Welcome to episode 295.
Today we're talking about three things you need to know about social media in September of 2016. Today, the day this episode is live, anyway, is depending on when you listen to it. It is officially September 2. If you follow the Starbucks calendar for season changing, it's fall. Pumpkin spice lattes are back. They come out every year on September 1. Every year, I want to tell you guys how to pay attention to what Starbucks is doing with social. You want to talk about building a community around a brand and an event. Just check out your Instagram, your Snapchat, your Facebook page, your Twitter, whatever. You will see the people using it #PSL. You will see people snapping and sharing photos of their pumpkin spice lattes and assorted fall beverages. You will also see people angrily in the anti-let us have our summer, leave us alone fall mood. Their voice heard as well.
This is not one of the three things, but I just want you guys to pay attention to what's happening on social with that. Starbucks does a very good job. As a brand, they have done a very good job of really getting their community fired up. If you check out their social channels, you're going to see that they're egging this along for sure. Have you gotten your pumpkin spice latte yet? I have not. I'm not a big Starbucks fan. Sorry. It's weird. I know. It's not my favorite place to get coffee. Pumpkin spice latte's not really my go to anyways.
Anywho, pay attention to that. Today we're going to talk about three things I want you to know going into this new month, the ninth month of the year. Here in the northern part of the world, anyways, it's going to be moving into fall. You've got kids going back to school. Before you know it it's going to be the holiday stuff rolling out. I already am seeing Halloween stuff everywhere. I'm sure Christmas stuff is not far behind. I want to start off today talking about your holiday ad spend. I know we talked a little bit in August about planning your social media for over the holidays and what you're going to do. Now, what I want you to start doing in September is really getting clear on what your budget is to spend on ads in the last part of this year. Really, really, really, really, in the next couple of weeks, you're going to start seeing holiday ads. You're going to start seeing gift ideas and content targeted towards end of the year promos and coaching packages to get you ready for 2017. All those things. That means your ad costs are going to be going up because there's going to be more competition.
Get really clear now on what your budget is because that's going to impact a lot of the things you're able to do and also maybe where you choose to spend those ad dollars. I think I mentioned this in the last episode, the three things you need to know in August. If you go to the show notes, I'll link to that episode. You really, really, really don't want to be relying on Facebook ads alone unless you really, really need to rely on Facebook ads alone. If that's the only place you're audience is, that's one thing. If your budget is smaller and you're not really sure you're going to be able to maximize them on Facebook, check out other networks. Check out Twitter. Check out Pinterest. Check out LinkedIn, especially if you're in the B to B space. Pay attention to those spaces because the ads are going to get a little more pricey, little more expensive on Facebook and probably not far off, Pinterest as well, because you're going to, again, see those gift ideas and things like that really increasing the price
