He was on his way to a short work trip at the US office of the tech company he was working for, and my partner and I were catching a connecting flight towards our final stop in Brazil.

It’s known to be quite rare for us Lithuanians to break into a chat with another Lithuanian abroad. 

But this is exactly what happened.

We got to talking about how the pandemic had loosened up the stiff working environments and how great it was to have more flexibility.

However, when I shared that Switch is completely remote and I can work from wherever full-time, it really confused him.

‘But how can your boss be sure that you’re actually doing your job and not just pretending?’ he asked.

What?

In my head, this came across as a stupid question,  especially, since we’ve been working remotely throughout the pandemic. It was pretty obvious to me that if I wasn’t pulling my weight at my job, it would become apparent quite soon. People on my team would notice. Clients would notice. It’s a situation I could not see playing out any other way.

I tried to explain it. And in the end, I don’t think I managed to sway him my way.

After we went on our merry ways this interaction stuck with me. I had a bunch of questions and mixed feelings.

• How could a well-educated person, only a couple of years my senior, not understand the concept?
• Why would a professional go to the lengths of cheating their employer and their team?
• Would that same person not be able to pretend right there at the office?
• What kind of company structure and culture would create an environment for this to happen?

I really could not relate. Until it hit me.

There’s this Lithuanian saying that I think illustrates the point I’m getting to quite well.

‘Sotus alkano neužjaučia’, which roughly translates to ‘the satisfied does not feel for the hungry’.

And in this situation, I was the satisfied.

(and no, I’m not talking about the ‘free office lunch on Fridays’ crap here)

• I was part of a company that appreciates its employees and wants them to succeed both at work and in life.
• I had bosses that trust me to handle anything sent my way.
• My input and opinions were valued.
• I was part of a team that can lean on each other when we need to.
• And I was the one that can travel the world and keep the job that I enjoy doing.

It’s the least everyone deserves.

Work should challenge you, ground you, and provide opportunities to grow. But it should never feel like you need to cheat the system to get more of a work-life balance.

It’s great to see that many companies around the world are waking up from the Monday to Friday 9-to-5 ice age and creating better workplace environments.

We need more of that.

In the meantime, it’s up to the employees to send the message to the dinosaurs that aren’t willing to get with the times.

The post A Conversation on Working From Anywhere appeared first on Switch - Digital & Brand.

That might seem slightly early, but marketing moves fast. By the end of September, there are no more slow periods in the industry: it’s go, go, go until January, when the next crop of marketing plans and strategies come into play. 

Waiting until 2022 to start planning what you’re going to do means starting late, and starting late means missing out. Missing out means fewer opportunities to achieve your goals. 

If you’ve read our other articles about planning your marketing for 2022, you know this already. 

But it bears repeating. 

You need to know what you’re going to do from now. You need to know where you’re going with your brand communication. You need to know what comes next.

A solid plan will also help you greatly with reacting to the unpredictable, and we all know what that looks like by now. If you have a solid base to fall back on you can rely on that to keep your channels alive while you pivot your communications.

Here are our top 5 tips for making sure your 2022 social media plan benefits you. 

1. Plan

• Outline your goals and objectives for your brand’s Social Media for the upcoming year (base them on your business goals and your wider marketing plan for 2022).
• Create a social media communication strategy for each goal. 
• Ensure that your social media plan covers all objectives.
• Create a high-level social media calendar that covers the entire the year – identify the key dates/periods for your business, plan your seasonal campaigns
• Create a more detailed plan for the first quarter (e.g. monthly calendars for the next 3 months) for each platform you want to cover.
• Plan content production and ad spend budgets

There are plenty of opportunities to plan content ahead of time – besides thinking about your key brand messages (which aren’t seasonal or reactive), there are calendar dates that are always there, every single month (doesn’t the Christmas countdown officially start in September?) – so think about those key dates and key messages that are evergreen. They can help you build a solid content calendar for your social media communication.

2. Produce in Bulk

After creating a detailed monthly social media plan, you’ll know exactly what you’ll need to produce: 

• Bulk production saves a lot of time, and time is money
• It gives you time for casting and sourcing of props
• You will save on equipment and location costs (if you’re renting) and when planned properly, on model fees too.
• You will likely save on overall costs as well, as you’ll be paying less for administrative fees if you’re outsourcing your production.
• Producing in advance ensures that you have enough time to deal with any changes as they happen without completely compromising the rest of your strategy.

