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10 ways to promote your blog in 2021

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Get the word out about your blog with these strategies.

Writing high-quality content is only a small part of creating and maintaining a successful blog. To further increase site traffic and attract more readers to your site, you’ll need to work on blog promotion.

Luckily, there are plenty of strategies that are cost-effective and easy to implement.

Read on to discover how to promote your blog effectively in ten different ways – start experimenting with any of these solutions and watch the traffic roll into your site.

SEO

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

1. Utilize SEO for your blog

Before learning how to promote your blog, the first step you should take is optimizing your site for search engines. With good SEO, it will be much easier for a blog to rank high on search engine result pages (SERPs) and attract more traffic.

Many factors impact a site’s SEO performance, including the website platform and hosting service you choose to create a blog. These two aspects determine the overall consistency of the site experience you offer to visitors.

When choosing a platform to build a blog, consider starting with a content management system (CMS). This tool makes it easy for non-technical users to create and manage a website. It also offers complete control over a site’s design, functionality, and SEO.

One of the best CMSs to get started with is WordPress. It comes built-in with many SEO features, including meta descriptions, a customizable URL structure, and the ability to use page titles.

Keep in mind that there are two different versions of WordPress – WordPress.com and WordPress.org. Although both platforms provide the same quality of SEO performance, the latter gives users more freedom to utilize plugins to further improve their SEO.

Make sure to also pick a web hosting service that’s reliable, fast, and secure. Some of the top hosting providers to consider are:

Hostinger – has excellent performance and comes with an SEO toolkit to evaluate technical SEO issues on a website. Their hosting prices start at $1.39/month.

Bluehost – offers several SEO tools to increase site traffic. The cost of starting a WordPress blog with their shared hosting plans startsfrom $3.95/month.

HostGator – provides great uptime and speed. The fee of creating a blog with this web host’s shared hosting solutions starting at $2.75/month.

Aside from choosing the right platform and hosting service, there are other blog SEO practices to keep in mind in order to increase blog traffic:

  • Choose a mobile-friendly theme – Mobile page load speed is a key metric that Google uses when determining a site’s search ranking. That’s why it’s crucial to make a blog responsive to any device.
  • Internal linking – Internal links can boost a blog’s traffic since they help Google understand and rank the site better. Internal linking also allows visitors to navigate a blog easily.
  • Use a CDN provider – A content delivery network (CDN) can boost the speed and reduce the resource usage of a website.
  • Link out to other sites – Including links to some high-quality and authoritative websites can help search engine crawlers understand what a post is about.
  • Compress images – Reducing the file size of blog posts’ images can speed up a site and improve page loading times.

To manage and monitor your blog’s search engine rankings, make sure to use the best SEO tools for the job, such as SEMRush or Ahrefs.

Additionally, take advantage of free Google SEO tools such as Google Analytics to see the in-depth breakdown of your blog traffic, helping you identify how well your SEO efforts are working.

2. Do proper keyword research

Knowing the important keywords to use on your blog posts can also improve the blog’s ranking on SERPs and generate valuable traffic. These terms can be discovered by doing keyword research.

Keyword research helps bloggers to create content their visitors are searching for. This process also reveals how many people are searching for a specific keyword and how high the competition is.

SpyFu Website

(Image credit: SpyFu)

There are plenty of keyword research tools such as KWFinder and SpyFu that can be used to discover keywords, common questions, and topics for content.

When doing keyword research, consider these aspects to decide the best keywords for your blog:

Searcher’s intent – This refers to website users’ intention when searching Google for a specific term. To attract qualified traffic, be sure to choose keywords that match your target audience’s user intent.

Search volume – A keyword’s search volume shows how competitive the term is. Try to target keywords with great search volume since they can increase a blog’s chance to generate significant organic traffic. Keep in mind, however, that it requires more effort to rank for terms with high search volume.

Traffic potential – To identify the keyword’s traffic potential of a topic, use tools like Ahrefs and see how much traffic the current top-ranking pages get and what other keywords they rank for. This process can help you prioritize your keywords and find related terms that users are searching for.

Keyword difficulty – Many SEO analytics tools provide this metric to show how difficult it is to rank for a specific keyword. The higher the score of the term, the more competitive it is.

SEO analysis

(Image credit: Pixabay)

Once you have a list of terms to rank for, it’s time to use them for on-page SEO. Here are some key places on a blog to use these keywords:

Page titles – A blog page title is the first element of a site page that people notice in the SERPs. Make sure to use a target keyword at the start of the page title to have both Google and your audience recognize the main subject of the page.

Subheadings – The purpose of subheadings is to make content scannable. Using target keywords in subheadings can increase a content’s relevance for the readers.

Content – It’s one of the most important search ranking factors. Thus, try to include keywords naturally throughout the content and avoid keyword stuffing.

URLs – Using a clean URL with a keyword can improve a site’s architecture, make a blog easier to navigate, and help it rank higher in relevant search results.

Meta descriptions – A meta description is a short explanation that shows up on SERPs under the page title. To boost a page’s click-through rate, try to create a compelling description using target keywords.

Images – Always use alt text for pictures to help search engine crawlers understand your images. Additionally, alt text is vital to a blog’s accessibility since it allows visually impaired users better understand an on-page image.

Remember to use Google Search Console to track your current keyword positioning and analyse which pages drive traffic to your blog.

email

(Image credit: Geralt / Pixabay)

3. Use email marketing

Email marketing can be one of the most effective ways of promoting your blog and converting visitors if done correctly. This blog promotion strategy helps you notify readers of new blog posts or share any good news with ease.

Sending personalized messages to blog visitors can also help create meaningful relationships with them, keep the audience hooked with high-quality content, and boost engagement on a blog.

The first step to take before getting started with email marketing is to build an email list, a collection of email addresses used to send promotional material.

Here are a few ways to build an email list:

Offer an incentive – Consider giving readers an incentive like a free course, eBook, or cheat sheet in exchange for their email address.

Collect emails directly from the blog – Create a signup form and place it on your home page. Make it stand out and attract readers’ attention with a strong and compelling call to action (CTA).

Create content upgrades – A content upgrade is a valuable offer that complements an article that the reader is already interested in, created to get a visitor’s email address.

Once you have a mailing list, look for email marketing software like Constant Contact or MailChimp. Using an email marketing tool makes it easier to create attractive email templates, deliver emails to large groups of contacts, track messages, and view analytics.

The next step is to craft email content that can lead visitors back to your blog. Here are some tips on how to promote your blog with the use of effective promotional emails:

Darius Foroux

(Image credit: Darius Foroux)

Provide valuable insight for readers – Use your email to convince readers that your blog post can solve their problems. This email newsletter from Darius Foroux is a great example:

Highlight the content value in the email subject – Readers might receive dozens of promotions every day, so try to capture their attention by creating a short, compelling email subject that clearly states the value of your content.

