Content Creation

Hello Arb-ers! Happy almost-Friday. My office is in the process of choosing a new email marketing platform. I have experience with MailChimp, but I’m curious about other options. What email marketing platform do you use? What do you like or dislike about it?

How long do you wait to boost an organic post? Do you wait after posting to let organic reach “do its thing” before boosting? Is there a certain amount of time you wait? 

Hi all! I have a difficult client that is insisting on starting to tease their facility this year, but their grand opening is not until July of next year!! I have been trying to recommend to start posts at the earliest maybe 6 months out, but ideally 3 months out, but they are really stubborn. They are insisting on marketing via social media sooner rather than later.  That being said, what are some best examples of grand opening campaigns on social? I want to use case studies so I can try to keep convincing this client to trust the timeline I have recommended. I honestly think if they were to start posting now, they would definitely lose excitement and mystery around their facility. 

We are hoping to increase employee generated content, and would love some examples of brands that are doing this well (especially if they are in the nonprofit sector). I’ve seen some fun content out of places like Papa John’s (folks often make wild pizzas and share it, not doable for us but love the energy) or the day in the life videos from lots of different folks and brands. But would love some other inspiration!

I have a client that is B2B but very concerned with their Facebook growth numbers. It is an entirely organic campaign. I know Facebook growth is a wash these days, but does anyone have any ideas or tips for how you’re managing? 

Good morning lovely people of the Arb! I’ve been running into a glitch with Sprout, and am curious if anyone else has the same issue. When I’m drafting a Facebook post, I’ll attempt to @mention a partner, and the only pages that populate in the drop down menu are pages I’ve recently viewed from my personal Facebook account. Like many of us I’d assume, my personal account is connected indirectly to the business page I manage.  Any insights would be greatly appreciated. Happy almost Friday!

Hi all! I’m a bit newer to the sprout platform but I’m also relatively newer to being in the car industry. Does anyone have any solid organic tactics that they use in the industry that seems to work well for them? Our company has an ad agency on top of what I do as the social media manager and while their paid ads aren’t bringing in the numbers we’d like to see, I’m looking for better ways to maximize our organic content in the best way possible!

As a social team of one, I’ve run into the challenge of maintaining a steady flow of new employee advocacy content into our advocacy program, especially during heavier workload periods. If you manage advocacy at your company, how do you handle content curation/copywriting? Is it centralized with one team (like social or comms)?  If other Marketing functions contribute, how do you position the ask so it feels like a way to amplify their work rather than just another task on their plate?  Any processes or frameworks you've found that work well?  Would love to hear if you’ve run into similar challenges and what’s worked for you.

The nonprofit I work for is primarily a data organization, which means we need to consistently find creative ways to showcase data points and charts. So far what has been working for us is:Standalone charts that focus on one key finding (ex. most nonprofits are small with under 10 staff members) Carousels that dive deeper on a topic (ex. here are four key things we know about small nonprofits)We’re also about to start experimenting with animated videos that showcase a data point in a more dynamic way. Is anyone else at a data heavy organization and has found creative ways to share that data? 

Hello communities! Do you have any creative or general marketing ideas for Easter Day celebration? Share your work or thoughts below: 

What does everyone think about Edits, Instagram’s new app for creating reels? I downloaded it yesterday and used it for a reel today - so far it seems like a solid alternative to creating natively in IG, but I’m curious if anyone plans to stick with Cap Cut or other apps/software to make reels and vertical social content. 

I have been exploring Sproutsocial and just wondering when they will integrate Linkedin carousel functionality? (pdf uploads)Carousels perform exceedingly well from an engagement perspective and I feel like my brand is missing out because of lack of this functionality. Also, polls are such a great way to engage the audience and again we’ve been missing out on it because it’s not integrated onto the platform. Any idea on whether it’ll be integrated in the future?

Has anyone created a LinkedIn newsletter for their company’s page? Like a weekly/or bi-weekly roundup of what has been posted, upcoming events, etc? Is it a heavy lift? (we’re a team of two)Background: I work for a not-for-profit professional organization. Our social mainly focuses on B2C and R&D content with the occasional B2B post. Looking for new ways to engage our audience. 

Hello! At my company we are currently using Adobe XD for our social media templates our internal marketing associates use as well as our social media agency. I had inheritated these when I started and since XD is now being sunset I need to find a new solution. Adobe Express, Canva and Figma have all been tossed around as options. Does anyone have any experience or reccomendations with these tools with the lens of leveraging brand templates and and designs. We wouldn’t be leveraging any sort of off the shelf options in these tools. 

Share one of your most successful marketing campaigns by dropping the link below: I would love to get some inspiration from your work! Thanks, Angeline

Hi everyone - Have you created an automated process to pull high performing posts to populate a draft queue in Sprout for repost consideration? I realize this might require other tools.Kristin

Hi there Arboretum Folks! Hopping on for my first post ever and to pick your brains about adding alt text for social media graphics that are already text heavy. For context, I work in higher ed. and post a weekly calendar of arts events on campus. My current tactic is typing the event info word for word into the alt text field. I’m not sure if this would be helpful or bothersome for someone using an assistive device like a screen reader. Any insight or suggestions? Cheers!

Is anyone using Sprout’s influencer platform or another influencer marketing platform? What do you recommend? What do you NOT recommend? I’ve received so many pitches for different platforms - it’s hard to know what options will be the best fit. For context, I work for a destination marketing organization in Michigan. We have a very specific niche of content creators and target audiences that we look for. (Midwest/Michigan focused is our sweet spot, rather than luxury travel influencers.) If you manage influencer marketing without a platform, any tips/strategies for keeping campaigns organized? 

I am curious to know what others are using to record short form video content for your brands/companies (other than a phone). What other equipment do you think is necessary when recording?

Hello!We recently ran an annual campaign to fundraise for our nonprofit. It was our first year using meta fundraiser. We did not see any success. I made sure to schedule weekly content (reels, tiles, stories). Using the strategy of posting a reel or tile, followed by posting 2-3 stories and reposting the reel or tile at the end. I did this 3 times a week and only included a link in of the post and one of the stories. Content included storytelling, impact stories, stats and evergreen content. The engagement was decent but below our average. This campaign did take place in the middle of the meta sizing change and the adjustment to the Instagram algorithm. Has anyone else experienced a drop in engagement during a fundraising campaign? Or any suggestion of how to better promote a fundraiser using social? 

Hi! With Meta changing the grid, sizes, etc., I switched my designs to 4x5 and uploaded a carousel on Instagram, it looks good there. But when I uploaded it to Facebook, it looked a bit off. Meta’s best practices say FB carousels can be 1x1 or 4x5, but 4x5 isn’t looking great for me. Is anyone else experiencing this issue? What size are you using for FB carousels, or are you avoiding them altogether?

Hi All,I wanted to open a conversation around influencer partnerships and how we might better balance creative freedom with maintaining a cohesive visual aesthetic on our feed.Recently, we collaborated with influencers who have since published collaborative reels sharing their experience. The content is excellent; it has performed incredibly well and generated a lot of engagement.The challenge, however, is with the cover images they've selected. While the reels are high-quality, the covers don't align with our overall feed aesthetic and tend to stand out in a way that feels off-brand. I did reach out to ask if they might consider updating the covers, but understandably, they declined, as the reels appear on their own feeds as well and were chosen to suit their aesthetic, which is completely fair. This is also not something we discussed in advance so I can appreciate that this request was not pre-established as a consideration for our partnership.Looking ahead, I’m brainstorming if ther