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Wednesday, September 27, 2017

How You (and the network) Did Last Week - 9/20/2017

No comments: Posted by Anonymous at 10:50 AM Labels:

Winners of the Week:
Do512


It was Festival Fest last week in Austin: Do512 gave away a pair of tickets to a different festival each week day, leading to their highest week of traffic in 9 weeks, their most giveaway entries in a single week ever and their most new email subscribers in a week since SX.

If your metro has tickets to give away (to festivals or other big shows), you should absolutely consider doing your own Festival Fest / daily giveaway campaign. Read this for more info.

Courtney from Do512 noted that this campaign was especially successful because:
  • All festival partners had to agree to share their giveaway to be included.
  • Do512's team sent emails to the festivals at the beginning of each morning with the exact links to share and instructions for doing so.

doNYC


Last week, the dark lords of dollar pizza saw their highest traffic in 18 weeks due to:

Do503

Looking back through their stats, you may have noticed that Portland has stepped up their social growth: In the past year, they've grown their Instagram followers by 181%, their Twitter followers by 152% and their Facebook followers by 92%.

We chatted with Portland's Jason Ricciardi about his process. Here's what he had to say:
  • Never rush a single post.
  • Do the research, try not to be repetitive or take yourself too seriously
  • Make sure you're always tagging as many relevant brands, venues, artists, record labels as possible (anyone who would have a vested interest in sharing the content - not necessarily just clients, either, as this is also a way to get the attention of new followers and potential partnerships)
  • Take the time every week to look back at how things performed rather than just being "one and done." AKA, if something isn't working - don't keep doing it.
Social media managers are responsible for courting the entire Internet to want to "marry" who we are and what we stand for, as well as keeping those that already follow us educated and entertained - so it's worth it to take the time to hone in the details and be the experts of everything we're sharing.
  • No messy metadata
  • No outdated or low-res images
  • A good mix of media (images, video, GIFs)
  • Enough perspective to keep 'em guessing. (Let's be real: the reason we disconnect and unfollow others most the time are when they're predictable, repetitive, not putting relevant content in front of us, or are all 'Sell, sell, sell!') 
Just because something does well (for example, say, a beautiful image of a landmark on Instagram) doesn't mean run that into the ground and milk it to death. Just make notes and continue exploring what else your metro's audience shows interest in. We're also tastemakers and the 'ambassadors of what's cool' in our city, so it's okay to expand the audiences horizons by posting things that may seem out of the norm - like Chicago sharing the "poop bandit" article or w/e from Colorado. That one-off stuff always helps show you mean more than business, business, business. 

Big thanks to Jason for sharing his wisdom! Keep tabs on the Summit schedule announcement (coming soon) for a social media session featuring Jason and more brilliant minds around the network. In the mean time, we invite you let us know what questions you have as you:
Read More

Wednesday, September 20, 2017

How You (and the network) Did Last Week - 9/14/2017

No comments: Posted by Anonymous at 9:00 AM Labels:

Winner of the Week: DoTheBay


DoTheBay has been doing big things on Facebook. Their weekly engagement stats have been among the top of the network for the past few weeks, and their Facebook Engaged Users count (which is what we track for Cultural Weight) was the 2nd-highest in the network for August, up 256% from their previous month.

We dug in with their team about their process: What's moving the meter on Facebook?

1. Facebook-Exclusive Flash Giveaways, like this one for Lightning In A Bottle. DTB works with festivals, artists and brands -- and gets them to agree to share these giveaways in advance of posting. They also promote their flash giveaways on other channels to maximize traction.

2. Customizing everything. DoTheBay uses 'the drafts trick' to edit the titles and descriptions of link posts, making them compelling, funny, cool and, best of all, like they're made by a real person. Going back through DoTheBay's post history, you can see how much care they put into each of their posts.

Important thing: If you don't already know how to customize your Facebook link posts using drafts, please read this.

3. Sharing relevant, top-performing content from other channels. This Instagram post, when shared to DoTheBay's Facebook, generated 2,149 likes, 58 comments and 1,146 shares.

4. Inviting users who like their posts to also like their page (read more about that here).

5. Keeping an eye on other relevant FB groups that have their finger on the pulse of what's happening locally. This includes groups like Concert Raptors (who also have an LA group); SF Parties, Concerts, Undergrounds and Events; SF Concert Buds and The Rave Exchange. DTB has mostly discovered these through word of mouth and by searching around Facebook.

