1 DEVELOP SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN CONTENT What is the most challenging part of the social media marketing process? Well, probably the effort needed to create social media content itself, and ensuring that whatever you have written, photographed, or designed will “go viral”. Yes, at this stage, you would have already done your company social media audit, customer and competitor analyses and research. You would have understood and defined the goals, objectives and KPIs which you wish to accomplish with social media marketing, and how these can be tracked with analytics. Perhaps you’ve even invested in that state-of-the-art marketing automation and social media monitoring system. Now that you’ve got all the “Science” part of social media marketing figured out, you need to weave in the “Art”. This entails developing creative and intriguing content, learning what some of the best practices in creating social media content for different channels are, and managing your online communities so that they could help you get the word out there. In this chapter, you will learn to do the following: • Practice developing contagious content for blogs, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and an infographic • Effective principles to recruit, engage, sustain and develop advocates in an online community. Ready to rock? Let’s get cracking!
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DEVELOP SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN CONTENT · 5 HOW TO BLOG LIKE AN INFLUENCER Potential Blog Topics Here are 17 topics that you can consider in writing a blog article, taken from Paul
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
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DEVELOP SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN CONTENT
What is the most challenging part of the social media marketing process?
Well, probably the effort needed to create social media content itself, and ensuring that whatever you have written, photographed, or designed will “go viral”.
Yes, at this stage, you would have already done your company social media audit, customer and competitor analyses and research. You would have understood and defined the goals, objectives and KPIs which you wish to accomplish with social media marketing, and how these can be tracked with analytics.
Perhaps you’ve even invested in that state-of-the-art marketing automation and social media monitoring system.
Now that you’ve got all the “Science” part of social media marketing figured out, you need to weave in the “Art”.
This entails developing creative and intriguing content, learning what some of the best practices in creating social media content for different channels are, and managing your online communities so that they could help you get the word out there.
In this chapter, you will learn to do the following:
• Practice developing contagious content for blogs, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and an infographic
• Effective principles to recruit, engage, sustain and develop advocates in an online community.
Ready to rock? Let’s get cracking!
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THE STORYBRAND PLOT STRUCTURE
An essential part of the brand storytelling process, the plot of a story helps to bring greater coherence to your content. A good plot leads your audiences along a certain path, makes them feel like they are a part of your brand story, and convinces them of the benefits which you can bring. The beauty of storytelling is that you can do so authentically without nagging or bragging.
Donald Miller’s StoryBrand1 plot structure can be a useful guide for us. It basically goes like this:
A character has a problem, then meets a guide who gives them a plan and calls them to action. That action either results in a comedy or tragedy.
Courtesy of Storybrand
Case Study 1: Laundry and Dry Cleaning Services
Let us apply the StoryBrand framework to some real life examples. For the first, let us imagine that you own a company providing laundry and dry cleaning services. Instead of just telling people how cheap or fast your services are, consider developing the following story plot:
• Character or Hero: A young working mother • Facing a Problem: Need to balance multiple chores at home? Lack time or energy? Feeling
frustrated? • Meets a Guide: ABC laundry and dry cleaning services is here to help! • Who gives a Plan: Create time for yourself! Let us take away your laundry and ironing chores. • And calls the hero to Action: Bring your laundry to the nearest outlet. We'll give you a map and
even a bag to bring your laundry in. • That action results in Happy Ending: You can enjoy more time with your loved ones, and energy
to do what you love! • Inaction would result in Tragedy: Don't continue being frustrated with piled up laundry!
Here are two examples of laundry service providers which have used some elements of the story plot example.
Using the StoryBrand plot structure, we could develop a story line as follows:
• Character or Hero: An owner or manager of a small business. • Facing a Problem: Spends a lot of time keeping records manually. Loses track of his financial
accounts. Feels stressed. • Meets a Guide: Smart Wizard software is here to save your day! • Who gives a Plan: Let us help you manage your admin, accounts and HR records. We will even
provide free training. • And calls the hero to Action: Give us a call for a FREE consultation. Our consultants will provide
you with a hassle-free migration plan. • That action results in Happy Ending: You can spend more time growing your business. And
saving time and money in managing your office admin! • Inaction could result in Tragedy: Sure you want to continue wasting time and money on sorting
out your records?
Source of image
Injecting Stories into Your Product or Idea
• What is your Trojan Horse?