Create personalized subject lines – Including recipient names in the email’s subject can lead to a 21.2 percent open rate. It can also make the subscribers feel like the email is crafted specifically for them, which helps to build relationships and establish trust.

Make it easy to read – Keep the email clean and easy to digest by using appealing pictures and paragraph breaks.

Use links – Avoid adding attachments to a message since it can affect email deliverability, making it more likely to get lost in spam filters. Instead, use call-to-action links to grab subscriber’s attention and encourage them to act.

Proofreading – To make your emails look more professional, be sure to check for any grammar errors before sending them out.

Social Media

(Image credit: Getty Images)

4. Share your blog on social media

To get more exposure quickly and efficiently, try sharing your blog post on popular social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest.

Here are some of the benefits of using social media sites to promote your blog:

Increase blog traffic – Sharing content on different social networks helps bloggers reach a wider audience. Additionally, if the content provides value to the users, they might share it further and recommend it to others.

Cost-effective – With social media channels, bloggers can make their site visible to a targeted audience for free.

Improve engagement with the audience – A blogger can also have a personal and meaningful conversation with their readers through social networks. Devoting time to communicate with the audience will help to build trust.

Social media platforms aren’t all created the same, so try to focus on the most relevant social networks that suit your target audience. For instance, if you’re targeting female readers, then Pinterest might be the right social media for you.

Here are other tips for leveraging social media and bringing more traffic to your blog:

  • Add a blog link to the bio – A social media bio is the first thing people see on an account. Make sure to use it to drive traffic to your site or blog content.
  • Share engaging content using existing posts – Use a free tool like Canva to convert your top blog articles into appealing graphics.
  • Integrate social media icons into the site – Adding social media icons to a blog makes it easier for visitors to share blog content with their audience.
  • Post regularly – Be sure to know how often you should share in a specific social network. For example, Twitter users should share at least one tweet a day.
  • Use hashtags – Utilizing a hashtag is a great way to expand the reach of a post and connect it to a specific conversation, topic, or event. Hashtags also make it easier to locate other relevant content around particular terms.
  • Join online groups – Become part of a social community such as the ones found in LinkedIn, or a Facebook group to share content and increase the visibility of your blog.
  • Find the optimal time for posting – Knowing the optimum time to post on your chosen channel can help you get more clicks and engagements. Thankfully, most social platforms have an analytics or insights tool that provides this information. Once you know the best times to post, start planning and preparing your content in advance using social media management tools like Buffer.

Remember that social media is a two-way engagement platform that requires actual interaction. Don’t just reappear whenever you have a new blog post – instead, maintain a regular presence on a social network by starting conversations, responding to comments, and answering questions.

5. Promote your blog with online paid advertising

If you have a budget you’re willing to spend, consider using online paid advertising to promote your blog content. This strategy refers to a marketing method where you pay for ad spots to attract internet traffic.

With the paid promotion, your page can appear right in front of your target audience in no time. It’s also possible to see the results as soon as your ads go live.

Online paid marketing can feature one or more digital channels, including search engine results pages (SERPs) and social media platforms.

The process of increasing blog visibility on SERPs through paid advertising is usually known as search engine marketing (SEM). This method relies on keywords to target users when they’re performing searches in a search engine.

Here’s an example of how advertisements appear for the keywords “how to boost your SEO”:

Google Search Results Boost SEO

(Image credit: Google)

To promote a blog with search advertising, try using a popular online marketing service like Google Ads.

Also, consider the following suggestions before getting started with paid search ads:

Be clear on budget and expectations – Make sure to have a specific budget to avoid overspending and clear goals in order to analyse whether a campaign works or not.

Keep the quality score up – A quality score rates the relevance of both your ads and keywords. Having a great quality score can help to keep your ad costs low.

Bid on competitive blog keywords – If your competitors have a lot of traffic for their brand name, try to target those keywords with your ads. This way, searchers will see your relevant content and go to your blog post instead of those of the competitors.

Another form of paid advertising is social media ads. This blog promotion method lets you target users based on their locations, specific interests, and buying behaviours.

Some of the best social media sites for advertising are Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

Here are a few tips on how to promote your blog with social media advertising:

  • Design the ads with mobile in mind – Since 91 percent of users access social channels via mobile devices, ensure your ads incorporate easy-to-view images on the small screen.
  • Use videos – A video is more engaging and has a better return on investment (ROI) than other media types.
  • Test your ads – Try A/B testing your ads to see what works best for your campaign and make the most of your spending.

Computer user

(Image credit: Pixabay)

6. Guest post on popular blogs

Guest posting on other blogs is an excellent way to promote your blog since it lets you expose your brand to other bloggers’ loyal audiences. This method also helps to establish yourself as an authority figure and connect with other thought leaders in a niche.

OnTopList

(Image credit: OnTopList)

To find guest blogging opportunities, go to blog directories like AllTop, Bloglovin, and OnTopList. These websites can help people discover relevant blogs in a niche that might accept guest posting.

Once you have a list of potential blogs to guest post on, use a backlink analysis tool like Moz to check the domain authority for each of the sites you’re considering – the higher a blog’s domain authority, the easier it can rank in search engines. Doing this also showcases whether these sites provide good value in terms of links.

Keep the following tips and tricks in mind to get started with guest blogging:

Form a genuine relationship with the site owners – Many website owners only take guest content from bloggers they already know and trust. Thus, try to connect with them first before sending a pitch by subscribing to their newsletter, leaving comments on their blog posts, and commenting on their social content.

Keep the pitch short and straight to the point – Since most site owners don’t have the time to read long emails, keep your email as brief and direct as possible.

Link to your blog articles – Some sites might let guest bloggers backlink to their site, helping to drive referral traffic and lead to better search visibility for the blog. Bloggers can use Google Analytics to track traffic from this guest posting effort.

Ask the audience to leave comments – Encourage readers to post their opinions and share the content. This helps to have the content rank for different keywords that are naturally mentioned in the comments.

Take advantage of the author’s profile – Guest bloggers can also include their blog’s link in the author’s bio, which helps to drive people to their site.

7. Reach out to other bloggers

Another viable blog promotion solution is the conduction of blogger outreach. It’s a marketing strategy that involves getting the help of well-known bloggers or influencers to improve a blog’s exposure by offering something in return, such as a fee, backlink, product, or service.

With this blog promotion method, new bloggers can acquire high-quality backlinks, attract quality traffic, and expand their network.

Lumanu

(Image credit: Lumanu)

To get started with blogger outreach, look for influencers in your niche using tools like GroupHigh, Influencity, and Lumanu.

