| Germono Blog

Germono Blog

Browse Categories

Creating a Marketing Budget That Drives Growth

By: Julie Goode Today we will be going over creating your marketing budget! Without proper marketing, potential customers may not be aware of your product. A well-planned and executed marketing campaign can help reach your…

7 Essential Marketing Research Tips

By: Julie Goode Embarking on a successful marketing campaign requires a solid foundation laid through effective marketing research. In this blog post, we’ll explore seven essential tips to include in your marketing research strategy. Whether…

New Year, New Campaign Strategies

By: Julie Goode We are determined to help you hit your marketing goals and will be focusing on a different phase of marketing each month this year. This blog post summarizes this month’s tips and…

Annual Marketing Plans: The Final Stage In Your Marketing Planning

By: Julie Goode This is it!!!! The end of our monthly steps to help you create your annual marketing plan. We’re going to take everything we learned this year and wrap it all up with…

The 10th Step Of Marketing : Evaluating Marketing Campaigns

By: Julie Goode We are almost at the end of our monthly themes to help you create a marketing plan. We’ve dedicated each month this year to a different topic. This month’s will be somewhat…

Step 9: 8 Tips When Pivoting Marketing Strategies

By: Julie Goode Social media marketing is ever-changing, and it is important to stay current with the latest trends and platform features. As new features become available and audiences shift, strategies that once worked well…

Reviewing Marketing Campaigns-8th step in marketing

By: Julie Goode Congrats! You’ve made it our next step in creating a marketing plan: reviewing marketing campaigns. We’ve covered the following steps: 1. Ideation and Brainstorming 2. Marketing Research 3. Marketing Budget 4. Drafting…

Publishing Content – 7th step in marketing

By: Julie Goode We are determined to help you hit your marketing goals and will be focusing on a different phase of marketing each month this year. This blog post summarizes this month’s tips and…

Preparing Content : 6th Step of Marketing

By: Julie Goode We are halfway through the year, which means we are halfway through the steps into developing a marketing campaign! In case you’ve missed it, throughout 2023 we are dedicating each month to…

The Fifth Step in Your Marketing Campaign: Discussing Collaborations

By: Julie Goode Collaborating with other businesses is a great marketing strategy as it allows you and another brand to expand your brand’s audience. In our opinion, this is a very important step in your…

Marketing Drafting: The Fourth Step In Marketing

By: Julie Goode You’ve brainstormed, performed market research, and developed a budget … now what comes next? The next and fourth step is to start drafting your marketing campaign. It is important to plan everything…

Marketing Budget: The 3rd Step of Marketing

By: Julie Goode We’ve shared the first two steps of marketing: brainstorming and ideation, and marketing research, and NOW we will be going over creating your marketing budget! Without proper marketing, potential customers may not…

The 2nd Step in Marketing: Marketing Research

By: Julie Goode Now that you’ve completed the first step in your marketing plan (ideation and brainstorming), it’s time to focus on marketing research. Lucky for you, this blog post will summarize the steps and…

The First Step of Marketing: Ideation and Brainstorming

By: Julie Goode We are determined to help you hit your marketing goals and will be focusing on a different phase of marketing each month this year. This blog post summarizes this month’s tips and…

Marketing Tips To Prepare You For 2023

By: Julie Goode 2022 is basically over – Woohoo, you made it! This means it’s time to prepare for the new year. You may not know where to start in preparing for the new year,…

7 Marketing Strategies to Leave in 2022

By: Julie Goode 2023 will be here before you know it, so we’re here to give you 7 social media marketing strategies to leave in 2022. Too many hashtags, overly branded content, engagement bait –…

How To Localize Your Business

By: Julie Goode Localizing your business is an important strategy that should be implemented because it allows you to tailor your company to match your community. In our blog today we will be providing tips…

Social Media Marketing Do’s and Don’ts

By: Julie Goode Working in the business industry can be stressful and cause you to forget to implement vital social media marketing tactics. Keep reading along for tips on what we believe you should and…

The Art of Storytelling Through Social Media

By: Julie Goode Storytelling has a crucial role in marketing your business. It allows you to connect with your audience while also ascertaining your brand’s sole purpose. Keep reading for some guidance on how you…

Marketing Secrets That You Are Going To Want To Know

Psst, wanna learn some marketing secrets for your business? Continue reading! Here are 7 tips we suggest when promoting your business:   1. Add your events and posts on your Google Business page. It will…

Marketing Ideas for 4Q

By. Julie Goode The fourth quarter of the year can be the busiest period for business owners. Nevertheless, it is the best time to utilize marketing as the holidays and the end of the year…

Ask Anything August

It’s that time of year again, when we answer all of those specific questions for different type of businesses! Keep reading to learn more about concepts to adapt to your businesses social media. Photography StudiosDo…

Insights

By: Julie Goode A lot has changed in the world of insights since last year. We want to bring everyone up to speed and share some of the new features, things that have changed, and…

5 Tips For Prepping Holiday Marketing

By: Julie Goode It may seem too soon to start thinking about the holiday season.  We are here to tell you- you should be planning now! Here are 5 tips on what you should be…

Facebook and Instagram Changes

By Jasmine Pierce This year, we have seen the many changes among the various platforms including Facebook and Instagram! Throughout this blog, we are going to breakdown each change and misconception to decrease the confusion….

