Andrea Bacchi: i'm located.

Andrea Bacchi: i'm located in shastri Vermont which is between Manchester and bennington and i'm a 100% online based business i'm also a.

Andrea Bacchi: Marketing consultant, with the Vermont small business development Center teaching clients about social media and email marketing and i'm really, really happy to be here today to talk to all of you and and know that this is being recorded.

Andrea Bacchi: As a tool for Vermont arts Council so what's Nice is you'll be able to go back and see this again if you have any questions or maybe perhaps you miss today's session, so I am going to.

Andrea Bacchi: share my screen and then stop the video so that you will just see the screen and be able to pay attention to that, and if you have questions as we're going through this.

Andrea Bacchi: feel free you know, there will be questions at the end, of course, but sometimes it is a little easier to pop a question in the chat or.

Andrea Bacchi: I think lt is going to let me know if i'm not paying attention to the chat if there are any questions so feel free to ask it's about a learning learning process today.

So here we go.

Andrea Bacchi: Okay.

Andrea Bacchi: Okay, so.

Andrea Bacchi: um I hope you can see the screen if you cannot lt, please let me know.

Andrea Bacchi: So today's session webinar is on social media marketing benefits demographics and content calendars.

Andrea Bacchi: So the big thing I mean everybody's talking about social media marketing, but what what is it and and and who can benefit I think those are some really big things we need to need to address here.

Andrea Bacchi: social media marketing it's a form of digital marketing using social media platforms and we're going to talk about some of the big ones, today it these platforms and sharing content on these platforms are a way to increase brand awareness.

Andrea Bacchi: Stay top of mind and and you know talk about your products and services to cultivate relationships, how to build trust.

Andrea Bacchi: build relationships and you know, of course, sell your products and services with consumers and your potential customers kind of bringing them through.

Andrea Bacchi: What we call a buyer journey which is you know the process that someone goes through from being a potential customer to your you know, hopefully repeat customer.

Andrea Bacchi: And so, social media marketing is a huge player in you know digital marketing is the umbrella and social media marketing is one of the pieces of digital marketing, others are you know search engine optimization which involves being you know.

Andrea Bacchi: Seeing when someone google's something thats related to your business or service and being found on the first page of Google results that's called ranking.

Andrea Bacchi: that's one way there's email marketing there's there's a lot of different pieces of digital so social media marketing is one of those pieces and what it involves is creating content.

Andrea Bacchi: For social media platforms so you're promoting your products or services you're building community as well you're building community.

Andrea Bacchi: let's see sorry i'm you're building Community i'm promoting the products.

Andrea Bacchi: going for your target audience that's the really big thing here is like.

Andrea Bacchi: You know, when you think about well who's my target our audience, those are the demographics, that you want to research before you think about which platforms you're actually going to go on and put your content on.

Andrea Bacchi: So if you were going to talk about more of this as we go forward the demographics of each platform, but what you're trying to do is you're trying to drive traffic to your to your business whether it's you know, a.

Andrea Bacchi: storefront or you're trying to build you're trying to drive traffic to your website and what can you do on the website well if it's an e commerce brand and maybe you.

Andrea Bacchi: are selling the product online on the website that makes a lot of sense to send people to your website and who can benefit from social media marketing well well pretty much anyone and quite honestly i'm definitely artists.

Andrea Bacchi: You know, small to medium sized businesses benefit corporations benefit nonprofit organizations musicians performers professionals pretty much everyone even people that are.

Andrea Bacchi: You know they're they're freelancers and they're maybe becoming they're going to be a startup.

Andrea Bacchi: they're entrepreneurs they've been in the game for a while they're looking to grow their brand or their you know their business or their personality.

Andrea Bacchi: In terms of like the personality as a brand even job seekers, you know it's a big thing and we're going to talk about linkedin a little bit too as a business to business brand.

Andrea Bacchi: Maybe not so much for an artist to be there as selling the business, Sir, so to speak, but as someone to network with other people in the in the industry and just in general it's a really great place to be but we'll break that down more as we go.

Andrea Bacchi: So, essentially, everyone can benefit from being on social media, but just narrowing down.

Andrea Bacchi: What platforms and what type of content to put on those platforms, however there's this webinar today and then there's another webinar.

Andrea Bacchi: That i'll be leading on social media, you know tools tips and techniques and that's happening on June 22 so.

Andrea Bacchi: I really encourage you to chime in on that one or at least check out the recording on that if you can't if you can't come that day because there's going to be some really good info there as well, so what are some of the benefits of social media marketing well there's a lot so.

Andrea Bacchi: You know a lot of times people think it's just to sell your products, but really that's that's actually something that comes later, you don't want to just get on social media and sell your product or your service or.

Andrea Bacchi: You know what you want to do is you want to build a relationship and trust with your leads with your audience with your potential customers build a community and.

Andrea Bacchi: You can you can you know talk to your new and existing customers there to build that relationship and and doing the.

Andrea Bacchi: To build relationship, it takes, you know engagement, it takes posting content that you feel you're bringing value to your audience and when I say value what does that mean.

Andrea Bacchi: What that means is, what do you think they want to see do they want to see videos of you.

Andrea Bacchi: If you're an artist and that can mean a lot of different things which is really cool and you know, are you showing behind the scenes of how you.

Andrea Bacchi: You know you show a canvas and then maybe you show what it looks like the before and after and I will tell you people love before and after content so.

Andrea Bacchi: Maybe that's what you do to bring more Community and trust to your audience there's a lot of different ways, you can go.

Andrea Bacchi: But engagement which is likes comments questions shares and that's really important because that not only build the relationship and community, but it also tells the algorithms which you're going to hear that a lot.

Andrea Bacchi: it's it shows the algorithms on each platform that your brand is popular and people want to they want to talk more about it and they do want to share and they do want to.

Andrea Bacchi: engage and be social on the social media platforms so that's really important.

Andrea Bacchi: But by doing by sharing this content on social media it's going to increase your brand awareness and recognition and really establish yourself as an industry thought leader.

Andrea Bacchi: So you're going to stay on top of mind, for your target audience your potential customers, which is great, because if they you know if you stay on top of mind, then, when they need the product or service that you offer.

Andrea Bacchi: they're going to they're going to reach out to you and by doing that you either.

Andrea Bacchi: You know you further bring them through the buyers journey you.

Andrea Bacchi: bring them the value that they need to feel that you support them so that they actually want to do business with you in the future, but it's more than just selling it's there's a lot of things here.

Andrea Bacchi: social media does yield a high return on investment, it takes a while, though, I will say this, I don't want anybody to ever feel that Oh, if I put content out there.

Andrea Bacchi: Then i'm going to get you know $10,000 in sales in a month, it just doesn't work like that, I mean we wish it did, and if it did.

Andrea Bacchi: That would be amazing for all of us, however, it's just not that simple what I like to tell people is that marketing in general is a marathon and not a sprint.

Andrea Bacchi: So you have to continually put in the effort and be consistent to post and build content and analyze the metrics and do this whole thing over and over the cycle continuously to see results, so it can take months for it to really.

