Should You Use Twitter for Business?

Aside from Snapchat, Twitter is often the hardest nut for the marketer/brand/business to crack. What are you supposed to say and who are you saying it to? Do hashtags matter and if so which one’s do you use? How come no one is following you?

We empathize. Listen, Twitter is freakin’ tough. A lot of people who run brands and businesses are told they should be there but they’re not told why. It doesn’t have to be this way. Fact is, sometimes Twitter’s right for your business and sometimes it’s wrong. We can’t breakdown everything here, but we can help you get started.

Hopefully this blog will help you decipher where you should be.

What’s #Trending on Twitter?

Before we get into whether you should use it, you should know three key things about the platform.

How many people are using Twitter? 100 million people every day. (Click that link to get more great stats), 63% of which are 18-45 years old.
What’s currently happening with Twitter? A lot, actually. Its founder is considering adding an edit feature. Politics as usual are well, pretty standard here and they can be pretty extreme. And the change to 280 characters didn’t make the platform implode.
Is Twitter even relevant anymore? That depends on who you ask. Short answer: yes. But, if Statista is to be believed (they are), then a stall-out in user growth over the last two years is certainly something to watch. But … it’s still the platform for breaking news and trends — a critical element for 21st century media consumption and culture.

Who’s Using Twitter, Really?

Jump on the platform and it becomes clear that Twitter’s upper strata is formed by media outlets, celebrities, influencers, and sports figures. Why? Because they have something to say that people care about. Of course, us regular people are having conversations there, too, and the big dogs wouldn’t be there without us. But the fact of the matter is that if you use Twitter you should have something to say about something that matters. Also, you should have someone to say it to. Essentially, don’t be noise. Be a voice that stands for something. Even if that voice is about something mundane like B2C siding and roofing sales. Trolling people, trashing brands, and getting people riled up with controversial statements doesn’t count, btw. Please, don’t go that route. People who do that are barely people.

Just Tell Me If I Should Use It or Not!

Jeez, ok. We’re getting to it. Here’s how we break it down — on a high level — for our clients.

Who’s the audience you want to reach and are they on Twitter? If they are, then proceed.
Ok, are you willing to put 3 times as much (or more) effort into this platform as your are on your other social channels? You are? Great. Because that’s a must for Twitter. It’s user base is smaller than IG, Facebook, and Snapchat. It’s more work to consume content for the users compared with the other platforms. And it’s filled with noise you have to break through to be relevant. OK, continue please.
Do you think people will be seeking you out on Twitter for customer service? This is huge because it adds another complicated layer to your social media ecosystem. We’re advocates for top-notch customer service, so if this a yes for you, you’ll need to make sure you do it right by putting framework into place that gives customers what they’re looking for.

OK, so now we’re getting somewhere. We can’t actually tell you if you should use it. You need to consider the questions above and think long and hard about how Twitter fits into your marketing mix. Should you choose to use it though, this would be the point where you start figuring out what your audience values and what you can deliver, which is the critical piece. Then, when you get to this point you can start putting your Twitter strategy together.

Oh, and by the way, you can totally consider Twitter as a straight up ad platform if you want. It’s OK to do that. This is advertising, after all. Sometimes we should just accept that it is what it is.

We should reiterate that this is a super basic outline. Like all social channels, Twitter is complex and no two brands or strategies are alike. But if you wanna talk more about it, we’d be happy to. Feel free to tweet at us @JTCG (Jacob Tyler Creative Group, if you’re wondering). Or, just go old school and give us a call.

Two-Minute Read: Search, Contextual, and Behavioral Digital Ad Targeting Explained

Another quick one for you today, folks. This time we’re covering the ever-confusing, always-misused-in-meetings definitions of the most commonly used digital ad targeting terminology.

Prepare to be the voice of clarity in your organization.

Search

You search for something you want to know about in your browser. Then, based on those keyed-in search terms, an advertiser tries to reach you with ads on a website because they believe your search terms indicate an interest in their product offering. Because words are often ambiguous and context often isn’t part of the equation, search targeting effectiveness can be highly unpredictable. It can work well if done right.

