PRESENTING: ARCH DIGITAL AGENCY


About a year ago, I began seeing problems in the social media marketing industry.

As a social media strategist, I was often asked, “How do you find time to do it all?” but when I started back in June 2012, time wasn’t an issue. Sure it was hectic to stay on top of every social platform, but it was doable.

But that changed.

By the end of 2013, I hit the limit of clients I could take on, I was spending more time maintaining my client’s brands than my own, and the ability to stay up to date on all of the social networks diminished.

Social media changes FAST. Take Facebook – it basically changes on a daily basis, and doesn’t even resemble the social network it was a year ago. It’s a business now – you have to pay to play, and they don’t give away anything for free anymore. And for social professionals, this means you can build a career solely on Facebook Organic Growth or Facebook Ads. They are two completely different avenues – one creative and the other, analytical.

Not that social professionals can’t be both creative and analytical, but as you may (if you’re in the marketing world) or may not (if you’re a biz owner or person on the outside of social media) have noticed, social pros have been branching off this year and choosing to focus on one social network or on one aspect of a social network.

And they’re smart.

Because social media isn’t the little kid it used to be – it’s growing up at a faster pace than we expected. Pinterest is maturing it’s analytics and ad stream, and successful Twitter ad case studies are beginning to pop up everywhere.

For the client, this probably isn’t something that bothers you. But you should be aware because the social media professional you’ve hired may not be staying up to date.

To recap, I’ve watched these changes this year: social professionals niching out, the maturing of the social networks, and the struggle between handling an agency and continuing to offer the best social service.

Bottom line: there just isn’t time for everything.

But along the bumpy road of trying to figure out how to grow my agency, and be honest when promising top notch service came the perfect answer: an agency comprised of specialists. And not just self-proclaimed specialists, people who have already been recognized on their own for being outstanding social media professionals.

I present to you: ARCH Digital Agency, the first social media marketing agency comprised of specialists who work together giving clients The Best while staying educated, relevant, and at the top of their social media game.

If you’re a business owner, this should excite you because you’d be hiring a team of specialists to develop, grow and maintain your online presence for close to what it costs to hire one social professional.

And if you’re a social media professional, then you see the amazing implication such an agency has. Not only are specialists focusing on what they do best, but also doing what they are most passionate about and that’s where synergy occurs.

I am honored and excited to introduce to you: Blake Jamieson, the Facebook Ads Specialist, KP Kelly, Twitter Organic Growth Specialist, and Dave Perrotta, the Copywriting, Sales Funnels and Email Marketing Specialist.

And if you’re wondering what my specialty is, it’s organic growth across all networks. I specialize in content creation, design, relationship development and community growth. I will have my hands in everything because it’s who I am. And now I can do it without feeling the pressure to stay on the very top of everything.

I believe the ARCH Digital Agency model is the new type of social agencies that will emerge because professionals cannot honestly stay on top of every social network, and continue to offer excellent social media marketing.

It’s time to team up, change the way we (social professionals) do business, and honor our word when we offer clients the very best.

And if you’re wondering what ARCH stands for – it’s a combination of my initials and the sole intention to continue growing and shooting UPWARD.

I would LOVE to know what you think about the new ARCH Digital Agency and if you would like to find out more about the Specialists, check out the About page.

WHY AN EMAIL CAMPAIGN IS ESSENTIAL FOR YOUR BUSINESS (AND HOW TO DO IT RIGHT)


It’s the age-old adage of successful internet marketers everywhere…

The money is in the list.

Your email list, that is.

And there are plenty of stats to back it up.

For example, 44% of email recipients made at least one purchase last year based on a promotional email.

If you’re not using email marketing, you’re falling behind the competition. One of the primary reasons email marketing is so crucial is that it allows you to build a relationship with your audience. Most of your prospects won’t be ready to buy or invest in your product or service from the outset—in fact, up to 95% of leads are not ready to talk to a sales rep after their first visit. But, eventually, most of these leads will be ready—you just have to steer them down the path to that eventual sale.

How? A lead nurture email campaign.

Lead nurturing is the process of building relationships with qualified prospects regardless of their stage in the buying cycle, with the goal of earning their business when they are ready.

A typical lead nurture campaign is 5-10 emails sent over 1-2 months. It references the original piece of content that caused the conversion and then has a call-to-action to convert to the next piece of content or offer.

