[VIRTUAL SUMMIT 2020] DIGITAL MEDIA READINESS & PRESENCE
This is a video transcript from the Fresh Arts Virtual Summit, Session 4:ÊÒDigital Media Readiness & Presence: Putting Together a Robust Digital Media KitÓ with Mageida SoponÊwhich was live streamed on August 8, 2020.Ê

https://fresharts.org/summit-2020-digital-media-readiness/ 


Mageida Sopon: 
Welcome, everybody, thank you so much for having me today. Thank you for joining me today, I will be your presenter for What's in your Digital Toolkit? And I know that what I share with you today will help guide you to building a robust digital toolkit to stand out online and help you reach your goal with current and new audiences. 

Before we start our session, I just want to send a huge shout out to Fresh Arts for putting this all together and for putting together this group of creatives to share knowledge and help you specifically here for today's session on your digital presence. And so please, we want to make the session interactive, engaging, and if you have any questions throughout this entire session, please feel free to share them with us in the comment section. And if you like some of the things that I'm sharing with you send me a ha, ha or LOL so that I know that you are getting the information that you need. So this session is meant to help you build a toolkit, the elements I'll share with you, what are those elements to build the toolkit and where to begin. So let's go ahead and get going. 

My name is Mageida Sopon, and I am the senior PR and digital marketing account executive at Medley Inc. Our company is a multicultural woman-owned PR and digital marketing boutique firm based out of Houston, but we also work in Los Angeles. So we've been in Los Angeles for about two to three years now. Most of our clients are nonprofit in the sectors of the arts, education, healthcare, and also small businesses. So we get it, we definitely get it. We're also celebrating 10 years of Medley. So feel free to check us out online. 

And I will also make sure to share all our information at the end of this presentation. For myself, I specifically concentrate on digital content and development and advertising for clients. So on any given day, I'll be online watching feeds, watching trends, looking for the latest viral content, and I also touch public relations on a daily basis to make sure that our clients continue to garner positive press. So throughout this entire presentation, feel free to mention me and there @Magsopon and tag Medley at Medley Inc. So Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, just feel free to connect with us on those digital online social media platform. 

So, before we get started, I want to make sure that we set the foundation to get you into the details of what it takes to build a robust digital toolkit. I want you to learn about really solidify the content of what makes you who you are, and what makes you stand out. 

So did you know? Did you know that social media is the most relevant advertising channel for 50% of Gen Z, and 42% of millennial? In terms of trust, non customers are three times more likely than customers to visit retailers from social media ads, and then in terms of loyalty, 50% of consumers said that seeing user-generated content would increase their chances of buying products online. 

So, what are these three things? Like why are they so important? So these three things are super important to keep in mind, not only as you create your content online, but also as you develop relationships, to increase your style of your arts or if you're trying to garner attention from potential donors for your arts organization. So it also helps you understand how people engage with digital media platforms. And this is extremely important for your digital presence. 

Who is your target audience? Let's talk about who your digital audiences are, and where they spend their time online. For the purposes of this presentation, we will focus specifically on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. We like to share these because these are good reminders to reassess will make sense to you and as a creative and as an art organization to understand what you should be investing your time in. 

Just a quick reminder if you have any questions throughout the presentation again, feel free to send them in, and we wanna keep this as engaging as possible. So please feel free to share your thoughts. Again, you're ha, ha, send your LOL. 

So let's start with Facebook and Instagram. So some of the data here shows us that Facebook across the board, even though it skews a little older, it hold the self as the most commonly used platform from across all audiences. So somebody from your niece, your nephew may be online, if they're in the age range is 13, and then grandparents. So just keep in mind that if you are trying to decide what platform to stay on online or what the options that you have, if you have, you're limited on time, Facebook is definitely one of the platforms that you just wanna choose from the get go. It is, again, a platform that is accessed across the world. So it is relevant to industry across the board. 