• Is the story not only viral but also valuable?
• Could you use the StoryBrand plot structure to tell your story?
Here are 17 topics that you can consider in writing a blog article, taken from Paul Gillin’s “Create
Stuff They’ve Just Gotta Read: How to Write for #SocialNetworks” presentation at MarketingProfs
Digital Marketing World, December 13, 2013. You may find the topics useful even as you begin your
blogging journey.
Topic
Example
Quiz
Test Your Online Writing IQ
Sceptic You Don’t Control the Impact of Your Online Words Anymore
Explainer The Online Writing Debate in Plain English
Case Study How Mary Lim managed to become a money spinning copywriter in three months
Contrarian Why Online Writing Skills Are Over Hyped
How-to 21 Ways to Become an Online Writing Superstar
How NOT to The Greatest Mistakes Made by Copywriters in Singapore
First Person What I Did to Overcome My Fear of Social Media
Comparison
Social Media Marketing vs Search Engine Optimisation: Which Is Better?
Q&A Seven Most Common Questions on Online Writing with Walter Lim
Data Digital Content is Taking the World by Storm says Study
Man on the Street Three Digital Marketing Experts Offer Tips on Viral Content
Outrageous Why Failing to Write Well Can Make You Lose Money
BuzzFeed Style Outrageous Read How This Woman Transformed Her Writing From Ugly to Beautiful in Just Three Weeks OR You Won’t Believe What This Man Did To Become The “Shakespeare” of Social Media
Insider Secrets The One Thing You Need To Know About Writing Like a Champion (Never Before Revealed)
Literary Treatment The Online Writing Haiku, epic narrative poem, comic book for online writing, or anything else you can imagine.
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Useful Tools – Ubersuggest and Keyword.io
If you are really stuck for content topics for your blog, consider using three tools to get the right
combination of keywords – LSIGraph.com, Ubersuggest.io and Keyword.io
Here’s how the first one, LSIGraph.com, looks like.
Now if you key a combination of keywords, you’ll end up getting a whole list of possible “long-tail
keyword” phrases as follows:
LSI Keywords are essentially keywords related to the keyword that you search for on search engines
such as Google. In a nutshell, they are keywords that are semantically linked to your main keyword.
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In practical terms, Google has confirmed that by using more LSI keywords, your page will typically
rank better. Examples include the suggestions that you get when you type your keywords into your
search engine.
Alternatively, you can also find them at the end of the first page of a search engine.
Next, we have ubersuggest (via https://ubersuggest.io):
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You can see that there are about 105 keywords that were located revolving around the term “Social
Media Marketing Tips”. From these keywords, have a glance at possible matches that could be topics
for your blog post.
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These topics would show you the ones that people are more actively searching for on Google.
Keyword.io (http://www.keyword.io/) works in pretty much the same way. Have a look at what
some of the keywords recommended are when I type in “Flowers for Mother’s Day” and limited the
By now, you ought to know that the headline is the most important piece of writing in a blog. Earlier,
we have seen some examples of headlines and blog topics that you can focus on.
Marketing Profs writer extraordinaire Ann Handley advises us to “spend as much time on the
headline as you do on the writing itself”. You should respect the headline as it’s a key element of
your post, article, or other piece of content, which tells your audience what you are going to deliver,
how you are going to deliver it, and why they should keep reading.
• Create a curiosity gap, but with moderation
Done right, the curiosity-gap approach can inspire and inform and help readers by making it
clear what the piece is about. Buzzfeed and Upworthy are masters of this, although they may be
a little overbearing at times.
• Promise what you are going to deliver
Your headline should promise the reader what you are going to deliver as specifically as possible.
3 Source: “Everybody Writes” by Ann Handley
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• Place your reader directly into the headline
“15 Ways to Write a Headline” is a boring title because it is not specific enough.
But “7 Ways to Write Headlines that Doctors Would Respond To” will be spot on if you are in the
business of marketing to healthcare practitioners.
• Use numbers
Ever wonder why list articles work? It is the numbers that grab people’s attention.
PS – using oddball numbers (23 or 19, or 7.5) works better.
• Use lively words
Like all other forms of writing, use adjectives that paint a picture in the minds of your readers.
Include adjectives (where relevant) such as ultimate, brilliant, awesome, intense, hilarious,
smart, critical, surprising. Once again, don’t get too carried away.