Contextual

You know when you’re on a website reading about say … golf clubs … and you see an ad on the right side of that same website for the newest Titleist golf ball? That’s contextual targeting. The website and the advertiser know that if you’re reading about golf or golf clubs that you’re likely interested in a related product such as the latest advancement in golf ball technology. This works well because context, sweet, context.

Behavioral

Similarly, behavioral targeting serves up contextually relevant ad content, but this time it’s not based on the site being browsed by the viewer in the present moment. Rather, it’s based on the viewer’s web behavior, tracked with third-party cookies. So, to use the golf example again, imagine you’re researching the Callaway 2019 Big Bertha Driver on the Callaway website and then you head off to your favorite regional events and happenings news website. You’re probably going to see ads for the Callaway Big Bertha because the company wants to keep that product in the front of your brain as often as possible in hopes that you’ll complete a purchase. It’s not about where you’re going but where you’ve been.

BONUS Programmatic

It’s not really targeting per se, but relevant to this topic because it’s misused so often. Programmatic is buying ads using sophisticated computer programs to ensure your content gets to the right people in the right places during the right times. So all the manual work that goes into trying to do this through real people is done by software rather than through humans. Basically, it’s efficient ad buying at scale. If programmatic results in more effective campaigns for our clients, then we, for one, welcome our job-destroying robot overlords.

If you want to learn more about how digital advertising can help your business, give us a call. Maybe we’ll grab our digital strategist and meet up at the driving range to hit bucket of balls and talk shop.

It’s Time to Step Up Your SEO

Are we crazy or does it seem like people have forgotten about the value of great SEO and a sound SEO strategy? And if they haven’t altogether forgotten about it, it’s certainly near the bottom of their mandatory marketing tactics list. But the fact is, if you’re not consistently trying to win in SEO, you’re losing. So in the spirit of paying homage to the search engine gods we’ve got a three things you can do right now to step up your game.

1. Use Rich Snippets to Get More Information In Front of People Who Care

You know when you perform a Google search and you see results with just the standard page title, page description, and a URL? Kinda boring right? Who’d wanna click that 2008-looking link? No one. Well, grandma maybe. People are looking for more information in the search engine results page in order to decide what the best result to click is.

Rich snippets solve that by including information in your search results that make them stand out. Prices, ratings, categories, etc., are examples of info that can be displayed to help consumers make a decision.

Using structured data to mark up your site content allows Google to search it and display it with this additional context-adding data. Better context equals better information and that equals more clicks for your target consumers. It’s win-win here, folks.

More info on rich snippets can be found here.

2. Reduce Your Page Load Speed

The last thing anyone wants to do in the 21st century is wait around for a website to load. We know that no one is trying to make people wait on purpose. Most people don’t even know their site is super sloooooow and they didn’t think about it when they had it built back in 2001.

But let’s be real: when 1 second slower speed makes a difference in user results, you simply have to make sure you’ve got your website stuff together. This is not a set it and forget it task.

So what’s a good load time? Well, it depends on your business, but 25% of people will abandon your page after waiting for 4 seconds so it’s safe to be better than that.

How do you fix a slow site? Start by going to a speed audit site like Pingdom to see how your site fares. Take action based on the results. We can’t bore you with the details of reducing image sizes, caching, and better code (this blog would be way too long if we did), but we trust you can figure it out, or you can call us to do a site audit and recommended optimization program.

3. Make Better Content

This is stupidly simple: make content that your target audience will find valuable and the publish it often. What does your customer need from you? How do you solve a problem or add a benefit to their lives? How does your product work? What are FAQs around your product or category? These are all good pieces of content that fit the needs of your consumer. You should use SEO best practices but the power is in making and publishing the content so that it’s out getting out there in the world. If you build it (well), they will come. That sort of thing.

So why does good content matter?

