It’s been a very successful year for Keep It Real Social! From our team expanding to gaining new clients and garnering awards, we couldn’t be more proud of all that we’ve accomplished. To recap, here are some of our highlights from 2021:
- Keep It Real Social went from two full-time employees to hiring three new people this year! Michelle came on as a social media manager in February of 2021. A few months later, in May, Carie joined us as the Associate Creative Director, and we just recently hired Jess, our new social media manager! We can’t wait to introduce you to her officially.
- The Keep It Real Social founder and CEO Sommer was recognized as the 2021 Entrepreneur of the Year at the Breakfast for Champions Awards Banquet put on by the Petoskey Regional Chamber of Commerce. This award is presented to honor an entrepreneur who is helping to enhance the local community through business growth and involvement.
- Keep It Real Social won the Best of Northwest as a professional marketing agency in Petoskey and Gaylord, MI. Voting is done by the public, which really means a lot to us!
- We launched our profile on Clutch and received three phenomenal reviews! Clutch is an independent Business to Business review and rating platform that collects client reviews, market reports, and agency listings. It’s great to be part of this esteemed resource.
- Keep It Real Social brought on 18 new clients this past year. Our recent clients include the Petoskey Wine Region, award-winning cookbook author Maureen Abood, Team One Chevrolet Buick GMC, North Harbor Christie’s International Real Estate, and pro angler Scott Rhodes.
- Sommer spoke at the 2021 Michigan Recycling Coalition‘s fall conference this past October. She hosted a session on helping organizations leverage social media for a good cause.
- Keep It Real Social undertook a major revamp of our website. We included case studies on some of our clients, lots of educational information for visitors, and more information for people to learn about who we are individually and as a team.
- In August of this year, Keep It Real Social was able to meet in person as a team for the first time! Our staff is located in Michigan and Florida, so we don’t get to all be in the same room too often and with the limitations from COVID-19, our way of interacting with each other is through video calls. Having the opportunity to meet as a group in person, have a photoshoot, and enjoy a lovely dinner together brought us all closer together!
- Keep It Real Social was also able to visit one of our long-time clients, Darr Schackow Insurance (DSI), in person. DSI is located in Gainesville, FL, and having the opportunity to visit them gave us the ability to get more creative and brainstorm about future goals. It was great having the chance to do this!
- This holiday season, we decided as a team to donate $500 to the DECA Club at Petoskey High School. DECA (Distributive Education Clubs of America) is an organization that prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs for careers in marketing, finance, hospitality, and management. We are passionate about giving back to our community, and what better way to do this than support up-and-coming professionals.
All of us at Keep It Real Social feel so fortunate for this past year’s successes, especially as we continue to help our clients grow their businesses. We are so excited about what is to come in 2022! Stay tuned for some exciting announcements happening in the first quarter of 2022!
