Tag: Instagram

2022 recent Instagram updates

Olivia NolesBlog, Marketing, Social Media + Influencer Engagement, , , , Leave a Comment on 2022 recent Instagram updates

Instagram is constantly changing and evolving to compete with other social media platforms and meet all the wants and needs of its users. As the app continues to change, your strategy needs to continue to change as well. Keep reading to learn the 2022 recent Instagram updates and how your strategy should change.

Instagram updates app to have multiple feeds

A recent Instagram update that will launch in 2022 is multiple feeds, similar to the layout that TikTok uses. The Instagram feed options include: “Following,” “Favorites” and “Home.” Following includes only accounts users actually follow and is chronological, a setting users have been begging Instagram to bring back. Favorites is a smaller, more curated feed that includes only accounts users have gone through and personally favorited. Home is “the Instagram you know today,” meaning all of the above along with Instagram’s recommended content for you, like curated ads and suggested users.

Shoppable posts take priority in the Instagram algorithm

Instagram wants the app to be a one-stop shop. Users find the product on the app, then they can immediately buy it on the app. Instagram is adding additional incentives to shoppers, such as discounts and money off to encourage users to shop in the app.

If you are a business that sells products, look into utilizing the shoppable posts feature on Instagram. There are pros and cons to this feature, but a major pro is that the algorithm currently pushes shoppable content more than non-shoppable content.

All accounts can use the link feature

Another recent Instagram update is allowing all accounts to have the ability to link on stories. When Instagram launched the links feature, it was only available to users with 10k followers. Now, all accounts can link to external sites on Instagram stories.

A business should use Instagram stories to link to any external content it wants its audience to see. For example, blogs, websites, products, menus, reviews, events- the list goes on and on.

You can now search for content on Instagram

Like Pinterest, Instagram has rolled out the ability to search content based on keywords rather than just hashtags, locations and users. That means that when writing captions, you need to consider which keywords you are factoring in along with your hashtag strategy.

Instagram is primarily focusing on video

As mentioned in a previous blog post, Instagram has announced that it is no longer just a photo-sharing app. Since this announcement, Instagram has prioritized Reels by pushing them to new audiences and adding a monetization option for creators.

Reels is currently the best way to grow on Instagram. Any time Instagram launches a new feature or content format, the algorithm pushes that content to follow the agenda Instagram has. Because of this, businesses and creators trying to grow should use new features, like Reels, whenever possible.

Tips for growing on Instagram via Reels:

  • Use trending sounds: Trending sounds are those with an arrow beside them in the Instagram app. Some business accounts may not have access to all trending sounds due to usage rights.
  • Content trends: If you cannot use trending sounds, try trending styles of content instead. Finding current trends requires spending some time consuming short-form video content. When you see a common theme, think of how you can spin it to your niche.
  • Play around with how you post Reels: There is a theory that Reels posted only to the Reels page are pushed to new audiences while Reels posted on your feed are pushed to your followers. Another theory is that Reels are discoverable for a longer period of time when sharing to the feed, and that Reels shared only to the Reels tab experience a spike in reach that ultimately levels off and gets no views after roughly an hour. We recommend testing out both options over a period of time and seeing what works best for your account.
  • Share Reels on Facebook too: When posting a Reel, there is an option to also post the Reel to Facebook. Just like the other posting options, we reccomend playing around with this feature and seeing what works best for your account.

Instagram is adding Reel features similar to TikTok

Instagram has added the ability to respond to a comment with a video on Reels. The comment will appear as a sticker on the new video, and the new video will be pinned in the comments of the original Reel. This is a very popular feature on TikTok and a great way to earn more views for both videos since viewers that have only seen the comment response will wonder what the original post was.

Need help launching your own Instagram account for your business or organization? Reach out to us; we’d love to help!

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Why Instagram’s “Swipe Up” Works

Cherith AndesBlog, Public Relations, Social Media + Influencer Engagement, , , , Leave a Comment on Why Instagram’s “Swipe Up” Works

Confession time. We at Clairemont Communications aren’t immune. We have all been responsive to well-placed marketing ads — not the least of which are Instagram’s Story ads.

Story ads wield serious marketing clout. According to VidMob, 60 percent of millennials watch Stories, and one in four millennials and Gen Z-ers consult Stories for products to buy. Social Media Today noted that, “Facebook also found that Stories placement lead to a 35 percent increase in brand outcomes.”

That’s a noteworthy sales heft.

So what makes Instagram Story ads so effective?

  • Hyper-Targeting: Much like Facebook ads, Instagram Story ads allow you to choose objectives based on where your targeted customer falls in the sales funnel. (Just trying to make a first impression? Seeking to close the deal with a warm customer?) You are able to customize your audience based on demographic, psychographic and behaviors, and of course, maximize the Facebook pixel to create effective look-alike audiences.
  • Re-Targeting: Similarly to a well-placed Facebook ad strategy, Instagram Story ads can leverage your website traffic and target buyers who were browsing your products … but just didn’t purchase. It has worked. Yours truly may or may not have bought a sweatshirt that kept magically popping up in her Instagram Story ad sequence.
  • Visual Appeal: The marketing adage states that “diners eat with their eyes first.” The same applies to almost any product. Instagram’s Story ad platform allows for a highly visual medium designed to tout your product (and a strong call to action).
  • Ease: This one is the clincher. Literally, all one must do is swipe up to connect to the product page. At that point, add the item to your cart, punch in a credit card number (or approve Apple Pay) and mailing address, and wait for your purchase to arrive. No typing in URLs. No Google searches. Just suh-wipe up.

