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Stone's Throw Creative Communications

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January 23, 2023 Comments

A few helpful terms

Social media is typically used to describe the universe of branded interactive media platforms that allow users to publish to and interact with each other by means of the Internet. Popular social media platforms include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Instagram.

Post is the term used to describe a message (text and/or photo) published on social media by its users.

Newsfeed is the term used to describe the posts recently published by the people and pages a user follows (subscribes to). They can often be viewed by chronology (most recent) or engagement (most popular). A newsfeed often appears as the center column of posts on a social media page.

Social media metrics refers to using the data linked to an organization’s social media activity to gauge its impact. Metrics are simply points of measurement and they include data relevant to a social media profile and its posts: the number of followers (or subscribers) to the page, number of post likes, number of post comments, etc.

Engagement refers to how the public interacts with a social media page and its posts; it typically refers to shares, likes and comments. Reviewing and understanding engagement helps us determine how your content is perceived by your audiences. Users that view your posts may engage with your post, either by clicking on a small pictogram referred to as an emoji (for example, a heart or thumbs up), sharing your post to their own page, or commenting on your post or a post comment. Each social media platform offers different symbols for engagement, but they primarily function the same way.

Impressions is a term used for the number of people who have been shown the post in their social media newsfeeds, even if they did not engage with the post.

Click-through refers to the number of times users have clicked on a link in your post in order to navigate to another page on the Internet.

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are the set of quantifiable metrics or measurements used to gauge effectiveness over time.

Why is there a kitty in this blog post image? Adopt a homeless pet

Copyright notice ©Stone’s Throw, Inc. All rights reserved.

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November 14, 2022 Comments

Stone’s Throw recognized by national LGBT chamber and New Jersey chapter.

We are honored to be spotlighted by the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC) – and we’re proud to have achieved LGBT Business Enterprise certification.


“Certification as an LGBT Business Enterprise represents a big step in any business’s journey toward greater authenticity. We are proud to be aligned with others who also recognize this step as creating more opportunities to work toward equity with compassion and excellence,” explains Janice Mondoker, Partner.


Many thanks to the New Jersey Pride Chamber of Commerce (NJPCC) for featuring Stone’s Throw in a Member Spotlight. We’re lucky to be a part of the Chamber and celebrate its good works supporting equity and inclusion.

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September 6, 2022 Comments

As with all marketing communications, set goals for your social media efforts.

With any planning, we are taught by our own efforts during the process of articulating goals, selecting paths toward fulfilling those goals, and determining how to measure our progress. Planning uncovers obstacles and opportunities. Planning teaches. Because it’s ongoing and subject to strategy shifts and market influences, it will always require navigational tweaks (and sometimes even U-turns).

Set general goals for your social media activity.

  • Increase website traffic.
  • Grow an audience.
  • Increase engagement.
  • Build brand awareness.
  • Generate leads.

Set goals specific to your organization.

  • Increase contact us form submissions.
  • Increase whitepaper downloads.
  • Attract your target audience to a special event.
  • Increase registrants for a seminar or conference.
  • Garner more donations.
  • Attract more qualified applicants.
  • Earn new business.
  • Grow email list.
  • Leverage as a real-time channel for improving customer service.
  • Increase video viewership.

For each goal, use the SMART framework – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely – or another goal-setting framework to help determine, record, and track expectations and achievement in a document or a preferred software program.

What does success look like?

For each goal, identify the key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics (measurements) that will help show when that goal is reached.

General goal examples:

For a goal of growing social media audience, we would look to metrics that include:

  • Follower count
  • Impressions
  • Post reach

For a goal of increasing website traffic, we would look to metrics that demonstrate conversion, like:

  • Website analytics for social media referrals
  •  Link clicks from social media post to website and/or blog

Look for correlations; ask questions.

In the two examples above, we would watch the numbers associated with each metric and their relationship to each post on social media.

  • Do those numbers show more people have seen the post? Engaged positively or negatively with a particular post?
  • Was that a positive performance based on our goals?
  • Should we increase or decrease a certain type of post? At a certain time?

Watching the metrics assigned to these general goals tells us a lot. But increasing this kind of performance may not get customers, partners, or applicants close enough to the organization to begin the kind of conversation that leads to doing more of what your organization is built to do.

