I’ve worked in a lot of different industries and companies throughout my career. Many of these were for-profit companies, but the majority of my professional experience comes from the not-for-profit sector. And in seeing the view from both sides of the fence, I’ve found more similarities between these two sectors than I think most people realize.

As a rising Junior at the University of Dayton, I was so thankful that Thread Marketing Group offered me an internship position for Summer 2019 in my hometown of Toledo, OH. A first internship entails many learning opportunities for any student, but I didn’t expect to learn as much as I did. Throughout the past 3 months, I’ve been working with various clients across service lines including PR, Social Media, Web, etc, and these are the 5 main things that I have learned about working in the business world with professional adults.

Just a few years ago, brand activation was a phrase most of us had never heard. But as the era of “engagement” dawned in marketing, brand activation became an essential part of any professional’s toolkit.

The equation was simple: replace impressions with experiences to create a stronger relationship and deeper loyalty between the consumer and the brand. In its truest sense, brand activation is the art of driving consumer action through brand interaction. The key aim of brand activation marketing campaigns is to get consumers to act. It’s about bringing brands to life via experiences and forming long-term emotional connections. 

On November 9, 2018, we welcomed divided government back to Washington.

As Thread’s Senior Vice President of Communications Technology, I have been helping clients develop custom websites for over 15 years and, therefore helpful advice that will save you time and money when seeking a web development partner.

Here at Thread, we have unveiled our updated brand, which is "Connect.  Simply." Each of us has been asked to write a short blog post about that and what it means to them in their specialization.

The Thread team had the opportunity to travel to Chicago for the annual conference of the Society for Healthcare Strategy and Market Development--known as SHSMD.  Healthcare is at the intersection of two lines of dynamic change--healthcare delivery is changing and so is marketing.  Leaders in this field are adapting with an incredible amount of innovation and creativity.  For me, it boils down to the idea that you still need to make a connection with people, but in healthcare that increasingly means connecting with people when they aren't sick.  In other words, you need to be part of the "ecosystem" of a customer's life, as one presenter put it.

Good for your brand page? Good for engagement? Not necessarily both. Facebook's new News Feed algorithm puts more emphasis on livestreaming. Yes, sigh, Buzzfeed got 800,000 live viewers for exploding a watermelon with rubber bands during a Facebook Live session. What is a normal experience for most brands? 

A recent Poynter Institute experiment with Live posts and non-Live posts showed a vast difference in Reach and Engagement.

Poynter’s live video of Corey Lewandowski accepting a CNN position reached more than 6,000 users for every engagement. Another top article post on changes to the Associated Press Stylebook only reached 36.

Poynter then looked at the post clicks and engagements these two posts received. The post linking to the Stylebook article had 7,851 post clicks — almost 40 times more than the Lewandowski live video.

Best Practices for Facebook Live

We want to achieve both Reach and Engagement with our published posts on Facebook. So while the goal of this new feature is to increase brand awareness by having Facebook deliver Reach to a wider audience, engagement is not automatic. That’s on you to create a great experience and make the engagement happen.

Here are some best practices for a good Facebook Live experience:

• Pre-announcement for Facebook Live post: Let your audience know when and what is coming. Write a compelling description before going live, then broadcast for at least 8-10 minutes. You can go live for up to 90 minutes.
• Check your connection: Wait for a strong signal/WiFi. Create a seamless experience.
• Questions and comments during a session: Actively engagement with the audience during the session. Answer questions, affirm statements and ask follow up questions.
• Major events or product Q&A: Pick your spots. Align with an event or discuss a product or product launch during your Facebook Live session.
• Behind the scenes: Some news organizations broadcast during breaks and commercials. Show your fans unique “behind the scenes” content.
• Call out to your audience to tap the Follow button, and opt-in to get notifications of upcoming Facebook Live broadcasts

Great Example of Facebook Live

Facebook has come out with new features including filters and the ability to doodle while going live. This is clearly targeted at users who do these things on Snapchat. Facebook has also suggested the ability to add multiple users who can tag-team and share a live broadcast. This is supposed to roll out in August.

What’s a good example or case study of Facebook Live? Check out Gettysburg National Military Park, which did a great job with the recent anniversary of the 1863 battle. Remember that your session must be compelling, unique and informative.

All companies know that they need SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for the success of their website. Search Engine Optimization is the process in which you design and create content for your website that search engines favor. SEO is like spices and seasoning. Without it your website is bland and flavorless to the search engines. But did you know that you can overseason your website to the point where the search engines find it unpalatable. Google’s algorithm not only rewards websites that do proper SEO, but it also punishes websites that over-optimize or try to game the system.