Andrea Bacchi: work, but once it starts once you start to gain momentum you, you know, and you keep up with it and then how the industry is changing.

Andrea Bacchi: You really can can see some some business growth and that's the exciting part is all of this coming together so speaking more about benefits you're you're able to increase website traffic and boost sales of course you show your expertise to content, maybe you share some tips.

Andrea Bacchi: And you know, whatever if it's if it's music you're talking about you can share, about you know what the music industry what you're doing maybe you share some videos of us a new song you play or something like that to kind of give pieces of content to your audience.

Andrea Bacchi: Right, so you can create live videos and then what's really cool is you can sell you can sell on social media platform, so if you had a product.

Andrea Bacchi: or even a service, technically speaking, if you gave lessons, you can have a Facebook shop right on Facebook.

Andrea Bacchi: And, and that you know I think there's an option or there was I don't know if it's changed, most recently, you can either have someone purchase right from the shop.

Andrea Bacchi: Or it does send them to they can view the item or the offer and then and then be taken to your website.

Andrea Bacchi: there's also the instagram shopping feature, and this is a huge thing, and recently tags meaning like tagging the product in the photo on instagram has become quite big so there's a lot of opportunity for selling your products on social media or for driving people to your website.

Andrea Bacchi: Another wonderful thing about marketing on social media is that you can learn from your competitors.

Andrea Bacchi: And that's really helpful for research that's helpful, even in the beginning stages and throughout the whole entire process of the business.

Andrea Bacchi: But learning from your competitors competitors on what types of content they're sharing and how you can set your belt, apart from your competitors is is really great.

Andrea Bacchi: For business success, you can see what kind of hashtags they're using and we'll talk about hashtags a little more in the next webinar but hashtags are essentially.

Andrea Bacchi: You know it's the what as a musician I would say that it is the sharp sign Oh, or it is the pound sign on a phone right but it hashtag is put before a word.

Andrea Bacchi: And what it does is on Twitter and on instagram instagram is hashtag heavy and it basically, is what the search terms that people are searching for in this in this search.

Andrea Bacchi: field on that social media platform if they search for something, and it is attached your content that you share.

Andrea Bacchi: Then they're going to find your content but there's there's a strategy around this because there's so much content that is created every minute on every social media platform in the world that what you kind of have to do is talk about.

Andrea Bacchi: You know you have to you have to add hashtags that are not as popular to to be found a little easier, so we can talk about this more in the future.

Andrea Bacchi: But but that's one way, one thing you can you can do is learn from your competitor, you can also partner with influencers on social media marketing and and we'll we'll talk about that more in the techniques.

Andrea Bacchi: session.

Andrea Bacchi: Okay, there are more benefits, you have the opportunity to go viral which means you become popular popular quickly or your piece of content becomes popular quickly.

Andrea Bacchi: And that's really, really cool so there's that opportunity, you can also source content ideas now you don't want to plagiarize you don't want to use the same exact content, you know you can't you know share something without someone's permission for one and you would want to give the.

Andrea Bacchi: Credit where it's due but it gives you an idea of information that you might like I might build this kind of piece of you know graphic or video or picture, or something like that, for your brand.

Andrea Bacchi: what's great about social media marketing, as you have reputation management and crisis communication so that's a really big player customer services huge.

Andrea Bacchi: You can engage with your customers and ideal clients and you can you know something called social listening is so so huge.

Andrea Bacchi: and basically you're learning about your customers wants and needs by looking at their comments and seeing how they interact with your posts, you can also do this by seeing how they interact with your.

Andrea Bacchi: Your competitors posts.

Andrea Bacchi: One of the other really big things here is reporting and analytics and a social media marketing.

Andrea Bacchi: strategy really cannot exist without reporting and analytics from what that means is once you post or build content schedule it post it.

Andrea Bacchi: You want to look at the reporting and the analytics because you want to know how you can optimize from where you are, because this is kind of like again the cycle of.

Andrea Bacchi: Always knowing Okay, this is doing well i'm posting at this time of day Oh, it looks like video is very popular with my audience, I want to post more video you want to do what looks like it's working.

Andrea Bacchi: And again, that can take some time to understand those metrics but it's really important and that's a great benefit is to get that kind of feedback.

Andrea Bacchi: So how many people are using social media wow you know a lot of people.

Andrea Bacchi: So in in 2022 or in May it's estimated that it's going to reach 3.9 billion users, I mean that is a huge I mean it's still growing The industry is still growing.

Andrea Bacchi: And as mobile devices and social networks, you know become are changing because they're always in competition with each other to get the users.

Andrea Bacchi: Meta which used to be Facebook, as the parent company, but the parent company is Meta owns you know Facebook instagram whatsapp and messenger.

Andrea Bacchi: There you know, seeing what other brands are doing like ticked off and so they're implementing more video and this and that so it's really kind of neat to see how it's growing but it's it's definitely a popular.

Andrea Bacchi: Digital marketing path that's for sure.

Andrea Bacchi: um so let's see look at this one of the leading benefits of using social media marketing purposes worldwide as of January 2021 so here's some of the breakdown, I thought it would be really interesting to go over this.

Andrea Bacchi: Increased exposure was the the top one and i'm really glad to see that and not you know I mean you do want to increase traffic you definitely want to generate more leads and increase sales.

Andrea Bacchi: But social media marketing and content, marketing, which is you know sharing content to to bring value and create that community.

Andrea Bacchi: that's the most.

Andrea Bacchi: The leading percentage is increased exposure with increased traffic right behind it and then generating leads and it looks like improve sales is kind of more down the list so so that's an interesting breakdown.

Andrea Bacchi: So we're going to talk a little bit about Facebook and Facebook, is the largest social media network of all of the networks right now it's the most online.

Andrea Bacchi: US and it's 2.93 billion monthly active users, I mean that is a huge huge number.

Andrea Bacchi: And the largest age age group is 25 to 34 year olds so it's about 43% female 57% male there's no data on other genders, that I can find for.

Andrea Bacchi: The platform, so I just wanted to bring light to that because I want to be inclusive, but I just want to state that it couldn't find data on other genders, and so that's the breakdown 65% of people are over 50.

Andrea Bacchi: which, I think that you know when I talk to people, they say to me Oh well, that's really for the younger generation it's like not necessarily I think I think honestly.

Andrea Bacchi: As an artist, you know instagram is definitely a big player, a great place to be, and if somebody were to think, well, I want to be on more than just one platform.

Andrea Bacchi: If you wanted, you have to be careful because honestly that's a lot of work.

Andrea Bacchi: And so sticking with one platform would be fine mastering it that's a great way to go, if you were to say Oh, I wanted to be on two platforms Facebook, is a really great platform to be on for sure so it's about being you know clickable links some photo.

Andrea Bacchi: But definitely a player to think about here 70% of people earning more than $75,000 a year are on Facebook.

Andrea Bacchi: So that's really good to think about when you're thinking okay my demographic is this Oh, maybe you do want to be on Facebook, maybe that's where your your ideal client happens to be.