Then, refer to these tips on how to promote your blog by leveraging the loyal audience of others:

  • Get the influencers to notice you – Mention influencers on social media and promote their relevant content to make them recognize you.
  • Interview professionals – Aside from asking for an inbound link from influencers, bloggers can also invite them for an interview. When the interview is published, the influencers might also share it with their audiences.
  • Try broken link building – A great tip to get backlinks from influencers without paying a dime is to identify broken links on their blogs and present your content as an alternative replacement.
  • Track the results – Use a backlink checker like Majestic to see which influencers are giving you the best coverage and the most leads.
  • Cultivate relationships – After getting blog coverage from an influencer, make sure to maintain your relationship with them. The stronger the relationship, the longer the benefits can last for your blog.

8. Get your blog on social bookmarking sites

A social bookmarking site is a platform to read and save a specific web page or article. With this tool, users can access their bookmarks from any device at any time.

Social bookmarking sites are great places to share blog posts with new readers. When your content is listed on or shared through a bookmarking site, it can result in massive increases in traffic back to your blog.

To begin with this blog promotion method, bloggers need to choose a platform to participate in and submit their content to that site. Some of the most popular bookmarking websites are Digg, Flipboard, and Pocket.

DZone

(Image credit: DZone)

Bloggers can also share their blog posts on niche social bookmarking sites like GrowthHackers and DZone to generate more relevant shares and traffic.

Here are a few tips on how to promote your blog content on a social bookmarking site:

Make the headlines count – Some social bookmarking platforms might only display the article’s title. Thus, compel potential readers to click on your link by using a catchy, captivating headline.

Add a featured image – Make the article stand out on the news feeds by using attractive graphics.

Keep the description length in mind – Some sites might limit the description space to 150 characters, so try to make the description short and match the content.

Utilize social bookmarking buttons on the blog – Consider adding a social bookmarking button on your site to let readers bookmark content with ease.

9. Promote your blog in online forums

Another excellent method of blog promotion is to join online forums. Being part of online communities lets you interact, contribute, and bring value to a niche group of people.

Joining online forums also allows bloggers to share their knowledge, which can help establish their expertise in a field.

However, finding niche forums can be overwhelming, especially in some of the biggest online communities like Reddit.

FindAForum

(Image credit: FindAForum)

To discover a forum that matches your field faster, try using an internet resource like FindAForum. Simply go to its categories section or enter your niche in the search bar to find a list of discussion forums.

Here are some suggestions on how to promote your blog via online forums:

Participate – To develop trust and make people more willing to engage in a blog, be prepared to contribute to the forum regularly. Try to answer questions, provide quality responses, and link to helpful resources.

Start a thread – Another way to prove that you’re a valuable member is to create your own threads. Begin by making a shorter and different version of your blog content and use it to start a new thread.

Create a signature – Some forums let users create a signature or a text that appears below a post or thread. Take advantage of this signature to make a call to action to bring traffic to your site.

10. Try reciprocal sharing sites

Bloggers can also use a reciprocal sharing site to promote their blog. Using this method, they need to share other users’ content on their social media accounts to get their blog posts promoted.

Triberr

(Image credit: Triberr)

One of the most popular reciprocal sharing websites is Triberr. This tool makes it simple and easy to grow your audience, find great posts to share with readers, and network with other bloggers.

When using a reciprocal sharing site, make sure to share content that is editorial in line with the type of post you want to be known for curating – it helps increase your credibility and exposure in a specific niche.

Also, remember to include relevant images, graphics, or relevant stock photos to make your content stand out.

Another tip is to be consistent and make it a habit to regularly share posts or respond to comments. The more consistent you post and interact with other users, the more reliable you seem to be.

Person working on a WordPress post

(Image credit: Pixabay)

Promoting your blog

Aside from publishing awesome content, bloggers must also spend time and effort promoting their blogs. Without a promotion strategy, it can be difficult for a blog to grow and generate a steady stream of readers coming to check the site out.

The most effective strategy for you also depends on the resources at your disposal, such as the budget, skill set, and timeframe.

Here are ten strategies on how to promote your blog and get more qualified visitors:

  1. Utilize SEO for your blog
  2. Do proper keyword research
  3. Use email marketing
  4. Share your blog on social media
  5. Promote your blog with online paid advertising
  6. Guest post on popular blogs
  7. Reach out to other blogs
  8. Get your blog on social bookmarking sites
  9. Promote your blog in online forums
  10. Try reciprocal sharing sites

Keep in mind that it may take a few weeks or months before you notice a significant increase in your traffic and online ranking.

Feature Image Credit: Pexels

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Désiré has been musing and writing about technology in a career spanning four decades. Following an eight-year stint at ITProPortal.com where he discovered the joys of global techfests, Désiré now heads up TechRadar Pro. He has an affinity for anything hardware and staunchly refuses to stop writing reviews of obscure products or cover niche B2B software-as-a-service providers.

Sourced from techradar.pro

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Why Every E-Commerce Brand Needs to Be All-In on Email Marketing

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Email isn’t going anywhere, and it cannot be ignored.

Millions of consumers worldwide use email and its use continues to increase throughout the years. Email is one of the most popular communication channels, and the majority of emails sent daily are business related.

Think of how many emails you receive on a daily and weekly basis — they consume a large part of our life. From notifications to paperless billing — we rely heavily on emails every single day.

Email marketing has continued to be one of the most effective ways for a business to market to its customers. Email is personal and the open rates put your message in front of its intended recipients more than any other channel.

Email isn’t going anywhere, and while SMS marketing may be experiencing industry-high open rates, specifically in the e-commerce industry, email cannot be ignored. Here is why brands need to be all-in on email marketing.

More customizable and personal than social media

E-commerce brands, especially direct-to-consumer brands, love social media. While social media offers a great platform to market to your customers, it isn’t highly customizable or personal.

If a brand has 100,000 followers on Instagram, for example, every Post or Story is broadcast to that entire audience. What if a D2C apparel brand has both men’s and women’s lines? A post highlighting the women’s spring collection is going to be seen by all followers — male and female.

Email, however, allows an e-commerce brand to segment its list based on data. An apparel brand can have a main list that includes all customers, and then segment that into lists according to purchase behaviour.

Sending an email announcing a new women’s line to customers that have previously purchased women’s apparel is going to perform much better than an offer broadcast to the entire list. The same applies to men’s drops.

Email personalization also helps to create a stronger relationship. A post on social media feels generic, whereas an email addressed to the recipient feels more personal.

Highly measurable data

When you take all of the data available to you and break it down, you can make incredible improvements in your future email deployments. You can further segment your list, identifying your best customers and you can also use data to determine the best days of the week and time of day to send messages.

Numbers don’t lie, and when you take the time to analyse your email data, you will find new opportunities and optimize them to improve your overall results. For example, you might find that general newsletters have a significantly higher open rate on Tuesday afternoon, while special offers convert better on Friday mornings.

Access to this data also allows you to send dynamic content within your emails, tailored to each recipient. When you place an offer for a product they were recently viewing on your website in front of them, they are more likely to convert than they would be if it was just a generic blanket offer designed to appeal to the masses.

