Month: June 2023

Our Favorite Social Media Management Tools

by Sara Wildman

At Segal Communications, we pride ourselves on being extremely transparent with our clients. We give them access to all our work and even hand off valuable assets if our relationship pauses or ends. In the spirit of transparency and not gatekeeping, here are our favorite social media management tools to maintain active social accounts for your brand. 

Scheduling and Analytics 

Hands down, our favorite social media scheduling tool is Sprout Social. Sprout’s interface for scheduling content is highly intuitive and provides us with a wide array of tools in one. As an agency, we have a customized plan that suits our workload and provides resources that keep our services top of the line. 

Sprout compiles all the data we need in customizable, comprehensive reports. With the platform’s reporting tools, we can send our clients easily digestible reports that provide them with key insights into the performance of their social accounts in minutes. The detailed analytics Sprout provides are also valuable for informing each social media strategy we devise for our clients. 

While Sprout Social is our top recommendation for a scheduling and analytics solution, there are a number of cost-free alternatives that can be viable options depending on your company’s needs. Later, Buffer, and Meta’s Creator Studio are all worth looking into if you don’t have a substantial social media budget yet. 

Content Creation 

When it comes to content creation, there are tons of tools available that can help you produce engaging content. Here are some of our favorites, along with what we like to use each of them for:

  • Canva – an easy-to-use platform to create graphics, videos, or edit photos
  • Photoshop – used for more advanced photo editing, clean background removal, simple graphics, etc.
  • Premiere pro – video editing software for creating Instagram Reels, TikToks, ad content, etc. 
  • Lightroom – used for bulk photo editing
  • Veed – used to add subtitles to videos

When looking for stock photos or videos, we recommend these free sites: Pexels, Pixabay, and Unsplash. 

For royalty-free music to add to your videos, we recommend Artlist.io or Pixabay Music as a free option. 

Client Approvals and Team Workflows 

Our entire team at SC operates within Google Workspace, and we love it; most of our clients use it amongst their internal teams too, so our workflows operate seamlessly. 

When it comes to approval workflows, each client is different in what they prefer. We typically gather preferences during the onboarding period using an onboarding checklist. We let clients choose one of two options to interface with us for content approvals: our customized content calendar templates in a Google doc or our task management software, Monday.com. 

Our Google doc content calendar provides a month’s worth of content in one document. The client can review the copy of each post and the media accompanying it. Next to each post, we include a dropdown menu that indicates the status of the post: draft, waiting for review, approved, scheduled, or published. On Monday.com, the content calendar is separated into “groups” based on month. We add a link to preview the content, a status section for the client to let us know if the post needs revisions or is approved, and a comment section for the client to provide feedback and edits. Both options are similar in the interactions they allow, with the decision between the two often coming down to which interface a client finds more user-friendly.

Recap: Our Favorite Social Media Management Tools 

Scheduling and Analytics

Content Creation

Free Stock Photo and Video

Royalty-Free Music and Audio

Client Approvals and Team Workflows

Need help managing your social media accounts? When we work together, your brand does more than show up. It shows up with a story, a purpose, a unique reason for being – and it makes an impact. At Segal Communications, we become an extension of your team – we work fast to become brand experts and make sure we’re keeping your company relevant on social media. 

Connect with us at [email protected]. 

Should You Be Focusing on Quality or Quantity Media Coverage?

by Emily Mahoney

Quality versus quantity is something most people struggle with in many aspects of their life. Do you want one really nice, expensive pair of shoes or five cheap, flat-soled shoes? See, you probably find yourself teeter-tottering between the two more often than you think. Today we are going to explore how this topic relates to PR and media coverage, so let’s start by defining the difference between the two.

Quality Media Coverage 

Quality coverage is what the majority of public relations services are geared towards. This means securing earned coverage in highly credible and reputable outlets that have a large readership. This would be the Forbes, Fast Companies, The Verges, Reader’s Digests, New York Times, and TechCrunches of the world. These are the sources most often looked to for advice, insights, tips, and news.

Here’s an example scenario in which you would aim for quality coverage: if your business has launched a new product and you want to build consumer trust and recognition, then you would want to offer a sample to well-known media outlets that will test and review the product. Consumers frequently look to editorial reviews when they are contemplating purchasing a specific product, and a comprehensive and insightful review from a highly credible media outlet can be very influential in the purchasing decision.

Quantity Media Coverage

The goal of quantity coverage is typically to boost your SEO, which not all PR efforts can and will support, but is still extremely valuable. Increasing visibility and brand awareness are the two main reasons to focus on quantity. 

Now, here’s a scenario in which you would aim for quantity: If your business is fairly new and entering a competitive market, then you would want to increase your brand’s name recognition in the media and on search engines amongst competitors. You might consider putting a press release out on a newswire, which is often picked up by hundreds of other outlets. Yes, it’s the same exact story, but it’s now visible to millions of people so you’ve essentially got 100+ media mentions. 

So Which is Better?

Quality coverage is more esteemed than quantity, but neither is necessarily better than the other. 

The answer really comes down to what your PR goals are. A question to ask yourself is, am I looking for reputable coverage or as many mentions as possible? 

It’s also important to note that your answer may change over time so make sure you reevaluate and readjust your coverage goals as your business evolves. 

Segal Communications can help you navigate your media coverage goals and secure your desired placements. Reach us at [email protected] to learn more about out PR services.

How to Partner With an Industry Expert

by Cori Brosnahan

When developing a PR strategy for your company, it’s important to identify your spokespeople. A spokesperson is someone who speaks to the media on the company’s behalf, often a CEO or a member of the marketing and communications department. While a CEO or a director of communications are best suited to speak about the business and product itself, they might not be the best people to speak about more general, industry-related topics. Depending on the nature of your business, you might want to consider partnering with an industry expert who can provide commentary on common topics in the industry.

What is an industry expert?

An industry expert is someone with the knowledge and experience to provide accurate, trustworthy commentary on topics relating to a specific industry. Depending on the industry, they don’t necessarily need to have credentials, but they should have extensive experience in the relevant field(s) that qualifies them to give advice, make predictions, etc. 

Why should I partner with an industry expert?

Partnering with an industry expert gives your brand the opportunity to expand awareness while bolstering your credibility. Having an expert that can address general topics within the industry means more opportunities to insert your brand into public conversations, especially when you don’t have any major news to announce. Partnering with an expert will also allow you to leverage their audience, which may be large or small, depending on the individual.

What qualities should I look for?

The most important thing in choosing an expert to partner with is to make sure that your brands align. Finding an expert that works on topics relevant to your brand and shares your brand values will ensure a natural and authentic partnership. If your product is a dating app, for example, you’d be better off working with a relationship coach than a marriage counselor.

You’ll also want to consider your budget. An established expert with their own following might expect a large commission. An expert who is still trying to build their own brand might decide that it’s worthwhile to partner with your brand for a small commission or exposure alone.

What should I expect from the partnership?

Before you start to work with your expert partner, you’ll want to define the terms of the partnership. What title will they go by? How many requests for commentary do you anticipate sending per week or per month? Will they be expected to write their own commentary, or is it okay for them to dictate a response that you can then draft for approval?

Given the 24/7 news cycle, you’ll also want to set expectations with regards to their availability. If you send them a request for commentary with a tight deadline, how fast can you expect them to respond?

Finally, you should not expect the expert’s commentary to reference your product every time, if at all. Being quoted in an article as your company’s resident expert is valuable in itself; pushing a product may delegitimize the commentary altogether.

Let us take your brand’s visibility to the next level. We’re here, ready to help your company showcase your “why” and share it with millions of people.

[email protected]

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