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The Awesome Marketing Power Of Instagram

The Awesome Marketing Power Of Instagram

 The Marketing Power of Instagram

Marketing over the years, has been a major contributing factor to the growth of every businesses. It determines how far your product will reach its consumers/customers, hence the major reason why businesses depend on it for success.

Instagram as a trending social media platform has a lot of marketing power/strategies which we shall be looking at in this article to reveal the awesome marketing power of Instagram.

When Instagram started, it was a mere photo sharing app but now it has grown to leaps and bounds. According to research, there are over 500millions of Instagram users globally, which is still increasing on a daily basis. The thing about Instagram is that it gives the world what it wants to see by the sharing of photos and videos. Earlier, Individuals just use the app to share their personal pictures, but today businesses have started using Instagram to share all their update. This trend has increased as Instagram marketing represents a brand through pictures and celebrates its uniqueness with its audience.

 

Below is a chart showing a brief history of Instagram and its growth over the years.

If you are still wondering how powerful this platform is, well here are some statistics that will make you understand how powerful this platform has become.

Branded hashtags: 

An evidence that Instagram users are extremely receptive to business and advertising content is the fact that approximately 70 percent of hashtags on Instagram are branded. The use of strong hashtags and stories is one of the marketing powers of Instagram. It has made Instagram one of the most powerful social media platforms. To increase the engagement rate of brands, users are encouraged to add hashtags to their posts and stories, as one recent study revealed that Instagram posts with at least one hashtag boast 12.6 percent more engagement than those without it.

It is possible to add up to 30 hashtags to each post, but brands should be careful not to overdo it, with up to 10 hashtags per post usually considered the optimum number. Brands should also take time to choose the most relevant hashtags, instead of just picking the most popular ones, because their posts could end up getting lost in a sea of other content. Also, if you include hashtags in your posts it will allow your brand to reach even those users who are not your followers. Another useful tool to use to make your audience grow is the Geo-tagging. With Geo-tagging, posts receiving 79 percent more engagements will be achievable.

Unending Increase of monthly users:

The total number of monthly Instagram users continues to grow at a steady rate of about 5 percent per quarter, even with more than 1 billion users as at june,2018, this platform still has more room for growth. Its users are growing more than Facebook and twitter whose monthly user base growth is just 3 percent and 1 percent respectively. This growth in Instagram users may continue until 2021, where user growth will later slow down after 2021 as the supply of potential new users will decline.

High engagement rate:

Instagram has engagement rates 15 times higher than Facebook and 20 times higher than twitter. Most business owners know that getting people to engage with your content is more important than simply having views. For them to have this high engagement they do that using Instagram, and that is by having an Instagram account and advertising most, if not all their products on Instagram.

Business Inclined:

80% of Instagram users follow at least one business. One of the major challenges of modern digital advertising is that most consumers, particularly younger ones are getting tired of having ads served to them on social media. This kind of experience is not observed on Instagram because 80 percent of accounts follow one or more businesses.

 Beautiful and Attractive images:

Instagram allows users to edit photographs with a variety of different filters. Currently, twenty distinct filters are offered and they all produce distinct visual effects from cooling to desaturation to extreme contrast. Because of these beautiful pictures created on Instagram, it helps the user to gain more attention on their pages than they get while using other platforms. Also, with the introduction of carousel to Instagram, posting of images on Instagram is now more creative and more attractive

Easy to use:

Instagram is very simple to use and has the potentials to get your name and links from millions of potential customers very quickly. When you first set up your account, you are allowed to include one link in your profile. Be sure to list your main website here because your user name will hyperlink to your profile page where your main website is prominently displayed. You choose your user name carefully because you cannot change it if you make a mistake.

Connection with other platforms:

When you are about to post or share a post, you have the option to have it automatically posted immediately to Facebook and twitter as well. Here is where the power of social media can really explode your visibility and business. Statistics has shown that no doubt Instagram has a very strong marketing and hence, the reason why its most used by consumers, and from all that has been explained above we now know the reason why.

