Top tips from Julie Strong,

our Social Media Manager from GOLD PR’s Orange County, CA office

It may be tempting as a marketer to create content that resonates best with you personally, but you have to ask yourself if you are actually the target audience. If you’re a Millennial woman interested in fashion and beauty products, but you’re selling a video game targeted to Gen Z males, the content that speaks to you isn’t necessarily going to resonate with your consumer. If you’re overwhelmed by the idea of social content creation and community management, rest assured—we have you covered. In order to develop the most successful social strategy, it’s as simple as first identifying your target audience, then narrowing it down to a specific social persona.

We’ve created this questionnaire to help you first identify your target audience:

• What is the gender breakdown of your intended audience?
• Is your product targeted to a specific age range?
• Does your target live in a specific area(s)?
• What is your target consumer interested in? What are their hobbies?
• What is the price point of your product? What is your target’s average annual income?
• What causes matter to your target consumer? 
• What competitors or complementary brands do they currently use?

The above exercise will help you hone in on the specific type of person you’re looking to speak to and connect with (the followers you want). This will then be the lens you’ll want to use when creating and viewing your content. This will also be very useful when creating audiences for paid social ads.

Now that you’ve identified your target audience, you’ll want to use that information, then take it a step further and develop the persona of the “person behind the computer.” This is the identity of the person writing the caption copy and replying to comments and DM’s. This is especially helpful for brands who use a variety of team members to help manage their social profiles. Once you have your social persona identified, you can share this with the interns, customer service team members, or social media managers who are participating in your social community management. While your target audience may be somewhat broad, your social persona is even more targeted to one specific tone of voice. It’s very important to keep this tone of voice clear and consistent so that followers are able to build a strong rapport with your brand.

We’ve also created a list of questions to help you identify this person:

• Is your persona male/female or androgenous? 
• How old are they (this can be a range)?
• Do you envision them as a specific celebrity or public figure?
• What is their education level?
• What is their relationship status? Do they have children at home?
• What words describe their tone of voice? (i.e. are they witty and sarcastic or knowledgeable and sophisticated?) The more descriptive words you can add to this list, the better. It may also be helpful to include words that do not describe their tone of voice. 

Now that you’ve identified both your target audience (who you’re creating content for) and your social persona (the “person” behind the computer) you have the guidelines you need to create optimum content that is compelling for your audience. You’re ready to effectively engage with the audience who will be most interested in your brand!

GOLD’s social media team are experts in beauty and health, CPG and working in regulated industries that include: aesthetics, pharma, medical devices and med tech. Our offices are located in Orange County, CA and  New York, NYC. To learn more about how we can help you develop a social media strategy please send us a here.

The post Social Media Tips: The Importance of Identifying Your Target Audience and Social Persona appeared first on Gold PR : Top Public Relations Firm + Digital Agency.

The following are top tips by Julie Strong, social media expert in our Southern, CA. office.

Branded Hashtags vs Targeted Hashtags

Some of us first learned this symbol as the “pound sign” on our landline phones or the template for a game of tic tac toe, but a lot has changed since cell phones and social media took over. This symbol, now most commonly referred to as a hashtag, is a vital component for your brand’s social media strategy. If you’re confused about how to use hashtags, which ones to use, and/or when to use them, we’ve got you covered.

Branded Hashtags

First, let’s define the difference between a branded hashtag and a targeted hashtag. Branded hashtags are the ones that you want to “own,” (i.e. #GoldPR) Below are some basic rules for choosing these types of hashtags:

• Make them unique.
  • These hashtags shouldn’t be generic or already have a lot of other content tied to them (i.e. #beautyproduct or #bestskincare).
• Make them relevant.
  • Incorporate your brand name, tagline, or your products in a meaningful way (i.e. #poweredbymitoq)
• Make them easy to spell.
  • The easier it is to spell the more likely customers are to use it.
• Make it easy to read.
  • Since hashtags don’t use spacing and the words run together, make sure it can’t be confused with another meaning. You don’t want to start trending on Twitter for a hashtag fail!

