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Finding Your Target Audience Through Social Media

September 20, 2022 No Comments

Today, influencer and content creator are two of the most sought after jobs. Not everyone can go viral, but everyone can make an impact.

In today’s world, western countries, and the world at large, are not just influenced — but socially dominated — by social media. Platforms like Facebook have risen to have nearly 3 billion users, and others like YouTube and Instagram are not far behind. For younger demographics between the ages of 18 and 29, 90% have used at least one form of social media.

The interesting thing about social media, though, is the power rests in the hands of individuals. The top accounts and creators are individual people who tend to have extremely loyal and influenceable bases. This is why brands and companies are willing to spend so much on social media advertising; there are few other means to reach a consumer in such an effective manner.

Now Hiring: Influencers and Content Creators

Today, influencer and content creator are two of the most sought after jobs. For children the dream has moved from astronaut to YouTuber, and by definition, most content creators are destined to not be mega-stars. Still, anyone can find a perfect audience using social media, and it’s certainly not all up to luck.

Building a Loyal Audience

The way to build a reliable and loyal audience consists primarily of three major phases:

Phase 1

Phase 1 is the first two to three months and is all about the foundation. First a creator must understand their context, what platform they are on, what kind of content they would want to create, what would make them successful.

The next step is creating some wide-reaching content and seeing what sticks, using data to analyze their audience and specify. And the final step is an awareness of the base audience, what are the demographics, who is watching, is that changing depending on changes in the content? Through these steps a solid small viewer base can be built.

Phase 2

From here phase 2 begins. This phase is all about gaining control over the details of one’s content. The first step in this is securing one’s tone. Any content one puts out there is going to have a tone and natural reaction from the audience. More consciously turning that into a way to communicate a message is essential to growing an audience, moving beyond simply making content and starting to send a message.

Also vital to this second phase is timing. This consists of understanding both the timing of when to release content and what effects that has on the base one is growing. Releasing content at certain times may garner a different audience than others, and longer form content will certainly produce a different audience than shorter form. Working on this will help one’s content take on a deeper level of quality and depth.

Phase 3

Finally phase 3 is likely the most simple; it consists of emotions. Once a creator does start to build an audience, criticism and praise are going to be daily occurrences. This can be great, learning from the audience. Repeated comments can move a creator toward better content; although responding to every comment and set of criticisms is a sure fire way towards failure.

Instead, through phase 1 and 2, the creator should have confidence in their content. While there is always room for improvement, the strong base one builds should give them the mental strength to avoid any rash decisions based on criticism. The best creators are both reactive but not too reactive. Finding the balance between these two is phase 3.

Conclusion: You Can Make an Impact on Social

And once all of this is accomplished, with some creativity and a lot of hard work, one can expect to have a solid and loyal audience. This is not to say that everyone is destined for greatness, but that everyone can have an impact. Carving out an individual niche and going about it the right way is plausible for anyone interested.

By Brian Wallace

Brian Wallace is the Founder and President of NowSourcing, an industry leading infographic design agency based in Louisville, KY and Cincinnati, OH which works with companies that range from startups to Fortune 500s. Brian also runs #LinkedInLocal events nationwide, hosts the Next Action Podcast, and has been named a Google Small Business Advisor for 2016-2018.

Sourced from CMSWIRE

In News

The Future Of Social Media In The Metaverse

September 19, 2022 No Comments

By Bernard Marr

Social media is the archetypal web2 application – the enabler of the “user-generated web”. But that doesn’t mean it will die out with the onset of the metaverse and web3. In the metaverse, features and functionalities we’ve all become accustomed to – “liking,” “sharing,” and the “for you” page – are no longer confined to social applications. They are there when we are gaming, working, learning, or whatever other activities we are getting up to within connected, virtual worlds.

And just as social media is one of the foundations the metaverse will be built on, the metaverse, in return, will impact the way we think about and use social media. If you’ve tried Meta’s Horizons, you will appreciate that many of the core features and functionalities of its 2D, blue-and-white predecessor are still very much a part of the platform. Profiles, “like” and “share” buttons, for example, are all still there, only they’ve been given a new, more immersive, experiential lick of paint.

So how can we expect social media to evolve over the next five to ten years as the metaverse begins to coalesce and take hold of our lives? Will the term become redundant – not because we stop using the web to be social, but because everything on the web will become social, connected, and without borders? Or will a backlash against the increasingly ubiquitous liking, sharing, and showing-off lead to more insular internet experiences where we exert more caution and discretion over what we share and who we share it with?

Immersive Social Media

One way to think about the metaverse is as an amalgamation of gaming, productivity tools, e-commerce, and extended reality (XR) – which includes both virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR AR -3.8%) and, of course, social media.

Gaming, productivity tools, and e-commerce provide us with activities to keep us busy in the metaverse – working, playing, and shopping. XR features ensure it is immersive and provides us with a heightened sense of “being there.” And elements of social media ensure that the experiences are connected to the real world – because we will be sharing them with real people.

So social media platforms in the era of the metaverse may be more geared towards providing immersive, interactive experiences that stimulate as many of our senses as possible – rather than just connecting us to our friends over 2D web pages.

This means that when we connect for a catch-up, we will meet up in any environment that can be imagined. Virtual reality can already provide us with lifelike sights and sounds, and it’s increasingly able to simulate other senses, too, such as touch and smell. So while texting or a video chat might seem like a nice way to keep in touch with a loved one while we are separated today, in the near future, we may be able to walk hand-in-hand with them across a beautiful meadow, breathing in the scent of flowers as you go.