3. Schedule content when possible

There are many platforms to help with this for each of the social media platforms (including Instagram Stories!), so make the most of them to save time. Posting each post on-the-day adds up to many more hours than you would spend scheduling in bulk once a month.

However, you should always be aware of what’s happening in your market and the world, and make sure to adjust your automatic schedule accordingly.

4. Follow results

When planning a brand’s social media, it is easy to fixate on particular ideas and ways of how we want things to go. However, not all ideas that sound good in the beginning are ideas that actually work out. This is where we have to follow the results.

Measuring the results of your social media efforts links directly to your strategy and goals. If the results you’re getting don’t help you achieve your goals – changes need to happen. 

Follow your campaigns to see what is working or not, what can be improved, or what needs to change completely. Don’t get stuck with things that don’t work just because you’re in love with an idea. 

5. Be ready for changes

The world of social media is in constant flux and it is essential to have some flexibility in your plans. It helps make sure that what you’re doing is always relevant and is bringing in the results you’re looking for. 

At any time, some disruption might shake up the entire world(e.g. COVID in 2019/2020) or just your business (e.g. your campaigns are not performing as expected). Meaning that you might need to change some of your initial social media plans, change the way you run your campaigns, and put some content on hold or completely replace it, etc. 

Benefits of planning your social media in advance

• It ensures that your business’ social media strategy is in-line with your overall business strategy
• With a good Social media plan you won’t need to worry about doing everything last minute
• Planning in advance allows you to produce in advance – saves time and money
• If something unexpected happens you’ll still have your bases covered
• Tracking the results helps tailoring your strategy for the maximum results

On the receiving end, social media communications might come across as very effortless and ‘right-this-minute’ but they do take much more planning than one might think. Give your business a leg-up in the new year by building a clear, yet flexible social media strategy for 2022. Still not sure where to start? Get in touch with us and we’ll be glad to help you tell your story.

The post 5 Things to Keep in Mind When Planning Social Media for 2022 appeared first on Switch - Digital & Brand.

And we’re not just saying that.

For 2020, online traffic was 24% higher than it is now for the same month. Daily use of social media increased for 4 in 10 internet users globally, and apps that prioritised video and audio saw a marked jump in their popularity. 

With a sizable portion of the world’s consumers captive, it should have been a golden era for brand communication. 

The reality was different. 

Brands did capitalise on the benefits of having an audience that couldn’t escape advertising – but it didn’t always work out. They had to tread carefully to make sure that the audience they were speaking to didn’t turn away from the ads they’d taken time to put together; that those ads struck home, and turned into profit. 

A year ago, we wrote our eBook on how brands could do that (psst! it’s free – take a look!). 

A year later, we’re taking a look at what we wrote and seeing how it’s changed. 

Social Media: General

In 2020, we finished off our social media chapter with the following tips: 

1. Your tone needs to be relevant to the situation – show empathy and awareness.
2. Get creative. Look for alternative ways to create value for your customers, to support and educate them, whether it’s about your industry or the current situation.
3. Quality over quantity – don’t let your brand speak because it wants to say something. Your brand need only speak when it actually has something to say. 
4. Be relevant but not necessarily by speaking about the current situation. Everyone else is doing that. Be empathetic but also original. 
5. Engage with your audience by asking for direct feedback. Uncertain times are no time for broadcasts, they are times for active conversation.

In 2021, we say: 

The more we get into the days after the initial pandemic panic, the more we’re starting to see that COVID-19 didn’t exactly break the mold on communicating and advertising: it just brought to light what we always knew all along. 

The tips that we wrote in 2020 hold value today, they’ll hold value tomorrow, and they’ll hold value a hundred years from now. 

People are obsessed with social media. 

It’s where they go, whether it’s to look for news, follow their favourite celebrity, or dig up something to form an opinion on. For brands, this is a good thing: an audience on social media is an audience you can track, analyse, and monetise. 

But you need to know how to hold onto that audience first. 

And to hold onto that audience, you need to be human. Your social media needs to be human. Your brand needs to be human. 

You need to be human. 

Social Media: Strategies

In 2020, we wrote: 

Should I change my social media strategy? Yes, but let’s pick that apart. Firstly, no matter what product you’re selling, you should definitely take the time to look through your editorial calendar for the next few months, and make sure that your subject matter is constantly realigned with current realities and that there is empathy and compassion in your tone going forward. Anything that might sound tonedeaf can and will bring you the backlash that you definitely don’t need at this time. 