To prove our point, here are a few guilty pleasures that each of our team members recently purchased on an impulse via Instagram Story ads.

KELLI

“I bought this ice roller when Ashley Streicher (@streicherhair) posted a video of her rolling her face after a night out in an effort to de-puff and look fresh. This spoke to me. I keep it in the freezer and use most mornings – whether or not I’ve had that extra glass of wine the previous night!”

TRACY 

“I purchased this via a blogger on Instagram just hours after my favorite coffee mug shattered on the floor. Right place at the right time.”

CHERITH“Soooo … I often begin my workday from the bed after the alarm, checking emails and social media accounts. I have a big love for Friends, and when this classic joke showed up on my Instagram feed (How did they know!?), I just did the swipe thing before I was even fully awake.”

TAYLOR

“My recent impulse buy was this sweatshirt. I purchased it because everything on the website was 50 percent off, and the woman running the company is suspending the store until June.” (SCORE!)

Looking to learn how social media marketing can work for you?

Drop us a line!

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The Big Deal With Small Influencers

Kelli FletcherBlog, Marketing, Social Media + Influencer Engagement, , , Leave a Comment on The Big Deal With Small Influencers

Long before 2018 was dubbed “The Year of the Influencer,” brands were tapping celebrities to peddle their products for a fine fee. Turns out, a recognizable face could persuade the masses to try a new item or even switch their loyalty to a new brand. But it’s no big secret that looks and style have always had selling power.

In today’s social-media-soaked world, Andy Warhol’s famous words – “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes” – have never rang more true, largely thanks to Instagram.

When Instagram launched in the fall of 2010 (only eight years ago!), the possibilities were limited. People who didn’t have an iPhone couldn’t access it, so its user network was low. But even as its numbers grew, Instagram’s content retained a real-ness. People were sharing snaps from their life that were authentic, in real time and even a bit – gasp – unplanned. Now, nearly nine years later, 1 billion people are using Instagram all over the world. And each day, or so it seems, the platform is churning out hundreds of influencers for you to discover. That’s a lot of curated content. In fact, no longer is there just one type of influencer. The group is divided into categories. You have your influencer (50,000+ followers), your micro influencer (10,000-50,000 followers) and now the nano influencer.

The nano influencer is the newest wave of ‘Gram groupies. They represent the “normal” everyday consumer who keeps a small group of 1,000 to 5,000 followers. The key to nano influencers is their authenticity. Because they keep their community selective, they tend to be more trusted by their followers. That trust and relatable-ness can compel consumers to buy. In a New York Times article that was published last year, it was suggested that it’s the “lack of fame” that makes nano influencers so approachable. When they recommend a product or brand on Instagram, it feels like a recommendation from a friend.

And big brands have taken notice. Kate Edwards, the COO of social marketing technology startup, Heartbeat, recently shared with Forbes that “brands are moving away from influencers and celebrities, and more towards recognizing the voices of everyday consumers.”

And that’s just it. These nano influencers have only slightly curated feeds. They don’t require drawn out contracts. And they don’t use middleman managers to communicate. But most of all, they look a lot like, well … you. Their lifestyle is reachable; their word is reputable. In short, they’re real.

While it might look that Instagram did to authenticity what the digital camera did to candid photos, we do seem to be searching for a return to realism. And that’s refreshing. So the next time you’re scouring the “search” tab for new people to follow, consider on-boarding some nano influencers into your feed. Their content is sure to be inspiring in a much-needed fresh and relatable way.

Want to explore an influencer program for your brand? Drop us a line!

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Should You Buy Followers?

Clairemont InternBlog, Public Relations, Social Media + Influencer Engagement, , , , , , Leave a Comment on Should You Buy Followers?

We’ve all done it. You post fresh content, respond to comments and employ a good balance of organic and paid exposure, but it seems like your social media following is growing at a snail’s pace.

Growing your social media can cause headaches and take an amount of effort and time that you feel like you may not have. You’ve heard that some accounts pay to boost their followers and, at this point, it seems like a creative solution to your problem, right? Unfortunately, like all things too-good-to-be-true, that notion is a little misguided.

Buying social media followers can have more consequences than just taking a large bite out of your budget.

1) It can damage your brand reputation. While buying followers can seem harmless at first, once real followers discover that your profile numbers have been padded, they may feel as if you are no longer credible. Once your brand suffers a negative reputation, it can be difficult to regain your customers’ trust.

2) You won’t get the engagement you need. With thousands of “bot” accounts (accounts created for users that don’t exist, copycat accounts or hacked accounts), you won’t be getting the true engagement that you need for social media success. Sure, you may be paying for hundreds of likes and retweets, but when you post content, the consumer is more than likely one of your fake followers. That doesn’t help get your message out there or grow your business.

