Originally published in The Road Ahead Feb-Mar 2022 magazine. Written by Jessica Wilson.
More than 2.8 tonnes of rubbish was collected by “Waste Warriors” in Clontarf (Ningi Ningi Country) as part of a 100-day program to reduce litter in the region. Love our Clontarf 100-Day Litter Campaign founder Les Barkla said the initiative was a community response to a growing problem.
“I have a Facebook community group called Pristine Peninsula and I noticed two of our Waste Warriors, Phil and Sue Johnson, were picking up a horrendous amount of fast-food packaging and other listter within a 2km radius of a fast-food chain,” Mr Barkla said.
“They were filling a 240-litre council rubbish bin a week with mostly takeaway packaging.”
Mr Barkla created the 100-day campaign with the support of Waste Warriors, the community, local, state and federal governments and local businesses.
“The Redcliffe Peninsula is a unique area as we’re 80 percent surrounded by water, so all the litter on streets ends up in Moreton Bay or Hays Inlet, which is a very sensitive ecosystem for turtles and dugongs,” he said.
“We designed the campaign to bring about education, awareness and behavioural change around litter and actually keep it out of our waterways.”
More than 100 volunteers participated in the campaign which focused on litter hotspots including Snook Street, where the fast-food chain is located, and the Clontarf Beach State High School.
“Local businesses sponsored electronic message boards with anti-littering messages. We had quite effective roadside sign vigils and 40 street sponsors cleaning up their local streets,” Mr Barkla said. The result was a 45 percent reduction in rubbish during the 100-day period and more than 15,000 litter items diverted from local waterways.
“On Snook Street alone, we picked up nearly 11,000 pieces of littler over the 12 weeks,” Mr Barkla said.
“The major items we picked up were 4,500 cigarette butts, which is a major issue for roads, followed by fast-food packaging.”
Mr Barkla said people who threw litter from their vehicles rarely saw the impact of their actions.
“They think their one cigarette butt won’t make a difference and don’t understand that it will take five to 10 years to break down,” he said.
“When you equate what we picked up on Snook Street to annual period, it’s about 50,000 pieces in just 1.6km stretch of road.”
Mr Barkla said the fight against litter was ongoing despite the campaign’s success.
The campaign doesn’t end now the 100 days are over and we’re putting pressure on the government to actually make changes,” he said.
“All packaging needs to be 100 percent compostable or it’s not going to get better because a litterer doesn’t care whether an item is made from recycled material, they just throw it out the window anyway.
“We’re just a community of 60,000 people and just a small part of the state, but I’m a strong believer in communities driving change.”
Read the report here.
Join the Pristine Peninsula Facebook Group
Follow the Pristine Peninsula Redcliffe Facebook page
See how Social Ocean supported the Love Our Clontarf Campaign
The Love Our Clontarf 100 Day Litter Campaign, undertaken on the traditional lands of the Ningy Ningy people, was a litter baseline study and litter reduction campaign held across 100 Days at the beginning of 2021.
The campaign focused on a targeted litter hot spot in a 2 kilometre radius of the McDonalds Clontarf, Redcliffe Peninsula.
At the campaign launch in January, acknowledgement of the Ningy Ningy Peoples – the traditional custodians of the land on which we gathered – was made by campaign Founder Les Barkla. Paying respects to our Elders past, present and emerging, Les also stated that this campaign was all about respect for this land and these local waters, as the ancestors cared for them for 20,000 years.
The Redcliffe Peninsula won numerous Tidy Towns Awards in the early 2000s. Today that level of respect has been lost, as has the connection with land and waters. This has been backed by statistics showing 8 billion cigarette butts are littered every year and 8 million litter items are tossed every day in Australia (Keep Australia, 2019).
Providing raw data to show stakeholders that littler is a serious terrestrial and marine environment issue for this littler hot spot and for the Redcliffe Peninsula. Redcliffe is surrounded by 80% waterways with sensitive marine ecosystems and official Marine National Parks.
Litter was reduced by 45% at the Snook Street audit site over the 12 weeks of audits using various litter awareness and education strategies including social media campaigns, digital sign board located at the audit site, campaign signage around the area, local media coverage with sharing of online content by key stakeholders.