Consumers have instant access to their email via mobile devices

Mobile devices have the majority of consumers’ email at the tip of their fingers. You don’t have to wait for them to get home or to login to their email on a desktop or laptop. They are notified as soon as that email hits their device.

Whether or not they open your email immediately depends on several factors. If they are busy, they are going to ignore their email until they have time to dive in. A strong Call to Action in the email subject, however, can potentially get your emails opened very quickly.

Most consumers are glued to their mobile phones all day and all night — from the morning when they wake up until it’s time to go to sleep. Even while working or preoccupied, most will at least glance at their notifications.

Email gives you instant access to the majority of your customer base. Remember, you aren’t the only brand vying for their attention. Strong email subjects to draw high click-through rates are important, as is conveying your message within the first few sentences.

The right offer can trigger an immediate action, which is the beauty of email marketing. A consumer could have no intention of making a purchase, but they become intrigued with your offer, and the next thing they know, their credit card is out and they are completing a transaction on your website from their mobile device.

Cost-effective

Online marketing costs are skyrocketing for e-commerce brands. Facebook ads are becoming increasingly popular, therefore driving costs so high that it’s forcing many brands to look for additional channels that provide a more affordable acquisition cost.

Email is hands-down the most cost-effective, as the hard costs to deploy messages are minimal. Customer emails are collected when they make a purchase and via opt-ins on-site. While there is a cost associated with every email address added to a list, that is a one-time cost.

That email list turns into an asset that becomes more valuable as it grows. Large e-commerce brands can send email marketing offers weekly or bi-weekly and generate a substantial amount of revenue each time without the customer acquisition costs that come with Google Ads and Facebook ads.

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Founder and CEO of Maropost

Sourced from Entrepreneur Europe

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“Gen Z remains an enigma for many media companies”: What publishers need to know

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By Faisal Kalim,

Why media companies need to put social media at the centre of their content and distribution strategies

The attention and support of younger readers is critical for the survival and sustained growth of publishers. However, “the millennial audience strategy honed over the better part of a decade will not work on Gen Z (born between 1997 to 2012)” says Kayleigh Barber, Senior Reporter, Digiday. This is because their media consumption habits are vastly different from the preceding generations.

57% of Gen Zers’ first interaction with news is on social media

“Despite being a significant portion and growing force on the internet for over a decade now Gen Z remains an enigma for many media companies and brands,” writes Barber in a recently published Digiday guide, “Everything you need to know about Gen Z’s media consumption habits.” It offers a comprehensive look at Gen Zers’ media consumption habits and shares actionable insights for publishers and marketers.

Whether or not Gen Z is currently a target demographic in your business strategy, creating a positive connection with this generation and beginning to build brand affinity now is important to ensure the longevity of your brand or publication in a decade or two down the road.

Kayleigh Barber, Author, Everything you need to know about Gen Z’s media consumption habits

41% of US adults, including both young millennials and Gen Zers (18-29 years), say they primarily get their political news from social media, according to a Pew research study of more than 12,000 individuals. A 2019 Reuters Institute study had 57% of Gen Zers reporting that their first interaction with news in the morning is on social media platforms and messaging apps.

Brie D’Elia, 20, a fashion student who is building her personal brand on TikTok, tells Barber that Twitter is her go-to platform for news. “When I want a specific trending piece of information, I always go there because you can see the hashtags and what’s going viral. I just want that [information] fast,” she says.

“Social media at the centre of their content and distribution strategies”

Publishers targeting Gen Z “have put social media at the centre of their content and distribution strategies,” Barber writes. They include Group Nine, Yahoo’s In the Know and Overtime. Legacy publications including The Washington Post have embraced newer platforms like TikTok, frequented by Gen Z. Video is critical for engaging this generation and the Post’s success with TikTok offers valuable lessons for other publishers.

The unique thing about Gen Z is that while millennials have grown up with social media, Gen Z has grown up with video-first social media.

Nick Cicero, VP of Strategy, Conviva

Dave Jorgenson, video producer for the Post, has been creating content for the platform since 2019. His often quirky videos tailored for TikTok have helped the publisher notch 1M followers and 40M likes on the platform. It looks at TikTok as a tool for building relationships with younger readers.

“With our focus on reader revenue at the bottom of the funnel, loyalty is incredibly important to us. But in order to get to a place of loyalty, it starts with a relationship at the top of the funnel,” says Kat Downs Mulder, Managing Editor at the Post.

A lot of what we’re doing is exposing people to The Washington Post [and] getting them to start to develop that affinity to trust in our brand.

Kat Downs Mulder, Managing Editor, The Washington Post

“Inherently a publisher that talks to Gen Z is going to have positive things to say about climate change, and pushing innovation and progression,” Clair Bergam, Associate Media Director, Media Kitchen told Digiday earlier this year. “Brands generally are realizing that they have to get behind these larger social issues or they will quickly become irrelevant.”

In the Know was launched to produce evergreen video content for younger audiences across Yahoo’s suite of sites and channels. It became popular enough to get its standalone site in February 2020. The site notched 25M monthly unique visitors in March, according to Comscore.

The brand had also been experimenting with affiliate shopping since 2019 and moved on to producing shoppable video. It’s gross merchandise value increased by 125% over the past year, according to Andrea Wasserman, Head of Global Commerce, Verizon Media.

Source: In The Know

The brand also uses Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook to distribute its videos. A single video on Snapchat is able to drive over 1M unique views from the 13-to-24 years group, Wasserman tells Barber.

“Consumption behaviour is driving them towards these platforms”

Digital video sports publisher Overtime has reached 16.6M followers on its main TikTok account—it joined in March of 2019. The publisher has also achieved over 1B likes across the 2,000-plus videos it’s posted during this period. It has 5M followers on Instagram and 3M subscribers to its Snapchat show Overtime Now.

The publisher’s distributed content strategy across social media platforms has been its bread and butter since its launch in 2016, according to its CRO Rich Calacci. “Quite frankly, we don’t see that changing,” he says. “That’s going to be a very critical part of our growth and development, especially as it relates to Gen Z and millennials.”

Gen Z’s “consumption behaviour is driving them towards these platforms and it’s creating digital daily habits, and those digital daily habits are where we want to be.”

Rich Calacci, CRO, Overtime

The full guide is available here:
Everything you need to know about Gen Z’s media consumption habits

By Faisal Kalim

Sourced from WNIP

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Social Media Seems Like the ‘Holy Grail,’ But This Marketing Strategy Is Even More Important

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By Laura Perkes

The often overlooked tactic enhances reach, raises brand awareness and drives new customers and clients to your business

Picture the scene: It’s 2021, and the enormity and popularity of digital marketing is providing entrepreneurs with a plethora of opportunities and the ability to tap into an audience of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of potential customers, all at the push of a button.