In 2021, we’re saying: 

That still holds true. You need an editorial calendar to make the most of social media – it’s not a ‘post something off the top of your head’ kind of medium any more. Social media takes planning, careful analysis, and tweaking to make it profitable and successful. Are there brands that get away with no planning? Sure. But the chances of you being one of those brands are small and growing smaller as a fed-up population uses their tiny amount of power where it matters most – on brands. 

As for if you should change your social media strategy – is it working for you? Are you happy with the way your socials are running? Can it be better? We’re personally a fan of changing your social media strategy until you’re sure it can’t get better. That can mean anything, depending on the brand you have. 

CASE STUDY: Google’s ‘Get Back to What You Love’ came a little bit out of the left field if you weren’t aware of their COVID-19 advertising campaign, but if you’re a fan of how Google tells its stories, you’ll notice what we’re about to tell you – the strategy is a work of art. Google’s perfected the understated narrative, and going back to their pandemic ‘search bar’-style advert was the perfect duological loop to enter into the next phase of their pandemic marketing. 

Social media: Content

In 2020, we wrote: 

Get creative! How can you create value online? Can you take your knowledge and teach? Can you offer product reviews? Can you start live video broadcasts

with Q&As? Can you find ways to educate your audience about your field? The goal is to add more individual, customised value versus what someone could find online themselves.

Whatever you do, don’t stop talking, otherwise you’ll be forgotten. However, remember that your content has to be in context with where your audience is. If your audience’s house is on fire, now isn’t the time to educate them on fire safety. 

In 2021, we’re saying: 

Creativity is still relevant. Creativity is always going to be relevant. People are so used to passive, low-effort posts that having a post that gives them something to think about will reach through the screen and grab their attention. Additionally, people love free content. Giving them valuable content – based on what you can teach, what you can do, what you can give – is one of the best ways to build a relationship with your audience that lasts. 

This doesn’t mean you should take over everyone’s feeds constantly. You need laser-precision. You need to know when to post what you’re posting so that it intersects with your audience’s life, not gives them another choice to make: listen to you, or keep doing what you’re doing? 

You need to talk. You need to make that conversation matter. And you need to make the content of that conversation relevant. 

This hasn’t changed post-pandemic. 

It just showed us how important it is. 

CASE STUDY: Extra’s ‘For When It’s Time’ made the rounds way back when it came out, and even within our agency, it’s controversial: people found it gross, people found it genius, people loved the direction, people thought it was overblown. Love it or hate it, you have to admit: it’s eye-catching, it’s funny, and it’s creative. That makes it memorable. And when something is memorable, you’ve hooked an audience into listening to you, seeing what you’re going to get up to next, and following what you do in the hopes they’ll see more of what makes them laugh. 

Social Media: Community

In 2020, we wrote: 

During a time of uncertainty, people look for support and reassurance whilst trying to adapt to a new way of living, communicating and working. They will be turning to online communities for this purpose. Facebook Groups provide fertile ground for long-lasting connections with your audience, especially at a time of uncertainty.

In 2021, we’re saying: 

Facebook groups are amazing – if you’re willing to spend some time building a community there. Though people are spending less time online than they were during the pandemic, those connections that they’ve brokered – with brands, with each other – will last through that, so if you’ve spent time building those connections, here’s our advice: keep them going. An audience that feels for your brand the same way they feel for their friends is fundamental to make it on social media.

CASE STUDY: Guinness’ advertising consistently rated highly among people who watched them, whether it’s because they follow the brand directly on social media or were directed to it, and this is why. Even if you’re not a Guinness drinker, ‘Welcome Back’ makes you a part of the fold, gives you a reason to feel like you belong. That’s powerful. Profit is never going to stand in for community, and Guinness shows us why. 

Social Media: What’s Changed?

We said at the start that COVID-19 didn’t change social media; it just made us more aware of what it actually means to use it. To start a social media account and make it work for you takes time. 

It takes patience and effort. It takes empathy. It takes the understanding that your brand is never going to go back to the days when it could advertise half off, and float on from year to year. Price is important; it’s no longer the only thing that’s important. 

What your brand did, and didn’t do, when people needed it matters more. How your brand talks matters more. 

In essence, nothing has changed about social media. 

A lot has changed about the people who use it. It’s become more unforgiving, less likely to avoid disaster, and more likely to create problems for you if you don’t use it right. 

So use it right. Read our ebook, read our articles, ask us questions if you want. 

We’re here to help.

The post What Do We Do Now? Social Media Strategies for (Almost) Post-Pandemic appeared first on Switch - Digital & Brand.