If adequate litter enforcement strategies and resources were available, these 10,952 litter items would have potentially brought in $2.8M in fine revenue based on the now current minimum Litter Fine of $275 (risen in price at 1 July 2021).
The Love our Clontarf 100 Day Litter Campaign Final Report (click to download) includes:
Delivery and discussion with Moreton Bay Regional Councillor Karl Winchester (Division 6 Councillor for Clontarf), meeting attended by fellow area Councillor Sandra Ruck,
Delivery and discussion with State Member for Redcliffe, Yvette D’Ath MP,
Delivery and discussion with Federal Member for Petrie, Luke Howarth MP.
Stencilled footpath messaging for concrete walkways around the Redcliffe Peninsula designed and delivered by the Moreton Bay Regional Council Environment Team. Installation commenced December 2021 with further roll out due in the in the first quarter of 2022.
“Community-Driven Campaign Calls for Action on Litter” by by Jessica Wilson – RACQ Road Ahead Magazine, Feb/March Issue 2022
2021 Community Spirit Awards Finalists by ABC Radio Brisbane Community Spirit Awards – 8 November 2021
“Keeping Clontarf clean, one item at a time” by ABC Brisbane Breakfast Broadcast – 26 October 2021
“Report calls for action on litter” by Kylie Knight – 8 September 2021
“Labour of Love” by Kylie Knight – Dolphins News, 15 May 2021, page 19
“Fight to stop littering goes on” by Kylie Knight – Dolphins News, 5 May 2021, page 2
“Students join war on waste” by Jodie Powell – 14 April 2021
“100 Day campaign to reduce litter begins” by Kylie Knight – 29 January 2021
Join the Pristine Peninsula Facebook Group
Follow the Pristine Peninsula Redcliffe Facebook page
See how Social Ocean supported the Love Our Clontarf Campaign
Searching for a February 2026 social media calendar in Australia?
This month may be short, but it’s full of opportunities to connect with your audience. From Valentine’s Day to World Cancer Day, there are plenty of occasions that help you balance meaningful awareness content with lighter, fun moments. Social media dates are a quick way to reduce the stress of planning, while keeping your feed fresh.
Whether you’re a small business, a charity, or a content creator, planning ahead with a calendar like this will give you confidence. Scroll below for the complete list of February 2026 dates. We’ve given some additional context to some dates, as well as used others for prompts you could make your own.
Want to know how to use this month’s dates?
There are plenty of dates to help inspire you and balance out serious content with fun and quirky – yet still quality – ideas.
We’re often missing some fun and laughter within the seriousness of business or impactful charity work, and some of the dates found in this month could help with this. Read through the list of dates and pick out the ones that immediately make sense to your work. They’ll be easy to tie into your content planning. When it comes to well-known days across the year, an acknowledgement post might be obvious, but thinking outside the box could spark an entire blog or awareness piece.
💡 Tip for specialty industries: If you work in a trade or profession with an Australian governing body, it’s always worth searching for your industry’s specific awareness calendar as well. Those specialist dates aren’t included here, but they can be a goldmine for relevant, high-impact content.
Generating bigger, more substantial content brings more benefits than just showcasing thought leadership – it can greatly assist your website SEO, which Google loves! And when it comes to the fun stuff, take the lead and let those quirky dates spark creativity in your team too.
Remember, you don’t always need to include a sales push in every post. But if you can tie some of this month’s dates to your services or products, give it a crack. And if it all feels a bit whimsical, join a Social Ocean content creation workshop to build your confidence and upskill at the same time.
World Cancer Day (Awareness): Share a story of resilience or highlight a charity that supports people with cancer. Use your platform to raise awareness and point to resources.
Don’t Cry Over Spilled Milk Day (Fun/Quirky): Share a light-hearted ‘oops’ moment from your business journey and what you learned from it. Invite your audience to share theirs too.
Valentine’s Day (Awareness): Flip it business-style: post about what you love most about your clients, team, or community. Include photos or testimonials for extra warmth.