Specific goal example:

A goal of attracting more qualified applicants is an example of a social media goal designed to bring a segment of your audience closer to you, so close that you would be engaged in a transaction that supports your organization’s purpose. The metrics to measure the effectiveness of social media activity around this goal may include:

  • Determining the criteria for qualified submissions
  • Tracking the number of qualified applicants received daily and overlaying that with the timing of social media posts encouraging submission
  • Tracking website analytics, click-throughs/referrals, post link clicks, and post-engagement metrics

We have to go outside the metrics provided by social media platforms or social media management software to understand the full story.

Beyond metrics: Listening for voice-of-consumer (VoC) data

  • Social media metrics can help bolster decisions that have been made based on more traditional methods of collecting feedback from your audiences
    • surveys
    • feedback forms
    • roundtable discussions
    • interviews
    • process-related comments
    • content-related comments
  • Be wary of relying solely on social media metrics to change course in business or communications strategy
    • does social media capture all of your optimal audience?
    • does your optimal audience use social media exclusively for its news and communications?
  • Use social media to listen and learn beyond your own posts’ metrics
    • audit social media posts for topics relevant to your organization’s offering
    • audit your industry’s thought-leaders for their hot topics
  • Despite its popularity, social media may not reach all of your market

What are you learning from your social media efforts?

Common social media terms simplified

New to social media?

Considering advertising on social media?

ideas-and-news 6 Minutes Read (0)

August 23, 2022 Comments

What are you learning from your social media efforts?

Most social media platforms and social media management tools provide some recommendations for the kinds of metrics (measurements) we should be tracking. There’s a lot of information available. Much of it is very helpful for influencers who attract advertisers and sponsors based on the number of followers and interactions they have on their social media accounts. For those of us who work business to business or organization to organization, we have to temper that information with more meaningful questions.

We may not find ready answers to these relevant questions by looking at the numbers provided by social media platforms and social media management tools:

• How can we look at social media metrics and understand how they translate into advancing our professional relationships or earning more business?

• Does engagement with a follower on Facebook convert to the submission of an application for employment, a consultancy project, or a contribution from a donor?

• What should we measure to give us a better idea of the success of our social media campaigns?

• How do we define social media success when it comes to our overall communications or marketing strategy?

Why measure?

Two words: budget and accountability. For some, social media can become a time eater. For some who pay to boost posts or advertise on social media, that time eater can also eat cash. There’s no “set it and forget it”.

We’re looking for correlations.

All social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.) provide basic analytics  for your organization’s social media pages’ performance, including measurements for post engagement, impressions, and click-throughs. Most provide those analytics through a dynamic administrator dashboard accessible by those who have been expressly authorized by the owner of that social media page.

Most subscription-based social media management tools, like Hootsuite, consolidate and overlay your social media activity across several platforms and individual social media profiles into one dashboard. Additionally, they suggest optimal future posting times based on computer-analyzed past performances of posts. By offering a consolidated picture of posts and post performance, management tools aim to foster efficiencies in scheduling and reporting. As social media features continue to evolve, social media management tools continue to expand their service offerings to remain useful.

For those of us not engaged in retail transactions, we must find the correlation between social media performance, other communications initiatives (advertising, direct mail, etc.) and our ultimate growth (transactional) goals (securing contracts, forming partnerships, increasing application submissions, etc.) to understand the effectiveness of our activity. To do that, we must also work outside social media management tools for the most meaningful analytics.

Common social media terms simplified 

New to social media?

Considering advertising on social media?

Copyright notice ©Stone’s Throw, Inc. All rights reserved.

ideas-and-news 4 Minutes Read (0)

April 27, 2022 Comments

Stone’s Throw officially certified as LGBT Business Enterprise

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Washington, DC – Stone’s Throw, Inc. is proud to announce its recent certification as an LGBT Business Enterprise (LGBTBE®) through the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce (LGLCC) Supplier Diversity Initiative. The NGLCC is the business voice of the LGBT community and serves as the nation’s exclusive certifying body for LGBT-owned and operated businesses.