This also will be further explained in the chart below:

                                                                   The Awesome Marketing Power Of Instagram

 

You can observe from the chart the high number of users, the level of engagements, the increase in the number of likes, time spent on Instagram by the users which is very much compared to users of other social media platforms. Even with these achievements, the marketing power and the growth of Instagram seems not to be ending or taking a turn, therefore I will advise you tap into this wonderful social media giant of our time and apply its marketing strategies in your businesses. We have talked about these strategies and marketing hacks in previous articles on our page, read them and apply them in your business so you too can share your own success story in years to come.

 

8 Steps in Creating Effective Social Media Marketing Strategy

8 Steps in Creating Effective Social Media Marketing Strategy

8 Steps in creating social media marketing

A social media marketing strategy is a summary of everything you plan and hope to achieve on social media. Strategy helps you to know what to do and measures your success or failure.

To create a social media strategy, We will consider the following steps:

(1)  Goals Setting:

we set social media that are inline with business objectives. Setting our goals we consider the acronym S.M.A.R.T which stands for

  • Specific.
  • Measurable.
  • Attainaable.
  • Relevant.
  • Time-band.

These guides your actions which will lead to great results. It is also important to consider and track meaninful metrics. We have vanity metricslike retweets and likes which are easy to track but their real values cannot be proven, Therefore we focus on targets such as lead generated, web referrals and conversion rate.

(2) Learning about your audience;

Your audience is your ideal customer, Therefore it is important to know what they like, comment on and share. It is also possible to convert some of your social media followers to your customers, for every follower invited or not, who like or comment on your posts is a potential customer. To achieve this, it is important you create an audience personas, Gather real-world data, and if possible create a positive interactive section.

(3) Research the competition:

Every business has a competition. It is therefore important you know the strenght and weakness of your competitor. To do this you have to conduct a competitive analysis and engage in social listening.

(4) Conduct a social media audit:

While carrying out your strategies it is important that you examine and measure your efforts from time to time. By doing this, you will know what is working and what is not, Who is is connecting with you on social media, which networks does your target audience use and what is the strenght of your major competitor over you.

Note that there might be some impostor accounts who might be using your business name. It is important to report such account to protect the interest and safety of your customers and your business.

(5) Set up accounts and improve existing profiles:

While you define which network to use, you will also define your strategy for each of these networks. In most cases facebook, instagram and snapchats are popular among the younger generation. It is also important to create a solid mission statement for a particular social network.

Below is a chart showing the methods used to communicate with customers in the month of february, 2019.

8 Steps in creating social media marketing

 

(6) Draw inspiration from other businesses:

To do this, you can analyze other businesses that are great on social media by;

  1. a) knowing their social network success stories.
  2. b) Knowing award winning accounts and campaigns.
  3. c) Identifying your favourite brand on social media examples are national geographic for instagram and IKEA for twitter.

(7) Creating a social media content calendar:

For your content to get the maximum impact on your audience, It is important you create a posting schedule and plot your content mix. Your schedule includes both your day-to-day posting and content for social media campaigns. It lists the dates and times at which you will publish types of content on each channel. It plans all your social media activities ranging from images and link sharing to blog posts and videos. It ensures your posts are spaced out properly and published at the right time. It is important that your calendar reflects the mission statement you have assigned to each social profile so that everything you post is working to support your business goals.

(8) Evaluating and adjusting your strategy:

For the first time when implementing your strategies you may experience some drawbacks or falls, this should not get you discouraged, rather it should warm you up for a better performance. To evaluate and adjust your strategy it is important to track your date by tracking your social visitors as they move through your website. This is to enable you see exactly which social posts drive the most traffic to your website. You can also use this information to test different posts, campaign and strategies against one another. Constant testing allows you to understand what works and what does not work, so you can refine your strategy in time. It is important you carry out surveys like knowing their needs and expectations and what they will like to see more.

12 Awesome Brand Awareness Strategies

12 Awesome Brand Awareness Strategies

12 Awesome Brand Awareness Strategies

 

Standing out as a brand is a prerequisite to survival in today’s competitive world. And learning how to promote your brand awareness is never going to hurt but help you. So, relax and enjoy this post.