Simplifying Your Marketing

By: Jasmine Pierce Have you ever found yourself overcomplicating your marketing strategy? Don’t make marketing your business harder than it needs to be.Keep reading this blog to learn tips and tricks to make your life…

Summer Marketing

By Julie Goode Summer has arrived… which means beach, BBQs, and summer marketing! Summer is the best time to stay on top of your marketing since school is out and there is more engagement on…

Working With Us

Whether you’re interested in hiring Germono Advertising Company to manage your marketing or you just want an inside look at how our agency operates, listen up! We wanted to devote some time to sharing what…

Spring Cleaning

By Justice Abbott It’s about that time… spring has sprung, giving you the perfect opportunity to do some much-needed spring cleaning for your marketing! We recommend “cleaning” your social media accounts to make sure you’re…

“What Do I Post Today?”

By Justice Abbott Creating content can start to feel repetitive or you may simply feel out of ideas. This is normal, it happens to all of us. We’re answering the common question, “what do I…

Everything You Need To Know About Calls to Action

By Justice Abbott Calls to action (CTA) are an important tool to implement in your marketing plan because they make it clear to potential customers which actions to take next in supporting your business. We’re…

Explaining Hashtags

By Justice Abbott Hashtags… what are they? What do they mean? How do we use them? We see them everyone but ever wondered if you’re actually using them correctly? We’re here to help! What are hashtags?…

Valentine’s Day Marketing

By Justice Abbott It’s that time of year… love is in the air and it should be in your marketing plan too! As a business owner, it’s a good idea to keep up with holidays…

Marketing “How-To’s”

By Justice Abbott The year 2021 was a big year for social media, full of changes and updates. It’s natural for us to go down a social media rabbit hole stray from the fundamentals of…

Contesting and Promotions

By Justice Abbott Hello and welcome to our first blog for 2022! We want to kick things off the right way. We’re here to explain the ins and outs of incorporating contests and promotions into…

What’s Trending in Social Media?

By Justice Abbott As the year comes to an end, it’s a good time to recognize that 2021 has been a big year for change in social media land. It can be really difficult to…

Ways To Increase Engagement

By Justice Abbott We know you spend so much time trying to create the best content for your followers, but are they actually engaging with your posts? If you’re struggling with these numbers, here are some tips…

Marketing Myths, Debunked

In the world of marketing, there are so many tips and tricks out there that can seem appealing and convincing for you to try. But, it’s important to be able to identify a marketing assumption…

Marketing Tools

By Justice Abbott Looking for ways to simplify your marketing process? Look no further! To do any job well, you need the right tools – especially in marketing. If you’ve been struggling with planning, organizing,…

Marketing with Video

By Justice Abbott According to Social Media Today, 93% of businesses gain new customers as a direct result of posting branded video content to social media platforms. With numbers like that, it’s important for business…

Mistakes To Avoid When Marketing

By Justice Abbott Have you ever added something to your marketing plan, and then thought… “well, that didn’t work”. We certainly have! There are tons of avoidable marketing mistakes to ensure the success of your…

How to Determine Successful Marketing

By Justice Abbott As marketers, we’re always updating and perfecting our campaigns. But, the big question is… what does a successful marketing campaign look like? If you’ve recently completed a campaign and it didn’t go…

Marketing Terminology

By Justice Abbott If you’ve ever felt stumped on the difference between likes and followers or wondered what reach and impressions tell you about your content, we’re here to put all the pieces together for…

How To Plan Your Holiday Marketing

By Justice Abbott As summer comes to an end, the holiday season is quickly approaching us! For retailers, the holiday season beings next month, so it’s definitely time for you to start planning your holiday…

What to do Before Hiring an Agency

By Justice Abbott, Marketing Intern Attention business owners! Are you swamped with managing your business and not able to find the time or energy to adequately market your product/services? If you answered yes to that…

Other Ways to Advertise Your Business

By Justice Abbott, Marketing Intern Of course, we love our social media marketing, but there are still other ways to advertise your business! What a shocker, right? We’re going to walk you through some fun,…

Facebook tips for your business

By Justice Abbott, Marketing Intern Facebook is one of the “O.G.” social media platforms that continues to update and remain relevant for individuals and businesses everywhere. As a business owner, there are very easy things…

Why We Review Top Posts

By Bobbie Anne Williams, Marketing Assistant Looking back at your top posts isn’t just for nostalgia, it helps you understand what type of content your audience likes to engage with the most and how each…

Social Media Refresher

By Bobbie Anne Williams, Marketing Assistant Social media is in a constant state of change. Technology is always updating, new features are arriving, and trends are moving faster than ever. It can be hard to…

What’s Trending For Spring 2021

By Bobbie Anne Williams, Marketing Assistant Spring is around the corner, which means it’s time to plan your content strategy for the next quarter. Here are a few trends to look out for during spring…

Back To The Basics

By Bobbie Anne Williams, Marketing Assistant It’s easy to get caught up in trying to create something new for your followers to engage with, but don’t forget the basics. Whether you’re new to creating social…

14 Social Media Features We Love

By Bobbie Anne Williams, Marketing Assistant In honor of the month of love, we wanted to highlight 14  social media features we LOVE and hope you will too after you check them out. 1.  Native…

One Month Social Media Push

By Bobbie Anne Williams, Marketing Assistant 2020 taught us how significant social media can be for your business, but there are 365 days in a year… how can someone possibly know what to post every…

My story: Germono Advertising Company

By Lindsey Germono, President It’s been a bit since I’ve written a blog post all by myself from start to finish. I’ve always liked to write, even started my undergrad with an interest in English…

5 Local Marketing Tips For The Holidays

By Bobbie Anne Williams, Marketing Assistant If you’re reading this the week that it’s published, then you know the busiest shopping week of the year is upon us! Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday…

6 Copywriting Tips For Social Media

By Bobbie Anne Williams, Marketing Assistant Are you ready to grab your audience and increase your engagement on social media with your post descriptions? In this blog, I have 6 tips that will help! 1….