• Don’t Ignore Your Lead In In almost all social media channels – Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube – your lead-in can make-or-break how successful you are in generating interest. Use it to tease your readers, viewers or listeners, like this example from Digital Marketer below:
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NEW – BUZZSUMO’S ANALYSIS OF TOP PERFORMING HEADLINES4
Most Engaging Headline Phrases: The Data
In our survey of 100m headlines published between 1st March 2017 and 10th May 2017, the three word phrases or trigrams that gained the most Facebook engagements (likes, shares, comments) were as follows.
Why The Data Will Make You Think Again About Headlines
In our sample the most powerful three word phrase used in a headline (by some margin) was:
“Will make you … “
This phrase “will make you” gained more than twice the number of Facebook engagements as the second most popular headline trigram. This was a surprise. When we started out looking for top trigrams, this one wasn’t even on our list.
So why does this particular trigram or three word phrase work so well? One of the interesting things is that it is a linking phrase. It doesn’t start or end a headline, rather it makes explicit the linkage between the content and the potential impact on the reader.
This headline format sets out why the reader should care about the content. It also promises that the content will have a direct impact on the reader, often an emotional reaction. The headline is clear and to the point which makes it elegant and effective.
Typical headlines include:
• 24 Pictures That Will Make You Feel Better About The World
• What This Airline Did for Its Passengers Will Make You Tear Up – So Heartwarming
• 6 Harsh Truths That Will Make You a Better Person
• “Who Wore It Better?” Pics That Will Make You Laugh Out Loud
• 13 Travel Tips That Will Make You Feel Smart
Emotional Headlines Drive Facebook Interactions
In our analysis we found that emotional phrases were consistently effective on Facebook as measured by the number of interactions. For example:
• Tears of joy
• Make you cry
• Give you goosebumps
• Is too cute
• Shocked to see
• Melt your heart
• Can’t stop laughing
Many of the top performing posts with emotional headlines had image or video content although there were also story posts. Below is an example video post.
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Despite the strong performance of emotional posts, content writers increasingly have to be careful in using emotional and sensational language. In May 2017 Facebook announced it will demote “headlines that exaggerate the details of a story with sensational language” and which aim “to make the story seem like a bigger deal than it really is.”
Curiosity and Voyeurism Also Gain Facebook Engagement
Headline phrases that provoke curiosity and a sense of voyeurism also gained a high level of engagement on Facebook. For example:
• What happened next
• Talking about it
• Twitter reacts to
• Are freaking out
• Top x songs
Readers are often curious about what is being talked about by people, what the top items are in a league table, or what is being said by people on Twitter about a topic or event. This type of content appeals to a reader’s sense of curiosity and voyeurism. If you are curious, here are the most shared posts in the last year that have “are freaking out” in the headline.
We would caution writers to avoid ‘what happened next’ style headlines. While they have previously performed well, Facebook now categorises headlines that withhold information as clickbait and demotes them. In my personal view this is a good thing and I hope we will see an end to such clickbait headlines.
These phrases are also linked strongly to curiosity. For example:
• And this is why women live longer than men…
• This is why you should be sleeping on your left side
We all want to feel that bit smarter after reading a piece of content. Explainer articles promise you an extra nugget of insight. In some ways they are similar to the “will make you” phrase headline as they make a promise about what you’ll gain as a result of reading the article.
Here are the most shared ‘this is why’ headlines of the last year.
Quizzes
• Can we guess
• Only x in
These phrases are used in popular quiz headlines, for example:
• Can We Guess Your Real Age?
• Only 1 In 50 People Can Identify These 16 Grammar Mistakes. Can You?
Quizzes remain an engaging format on Facebook. The first of these headline types is a quiz variation, it challenges you to answer to questions and to see if the quiz can then predict your age, level of education, job etc., based on your answers. These quizzes appeal to our desire to know more about ourselves and to prove we’re smart, we did grow up in the 80s, we are living in the right city, or whatever it might be. These quizzes are like mirrors, it’s hard to walk past with out looking at yourself. They are hard to ignore.
Tribal headlines
• X things only
These popular headlines appeal to a sense of tribal belonging for example:
• 25 Things Only Teachers Will Understand
• 17 Things Only Moms of Twins Understand
• 9 Things Only Girls Who Grew Up With Older Brothers Will Understand
• 10 Things Only Night Shift Nurses Understand
We have seen a significant growth in tribal headlines, particularly politically partisan headlines. It is almost as if there is a duty on the tribe to share posts that support their viewpoints. We saw this in the US elections and we have seen something similar in the recent UK elections. These tribal headlines tend to gain a lot of engagement and shares, which might be encouraging sites to use polemical headlines more frequently.