But in order to create a lead nurture campaign, you first need a way to convert your website visitors into leads. In this article, we’ll talk about how to capture leads, segment those leads with email marketing tools, and create the right content to build a relationship with your audience.

How to Capture Email Addresses
When it comes down to it, the only thing a business owner owns is their email list—so capturing addresses is crucial. Lead capture is simply the idea of offering a reason for website visitors to sign up for your email list. This usually comes in the form of a promise of some future type of content in exchange for their email address.

That content is known as a lead magnet. The speed of your list building is directly correlated to the quality of your lead magnet. Subpar, unattractive lead magnet = very few sign-ups. Attractive lead magnet = tons of sign-ups.

So, what are the ingredients of an attractive lead magnet?
Jam-packed with value. Create something insanely useful for your audience. A piece of content they absolutely HAVE to have, and can’t resist clicking on. Avoid the basic “Sign up for free updates,” or “Sign up for the newsletter!” Let’s be honest here—people don’t care about free updates. That’s not enough of an incentive to gain a spot in their inbox. Let’s say you’re a software developer. A good lead magnet might be a PDF titled, “10 Questions You NEED to Ask Before Hiring a Developer”.
Free. Remember, most visitors aren’t ready to buy yet. Free, valuable content induces their emotions and hooks them in.
Clear offer. The lead magnet should be a clear offer that communicates the value readers will receive if they subscribe. And you should over-deliver on that value in your lead magnet.
Good placement. The lead magnet should be clearly visible on your website. Place your lead magnet on the top of your website and/or the upper right hand corner, as well as underneath each piece of your blog content.
Here are some great content options you can use for your lead magnet:
Ebook
Webinar
Consultation
White Paper
Video Course
Coupon
Free Trial
Infographic
Segmenting Your Leads
Now that you understand how to create a lead magnet and capture leads, let’s talk about segmenting those leads. Because in order for your lead nurture campaign to be truly successful, you need to send the right message, to the right person, at the right time. Otherwise, your content will be too general to lead your prospects through the sales funnel.

You can segment your email leads with email marketing software that takes into account not just list segments, but also lead data, and trigger events. If you have a smaller business with a lower budget, then email marketing software like Aweber, Mailchimp, or GetResponse may be best. But if your budget is a bit bigger, you can use software that takes more data into account, like Infusionsoft or Salesforce.

There are many ways you can segment your email list. The type of segmentation you use will depend on the type of business you have. Here are some great ways to segment your email list:
Geography. This is especially important if you have a brick-and-mortar business—you don’t want to send in-store offers to out-of-towners.
Buyer Persona. Have you created buyer personas yet? If not, start here. Each persona has different needs and value propositions, and they require different email content for the best click-through and conversion rates.
Stage in the Sales Cycle. Remember, most people aren’t ready to buy from the outset. At the very least, you should segment your leads by those in the top of your sales funnel (just became aware of your product or service and signed up for your list), middle of your sales funnel (they’re evaluation your solution for their need), and the bottom of your sales funnel (almost ready to buy).
Lead Source. A trade show lead is at a different stage than a lead that signed up for a webinar. Vary your messaging by how people were converted into leads.
Building A Relationship Through the Right Messaging
Be Conversational and Personable
People want to interact with people, not companies. Get on their level. Talk to your leads like you’re a friend who absolutely HAS to give them a cool piece of info or advice, or tell them about an amazing offer. You’ve had conversations with customers before—start typing like you speak.
Start the conversation, and encourage them respond to your email and join in. The more engagement you have with leads, the more value you can provide, and the more trust you can build.

Educate and Inform
Educating leads is one of the best ways to shorten the sales cycle. When you educate people, you start to establish yourself as an authority in your field.

Don’t be overly salesy in these emails—but always educate them on a topic that relates to your product or service.

Let’s go back to the developer example. And let’s say you want leads to sign up for your software audit to fix their mobile or web applications. In the first nurture email, you can educate people on possible hazards that can affect applications. You can continue to educate and inform them for a few emails before your discuss your software audit more in-depth.

Specific Calls to Action
Each email should have one clear call to action (CTA). This way, you don’t confuse readers and they can focus on one subject at a time. As a result, they’ll be more likely to take action. Determine the primary action you want readers to take, and model your CTA around this.

