Events

Facebook Live Video Tips

June 12, 2018 by The Motherhood

Did you know that since it debuted in 2016, Facebook Live has streamed 3.5 billion broadcasts?

The role of video in social marketing, especially live video, continues to become more and more important. The live video experience is social at its core, and on average, they generate six times more interactions than regular video, and daily average broadcasts from verified publisher Pages have increased 1.5 times over the past year due to Facebook Live use (source).

Marketers, publishers and consumers of media ALL want to break through the clutter, and Facebook Live is a great vehicle to help achieve that: Facebook Live videos continue to show up in the news feed since they encourage engagement.

Have you gone live yet? Below, we share some tips on how to make the most of your Facebook Live broadcasts.

When and why should your brand use Facebook Live?

To connect with your audience in a real, human way.
To communicate hot-button issues.
To connect communities during a crisis or share urgent information.
To provide a behind-the-scenes look.
To give viewers a glimpse into your life or company culture.
For interviews.
To broadcast a regularly scheduled program or event.

Tips before recording:

Promote the upcoming Facebook Live event with a post on your page an hour or two in advance to give your organic followers a reminder.
Always test your Internet connection and ensure your device is fully charged prior to going live! It’s always a good idea to have a backup device ready as well.
To get comfortable and practice, you can restrict privacy settings so that only you can see the live video. (Under Live Video settings window, on the right-hand side, there is a padlock; click on that and choose the “Only Me” option.)
Facebook recommends broadcasting for at least ten minutes. Experiment with time of day and see when your engagement and active viewers peak (this information can be found within Facebook’s analytics).
Good-quality lighting and audio equipment is worth the investment if you are regularly broadcasting live.
Make sure your lighting is appropriate (face the window instead of having your device facing the window), and if you can, remove glasses to eliminate the glare on the screen!
If you’re using a phone or tablet, don’t shy away from recording with the device horizontally. It shows more of your surroundings to help viewers place you in context, and the formatting works better in the news feed.
Once you’ve connected to wifi, make sure to switch your device to Airplane Mode! In this setting, you won’t get calls or other notifications that could disrupt or be a distraction to your video.
Don’t kill time just to fill time. Record with a purpose and have your content ready.

Tips during the broadcast:

Acknowledge your audience! Answer questions or thank commentators verbally by name for their input.
If you are hosting a broadcast in which you expect a steady volume of questions, have a colleague or friend help field them (some can be answered via text and some verbally).
Encourage interaction. Static Facebook posts that encourage likes, shares, comments and other engagement are penalized for seeming spammy. But, encouraging these during a Facebook Live broadcast gives viewers an actionable request and may help make your content or call-to-action more visible the more times it is liked or shared.

Tips for after recording:

Once a Live Video is created, it will live on your Facebook page (up to 500 videos can live on your page).
Pin the video to the top of your feed to increase video views.
Promote the video with a boosted post after the broadcast to target and extend the reach beyond your organic followers.
If an influencer creates a Facebook Live video for a brand, the brand can and should boost it on their own page.
You can create an edited version of the Facebook Live video to promote with an ad.
You can upload a custom thumbnail, with a graphic overlay if you’d like, to convey the topic of the video.
Respond in a comment to anyone you may have missed during the chat to increase engagement.
Captioning the video is another option post-recording, which is helpful for those viewers who tend to scroll through Facebook on mute!
Take a look at your Insights, and if you have a high-performing video, you can make it a more prominent “featured video” on your page.

Do you broadcast live? We’d love to hear your best Facebook Live video tips!

Social Fresh 2016 Conference Trends Round-Up

August 24, 2016 by The Motherhood

The Motherhood is thrilled to have been able to attend the Social Fresh 2016 Conference in Orlando! We heard from an amazing lineup of speakers who shared valuable insights on everything from creating authentic brand content, to running social ads, to providing SEO predictions for the future — just to name a few topics. We especially loved learning that more than half of the conference speakers were female, the most they’ve had in any of the 18 Social Fresh conferences to date! All of the speakers were incredible. Thank you to the presenters and Social Fresh team who made this conference a must-attend event.