6 Marketing Terms You Need To Know About

By Bobbie Anne Williams, Marketing Assistant When we are asked questions about marketing, we turn those questions into social media content. Marketing industry terms are a subject we get asked about very frequently. If you…

3 Holiday Marketing Tips For Small Businesses

By Bobbie Anne Williams, Marketing Assistant This year, small business owners and sales teams are shifting their focus to better accommodate online shopping.  As more people spend their time online, it would be beneficial to…

3 Holiday Marketing Tips for 2020

By Bobbie Anne Williams, Marketing Assistant Want to be prepared for a major online shopping holiday season? Then you will want to be familiar with the 3 topics I’m going to talk about below.  Focusing…

3 Twitter Features You Need To Know About

By Bobbie Anne Williams, Marketing Assistant Many users dislike or will avoid a platform that they don’t understand. I’m here to help you understand Twitter a little better and introduce you to 3 features you…

Beginners Guide To Instagram Business Accounts

By Bobbie Anne W, Marketing Assistant For many products and services, Instagram is the perfect place to market your business. People come to Instagram to be inspired and discover things they care about, and that…

How To Plan Your Marketing

By Bobbie Anne Williams, Marketing Assistant Local business owners wear many hats, and often times one of them is marketing. If you are handling your own marketing for your business, then I’m here to share…

3 Ways To Make Social Media Marketing Easier

By Bobbie Anne Williams, Marketing Assistant I know that social media marketing can feel intimidating, that’s why I’m here to help. I’m going to give you 3 ways to make social media marketing easier for…

Honoring Sacrifices, Not Sales

by Molly Vivian, Marketing Intern Managing your social media content to reflect the occasion is always an exercise in sensitivity as it relates to a social climate. Our current climate is very somber as personal…

5 Tips For Working From Home Pt 2

By Molly Vivian, Marketing Intern The Germono Ninjas have always done the bulk of our work remotely. We are gratefully given the freedom to best sort out our own work practices and I wanted to…

How To Help Your Team Work Remotely

by Molly Vivian, Marketing Intern I have never worked in an office that didn’t have someone who wore too much perfume/cologne, talked too loud on the phone, or occasionally heated something questionable up in the…

3 Beginner Tips For Video Conferencing

by Molly Vivian, Marketing Intern The ongoing COVID-19 outbreak has modified nearly every aspect of life, including changes for small business owners to work and manage your team remotely. In a series of blogs, we’re…

5 Tips For Working From Home

By Bobbie Anne W, Marketing Assistant Many business owners and employees around the world are transitioning to remote work for the first time. As a Germono ninja, I thrive working from home, but working remotely…

Let’s Be Real…

By Cali Pinkstaff It’s 2020 where endless filters, ring lights, and staged photos are the norm. Unfortunately because of this, authenticity often gets pushed to the side for individual’s vanity metrics – aka ‘likes’. I…

Show Us Your Team Love

By Molly Vivian, Social Media Intern Let’s face it, we fell in love with social media platforms to connect with the people we know and then to be entertained and informed. It is a highly…

Get Organized With Us

By Molly Vivian, Social Media Intern My third day at my new job I showed up for a meeting 24 hours and 15 minutes early. I stood on a cold empty street before a dark…

Our Favorite Apps of 2020

By Cali Pinkstaff, Agency Manager   Using apps can bring your social media marketing to life…for little to no cost! Whether it be a creative tool app or an organizational app like a calendar, the…

Social Media Content For 2020

By Bobbie Anne Williams, Marketing Assistant Welcome to 2020! New year, new decade, new content. By mid-January, you should have the previous year’s content reviewed. Once you know what your audience likes to interact with…

New Year, New Marketing Strategy

By Agency Manager, Cali Pinkstaff   GOOD-BYE 2019, HELLO 2020. Did you review your 2019 analytics across your feeds? Yes? Good. No? We’ll wait… NOW! Let’s get to work. Here are 3 things to get…

How To Determine Your Target Buyer

By BobbieAnne Williams, Marketing Assistant As business owners and services providers, we want EVERYONE to see what we have to offer right? Yes, but not everyone is going to be your ideal customer. When creating…

3 Reasons To Experiment With Your Marketing

By Bobbie Anne Williams, Marketing Assistant It’s human nature to stick to what you know. It’s comfortable, safe, and easy. Unfortunately in marketing, that can really put a damper on your marketing results.  As we…

Why Its Okay To Repurpose Content

By Agency Manager, Cali Pinkstaff Next time you’re having a social media writers block, remember this blog post! We create content daily for ourselves and our clients – and trust us – its a lot…

Stick To Branding

By Bobbie Anne W, Marketing Assistant The branding you create for your business is a direct reflection of the personality and expectation you want to resonate with the world. It’s what customers associate every aspect…