Remember what we learned about skimming and scanning behaviours? Use sub headers to break up
your text, and see if you can weave some SEO magic into them. ☺
Use bullet points and numbered lists to break up long chunks of text and paragraphs. Write in a
conversational manner, like talking to a friend.
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More Images and Sub Headers to Break It Up
Yes, we are quite adamant about breaking up those big chunks of text. If you are writing a long blog
post (1,000 words and above), remember to include more images or videos to break up your text.
Adding additional sub headers also help.
Conclusion and Comments
Make sure that your blog posts have sufficient details for your readers to act on it. Finally, remember
to end your blog post on a high. This will be a good way to wrap up, with a strong call to action.
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MASTERING FACEBOOK
Used by over 1.55 billion users around the world, Facebook is the most popular social networking site on the planet. Almost everybody is on Facebook – teens, youths, adults, and seniors. Facebook is the largest photo sharing website on the Internet, and is fast catching up with YouTube in terms of videos viewed.
In Singapore, Facebook is the top social media network with 3.8 million registered users.
You can create a Facebook profile, a Facebook page for your business, and even a Facebook group for like-minded people to communicate in smaller niches. Of all the Social Networks, Facebook is by far the most effective in referring traffic to websites as seen below:
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Best Practices in Facebook Content Creation
Ideal Length
The ideal length for Facebook post is between 100 and 140 characters – or about the same length as a tweet. However, length isn’t the only factor, or even the most important factor here.
Post When Your Audience is Online Determine the time when your audience is most active, so that there is a highly likelihood of them seeing and engaging with your post. You can get this from Facebook Insights. (image from Buffer App7)
Post with Images Generally, Facebook posts with graphics and images get four times as much response as posts without.8
Be Natural and Authentic Keep your posts natural sounding and human. This should be aligned to your brand style and tone. Oh, and humour works well here too!
Be Topical, Timely and Relevant
Adopt the principle of newsjacking, and create content that are hot topics yet relevant
to your target audiences.
Ask Questions These are always popular and come in many different flavours:
• Fill in the _________ (blanks)
• Survey (eg “How do you feel about our new logo?”)
• Educational/Factual (eg “Did you know that 92% of consumers trust recommendations from friends and family?”)
• Seek opinions (eg “What do you guys think of this new outfit?”)
• Either/ Or (eg “Would you rather have a million dollars now or two million in 5 years?”)
• Ask for advice (eg “What do you do to improve Facebook engagement?”)
• Make your posts timely (eg “What is the best way to beat the slowing economy?”)
• Ask for help (eg “Which animal would work better as our mascot?”)
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Post Quotes
Everybody loves an inspirational quote, especially if it is relevant to your brand or
business.
Post Native Videos and Animated GIFs
Facebook is now the number one website for viral videos, leapfrogging over YouTube. In fact, studies have shown that the social
sharing rate of videos on Facebook far exceed all other media formats.
Have a look at the infographic on the right, which shows that Facebook native videos
have a much higher organic and engagement rate than even YouTube or
Canva: A Great Tool for Visual Social Media Content
To master the social media content creation game, it would be useful to use online tools like Canva (www.canva.com) or Piktochart (www.piktochart.com) to create your image-centric content.
Both tools are mostly free, and offer you ready-to-ship templates for social media content of different shapes and sizes.
Here is a simple video guide to Canva: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqYti78riU8
LinkedIn is partial towards content that help users to solve professional challenges, especially those
related to HR, leadership, personal development, career development, and personal branding.
These could be in the form of the following:
• Blog articles
• Infographics
• Slideshare slides
• Instructional training videos
• Motivational quotes and inspiring content
Ask yourself the following question:
• Does my content educate my readers and provide refreshing new insights?
• Does it address a common industry problem, challenge or issue?
• Does it provide a unique perspective or solution that is not easily found elsewhere?
• Am I perceived to be a credible person to share my thoughts on this issue?
• Will the piece be good enough to be shareable?
