Mediastreet
Tag

Instagram

Browsing
In News

How to Make Money on Instagram

No Comments

Sourced from Boss Magazine

5 Easy Ways It has become very easy to make money through Instagram. Creators nowadays have multiple options when it comes to making an income on Instagram.

It has become very easy to make money through Instagram. Creators nowadays have multiple options when it comes to making an income on Instagram. A creator has to gain engagement on Instagram to attract better earning sources. Even with a small audience, you can earn quite some money on Instagram. But you can even buy real instagram followers to get more followers for your account.  Many creators think that there are only 1-2 methods to earn good money on the platform. In this article, we will talk about the 5 best methods to earn money on Instagram.

Do paid sponsor posts

This is one of the most widely used methods to warm money on Instagram. Instagram is a great platform for creators. They get a variety of tools to create content with and have ample income opportunities. Many creators make sponsored posts for their clients. These posts help you to earn money by posting client content on your page. The brands who are interested to work with you contact you. You get to negotiate the amount you will charge for a sponsored post. Once the amount you want is fixed with the company they curate the type of content they want to see. Creators are generally paid on a per post basis. You need to have a strong audience base for brands to be attracted to you. Creators who produce content in a particular niche tend to get more sponsored posts. Brands can identify that having a sponsored post in their same niche will benefit them more. If you are a creator who has a sizable following in a popular niche, your chances of being approached for sponsored posts become much higher. In niches like travel, food, fitness, and others that are popular on the platform, creators secure a better deal.

Sell your products

Selling your products is one of the best ways to earn money without having to rely on others. Methods of earning such as brand posts are dependent on an external factor. There have been cases where a brand does not comply with the set agreement. If the investment into influencer marketing reduces you suffer as well. The best way to deal with this is by having your product line. Many of the users on Instagram love shopping from brands on the platform. If you have been able to build a strong base on the platform you will be able to establish your products. You should start at a small scale and gradually scale it up. The types of products that tend to perform well are clothing-related products or beauty products. You have to put time, money, and effort into creating a line of products that are of good quality. Your products have to be food as your reputation is attached to your products. Having your products reduces your dependence on others and all of the income comes directly to you. You should be able to convince your audience to get your products. The biggest disadvantage with this product is that you need to have investment capital. This method requires prior investment but the results it offers, in the long run, are amazing.

Become a brand ambassador

Many brands that have a presence on Instagram hire brand ambassadors. In recent years there has been a shift in the form of marketing preferred by the companies. The majority of the big companies have shifted to Instagram marketing and other forms of social media marketing. While smaller brands like to do sponsored posts as their marketing, bigger companies like to form long-term relationships with a creator. They hire them as brand ambassadors. The job of a brand ambassador is to create posts about the company. These posts are to be published in your account to get your followers to buy their products. Some brands may be willing to create products with you that will target your audience. You need to buy active followers on Instagram and become an important creator to be a brand ambassador. The companies want their brand ambassadors to be able to convince their audience to buy their products. Companies like creators having a strong audience backing them in a particular niche. This helps them secure a better target audience and greater engagement.

Affiliate marketing

In affiliate marketing, you try to sell the products of a company. To start with affiliate marketing you have to apply to companies to be an affiliate partner. The companies have varied criteria for becoming affiliate partners. We would suggest choosing to become affiliates with a company that is related to the niche of your account. This will help you make better sales. When you become an affiliate partner you will get a link. With most of these companies, you get a commission for every client that buys their product or subscribes to their service using your link. Before starting, ensure that you read the terms that they have. You should do proper research to find the companies that offer the best commissions when it comes to affiliate marketing.

Dropshipping

Dropshipping is a method by which you can sell products from sellers without having to hold an inventory. You get to have your own store without you having to purchase or store products. You advertise the products on your account with the help of stories and posts. When your followers want to buy this they have to place an order with you. You pass on the shipping details to the seller and they take care of shipping and delivering the product. This has a high margin of profit. You need to gain engagement on Instagram to have a successful shop.

Conclusion

Earning money on Instagram will become simplified by using the techniques mentioned above. Apart from the methods given above, there are various methods available. Many creators earn money by selling the art they create and by writing captions for other businesses. There are many options available. With proper application, they work quite well. You should explore them to find the method that suits you and your account.

Sourced from Boss Magazine

Read More
By
In News

How to optimize your Instagram profile for search

No Comments

By Andy Moser

Some tips to help get your Insta out there.

Trying to get your Instagram profile out there a little more? One thing you might want to think about doing is making it more search-friendly.

In other words, you want to edit your profile in ways that make it more likely to appear as a suggestion under the search bar.

There are a number of things you can do to make yourself more discoverable on Instagram. Whether you have a brand profile you’re trying to promote or you just want to snag a few more followers, here are some tips on how to optimize your profile for search.

Put keywords in your display name and handle

One of the first things you should do, as the marketing platform Hubspot suggests, is to think about the keywords you want your profile to market. Ask yourself, “What are people going to type into the search bar to find the things I’m marketing?” For example, if your profile is for a tattoo shop (or if you’re an individual tattoo artist), you would want to have “tattoo” somewhere in both your display name and your “handle” (your username beginning with @).

When I type “tattoo shop” into the Instagram search bar, all of the top account results have “tattoo” in their display name, and most of them have “tattoo” (or some variation of it) somewhere in their handle. @livebytheswordtattoo appears as a high-ranking result partly because their account is optimized, but also, to be clear, because someone I follow also follows them, which may play a hand in which accounts appear in searches by networks of people.

The account results when I search "tattoo shop" on Instagram

The account results when I search “tattoo shop” on Instagram Credit: screenshot: instagram

Having keywords in the most important places on your Insta page is a useful first step in optimizing it for search.

Hashtag your posts

If you have any hope of somebody stumbling across your profile, you gotta (gotta gotta gotta) hashtag your posts. Hashtags are one of the primary ways Instagram gears its search results and allows people to follow and discover the things they’re interested in.

Continuing with our tattoo example, if you’re a shop or an artist trying to get your work out there, you’d want to hashtag your posts with #tattoo. Keep in mind, the broader the hashtag, the broader the audience searching for it will be — and therefore, the more search results you’ll be competing with.

