Business owners received a quick crash course on “Mastering Digital Marketing with Social Media” during the “Lunch and Learn Workshop” held Wednesday afternoon.

The Ceres Chamber of Commerce sponsored the event which was presented by Riverbank’s Sara Malough of Jane Media Services. During the one-hour session she schooled business owners on how to promote their companies and events on social media platforms. Malough’s company provides services that include social media management and consulting, web design, video production, photography, graphic design, writing copy and creating content, brand strategy and event planning.

Malough recommended entrepreneurs using tools such as Canva, a low-cost design software to create flyers or menus or posters. Canva also can help create reels, or short videos which can be posted on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. She also likes to use LinkedIn.

“It depends on what industry you’re in,” commented Malough about which platforms to use, “however, I love to live on Instagram just as a baseline. I think that it is the most manageable platform, and also, it is the most visual with the exception of TikTok being it’s kind of direct competitor there.”

“So for those who maybe aren’t showing up all the time on social media present day, I would say focusing on Instagram and Facebook at the same time.”

Malough recommends creating posts that are properly formatted for Instagram, and then automatically sharing those same posts onto Facebook without doubling the work.

“LinkedIn I do love. If it was three years ago, I would have been like, ‘Who’s on LinkedIn? It’s disgusting. It’s old and all these things.’ But no, it is not. It is actually a game changer for professionals, in my opinion. I think that if you are showing up consistently and sharing what you’re doing in the community or achievements or benchmarks you’re doing in your professional career, I think that LinkedIn really is a great connector, and I also think that there’s not as many eyes on it. I think that LinkedIn is a wonderful place to be showing up consistently.”

She also recommended using microphones, a tripod, a ring light to create videos. 

Google Photos is also helpful in organizing photos or videos taken at events that can be used in marketing.

CapCut Desktop Video Editor is a favorite tool of hers to “create one of those fun, trendy, fast paced videos, but don’t necessarily know how to edit anything.” The program allows the user to upload videos and photos and CapCut will automatically use AI to generate different versions of all of those different photos and videos with audio.

“It will be a great visually appealing video that you’re not having to spend an hour and a half piecing all of these parts together.”

For those who have trouble writing or coming up with ideas, Malough recommends using ChatGPT.