Bridget Willard | SaaS Marketing Agency

Author: Bridget Willard

  • Seattle to Rochester – A Panel and A Keynote

    On November 4, I was on the Women in WordPress panel in Seattle; on the 18th I gave the keynote in Rochester.

    My passion is to help business owners understand how to use social media, how to build relationships, and improve their ability to encourage others. I’m grateful to be invited to be part of a panel for WordCamp Seattle and to present the keynote at WordCamp Rochester.

    Personal Thoughts

    When I attend WordCamp US in two weeks, I will have attended 11 camps in 2017. This was a huge part of our strategy at Give to promote relationships and the product. Though I’m freelancing now, I was glad they sponsored these two trips.

    After WordCamp US in 2016, Jason Knill and I decided to see part of the cities we were visiting. All I saw of Philadelphia at US was the convention center. So, I took that attitude toward these two solo trips.

    In Seattle, I walked to the camp instead of rideshare. The city was under construction. It spoke to me. Even established, thriving, and beautiful places like Seattle are under construction. I am, too. Going into business for myself is scary, but I have a foundation beneath me to support this venture. It was good to be reminded of that.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/BbE9893lvcU/

    In Rochester, once I realized how close we were to the Erie Canal, I ditched camp early enough to spend some time looking at it. It’s amazing to think that a very small man-made canal (I was surprised at how small it is) impacted history so greatly. It wasn’t even in use for very long, but it allowed Chicago to become the city it is today. Small things — even for a short period of time — can determine fate — fate bigger than itself. Think of that in our personal lives.

    For your entertainment, I also sang the song, “Low Bridge” that I remember from Fourth Grade music class. It’s on my Facebook Timeline.

    As I walked from the canal to the after party, it began to rain. It struck me as awesome that just two weeks ago, I was rained on in Seattle. Now, on the other side of North America, I was also being rained upon. I walked a mile in the rain and couldn’t have felt more content, happy, joyful, or at peace in my entire life. That moment filled my heart with courage.

    Back to the main reason for this post.

    A brief Recap of Seattle and Rochester

    Rachel Cherry and Miriam Goldman both submitted Women in WordPress panels for Seattle so they were combined. What a great group of women. Wow. We covered the entire spectrum of feminism. The panel was informative and controversial — just the way I like it.

    My favorite part of the panel was when a man asked how he could better advocate for women in the workplace.

    I was happy to answer for him, for that audience, and for you, my readers.

    It is very important how you characterize the concerns of women on your teams.

    Let me repeat that.

    [bctt tweet=”To advocate for women in the workplace, be mindful of how you characterize their concerns.” username=”bridgetmwillard”]

    Adjectives matter. If we bring up that we’re offended it doesn’t mean we’re “mad.” If we have an intentional word choice, we don’t have a “tone.” Think about that. It determines how we’re seen by our peers and this effects our ability to rise in organizations both in structure, position, and salary.

    The keynote was a special invitation. I was honored to be invited to travel to Rochester to share my passion for building community. Rochester has a great community.

    Seeing the faces light up as I spoke, knowing they “get it,” reassured me that my passion is teaching. I not only want to work that into my business, I need to. I’m not fully me without teaching.

    I felt a bit lost, honestly, until I met a woman in the bathroom. She has a cluster of stars that looks like a galaxy as a bracelet tattoo. That made it all click for me. Small encounters mean everything. That is how I pulled the talk together.

    https://twitter.com/tree166/status/931887726101712897

    Recap of the Seattle Panel By Other People’s Tweets

    Recap of the Rochester Keynote By Other People’s Tweets

    https://twitter.com/andymci/status/931882376548012032

    https://twitter.com/mirigoldman/status/931883092586975234

    https://twitter.com/mirigoldman/status/931887007852310530

    https://twitter.com/themattyg/status/931887744539914240

    https://twitter.com/themattyg/status/931888446817341440

    https://twitter.com/ShawnHooper/status/931888902884884480

    Thank You.

    I know your time is valuable. Thanks for being part of my community.