At the beginning of your lead nurture sequence, use soft calls to action. For example, simply ask a question (in this case, the CTA is for them to respond), or ask them to follow you on social media. As your lead nurture sequence progresses, amplify the call to action and focus it more on your products and services. For example, in a seven-email lead nurture sequence, you’d want hard calls to action on the final two emails.

Conclusion
A lead nurture email campaign is essential for your business. People buy from people they know, like, and trust—so building a relationship is key. Most of your audience isn’t ready to buy, and they are at different stages of your sales funnel.

With a lead nurture campaign, you can send the right message, to the right person, at the right time, and transition them through your sales funnel to an eventual sale.

THE NUMBER ONE INGREDIENT FOR SOCIAL MEDIA SUCCESS


Every day I talk to people who want to get in on the social media game.

Not everyone is quite sure what it is, but they know it’s a powerful tool in the marketing arsenal, and traditional advertising avenues aren’t yielding much anymore.

But once they have a decent grasp on how social media works, the number one question is, “What’s the best thing I can do to be successful with social media?”

Consistency.

It’s not glamorous or easy, and it’s definitely intimidating, but consistency is the fastest route to building an online community that likes, trusts, and interacts with you. Which leads to what we all want most – buying.

Let’s break down what consistency provides:

  1. Credibility
    Credibility is everything when it comes to your brand. It’s the integrity of your business and the heartbeat of your sales process. If your brand isn’t credible, then why would people purchase your product or service? Why would they believe in it? Which brings us to..
  2. Trust
    Without trust, you can’t build, develop, or grow successful relationships. And in social media, there’s no reason to partake if you aren’t ready to invest in building solid relationships. Without them, there is no social in social media. But in order for there to be trust, there must be..
  3. Stability
    Stability makes us feel secure and empowers us to make bold decisions. Would you want to have a job or be with a person who isn’t stable? Of course not. So why would you want to buy or invest your time into a business that isn’t stable? I doubt you would. Without stability, we can’t build trust and therefore have no credibility.

These are the three underlying traits of consistency, and they must be used in every aspect of your social media marketing.

But how does that translate?

What consistency looks like in your social media marketing

  1. Posting consistently.
    This is a major problem for the majority of business owners online. Inconsistent posts and updates – one here and one there. I tell my clients, decide how many posts you can commit to every day, and do it. Put it on your calendar, schedule in reminders, and stay on top of it.

The best average of posts vary among the social networks, but even if you commit to the smallest amount, you can build up from there. It’s a new habit, but one that will reap heavy on benefits.

  1. Interacting and engaging consistently.
    This is another biggie I see with business owners – they aren’t spending time interacting with people who comment or RT their content. We must prove to our online audiences that we are ready, willing, and available to them – especially during working hours. Thank people every. single. time. they leave you a comment or share it, even if they are promoting their content on your FB page or tweeting at you. Build appreciation into your brand from the beginning and people will honor it.

In addition, spend time everyday nurturing your online audiences. Ask them questions, share their content, give them feedback or just say hello. The more you show up, they will.

  1. Sticking to your brand personality consistently.
    It’s not always easy for business owners to understand what a “brand voice” is, but this is important to your online audience. For example,

I worked with a nonprofit client for three years steadily building up a rich, diverse, and engaging audience. The organization had some growing pains and couldn’t continue to invest in my services, so I provided them with all the materials I used for the board member who was taking over. I don’t normally do that, but wanted them to be successful.

However, that person spoke completely differently to the audience, shared different content, and eventually squeezed the pulse out of the page. It was devastating to watch.

But it’s a perfect example of what happens when an online audience gets used to being treated one way and the tables turn.

Write out a minimum of 5 adjectives that describe your business, ask yourself how you will handle certain situations – happy, sad, thoughtful, funny, etc. and stick to them. Maintain brand consistency.

  1. Showing up, consistently.
    VERY important. Just like posting and interacting consistently, you’ve got to show up even when there’s nobody there to show up for. And if you’re a newbie on social media, expect it to be that way for a while. You’ve got to prove to the community that your business has what it takes to endure, i.e. consistency.

But if you build it, they will come 😉

  1. Sharing value consistently.
    What we share online says a lot about who we are as individuals and businesses. Have you ever looked at someone’s Facebook account and thought, “Wow – they share all this awesome stuff, they must be an interesting person”? Or maybe the opposite? The same goes for your business.

