Will AI marketing tools take my job? No. And here’s why.
Ever since ChatGPT was launched in November 2022, the artificial intelligence (AI) tool grew to 100 million active users in just two months. It receives over 10 million queries per day and has become the fastest-growing consumer app in history. With its human-like ability to answer questions, respond to prompts, translate, predict responses, and even generate code, it is only natural for marketers to ask whether they will be replaced by a robot anytime soon. Read more
TikTok for business - insights from Gen Z
Recently, TikTok has become much more than a buzzword. It became the most downloaded app in 2021, and its popularity continues to take over the world. Could it replace Facebook and Instagram? We will wait and see.
Even though young adults and teenagers are the primary users of the app, it has become a great place for businesses to share and market their products and services.
In a previous post, we shared our "Beginners guide to Tik Tok". Here we will give you a glimpse of the future and how TikTok can be an excellent business tool thanks to Darina - our Gen Z insider for TikTok, who wrote this guest post for our blog.
Darina’s TikTok 101
TikTok is a social media platform used for creating, sharing, and finding short videos. Its primary target is people from the younger generations (Gen Z primarily), as a way to express themselves with original short-video content and share with the world by dancing, singing, jokes, lip-syncing and creating trends across the community. Here are its essential features:
- Video Length Options - up to 15s, 60s, or 3m
- Trending 15-30sec Sounds, Filters & Effects, In-App Video Editing
- Additional Features - Q & A, Duet, Stitch
- Copycat Features - "Now" (BeReal Clone), Stories (Snapchat Clone)
- Going Live & Multi-Guest Live - Requires 1k Followers
- Bio - 80 Characters + Connect Instagram and YouTube + Link (for minimum 1k followers or a business account type) + Email (for business accounts)
Personal and Business Accounts on TikTok
TikTok users can create two account types: Personal and Business. Here we will take a look at the pros and cons of both types:
Personal
Pros
- Monetisation Opportunities such as Creator Fund, Creator Marketplace, Live Gifts, and Tips (Make more sense for Creators rather than Businesses)
- Allows adding a Link in Bio but only after having 1k followers or more
- Access to trending audio sounds
Cons
- It’s not possible to have a personal account and run ads.
Business
Pros
- you can add a link to your Website in your Bio
- you can add Email to your Bio
- Lead Generation Forms (from your Website or using TikTok Instant Form)
- You can enable and set up Auto Messages
- You can run TikTok Ads (Currently unavailable for Bulgaria)
Cons
- You cannot use trending audio sounds due to copyright issues. Once you have a business account, you can only use sounds legalised for commercial use. That takes away the opportunity to participate in most, if not all, of the trends.
Account type
Currently, brands are allowed to have creator accounts instead of professional business accounts. With the creator account, they have much more options available for sounds and video creations, even though they cannot run ads. However, with a creator account, companies have more basic statistics options than with a business account.
It is essential to mention that the option for running ads is not available for business accounts in some countries yet. So it is up to your company's individual needs to choose the best option.
Organic Reach
With TikTok, you can reach a local audience effortlessly by default. However, it is much more challenging to reach a global audience. There are technical ways to make it happen:
- Install a VPN + Remove Your SIM card + Change Device Location Settings + Change App Store Location Settings, if possible.
- Burn any clues that might be giving away your location. The best option would be to do it upon installation of the app before you sign up for it. Turn off GPS every time you use it.
- Don't provide your phone number upon signing up. Use an email address only.
- Go to TikTok settings, navigate to the "Language" settings and choose the desired target language.
In “Your Control” To Strategically Make It Happen Within The App
- Follow creators and brands within the country of choice and engage with their content by liking, commenting, dueting and stitching.
- Make videos in their language, and make sure all your captions and hashtags are in that language
“For You” Content
-
Trends
There are different types of trends. Some are fun dances, and others are interesting points of view. Users add whatever caption they want, following their niche (within the video).
Some trends require you to spend time analyzing them and understand how people apply them to make a point in a fun, easily-digestible, engaging way.
It’s good to jump on the most popular trends. To do that, scroll the “For you page” to find them, or follow the most popular creators that always jump or the most popular trends. Every week you’d need to gather the new trends, analyze them, and try to understand their purpose, humour and main point. After that, you apply them to your niche.
It is best for services, but if you have a product, try to focus on the features of your product and the benefits rather than just the product itself. Always relate the product to the lifestyle needs of your ideal customer.
2. How to talk on TikTok and Talking Over a Trending Sound
There is a special way to talk on TikTok. The content creator needs to talk fast and straight to the point. They would need to present as much information as possible and provide as much value as possible for a minimum of time. To achieve that, the content creator needs to press the pause button regularly and record only when they are 100% sure what their point is and feel confident enough to say it as fast as possible.
Here are some pointers that you can use when creating TikTok content:
USE hooks to grab the attention:
- “You won’t believe this.”
- “X reasons why… .”
- “How I went from X to (result) in (timeframe).”
- “You need to stop.…”
You will find a lot of content from regular content creators or experienced marketers.
3. Transitions
“Transitions” add an element of surprise. They keep people excited and interested in the content. They are best used for the fashion and beauty niche, as well as for the travel and tourism industry. They can be applied when showcasing different products. Keep in mind that external Video editing is tricky but possible, and the results could be much better.
4. Aesthetic Mini Vlogs
That's an excellent option for product businesses within the wellness/beauty niche to showcase their products not in a sales way but more in a way that gives a vibe and feeling of value when incorporating these products into everyday life.
Pick a trending sound, extract it, get it on CapCut, or find it directly on CapCut - the video-editing software owned by TikTok. Have a set of pre-filmed, aesthetically pleasing videos, get them on CapCut, and start editing. The keyword here is synchronization, and you'd need to synchronize the music with the video flow and the effects.
5. Skits / Character Conversations
Skits are a great way to show expertise in an engaging way, pretending you educate someone uneducated on a specific topic. Of course, people like to make funny skits too. But the best way for businesses is to give value by offering educational ones. All you need to do is make a scenario, split yourself into two personalities and… Action.
