The Found Gen

Marketing That Works.

blog

by

Why Your Social Media Strategy Isn’t Working (And How to Fix it For More Engagement)

The success of a social media account is measured through engagement. This represents how frequently people interact with your content through different actions like sharing, commenting, liking, clicking a link, or watching a video. When people engage with your content, it’s usually because it resonates with them in some way. People are more likely to become paid customers when they feel that a brand truly understands them as individuals. 

If people aren’t interacting with your posts, it’s probably because your social media strategy is falling short in at least two areas. One, you aren’t communicating a clear understanding of your audience’s interests, and two, you aren’t taking enough action to solicit engagement. 

With this in mind, here are a few ways to correct these shortcomings and create a social media strategy that works:

Be Social!

People don’t visit social networks to see what they should buy next. They want to see content that makes them laugh, think, or feel validated. If most of your posts are thinly-veiled sales pitches, people are going to be turned off and scroll past them. 

Fostering engagement is more about socializing than selling. Let’s say you’ve just been introduced to a potential customer. Would you immediately launch into a sales pitch? No, because you want them to like you. So, instead of trying to sell something, you’d try to make them laugh, or tell them something they’d find interesting. 

The same concept applies to social media. To be engaging, focus on creating posts that educate and entertain. This will make your brand seem more human, and that’s the kind of brand people want to interact with. 

Engage with Your Followers

A successful social media account is a two-way street. The brand is an active part of the conversation, constantly responding to comments and questions from their audience. When you see the amount of effort the brand devotes to initiating and maintaining meaningful conversations, the high engagement rate makes sense. 

The point is, you can’t expect your audience to engage with your account if you don’t put yourself out there. People like to speak to the human beings behind their favorite brands. Replying to incoming mentions, comments, and direct messages also gives your account more reach. Why? Because people like seeing brands interacting with their audiences. Social networks know this, and their job is giving people what they like to see. 

Create Interactive Content

Another popular tactic for facilitating engagement is through interactive content like polls, quizzes, or trivia. Think about what kind of questions you could ask your audience that would really spark their curiosity and make them want to participate in the conversation. 

To that end, many brands also encourage engagement through contests and giveaways. People have to fill out an entry form to participate in either activity, and that counts as engagement! Besides, people love free stuff. Hosting a contest or a giveaway is a great way to create buzz around your products or services. Just make sure to clearly explain how to enter the contest so customers can easily engage. 

Use Hashtags

Hashtags make it easier for your audience to find social media content containing a specific topic. When you use relevant hashtags in your content, your posts are more likely to seen by social media users who have displayed interested in this topic, making them more likely to engage with your content. 

Generally speaking, hashtags should be short, specific, and reflective of the content of your post. They shouldn’t be generic or broad because that won’t make your content stand out. You may also consider researching trending topics to ensure your hashtags align with your audience’s current interests and concerns. 

All in all, the key to turning your social media strategy around isn’t necessarily being aggressive and posting lots of content. It’s more about presenting yourself as a good-natured human being who genuinely wants to start a conversation with some new friends. 

For more advice on how to boost engagement on social media, contact the team at The Found Gen today. 

by

Simple SEO Fixes Every Small Business Can Implement Today

These days, people tend to discover new businesses through Google. They’ll search for what they need, and then choose which businesses to contact based on what they see in the results. 

Do you want your business to show up when people search for the kind of products or services you provide? Of course you do, and you can make your business easier to discover through search engines with SEO, which stands for “Search Engine Optimization.”

Here are a few very easy ways to improve your business’s SEO efforts:

Set Up Google Business Profile

Rule number one for small business SEO is setting up a Google Business Profile. This tells Google – and potential customers – that your business is legitimate. A Google Business Profile is free to set up, and it lets you share important details about your business, such as your phone number, hours, location, and products or services. 

The more information you include in your Google Business Profile, the easier it is for someone to find your business when searching for products or services like yours in your local area (i.e. “pizza restaurant near me”). To optimize your Google Business Profile, make sure it includes a brief yet informative description of your business, your industry, and high-definition photos. 