Avoid Discounts and Promotions
One of the most important things to note on LinkedIn is that you should never push products or
services with discounts or offers. LinkedIn is primarily a professional network, and doing so just
doesn’t work very well. Here’s an example of an ad I saw recently which I felt couldn’t work well on
LinkedIn.
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MASTERING TWITTER
Microblogging hit the social web scene in 2007 when Twitter debuted, but it didn’t get the attention until Twitter became the centre of attention at the annual South by South-west conference (SXSW).
With a total of 310 million active users worldwide, Twitter has grown to become the most popular microblogging application.
Once you create a Twitter profile for your business, you can publish updates wherever you want and about any topic that you want. As a business user, however, you should only create content that accurately reflects your brand image while injecting your personality.
Through Twitter, you can share links to interesting Web pages in your updates, reply to other Twitter users publicly or privately, and retweet interesting updates published by other Twitter users.
An important feature in Twitter is its ability to connect with other users through the follow feature. When you follow a person on Twitter, his or her tweets appear in your stream of updates on your Twitter home page. Similarly, when people follow you, your updates will appear in their Twitter streams.
Anatomy of Twitter
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Twitter Tips for Businesses
To get started on Twitter for your business, you can follow these simple steps:
1) Create Your Twitter Account
Visit http://twitter.com and select the “Sign Up Now” link to create your account. Provide the information requested, and be sure to take some time to pick the best Twitter user name (aka your nick) because you can’t change it later. Consider using your business name, blog or website domain name where available, or other brand identity that represents your business online over the long-term.
Your Twitter ID will be known as @username where username will be replaced with the user name you selected when you create your account.
2) Customise Your Twitter profile
Once your account is created, you need to take some time to edit your account settings. There are several steps here:
• Upload a profile image that identifies your business (called your avatar)
• Upload a bigger background image that helps to brand your business further
• Add a profile description that describes your business, as well as a link to your website or blog where you want people to find out more information about your business.
• Take some time to customise your Twitter profile design by modifying the colours to match your brand.
3) Set up Alerts
Use a tool like Twilert (https://www.twilert.com/) to set up keyword alerts so that you will receive an email when Twitter users tweet those keywords. Generally speaking, these should include your business name, brand names, competitor’s names, major clients, or other keywords that are of interest to your business.
4) Tweet with Images and Videos
Start experimenting with some tweets. Remember that image and video tweets are more highly viewed and shared than non-image tweets.
When you tweet, do remember to also keep the length of your tweets to between 70 to 100 characters. This has been shown to be more effective in generating engagement amongst followers as shown by Track Social below:
Use the Find People feature on Twitter to locate the right Twitter followers you know and follow them. There are some best practices that you can consider here:
• Follow industry experts and thought leaders in your field
• See who the people you know follow and see if they are worth following
• Use Twitter advanced-search function to find people who are already tweeting about topics that include keywords relevant to your business and follow them
• Follow interesting Twitter accounts
7) Participate in Conversations
Check out some of the most popular Twitter streams and start retweeting and sending @replies. Over time, these Twitter influencers may notice you and reciprocate the favour by following you back or retweeting your tweets!
8) Feed Your Blog Into Your Twitter Stream
Manually share your blog URL in your Twitter stream, or use a tool like Hootsuite to automate the process.
9) Add follow badges and Twitter widgets to Your Blog
Visit http://twiter.com/goodies to get tools to promote your Twitter stream on your blog, website or social media profiles. You can also find widgets and tools from TwitterCounter (http://twittercounter.com)
10) Tweet frequently and regularly
Unlike other social channels, Twitter is like a never ceasing and un-ending information superhighway. In order to get your tweets noticed, you need to tweet frequently – as much as 6 to 8 times a day!
11) Monitor Right Hashtags
Research on the right hashtags to be used for your industry, and consider which topics are actively searched. Hashtags help your tweet to be more visible. There are lots of free hashtag tracking tools like hashtag.org and more which you can use11.
11) Use Tools to Improve Efficiency
Sign up for tools like Hoot Suite (www.hootsuite.com) to help manage your tweets all under one roof.
Instagram is the probably fastest growing social network on planet Earth right now.
With more and more teens, youths and young adults flocking to Instagram, it is time for your business to secure a foothold in Instagram marketing. This is especially significant if your brands are in the hypercompetitive consumer businesses like fashion, beauty, food, hospitality, sports and fitness, or specialty retail.