In terms of Instagram, the data shows us that as you all can see, it skews very young. Most of your audience this would be between the ages of 13 and 29. And it is also a heavily visual platform. What we've found is that artists and creatives thrive on this platform, a lot of the artists that we work with, a lot of the arts organizations that we work with, Instagram really is their main platform. So that's the reason why I think because it's so visual, it is the reason why artists and creatives gravitate towards this platform heavily. If you will like to increase about who... Your awareness about who you are and what you do, this is something definitely you will want to think about possibly engaging in. Well, another other thing to know about Instagram is that, while people do shop on Instagram, and try to find, discover new followers to really increase their knowledge about what's going on online in terms of those interests, what we find is that conversion to actual cells and donations happen outside of the platform. So keep that in mind. 

I was talking about if Twitter and LinkedIn and data... As we see from the key demographics is that, while Twitter does have less users than Facebook. It is still a platform that is used almost evenly across various demographics. It's important to note on this platform, specifically, it's purely something that you wanna take a dive in, is that 83% of journalists say that, Twitter is the platform they considered the most valuable. So if you wanna engage, if you wanna start on Twitter, for example, if your work is more on the written education, or has a platform for advocacy, Twitter is a great resource to be a part of these conversation, it's always timely. So keep that in mind. Pitching on Twitter, again, to the point of 80% of journalists really concentrating on this platform is very, very common for media to be receiving pitches on Twitter almost daily, if not hourly, on a consistent basis. So if this is a platform that you wanna engage in, definitely, definitely think about the benefit that you would have pitching to media and how that could be too positive for you to garner some media attention. 

In terms of LinkedIn, we like to talk about LinkedIn just because it's an up and coming star. And it really skews heavily in the high earners, and college educated. And it's important to note that for LinkedIn, this is used a lot for business-to-business. So in terms of LinkedIn, this is a great resource. If you're an arts organization, and you do have a board, this is a really, really great resource to seek out donors and board members and make connection at an administrative level for your business. So if this is something that interests you, for your organization, don't count out this platform because it is a little bit more corporate and it'll allow you to make those connections. 

So let's define your audience. Now that we know that information, we understand how Facebook works, Instagram, when you That basic foundation of what works for you, what may not work for you, let's define your audience. 

Oh, I think we have a question from a viewer. 

[Viewer Question] What is your preferred social media presence? 

In terms of platforms, in terms of business, I would definitely say, just general awareness, or it depends on the goal you're trying to reach. I think the data speaks for itself, but also, it's just a choice between where we should be, where we should engage. Facebook is probably the best platform again. Facebook is worldwide, anybody and all, everybody is on that platform, and then allows you to also on a digital landscape to reach a wider audience, if you engage in social media advertising. So definitely my preference, if anybody thinks teaching in the social media landscape out of a foundational level, you're new to it, Facebook is definitely the place to go. But even if you have been on social media for a while, definitely invest in garnering that engagement in that audience, building those relationships on Facebook. Thanks for the question. 

Okay, so let's keep going. Defining your audience. So you don't have to have these questions answered at this time. I think it's important as you build that your toolkit to understand where your audiences are, how they engage. 

So we like to share these three questions because it'll really help you understand your target demographic then help you really reach your goal and understand what type of content you should be creating. 

So the first question we have is, what platform does your audience use the most? It's a good idea to identify where your target audiences will be, because then you have the best opportunity to build those relationships and to reach the audience where they're at, meet them where they're at. 

The second question is, what types of languages do they use and how do they communicate? It's important, this question is very important, because you want your tone and any content that is created to fit to the way of their communication. Again, if we look back at data, Instagram is younger, how does that a younger audience engage, Facebook or LinkedIn, probably the best comparison. They're very corporate, very business-to-business, professional. So keep those things in mind as you pay attention to the information that is being shared on both platforms, but also how your target audience fits to that information. 