6. SEO
Keep your video short and sweet, and fun. Use TikTok slang. Use keywords and copy underneath the video.
Hashtags Tips:
- Don’t use #FYP or #Viral.
- Use 3-6 hashtags, whatever fits.
- Use larger and smaller (amount of views)
- Smaller - under 500K | Bigger - above 500K
- Make them specific to your content.
TikTok and SEO
For generation Z, TikTok is now our search engine because we don’t use google anymore. We “Just TikTok it.” The app pulls data from 3 different areas:
- Text within the videos
- The caption underneath (keywords + hashtags)
- What you say within the video, using keywords, because TikTok records everything that you say, which turns it into automated captions
7. Engagement
To like something, you need to press the heart. When you comment, it’s best to keep it short and straight to the point. That is how Gen Z likes it. The most important thing to interact with the application is to learn TikTok slang, humour and how to use emojis. There isn’t a shortcut or a way around it. Nobody can teach you because it changes with the new trends. You'd need to be in the TikTok flow.
Examples:
- “He/she understood the assignment”
- “👁👄👁”
- “Go little rockstar”
- “CEO of…”
- “Main character energy”
- “I like it, Picasso”
- “Emotional damage”
*You can also google GenZ Slang or Vocabulary/Words and use them.
8. Adding to Favourite
Not only can users favour videos, but they can also favour sounds, effects, comments, questions, hashtags, and products. To favour a sound, press on the sound page and select “Add to Favorites”. Press and long hold on the screen until a pop-up appears for every other type of content. The button looks like a bookmark and is right below the comment button.
9. Duets
“Duets” are great for real-time reactions and collaborations. You have different layout options, but the two ideas will be playing at the same time. You can “duet” your video to showcase a before and after for your business. If someone has a great video with valuable information or a tip within your niche, you can hop on a duet and listen, react or show agreement and support.
10. Stitches
“Stitches” allow you to incorporate up to 5sec of someone else’s videos into your video. People use it to make fun of others, prove them wrong, or express opinions. That is good for elaborating on a topic, continuing a discussion, or testing a theory/tip.
With stitches, you can:
- provide more information
- continue a conversation
- correct a mistake
11. Video Answers To Comments
On the comments left under your video, you can press the reply option. Once you do that, you can either give a written reply or make your response more engaging by pressing the video recording button on the left.
12. Q&A
Right under the Bio, click on it, and you will see many random questions. If you see one that relates to the content you want to share with your target audience, go ahead and film a video answer to that question. If the question is within your scope of business, it would be a great opportunity to show expertise.
“Story” Content
There are two ways to post a Story: Either from the main home menu + or on your profile picture. You can either post a video or a photo. These stories end up on the “FYP” and have the same engagement opportunities, just like the regular TikToks.
That is the best way to use and post videos that you wouldn’t regularly post. It could be content outside your regular niche and what you typically post. That way, your audience can get to know you better without distrusting the niche you created for your account. It is something that you want up and running on your profile only for 24h.
It’s suitable for “Story Time." You can tell a whole story that you want to share. You can also put up daily updates, talk to your audience, and get to know them.
“Now” Content
Like in the original app, you will get a random notification from TikTok that it’s time to post a “Now”. You can post only once a day and the format of the content, just like in the original app, is a picture that captures both - yourself with the front camera and your surroundings with the back one. The difference is that BeReal only allows photos, and TikTok allows both short videos and photos.
Just like on BeReal, to see what other people have posted, you need to post as well. Otherwise, their content is hidden. You can only share "Now" with your friends or everyone.
It’s good if a business has promo codes or any up-to-date promo/discounts to post there now or even on BeReal for the public audience.
Best Practice
Keep The Videos Short And Sweet (15-30sec, 60s maximum). Although TikTok allows us to upload 3-minute-long videos, its users don’t like it. Their attention span is so short that if you can’t make your point in 15-30sec, they will lose interest.
UGC - User-Generated Content
UGC is a great way to advertise your products and services on TikTok. In this case, a content creator would create authentic videos about using your product or service. It is a powerful digital recommendation, only this time, you have a short trendy video of a customer/client using and sharing your products and services with the world. And the best part is that it doesn’t feel like an ad or sales.
Bonus
As Instagram decided to turn from a photo-sharing application into a short-video content platform, TikTok decided to make photos cool again. Now, users can switch to “photo mode,” which allows them to upload photos like a carousel and put music sounds over them. It’s not a video slideshow, and it contains static images.
So when people said: “We want photos back,” TikTok listened. Did you hear that, Mosseri?
As Gen Z rely primarily on short video content for information and entertainment, we welcome the challenges and the future changes that applications like TikTok bring and make the best of it. If you want to stay on top of the trends and monetize in the future, don’t hesitate to contact us and discuss ways we can TikTok your business.
About Darina: GenZ social media junkie with an obsession over TikTok and Short-Form Vertical Videos.
Social Media Content Optimisation Tips and Tricks
Did you know that over 88% of businesses market on social media these days? If this isn’t a clear indication that your business needs to be on social media, then we don’t know what is. It’s simply a must to go social but there are some essential things you need to know regarding optimising your content. In the world of marketing, they say that “content is king” and this has never been more accurate today.
As a result, you need to ensure your content is clear, engaging and powerful. But how do you do this while ensuring that your online presence is consistent? In this post, we explore several tips and tricks that you can use to optimise your content. It all starts out with setting clear goals and expectations.
1. Set clear goals
As a starting point, you shouldn’t go social just because everyone else is doing it. You need to have a clear strategy and goals in mind before embarking on optimising your social media presence. This is why it’s crucial to set aside some time and think about what you want to achieve. Do you want more followers? Are you looking for more likes and shares? Do you aim to boost your sales through social media? What type of engagement are you looking for? Having answers to these questions is the first step to ensuring that your social media content is as optimised as possible.
2. Ensure your profiles are complete
Next up, and once you’ve covered your bases with clear goals in mind, it’s time to optimise your profile. This means ensuring that every possible social media channel and the opportunities it affords you is completed as thoroughly as possible. If you have a Facebook profile, for example, you will want to fill in the “About” section, add contact numbers, images, store hours, your location and also use keywords so that the bots that crawl social media sites can find and rank you better.