Most Engaging Platform for Brands
Comparatively speaking, Instagram is the most engaging social platform relative to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest or Twitter. In fact, the difference can be quite significant as shown by the chart below from Forrester Research:
#1 Create a branded Instagram account
First and foremost, you need to create a branded Instagram profile. Fortunately, this can be quickly and easily done.
To start an Instagram account, you need the following:
• A nice profile photo, perhaps a logo of your company or equivalent photo which conveys your brand personality.
• A short description for your bio which does not exceed 150 characters. Consider using emoticons if they are appropriate.
• A link to your website. This should be updated regularly depending on what you are promoting.
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#2 Produce fresh yet on-brand content
Now that you are “legit” on Instagram, you need to start producing visual content. You may want to establish a consistent branded look and feel for your content, rather than whatever catches your fancy.
Some of the points to consider in creating “branded content” are as follows:
• Consistent use of colours, patterns and designs
• Adopt a certain “signature” style in angles, lighting, and composition
• Mix and match between photos, videos, and infographics. See which content format yields better outcomes.
• Be mindful of what you write. While Instagram is a visual marketing platform, people do read your copy. Ensure whatever is written is in sync with what was posted and make it useful too.
• Provide value to your followers: useful tips and ideas, education, or just pure visual refreshment.
See how Whole Foods (B2C) and Adobe (B2B) do it below:
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Source: https://www.instagram.com/wholefoods/
Source: https://www.instagram.com/adobe/
#3 Publish regularly – daily if possible – and avoid bunching posts
Like any other content marketing efforts, Instagram requires you to be fairly regular and consistent in churning out visual content and publishing it.
Establish a calendar of posts, and try to keep to a routine. This can be daily, once every two days, or even weekly. Start off more strongly with regular daily posts before tapering off to once every two or three days.
Avoid bunching up your posts. I know that it is tempting to snap and share 5 to 10 posts in succession when you are at a great party, or having a grand dinner. Save those posts for a later time so that you do not spam your followers.
To grow in both reach and engagement (ie Likes and Comments) on Instagram, you need to participate in the wider Instagram community. There are two things you need to do here:
Reach out to like-minded Instagram influencers
Using the right search terms or hashtags on Instagram, locate other folks passionate in what you can offer. Engage with them by liking their posts and commenting on them. The general rule is to give one comment for every five posts liked.
Engage with your followers
Do not neglect your followers. Reach out to them by responding to their comments to show that you are listening to what they have to say. It is especially critical for you to close the loop when those comments are issues related to customer service.
Beyond responding to them on Instagram, make it a point to visit the posts of your most devoted fans and reciprocate by liking and commenting on their posts.
https://www.instagram.com/potbellysandwichshop/
#5 Use hashtags to heighten your influence
Hashtags are all the rage in Instagram. While you can technically include up to 30 different hashtags in your comments section, the general rule is that you should try to keep them to 10 to 12 max. Here are some other points to take note of:
• Choose a mixture of popular and long-tail hashtags. An example of a popular hashtag would be #singapore or #foodporn. A long-tail hashtag would be #chocolate or #singaporedesserts.
• Try to be consistent in the hashtags which you choose.
• Check out what content is being posted using the same hashtags. This would give you a clue to what the Instagram community prefers.
• Engage with others who post using the same hashtags. Often these are folks with similar interests to yours.
Everybody loves to receive gifts, and the same applies to social media platforms like Instagram. What are the “gifts” that you can provide to your followers and fans?
• Showcase your most ardent fans and give them a shoutout on your Instagram posts.
• Repost interesting content from followers and other Instagram accounts. Tag those accounts in your post.
• Organise occasional giveaways and contests to trigger excitement. Include some form of referral bonus which can be tracked by specific campaign hashtags (see examples below).
• Make full-use of your website address on the bio, and point them to click on it there during campaign periods.
#7 Use influencer analytics and metrics
As the saying goes, you cannot manage what you don’t measure. Likewise, it pays for you to look at your Instagram analytics to determine what works and what doesn’t.