Leverage User-Generated Content

Any small business knows the power of social proof, like reviews and testimonials. Well, social proof can improve your SEO efforts as well, giving you yet another reason to encourage your customers to leave reviews, testimonials, or any kind of positive feedback on your website or social media platforms. Search engines favor websites with fresh and relevant content. You can also add reviews and testimonials to your Google Business Profile, so users will see them when checking out your business. 

List Your Business on Directories

Your website, Google Business Profile, and social media platforms aren’t the only places where people review your business. Many people also trust other review websites and business directories like Yelp or TripAdvisor. These websites are usually the first links to show up on Google when someone searches for products or services in a specific location. If your business is not listed on popular niche or local directories, you are losing out on second-hand search traffic. 

Not sure which directories you should be listed on? To find out, simply Google “(what your business does) in (location).” Your business should be listed on whatever directories show up on the first page of results. 

Blogging!

Blogging is a popular SEO strategy because it’s free and it can be highly effective if you follow the golden rule of blogging: be helpful. Search engines favor in-depth, detailed content that features relevant information about the topic. 

You know what kind of problems your customers have. Blogging gives you a platform to provide the information they need to solve them. Posting content that speaks directly to your customers’ problems is a great way to outperform other players in your industry on Google, not to mention giving you more valuable content to share on social media. 

If you’ve noticed a theme throughout this article, it’s legitimacy. SEO is about showing Google that your business deserves to be ranked highly because you check all the boxes of a legitimate business, like a good reputation and a solid understanding of your customers. For further advice on how to maximize SEO for your small business, contact our team of marketing experts and enthusiasts at The Found Gen today.

by

Who Owns the AI Content You Generated to Market Your Business

Artificial intelligence (AI) has ushered in yet another wave of technological change, and with it come opportunities and concerns, particularly in terms of intellectual property ownership and U.S. copyright law.While it’s nearly certain laws will evolve as technology continues to become even more sophisticated, here’s what we know now about content ownership and copyright protections for AI-generated works. 

Ownership versus Copyright Protection

Using any type of AI-generated content requires you to tread lightly, as it comes with many grey areas.

In general, for now, and depending on the AI tool you use, the user (you) maintains at least some degree of ownership over the content created by the AI tool (depending on the tool, of course). For example, OpenAI’s Terms of Use regarding ownership of content states:

“As between you and OpenAI, and to the extent permitted by applicable law, you (a) retain your ownership rights in Input and (b) own the Output. We hereby assign to you all our right, title, and interest, if any, in and to Output.” 

While this may mean you can use the content created by an OpenAI tool, it in no way gives you legal copyright protection. Said another way, you may be able to publish AI-generated content on your website, but anyone can steal it without repercussions. 

If you want to protect your content against theft, you need to be able to copyright your work. The only way you can do that is by having a human create it. Full stop.

Creating Content in an AI World

If this has left your head spinning (it certainly has ours!), you may be wondering what’s next. AI is part of our world, so how can we coexist? 

Like any tool, AI software needs to be wielded carefully and for the right purpose. There is certainly a time and place for AI assistance. It can speed up brainstorming or help you break out of a mental block, but leaning solely on generative AI can carry serious risks for your business and brand. 

As you work to balance business growth with creative marketing efforts, turn to us at The Found Gen. We deliver the human touch in an AI world so you can build relationships, trust and loyalty with your audience.

by

Engagement vs. Followers: Why Quality Matters More Than Quantity

When social media was first becoming popular, a high number of followers was an immediate indicator of success. For businesses, it was almost as if the more followers you had, the more customers you had. 

Today, many businesses continue to prioritize followers in their social media efforts because they see it as a sign of growth. When your followers are growing, it can seem like your business is doing the same. 

But the truth is, a high number of followers doesn’t help your business if your audience isn’t consuming your content. This is measured through engagement, which is what businesses should really be paying attention to in order to gauge their success on social media. 