Broad hashtags are still good! You’ll reach a huge audience that way. The problem is, you might get buried in other posts with the same hashtag, which is why we recommend using multiple hashtags of varying levels of specificity.

Let’s say you have a tattoo of a flower you want to show off. Consider hashtagging your post with #tattoo (to reach a wide audience) and #flowertattoo (to reach a more specific audience).

The top results when I search "flower tattoo" on Instagram

The top results when I search “flower tattoo” on Instagram Credit: screenshot: instagram

When I search “flower tattoo” on Instagram, the first nine out of the 12 top results have #flowertattoo in their posts. The other three have flower emoji in their captions, which may hint at the role emoji play in driving up post interactions. We’ll get to that in the next tip.

Captions

Your post captions are another key area where you can optimize your profile. In a 2019 study from the social analytics platform Quintly reported on by Social Media Today, researchers looked at how things like caption length, hashtag usage, and even emoji usage affected post interactions among Instagram users big and small.

Length

The study found that for bigger profiles, with more than a million followers, posts with no captions received the highest engagement. For smaller profiles (between 1,000 and 10,000 followers), caption lengths between one and 50 characters saw the highest amount of interactions. So if you’re a smaller profile, caption your posts, but keep it short and sweet. For even smaller accounts, with 1,000 followers or less, interactions were about even between small captions (between one and 50 characters) and large captions (300 or more characters).

Emoji usage

Now, let’s talk emoji. The Quintly study found that whether your profile has over 10 million followers or less than 1,000 followers, captions with zero emoji tended to receive the least amount of interactions.

For small accounts, with less than 1,000 followers, captions using 10 emoji or more resulted in the highest number of interactions on average, although captions containing anywhere between one and 10 emoji were not far behind.

For larger accounts, with between 10,000 and 100,000 followers, captions with four to 10 emoji saw the highest average interactions, though emoji usage outside that range also saw a high level of interactions — except captions with zero emoji.

The takeaway? Whether you’re a big or small profile, use emoji in your captions, dammit. And if you’re a small account with less than a 1,000 followers, maybe go crazy and use 10 or more emoji?

Hashtag usage

When looking at hashtag usage, the study found that larger profiles tended to get their highest engagement when their posts included zero hashtags. Why? We don’t know for sure. But we imagine that if you’re Ariana Grande, you probably don’t need to use hashtags to get high levels of engagement with your posts. If you’re Ariana Grande and you have the specific goal of getting the highest Insta engagement you can, it’s probably best to not use any hashtags.

We can also probably safely assume that most of you reading this are, in fact, not Ariana Grande. In that case, if you have less than 1,000 followers, use hashtags and use a lot of ’em. The study found that these smaller accounts saw their highest level of engagement when they used 10 or more hashtags in their posts.

The data does get a little peculiar in the mid-range-sized accounts. Accounts with between 10,000 and 100,000 followers also saw their highest level of engagement when using 10+ hashtags. However, small (but not the smallest) accounts, with between 1,000 and 10,000 followers, saw their highest engagement when they used a modest one to three hashtags. Accounts with 100,000 followers or more saw their highest engagement when using zero hashtags.

The best advice we can offer is to consider the size of your account and determine your hashtag usage based on that.

If you want to look at the full study in more detail, you can check it out here!

Use your bio

Don’t leave it blank! Hubspotalso suggests using “secondary keywords” in your bio. Think about what else people will be searching for that goes along with what you’re trying to market.

What else would people be searching that relates to tattoos? “Piercings,” perhaps? “Shops” to schedule appointments at? Maybe including your city/region will help capture the audience closest to you! Let’s look at @livebytheswordtattoo again.

@livebytheswordtattoo Instagram bio

@livebytheswordtattoo Instagram bio Credit: @livebytheswordtattoo via instagram

Looking at their bio, we can see that they include “tattoo,” “piercing,” and “shop,” utilizing both primary and secondary keywords to help drive their search optimization.

They also include NYC in their display name, and they put both Williamsburg and Brooklyn in their bio. This, of course, tells users where they do their business, but it also outlines a broad area as well as a specific neighbourhood where they’re most likely to capture the audience they’re after.

Post content! Then check your “likes” and “views”

The best way we learn is by practicing, right? So if you’re unsure about what’s working and what’s not, how about some trial and error?

Post your content using different techniques. Play around with the length of your captions. Try adding another keyword to your profile. Use more emoji. Use less emoji. Use more hashtags. Use less hashtags. And then see what happens!

Which pictures get more likes and comments? Which videos get more views? What do your posts with the highest number of likes have in common?

We can learn a lot about what works by just giving it the ol’ college try and seeing what happens next. It’s kind of like running your own personal “study” to help you learn which things are optimizing your Instagram.

And, if you have a “creator” or “business” Instagram account, you can access “insights” to see more detailed info about your post interactions and metrics.

You have a good set of tools to help you optimize your account and track the results. So get out there and build those profiles and get those interactions! We’ll be here rooting for you.

Feature Image Credit: SHUTTERSTOCK: Sasha Ka

By  Andy Moser

Sourced from Mashable

Read More
By
In News

5 reasons to use Instagram for brand marketing

No Comments

Sourced from BOSS Magazine

A social media platform like Instagram is undeniably one of the most influential platforms out there. A strong marketing strategy should include Instagram as part of it, regardless of whether you manage social media for your business or personal brand.

Approximately 500 million people were active users of Instagram stories as of January 2021. Close to 35% of the global audience is between the ages of 25 and 34, making it a popular target audience for marketers. Close to 80% of users follow at least one business. Each day, about 200 million Instagram users click on one or more business profiles. Instagram users search for products and services on Instagram 81% of the time. More than 90% of Instagram users follow businesses. Instagram has been a source of new products for 60% of customers. Considering its popularity, ease of use, and brilliant statistics, Instagram has proven to be an invaluable marketing tool for businesses that wish to expand their visibility and reach. Hence, here are 5 reasons why every brand should make use of Instagram to grow their business.