The third question is, what type of content do they engage with the most? Your analysis of your platform will help you determine if images or video or any other type of visual is engaging to your audiences. This will really help you understand how much time you should be investing in creating this content in your toolkit. So keep that in mind. And then remember, we are setting the foundation right now to make sure that you have the elements to be able to really create a robust digital toolkit. Does anybody have any other questions at this point? Like I said, I will make sure to keep an eye out to see if you guys have any questions as we go throughout the session. So please feel free to send them to me while we're going through all of this. We'll keep going. 

So let's go through a checklist before we start. Now that we have all this information, what do we do with it? This is great. Yes, so how does this help us take the next step? So let's go over a really simple checklists. What we recommend before launching. The first step, update all your channels and your social media channels and your website. Going digital means that people will naturally look you up online. So always be prepared for that. Put your best digital foot forward for the world to see. At this point, now we're on an international landscape once we made the decision to go digital. So let's not forget that once this happens, you will be in front of a global audience. So if you created that Twitter account maybe a few years ago, because you thought it might be important, now might be a good time for you to get this platform up to speed at that point. 

The next step that we recommend is to research, research, research. This is a such an important step because this really helps you craft that content. It tells you more about your audience behaviors, it helps you set benchmarks for selling your work, like setting those goals, really helped you at that research level. And so also keeping you informed on the latest digital trends, a lot of this information that you do on the research side may come from your internal findings. So start at the granular level, who are your buyers? How old are they? How did they find you? So go through the steps of going back to those questions that we just went over and really take a deep dive into that. Some of those trends that even now that just yesterday, Instagram just launched a new way to create content called Real. So those are the types of things that you should stay informed in at the research phase of your checklist. Nowadays, LinkedIn is all about streaming, it's about TikToK, so just stay up to date, stay up to speed, to really make sure that if there's an opportunity for you to engage with audiences, that you are at least aware of it, if not being able to create content, you know about it. 

The third part is build stronger relationships. Trust and loyalty are definitely hard goals to achieve, but they are definitely realistic. If you take the time to build relationships with your audiences that already exist, that follow you, that are present, they can in turn possibly help you reach new one. So never stop analyzing and rinse think with the conversation that they're trying to have with you, the questions that they have, and as a creative you can also find yourself being inspired by them in return. So keep that in mind. 

Before we move on, we have a couple of questions. 

[Viewer Question] Is Facebook Page worthwhile without paid backing? Groups are working, but Instagram and Facebook aren't driving leads for me. S

o a couple of years back, Facebook did change their algorithm. So if you have a small budget to put behind your Facebook Page, we do recommend that you take that as an opportunity. Definitely reaching new audiences, increasing your engagement and getting in front of... You can also do retargeting in Facebook, but also getting in front of new audiences that fit the interest of what your brand sells, what your brand is all about and creating awareness. So definitely, definitely worth, it's definitely worthwhile to have a Facebook Page that has that backing, but even if it doesn't, keep in mind that Facebook again is a global platform and that it is one of the first, when you do a Google Search, It is one of the first searches that pop up when somebody is looking out for your friend. It is the number one social media platform across the spectrum, so make sure you keep it up-to-date. So Facebook page is worthwhile with and without that page backing. 

[Viewer Question] Is it true that Facebook limit who people see based on their algorithm? 

So that's very, very tactical in terms of the information that Facebook shares. And so. most of the time, and they say that this is true. So you do want to, again, I encourage you to, if you can do the paid social media backing for your Facebook Page to take that leap, and the algorithm is it does affect how people engage with your page. So just keep that in mind in terms of what type of content you publish. So if it relevant to what are the interests of your followers, it will show up on their Feed but then it does get buried. Facebook has an algorithm where there it does vary content. 

[Viewer Question] What advice would you give someone who is wary of how social media platforms collect our personal data? 

