your online followers and grow your brand influence this #newyear!

Social Media Marketing has Residual Effects for Business

Social media can create a rush of traffic into your #business and/or on your #website, but it also serves to have residual benefits in the following ways:

1) Building Brand Identity – each time you create social content, you are adding to a pool of information on the internet.

2) Allows your brand to stay #topofmind – followers can access your social content through your profile and view your content in their newsfeed each time you publish.

3) Social media offers an easy and low-commitment way for potential customers to express interest in your business and your products. Lead generation can be a goal of a compliant campaign (ask me how!!!)

4) Your social accounts should be a critical part of your marketing strategy and #salesfunnel – the process through which a new contact becomes a #customer.

5) You can capture #analytics that other forms of advertising do not offer. You can then set key metrics for how to continue to be successful and #ConnectMORE with genuine customers.

Want to learn more? Book your FREE 30 minute consultation with CC Communications Inc. today!

Success is “PLANNED”: Why a Marketing Plan is a MUST in 2019!

Let’s face it, business owners who use social media, do not always use the marketing tool to their best advantage. When used effectively, social media can attract new customers, increase brand awareness, and help you #ConnectMORE with your target audience.

Having a marketing plan for Facebook management is only one area of the overall marketing plan you should have in place for 2019. Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest (making a come back) and LinkedIn are social profiles you should have established. Now, is the time to fine tune their use and really enhance your overall online brand identity. Consistency in your brand image, content, and social hashtags can help increase your public exposure and turn the light onto your expertise and available services.“Content is where I expect much of the real money will be made on the Internet.” – Bill Gates

Posting by the seat of your pants without success? You are not alone – we can help elevate your web presence with an effective PLAN!

A social media plan helps set the tone of your content, plans for consistent posting schedules and outlines how your social pages will align with your business goals. Simply “being present on social media” is not enough. Defining your business goals  and integrating them with your social media management will help you to develop your overall brand message.

At CC Communications, we create compelling social content to help you meet your business goals. We research keywords and hashtags to use in your content creation in order to help you become more visible online. We provide key metrics to determine the success of our strategy and content so that you can personally keep track and use the data for future marketing purposes. We can help you explore alternative means for hosting compliant promotions that will enable you to retain valuable #marketing data from your customers to be used to capture future #sales leads.

During your free 30 minute consultation with us, we will take a look at your current use of social media and identify opportunities for growth.

Are you ready to SHINE in 2019? After all, you didn’t wake up this morning to be mediocre – Let’s talk.

PLAN TO ATTEND: Social Business Seminar (FREE with registration)

2019 is YOUR year to shine and grow as a #business owner! Learn essential tips to enhance your online brand presence through this FREE networking opportunity hosted by CC Communications Inc. on Thursday, February 7th at Solo Trattoria #socialbusinessseminar #ConnectMORE

Planning is essential! Learn new strategies and social trends forecasted for the upcoming new year that you can incorporate into your marketing plan.