When Facebook first launched back in 2004, it really was the first of its kind. Before that, we had MySpace and a few other platforms I’ve never heard of (Friendster or Hi5, anyone?), but none of them had managed to make the impact that Facebook did, and still does.

Since Facebook, we’ve seen the launch of Instagram in 2010 and TikTok in 2016, plus the addition of Instagram Reels in 2020. Not to mention other platforms such as Snapchat and Clubhouse, all giving us access to a wider audience.

In the past 19 years, we’ve all had the luxury of being able to communicate directly with our fans, customers and potential customers in a way that has never been possible before. But before the advent of social media, businesses and brands were built the “old fashioned” way, using more traditional marketing techniques, such as advertising and face-to-face networking.

Social media seems like the Holy Grail

When the world became more digitized, tools such as online advertising, pay-per-click and email marketing grew in popularity and gave entrepreneurs and brands alike the chance to reach an even wider audience. Data was easier to track and metrics and insights enabled you to calculate your return on investment.

For many entrepreneurs and startup businesses, social media seems like the Holy Grail. Not only do you get to build an audience and interact and engage with your followers, but it’s also completely free at the point of entry. Of course, you can now invest in adverts across all social-media channels, but for someone completely new to the business world, social media is a sensible place to start.

Yet there’s a missing piece of the puzzle here. A modality that’s as old as time, but a powerful force when it comes to sharing messages, raising brand awareness and building on the know-like-trust factor. And that’s public relations.

Everything you say and do is PR

Public relations exists so that you can communicate with your audience. If you Google “public relations,” you will find Wikipedia’s definition: “Public Relations is the practice of deliberately managing the release and spread of information between an individual or organisation and the public, in order to affect the public perception.”

So, essentially, everything you say and do is PR, but the platform in which you share your message changes. The tools you use to share your message changes. But the message remains the same. Your audience, generally, stays the same, yet where they hang out may change, based on the launch of new platforms, or the increased popularity of existing platforms, such as YouTube and podcasts.

YouTube first launched back in 2005 and podcasts launched a year earlier in 2004, yet they’ve only really exploded as a business tool over the past few years, giving entrepreneurs and startups the chance to create easy-to-share and easy-to-digest content that their ideal clients will love — content that can then be repurposed across social-media channels.

Back in 2004, when I first started my career in PR, there were really only three types of media outlets to pitch to: print titles, TV and radio. Online titles were seen as the poor relation to print, so we rarely bothered pitching to them as clients didn’t see the value in them — oh how times have changed!

However, because there was less choice, it made it easier to build relationships with journalists and work on features and content ideas with them. Over time, the media landscape has changed, and online started to make a huge impact and podcasts and YouTube channels became prime real estate.

Now, there is way more choice when it comes to gaining exposure, so while you may not consider social media, YouTube or podcasts your typical media outlets, they’re still consumed by your ideal clients, still covering topics that complement what you do, and they still have a ready-made audience of loyal fans that you could (and should) be tapping into. How? Quite simply, by pitching.

One piece of content can be shared and shared again

The way you’d pitch yourself to a podcast host is the exact same way that you’d pitch yourself to a journalist. That is a PR tactic and a skill that publicists have been honing for decades. Now, one of the utterly brilliant, yet often overlooked, powers of PR is that you can take one piece of content and deliver it to millions of people in one go. No other form of communication enables you to do that.

It may take time to build and execute your PR plan. You may not see anything published or broadcast for three to four months, but when it lands, it’s well worth the wait, as your content has the potential to be seen or heard by hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of potential ideal clients and customers. Just think about the circulation of a print publication, then triple it to get an average reach.

Think about the audience size of a podcast, then think how many extra people you can reach by sharing it across your social-media channels. And then think about how many extra people you will reach when the host shares it across their social-media channels. All of a sudden, one piece of content can be shared and shared again, leaving behind a digital footprint and breadcrumbs that can lead even more people to your business.

This is another reason why PR is such a powerful and influential tool — because what you do now is searchable forever. PR isn’t always easy to measure, which potentially adds to its downfall in the ROI stakes, but it’s still a tactic that should be employed, and a muscle that should be flexed, as part of your communications strategy.

PR is yet another way of transporting your business and your expertise to a wider audience, an audience that has been built up and cultivated for decades, that already knows, likes and trusts the outlet and the content they produce.

So, next time you decide to put all your eggs in one basket and focus all of your attention on one particular marketing tool, or one particular platform, ask if there’s a more efficient, more effective way of sharing your message to drive hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of new customers to your business. The answer, in case you missed it, is PR.

By Laura Perkes

Sourced from Entrepreneur Europe

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Risking It All: How Brands Take On Social Issues

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By Jake Fichman

The world’s largest brands are winning the hearts and dollars of consumers in ways thought unimaginable just a decade ago. According to a Kantar study, 68% of US consumers expect that the brands they shop be clear about where they stand concerning social issues. Furthermore, Millennials and Generation Z top the charts in demanding that consumer brands go far beyond their utilitarian provisions, and get their hands dirty in engaging with the world’s hottest issues.

Outdoor goods store REI shocked the public nearly a decade ago by taking a stand against consumerism by literally closing their doors on Black Friday. Coining the campaign #OptOutside, the brand led with its values in place of its revenues and showed its customers that REI stands for more than the bottom line. Every year since REI has closed on Black Friday, yet the company’s revenues continued to hit record highs.

Ben and Jerry’s ice cream proved to its customers that the iconic brand is worth more than a tasty treat. While their product line stands clear and defined, the executives of Ben and Jerry’s found the trending wave of consumer concern for their dollar to go-to brands that mean more than profitability. The ice cream giant has found itself at the center of conversations and influence in social issues such as global warming, Black Lives Matter, Israeli-Palestinian debates, and marriage rights in America.

While global brands are spreading influence and giving up profits, other companies are taking it to even greater heights; some are investing millions into their leadership’s chosen issues. Airbnb took a stand during the Trump Administration by dedicating its empathy and dedication to refugees halted at the border. Aired during the Super Bowl, Airbnb pledged to provide short-term housing for over 100,000 displaced people. Furthermore, the brand promised to prove its compassion by donating $4 million to the International Rescue Committee in a campaign titled “We Accept.”

Following this successful campaign, on June 17, 2021, Airbnb announced the launch of a $25 million fund to support refugees and asylum seekers.

Other brands such as FUBU, Spanx, and Nike have been leading their industries for years by using social media channels to amplify their stances on social and political issues. Challenged by a younger, more concerned consumer base, these brands are forced onto the stand to testify about who and what they support.

While the general consumer once expected brands to fulfill a basic need, leaving social issues to politicians and NGOs, today the average shopper first researches the fundamental beliefs and social stances of their favorite brands. This attention to a brand’s character and identity finds its climax across social media channels where the world’s largest consumer brands can track trends of brand appreciation or antipathy in real-time.