I would say just be careful. Be careful with the information that you... I think it's your responsibility too to be careful on the information that is being put out there. Don't be too public about the information that is being shared. And so just take it upon yourself to understand some of the finer details of social media and understand that you are again at a global landscape, and sharing the information that you are willing to share, you control your platform, so take that control and share what you think is relevant for you to be sharing online. 
All right, I'm gonna keep going because I know we're waiting on time, I'll come back to further question. So, let's go to Before You Launch. What are some of the elements that are necessary for you to take steps towards launching that platform? Let's talk about them. 

Content, content is imperative for you to provide content that aligns with your brand. Keep in mind that these elements have to be high resolution and that the best tool you have, if you don't have the budget for a professional photographer is your smart phone. Take pictures when you are creating an art piece, take pictures when you are doing something for your organization that you can share on your digital platforms. So become your own paparazzi. So that you can build up that social visual folder. So some of those content items will be your images, your video, your links, and definitely hashtags. 

One thing that I would say about hashtags is to keep in mind that their source of information, so they hyperlink to conversations that are relevant to that conversation across digital platforms. So this is another way to engage audiences that may be talking about #ArtsDistrictQue. So all the content that has been tagged in that specific, but let's use that specific hashtag will pull up as, a resource of like what people are posting online, so keep that in mind then that, I think I had a question about hashtags too. So keep that in mind as you build out and you think about what hashtags should be attached to your brand. 

So in terms of messaging, we really, really, really like sharing with everyone that your messaging, should be clear, concise and compelling. What does this mean? This means that your messaging has to be consumable to your target audiences. And make sure that they understand the message that you're trying to put across, and that there's no question about who you are, and what makes you stand out. In terms of promoting yourself, in online on digital persons, it's so important to tell your story. Tell your story. I think that really attaching yourself to the emotions and the feelings of how you got here, what your business does, and why it's so important, translates really well on digital across the board on our clients, a lot of our followers engage heavily organically with content that we share in terms of the story that we're telling about that particular client. And so, tell your story, but also don't forget to tailor that to your audiences. 

All right, I think I have a couple more questions. 

[Viewer Question] What if you are not sure which audience will gravitate towards your work? 

That's a really good question. Because we have clients who sometimes don't really understand the digital platform. And so a lot of the time, we'd say, "This is a good time for experimenting, "this is a good time to really see, create your tone." I don't think you have to go away from who you are, build that out, and then see how your audiences are engaging to that. And then experiment. See if maybe you're being friendly and bubbly, but maybe they want to... They want more of that serious tone, the business side of who you are and what you're doing. But then also, your digital platform itself will tell you how to gravitate towards each audience. Again, going back to the data that Instagram is younger, so let's try different content there. So just experiment as a new creative, but don't forget about who you are, and what story you're trying to tell. So you say, "Mageida, what if I don't have time "to build up these elements? "I have to worry about selling my art, "I have to worry about the business side of my work. "I have to work worry about the development, "I have to worry about the accounting." Well, let's talk about streamlining. 

Before you launch, remember that they are always a platform to help you streamline your work. These are some of the recommended things that we have in terms of social media schedulers, to just get your work and keep it out of sight, but not out of mind. I like to say that because even though you schedule it out, you always have to see will the people comment on my post, are people engaging? So take some things out of sight and not out of mind. So let us show schedulers that we recommend are Sprout Social, this is such a robust Reporting platform, especially for if you are an art organization or medium-sized organization, and you really want to invest in a platform that will give you data to share that information, maybe you're trying to acquire grants or more in-depth information about your audiences, this is definitely a platform to invest in. It is a hefty investment, but it'll give you the information that you want if you're really looking at that analytical side of things, in terms of like the granular level, let's look at everything from that database point of view. 

Some great alternative though, are gonna be Hootsuite, and Later. The recording isn't as robust and later limits your posts. But these are still great tools. They have free level. And so you could still schedule out your content when you just don't have the time to sit on social media and manually send out messages. You are, like I said, you're also limited on your post, and you're also limited on how many images you can share per post on these platforms. So just keep that in mind. But if you're not gonna be on social media, you don't have the time, these are great alternatives. 