3. Create valuable content
Creating valuable content is the next big step. But how do you determine what is valuable? This will ultimately depend on the business and industry that you operate within. However, some important content that you can post about and share include reports on developments and trends in the industry. These are a great way of providing valuable information to your followers. Another aspect to look out for is evoking humour and emotions. This is an essential way of boosting engagement with your audience because it will signal to them that your brand is not a stiff corporate, but rather a company with a human touch.
Furthermore, you should optimise your use of user-generated content (UGC). UGC is what your followers create and share related to your brand. This may mean engaging in a two-way relationship with them so that they feel valued and heard. Finally, it’s important to consider making your content interactive. This means making use of polls, informative infographics that can be used by your audience, providing free downloadable resources and many others.
4. Add tags and hashtags to your posts
Your post may be absolutely perfect in every way but it wouldn’t be complete for optimisation if you didn’t add tags or hashtags to it. These are the keywords that help bots classify content and they’re also the ways in which your users can find your content or valuable content more quickly. With regard to hashtags, it’s also important to understand each social media platform and its best practices. If you use Twitter, for example, one or two hashtags have proven to be the best strategy. Meanwhile, although Instagram allows for up to 30, you should limit your usage to around 11.
5. Use images and videos
We live in a visual world where we consume images and videos at a much faster rate as opposed to the written word. As a result, you need to use the right images for your brand and at the right size. You may also wish to make use of short videos because these are a crucial way of getting more exposure for your brand. From Q&As to how-to videos and everything in between including “a day in the life in your company” can really help improve the way in which your brand is perceived and achieve more visibility for your organisation as a whole.
6. Don’t forget your CTAs
Calls-to-action (CTAs) are another crucial component of your social media optimisation strategy. These CTAs require that your audience takes a certain action when engaging with your content. By omitting CTAs, your content will literally just sit there. But were you to add a powerful CTA to your content, you’d gently be guiding your audience towards taking an action. This could range from finding out more about your product or service, liking and sharing your post, downloading an important resource or even making a purchase.
7. Remain active, not passive
You may think that once you’ve posted your content, that’s all that’s left to it. This would be an incorrect assumption. In fact, a best industry practice is to engage with your audience and ensure that you’re active on social media as opposed to being passive. You can achieve this by replying to comments. This shows that there’s a human side to your organisation and it comes in especially handy when it comes to customer complaints. The quicker these are dealt with, the better for your overall business reputation.
8. Optimise links with UTMs
Finally, we reach UTMs or Urchin Tracking Modules. If all this sounds a bit technical or complicated right now, don’t worry. As will likely happen with many of your posts, you will want to lead your audience to your homepage, landing pages or even blog posts. This will necessarily imply posting links together with your content.
By implementing UTMs in your links, you’ll be better able to gauge the ways in which your audience engages with your content and brand. And this will also help you achieve better tracking, enabling you to determine which type of content is more successful than the previous one. Ultimately, the goal is to use this data to make more informed decisions about your content going forward.
In a nutshell
Much like you would optimise your blog posts with the right keywords to rank higher for specific search queries, or your website and digital presence, your social media content needs to be optimised as well. Whether it’s using the right tags or hashtags, it all starts with having a clear strategy in mind. What goals do you want to achieve and how do you plan on doing this incrementally? Once you’ve figured this out, the tips and tricks mentioned above will help you stand in good stead with your patrons and customers, who are increasingly looking for a “human face” behind the corporate veil in its communication with the outside world. Consequently, social media content optimisation should be a key priority in your marketing efforts and one that should not be overlooked.
If you need some assistance with your overall social media and digital presence, let us know and get in touch with us. We’d be happy to help.
A Beginners' Guide to TikTok for Business
The evolution and popularity of the digital world today enable businesses to reach a long-awaited destination - the overcoming of geographical and infrastructural limitations. The online space is populated by a wide range of platforms and solutions that empower individuals and organizations to reach more like-minded users, target specific audiences, and get their messages across to the world.
One of these solutions is TikTok, a social media that can give you the opportunity to communicate with more than 1 billion users across 150 countries. If you’re searching for reliable ways to grow your business and reach out to more potential customers, TikTok is the place to be.
In this article, we’ll offer a detailed beginner’s guide on how to use TikTok for business.
What’s TikTok?
If you use the internet and have an idea of what social networks are all about, chances are that you’ve already heard of TikTok. In a nutshell, it’s a Chinese-owned video-sharing app that allows users to create, edit, and share videos mixed with music, effects, filters, and more. It’s an incredibly successful project and is considered the world’s fastest-growing social media app that attracts a number of popular celebrities, influencers, and businesses.
It’s different to other social media channels as videos are the prevailing type of content shared. TikTok offers incredible opportunities for business growth, as long as you’re confident enough to use it and create a winning strategy for content creation and sharing.
How to get started using TikTok for business
Getting started with TikTok for business is simple. All you need to do is follow a few steps.
Get the app
You can download the TikTok app from your App Store or Google Play store. Once you’ve downloaded it, simply click the “Me” option in the bottom menu bar and choose “Sign up”. Provide your details for registration or use another registered social media account.
Set up your account
Make sure you create a business account in order to get the most out of the app. You’ll see three dots found at the top right-hand side of the “Me” page. Select “Manage my account” and hover on to the “Switch to Pro Account”. You’ll see the option “Business Account”. Click on it and choose the category that best describes your business. This will enable you to receive personalized content, events, and more.
Create content and connect
Once you’ve set up your business account, there are a ton of interesting creative tools to explore. You can also start creating content to promote your products and services. You can share others’ content and gradually grow your account to become more easily discovered.
But before you can create magic on TikTok, there are a few ground rules and tips that you should know about.
How to grow your TikTok account
The only way that TikTok will make a difference for your business is if you manage to successfully grow your account and attract more users to it. This will enable you to make your content visible to more people, increasing your chances of brand recognition.