Now, before you start with the ‘but spending your lockdown in Malta, surrounded by the Mediterranean sounds like the perfect place to be, you’re so lucky!’:I know. 

Trust me, I am very lucky, but let me give you some context. 

I left my home country, Lithuania, in 2012. I lived in the UK, Malta, UK (again), Cambodia, Malta (again) and traveled all the time in between. Since we caught our travel bug, my boyfriend and I just can’t seem to be able to settle down in one place for more than 3 years. We’ve pretty much always had some new trip booked to look forward to. 

We’re hooked. Addicted to the excitement, and looking forward to getting our next fix of culture, new experiences, and amazing food. 

Mmm, food…

And then, you know what happened. 

COVID hit. 

Malta Airport got shut down; our only way out to far-away lands – closed! 

Okay, I’m being very dramatic here, but my point is that even though we were super lucky to be locked down in beautiful Malta, the inability to board a plane and escape to a new place hit us much harder mentally than being isolated in our flat and working from home for months.

Later on, with new restriction developments and the airport being reopened, we were looking for ways to get away to some country or other. Even somewhere near. Somewhere where the numbers of COVID cases were low and restrictions permitted some international travel. And last October, a friend of ours asked to cat-sit for her in a remote seaside town in Spain. Perfect! To say that we jumped at the opportunity would be an understatement. 

Even though I had been successfully working from home for months on end, I felt that I should still get a go-ahead from the team for a couple of weeks of remote work from Spain. Which, as expected, was taken super well by the team. 

Well, except for our CEO Rik, maybe, who said he’d rather cat-sit in Spain himself, instead of me. 

The two weeks of cat-sitting combined with Switch work passed quite uneventfully. Apart from a new location, not much had changed. 

Well, maybe the fact that the air did not consist of 50% construction dust, which is so characteristic of Malta. That was a great relief for my allergies. 

Work stayed the same. We had virtual meetings, content plans were made, ad campaigns were launched, reports were delivered to clients, and so on. Same as it did at the Switch office in 2019, or from my sofa for most of 2020. Business as usual. 

When we went back to Malta, we kept looking for a change of scenery, in any shape or form. We started looking for a new flat, in an area with less active construction sites, and more nature (my allergies were really weighing on me at that point). One evening, my boyfriend came over and said, ‘Ernesta, I was looking for a new flat in Malta, but I think I might have gotten carried away… shall we move to Valencia instead?’ 

Now, if you know Vilius, coming up with life-changing ideas out of nowhere is kind of his thing. 

And if you know me – I don’t need much convincing.

But before we went ahead with speaking to our landlord and selling the car, the work conversation had to happen. 

My teams’ reply was, something like ‘took you long enough, we’ve been expecting this for a while.’ Needless to say, the Switch management team was super supportive, and apart from a couple of days off here and there, the move to Valencia was pretty seamless. 

After our workdays were over, we were buzzing with excitement to discover a new area of the city or to have caña and some tapas before our 8pm curfew. Just like many, we were still limited by safety restrictions and curfews, and our Airbnb apartment for the most part. But our minds were open, and our hearts excited! We had newness to our days again. Our oxygen supply was restored. 

Once the initial excitement wore off, it hit us that being location independent had always been a distant dream of ours, but the possibility just seemed way too far in the future. 

But look at us now! We’re living a dream that we’ve been subconsciously working towards for the whole of our professional lives. It’s cool, and we don’t take it for granted. 

I’d like to end with a few takeaways for any that might relate to my situation. 

1. If there’s something that you really want to do, a thing to try, or a move to make: do it! There is always a way to make things happen, so don’t stop looking for opportunities. With all of the negative things that COVID did bring upon us, it also brought a global realisation that not all of us need to be at the office 8:30 to 5:30, five days a week. Heck, some of us don’t really need to be there at all to be able to do what we do. And here it was, my opportunity to do what I want to do.
2. Working remotely is still hard work. You still have a team that relies on you to respond, show up to virtual meetings, and meet the deadlines. The Switch team respects my need to wander the globe, and I repay that respect by delivering my work as if I was sitting at my desk in the office. Being responsible and considerate is key. 
3. Try and develop somewhat of a routine. Routines have been one of the key things keeping people away from pulling their hair out while isolating at home. But since we moved, and keep moving around, we’ve realised that the benefits of routines still apply. Create some time in your day to exercise. Try to sneak in at least one healthy meal a day, if you’re like me and just can’t resist the tapas after work. And catch up on sleep when you can. After all, traveling and working full time are basically two full-time jobs, and you need to feel the best to be your best. 
4. Finally, find a thing that grounds you. I realised this during one of the team calls recently, thanks to Ed who was talking about the key brand values of the Scandinavian countries – people there are very individualistic, but they also have a very strong sense of community, which keeps them grounded (or something like that, but through a captivating story, you know, as only Ed does). And it clicked! Switch is part of my community. It keeps me connected to what I know, while my individualistic side drives me to all these foreign experiences. So whether it’s a group of people, a hobby, or an activity, find something familiar that keeps you grounded. 