We also like to talk about quantity versus quality. Sometimes, I feel that clients sometimes feel compelled to post all the time, and that is not the case. Multiple, you think, "Oh, I have to post, "I haven't posted today." But it really is more important to be relevant. Remember our relevancy to contribute to conversations. Be compelling, being compelling online gives you the possibility to possibly go viral. For example, if you post repeatedly during the day, you could possibly bombard your followers lose and them. And so we recommend not doing this and really concentrating on that, that quality post. Because if you contribute to a conversation that is happening online, again, the possibility of you going viral is possibly more realistic than you just posting and posting just random content. 

And so, also think about the time sensitivity of things, if that post can wait till tomorrow, or that post can wait so that you can schedule it at a later time, feel free to do that. And again, compelling is way better than just trying to do that, like quantity of like three times a day. Let's just concentrate on that compelling content. Something else that we also like to say, is to commit 45 minutes a day for your digital presence, of 15 minutes in the morning, 15 minutes at noon, 15 minutes in the evening. We think that's pretty realistic, if you break up your work throughout the day. All right, I think I have someone who has posted a question. 

[Viewer Question] How would you suggest integrating YouTube in your social media strategy?

I find that sharing video content through YouTube link on social media versus sharing the video directly has more lasting impact due to the comment before about Facebook burying older comments. Okay, so definitely, YouTube is one of the biggest video platforms that there is, it's super highly consumable video, it is, video and then images. So I think that to your point about sharing content through links on social media versus sharing the video directly has more of a lasting impact. That's definitely something to... At a data level, that's definitely something to follow, look at it again, look at your data, and then decide what is best for your platform, best for your audiences. And if you understand that they're consuming that content more than they are consuming video that's directly posted on Facebook or Instagram, then follow the data, and provide the content to your followers as they are consuming it. 

All right, so let's move into Content Strategy. So you may ask me to, in your head, I'm thinking that you're asking me this, how do I make sure my digital presence is relevant, relevant and meet the needs of my audience? So there's a strategy that we like to recommend to our clients. And that 40% engaging, 40% informative and 20% branding. Content strategy is so imperative on digital, it'll help you streamline some of the content that you have. And so, this is the strategy that we recommend you follow. 

But what is an engaging... [oops, I lost my mouse here!] What is an engaging host? For example, our district, Houston shares the unique story and history bouncing the district throughout the murals across the first and sixth floors. Which one is your favorite? This is very good game because you're asking your followers to engage with your content, to give you a response to your question, informative. Example would be X percent of creatives in Houston are Latin X, and get X percent of work in the city. Let's support one another. If you are a Latin X creative, drop your info below. Usually that means like drop your handle in the comments. So this is very informative because not only are you setting yourself as an expert in this specific field, you're also requesting engagement at the same time, and you're supporting the community of artists, your fellow creatives, and so this is a really great informative post for you to engage in, as you create your content strategies to elevate that digital presence. So branding, an example would be Medley Inc, provide creatives with tools to take their PR and digital marketing to the next level, check out our workshops here, link, hashtags, this is all included in there. And so that's very brand, we're talking about the company, we're talking about what we do, and then we're leading them to a call to action. So these are just examples of the content strategy that should play out online for your platform. 

So how do I get inspiration? And so here are some trends to watch, in terms of how to create this content that you have online. Storytelling is so important. Look at how people are sharing their stories to get inspiration. If you choose that you wanna be on Facebook and Twitter, look at the conversations of similar brands or similar creative to see how they're sharing their stories and to get inspired if again to black question too, about how to move forward on digital online, get inspiration from others to tell your story too. Influencer marketing. Some people may not buy into this, but influencer marketing is real. It is another way to think about how influencers set trends. I think that that is just the bottom line. They share content in such a unique way that just go viral, and they support each other cross marketing. So keep that in mind, see what they're doing. 