Andrea Bacchi: And let's see Oh, and here we go users spend an average of 19.5 hours a month on Facebook yeah I can believe that I can definitely believe that i'm one of those people because there's a lot of value on Facebook with Facebook.

Andrea Bacchi: pages business pages, the groups and a lot of a lot of value that I found on that that platform, not just as a business owner, but as a professional.

Andrea Bacchi: And as a person people go to Facebook, to talk with their family and friends, but there's a lot of opportunity for businesses and entrepreneurs and artists to to you know have part of that.

Andrea Bacchi: And that here's just some graphs of the.

Andrea Bacchi: biggest age groups and gender that'll be good to have some visuals their.

Andrea Bacchi: educational background, the College degrees are leading with 73% and some college 71 and high school 54% so it's definitely an educational I would say heavy.

Andrea Bacchi: platform there's over 10 million active advertisers on Facebook as of 2020 so that's another good piece.

Andrea Bacchi: Definitely, a good place to have a business for organic content, which is unpaid.

Andrea Bacchi: And then, once you get your page going, and you, you were like okay Now I want to get some more momentum it's fine it's absolutely fine once you make, for your your posting consistently.

Andrea Bacchi: and your pages built out to advertise on Facebook and the great thing is that it doesn't cost a lot, a lot of money to advertise as opposed to like a print ad which I still believe in print ads there's always a time in a place.

Andrea Bacchi: I definitely think that you can you know put some money into Facebook ads get and be able to target them that's a really wonderful thing about digital marketing when it comes to social media ads but that's that's more for the future.

Andrea Bacchi: And seven and 10 Facebook users say they visit the site daily that definitely makes sense to me.

Andrea Bacchi: You know it's businesses don't be afraid, if you think your target audience your ideal client.

Andrea Bacchi: Is on social media on the weekends, which they most definitely are but it depends on what you know who your ideal client is don't be afraid to post and schedule content for the weekends this isn't just a Monday through Friday scenario.

Andrea Bacchi: People depending on who they are, which which target area they're in are definitely reaching for their for their social media Apps on their phones and and you know, whatever they're doing every pretty much every day.

Andrea Bacchi: it's the most use networking APP amongst marketers so 93% huge it's just there's so much value there's so much opportunity for connection there.

Andrea Bacchi: and

Andrea Bacchi: So 70% of US adults use Facebook so that's really, really good to know it's the most popular network which we've talked about it's also the second most popular.

Andrea Bacchi: Right after YouTube YouTube is huge, because it's a it's it's really as the search engine, if you think about it, you know how do I do this, how do I do that people use it to learn and there's opportunities for you to share content there's also opportunities for you to.

Andrea Bacchi: advertise if you wanted to, but you don't you can you don't necessarily have to you can literally drive traffic to your brand to your website using you know organic content.

Andrea Bacchi: um let's see leading types of branded post on Facebook this didn't surprise me at all, to be honest, because we're looking at the links photos videos and like if you had a status update so photos.

Andrea Bacchi: Those drive those get through the content filter easier than if you're always posting a link, because a link will take someone off of Facebook and bring them to a third party website, which is fine to do once in a while.

Andrea Bacchi: You don't want to do it all the time, because if you think about it.

Andrea Bacchi: Taking someone off of Facebook and bringing them to your website is going to mean that Facebook doesn't make money off of that person as much because they're going away from the.

Andrea Bacchi: away from Facebook, whereas if you keep them on the platform it's you know they get to see more stuff and they have the possibility of clicking in ad right so um and Facebook makes money off of that so that So the idea is.

Andrea Bacchi: To you know mix it up a bit with your content as you're moving forward so we're on to instagram and we talked a little bit about Facebook i'm a big fan of Facebook myself.

Andrea Bacchi: Some things i'm not the biggest fan of as a consumer, but at the same time, I know that nothing's perfect and I also know that there's room for growth so i'm hoping that the that Meta will listen to.

Andrea Bacchi: The consumers that are using it, and the businesses and make some positive changes for all so that we all can feel comfortable about.

Andrea Bacchi: The social platforms were on in 2021 I think in quarter for Facebook lost a lot of users, perhaps related to some news that came out, but I think they're trying to make some changes, and I think it's in their best interest but it's really also in our best interest.

Andrea Bacchi: You know, so that we feel really, really comfortable about the platforms we're on.

Andrea Bacchi: So hopefully that will drive the needle forward in a way that that benefits us all, so now we're going to talk about instagram so instagram is really cool.

Andrea Bacchi: there's lots of great stuff happening with instagram it's a photo sharing and video social networking platform.

Andrea Bacchi: And it has a digital filter feature to edit the content and to add words and to you know add stickers and all these other cool things to make your content.

Andrea Bacchi: attractive and fun and really bring value to your your ideal clients it's got about while they're projecting about 127.2 million monthly active users so big number and.

Andrea Bacchi: it's definitely gaining more popularity and again each platform is competing with each other for the next big thing because they're seeing the users go to one platform and move over to the next, so they're really trying to drive it forward with with new features.

Andrea Bacchi: So here we go 35% of music listeners in the US, who follow artists on Facebook and instagram do so to connect with their fans or feel like part of a community.

Andrea Bacchi: So this is a really big thing when it comes to you know we're we're meeting today through the Vermont arts Council and we're thinking about artists right so.

Andrea Bacchi: instagram is a huge huge place that I would really look into see if the demographics makes sense for you, if your ideal client is on instagram and then.

Andrea Bacchi: You know, building your brand thinking about building your brand on this platform, if you're already on this platform, hopefully you're going to learn some things today.

Andrea Bacchi: on how to you know further your reach on the platform itself 71% of US adults between 18 and 29 use instagram compared to 70% on Facebook and 30% on.

Andrea Bacchi: Well that's really cool that that's definitely a piece of information that you want to hold post about where to go in terms of with your your art artistic brand.

Andrea Bacchi: So okay 47% of US instagram users make more than 75,000 per year that's also really helpful to know too.

Andrea Bacchi: And I thought this was really important on instagram if you have a photo showing faces it's going to generally.

Andrea Bacchi: Get 38% more likes than a photo not showing faces so that's I think you know people really want to connect.

Andrea Bacchi: They want to connect with authenticity and that's what instagram is actually trying to promote more now they want less robot.

Andrea Bacchi: They don't want robots technically speaking, I mean they want people and I don't mean to say like actual robots if they sense that you're posting something and it's a robot doing it.

Andrea Bacchi: They will dock your content and show it to less people in the in their newsfeed so they just want more authentic relationships between brands and consumers that's what they're really trying to go for.

Andrea Bacchi: So there's the largest eighth group here again is 25 to 34 with 18 to 24 year olds are close behind it 31%.

Andrea Bacchi: instagram is still still has a really strong hold on gen Z and millennials i'm a 39 year olds when the upper.

Andrea Bacchi: End of the millennials and I gotta say there's so much good content on instagram that i'm seeing is educational content there's.

Andrea Bacchi: You know I do see artists i'm also seeing a lot of good business stuff a lot of marketers on there I learned a lot from myself and professionally speaking through instagram I learned a lot through tic TAC to but we'll get to that later in the presentation and that comes to it.

