The Social Barista

If you are doing this, please stop!  Hello, I’m Joe Laber, The Social Barista and Branding Expert coming to you from my A Cup of Media studio. Welcome to A Cup of Social where I aim to give you simple and easy-to-use tips for leveraging the power of Social Media to help grow your customer or donor base.  I’ve been helping radio stations, small businesses, and nonprofits engage with their audiences on Social since the days of MySpace back in the early 2000s.  @follwers @everyone @topfans is annoying and most likely is received as spam.  You can do it on very rare and really important post occasions BUT please refrain from making a habit of it.  No one likes their notifications filled with spam from any brand.  In 2024, please be less spammy with your brand on social.  Please continue to follow me for my next freshly brewed blog  Have a question?  I’d love to hear from you.  Please email me at acupofjoemedia@gmail.com.  Thanks so much for joining me and be sure to have a great day on Social!

Is your vibe alive on social media?  Hello, I’m Joe Laber, The Social Barista and Branding Expert coming to you from my A Cup of Media studio. Welcome to A Cup of Social where I aim to give you simple and easy-to-use tips for leveraging the power of Social Media to help grow your customer or donor base.  I’ve been helping radio stations, small businesses and nonprofits engage with their audiences on Social since the days of MySpace back in the early 2000s.  What’s the definition of vibe?  It's the atmosphere of a place as communicated to and felt by others.  Your brands vibe on social matters as much or more as the vibe represented in your brick and mortar, online store, and in face to face interactions.  Matching your vibe across all possible places and platforms is of utmost importance.  If it’s different or even slightly off in any fashion you could lose a customer, donor or volunteer.  My advice is to first define ‘your why’ and then ask your customers, donors, and support staff to define what you do.  You can use this valuable info to develop your vibe both in person and online.  Then proudly show off that vibe on social media in a fun, concise, and consistent basis.  Please continue to follow me for my next freshly brewed blog. Have a question?  I’d love to hear from you.  Please email me at acupofjoemedia@gmail.com.  Thanks so much for joining me and be sure to have a great day on Social!

Have you ever heard anyone say that social media is so negative?  I have many times.  Hello, I’m Joe Laber, The Social Barista and Branding Expert coming to you from my A Cup of Media studio. Welcome to A Cup of Social where I aim to give you simple and easy-to-use tips for leveraging the power of Social Media to help grow your customer or donor base.  I’ve been helping radio stations, small businesses, and nonprofits engage with their audiences on Social since the days of MySpace back in the early 2000s.  When I hear someone tell me that social media is so negative, and I quickly tell them they should think about getting better, more positive friends.  Remember social media is only going to show you what you want to see.  Please allow me to repeat that.  Social media is only going to show you what you want to see.  It’s built that way.  Simply put if your friends and family that you chose to follow and interact with continue to lean on the more negative/controversial side and you continue to interact with them, you will see more of their posts and posts just like them in your feed.  If you choose to unfollow and stop reacting to all the negative and choose to follow and react to more positive posts, your feed will slowly change for the better.  I choose to use social media for a more positive outcome from input to output.  How about you?  Please continue to follow me for my next freshly brewed blog. Have a question?  I’d love to hear from you.  Please email me at acupofjoemedia@gmail.com.  Thanks so much for joining me, and be sure to have a great day on Social!

Curb appeal matters!  Hello, I’m Joe Laber, The Social Barista and Branding Expert coming to you from my A Cup of Media studio. Welcome to A Cup of Social, where I aim to give you simple and easy-to-use tips for leveraging the power of Social Media to help grow your customer or donor base.  I’ve been helping radio stations, small businesses, and nonprofits engage with their audiences on Social since the days of MySpace back in the early 2000s.  If you’ve ever bought or sold a home, you know from experience that curb appeal really matters.  I’ve yet to meet a Real Estate Agent who wouldn’t agree.  Drive by a house with tall grass and weeds, chipped paint, or a hanging gutter, and you’ll most likely drive right on by and dismiss it as an option completely.  I relate this to your Facebook page as well.  Most potential customers, donors, and or volunteers will see your Facebook page first.  If your profile pic and or your cover graphic do not describe exactly what you do in an easy to read, quick, and professional way, the end user will move on and likely never come back.  Think of your Facebook profile pic and cover graphic as your brand's curb appeal.  Need a refresh, I encourage you to use Canva.com for a free update to both.  And while you are on Facebook doing those 2 updates, please check your about section, hours, service area, and contact info and update if needed as well.  Please continue to follow me for my next freshly brewed blog. Have a question?  I’d love to hear from you.  Please email me at acupofjoemedia@gmail.com.  Thanks so much for joining me, and be sure to have a great day on Social!

Hello, I’m Joe Laber, The Social Barista and Branding Expert coming to you from my A Cup of Media studio. Welcome to A Cup of Social, where I aim to give you simple and easy-to-use tips for leveraging the power of Social Media to help grow your customer or donor base.  I’ve been helping radio stations, small businesses, and nonprofits engage with their audiences on Social since the days of MySpace back in the early 2000s.  A verb is a word used to describe action.  And that’s exactly how you need to think about your brand's social handles.  Have an action plan for daily, and weekly social media success.  Then put that plan into consistent action.  Take action when someone sends you a message by replying as quickly as possible.  Take action when someone drops a question in the comments.  Reply with an answer in a timely manner.  One of your followers shared a post?  Take action and thank them.  Are you getting the idea?  Consistently treat social media as a verb and over time, reap the rewards it can bring your brand.  Please continue to follow me for my next freshly brewed blog. Have a question?  I’d love to hear from you.  Please email me at acupofjoemedia@gmail.com.  Thanks so much for joining me, and be sure to have a great day on Social!