US brands appear to be leading in today’s global fight for authority and brand value, putting their profits and consumer base at risk at the fear of falling into the shadows of consumer interest. Among their efforts, brands commit to:

  • Sacrificed profits for the sake of social justice
  • Use of digital assets to voice opinions on hot topics
  • Donations of millions of dollars to NGOs that stand for change
  • Purchasing of ad space to tie their brand name to a movement
  • Adjustments to ingredients and inputs to state their brand’s purity

When brands carry out social good campaigns properly, the benefits of sacrificed profits are exceeded by an increase in customer loyalty and positive engagement. While younger consumers show the highest sensitivities to a brand’s stance on a social issue, it’s apparent by the efforts and span of companies’ advertising efforts that they clearly see the return on vulnerability.

Feature Image Credit: Photo provided by Airbnb ad shown during Super Bowl 51

By Jake Fichman

Jake Fichman serves as international Media Advisor to the Prime Minister’s Office and is the Founder and CEO of Goldfish Marketing Agency in Israel. Originally from the USA, Jake specializes in international communications and strategic messaging.

Sourced from The Times or Israel

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The Inevitable Convergence of Social Media, Commerce, and Visual Content

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By Paul Melcher,

You walk through the supermarket aisle until you face various choices for the product you wish to eat. In the case of cereals, it can be 20 or more different options. You reach out and pick one, which you feel is the right decision based on a well-educated process.

In fact, when you make that decision, you are executing on thousands of messages received during most of your entire lifetime—each one with the sole purpose of influencing that decision. In commerce, that purchasing act is called the second moment of truth. The moment when millions of dollars of marketing (at least for cereal companies) is converted into a purchase decision.

The second moment of truth.

Traditionally, the two have been geographically and historically separated. You receive marketing messages at breakfast while reading your daily digest on your phone, and you will be buying in the late afternoon.

Ecommerce, for most of its brief existence, has followed the same schema. Advertising here, shopping there. But not anymore. Everything is converging to one all-encompassing moment of truth at one place and one time, with visual content at its core. The customer journey is now reduced to an instant and one visual.

There are three main steps in a customer journey:

  1. The awareness of the product
  2. The consideration of the product
  3. The purchase of the product

Up to now, they all happened at different places and over time. Now, it’s all converging at one place and time and all within one visual content.

Nowhere can this be experienced more than on social media since we spent most of our time. All platform owe their success and operate with visual content as their core interface. Stage one was to use those visuals to capture audiences. Stage 2 two was to transform those views into advertising; stage three adds a “buy” button: Discovery, conversion, purchase, now all in one image or video.

Instagram displays an ad every 3 to 4 posts and uses retargeting profusely. Each ad contains multiple visuals introducing a product you have shown interest in and leading to a shop now button. That one image or video contains the whole customer journey.

A familiar view: an ad on Instagram

The numbers confirm the story: 81% of people out of over 1 billion use Instagram every month to help research products and services. With an average conversion rate of 1.85 percent, that’s 14 million clicks on a “buy” button of an image every month.

Identical scenario for Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Snap. Photography has a new role, one much harder to master. It has to introduce, convince, and sell all within one frame. It has to capitalize on the instant attention span. With video, it’s an identical challenge, all within the maximum of 60 seconds granted by most social media platforms. For brands, the bar is making the brutal journey feel seamless, which is why they rely on influencers’ expertise. They have mastered converting content into captive audiences and come with built-in trust. All that is needed is the “buy” button.

The product now comes to you, fully packaged with all the information you might need to make a purchase decision, including the cash register. Everything is transformed into an impulse buy, one carefully vetted via retargeting by your shown interest. All compressed in one frame or 60-second video, right next to those party pix of last night shared by you BFF.

Shop and share. The lines are blurred. Your friends, brands, product, purchase, parties are all part of the same flow. Click Like here, click buy there; who is that at my front door? A delivery or a friend? The beginning and end of your buyer journey are all in here, in one frame.

By Paul Melcher

Paul Melcher is a photography and technology entrepreneur based in New York, and the founder of Kaptur, a news magazine about the visual tech space. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. You can find more of his writings on his blog, Thoughts of a Bohemian. Melcher offers his services as a consultant as well. This article was also published here.

Sourced from PetaPixel

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Where Your Social Media Strategy Needs A Reboot

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By Stephanie Burns.

Your brand likely has room for improvement on the social media front. Contrary to popular belief, your social media pages are not for boasting testimonials, showing off new products with their descriptions, or selling on every post. It’s okay if that’s what you’ve been doing, because we haven’t really had examples of too many businesses who are playing the social media game in the right way. Your new motto needs to be: ‘value first, sell second.’ Think of your social media pages as that one of your salespeople that makes friends with everyone first, then casually mentions what they’re selling when it feels appropriate.

Yes when, and only when, it feels appropriate. No, this doesn’t mean that you’re leaving money on the table or confusing followers. This means that you’re building a loyal brand. That means you are always giving value first, which gives potential customers an incentive to follow your page.  Once you can get their attention and prove how you can help them, they will trust you, and then buy from you. It’s really that simple. Here’s how to do a thorough reboot to make sure you’re doing everything you can to build trust first.

1. Offer Sneak Peeks Of Value 

Just like items at a grocery store get sold when there are free samples, the best products and programs aren’t entirely coveted. Think of it this way: imagine that you have an online course that’s about building a viral TikTok strategy. You don’t get customers to buy by solely talking about what they’ll get from the course. You do, however, get customers to buy by sharing a few of the entry-level tips on your social media, letting them apply them, and letting them get the results. Their thought process will be: “If their free content helped me this much, I can only imagine how much their paid content will.”

This is an approach that Gee Bryant, the founder and CEO of X28 Fitness, lives by.  He’s self-educated on the social media front, and found that offering value through tutorials of key workouts on his company’s instagram page, have really paid off.

“Not only does this content strategy show potential participants what they get from working with us, but it fosters community. It creates something that current participants can follow along with and show up for. Our goal is to excite anyone who sees the content so much that they’re not satisfied with just a quick 20 second clip of these groundbreaking exercises.”

2. Give The Vision–Then Let The Consumer Shop It 

When it comes to physical products, there may be some confusion around how to offer value. In this case, your job on social media is to craft a vision on social media for the potential customer. For example, if you’re a home décor and furniture brand, piece together some of your products to create a vision of how they all tie together. A brand that does this beautifully is Anthropologie’s living section. High quality photos of fully set tables or complete living room sets paint a picture for followers – who may follow just to get inspired, rather than because they’re currently looking to move or redecorate.

The trick here is not to come across salesy in the caption and disrupt the allure. Instead, utilize Instagram’s ‘shop’ feature, where you can tag the products within the frame, and users can shop directly in the app. This presents a massive opportunity, as statistics find that 130 million Instagram users tap on ‘shop’ tags every single month. Appeal to their curiosity and make them tap.