When you make content, it shows up in search results. When it’s good content that people click and consume, it shows up higher in search results. The more spots you hold in the top results, the better. That sends a signal to consumers that says you’re worth looking into. Because your customers want to know about you and your product. They may not know your name yet, but that’s OK. If they find you through your content that’s sitting on the first page of their search results and you’ve added value to their experience, then congrats because you’re at the conversion five yard line.

Now stop reading blogs and go out and get your SEO on. Your customers and your bottom line will thank you.

We like writing these blog posts for you. If you have questions or comments just hit us up via email or on Facebook. We’d love to talk more.

Down and Dirty: Facebook Retargeting

Hey. We’ve only got a minute. We just wanted to tell you why we like Facebook Retargeting real quick. Ready?

Everyone knows that retargeting rules because you get to reach “hand-raisers” again, making it far more likely you’ll move them down your carefully crafted conversion funnel. 3 things we love about Facebook’s version in particular are:

Standard and Custom Conversion Events

Standard and custom conversion events make it easy to set up any website action that you want to monitor and retarget against. Seriously. You can track everything. — blog views, newsletter sign ups, downloads, e-commerce, and more. Track it all, we say. Then, when you want to create an ad that speaks to a specific audience that performed a specific action, you can create a new audience based on that action. Message directly until your heart’s content.

E-commerce Integrations

Facebook works with various e-commerce partners to make social attribution tracking very easy. You just have to plug in your Facebook pixel id on the partner platform (Shopify, WooCommerce, etc.) and any standard event actions that happen on the e-commerce page will show up in the Facebook pixel analytics dashboard. Pretty, pretty, pretty sweet. Say goodbye to cart abandonment or welcome previous customers with messages that hit them right in the feels.

Engagement Retargeting

Lastly, and probably the most under the radar is that you can retarget against engagement on your social content and on your pages. You don’t need the pixel for this, but if you want to hit people up that came to your Facebook or Instagram page or who watched your video, you can. This tactic is a literal no-brainer. You just select the option when creating a custom audience and pick the one that makes the most sense for you (hint: try the Instagram bio visits one).

There you go. Facebook Retargeting is our jam. We love it. All the above can be found in the Facebook Ads Manager dashboard. Poke around and you’ll find it. Or, if you don’t want to mess with it or just want someone to do it for you, give us a shout. We’re down to help (in exchange for money, of course).

The Age of Opaque Brands is Over. That’s a Good Thing. (Thanks LaCroix)

If you had your eye on Twitter Moments in early October you may have seen a pile-on around the millennial-loved sparkling water brand, LaCroix. The croix of the issue (okay… crux… I just thought that was funny) was a class action lawsuit filed against the Wisconsin company claiming that its “natural essence” flavoring, which the brand has been tight-lipped about revealing, actually contains artificial flavors including “linalool, which is used in cockroach insecticide.” Once this news hit the Twittersphere all hell broke loose and the brand’s legacy was likely tarnished forever.

The sad part is that it was completely avoidable.

Because the fact is not only do consumers prefer transparency, they demand it. Need proof? A study from Label Insight revealed that 37% of CPG consumers are willing to switch brands “if their current brand does not provide them with the product information they seek.” But you don’t need a study to tell you that brand honesty and transparency matter more than ever. Listen to your friends, family, and fellow consumers. GMOs are out. Organic is in. Processed ingredients are out. Clean ingredients are in. And that’s just food! Transparency is being demanded in all verticals. It’s clear that the American public has had enough of the opaque, do-not-look-behind-the-curtain corporations — having become fed up with planned obsolescence (Apple), fake news (Facebook), and corporate cover-ups (Wells Fargo, VW).

What’s more, social media is now the megaphone that amplifies society’s collective cries. One timely retweet or share can turn an army of advocates into a bloodthirsty mob of keyboard warriors.

The hard truth: you’re no longer in control of your brand’s future.

So why is this is a good thing?

Transparency is good because it allows you to go on the offense. It’s your move to make things right. When you have nothing to hide you can work on making a great product and on being a better fit for your target consumer. At minimum, you’ve done the right thing by being the best you can. Plus, your honesty and transparency becomes part of your brand DNA.