Why do custom branded graphics matter?  Hello, I’m Joe Laber, The Social Barista and Branding Expert coming to you from my A Cup of Media studio. Welcome to A Cup of Social, where I aim to give you simple and easy-to-use tips for leveraging the power of Social Media to help grow your customer or donor base.  I’ve been helping radio stations, small businesses and nonprofits engage with their audiences on Social since the days of MySpace back in the early 2000s.  Does your brand have a logo, how about a tagline?  Do you absolutely love your logo?  If not, I first suggest addressing that issue and hiring a professional graphic artist to design a new one for you.  If you need a logo, I also encourage you to invest the time and money in one that speaks your truth.  Once you are satisfied with your logo, I encourage you to use Canva.com to start designing graphics for social using your logo, branded colors, and custom pics.  Custom graphics are much more professional, engaging, and effective.  Plus, they’re guaranteed to help your brand shine online.  Please continue to follow me for my next freshly brewed blog. Have a question?  I’d love to hear from you.  Please email me at acupofjoemedia@gmail.com.  Thanks so much for joining me and be sure to have a great day on Social!   

I’m not a professionally trained or certified graphic designer.  Are you?  Hello, I’m Joe Laber, The Social Barista and Branding Expert coming to you from my A Cup of Media studio. Welcome to A Cup of Social, where I aim to give you simple and easy-to-use tips for leveraging the power of Social Media to help grow your customer or donor base. I’ve been helping radio stations, small businesses, and nonprofits engage with their audiences on Social since the days of MySpace back in the early 2000s.  I’ve been using Canva to brew all my designs for social for the past 7 years, and if you’ve heard me in the past, you know that I absolutely love it!  Canva makes it super easy and free to design fun and engaging custom graphics for your specific brand.  They even supply some amazing templates where all you need to do is plug in your specific content. Yes, there is a paid version that unlocks more features, and that’s what I use.  But the free version is a great start; in fact, it’s how I started using Canva. Plus, there are great YouTube channels dedicated to all things Canva. My fave is simply called Design with Canva.  I’ve learned so much from Ronny and Diana over the years.  Simply go to Canva.com, upload your logo, custom pictures, videos, and soooo much more, and start your design journey today.  Please continue to follow me for my next freshly brewed blog. Have a question?  I’d love to hear from you.  Please email me at acupofjoemedia@gmail.com.  Thanks so much for joining me, and be sure to have a great day on Social!  

A Cup of Social Audio Blog EP3

Need good, clean, usable, legal, and fun graphics for posting on Social Media? Stick around and I’ll tell you about a FREE and easy way to get them. Hello, I’m Joe Laber, The Social Barista and Branding expert coming to you from my A Cup of Media studio. Welcome to A Cup of Social where I aim to give you simple and easy-to-use tips for leveraging the power of Social Media to help grow your customer or donor base. I’ve been helping radio stations, small businesses and nonprofits engage with their audiences on social since the days of MySpace back in the early 2000s. Unfortunately, I still see many businesses and nonprofits post graphics that are blurry and sometimes have watermarks on the actual graphic. A watermark is used to protect the rights of the designer, an example can be seen on the thumbnail of this audio blog. Posting a graphic with a watermark not only looks bad and unprofessional, but it’s also not cool or fair to the original designer. This info is not to shame any one person or organization, it’s just words of advice to help you with future posts. I also encourage you to make sure the graphic you are using is not pixelated or blurry in any way. Especially if it’s something like let’s say your logo or something that represents a sale or event you are hosting. You always want potential shoppers or donors to see you in a positive and professional manner on social. So maybe you are asking, Joe how do I find graphics that are not watermarked or blurry? I highly suggest you try the free version of a web-based design site called Canva. Yes, I said FREE. They also have a paid pro version which is what I use. I have dropped a link below. I love Canva so much that my next audio blog will be dedicated entirely to the wonderful world of designing social graphics with Canva. Want more advice on Social Media marketing? Please continue to follow me for my next freshly brewed blog. Have a question? Please email me at acupofjoemedia@gmail.com. Thanks so much for joining me and be sure to have a great day on Social! - The Social Barista https://www.canva.com/

A Cup of Social Audio Blog EP11

Hello, I’m Joe Laber, The Social Barista and Branding Expert coming to you from my A Cup of Media studio. Welcome to A Cup of Social where I aim to give you simple and easy-to-use tips for leveraging the power of Social Media to help grow your customer or donor base. I’ve been helping radio stations, small businesses and nonprofits engage with their audiences on Social since the days of MySpace back in the early 2000s. It goes without saying that positive people gravitate toward other positive people and the same goes for negative people. Does your business or nonprofit promote a positive vibe on Social Media? My first rule of posting anything is to ask these two questions…is this truly a 100% positive post? Does it have real value and will it make a positive impact on my community of followers? If there is even a sliver of negativity that comes from asking those questions, I scrap the post idea entirely and move on. Life is way too short to start a spark that could easily turn into a destructive fire on Social Media. I highly encourage you to keep telling your story through positive posts on Social.  Tell about a donation you made to a local charity, a positive customer or donor review, an award or achievement you accomplished within your industry, a fun pic of the office dog or cat. The POSITIVE possibilities are endless! Please continue to follow me for my next freshly brewed blog. Have a question? Please email me at acupofjoemedia@gmail.com. Thanks so much for joining me and be sure to have a great day on Social!

Stale Social Media could really be hurting your brand.  Hello, I’m Joe Laber, The Social Barista and Branding Expert coming to you from my A Cup of Media studio. Welcome to A Cup of Social where I aim to give you simple and easy-to-use tips for leveraging the power of Social Media to help grow your customer or donor base.  I’ve been helping radio stations, small businesses and nonprofits engage with their audiences on Social since the days of MySpace back in the early 2000s.  When was the last time you updated your brands Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn page?  If it’s been more than a week, I suggest you consider creating a post right now.  If you already posted this week then I applaud you.  Remember when people search for your brand online and see that you haven’t posted in a while most probably think that you have nothing new going on or even worse that you are out of business.  In my opinion if you are not committed to updating ALL your Social Media handles at least once weekly then you should just delete all of them completely.  Being on Social Media means absolutely nothing.  But being consistently active on Social Media could mean everything.  Please continue to follow me for my next freshly brewed blog. Have a question?  I’d love to hear from you.  Please email me at acupofjoemedia@gmail.com.  Thanks so much for joining me and be sure to have a great day on Social!