Visual content

Visual content is absorbed by the brain faster than the textual content; more than half of all information transmitted to the brain is visual. You can, therefore, create a visual representation that is suited for whatever brand product you have. Instagram is the perfect platform to share images related to your brand. This is a great way to express your brand’s identity creatively. You can make use of infographics, animations, gifs, and more as you provide value to your customers through the use of pictures and videos. Instagram Marketing can be used in a variety of ways. Here are some ways to create content for social media:

  • Use infographics to educate your customers and provide them with useful information.
  • Get to know your customers by asking them how they use your product or how it benefits them. You will gain more credibility and be more relatable to your customers if they are in the spotlight.
  • Does the process you use to develop your product seem complicated? You can post a video or photo of the entire process behind the scenes.
  • By using stories, you can stand out from the crowd and have a greater impact on your audience.
  • Establish an aesthetic style and colour scheme for your brand. Your brand’s identity will be reinforced in your feed, which will also help you gain more real Instagram followers.
  • Increases engagement

Apart from increasing brand awareness, Instagram is also a great platform for increasing engagement with your audience. A number of Instagram’s new features are available to users, including polls, Q&As, countdowns, hashtags, and quizzes. By taking advantage of any of these options, the brand can interact with the audience more personally. As an alternative, you can execute brand campaigns around special events like popular sporting events, Mother’s Day, etc., by offering giveaways, scholarships, and more. more. Instagram’s average engagement rate is much higher than that of Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Gaining Instagram likes on your photos and videos is one of the easiest ways to engage with your audience.

Unique hashtags can be used by brands to start conversations. Gaining more Instagram followers and engagement is easy with a successful Instagram contest. You should remember that in addition to marketing your products, you are trying to connect with your audience. It can be tempting to use bots to respond to comments and likes, but it lacks a personal touch. Real engagement from the brand would be necessary in order to create real customers, leads, or sales. 

Generate leads 

A consumer’s purchase decisions can be strongly influenced by social media. Through Instagram’s direct messaging feature, your audience can easily get in touch with you. With Instagram, you can easily link to your products in your posts and stories. This makes it easier for a customer to purchase your products. The content you put in your bio has become more important to generate sales. You can achieve better conversion rates by using a paid ad campaign, which allows you to reach a broader audience.

With Instagram, you can emphasize the human aspect of your brand and interact with individuals while increasing the value of your brand. Besides increasing engagement, you can access current customers and buy Instagram followers at the same time. Additionally, studies have demonstrated that the response rate of social media leads to conversions is 100 percent higher than that of outbound marketing. You can interact with your audience through every post, whether it is a blog, infographic, or video. It is a gateway for future conversions. Gaining Instagram likes and followers is a great way to prove your credibility as a source. In turn, this increases the chances of improving conversions. Partnering with a reputable influencer can also lead to increased business leads.

Wide reach/ Increases blog traffic 

Increased blog traffic is another reason why you should leverage Instagram Marketing. You can reach a large number of people using social media platforms like Instagram. Each new user who joins the platform daily can potentially become a customer. It is likely that without Instagram, your blog will only attract people who know about your brand or are already familiar with your website. Instagram helps you reach an entirely new group of prospective clients. It is an excellent way of driving traffic to your blog or website. You will gain more Instagram likes if you post regular content and engage with your audience.

You can do this by including attractive visuals in your Instagram posts. Participate in their social media activities by conversing with them. Consider conducting contests that require the contestants to visit your blog or website. You should also include a link to the blog in the post. Take advantage of Instagram Stories and share ‘behind-the-scenes’ clips that highlight the faces and personalities behind your brand.

Valuable customer insights

As a marketer, you know that you need to monitor the conversation about your brand and products on various platforms. You should monitor mentions on other platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, or blogs. However, tracking similar metrics on Instagram is just as necessary. Your business will still be discussed on this platform whether you are on the platform or not. Users could make use of it to publish pictures of products they bought or to make videos. It is important to not ignore this since it can provide valuable information.

Instagram Analytics also provides information such as how many times your story has been viewed, the age group of your audience, and which posts have gained more Instagram likes. Conduct tests and campaigns to track metrics and determine which content performs best on your platform. There are endless possibilities.

Conclusion 

Instagram is a highly popular social media platform for sharing photos and videos. You can share photos and videos through the app; use temporary stories which are available for 24 hours; use Reels, which are short-form videos that can be produced in 15 seconds; and find IGTV videos. You can even shop directly from e-commerce brands.

Instagram was designed from day one to be an application, instead of being a browser-based site like Facebook and Twitter. In addition to having a cleaner feed than Facebook, Instagram tends to be a favorite among smartphone users. It is also possible to buy Instagram followers in order to gain more Instagram followers and hence, more exposure. The reasons mentioned above should push you to include Instagram in your marketing strategy right away.

Sourced from BOSS Magazine

Read More
By
In News

5 Questions You Should Ask to Determine Whether TikTok or Instagram Is Better for Your Influencer Marketing Campaign

No Comments

By

Here’s a breakdown of how both platforms compare and what makes each one stand out in the influencer marketing space.

If you’re responsible for keeping your brand focused on the right social platforms and leveraging the right influencer partnerships, you’ve probably spent some time wondering whether you should focus on TikTok or Instagram.

TikTok and Instagram both offer distinct attractions for their users. While both are visual, TikTok is more audio and music-driven and has a more creative and spontaneous feel to much of its content. Instagram, on the other hand, is a more established platform with a more polished aesthetic. Because of its longevity, a sophisticated advertising and influencer network has developed on its ecosystem, which can make it easier to venture into known-commodity partnerships with influencers.

Where are your time and resources best spent, and what differentiates the two? The right answer often differs for each brand and that the difference depends on their audience and goals.

What’s your target audience demographic?

The platform you prefer may vary depending on which types of users you’re seeking to connect with. TikTok’s overall audience skews younger, with half of all Gen Z American adults accessing the platform, as compared to only 22 percent of millennials and 14 percent of the 50-64 cohort.

