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Behind the scenes at The Game Fair with Gemma Payne

behind the scenes at the game fair with gemma payneHave you heard of The Game Fair? This amazing event brings together so many countryside elements in one place – I went last year for the first time and it was amazing. With this in mind, I wanted to find out more about what goes on behind the scenes because you’ll know by now I have a fascination with how stuff works! So I reached out to Gemma Payne, Head of Marketing for The Game Fair to see if she’d be up for coming on the Small and Supercharged Podcast and she was! In this episode, we find out how she got the job, the journey she’s been on, the evolution of and what’s in store for this year.

Behind the scenes at The Game Fair with Gemma Payne

How did Gemma’s journey with The Game Fair start?

Gemma shares how she became Head of Marketing and how a speculative letter led her to the position she’s in now. She shares stories about how The Game Fair has grown behind the scenes, especially after the CLA stopped their backing, and how that’s evolved.

Moving on, we talk about what an average day looks like for Gemma (spoiler alert – there’s no such thing!), and how as The Game Fair is fast approaching, the deadlines and the marketing effort kicks up a notch. We talk about what that’s like too.

And we talk about marketing too – I mean, it would be rude not to, right?!

Of course, the marketing effort doesn’t just start the month before, and as Gemma explains, she’s already planning for next year’s show at Ragley Hall. Gemma talks us through the marketing of an event like this, from having ads on the Tube and on train cards (due to the proximity of Hatfield House to London), to more conventional advertising and marketing routes using media buying agencies and PR people too.

This is a really lovely podcast and really gives a taste of what The Game Fair is like from so many different angles. If you listen to the episode without a week of publishing, make sure you pop over to my Instagram feed as we’ve teamed up to offer one lucky person an amazing prize… you really won’t want to miss out!

To find out more about The Game Fair, you can find them in all the places below…

Website

Instagram

Facebook

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What does social media success look like to you?

what does social media success look like to you?What does social media success look like to you? Is it a million followers on Instagram, for example? Legions of fans on Facebook? Or is it something different? Something more… you know… tangible? In this episode of the Small & Supercharged Podcast, I lift the lid on social media success and show a few ways you can ‘judge’ your own.

What does social media success look like to you?


Now, it’s all too easy to judge social media success by the most obvious metric, isn’t it? That number under your name that can fluctuate due to so many reasons. But I would urge you strongly to reconsider this if it’s your only measurement.

See numbers alone don’t really ‘mean’ anything. I’m sorry, but they don’t. What actually means something is the quality of the people who make up that number. So if you have 100 followers who hang on your every word, who engage with your content, actually care about what you have to say, and you are forming real connections with you – you’re winning at social media life. Seriously. And in my opinion you’re acing it over people with thousands of followers who couldn’t give two hoots about what that person is saying. Of course, the aim is the thousands of social media followers who care – that’s the sweet spot. But the only way you’re getting anywhere near this level of social media success is by building a genuine, engaged following over time.

Engagement rate can indicate social media success

One number that can give a better indicator of true social media success is your engagement rate. There are simple sums that allow you to work out this number, but expect your rate to be what, on the surface, seems pretty low. Anything over 6% engagement is deemed ‘very high’ on Instagram… in the podcast I show you how to work out your engagement rate on a post.

And the stuff you can’t measure?

And now we go beyond the numbers… what else can success look like? Well, I’ll tell you. Stuff you can’t measure. That one person who reaches out and DMs you and ends up becoming a client. That person you bond with and become lifelong friends. That collaboration opportunity that slides into your inbox and changes your social media world. On paper, and in data, these are ones. ONE person who DMs. And what use is one, really? Well, if you view your success in real terms, one can make a massive difference.

So, this week, I’m urging you to examine what social media success looks like for you – and I mean REALLY looks like. Way beyond the number under your name. Because if that’s all you’re chasing, there will always be someone bigger and more impressive, and you’ll miss the true connections along the way. And I’d strongly argue that these connections are what will change the game.

social media graphics guide

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What it’s like to be an equestrian influencer with Gracie Tyte aka Pony Nuts

What it's like to be an equestrian influencer with Gracie Tyte aka Pony NutsHave you heard of Gracie Tyte? Also known as @pony_nuts on Instagram? With over 100k followers on just one of her Instagram accounts (she has three), Gracie has become one of social media’s equestrian ‘big hitters’… and she is still at school! I caught up with Gracie to chat about all things equestrian influencer. The highs. The lows. The brands. All the things…

What it’s like to be an equestrian influencer?

Gracie was incredibly open and honest about what it was like to be an equestrian influencer, and it was really fascinating to hear from that side of the fence. From brands that were downright rude to her (as in, screenshooting and email when Gracie sent her rates over and spreading it all over the place!), to ones she loves working with, we get a real insider’s look at what it’s like to be an influencer with an account of over 100k followers.