These 12 awesome brand awareness strategies would help

1. Great content less ache: If you want to be known as a lady’s man, you need to dress appropriately, respectful, smell nice and strike engaging conversations. With these, the ladies could put you in a beautiful problem. So is having great content for your brands, just that it is not expected to put you in any type of problem. Create memorable, valuable content and you’ll be introduced to new audiences and make a lasting impression.

2. Freebies: No one is immune to enjoying free things. Put your brand name on items and give away those items at an event relevant to your brand’s customers.

3. Social Media Contests: Run a social media contest in which contestants submit answers to questions pertaining to your services or business. Contestants will share the link with friends and family to get more votes, building your brand awareness as a result. Such exercise builds a friendly relationship with customers.

4. Unique Identity: One surefire way to increase brand awareness is by giving your brand a fun, unique brand identity. Since acting like every other brand could be boring.

5. Paid Social Advertising: Organic social marketing is becoming more difficult by the day, leading more businesses to turn to paid social advertising. Whether this difficulty is deliberate or not is not an issue to be addressed now. Facebook and Twitter Ads are relatively cheap and help get your brand seen on social. Whether or not users convert immediately, every added piece of familiarity counts when users finally are ready to make a purchase.

6.Influencer Marketing: Getting friends in high places is another easy way to boost your brand awareness. Find existing influencers in your industry whose business you could potentially complement, rather than compete with. Make use of your partner’s influencer network to promote your brand (while also building up valuable partnerships you can continue to make use of long-term).

7. Community Involvement: Bring your marketing close to home by getting involved in your community. Sponsor local events, get involved with local schools, and host your own events to make yourself a household name.

8. Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Obviously, a huge part of your brand awareness strategy is getting found by people who are looking for a product like yours. SEO is essential to this effort. Make sure your site uses relevant keywords, title tags, alternative image text, and meta data to improve where you rank.

9.Create a Blog: Most brands have a blog, but the ones that stand out in buyer’s minds have blogs with content that informs, entertains, and educates. Blogging is an important part of any inbound marketing strategy. Consistency and quality are key.

10.Referals!!!: People trust information that comes from acquaintances, peers, friends and family members more than any other source. This makes word-of-mouth one of the most powerful weapons in your arsenal. Some ways to get referrals are: offer outstanding services to customers, incentivize the acts of referrals, testimonials

11. Daily Social Media Posting: You don’t have to write a novel every day, but visitors should be able to look at your social media profiles and know you’re in business. Plus, the more valuable content you post, the higher the chance of a follower sharing your content.

12. Hashtags: You can reach a bunch of strangers with hashtags on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. By placing a hashtag in your post (#likethis), users can click/search for those tags to find similar posts. #tbt (thank God is Friday) is a very popular tag that you can use on Fridays to increase brand awareness.

You should make sure you do not just practice this strategies but consistently and diligently too.

 

SOURCES

https://www.protocol80.com/blog/25-ways-to-increase-brand-awareness-inbound-marketing
https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2015/07/10/brand-awareness
https://blog.trendkite.com/trendkite-blog/top-13-brand-awareness-strategies-with-impact?fbclid=IwAR1cTR9B7JKsSZqv55teEVXxDlvE9WGeeGnzwHENqD4MVjhogGWfZMLDOdI

 

Social Media Changes in 2018

Social Media Changes in 2018

So last year in the social media world was a bit mad. There were so many big changes that left one’s head spinning. Here are just a few that we noticed.

#1: User lost confidence in Facebook as a whole last year. From issues with Cambridge Analytica, combined with the non-stop negative press about how Facebook used your profile data, prompted a lot of people to find new places to hang out online.

#2: Twitter cracked down on automation. If this has been part of your plan, that’s a strategy that’s no longer working as Twitter cleaned up its user experience. And deleted many suspect accounts.

#3: Facebook reduced the reach of all content. In an effort to refocus its users on meaningful conversations, FaceBook essentially halted most organic reach. Goodbye traffic!

#4: Instagram launched IGTV. In an attempt to create an alternative to YouTube, they created a new long-form vertical video platform.

#5: YouTube rolled out Stories. Not wanting to be left behind, they decided to become “Instagram-like.”