You’ll want to first choose an evergreen branded hashtag, such as your brand name, then you can continually create new branded hashtags for things like new product launches, campaigns, and events. You’ll then want to share these with your brand ambassadors, influencers, employees, or KOL’s who are posting content related to each specific initiative. That way all of this related content is grouped together under your chosen hashtag. You can utilize branded hashtags on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Targeted Hashtags

The other category of hashtags are referred to as targeted hashtags. These are meant to help users find your content in search and help boost the visibility of your content in the Instagram algorithm. Think of these in the same way you would use keywords for SEO. You’ll want to curate a list of these types of hashtags for each specific post. Below are tips for choosing them:

• Make sure each hashtag is relevant to the post.
  • If you’re posting an image of a beach sunset, you wouldn’t tag #sunrise, but you would tag #beachsunset
• Use Instagram’s search function to help you find related tags.
  • Type in “sunset” for example and click on #sunset, and you’ll see related tags, such as #sunsetlover, #sunsetgram and #sunsetphotography
• Use a mix of “popular” and “niche” hashtags on each post.
  • As long as the tag is relevant to your post, it’s ok to use a more popular tag, like #beachsunset or #mondaymotivation. Just be sure to balance it with more specific tags like #lagunabeachsunset.
• Test and learn the amount of tags that work best for you.
  • You can use up to 30 total hashtags on each post, but you’ll want to ensure they’re relevant to each post.
• Be careful not to use unrelated tags on your posts.
  • Users can flag irrelevant content, which will end up lowering your reach.

When it comes to posting your tags, you’ll want to include your branded hashtags in your captions, but keep your targeted hashtags hidden by adding them to your first comment. This keeps your captions looking clean and high end, and keeps the focus where it should be – your compelling copy.

The most important thing to remember when developing your hashtag strategy is to be thoughtful about how you choose your hashtags and when and where you use them. Just like the content you create, you want your hashtags to resonate with your intended audience.

GOLD PR’s social media team are experts in aesthetics, beauty, pharmaceuticals, women’s health products, consumer technology, medical technology and medical devices. Offices are located in Orange County, CA and most recently GOLD PR & Social Media opened new offices in New York, NY. To learn more about how we can help you develop a social media strategy please send us a message here. To see how our social media team uses hashtags follow us here.

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The post GOLD PR | Social Media Named to the 2018 Inc. 5000 List of America’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies appeared first on Gold PR : Top Public Relations Firm + Digital Agency.

“We are honored to receive this prestigious industry award for excellence, creativity and achievement in media relations. This award is a testament to the creative and passionate team of professionals at GOLD who work tirelessly to combine innovative communications strategies with flawless execution to drive measurable results for our clients,” said agency founder, Shari Gold. “GOLD is a PR firm that understands women — how they come to trust brands and what influences their purchase behavior. This knowledge was applied to all the work our team delivered for CoolSculpting including this memorable campaign with Molly Sims,” she continued.

The Bulldog Media Relations Awards attract some of the best work from hundreds of top PR firms. They are judged by award-winning journalists including a Pulitzer Prize winner. This year’s judges come from several different media outlets including The Washington Post, USA Today, Forbes and The Oregonian.

In addition to the Bulldog Media Relations Award, GOLD PR has been recognized for its outstanding work in public relations, communications, social and influencer marketing through accolades that include: PR News’ Digital PR Award, PR News’ Agency Elite and Platinum PR Awards.

About Bulldog Reporter

Bulldog Reporter provides news and insights to public relations and corporate communications professionals with the mission of helping these practitioners achieve superior performance. Bulldog Reporter publishes a daily newsletter, with a summary of relevant news called the Daily ’Dog and runs an industry awards program —the Bulldog Awards—to recognize excellence in public relations and communications.

About GOLD PR

GOLD PR (GOLD), established in 2001, has been an independent and highly influential PR and social communications agency representing brands that focus on understanding, reaching and motivating consumer purchase behavior with specific expertise in engaging women. GOLD specializes in integrating brand communications programs across traditional, social and digital media for some of the world’s most significant and successful brands in consumer health, beauty, medical technology, pharma, automotive, lifestyle and food and beverage sectors.

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