At a Marketing Loss on Snapchat? 5 Things You Can Snap About – Friendors Consultancy

Hey there, Friendors!

We are still loving Snapchat (@xofriendors and @faroutgalaxy) but some of our Friendors have openly admitted that they don’t know what to snap about for marketing purposes. They don’t understand the platform. All photos? All videos? Should we use that face filter thingy? (the lenses)

We’re here to tell you that we constantly ask ourselves these questions too so we’re sharing 5 things you can snap about as an event industry professional.

But first, let’s talk a little bit about the platform first.

Snapchat is different than other social media platforms – unlike Instagram, Facebook, and your Blog, what you post only lasts for 24 hours and it’s not really meant for a a curated life view.

It’s actually socially acceptable to post more than once a day. In fact, it’s actually meant for that. Instead of having a “Feed” like on other platforms, you have a Story. Your Story is called a Story by Snapchat for a reason. Continuing Stories keep your viewers engaged.

These things may seem really simple and obvious, but if you’re at a loss, this listacle (which we may follow up with ideas 6 and up) can hold your Snapchat go tos. Our tip is that marketing on Snapchat is a lot more simple and easy than you may think.

Blog Post Announcements – You announce your blog posts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Why not announce them on yet another growing social platform? Show people how to get to your blog with a quick video or a continuing how to photo story.
BTS – Behind The Scenes can practically be anything, big or small, (ex: just opening the door to your office or studio and saying welcome, the front of a venue when you arrive for a wedding you’re working, a during of your creative process, etc) and it’s a way to show people that you’re doing shit. People think people who do shit are cool and successful. One day of BTS could be an office Tour. Another could be BTS of a Friendors Inspiration Collaboration (then, you share the final outcome on your blog and do Number 1 and announce it on Snapchat). Bam.
Thank You Notes from Clients – We get Thank You Notes with little gifts from clients often, and we know many of you are too. Why not show those bad babies off excitedly? Put em to good marketing use. A Thank You note after an event, to us, says happy client. People like to see happy clients. Happy clients breed more happy clients.
Reviews – Speaking of happy clients, where are you sharing your reviews besides on your website and the actual review collecting website? We’ll tell you where – Snapchat.
Introduce Your Team – Showing multiple people on your team instead of just yourself shows that you’re a real company with moving parts and peoples, rather than just a mom and pop shop. You da real shit cause you got people backing your brand. Word? It also allows your client to see the people that may possibly be at their event (photo booth attendants, your design assistant, etc) and lets them feel like they know them and can trust them – which they totally can. In addition, showing your team helps with team building and bonding – a doggie face Snap with your coworker makes you automatic friends, right? Right?

There are so many things you could Snap about and these topics could over flow into major campaigns. Let us know if you like these ideas and we just may follow up with 6-10 more topics to snap about.

xoxo

A Fun New Tool – Just One Question For You – Friendors Consultancy

Heya, peeps!

We ran across this reeeaaalllly fun app while playing on our iPhones the other day and wanted to share it with you.

Have you heard of Smule? It’s a brand with apps and a blog that ‘connects the world through music’. We discovered their app, AutoRap, and thought it might come in handy for some fun stuffs.

What we’re using it for? Playing. And eventually, as a really cool marketing tool. We’ve been talking a lot about getting published in magazines and blogs, so we used Smule to ask just one question to you.

Click here for our fun mix and question.

Pros of Being Published Online – Wedding and Event Industry Friendors

Heya, Friendors!

Every time we begin planning an Inspiration Collaboration, we talk about whether we are going to submit it for Print or to a Blog, and we are huge fans of print (oh you fancy huh?) but want to share a little bit of our thoughts on being published on blogs, because we hear it being knocked a lot and we’re not sure the whole industry has realized how dang cool the internet is yet. You might just switch up your gears after we share all it’s pros.

It’s 2016. Print, while not dead, is not the only media you need to be accredited in. Your brand needs to have an internet presence. Gotta look cool.

Since it’s online, it’s free for viewers. They don’t have to physically purchase a magazine which means more potential viewers due to easier access.

You can actually see the reach. All of the professionals involved are sharing it – you notice a bunch of new followers on Instagram, the blog (where the HUGE following is) shares it on their facebook, instagram, twitter. You can see the number of shares, the number of likes, and more, as it’s happening. The internet is where things go viral, my friends.

SEO. When people link to your site from their site, it gives Google a little flag that you’re a reputable website that people trust which means you move up in the search results pages.

Clickable link to your site. The blogs actually put clickable links in their features to your website, which not only helps SEO like we mentioned above, but also makes engaged leads click through to your site and possibly on over to your contact form. Can they click to you through a magazine? Didn’t think so.