This can also be done by showing how the product works. For example, if you have a gua sha and facial massage company, create video content about what a proper gua sha technique can look like. Create images that exacerbate key traits of the brand experience: in this case, a ‘spa night,’ or even just a mini spa day within a morning routine. All of this creates an experience and a vision for the viewer that will be enticing.

3. Find Value In Your Wheelhouse To Give 

In true ‘value first, sell second’ form, consider that not all of your posts need to centre around your product or your service. Get creative within your wheelhouse. For example, if your service is catering, create some videos teaching viewers how to put together the perfect veggie tray or charcuterie board for guests. Many entrepreneurs shy away from this, worrying they’ll teach users too much, and they won’t need them anymore. The opposite is true. If someone sees your video, makes a stellar charcuterie board and it’s a smash hit, you bet she will become a loyal follower and likely hire you eventually.

Most solely think about business social media strategy as a form of marketing or sales across Instagram squares. It’s not like that anymore. The brands that are taking off are those that are creating value-first content. In a “me first” world, remember that every consumer is primarily wondering, “How does this value ME?” So, when you adhere to the ‘value first, sell second’ motto, you will always win.

By Stephanie Burns

Stephanie Burns is the founder of The Wyld Agency, an amplification and visibility agency focused on building the legacy and personal brands of company founders. With a background in brand building, media buying, strategy and entrepreneurship, Stephanie has wide experience with an eclectic portfolio of industries. After being a contestant on the Wheel of Fortune, Burns used her winnings to launch her previous company, Chic CEO, an online resource for over 100k female entrepreneurs. With an MBA in Marketing, she’s also a contributor to Forbes Women and Entrepreneur, as well as featured in notable press outlets like Inc., Fast Company, Wall Street Journal, Fox Business, Amex Open, Cosmo, New York Times, among others.

Sourced from Forbes

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How to “Go Viral” on Social Media

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By Jean Ginzburg

Make your copy more authentic, relevant, and “shareable” to reach a bigger audience.

Entrepreneurs and content creators wait for that single moment when their videos go viral. But going viral isn’t just a stroke of luck. It requires persistence and a few other key points that will give you that extra boost to get the virality you want. To boost your chances of going viral, keep these tips in mind.

Post across platforms

Try your luck on every social media platform you can think of. Post your video on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube. Different content goes viral on different platforms, so you never know when and how it will take off. Make sure your content is easily shareable.

Make your content relatable and relevant

Your video should be relatable. Speak like you mean it, but don’t sound scripted. You’ll get views if people find your content relatable, and what makes it relatable is your authenticity. Most people don’t believe overproduced content.

Don’t overthink content choices. Discover your audience’s pain points. Share your experiences and tell your story.

Be more authentic

We always hear people should strive to be themselves, whether they are in social media or not. Show the world what you’re doing and experiencing. Don’t try to be someone you’re not. Try to:

  • Elicit emotions. Videos go viral when they elicit emotions. Your story, facial expressions, body language, and gestures build the mood and stir up a wide range of emotions. Make sure you stay connected to the story as you tell it to your audience and engage your whole self in the storytelling.
  • Challenge yourself as a storyteller. To tell better stories, try telling them in a way you haven’t before. Push yourself in a way that you haven’t.
  • Talk to people. Discuss ideas so you can gather more relatable experiences.
  • Tell stories. Share stories about your brand, your products. Captivate your audience. To do that, you need to set your target audience.

 

Find the right audience

Think about the audience you’re targeting as you create your content. Who are your potential customers? To whom will you address your stories? Finding the right audience is crucial if you like your stories to be authentic and relatable to them.

Assess yourself 

Evaluate yourself. What are your strengths and weaknesses? What are the skills you need to develop? Will you learn more if you do everything yourself? Or will you benefit from learning from someone who can help you achieve growth?

Take a step back to chill for a while. Think about what you want to do with your work life, and consider your life decisions. Do you want to be in a corporate world? Do you want a new environment?

Think about what you like to do. There’s nothing wrong with that! Rinse and repeat.

Follow influencers

Follow influencers of the specific niche you like. If you like startups, follow influencers who are big in those fields.

Follow entrepreneurs and look at what they’re doing. If you like fashion, look for people who are known in that industry. Read their stories. That’s how you learn what works in your niche.

Be an authentic storyteller

Dip your toe in the water. Just start telling your story, but don’t try to come across as someone you’re not.

Don’t aim to be the top creator. Learn from others first. Look for someone you like to get ideas or moves from. That could be someone who influences you in your field or industry. Imitate what they’re doing. Use their success stories and pain points as your inspiration.

But don’t steal their ideas-don’t copy everything they do. Understand why they do what they do. And that will make you successful in the long run.

Approach social like an extension of yourself

It’s fascinating to see where social media is going. Just think about LinkedIn these days. Everyone’s talking about it. TikTok also has taken the world by the storm. Gaming is ubiquitous. Esports is at its height, as well as Fortnite.

How you approach social media now should be an extension of yourself–an extension of who you are. Again: don’t try to be something or someone you’re not. Don’t try to hack the algorithm. Just show up as your true authentic self and watch what happens.

Feature Image Credit: Getty Images

By Jean Ginzburg

Sourced from Inc.

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How to Optimise Your Social Profiles in 7 Easy Steps

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Optimising your social media accounts across all platforms is key if you do business online. Here’s 7 simple tips on how.

Your social media profiles, also known as your personal brand, are essentially the face of your business in 2021. If you’re anything like me, I’m sure you’ve been hit with random messages over Facebook or Instagram, with just one glimpse at the person’s profile causing immediate ignorance of their message. Building a personal brand is more important than ever – particularly with people preferring to talk to people, not just a business.

Communication is incredibly important, both visually and verbally. According to cognitive biases such as The Halo Effect, from the moment someone lays eyes on your profile they’ve already subconsciously made an assumption about you. Making a good first impression is now more important than ever, as we don’t have the same opportunity to save a conversation like we do in face to face interactions.

With that being said, having your social media optimised truly is the key to building trust, rapport and letting the world know how you can serve them. Here is my simple 7-step guide to optimise your social profiles. 

1. Get a Great Headshot or Profile Picture

This is really the pinnacle when it comes to your personal brand. Your profile photo can be the “make or break” when it comes to prospecting. More often than not, it’s the first thing people will see on your profile – meaning it is what the first impression will be made upon.

I highly suggest that you invest a hundred bucks into having a few professional photos done. They truly make a massive difference when it comes to making a good first impression, and having a bad headshot can cost you thousands. I would also invest in using canva to make an aesthetically pleasing cover photo for both your Facebook & Instagram accounts 

2. Find Your Colours

When it comes to a good personal brand, having clear, defined and consistent colours across all your content, is highly important when it comes to being memorable and standing out. Associating yourself with a particular colour will enable you to be at the top of your consumers mind each time they see a particular colour.