Andrea Bacchi: comes as a surprise to a lot of people it came as a surprise to me to be honest with you, but a lot of learning opportunities in all of these platforms, if you really know how to get there and and or you're open to it that's that's a good way to play.

Andrea Bacchi: So the gender 48.4% of female 51 male I was actually surprised on this, I thought it would be higher in for female for females and males.

Andrea Bacchi: But i'm curious to see where that's going to go going forward and the average time is 29 minutes spent per day, which I actually thought that was going to be higher.

Andrea Bacchi: Maybe because i'm a business owner I spend more time on there myself but there's a lot of value there, so I definitely spend more than 30 minutes a day.

Andrea Bacchi: And some of the benefits of instagram I really wanted to kind of jump into benefits of this platform and take it one step further.

Andrea Bacchi: it's a great place for online self expression, and you know some brands like to display their wealth through photographs and you know attractive features like that, but.

Andrea Bacchi: it's really a place for high quality photos graphics and videos that's really, really important if you post something and it looks like it's grainy.

Andrea Bacchi: or it's blurry that's not going to help your brand on instagram.

Andrea Bacchi: I mean it's not really going to help your brand on any platform, but really, really on instagram you want to think about.

Andrea Bacchi: These high quality photos that are crisp and clear and really can convey the message, because that's what the platform is really about and that's what people really want to see.

Andrea Bacchi: um so users are easily able to you can share your content very easily on the Social Platform there's a couple different things going on there's you know post, which is a static posts, the picture does not move on there's really there's stories, which are quick.

Andrea Bacchi: You know videos that go away, after a certain amount of time there's lots of opportunities for content, sharing here.

Andrea Bacchi: Because of the different types of content that you can share there's high levels of engagement, so if you're looking for a platform where you can really.

Andrea Bacchi: Have that social conversation with your audience instagram is a great place to do it, and you know don't be afraid of the hashtags you can have up to 30.

Andrea Bacchi: You don't want to use the same 30 hashtags so on instagram and again we'll talk about this in the next webinar because if you use the same 30 hashtags after you write your copy or your your wording your text.

Andrea Bacchi: The platform is going to think you're a robot and it's not and it's going to say Oh, we don't want to do that we're not going to show this content to more people in the feed and it's actually going to hurt you so you want to use different hashtags that are related to your strategy.

Andrea Bacchi: Is a great place to have influence or brand endorsements of products and services, so if you had an influencer working with your brand or your your business, this is a wonderful platform where they can take it forward for you.

Andrea Bacchi: And so the cool thing 50% of instagram users visit a website after seeing it and stories and stories, is that you know video is clip I guess you could say.

Andrea Bacchi: That goes away after a certain amount of time, so when people are seeing these stories then they're going to the website of the brand.

Andrea Bacchi: And to do that a lot of people say a lot of brands say you know visit the link in the bio instead of adding a link to each post like you can do on Facebook, you want to put the link.

Andrea Bacchi: Whether it's to the actual website or what's called a link tree there's other brands that do this beacon does this as well.

Andrea Bacchi: that's like a link you click that's in the bio and it becomes a hub it's a hub of all these websites that you, you know have are related to your brand so you could have.

Andrea Bacchi: Someone go to your website, you could have them go to your shop, maybe there's a place for them to sign up for your email list, and that would attach to like the link tree, but that goes in the bio.

Andrea Bacchi: And, essentially, if you are posting content consistently and people are really enjoying the content and you encourage them with a call to action.

Andrea Bacchi: You gently encourage them to click on your link in your bio there's more chance that they're going to do that, after they see a story and they're going to go to your website.

Andrea Bacchi: let's see overall worldwide instagram really takes the cake it's just passing tip talk and tick tock was the most downloaded APP social media APP.

Andrea Bacchi: In 2021 I believe is either 2020 or 2021 and we'll get to that later, but tick tock really super growth power but instagram somehow just just let it a little bit further.

Andrea Bacchi: And these different colors here we have the APP store, which is blue so that's ios the apple store and then Google play is on android so that's the breakdown of people, you know who who downloaded the APP I was really interested to see this.

Andrea Bacchi: Data here that that came as a surprise to me because i'm hearing so much about apple.

Andrea Bacchi: I have an android phone myself, while i'm playing with Google play.

Andrea Bacchi: But i'm kind of curious as to why you know what that is that personally i'm going to i'm going to divulge into that a little more myself i'm curious but.

Andrea Bacchi: that's the beauty of data and reporting and analytics is to know well, well, why is that happening so, then you know I might change my approach in my business on how I found you know target my ideal customers and you might do something similar, for your business.

Andrea Bacchi: So it's the most popular social network of teenagers and United States it's dominated by people under 35.

Andrea Bacchi: dominated that doesn't mean people over 35 don't use it, it just means right now that's where the the marker is.

Andrea Bacchi: But it's really, really great for artists people in the fashion industry luxury brands retailers and it's a huge place for e commerce again he has have you know Facebook shop that's excuse me now Facebook shop instagram has a shop feature and it's really big for marketers to.

Andrea Bacchi: 59% of people log into instagram daily I mean that's that's a pretty good chunk of people and 91% of active users are watching videos weekly so.

Andrea Bacchi: videos get so much more reach than a static photo but that doesn't mean you shouldn't use that photos I think it's really important to have a mix so when you're when you're going forward with that that's really important.

Andrea Bacchi: um let's see so see it's just it just raises the amount of users, since January of.

Andrea Bacchi: 2013 has just look at look at the growth that's amazing from 18 to 2021 look at that and that was even before know the pandemic happened it started in March of 2020 so maybe that's correlated to the pandemic.

Andrea Bacchi: marketer say are most valuable suffer social goals and i'm not going to get too much into this today because i'm going to talk more about types of content techniques during the webinar on June 22.

Andrea Bacchi: So next month, so stay tuned for that, but I just wanted to touch on the idea that.

Andrea Bacchi: To reach social media goals, I mean the whole idea of producing content to reach your target audience your ideal client is what are your goals, what are your business goals.

Andrea Bacchi: You know why am I doing this, what is your why you know why did you start the business and then break it down to well what am I actually trying to accomplish here.

Andrea Bacchi: You don't want to just put out anything you want it we're going to talk about content calendars a little later today too, but video and images are huge text text based posts are still happening they're not as popular.

Andrea Bacchi: On instagram and they're harder to be seen to be honest with all the content that is produced every minute and published every minute by every brand and business and person and artists in the world.

Andrea Bacchi: text based post don't really make it through as easy if you put a photo or video and that's going to help your content gets me.

Andrea Bacchi: stories are still there still big they're less than text based post, but I think it's nice to have a mix and live video is is something that's important too, but I think honestly when you go through your strategy it's important to know to look at your analytics.

Andrea Bacchi: Excuse me and.

Andrea Bacchi: You know, see what's working if something is working, maybe text based posts are working for you then that's something you want to stick with.