More permanent. A new magazine issue comes out and everyone throws away the old one, but the internet won’t throw you away.

Brides are collecting inspiration and info from blogs. When you are on their favorite blog, they trust you. Six Hearts Photography once had a bride book them purely because she saw them on her two favorite blogs, Rock N Roll Bride and Offbeat Bride, within the same week. The power of the internet.

There are tons and tons more reasons we love blogs and believe they are beneficial – maybe we’ll share some more with you later. Want to share why you love getting published online? Email us at schellie@faroutgalaxy.com to share your thoughts and ideas with us.

Our Friendors were published! – Smitten Magazine

We are so incredibly pleased to share with you all that some of our Friendors were published in the latest Smitten Magazine issue, Volume 15: Our Far Out Galaxy pals: Six Hearts Photography, DJ Cuttlefish and RobotBooth.

Rae Lynn and Kevin held a bohemian wedding ceremony and reception and we are still oh so Smitten with their beautifully dreamy day. (see what we did there? ;))

Check out some photos we took of the magazine IRL and then click through at the bottom of this post to get more personal with it by buying your own copy, checking out the PDF, and viewing a blog post of their wedding.

Click here to view Six Heart’s Blog Post of Rae Lynn and Kevin’s wedding.

Click here to purchase your copy of Smitten Magazine Volume 15.

Click here to view a PDF of Rae Lynn and Kevin’s wedding published in Smitten Magazine.

Published on Smitten Magazine with a Friendors Inspiration Collaboration! – Friendors Consultancy

Hey there, Friendors! We did an Inspiration Collaboration a while back at a beautiful castle with a full bridal party and a bath tub full of rose petals – and guess what?! It was just published on Smitten Magazine.

Click the image of all the amazing professionals involved below to view the feature.

Concept: Friendors Consultancy

Photography: Six Hearts Photography

Florals, Planning +Design: Wrennwood Event Design

Cinematography: SquidWed Films

Hair + Makeup: Vigilante Cosmetics

Groom’s Attire: The Modern Gent

Bride’s Dress: Chaviano Bridal Couture

Bridesmaid Dresses: Bel Fiore Bridal

Catering: Simply Catering

Cake Baker: Eileen Carter Creations

Tabletop Rentals: Vintage English Teacup

Rentals: Unlimited Party & Event Rentals

Linens: I Do Linens

Models: Click Models of Atlanta

4 Ways to Collaborate With Other Professionals – Wedding + Events Industry – Friendors Consultancy

Hey there, Friendors!

We’re firm believers in collaborating with other industry professionals even if it’s not at paying gig – so we’ve got a few ways for ya to do it and some info on how these collaborating opportunities can be beneficial.

Inspiration Collaborations. Let’s face it, these things are basically art projects we do with our professional friends – how does that not sound fun? You get creative freedom and friendship. You want a boho bride but have never gotten one? You want to start booking more city weddings? You get what you show on your website and social sites. Reach out to us to do Boho or City Inspiration Collaboration – not only will you get content to begin to attract the types of clients you want, but you also get an amazing networking opportunity AND you get published. If that isn’t one of the coolest things on the planet, we don’t know what is. Click here to Register to be a Friendor for an opportunity at an Inspiration Collaboration with us.
Guest Blog Posts. Regular old websites aren’t cutting it anymore – we’ve all got to be blogging and if we’ve gotta do it, why not do it together? If you’re a Catering company, do a guest post on all your favorite Fine China companies. If you’re any company, ask a Wedding Planner to share her ideal schedule on your blog. Not only will it be helpful to your clients and potential clients, the Friendor you feature will share it, which grows your brand – and the information might be so helpful that it just goes viral. Wouldn’t that be nuts? They may even ask to do a guest blog on you in return – a super fun way to build your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) – something we ALLLLL need to do ALLLL the time. Email us at Schellie@FarOutGalaxy.com to get some guest blogging opportunities.
Networking Events. Events just for industry professionals are one of the greatest ways to meet new people. Go alone to your first one and meet everyone you can. Ask them what brings them out, talk about things other than work, and you may find someone you genuinely bond with that you could create a beautiful referral network with. Ask them to go to a future networking event with you and then actually go to the next together – but don’t get too clique-y with it; you want to make sure you stay open to new opportunities as well. Stay caught up on our blog cause we announce networking events occasionally.
Instagram Giveaways. Instagram Giveaways are good because they grow your social base – which makes you look more successful to your peers and may even drive more traffic to your website. You can get around 10 professional accounts involved, get a giveaway from a company for free, and promote the hell out of each other with it. You may find your company account growing by the hundreds overnight – all the people trying to get that Kylie Cosmetics lip gloss (or whatever the heck she’s got going on) or Starbucks giftcards, or whatever ya like. Tip: Don’t give away any of your services for free. Ever. Click here to Register for a chance to be in on our future Instagram Giveaways.

