Blog Archives - Page 2 of 42

Have you supercharged your social yet? Download our free guide now

by Oana Fologea | Oct 12, 2022 | Blog

Did you catch our recent webinar on how to improve your engagement on social media?

We invited Helen Reynolds, one of the founders of Comms Creatives, to share her top tips on getting your audience involved more on your social platforms.

Helen’s a specialist in helping social media pros like you create the very best social content for your organisation. So it was no surprise she was brimming with ideas.

In this webinar we reveal the insider knowledge on supercharging your social with community engagement.

Here’s a reminder of some of our winning advice…

How to get better engagement on your channels

First things first: you need eyes on your posts.

Which means making sure you’re creating the kind of content your audience just can’t resist clicking on.

And we talked about lots of ways to do it.

From asking questions people have to answer, to showing gratitude for your community.

From posting a poll or a picture of your office dog, to running a competition or sharing news about an event.

Ideally, you’ll be putting out a mix of all those kinds of content, and others.

Because once the social platforms see you’re getting attention, their cunning algorithms will show your stuff in even more of your target audience’s feeds.

And pretty soon, you’ll have a snowball effect, with each new post building higher levels of engagement.

Sounds good, right? But don’t worry if you’ve still got some work to do

We know what it’s like – in the busy world of social, it’s all too easy to get pulled back into creating run-of-the-mill content. Even after you’ve been inspired by a fab webinar.

So now’s the time to bust out of your comfort zone and supercharge your social.

You’ll find all our hints and tips in our handy guide, available for you to download now. Refer back to it whenever you need to shake things up on social and get the engagement you deserve.

The guide’s packed full of info on:

How to build a solid social strategy (spoiler: engagement’s not the endgame)
Understanding the algorithms – and how to work with them
How to create thumb-stopping content every time.

PLUS there’s bags of inspiration and examples so you can start supercharging your social straight away.

It won’t be long before your community’s liking, commenting and sharing your posts like never before.

Supercharge your social

Missed the webinar? You can still catch up here. Or simply download our guide to supercharging your social with community engagement to get all the tips and tricks you need.

Liked this post? Share it on your socials – and don’t forget to tag us @SoCrowd, too. (Thanks) 🙏

LoveThat recognised for supporting career development

by Heran Patel | Oct 10, 2022 | Blog

BECG Group’s Creative Services: LoveThat, won the CCI Placement Provider of the Year at Portsmouth University’s Placements Celebration Event.

LoveThat was nominated by Darek Kosinski, who recently completed a year-long internship at its’ Southampton studio. Working closely with Mark Darlington, LoveThat’s Head of Video, Darek focused on developing his video production skills including live action shoots, editing and motion graphics. He was also involved in creating LoveThat’s podcast series and promotional content for SoCrowd.

Darek’s placement was such a success that he stayed on for an extra three months, working over the summer period and only leaving when he had to return to university to complete his final year of studies.

Charli Edwards, Creative Director, comments:

“I’m passionate about nurturing talent and providing as many opportunities as possible for young people entering the creative industry. Building strong relationships between academic institutions and our sector is really important on both sides – students gain experience that helps them make better career choices and we get an injection of bright new ways of thinking.

“Our pilot internship with Portsmouth University was a huge success and we’re planning to develop it further, working with more universities and offering placements across our design, digital and video teams.”

Eliana Lee-Gibbons, Industry Liaison Manager, Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries, University of Portsmouth, added:

“It has been a real pleasure to work with the team at LoveThat, supporting with establishing their pilot internship programme. They provided our student with real opportunities to develop his career and take his skills to the next level. We look forward to continuing working together and have more interns at the BECG Group in different capacities.”

For more information about BECG Group’s Future Talent Programme, click here: https://becggroup.com/future-talent-programme/

October 2022 Social Media Calendar Content & #Hashtag Ideas

by Heran Patel | Sep 30, 2022 | Blog

Get your socials ready for October 22!

The season of warm cosy fires and hot chocolate is nearly upon us.

We’ve got plenty of content ideas to get you through October and remain engaged with your audience.