Why You Should Promote Local

By BobbieAnne W, Marketing Assistant For the first time, Hampton Roads proclaims a Buy Local Month for the region! Buy Local Month is a campaign to raise awareness of the importance of supporting local businesses…

Why Its Important To Encourage Feedback

By Cali Pinkstaff, Agency Manager Encouraging feedback can seem intimidating at first to business professionals. Unless Simon Cowell is the one judging you…there is nothing to worry about! Here are three reasons you should encourage…

13 Marketing Monsters

By Bobbie Anne Williams, Marketing Assistant For the month of October we fought to help you conquer your fears of the top 13 Marketing Monsters that business owners, like you, face everyday. Here is the…

How To Stay Trending

By Bobbie Anne Williams, Marketing Assistant The what challenge? What’s that meme about? #trendofthemoment If you spend any time on social media then you know trends change too quickly to keep up with them all!…

Talk About It

By Agency Manager, Cali Pinkstaff We know we the majority of what we talk about is social media and social media presence. In a digital world, human interaction is (sadly) becoming a thing of the…

2020 Vision

By Bobbie Anne Williams, Marketing Assistant Welcome to 4th quarter of 2019! In the world of marketing, that means we’re already living in 2020. Let’s talk about how to get your marketing kick started for…

Host An Event

By Agency Manager, Cali Pinkstaff It’s always a great idea to spice things up and attend networking events & workshops. How about hosting your own event? Think of the business and awareness to your brand…

How To Be Omnipresent

By Bobbie Anne Williams, Marketing Assistant “I don’t have time to be on every platform every day”. We hear this all the time. Here’s a secret, neither do we! It all comes down to proper…

Facebook Groups

By Agency Manager, Cali Pinkstaff If you own a television or a mobile device, chances are you’ve seen the video ad for Facebook Groups. If you haven’t, click here. Groups are Facebook’s way of creating…

Our Favorite Apps

By the whole Germono team! Yep, there’s an app for that! This week the Germono team is coming together to give you the inside scoop on our favorite apps to use for content creation. Bobbie…

Discover: Nextdoor

By Cali Pinkstaff, Agency Manager *Knock, knock.* Hello, this your local advertising agency manager and I’m here to tell you all about Nextdoor! What is it? Nextdoor is a social media networking platform founded in…

The Social Media Sweet Spot

By BobbieAnne Williams, Marketing Assistant Social media is in a constant state of change. This can make marketing your business exhausting at times while trying to keep up. Let’s be honest, we’re all just out…

Working Ahead: Why It Matters

By Cali Pinkstaff, Agency Manager If you follow our feeds on a regular basis, you may have noticed by now that we like to put an emphasis on planning. Planning ahead is what we specialize…

Back To School Marketing Tips

By Bobbie Anne Williams , Marketing Assistant Back to school season is the cultural start to a new year! Time to *PIVOT* (in my best Ross Geller voice). It’s the point in the year when…

Use Facebook Marketplace To Market Your Business

By Cali Pinkstaff, Agency Manager No you didn’t read the blog title wrong. As of late 2017, Facebook started allowing businesses to market themselves in the Marketplace section! Just as they have improved the “community”…

How To Market With A Personal Touch

By Lindsey Germono Everything you do in your marketing should have your voice and personal touch.  People make connections online more than ever these days, so it’s important to craft your messaging to how you…

Ways To Hightlight Your Team

By Lindsey Germono and Bobbie Anne Williams “Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.” – Michael Jordan Bobbie Anne: Is it satisfying to step back to look at and highlight the success of…

Quiet The Noise & Run Your Business Like A Pro!

Are you a do-it-all type of person? Are fellow colleagues and friends constantly commenting on the workload you take on? If you’re starting to feel overwhelmed, this blog post is for you. First things first…I…

Don’t Do Business Alone: Cross Promote!

By Cali Pinkstaff, Agency Manager Cross promoting is a useful tool when it comes to social media marketing. It will allow you to team up with other businesses and communities to expand your reach and…

2 Reasons To Start A Podcast Now

By Bobbie Anne Williams, Marketing Assistant What’s a podcast? To sum it up, it’s a piece of digital audio that’s consumed by streaming or digital download. They’re the modern day radio and they are at…

Tricks to Keep Track of Analytics

By Agency Manager, Cali Pinkstaff When is the last time you took a peek at your analytics? Has it slipped your mind? No worries…start NOW! Keeping tabs on your data is a social media marketing…

Email Newsletters: Are They Right For Your Business?

By Agency Manager, Cali Pinkstaff As a marketing agency, we’re always trying to figure out the best marketing approach for our clients. From choosing which social media platforms will benefit them most, to which print…

3 Tips For Posting During Holidays

By Bobbie Anne Williams, Marketing Assistant Whether it’s a brief summer holiday weekend or an extended winter holiday season, holidays function a little differently in the lives of both customers and businesses. Here are a…

Why Authenticity is Key

By Agency Manager, Cali Pinkstaff   If you hadn’t figured out already, social media is one of the most organic ways to advertise your business. With that being said, a word that goes hand in…

Top 4 Reasons to Create a LinkedIn Profile

By Anna McGrath, Marketing Intern LinkedIn is a unique website and form of social media for anyone in the professional atmosphere. It gives users a chance to connect with professionals in their field and network…