Andrea Bacchi: A Twitter Twitter enables users to send short 240 character messages called tweets.

Andrea Bacchi: And there's by the end of 2021 there was 217 million daily active users and Twitter is forecasted I mean it's a great place for customer service.

Andrea Bacchi: um it's forecasted to to lose users over the next five years to really decline so i'm kind of interested to see you on mosque just purchased it recently and i'm really interested to see what's going to happen there because of that purchase but.

Andrea Bacchi: Essentially you know one third of Twitter users are college educated and they make more than $75,000 annually Twitter, is a great place for you know customer service brands.

Andrea Bacchi: definitely share, you know photos and video but it's also a really great place to you know social listening to like see what your competitors are doing see what your ideal client is, and you know interested in.

Andrea Bacchi: it's also a really great place to job search i'm not sure if anyone's aware of that, but it is a good place to do that.

Andrea Bacchi: And you know you just have to kind of think about what kind of content, you want to share if you're going to go there, if your demographic is there.

Andrea Bacchi: So the largest age group is 25 to 34 year olds 38% ish are female and 61 ish or male and 31 minutes is the average that people spend a day.

Andrea Bacchi: And people you know find out about their news on Twitter I don't know if you remember, I don't know how many months ago that was Facebook had an outage.

Andrea Bacchi: Maybe in the last six eight months and pretty much everybody found out about it, and not just because they were on Facebook and it and it went out, but everyone went to Twitter and linkedin.

Andrea Bacchi: To find out what was going on, so the breaking news happens on Twitter.

Andrea Bacchi: So here's a little breakdown frequent meters and infrequent Twitter, so if you if you're a you post on Twitter you're considered a tweeter.

Andrea Bacchi: there's the distribution 30 to 49 is your your highest level there that's interesting to me kind of wondering how that's going to change over the next few years, especially with the Elon musk buyout.

Andrea Bacchi: And so it is popular However it doesn't compare to Facebook YouTube and whatsapp youtube's really huge we know Facebook, is the largest one.

Andrea Bacchi: They all have over 2 billion users and Twitter does not but it's still it's still a big player in the game.

Andrea Bacchi: I you can share your your opinions there there's entertainment news we talked about job searching and.

Andrea Bacchi: People are you know sales and marketing spending in 2021 was 1.17 so it's it's definitely still a player I don't want you to think it's not but I don't know if.

Andrea Bacchi: It would make sense for you to be on there as a as an artist I don't know that again you have to look at the demographics see what makes sense for you, but it's definitely what I wanted to talk about because it's still a little player.

Andrea Bacchi: YouTube I wanted to jump into YouTube I think it's really important to talk about this, and this is something that I see is underutilized I know there's like only so much bandwidth that we all have as business owners that's for sure.

Andrea Bacchi: But YouTube is really great, especially for a content creator and artists musician as of 2021 there was an estimate of 2.24 billion users worldwide it's the world's leading music APP so definitely something to think about going forward.

Andrea Bacchi: Number of monthly active users is over 2 billion and the largest age group is 15 to 35 year olds so that's the highest breach.

Andrea Bacchi: And you know, this could change in the future for sure, but right now that's where it sits and the gender is leading a dominating with male just just a little bit more 54% male and 46% female.

Andrea Bacchi: people spend about 30 minutes per day on YouTube I find that to be incredibly low, to be honest and perhaps you know I don't know why that's coming through it 30 minutes I tend to spend quite a bit of time on YouTube looking for.

Andrea Bacchi: You know how do I do this, how do I learn that, I mean from simple things to how to tie a tie, to you know.

Andrea Bacchi: Please let me know about the latest Google analytics release and you know what I need to know about that, so it depends on.

Andrea Bacchi: I mean if we're artists, we can you know how do I play the guitar how do I, you know what is the best breathing technique to play the trumpet I mean there's so many different things, you can look up.

Andrea Bacchi: And then, again, these are things you can as artists create content and share this with your audience and so people find you through YouTube and then you have your link to your website in the in the.

Andrea Bacchi: You know below the video there's so many ways to drive traffic to your website, and you know people to buy your products and services, after you've brought them value so 90% of Americans who make 75,000 or more are on YouTube and 89% of Americans with a college degree are on YouTube.

Andrea Bacchi: So that's really, really important to know.

Andrea Bacchi: 62% of youtubers do log into the platform daily that makes a lot of sense to me it is again another platform that has high engagement and retention, just like instagram.

Andrea Bacchi: it's the second largest search engine after Google, and that makes a lot of sense right Google we go to Google to search about how to do things, but if you are visual i'm very visual.

Andrea Bacchi: And I like to hear and see at the same time, and so YouTube is perfect.

Andrea Bacchi: Great way to to learn and inform and educate, because with social media marketing we're trying to educate inform and entertain.

Andrea Bacchi: Our ideal client to build that on trust and relationship and and I will say this just to touch upon quickly you know 80% of the time when you're posting content.

Andrea Bacchi: You want that that the content to be that education informed build relationship and the 20% of the time is selling is selling and promoting your products.

Andrea Bacchi: So it doesn't feel like you're just coming at people with your selling and it feels you want those really honestly authentic relationships just feels better anyway, even if you weren't selling anything at all.

Andrea Bacchi: it's just a you know lead with kindness essentially bring value build community and and bring it forward with that authentic piece.

Andrea Bacchi: And most YouTube traffic comes from social media platforms so that's really cool you can essentially drive people to YouTube with your you know say you're on instagram you can bring them to your your instagram your YouTube.

Andrea Bacchi: channel or you could do that with Facebook, you know you can bring them through your funnel whatever that looks like.

Andrea Bacchi: um the leading entertainment and video streaming Apps in 2021 by downloads netflix was first that makes sense, however, they had some changes recently and it looks like they're going to lose a lot of users.

Andrea Bacchi: But YouTube was right after it and Google play games was after that it's interesting to see the breakdown here and.

Andrea Bacchi: see our spent five video consumers and a typical week on a video content worldwide as a second quarter 2021 it's really neat to see this breakdown.

Andrea Bacchi: watching paid video streaming services and looks like the tallest here is watching free video streaming services and that that's YouTube right.

Andrea Bacchi: And they're doing that one to five hours on a typical week, and so, if you're able to put your content on YouTube you have opportunities to catch your your ideal client and and bring them through and make them aware of your brand.

Andrea Bacchi: So we're going to talk about linkedin.

Andrea Bacchi: linkedin is.

Andrea Bacchi: About 645 million users, it is a business to business platform it's you know it used to just be job seeking and jobs.

Andrea Bacchi: it's so much more than that, now it is a little bit of everything you can also you know you can use the free version of linkedin that that.

Andrea Bacchi: You don't need to go for premium you don't need to unless you wanted to utilize their linkedin learning, but you don't have to do that, you can you could learn on YouTube.

Andrea Bacchi: or Google um but it's a great business to business.

Andrea Bacchi: platform and the demographics are.

Andrea Bacchi: This this breakdown here so 45% of people, the largest percent of people have make $75,000 or more.