6. Sharing their own event pages and giveaways on FB events, FB groups, and other relevant places.

7. Boosting posts that do well organically and targeting them to get the lowest CPE possible (i.e. $.03 per result). Using Facebook as a way to test what content resonates before featuring in email.

8. Tasteful usage of emojis + concise copy for the win.

9. Emulating their influences. It's important to keep tabs on either media properties that yourespect in order to pull ideas and best practices. Elle from DoTheBay recommends: "Noisey, Consequence of Sound, and COVETEUR. Burger Records is not exactly an inspiration, but I love how completely unmistakable they are. Also, Vanishingsf always seems like there's a really cool / funny / intelligent person behind it."

10. Posting show and festival announcements the moment they're public (or sometimes, not even).

11. Selectively sharing cool, on-brand content, leading to increased page reach.

12. Finding unique angles with event posts, and letting their excitement shine through.

To focus solely on DoTheBay with this update is by no means to take away from all the other awesome things other cities are doing on Facebook. We'll continue digging in with more teams in the coming weeks to better surface the things you're all doing to move the meter for your businesses - so stay tuned, and be ready to share your wins.

A big thanks to Brett, Elle, Brigitte and everyone at DoTheBay for making this update possible - and a big thanks to YOU for working tirelessly to move the network forward.

And Facebook was just one reason to celebrate last week. Click below to...
Read More

Thursday, September 14, 2017

How You (and the network) Did Last Week - 9/6/2017

No comments: Posted by Anonymous at 12:47 PM Labels:

Winners of the Week:
Metros Killing It On Instagram


We added Instagram likes and comments to the KPI Report last week, which has helped us all get a much better sense for comparative Instagram performance across the network. With that in mind, we'd like to congratulate Do210, DoTheBay, DoLA, Do512 -- who all posted more than 5 times last week AND averaged over 100 likes per post...

... and also share 10 tips for making the most out of your Instagram.

1. If you're not generating at least 5 posts per week, you're not posting enough.
  • We recommend 5-6 posts per week at the minimum and 25 at the maximum (so you're not overloading your users).
  • If your metro made less than 4 posts last week (we know who you are!), we challenge you to step up the posting frequency and make at least 5 stellar posts this week.
2. Engage with Hashtags
  • Last year, we posted this growth recommendation about winning your city's hashtag. This strategy is more relevant now than ever, since Instagram's feed has become increasingly based on an algorithm that rewards users for engaging with others' posts.
3. Be strategic with your captions.
  • Place important words at the beginning to make sure they don't get truncated.
4. Save frequently-used hashtags in your Notes app.
  • To copy them quickly on the go.
5. Hide your hashtags by including them in the comments of your post (example).
  • Or use dots and line breaks (example and excellent explanation in this article).
6. Consider posting whenever you're out at a bar, restaurant or patio.
  • These posts tend to perform extremely well (example), which makes sense because they appeal to a wide audience. They also help add personality to your brand and sell the fact that you are real people, out in your cities doing awesome stuff.
7. Post from parks, exhibitions and other notable landmarks in your city.

We recommend avoiding overused landmarks such as the Statue of Liberty unless you can put your own unique spin on the picture; everything else should be fair game. Examples of highly successful landmark posts from the past 10 days include:
These posts also help balance out the concert photography by making it clear to viewers that your site is about more than just music.

8. Leverage Instagram Stories
  • Stories appear at the top of your followers' feeds.
  • Stories are ideal for in-the-moment posts at events and other moments when you may not be able to get the perfect static shot.
  • Need some pro tips? This article has a bunch.
9. Mix it up with Boomerang posts.
10. Up your engagement rates by posting slideshows.
  • If you're unfamiliar with the process, this article is a very helpful how-to.
There is so much more to say about Instagram, and many excellent resources online to help youstay ahead of the curve. We like a lot of HootSuite's articles, especially those covering:
What questions do you have about Instagram best practices? Ask us!
Read More

How You (and the network) Did Last Week - 8/30/2017

No comments: Posted by Anonymous at 12:46 PM Labels:

Winners of the Week:
Cities Who Made Mayweather vs. McGregor Watch Guides


Last Saturday's Mayweather vs. McGregor boxing match was one of the year's most anticipated sporting events - and since it was only available to watch on pay per view and took place on a Saturday night, it was prime fodder for us to capitalize on by making watch guides.

