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The only thing that spreads faster than pandemic is misinformation. That’s not limited to just the Covid-19 outbreak, misinformation is a pandemic of its own that covers the globe in the digital age. Social media was founded on individuality being sent out to the masses during the rise of internet access over the last few decades. Now, it has become a place for people, politicians, influencers, companies, and governments to inform and raise awareness, as well as share pictures of cute puppies and cat videos. 

Recent studies from the Pew Research Center have shown a rise in how American’s get their news; up to 55% of Americans get their news from social media sites. They found that 52% of Americans get their news from Facebook alone. The rise in the public using social media as a way to receive information led to an increased concern in the credibility of information shared on social sites. Misinformation is considered to be a common problem on social sites and 51% of Americans believe that the news available is inaccurate. Facebook has taken this seriously increasing their misinformation protocols to reduce the false news found on their site.

How does this affect you?

Businesses face an uphill battle when it comes to building credibility because American’s have already decided that social media is not always reliable. That means that your social media sites need to contain consistent, quality, and reliable information that can hold up against a truth meter. Just as companies have to build trust with customers in a face-to-face environment they have to do the same online. 

Tips for Building Credibility

1. Stay out of politics. When you comment or display political information it leaves your posts, captions, and comments open to being scrutinized for accuracy. It will also keep you from alienating any one demographic.
2. Post reliable information. Statistics can boost your credibility but only if you can document the source! Make sure to back your claims with reliable sources. 
3. Be consistent. Taking too long to respond or not answering when your customers comment or message you can make them feel unheard. It will devastate your credibility. 
4. Be informative. Social media gives you the opportunity to translate information to your public in a personal manner and that’s important. Make sure to provide information about what is going on with your company, your products, and be transparent. 
5. Establish connections. Don’t let your page become an ongoing advertisement. You need to nurture the public and give them reasons to trust you even if they are not yet a customer. That credibility will perform positively in the long run. 

“Consumers aren’t just reading reviews, 89% of them also read businesses’ responses to reviews. So make sure you join the conversation and engage with the good, the bad and the ugly. According to a Google study, consumers said that businesses that respond to reviews are 1.7x more trustworthy than businesses who don’t.” – Sprout Social

Creating a credible and consistent platform for you customers can be difficult when it comes to managing a business and your own social media. Often, we see companies experiencing lacking engagement or worse. Having social media can be the driving force for company growth but poorly managed social media will negatively impact your business.

Digital media management goes beyond typical marketing instincts and understanding the unique platforms in the ever-changing social media world takes consistent dedication.  

Staying up to date on the changes in how social media platforms are shutting down misinformation will help you manage your own content. Even more importantly, the response of the public to these changes will tell you exactly what you need to establish a strong connection with your following. 

For more information on building credibility for your business, changes to media regulations, or help with managing your social media- follow our blog:

What’s Current

Here at Social Navigator we are constantly asked what influencers do and why does it even matter? Social media transformed the marketing industry by making word of mouth go further than a game of telephone from friend to friend. Now every post has the chance to go viral.

So we checked in with some of our favorite influencers to get a behind the scenes of information about what influencers do. (It should help you realize why it’s a necessary part of every marketing strategy going into the next decade.)

A little background about our influencers: Tula’s Endless Summer. Tula’s Endless Summer is the name for Billy, Sierra, and their dog Jetty. They have sailed up and down the east coast, all of the Bahamas and through the Caribbean. Tula’s Endless Summer started the boat life on a small monohull sailboat (Tula) and then moved onto an old trawler (Neverland). They now live on a sailing catamaran named Adrenaline. In order to be able to live this life, Billy and Sierra buy boats that need a lot of boat work and fix them up on their own. They make these videos so you can experience the work and the fun.

Social Navigator: What do you want brands to know and understand about what you do?

Tula: There are a lot of things that I wish brands knew and understood about us as “influencers” or “youtubers” or “Vloggers/bloggers”. With this understanding brand deals, promotions, partnerships, collaborations and/or sponsorships negotiations would go SO much smoother and would absolutely yield a higher ROI for brands/businesses while maintaining the interest and attention of our audience.

What is the most important aspect of what you offer brands?

We are a business. Although, unlike most businesses which have products, patents, client lists, essential equipment, contracts, routes, real estate, etc. the only thing we have to leverage is… Our audience’s attention. If we sacrifice that audience’s attention too much by promoting something that is not valuable or relevant to them or promoting something too much or in an unnatural way then we start to become “sell-outs” and begin to lose the absolute only asset that our business has and depends on. This is important for brands to understand because it is a constant thought as we navigate through brand deals and sponsorships and is the backbone to our decision making.

That sounds like a lot to navigate. How does that play a role in modern marketing?

Modern marketing is low pressure and authentic. That is the reason influencers are so valuable.  We have a trusting relationship with our audience who value our authenticity. When brands ask us to be high pressure and read a script of salesy talking points we get frustrated and turned off. With that being said there is a fine line between authentic and deceitful and this is where the FTC comes into play. The FTC wants everybody to be on the correct side of that fine line in order to protect the consumer. They do this be requiring that (in our case) influencers  disclose our full relationship with the brand/business in an up front and conspicuous way. This even includes affiliate partnerships and “in-kind” product value. Brands may be so onboard to “authenticity” that they may not want us to disclose our relationship with our audience but the penalty for this is even worse for the brands than it is for the influencer. Plus, Karma. 

Authenticity and honesty can make or break a company for sure! How does your personal audience impact the value that you offer to brands?