For example, check out my Instagram account. I like to use blue, specifically with a gradient to make the colour pop more. Remember, the goal here is to make your brand stand out and be as memorable as possible. Also putting the ring around your profile photo is another great way to catch attention.

3. Invest in Your Content & Get Creative

Let’s be honest, sometimes photos can get a little boring. And everyone loves creativity. In my opinion, you really need to invest time, money and energy into making your brand stand out.  Personally, I use Canva to get creative with my content, to make images and thumbnails that grab people’s attention.

If you want tips and tricks on how to do this, join my free facebook group here for insane value on optimising your personal brand & creating scroll-stopping content.

4. Create Content That is Relative

If you’re a business owner trying to talk to high-level CEO’s and executives, you probably don’t want photos on your profile of you drinking and smoking with your buddies on the weekend (save that for the group chat). Your content should all be relevant to your work, your industry and your target audiences pain points and desires.

Remember to always be authentic with your content, but post things that can actually help people. Study your audience in depth: what topics they talk about, the language they use and what they’re trying to accomplish. 

5. Tell People What You Do

Chances are that a complete stranger stumbling across your profile will have no idea what you do, without you telling them. Save time and energy by optimizing your bio to tell people how you can serve them, and more specifically: what you do. Keep it clear, concise and attention grabbing. For example, “I help companies scale ridiculously fast”. If you want some feedback or opinion on your bio, send me a DM on Instagram.

6. Be Consistent

If you’re using multiple channels or social platforms, consistency is a must. Many business owners are bombarded with dozens of messages a day, and you want to be sure to make an impression where they won’t forget you.

For example, if you were to connect with someone on LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook in the same week, and your profile picture was different across all 3, they might think that it’s a different person adding them each time. The same thing applies

7. Be Authentic

In true fashion of saving the best for last, authenticity in my opinion, is the key to great content. By being open, honest and sometimes even vulnerable, you create a bond and emotional connection with your audience that is far stronger than you’d be able to achieve otherwise. In a world that’s full of fakes, choose to be real.

In the competitive environment of business and personal branding in 2021, you need to do everything you can to stand out. Follow these tips to optimise your social profiles to position your brand for success.

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Sourced from INFLUENCIVE

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How to Hide Like Counts on Facebook and Instagram

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By Conor Cawley,

Facebook and Instagram have announced that “likes” will now be an opt-in feature, and we’re here for it.

Facebook and Instagram have announced an opt-in feature that would allow users to do away with the like counts on posts. And, for the sake of everyone’s mental health, we think it’s a good idea.

Since its inception more than a decade ago, social media has had a significant impact on the way we live our lives, and “likes” have been a big part of that transformation. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok all subscribe to this means of displaying support for posts, and to many “likes” feel like the entire point of social media in the first place.

Now though, with Facebook and Instagram giving users the option to do away with “likes” in their entirety, it might be time to consider the mental health ramifications of quantifying our every interaction online.

Facebook and Instagram Allow Users to Hide Likes

In a Facebook blog post, the company announced that they would be “giving people more control on Instagram and Facebook” by allowing users to hide the like counts on all posts within their feed, including their own.

To be fair, this news isn’t entirely surprising. Facebook and Instagram have been testing out this feature since early 2019, with plenty of users getting a taste of the like-less social media experience. Still, it was unclear how the social media giant would roll out its plan for its two platforms, and now we know: They aren’t forcing it on anyone.

“People want more flexibility, so we thought it would be important to give people the option.”

Even with years of testing and public attention, this movie is a significant departure from the social media we all grew up with that will likely see some serious backlash if it ever becomes mandatory. So are like counts really that bad?

Likes and Mental Health

Likes may feel like they are integral to the social media experience, because they’ve been around since the beginning. Still, the reality is that likes allow users and followers alike to quantify the perceived value of their everyday life in a way that simply does not promote mental health.

From deleting posts that don’t get enough attention for fear of humiliation to outright like-chasing, studies have shown that people — particularly younger generations that are on these apps for hours a day — are experiencing negative mental health effects that are rooted in social media’s toxic ecosystem.

Heck, a 28-year-old Florida woman was just arrested for passing out flyers with her Instagram information on it while posing as a teenager at a local high school, so it’s safe to say we’ve reached an unhealthy level of obsession. In fact, many believe — even former Facebook employees — social media is as addictive as an actual drug.

“The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops that we have created are destroying how society works,” said Chamath Palihapitiya, former Vice President of User Growth at Facebook, during a talk at Standford University.

Mandatorily removing like counts would, admittedly, cause significant uproar. But social media companies, especially Facebook, need to start taking their role in the mental health crisis seriously, and a big move might just be the way to go.

But until then, at least let us help you get rid of like counts on your own account.

How to Hide Like Counts

If you want to rid yourself of the shackles that are social media likes, you’re in luck! The feature should be available for everyone now, and we can walk you through it. First, if you want to hide like counts on other users’ posts on Instagram, follow these instructions:

  • Settings –> Posts –> Hide Like Counts
Instagram Hide Like Counts

Now, if you want to get rid of like counts on your own posts as well, we can help you with that too. Just follow the instructions below and you’ll be on your way to a healthier social media experience. Before posting something, here’s what to do:

New Post –> Advanced settings –> Hide Like and View Counts on This Post

Instagram Like Counts

Facebook is also giving users control over like counts, and if you want to make sure you don’t see them on the world’s most popular social media app, just follow these instructions:

Settings & Privacy –> Settings –> Reaction Counts

Facebook Hiding Likes

How will this affect business?

It’s no secret that social media is no longer just for personal use. For years, platforms like Facebook and Instagram have been used to supercharge the business world, providing free marketing tools and affordable advertising features that can seriously have an impact on your bottom line.

So how exactly will this news impact your business’ social media presence? For now, it shouldn’t have a big impact at all. Advertising is barely affected by whether or not you get likes as far as we know, and the fact that it’s an opt-in feature means that you can still keep like counts out there if you want to boast about your high numbers. Conversely, it could actually improve your businesses approach, as users won’t be hung up on whether or not you have “enough” likes to warrant their attention.

Need to revamp your online presence? Check out the best social media management software

If it does become mandatory though, influencers and other advertisers that are paid “by the like” could face a significant problem, an industry that accounted for 3.7 billion posts on Instagram in 2018 alone.

Overall though, while it may seem controversial, removing like counts would likely serve as a pleasant departure from one of the more toxic aspects of social media, and as they say, a mentally healthy tide raises all ships.

By Conor Cawley

Conor is the Senior Writer for Tech.co. For the last five years, he’s written about everything from Kickstarter campaigns and budding startups to tech titans and innovative technologies. His extensive background in stand-up comedy made him the perfect person to host tech-centric events like Startup Night at SXSW and the Timmy Awards for Tech in Motion. You can email Conor at [email protected].

Sourced from tech.co

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