And so another way to think about influencer marketing is it could also be internal. So think about who your advocates are, and think about how you could potentially bridge that relationship to create something. Pictures and video. Pay attention to the brand narrative. How are people telling their stories visually, appear to the example that I shared, this is directly from our district, Houston's Page. Visually you could just tell it's about art. It's about creative, it's about community. It's about lifestyle. So pay attention to how visually your digital coverings can tell that story for you. 

I am going to take some questions now, okay. 

[Viewer Question] Somebody said, "Talk to me about hashtags. "How should I use them? "How many are too many? "LOL." 

Yes! My first LOL! So hashtagsÉ I think that there's force to create, again another story for your designated hashtag, conversation #ArtsDistrictHouston, you'll probably see a lot of people tagging the district and talking about the area in general. 

How should I use them? Use them as an opportunity for people to find your content into crowd-sourced content. Again, people will be using that hashtag with an effort, though that will all be linked together. So use that as two opportunities there. 

How many are too many? LOL I love that. On Instagram, you do have a limit of how many hashtags you can use. It is 30, 15. 15 if I'm correct, they change it at times, but I'm pretty sure it is 15, 30. But that's just still too much. Really honestly, what I recommend is that you hashtag things that are relevant to your content. So we're talking about dogs. Dogs are super popular on Instagram. Dogs of Instagram, if your dog parent, dog parents, so think about things that are relevant to the content that you are sharing to link both hashtags, and just do about 10. And do some of the popular ones, really, it's about making sure that you're part of the conversations that are trending. And those are the things that you should think about as you play with hashtags or you're incorporating hashtags into your content, and so make them relevant. 

The next question, how many social media posts do you recommend planning and scheduling in advance? For clients that are usually nonprofit, we think again, back to quality versus quantity. And we do about three posts per week. Keep in mind, though, that we do have the ability to have some social media advertising, boosting the post, to create that awareness to create some engagement, but if you want to think about your content, your content strategy, we do two to three posts per week, depending on the platform again, Twitter, we may do about five per week, and again, just think back to quality versus quantity. But that is what we recommend. Let's see [more questions]. 

[Viewer Question] Tips for increasing my post reach without boosting the post.? We get this question a lot. A lot of increasing your reach depends on those hashtags. Again, think about your hashtags that you're using for the post to be incorporated into this conversation that one, are trending and two, are relevant. And across digital platforms that can garner your attention and wider audiences. Hashtags I think are the best, most powerful tool to increase your reach organically. Let's keep going. 

All right, so congratulations, everybody. You made it to the nitty gritty. At this point, everything that we've talked about, we have actually been building the foundation to put your toolkit together. So let's get digital, digital toolkit that is. For your toolkit, I've split it up into three main branches because I think these are the three main things that you need to create and craft out for your toolkit to really be robust, as you use it to get your advocates online to share your message. So let's get started. 

This is the first one. The first one is, tell your story. Now that we know who your audience is, where they congregate, and how, we can put content together that speaks to them. At this point, you should be armed with the knowledge of what tone you're using, and your style of communication. Again, this doesn't have to be answered right now. We're going back to those three questions from the top. And so once you have the answers to those questions, this is where it comes into play, this is also part of like where my audience is, what do they prefer? Are we talking about Instagram or Twitter? This is where this all comes into play in terms of your text. As I mentioned before, is imperative that you tell your story. And this part of your toolkit, we want to put together text to share with your audiences in terms of email text. What should people be saying to their group of network to make sure that the message you wanna get across is being clear, concise and compelling. Your website. You need to make sure that the text on your website too, once you've updating your website and we've come through it, has the text of what you're trying to get across. 

The next one is your social media text, your talking points and your press material. So think about press releases, and media alerts. I give right here two examples. Giving Tuesday for the last few years have had really robust digital toolkit. And so I do wanna use them as an example because they have clear messaging on their website about who they are, what they do and why they do it. So messaging and talking points for Giving Tuesday are a great example. In terms of social media tech, the eight, 2020 Virtual Conference went digital this year. And so online has this really great, beautiful site that integrates Twitter into their website to automatically share tweets with pre-set up text of tweets to share with audiences and the followers that are going to the Virtual Conference, so think about these things as you tell your story in your toolkit, these are the elements that should be crafted out, now as that you've set your foundation to create the text. 