Andrea Bacchi: And 13% make under 30,020% makes him 30 and 49 and 24% between 50 and 74 so that's good to know when you're thinking Okay, you know does my demographic.

Andrea Bacchi: make you know, maybe my demographic makes 150,000 a year Okay, perhaps I want to go on linkedin, but let me check out the other platforms.

Andrea Bacchi: First, to really see what makes the most sense, you know if you're doing your social media marketing yourself as an artist, you want to think about what do you have the bandwidth for.

Andrea Bacchi: You only have the bandwidth for one platform only choose one platform so because the content that goes on each platform really.

Andrea Bacchi: You can put the same content on each platform, but I don't think it helps a business or brand when someone does that, because what happens is.

Andrea Bacchi: The content and the way that it's strategize the way it's put together with the copy and the picture and the video and the hashtags and the.

Andrea Bacchi: emojis and don't be afraid of emojis if they're relevant it really helps to have your content scene in the film in the feed on but all of these pieces.

Andrea Bacchi: do need to be different on each platform, in my opinion.

Andrea Bacchi: Not everyone does that and that's fine everybody has to make the choice that's best for them, but if I were you know to say Okay, if you want to get the most REACH.

Andrea Bacchi: For your ideal client and to speak to them in a way that makes sense for that platform it just has to look a little different for each platform, while the content and the context is similar the way that you put it together.

Andrea Bacchi: You know, can get more eyes on it and be seen easier when it's.

Andrea Bacchi: tailored for each platform, so if you only have bandwidth for one platform that's okay that doesn't mean anything negative.

Andrea Bacchi: I would literally try to do the best and and learn that one platform, instead of trying to master five and not doing the best job and not being consistent on each platform.

Andrea Bacchi: And plus it's just too overwhelming and the education demographics for linkedin is 50% of a college education or more and 22% have some college so it's a it's a more educated platform.

Andrea Bacchi: And here, you go 27% are in suburban areas with 30% in urban so and 13% in rural So here we are in Vermont in rural Vermont and many of us are all of that.

Andrea Bacchi: And 52% are male just a little bit more than female but you know, quite honestly, what i'm seeing from where i'm standing is i'm seeing a lot of like.

Andrea Bacchi: It looks kind of like an even split i'm kind of interested to see where the demographics, so in the future, but right now with.

Andrea Bacchi: With being on linkedin as a professional and a brand i'm i'm really seeing a split and it's really great you know you get to meet a lot of new people and learn from them and learn from each other it's a great platform.

Andrea Bacchi: And 63% of linkedin users are accessing the network, the weekly and 22% daily yeah that makes sense there's a lot of good content there it's it's easy to be overwhelmed with all the content, so you have to kind of think about what is it that I want to do here what is my goal.

Andrea Bacchi: and

Andrea Bacchi: let's see.

Andrea Bacchi: You can research people in companies and connect with businesses and associations and colleagues and build relationships there so it's definitely.

Andrea Bacchi: Not a bad idea to be there if if it made sense demographically and you can you know post content that brings people to connect with you, you know you end up looking like the you are the expert in your field.

Andrea Bacchi: And it's a great way to just you know build your network essentially.

Andrea Bacchi: tip is really important um I i've really learned more about tic TAC in the last year i'm a consumer on tick tock I have not yet a business on Ted talk, but I will say this, what a like a wonderful platform for learning for connecting for.

Andrea Bacchi: there's honestly I feel there's so much value there, and when i've said this to people, they just laugh at me and I don't blame them.

Andrea Bacchi: Because it's it's new and people think it's just for teenagers but it's not really just for teenagers, there are a lot of brands professional brands that are on tick tock it's all about.

Andrea Bacchi: What kind of content you're creating to attract your ideal client you don't have to do the dances if you don't want to that's not necessary.

Andrea Bacchi: You don't have to you know do.

Andrea Bacchi: Things that you're not comfortable with on any platform that's a really big thing I should stress you do what you feel comfortable with.

Andrea Bacchi: And you know, sometimes that might mean like thinking outside the box, but if you're not comfortable doing dances don't do it that's that's not necessary, you can certainly grow your business without doing that, but it's a video sharing social media APP.

Andrea Bacchi: owned by a tech company called bite dance which that's kind of funny because people do dance on there so that that makes sense that it's it's going in that direction, but it's um yes it is popular with younger younger people.

Andrea Bacchi: And, but at the same time, people are building entire careers off of the content that they're sharing on tick tock.

Andrea Bacchi: um and you know i've seen some really professional businesses on there just grow their brand so so much.

Andrea Bacchi: And hit their financial goals and just hit like you know it's not about Oh, I have to have a million followers I mean if you've got a million followers that's amazing but followers don't.

Andrea Bacchi: they're kind of considered vanity metrics followers don't immediately say it doesn't equal conversion.

Andrea Bacchi: What and i've seen brands with not a lot of followers have a lot of conversion and when I when I say conversion, I mean are people.

Andrea Bacchi: You know, REACH, are they funneling and going to you know buy your services off of your website, are they signing up for your email list, those are conversions and so when you think about followers.

Andrea Bacchi: don't just think Oh, I have to have this many followers for me to be a good brand no it's about the content, you bring the value the Community you're building the customer service all of these benefits we talked about.

Andrea Bacchi: For people to understand what you do and and how you can solve their problems as a brand.

Andrea Bacchi: So it's 61% female and 39% male that makes sense to me that makes sense um but again that's that's this, this is what the data looks like today on on may 25.

Andrea Bacchi: The data will change in the future as it will with anything but right now, this is where it stands and it's it's good to know that as you're going forward so if your.

Andrea Bacchi: target audience your ideal client is more of a female then then that's a good thing to think about and maybe you want to be on tick tock it's the most downloaded APP worldwide and 19% of college graduates use tick tock and users are between the ages of 15 and 25.

Andrea Bacchi: However, you know that grew during the pandemic, and that makes a lot of sense because of the videos right there.

Andrea Bacchi: The videos the time limit now tick tock has upped their time limit to 10 minutes, so you know you have like 15 seconds 30 seconds and they might add others in between.

Andrea Bacchi: But they're learning that people really want to see video, which makes sense, so tip top YouTube wheels on instagram stories on Facebook to you know they they disappear in 24 hours, but every platform seems to want a little slice of the pie.

Andrea Bacchi: so that they can have a bigger pie right but everybody's kind of competing against each other and hoping for, to create more features, so that the users will go there.

Andrea Bacchi: And some people use all platforms, but but maybe as a consumer, not a brand you know hard to have bandwidth for all of those those platforms.

Andrea Bacchi: there's any 90 minutes per day on the platform I think that's the most we've seen on these platforms so far today so it's a really popular platform.

Andrea Bacchi: 40% of gen Z say they're directly influenced by products on kickstarter um so brands really should think about this when they're trying to sell their product.

Andrea Bacchi: i've seen a lot of ads personally there and i've actually purchased one or two things that I learned about on tech talk.

Andrea Bacchi: um so it definitely grabbed my attention it grabbed my attention in the first I think tech talk it's like in the first three seconds, you really have to get the person immediately.

