“In 10 years of Altrincham HQ a business has never paid to feature on our social media channels”
I want you to read that over not 1, not 2, but 3 times
In a world where hyperlocal pages are going down the old newspaper model of build an audience and make local businesses pay we’ve avoided that for 10 years for one simple reason
We can post about your business and give your business one huge boost to 30,000+ followers across social media – but where we truly offer value is our Social Media Training and Social Media Management services where your business gets more exposure, more sales and more growth every single day on your own social media channels
If you want 1 boost rather than 365 boosts a year here is How To Get Featured On Altrincham HQ
1. Build A Relationship
Business = Relationships … end of
If you want to get involved with Altrincham HQ start building a relationship before asking for something
It might be as simple as replying to our posts because we’re going to remember that you were kind enough to take 30 seconds to say something meaningful
It might be that we see you every single month at a networking meeting or you’ve come to our events
Ultimately people support those they Meet Like Know and Trust and online relationships can be extremely powerful if face 2 face isn’t always possible
2. Share A Story – Not An Advert
Altrincham HQ is not a newspaper – we don’t feature adverts, we feature stories
The rule of thumb for whether it’s an advert is if you’d pay the Local Newspaper to be featured, then it’s an advert
If you have a story, then you need to present it to us in a way that’s shareable to our audience
By shareable I mean people have an emotional reaction to your story that makes them laugh, smile, say wow, be inspired rather than scroll on by and say “So what?”
Before sending your story ask whether it passes the “So what?” test
3. Include a hero
Put a person at the heart of your story
A focal point, a hero, someone they can admire, someone they can get behind
People like to hear stories about people behind the business – not logos or brands
So work out what your individual story is and if you’re a bigger business work out what your employees stories are
4. Include a great photo
We’re 100x more likely to share a story if you have a photo to go with it
And by photo we mean a photo – not a poster or a flyer
For most social networks the preferred format is landscape photos rather than portrait (or square for instagram)
Don’t sent us 20 photos – but 2 or 3 options are always nice
5. Ask politely
Hello opens doors
Manners will get you far
Over the past 10 years we’ve had so called community supporters in town troll us and still expect support for their events
Be polite, support others, say please & thank you … and remember we run a business so can’t always publish everything or publish straight away so give us plenty of notice
BONUS TIP
Make the story unique to Altrincham HQ rather than sending to 20 other sources at the same time in a formal press release
We’re more likely to feature unique content rather than “old stories” or stories designed to be copy and pasted by multiple sources
CONTACT US
You now know How To Get Featured On Altrincham HQ
We prefer initially to deal with stories via email or social media rather than phonecalls
If we have any more questions we can call you
Email alex@altrinchamhq.co.uk
Alex McCann is owner of Altrincham HQ – a social media management and training company based in Altrincham, Cheshire that has worked with 100s of local business developing their social media strategy. Alex has 350+ LinkedIn testimonials and is ranked number 1 for Social Media Marketing in the UK via independent customer reviews on Freeindex.
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