Time to check your about section?  Hello, I’m Joe Laber, The Social Barista and Branding Expert coming to you from my A Cup of Media studio. Welcome to A Cup of Social where I aim to give you simple and easy-to-use tips for leveraging the power of Social Media to help grow your customer or donor base.  I’ve been helping radio stations, small businesses and nonprofits engage with their audiences on Social since the days of MySpace back in the early 2000s.  When was the last time you checked and updated your about section on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn?  I encourage you to revisit it at least every 30 days or sooner if needed. Let’s say you change to your summer hours please update all your Social handles.  Changed your email address, moved locations, or launched a new website, by all means update that on all your Social handles.  Added a new service or product line guess what…update your about section.  Are you getting the idea?  Your about section is vital to your business or non profit and helps greatly with those searching for what you provide and it keeps your current customers, donors, and volunteers informed and up to date as well.  Please continue to follow me for my next freshly brewed blog. Have a question?  I’d love to hear from you.  Please email me at acupofjoemedia@gmail.com.  Thanks so much for joining me and be sure to have a great day on Social!  

Are you lacking brand trust?  Hello, I’m Joe Laber, The SocialBarista and Branding Expert coming to you from my A Cup of Media studio. Welcome to A Cup of Social where I aim to give you simple and easy-to-use tips for leveraging the power of Social Media to help grow your customer or donor base.  I’ve been helping radio stations, small businesses, and nonprofits engage with their audiences on Social since the days of MySpace back in the early 2000s.  Consistently utilizing Social Media can help build a trustworthy brand.  It connects you to your current customers and donors in a more intimate way and has the potential to introduce you to more followers of your band.  And many of those followers are seeking to engage with you on a personal level.  So how do you build that brand trust and engage them successfully on Social?  I’m glad you asked. Just like anything it happens over time and can organically grow from there.  Posts testimonials from your clients, volunteers, donors, or those who benefit from the service your nonprofit provides.  Always make sure your contact info, and hours are up to date/current.  Keep your followers informed of new products or services offered.  Always be sure to respond to messages and comments in a timely manner.  And always say thanks a lot.  People trust brands that are real and authentic and take the time to respond back in a timely manner.  Tell stories of how and why you started and continue to run your brand.  And please remember this is a never-ending process. Please continue to follow me for my next freshly brewed blog. Have a question?  I’d love to hear from you.  Please email me at acupofjoemedia@gmail.com.  Thanks so much for joining me and be sure to have a great day on Social!  

Are your posts on Social Media purpose driven? Hello, I’m Joe Laber, The Social Barista and Branding Expert coming to you from my A Cup of Media studio. Welcome to A Cup of Social where I aim to give you simple and easy-to-use tips for leveraging the power of Social Media to help grow your customer or donor base. I’ve been helping radio stations, small businesses, and nonprofits engage with their audiences on Social since the days of MySpace back in the early 2000s. Posts of your brand should have a purpose and meaning behind them that benefit your customers, donors, and or volunteers. Don’t just post to post. Always have a purpose behind each post. Let your passion for your brand come shining through. It will be felt by those who choose to receive it. Tell your story, purpose, and what problems your business or nonprofit solve. People gravitate to an idea, product, service, business, and or nonprofit that brings them purpose. Purpose drives connection and connection drives more followers and engagement. Please continue to follow me for my next freshly brewed blog. Have a question? I’d love to hear from you. Please email me at acupofjoemedia@gmail.com. Thanks so much for joining me and be sure to have a great day on Social!

Hello, I’m Joe Laber, The Social Barista and Branding Expert coming to you from my A Cup of Media studio. Welcome to A Cup of Social where I aim to give you simple and easy-to-use tips for leveraging the power of Social Media to help grow your customer or donor base. I’ve been helping radio stations, small businesses, and nonprofits engage with their audiences on Social since the days of MySpace back in the early 2000s. What’s EIE? I’m glad you ask. It stands for EDUCATE. INFORM. ENTERTAIN. The top 3 things your Social Media presence should be doing ALL the time. It is the top 3 things Social Media users expect. So, are your posts delivering any of these 3 metrics? No matter the business or nonprofit you should be. And remember it’s never too late to evaluate your EIE and change course. Let’s continue to EDUCATE, INFORM, and ENTERTAIN. Please continue to follow me for my next freshly brewed blog. Have a question? I’d love to hear from you. Please email me at acupofjoemedia@gmail.com. Thanks so much for joining me and be sure to have a great day on Social!

Hello, I’m Joe Laber, The Social Barista and Branding Expert coming to you from my A Cup of Media studio. Welcome to A Cup of Social where I aim to give you simple and easy-to-use tips for leveraging the power of Social Media to help grow your customer or donor base. I’ve been helping radio stations, small businesses and nonprofits engage with their audiences on Social since the days of MySpace back in the early 2000s. My Social Media batting average is pretty consistent at .300. Which means for every 10 times I step up to the Social Media plate only 2 to 3 posts perform. The other 7 to 8 serve as fillers for consistency. Let’s break it down even further. Of those 2-3 out of 10 performing posts, most are singles and on occasion, one will receive home run status and on the very rare occasion a grand slam. Did you know that only three players in MLB history have 500 homers, 3,000 hits, and a .300+ career batting average? By no means is this to discourage you from stepping up to the Social Media plate. You just need to continue to be consistent with your posts and message. Remember you can’t get a hit if you don’t step up to the plate and swing away. And the more you step up/post the more chances you have to get a hit. I encourage you to stay in the Social Media game and be happy and thankful for each and every reaction, comment, and share of support you receive. Please continue to follow me for my next freshly brewed blog. Have a question? I’d love to hear from you. Please email me at acupofjoemedia@gmail.com. Thanks so much for joining me and be sure to have a great day on Social!