Need help turning awareness dates into actual content? Book into a Social Ocean workshop and we’ll show you how to build posts that engage, not just fill space. Plus, don’t forget to sign up to our newsletter for the monthly dates list direct to your inbox.
Searching for an April 2026 social media calendar in Australia? April ushers in autumn properly, with Easter often providing a major anchor for B2C businesses.
This month is full of opportunities for seasonal campaigns, thoughtful awareness days, and fun holidays like Grilled Cheese Day. Using a calendar like this will help small businesses, charities, and content creators strike the right balance between serious content and light-hearted engagement.
Scroll down for the complete April 2026 list. We’ve given some additional context to some dates, as well as used others for prompts you could make your own.
Want to know how to use this month’s dates?
There are plenty of dates to help inspire you and balance out serious content with fun and quirky – yet still quality – ideas.
We’re often missing some fun and laughter within the seriousness of business or impactful charity work, and some of the dates found in this month could help with this. Read through the list of dates and pick out the ones that immediately make sense to your work. They’ll be easy to tie into your content planning. When it comes to well-known days across the year, an acknowledgement post might be obvious, but thinking outside the box could spark an entire blog or awareness piece.
💡 Tip for specialty industries:
If you work in a trade or profession with an Australian governing body, it’s always worth searching for your industry’s specific awareness calendar as well. Those specialist dates aren’t included here, but they can be a goldmine for relevant, high-impact content.
Generating bigger, more substantial content brings more benefits than just showcasing thought leadership – it can greatly assist your website SEO, which Google loves! And when it comes to the fun stuff, take the lead and let those quirky dates spark creativity in your team too.
Remember, you don’t always need to include a sales push in every post. But if you can tie some of this month’s dates to your services or products, give it a crack. And if it all feels a bit whimsical, join a Social Ocean content creation workshop to build your confidence and upskill at the same time.
Easter Sunday (Awareness): Share how your business or community celebrates the season. This could be photos, a charity appeal, or a seasonal promotion.
ANZAC Day (Awareness): Create a respectful tribute post honouring veterans or resilience in your industry. Use appropriate imagery and tone.
Grilled Cheese Day (Fun/Quirky): Post a fun foodie snap and ask your audience: how do you like your toasted sandwich? Light-hearted and engaging.
April is a big month for B2C content. If you’d like to plan your social media around events like Easter or Earth Day, reach out to Social Ocean for content workshops and strategy sessions.
Looking for March 2026 social media dates in Australia? March marks the start of autumn and brings with it a mix of serious awareness days and fun, quirky holidays.
This month includes International Women’s Day and Harmony Day, both powerful opportunities to connect with your audience. It also includes International Day of Awesomeness and Mario Day, perfect for light-hearted content. For businesses and charities alike, a monthly social media calendar is one of the easiest ways to plan smarter and create engaging content.
See below for the complete March 2026 list. We’ve given some additional context to some dates, as well as used others for prompts you could make your own.
Want to know how to use this month’s dates?
There are plenty of dates to help inspire you and balance out serious content with fun and quirky – yet still quality – ideas.
We’re often missing some fun and laughter within the seriousness of business or impactful charity work, and some of the dates found in this month could help with this. Read through the list of dates and pick out the ones that immediately make sense to your work. They’ll be easy to tie into your content planning. When it comes to well-known days across the year, an acknowledgement post might be obvious, but thinking outside the box could spark an entire blog or awareness piece.
💡 Tip for specialty industries:
If you work in a trade or profession with an Australian governing body, it’s always worth searching for your industry’s specific awareness calendar as well. Those specialist dates aren’t included here, but they can be a goldmine for relevant, high-impact content.
Generating bigger, more substantial content brings more benefits than just showcasing thought leadership – it can greatly assist your website SEO, which Google loves! And when it comes to the fun stuff, take the lead and let those quirky dates spark creativity in your team too.
Remember, you don’t always need to include a sales push in every post. But if you can tie some of this month’s dates to your services or products, give it a crack. And if it all feels a bit whimsical, join a Social Ocean content creation workshop to build your confidence and upskill at the same time.
International Women’s Day (Awareness): Feature an inspiring woman in your community, team, or client base. Share their story and how they’ve influenced your business or sector.