    Love,

    Bridget

    Special Notes:

    • Special thanks to GiveWP for sending me to both camps. It’s the most robust plugin for online donations.
    • I use Postmatic to send these posts via email and to respond to comments. I’m on the $20/month plan. Check it out. (It does not support embedded content in email, to see the tweets, you’ll have to click over to the actual blog post. Thanks)

  • How Much Should A Social Media Manager Cost?

    The cost of a social media manager sometimes triggers sticker shock in people. But in order to evaluate cost, of any type, you need context.

    I talked about job costing and my experience of only making $9 and hour previously. Here’s a higher-level update for how much a social media manager should cost a client.

    Context matters when it comes to salaries or, frankly, vendor costs. What caliber of person would you want representing your brand? That’s the real question.

    ZipRecuiter has a 2019 salary resource for free if you want to look at those, too. For my town, this is their analysis.

    As of Apr 22, 2019, the average annual pay for the Social Media Manager jobs category in Dana Point, CA is $49,075 a year.

    While ZipRecruiter is seeing annual salaries as high as $88,280 and as low as $16,552, the majority of salaries within the Social Media Manager jobs category currently range between $33,606 (25th percentile) to $60,190 (75th percentile) in Dana Point, CA. The average pay range for a Social Media Manager job varies modestly (up to $26,584), which suggests there may be fewer opportunities for advancement based on skill level, but increased pay based on location and years of experience is still possible.

    Quick Highlights

    • When you outsource social media instead of hiring in-house, you shift the labor burden from your company to your vendor.
    • Respectable social media managers produce results.
    • I’m more expensive than a Happiness Hero at Buffer but less expensive than an in-house Marketing Manager.

    Let’s do some math.

    Before we get to my pricing or any other agency’s pricing, let’s talk about hiring a Marketing Manager.

    According to Salary.com, the median salary for a Marketing Manager in the US is $96,000 and Glassdoor puts it at $88,000 for Los Angeles, and US News reports it to be $128,000 (I’ve rounded the numbers).

    An in-house social media manager’s range is much lower, which is to be expected.

    “For social media manager salaries, Glassdoor’s national average was $51,613, while Indeed’s was $61,000. For a final source, we checked PayScale, which showed a median salary of $45,260.” Sprout Social 

    Buffer is one of the remote workforces that is completely transparent with their salaries. Happiness Hero average around $70,000.

    If you were an employer, you’d have to add at least 20% to those salaries to account for labor burden — maybe even 50% if you pay for health insurance and things like 401(k), etc.. Let’s take the BLS number of 30% employee burden.

    “Overall, compensation costs among private industry employers in the United States averaged $33.26 per hour worked in June 2017. Wages and salaries, at $23.15 per hour, accounted for 69.6 percent of these costs, while benefits, at $10.11, made up the remaining 30.4 percent.” Bureau of Labor and Statistics

    Shifting the Labor Burden

    Labor burden is a problem for companies. I get it. I spent a good time in office management and accounting. I completely understand the cost of an employee.

    One of the benefits of outsourcing to a freelancer (1099 contractor) is shifting that labor burden from your company to theirs.

    Freelancers shift the labor burden from your company to themselves. Not to mention the cost to interview, hire, and train a social media manager — or their rookie mistakes.

    Cost from a Freelancer’s Perspective

    Let’s take a small diversion into what it means to be a freelancer. They take the burden of self-employment tax (20%) in addition to their own costs (expenses) which include health insurance, office equipment, utilities (like internet), office lease or co-working expenses, and more.

    To my freelancer and small agency friends, I take a short diversion.

    What do you think you really make when you charge $100/hour? Would you be surprised that it’s only $16?

    Is $20 an hour $20 an hour?

    The short answer is no.

    You have options. Sure. You can outsource outside of the country. That is your prerogative as a business owner. Maybe some things can be automated, some outsourced in another country to help their economy, and some in-sourced.

    It’s good to have options. As a business owner, you have your own budgets to reconcile with your goals.