3) It can be expensive. If you still want to risk it, think about how much money you’ll be paying to potentially damage your reputation and acquire hollow engagement. Most companies that provide these follower accounts charge in bulk for followers, likes and retweets. It could cost you anywhere from $50 to a few thousand dollars regularly.

4) It often violates platforms’ terms of use. If you still think that buying followers on social media is a good idea, think about this: it violates many of the top platforms’ terms of use, including Twitter and Instagram. While it’s not illegal, your account could be suspended or even removed.

It may seem like your account will take forever to gain a hefty following, but by uploading and sharing quality content strategically, you can grow your social media accounts. Try working in some hashtag magic or become acquainted with Instagram’s new algorithm to start.

If you need to step back and let some pros take over, drop us a line, DM us or tweet us!

Written by intern Yasmine Evans, a senior at NC State University.

 

 

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Making the Most of Your Hashtags

Clairemont InternBlog, Marketing, Social Media + Influencer Engagement, , , , , , , , Leave a Comment on Making the Most of Your Hashtags

Hashtag. It’s one of those words you keep hearing and the more you hear it, the weirder it sounds. In social media, you’re constantly reminded to “hashtag this” or “hashtag that.” But which hashtags should you really be using … and why?

Remember that a hashtag is merely an identifier that pools certain posts together and keeps relevant data connected. It is a way for communities to share, a way to gauge opinions on topics and most importantly, a way for users to sift through the millions of terabytes of content floating around on the internet.

If you’re looking to beef up your hashtag game, you have to first ask, “For which platform am I creating content?” There is a monumental difference in strategy and results among Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Let’s break down each one.

Twitter

Twitter is where hashtags started, and the platform still emulates the tried-and-true spirit of their original purpose. Hashtags siphon your post into an online conversation. These tagged posts are “connected” to a thread of posts with the same hashtag, linking all the posts together. They work wonders for discovering developing trends and tracking relevant news or your favorite topics.

© [Artistan] / Adobe Stock
Twitter’s timeline algorithm, much like Instagram and Facebook, organizes your feed based on what it thinks will be relevant to your interests. One of the easiest ways to utilize hashtags is to find a popular tag and make your brand a part of that conversation. By engaging with a popular tag, your post will attract much more eye traffic. Connecting with trends is a great way to keep your brand in the loop.

Due to the 280-character limit, using several hashtags in a post doesn’t work well, so the most effective route is to use only two. Believe it, or not, there is an aesthetic appeal to social media content and writing a well-composed, organized and “clean” post could make all the difference.

Instagram

While people log on to Instagram to see carefully framed and beautifully filtered pictures, it is often the hashtags on the caption of a post that generates likes and helps it reach star status.

Tags on this platform serve as buckets for posts. Once a certain tag is put on a post, Instagram will group that post with all the other posts with that tag, creating an enormous gallery. Users can search any hashtag with Instagram’s Discover tab and see all the buzz on that topic.

This has shaped a community feel on the platform, letting foodies and travel enthusiasts alike share their posts with specific niche communities. Any brand has the chance to reach out to an exact market and share content with people that are interested in a certain topic.

Over time, certain hashtags have developed into industry standards, generating millions of posts. If you are a travel enthusiast, it may seem like a good idea to throw “#adventure” on your post, but at the time I wrote this article, that hashtag had almost 64 million posts. Remember that if you decide to use the more popular hashtags, your post could be lost a lot quicker due to the amount of activity!

However, Instagram allows you to insert 30 hashtags in one post, so use as many as you like! Just as a friendly reminder, it’s a good idea to make your hashtags appear lower in your caption so your post does not look cluttered. This can be accomplished by burying them beneath your text with dots, line breaks or whatever symbols you prefer. People will only be able to see the hashtags if they click on your post to see the full caption. On the other hand, tags can also be put into the comment section after a post has been made.

Facebook

Many people aren’t sure if Facebook is the place for hashtags. The original social network has traditionally been a platform for people to connect with close friends or specific users, unlike Twitter which encourages conversation among non-connected users.

Many businesses on Facebook use hashtags and promote campaigns the same way they would on any other platform. However, according to a study done by BuzzSumo in which more than a billion posts from more than 30 million brand pages were analyzed, posts without hashtags garnered more reach than posts with hashtags.

© [momius] / Adobe Stock
The sheer volume of that study makes it hard to argue that one should be using tags, but if your team has created a killer campaign and has found a great way to market it with an inventive hashtag, do it! It is still a good idea to keep the number of tags low to make it more appealing to the eye. We recommend approximately two.

The most important facet of the hashtag process is research! Research your industry leaders, influencers and audience to gauge tags people are using and which ones are resonating with those communities. In order to come up with meaningful hashtags that stick out, you need to know who you are trying to reach. You want to make sure your tag is refreshing and different from another brand’s hashtag!

Do your #research, be #inventive and don’t forget to have fun!

Now that you’re in the groove, check out some other tips on social media strategy!

Cover Photo Credit: © [Michail Petrov] / Adobe Stock

Written by intern Nathan J. McDaniel, a senior at Western Carolina University.

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