Even better is the fact that not everyone is going to put in the effort to change. Lots of companies, brand managers, and business owners will think no one will ever notice or question their company, product, organization, or marketing. And they’re right … until they aren’t. Just ask the folks LaCroix. Actually, don’t ask them. Their social media manager probably needs a break.

How do brands adapt?

First, conduct an audit of your brand. Is there anything that feels “off” or anything that you think consumers may bristle over if they knew about it? Or is there something you know is just plain wrong that needs to be addressed? A questionable ingredient, an inferior feature, a not-quite-ethical marketing practice — they’re all worthy of review, and change. For inspiration, see what Panera did over the last couple years with its plan to remove all artificial ingredients.

Next, you’ll take what you’ve found and create plan for making the changes. Some aspects may be easier than others and if you’re in a big company you can expect this to take considerable time and effort. But keep at it. And remember, you don’t have to do everything at once. Prioritize and start chipping away.

Once you’ve got a plan, it’s time to create or revise your brand strategy. Depending on the nature of your changes you’ll want to develop a brand that speaks to your new found transparency. A brand strategy has its foundation is messaging, so make sure to address how you’ll approach each consumer touchpoint in a way that’s impactful and true to what you are and what consumers need and want.

There’s a ton more to this whole transparency and brand strategy thing, of course, but we’ll save it for other blog posts.

As always, if you’re interested in talking one-on-one about how to update your brand strategy and all the work that goes with it, give us a shout here. If you want to talk more about this blog post specifically, use the comments. We’d love to hear from you.

Branding by Jacob Tyler

The Undeniable Allure of Influencers

Influencers continue to be a big part of the brand and social media strategy conversation year after year.

Why is that? What do they bring to the table that owned content doesn’t?

There’s a lot you should know and we’d love to tell you every nitty-gritty detail. But first, you should understand that the foundational appeal of influencers comes down to three things. Check it out.

1. Authenticity

The beauty of using influencers as a part of your campaign is that they are real people, sharing real experiences around what they know and love. An authentic voice is one of the main reasons their followers and fans keep up with them. When they weave your brand into their story your brand receives a halo-effect that can’t be found elsewhere. You might say, “Yeah, but this is still brand content! How is that authentic.” You’re right, but a key best practice of influencer strategy is to allow them the freedom to create content in their own way, not the way you prescribe. If you dictate what they post you’re doing it wrong.

2. Affinity

Most influencers get to where they are because they have a gregarious and affable online persona that permeates through everything they do — from content to communication. That’s what draws people to them. The people that read, follow, click, and comment on the influencer’s content are the people that have an affinity for this person and they see themselves as part of an exclusive club or community. Tapping into that community gives your brand a halo effect that can’t be found anywhere else.

3. Authority

This is the part that seems a little “marketing-y” but that’s ok, we’re marketers. The fact is, when influencers talk, people listen. Just mentioning your brand is an endorsement. They have authority. They’ve created loads of authentic content. They’ve built audiences brimming with affinity. So, if they tell their community to do or try something, the community will do it. If they say that something is great, the community will believe it. We probably don’t need to explain why this is important but we will anyway: the influencer becomes your advocate much in the same way a celebrity spokesperson would. The people that know them love them and they’re willing to take them at their word. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

There’s a lot more to learn about influencers and we’ll post more about it in the future.

In the meantime, send us an email or give us a ring to see how we can put a plan in place for you and your brand.

And as always, hit us up on your social media platform of choice. You know how to find us.

For Best Results on Social Media, Use This Messaging Framework Immediately.

Today, we’re dropping some social media knowledge that you can put into play immediately. We all know that smart messaging plays a critical role in reaching audiences effectively and this tried-and-true method has served us well for years. We recommend rolling out all three in a non-repeating cadence each week. Give it a try.