A Cup of Social Audio Blog EP21

Hello, I’m Joe Laber, The Social Barista and Branding Expert coming to you from my A Cup of Media studio. Welcome to A Cup of Social where I aim to give you simple and easy-to-use tips for leveraging the power of Social Media to help grow your customer or donor base. I’ve been helping radio stations, small businesses and nonprofits engage with their audiences on Social since the days of MySpace back in the early 2000s. People ask me all the time what are hashtags and are they really important. The original definition of the hashtag is… a word or phrase preceded by a hash sign (#), used on Social Media, websites, and applications, especially Twitter, to identify digital content on a specific topic. Today hashtags have grown widely popular and powerful on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. It’s your digital footprint to the world. It's like a roadmap to finding your specific content. For example, if you search the hashtag #thesocialbarista you can view many of my most popular posts. It’s one of many custom, area, and trade hashtags I use with every single post. Plus, it’s a great way to search for content on Social Media more quickly and efficiently. The bottom line is do NOT take hashtags for granted. Not using hashtags or want a road map to hashtag success please reach out to me at acupofjoemedia@gmail.com. Please continue to follow me for my next freshly brewed blog. Thanks so much for joining me and be sure to have a great day on Social!

A Cup of Social Audio Blog EP20

Hello, I’m Joe Laber, The Social Barista and Branding Expert coming to you from my A Cup of Media studio. Welcome to A Cup of Social where I aim to give you simple and easy-to-use tips for leveraging the power of Social Media to help grow your customer or donor base. I’ve been helping radio stations, small businesses and nonprofits engage with their audiences on Social since the days of MySpace back in the early 2000s. I often see brands big and small post on Social Media and then ghost their followers. They do not moderate the post thus ignoring all the reactions, comments, and shares. If you moderate a page please respond in a timely manner. Not only is it the polite thing to do it’s the right thing to do. In general, most people do not like being ignored especially on Social Media. Use Social Media to engage your customers and donors in a fun and positive way. Remember engagement doesn’t end after your post goes live, it’s where it begins. And please respond to all messages in a timely manner as well. I tell business owners to treat communication on Social Media like it’s just as important as in-person customers, a phone call, or email. I encourage you to post and then engage. Be social with your current and or potential customers and donors. It’s fun! Please continue to follow me for my next freshly brewed blog. Have a question? I’d love to hear from you. Please email me at acupofjoemedia@gmail.com. Thanks so much for joining me and be sure to have a great day on Social!

Business owners and nonprofit managers please don’t forget your current clients and donors.  Hello, I’m Joe Laber, The Social Barista and Branding Expert coming to you from my A Cup of Media studio. Welcome to A Cup of Social where I aim to give you simple and easy-to-use tips for leveraging the power of Social Media to help grow your customer or donor base. I’ve been helping radio stations, small businesses and nonprofits engage with their audiences on Social since the days of MySpace back in the early 2000s. Business owners and nonprofits are you utilizing Social Media to inform and inspire your current customers or donors? Often, we think of Social Media as a tool to acquire new clients and or donors, which it can. On the other hand, often times business owners and nonprofit managers forget that engaging posts on Social Media are just as important, if not more important, to get info out to their current customer or donor base. Yes, websites, are really important but Social Media is a more instant and effective source to get important info out to your current clients more quickly. Like a change in operating hours, current sale, cancellation of an event, added services or products, new or updated website, updated email or phone number, new blog post, new employee, recent community involvement, and I could go on and on. Your current customers want to know that you are active, involved, and care about informing them as well as trying to acquire new clients and or donors. Think of Social Media as your live microphone to a lot of your current customers. And as a bonus, it’s always on. Please continue to follow me for my next freshly brewed blog. Have a question? I’d love to hear from you. Please email me at acupofjoemedia@gmail.com. Thanks so much for joining me and be sure to have a great day on Social!

Hello, I’m Joe Laber, The Social Barista and Branding Expert coming to you from my A Cup of Media studio. Welcome to A Cup of Social where I aim to give you simple and easy-to-use tips for leveraging the power of Social Media to help grow your customer or donor base. I’ve been helping radio stations, small businesses and nonprofits engage with their audiences on Social since the days of MySpace back in the early 2000s. About 10 years ago I started using LinkedIn very scarcely. I had a personal profile that I updated on occasion but I never really posted content on a regular basis. In fact, I never even suggested that any of my radio station, nonprofit, or business clients maintain a profile. That has since changed. Over the past 5 years, I’ve been using LinkedIn daily. Posting content, interacting, and making valuable connections. Did you know that LinkedIn has 310 million monthly active users and an average user spends 7 minutes and 31 seconds on the network every day? Over the past several years they’ve added more reaction choices similar to Facebook, which I really enjoy. You can set up an event, and post a blog, which they call an article plus you can post videos and a job opening. Your profile is powerful on LinkedIn please make sure you keep it updated as needed. And by all means, I highly encourage your brand to build awareness and trust with an active LinkedIn profile. It’s a great place to connect and communicate with those who might need your products or services. Please continue to follow me for my next freshly brewed blog. Have a question? I’d love to hear from you. Please email me at acupofjoemedia@gmail.com. Thanks so much for joining me and be sure to have a great day on Social!

Hello, I’m Joe Laber, The Social Barista and Branding Expert coming to you from my A Cup of Media studio. Welcome to A Cup of Social where I aim to give you simple and easy-to-use tips for leveraging the power of Social Media to help grow your customer or donor base. I’ve been helping radio stations, small businesses and nonprofits engage with their audiences on Social since the days of MySpace back in the early 2000s. An elevator pitch is a brief (think 30 seconds or less!) way of introducing yourself, getting across a key point or two, and making a connection with someone. It's called an elevator pitch because it takes roughly the amount of time, you'd spend riding an elevator with someone. Every business and nonprofit needs an elevator pitch. Especially for marketing on social media. It can help you stay focused on creating posts that really matter to your audience. My elevator pitch for A Cup of Joe Media is simply this, I leverage the power of Social Media to help grow your customer or donor base by brewing fresh graphics, engaging content, and organic growth. Your elevator pitch can be a mix of your tagline, mission statement, slogan, customer or donor testimonials, and your brand's story. It should be crystal clear and make sense to a broad audience. It should keep someone’s attention for at least one, two, or more floors and hopefully entice someone to ask for more info, thus giving you the opportunity to lead them to your website or Social Media platforms to show and explain what you do in further detail. Let’s say you have an elevator pitch that you’ve been using but it’s a bit stale and needs a refresh because your business model has changed a bit. By all means, I encourage you to revisit it and go for a revision. Where I’m from, Miami County, Ohio there are two lovely ladies who operate Heart-Song and they aim to help craft what’s called a Compass Statement. It’s very similar to an elevator pitch and is very helpful to individuals, small groups, and nonprofits. If you live in the Miami Valley, Ohio region, I encourage you to check out the free services they offer at MyHeartSongInc.org. Please continue to follow me for my next freshly brewed blog. Have a question? I’d love to hear from you. Please email me at acupofjoemedia@gmail.com. Thanks so much for joining me and be sure to have a great day on Social!