Here are some of the trends, ideas and insights that grabbed our attention at Social Fresh 2016:

1. Human-first, good-quality content is still key.

The Social Fresh 2016 team presented this stat: “creating content is the most time-intensive task for social media teams, taking up 18.5 percent of their days!” As any content creator knows, it can be difficult coming up with creative and relatable content; however, when done correctly, it pays off:

67 percent of followers will share your content if it is good. – Heather Taylor
78 percent of followers believe that companies that provide good content want to build a relationship with them. – Melanie Deziel
Videos that show people in the first several seconds receive twice the amount of engagement. – Stacy Minero

It’s no surprise to us that authentic content equals the best content. Conference speakers, like author Sally Hogshead and Cory Vasquez of RE/MAX, drove home the fact that people want to see relatable, empathetic content from brands and influencers. Real, honest posts will cut through the crowded social space.

Hogshead encouraged the room to stop looking at what will make their brand better, but to look at what makes them different, and capitalize on that. Being different can be your brand’s advantage. In her words, “The goal isn’t to create the same message to blast to your following. The goal is to create the right messages that break through and stand out.”

Having “human-first” content was another prevalent theme. Vasquez shared a checklist of characteristics that make her brand’s content “human-first”: timely, engaging, honest, relatable, good quality and empathetic. Twitter’s Stacy Minero also encouraged the audience of marketers to highlight human stories, saying, “People are drawn to people.”

Takeaways for creating human-first, branded content:

“People can tell when you’re trying to go viral, so be authentic.” – Jeremy Goldman
Expert content creator Sarah Evans encouraged the audience to ask themselves, “Will this make people care, share or swear? If none of those, it’s boring content.”
“Woo them, don’t sell them…. Lay off the sales pitch!” – Heather Taylor

2. Video (especially Live Video) continues to become more and more important!

Jeremy Goldman of the Firebrand Group shared an eye-opening session on the future of video in marketing. The Firebrand Group found in a recent survey that the majority of marketers (75 percent) are turning to Facebook for videos, rather than YouTube or other platforms, due to higher engagement. YouTube video comments don’t hold as much value as a like, comment or share on Facebook.

Their study also showed that 85 percent of marketers see positive ROI from video marketing. Goldman predicted this video trend to rise, saying, “As video grows in popularity, the demand for good–quality videos is skyrocketing.”

This is a trend our own network of influencers has also been predicting, calling video the #1 trend in blogging and social media in 2016.

Takeaways for creating compelling videos:

80 percent of people mute ads, so make sure your ads make sense without audio, or use text and captioning within the video content.
Always think, “How can I make this video social and interactive?”
Pay to promote your Live videos after they are broadcast Live.

3. Twitter is becoming more interactive.

Minero shared ways of getting your followers’ attention in their feed. She reported that Twitter is moving away from broad impressions and toward participation — from viewing to doing. With attention spans as short as eight seconds, attention is the new currency in brand advertising, according to Minero.

In order to “stop people in their feed,” companies are working with Twitter to create customized branded emojis and stickers. Minero used the #TacoEmojiGenerator as a great example of this, which was a hit with the Social Fresh audience.

Tacos over everything. Tweet us 🌮 + any emoji and we'll reply with something we think you'll like. #TacoEmojiEngine pic.twitter.com/f5yhqCeLKk

— Taco Bell (@tacobell) August 17, 2016

Minero’s tips for creating hashtags on Twitter:

Keep in mind that the most utilized hashtags are usually the less branded ones.
Let your hashtag provide a way for people to express themselves and their motivations (see REI’s campaign for #OptOutside as a great example of this!).

Were you at the Social Fresh 2016 Conference? We’d love to hear your top takeaways from the event or your feedback on our takeaways!

Hack the Summer: Tips and Tricks for Family Fun in Pittsburgh

July 11, 2016 by The Motherhood

In collaboration with Chick-fil-A Pittsburgh, The Motherhood teamed up with Brown Mamas, Pgh Momtourage and Sugar Aunts — and their friends, families and communities of readers — to create the ultimate list of tips, tricks and places to visit for family fun in Pittsburgh.

The curated list of “summer hacks” includes many free and low-cost activities that will appeal to family members of all ages and are located all across the region. The best part? Even the most in-the-know Pittsburghers may find a few hidden gems that have escaped their knowledge!

Which one will you visit first?

Family Fun in Pittsburgh Starts with Food

The inspiration for curating these tips for family fun in Pittsburgh is the launch of Chick-fil-A One — a digital app that brings together mobile ordering, mobile payment and surprise giveaways!

As the tastiest of all summer hacks, Chick-fil-A One offers families benefits including a super-easy way to customize each person’s order and the ability to pay in advance and skip the line at the cash register. What parent wouldn’t love that benefit, especially during busy lunch or dinner times? We’re guessing the 82 percent of parents who responded to our survey to say they’d do almost anything to avoid long lines when they have their children in tow will be heading straight to iTunes or Google Play to download Chick-fil-A One.