Who made a guide?
  • Do214, Do312, Do317, Do503, Do615, Do816
Who didn't make a guide, but at least built a bunch of event pages for watch parties?
  • Do206, Do250, Do314, Do502, Do512, Do617
Who completely missed this opportunity?
  • DoLA, doNYC, DoSD, DoTheBay, HazTJ, Do210 and Do604
Who won BIG last week?
  • Do615: Made a guide; offered Do615 discount promo codes for one party; did a giveaway for another; and got a link to another on the Tennessean (part of the USA Today Network). The extra 2K pageviews from organic search alone helped propel them to their 3rd-highest week of traffic ever.
  • Do312: Made a guide with a highly-searchable title; racked up 12,319 page views on their fight content - 7,356 of which were from organic search. The fight guide was the most visited page on Do312 last week.
  • Do503 - Their guide was their 3rd most successful content piece in Do503 history; and was the most visited page on Do503 last week by a mile. Fight content accounted for 20% of Do503's traffic last week, which was their 4th-highest week of traffic ever.
What did we learn for next time?
  • Match your page titles to what users are most likely to search.
    • Do312's page, entitled "Where To Watch The Mayweather vs. McGregor Fight In Chicago", got 5,000 hits from organic search. Do214's page, entitled "Fight Night in Dallas", got 0.
    • If you're unsure of how to best optimize your page title for organic search, please reach out to Support.
  • Your city is hungry for this sort of content.
    • Do512, who didn't build a guide and still enjoyed 22,704 page views on fight content last week, had 803 people come in from Google and land on this old Mayweather vs. Pacquiao page.
  • If the event hasn't passed, then it's not too late to make a guide.
    • Producing this content ASAP is always preferable. However, it's important to note that 57% of the organic page views on Do312's guide occurred on the day of the fight.
How do you make sure your metro WINS in next week's email?
Did you guys add anything to the KPI Reports this week?
  • Why, yes, we've added columns for Instagram likes and comments, because it ain't just about followers. If your metros' IG stats are missing, then we need your password. Holler at us. 
  • We're focusing on establishing better tracking around social engagement across all channels, so stay tuned for much more here.
Read More
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Wednesday, September 27, 2017

How You (and the network) Did Last Week - 9/20/2017

Winners of the Week:
Do512


It was Festival Fest last week in Austin: Do512 gave away a pair of tickets to a different festival each week day, leading to their highest week of traffic in 9 weeks, their most giveaway entries in a single week ever and their most new email subscribers in a week since SX.

If your metro has tickets to give away (to festivals or other big shows), you should absolutely consider doing your own Festival Fest / daily giveaway campaign. Read this for more info.

Courtney from Do512 noted that this campaign was especially successful because:
  • All festival partners had to agree to share their giveaway to be included.
  • Do512's team sent emails to the festivals at the beginning of each morning with the exact links to share and instructions for doing so.

doNYC


Last week, the dark lords of dollar pizza saw their highest traffic in 18 weeks due to:

Do503

Looking back through their stats, you may have noticed that Portland has stepped up their social growth: In the past year, they've grown their Instagram followers by 181%, their Twitter followers by 152% and their Facebook followers by 92%.

We chatted with Portland's Jason Ricciardi about his process. Here's what he had to say:
  • Never rush a single post.
  • Do the research, try not to be repetitive or take yourself too seriously
  • Make sure you're always tagging as many relevant brands, venues, artists, record labels as possible (anyone who would have a vested interest in sharing the content - not necessarily just clients, either, as this is also a way to get the attention of new followers and potential partnerships)
  • Take the time every week to look back at how things performed rather than just being "one and done." AKA, if something isn't working - don't keep doing it.
Social media managers are responsible for courting the entire Internet to want to "marry" who we are and what we stand for, as well as keeping those that already follow us educated and entertained - so it's worth it to take the time to hone in the details and be the experts of everything we're sharing.
  • No messy metadata
  • No outdated or low-res images
  • A good mix of media (images, video, GIFs)
  • Enough perspective to keep 'em guessing. (Let's be real: the reason we disconnect and unfollow others most the time are when they're predictable, repetitive, not putting relevant content in front of us, or are all 'Sell, sell, sell!') 
Just because something does well (for example, say, a beautiful image of a landmark on Instagram) doesn't mean run that into the ground and milk it to death. Just make notes and continue exploring what else your metro's audience shows interest in. We're also tastemakers and the 'ambassadors of what's cool' in our city, so it's okay to expand the audiences horizons by posting things that may seem out of the norm - like Chicago sharing the "poop bandit" article or w/e from Colorado. That one-off stuff always helps show you mean more than business, business, business. 