“We are so pleased to welcome Stone’s Throw to the ever-expanding network of NGLCC certified LGBT Business Enterprises and the hundreds of corporations and government agencies eager to put them to work”, said NGLCC Co-Founder and President Justin Nelson and Co-Founder and CEO Chance Mitchell. “According to NGLCC’s groundbreaking America’s LGBT Economy report, America’s estimated 1.4 million LGBT business owners, many of them NGLCC certified, add over $1.7 trillion to the GDP and create tens of thousands of new jobs. We are proud to count Stone’s Throw among those who prove every day that LGBT businesses are the future of the American econonmy.”

Stone’s Throw is now eligible to participate in the NGLCC’s corporate partners’ supplier diversity programs, can take advantage of the vast educational opportunities promoted by the NGLCC, and can work to foster business-to-business relationships with other LGBTEs.

Stone’s Throw Partner Janice Mondoker said “Certification as an LGBT Business Enterprise represents a big step in any business’s journey toward greater authenticity. We are proud to be aligned with others who also recognize this step as creating more opportunities to work toward equity with compassion and excellence.”

About Stone’s Throw, Inc.

Established in 1991, Stone’s Throw is a marketing communications boutique providing consultation, copywriting, and design services for complete programs and individual projects that range from advertisements, brand identities, websites and online content, and capabilities materials.

ideas-and-news 2 Minutes Read (0)

April 26, 2022 Comments

At every level – planning

Whether creating a single promotional piece or an integrated marketing campaign, all marketing communications efforts benefit from planning.  Of course that planning might take place in a very compressed time period (“You need that by tomorrow?”), but experienced marketers consider brand, positioning, communications objectives and audiences (among other factors) before they ever put pencil to paper or cursor to blank screen.

The plan is never written in stone (pardon the pun); it lives and breathes, allowing for changes when new data comes in or new opportunities arise. Mapping it out ahead of time simply sets our primary direction, but it goes a long way toward reducing the intimidation factor.

For some clients, we have the privilege of planning full multidimensional campaigns that build over time on the successes of key components.  We often begin with the marketing activities that help create a presence for the company or product – perhaps brand identity (logo, tagline, positioning statement), key brand messaging and language, capabilities materials, website, print and online advertising, and press releases. The second phase may include activities that soften the market for business development or sales efforts – always leveraging relevant content development – email marketing, direct mail, seminars or community programs and social media.  Finally, we explore activities and materials that will be used to fulfill the inquiries generated by the new marketing efforts – maybe product- or market-specific sell sheets or product information, packaging, newsletters, blog posts and white papers.

For others, we’re tasked with creating one special element of their marketing or promotional material.  Even in that case, we ensure our work dovetails into the overall plan and the communications strategy. It often takes only a few moments to confirm that we’re on track, and that can make all the difference.

For a select number, Stone’s Throw provides virtual CMO support, functioning as the business’s marketing department.  As a Chief Marketing Officer would, we initiate and guide marketing plan recommendations and develop communications strategies that align with the company’s overall growth objectives.  As a marketing manager and department would, we also provide the creative services, design and copywriting, art direction, production and programming that bring the company’s marketing plan to life. From broad goal setting, to day-to-day marketing tasks, we work side-by-side with you to build forward momentum. It all starts with a plan, even if that means determining a few loose parameters now, and establishing more focused guidelines later.

Over the course of 30 years, we’ve had the privilege of working with many fine businesses and organizations.  Those most successful at engaging their target audiences —  and manifesting brand language that resonates with customers — have one important characteristic in common; they understand the power of planning.

ideas-and-news 4 Minutes Read (0)

November 30, 2021 Comments

Do you have to choose between social media ease and content excellence?

We’ve all seen extremely reputable, high-quality news outlets post headlines with typographical errors to their social media accounts. How can that happen? Where are the brand standards we’ve come to associate with that organization? Do users no longer care about errors and typos if they don’t actually obscure the intended meaning? What if they DO obscure the intended meaning? Do these sloppier posts erode the brand? Clearly, we have some questions.

In a conversation with several well-reputed colleagues recently, they revealed that they were thinking about hiring “younger” people to run their social media accounts with the assumption that younger users had the inside track to mastery of all things online. The organizations were actively looking for entry-level employees at entry-level salaries so executive team members could continue to focus on operations and business development without having to get involved with social media at all. The inappropriate age prejudice aside, there’s an uncomfortable dissociation between social media and brand communication revealed here. This attitude also undervalues the critical importance of social media to our communications (why entry-level?). Unfortunately, this mindset begins to answer some of our questions above, especially “How can this happen?”.

