After 10 years in business you would think we would have attended Expo West before - but this was our first year there and WOW.

If you have never been, it’s a few days of non-stop chaos (in a good way) - I spent most of my time on the floors exploring (almost) every single brand there (3,000 brands). With my experience in CPG marketing (and just having launched my own brand: Littlefoot Matcha) and a self-proclaimed foodie THIS was my SuperBowl.

Are you working with influencers or content creators for your brand? Maybe you found the perfect person to work with but now it’s time to fill them in. What are you providing them?

Social media platforms are constantly evolving, and the latest contender making waves is Bluesky. Created by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey (you can see it’s OG Twitter vibe), Bluesky presents itself as a decentralized alternative to traditional social media networks. But what exactly is Bluesky, and should brands be paying attention?

When client’s come to us, they usually have an idea of how many times they want to post on Instagram. This number is anywhere from 2x a day to 2x a week. But what is the right cadence?

Social media has come a long way in the last decade. I have worked in social media since 2012 when we were really only concerned about Facebook and Instagram. It's crazy to think how much of a hold Facebook had on us back then.

Social listening is the process of monitoring social media platforms for mentions of a brand, product, competitor, or any other relevant topic, and analyzing these conversations to gain insights into customer sentiments, trends, and behaviors. It involves tracking keywords, phrases, and hashtags across various social media channels to understand what people are saying about a particular subject.

As the landscape of social media marketing continues to evolve, staying ahead of trends is crucial for brands seeking to maintain relevance and drive engagement. Recently, I’ve read countless prediction articles, watched (maybe) hours of TikTok content from industry leaders, and drawn from my personal experience of working with over 20 brands this year on their social media. So, I decided to put my own predictions together for 2025.

In the competitive world of CPG, standing out and building authentic relationships with consumers has never been more important (and hard). By empowering real people—customers, influencers, or affiliates—to represent your brand, you create organic, word-of-mouth marketing that builds credibility and boosts sales.

Have you ever wondered how brands are finding success on TikTok? From the outside, you may see a brand with all of their videos getting thousands of views - even in the millions. I hate to break it to you but no brand starts out like this. Here is our approach to launching and scaling your TikTok account.

This may seem obvious but having a cohesive brand aesthetic is something that can be pivotal when creating social media graphics. So many brands do not have this together and then social media graphics may be out of hand or just feel “like graphics” vs branded assets.

Every day, consumers are pushed ads and content from thousands of brands - including many competing brands. It’s hard to stand out. As a social media agency, there are always challenges that we are handed when it comes to clients, but the worst challenge of all is a terrible product and terrible packaging. Not only does a bad product bring on comments and content from users that are negative, but not having a solid unboxing experience and packaging that makes people WANT to post is not helping your brand.

After 9 years in the business, we have learned a lot about ourselves as an agency and how we best work with clients. On both sides there will always be compromises, but getting started there are definitely things that need to align. Selecting the right agency partner and preparing for this collaboration requires careful consideration and planning.

Brands come to us everyday asking what will be the fastest way to growth - typically considering they need to get the most out of their budget. Here is what we typically suggest when it comes to growing on social media.

Setting up a TikTok Shop is a game-changer for consumer brands looking to boost sales and connect directly with their audience. TikTok has evolved beyond a social app for fun videos into a powerful marketplace where consumers discover and purchase products with just a few taps. In this how to, we will walk you through the steps to get your brand’s TikTok Shop up and running.

Instagram Live allows brands to broadcast real-time video to their followers, creating an interactive and engaging experience that traditional posts or stories cannot match. While this offering sounds great, many brands do not take advantage - why? It’s hard as a brand (and not an individual) to go live, dedicate someone to live/allocate budget, or figure out what content works - not to mention having an engaged enough audience to feel like it’s worth the time - will people even tune in?

We will argue with a brand all day who says their demographic isn’t on Instagram - everyone is on Instagram and all industries have a place on Instagram. The hard part is typically figuring out what content will resonate - and content costs - either money or your time (and time is money right?) this is the real question - is Instagram a place to spend on when you have limited resources.

As a social media agency our number one conversation with clients is growth - whether that is sales, followers, or views - growth is top of mind. While we love what social media can do, a holistic strategy typically amplifies things even more. When email marketing, Google Ads, your website, etc are pushing people to be involved in the brand (and lead back to social) it’s a win win - the funnel we all want and need. It may be hard to get all of this in place especially for smaller teams, but what we want to talk about today is a hot topic with our clients: Brand Ambassador Programs.

Employee advocacy and employee created content is nothing new - but it is having its moment in short form video right now, especially on TikTok. If you have employees who are willing (and excited) to be on camera this can be a great way to make content affordably, consistently, and offer an insight that truly no one else can to your company online.

The fact that I am 9 years older and realizing I started this company at 23 is completely insane.

I remember being in the basement of a store I worked at in college - working on my blog after hours and working on a company name for my future company that I had no idea what it would be - The Creative Exchange was as creative as I could get (still hate the name). 2 years later the name became my social media agency.

I am a tomato girl and I was recently at a coffee shop that has a special heirloom tomato pastry that I had to have. Then I started to notice that this was a part of a promotion by Dukes. Welcome to Hot Tomato Summer.