Big thanks to Jason for sharing his wisdom! Keep tabs on the Summit schedule announcement (coming soon) for a social media session featuring Jason and more brilliant minds around the network. In the mean time, we invite you let us know what questions you have as you:
Posted by at No comments:
Labels:

Wednesday, September 20, 2017

How You (and the network) Did Last Week - 9/14/2017

Winner of the Week: DoTheBay


DoTheBay has been doing big things on Facebook. Their weekly engagement stats have been among the top of the network for the past few weeks, and their Facebook Engaged Users count (which is what we track for Cultural Weight) was the 2nd-highest in the network for August, up 256% from their previous month.

We dug in with their team about their process: What's moving the meter on Facebook?

1. Facebook-Exclusive Flash Giveaways, like this one for Lightning In A Bottle. DTB works with festivals, artists and brands -- and gets them to agree to share these giveaways in advance of posting. They also promote their flash giveaways on other channels to maximize traction.

2. Customizing everything. DoTheBay uses 'the drafts trick' to edit the titles and descriptions of link posts, making them compelling, funny, cool and, best of all, like they're made by a real person. Going back through DoTheBay's post history, you can see how much care they put into each of their posts.

Important thing: If you don't already know how to customize your Facebook link posts using drafts, please read this.

3. Sharing relevant, top-performing content from other channels. This Instagram post, when shared to DoTheBay's Facebook, generated 2,149 likes, 58 comments and 1,146 shares.

4. Inviting users who like their posts to also like their page (read more about that here).

5. Keeping an eye on other relevant FB groups that have their finger on the pulse of what's happening locally. This includes groups like Concert Raptors (who also have an LA group); SF Parties, Concerts, Undergrounds and Events; SF Concert Buds and The Rave Exchange. DTB has mostly discovered these through word of mouth and by searching around Facebook.

6. Sharing their own event pages and giveaways on FB events, FB groups, and other relevant places.

7. Boosting posts that do well organically and targeting them to get the lowest CPE possible (i.e. $.03 per result). Using Facebook as a way to test what content resonates before featuring in email.

8. Tasteful usage of emojis + concise copy for the win.

9. Emulating their influences. It's important to keep tabs on either media properties that yourespect in order to pull ideas and best practices. Elle from DoTheBay recommends: "Noisey, Consequence of Sound, and COVETEUR. Burger Records is not exactly an inspiration, but I love how completely unmistakable they are. Also, Vanishingsf always seems like there's a really cool / funny / intelligent person behind it."

10. Posting show and festival announcements the moment they're public (or sometimes, not even).

11. Selectively sharing cool, on-brand content, leading to increased page reach.

12. Finding unique angles with event posts, and letting their excitement shine through.

To focus solely on DoTheBay with this update is by no means to take away from all the other awesome things other cities are doing on Facebook. We'll continue digging in with more teams in the coming weeks to better surface the things you're all doing to move the meter for your businesses - so stay tuned, and be ready to share your wins.

A big thanks to Brett, Elle, Brigitte and everyone at DoTheBay for making this update possible - and a big thanks to YOU for working tirelessly to move the network forward.

And Facebook was just one reason to celebrate last week. Click below to...
Posted by at No comments:
Labels:

Thursday, September 14, 2017

How You (and the network) Did Last Week - 9/6/2017

Winners of the Week:
Metros Killing It On Instagram


We added Instagram likes and comments to the KPI Report last week, which has helped us all get a much better sense for comparative Instagram performance across the network. With that in mind, we'd like to congratulate Do210, DoTheBay, DoLA, Do512 -- who all posted more than 5 times last week AND averaged over 100 likes per post...

... and also share 10 tips for making the most out of your Instagram.