Augmented Reality

Unlike VR, which involves stepping inside a virtual world, augmented reality overlays computer graphics on the real world we see around us – either via a phone or glasses.

Xone is an example of a web3 social media service – with functionality built around blockchain and NFTs – that leverages AR to allow users to create and share virtual worlds.

Users create and interact in two different types of zones – called xones. Personal Xones fill the function of the profile pages we are used to seeing in “traditional” social media, whereas Community Xones can be used to host events, gatherings, launches, or any other type of immersive social group activities.

I recently spoke to CEO and co-founder James Shannon, who told me that the idea is for every user to create their own immersive, 3D space that they can share with visitors. While hanging out and enjoying the environments available, users can listen to music together and take part in games and entertainment. Many of the features will immediately look familiar to anyone who has grown up with web2-style social media. However, Shannon tells me, “When you first open the Xone app, the first thing you think is that this looks a lot like the apps I’m familiar with. You have a home feed and the ability to Like, Comment … the core difference we introduce is that rather than clicking someone’s profile and seeing a two-dimensional grid of pictures, clicking their profile enters you into an immersive three-dimensional world that you can explore in AR … the content you can explore and visit and share is not 2D content but 3D, immersive worlds you’re sharing through the network.”

Advertising and Branding

Perhaps above all, the metaverse will be seen by businesses as an extension of their ability to advertise and promote their products and services in our lives. Just as new forms of advertising have emerged through web2 social media – think of the influencer explosion that has redefined the marketing industry – web3 will bring new ways for building hype and excitement around brands.

Brands including Nike NKE -0.8%, Gucci, and McDonald’s MCD +0.8% have already begun creating virtual versions of their products that can be sold as NFTs within digital worlds. These can be used to decorate avatars and virtual spaces. Clearly, they are hoping this will lead to the emergence of “influencer avatars” who will lead the buying decisions that the rest of us make as we shop in the metaverse. Creative brands will also lead the way in using metaverse functionality – VR, virtual worlds, augmented reality, for example – to create new and more immersive customer experiences that build brand awareness and identity with the ultra switched-on and connected younger generations.

Will social media be safer in the metaverse?

An important issue that will have to be addressed is the potential for harm that may be caused by social media that’s more immersive, engaging, and quite possibly more addictive than anything we have seen before.

For all the positive benefits it brings to society, such as making it easier to connect with friends and family, traditional social media has also been accused of enabling harmful behaviour such as cyber-bullying, harassment, and the spreading of conspiracy theories and fake news.

A new, more immersive social media – one that’s harder to walk away from simply because it’s so much more engrossing and entertaining – clearly has the potential to magnify these threats. This could make the web3 version of social media a dangerous place. Anyone wanting to explore there and make their mark will need to take care that they understand these hazards and are familiar with the tools that platform providers put in place to limit the danger. Meta, for example, was prompted to add a “safe zone” feature that allows users to instantly create a barrier around themselves when early adopters complained of “virtual groping” and other unpleasant behaviour.

A Whole New World

In many ways, the future of social media is intrinsically linked with the future of the metaverse. One way of thinking about it is that the metaverse simply is the next evolution of social media – just as it is the next evolution of online gaming, remote working, and e-commerce. Platforms like Facebook and Instagram are already pulling these different facets of our digital lives together under one roof. The metaverse simply allows us to step inside and experience it all together, immersively, rather than being limited to scrolling through it on a flat screen. Everything we love about social media – as well as everything we hate – will be magnified and intensified because of this, but at the same time it will open us up to a new world of experiences to share with our nearest and dearest. Personally, I can’t wait to see what is in store!

You can check out my webinar with James Shannon, CEO and co-founder of Xone, here, where we deep dive into aspects of how the metaverse will change social media.

The metaverse is definitely an exciting and fast-moving area. To stay on top of the latest on the metaverse and wider business and tech trends, make sure to subscribe to my newsletter and have a look at my book Extended Reality in Practice, which just won the Business Book of the Year 2022 in the Specialist Book category.

Feature Image Credit: Adobe

By Bernard Marr

Bernard Marr is an internationally best-selling author, popular keynote speaker, futurist, and a strategic business & technology advisor to governments and companies. He helps organisations improve their business performance, use data more intelligently, and understand the implications of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, blockchains, and the Internet of Things. Why don’t you connect with Bernard on Twitter (@bernardmarr), LinkedIn (https://uk.linkedin.com/in/bernardmarr) or instagram (bernard.marr)?

Sourced from Forbes

In News

6 Proven Business Marketing Strategies to Grow During a Recession

September 2, 2022 No Comments

By Jed Morley

Protect your business from the looming recession with these business marketing strategies! Help ensure your business has long-term growth.

In 2022, the United States is fortunate enough not to be in a recession. However, the odds of a recession in 2023 are on the rise. Experts predict there’s currently a 30% chance of recession, and that number has doubled over three months.

As a large or small business, it’s essential to have a plan if a recession hits. Luckily, there are several recession-proof business marketing strategies that you can use. These marketing ideas will help your business continue to find success, even during a recession. Continue reading, and find out how you can fuel your business growth:

Strategy 1: Focus on customer experience

Today’s market values authenticity and excellent customer service. Around 65% of Millennials are willing to pay more for customer experience.