    There are options and tools. If you’re willing to bring social media in-house, you should. That’s the option that many of my colleagues recommend including Robert Nissenbaum of Tactical Social Media. It’s your brand and your voice. You know it best.

    “As a small business owner you ARE the face of your business. The more you are personal and the more of yourself you bring into your content, the more opportunity you provide for others to connect. The more opportunity you have to create, develop and grow relationships. The more opportunity to develop a friendship.” Tactical Social Media

    How do you evaluate a Social Media Freelancer?

    Cost is good but it’s not everything. Look at their reputation. Look at their Twitter profile. Are they full of promises but can’t produce results? No one believes in first-click leads, but we still want results.

    The people I respect produce results. You should want that, too.

    Why are you so expensive?

    The short answer is I’m worth it. The long answer is that I know what my colleagues and agencies are charging and I’m still providing a great deal. Many of my peers would ask me to raise my prices.

    My Twitter Pro Package was priced at $1,000 a month ($1,200 as of January 2021). Agencies charge upwards of $2,000 a month for this exact service (I know I worked at one!).

    I know, as a person who believes passionately in accurately representing a brand that I spend a minimum of 28 hours a month on each client’s Twitter account. Though I don’t charge hourly, let’s use that as a basis for comparison and context.

    By my calculations, I’m a bit more expensive than a Happiness Hero at Buffer but still less expensive than an in-house Marketing Manager at the low salary spectrum — without taking into account the labor burden.

    So, what looks like a good deal to you?

  • What is the Best Platform for B2B? The X Platform (Twitter). Hands Down.

    If your customers are other small businesses then business-to-business (B2B) marketing should be your focus. What platform should is best for B2B marketing? Hands down, it’s Twitter.

    Twitter is more than pop culture and politics. When used effectively for small business, it serves several marketing purposes: brand awareness, public relations, listening, content curation, and relationship building. Bonus: Twitter also helps with SEO!

    Twitter is for Brand Awareness

    Brand awareness is high-level, less-tangible, and difficult to measure. It’s almost a word-association game.

    I say “tissue;” you say “Kleenex.” I say “photocopy;” you say “Xerox.” I say groceries, you say “H.E.B.” (Am I right, San Antonio?)

    You want your brand to be able to be associated with your purpose. Recognition of your business logo — or headshot — on Twitter allows your small business to compete with the bigger companies. The big guys rarely invest in social media; don’t make their mistakes.

    [bctt tweet=”Twitter levels the playing field when it comes to brand awareness. Are you using it?” username=”bridgetmwillard”]

    Twitter is for Public Relations

    Your small business has news; people want to know it. Share all of your news on Twitter. Not in a Press Release, but with tweets linking to your blog posts.

    What would you share? Promotions, product sales, new ventures, employees that join in, new partnerships, and case studies are all perfect to Tweet.

    People will always talk about you even if you aren’t on Twitter. Being ahead of the message is PR 101; do this on Twitter. Be proactive.

    This is why consistent publishing on your WordPress blog is vital. Write articles about anything relevant to your audience. Then promote the article on Twitter — a few different ways. Every brand has the ability to publish and gain influence and audience.

    I specifically designed a content planner and ebook to help you through this process. There’s also my free WordPress Plugin: Launch With Words and the starter pack to help give you blogging prompts. But I digress.

    [bctt tweet=”How do you promote your events and announce products? ” username=”bridgetmwillard”]

    Twitter is for Listening

    Listening is the most powerful thing a B2B business can do with Twitter. It’s important to understand who your audience is and what they want, need, and how they think. Seriously, people talk about themselves on Twitter all day long. You know what bands they like, who they’re voting for, what airlines upset them, and if they’re dating or looking for a job. Have you been listening to your audience?

    Marketing personas are essentially stereotypes. When’s the last time you updated your company’s personas? Instead of relying solely on a marketing persona based upon “Bob,” you can actually see what Bob is tweeting about and update that persona. Bob from 10 years ago liked IPAs; now he collects wine. Time to update the “Bob” persona.