Instagram has a wider user base among all demographics, with 48 percent of 30-49 year olds on the platform and a third of the 50-64 age range. Its growth has stabilized and it’s not experiencing the same rapid user base expansion as TikTok.

How are you hoping to get seen?

Instagram has an advantage on influencer choice, because the network is more established and there are more influencers working there. Because Instagram has been an influencer option for a while, influencers may have a formula in place and be more certain about tried-and-true ways to gain attention from their specific audiences.

Sponsored content and advertising make frequent and expected appearances in Instagram users’ news feeds, while on TikTok, only 5.7% of content creators post about brands, products, or services on a daily basis. That number grows to just 17.3% on a weekly basis, with 60.8% of content creators reporting that they have never shared sponsored content on the app, as per our most recent research where we polled 1,743 influencers from more than 20 countries. This is, by far, one of TikTok’s greatest advantages and presents a great opportunity for marketers looking to capture people’s attention in a less saturated space.

Which metrics are you using to gauge success?

TikTok’s structure and users’ top content interests (#comedy and #dance) mean marketing efforts need to be more subtle, humorous and creative to attract interest. It’s not the platform for a hard sell nor for brands who want to have tight and rigid control of influencer content.

However, it is the ideal place to level up on organic engagement and to create relationships that may boost loyalty and migrate followers over to your other social platforms. In fact, 87.1 percent of TikTok influencers and content creators say their engagement rate is higher than on other platforms.

TikTok’s potential reach also far outstrips any other social platform because its algorithm doesn’t limit views, so if you’re planning campaigns that grow reach and awareness, TikTok might be the best place for your influencer marketing efforts.

If your focus is on a quicker sales cycle or moving your target audience from the middle to the bottom of the sales funnel, you may be better off with a consistent storytelling strategy on Instagram Stories where you link directly to your landing page or ecommerce site.

How well-versed are you in influencer marketing?

Do you already have an established influencer program, or are you just getting started? Your own knowledge level may influence the direction you lean with your platform choice.

If you’re accustomed to working with influencers and have a good grasp on your goals and metrics, you may feel ready to venture directly on to TikTok. You’ll know where you need to go and what you need to do, and you can guide the partnership based on your previous experience, especially if you use an influencer database to source the right people for your niche.

If you’re new to the influencer marketing world, you may want to leverage the knowledge of Instagram influencer partners.

Instagram influencers we surveyed said they typically spend at least three hours daily using the platform, which means they likely have their audiences’ likes, dislikes, and propensities down to a science. If you can source the right influencers for your campaigns, you can rely on them to serve as co-strategists as you plan your new influencer marketing campaigns.

In our recent study on TikTok influencer marketing, marketers surveyed said that analytics and tracking is one of their biggest TikTok challenge areas. If you’re confident in your influencer marketing knowledge, and you’re willing to experiment a little, you can easily and creatively overcome these challenges and get attention in a less saturated market.

Is there a clear winner for brands building an influencer marketing strategy?

In the battle for brand positioning, there’s no clear winner between these two powerhouse platforms. Instead, you can find the right place to showcase your business when you think strategically and evaluate which media sources your ideal buyer consumes.

Not many things in business come down to feeling alone, but you can evaluate which brand feels like a natural fit based on the criteria we mentioned, then continue to adjust while monitoring performance data.

You may find that one platform is clearly right for your brand or you may see opportunities to connect with your target audience across both. As each platform refines its offerings, algorithm, and business-focused features, you can continue to experiment accordingly with your strategy.

And, if you find you’re ready to dive into something new, TikTok can provide a welcome platform for experimentation. By getting your brand in the space, you can see where content is resonating for your audiences, define your goals, then align with the right creators and make a splash.

By

Sourced from Entrepreneur Europe

Read More
By
In News

Improving Instagram Reach With Branded Content in 5 Easy Steps

No Comments

By 

Want to reach new audiences on Instagram without running ads? Have you considered branded content but weren’t sure where to start?

In this article, you’ll learn five simple steps to create, launch, and promote Instagram branded content campaigns to reach new people.

What Is Branded Content on Instagram?

Here’s what you need to know before you dive into the world of branded content creation, influencer marketing, and Instagram settings.

Branded content is one of the most powerful tools for Instagram marketing. It bridges the gap between organic content and paid ads, commercial partnerships and authentic recommendations. But as you might imagine, building that bridge takes some skill.

You need to find the right partnerships, set guidelines for your content, and finally, have a plan for boosting and resharing branded content.

Let’s start with some definitions. You might think that any content you produce as a social media manager is branded content: It’s content by a brand.

But Instagram thinks differently. Within this social network, “branded content” has a specific meaning. It’s content that markets your brand but it’s not created or posted by you.

Influencers or creators create this content on your behalf. They receive “an exchange of value” in return, whether that’s payment, product samples, or gifts. And that exchange of value has to be disclosed by using the branded content tools on Instagram.

Click HERE to read the remainder of the article.

By 

Sourced from Social Media Examiner

Read More
By
In News

How the Word ‘Influencer’ Lost All Meaning

No Comments
This woman was influencing me across social media platforms for the best part of a decade. She once influenced me to buy a Fitbit that I never used. I watched her relationship form and marriage crumble and was influenced to feel a great deal of sympathy for her. I saw her decorate her house in meticulous detail, reminding me that I too wanted to one day buy a property, and influencing me to feel shameful about the fact I can’t (and to also make a mental note that I need a Smeg fridge).
Then she posted a video like many others have – women in particular – about “influencer” being a shameful word and that she didn’t want to associate with it. What a curious thing to say, I thought, when I couldn’t think of a better word to describe her. 

You’ve probably seen crotchety British Gen Xers on social media say a variant of “everyone’s an influencer now”. What they really mean is that everyone is too online and has a personal brand, always pushing something, whether it’s their opinions or their work; a persona that’s only loosely related to the person you know or suspect them to be in real life. But it’s also true that “influencer” is now a sweeping term that is used to mean anything from “aspirational career path to riches”  to “talentless internet shill for brands”, depending on how old or how online (or not) the individual using it is.