Quality, quantity, or both? Hello, I’m Joe Laber, The Social Barista and Branding Expert coming to you from my A Cup of Media studio. Welcome to A Cup of Social where I aim to give you simple and easy-to-use tips for leveraging the power of Social Media to help grow your customer or donor base. I’ve been helping radio stations, small businesses and nonprofits engage with their audiences on Social since the days of MySpace back in the early 2000s. I am a huge believer that when it comes to posting on Social Media you need to be consistent with both your quality and quantity. Even if that means only posting as little as once a week. What’s a quality post? It’s a post that is targeted to your specific audience. One that tells the story of your brand and how your customers or donors view and receive it. It’s posting a sale or upcoming event, a customer review, a hot new hard-to-find product, a new service or feature, an award or an achievement you received within your industry or engaging your audience with a fun poll or question related to your industry. These types of positive posts are quality posts and will have a much further reach than a lot of 'generic type’ posts that are used to merely fill up space, ‘just because. Space on social media is your real estate, your piece of the pie, and your media outlet to spread the positive news about your business, nonprofit, radio station, church, and yourself. Please use it wisely and always strive to find a balance between quality posts and the quantity in which you post them. Please continue to follow me for my next freshly brewed blog. Have a question? I’d love to hear from you. Please email me at acupofjoemedia@gmail.com. Thanks so much for joining me and be sure to have a great day on Social!

A Cup of Social Audio Blog EP15

How powerful is Social Media? Hello, I’m Joe Laber, The Social Barista and Branding Expert coming to you from my A Cup of Media studio. Welcome to A Cup of Social where I aim to give you simple and easy-to-use tips for leveraging the power of Social Media to help grow your customer or donor base. I’ve been helping radio stations, small businesses and nonprofits engage with their audiences on Social since the days of MySpace back in the early 2000s. I’ve worked in the radio business since graduating from the International College of Broadcasting in 1991. As far as reach is concerned the most important number at a radio station is its watts. Wattage is a radio station's power to reach a certain area on the map. The more watts a station has the more physical ground its signal can reach thus giving them the opportunity to potentially reach more listeners. More listeners actually listening equals bigger ratings for the station and better ratings can equal better sales/dollars earned. It’s a total numbers game. I equate LIKES on Social Media to watts of power. The more LIKES you have the more power you have to reach a larger audience. A larger audience could easily equal more customers and donors. And if your business or nonprofit is local to a certain area, like an FM or AM radio signal, you want to gain more organic likes from the area you serve. Here’s an example, no one in Chicago is coming to Troy to get their haircut or car repaired, make sense? If you sell products or services online you may want to target a broader audience from other parts of the country or world, for that matter. Utilizing the power of Social Media to promote your brand is like owning your own radio station and you’re the GM, program director, on-air talent, and marketing and promotions director, and if you need a production director, that’s someone who creates the content, let me know. I would love to help. Please continue to follow me for my next freshly brewed blog. Have a question? I’d love to hear from you. Please email me at acupofjoemedia@gmail.com. Thanks so much for joining me and be sure to have a great day on Social!

A Cup of Social Audio Blog EP14

Is your brand on Instagram? Hello, I’m Joe Laber, The Social Barista and Branding Expert coming to you from my A Cup of Media studio. Welcome to A Cup of Social where I aim to give you simple and easy-to-use tips for leveraging the power of Social Media to help grow your customer or donor base. I’ve been helping radio stations, small businesses and nonprofits engage with their audiences on Social since the days of MySpace back in the early 2000s. Instagram is a fun and totally visual platform. Your brand can really shine on Instagram with short and sweet graphics that pop right off the screen. It’s mostly accessed by smartphones and can be accessed on a pc as well. Of its over 1 billion users nearly 60% of Instagram users log in daily and over 80 million photos are shared daily. Instagram is less about the text in each post as much as it is about the actual photo or graphic. I use the KISS method when using Instagram for myself and my clients. Keep It Simple, Stupid. Each graphic I freshly brew for Instagram is easy to read and understand. Posts on Instagram should catch someone’s eye in a social media millisecond and stop them from scrolling. Instagram stories can be a very effective way to promote a special event or sale you are hosting as well. I love that you can post up to 10 multiple photos and or graphics in one post. It’s a fun way to tell a story. It’s like reading a book with very few words but lots of engaging pictures. That’s my kind of book! Are you currently telling ‘your’ brand's story on Instagram? If not, I encourage you to join me along with their other 1 billion users and start telling your story to more eyes and ears on Instagram. Please continue to follow me for my next freshly brewed blog. Have a question? I’d love to hear from you. Please email me at acupofjoemedia@gmail.com. Thanks so much for joining me and be sure to have a great day on Social!