Andrea Bacchi: To to make them stay or they're going to swipe to the next, video.

Andrea Bacchi: And so tip top rate ranked $2.3 billion in consumer spending.

Andrea Bacchi: In 2021 quarter for.

Andrea Bacchi: Coming up from.

Andrea Bacchi: Oh i'm sorry, excuse me, as a quarter four and 2021 tick tock raked in $2.3 billion in consumer spending marketing, an increase of 77%.

Andrea Bacchi: From 2020 quarter for so that's so it's definitely growing it's definitely growing growing and it's valued at 50 $50 billion and there's an I noticed there's an in APP currency.

Andrea Bacchi: piece of the APP that you can send gifts to other creators, so, if you like, what they're doing you can set you can send money to them, so you know and gifts so which is, which is pretty interesting to see how that rolls out.

Andrea Bacchi: Andrea yes.

VtSBDC Host: We have we have a question.

VtSBDC Host: And it's um.

VtSBDC Host: If you could comment on the use of twitch and patreon as well for creative businesses are you familiar with those.

Andrea Bacchi: yeah I am familiar with those twitch twitch not as much patreon I have seen a lot um.

Andrea Bacchi: it's definitely.

Andrea Bacchi: A good place if you feel actually both I would say, if you feel it makes sense for your business to have that be part of your marketing mix.

Andrea Bacchi: Absolutely i've seen creators on patreon for sure, and the thing is, is when you put yourself on these platforms, make sure you know you you fill it out, you really put your about section and explain, you know what it is that you do as a brand as an artist and then.

Andrea Bacchi: drive traffic to that page, the content is only as good as it is with people like it's it's beaut it's great content and you don't want to have that opportunity go to waste you want people to see it, you want the eyes on it.

Andrea Bacchi: So if you're able to what we call cross promotion and cross sell it's okay to bring people to your patreon from your instagram page or from you know, bring them to your twitch from.

Andrea Bacchi: You know another platform you use or say you're you're you've already integrated email marketing into your marketing mix.

Andrea Bacchi: You can send you know put put the the links to your social platforms in your email campaign, I know this isn't about email today, but I just know there's a there's a great crossover.

Andrea Bacchi: on how the content is created, and how it can reach your audience using both techniques, but even if you're just using social media.

Andrea Bacchi: And that's fine you know put that information there and talk about Oh, you can find out about this on this page or that page, so I think.

Andrea Bacchi: Understanding the demographics of those platforms, think about your goals what am I trying to do what am I trying to do in my business who am I trying to reach and why.

Andrea Bacchi: that's going to help with how do I, promote this platform that i'm on yeah that's that's a great question, and I mean for any platform, you know, does it make sense for me to be here.

Andrea Bacchi: And then look at those analytics those metrics and you know weekly and just don't expect things to happen overnight that's a really, really big thing I want to stress it does take time.

Andrea Bacchi: And even if you, you know got a little growth for you saw one change that that's going to give you a signal of oh.

Andrea Bacchi: Okay, that is working that's the kind of content, I want to post more of and share and be consistent and it's going to get better, as you go forward and make those changes to bring it forward does that help.

Andrea Bacchi: I hope that helped if not let me know and i'm here to answer more questions.

VtSBDC Host: I think that's that's that's a good answer.

Andrea Bacchi: Okay, great great.

Andrea Bacchi: Okay, so.

Andrea Bacchi: um tick tock and thank you so much for asking that question, I think that was really, really helpful to discuss that.

Andrea Bacchi: 18 to 24 year olds are the the leading age group for for tip Doc um, but I think as more i'm kind of you know i'm wondering, as more brands are seeing the value in the platform if that's going to change if it's going to change, where the maybe it'll be you know older.

Andrea Bacchi: Older demographics, but we'll see how that goes in the future.

Andrea Bacchi: So a lot of tic-tac users want funny and engaging content on tips on his account if you can't make it out, I.

Andrea Bacchi: You know we're in Vermont I thought I needed to make itself into the presentation somehow but yeah people want to see, they want to see funny.

Andrea Bacchi: And they do want to see you know, entertainment and educational it doesn't have to all be funny, especially if you're a more.

Andrea Bacchi: You know if you're a law firm you're not you know we're artists here, but I mean a law firm would be on tick tock or a more serious plan cookie on tech talk on how you.

Andrea Bacchi: You structure your content to bring it forward but seeing is where this is for Vermont arts Council absolutely inspiring entertaining content on tick tock makes a lot of sense i'm just going to reach people easier.

Andrea Bacchi: And 41% of users have uploaded a video reacting to another video i've seen this it's like a dual you know you take someone's video.

Andrea Bacchi: And you as a musician could even you know, take a video and and like listen to it, have it be a video on your channel and kind of talk about that that that's actually a great way to grow your your channel.

Andrea Bacchi: But you have to put people in the first three seconds that's the big thing but that's not too hard, you could explain immediately what you're going to do in the video.

Andrea Bacchi: And that's really going to grab people's attention and this allows you know smaller brands and freelancers and artists musicians and one.

Andrea Bacchi: person shows to go viral on tick tock the little effort.

Andrea Bacchi: So I know we're we're getting close to.

Andrea Bacchi: The end here, but pinterest and then we're going to talk about content calendars so pinterest is a visual discovery engine it's essentially like Google, but.

Andrea Bacchi: Like on Google when you click it in the search bar if you type in something you have options, you can see links, you can see images it's kind of like the images version of Google search.

Andrea Bacchi: um but So if you go to pinterest and you type in the search area in the pin area and you type in Vermont, this is what I, this is a snapshot I came up with yesterday.

Andrea Bacchi: These are pins and what happens is if well if you were on pinterest and you clicked on this, it would take you.

Andrea Bacchi: Not just to the pin where you could see the beautiful pictures and graphics, but it has the the website link or whatever website, the person who created this embedded into the photo the pin.

Andrea Bacchi: So when you click that it takes you directly to their website now talk about bringing someone to your website right, I mean or wherever, for your course or your maybe you're a musician and you teach online guitar classes or violin or something like that.

Andrea Bacchi: You could have somebody go directly to where they can sign up to pay for your course and by clicking a pin because they went to pinterest and search for it, I mean it's just so amazing from where i'm standing that's just genius.

Andrea Bacchi: And we aren't you know, we want to see things that's really helpful and so the percentage of adults who use pinterest by gender it's mostly women but men have.

Andrea Bacchi: come forward more during the pandemic it's grown which that's interesting to see and because it's not just you know pinterest started out as.

Andrea Bacchi: brides who wanted to build their their wedding you know whether it's a registry, or what you know their wedding but it's so much more than that, now, you can learn there you can.

Andrea Bacchi: Just share lots of different types of content through pins and inform your public, so the largest age group is 50 to 64.

Andrea Bacchi: Leading on with female as we talked about time spent per day is 14 4.2 minutes I kind of find that low, to be honest, because there's so much you can find but maybe that's because.

Andrea Bacchi: You go ahead and put whatever in the search bar find what you need and there you go, I mean perhaps that's why it's less I don't know what the reason is, but i'm curious to know.