At ARCH Digital Agency, we put a lot of thought into each and every post that goes out. We post with purpose. And this is an excellent philosophy to incorporate into your own. Think about what you’re posting, will it add value to the audience, will it teach them something, encourage them, or make them laugh?

Use your content to make an impact on people consistently and they will come to you often.

  1. Being consistent across all social mediums.
    Finally, all these principles must be applied across every social network. You might prefer using one more than another, but consistency means being consistent everywhere – not just where you want to.

If you follow these values, I guarantee you will see an enormous change in your social media success.

Commit to your audience and be consistent.

How will you be more consistent today?

4 SECRETS TO A LEAD-GENERATING CONTENT MARKETING STRATEGY


Businesses fail at it every day.

They post “company updates” on their blogs, filled with news that nobody cares about (except maybe their own employees).

They send irrelevant “newsletters” that add zero value to their prospects and customers.

They craft poorly written, boring content that packs less punch than a pillow fight.

They hard-sell, when they should educate.

What are they failing at?

Content marketing.

In a world where traditional marketing is less effective, and people’s attention spans are shorter than ever, smart marketers understand that content marketing is crucial for generating new leads and gaining customers.

But what exactly is content marketing anyway?

Here’s how the Content Marketing Institute defines it:

“Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.

The keyword here? Valuable.

That’s where many businesses go wrong. They either don’t have a content marketing strategy, or, if they do, it’s seriously lacking value.

You might be one of those businesses—but that’s okay. After you read this article, you’ll have the tools and knowledge you need to craft and execute a lead-generating content marketing strategy.

Before we go any further, let’s list out some of the most common types of content marketing:

Blogs
eBooks and regular Books
Podcasts
Videos
Infographics
There’s a good chance you’ve consumed all of these types of content. And if the content was good, you gained respect and trust in the source of the content.

Which leads us to the even more important question: WHY is content marketing important for your business?

It helps you speak to your audience at different stages of the buying cycle, take their hand, and lead them further down the buying cycle until an eventual purchase.

The four stages of the buying cycle are 1) awareness, 2) research, 3) consideration, and 4) buy.

Content marketing taps into the first two stages by raising awareness (letting customers know that there is a solution to their problem), and educating customers about a product or service they’ve never considered before.

Here’s the bottom line: it’s time to do content marketing right—and stop letting leads slip through your fingers.

Here are 4 secrets to a lead-generating content marketing strategy:

  1. Add Value
    I’ve mentioned it before. It’s the biggest reason why businesses fail with content marketing. They don’t understand how to add value.

How can you add value? Figure out your customer’s problems, and help solve them.

Every piece of content you create should have a clear and direct benefit to your customer.

Let’s get really meta for a second. This post is part of ARCH’s content marketing strategy. Our audience (you) is interested in growing their businesses through social media and content marketing. And that’s the service we provide.

Through blog posts like this one, we help you solve a nagging problem, while also exhibiting our expertise in the area. It’s a win-win for everybody.

Here’s another example: Let’s say you have a software product that helps businesses with their email marketing. You can create content around that value proposition. Some good content ideas would be: “How to generate revenue from your email marketing;” “5 dirty little secrets to rapidly grow your email list;” etc.

There’s a little trick to this that can put your content marketing on steroids. We’ll get to that in a minute though.

  1. Define Your Purpose
    Stop creating content for the sake of creating content. Every single word you write should be purposeful.

And that purpose? Well, for 99% of companies, it should be to get the reader’s email address.

An email campaign is essential for your business. It allows you to connect and build a relationship with your audience. Most website visitors won’t be ready to buy the first time they go to your site. But you can nurture and transform them into buyers with an effective set of emails.

There should be an email opt-in on every page. Your content should entice readers to enter their email address and sign up for your list.

  1. Reframe Your Product or Service in Your Reader’s Mind
    Remember that little content marketing trick we mentioned before? Here it is.

The best content adds value and reframes your product or service in your reader’s mind. It makes your readers stop thinking of your product or service as a “cost,” and start thinking about it as an investment.

How do you do this?

First, identify the benefits that your customer gets when they successfully use your product or service.

Let’s go back to the email-marketing example. Here, the main benefit is a profitable email list (i.e. make more money).