With a few adjustments to this hands-off and leave-it-to-the-newbies attitude toward social media posts, everyone can be satisfied and brand quality can be maintained, even enhanced.

If we consider post content separate and apart from the act of posting (think publishing), social media can get the careful attention and quality control it deserves. If we ensure that social media managers, especially entry-level hires with little business experience, fully understand the brand and speak it fluently, we can safely use social media to bolster our brands. When hiring inexperienced staff to run social media, go even further: institute a process that supports brand adherence and quality — a process that simultaneously supports social media managers and provides the scaffolding the brand needs to excel on the social media platforms that align best with its brand and its customers. Go ahead and plan posting activity; write posts; and, circulate the plan and the content for review and approval so your organization’s posts aren’t hitting your followers’ newsfeeds before you’ve seen them. Keep a strong connection between social media and your core business builders (business development, marketing communications, sales, human resources…). With a schedule of approved posts, our social media mavens can focus on doing what they do best: getting our brands in front of the most appropriate audiences to encourage greater engagement.

ideas-and-news 4 Minutes Read (0)

November 16, 2021 Comments

How to write an effective sell sheet

These questions may help you collect and organize the information necessary to write a compelling two-page service sheet that can be used to support sales conversations with prospective customers:

Matter for the front:

What is the brand or marketing name of this service or service package? Be consistent across all mentions. Make it easy for customers to identify it.

What is the primary (or overview) benefit to the customer?

What are the individual features to the service offerings? When describing each, lead with each feature’s benefit(s) to the customer. This is not a technical spec sheet. Talk briefly about why these features matter to the customer.

What are the challenges faced by the type of customer who would benefit from this service? Provide a few sentences about why this service package assists the customer in overcoming those challenges.

Provide something extra. Briefly describe an emotional benefit to the service package, a key insight unique to the customer’s industry, or a snippet from a customer testimonial.

Matter for the back:

Why is your company uniquely positioned to understand the challenges your customers face? Here is the place to review the benefits described on the front in a broader context or pull in your company’s history with this particular service or the customer’s industry.

Cross sell. List other services your company provides and the industries that benefit from them.

Provide an invitation to discuss how this service package may help the customer.

Be sure to include your branding identity/logo, company tagline, call to action, contact information, company descriptive, and trademark and copyright notices as appropriate.

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October 26, 2021 Comments

Why are brand style guidelines so critical for your business or organization?

By Janice Mondoker, Director of Design Realization

A brand is a valuable asset and consistency improves brand recognition. In the past few months I’ve come across several companies and organizations that did not have style guidelines in place. There are multiple benefits to setting standards for how to display your brand look and feel. Deviations can confuse, contradict, or erode your brand, diluting the impact you’ve worked to achieve. Using style guidelines is a way to ensure that your brand image is presented with the quality you intend.

To start, catalog your logo, brand colors, typefaces, sizes, and preferred placement. Do you use an approved one-color version? Stacked or horizontal? One or two pages of general guidelines will help reinforce your brand mark and keep other team members on the same page.

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October 19, 2021 Comments

Plans for holiday marketing?

It’s that time of year again. Many seasonal celebrations dot the fourth quarter like the holes in Swiss cheese, making the coordination of schedules more challenging and finishing team projects less likely. Where many of us see this time as providing welcome breaks for refueling, some of us see it as an interruption in the momentum we’ve worked diligently to generate over the past nine months, or as a time to cram to meet the fading year’s goals and objectives. Where do you fall?

Whether traditional, national, or religious, holidays are a part of our shared experiences during the late autumn and early winter weeks. They also offer a built-in reason for business owners and marketers to reach out to clients and prospects. Is holiday marketing part of your business plan? Think about how a few holiday communications may meet your company’s marketing strategy.

Let’s get beyond the holiday card and email. (Although, let’s not forget them.) Will you count down to New Year’s Eve with a cool tip each day that you’ll post on social media?  Will your business sponsor a charity’s year-end festivities or a community playhouse’s December performances?

If you haven’t already, start planning. And, if you need a bit of help, give us a call. Happy holiday season!  Enjoy it all.

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