I am writing this as we plan our next move. It’s funny, because the meaning of the word plan has become so much more flexible since the pandemic hit. In all of our personal lives, work lives, and the industry itself. All we can do is adapt our plans to whatever might hit us next. 

The post Working from anywhere: Feeding the travel bug and staying connected appeared first on Switch - Digital & Brand.

Wednesday

We kicked things off with a welcome dinner within the soft gold light of the dining room at the Phoenicia hotel, where the under-30s had their first chance to mingle. While the small-talk was stilted at first, some good food and wine went a long way to greasing the wheels, and very soon, people were happily chatting about the projects they were working on, and sharing their experiences within the digital marketing world.

Thursday

Thursday morning was the unofficial inauguration of the new Switch offices, and our guests were the first to experience it. Ensconced in a warm, sun-streaked space, the group started the morning with a session by the Bootcamp Mentor, Martin Henley, who broke the ice with interactive games to help everyone get to know each other a little better.

When everyone was comfortable, and enjoying their newly formed friendships, Martin introduced the tug-of-war. We were separated into teams, and had to do their best to overbalance the other team. As early as it was in the morning, energy initially flagged, however competitive spirit soon kicked in, leading to a neck-and-neck battle for victory.

After the athleticism, Martin gave us a task: create a new religion, a new government, and a new social media through communication exercises. The caveat was that Martin, wielding an electric buzzer, was well within his rights to stop the discussion at any opportunity – whether the team was done talking or not.
Let’s just say that he seemed to enjoy using his buzzer more than we reckoned he would, often stopping the teams mid-way through a sentence and forcing them to rethink what they were saying! It eventually became clear that he was looking for the group to discuss, rather than elect a leader to talk for them: the more people interacted together, and bounced off of each other, the more time they gained to argue their point. In the end, there was no definitive religion, social media, or government invented, however the teams were sparking each other, inspiring each other, and ready to dive into the next task. Mission accomplished.

After a quick lunch served up by Danny’s, it was time to meet the client. Matthew Bezzina, the co-founder of eCabs, gave us a brief introduction to his business before posing a problem that his company was facing. This was the crux of the bootcamp: the under-30s team had to propose a solution to this problem within just a few hours.
Fortunately, Martin’s earlier exercises had the teams raring to go. Teams argued until they were hoarse, kept the conversation going over dinner at Fat Louie’s that evening, and went to bed early – tomorrow, they’d be debuting their solution to Matthew Bezzina, Martin, and all the Agency Leaders. Gulp.

Friday

The Switch offices were crackling with energy as all 3 sub-teams worked to make sure that each presentation had a definitive message running through the core of the solution. There was only time for a quick run-through before lunch, after which everyone was set to meet in Valletta for a treasure hunt around the capital.
This is where things were shaken up a little further: this time, the younger attendees were mixed into teams with the agency leaders – the objective was to seek out all the items on the treasure hunt list, and beat out every other team to win.

Happy, and exhausted, the under-30s returned to the City Lounge terrace to present their solutions to the ICOM agency leaders – and Matthew himself of course.
On Thursday, the problem seemed insurmountable: five hours to solve a problem that had been happening for months? Even Matthew himself admitted that he didn’t think they’d manage much – but sure enough, he was proved wrong. The bootcamp team pulled together to present a solution that was viable, cost-effective, and out-of-the-box – exactly what they were briefed to do from day 1.

What I Learned

ICOM and Switch wanted to showcase that experience doesn’t just come from age; sometimes, it comes from working in a field which demands out of the box thinking in order to stand out from the crowd. Our agencies’ executives are part of our teams for a reason – they’re smart, sharp and do great work. Why not let them flex their muscles outside of their comfort zone?
As the Agency Leaders themselves said after the presentation – the future is looking bright. Extending future ICOM Meetings to younger members will definitely become a standard. After all, there’s far too many benefits for everyone involved to stop them from coming together!

The post On ICOM under 30s: Innovation and Integration appeared first on Switch - Digital & Brand.