Then, create content around what they can do to gain that benefit (i.e. “How to Generate More Revenue from Your Email List”).

Finally, highlight your product or service as the solution, AKA the “how” that will make it easiest to get that benefit.

So, you could include a call to action like, “Are you ready to create a profitable email list? Sign up below to start your free trial of [software name].”

Side note: you don’t necessarily need to explicitly highlight your product or service in every piece of content. Your value proposition should be fairly obvious, so that when your reader thinks, “Wow, I do want to create a profitable email list [i.e. solve a problem or experience a benefit],” your website itself presents it as an obvious solution.

  1. Be Consistent
    Consistency is the glue that holds your content marketing strategy together. If you blog once in a while, send out an email every few weeks, or podcast randomly, you’ll completely drain the content of it’s potential.

You want to be the go-to resource for your audience. In order to do that, you NEED to be consistent. Post a blog on the same day every week, send out timely emails, always add value.

Your audience should expect that they can come to your for awesome content, expertise, and to help blast through their pain points.

Conclusion
You have two choices. You can be an average business, and publish mediocre content that bores your readers and does nothing but sit there, purposelessly on your website.

OR

You can use these secrets to craft and execute an awesome content marketing strategy that transforms your business into a lead-generating machine.

Either way, the writing is on the wall. Businesses that take content marketing seriously are the ones who will thrive…and those that don’t will ultimately fail.

FOCUSED SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING WITH AHNA HENDRIX (PODCAST)


Social Media Jack-of-all-trades
Two years ago they were everywhere. Social media “gurus”. The people that were experts in it all. Jay Baer recently said that if anyone claims anything is “dead”, you should run from them as fast as possible. I’m not saying that the Social Media Guru is dead, but it may have one foot in the grave.

According to Ahna, social media is becoming very deep. When she started only a few years ago, you could be an expert in all areas. Today it’s not authentic to say you’re a social media professional and not focus on one core network.

To listen to the podcast or read show notes, click HERE.

WHAT GAME OF THRONES CAN TEACH YOU ABOUT EMAIL MARKETING


You’ve built up an email list, and you’ve written out (or at least considered writing out) an email autoresponder sequence.

Now, you just have to sit back and watch the conversions roll in, right?

Well, not so fast…

You quickly realize that you’re not getting the type of open rates you hoped for, and your click through rates are even less…

Something is wrong, but you can’t figure it out.

The problem may be that your emails aren’t compelling enough. But there’s a simple trick that can have a big impact on your open rates and conversions…

But most people either get this trick wrong, or they don’t use it to it’s full potential.

The trick is creating a cliffhanger through an open loop.

You might remember cliffhangers from back in grade school, when the author would write something dramatic, and have you on the edge of your seat, only to end the chapter right there.

And if you’ve ever watch Game of Thrones, you’re certainly familiar with this cliffhanger style as well – it’s how they end every episode.

Then, all week, Game of Thrones is on the back of your mind…

Unless there’s some sort of emergency, you’re practically guaranteed to tune into the next week’s episode. You need to find out what happens so you can close the open loop in your mind.

It’s powerful stuff, right?

Now, for the awesome part:

You can do the same thing with your emails.

Most email sequences look something like this…

Email #1: Intro and overview
Email #2: Topic/Idea 1
Email 3: Topic/Idea 2
Email 4: Topic/Idea 3
Email 5: Topic/Idea 4
Email 6: Offer email
Email 7: Offer email
(Note: this is just a general overview and there are many other ways to structure an email sequence, too.)

Ideally, your topics and ideas are structured in a way that poses a clear challenge, and positions your offer as the solution.

Here’s where most people get it wrong though: Either they don’t make any coherent connection between one email and the next, or they make a weak connection.

For example, if an email is about “3 ways to get more Facebook fans,” and the next email in the sequence is about “how to convert Facebook fans into subscribers,” they might end the first email with:

“These tips will help you get more Facebook fans. In the next email, we’ll tell you about how to turn those Facebook fans into subscribers.”

Yes, that’s a connection, but if you’re the prospect, you’re not that excited about the next email. Sure, you’d like to know how to turn Facebook fans into subscribers, but it doesn’t seem like essential information.

In other words, you’re not hooked.

So, what can you do instead?