The best businesses know that happy customers give great reviews and spread the word quickly. It’s much easier to market your business when customers have already mentioned your company as one of their favourites. In fact, word-of-mouth marketing is a critical factor in 74% of purchase decisions. It drives six trillion dollars of spending every year.

By focusing on customer experience, you’re saying that you want to be the best in the market. There are a few ways you can improve the customer experience:

Provide quality products: In the event of a recession, customers will be even more careful about what they spend money on. Make sure your products and services are of high quality and that customers will be happy with them. This puts you in the good graces of your target market, because you’re providing a quality product or service.

For example, if you’re selling shoes, you need to make sure that the shoes are made of high-quality materials that will last for a long time.

If you’re providing a service, you need to ensure that your services are always completed promptly.

Provide high-quality customer service: Customer service is dying in America. Everyone talks about making customers happy; however, many companies fail to deliver the expected level of customer service.

You’ll never be able to make everyone happy. However, you need to make sure you’re delivering excellent customer service. Make sure that when customers walk in the door, you do everything within your power to show them you’re honest, reliable, quick, efficient and friendly.

Sometimes the best customer service you can provide is just listening. Take the time to really listen to your customers and build a partnership with them.

Always look for ways to improve: As a business, you should constantly find ways to improve while still providing high-quality services. What can you do to make your products or services better? Can you reduce the price? Can you reduce the wait time? Can you provide a guarantee on your products or services? This is the time to go above and beyond to impress your target market. Let them know that you’re different from your competitors.

Strategy 2: Improve your conversion rates with automatic emails

All businesses can improve their conversion rates. The most important thing is to ensure that you’re sending out automatic emails to your customers.

By promoting your content through email marketing, you can ensure that you’re reaching each one of your customers and getting them excited about your products.

Strategy 3: Analyse your competitors

Analysing your competitors is one of the smartest strategies you can use. By analysing your competitors’ content and their backend search engine optimization (SEO), you can capitalize on what they fail to do.

Strategy 4: Use social media to engage with customers

Social media is a fantastic way to get your business in front of the eyes of larger audiences. By having a robust social presence and a solid social media strategy, you can drive interested consumers to your online store.

By ensuring that you’re interacting with customers on social media and establishing yourself as the authority in the niche, you can guarantee that you’re getting the best possible sales and reviews that your business can get.

It’s also important to build a strong social media presence through exclusive content. It’s not enough to simply post your content online. You need to ensure that it’s only available to your customers on your social media sites. This will encourage a strong relationship between your customers and your brand, which will drive up your conversion rates by encouraging customers to share your content with their friends and family.

Strategy 5: Use content marketing to attract customers

Content marketing is a strategy that allows you to attract potential customers by providing them with informative and valuable content. With content marketing, you can reach a larger audience of interested consumers and drive sales and traffic to your online store. Here are some tips:

Create a blog and keep it updated: Creating a blog and keeping it updated is an excellent content marketing strategy you can use to attract interested consumers. A blog is a fantastic way to share knowledge and information with your customers, and by blogging and keeping your blog updated, you can guarantee that you’re always being current and up-to-date with the market. Blogs are also a fantastic way to build backlinks to your site, which helps influence your search engine ranking.

Publish content that inspires customer interaction: Publishing content that inspires customer interaction is one of the most effective ways to improve your conversion rates. You can build a next-generation marketing strategy by creating content that encourages customers to share their own experiences with your products.

Strategy 6: Don’t forget to track your progress

With this final strategy, you can see if your marketing strategies are working. By using a backend analytics tool, you can confirm that you’re actually seeing growth. This will allow you to tell if the marketing strategies that you’re using are really working.

There are many business marketing strategies out there. However, by using the right strategies, you can ensure that your marketing strategy is recession-proof.

Business Strategies, Entrepreneurial Advice & Inspiring Stories are all in one place. Explore the new Entrepreneur Bookstore

By Jed Morley

Sourced from Entrepreneur

In News

Social Media Marketing Mistakes Every Entrepreneur Should Avoid

August 18, 2022 No Comments

Sourced from BOSS Magazine

Social media is an essential tool for any budding entrepreneur to connect with their audience. Platforms like Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube offer unique methods of marketing to engage your audience and show off your brand’s identity. But if you’re a social media newbie or have only used social media for personal reasons, you might want to conduct research before delving into the world of social media marketing. In some ways, social media marketing for business and pleasure do share some similarities.

When we curate an online identity for ourselves, we create our own personal brand. We choose images and videos that present our best selves to our friends and family. When marketing their business on social media, many entrepreneurs make the mistake of over-promoting themselves or creating ads with too much text. Social media is an image and video-driven advertising tool and each platform requires a different promotional format. Furthermore, while our personal social media accounts represent our best or ideal selves, business accounts may benefit from emphasizing their authenticity. As author and social media expert Paul Gillin says, “Transparency may be the most disruptive and far-reaching innovation to come out of social media.”

Depending on their age, social media users may react to online advertisements differently, but most social media users have become accustomed to a constant stream of fake news and overexaggerated advertising. That’s why presenting a unique and authentic brand identity while also capitalizing on social media trends and tags will help your business stand out in a flood of identical ads. Sounds kind of like learning a whole new language? It can seem that way. Luckily, these business professionals have worked with social media and had firsthand experience with some of the most common social media mistakes. Read on to find out which social media marketing mistakes you should avoid when you’re just starting out.