A Cup of Social Audio Blog EP13

Why should your small business or nonprofit be utilizing the power of Facebook? I’ll answer that very question coming up. Hello, I’m Joe Laber, The Social Barista and Branding Expert coming to you from my A Cup of Media studio. Welcome to A Cup of Social where I aim to give you simple and easy-to-use tips for leveraging the power of Social Media to help grow your customer or donor base. I’ve been helping radio stations, small businesses and nonprofits engage with their audiences on Social since the days of MySpace back in the early 2000s. Why be on Facebook? The first and best reason is that it’s still the number one most used social media platform. Facebook boasts over 2.9 billion ‘with a b’ monthly active global users making it the most used online social network worldwide. Since its official launch back in early 2004 Facebook has been a proven leader in giving us the power to connect with friends and family, find communities, and grow businesses and nonprofits. It's my favorite platform by a social media mile. There are many reasons I love Facebook and it’s for those reasons that I continue to tell my clients they need to be active on the platform. The cover banner on Facebook gives your brand a chance to shine on social right at first sight. I encourage you to make your cover graphic pop for your brand. If you need help, please let me know. I can brew one just for you that looks great on both mobile and pc. I love that you can post links to your website, blog, and YouTube channel right in the actual post or comments. Facebook allows non-profits the opportunity to raise funds for their cause in any given post. It’s easy to do and really works as I’ve used it for Laber of Love Pet Rescue on many occasions. I love setting up events on Facebook. It’s so easy to do and increases traffic to an in-person or online event two-fold. And I totally base this statement on MANY years of utilizing Facebook events. I also really enjoy using Facebook's scheduling feature. It allows you to easily schedule posts for up 10 weeks. Facebook also has an amazing ‘about’ section where you can post your bio, website link, email, phone number, hours, and location that links to google maps. I also love that you can post any length of video and easily set up separate photo albums for special events and occasions. I could talk about the vast wonderful world of Facebook for hours but since these videos are meant to be short and sweet, I’ll end it here by simply saying, if you’re not on Facebook, you’re really missing out on a lot of potential customers and or donors! Please continue to follow me for my next freshly brewed blog. Have a question? I’d love to hear from you. Please email me at acupofjoemedia@gmail.com. Thanks so much for joining me and be sure to have a great day on Social!

A Cup of Social Audio Blog EP12

I’m not a fan of cross-posting. Hello, I’m Joe Laber, The Social Barista and Branding Expert coming to you from my A Cup of Media studio. Welcome to A Cup of Social where I aim to give you simple and easy-to-use tips for leveraging the power of Social Media to help grow your customer or donor base. I’ve been helping radio stations, small businesses and nonprofits engage with their audiences on Social since the days of MySpace back in the early 2000s.  Cross-Posting in my opinion is a mistake. Let’s start with the definition of cross-posting. It simply means posting identical content across multiple social media channels at the exact same time.  Let’s say you are asking someone to post a photo of their pumpkin carving or favorite pet in the comments and you send that graphic to Facebook and Instagram at the exact same time. Of course, on Facebook, your followers can easily do that. That same post on Instagram is useless because you can’t post a photo in the comments. It just sits there and takes up valuable space on your feed. I call it a scroll-through or dead post. Unfortunately, I still see these types of cross-posting errors quite often. In fact, I am not a fan of cross-posting at all, except on very rare occasions. The two platforms, Facebook and Instagram, operate on different types of engagement, reactions, and feelings. Please continue to follow me for my next freshly brewed blog. Have a question? I’d love to hear from you. Please email me at acupofjoemedia@gmail.com. Thanks so much for joining me and be sure to have a great day on Social!

A Cup of Social Audio Blog EP11A

A simple THANK YOU can have a big impact. Hello, I’m Joe Laber, The Social Barista and Branding Expert coming to you from my A Cup of Media studio. Welcome to A Cup of Social where I aim to give you simple and easy-to-use tips for leveraging the power of Social Media to help grow your customer or donor base. I’ve been helping radio stations, small businesses and nonprofits engage with their audiences on Social since the days of MySpace back in the early 2000s. The word THANKS is a very important and powerful word. And if you’re not using it often on Social Media, I highly encourage you to start using it immediately. Business owners can THANK their customers. Nonprofits can THANK their donors and volunteers. If someone comments on one of your posts be sure to comment back with a heartfelt THANKS. Thankful for a special vendor? Be sure to message them a personal THANK YOU note via messenger or post it directly to their Facebook page. Did a business donate items to your nonprofit? Be sure to create a THANK YOU post directed at that particular business? Animal Shelters do a great job posting adoption THANK YOU’s. Those are some of my favorite posts. Realtors can post a pic of their clients in front of their new home with a THANK YOU in the post. The same goes for anyone who sells cars, ac units, new roofs, landscaping services, apparel, or practically anything. Dog groomers can post pics of their recently groomed dogs and say THANKS to each owner in the post. Radio stations can post pics of their recent in-studio guests and recent contest winners and THANK them for participating. The possibilities to say THANK YOU on SOCIAL MEDIA are endless! Please continue to follow me for my next freshly brewed blog. Have a question? Please email me at acupofjoemedia@gmail.com. Thanks so much for joining me and be sure to have a great day on Social!

A Cup of Social Audio Blog EP10

Is the tagging feature on Social Media really important? Hello, I’m Joe Laber, The Social Barista and Branding Expert coming to you from my A Cup of Media studio. Welcome to A Cup of Social where I aim to give you simple and easy-to-use tips for leveraging the power of Social Media to help grow your customer or donor base. I’ve been helping radio stations, small businesses and nonprofits engage with their audiences on Social since the days of MySpace back in the early 2000s. Tagging someone, a business, or an organization is vitally important to do on both your professional and personal page. I highly encourage you to use the tagging feature on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. If you have a testimonial from a customer or donor, include their picture or logo and be sure to tag them on the actual picture and in the post as well. Did a business donate a gift basket to your upcoming fundraiser, tag that business on the item's picture they donated and in the actual post as well? Tagging is a way to recognize others and let them know you care and are grateful. Plus, if they accept the tag, more eyes will be on your post. More eyes could equal more followers which in turn could lead to more customers or donors. Sometimes a particular person or business may have the tagging feature turned off thus not allowing them to be tagged. This could be on purpose or oftentimes they don’t even know that feature exists. If I know the person or business on a personal level, I may reach out to them to let them know. This gives them the option to activate the tagging feature, or not. Tagging also allows for more engagement with your post. After all isn’t that what Social Media is all about, engagement? Please continue to follow me for my next freshly brewed blog. Have a question? Please email me at acupofjoemedia@gmail.com. Thanks so much for joining me and be sure to have a great day tagging on Social!