Well, there’s one big piece that is missing from that last example. And this “piece” can drastically improve your open rates and email engagement… to the point where prospects will even email you asking you to resend an email in your sequence, because they’re scared they missed it.

And I’ll tell you all about this secret “piece” in the next blog post.

Okay okay just kidding.

But in a second, you’ll see what I did there.

You see, you don’t want to just give a simple glimpse into your next email. You want people to be anxiously waiting for it to arrive in their inbox.

How do you do that?

You briefly start to expand on the next topic, ask the right question, and then cut it abruptly short.
In a famous scene of Game of Thrones, one of the royal families is surprisingly murdered, and it happens in the last minutes of the episode. Then, before you get to see the reaction and what happens next, the episode ends abruptly.

“AHHH,” you think to yourself. You absolutely NEED to know what happens next…but you’ll have to wait to the next episode.

Let’s go back to the Facebook email sequence example and see how you can put this concept into action…

“By using these strategies, you can immediately start boosting your Facebook audience and get more engagement.”

[Briefly start new topic] “Now, if you can convert those Facebook fans into email subscribers, you can grow an even more dedicated audience and drastically increase sales.”

[Create fear] “But here’s the thing: Most businesses waste tons of money trying to convert Facebook fans into email subscribers with Facebook ads.

That’s because they’re missing these crucial three steps.”

[Ask the right question] “What are these three crucial steps?

[Cut it short abruptly] “I’ll tell you about them in the next email. Stay tuned…”

BOOM. Now you have them hooked – they want to convert fans into email subscribers, but they don’t want to waste money on Facebook ads like everybody else.

The “three steps” you promised hook them in and get them anxious and excited for the next email.

To recap, here’s how you create an awesome Game of Thrones style cliffhanger to increase excitement for the next email:

  1. Briefly start a new topic
  2. Create fear (This one is optional, but do it if you can)
  3. Ask the right question
  4. Cut it short abruptly

THINK BEFORE YOU TWEET! HOW TO AVOID MAJOR BRANDING DISASTERS


We’ve all witnessed it happen: A brand spends years building their Twitter following, increasing engagement, and building the trust and loyalty of their customers, and then…it happens! One tweet, one inappropriate photo or one irrational reply to a follower and suddenly the brand finds itself in the midst of a disaster. It is the fear of having this happen that leads many businesses from avoiding social media entirely. However, as long as you follow a few guidelines, you can help avoid any major branding disasters on Twitter.

Before I dive into three guidelines to follow in order to limit any risk of a branding disaster, let me spend a moment stating the obvious: THINK BEFORE YOU TWEET. This alone will help you avoid most branding disasters. That moment when you think and pause will help you catch most mistakes, such as spelling errors, but also help give you an extra thought to whether or not the tweet will help or hurt your brand. If the answer is not an absolute, “Yes, this tweet will help the brand,” then don’t send it.

You don’t need to fear branding disasters. If you follow these three guidelines, you’ll avoid them.

  1. Always remember your target audience:
    Your content should always appeal to your target audience.
    Use a brand voice that appeals to your audience.
    Tweet content that adds value to your target audience.
    Avoid any language or content that may turn your target audience off.
    Branding disaster example of failing to do this: A large national brand whose target audience is mostly conservative, middle class, families, age 35-60, ran a campaign comprised of videos with young people in their 20’s, speaking often in slang, and dressing in backwards hats, dressed way too casually, and looked generally disheveled.

The result: They spent a bunch of money, put a lot of time into their campaign, but ended up losing followers and upsetting their investors.

  1. Have a purpose behind everything you do:
    Don’t tweet randomly. Not all tweets will have direct calls to action, but they should all fit within your overall social media strategy. Tweet purposes can be (but aren’t limited to):
    Call to action and/or to direct followers to your website
    Add value to your target audience to increase brand loyalty and engagement.
    Initiate replies and engagement.
    Grow your targeted followers.
    Branding disaster example of failing to do this: An agency that manages other brands on social media, through their own agency account, began tweeting one night about politics. First. They failed to keep the first guideline in mind because they were tweeting liberal views and their customers were mostly conservative financial companies. Next, their posts did not have a purpose. They were random. What happened was that started a slippery slope to where the agency eventually got caught up and tweeted out something inappropriate.

The Result: Their largest client terminated their contract.