Know Your Platforms

There are plenty of social media platforms to choose from. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat, Pinterest, and LinkedIn are probably the biggest players right now. Each platform is made up of a different audience—Facebook users, for instance, tend to be older than 40 while TikTok is steadily growing in popularity with Gen Z. Eric Elggren, Co-Founder of Andar recommends knowing your target audience and the type of media most prevalent on each platform before starting an account.

“There is a learning curve with social media and it’s okay to start slow. I would choose one or two platforms to focus on until you get the hang of things. If your target audience is older, I would steer clear of TikTok and master platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Also, think about what you’re selling and what format it is best presented in, and think outside of the box. If you have a very aesthetically pleasing product like clothing or makeup, I would say that Instagram is going to be best for those high-quality photos.

YouTube is also great for high-quality videos presenting the scope of a product or service, but the average consumer’s attention span is only a couple of seconds. If you want to introduce your team or present testimonials in an authentic way, a shorter video on TikTok or Instagram Reels can grab your audience’s attention for those few seconds. Whichever platforms you choose, I would spend some time on those platforms looking at the formatting of the ads there.”

Track Analytics and Trends

Guna Kakulapati, CEO of CureSkin recommends using a social media analytics tracker to ensure your ads are receiving views and engagement. He also encourages the use of tags and trends to boost your posts when you’re first starting out.

“Even if your team works for weeks on a beautiful ad campaign, it won’t do you any good if nobody sees it. You have a higher likelihood of your brand getting noticed with paid ads, but if you’re shooting for a viral moment, scoring those organic impressions can be one of the hardest humps to get over. If you want to make sure your product is seen, you have to track how many likes and saves you’re getting on each post. I would recommend using analytics tracking tools like Facebook Insights and Twitter Analytics. If your impressions and reach are really low, a paid ad might be best. But I think any post can go viral if it follows the trends. As silly as it sounds, that means those viral songs, dances, and memes could be the key to your next sale.”

Interact with Your Audience

If there’s one aspect of social media as a marketing method that sets it apart from TV or billboard advertising, it’s the fact that it’s interactive. You can actively engage your audience’s organic reactions to your advertisements or products in real-time. Most social media platforms allow users to repost and share products that they find interesting, leading to even more eyes on your product. On the flip side, social media users can also share bad reviews and their opinions on poor customer service. Jeff Bezos says, “If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell six friends. If you make customers unhappy on the Internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends.” That’s why it’s even more important to ensure customer satisfaction online. Mark Sider, CEO and Co-Founder of Greater Than, suggests that entrepreneurs interact directly with social media users by responding to comments or direct messages.

“If someone posts a funny comment or asks a question in the Instagram or Facebook comments of your post, that likely means they’re interested in further interacting with your business. It’s so important to take advantage of those moments of authentic business-to-client interaction. If it’s a silly comment, leave a response in return. If it’s a question, answer it in a timely manner. Not only will your asker be impressed by that one-on-one attention, but anyone else who looks through the comments will see those interactions as proof that your company cares about its clients.”

Set Social Media Goals and a Schedule

Theresia Le Battistini, CEO and Founder of Fashion League recommends setting business-minded goals on social media involving specific numbers and metrics.

“Like every other form of advertising, social media marketing needs specific goals to work. I would recommend setting SMART business goals—goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based. So you wouldn’t just say that you want to increase sales or improve engagement through social media. You would choose a specific number of followers or sales as your goal. From there, you can schedule your social media posts on each platform with that goal in mind. If you’re aiming for more followers, you may need to post and create new content more regularly. If you’re aiming for more sales, then maybe you need to prioritize a few crucial interactions. In any case, the more clearly defined your goals are, the better off you’ll be. And that’s true for any business interaction—not just social media.”

Sourced from BOSS Magazine

In News

5 New Ways to Make Money on Facebook and Instagram

August 3, 2022 No Comments

By Patrick Kariuki

Meta is rolling out new ways for creators to make money on Facebook and Instagram.

Content is king on social media, and all the platforms are in a sort of gold rush to ensure the supply of new content does not run dry. Every day, it seems, one platform or the other announces some new scheme or incentive for content creators to sign up to.

Not to be left behind, Meta has announced several new ways creators can monetize their content on Instagram and Facebook. Here are the details.

Meta Announces New Ways to Make Money on Instagram and Facebook

All social media platforms have one way or another of making money, and perhaps YouTube offers the most accessible ways to make money.

These monetization options are always being updated. Thus, Mark Zuckerberg has posted several new monetization tools Meta is rolling out for creators on Instagram and Facebook.

In addition, Meta’s blog confirms the company will not charge subscribers a fee on Subscriptions, Badges, Paid Online Events, and Bulletin for an additional year until January 1, 2024.

Clearly, Meta is going all out to attract and hold on to its best creators.

The New Monetization Tools on Instagram and Facebook

Meta has released five new ways for creators to make money on both Instagram and Facebook.

1. Interoperable Subscriptions

Facebook will now allow creators to automatically add their fans on other platforms to subscribers-only Facebook Groups. This allows them to receive payments from their fans on the other platforms, and save time by not having to manually let individual members into their Facebook Groups.

Facebook will launch the service with a limited group of partners before expanding.

2. Facebook Stars

Facebook Stars is now open to all creators. However, they must have at least 1000 followers since the preceding 60 days, be in a country where Stars are available, and meet Meta’s Partner Monetization Policies and Content Monetization Policies. This applies to Facebook Live, videos on-demand, and will soon be available on Facebook Reels.