That’s all we’ve got for now – see ya on a future Monday.

xoxo,

Friendors Consultancy

BTS Snapchat Footage of a Recent Friendors Inspiration Collaboration

Heya, everyone!

We told ya 2 weeks ago to git yur asses on Snapchat so we’re here to show ya some fun and simple BTS Snapchat footage from one of our recent Inspiration Collaborations to maybe encourage you to get over on Snapchat and to make ya wanna be a Friendor so you can be involved next time.

You can see more of the fun things we do on our snapchat: @xofriendors.

Concept: Friendors Consultancy

Design: Amanda Jewel Floral and Design

Photography: Six Hearts Photography from FOG

HMUA: Vigilante Cosmetics

Food: Simply Catering

China: Vintage English Teacup

Models: Jennifer Reed and Mark Owens

SO, here it is, one short/long video with all of our Snapchats from that day:

Click here to become a Friendor

Favorite Internet Finds – Snapchat Mistakes, How to be More Likable, Instagram Hashtags, + More – Friendors Consultancy

Happy Monday, Friendors!

You know by now how our Favorite Internet Finds go so have fun with the links below:

What’s Your Bridal Style? – a fun quiz by Ivory and Beau

Click here.

5 Snapchat Mistakes You’re Making – like sending someone a snap that’s already on your story.

Click here.

7 Things You’re Doing That You Don’t Realize Make You Less Likable – like not asking questions.

Click here.

A List of Hashtags That Will Get You Over 100 Likes On Every Instagram Post – whaaaat?

Click here.

Until next time!

xoxo,

Friendors

Keeping Up With The Future Of Social Media – Friendors Consultancy

We here at Friendors are social people – online and IRL, and we have one simple task and question for you that will make you think about the future of social media and how your company is keeping up.

When you walk around at weddings and events, we want you to look at what gusts are doing on their phones during the reception. What do you see on their screens?

It used to be Instagram, where they photographed their photo booth photo strips and uploaded them, photographed the first dance, the cake cutting, and more, but we guarantee if you walk around and peek over everyone’s shoulders (yes, seriously), mostly everyone at that event is Snapchatting it instead of Instagramming now.

We’ve been watching the change happen for weeks, even the past few months now. That’s not to say that Instagram is null and void, just that popular social media platforms are expanding and so should we.

If you’re not on Snapchat, we say now is the time to join.

If the guests are on Snapchat, why aren’t you?

Here’s our tip to ya: don’t be old. Your clients stay the same age – act like you do too and keep up with social sites. 😉

Our Snapchat usernames:

@xofriendors

@faroutgalaxy

Our Instagram handles:

@friendors

@faroutgalaxy

xoxo,

Friendors

Friendors Anonymous – 9 Secrets – Friendors Consultancy

Hey there, Friendors! Hope you’re having a lovely day and are prepared to laugh, open your mouth in shock and disbelief, relate like crazy, and enjoy this post.

We called on all of you to share a secret or two with us anonymously about the life of a wedding professional that we would never tell anyone openly, and surprisingly, you went for it.

We were nervous when putting this list together – nervous that engaged clients would see and lose faith in us all, but we’re human in this industry; this list makes us laugh and we’re not sure we’ll ever find secrets that top these.

Here are a few of our favorites bout that life.

After an entire day at a wedding, I can’t wait to pick my nose on the car ride home.

If I forget to bring a snack, and the bridal party has already ate, I wait for any opportunity for the room to clear so I can munch on food from the bridal party trays. #Hangry

I love it when vendors mess up. I love it.

I joined in with the single ladies on the bouquet toss and caught it. Now I know that’s a no no. (this was when I first began yeaaaars ago)

I once told a guest, when asked what I was looking for with my cell phone flash light, that I dropped a battery. It was really the brides ring.

It ruins my whole evening when I found out I’m getting a cold vendor meal and not what the guests are eating. Or, when they let you eat the guests food but they make your plate and don’t give you a salad.

I slept with a past bride after her divorce.

I hate every wedding media outlet that says company owners shouldn’t be tipped. Jerks.

One time at a wedding I was mortified. As I was performing my services, I thought the client kept tooting, and I say tooting in a very conservative way. The smell was literally gagging me. It wasn’t until about 20 minutes into the service that I realize the smell was coming from her mouth every time she opened up to speak. Since then, I have noticed a trend of “Bridesmaids Breath” as I call it. Must be a mixture of Mimosas and snacks but that shit is vile.

What did you think of this post? Have a secret to share with us? Email us at hello@friendors.com 🙂