Knowledge Messaging
The crux of social media marketing is offering value, right? Why else would anyone follow your brand? They wouldn’t. The cool part about sharing knowledge is that it can work for every brand because making people smarter is always in style. Here’s a couple examples to illustrate what we mean and to get your creative juices flowing.

1. This blog that you’re reading right now, shared to social media. It’s something that you and other marketers need and it’s knowledge that we have. So we share it in a way that they can be used immediately.
2. Any famous guitar brand. Yes, of course share great photos of your guitars. But also, make your community experts on everything from materials sourcing through final production. No detail is too small to share. You’re not sharing features, your sharing the brand in all its nitty-gritty glory. “See that fretboard? Brazilian rosewood. One of the most durable woods on the planet and perfect for a rocker who puts a ton of miles on his guitar. It’s the best.”

Emotive Messaging
This one’s so easy it’s actually kind of hard. When you’ve done the work to truly understand your target consumer you find out what makes them tick. And you find out that little insight that makes your product work in the context of their lives. From here you can create messages that tap into that to make them think, react, or buy. Why did we say it’s hard? Because the emotional execution of that message has to be spot on without pandering, without being cheesy, or feeling overtly “marketing-y”. Don’t let that stop you, though. You have to break a couple eggs to make an omelet. (Or if you want our help, let us know. It’s what we’ve done for 18 year and it’s what we live for.)

Trust Messaging
How do you build trust on social media? With reviews, testimonials, positive comments, and good ratings. Once you have those you can start showing them off in fun pieces of creative and pushing them out on your social channels. Pop a great customer quote into an image or a short video, talk about why you have a 4.9 star review on Facebook, or repost a review that a great blogger did about your product. Brands live and die on word of mouth. When you give your consumers a trust signal through the experience of others you help fortify that word of mouth in amazing ways.

Do this all make sense? Good. Get to work. And don’t forget to tag us to show us how things are going.

Jacob Tyler Bolsters Personnel with Two New Appointments

SAN DIEGO, Sept. 25, 2018 – Jacob Tyler, a San Diego-based award-winning branding and digital agency,
announced today the addition of Elise Limbaga as Account Supervisor and Tania Peña as Senior Project
Manager to the team. Both Limbaga and Peña will spearhead branding and digital initiatives for Jacob
Tyler clients.

With more than 12 years of experience and extensive work in biotechnology, life sciences, education,
food and beverage, healthcare, nonprofit and technology, Limbaga brings a myriad of industry
experience to Jacob Tyler. Limbaga will leverage her diverse background to deliver on brand strategy
and identity development, campaign development, product marketing, and web design and
development.

As a creative industry veteran, Peña has marshalled some of the world’s most recognizable brands,
including Royal Caribbean, Tylenol, Kawasaki, Retin-A Micro, Bausch and Lomb and UCB Global. With
more than a decade of project management experience for both creative and digital teams, Peña is an
expert in directing behind-the-scenes collaborations for integrated campaigns. At Jacob Tyler, Peña will
lead the execution of innovative campaigns and brand design.

“We pride ourselves on building a team of professionals with unmatched talent to provide the
highest level of client service and branding expertise. At Jacob Tyler, we only recruit and hire candidates with at least 10 years of relevant work experience under their belt,” said Les Kollegian, CEO of Jacob Tyler. “Since we instituted this policy in late 2016, it has been a game changer for the success of our clients and business. Elise and Tania are significant additions to our roster and, along with their collaborative approach, their pension for providing quality work has already made a noticeable impact on how we define, execute and elevate our services and the customer experience.”

About Jacob Tyler
Founded in 2000, Jacob Tyler is an award-winning Brand and Digital Agency with headquarters in San
Diego California. Jacob Tyler focuses on helping companies grow through effective brand development
and communication strategies that increase client revenue. The company specializes in developing
unique experiences that attract, engage, and convert new customers to its clients’ business – pairing
inventive creative with proven digital strategies to build brand campaigns that work. Over the last two
decades, Jacob Tyler has worked with hundreds of different clients across a variety of industries,
including hospitality, health/life sciences, consumer goods, financial services, education, and
technology. Jacob Tyler’s roster of clients includes Novartis, Princeton Identity, YMCA, Hensel Phelps,
and more. For more information, visit www.jacobtyler.com.