3. Monetizing Reels

The Reels payment program was previously only available to creators on an invite-only basis. Now Facebook is allowing US-based creators to apply to join. However, they must have created more than five Reels and have a total of 100,000 views in the previous 30 days, and they must meet Meta’s Partner Monetization Policies and Content Monetization Policies to be eligible.

Facebook is also now allowing creators to cross-post Reels on both Instagram and Facebook and earn money on both platforms.

In addition, creators will shortly be able to use the “Paid Partnerships with” label for their branded content on Facebook Reels. This will allow sponsors to convert them to Branded Content Ads.

4. Creator Marketplace

Meta is following in TikTok’s and Snapchat’s footsteps by launching a Creator’s Marketplace on Instagram intended to match creators with suitable brands.

Creators will be able to indicate the brands and topics they’re interested in making branded content for. Brands will be able to find and collaborate with creators through the Meta Business Suite.

“When they’ve found a creator they want to partner with, they’ll be able to send a project that outlines the details of the opportunity, including deliverables and payment offered,” according to Meta.

5. Digital Collectibles

Instagram started allowing NFTs to be shared on its platform in May 2022. Now Meta will allow this feature to be available to more creators in select countries, and soon on Facebook as well (starting with a small group of US creators). Users will be able to cross-post on both Instagram and Facebook.

Instagram Stories will also start hosting NFTs, in partnership with SparkAR.

Creators Have the Upper Hand

In the old days, the content we consumed was determined by a few people at the top of a production company sitting around a boardroom table. These days, social media has shifted the power to independent creators who execute and deliver content directly to us, with no oversight.

The leading social media platforms have taken notice and are scrambling to find ways to lock in the best creators on their platforms in order to lock in our eyes as well. Clearly, it’s a good time to be a creator.

By Patrick Kariuki

Kariuki is a Nairobi based writer. His entire life has been spent trying to string together the perfect sentence. He is still trying. He has published extensively in Kenyan media and, for a hot 7 years or so, dived into the world of Public Relations where he discovered the corporate world is just like high school. He now writes again, focusing mainly on the magical internet. He also dabbles in the vibrant Kenyan start-up scene, AKA the Silicon Savannah, and occasionally advises small businesses and political actors on how to communicate better to their audiences. He runs a YouTube channel called Tipsy Writers, which attempts to get storytellers to tell their untold stories over a beer. When not working, Kariuki enjoys taking long walks, watching classic movies – especially old James Bond movies – and spotting aircraft. In an alternate universe, he would probably be a fighter pilot. More From Patrick Kariuki

Sourced from MUO

In News

Instagram’s Enhanced Creator Tags: Implications for B2B Influencer Marketing

July 28, 2022 No Comments

By Lane Ellis

How can B2B marketers make their content stand out and highlight the talented subject matter experts, creators, and influencers they partner with?

Earlier this year Instagram rolled out new enhanced tagging features that allow digital marketers to do a much better job of indicating and crediting the various influencers and creators involved in the creation of content shared on the platform.

Instagram’s addition of enhanced tagging — which is also available for use in video Reels — offers significant new exposure opportunities for B2B content that has been created by multiple professionals, often precisely the type of content that is either made or co-created by industry influencers.

Let’s take a look at some of the advantages provided by Instagram’s enhanced creator tags, and how B2B marketers can best put them to use.

1 — Straightforward Setup Process

The process of using the enhanced tagging features is fairly straightforward, however there are a few caveats to be aware of as you move to incorporate them into your B2B marketing workflow on Instagram, in order to get the full effect of Instagram’s latest tagging elements.

While Instagram has moved to make more of its features available to desktop users, the enhanced tagging features were initially only available from the mobile app.

Simply having content creators or co-creators tagged goes a long way, and shows a clickable link to learn more about or follow the people involved in the digital assets you find helpful on Instagram. The updated tagging feature can do more, however.

2 — Switch On A Business Or Creator Account

One aspect of the enhanced tagging system takes on even more value, and that’s when the people tagged have gone through the simple process of setting up their Instagram profile as either a creator or business account.

Tagging people with a creator or business account adds a second line of helpful information below the person’s username, containing a category they’ve selected, such as a few B2B-related examples listed here:

Video creator
Digital creator
Writer
Author
Advertising Agency
Marketing Agency
Market Research Consultant
Advertising/Marketing
Internet Marketing Service

To ensure that anytime your brand or the influencers you work with are mentioned using an enhanced tag that also shows category information, it’s easy to switch your Instagram account from personal to professional — there is no waiting period or fee involved — simply access your account settings and select the option to switch to a professional account.

From there you can choose between a creator or business account, described by Instagram as:

Creator accounts are best for public figures, content producers, artists and influencers
Business accounts are best for retailers, local businesses, brands, organizations and service providers

After choosing your account type, you’re given the option to select a category that best fits how you use Instagram, and this will be the category that shows below your username when others include you using enhanced tagging — however keep in mind that you must also tick the “show category on profile box” option.

Instagram uses a search box for finding the most relevant category for creator and business accounts, such as those we listed above, and it can be worthwhile to experiment with the available categories, as new ones may be added over time that better describe your own B2B marketing niche.

3 — Ripe For Implementation By B2B Brands

In the B2B arena, the new Instagram enhanced tagging is ripe for implementation by brands and marketers looking to distinguish their content from the competition, and to highlight the subject matter experts and influencers they partner with.