The quickest way to grow your account is by creating interesting and attractive video content. You won’t need any special devices or technology gear, all you need is your smartphone and internet connection. When you’re creating content, keep in mind that the dominant audience on TikTok consists of younger people. Put otherwise, try to find the perfect balance between your brand and the audience by creating funny, grabbing videos.
Here are a few quick tips for your TikTok videos:
- TikTok requires that all videos are in an aspect ratio of 9:16.
- Currently, the maximum TikTok video length that you can have in order to upload your content is 3 minutes.
- The best way to shoot your videos for TikTok is vertical.
- Sound plays a key part in the TikTok experience. Make sure to add relevant and carefully selected songs or music sounds to your videos.
- Stay up to date with the latest TikTok trends for inspiration on promoting your brand, products, and services. For instance, some of the most popular TikTok trends include lip-sync or dance videos, micro sketches, and video memes.
Advertising on TikTok
Another way to grow your TikTok profile and attract more followers is by advertising on TikTok. The platform provides a number of advertising opportunities, like in-feed video ads, branded hashtag challenge ads, brand takeover ads, TopView ads, and branded effects. Each type comes with a set of peculiarities and a certain expense that you’ll need to factor into your budget.
Creating video ads on TikTok for business
If you’ve decided to expand your reach on TikTok by taking advantage of advertising options, you’ll need a step-by-step process. First, you’ll need to set up a TikTok Ads Account. Visit the TikTik Ads Manager and choose your billing country and the purpose of your account. Next, provide the requested details (including email ID, password, and verification code) and agree to TikTok Ad’s terms and conditions. TikTok will then check and verify your account and you’re ready to get started.
You can create ad campaigns from the “Campaign” section in the menu, under “Create”. From there, you’ll be able to select your advertising objectives and personalize your campaign and specify your targeting. Finally, TikTok will ask you to choose a video or image to promote and to select a call to action button. You’re now ready to submit and enjoy the results.
Conclusion
TikTok enables businesses to grow and expand their reach by offering the perfect place for sharing and engaging with user-generated content. The platform is also appropriate for the creation of different business communities, where users interested in your business’ content can share feedback, discuss topics, and exchange ideas. Put simply, TikTok is an important marketing channel for any business, no matter how big or small. It’s a space that can help you unlock the full potential of your brand and reward you with more visibility, traffic, and sales.
If you need some assistance with your overall social media and digital presence, let us know and get in touch with us. We’d be happy to help.
How to increase your Instagram organic reach in 2022?
Instagram is becoming a vital part of the social media strategy of every business. This mainly goes for companies that work on the B2C level and sell goods and services to end-users. Investing in ads may be something that everybody does, however, there is another important aspect to consider - boosting your organic reach on the social network. Luckily, there are still some ways to do that on Instagram and we are going to give you a few essential tips.
In this article, we are going to feature only proven tactics that we use for our clients. Keep in mind that the results may vary. If you are consistent and have high-quality and engaging content, the increase will come sooner rather than later.
Use Instagram Stories and Instagram Reels
Last year, the Head of Instagram - Adam Mosseri, said that “Instagram is no longer a photo-sharing app”. He mentioned that “the company is looking to lean into entertainment and video after seeing the success of competitors like TikTok and YouTube.”
That’s why stories and reels should become your primary focus.
We know that they are two different things. However, both of them will boost your organic reach in 2022. Instagram Stories remain a key factor to share some brief insights from the company's everyday life or to announce something interesting that will be coming up - a new product, a new service, or maybe a promotion. They are the ultimate engagement tool for your audience where you can ask questions, run polls or quizzes and this way directly interact with your followers. The more they take action on your story, the more it will be prioritized by the algorithm because these actions will “tell” the platform that this content is cool and interesting.
Instagram Reels on the other hand will be pushed by the algorithm of Instagram itself (they have to overpower TikTok in some way, as Mosseri said). You can use reels to even share a short story that can be funny or creative and get your audience engaged. Maybe you can outline what awesome place for work you provide. Imagine an Instagram reel that tells that story:
- Work from the boring office as usual;
- The weather is nice and people are looking out the window;
- The manager tells the whole team to head down and work from the beach;
- Final shot with some refreshments and a few people on laptops with their feet in the sand.
Not bad, right? However, you need to follow and apply the trends in the niche your brand operates in. Otherwise, you are going to have boring content that nobody interacts with.
The right post at the right time
This might look very simple. Yet a lot of people out there are not paying attention. You can get the most of your posts if your schedule is aligned with the time of day when most people from your target audience are active. If you don’t pay attention to the details some mistakes can happen like:
- Not considering that your target audience is in a different time zone;
- Not taking into account holidays and vacation periods people have;
- Not posting relevant content to some major events going on.
In order to get the best out of your posts, you have to be sure to post the right thing at the right time that will get your audience engaged. This may sound complicated, but you can check when your audience is most active (from profile insights) and check if there is something interesting you can use as inspiration or the subject of your post. That answers the questions “When?” and “What?”
For example, for a client of Markception, we post on Instagram in the relevant time for Chicago (around 10 AM local time) and browse for local interesting events, historical facts, or celebrity visits to use as information in our posts.
Engage the audience with challenges, giveaways, and contests
The best way to increase your organic reach is to engage your audience. And you can do that by involving them with something easy:
- Have a challenge;
- Ask them a question;
- Organize a giveaway;
- Get them to vote in the comments;
- Organize some contests.
All of these can be integrated into the social media strategy of your brand. For example, one of the best performing stories for a client of ours that offers beauty procedures was related to the way women put on their under-eye patches. There was a poll on an Instagram story and the results were amazing. It was the most engaging story ever posted on this client’s account.
Go live, use hashtags, inspire user-generated content, and tag other users and brands
This may seem like too much stuff for one final tip. However, most marketers don’t use the full potential of the social network. In order to increase your Instagram organic reach the most, you have to use all the tools to your advantage.
That means you can go live and share something awesome that happened to you. Did you land a new client? Opened a new office? A new store? Got some reward? Be spontaneous and go live when there is something big to share. You can always say at the end: “More news on our website soon!”.