What is Engagement on Social Media?

Social media engagement is a reflection of all the different ways people are interacting with your social media accounts and content. This encompasses a broad range of actions, such as: 

  • Likes and favorites on posts
  • Shares of posts
  • Comments on posts
  • Replies on posts
  • Tags of people in your posts
  • Mentions of you in other’s posts by tagging you
  • Opening a link you shared
  • Watching a video you shared
Why Social Media Engagement is Important

To understand the difference in importance between followers and engagement, think of a new follower as a very cold lead. When this person engages with your content, they go from very cold to very warm. 

In other words, someone who follows your brand on social media might be interested in becoming a customer one day, whereas someone who regularly interacts with your brand on social media is very interested in becoming a customer. The latter individual is statistically more likely to visit your website, share your content, and start a conversation with your brand. So, it’s really just a matter of interest. Though an engagement is just a minute action, it denotes significantly more interest than simply following an account. 

Here are a few other reasons engagement is more important than followers:

Engagement Affects Visibility

Engagement is the point of social media. It exists for people to interact with each other, as opposed to passively scrolling past each other’s posts. Since social networks place so much value on engagement, accounts with more interactions tend to get more reach. When more people engage with your content, more people will see your content. Why? Because this is what people like to see on social media: brands positively interacting with their customers. 

Engagement Tells You Your Content is Good

If you post content that effectively suits your audience’s needs and interests, they’re going to engage with it. Good content gets rewarded with engagement because you’re showing your audience that you understand them as individuals and genuinely want to connect with them. Forming relationships is a primary goal of social media for businesses. So, if people are engaging with your posts, you are officially winning at social media. 

A high number of followers, on the other hand, doesn’t indicate that your content is resonating with your audience. If it was resonating, people would take action and show you. If people aren’t taking action at all, it usually means your content isn’t making your followers any more interested in becoming paid customers. In comparison to followers, engagement is a much more accurate way to measure social media success. 

Your Competitors Need Engagement, Too

Since engagement is such an accurate indicator of success, this is what you should look at when researching your competitors’ social media accounts. What are they doing to facilitate interactions with their audience? How are their customers showing their approval of their content?

If your competitors’ content is resonating more effectively than yours, it’s time to dig deeper and find out what they’re doing right – so you can do it even better. 

For more advice on fostering engagement on social media, contact the team at The Found Gen today. 

by

From Spam to Inbox: Improving Your Email Open Rate with List Hygiene 

You’ve got a great subject line, your content provides plenty of value, you’re sending at precisely the right time….and yet your open rate is frustratingly low. Why is this happening? A common culprit is unknowingly sending your emails to outdated and/or nonexistent email addresses. 

For whatever reason (e.g. a new job), some of your subscribers may have stopped using the emails they originally gave you. People also make mistakes like spelling their email addresses wrong or signing up for emails twice. 

When a significant number of email recipients don’t receive or open your emails, your messages are more likely to be flagged as spam. And your subscribers can’t open your emails if they go to their spam boxes. 

You can prevent this from happening by periodically cleansing your email list. This is the process of removing dead, fake, invalid, or duplicate accounts to ensure that you are only sending your emails to people who might actually open them. 

Here’s how to keep your email list clean:

Focus on Engaged Users

Step one in cleaning your email list is separating the contacts who engage with your emails from those who don’t. At first, it might seem logical to just remove the latter group from your list. But here’s the thing about email marketing: Sometimes, people just stop opening your emails for reasons that have nothing to do with your brand. They just naturally become disengaged over time. 

If someone has engaged with your brand before, they can probably be persuaded to do it again. So, before you remove an inactive contact from your list, try to win them back by offering something like a small freebie, a discount, free shipping on their next purchase, etc. 

If they still don’t open your email, then it’s time to remove them from your list. 