Bonus hack: for an easy and fun way to get in on the Chick-fil-A One action, just tweet #CFAOne with the horizontal cow emoji ???? to receive a prompt to download the app from Twitter directly.

Chick-fil-A is about to make all of your chicken sandwich dreams come true just by ordering with your phone. Chick-fil-A will thank customers who order using Chick-fil-A One with free food offers for their favorite menu items. Sign. Us. Up.

Share your Hacks

We’d love to hear your ideas for creating family fun in Pittsburgh — and other cities across the country! Comment below with your tips, tricks and places to visit in your own hometown.

Hack the summer ART created by alison mckown, graphic designer for the motherhood.

The Motherhood Recognized by Industry Peers: Earns PRSA 2016 Agency of the Year and Best in Show

January 29, 2016 by The Motherhood

The Motherhood was named 2016 Agency of the Year by the Public Relations Society of America’s Pittsburgh chapter at its annual Renaissance Awards ceremony on January 28, receiving recognition for outstanding contributions to the public relations industry. The Renaissance Awards program is a gathering of the region’s top public relations and communications professionals from leading agencies, corporations, non-profit organizations and educational institutions.

Our work received the highest honor of the evening, Best in Show, for The Stork OTC campaign, which also won a Renaissance Award the Digital Social Media Campaign category. This entry was the only entry, out of nearly 90, that received a perfect score from the judging panel*. This award-winning campaign engaged 30 influential bloggers who had experience with fertility issues for a social media campaign to generate awareness of The Stork at-home conception device’s move from prescription to over-the-counter (OTC) availability. The program generated 57 million impressions, a trending hashtag and contributed to the device selling out at CVS/pharmacy online.

The Motherhood also received a Renaissance Award in the Online and Social Blogger Outreach category for the Brain Chase campaign. This 2015 campaign included a partnership with the team at Brain Chase, a new online “adventure learning” program for kids, aimed at helping them avoid summer learning loss. The Motherhood engaged a strong team of influential bloggers to help raise awareness and drive signups for the summer 2015 program. During the four-month campaign, the blogger team drove one-third of total sign-ups.

In both the Digital Social Media Campaign category and Community Relations & Public Service category, The Motherhood earned Awards of Merit for the P&G Power of Clean campaign. For this campaign, The Motherhood partnered with P&G and Ketchum to execute a campaign behind the P&G Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program. Twenty bloggers initiated a conversation about “Power of Clean” and drove video views, helping to deliver a donation of 126,000 days of clean water.

The Motherhood’s entry for the United Nations Foundation’s Shot@Life Campaign was also recognized with an Award of Merit in the Community Relations and Public Service Category. For this campaign, we worked with United Nations Foundation’s Shot@Life to engage 50 influential bloggers to participate in a “blog relay,” sharing inspiring quotes on blogs and social channels. Each comment, like or share of their posts triggered one vaccine donation, with an overall total of 60,000 donations in four weeks.

Our partner agency on the recent Bolthouse Farms Kids program, Smith Brothers Agency, also took home a Renaissance Award in the Marketing Communications category for the “Snack Mob Sampling Tour.” To elevate the Bolthouse Farms Kids brand in Pittsburgh and generate awareness of its new products in partnership with Smith Brothers, The Motherhood enlisted a powerhouse team of influential Pittsburgh moms to attend a series of local market #SnackMob truck events throughout the city and encouraged their readers to do the same. Bloggers also used their social media posts to spread the word about the #SnackMob contest and to document their own experiences with this one-of-a-kind snack truck.

The Motherhood team extends its gratitude for our brand partners and nationwide network of bloggers with whom we had the honor of creating this award-winning work.

Last night’s Agency of the Year and campaign recognition follows a very successful 2015 ceremony, during which The Motherhood took home the first-ever People’s Choice Award, after our campaign around Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood with The Fred Rogers Company received the most votes from the PR professionals in attendance. Beyond the ceremony, The Motherhood was also named the second-fastest growing marketing company in our headquarters city in 2015, as well as AMA Marketer of the Year.

Follow us at @TheMotherhood on Twitter and on our blog for the latest industry insights and leading research, or email us to learn more about our offerings.

*Entries were independently evaluated by a panel of judges from PRSA’s East Central District, comprised of chapters from Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Western and Northwestern Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Kentucky.