We get to hear about some of the amazing brands she works with, some of the fabulous opportunities she’s been able to pursue because of her following, a little bit of trolling, tips for brands looking to work with influencers, and plenty of hints for people who want to grow their following on social media.

You can find Gracie in all the places below and, obviously, you can listen to the podcast above through the website or through iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts and lots of other places too.

Follow Gracie on…

Instagram (Gracie has three Instagram accounts)…

@pony_nuts

@ponynuts_extras

@gracietyte

YouTube – Pony Nuts

Facebook – Gracie Tyte Equestrian

And just a final thought before I leave these show notes. I recorded this podcast with Gracie after following her on social media for a while, receiving lots of amazing feedback about her, and loving the content she was producing. I wasn’t prepared for how blown away by her I would be during the interview. Gracie might be 15 years old (and I don’t mean that in a negative way, it’s a fact!), but I would trust her to work with any of the brands I do… and as I’m a control freak/mother hen/fiercely protective over them all, I can’t give greater praise. Open, honest, astute and strategic, Gracie is destined for huge things, whatever ‘things’ these may be. And she clearly has such an amazing support network at home too, in the form of her mum and dad, and it warmed my heart hearing how she spoke about her parents. I’ve also had the pleasure of exchanging a few emails and DMs with Gracie’s mum and she’s an absolutely star too. I hope you love this podcast as much as I do.

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How to annoy your social media followers…

how to annoy your social media followersHow to annoy your social media followers. Sounds an odd title for a blog or podcast, doesn’t it? Well, don’t worry, I haven’t lost my mind on this – I’m giving you some great examples of how to annoy your followers so you can do the opposite. And please do. We all work so hard to grow our social media followers and nurture an audience, and if we then annoy them… well, what’s the point? So, here I’m giving you some ways to annoy your followers, so you can do the opposite.


How to annoy your social media followers… eight ways…

So I said above, today’s podcast is all about how to annoy your social media followers. Here are eight ways to do it (so you can avoid it…)

  • Blank them. Yes, you craft a post, you edit the image, the caption is perfection… people comment… and then you don’t respond. At all. It’s like going somewhere to see people and asking them questions, and when those people do what you want (come and see you and answer), you blank them. Why would people keep coming back for more?! Exactly. Some of the best accounts out there – and I mean really big ones – engage. Even if they set themselves 20 minutes to engage after they have posted, they do. And putting that effort into engaging with followers is the way to keep them engaged and interested.
  • Be inconsistent. If you want people to ‘invest’ in you, your social media, and your following, you need to show up consistently. People get bored and lose interest when you’re scatty. And there’s no need. When you post in real time, it can be a real tie, but of you schedule you can address this issue. I use Later for Instagram, and I use Smarterqueue and Facebook’s in built scheduler to do this.
  • Rubbish content. And by rubbish content I mean bad images (blurry for no good reason, images that make no sense at all, etc), badly thought through captions. The images are the thing that will make someone double tap or move on. So make sure your images are good. Put time into learning how to take better images, work with a pro photographer if you want to. When it comes to captions, make sure there’s a point to the captions you write and do you very best to limit the spelling and grammatical errors.
  • Making people work hard. People don’t want to work hard to understand what’s going on in the image, or jump through a million hoops to get to the point of it. One really good example is competitions. If you’re running a competition on social media always keep it as simple as possible and inside the rules. If you make the competition easy to enter and they don’t have to work really hard to enter, it’ll do better. Don’t overcomplicate. Have key objectives.
  • Be cryptic. I have absolute no patience for cryptic posts. Say it or don’t. We’re all busy enough.
  • Be egotistical. And I don’t mean don’t share pictures of yourself. Please do this. But it’s really the caption here. If every post is all about how amazing and exceptional you are, it won’t win you any fans or actually help your fans in any way. If you’re telling a story around the image it’s hugely positive. Just saying ‘LOOK I’M AMAZING’ is not good. It’s not storytelling or sharing. I’m not talking about sharing a win – that’s great to share. It’s a very different thing.
  • Using the wrong people to run your account. Many businesses use social media managers to help them with their accounts (and I’m not being negative here – I work on a number of social media accounts for brands!), but make sure they’re the right people. When working with niches, like equestrian business, it’s important that the person running your accounts is, for example, horsey. Otherwise you’ll turn your followers off.
  • SPAM comments. Please don’t leave spam comments on people’s posts. Use your time to actually engage if that’s what you’re doing. Putting time into reaching out and connecting is a really big deal and can be so positive, but make sure they’re good, genuine, authentic comments that mean something.

So there you go – eight ways to annoy your social media followers. As I said, a lot of these are really obvious, but some might not to. And the great thing is that with all of the above, it’s just little tweaks we can make. Growing a social media following, a true authentic and engaged one, takes time. And to help accelerate this process we can make micro adjustments to make sure we’re really doing the very best we can by our followers. And, in turn, our account. And the above should really help that.

If you fancy following in all the places, I spend most of my time here…

 

Instagram

Facebook Page

Small & Supercharged Group

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