“‘Influencer’ is a weird term in that it both works perfectly – in that the direct connection online celebrities and creators have with their audience makes them more influential and able to affect the likelihood of purchases – and is also essentially so broad as to be meaningless,” tech journalist and author Chris Stokel-Walker tells me. Does it mean your sister who recently signed up to an MLM business flogging essential oil blends, or your Dad sharing anti-vax memes with all his Facebook friends? The way people use the word colloquially now, who can say?

I suspect much of this amorphousness is down to the power of the word “influencer” in the first place. It says “I can make you do what I want”. It has clout and energy. You can also “influence” anyone in any manner of ways – emotionally, psychologically. In 2019, the year the Mirriam-Webster Dictionary added “influencer” to its lexicon, its editor-at-large Peter Sokolowski explained to AdWeek that “all of us are consumers, even if all we are consuming is information”.

We’re not just being sold influencers’ ads – we willingly sell our attention and engagement in increasingly obtuse but intense ways. As Stokel-Walker points out: “In the dictionary definition of the term, people who have clout with their audience are influencers – in that they can influence people to do things, or to buy products if they choose.” It’s little wonder we throw the word around so carelessly.

Influencing has existed as a concept for as long as Western capitalist culture. Influencing is the reason the advertising industry exists; it birthed seismic tomes like Dale Carnegie’s How To Win Friends And Influence People. The valorisation of influence in American culture is the bedrock of the entrepreneurialism that all young people seemingly now have to partake in.

At the end of 2011, an updated version of Carnegie’s book was published: How to Win Friends And Influence People in the Digital Age. The following year Emily Hund, a social media and influencer researcher then working in the magazine and publishing industry, watched the blogging phenomenon begin. It was an exciting time, Hund recalls, when names like Susie Bubble and Fashion Toast were launching incredibly successful careers off their influence.

“No one planned to create this industry,” explains Hund. “It happened by accident. People fell backward into it, because of this perfect storm of events; of the advent of these different technological platforms; and the crumbling of legacy media and creative industries, where there were a lot of people who were trained in or interested in creative jobs who weren’t getting traditional jobs. There was this glut of people who were turning to the internet at a time when the internet was gonna save everybody.”

In the early 2010s, people were referred to by the platform they were famous on: YouTubers, Viners, YouNow stars. “You saw the rise of this new group who were true multi-platform creators and there needed to be an agnostic term for them,” New York Times tech reporter Taylor Lorenz says. That term couldn’t be ‘creators’, because that word was synonymous with YouTubers. “This was also when brands really came into the picture and did bigger brand deals. ‘Influencer’ was the word that the marketing industry applied to creators, and people started using it.”

For years, Lorenz battled to even use the word “influencer” in her day-to-day work as a reporter for one of the most respected publications in the world. “I’ve had literally hours of arguments and conversations with editors at literally every place I’ve ever worked,” she says, “to try to describe people accurately and in a way that will be accessible to all audiences, and that old people and young people will both understand who you’re talking about.”

As Lorenz points out, these arguments about language happen with any emerging journalistic beat, but the reluctance to name influencers speaks to the fact that the industry felt both terrifyingly new and yet evolving and changing at an exponential rate.

A shift occurred in 2017 and 2018, when “influencer” took on a new negative connotation. Hund ties this to a wave of new influencers following what had previously been financially successful for their predecessors and ushering in repetitive content and trends – all of which was obvious to audiences. Think millennial pink, brunches and girlbossery but also spon con.

“People started to sense that the influencer class maybe was losing their edginess that maybe they had in the very beginning – and then also it started to become more clear that people that influencers were selling something,” says Hund.

Similarly, Lorenz notes that most people weren’t paying attention to the influencing industry until around 2017, and associate “influencer” with the creators from that era: female, hyper-curated, millennial. “There’s a charge that comes with the word influencer and a lot of it is sexism,” she says. “Someone will say ‘I’m not an influencer’, but if you ask them what an influencer is, they’ll say it’s a beautiful young woman that they see as vapid and shouldn’t be building their brand and doing sponsored content.”

At exactly the same time, “influencer” became an aspirational word to Gen Z. The youngest creators self-identify as influencers, and for the wannabes or future influencers, the word translates to the lifestyle and income of mid-to-top-tier creators.

Whether a slur or dream career, the word now reflects how the majority of us present and graft online. I always feel an uncanny jolt whenever I see people tagging brands in their Instagram stories of items they’ve bought themselves – as if that either makes them appear as an influencer or as if they assume that’s how friends and colleagues engage with their “content”.

“Everyone is sort of adopting this mindset of the advertising industry or the media industry logics that have existed for a long time,” explains Hund. “Now, they’re kind of being applied to the individual, where it’s like, ‘OK, now my M.O. is to influence.’”

We’re all using influencer tactics, from the celebrity actresses turned cookery range floggers (acting like influencers but not technically influencers, according to Lorenz) to you sharing other people’s work in the hope of one day getting reciprocal shares on your own.

So do we need new words to name the actual influencers? What actually is an influencer? “My feeling is that influencers – and creators – are a subset of entrepreneurs,” says Lorenz, adding that what is important is that we have a term at all so that people can recognise and understand the industry. To say we’re all influencers makes it difficult to talk about or critique influencer behaviour and the ways in which they sell and or behave as an extension of the brands they make deals with.

When I ask Stokel-Walker, he says, “There needs to be a term for digital-first – and largely digital-only – ‘influencers’, for whom the stakes are higher if they misstep and therefore are more likely to follow the rules around disclosure and more carefully protect their online brand, versus the traditional celebrities who get bunged a few quid every few months to plug a product online and are doing it as a bolt-on to their income, so aren’t necessarily as careful about how they do it.”

The issue with making language more specific is that it would show the problem with the latter: “What we think of as a more authentic way of marketing products isn’t authentic when you’re not that bothered if your Instagram audience turns away from you, because you’ve still got your TV presenting gigs.”

Interestingly, the drive to re-define these terms is coming from influencers themselves. In a recent bid to legitimise their jobs and standardise practices and rates, they hope to unionise. “They’re upfront, saying ‘we create our own content, but we’re here to work with brands and do it in a professional way’,” says Hund, “They’re trying to really clean up the field and normalise it.”