Hashtags are important because your post can be discovered by someone who doesn’t follow you. However, people don’t tend to use them that much. The same goes for the location. And you could be missing out a lot if you are one of these people. Explore the #s which are relevant to you based on your service, location, experience, trending topic, or something else that can be related to your business.
Tagging on Instagram works both ways. Yes, it is great to interact with users and brands. However, the big boost will come if you inspire user-generated content that is related to your brand. For example, here is something you can do:
- Announce a contest for the best makeup routine with the cosmetic products you are selling;
- Communicate a reward that will be attractive enough to get the people engaged;
- Get your audience to post a story with their makeup and share what they love about your product;
- Get them to tag your account.
That, right there is just one of the examples you can do. Get creative and you will achieve awesome results. Users are tired of the same old ads, posts, and content. They want something new, something fresh and they want it now. So give it to them!
If you need some assistance with your overall social media and digital presence, let us know and get in touch with us. We'd be happy to help.
What are some of the social media trends for 2022?
Another year is about to pass. And while people are still opening their Christmas gifts, we at the marketing agencies are planning meetings with clients to discuss strategies and are exploring useful trends that will be hot in 2022. In this article, we have summarised the best ones for you. A huge help in our research has been reporting on global trends by Hootsuite, Social media examiner, CMS Wire, and the Influencer marketing hub.
Trend #1: Influencers will help brands build communities
Influencer marketing is not something new. However, it was more directed to increasing sales rather than creating communities. People are getting tired of seeing someone famous to try to convince them to buy something they don’t need. We foresee that one of the big trends of 2022 will be the joint work between marketers and influencers in creating communities around the brand with people that share the same values and vision.
Trend #2: Content will be king again
Yes, it is true that people have shorter attention spans and are reading less as each year goes by. However, this makes written content even more important. You need to share compelling and engaging messages with your audience using fewer words. This requires a lot of skill and the development of the right copy for your brand.
Good copywriting is just part of the bigger formula for content marketing. The main thing about a great content marketing strategy is the diversification of content formats and using them to achieve different goals. Brands should create audio and video content in different formats and distribute it via different channels. And not only that.
The option for creating and distributing good content is a lot:
- blogs;
- vlogs and videos;
- podcasts and audiobooks;
- ebooks and infographics;
- different forms of visuals;
- email and newsletters;
- presentations;
- expert article and white papers;
- reports;
- free courses and training and many more.
You need to find the rind formula that fits the needs and goals of your brand.
Trend #3: Ads that don’t feel like ads
Consumers are tired of seeing the same old ideas, same old CTAs, same old visuals. The brands that risk it with their ads will have better chances than the ones that don’t. Ads in 2022 have to give some added value, not just be another brick in the wall of sponsored content people see. This can be done with the implementation of more creative concepts - ads that don’t feel like commercial material are the thing that will encourage people to trust the brand.
Trend #4: Social media customer care becomes vital
Users are interacting with big brands more and more on social media. Yes, phone and e-mail remain a vital part of customer service. However, if brands underlook the customer care experience they offer on social media, they are going to be in big trouble. Communicating with customers on social networks is not about only chatting - you have to answer reviews or some status where an unhappy person has tagged your brand. Do not underestimate this - your brand might suffer a lot of reputational damage if you do.
Users on social media expect brands to have an immediate and adequate reaction to their questions and needs. For them, social media is a channel for direct connection and interaction with a brand or business and their expectations are quite high.
Trend #5: Nostalgia will work like a charm
The final trend in our short overview is nostalgia marketing. This will again bring benefits to the brands that know how to use it right. People are nostalgic and care about the past. The best thing is that it can be used by brands in almost any industry:
- If you are a sports club issue limited edition shirts from several years ago;
- If you are a diner, have a retro evening night.
There are a lot of great ideas out there. When you sit down to figure out your marketing strategy for next year just make sure to stay true to your brand and follow the trends. If you need some help in that area, feel free to contact us.
How can Pinterest bring added value to your marketing strategy?
When most businesses plan their marketing strategy in terms of social media, the top social networks that come to mind instantly are Facebook, Instagram, Viber, and even Tik-Tok. However, an important piece of the puzzle remains overlooked and left behind - Pinterest. In this article, we are going to explore how this social network can be used as a strategic marketing tool for your brand.
What is Pinterest and how does it work?
If we look at Pinterest, we will discover that the keyword here is one - images. The essence of this social network is the sharing of images. The people behind Pinterest say that its mission is to connect people worldwide through interesting things. While users browse through photos, videos, and other types of multimedia content, they can organize what they like on the so-called “boards”. When people browse the internet and see something they like they can put a “pin” in it and find it later on their profile in Pinterest on the right board. A lot of people do this for wedding planning, for example, to store in one place everything they have seen and liked - from wedding dresses, through decorations and food. In this short video, you can check it out.
Pinterest allows users to follow other people on the social network, to share and comment and tag each other. For business owners and their brands, Pinterest is a great option for sales and marketing in a creative way. It combines two of the best things that make it so popular for users - visual content and the option for users to share everything they like. This social network is based on interests and that can help brands reach relevant audiences that are interested and actually looking for products and services like the ones they have.
Who is using Pinterest the most?
Data shows that Pinterest has 478 million users that actively interact with the social network each month. Half of them are from the USA. Another country with a large number of users is Germany (17,5 million). If we speak about numbers, here are some statistics that can show you the potential of the network:
- People have used the “pin” option 240 billion times;
- There are over 50 billion different boards created on the social network;
- There was a 30% growth in the number of users in just one year for 2020.
- Since 2016, Pinterest has increased the number of active users by almost 330 million people.
From a demographic point of view, women, in general, use Pinterest more. They account for over 77% of all users.
Can Pinterest be an important factor for increasing sales? Definitely! Almost 90% of the users say that Pinterest is an inspiration for them before making a purchase. Data shows that ⅓ of all users earn in the range 50 000 -75 000 $ per year, which indicates a good purchasing potential.
How can Pinterest help your business?