A Cup of Social Audio Blog EP9

Are you utilizing the events feature on Facebook? Hello, I’m Joe Laber, The Social Barista and Branding Expert coming to you from my A Cup of Media studio. Welcome to A Cup of Social where I aim to give you simple and easy-to-use tips for leveraging the power of Social Media to help grow your customer or donor base. I’ve been helping radio stations, small businesses and nonprofits engage with their audiences on Social since the days of MySpace back in the early 2000s. Do Events on Facebook really work? Yes, yes, and YES!!! If set up correctly and properly maintained an event on Facebook will most likely increase traffic to your sale, event, or fundraiser by two-fold. I have set up hundreds of events on Facebook and have seen the amazing results firsthand. Facebook allows you to post an event graphic, location, description, and even a link to purchase tickets if it’s a ticketed event. It allows you to invite your supporters, customers, friends, and family. You can even add a co-host if your event is being co-hosted by another party. Plus, you can post within the event. This is where it gets fun and you can be as creative as you want. If it’s a big sale, you can post pictures of some of the hottest hard-to-find sale items. If your nonprofit is hosting a silent auction at an event, you can post pics of your auction items. Is your event featuring a band, post a pic or video of the band in action and be sure to tag the band? Your posting options are unlimited with your event listing on Facebook. And yes, you can even schedule posts within a Facebook event. With more engaging event posts and more invites, the better your results will be. Want more advice on Social Media marketing? Please continue to follow me for my next freshly brewed blog. Have a question? Please email me at acupofjoemedia@gmail.com. Thanks so much for joining me and be sure to have a great day on Social!

A Cup of Social Audio Blog EP8

Should you have Social handles for personal, business, or both? Hello, I’m Joe Laber, The Social Barista and Branding Expert coming to you from my A Cup of Media studio. Welcome to A Cup of Social where I aim to give you simple and easy-to-use tips for leveraging the power of Social Media to help grow your customer or donor base. I’ve been helping radio stations, small businesses and nonprofits engage with their audiences on Social Media since the days of MySpace back in the early 2000s. Whether it be Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn, I always tell my clients to have a business page and a separate personal page. This is especially true for my Real Estate Agent clients. If you are trying to do business on your personal page, I highly suggest you start a business page and try to keep each page’s content separate. And once you’ve established your business or nonprofit page you can invite your family friends, and colleagues to like it and you can also promote it on your personal page. For example, I have a Joe Laber Facebook page that features things like adoptable pets, events for nonprofits, fun and sometimes quirky questions, positive things happening in my life and community, shared posts from my friends, my weekly video, A Cup of Inspiration, and of course pics of my pets. My A Cup of Joe Media Facebook page features my latest client brews, testimonials, Social Media facts, a Friday Funny, Fun in Advertising, and most importantly it tells my story of how I help businesses and nonprofits grow their customer and donor base by leveraging the power of Social Media branding and marketing. I call it my business page a daily opportunity to reach current and potential clients much like a radio or tv commercial would do. Want more advice on Social Media marketing? Please continue to follow me for my next freshly brewed blog. Have a question? Please email me at acupofjoemedia@gmail.com. Thanks so much for joining me and be sure to have a great day on Social!

A Cup of Social Audio Blog EP7

What’s the best Social Media content? Hello, I’m Joe Laber, The Social Barista and Branding Expert coming to you from my A Cup of Media studio. Welcome to A Cup of Social where I aim to give you simple and easy-to-use tips for leveraging the power of Social Media to help grow your customer or donor base. I’ve been helping radio stations, small businesses and nonprofits engage with their audiences on social since the days of MySpace back in the early 2000s. I get asked all the time what’s the best content for posting on Social. And to me, it’s a pretty easy question to answer. The best Social content is…(drum roll please)…to simply tell YOUR story to your customers or donors. Now you may be asking, what’s my story, how do I tell it, and does anybody really care? Your story is unique to your brand and yes people do care. Answering these next set of questions may help your story come into focus. Why did you start your business or nonprofit? What purpose or problem does it solve? Who has your business or nonprofit served or helped? What is your mission statement? What is your passion? What drives you to succeed? What gets you out of bed every morning? Are you really grounded and connected to the community you serve? What do your customers or donors say about their experience with your brand? Let the answers to these questions begin to shape your story and simply start sharing it on social. People connect to realness. Be real. Be you. And always strive to give something of value to your customers or donors with each and every post. Use your posts to help position yourself as the market leader and professional that you are. Yes, it’s totally ok to ‘toot your own horn’ so to speak. Don’t be intimidated to promote your experience and the value you bring to a potential client or donor. Want more advice on Social Media marketing? Please continue to follow me for my next freshly brewed blog. Have a question? Please email me at acupofjoemedia@gmail.com. Thanks so much for joining me and be sure to have a great day on Social!

A Cup of Social Audio Blog EP6

Over Posting On Social Media is…annoying! – Hello I’m Joe Laber, The Social Barista and Branding Expert coming to you from my A Cup of Media studio. Welcome to A Cup of Social where I aim to give you simple and easy-to-use tips for leveraging the power of Social Media to help grow your customer or donor base. I’ve been helping radio stations, small businesses and nonprofits engage with their audiences on Social since the days of MySpace back in the early 2000s. Are you the page admin for your business or nonprofit and you are sooooooooooooo excited to get your message out to your potential customers or donors that you post something new every couple of hours throughout the day and night? That could mean anywhere between 5 to 10 or more new posts in a 24-hour period. I encourage you to PLEASE STOP! Spread those posts out over a week or so. I equate too many posts in a 24-hour period to an annoying door-to-door salesperson, who just keeps coming back time after time, or the multiple spam calls per day trying to sell you a new car warranty, or getting multiple pieces of mail regarding an election, even if it’s from the party or candidate of your choice. It can become pretty annoying. So maybe you are asking yourself, how many posts per day are, ok? It all depends on the needs of your business or nonprofit. I suggest posting no more than on average 3 times a day. And I highly encourage you to spread those 3 posts out throughout the day. Post one in the morning, the other in the afternoon, and the 3rd in the evening.  I’ve said it before and I will kindly say it again, you need to give each post time to breathe and circulate. Strive to always post your best content, even if that’s only 1 post per day or week. Don’t just toss up a bunch of posts in one day to see what sticks. You will most likely be wasting your time and your posts will get lost in the Social Media shuffle. So, what’s the best content? I’m glad you asked. I’ll tell you in my next freshly brewed audio blog. Want more advice on Social Media marketing? Please continue to follow me for my next freshly brewed blog. Have a question? Please email me at acupofjoemedia@gmail.com. Thanks so much for joining me and be sure to have a great day on Social!