From shining a spotlight on important issues such as #MentalHealthDay to celebrating the festival of lights this #Diwali – be sure to check out our October #hashtag calendar.

Download our FREE calendar today and plan out your social content for the rest of the year.

Making the Grade: Social Media Best Practice for Universities 2022/2023

by Oana Fologea | Sep 20, 2022 | Blog

Change is constant, not only within the higher education sector but also within the next generation of prospective students we seek to attract to higher education.

From a global pandemic to demographic shifts and changes to the admissions system, to name a few, the sector constantly has messages to communicate with its target audiences. To keep up with changing demands and expectations, universities have, in turn, changed the way they reach students.

According to the student recruitment platform Unibuddy, 95.52% of institutions are now using social media to reach students, compared to less than 60% five years ago. This shift reflects how traditional outreach channels are no longer working to reach students.

The UCAS Freshers Report 2022 highlights the social media platforms used regularly by freshers over the past seven years.

As we can see in the chart below (taken from the report), the use of Facebook has been falling significantly since 2017, and Instagram has taken over to retain the top spot. As a recent entrant to the market, TikTok has become the most downloaded app over the past two years and has become the fastest-growing news source of choice for young people.

Gaining popularity, we might expect BeReal to find a place on this chart next year as the simple, stripped-back approach to photo and life sharing has seen a huge increase in use during 2022.

In our webinar on 27^th September 2022, trusted social media advisor Luan Wise will dive deeper into Gen Z’s social media usage and key trends.

Find out more and book your place, here.

Happy young university students friends relaxing with smartphone in corridor

Gaining the attention of Gen Z is the first step, staying connected and having influence throughout the application process is another challenge. In their report, “The next generation of student recruitment”, Unibuddy highlights the greatest obstacle to staying connected with students is losing interest to competing institutions.

So how can institutions generate awareness and maintain interest from their future students? It’s all about content. Effective content educates, engages, entertains, and encourages action. Ultimately it builds trust and uses nudge theory to prompt desired behaviours – from downloading a prospectus to attending an open day and making a firm choice to an offer from your institution.

In our webinar on 27^th September 2022, trusted social media advisor Luan Wise will dive deeper into Gen Z’s social media usage and key trends.

Find out more and book your place, here.

Happy college students studying together

While prospective students are the focus of student recruitment campaigns, we must not forget that there are key influencers to the conversation and decision-making process. From school advisors to friends and family, sharing personal experiences of university as well as information gathered from researching through guidebooks, league tables, websites and of course social media. It’s important to note that Gen Z influencers are likely to have different usage of social media, from choice of platform to the type of content they are most receptive to.

For universities to make the grade with social media, they must understand how different generations use social media and tailor content to appeal to each group, to support their informational needs and to support the prospective student in their application.

In our webinar on 27^th September 2022, trusted social media advisor Luan Wise will dive deeper into Gen Z’s social media usage and key trends.

Find out more and book your place, here.

Students walk and talk using mobile devices in university

Social media is simultaneously the most measurable marketing channel, and also the one this is most difficult to assess. Like traditional media, a lot of the added value of social media will never be measurable. It also does not work in isolation.

Ultimately, for universities, successful student recruitment is about the numbers enrolled. On 18th August 2022 (A Level results day), 19% more 18-year-olds in the UK have gained a place at their firm or insurance choice compared to 2019 – that’s 425,830 students (an increase of 16,870).

Higher education continues to be competitive for both prospective students seeking a place to study, as well as for universities to attract the right students for their institution.

Social media has a key role to play and measuring its success can include multiple data sets and insights from reach, to engagement, website visits and more.

Join us for ‘Making the Grade: Social Media Best Practice for Universities in 2022/2023’ on 27th September 2022.

In the webinar, we’ll be looking at the current social media landscape including LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube and the latest Gen Z favourite, BeReal.
We will also look at the key messaging required at different stages throughout the student recruitment journey, and most importantly how to measure success.

The session will be packed full of dos and don’ts and best practice examples to help you win the attention of prospective students ahead of 2023 enrolment.