Case Study: Bloggers, Brands Come Together at Local Market Events

October 9, 2015 by The Motherhood

The Motherhood’s network includes thousands of social media moms all across the country, so much of our work is done over email. However, we also execute in-person local market events that enable us to connect our trusted influencers with the organizations we’re proud to call our partners.

When bloggers experience a brand in person through a carefully and thoughtfully planned event, the resulting content comes to life beautifully through words, personal photos and videos. Beyond the blog post, however, brands have an opportunity to earn bloggers’ trust, build advocacy, interact with the blogger as a customer, gather feedback and forge a powerful and valuable connection for years to come.

During summer 2015, The Motherhood executed a number of local market events:

Northwoood for Moms: It’s a Mom’s World

To tell the story of how Pittsburgh-based Northwood Realty Services is an ideal place for moms to start a real estate career, The Motherhood invited 10 bloggers from the region to an event to meet some of Northwood’s top real estate agents—who also happen to be moms!

Bloggers exchanged stories with the Northwood Moms and engaged in a robust conversation about balancing career and family, pursuing passions and the many ways to define success. Bloggers live-tweeted using the hashtag #NorthwoodForMoms, earning Northwood a spot on the list of trending topics in the Pittsburgh region. The event resulted in not only a trending hashtag and more than three million impressions in the target market, but it also directly led to multiple interviews from moms who are interested in being real estate agents.

Bolthouse Farms Kids: Fruits & Veggies Disguised as Snacks

To elevate the Bolthouse Farms Kids brand in Pittsburgh and generate awareness of its new products, The Motherhood enlisted a powerhouse team of influential Pittsburgh moms to attend a series of local market events.

To kick off the program, each blogger received a box of Bolthouse Farms Kids smoothies, fruit tubes and veggie snackers to share with their family and their blog readers. As part of their social media posts, bloggers also urged their readers to spot the #SnackMob trucks and attend events in their area. Then, each blogger attended #SnackMob truck events throughout the city and encouraged their readers to do the same. Bloggers also used their social media posts to spread the word about the #SnackMob contest and to document their own experiences with this one-of-a-kind snack truck.

Chick-fil-A: Where Good Meets Gracious

The Motherhood recently partnered with a group of bloggers for a local market event that gave them a behind-the-scenes look at the heart and soul of Chick-fil-A – inspiring them to create personal and heartfelt posts about the facets of the company that only an in-person gathering could have revealed.

Bloggers shared a sneak peek at a few soon-to-be-released menu items (that had been flown in from Atlanta by the company’s menu development manager so the bloggers could sample them), tried their hand at creating lemonade the same way each Chick-fil-A store does, and discovered some truly special connections with the store operators. Others appreciated how Chick-fil-A supports local communities or how the company makes life easier for working moms. Chick-fil-A also inspired this 7 Day “Be the Change” Family Challenge.

Email [email protected] for more information on securing blogger attendance at local market events.

Digital Reputation and Leadership with Erik Qualman

September 11, 2015 by The Motherhood

Yesterday morning, The Motherhood attended an event on Digital Reputation, held by the Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence, featuring Erik Qualman, who is often called the “Digital Dale Carnegie,” and is the author of Socialnomics, Digital Leader, and the recent Pulitzer Prize nominated What Happens in Vegas Stays on YouTube. The event was well attended by a variety of Pittsburgh business leaders and professionals eager to absorb new social media knowledge to help grow and maintain their company’s digital footprint!

Qualman stressed how social media can positively transform the way you do business – its not just a fad. If someone Googled your name, product or business what would you want to come up? Whether you do social or not, people will post about your company and industry, and you should be listening and interacting.

Here are a few of our key takeaways from the event:

Over invest in trends, people and relationships – not tools.
Word of mouth is extremely scalable thanks to social media, but be patient.
Fail fast, fail forward, fail better. Be FLAWsome – show you make mistakes but care enough to fix them.We all will make digital mistakes but it is how we handle them that defines us.
Always ask: What and why are customers buying from you? A trend will appear which can be capitalized on and can take your business to the next level.

Tips for better digital leadership:

Keep it simple. Stop multitasking and hyper focus. Life in the digital age is complex, but those who can simplify it come out ahead.
Stay true to what you stand for, what differentiates you, and why it would be a loss if you disappeared from society. Its important to have one digital identity.
Focus on output not throughput. You can spend hours in the back and forth of emails, texts, etc. and accomplish nothing.
Write a digital compass. Be flexible in your path, but firm in your destination.
Surround yourself with the right people both online and off.

Are you creating a digital footprint to be proud of?

This post first appeared on the Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence blog.