• The County of Otsego IDA’s new leadership team needed help standing out in the market and positioning themselves as a more progressive economic development engine.

• The leadership felt that the firm’s name, The County of Otsego IDA, wasn’t memorable, modern or in alignment with its goals.

Collaboration: Paperkite held a kick-off meeting with the committee to gather information and inspiration for the project. Then, Paperkite and the committee participated in a Brand Alignment Session, which allowed for discussion about The County of Otsego IDA’s brand platform and messaging.

Production: Based on the Brand Alignment Session, kick-off meeting and additional research, Paperkite and the committee agreed on a new name for the firm: Otsego Now, Hub for Economic Progress. Paperkite created a number of logo options, color palettes, type styles and design elements to present to the committee. Paperkite and the committee also decided on complementary supporting items, including letterhead, envelopes, business cards and signage. In addition, Paperkite delivered design and display options for the website, including a home page design. All parties worked together to select the design combinations that most accurately captured Otsego Now’s brand.

 This an example of the Brand Style Guide we created for Otsego Now.

Development: To create Otsego Now’s new and modern website, Paperkite first analyzed other websites in related industries. Next, they worked with Otsego Now’s leadership to create a site outline and navigational structure. Then, Paperkite built a test site using the approved design, content and specifications. After a few rounds of revisions and discussions with the committee, the site was approved and launched with an easy-to-navigate design and layout.

Extras: Paperkite completed sub-branding for Otsego Now’s state-of-the-art workforce training center. The training center needed to build awareness and educate the public about the new training initiative in their community. Paperkite created signage and materials that gave the center a polished and professional look in line with Otsego Now’s overall brand.

Support: Paperkite trained Otsego Now’s staff on the new website and provided training videos and documentation. Paperkite also delivered a graphic system guideline and all supporting materials to Otsego Now.

An important part of fulfilling the brand is making sure all sub brands, such as the Workforce Training Center (left) and all materials like the Annual Report (above) are connected to the overarching brand of Otsego Now.

A new easy to use and update website was developed to help the organization communicate its message and offerings. To maximize accessibility, the site was developed with a responsive design to ensure it displayed properly on mobile devices.

• Paperkite delivered a new name—Otsego Now, Hub for Economic Progress—that was more modern, memorable and better incorporated the firm’s goals.
• Otsego Now received a full brand package and all necessary supporting documents to maintain a consistent brand that will create better brand recognition in the community.
• Paperkite created a new website for Otsego Now that is easier to navigate, clear and organized, and encompasses the firm’s goals and objectives.

“Video is such a great medium and can really unlock a door for a client in terms of helping them be relatable and easy to identify. When done right, videos can make a complex message easy to understand.”

“I like that you can color outside of the lines. With video you can communicate nuances of your brand that can be difficult to translate in other mediums like print; it has versatility.”

Start out by setting a weekly budget specifically for promoted posts. Once you know what you have to work with, decide how you want to split up the money. One method for promoting posts is to divide your available budget across all of your posts, to gain greater overall reach for your page. Another method is to pick one post that you think will have the greatest return and promote that post to the largest number of people possible. There is no right or wrong answer! Test both and see which works best for you.

There are different styles of campaigns you can create to achieve your desired result. You can run a short-term campaign, focusing on the post itself and targeting the type of people interested in that specific post. In a short-term campaign, your desired result is to gain Likes, Comments, and Shares on that post. You may gain some Page Likes as well, but engagement with the post is the goal of this campaign.

A long-term campaign is the opposite. In a long-term targeted campaign, you are looking to gain Page Likes from followers who will continue to find your business interesting.

Take, for instance, the image above, of our post about the new IHOP logo. For a short-term campaign, we could target people who “Like” IHOP. They would presumably be interested in a post about the restaurant and engage with a Comment or a Like. However, that person wouldn’t necessarily be interested in what we do.

If we ran a long-term campaign on that same post, we could target people who are interested in “branding” or “logo design.” Those fans may not care about IHOP, but might want to “Like” our page so they can follow along with the design work we do in the future. We could then count on them for future engagements!

Regardless of the kind of campaign you choose to run, remember to continue posting the content that your target markets came to see. If the user doesn’t see more of what they are looking for, they likely won’t stick around for long. But if you give them shareable content, they’ll spread the word to their friends who have similar interests—that’s called viral reach, and that’s ideal.

Finally, as you test promoted posts and analyze your results, continue to refine and expand your targets. Keep track of which groups aren’t engaging and stop targeting them. Use that money to either spend more on the targets that are doing best, or experiment with other target markets.

SocialFresh.com