If our favourite influencers – the ones who’ve influenced us the most – insist they don’t really relate to the dirty word, this is a chance for them to reclaim it. Or, at least, use their social currency to become someone new.

Feature Image Credit: Owain Anderson 

By Hannah Ewens

[email protected] Features Editor at VICE UK. Author of ‘Fangirls: Scenes From Modern Music Culture’.

Sourced from VICE

Read More
By
In News

15 keys to get the most out of Instagram for companies

No Comments

By ,

50% of people are more interested in a brand when they see its ads on Instagram. Take advantage of it!

If you have a company or want to boost your personal brand, using Instagram can be the difference between having more or less presence and above all, sales. In Mexico alone, a potential ad viewing of 32 million people is reported .

50% of people are more interested in a brand when they see its ads on Instagram and 90% of users follow at least one business, which shows the potential of this social network. If you want to promote Instagram in favour of your business, I share 15 keys that will make your company grow, will make you known and will increase your sales in the long run.

1. Create ads. Ads on Instagram really reach those people who have already visited similar pages or who have a real interest in products and services like yours, so don’t hesitate to use them.

2. Make the most of local reach. If you have a local business, Instagram allows you to reach people who are nearby through ads, you just need to optimize them correctly and set a perimeter around your location. Optimize and attract those interested in similar products or services.

3. Make sure your account is a business one. Do not miss the wide variety of free tools that the social network makes available to businesses, such as the possibility of accessing traffic statistics or generating ads. Set up your account to be a company account and take advantage of them.

4. Make an unforgettable profile description. Create a phrase that reaches your customer’s heart, always giving priority to the benefit that your consumers will obtain from buying from you and the use of keywords relevant to them. Also, use emojis and include your website address.

5. Capture new leads. Do it through an exchange: in the web link of the profile offer some digital asset, be it an e-book, free course, video or tutorial in exchange for the name and email. This list of leads that you will create is ground gold to create a long-term relationship of trust with them.

Optimize and attract those interested in similar products or services / Image: Depositphotos.com

6. Use #hashtags. They work as bookmarks to find specific content, as well as being a way to stay on top of topics of interest. So look for relevant hashtags and use them in your posts. This way, new potential clients will find you organically.

7. Answer your clients. This, in addition to increasing their interaction, will help you learn what they are looking for and how you can satisfy them.

8. Post a good profile picture. If you are looking to enhance your personal brand, use a professional photo of yourself and if you have a logo, use it. The objective is that among thousands of accounts, your clients begin to relate your profile image to your brand.

9. Take advantage of statistics. Every good strategy requires a measurement of results, so take advantage of the statistics that Instagram offers you for free. So you can know the age, interests and location of whoever follows you. This is key information for when you make announcements.

10. Use the stories. While 86% of users use this functionality, only 36% of companies use it. Use them and if you have more than 10 thousand followers, direct them to a website, you will make them visit you and buy from you organically.

11. Generate video content. It is advisable to create between one and two videos per week of at least 30 minutes each. Use them for IGTV and cut them to offer them for 10 minute instalments on your profile.

12. Question your followers. Create posts that invite questions to be answered in the comments. With this, while you get to know your customers more, your publications will have a good reach because the Instagram algorithm will favour this type of content.

13. Make live videos. The algorithm also benefits this type of content, plus it is proven that people like and share it, so take advantage of it!

14. Use Creator Studio. It is Instagram’s own platform that brings together all the tools to effectively publish, manage, monetize and measure the content of your account. Get organized with her and once a month schedule the publications for the next 30 days, so you will optimize your time.

15. Be consistent and persistent. Post daily or at least twice a week. Take care to start with good momentum and maintain it, it is the key to success. Do not despair that you will constantly see your account grow.

Feature Image Credit: Depositphotos.com 

By

The author is a Udemy instructor, entrepreneur, and digital innovator

Sourced from Entrepreneur Europe

Read More
By
In News

9 Digital Marketing Trends for 2021 You Need to Implement Immediately

No Comments

Sourced from Every Day She’s Sparkling.

Trying to figure out how to master your digital marketing strategy this year?

Although digital marketing isn’t the only way to promote your business, it is one of the best.

For that very reason, today, we’re looking at 9 digital marketing trends you need to check out to grow your business online.

We’ll also talk about ways you can begin immediately implementing them into your marketing strategy.

What is digital marketing?

Digital marketing is online, internet marketing that is done through digital technology (a.k.a, the internet).

If you have social media accounts, digital products, or even a website , you need to learn digital marketing.

A few examples of digital marketing are:

The Latest in Digital Marketing Trends

As a b2b marketer, I use internet marketing daily to run my business, create an amazing customer experience and build brand awareness.

But, are we really using it to our best benefit?

To effectively use digital marketing, you have to understand what actually does (and doesn’t) work.

You also need to be aware of which digital channels your consumers are active on and how to create a customer journey that will turn your audience into raving fans.

Knowing what strategies to use will give your brand that extra personalization and rapidly grow your “know, like and trust” factor.

Let’s look at the digital marketing trends that you should prioritize in 2021.

Digital Marketing Trend 1: Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search engine optimization is how Google decides if it should show your post, site, or product on the 1st (or 100th) page of search results.

In terms of marketing effort, SEO is a long-term strategy that can bring your target audience to you if you do it right.

SEO is listed as the first trend for 2021 because most marketing experts agree that it is truly the most important aspect of your business, in terms of online presence.

Since the goal should be to always rank on page 1 of Google, you have to focus on effective SEO.

Local SEO optimization is especially important if you have a brick-and-mortar storefront in a particular location so that people find the resources they are looking for in their area..

To do this, you need to learn about keyword research, backlinks, and post layouts.

There are many different search engine optimization courses, but here are a few of my favourites:

Digital Marketing Trend 2: Video Content

If you haven’t yet noticed, all social media platforms are beginning to emphasize the importance of video content.

Youtube used to be one of the only video platforms online. Now, there are Instagram reels, Facebook Lives and so much more.

Although each algorithm is different, there is one specific similarity for growth: video content.

