The Importance of Being Social

Nov 7

Challenge: The Indigo Road hospitality group, one of our longest-term and most enterprising clients, now counts 15 concepts to their name. You know what that means?

The Indigo Road also has more than 60 social media accounts to manage. To align. And to develop...wait for it...a social media graphics strategy around (Mercantile & Mash's instagram account has more than 11,000 followers alone).

So how have we learned to stop worrying and love social media? It comes down to a few important precepts.

For starters, social media isn't an add-on or a nice-to-have or a when-we-get-to-it medium anymore. Interacting with your fans on social media is every bit as important as greeting your customers face-to-face. The majority of consumers today follow their favorite brands, not only out of loyalty, but to stay in the loop on upcoming events, sales, giveaways, you name it.

And graphics matter. In fact, there are so few words in social media that graphics rule the roost and control the message. You can develop an airtight strategy but if your posts don't showcase beautifully rendered, professionally developed imagery, you're about to go from #damndaniel to #byefelicia.

And especially because most users are mobile, the only way to capture their attention when they're swiping through their newsfeed is with quick snippets of text combined with eye-catching photos.

75% of Shared Content Contain Images

The next time you're promoting yourself, snap a compelling picture to share along with it. For The Oak Table, we highlighted the special price along with a great shot of their seasonal cocktail. It's like a two-for-one.

Thurs & Fri publicity Increases Participation by 18%

If you're planning a big weekend event, make sure you're promoting your butt off at the end of the work week.

Celebrating their 2nd Anniversary, Oak Steakhouse decided to feature a special throwback menu featuring dishes from their opening night, which utilized a familiar hashtag that users love and encouraged in-platform engagement. We created a vintage-inspired graphic that quickly and effectively informed followers of the special in a fun and interesting way.

Include Relevant Links

If your followers can't quickly and easily find where to sign up, purchase tickets, or enter a giveaway, they'll just scroll right on past.

The Cedar Room hosts monthly yoga classes, and utilizes Facebook's event feature to let followers quickly and easily sign up. The graphics that we create for them double as promotional features, as well as cover photos on the event pages.

We haven't truly been able to "hide" from social media for quite some time. But if you're not using it to your advantage by developing a coherent strategy (that desired outcomes, target audience identification, weekly schedules, and tracking) or employing professional graphics in service of your strategy, well, ask the Luddites how that worked for them.

Happy posting!

Jaci Lund

Jaci Lund partner, creative director, designer Jaci’s quick wit and native intelligence comes across as soon as you meet her—and carries over to her design, where she fuses fun and sophistication in just the right doses. With a dual focus on creating original branding for new concepts and revitalizing the look and feel of even the most-established brands, Jaci approaches each project with a fresh and thoughtful perspective. While she recognizes the relevance of current trends, she’s hyper-conscious of the fine line that separates “trend” from “fad,” and tends toward more timeless and classic looks for her clients. Before founding Treebird, Jaci was instrumental in growing the design department at Atlanta’s The Reynolds Group, Inc. Through a five-year tenure that saw her quickly ascend to senior designer and then become the company’s first creative director, Jaci worked on design and branding projects with visionaries, entrepreneurs, and business leaders whom she admires greatly and whose own passion elevates her sense of what’s possible through new design, branding, and communication. Jaci has won nine ADDY Awards (and counting) for her design and branding work and has twice been featured in the national design blog “Art of the Menu.” She holds a B.A. in communications from Michigan State University and completed the graphic design program at The Creative Circus, where she also teaches a quarterly course called “Introduction to Creative Thinking.” To see Jaci's previous work please visit jacilund.com.

treebirdbranding.com