It’s still early days for implementation of the enhanced tagging, and those brands and B2B marketers willing to put them to use will be among the first to stand out as multiple contributors are highlighted in co-created content.

“The new Instagram enhanced tagging is ripe for implementation by B2B brands and marketers looking to distinguish their content from the competition, and to highlight the influencers they partner with.” — Lane R. Ellis @lanerellis Click To Tweet

4 — From One Influencer To Many Others

When Instagram’s enhanced tagging becomes more regularly utilized, it will represent a powerful way not only for influencers to have the digital work they’ve helped create gain greater exposure, but it will also be a helpful way to find new industry experts who are tagged alongside an influencer you may already be aware of.

These days top performing digital content can involve a slew of talented creative professionals, from marketers and writers to video, audio, and social media specialists, and Instagram’s new enhanced tags make it easy to shine a light on everyone who had a hand in building a successful digital asset.

5 — Tagging Gives Voice To Underrepresented Talent

While not unique to Instagram, the new enhanced tagging features can play a helpful role in giving a greater voice to traditionally underrepresented talent.

Instagram’s augmented tagging features were brought to life through the help of three women in technology, who were each profiled in the Snobette interview, “Meet The Women In Tech Behind The Instagram-Enhanced Tagging Feature.”

“In a world where online visibility directly leads to brand sponsorships and other types of monetary opportunities, crediting is more important than ever,” Alexandra Zaoui, music data analyst at Instagram-parent firm Meta, observed.

“In a world where online visibility directly leads to brand sponsorships and other types of monetary opportunities, crediting is more important than ever.” — Alexandra Zaoui @ZaouiAlexandra Click To Tweet

“One of the biggest challenges about being a woman and particularly a Black woman in tech is not seeing nor working with others like you,” Cameryn Boyd, software engineer at Meta, noted. “I’m passionate about bringing other Black women and underrepresented people into tech because that is how and when some of the best and most equitable innovation happens,” Boyd added.

Just as in the B2C marketing world, B2B influencer marketing can help amplify underrepresented voices, and features such as Instagram’s new enhanced tagging help expand such efforts.

Our CEO Lee Odden featured efforts that give voice to talent as one of the top methods for elevating B2B marketing in 2022, in “Three of the Biggest Opportunities to Elevate B2B Marketing in 2022.”

“B2B marketers are in a unique position to make choices about how they represent their customers in content, who they partner with in content collaborations and the influencers they engage.” — Lee Odden @LeeOdden Click To Tweet

Instagram Enhanced Tagging For B2B Marketing Success

By fully embracing Instagram’s new enhanced tagging capabilities, savvy B2B marketers can lead the way and set a good example for the influencers, digital creators, and industry experts they work with, in a process that’s beneficial for both brands and influencers alike — not to mention both existing and potential customers.

Instagram is just one of the digital menagerie of social media platforms that top B2B brands use to engage audiences, however as an increasing number of B2B firms find success on platforms including TikTok and others, having a solid cross-platform tagging strategy in place will give you an edge over those who don’t.

Creating award-winning B2B marketing that elevates, gives voice to talent, and humanizes with authenticity takes considerable time and effort, which is why an increasing number of firms are choosing to work with a top digital marketing agency such as TopRank Marketing. Contact us to learn how we can help, as we’ve done for over 20 years for businesses ranging from LinkedIn, Dell and 3M to Adobe, Oracle, monday.com and others.

By Lane Ellis

Lane R. Ellis (@lanerellis), TopRank Marketing Social Media and Content Marketing Manager, has over 38 years’ experience working with and writing about the Internet. Lane spent more than a decade as Lead Editor for prestigious conference firm Pubcon. When he’s not writing, Lane enjoys distance running (11 marathons including two ultras so far), genealogical research, cross-country skate skiing, vegetarian cooking, and spending time with his wonderful wife Julie Ahasay and their cat Kukla in beautiful Duluth, Minnesota.

Sourced from TopRank Marketing

In News

5 Steps to Crafting an Authentic Social Media Presence For Your Business

July 14, 2022 No Comments

By Jonathan Riff

Here’s how to curate a unique brand identity and social media presence that will help your business stand out online.

When it comes to social media marketing, authenticity is key, but curating an authentic brand identity that helps you stand out online, helps you build trust and helps you gain visibility on social media platforms can be quite challenging.

From choosing the right platforms for your target market to posting content that starts conversations to engage with your customers, here’s how to curate an authentic social media presence.

1. Choose your social media platforms wisely

While being active on all social media platforms can help to increase your organic reach, spreading yourself too thinly is a major social media marketing mistake. So rather than attempt to post across multiple platforms, choose one to three places to promote and post and keep your activity consistent.

For example, if you’re a small business targeting local customers, focus on crafting high-quality content for one to two platforms, such as TikTok and Instagram first, before trying to expand to Pinterest, Facebook and LinkedIn. You can also repurpose content from one platform and use it on another, which will save you precious time as a business.

2. Create an authentic brand identity

Your brand identity must resonate with your unique target audience, so it’s important to get clear on who your dream customer is and what needs or pain points they have that you can address. Once you know this, consider how you want your brand to be perceived by your target market. Do you want to come across as friendly and approachable or professional and trustworthy? This will help inform the language you use, the visuals you share and the overall tone of your posts.