There are four indicators that you should look at:
• Number of followers
• Number of comments/likes (also known as engagement)
• Most popular posts (by engagement)
• Average engagement per post
Beyond tracking these KPIs, you should also embrace the following practices:
• Track your number of fans and their growth rates on a weekly and monthly basis
• Gauge how well different types of visual posts do, be they photos, short videos (Instagram only allows 15 seconds or less), infographics, or posters
• Determine which days and timings work best in terms of engagement
• Assess how effective different combinations of hashtags are
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Screenshot from squarelovin.com
#8 Sign up for an automated platform
Last, but certainly not least, serious Instagram marketers make use of automated platforms to up their Instagram marketing game. There are several available in the market, but the two most popular ones which I use are:
1. Squarelovin (https://squarelovin.com): Squarelovin is an admirably in-depth tool for a free analytics platform. It displays metrics on recent posts and growth, a monthly analysis, and a history of your posts broken down into year, month, day, and hour. There are tabs that show engagement with your photos, both average and top posts, and an optimization tab that shows your best and worst times to post. You can also manage your Instagram account from within the platform, creating albums, and liking and commenting other posts.
2. Iconosquare (http://iconosquare.com): Previously known as Statigram, Iconosquare allows you to track and monitor your Instagram account along with several useful analytics such as your content distribution, density, use of hashtags, and engagement.
Infographics are fast ruling the Internet. If done well, they can be extremely powerful marketing tools and help your brand to establish itself as a knowledgeable and inspired thought leader.
An infographic is what it sounds like – information graphically expressed through drawings, photos, images, maps, diagrams, charts and other visual elements. Often, these are held together by a consistent theme, and published as an image file.
The best place to find infographics is Pinterest. With its bias towards visual vertically oriented content, Pinterest has become the preferred social platform for infographics.
Considered as a form of visual storytelling, the best forms of infographics are informative, visually engaging, and often helpful for readers.
According to Joe Chernov of HubSpot, there are four main shapes of infographics which goes beyond the humble pie chart:
1. An illustration of the “state of” some business sector of function; 2. A checklist or resource; 3. A compare-and-contrast type of study; and 4. The evolution of a movement, demographic or industry.
Utility
The best infographics are entertaining, educational and useful. Before you create your infographic, ask yourself these questions:
• How will this help my audience?
• Will they find this applicable to their business?
• Will they be fascinated enough to spend a few minutes with it, and then share it around?
• Are there any “Aha!” factor that I have included in there?
• What will make people notice this infographic?
Data
Infographics must be based on fact, not merely opinion. Thus, you need to use credible data sources. While your ideas might emerge as part of that story, you need to ensure that the facts used come from a reputable source.
Story
The best infographics are anchored on storytelling. They may also have a hypothesis at their core.
Thus, it makes sense for you to write down your thesis statement for your infographic. Thereafter, outline the main data points which you want to use to support your thesis.
Oh yes, remember not to cram too much information into an infographic. Be merciless in slashing non-essential information.
Logical Sequence
When you lay out the narrative, keep an eye for the way the information is structured. This means organising your information in a way that flows logically, without any undue complexity.
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Create an outline that highlights your key ideas in a narrative form. Mapping is an important first step in creating an infographic, and helps you to tell a meaningful story beyond just a jumble of numbers and drawings.
Great Design
Naturally, awesome infographics are those which use design elements well. Colour, typography, illustrations, animation, video, charts , and text combine in a magical way to tell the story of data.
If you need some inspiration, you can always visit Pinterest.com and search infographics.
Quality Control
Like everything else that you do, it is important to check and double-check your figures, source lines, and text to ensure errors are nipped in the bud.
Due to the amount of effort needed to create an infographic, typos and factual errors often get left in the infographic.
Promotion
As in all things social, you do want your infographics to fly far and wide. The best infographics normally have a social share button embedded with them to allow easy sharing on Pinterest, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.
Call To Action
Finally, do remember to include a call to action in the infographic. This could be something simple like:
• Stay in touch at www.yourwebsite.com
• Sign up for future updates
• Get the full report here
Note that infographics are usually less suitable to be used for direct sales conversion (“Purchase your widget NOW”) As heavy content and thought leadership pieces, they function better as opt-in or branding pieces.
Infographic Tools
Piktochart
Piktochart offers a free DIY infographics tool with lots of fun, flexible templates. Check them out at www.piktochart.com
Visual.ly
This is a great showcase for data visualisation and a useful resource for those looking to create or share infographics. The Create part of the site offers a DIY tool (http://create.visual.ly).
Infogr.am
This allows users to create infographics easily and rather quickly. There are several predesigned templates that allows for various kinds of customisation (http://infogr.am).