Remove Duplicates

Duplicate emails can really mess with the accuracy of your campaign’s performance data. By removing them from your list, you can make sure that your email marketing statistics are up to date and that you aren’t unintentionally emailing anyone twice (which is seriously annoying). If you’re using current software for email marketing, it should take care of duplicates for you. 

Remove Spam and Typos

Next, go through your list and separate any email addresses that look misspelled or fake. People write “0” instead of “o” all the time, or “gnail” instead of “gmail.” A fake email address is also pretty easy to spot. They typically look like long, random strings of letters, like nkshiazjowhnx@xyz.com. 

Again, this is something good marketing software can do on its own. 

Communicate with New Subscribers Right Away

When someone subscribes to your emails, start communicating with them right away. If this person continues to engage with your brand, then you can safely say they are worthy of sending more emails moving forward. The goal is to find out if this person is truly interested in your business as quickly as possible, so you can figure out which email list (engaged vs. disengaged) they belong to. 

Manually going through your email contacts is incredibly tedious. When choosing email marketing software, make sure your platform is programed to keep your email list clean. This is an aspect of marketing where the latest technology – like artificial intelligence – can be very helpful. 

For further guidance about improving your email list hygiene, contact our team at The Found Gen today. 

by

The Pros and Cons of Using AI to Generate Content for Your Business

Anyone who’s sat by their computer primed to pump out content only to find themselves staring helplessly at a blank screen knows just how frustrating it can be when the words won’t come. We’ve all been there; it’s part of being human. Sometimes you get writer’s block. Other times, you have all the inspiration in the world but no time to do the work. These and other challenges are real, and they’re one reason why producing quality marketing content is so difficult.

Machines, on the other hand, don’t have these problems. Type in a prompt to an AI-generative tool, and seconds later you have that blog post you couldn’t finish (or start, for that matter). 

Artificial intelligence software is revolutionizing content creation, but it’s not all sunshine and roses. There are some real concerns small business owners and marketers need to be aware of when using the tool. 

Many AI-generated results are incredibly convincing and may even sound human-produced to the untrained eye. While there are pros and cons to using technology, take it all with a grain of salt. Here are some considerations to be aware of when using AI to generate content for your business.

Pros of Using Generative AI for Marketing
  • Bust writer’s block – Even the most skilled writers sometimes hit a wall, and the pressure to generate new ideas never stops. Fortunately, AI tools can come to the rescue. Say, for example, you need help coming up with new blog post topics. You have a general theme but need some new angles or inspiration for writing. Type in that prompt to a generative AI tool like ChatGPT and within seconds you’ll see several new ideas surface all from a single prompt. Want more? You can even ask for an outline to make getting started with writing a little easier.
  • Speed – Another benefit of leaning on artificial intelligence for content creation is the speed with which it can generate copy. We’re talking seconds to the hour here when up against a human. But, and this is a huge but, this copy should never go to print as produced. We’ll discuss why in the next section…
Cons of Using Generative AI for Marketing
  • Plagiarism – A writer is not creating the content pumped out on AI. Its algorithms are learning from existing content and replicating it as closely as possible – sometimes almost exactly like existing content. This is a big problem for plagiarism. Moreover, your business does not own the content produced by AI. Only human-created works will be recognized by the U.S. Copyright Office. Enter lawsuit here…
  • Stiff, no-frills content – Copy produced by AI tends to be formulaic and repetitive. It’s more about facts than delivering a story that’s human-infused in tone and writing. In addition to being dry, the output may not jibe with your company’s voice and brand, and readers will take note. As cool as the idea of generative AI sounds, no one wants to read it on a website they might do business with. Then it becomes a major turnoff.
  • Accuracy concerns – Tools like ChatGPT don’t cite sources in their content. Before considering using any AI content, you best fact-check everything and edit, edit, edit before publishing.
Want Human-Made Marketing Content? Call us at The Found Gen.

AI is cool. We are cooler. If you want human-produced marketing content that builds relationships with clients, give us a holler at The Found Gen today.