Like everything in life, the usage of Pinterest to promote your business has some pros and cons. It can turn into a strategic tool or it can be a waste of time and effort. It is really all up to you (and your marketing team). The main things you can do with Pinterest are:
- Become more visible to potential customers (helps you increase traffic and sales);
- Integrate a “pin” button on your website to allow Pinterest users to save something that they like and review it later;
- Generate backlinks to your website - this is possible because every pin from a website keeps the link as well.
A lot of people use Pinterest for inspiration and to find something that is similar to their taste. The social network shows relevant visual content based on the interests of the users, which often are actively looking for something specific. This can help your business a lot if you are going strong with high-quality visuals in your marketing strategy. You can achieve great organic results with good visual content.
There is also the option to advertise on Pinterest to achieve even better results. You can create a campaign, set a budget, and choose the target audience. You will have to select specific pins to promote. Data shows that brands running campaigns to increase brand awareness spend 2 to 5 dollars to reach 1000 impressions, while a single engagement from users on ads is valued between 0,1 $ up to 1,5 $. Think of Pinterest as the pre-sales stage - this is the place where a lot of people decide what to buy.
On the downside, there is the fact that maintaining this social network can take a lot of your time. You can dedicate some people from your creative or/and marketing team to this task and If the strategy is not good, you might lose their time without achieving any results. On the other hand, if you are looking to automate the processes, it can also be challenging and time-consuming. Pinterest still remains a niche social network and if you don’t have the right strategy, it might turn out to be a waste of time, despite the potential it has for your business.
Is Pinterest suitable for your type of business?
There are several industries that Pinterest is great for. Keep in mind that the majority of users are female and this influences the results a lot. Here are the top industries for Pinterest:
- Fashion and clothing;
- Cosmetics;
- Wedding agencies;
- Travel and tourism;
- Food and gourmet.
There are many more as well. Any brand with good visual content can use Pinterest. Online stores (B2C) are also a prime industry that can look into Pinterest as a marketing tool. Don’t forget that users are there to enjoy beautiful visuals and be inspired. A picture can tell 1000 words - use that wisely.
What is the place and importance of Pinterest in our marketing strategy?
The place of Pinterest in the marketing mix depends on your current goals. We know that everyone wants to sell, but you might have to work a little bit in other aspects as well. That will help you drive sales up eventually. Pinterest as a marketing tool is great for any companies and brands that want to:
- increase their brand awareness;
- drive conversions up (and sales eventually);
- create a bond between the brand and the target audience.
We already mentioned that Pinterest can bring added value to your SEO.
How to successfully adopt Pinterest in your current B2C communications?
The first thing you can do is remember that this is not about you. People go on Pinterest to be inspired and they look for something beautiful. Give them that. See what the users like that are relevant to you. Not all pictures on the boards can lead to your website. Create thematic boards that can be explored, see what is trending and try to “catch the wave”.
When you put a pin with a link to your website, make sure that you want to take users to the right section or product. This will help you increase your conversion rate a lot.
And remember to socialize. At the end of the day, this is a community in an open social network.
Will Pinterest work as a marketing channel for your business?
We get to the most important question - is Pinterest going to work for my business? At the end of the day, Pinterest can be an essential channel in your marketing strategy for getting more sales and traffic. This social network can become a powerful tool for any brand and business that sells to end customers (B2C) and provides different levels of interaction with your potential customers. We definitely recommend using Pinterest as a channel in your marketing strategy, especially if what you sell can be represented by inspiring visuals.
Myths and legends about social media
Social media changed the way we interact with each other. More importantly - it changed how businesses communicate and sell to their clients. In today’s world, it is almost impossible for a brand not to be active on different platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. The presence there is integrated into the marketing strategy of the company. There are tons of details about the target audiences, the types of posts, the tone of voice, and many more.
It is fair to say that social media changed our lives and boosted the area of digital marketing in a way never seen before. However, there are several myths and legends about the networks that are still going around to this day and in this article, we are going to break some of them. In the following lines, consider us the “Mythbusters” of digital marketing.
Myth #1: You should be present anywhere
Up to this day, a lot of people consider that they should be present everywhere and try to maintain accounts on all social networks. This is something that is not necessary. Depending on their target audience and type of business, companies can choose several channels in their marketing strategy. If they identify additional ones along the way, that is okay.
It depends on the type of business you have. If you are selling clothes, then you want to be active on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest. However, there is no point to be on LinkedIn with the same offers. People are there for other things and expect other interactions from this type of social network. Another mistake is that people rely on the same strategy for each of their pages. You have to adapt to the types of posts you can share, see what works best and brings you followers and engagement. And most importantly - that achieves your goals.
Myth #2: You have to share engaging content at all cost
Some people consider that their pages must have a lot of likes, comments, and interactions. And while that is true, it shouldn’t be done with any type of content. For example - if you are a restaurant that has a social media page and shares pictures of cute animals you are probably going to receive a lot of engagement. However, it will be from people that like cute animals. Not from potential customers that will come and eat in your place. It is the same with other types of thematic content. You can use it, but you have to modify it from the scope of your business. Any page can post a funny picture - just make sure it is in line with your business area and target audience.
Myth #3: I work from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. I am going to post at that timeframe
This is not that common myth. A few years ago it was and people considered that they can be active on social media from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and post regularly there. However, if you look closely, you will see that successful brands are active almost 24/7. And while some posts can be scheduled, for others you have to be the first one to reach. This is very important for media companies - whoever is the first is guaranteed the most likes, shares, and comments.
You have to understand that people are online all of the time. And that is something they expect from brands as well. Today the brand follows the client, not the other way around.
Myth #4: Social media is used by young people only
Once they started over 10 years ago, social media was used mainly by young people. Now, this is just a myth. What can be considered to be true is that young people prefer specific social media platforms. TikTok and Instagram are just two examples. Facebook and LinkedIn are left to professionals and the majority of people there are not students. This is not “a young man’s game” if we have to put it in a way to reference James Bond. If you are interested in specific numbers and demographics, sproutsocial.com has compiled an amazing list of people from different age groups using each platform the most.