Harmony Day (Awareness): Post about how cultural diversity shapes your work, audience, or events. Invite your community to share their own perspectives.
Mario Day (Fun/Quirky): Create a playful post with a ‘power-up’ theme: what gives your business a boost? Use gaming-inspired icons for fun.
Ready to plan your content with confidence? Join our newsletter to receive the Social Media Dates list every month, plus Ocean Network and Ladies Who Long Lunch events. Or chat to us about running a private workshop for your business or charity team.
Looking for a social media calendar for January 2026 in Australia? You’re in the right place. This month kicks off a fresh new year and is packed with opportunities for businesses, charities, and content creators to engage their audiences. A social media calendar helps you plan posts around public holidays, awareness days, and fun dates so your content feels timely and relevant.
January includes important occasions like Australia Day, as well as global observances such as Data Privacy Day. These dates are ideal for weaving in thoughtful messages, industry insights, or simple engagement prompts. For micro-business owners and charities managing their own marketing, using a calendar like this is one of the simplest ways to reduce stress and keep your content flowing.
Scroll through our full list of January social media dates below and start planning your month with confidence. We’ve given some additional context to some dates, as well as used others for prompts you could make your own.
Want to know how to use this month’s dates?
There are plenty of dates to help inspire you and balance out serious content with fun and quirky – yet still quality – ideas.
We’re often missing some fun and laughter within the seriousness of business or impactful charity work, and some of the dates found in this month could help with this. Read through the list of dates and pick out the ones that immediately make sense to your work. They’ll be easy to tie into your content planning. When it comes to well-known days across the year, an acknowledgement post might be obvious, but thinking outside the box could spark an entire blog or awareness piece.
💡 Tip for specialty industries: If you work in a trade or profession with an Australian governing body, it’s always worth searching for your industry’s specific awareness calendar as well. Those specialist dates aren’t included here, but they can be a goldmine for relevant, high-impact content.
Generating bigger, more substantial content brings more benefits than just showcasing thought leadership – it can greatly assist your website SEO, which Google loves! And when it comes to the fun stuff, take the lead and let those quirky dates spark creativity in your team too.
Remember, you don’t always need to include a sales push in every post. But if you can tie some of this month’s dates to your services or products, give it a crack. And if it all feels a bit whimsical, join a Social Ocean content creation workshop to build your confidence and upskill at the same time.
New Year’s Day (Awareness) – Share your business resolutions or what’s new for 2026. Make it personal and forward-looking, showing your audience what they can expect from you this year.
Make Your Dreams Come True Day (Fun/Quirky) – Encourage your audience to post about their goals and share one of your own. Use it as a motivational moment to connect.
International Day of Education (Awareness) – Highlight your role as an educator in your industry. Share a practical tip or piece of advice that your audience can put into action right away.
Want more ideas like this?
Subscribe to the Social Ocean newsletter and get a fresh list of social media dates in your inbox each month, along with special event news about The Ocean Network, Ladies Who Long Lunch and special opportunities.
Instagram formats and features continue to evolve, allowing a broader range of image ratios beyond the classic square. Over time, IGTV transformed into Video, Reels became the dominant format, and grid previews shifted away from 1:1 to taller aspect ratios. Squares are still supported, but portraits now command more real estate, engagement, and visual impact.
If you rely on visual content—photos, static posts, Reels, or Stories—it’s essential that your templates and designs use the correct pixel sizes. A mis-sized image can appear blurry, cropped, or shrunk, hurting both brand credibility and engagement.
Use our 2025 Instagram image sizes (below) to make sure your published posts are looking sharp.
Enter the pixel sizes into Canva’s custom sizing or create your own digital templates with Adobe or other software.
Here are the latest Instagram imagery sizes.
Instagram now supports multiple aspect ratios in the feed. This might sound strange, but if you’re designing your posts instead of uploading photos, create templates of your preferred size.
DESIGN TIP:
Instagram’s profile grid previews now default to cropping portrait posts to 3:4. Use the 3:4 format when possible or leave safety margins when using 4:5 to prevent important details from being cropped off. When creating Carousels, every slide must be the same size too.
