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Organic Social Media Success IS Possible!
Have you ever been told that it's impossible for your social media posts to gain serious traction, without spending $ on sponsored ads? While ever-changing algorithms can have an impact on how your posts are seen by existing and potential followers, organic posts are still very successful. You do NOT have to spend money for online ads, especially if that takes you beyond your marketing budget.
Take this post (pictured below) for example, would you believe it reached a massive 226.9k people on Facebook, with 3.2k reactions? The same post reached 11.4k people on Instagram, with 837 likes. Zero dollars spent. We have managed this account for @leodasmaui for almost six years and our posts normally reach audiences of at least five figures. In 2022, this account reached 998.5k people on FB, with a further 287k ppl on IG. Again, zero paid advertising dollars spent.
The key to getting your posts to reach far and wide without spending heavily on advertising is fairly straightforward:
Engage your followers, respond to their messages and comments. If you grow and nurture your online community, they will become your biggest advocates
Make good use of User Generated Content (UGC). Customers/guests create some incredible content, as seen in the picture above. This image was taken by a guest—we asked for permission, tagged it correctly, and reposted
Use “National Days” and events to your advantage. The picture above uses the #nationaldessertday hashtag - be on the lookout for national and international days like this, adding those hashtags can really further the reach for your content
Be consistent. Over the course of the last six years, we have posted consistently for this client, using a recognizable online voice, a strong sense of branding, and regular post timing. It works!
Of course, it helps if your subject matter is something highly photogenic that everyone loves, in the case of dessert from Leoda’s Kitchen and Pie Shop!
If you would like to learn more, or feel like you need help achieving your social media marketing goals, please get in touch!
Looking Back at a Successful 2022
Hi everyone and happy new year, it has been a while!
Hard to believe, but 2023 sees Cake Media Maui entering its seventh year of business and we are excited to continue working on lots of upcoming social media management, graphic design, website builds, and special events, while growing our client base.
2022 may have been our best year yet, and we were incredibly proud to receive several accolades for our small female-owned Maui biz.
In May, we were honored and humbled to receive a Pele Award, awarded to Cake Media for Logo Design—specifically Jenny’s beautiful work for surfboard shaper John Carlton’s Pearl Surf Designs. The annual Pele Awards sees more than 1000 people enter their work across 15 categories and, needless to say, we were over the moon to win for Logo Design and to represent Maui among some of HI’s finest creatives.
Pele Award win for Logo Design, 2022!
Award-winning design for Maui’s Pearl Surf Designs.
Special congratulations to Jenny for this celebration of your artisitry. You deserve this recognition for all your hard work, dedication, and boundless creativity!
This was followed by a monumental win in the “Best of the West” Media awards from the American Advertising Federation when it was announced that Jenny was Media Professional of the Year, acknowledged for Cake Media’s “excellence in media and service to their community.” The Western Region comprises of five district operations supporting the states of Arizona, Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming, so to take home the win from Maui was a huge and incredible honor!
In September we received yet another surprise, when we were included as one of “The Best Food Photographers in Maui” by Peerspace! They described our work as:
“Specializing in event and food photography, this expert photo team is the life of the party and the garnish on top of a juicy, well-cooked steak. The meat of their imagery is based on brand identity, so they’re pretty much color-grading wizards. As self-proclaimed coffee connoisseurs, they’ll have your cup of joe looking like it’s just walked the red carpet to the table.”
What a year! Mahalo to all our supporters and clients for helping us to grow and experience these achievements, it simply would not be possible without you!
Maui Jim Ocean Shootout 2018
We genuinely love what we do, especially when work means providing social media support for the Maui Jim Ocean Shootout at Kā’anapali Beach!
The annual two-day event sees watermen and women from all over the world competing for a $50,000 purse in 10 individual sprint races and a team relay race. This is across a number of ocean sports, including; Surf-ski, OC-1, SUP, Prone Paddleboard and Swimming.
This was our fourth consecutive year working on the Shootout for competition host Kāʻanapali Beach Hotel. Working closely with race athletes, Maui Jim and the Kāʻanapali Beach Resort Association, we covered the event’s social media live on Instagram and Facebook.
Our weekend also saw us providing coverage for the 14th annual Wa‘a Kiakahi, an important event organized by the Hawaiian Sailing Canoe Association (HSCA) that welcomes sailing canoe crews from across Hawai‘i. Over the course of three days here in Maui, the crews race against each other and share their knowledge about the history of traditional Hawaiian sailing canoes with the public at Ka’anapali Beach.
Such a fun few days at Cake Media Maui!
Staying on Top of Social Media Trends
Do you find it hard to keep up with the ever-changing landscape of social media? With the release of new platforms, features, updates and the continuous shift in algorithms, remaining on top of online trends can be tough, not to mention time consuming.
However, being informed is crucial when it comes to being a successful online marketer. To give you an insight into how we stay up to date to best serve our clients, we have some suggestions for keeping you in touch with what's new in social media.