  1. Pay attention to the details:
    The details matter and poor attention to details will hurt your brand’s credibility.
    Spell everything correctly and use proper grammar.
    I know, it is twitter. However, failing to use proper spacing, punctuation, commas, etc. will cause your brand to lose credibility.
    Don’t over-abbreviate. Cutting out parts of words or eliminating vowels in an attempt to get your tweet to be under 140 characters is not wise.
    Check your links. Make sure you post the correct links.
    Branding disaster example of failing to do this: A professional public relations professional that made the majority of his income from one sports agency that contracted PR work to him to craft content for professional athletes was consistently not punctuating any of his tweets. He would start new sentences with lower case letters, and frequently use a lower case “i.”

The Result: The sports agency terminated the contract with this public relations consultant because they could not take the risk of having someone, who took such little care of his own content, crafting content for their clients. The PR consultant lost his credibility because he did not pay attention to the details.

These three guidelines may seem simple and common sense, however, most brands get lazy and neglect these guidelines. Neglecting these guidelines leads to bigger mistakes that cause branding disasters. When you keep these guidelines in mind and focus on the fundamentals, you’ll avoid major branding mistakes.

Bottom line: Think before you tweet!

*Note: All examples are from branding disasters in which I witnessed and personally know people involved. I have chosen not to include the names of companies or people involved because it would only bring more unneeded negative attention to these brands.

5 EXPERTS REVEAL THE LIVE STREAMING TOOLS THEY CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT


Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, live streaming has made it’s way into your news, conversations or social media platforms.

It’s the newest way to share knowledge, educate, and develop relationships among marketers and business owners alike because it generates the environment that only a face-to-face could garner. It’s real, authentic, and sometimes a bit eery because you feel like you’re sitting right in front of whoever you’re watching.

But a lot of people are still nervous about how to jump into the live streaming whirlpool, and it’s preventing them from passing along their knowledge.

One of the biggest concerns is a lack of technological know-how – which tools and apps streamers should utilize for optimal streaming. Currently, the major players are Periscope and Meerkat. Google Hangouts has been around for some time, Blab recently jumped on the scene, and I guarantee more will come to fruition over the coming months.

These social networks are unique in that they require a different set of tools to maximize screen space and perfect audio hearing.

So what do we need to fill our toolbox with?

I went straight to the experts and asked what they recommend for newbies wanting to get tech savvy with the live streaming genre. And if you aren’t already following them – make sure you do!

Dave Shrein
Dave_ShreinDave’s main mission in life is helping other business owners equip themselves for success, and he’s found the perfect avenue to teach with Periscope. He regularly scopes on all things related to being an entrepreneur, social media, and conducts excellent interviews with experts in different fields.

“When doing an interview on Periscope, I use a Targus 42 tripod with an iPhone mount holder and Google Hangouts.

Interviews on Periscope are awesome for connecting with new audiences, generating a lot of engagement in a short period of time, and getting specific questions answered by knowledgeable experts.

You’ll see all sorts of setups for conducting interviews… people using TVs, trying to squeeze themselves in the frame along with the person on the computer’s screen and everything in-between. I’ve found what works best for me is Google Hangouts On Air and here’s why: with Google Hangouts On Air, I can place my smart device on a tripod, position it in front of the screen and whoever is talking, and Google will switch back and forth automatically. So you see everyone who’s chatting, including yourself, nice and big, filling up the screen. This works best with desktops or external monitors.”

Sunny Lenarduzzi
Sunny_LenarduzziSunny is the YouTube beauty set on helping folks monetize their message. She’s vibrant, insightful, and always knowledgable. Her main social network is YouTube, yet she has begun taking live streaming by force and can be found on Periscope.

“Audio is of the utmost importance when it comes to any video production! You want to ensure your viewers can hear you clearly and aren’t distracted by background noise or outdoor elements like wind. The smartlav mic provides clear quality and it’s extremely easy to use.

Another key element of quality video/live stream production is stability. Again, you want to ensure your viewers are focused on your content, not the shaky camera quality. That’s why I can’t live without my trusty selfie stick!”

For more tips from Sunny, check out this video:

Brian Fanzo
Brian_FanzoBrian, aka, iSocialFanz, is one of the leading experts in live streaming. He’s worked with numerous brands, like Applebee’s, is constantly featured at social media conferences, and live streams almost every day. He shares industry news, opens incredible discussions among other professionals in the social media industry, and walks the walk with his #ShowUCare mantra.