    Using Twitter Lists to Listen allows you to:

    • Pain points.
    • Correcting personas.
    • Responding.
    • Engaging.
    • Focus Group.

    [bctt tweet=”When you listen to your audience, you can correct your buyer personas. ” username=”bridgetmwillard”]

    Twitter is for Content Curation

    Once you’ve built your lists, you are ready to curate content to enhance relationship building for your B2B business. We all know that B2B is all about relationships. Share blog posts from the people on your Twitter lists in parallel industries. Are you a beauty brand? Share fashion tips? Are you a cremation service? Share information on life insurance. Reciprocation is powerful. You’ve helped promote other businesses and found good content. This is a win-win.

    While managing social media accounts for my clients, the Twitter curation process is how I source articles and posts for their LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram business accounts.

    The tools I use to curate content are simple.

    It’s about people; not tools. I’m a People Curator — a People Broker, I say. I curate content by curating people. This is why building lists and paying attention to those audiences is effective in your B2B marketing.

    [bctt tweet=”Are you only tweeting about yourself and your business? That isn’t social.” username=”bridgetmwillard”]

    Twitter is for Relationship Building — Perfect for B2B

    All business happens because of referrals (word of mouth) and none more so than B2B. We live and die by referrals. Think back to the last time you got a new client. How did you acquire them?

    Think of the last time you found a new service. Did you search for them online? Google? Yelp?

    Almost no one does business with a total stranger. Use Twitter to build relationships. Reply to people. Engage. You won’t regret it.

    [bctt tweet=”Relationships follow you throughout your career. They follow brands, too. Start chatting with people today.” username=”bridgetmwillard”]

    Updated March 20, 2022

  • Use Google Analytics to Know Your Audience

    You write and you tweet. But do you know your audience? Do you use Google analytics? Do you know how long should your content be? What should the grade level be? Is your well-crafted persona even correct?

    What matters most in Analytics?

    What matters most in Google analytics is acquisition and session duration. What matters most in Twitter analytics is profile visits.

    My disclaimer to analytics is that it is a snapshot of the past. If you only post at 9:00 AM on Tuesdays, then your best time to post will always be 9:00 AM on Tuesdays. If you only use Yelp, your best referral will be Yelp. I am known to refer to Google Analytics as an autopsy.

    I give a quick tour of Google Analytics in this video. Acquisition (where they found you) and average session duration (how long they are reading) matter most.

    An in-depth look at Twitter analytics when Twitter showed demographic data is part of this episode with Jason Tucker.

    Audience, Audience, Audience

    Influencers need an audience. Businesses need an audience. The truth is that we all have audiences. We all influence someone. With the age of social media, we’re all publishers now. But who is that audience — exactly?

    Do you find your audience and write for them or write and then find your audience? Which came first: the chicken or the egg?

    [bctt tweet=”Which comes first the chicken or the egg – the audience or the content?” username=”bridgetmwillard”]

    It doesn’t matter. You have the audience now. It is important to keep their attention.

    Let’s Spitball Here

    Let’s presume you know your audience. You’ve been using Twitter or a year or more. You have a blog. You’re publishing content.

    Can you use Twitter’s analytics to help shape your content? Yes. And you should.

    If you see that your audience is only 33% college educated, that should shape the types of words you use. Perhaps your content should be short form and not long. Check the readability score on Yoast’s SEO plugin or on HemingwayApp.com.

    Test. Experiment. Try. Test again. Try.

    I test the way I cook — it’s an experiment. It’s not formal. If someone likes it, I continue. If I hate it, I fix it. You can A/B test without heavily relying upon data.

    I know what you’re thinking — that a post about analytics should be data centric. But what is data? Without context it means nothing. You can waste hours in Google Analytics or Twitter Analytics studying the wrong thing.

    Brené Brown says “maybe stories are just data with a soul.“

    For example, 57% of my audience is interested in “fresh & healthy” lifestyle. That means I could experiment with writing about how I started using the Asana Rebel Yoga App and posting some of my Yoga photos from Instagram.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/BWEY_vBljjm/

    How will I know if it worked?