Book your place here

SoCrowd and BECG digital survey 2022: The results

by Heran Patel | Sep 6, 2022 | Blog

The pandemic changed a lot. We’ve all got used to a ‘new normal’ in so many areas of life.

For organisations, one of the developments has been a huge shift towards digital. Especially in the built environment sector. And it happened fast.

Now the dust’s settled, it’s time to take stock. How have things changed for digital pros working in the built environment? Is there room for improvement?

Our parent company BECG wanted to find out. So earlier this year they launched a survey to discover how things have changed for organisations in the sector? What opportunities lie ahead for brands in the built environment?

The results are in and we are sharing the findings of the 2022 digital survey.

Older and wiser

More and more businesses are adopting digital-first strategies in their comms. It’s becoming an enterprise approach that encompasses every channel.

And that’s not all. Survey responses showed that brands with higher digital maturity are looking at workflows and governance to track their return on investment from digital.

In other words, the more digitally mature an organisation is, the more business leaders focus on the strategy and grow in their confidence in investing in digital comms.

Digital growth

The survey data showed an increase in budgets to deliver digital-first strategies. Organisations in the built environment are recognising the importance of digital – they’re investing in it heavily, because it’s where the future lies.

Digital teams are growing in size, too, to keep up with the mounting demands of a digital-first world.

The future for digital

Content is king. It’s been said before, but in 2022 content marketing is still on the up, and it’s only set to grow further. Brands who mean business in the built environment are investing in content that adds value and helps audiences understand what they’re all about.

It’s an area that’s still developing, with video on the increase and immersive technology entering the arena. Content is driving the industry forward beyond 2022.

Get inside the insights

Want to drill down into the detail? Wondering how your organisation measures up to other brands in the built environment sector?

Head over to our digital survey results to explore the use and effectiveness of digital communications in the built environment sector. Compare 2022 with 2021 to see the trends emerging so you can keep your brand up to date with digital.

BECG Group launches industry-leading employee benefits package

by Heran Patel | Aug 25, 2022 | Blog

BECG Group has launched Your August – an enhanced employee benefits package enabling staff to work from wherever they can work effectively over the summer holiday.

During August, the company has relaxed the requirement for employees to spend at least two days each week working from the office, allowing them to be based anywhere. Providing they can work effectively, staff can choose to be entirely home-based, could work from a friend or family member’s house, or extend holidays abroad with additional working days. To supplement this flexibility and enable staff to extend their summer weekends, staff can compress their working hours and take Friday afternoons off.

Amy McNeill, BECG Group’s Head of Group HR, said: “We know from our industry benchmarking exercise that we already offer more time out of the business than our closest competitors; we know from our people that alongside flexibility, this is what they value the most, and so now we’ve gone one step further by creating Your August. Our teams work incredibly hard, and we want to celebrate and reward that collective effort by giving something back that makes a material difference to their lives. We have the infrastructure in place to enable us to work from anywhere, and Your August reflects the trust we place in our staff to deliver what’s needed for clients, but in a way that works for them and their families. We have staff travelling around Europe, people staying with family for a meaningful period of time, some are visiting family overseas they haven’t seen since before the pandemic and parents working in a way that makes childcare over the summer holidays manageable, all whilst continuing to deliver excellence for our clients.”

Your August compliments BECG Group’s Work That Works model, an approach based on reciprocal trust and flexibility that encourages and supports agile working patterns. From a hybrid of office and home-based work, avoiding commutes at the busiest times of day, to working around school drop-off and pick-up, Work that Works puts BECG Group’s staff first and empowers them to make work work for them and their clients.

Combined with Work that Works, additional gifted days off over Christmas and birthdays, and time to give to charities that mean something to them personally, Your August results in BECG Group staff enjoying significantly more paid time off than their industry peers. Alongside other benefits including private healthcare, an electric vehicle leasing scheme and not forgetting weekly deliveries of fresh fruit to each office, BECG Group places its people living well at the heart of its now industry leading benefits package.

To join our incredible team, visit: vacancies.becggroup.com.