Myth #5: I don’t need investments or expertise to achieve results
Social media is very complex and if you want to be successful you must hire professionals to help you. It is almost impossible to achieve results on your own. And there are several reasons for that. You can share posts and stories on your pages. However, social media has to be part of the overall marketing strategy you have. The SM networks should be chosen based on the type of business you have, the goals you want to achieve, and your target audience. The different platforms have constant actualizations and change their algorithms and functionalities. For a person that doesn’t have the proper background, this information will be hard to track. And those factors are crucial for how a business will perform on social media.
Myth#6: Social media is marketing with no cost
In the early 2010s, some marketers referenced social media as a place where you can promote your business without investing in ads. This wasn’t true back then and it is not true today. If you want to be successful you need to deliver amazing content to your target audience on that social network. And here we come to the content plan and the strategy for social media ads. What and when to be published, what types of ads to be prepared and run. And this is only the tip of the iceberg. It is complex and it costs money. Some marketers still reference social media as “marketing with zero budget”. Well, they don’t know what they are talking about.
Those are the six main myths about social media that still can be witnessed today. If you want to be successful you have to be active on social media today. The best way to achieve results is to work with professionals. If you want to learn more about how you can take advantage of the potential that the social networks have, feel free to contact our team.
LinkedIn for Business - A Beginner’s Guide (part 2)
A little while back I covered the basics of LinkedIn marketing in a blog post. Now it is time to move on with the subject and go a bit deeper into this social network for professionals. In the first article, I walked you through the process of how to create a page for your brand, what are the benefits of the social network, and what can you do to grow your audience.
Now I am going to tell you more about how the algorithm works, what’s the process of post creation, and I’ll give you some tips and tricks that will boost your performance. Let’s see how to make this social network work for your brand in the best way possible!
Important things any business should know about LinkedIn
To achieve results, you should be aware of the way things work. I am going to walk you through the most important details you should be familiar with when maintaining and growing a business page on LinkedIn.
How does the platform work?
Since it is a professional platform, the content generated on LinkedIn is less than the one on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. This means that you have better chances for organic visibility. The algorithm is constructed in such a way that you will be able to see things people in your network have commented on or liked. This goes both ways - once you like or comment on something, your connections will see it as well.
The perfect size exists
LinkedIn, as any other social media channel, has specific sizes that work best for posting. Based on my personal experience in managing our clients’ pages, the perfect sizes are the following:
- Image (square) - 1200 x 1200px;
- Image (portrait) - 1080 x 1350px;
- Page update with a URL (shared link) - 1200 x 627px;
- VIdeos - up to 4096 x 2304px and in 10 minutes of length. However, 1920 x 1080px looks nice as well;
- Documents - they can be in the format of PPT, PPTS, DOC, DOCX, and PDF with a size up to 100MB and content up to 300 pages. The size can be standard A4, as well as 1920 x 1080px or simply a square. Keep in mind that if there is too much text or if the font is too small, important details might be missed on mobile devices.
Despite these recommendations, images with a resolution of 1920 x 1080px perform as well. You can experiment with that and check if the visibility and results will be better.
What are the types of posts on LinkedIn?
When you make a post on LinkedIn, there are some small things you should know very well. All available types of posts are only accessible once you press “Start a post” on the page newsfeed. If you don’t, you will only see the four most popular options for posting:
- upload a photo;
- share a video;
- start a poll;
- write an article.
Also, there is the option to add attachments to your post if you need to share something specific such as a document. Now that I mention them, docs are very interesting types of posts on LinkedIn. They appear in a way that lets users interact with your page. LinkedIn turns them into small presentations that you can swipe through. This means you can share interesting information about your audience in an interactive way. The continuous interaction automatically boosts the engagement of the page, making the documents the best type of posts you can share (of course this could be different for your business).
Another specific thing is related to video posts. It is better to upload the video file directly on LinkedIn rather than sharing а URL with the same video from YouTube or Facebook. The performance and visibility will be much better. Otherwise, LinkedIn will consider the post as a “shared link” and we all know how that works across all social channels. Moreover, if you upload the video directly, you’ll be able to see some interesting data not only about the views but also about the people who have watched it.
What is the proper length of the posts on LinkedIn?
Another important thing that should be considered is the length of the posts on LinkedIn. An article from influencialmarketing.com outlines that around 100 words are the best for post descriptions. My experience shows something similar, but the measure is different - up to the 3rd row. After that, you will be hit with the “see more” option. And I’m sorry l have to be the one to tell you - people don’t click on that.
If you want your posts to be more engaging, keep your recommended length. The best copy is the one that tells you a lot with a few words. When you have a proper post description + an engaging title, people will interact with your publication for sure.
Use #Hashtags
Let me tell you something - the proper usage of #hashtags on LinkedIn makes the difference between the good and best. As people from the social network themselves put it - this is a great way to stay on track of important topics related to your business or brand.
When you establish your page, you will be invited to mention three hashtags that are relevant to your business. Make sure you fill them correctly. From time to time, you will get notifications when a topic with one of those hashtags is being discussed. And you can take part with a comment and share your opinion on the behalf of your page.
When you post and include hashtags, the people that follow the topics related to them or search by # will see your publications. This can be a powerful tool - use it to position your page online.
Take advantage of LinkedIn for your business
I have to tell you - LinkedIn can be a game-changer for your business. Many brands use it to drive sales for their business or position themselves in the sight of professionals that fit in their target audience. It is great for anyone that works in the field of B2B (and not only). If you want to learn how to succeed using LinkedIn as part of your marketing strategy, feel free to contact me and my colleagues from Markception Digital. We’ll be happy to tell you more.
Do's and Don'ts in Social Media Customer Service
Congratulations! You have a lovely product or service, a great marketing strategy, and are producing engaging content that people interact with. It may seem that you have it all figured out. Not so fast! In this article, we are going to address a crucial problem that most businesses nowadays face. And it is how to ensure that they have outstanding social media customer service. Together we are going to explore the best 5 practices and the worst 5 mistakes any brand can make when taking care of their customers. This is a perfect read for all the businesses and marketers out there that want to check if they are doing things right and want to improve their customer care.
