Images by Camila Margotta Photography
Written by: Maria Elena Smith
Recently, a group of creatives, entrepreneurs, and wedding industry professionals got together at Julep Venue to hear from experts on how to level up their brands and businesses through the power of social media. Here’s a rundown of what we learned:
Searching for Answers on SEO
First up, we had a crash course in SEO, or search engine optimization from Desmo SEO Marketing . Ever wonder why certain results show up first when you do a Google search? The likely answer is that they have a good SEO and keyword strategy on their website!
Through a well thought out keyword strategy, we can use keyword phrases like “wedding planner San Diego” to keep your site relevant to potential clients searching for wedding vendors. A hands-on, live audit of two of the Refined Tribe’s members showed us real live tips and tricks to help keep your business at the top of the search results and showed us how we can put what we’d learned to use right away.
Putting the Soul in Soul-cial Media
Business coach and soulful strategist Briana Wyatt helped us understand how to incorporate our brand values into our businesses to let the full power of our personality and purpose shine through on our social platforms.
It’s easy to break down social media strategy into a very quantitative, hard data chore - just another thing to check off our list of to-do’s. Briana helped us remember that sharing on social media is personal, and requires us to look within so that we can tell our stories to connect with one another and with our clients. Briana guided us through a brand values worksheet that helped us differentiate our personal and brand values, and use that to develop authentic and meaningful brand content.
Lights, Camera, Reels!
Then, as with all Refined events, a Reel was made! During this hands-on discussion we talked about getting over being self-conscious about sharing our work with our followers, ways to make Reels fun and how to use trending audio and templates to stay on top of trends, and discovered some of the new features that Instagram is rolling out, including a way to make money off your Reels!
When It Comes to What You Post, It’s All In the Details
Of course, when it came time to discuss how to best utilize social media for your business, Jaclyn of In the Details Marketing guided us through the best practices to help us boost our brands and following.
We’re all familiar with the big 4 in social media - Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Each one has a particular audience, and in the wedding industry, it’s increasingly all about Instagram. Your Instagram feed has become your portfolio, an extension of your brand’s personality, your platform for communication with prospective clients, and so much more. That’s a lot of pressure to put on your feed, especially during wedding season when we are all already stretched so thin! Luckily, Jaclyn guided us through some best practices like batching and scheduling to get the most out of social media, even when we’re busy.
Alert the Media, PR is Powerful!
Even the most social media savvy wedding pro or entrepreneur probably feels like public relations is a little bit of a blind spot. Should I be doing it? How can I do it? Is it still about traditional media or is it more about online presence?
Alex Ott of Chrome City Creative was on hand to help us answer these and more questions as she guided us through “The Power of PR”. Alex shared her experience adapting her business from a more traditional way of thinking about public relations - newspapers and press releases and local tv media - to a more broad understanding of public relations that includes social media and well placed, well timed content.
By the end of the workshop, attendees had learned so much and had a few new tools in their hands to help them grow their business through the power of social media. Interested in joining in on the next one? Become a part of the Refined Tribe today!