This is main Instagram image that will be seen in more places than your own Instagram Profile.
Your profile image should be square, with a minimum resolution of 320 × 320 px. Many brands choose 400 × 400 px for extra clarity (including us here at Social Ocean),- it will display inside a circular frame, so centre the logo for best visibility.
If your logo doesn’t already fit within a square, ask your designer to provide you with an option that will fit. This will be handy for all social media profiles.
Or make your own. Put your logo on an all white background – centre the logo to a solid white square shape – leave plenty of white space around the edges of the logo. This is what lets you zoom in and out when working inside the logo uploading tool.
If you have a personal brand, read our great tips on how to select your personal profile photo on our blog 5 Profile Photo Tips.
Stories are available to be seen via the profile image on both your Instagram and Facebook business accounts if you have them synced.
Stories artwork for Instagram or Facebook platforms use the same size. You may have other repurposing opportunities for other digital platforms. Although they aren’t great for wide viewing like on YouTube.
You can stitch together still images, graphic designs and videos to create Instagram Reels. Once you have any of these elements, you can create a Reel via the Instagram app on your phone or using different apps.
Ensure you take video on your phone vertically. If you record video clips with your phone held sideways, your Instagram videos on both Facebook and Instagram will no longer be optimised. Images and video for Reels should be the tall slim rectangle orientation.
DESIGN TIP:
If you suffer from fat fingers, you can always upload your files into Canva and build Reels there.
Using the right image dimensions:
Designing templates in Canva or Adobe with these sizes built in saves time and protects your visual integrity.
Social Ocean offers done-for-you graphic design services that include Instagram templates sized for all your visual content — feed posts, carousels, Reels, profile assets, and Stories.
Purchase premade social media quotes for your social scheduling here.
If you need help to create or update your social media images for Instagram or any other platform check out our Graphic Design options.
Check out our blog 5 Profile Photo Tips for guidance on choosing the perfect profile image that fits inside your new templates and represents your brand consistently.
Did you know indoor plants create healthy environments where people flourish? Many people enjoy living and working in green spaces, and like having indoor plants around. But is there more to it?
The answer is – YES! They look amazing! And there are many proven scientific health benefits about indoor plants. Here’s what research tells us about some of the benefits living and working with indoor plants.
They are natural air-filters! Plants absorb harmful toxins in the air while releasing oxygen into the workplace.
A cleaner more invigorating work environment will lead to better employee health.
Even if you love where you work, sometimes stress is unavoidable! University of Sydney (UTS) research found that offices experienced the following benefits:
One of the Fab 5 indoor plants may turn out to be the best cubicle-mate you’ve ever had. Many studies have found that plants in the workspace increases productivity and creativity.
And creative blocks are no joke! Whether you’re out of ideas or stuck on the same one for a little too long, office plants can provide inspiration.
Did you know that 50% of employees have no natural light in their place of work?
Also, one in five people said they have no natural elements in their office, whatsoever.
That means that a lot of us are working in a dark, lifeless space, which if you ask me, doesn’t seem like an appealing place to be.
That’s why there is an upward trend of potential employees taking the physical space into consideration when searching for new opportunities.
Surround yourself with plant wellness and go green in your workplace! Why? Because they are a great investment!
But, I can hear you say: What if I don’t have a ‘Green Thumb’? How do you know which plants will survive? Which plants are best for me and my workspace? You most likely don’t have an indoor plant expert beside you! So I’m here to help you choose the right plants to freshen up your office space.
Here are the ‘Fab 5 Indoor Plants’ that will make you the envy of your colleagues once installed in your office.
(Botanical name: Zamioculcas zamiifolia)
Almost the perfect plant. Tolerates low light, low water and even drought. You can neglect this one and it will still bring you joy by always looking healthy.
Often known as the ‘clean air plant’, the Zanzibar Gem is the perfect office plant, for work or home.
To keep it contained for any space, prune it. But, if left to its own resources; it will spread its wings, filling a much larger space than the top of the planter pot.
Keep this one dusted so the foliage is able to show off its beautiful shine.