Why You Need To Be Using Stories

By Bobbie Anne Williams, Marketing Assistant The Story feature has made a massive jump in popularity this year! Since arriving on the scene on Snapchat back in 2013, the feature now stretches to other platforms…

It’s All About Branding Yourself

By Cali Pinkstaff, Agency Manager   Brand yourself before you wreck yourself! You hear the word so often, but what does it mean to have a brand or be branded? Before thinking about venturing out…

5 Reasons to Attend a Workshop

By Anna McGrath, Marketing Intern Attending workshops are a fun and different way to gain knowledge on a variety of topics. Attending workshops also introduces many new ideas that may have not been on your…

6 Engaging Videos You Should Try

By Bobbie Anne Williams, Marketing Assistant Static images can get stale for your followers. Engaging videos are a great way to break up your feeds, boost visibility, and change it up with your community! Here…

How We Organize Our Social Feeds

By Cali Pinkstaff, Agency Manager Did you know that here at Germono we average handling anywhere from 16 to 20 account feeds at a time?? With that being said we KNOW you have what it…

Instagram Business Profile Features

By Bobbie Anne Williams, Marketing Assistant Are you using Instagram for your business? Then you should definitely make the switch to an Instagram Business Profile. A Business Profile opens up features to you that can’t…

Tips to Maximize Your Events

Does your business have an event coming up? Maybe you’ve had one in the past. Either way, listen up. Which marketing techniques have you tried using to promote the event? Did you spend beacoup $$…

What is a Facebook Watch Party?

Social media is constantly evolving. Along with trying to keep up with all the new features, you must decide which ones are a good fit for your business.  However, I have to say, Facebook Watch…

Your Target Audience

This week we’ve been talking about “target audience”. What does that mean? Target audience: Particular group of people, identified as the intended recipient of an advertisement or message.   When marketing your business, you always want…

How To Use Facebook Group Units

By Bobbie Anne Williams, Marketing Intern What is a Social Learning Unit? A Facebook group Unit is found in a social learning group on Facebook. These groups have all the features of a normal group,…

Show Some “Behind the Scenes” Action

By Agency Manager, Cali Pinkstaff Are you a Nosey-Nelly? Don’t worry, it’s not a bad trait to have! Believe it or not, we are all curious creatures by nature. Want to know how I know?…

Social Media Polls

By Anna McGrath, Marketing Intern Using polls on social media platforms is a really great way to engage with followers and also a great way to see what your followers enjoy and prefer more of….

Why It’s Important to Utilize Location Features

Location settings. The two most feared words by today’s society. Kidding…kind of. But in all seriousness, did you know that there is a great benefit to your business when you turn on and tag your…

Host A Creative Session

By Bobbie Anne Williams, Marketing Intern We’re still at the beginning of first quarter, which is the perfect time to plan out your marketing goals for the new year. Now that you’ve had time to…

3 Social Media Marketing Habits To Pick Up in 2019

Happy New Year from the Ninja and Germono Advertising Company! Its the 3rd of January – Have you decided on your New Year’s resolutions yet? You probably have a couple personal ones floating around, but…

What You Need To Know About IGTV

Recently while I was on Instagram, I noticed the little TV button at the top right corner of the app. Like this: When I clicked on it, I was overwhelmed with videos playing. I wasn’t…

How To Set Up Instagram’s Close Friends List

By Morgan Volta, Marketing Coach Have you heard of the “Close Friends” stories feature on Instagram? Think of it as a segmented list option that makes it easy to share select content with a specific…

2 Reasons Your Business Should Use Social Media

By Bobbie Anne Williams Are you new to the realm of social media? Does it all seem a bit overwhelming? Good news, it doesn’t have to be! Let’s talk about a couple of  ways social…

Social Media Content Ideas for Thanksgiving

We are just one week away from being able to wear our stretchy pants and engorge ourselves to our hearts content with turkey and all the fixings. Besides thinking about what you’re going to eat…have…

Jump Into Video Marketing

By Marketing Coach, Morgan Volta As a Marketing Coach it’s my job to stay up to date with trends and new developments with social media. But it’s always going to be a learning process because…

3 Twitter Features You May Not Know About

By Anna McGrath, Marketing Intern Twitter is a fast paced app that has many different aspects to it. You can search different topics using hashtags or by searching a keyword, mention other users in tweets,…

3 Reasons You Should Give a Hoot about Hootsuite

What is Hootsuite? Hootsuite is a platform used for social media. Now a decade old,  it was created by Ryan Holmes in 2008. The system’s user interface takes the form of a dashboard. This dashboard…

What’s an Instagram Story?

By Anna McGrath, Marketing Intern Instagram Stories are a feature that allows users to post something short term for their followers to see. They populate at the top of your feed when you login, where…

How to Verify Your Facebook Page

Have you ever noticed that some Facebook pages have a blue or grey check mark on their profile? This little check mark, which Facebook refers to as a badge, means that Facebook has “verified” the…

Tips for Military Influencer Conference Newbies

I recently attended the Military Influencer Conference in Orlando, FL. It was my first time going to this event, and I wasn’t sure what to expect. Of course, I was incredibly excited to meet my…

How to Create a BuzzFeed Quiz

By Germono Advertising Company Marketing Assistant Super Ninja Have you recently taken a BuzzFeed quiz? Chances are you have taken a test to find out what type of dog you would be if you were…

