Using Social Media to Inform and Validate Your Brand Strategy with Hillary Houghton

Social media is a powerful tool to learn about and connect with your consumers. But what are you doing with those insights? Are you using them to really inform and shape your brand strategy and brand activation? If your food business isn't currently leveraging insights from social media, you may be wondering how you even get started?

For this episode of the Real Food Brands Marketing Podcast, host and Food & Bev Brand Strategist Katie Mleziva has a conversation with Hillary Houghton, Founder of Social HQ. We'll cover what tools are out there, how to do research, and how to get going.

In This Episode:

• The step-by-step process to define, align, and activate your brand strategy (and podcast episodes to help).
• How social media is a goldmine for insights about your consumers and your competitors.
• Why looking at the wrong things with your competitors' social media can become a distraction and what to track instead.
• How to use Facebook Ads Library to do your own research.
• What an organic tracker is, what it can tell you, and why it's a good first investment.
• The first thing to look at when you start doing research on social media.
• How to create engagement with consumers on social and what to look for.
• Why Facebook Audience Insights is such a powerful (and free) tool and how to use it.
• What to do if your social media campaigns don't seem to be working.
• How to refine your social posts through testing and why you're not creating content for you, you're creating content for your audience.
• How to get clear about your social media goals.

Resources:

• Social HQ website
• Social HQ on Instagram
• Ep #64: [Brand Strategy Series] Setting Your Food Business Apart Step 1: The Competitive Snapshot
• Ep #65: [Brand Strategy Series] Setting Your Food Business Apart Step 2: Identifying Your Ideal Consumer
• Ep #66: [Brand Strategy Series] Setting Your Food Business Apart Step 3: Company Strategy
• Ep #68: Turn Your Marketing Plan into a Consumer Connection Plan
• Real Food Brands Marketing Roundtable Facebook Group
• Connect with Katie on Instagram
• Brand Strategy StreamlinedTM Program – NEW!
• Get Your Free Brand Strategy Checkup