Post content that your customers value and reflects their existing ideas to build an instant connection with them. By showing that you understand their point of view and have common ground, you can build up a mini-community online and show more of a personality as a brand than a corporate tone of voice. You should also build trust by providing a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the daily running’s of your business. This helps to break down barriers between your business, your team and your target market.

3. Show what your brand represents visually

Colour combinations and video content can be used to reflect your brand’s values and goals online visually. Suppose you’re an outdoor/adventure brand. Your social media marketing strategy should evoke emotions of freedom, fun and excitement. Your content should energize your audience and encourage them to grasp every opportunity to explore and travel. Colours should be bright, bold and compliment the idea of outdoor adventure. Whereas a luxury spa retreat should incorporate gold, silver, bronze and ivory within their social media posts that bring to mind luxury, glamour and relaxation. This concept should be used across all social media activity and guide your choice of graphics, colours, video clips and music.

4. Start conversations online

When it comes to authenticity, you’ll need to actively engage with users online. And one easy way of doing this is by posting content that requests a response. From polls and questionnaires to debates and hosting livestreams, social media marketing can quickly become your most powerful tool to gather insight and information about your customer’s likes and dislikes. With this data, you can make better decisions as a business, tweak your social media marketing campaigns and demonstrate that you value their input.

5. Give your brand a face

Adding a human aspect to your social media presence is a smart move and can help transform your entire social media marketing approach. After all, social media is meant to be social, and your customers will appreciate engaging with another person, rather than reacting to scheduled social media posts. To give your brand a face, introduce one or two members of your team and allow them to “go live” and talk directly to your followers, answering questions, providing information and adding value.

You could also host regular webinars or podcasts and invite industry experts to collaborate with you, which will not only add value to your brand but help increase your reach online. Why does this build trust and authenticity? Well, people naturally trust other people more than they do a company, which is probably why many corporate accounts find organic growth difficult. When your brand identity includes a real person, this makes it far easier for users to trust you and connect with you.

By Jonathan Riff

Sourced from Entrepreneur

In News

A New Social Media Paradigm

June 3, 2022 No Comments

By Johann Hari

Johann Hari: We just have to say that a business model that’s premised upon discovering the weaknesses in your attention in order to hack it and sell it to the highest bidder is fundamentally immoral and we will not allow it.

Interviewer: What would replace it?

Hari: One possibility is subscription – and everyone knows how platforms like Netflix and HBO work. Another model is something like the sewer system. Before we had sewers, we had shit in the streets, we had cholera. So we all paid to build the sewers and we all own the sewers together. And just as we all own the sewage pipes together, we might want to own the information pipes together, because we are getting the attentional equivalent of cholera and the political equivalent of cholera.

Whatever alternative model we adopt, the crucial thing is to understand in this different model, your attention is no longer the product they sell to the real customer, the advertiser. Suddenly, you are the customer.

We need an attention movement to reclaim our attention and focus. And it requires a shift in perspective. When I couldn’t focus and pay attention, I would blame myself. I’d say, “Oh, you’re weak. You’re lacking in willpower.” This is being done to all of us. It’s like we’re having itching powder dumped on us all day and then we’re being told, “You know what, buddy, you might want to learn how to meditate, then you wouldn’t scratch so much.” We need to get out of this psychology and remind ourselves that we’re not medieval peasants begging at the court of King Zuckerberg for a few little crumbs from his table.

Feature Image Credit: Jeff Deng

By Johann Hari

Sourced from ADBUSTERS

In News

Social Media Has Become Saturated With Ads. How Did We Get Here?

May 30, 2022 No Comments

Sourced from NEWSY

Social media platforms are making much of their revenue off of advertising. So is there anything you can do to avoid seeing these ads?

If you go on social media these days, the second you get to scrolling you’re bombarded with ads. Then when you go to another site, you see the same ones.

Survey Monkey found that even though ads perform well on social platforms — with nearly half of social media users buying something from those ads — 74% of people think there are just too many.

But, that wasn’t always the case.

The first digital ad was an AT&T banner on hotwired.com, now known as Wired, which made its debut in 1994. For over four months, a whopping 44% of people clicked on it, which is definitely not something we’d see today. It was part of AT&T’s larger “You Will” campaign.

It featured futuristic commercials, where people were doing things like using a GPS or video calling, and their predictions actually came true.

It was something that hadn’t been seen before. People were even sharing the link to the ad with friends.

Facebook, now Meta, got its start in 2004, but it didn’t make its first ad deal until 2006 in a partnership with JP Morgan Chase to advertise credit cards. YouTube soon followed, launching ads on their platform in 2007. They first used transparent ads that covered the bottom of the video.

In 2010, Twitter introduced ads. By then, it was already a lot more common to see ads on social media. Instagram and Pinterest would do the same in 2013 and Snapchat in 2014.

Today, digital ads are nearly impossible to avoid.

According to a 2020 study, Facebook and Instagram show more ads on average than any other major social media platform.

For both apps, more than 20% of the posts users see on their feed each time are ads. For Instagram, that roughly breaks down to an ad every four posts or so.

So, is there anything you can do to stop seeing this influx of ads every time you open up your social media?

Reporting them is definitely not the way to go — one study found users who report ads see about 5% more ads than users who don’t.

But cutting down on some of the time you spend on these apps could help a bit. Instagram actually shows more ads to people who spend more time on their app.