How to Boost Engagement With Your Followers

By Morgan Volta, Marketing Coach How many ‘retweets’ has your Tweet received? Did anyone comment on the photo you posted on Facebook? Social media is a great tool for your business, but why is it…

Why Creating Engaging Videos is Important for your Business

By Germono Advertising Company Marketing Assistant Super Ninja You pull up your phone, head to Facebook or Instagram and within a few seconds of scrolling, you’re sucked into a video of someone preparing a delicious…

3 Ways to Spice Up Your LinkedIn Profile

By Morgan Volta, Marketing Coach Jumping into the networking realm can be daunting! Have you ever stumbled over your words trying to break the ice between you and another professional? LinkedIn is a useful tool…

How to Upload Instagram Highlight Tabs…Like a Ninja

Have you ever wondered how businesses and Instagram influencers create those fancy highlight tabs for their story archives on their profile? Well you’re in luck because it’s actually a lot easier to do than you…

Why are Social Media Reports Important?

You just gave a post a “thumbs up” and left a comment on Facebook and suddenly you start to receive a ton of notifications from other users on the same post with different reactions and…

3 Things to Expect at a Lattes & Laptops Workshop

You run your own business. You are the boss. Whether you have employees, or ride solo, you wear many hats. You want to market your company but where do you start? How do you possibly…

So, what is a hashtag and how do I use it?

By Jennifer Garrott, Marketing Coach While on conference call today, I was prompted to “enter my access code followed by the pound, or hash, symbol.” This was the first time when out of the social…

What Your Company Needs to Know About Hiring Military Spouses

By Lindsey Germono This Military Spouse Appreciation Day, I thought I’d provide some thoughts as an employer of military spouses.  Over the past four years, I have had the honor and privilege of employing military…

How to Write Engaging Instagram and Facebook Captions

We have all been there. You are attending an event or you have some great photos stored on your phone and you open up Instagram or Facebook only to feel a brick wall hit when…

5 Tips for Television Advertising in Norfolk, VA

By Lindsey Germono, President Television is not dead.  You can still advertise on television and yes, it works! The landscape of television advertising has changed; therefore, it is important to have a strong relationship with…

What is a Bookend?

Lindsey gives a quick explanation on what a television commercial bookend is.  Don’t forget that we offer traditional media buying and would love to work with you!  Email us at info@germono.com to learn more about…

Simple SEO Tips For Your Blog Posts

You don’t have to be an expert in SEO (search engine optimization) to help increase the chances of your blog being served via Google searches. While these tips won’t be enough to catapult you to…

How to Review your 2017 Website Analytics: The Basics

We are almost to the end of January and 2018 marketing plans should be ready. But, did you include or take into consideration your website analytics data from 2017? If not, you are missing out…

Five Apps I Love (And that make my life easier)

With clients in several states and an on-the-go lifestyle, my phone has become my main tool for getting work done while also having a little fun. Without access to all of my marketing tools via…

Targeting Previous Customers

It is common when thinking about your advertising strategy to focus on how to grow your client base. How do you increase your market presence? How do you turn a few new heads to capture…

So…Why Do I Need a Marketing Plan?

Last month we discussed several ways to create marketing plans and we wanted to take a few minutes to explain why. Since we want you to truly understand their importance, today the team discusses the…

How to Create Social Media Planning Templates

I love The Home Edit, a Nashville, Tennessee-based organization company that works miracles on the messiest of rooms. While I certainly don’t have their skills when it comes to a clean closet, I like to think I…

The Importance of Diversity in Your Content

Stock images.  We use them.  You should consider using them too.  They help because you can mix them into your social media and/or website content.  We have just a few seconds to form opinions and…

How to Incorporate Events into Your Marketing Plan

By Lindsey Germono, President I know, I know…if you follow our blogs and social media posts, you’re seeing a ton of focus on marketing plans.  These plans are important and will set the entire tone…

9 Elements To Include In Your 2018 Marketing Plan

With the year nearing close, many of you probably have Marketing Plan 2018 on your to-do list. If you are struggling to sit down and work on your 2018 marketing plan, the first thing I…

Lattes and Laptops Workshop Recap

As a supplement to our marketing coaching sessions, we offer a workshop series called Lattes and Laptops.  Recent workshop topics include “Camera Ready” and “Facebook Advertising.”  These in-depth, highly informative workshops are a crash course…

The Importance of Knowing Your Audience

A few weeks ago, I attended a networking event to assist aspiring entrepreneurs, giving them career advice and providing them with the opportunity to practice their pitch. An attendee of the event (who was delightful)…

Why Hire an Ad Agency? (Repost)

We decided to reach deep into our vault and re-share a previous post to answer a simple question: Why hire an ad agency to manage your advertising? Sometimes, when we’re on the fence as to…

Putting Your Best Face Forward: Basic Grooming for Professionals

A few members of Germono Advertising Company recently descended upon the wonderful Virginia Beach establishment, Pelon’s Baja Grill, for a meeting, lunch, and some new headshots and group photos. Planned photos terrify me, and I …

When Crisis Hits: Three Ways to Take Action

This has been a heavy week with the 16th anniversary of 9/11, as well as the news of all the devastation left in the wake of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. These are real crises. In…

Are You Giving Your Clients the Content They Crave?

By Jennifer Garrott, Marketing Coach How many times in the last year have you made a purchase without doing a little online research first? Need to do a repair around your home? Where do you…

Our Favorite Podcasts

Podcasts are the new blog and everyone is jumping on board. For free, you can listen to a story, learn how to run your business, or try to solve a mystery. The key word in…

Is Social Media Toxic?