Next is Visual. Visuals, are the biggest part of your toolkit. If I haven't said it yet, visuals again, are imperative to your toolkit. I can say that all day because digital is visual. It's just what it is. And so make sure that you have a happy, happy database. It doesn't have to be from you, think big, you can also use stock. I don't think there's anything wrong with using stock as long as it fits to your brand. So within it, so your images, your video, your GIFs. If you don't know there's still a way, a war being waged over the fact that it's GIF, or GIF, the creator of the, the GIF, said it is GIF, but people still wanna call it GIF though, you pick your poison, right? So include that in your visual database, and also postcard templates and your logos. Logos are imperative to this here, because what you don't want to happen is for people to go on Google and say they're searching FreshArts. And then just pick any random images of your logo that are out there on Google. You wanna just provide them that material, so that it's high resolution, high definition, and it's the right format or whatever it is that they need. 

Up here to the slide, I do have some examples of visual shout out FreshArts, of what they did last year for their event. So we do have a GIF, the global save the date. And it was just fun and interactive, we thought a lot of people really enjoyed this on the digital platforms. They really liked it, and engage with it, they were like sending us some emojis. So it was a really fun piece to create, and also postcard with templates of the Honorees, all we did was done, it was we created a toolkit for Honorees to share their content online. And then the virtual FreshArts summit. Kudos to the team for creating such strong visual elements. I wanted to include it in there because we're at the summit. And it was really great elements to incorporate and share online so that people can make a connection. 
The last part was making your toolkit accessible. This is the last step of your journey. It is imperative that you make your toolkit acceptable, so that when somebody is researching you online, and they're interested in your story, they have access to these visuals, they have access to your text, to make sure that your story is being told appropriately. So think about possibly if it makes sense, if it's an external toolkit, to post this toolkit on your website. I use the eight, 2020 example again because if you go on their website, they have a really robust again, digital toolkit that accessible throughout their entire landing page. And so if this isn't possible, there are some alternative. Embedding things into websites can get pretty tedious and it's pretty technical. So some of them alternative to make your toolkit accessible are your Dropbox link, a Google Drive and QR Codes. 

QR Codes died a little bit a few years ago, but they're actually making a comeback, especially right now when you don't specifically wanna touch anything and really the tool are within your cell phone. So you have an iPhone, and you open up your camera, the cameraapp.com within your phone and you pull it up to a QR Code, it'll read that information and pop up the website. So it's already integrated into the applications that you have on your phone. So that's something really cool about QR Codes. And then, specifically for your Dropbox and your Google Drive, make that accessible to anybody who's interested in your story. So don't be scared to use the latest and greatest online platforms available to you, especially as creative entrepreneurs, nonprofits and small business owners. QR Codes in terms of pre-platform, QR code generator, if this is something that you're interested in, possibly if your event is in person, or it's an art piece that is out in the open, and so you can't necessarily share the website or whatever may be the case, a QR Code may be a good alternative. 

We have one question in terms of postcards and templates. 

[Viewer Question] Where do recommend getting postcards and templates to customize? 

So one of the really great thing about going digital is that companies are catching up with that. And so the one that is free and extremely accessible, allows you to upload video, upload images and create customizations is Canva. I know a lot of people use it but the customization features of Canva are amazing. So make sure that if you find a template that you like, you customize it to stand out. You definitely wanna use your colors, you definitely wanna use your logos and whatever color codes you have to incorporate that into the templates that you choose. Canva has this really cool platform within itself that's a brand kit, and you can automatically upload your fonts, you can upload your color codes, the color codes that set your branded colors in there. So that way it's saved automatically, and you don't have to keep coming back and trying to figure out what color codes those are. And it's already in there in your brand kit. 