(Botanical name: Epipremnum aureum)
The Pothos Ivy has three main varieties. ‘Golden Pothos’, the ‘Neon Pothos’ and the ‘Marble Queen Pothos’.
Lack of airflow does not affect them much and so they thrive in indoor spaces. They also live for a long time without the need for high light.
The more light they have, the more water they will need. So keep them away from strong light (window or artificial) and they will be easier to maintain indoors.
Their colour will change into a dark greenish shade with less light.
(Botanical name: Sansevieria trifasciata)
Also called ‘mother-in-law’s tongue’. It is a sturdy and bold spiky looking plant and requires very little maintenance.
It tolerates low humidity, low light and low water.
There are over 70 varieties, but the most common are:
‘Superba’, ‘Golden Hahnii’ and ‘Sansevieria Twist’. All come in various sizes and are slow growing.
This indoor plant puts up with any environmental condition you can dish out! Don’t overwater this one.
(Botanical name: Dracaena deremensis)
Janet is a great girlfriend to have. She adapts beautifully to any office or home conditions. With her dark green cluster of strappy foliage and is naturally shiny and lush. Its cane-like stem structure can also be propagated without the need for roots.
Keep the leaves clean by wiping them off with a damp cloth. Janet Craig poses as a remarkable office plant and you should invite her to move in with you right away!
There are too many varieties to list here, so I will give you the general rules about keeping succulents. They are a desert plant, which thrives on sun and little water.
So do not try to keep a ‘cute’ succulent on your desk if there is no direct sunlight reaching your plant. No need to overwater, a small amount every month should do it.
‘Now you know about the Fab 5 fine-looking, almost no effort indoor plants. Go and surround yourself with plant wellness and go green in your workplace. It’s worth the investment’!
Special thanks to Guest Blogger Elaine Tunn. Elaine is the CEO of Interior Plantscape Association (IPA) and has kindly written this article for publication on the Social Ocean blog. The IPA is a professional association representing the growing indoor plant hire and maintenance industry across Australia and New Zealand.
If you need assistance from an indoor plant expert, reach out to one of the IPA members or the association directly via the links below.
Creating Intellectual Property (IP) in a business is incredibly important. Your IP helps to both stand out in your market, and result in making money. But making money is generally an outcome of first building community and trust.
So how do you go from having an idea – creating the IP – to selling that idea and bringing money in?
What’s more, if your market is flooded with similar solutions and there’s lots of messaging about your topic, where do you start?
Start with building your community. A community can exist in different ways: online or offline, geographical, industry-based, have broad demographics or a refined private or niche identity.
Initially building a community from clients, networking and industry connections, contractors and suppliers, friends, referrers and collaborators makes sense. It’s also easier as these connections will already know your capabilities and trust you.
What they all have in common, is that they collectively make up your community already. You don’t need to seek them out – but you do need to formalise how you communicate with them. That might be digital communications like email, or as simple as posting regularly on social media.
Importantly if something happens to a part of your existing community, and engagement or support seems low, it’s likely you’ll maintain the others and they’ll pick up engagement according to your activity.
A communication strategy is key for you to sell in the future. It’s also an excellent way to mass-communicate information, education, support, offers and awareness. Adding names to a “list” is a portion of the marketing mix that is generally put in the too hard basket, and therefore becomes an untapped resource to many businesses.
Here’s five small projects to launch to help build your community further. They all offer a way to formalise and grow the “list” of contacts, let you create mini strategies to practice communication, and build on (and expand) your supporter-base outside of those you know.
Each one of these ideas can introduce simple technology to capture information from your community if you haven’t done so before. This can turn any of these projects into a new community group to connect with as a smaller group, or move them to your wider, broader community.
If you used all five of these projects, you’ll have impactful outcomes and cater to a variety of interests.
Creating freebies are perhaps the easiest of the lot! Sending your freebie out via a sign-up scenario means you capture an email address as a minimum.
Popular freebies include E-Books, webinars, podcasts, tools like calculators, discounts, printables or mini versions of a service/product like an audit or consult.