    Traffic. Comments. (For example, after I started using Postmatic for email delivery and commenting, I’ve gotten a lot more comments. The comments encourage me to write more.) Comments also help give me ideas on what to write about.

    You also might see those posts performing well in the Top Tweets of your Twitter Analytics.

    How often should I look at Twitter’s Analytics?

    I need gimmicks. So first, you need self-awareness. Then you need routine. I have Maintenance Mondays at my house. So I look at Twitter’s Analytics every Monday. For clients, I record data monthly in a Google Sheet. For myself, I go on intuition.

    Start. What are you waiting for. You might be surprised.

    Updated September 7, 2020

  • Why Does Branding Matter To Your Business?

    A brand isn’t a logo. It isn’t even the color scheme. Branding is your behavior. Period. Well, it’s debatable, especially when I’m chatting with Rhonda Negard of Fat Dog Creatives.

    Marketers like to talk about branding as if it were a magic word an SEO professional would use that you know is important but don’t fully understand. (This is why you hire an SEO professional.)

    Now, you should have good branding as in the logo, font pairings, and color selections. If you don’t, then talk to Rhonda Negard. Her work is amazing. Check out the case study of her logos design for a professional with B.S. as their initials.

    What is branding?

    Branding is listening to a thirty-year old Michael Jackson song on the radio and recognizing the Eddie Van Halen guitar solo.

    Branding is making a decision between using a restroom at a gas station or the restroom at a Starbucks.

    Branding is being reminded of your beloved uncle when you smell pipe tobacco with a hint of cherry.

    Is Branding A Logo?

    Yes and no.

    In many ways, branding is the connection of your sensual experiences. When I see a Diet Coke can, I become thirsty. Why? I remember the feel of a cold can in my hands, the sound the can makes when it pops open, the tickle down my throat, and the taste afterward. All of those memories are tied into the Diet Coke logo.

    Human history is full of seals, rings, flags, coats of arms, and crests used to distinguish families, tribes, and nations. The human condition is curious; as much as we long for group acceptance, we still desire to be distinct and recognized.

    Although the etymology of branding is varied, we can all imagine a rancher using a hot iron to brand his livestock. Each ranch had a distinct logo that made a permanent impression. Though originally intended to distinguish ownership, the logo reflected on the rancher, whether good or bad.

    A Logo is Your Behavior

    Your behavior as a company will be associated with your logo. Always. In this regard, the branding is the logo and the logo is the brand.

    In my presentation, “You Are What You Tweet,” I gave the example that the Caltrop logo had no meaning to me until I met one of their employees, Mark DeSio.

    [bctt tweet=”When you have a relationship with a person, the logo has meaning. ” username=”bridgetmwillard”]

    In our day, branding makes a permanent impression, too. These impressions are based upon a person’s experience interacting with your company (brand) and there’s only so much of it you can control. With the introduction of social media, individual impressions gain a much greater audience.

    “Every employee is your brand ambassador, your marketer, and the face of your company.” Scott Stratten: The Book of Business Awesome

    Case in point. Twenty years ago I went to a pancake restaurant and there were cockroaches crawling on the table. Regardless of how many coupons they offer, how many all-you-can-eat pancake events they hold, I will never go to any of their restaurants again. That one experience made a lasting impression. Their advertising (branding) is no longer effective with me. My experience at their store made a permanent impression (branding).

    Big brands, like Diet Coke, are often used as an example because we all recognize them, making the lesson relatable to a diverse audience.

    How is online behavior branding?

    The question always is: how will that translate for me and my business on social media?

    The largest way you can impact your brand — your company’s reputation — is to have consistent behavior with your why. Any time that deviates, you have cognitive dissonance, which is a completely different blog post.

    It’s simple.

    Are you ready?

    Behave online the way you would want to be perceived.

    [bctt tweet=”In the end, regardless of your color scheme, your branding is your behavior. It’s that simple.” username=”bridgetmwillard”

    If you want people to think that you’re professional, behave professionally. If you want people to believe you do quality work, produce quality content.