The 5 biggest mistakes in social media customer service
We are going to start with the bad examples to give you the chills. Some of these are quite common, while others are huge red flags that something is wrong with the customer care unit. And if you think this is not so important, you’d better reconsider - according to helpcare.com, 60% of all customers say they will choose the competition if they face bad service.
Lie to a client
As it is said - you can fool some of the people some of the time. However, you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. You should never lie to a customer. The most important thing for any brand is trust. And once you lose that you can never get it back. Another valid point - if you get caught lying, people will hear about it. Helpcare.com claims that 90% of customers share their negative experiences, and you can imagine how vocal they are going to be if you lie to them and they find out.
Don't leave comments under posts or ads unanswered
There is a good chance that if someone leaves a comment on your page, it will be negative. Users want to express their opinion, or even ask a question, and they see the comments as the perfect way to do that. If you are not paying attention to them, you are making a mistake. Comments on social media can offer valuable feedback, and give you ideas on how to improve your business.
Of course, some will not be relevant or will be just “hater” comments. You have the option to hide them from the comment section for the other users not to see them. We don’t recommend that you delete any comments. That can make people angry in no time.
If you handle an issue with a client in the comments of your page in a good way, a lot of people on social media will see that and you will leave a good impression. However, the perfect social media customer care specialist knows when it is time to transfer the conversation with the client on a personal message.
Leave a client angry or unsatisfied
Often if a client is turning to customer service, they will be confused or angry. Turning an angry client into a satisfied one is a piece of art that only the best people know how to do. However, leaving a client angry or unsatisfied after he had an interaction with a customer care representative is a very alarming sign that something is not right. People should feel satisfied even when they don’t have their needs met.
Apologize for the experience they've had even though you know they may not be right. Try to calm them down and tell them you'll do everything you can to help. Never give exact promises, however. By doing these small things, even if the client was not happy, he or she will have had a positive experience with customer support.
Make the client wait for a long time
Clients usually want their issues to be resolved (or their questions answered) quickly. The worst thing you can do is slap an automatic answer on your social media pages and make the person that wrote wait 2-3 days before giving them a reply. One of the best ways to ensure poor customer service is not to reply in time.
Remember how Richard Branson turned this into an advantage? Every person that waited more than a specific time to reach customer support received some amount of money. And people were happy. You can consider some discounts or other bonuses as an apology to people that waited a long time to have their questions answered.
You think you know it all
The worst thing you can do in social media customer service is to think you know it all and have the best answers and procedures in place. You should constantly look for ways to improve your work and your team. Working in Social Media can be stressful, working in social media customer service can be double the stress. Make sure that you provide your team with the support they need for that as well. The emotional state of the person providing customer care is a key factor in resolving issues with angry clients. It is not only about the professional skills of the team, but also their emotional state as well. Take care of that.
Research for new ways to increase client satisfaction and provide additional training for the team that handles social media customer service. Look for good practices all around on that specific matter.
Top 5 things you can do to make your clients happy with social media customer service
We have to say that most of the things in the top 5 of what you should do are just the opposite of the ones mentioned above. Great customer service is not rocket science. When you think about it, the steps to achieve are quite logical and should be a must for any business.
Be quick and precise with your answers
If you can provide your customers with quick and precise responses, they will be happy. Resolving issues and answering questions promptly will show them that your business cares about customer needs. This will make the brand more trustworthy and reliable. Even if resolving the issue takes some time, the client will be happy that someone got to him quickly and is taking care of his problem. And if you manage to do it the right way, there's a pretty big chance that the customer will give you another shot.
Do a follow-up on the clients
A lot of businesses never do this and they sure are missing out on a lot of potential benefits. Your social media customer service team should always check out how the clients feel after they have interacted with the brand. Here are just some cases in which you should consider doing a follow-up:
- Check if their issue was resolved and if they are happy with the answer they got;
- Check if everything with their purchase was okay and are they happy with their overall experience;
- Check if their question was answered and if you can do something more for them.
Doing a follow-up can help you build customer loyalty. Besides that, you can get some great insights and ideas from the feedback you receive.
Have a positive attitude
Remaining with a positive attitude even in a situation with a difficult customer is a must. You should aim to cover the following 3 pillars of great customer care:
- Be positive;
- Wait for the customer to explain the problem;
- Have a problem-solving approach.
Let’s integrate them into an imaginary chat. An angry and frustrated customer reaches you. You respond by being positive and polite. After that, they explain their problem (sometimes in an angry manner). Wait for them to explain, take mental notes, and while they write, think of ways to address what they are complaining about. When they are finished thank them for the feedback and propose a solution to the problem. After they have let it all out, they will be more perceptive about your proposal.
Remember - customer service can sell!
Many people are ignoring this option and this is just insane! When you provide great customer care and people are happy, they will listen to recommendations from you. Imagine someone asked about the size or color of a dress. After you take care of their needs, you can always throw in a line like: “Do you know that this bag or these shoes go great with that dress? Now we have it on 20% off and people are crazy about it!”.
Small things like that can turn social media customer service into a sales booster for your business. Nowadays, everyone sells in one way or another, from accounting to the actual salespeople. Don’t miss out on good chances to get more purchases.
Have a tailor-made approach. Create a custom response for each client and be personal
Even big brands don’t go the extra mile for their clients. If you do it, you will forever win their hearts. In most cases, there will be an answer that most people responsible for customer service just copy-paste and send to different unhappy clients. Use the personalized responses and try to understand the problems of the people that write to you. If the situation is serious, give them a little something to feel better, like a discount code or a coupon. And when you put your name in your answers, this creates a feeling that there is at least some personal touch.
They are going to love it! Small things matter the most. Even if you think they don’t. This might take some extra time and effort, but it is going to pay out for sure.
Those are our top five picks for social media customer service don’ts and do’s that every business should be aware of. Do you agree? What are the biggest mistakes and good practices in this area that you have seen? Let us know! Leave a comment below or reach out to us. We would be happy to hear your story and give you some advice.