#6: Facebook overhauled groups. Adding Watch Parties, analytics, and badges for active users, FB went all-in on this product.

#7: LinkedIn revamped groups. This Microsoft-owned platform decided to overhaul its groups product to appeal to more users.

And let’s also not forget the global rollout of FB Watch, new ads formats (think Stories ads and ThruPlay), and GDPR…
There’s a pretty good chance your strategies have been thrown out the window. The only constant in our industry is change. Industry analysts expect 2019 to be a breakout year for innovation as the social platforms shake off the GDPR changes and focus on competitive differentiation.

Responsibilities of a Social Media Manager

Responsibilities of a Social Media Manager

Responsibilities of a Social Media Manager

With the development in the technology world in the twenty-first century, new job opportunities that no one would have imagined decades ago, have been created. Thanks to the Internet and app developers, those skilled in digital marketing, search engine optimization, social media management, content marketing etc, are now the belles of the ball. But among all these, the hottest demand is for a social media manager.

Being a social media manager is not limited only to the management of a company or an organization’s social media platforms. Social media managers are responsible for developing and implementing marketing strategies for businesses’ social media sites. A social media manager is a marketer, brand manager and to an extent, a public relations personnel. He/She creates and implements a social media plan which involves; brand development, identifying the target market, setting clear objectives/realistic goals, visual design and web development strategy, content marketing strategy, promotion strategy, engagement strategy, conversion, and measurement & analysis to establish ROI.

 

As a social media manager, you should be skilled in:

  • Graphic design: ability to use photoshop, text editing, PowerPoint, and excel
  • Excellent written and oral communication skill
  • Knowledge of HTML and website management
  • must be familiar with web analytics tools and ability to use it.
  • must be familiar with social media platforms and their tools
  • familiar with managing blogs, discussion forums, ratings and reviews
  • must be able to manage a computer both Mac and PC.
  • knowledge of marketing and brand management
  • content writing and development
  • familiar with different advertising systems and paid promotion
  • knowledge of ROI analysis, conversions, and social media key performance indicators.
  • SEO and SEM knowledge.
  • must be open minded and ready to learn

The following include some of the responsibilities of a social media manager:

  1. developing relevant contents topics for target customers or audience
  2. managing publish content
  3. monitoring, listening and responding to users in a social way (customer service)
  4. Promoting brand products and services via social media channels
  5. develop and expand community/influence outreach efforts via social media
  6. design, create and manage promotions and social ad campaigns.
  7. manage efforts in building online reviews and reputation.
  8. analyze key performance indicators and modify strategies if required
  9. compile reports for management showing Returns on Investment

 

How to Write Long-Form Content

How to Write Long-Form Content

How to Write Long-Form Content

Writing long-form content is a confusing and if we’re being totally honest, a pain in the ass process especially if you don’t know where to start or how to go about it. To help you tell your story from beginning to end and make absolute sense, here’s how to write long-form content.

Create an outline

Creating an outline will help to keep you on track from the start and give you some direction when you’re feeling lost as the actual writing process plays out. Your outline should act as a road map that walks you through each section of your piece and ensures that nothing important is overlooked.

Brainstorm bullet points

So, your outline is done and dusted. Now, you need to think up a set of bullet points for each section of your content that highlight the most important pieces of information you want your readers to learn. Once you’ve built upon your bulleted lists, you may find that some of the other parts of your outline aren’t any longer needed. On the other hand, you might find that your content needs more in-depth information than initially planned.

Plan your format

While you’re creating your content, think about how you want to present it to your readers. If your content includes a lot of statistics or historical information, you may want to lead each section with a stunning photo or short educational video that makes your audience want to read the content to the end.

Eliminate all redundancies

After you’ve created your outline and your bulleted ideas, read through everything and weed out any ideas that overlap each other by combining them in some way. This will allow you to minimise the inclusion of redundancies and ensure that every piece of content you do include is relevant to the overall topic at hand.

In conclusion, it is important to research your target audience and put yourself in their shoes during your planning session. Read competitor blogs and check out consumer or company forums to gain some insight into what your potential readers expect to learn when reading your content.

 

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