A Cup of Social Audio Blog EP5

Schedule your Facebook posts and relax - Hello I’m Joe Laber, The Social Barista and Branding Expert coming to you from my A Cup of Media studio. Welcome to A Cup of Social where I aim to give you simple and easy-to-use tips for leveraging the power of Social Media to help grow your customer or donor base. I’ve been helping radio stations, small businesses and nonprofits engage with their audiences on Social since the days of MySpace back in the early 2000s. I’m a planner and if you are like me, I often plan my posts weeks in advance. Don’t get me wrong, I can also fly by the seat of my pants when needed. But I like to schedule my Facebook posts ahead of time using their Creator Studio/scheduling feature. Of course, you can’t schedule every post but most of them you can. For example, I design graphics and I post for a Realtor. Normally I might find out a day or two before they’re hosting an open house and that graphic is quickly brewed and posted the same day. One of my clients is an Animal Shelter and they host Low-Cost Spay and Neuter Clinics as well as Low-Cost Pet Vaccine Clinics. They generally have these scheduled out months in advance so the graphic can be brewed and scheduled to go live at the date and time of their choosing. So, if you are a busy business owner or nonprofit manager and the responsibility of posting to Facebook rests on your shoulders, I highly encourage you to keep a Social calendar of events and dedicate an hour or so once a month to schedule your monthly posts. It will be time well spent. And if a sale or event gets canceled or postponed you can easily delete it from your schedule. Want more advice on Social Media marketing? Please continue to follow me for my next freshly brewed blog. Have a question? Please email me at acupofjoemedia@gmail.com. Thanks so much for joining me and be sure to have a great day on Social! - The Social Barista 

A Cup of Social Audio Blog EP4

Want to create your own amazing designs for Social Media? Hello, I’m Joe Laber, The Social Barista and Branding Expert coming to you from my A Cup of Media studio. Welcome to A Cup of Social where I aim to give you simple and easy-to-use tips for leveraging the power of Social Media to help grow your customer or donor base. I’ve been helping radio stations, small businesses and nonprofits engage with their audiences on Social since the days of MySpace back in the early 2000s. I found Canva over three years ago when I was searching how to design my own graphics for use on Social. Let me tell you Canva has been a total game-changer for me personally, my business, and my many Social clients. I used their free version for about a year and upgraded to their paid pro version and have been using that for well over a year and I absolutely love it. It makes designing easy and fun. You do not need to be a design pro to design professional graphics for Social. Having a big sale or open house? Design a Social graphic in Canva for it. Hosting a fundraiser for your nonprofit? Design a Social graphic in Canva for it. And great news for nonprofits, you can request to join Canva for Nonprofits and experience Canva in a vaster way. And no, Canva is not sponsoring this audio blog or paying me in any way for this shining endorsement. I believe in Canva so much that I want your business or nonprofit to benefit from it too. Canva has amazing support to help you learn to use all it has to offer. I follow the Design With Canva YouTube Channel featuring the amazing hosts Ronnie and Diana. I highly encourage you to follow their Canva adventures. I dropped a link to their channel and a link to Canva below. Want more advice on Social Media marketing? Please continue to follow me for my next freshly brewed blog. Have a question? Please email me at acupofjoemedia@gmail.com. Thanks so much for joining me and be sure to have a great day on Social! - The Social Barista

https://www.youtube.com/c/DesignwithCanva/featured

https://www.canva.com/

A Cup of Social Audio Blog EP2

Does consistency on Social Media really matter? Hello, I’m Joe Laber, The Social Barista and Branding Expert coming to you from my A Cup of Media studio. Welcome to A Cup of Social where I aim to give you simple and easy-to-use tips for leveraging the power of Social Media to help grow your customer or donor base. I’ve been helping radio stations, small businesses and nonprofits engage with their audiences on social since the days of MySpace back in the early 2000s. In my opinion, the key to success on Social Media is consistency in posting. What does that mean? It does look a bit different for each business or nonprofit organization. What you don’t want to do is be consistently silent on social. I see a lot of excitement around a new page which is followed by many posts. Then too often the page owner gets busy or just forgets to post and within a week, or even worse a month, there’s no new content. Thus, making it look like the business or nonprofit has nothing going on or even worse out of business. After all, you are only as good as your last post. So, my suggestion is to post at least a minimum of once a week. If you can post more, great. I post anywhere from every day to once a week depending on the needs and budget of each of my clients. I also see many handles post a bunch of posts, back-to-back-to-back all in one day, and then not post again for weeks. That is called over-posting and this approach is not suggested as you need to give each post time to breathe and circulate. Spread those posts out over a month’s time, don’t post them all in one day. Pretty much anything in life benefits from consistency…a diet, exercise, chores, work, etc.…and so can your Social Media. Want more advice on Social Media marketing? Please continue to follow me for my next freshly brewed blog. Have a question? Please email me at acupofjoemedia@gmail.com. Thanks so much for joining me and be sure to have a great day on Social! - The Social Barista

An update on a few new Social clients. And ways I can help engage your audience on Social.

How I learned to go live on Facebook like a pro.

Learn how Canva changed my Social Media game as it can for you.

Radio works, matters and cares!

Why utilizing SOCIAL is so important in marketing your business or non-profit.

Listen to the end for a FREE offer and news concerning my new gig!

Why Voice Tracking?