When a downturn hits, the first things businesses usually cut is marketing. Rather than cutting activity all together, it's important to take this as an opportunity to pivot your marketing activities.

Think about it: for the first time we are potentially facing an environment where people are in lockdown (either enforced or voluntarily). Across the world, offices are shutting, hospitality venues are limited to the number of patrons at one time or closing altogether, public transport is like a ghost town and people are staying at home and practicing social distancing.

For us marketers, this leaves just one avenue to reach consumers: digitally.

If I had a dollar for every time I got asked about hashtags I'd give JK Rowling a run for her money. Particularly when it comes to instagram. But I'm not here to yammer on about instagram today, I'm here to talk about Facebook.

I've been getting the question from business owners a lot lately: what do I post on my grid vs what do I post on my instagram stories? What is the purpose of each?

I had this question come up recently during one of my lead generation workshops recently and it's a beauty! It's actually something I cover in my during social media for small business workshop and I thought it would be something great to address here on the blog.

Ah, bacon and eggs (affectionately known in my house as bae), Harry and Meghan, Sunday mornings and sleep ins, there's no secret that I'm a fan of magic combinations and the digital advertising world is no exception.... I have a point. I promise!

I know what it’s like, you spend hours creating the perfect content for social media, you agonise of the captions, the hashtags, creating the perfect ‘grid’ on insta, making that funny video for Facebook. You’ve listened to the experts, you know you shouldn’t just promote, promote, promote, you need some useful, entertaining posts too. And you’re doing this.

Everything is looking fly! But all you’re hearing is crickets….

Sound familiar?

A couple of weeks ago, I attended a conference. I was expecting to walk into a room full of savvy digital marketers and learn a bucket load! Instead, I walked away frustrated. You see, one of the panelists was from Linked In, really skewing the conversation towards the power of Linked In advertising.

Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a fantastic platform and there’s a tonne of opportunity on there. In fact, a lot of my first clients came from Linked In! The problem is, online advertising has become incredibly intelligent and complex…. But Linked In advertising just hasn’t. It’s the kid at the party with baggy jeans and globe shoes… you know, stuck in 2006.

Hands up here who is still pressing ‘boost post’ on your Facebook posts or ‘promote’ on your Instagram posts? That’s exactly what Mark Zuckerberg wants you to do. He makes you think that Facebook advertising is sooo quick and easy. You know these little notifications that pop up from time to time?

Recently, I ran a competition for a local restaurant (town size approx. 51,000 people). At the time, the page had just over 1000 followers and each post was getting around 5 likes and maybe one or two comments (if they were lucky). All in all, not amazing but we weren’t starting completely from scratch. Here are the steps we followed to maximise results:

Ah, the silly season is well and truly upon us. I don't know about you with but this comes the end of year rush to wrap up projects, prepare for leave and get your ducks in order. Maintaining your presence on social media is probably not even on your list right now. 

They say that in any relationship there are twelve steps. I'll use a romantic relationship as an example.  Typically, you go through the first contact, perhaps a smile across the bar. You approach, heart nervously beating as you lock eyes. You say hi, you get chatting, you learn all about his dog Bruce, he gets your number and you hope he calls.