Unfortunately, you can’t just turn them off; a lot of these social media sites rely on ad dollars to keep their business running.

In 2020, 97% of Facebook’s global revenue came from advertising.

A lot of companies prefer advertising on these platforms because it’s cheaper, and it works for them.

In a recent report, market research company Million Insights found the global social media advertising market was valued at $103 billion in 2020 and is expected to see an annual growth rate of 12.4% between 2021 and 2028.

Sourced from NEWSY

In News

What our negative comments and consumer gripes on social media reveal about us

May 27, 2022 No Comments

By Angela R. Dobele & Ashleigh Powell (née Druce)

A supermarket starts stocking hot-cross buns straight after Christmas. A cling-wrap brand shifts its serrated cutter bar from the base of the box to inside the lid. The maker of M&M’s chocolates changes its marketing. Each time people take to social media to complain.

Why do people get so angry about things that seem so trivial?

We’ve examined the issue of consumer anger on social media because, as marketing academics, we’re interested in how companies handle the excessive toxicity that comes with corporate social media engagement. But our research also helps explain the causes of this culture of complaint.

Our findings point to this behaviour meeting two basic psychological needs.

First, complaining is a mechanism for social connection.

Second, it’s an opportunity to boost self-esteem through what psychologists call “downward social comparison”. Given social media feeds can be rife with opportunities to feel inferior, complaining about brands is an easy way to feel better about ourselves.

How we did our research

To figure out why people complain so much on social media, we analysed negative posts on Facebook about brands caught up in media controversies at the time.

We focused on six companies – a clothing brand, a supermarket, an airline, an e-commerce store, a department store and a beverage company.

Each had a Facebook page with more than 1 million followers. The controversies included alleged employee mistreatment, unethical business practices, bad customer experiences and a poorly received advertising campaign. We analysed hundreds of comments posted on these companies’ pages. We followed up with interviews with 13 social media users who said they used Facebook at least daily and interacted with brands on social media at least weekly.

We asked these 13 people what they posted about and their reasons for posting. We also asked them to speculate about other social media posts regarding the same brands. This enabled us to draw our conclusions.

Complaining to bond with others

The most common reason for complaining online was paying for something that didn’t arrive or failed to work in some way. This was our least surprising finding.

More surprising was how many who joined in posting negative comments, without any firsthand experience. We saw this complaining used as a bonding mechanism, with users tagging family or friends in posts about malfunctioning equipment with questions such as: “Has this happened with yours?”

Complaining has long been “a pervasive and important form of social communication”, as psychology professor Mark Alicke and colleagues noted in a 1992 study, published before most people had even heard of the internet.

Social media has amplified this, enabling us to not only complain to friends but also to create a type of social connection with strangers. We could give you dozens of examples from our research, but you can probably think of many from your own experiences.

The people we studied got a kick out of debating strangers, particularly when they felt they had the upper hand. One interviewee told us:

I kind of like it, because it shows that at least I’m having an impact. If I’m talking about something someone’s so angry about that they write something back, at least we’re having a conversation.

Such responses speak the social dilemma of social networks. Our increasingly digital existence contributes to real-world social disconnection. To compensate, people look for whatever attention they can find on social media, including through complaining and arguing.

Downward social comparison

The second major psychological reward from complaining on social media was to boost their self-esteem. As one participant told us:

This is kind of that negative thing, but it’s more in a funny, sarcastic, trolling negative thing.

This pay-off came through strongly when we asked our interviewees to speculate on others’ complaints. “Maybe they’re bored and lonely at home,” said one. “The fact he’s obviously looking down on the people is elevating his position,” said another.

Boosting self-esteem by looking down others is known as “downward social comparison”. This idea was articulated by American social psychologist Leon Festinger in 1954, who suggested humans were hardwired by evolution to compare our value against others.

Generally we seek comparisons with people like ourselves. Upward social comparisons (to higher-status individuals or groups) is bad for our self-esteem, while downward comparison (to lower-status targets) can boost our self-esteem.

Leon Festinger’s 1954 paper, ‘A Theory of Social Comparison Processes’. Human Relations, CC BY

Research over the past decade or so suggest amplifies our need to find things to feel superior about precisely because it is so effective in making us feel inferior, with social media feeds typically subjecting us to “highlight reels” of other people’s beachside holidays, job promotions, romantic dinners and so on.

One study, for example, has found that spending more time on social media is associated with a greater likelihood of thinking others are happier and have better lives.

Looking down on companies and brands may be an easy, relatively socially acceptable way for us to feel smarter and superior.

Manipulating our love of complaining

Some complaining is a good thing. It shows companies we are ready to hold them to account.

But the degree to which complaining is done to scratch psychological itches is complicating the use of social media. Indeed, some companies now deliberately court controversy to exploit our love for complaining.

An example is British breakfast cereal maker Weetabix, which in February 2021 tweeted an image of Weetabix topped with baked beans. This is hardly an important issue. But it generated enough controversy on social media to also spill over into dozen of reports on legacy media.

Weetabix's baked beans on weetabix tweet — Twitter, CC BY

Whenever you see a brand bringing out some odd flavour, it’s probably not because company executives have lost their minds. It’s more likely their marketing experts are deliberately looking to provoke people to express mirth or disgust about it.

So if you find yourself engaging in online complaining, be mindful of the social and psychological factors lurking below the surface.

Just as you may be taking advantage of a brand to make yourself feel better, it is possible a company is stoking controversy to take advantage of you.