Blogs and News Sites
Blogs and social news websites offer a fantastic way to stay well versed in online trends. Subscribe to blogs or check back weekly (once a month if you are really short on time). Our favorites include:
* Buffer Blog – Thoughts on Social Media and Online Marketing
* HubSpot
Google Alerts
A simple, powerful way for keeping up to date on industry news, your own business and competitors is Google Alerts. In short, you will be alerted by email every time Google discovers new search results for the topics you want. Ask for alerts on the social media channels that you use, receive news about industry changes and monitor your own business (and who is talking about it) online. Trust us, you will save A LOT of time!
Sign up here
Twitter may be in decline but we find that it is still a highly valuable resource for staying abreast of what’s happening in the news and across social media. We like to choose who we follow, shall we say, “wisely” and what could be easier and less time consuming than following industry leaders and scanning their 280-character tweets? Don’t forget that checking out what’s trending on Twitter can be helpful too. As well as Buffer, Social Media Examiner and those mentioned in the blog section above, profiles we get a lot out of include:
* Mashable @mashsocialmedia
* Wired @WIRED
* Social Media Today @socialmedia2day
* AdWeek @Adweek
* Tyler Anderson @tylerjanderson
Podcasts
Podcasts are one of the best ways to stay briefed on industry updates. If you feel like there is not enough time in the day to add any more to your to-do list, podcasts could be the medium for you. Maximize your time by listening to a pod while you’re driving, taking public transport, having your morning coffee, taking the dog for a walk, anything – that is really the beauty of podcasting, you can take them with you anywhere you go. Our personal choices include:
* Social Media Social Hour Podcast with Tyler Anderson
* The Science of Social Media from Buffer
* Online Marketing Made Easy with Amy Porterfield
* Social Pros by Jay Baer and Adam Brown
Imua Family Services
We recently had the good fortune of meeting the incredible team at Imua Family Services—a Maui non-profit organization that provides early developmental services for children with special needs, as well as support and resources for their families.
“Imua Family Services’ mission is to, ‘Empower children and their families to reach their full potential.’ Our programs and staff assist children and their families overcome developmental learning challenges in their most critical formative years using play-based instruction designed to help them move forward.”
We were blown away when we found out about the work that Imua carries out here in Maui County and, needless to say, we were delighted and honored to work with them on two very different fundraising projects in the first half of 2017.
Imua Family Services' main headquarters in Kahului, Maui.
The first was the Imua Ball, an annual fundraising gala held at the Hyatt Regency Maui. This year’s event, the Platinum Jubilee, celebrated 70 years of operation for the non profit.
Cake Media were there to help with social media, mostly in managing Imua’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts on the day of the event. Taking on Imua's voice and using it across all our posts, we built up anticipation in the hours leading up to the ball, then covered the festivities as they happened. Our aim was to raise awareness, while encouraging engagement, new followers and—importantly—donations. You can still donate by the way, right here!
We were also taken on by Imua to manage a team of local social media influencers who were helping to get the word out, thank sponsors and spread the use of the #imuaball hashtag. Cake Media had pre-prepared event guides, with key information about the Ball, its performers and key event sponsors and were on hand to provide support as and when needed.
Social Media Prep Kits, created for the Maui influencers.
The second time we worked with Imua was Saturday May 6 on the 2017 Bluesmiths Paddle Imua, a race from Maliko Gulch to Kahului Harbor. The annual downwinder is open to a number of disciplines, including outrigger canoes (OC-1, OC-2, OC-6), Stand-up Paddle Boards (SUP), Surf Skis, Prone Boards and Hydrofoil SUP.
All funds raised from this event go to Camp Imua—a week-long camp for Imua’s children aged 6 to 16. Here they have an opportunity to do all kinds of fun activities such as horseback riding, ziplining and flying in a helicopter, to name just a few.
We know the Maliko race well, having paddled it ourselves a handful of times in an OC-6 and we were in our element working at this event, considering our mutual love of paddling and Laura’s passion for and history of covering sports (yep-that’s my first love! – LG)
Image courtesy of Paddle Imua
Based at the finish line, Jenny took on the social accounts for Imua Family services – covering the day’s events from a human-interest angle that would make sense to existing and potential followers.
Starting at the Maliko Gulch start line before zipping back to Kahului Harbor to see the athletes cross the finish line, Laura took over the social pages for Paddle Imua, sharing content before, during and after the race. Laura’s content was geared more towards people that might have been entering the race, paddlers, sponsors, water people, etc – focusing less on the human interest angle and more on the sport, the conditions, the athletes and the action. Taking on different “voices” for the clients and the respective social media pages that we manage is something that we love to do.
To make a long story short, we had a blast. We relish new challenges and what could be better than working with such an incredible organization and cause?
For more on Imua Family Services and Paddle Imua, give them a follow on Instagram!
Thanks for reading! Laura and Jenny