When I started Red Squirrel Marketing back in late 2015 I didn't realise I would work with so many different businesses over the next four years, and I am still surprised to this day how many businesses I meet week in week out around Cardiff, Aberystwyth and Swansea. Working with so many SMB and start ups I'm used as their remote marketing team, offering a full service with design, SEO, website, social media and video marketing all in one or offering one of those services and

How are your numbers looking? Millions of views? Having eyeballs on your brand is hard work, printed ads, digital signage, online ads and social media saturation... we try everything we can to get our brands seen and make them stand out! Now how do you get millions of eyeballs on your brand? Well you could spend a small fortune on social ads, you could maybe make a viral video? Or you make yourself some GIPHY stickers, we spoke about these at the start of 2019 and we have som

Facebook is set to trial hiding likes from posts, the company has said, following on from tests conducted by subsidiary Instagram earlier this year. It's not yet known if this will be on profiles only or also on pages? The trial will be conducted in Australia initially and is based on positive feedback from mental health professionals around boosting users’ wellbeing. Users will still be able to see how many likes a post garnered if so desired. Instagram’s trial for hiding li

Back in March we talked about using stories on Instagram and facebook more and more, our clients took the advice on board and have seen so much success since. Instagram and Facebook stories are now common place, over 450 million daily users are on Instagram stories and that number is rising every day. From everyday users to brands and business it is becoming the norm to post directly to your story first. Some of our clients are using less and less posts direct to their Instag

Speaking to businesses at Welsh ICE and at TSB marketing events recently, it is great to hear so many people are starting their own business, it's been nearly 4 years to the day since I started Red Squirrel Marketing and I have loved it. Nearly half of the businesses I have spoken to haven't made any start, some of the others have made a start but have wasted some time and money already trying to do somethings on their own and getting stuck in the process. If you're going to

There are so many dating apps out there, obviously if you're madly in love already you won't know this; but for the singletons out there you may be on all of them. One of the new kids on the block is Hinge, but in it's first major marketing campaign it's encouraging you to delete the app... but only after you find love of course. Clever. Watch the add below, and good luck in love. ;) #socialmediaforbusiness #advertising

So the reaction you usually get when you mention to someone that you manage social media for businesses, the usual reaction is "oh so you play on Facebook all day" Yes mate that's it, cheers. Well feel for the guys and girls managing the social media over at EasyJet this week... A photo allegedly showing a woman sat on a seat with no back to it on an aeroplane started circulating (there are question marks about the legitimacy of the photo) As it was shared on Twitter it soon

REJOICE!!!! You can finally schedule and mange your connected Instagram accounts from the new and updated Facebook Creator Studio. Any Instagram account that is connected a facebook account / page can access this, allowing you to schedule post to your feed and IGTV. It looks like you may also be able to schedule story posts in the near future with this feature opening doors for so many social media managers and businesses. Over the last 6 months Instagram has slowly allowed v

Ever got lost in a thread on Twitter? Who mentioned who and who actually posted this? Following the failure of the “Original Tweeter” and “Author”, Twitter is now testing icons designed to make conversation easier on the platform. As you can see from the tweet above, if the original tweet author engages in the thread, their tweet will be labeled with a microphone. People directly mentioned in the original tweet will be marked with a @ icon and, last but not least, if a person

Nowadays when a football team have a new signing they make a quick video for social media to announce it, now we see the same for new kits, new managers, new boots. But when clubs and brands get it right it look bloody amazing. As we see here with the Arsenal kit for next season with their new shirt sponsors adidas, paying homage to their yesteryear kits of the nineties. #socialmediaforbusiness

You know we love Instagram here at Red Squirrel Marketing, posts, stories, DMs we use it all to market our business and that of our clients. All our clients business accounts are set to a business account for the benefits of its insights... but now there's a new kid on the block... Creator!! Should you switch from a Personal or Business Account to a Creator one? What are the perks of being a creator? To begin with, you need to have at least 10,000 followers and your account h

With all of the other social media channels stealing the headlines on a daily basis, LinkedIn seems to happily roll out the odd change here and there without a fuss. Here are some updates from their blog... Every day, millions of people and companies are talking on LinkedIn: helping each other to find new opportunities, discussing the latest news that affects their jobs and careers, and sharing their own ideas and experiences with others. We’re always working on new and bette

Pinning on Pinterest and thinking where can I get those shoes? No longer :) Pinterest is rolling out ‘Complete the Look’, a new feature to help users find products from posts on the platform, through its visual search engine – something which Pinterest calls “a scene-based complementary recommendation system”. The ‘Complete the Look’ feature works by leveraging “rich scene context to recommend visually compatible results in Fashion and Home Decor Pins”. By taking context like

We have spoken to nearly 20 new businesses over the last 8 weeks all in the first few months of setting up and going solo, all with great ideas, bundles of enthusiasm and ready to make a small fortune. Nearly half of the businesses i have spoken to haven't made any start, some of the others have made a start but have waisted some time and money already trying to do somethings on their own and getting stuck in the process. If you're going to start, then start with research. Yo

Making a comment or complaint way back when used to take some time, you would have to write an email (yes remember those) or even a letter (yes pen and paper) to the business and then wait for them to reply. Having no idea whether they had received or read your correspondence you may even forget about it and get on with your life. NOT ANY MORE!!!! Along came social media, businesses have been inundated since then with comments and complaints via the platforms, mentions, DM's,

From this week (so long as you have updated to the latest app), Twitter users can add images, videos, and GIFs to their quoted tweets. (these are like retweets but under your own handle) Twitter is rolling out the new feature across Android, iOS, and Twitter’s mobile website; it’s not on desktop quite yet, however. Adding media to a retweet works just like you’d expect: tap the “retweet with comment” option and then choose the image or GIF icon in the toolbar. As easy as that

Do you even have your own hashtag bro? A unique word or phrase you use in your posts or on your marketing material? Hashtags were coined by Twitter many moons ago and they have grown ever since, to be exact they were mentioned on Twitter by Chris Messina in 2007 (They were not started by Instagram as some 'marketing' people think) It's worth having one, it's always difficult to direct people to every different channel you are active on social media and especially if your @ ar

It's great to work with clients who want to push their business further using digital marketing, one of these many clients we work with is Volare Italian Bistro in Caerphilly, the very popular business has recently started working with us to better promote their restaurant on social media. We are using organic posts but also carefully using Facebook ads to serve up the perfect post to generate as much interest as we can in their menu and promoting their online booking feature

Working with some many different clients all over Wales we sometimes get to sample some of their products, from chocolate to sports cars, wine to whiskey and most recently the delights of Garlands in the heart of Cardiff. As well as great coffee (what we live on) Garlands boasts an amazing menu of breakfasts and lunches, better still is that they have just expanded their premises so can cater for more. The breakfasts are served all day and coffee is too, there's even wine and

Recently we met with the guys behind Llan Rocks, the brand new music festival in South Wales. Chris and Chris started Llan Rocks in 2018 and have a vision of it growing to a much bigger event in the not too distant future. We're really pleased to be helping Llan Rocks in 2019, creating a brand, a website, marketing material and facilitating ticket sales through Ticket Source. With their new website and social media channels all live we can't wait to launch ticket sales and sm