By Lindsey Germono When did social media get such a bad reputation? Last month I attended a meeting and the topic of social media came up and the word toxic was used.  That startled me. …

Three Must-Know Tips for Hashtags

The song, “2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted” was released in May of 1996 by Daz Dillinger, Snoop Dogg and Tupac. “Gangsta Party” is the alternative name of the song – and, if you type it…

Three Tips for Facebook Live

While sunning ourselves at the beach one morning, our lazy lull was disturbed by someone walking around and speaking a little too loudly. Turns out, she was conducting a Facebook Live so her friends could…

3 Reasons Why You Should Join a Professional Organization

By Jennifer Garrott, Marketing Coach Life is busy, y’all. We work, we have families, we volunteer, we like to have fun and there are just not enough hours in the day. So, here I am…

Tips for Increasing Organic Facebook Reach

The Facebook algorithm. Just saying those three words gives me (and so many other business owners I assist) the heebies! Here’s the skinny: Facebook wants to show the most impactful information to people at the…

The Power of Emotional Messaging

By Lindsey Germono, Germono Advertising Company President Today’s business owners have a tough time when it comes to marketing and advertising, especially those businesses with limited advertising budgets. We work with a lot of businesses…

Do You Pin?

Do You Pin? The one social media outlet that tends to get overlooked by a majority of businesses is Pinterest. However, if used correctly it can help boost traffic to your website, blog or Instagram…

Is Your Company Prepared for a Crisis? Five Tips For Creating a Crisis Communication Plan

When a crisis occurs, it can be hard to see through the chaos. Planning is key to effectively communicating during a crisis. Using the trusty who, what, when, where, why, you can set yourself up…

Summer Reading List: 10 Must Read Books for Today’s Business Person

Do you remember when you were a kid in school, and they’d hand you a list of books you should read over the summer? I know a good percentage of you threw that list in…

3 Tricks For Your Instagram Account

Below are 3 quick and easy tricks to use on your Instagram page.   From novice to advanced, the following tips add more creativity, solutions and visibility to your Instagram page.  I just learned about one…

Maximize Your Time by Using an Editorial Calendar

We work with business owners that span a variety of industries. Throughout my conversations, one marketing obstacle has remains consistent, time. One of the keys to becoming a marketing ninja is planning ahead. Using an…

6 Ways To Leverage Your Network

This week, I had the pleasure and honor of speaking in front of a group of women about networking for The Milspo Project’s “Milspo Project Live!” workshop. Such an amazing group of intelligent, beautiful women…

10 Blog Post Ideas for Any Business

Trying to figure out what blog topic to discuss this week? New to blogging for your business and don’t have a clue what to talk about? I too find myself in this same predicament when…

Five Steps to Turn Employees into Brand Ambassadors

Brand ambassadors and brand advocates can play a key role in your organization’s marketing strategy. Where do you find these folks to embody your brand and shout its greatness from the rooftops? Look no further…

4 Video Categories To Boost Your Social Game

Video increases conversion and engagement rates more than any other content – so why aren’t you doing more of it? Here’s the skinny on video: Videos can be pre-recorded, live, or slide-show/movie style. No fancy…

How To Preschedule Facebook Videos

Okay friends.  You’ve seen a video on Facebook that you want to share as your page.  That’s easy, you just hit share -> share as -> then select your page from your drop down and…

Breaking Down the Spin: What PR Really Means

By Jennifer Garrott, Marketing Coach Spin is a dirty word in the public relations world. Unfortunately, it is the term most used to describe the work of PR practitioners. The countless hours of behind the…

When Commercials Miss The Mark

You may have heard about the recent backlash of the Pepsi commercial starring Kendall Jenner. Here at Germono Advertising Company, it is against our company policy to publicly position ourselves on one side of the…

3 Posts To Boost Your Facebook & Instagram Engagement

Due to the frequency of changes in social media, creating a post that results in high reach and engagement can be challenging.  Here are 3 ideas to include in your social media plan based on…

Don’t Rely on Luck to Get Your Story Published

If you’re not a trained public relations professional, the idea of pitching a story or product to a media entity can be pretty scary. Let’s be fair, sometimes it can be scary for us pros…

7 Reasons Your Business Should Have a Blog

As our world continues to evolve and technology surges to the forefront, don’t let your marketing fall behind. One easy way to keep up with the changing times is to create a blog. If you…

My Journey from Non-Prospect to Paid Client in One Week

Have you ever paid attention to even the simplest of “customer journeys” you personally make? One of my customer journeys started in early February, when my husband alerted me he would be allowed to take…

Meet Jenn Garrott

Hi friends! I’ve been an undercover ninja with Germono Advertising Company for quite some time now, but today I’m officially making my mark on the Germono blog!  I began my journey into adulthood with a…

Social Media & Networking

By Lindsey Germono, Boss Ninja It is surprising to me how little we talk about the strategy behind networking on social media sites as business owners.  In fact, I’m always a little thrown back when…

3 Tips If You Are New To Working From Home

This is the first time in my career that I am working completely from home without having to go into an office each day.  I was ecstatic about the opportunity and the flexibility I was…

What’s Playing In Our Headphones?