BIOS Lighting Names Jacob Tyler as Agency of Record

National Branding Agency to Create Brand Recognition and Equity for Lighting Innovator

SAN DIEGO, July 18, 2018 – Jacob Tyler, a San Diego-based award-winning branding and digital agency, today announced BIOS Lighting has named the company as its agency of record. With the partnership, Jacob Tyler will oversee all creative concepts and brand development for the Lighting Innovator including brand discovery and positioning, visual identity, and social media. In addition, Jacob Tyler will lead the BIOS PR program, in collaboration with strategic partner Crowe PR, to create brand reputation and awareness for BIOS.

With offices in Melbourne, Fla. and Carlsbad, Calif., BIOS produces lighting solutions designed to improve the health and well-being of people and plants while reducing energy use and creating a more sustainable planet. With more than 50 years of collective experience in lighting and research and development, the BIOS team is made up of experienced scientists, physicists, and engineers applying their work with NASA to the company’s biological and agricultural divisions.

“Jacob Tyler goes above and beyond to provide everything we are looking for with brand development, and then some,” said Sean Tegart, president of BIOS. “BIOS is rapidly growing, and we are confident we have selected the right agency to help support and facilitate our growth, while executing our business objectives.”

“The competition is growing at a very rapid rate in the lighting market, yet no other company in this space has the expertise, research and technology, like BIOS Lighting,” said Les Kollegian, CEO of Jacob Tyler. We’re looking forward to propelling the BIOS brand to the next level, showcasing its innovative technology in human and agricultural lighting, scientific expertise and focus on wellness through circadian rhythm.”

The partnership with BIOS marks continued success for Jacob Tyler, providing quality services and a unique approach to clients in the hospitality, health/life sciences, consumer goods, financial services, education, and technology industries for the past 18 years. Receiving local and global accolades from Clutch, Jacob Tyler has proven to be a formidable branding and digital agency, recognized for its experience, list of clients, and dedication to branding and design.

For more on Jacob Tyler’s services, visit www.jacobtyler.com.

About BIOS

Biological Innovations and Optimization Systems, LLC (BIOS) is a recognized innovator in the biological application of lighting. Through groundbreaking research and continuous development, BIOS lighting solutions are designed to improve the health and wellbeing of people, plants, and animals, while reducing energy use and creating a more sustainable planet. By integrating years of biological and horticultural expertise with science first developed at NASA for the International Space Station, and the latest advancements in lighting and controls, BIOS creates lighting technologies that deliver unparalleled biological and horticultural results. The BIOS Lighting team has a collective experience of more than 50 years in lighting and research and development and are listed on more than 30 lighting technology patents. Located in the “Space Coast” area of FL, its Melbourne headquarters are just south of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, where BIOS continues to support NASA’s ongoing research programs.

More information is available at www.BIOSLighting.com.

About Jacob Tyler

Founded in 2000, Jacob Tyler is an award-winning Brand and Digital Agency with headquarters in San Diego California. Jacob Tyler focuses on helping companies grow through effective brand development and communication strategies that increase client revenue. The company specializes in developing unique experiences that attract, engage, and convert new customers to its clients’ business – pairing inventive creative with proven digital strategies to build brand campaigns that work. Over the last two decades, Jacob Tyler has worked with hundreds of different clients across a variety of industries, including hospitality, health/life sciences, consumer goods, financial services, education, and technology. Jacob Tyler’s roster of clients includes Novartis, Princeton Identity, YMCA, Hensel Phelps, and more. For more information, visit www.jacobtyler.com.

Bistalk Radio Interview on ESPN 1700 with Les Kollegian and Richard Truss

Les Kollegian and Richard Truss interviewed by Bob Ryan on ESPN 1700 and had a fun and insightful conversation on small business and branding. Check out the podcast below to listen to the whole show.