1. If you're not generating at least 5 posts per week, you're not posting enough.
  • We recommend 5-6 posts per week at the minimum and 25 at the maximum (so you're not overloading your users).
  • If your metro made less than 4 posts last week (we know who you are!), we challenge you to step up the posting frequency and make at least 5 stellar posts this week.
2. Engage with Hashtags
  • Last year, we posted this growth recommendation about winning your city's hashtag. This strategy is more relevant now than ever, since Instagram's feed has become increasingly based on an algorithm that rewards users for engaging with others' posts.
3. Be strategic with your captions.
  • Place important words at the beginning to make sure they don't get truncated.
4. Save frequently-used hashtags in your Notes app.
  • To copy them quickly on the go.
5. Hide your hashtags by including them in the comments of your post (example).
  • Or use dots and line breaks (example and excellent explanation in this article).
6. Consider posting whenever you're out at a bar, restaurant or patio.
  • These posts tend to perform extremely well (example), which makes sense because they appeal to a wide audience. They also help add personality to your brand and sell the fact that you are real people, out in your cities doing awesome stuff.
7. Post from parks, exhibitions and other notable landmarks in your city.

We recommend avoiding overused landmarks such as the Statue of Liberty unless you can put your own unique spin on the picture; everything else should be fair game. Examples of highly successful landmark posts from the past 10 days include:
These posts also help balance out the concert photography by making it clear to viewers that your site is about more than just music.

8. Leverage Instagram Stories
  • Stories appear at the top of your followers' feeds.
  • Stories are ideal for in-the-moment posts at events and other moments when you may not be able to get the perfect static shot.
  • Need some pro tips? This article has a bunch.
9. Mix it up with Boomerang posts.
10. Up your engagement rates by posting slideshows.
  • If you're unfamiliar with the process, this article is a very helpful how-to.
There is so much more to say about Instagram, and many excellent resources online to help youstay ahead of the curve. We like a lot of HootSuite's articles, especially those covering:
What questions do you have about Instagram best practices? Ask us!
Posted by at No comments:
Labels:

How You (and the network) Did Last Week - 8/30/2017

Winners of the Week:
Cities Who Made Mayweather vs. McGregor Watch Guides


Last Saturday's Mayweather vs. McGregor boxing match was one of the year's most anticipated sporting events - and since it was only available to watch on pay per view and took place on a Saturday night, it was prime fodder for us to capitalize on by making watch guides.

Who made a guide?
  • Do214, Do312, Do317, Do503, Do615, Do816
Who didn't make a guide, but at least built a bunch of event pages for watch parties?
  • Do206, Do250, Do314, Do502, Do512, Do617
Who completely missed this opportunity?
  • DoLA, doNYC, DoSD, DoTheBay, HazTJ, Do210 and Do604
Who won BIG last week?
  • Do615: Made a guide; offered Do615 discount promo codes for one party; did a giveaway for another; and got a link to another on the Tennessean (part of the USA Today Network). The extra 2K pageviews from organic search alone helped propel them to their 3rd-highest week of traffic ever.
  • Do312: Made a guide with a highly-searchable title; racked up 12,319 page views on their fight content - 7,356 of which were from organic search. The fight guide was the most visited page on Do312 last week.
  • Do503 - Their guide was their 3rd most successful content piece in Do503 history; and was the most visited page on Do503 last week by a mile. Fight content accounted for 20% of Do503's traffic last week, which was their 4th-highest week of traffic ever.
What did we learn for next time?
  • Match your page titles to what users are most likely to search.
    • Do312's page, entitled "Where To Watch The Mayweather vs. McGregor Fight In Chicago", got 5,000 hits from organic search. Do214's page, entitled "Fight Night in Dallas", got 0.
    • If you're unsure of how to best optimize your page title for organic search, please reach out to Support.
  • Your city is hungry for this sort of content.
    • Do512, who didn't build a guide and still enjoyed 22,704 page views on fight content last week, had 803 people come in from Google and land on this old Mayweather vs. Pacquiao page.
  • If the event hasn't passed, then it's not too late to make a guide.
    • Producing this content ASAP is always preferable. However, it's important to note that 57% of the organic page views on Do312's guide occurred on the day of the fight.
How do you make sure your metro WINS in next week's email?
Did you guys add anything to the KPI Reports this week?
  • Why, yes, we've added columns for Instagram likes and comments, because it ain't just about followers. If your metros' IG stats are missing, then we need your password. Holler at us. 
  • We're focusing on establishing better tracking around social engagement across all channels, so stay tuned for much more here.
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