Save your work in easily accessible formats e.g. PDF files, downloadable Zip folders or links to hidden pages. Creating hidden pages on your website, giving access to a reader after they submit contact information allows you to communicate with them in the future. It’s also preferable to users wanting to download your freebie.
If your item is designed for at-home printing, consider what countries the user may live in. For example the USA still uses Letter page sizing. You may want to provide freebies in multiple sizes for this purpose.
Pop up Facebooks are a great idea to contain a small group to WOW new people to your community, service them with some education or access to freebies and a supportive community. It also allows you to entertain them, provide great service from you or your team.
It also provides a closed area for you to market directly to them.
The key to success with Facebook groups is brand-relevant visually appealing and professionally structured content. Your time and effort needs to go into the group before it’s populated, allowing you to turn up Live instead of the stress of daily content creation. This is never fun!
Don’t delete your Pop Up group once the original purpose has run its course. Reuse the group repetitively, as you’ll find those who valued it the first time (plus those who may not have given their full attention, or needed better timing), won’t leave of their own accord. That allows you to add to your group quarterly or half-yearly with a membership number that impresses the viewer.
Short-term challenges can be great fun and you can pick up new fans or followers with savvy social campaigns when you run them.
In terms of building community online, challenges or short term activities draw fast interest and allow new fans to learn new and interesting details about you/business.
Just like any other campaign you run, lead-in time is everything! Promote it for a few weeks organically before day 1 to maximise numbers. Your email communication should be short, sharp and clear across the time of the challenge with your own example included each day.
Having people sign up to your challenge means you can communicate with them each day of the challenge and really expand details about what everyone needs to do. It also lets you add key information that participants need to know – as well as giving you cross-promotional opportunities.
Think hashtags for engagement, cross-platform participation with Instagram posts and Stories/Reels, and entertainment all the way.
Remind participants with scheduled email campaigns. Create these elements in advance so participants are reminded daily. This is really important as they may have signed up to your challenge some time back so will need reminders before it starts.
Selecting daily winners from participants is a great draw card, as is a collaborative challenge.
You can also run a short-term challenge in a Facebook group – or create a Pop Up Facebook group for this purpose.
We run small but low-priced workshops regularly. The feedback we receive from clients is that they enjoy and appreciate an intimate gathering of like-minded people.
It allows for a personalised approach, but also allows you to maintain a low budget in areas including venue, catering and print/marketing collateral requirements.
To secure the number of guests you need, follow an event plan rolling out over a 10-12 week period.
This is an ideal time frame to rollow out and publish a variety of events marketing information. Start immediately after you launch ticket sales and continue through to the date of the event.
This allows you to run one per quarter as part of a regular onboarding process. And don’t forget, this event could be a digital event with video conferencing or Live video in a private group setting.
If your event charges premium options only, then a bespoke private event is more likely to hit your target.
Along with allowing a higher price point, bespoke events generally offer an impressive location, experiential features, and membership options as part of the bonus package and are a big hit with women in particular.
Think retreats – spiritual or corporate in nature – providing elements that may be perceived as difficult to organise in a day to day circumstance, or that may be considered luxurious.
Include ticketing add-ons and offer varied pricing structures. Snagging guests early means you could sell out quicker with “early bird” options. And providing higher price tags for a distinct purpose are attractive and could include things like a VIP gift bag, meet the speakers or special access to additional experiences on the day.
The activity of community building can be a quick flash in the pan experience, that doesn’t take long for the audience to decide that you’re worth hanging around. But as part of a strong content marketing strategy it’s inevitably a long game and requires patience.
However, delivering on engaging activities that show reward or results to your community members are marketing activities a company can undertake for longevity. Yes it takes a long time to build a huge list. But once you’re in the hang of it and you include it in your activities, and regularly include your database, you’ll see the results.
It’s important to note these ideas are based on social media or events activities. These are areas of specialty at Social Ocean, and we get excited about helping clients create unique events, allowing them to start or continue building community. Check out our event services for more details about that.
Combine online activities with face-to-face events for a highly successful mix, that will assist in building your list and create raving fans!
Armed with over 20 years’ experience in the event management business, Kirsty Fields has co-ordinated everything from kids’ events to national sports games. After a successful career in sports, she embraced modern marketing and promotional techniques.