Since our social life has been fully online for the last year, social media has decided that people want face-to-face content.

LIVE videos (where you are interacting with your audience in real-time), are a great option if you have time to do them.

But, if you only have a few minutes here and there, make quick video content for reels or TikTok .

Digital Marketing Trend 3: Instagram

Instagram is going to be just as popular (if not more) in 2021 as it was in 2020 as a social media channel. It’s been said that it will surpass Facebook for the number of users this year alone.

That being said, use it to build your business.

But, you have to know the algorithm to boost your engagement which will increase your audience.

Even though this social media platform began with only pictures, you can now post videos, reels, boomerangs, or even go live. To get the most traction, try to utilize all of these features.

How to use Instagram for Content Marketing

  • Create reels. Instagram uses reels to compete with TikTok. Therefore, this content is currently prioritized more than pictures.o compete with TikTok. Therefore, this content is currently prioritized more than pictures.
  • Post consistently. Whether you post daily, every couple of days, or weekly, post at the same times. Instagram favours consistent accounts.
  • Add content to your stories as frequently as you can. Aim for a minimum of 10 story posts per day.
  • Engage with other accounts in your niche. You can like, comment, save, and follow similar accounts to show up on more feeds.
  • Use all of the features Instagram has to offer. (This means stories, feed posts, reels, and live videos.)

If you want to learn more about increasing your Instagram following , check out this article.

Digital Marketing Trend 4: TikTok

TikTok is another good way to begin digital marketing.

The latest trend on video is TikTok where users can create short video clips with voice-overs and other fun and interactive content.

This app is known for its ability to allow anyone (regardless of account size) to go viral.

Although you can have a personal account, it is better to stay with a niche topic so that your audience knows the type of content they’ll be getting.

How to use TikTok for digital marketing:

  • Post a few times a day if you are able to. If not, try to at least post once a day.
  • Try to stay on the app for a minimum of an hour a day.

Digital Marketing Trend 5: Clubhouse

Clubhouse is a new app that was just released at the end of 2020.

The reason Clubhouse is a hit is because it is a completely auditory platform and is essentially built 100% off interactive content.

You can join groups to sit in on talks or even join conversations yourself. If you are a b2b company, you’ll find lots of inspiration and connections in the platform.

But, as of right now, you have to be invited to join it. This is due to the app being so new, they don’t want it to crash due to having too many users.

Once you do join, though, you get one link to send to a friend to allow them to join.

Once the owners have the app fully setup, they have said they will be opening it up to everyone without needing an invite.

How to use Clubhouse for digital marketing:

  • If you aren’t yet a member, you can still go ahead and secure your user name. That way, your account name is set in stone.
  • Once you join, optimize your bio to let your followers know what your niche is.
  • Join in on discussions that fit your brand.

LEARN MORE ABOUT HOW TO GET ON CLUBHOUSE HERE

digital marketing trends for 2021
Digital Marketing Trends for 2021

Digital Marketing Trend 6: Testimonials and Reviews

Get as many testimonials and/or reviews as you can for your products.

Whether you sell courses, e-books, or even physical products, make sure you get feedback.

Not only will this help you improve your products, but you’ll always have good feedback to show potential customers.

How to get testimonials to improve digital marketing:

  • If you haven’t launched your product yet, you can ask a few people to check it out for free in exchange for a review.
  • Add an incentive for your customer to leave you a testimonial or review. This can be a discount code, affiliate link, or even a free product.

Digital Marketing Trend 7: Conversational Chatbots

Conversational chatbots are created through machine learning software that creates automated responses on your social media accounts or websites to your customers.

Since we are in an ‘I want it and I want it now’ world, getting an immediate response is a win for your customers.

But, we can’t always be online, right?

That’s why chatbots are a huge hit. You can set up an automated virtual reality response to answer or ask a common question, give your office hours, or even send you an email.

Some programs even allow marketing automation that act as mini funnels taking your audience through an entire customer journey.

How to use conversational chatbots for digital marketing:

  • Add automated responses to your Facebook page messages and Instagram messages.
  • Add a conversational chatbot to your websites. This way, if a potential customer has a question, they can get an immediate answer rather than have to wait on you to respond. Oftentimes, waiting for a response can cause you to lose a sale.

Digital Marketing Trend 8: Shareable Content

One of the best ways to get higher engagement (and more traction) on social media, your websites, and your products is to make sure your content is shareable.

Now, this doesn’t mean that the content is technologically shareable. This means that the content itself needs to make the consumers want to share it with their friends, family, and followers.

How to make a shareable content marketing strategy:

  • Answer questions that are widely asked in your niche. That way, if one person finds it useful, they’re inclined to share it with others.
  • Make funny content. We all like to laugh, right? Finding ways to add humour in your niche can gain you a lot of engagement.
  • Use interactive content that your audience can easily participate in. Think: THIS or THAT type questions.

Digital Marketing Trend 9: Branding

Branding is one of the most important aspects of having any business in reaching our target audience.

With digital marketing being a (primarily) visual way to market, make sure you have a clear brand for your audience.

Branding includes your business layout, products, niche, and even your pictures.

How to optimize your brand for digital marketing:

  • Use a consistent editing style on your platforms.
  • Create products that fit your niche.
  • Style all of your social media accounts the same way. (Meaning, use the same filters and colours throughout each account.)

You want your audience to see your products, logo, or pictures and immediately know they’re yours.

Make 2021 Your Year through Digital Marketing Trends

Being a digital marketer doesn’t have to be hard. You also don’t have to follow all the trends at one time.

I recommend picking one digital trend and trying to perfect your usage of it. Then, once you think you have a great grasp of those, try to add another one.

If you utilize these trends correctly, 2021 is bound to be your year!

Digital Marketing Trend Strategies FAQ:

Related articles:

Q: Can I make money with digital marketing?

You can definitely make money with digital marketing. You can promote other people’s products or even make money off of your own products.

Q: Will these digital marketing trends ever change?

As all trends change regularly, digital marketing trends will also change. This is why it is vital to master SEO. But, all 13 of the trends previously listed are great ways to start adding digital marketing into your business.

