by Joanna Abrea | Sep 12, 2019 | Marketing, Social Media
As was widely reported a short time ago with much fanfare, Instagram has started hiding likes as a test to see if doing so will make the app more enjoyable for users. The test started in Canada but has now been rolled out to six additional countries – Ireland, Italy, Japan, Brazil, Australia, and New Zealand. We Bet It’s Here To Stay Our bet is that this change isn’t temporary. There has been so much written about the negative toll that a focus on likes is having on people’s mental health, that we believe that Instagram has pretty much already made up their mind about this move. The fact that they rolled it out in seven major markets makes us confident in saying so as well. And we think this is a good thing for everyone, including your business. Here’s Why Hiding Likes Is Good For Your Business Here are three reasons why we think Instagram hiding like counts is good for your business: 1. You’ll start tracking metrics that matter Likes are a false currency. You can’t take them to the bank, and you can’t pay your bills with them. So there is no great reason to make them the focus of your Instagram strategy. But that’s exactly what’s happened. It’s time to start tracking the metrics that actually matter, like reach, engagement, saves, 2. You’ll start sharing content that’s more authentic Admit it, at one point or another, you’ve held back on something you wanted to post because you didn’t think the Instagram community would like it enough. Everyone that markets on Instagram have done that! But...
by Joanna Abrea | Aug 3, 2019 | Social Media
For a small business, gaining steam on social media is undeniably an uphill battle. You have to contend with algorithms that make it nearly impossible to get discovered until you achieve a certain level of visibility. This situation puts you in a catch-22: you can’t get anyone to view your content until you get engagement, which requires views! Nevermind the fact that social media overwhelmingly prefers silly or opinionated content—two things that really don’t gel with the average business’s branding. Sure, you can gain thousands of shares by posting ridiculous cat videos, but there’s a slim chance all that attention will aid your business goals. Despite all these challenges, putting your business out there on social media isn’t just worth it; it’s necessary. According to research from Stone Temple, 63 percent of all web traffic in 2017 came from mobile devices. In the U.S., 87 percent of mobile internet time is spent in apps. What are the most common apps? Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat, to name a few. Following this logic, people on the internet spend the majority of their time looking at social media apps on their phone. While Google Search is another top app—meaning SEO is also critical for businesses—social media is by far the most common way people discover content. Consider that two thirds of U.S. adults say they get their news from social media. Put simply: if you aren’t on social media, you will have an incredibly hard time gaining brand recognition for your business. You will also have a tough time getting attention for your laboriously crafted content. So how can you climb...
by Stefanie Blackburn | May 9, 2019 | Social Media, Uncategorized
Social media marketing is all about engagement. The more engaged your audience is, the more distribution you get from the social networks, which helps your audience grow. It’s a virtuous circle that begins with engagement which is why we highly recommend that you use the following seven Instagram Story features in your marketing. Stories are a great way to increase interest, get more engagement, and collect feedback from your audience. Here are seven ways to capitalize on them at your business to create more engagement with your prospects and customers! Question Stickers Question Stickers let your audience ask you questions then you can choose which you’d like to answer. Your answers are then posted as another piece of content on your Story. Music Stickers Have you ever flipped through some fun, engaging Instagram Stories only to land on a row of images – no audio or video? They seem so boring! The last thing you want is for your marketing to be boring. If you’re adding an image to your Story, consider adding a Music Sticker as well. Remember, it’s all about engagement, and music is engaging! Share Feed Posts To Your Story Did you know that you can share the posts you see in your feed to your Story? This is an excellent way to recognize people that are tagging your account, get the attention of someone whose content you enjoy, or to repurpose your old posts as Story content. How to do it? Simple, just click the arrow in the red circle on the left image (SHARE button), then choose to create a story (circled in red...
by Stefanie Blackburn | Apr 22, 2019 | Social Media
Instagram has been the fastest growing social media platform over the last several years, and now has hundreds of millions of daily users, making it an important place for all businesses to consider doing their marketing. Until recently, it may have seemed like a platform that wasn’t necessarily ideal for generating leads, but that has definitely changed. Instagram now has several viable ways that businesses can use the platform to generate leads quickly and affordably. Let’s cover seven of them. Instagram Lead Generation Ads First, Instagram lead generation ads are an obvious choice. If you’re comfortable running paid advertising, Instagram has an ad objective that is specifically designed for generating leads from the platform. The format is simple. The ads are easy to create, and can be very effective. Particularly if you’re targeting a younger demographic, or creating content in the most popular content categories on Instagram, such as fashion, food, and travel. Contests Number two is to run a contest. Contests are very popular on Instagram. And they’re a great way to generate a lot of attention, and a lot of leads, very quickly. You don’t have to give away anything too valuable, or too extravagant. Just make sure that it’s closely matched to the interest of your audience. Conversation Ads Instagram now has a cool ad objective feature that is designed to get someone to message you on Instagram, starting a conversation directly in your messaging inbox. What a powerful way to create a more personal experience than just collecting an email address! Inside of that conversation, you can then give them an opportunity to provide you...
by Stefanie Blackburn | Mar 18, 2019 | Social Media
Not where you’d like to be with your social media presence? Don’t worry, you’re not alone – social media is a challenge (and perhaps even a mystery) for many businesses! The good news is that the pace of change in today’s marketing world means that it’s never too late to jump in and compete, no matter where you’re starting from today. Here are five things you can do right now to improve your social media presence and get better results from your social media efforts: Sharpen Your Strategy Simply posting content on social media isn’t enough. Before you can expect to make big gains in your social media results, you need to take a sharp look at your current strategy, and be realistic about what’s working and what’s not. Start, consider the following questions: Which social media platforms are you active on? Which social media platforms are relevant to your business goals? Which social media platforms are providing the most traffic and conversions? Which social media platforms are underperforming? What kind of content are you most effective at creating? What kind of content will most effectively accomplish our social media goals? Take a step back and really consider these questions. You may find that you’re wasting your efforts on platforms that don’t get results, you’re not using the platform’s features to the fullest, or you’re spreading yourself too thin. Don’t be afraid to change directions in your pursuit of your goals. Optimize Current Accounts Once you’ve decided on your social media platforms and strategy, you should consider how you can strengthen your presence by optimizing your accounts. To start,...
by Stefanie Blackburn | Dec 11, 2017 | Social Media
Running social media marketing becomes infinitely easier when you find the right tech tools to do most of the work for you. There are countless platforms out there designed to help you save time while adding more power and control. We sifted through the absolute best of these social media tools to bring you our top recommendations. Use them to open your social media profiles up to become more diverse and creative. You will also end the frustration of struggling through complex workflow to complete tasks. We tried to avoid any platforms that require a significant buy-in. As a result, most of the following tools are free or have a low-cost option for business owners. We’re also leaving out the big total management tools like Buffer, HootSuite, SproutSocial, AgoraPulse and others. The following 21 best apps and browser-based platforms fit our criteria and can improve your social media marketing success in 2018 and beyond. Bitly Bitly does two amazing things for you: 1) Shortens links to make post text cleaner and better looking 2) Provides a custom redirect so that you can track CTR on your shared links and possible behavior after the click. The free version of Bitly is indispensable for any social media page that wants to share links. Without it, you have no reliable way to track engagement. Backly Backly lets you share links while providing on-page reminders to go back to your branded site or social account later. The tool provides a pop-up frame on content pages you share, keeping audiences thinking about your brand even as they browse outside your owned pages. Use Backly...