Her passion for training clients in social media, digital marketing and branding has been combined to present her multi-award winning business Social Ocean a bespoke events marketing agency.
Kirsty’s experience in event management and coordination, and the small business space, backed by her passion for marketing, makes her an ideal source for all things related to events, small business, marketing, social media and branding.
You can find a list of podcasts Kirsty has been featured on, on our About page.
This article was originally posted to the Words of Bek blog as a Guest Blog in 2019 by Kirsty Fields. Words of Bek is the namesake website by Writer/Author Becky Paroz for her book by the same name. The article has since been updated for currency to this publication.
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This cocktail recipe is for a delightful drink we recommend to make in bulk and in advance for a big gathering.
It’s the recipe for the most popular cocktail from Ebony’s 21st celebrations. And has also made an appearance as a quick and simple refreshing drop at the end of a long day.
It reminds us of our travels through the Middle East, where you get minty cool refreshing drinks just about everywhere.
What you need aka the Recipe:
To serve, we used a large drink canister with a built in tap which holds up to 10 Litres. If your container is smaller, reduce the liquid amounts in the recipe, at least by half.
Prepare the fruit infusion on the morning of your party. Typically you’d be using this cocktail for an evening event, but to maximise the flavour of the strawberries and mint, infuse them into the alcohol in the morning or as early as you can on the day of your party.
It only takes a couple of minutes to do, but you’ll be glad you did it.
Early morning infusion:
Step 1: Remove the top leaves of the strawberries and roughly cut them into chunks. There’s no limit to how many strawberries you can add.
Strawberry tip: We used 2 large punnets. If you plan to serve your cocktail with a ladle you could add more strawberries. Drink canisters with taps on them don’t allow for the fruit to pour through. Adding fruit into the glasses for guests, before they add the cocktail is a great idea to get extra fruity goodness in each drink.
Step 2: Tear the fresh mint by hand. It’s really important you don’t chop the mint with a knife. By using your hands, you’ll bruise the mint leaves more allowing the flavours and oils to infuse easily (and more of them). Don’t discard the stalks, include all parts of the bunch of herbs in your drinking canister.
Step 3: Add the sugar.
Step 4: Add the entire bottle of gin.
Step 5: Get a wooden spoon and stir. Stir all the ingredients until the sugar has dissolved.
Stirring tip: If you are unsure if the sugar has dissolved, you should no longer hear the sugar granules against the glass at the bottom when stirring.
Step 6: Leave to sit in a safe place until the party starts. Put a cloth or lid on your vessel to keep flies and bugs out of it.
Strawberry and mint infusing in the gin
Our mix infused for at least six hours before the party started. During the remaining time, we’d be setting up the party space and other cocktail. We’d also by buying ice to add in to the drink canister to cool it down for serving.
The ice doesn’t need to be added into the cocktail if serving during cold weather if your soda water and diet lemonade has been refrigerated.
If individual glasses will be served with fruit by ladle, adding ice to your mix of the glass makes your drink look great! We roughly added a quarter of a bag of ice – standard petrol station sized bag – when adding in the lemonade and soda water as ours hadn’t been refrigerated.
Our party was in July – the middle of Winter in Queensland – so the ice was needed to cool the soft drink added on the night. Due to lots of catering fridge space was at a premium, so we hadn’t refrigerated it. During Summer the ice will cool the liquid just as successfully, but the drink is not as nice or refreshing at room temperature.
Just as the party is due to start, add your 2 litres of soda water. We used the cheapest home brand option from the grocery store. Our original recipe has been altered through practice. It was changed to include the lemonade instead of soda water only, as we reduced the amount of sugar added for infusing.
We realised that the sweetness of the lemonade is necessary for a perfect balance. If you intend on using soda water only, because you think you should reduce the percentage of sugar used, you’ll find that you’re cocktail is a little flat. We’ve tested this out! You will need to add a full cup of white sugar to the strawberry mint and gin for infusing (at least) to get the balance of sweetness perfect.
All you really need is pretty glassware to serve your drink in, and a friend to “Cheers!” with. Enjoy!