We are in the boating/sailing niche and I wish brands would always fully understand the value of having this niche audience. When we present our analytics we always point out that we don’t just have 100k random youtube subscribers, we have 100k youtube subscribers who are truly interested and invested in what we do which is everything around boating and sailing on the water. It is the perfect market in a tea cup for so many marine industry brands. Plus, 90% male 35-55 y/o, talk about buying power.

That’s a perfected target audience if we’ve ever seen one. Now let’s get down the business end. Can you explain the cost related to value so brands can better understand their investment?

Sometimes brands perceive what we charge as way too much. I mean, what overhead do we have in our business? We are just a couple kids bumming around on a sailboat making youtube videos. The truth is what a brand is paying for is not our overhead, it is access to our niche audience that we have the attention of and that we have grown through creativity, consistency, and hard work over the years. Have you ever heard the story of the mechanic that charges $10k for a quick tap of a hammer on a particular spot on the engine to make it work? The mechanic doesn’t get paid for tapping the hammer, he gets paid for the knowledge and experience he has acquired over the years. We don’t get paid for an ad in a youtube video, we get paid for the trust and attention of our niche audience. That is worth far more than what you can get on a page in a magazine. Furthermore the camera and computer gear we use to record and edit for youtube really adds up especially in the salt water environment and especially when we get a little bit risky to get the shot.

I get nervous using my phone on the boat. I can’t imagine holding professional technology out on the open water. You put in all this work to make these videos but what is the outcome? How long can a video really impact buyers?

Some videos we make are more travel and adventure style while some are very specific topics. This is especially true with some of our boat work videos. When we install a new component on the boat we usually make a video surrounding that and title it accordingly. Youtube is the second biggest search engine on the internet behind google (who owns youtube) and therefore is the preferred search platform of so many people especially for complex and dynamic topics such as installing something on a boat. For a brand to be featured in one of these videos is worth it’s weight in gold. That brand or product will be seen for years to come by their perfect customer. The customer who is searching for that specific topic because that is exactly what they are going to be installing in the near future and they want to get an idea of the project before they begin. Not only is the product featured but it is featured in an extremely relatable way to that same potential customer who is almost literally in our shoes as they watch the video and install the product with us. This is just about as good as putting the unit in their hands on their own boat ready to install. Now just TRY not to make that sale!

Sounds great to us. How do you track that and get real information about your impact?

It is pretty much the norm now for brands to want a call to action with a link click or a unique discount code in order to track the success of an ad or feature. This is understandable as it gives companies a good idea of their return on investment and ultimately the success of the campaign. I do want to point out though that this can sometimes be overrated and even slightly detrimental. A link click or using a coupon code at purchase is an ask of our audience which shifts towards high pressure marketing side of the spectrum vs. the low pressure of modern day marketing that I mentioned above. Some of our best brand deals have been with products that require no call to action. We just use it as we see fit, film naturally, and let it be seen naturally which says a lot about the trust the brand has in us and in their own product. What did they use to say? “A brand needs to be seen at least 3 different ways before a consumer has enough trust to purchase?” In 2020 this number is probably closer to 12 different exposures instead of 3. That is where the power of natural brand awareness comes in with no call to action. Don’t get me wrong, there is a time and place for a direct call to action but I wish brands would remember the power of natural brand exposure especially in this world of low-pressure marketing.

The real impact is pretty obvious when you give it time to work! Natural brand exposure is something we focus on because it amps up authenticity like you talked about earlier. What is one more thing you’d like for brands to know moving forward?

When we work with the right brand in the right way it is like a dream come true. It is a huge win for the brand who gets their product or services marketed in an authentic way to their niche audience and it is a huge win for us because it provides value for our audience and helps to keep funding our channel. I hope this article helps shed a little bit of light onto what I wish brands knew when working with influencers so that we can all have an even more successful time in creating mutually beneficial campaigns.

Thank you Billy and Sierra for helping our brands understand the unique impact of influencer marketing. If you’re interested in linking up with an influencer for your future marketing strategy contact Social Navigator!

Navigating through this uncertainty, caused by the COVID-19 virus, has us all thinking on our toes. We are now faced with a new challenge: how to reach customers? The solution could be social media and smartphone capabilities. The Social Navigator Team is here to guide you with some tips on how to reach your customer, without physical presence and following all safety precautions. 

How-to Service Videos: Think about the main service you offer the customer in the spring… Engine maintenance? Cleaning? Bottom paint? How can you offer that in a virtual way that won’t put you at risk OR your employees? Examples: Videos, LIVE Streams, Zoom meetings, and other video services that can be shared and customers can learn and interact with you. This is a great way to offer value to customers and show them you care. 

Virtual Boat Tours: You can’t take your customers to the showroom, but you can take them on a virtual tour with your phone while still practicing social distancing. You can also repurpose videos you created over the year and send out a weekly email highlight on boats you have in stock. 

Mechanic Call-In lines: You can offer your customers- “call us while you are at home fixing your boat and we can help answer questions.”  For those not as familiar with video streaming services, offer your customers a new way of support that will fit into their lifestyle and technology capability.

Offer Daily Deals: Take that spring open house online, start a giveaway campaign, create just as appealing deals that people can use while searching online, and make sure to support them at the same time. 

Online Navigation Classes: Take the focus off sales or the COVID-19 stress and educate your customers. Start an online class educating them on surrounding waterways to get them excited about getting out on the water and teach them how they can avoid that sand bar this summer. 

As all of these issues arise there are new ways to connect with your customers. You must remember that your customers are feeling very similar to you, unsure of what the future holds. The more you show them you care the more likely they will be returning customers once the world is up and running again. 

Need help with video streaming or some of the things we mentioned above? Reach out, we would love to guide and help you create a solution!