So, this week we thought it would be fun for you to get to know us a bit better! Sometimes, when we’re working, we like to listen to music to really get in the zone!…

Our Top 7 Social Media Pet Peeves

When you work in advertising and marketing, you end up spending quite a lot of time on social media. Over the years, our team has developed a few pet peeves when it comes to social…

Our Favorite Mobile Editing Apps

There are some people who are fantastic photographers and photo editors. I am not one of those people. Personally, I find that computer photo editing programs can sometimes be extremely overwhelming for people who do…

The Beginners Guide to Affiliate Programs

When I first started my blog one of the initial challenges was figuring out how I could incorporate affiliate links to my social accounts.  I did a lot of research and found a few sites…

Water Cooler Talk…The One About Us

The team was having one of our water cooler chats and among the topics we discussed, the one of advertising and marketing came up. What led us all to this crazy, exciting industry we work…

Sample Social Media Marketing Calendar

Coming up with content for social media can be frustrating, exhausting, and time consuming. Having a social media marketing calendar that you can easily reference when you feel stuck can be really helpful.  There are…

Celebrating the 3 year mark!

A very special thank you to all of our clients and followers as we turn 3!

5 Tips on How to Engage with your Instagram Audience

The Rules of Engagement: 5 Tips on How to Engage with your Audience on Instagram If you are like me, you might have felt the frustrations of wondering why your Instagram feed isn’t growing at…

How to Throw an Office Party with Remote Staff

By Lindsey Germono Here at Germono Advertising Company, we operate as both a remote and brick and mortar business. We are headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia but have staff all across the states. As more businesses…

It’s Not All About the Sale

Written by Lindsey Germono, Germono Advertising Company President and travel junkie In 2011, I went to Tahiti and paid an astronomical amount to hop on the resort’s Wi-Fi to check-in on things back home. Actually,…

Take Your Press Release From Passed-Over to Published!

Let’s be honest here: most standard press releases are never read by the media contact or the prospect you desire to read it. Most releases are submitted on ‘blast’ – distributed in mass form to…

When Partnering Makes Sense

I met a woman at a Pi Beta Phi alumnae social a few years ago. I remember thinking, I haven’t seen her before. So, as someone who loves to talk to strangers,

Politics- How a Political Year Impacts Advertising

This year causes a lot of headaches with advertisers because it is a HUGE year for political. Per our friends at WAVY, an estimated $30 million is projected to be spent in the Norfolk market…

What I Learned From a Military Promotion Ceremony

I was fortunate enough to attend a military promotion ceremony recently. It was so inspiring to hear not only what the person has accomplished, but to witness the reaction among his peers. To me, military…

10 Ways Pi Beta Phi Prepared Me for Entrepreneurship

    Be passionate about your mission and values. Be helpful, patient, and respectful towards those who need guidance. You aren’t going to like everyone, but you have to overcome obstacles and learn to work…

This one’s about fear

This post is a perfect example of having to interrupt your scheduled marketing posts to insert current experiences. January’s theme for me was restructuring and getting the company lined up for HUGE movement. I have…

2 Year Anniversary

Oh I’ve been looking forward to this date- the 2nd anniversary of launching my advertising agency, Germono Advertising Company! I love being a media buyer for businesses in Hampton Roads, VA. I’ve been in sales…

Learning

I’m counting down to the 2 year anniversary of launching Germono Advertising Company and I’m almost there! Today’s post: Learning. You can learn a lot from your customers/clients and they from you. When I first…

The Schedule

I’m counting down to the 2 year anniversary of launching Germono Advertising Company and there’s so much in store for 2016! When I have something exciting to share, it feels like I have a bunch…

Terminating Contracts

I’m coming up on the 2 year mark of what is known as the best idea ever known to mankind, …launching Germono Advertising Company. There have been so many experiences, and one that I discuss…

Handwritten Thank You Notes

Handwritten thank you notes are my jam. Seriously…how many of you in my network have received one of these from me? I love sending snail mail. TIP: Just two to three sentences will do it…

The Art of Storytelling

The art of storytelling…try using it in your creative when you get stumped for ideas. Here’s one from me- a few months ago, one of my sorority sisters suggested I look into a networking group….

Military Entrepreneur

I just love being a part of The Milspo Project. They are a wonderful group of military entrepreneurs and I’m inspired when listening to some of the challenges each member faces. If you are a…

The Important People

As a close friend of mine pointed out- I have been so busy promoting my clients that my own promotion has fallen short. This was a huge sign to me, because I have a friend…

Introduce Yourself, Hampton Roads

I speak at a handful of events on various topics related to advertising and marketing. I handed these out as bookmarks at one of them and received great feedback (see below image)! What you’ll see…

How to Add Social Media Icons in your Email Signature

If you are reading this, chances are you have some a social media page. Did you know that each entity has strict guidelines when you use their logos? To make your life easier, I’m including…

Client Involvement

As President of Germono Advertising Company, I involve my clients every step of the way when it comes to their marketing and advertising. I always include them in the decision-making process and help guide them…

Sweeps

You may or may not have noticed an increase in give-a-ways, media blitzes, news coverages and other hype from your television (and social media feeds). Well folks, we are in “sweeps” which is an industry…

Why Hire An Ad Agency?

Why hire an ad agency to manage your advertising? Here are 4 reasons: 1) lessens your headaches (the most important, if you ask me). 2) your media buyer will have market knowledge and the ability…