Brian’s Gearbox includes: iPhone6+ & iPadMini, Joby – Tripod, Jellyfish Tripod clip, OlloClip Fish Eyes Lens, Rode Lav+ microphone

“I use Canva to create graphics for my live streaming events, and promote my live streaming on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat. I live stream on Meerkat & Periscope mostly, and have used MyEye & Nomadcast for unique use cases.

The tool and app I couldn’t live without is Evernote. I take all my brainstorming and notes and strategy planning for social, business, life and live streaming on that app, and reference and leverage it almost every hour of the day!”

Vincenzo Landino
Vincenzo_LandinoVincenzo also known as “Vinkat” to his Meerkat audience is a brand correspondent and pro live streamer who recently launched a free live streaming course designed to help new streamers get comfortable being live and sharing their knowledge.

“I absolutely can’t live without my Ollo Clip and Rode Lav+ mic. Helps me get better wide angle with the front and rear-facing camera on the iPhone 6 Plus and the Lav+ gives me great audio, even in windy situations.”

Eva Ponce
eva_ponceThe health lifestyle extraordinaire and wellness DEva is focused on helping you improve your lifestyle through healthy living. She’s upbeat, informative, and very connected with her Periscope audience. And she’s in love with her tripod mount!

“My fav tool for scoping has to be the Jelly Fish Tripod mount for my mini iPad. It allows me to have my hands free and avoid hand cramps from holding it..lol A total game changer for periscope. Love it!”

The other tools Eva recommends are:

  1. The Rode Mic
  2. Tripod
  3. Jelly Fish Tripod Mount for 7″ Tablets (Mini iPad)
  4. Goose neck Floor stand for your iPad
  5. Tabletop tripod for your smart phone

In addition, she recommends you check out Periscope Ryan who’s had a real impact on her Periscope’ing!

Your turn!! What tools are we missing for our live streaming box?? Comment below!

ARCH WELCOMES A NEW FACEBOOK SPECIALIST, ADAM MAY


As the CEO of ARCH Digital, I pride myself on bringing together some of the industries best social media marketers to work together for the benefit of our clients.

It is with a heavy heart I announce Blake Jamieson is leaving ARCH to focus on his personal brand.

The ARCH team is sad to see Blake go, but we’re all excited for his upcoming ventures and support him wholeheartedly in everything he aims to achieve. Blake has been an incredible asset to ARCH and I’m thankful to have had him be a part of the team.

“I’ve decided to part ways from ARCH Digital Agency to pursue my personal brand full-time. It was not an easy decision to make, because I really love and respect everyone at ARCH, and have full confidence in their abilities. While building my client portfolio has been a focus of mine for the past 5 years, I’ve pivoted to take my brand in a different direction. I’ll be spending my time writing and creating various digital products, meanwhile cheering on ARCH from the sideline! I recently finished 10 days of filming and editing, and created a free video training series at TwitterWorkshop.com. The workshop focuses on growing your network, influence, and customer base through authentic, relational marketing. Next, I plan to immerse myself in the new Facebook Ads Dashboard, so I can create a training series for that, too.” – Blake

The Beginner Facebook Ads course will continue to be a collaboration between Blake and ARCH and will be released within the next month.

BUT, it’s with MUCH excitement that I welcome ARCH’s new Facebook Ads Specialist, Adam May!!

I’ve known Adam for a few years through social media, and have always been impressed with his work ethic, professionalism, and insightful knowledge of Facebook ads. I’m VERY excited to welcome his expertise and skill set to the team.

Adam has been helping businesses tell their stories for the last decade. With a background as a graphic designer, Adam feels right at home in the visual world of social media, which he has been helping brands navigate for the past 7 years. This includes a long history of helping brands in the hospitality, retail, family services and real estate industries promote their business with Facebook Ads.

Adam has worked with all media outlets big and small, ranging from local college periodicals through the Travel Channel and everything in between – giving him the experience and professionalism to move the needle for your business. In his “off hours” he enjoys playing volleyball, looking for treasure at antique shops and searching for his future cabin on a lake.

Adam will be taking over all of Blake’s responsibilities, and we will be adding several services related to Facebook ads including trainings, ad strategy development, and consulting. Coming SOON!