Andrea Bacchi: And pinterest claims eight out of 10 moms in the USA, use the platform that's really helpful So if you have a product or service that you think your demographic is moms pinterest might be your place to go.

Andrea Bacchi: And 86.2% of pinterest users also use instagram I think that's really helpful to know.

Andrea Bacchi: People make over $75,000 a year.

Andrea Bacchi: or something they're.

Andrea Bacchi: 70% of users say it's their favorite platform yeah I mean there's a really good there's a lot of good good stuff there a lot of content, you can share.

Andrea Bacchi: And pins are you know different sizing each platform has different sizing that you want your content to be or your graphic I should say, and you know canvas or adobe whichever one you prefer their competitors, of course, but if you like, canvas.

Andrea Bacchi: And adobe they both allow you to to make a graphic that is the size that is needed for each platform and that's going to help your content your graphic be seen easier in terms of is it clear, is it Chris.

Andrea Bacchi: um, but we can talk about that more in the next webinar so now we're going to talk about content calendars those are the demographics, on some statistics.

Andrea Bacchi: from each platform now a content calendar and what the heck is a content calendar well it's really, really important piece so we're going to talk about that a little bit.

Andrea Bacchi: As we round out the end of this webinar and if you have questions there's that time, but a content calendar is essentially it's an editorial calendar use to plan digital content for social media, you know marketing blogs, but today we're going to talk about social media only because.

Andrea Bacchi: it's efficient way to plan organize your social media posting schedule this way it takes away the overwhelm.

Andrea Bacchi: And it takes away you having to every day sit in front of the computer and say oh my God what am I posting today.

Andrea Bacchi: Because I don't know about you, but that is not something I want to do because that's overwhelming in itself.

Andrea Bacchi: Because, then you feel like you're behind the ball and that's stress we don't want stress, we want to eliminate stress, we can.

Andrea Bacchi: What the content calendar does and why it's important is it's going to help you organize when, where and how your content is going to appear on your social channels.

Andrea Bacchi: and which channels, do you want to post to if you were on a couple channels, if you if you were comfortable being on a couple.

Andrea Bacchi: You might say to yourself, you know what today this day i'm going to post on Facebook, but i'm not going to post on instagram because there's also a cadence.

Andrea Bacchi: How many times how many times, do you post to each platform and the industry has based on the algorithms that each platform has decided okay on Facebook, you want to post, you know four times a week, at least.

Andrea Bacchi: If we're really trying to grow your brand you maybe post every day but it's really different for each platform essentially.

Andrea Bacchi: The content calendar is the big picture approach to your social media content planning and it allows you to visualize and organize your ideas, which is very, very helpful.

Andrea Bacchi: And it's part of the strategy, it really needs to be part of a strategy when you're building a social media marketing strategy for your brand.

Andrea Bacchi: Because again it's it's like one of the puzzle pieces and and it helps you create opportunities for more success of conversions of people buying your product or service.

Andrea Bacchi: signups for email list sales and even people becoming followers you know when you put in these questions in your post that invite people to engage with your content and you.

Andrea Bacchi: And you put the call to actions and it kind of gives you an idea on this content calendar Okay, I have some of this, I need more of this, so it helps to balance out what you're putting forward.

Andrea Bacchi: And so what's included again it's what you've what you will share when you're going to share and where you're going to share it and some of the posts that you include on your content calendar can be.

Andrea Bacchi: That you know the date when is it going to be published what's the theme, what are you actually talking about.

Andrea Bacchi: Your description your visual description, including short sentences about you know your post or video.

Andrea Bacchi: Maybe it has some hashtags in there if it's Twitter or instagram it has more hashtags if it's linkedin maybe has a couple or Facebook just a couple.

Andrea Bacchi: Get format a platform I mean there's so much you're essentially taking it's really a puzzle you're Taking all these pieces and putting it together on a content calendar, so that you are planning what you're going to schedule in the future.

Andrea Bacchi: here's just an example, I took this off of Facebook blueprint, which is Meta has you can learn about you know different ways to market yourself on Facebook and instagram which is really, really a wonderful resource, if you want to jump on over to Meta and you know, or you could just Google.

Andrea Bacchi: You know how to market on Facebook and then that will come up, but this is basically an example of what a content calendar could look like.

Andrea Bacchi: And this, you know it looks like it's in either Google sheets, or you can even do it on Microsoft word or Google docs you know, make it simple don't make it there's a lot of different ways of content calendars like how they look, but sometimes they can be really, really.

Andrea Bacchi: overwhelming in themselves, so you want to try to simplify it just with the date, the theme, the caption the description, the format, the platform, so you know where it's going.

Andrea Bacchi: You know, honestly, you can basically pick what you like, because everybody's different everybody works differently so maybe you want to be a little more information and that's fine.

Andrea Bacchi: Just do what's going to work for you, because you don't want the content calendar to make you feel stressed out then you're not going to even want to do the next part um but the types, you can use, I mean Microsoft word Google docs.

Andrea Bacchi: excel Google sheets, you could even just go to Google or bing whichever ones you're using.

Andrea Bacchi: or mozilla and and type in content calendar template and then click on over to the images search and it will show you all the different types, you could potentially.

Andrea Bacchi: You know just use that template you can also search on pinterest for content calendar template and boy, you are going to find a lot, so you know.

Andrea Bacchi: Whichever way you go or maybe you just want to go to start your own you can start from scratch that works too, and again it's just like a puzzle going to take all these pieces, what are the holidays coming up what are my holidays specific to my brand coming up.

Andrea Bacchi: And you put the puzzle together and then you can build the content, you build the graphics you build the videos the copy the hashtags all of it put it together and then place it on the calendar that makes sense, based on when you think your current your.

Andrea Bacchi: ideal client is going to show up and see the content appear in their feed on the platforms so to have them know more about your brand and.

Andrea Bacchi: You know funnel to your website, and you know, promote your products.

Andrea Bacchi: And we're going to talk more about scheduling posts during the the techniques tools and tips a webinar on on June 22 so if you're interested in learning more about that i'd love to share that with you on that date.

Andrea Bacchi: So that pretty much is the end of the.

Andrea Bacchi: webinar and then the presentation that is on my end if you have any questions you know about general business questions or updates with the Vermont small business development Center feel free to email.

Andrea Bacchi: them, and you can also find the Small Business Development Center on Facebook Twitter and linkedin so feel free to go over there and give us a like in a follow and see all the great stuff that they're doing because they're they're really excited to help small businesses and artists.

Andrea Bacchi: In growing their brands so that's so that's the end of the presentation and i'm wondering if anybody has questions so i'm going to stop sharing the screen and i'm going to put my video on.

Andrea Bacchi: Okay, are there other any questions from from anyone in the crowd.

VtSBDC Host: Are there is there no questions right now.

Okay.

VtSBDC Host: So I think your presentation was very clear.

VtSBDC Host: awesome and we are recording it, so this is going to be posted on the website if people want to see it again, so I am going to stop the recording now and in.

VtSBDC Host: So.