If you are a business with a social media presence or a website with a blog, you’ve probably heard people talk about posting new content on a regular schedule. You may have figured, “Oh yeah, I’m on Facebook all the time! No problem!”

But then you realize that it’s Thursday and you should have posted something already, but you just don’t know what to say. And so you haven’t said anything … in weeks.

To you, my friends, I say, “Take heart, you are not alone!” Content presents a challenge for everyone who creates it and there are ways to make that process easier. One of those is by making a content calendar. After all, fortune favors the bold AND the prepared!

Ah, Facebook. Love it or hate it, as the largest social media platform around its likely part of your marketing mix in one way or another.

By now you’ve probably heard that with the new algorithm changes that hit in early 2018, organic (unpaid) reach for branded Facebook pages is low, about two percent on average, meaning only a tiny portion of your followers actually see your content.

As a result, we’re seeing more and more of our clients accept the inevitable – to market on Facebook you have to pay to play. However, not all Facebook promotions are created equal.

If you are anything like me, you’ve spent a fair amount of time of the past few weeks reading other people’s thoughts, wishes, and goals for the new year. I like everything I read. And I want to jump on board with every bold goal, idea and vision.

(Well, except for Whole30. I’m not giving up bread or ice cream. Just not going to do it.)

But the harsh reality is that many of those good intentions for 2019 are going to remain unfulfilled. It’s not because of a lack of desire, but a lack of being intentional.

The BIG DAY is just around the corner; are you ready? With the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, it’s a busy time as people try to wrap things up (pun intended). If you can imagine, it’s a hectic time in Santa’s workshop as the clock ticks down to go-time, but you know the big guy will be ready.

Your “Big Day” might not be an ambitious globe-trotting, gift-dropping ordeal, but whether it’s a product launch, event, or advertising campaign, we can head to the North Pole to collect a few project management tips—Santa Style.

Living in a world where we carry little computers with high definition cameras around in our pockets has made sharing video content easier than ever – and users are eating up it up!

Facebook Live is a growing trend in social media marketing, and with over 1.8 billion active users and an incredibly easy-to-use live video service, there is no reason for you to sit this one out.

But before you start shooting from the hip, we’ve got some tips to make sure you are prepared for a successful broadcast.

The graphic design team at Sutherland Weston excels at creating the eye-catching visuals that make our clients stand out. We know how to arrange design elements and colors for aesthetic appeal and legibility. We’re accomplished in the art of making people stop for a moment as they swipe through their Facebook feed. We turn heads for a living.

That said, our work is only as effective as the intent behind it. 

The purpose of marketing materials is to convert the customer’s attention into a desired interaction. This could mean a number of things, such as purchasing your product, giving you a phone call, or donating to your cause. This is why it is crucial for the graphic design team to have a key sense of the project’s purpose before we begin.

By answering a few key questions, we can maximize the effectiveness of a marketing piece.

If you’ve been wondering how you could use video to compete, grow and win more business, you’re not alone. Here are three ways businesses of any size can incorporate video quickly, easily, and at a low cost to add high impact to the sales process.

There’s certainly been a lot of talk and buzz about the use of video, whether it be in social media or whether it be in marketing in general, every conference, workshop, report and article states that the use of video is growing. More people are creating and consuming video and it certainly looks like that’s not going away anytime soon.

However, many business owners aren’t quite sure how or where video fits into their business – or even if it’s something that should fit into their business.

Making presentations to groups is an important and necessary task in many professions, especially in professional and technical service fields.

Doing it right can have a huge impact on your ability to convey a point, educate an audience or win new business.

Doing it wrong can alienate an audience and deliver an unwanted result from all the time, effort and expertise you put into the presentation.

If you find yourself needing to present to a group, especially if you are conveying data, statistics or industry-specific terminology, the following three topics can help you get a greater return on your presentation efforts.

Online reviews have been around for a while now and while most of us know that they are important, we might struggle to articulate why.

But it's pretty simple. Good reviews help persuade potential customers that you are prepared to deliver great products or services.

In fact, a 2014 study found that 88 percent of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. That same study found that the more online reviews a business has, the more trustworthy it is deemed.

Consumers read an average of six online reviews before making a decision, so it's important to have a number of online reviews for your business.

Here are some recommendations and best practices that could help.

At Sutherland Weston, we field many questions about using social media in content marketing efforts. They tend to be about which social media channels to use, how to use them and how to make the best use of them. Here are three recommendations we share frequently to help you be more effective.