Okay, the last thing I want to talk about, I've been very digital throughout this session, but I did wanna talk about PR. And so now that your tool kit is ready, what can you do with it for PR? What's the follow up? I have five steps. 

One is, have your message ready. At this point, you've created those talking points, you've created your press material. So have that messaging of like your pitch of who you are, what you do, your messaging your talking points ready. 

Two, provide images and videos. You can do that through the Dropbox link, or the Google Drive link. 

Three. Link back to relevant webpages. This is so important for your search optimization, search engine optimization. So it'll would basically it does is if it's posted on, let's say, the Houston.com it links back to your web page, it is an amazing opportunity to really increase your search, on your SEO, your search engine optimization. 

Number four, provide social media platforms. So you do wanna do this because again, at any opportunity, you wanna increase your followers, you wanna increase your awareness to really convert people into loyal customers. 

And number five, attach that press release. Media wants to know all the information, so all the information really if it's an event, if it's a campaign, you should include into that press release. And so these are the five things that media is really looking for your follow up in terms of your toolkit and how those elements play into your media relations. Well, almost done guys. 

Okay, so your final takeaways from this session. I wanted to leave you with these final takeaways. Because if there's information that you've already built out for yourself, or if this is new information, there are a few final takeaways that I want you to keep in mind. 

Number one, tell your story various ways. You have as an arts organization or a small business, you may have board members, you may have volunteers, your supporters, your advocates, they're all going to talk about you at various levels, stages of your business. So keep that in mind as you build out how you tell your story in these different stages. 

Number two, create In robust visual library resource. Even if you have a strong presence now, check out the newest features and the application that you're using. So you already have a robust visual presence, how what's the next step to elevate that? Are you using images videos? Or are you using GIFs? Those are options for you to experiment to on what the visual components are to your platform. So just build on it. Again to build your robust digital visual library resources, don't be scared of stock, as long as it applies to your brand again, or applies to the contents of the text that you are sharing, don't be afraid of it. 

Number three, build your digital presence. Again, very straightforward. Just build your digital presence online, build those relationships to really create strong, loyal customer. 

Number four, make your toolkit easily accessible. This is extremely important, because you want people to access the right information the right way. And so once you have your toolkit ready, it's either for internal or external, make it inaccessible so that they have a force of information if anybody comes up to them and tell them, "Hey, by the way, who is FreshArts?" And they're armed with resources. 

Number five, trust in the power of others to tell your story. This is really, really important. Because when you empower your advocates with the right tools, they do the work for you. Houston Art Scene, is such a beautiful tapestry. So you can use cross marketing to your advantage, if you are working together with other artists, provide each other with your tooolkit and say, "Hey, by the way, this is who I am, "just a little bit more information about what we do." And trust on each other to build on the art scene here in Houston. Also, keep in mind that your toolkit is meant as something to be broken up for you to use for various elements to garner that awareness across various platforms. 

And the last thing that we like to do at Medley is to leave people with a quote that, marketing is no longer about the stuff you sell, but the story you tell. So I just wanted to give you all a little bit more information about Medley resources. So we do have, if you liked what was presented today, you want more information, you want more in-depth information about social media, and your toolkits and public relations, we do have workshops online at medley.inc.com\workshop, and then you could also reach out to us and we can get connected and get you going on any digital PR, digital marketing, or resource or information that you would like to work with us for. 

So thank you all so much. I know I answered some questions along the way, I know we only have two minutes. But if you all have any other questions that you would like for me to answer, please feel free to send them my way now. [thinking out loud] Let me look at what we have hereÉ.well, it seems like I answered both of them all guys. 

Thank you so much again for joining me today. And I think if we don't have any more questions and again, if you would like to get into touch with us, info@medley.inc.com. Drop us a line, let us know that you were at this session with FreshArts and again, thank you so much to the FreshArts team for having me and I know that you will arm yourself with these resources and information to take your band, your digital presence to the next level. So thank you.



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