By Sasha Lassey

Hi, I’m Sasha, an Online Blog and Business Marketing Strategy Coach for Women Entrepreneurs. I have a passion for helping women entrepreneurs achieve maximum success by showing them how to grow their side-hustles online and make more money. I’ve been running businesses and growing teams for more than ten years and I know how hard it can be to learn how to scale your business from beginner to the next level. I’d love to work with you and show you how you can make more money with time-tested online business strategies!

Sourced from Every Day She’s Sparkling

Read More
By
In News

Instagram Ad Targeting: 8 Valuable Audiences

No Comments

By

Want to target high-value audiences with your Instagram ads? Looking for new ideas?

In this article, you’ll discover eight valuable Instagram ad audiences and find out how to leverage them in your campaigns.

Why You Need to Know Your Audience’s Awareness Level

The first step toward improving your Instagram ads targeting is knowing your audience’s awareness level. Are they hearing about your brand for the first time? Or are they already loyal customers?

Your target audience should fit into one of these groups:

Top of the funnel (TOFU): These prospects have a low level of awareness and may not have engaged much with your brand’s content yet. They might even be entering your conversion funnel for the first time. Demographic-, interest-, and behaviour-based targeting often works best for TOFU prospects, especially when you pair this audience with one of Instagram’s Awareness ad objectives.

Middle of the funnel (MOFU): These Instagram users already know about your brand but need a bit more information about your services before considering a purchase. They’ve already interacted with your brand, perhaps by watching a video, saving a post, or clicking through to your website. With remarketing audiences and Consideration ad objectives, you can successfully retarget these prospects.

Bottom of the funnel (BOFU): These customers typically have purchase intent and are ready to book a service. They just need a gentle nudge from your ad campaign. Users who have already completed high-intent actions—such as filling out a lead form—are great candidates for this type of audience, especially with a Conversion objective.

Once you know how to target each group effectively, you can build a successful Instagram ads funnel. From here, you’ll continually add new people to your TOFU audiences and guide prospects toward high-value conversions at the bottom of the funnel.

Click HERE to read the remainder of the article.

By

Sourced from Social Media Examiner

Read More
By
In News

What is Brand Storytelling and Why Does It Matter?

No Comments

By  Brad Vassallo,

In today’s world, it is easier than ever to start a business. Explore Instagram on any given day and you will inevitably see an ad for some new online retailer. It begs the question: How, in such a saturated online marketplace, can a fledgling brand separate itself from the pack and survive?

There is no one answer to such a complex question, but for many consumer brands, the key is brand storytelling.

In short, brand storytelling is a marketing strategy that references a product’s functional benefits and establishes a context for when, where, and by whom that product is to be used. Oftentimes the goal is for a consumer to see her/himself in that scenario; for example, a casual menswear brand might produce a shoot involving a group of men on a weekend trip to the outdoors.

In other cases, the audience or customer profile is more aspirational in nature; an example of this might be a company that makes luxury handbags producing a shoot with beautiful talent up and down the Amalfi Coast. The average consumer will not be traipsing about the Mediterranean coast all that often, but with the right handbag, they feel like someone who would. Here emerges the two primary ingredients behind the secret sauce that is brand storytelling: Functional benefits and emotional connection.

Functional Benefits

Integral to any sensible advertising is a display of the product’s functional benefits. If you are a photographer shooting a campaign for a pair of boardshorts, it’s fairly obvious in what context that shoot will take place. You wouldn’t showcase a pair of sunglasses lying in bed, and you certainly wouldn’t photograph a pair of boardshorts at the opera. There is a natural association between a product’s benefits — in this case, probably lightweight and fast-drying material — and the expected scenario in which you would find that product. Once you identify a few key benefits, then you can begin to segment your market by other metrics like price: Yes these shoes are comfortable, but are they lounge-in-a-hammock comfortable or sip-martinis-on-a-yacht comfortable? Think of it like a mind map; identify your core benefits then branch out from there.

The primary benefit of Kuju Coffee is convenience, but here’s the thing: K-Cups are convenient and easy to use too, just not while hiking. So when I decided to produce a spec shoot for Kuju, I had to go beyond the logical appeal of convenience and portability and tap into something deeper.

Emotional Connection

Think back to my examples in the opening paragraphs. In either scenario, the advertiser’s goal is to strike an emotional chord with their audience. One plays on a sense of belonging and friendship, while the other taps into a bit of envy and longing for a future perfect self. The narrative being told tells us who is expected to buy certain products and for what context.

With Kuju, the emotional association I wanted to make was a sense of adventure and wanderlust. Shooting in a location like the mountains of West Virginia is generic enough to have a universal appeal while still evoking this feeling of envy and a yearning to go somewhere beautiful. If your coffee can go wherever you go, then why not go anywhere? Suddenly your mind is flooded with possibilities far beyond the coffee itself.

By driving home this connection between product benefits and emotion, you effectively marry the two in a consumer’s mind:

“Man, I need to get out and see the world and with this coffee I don’t even have to give it a second thought.”

Or:

“You know, I’m going hiking with some friends next weekend, this coffee would be perfect!”

Whatever direction the consumer’s mind takes them, at the end of the day they want to buy your coffee.

Good Versus Great

Brand storytelling is the key to levelling up your company’s marketing strategy and zeroing in on your target market. In fact, you could argue that for many companies these days, it is the only thing separating one brand from the next. Good content is well lit, properly exposed, and captures the mind; truly great content goes a step further and captures the head and the heart, showing you not only what’s being sold, but why you need it in your life.

By Brad Vassallo

About the author: Brad Vassallo is a commercial and outdoor lifestyle photographer based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A creator since his earliest days, he once had the dream of being a National Geographic photographer. In spite of those aspirations, he spent the better part of his life chasing other people’s dreams of what he was supposed to do and who he was supposed to be. At a certain point though, the voice inside got to be too loud, too persistent, and told him that the path he was on was not his own. He began to listen to that voice, affirming his own creative aspirations and returning to his creative roots. You can see more of his work on his website and Instagram.

Sourced from PetaPixel

Read More
By
Load More