Instagram is a powerful marketing tool if you use the right practices. Here’s how you create a Business Instagram Account.  

Although Instagram is 11 years old, it has made a name for itself. Being one of the top social media platforms in the world isn’t easy but with all of its unique features, it’s no surprise more than one billion people use Instagram every month. Set your business apart using Instagram’s Business profile.

Social media tips are important as digital media rises as a major cursor of awareness to audiences. Engaging with your audience, understanding each platform, and creating authentic content are top social media tips to keep in mind when creating content. 

Social media has grown from a simple platform to connect with friends to one of the most important marketing tools. Communications professionals invest hours of hard work and strategizing to devise the most beneficial and efficient social media approach. In order to best manage your brand’s social media, it may be helpful to consider using a social media management tool.

With the new and upcoming Metaverse: social media, commerce, networking, and reality will change to provide a more connected world.

Imagine a world where you can go to a wedding, meeting, concert, sightseeing, shopping and more without leaving the comfort of your home. While this may seem farfetched, this concept has taken the form as the Metaverse and has the potential to grow into a new reality. The Metaverse is a platform that focuses on social connection through a network of 3D virtual worlds. With the help of virtual and augmented reality headsets, the Metaverse mimics the mental and physical aspects of being anywhere in the world. And you can experience it from the comfort of your couch. 

Social media challenges have proven to be a great tool to create buzz for any given brand or organization. Communications professionals can utilize these challenges to engage with their consumer base in a fun and silly manner. For the successful challenges, there is a direct link between the challenge and the brand’s increased traffic. Since social media marketing has indisputably become essential for most business’s success, these challenges provide a goofy way to get consumers involved in the marketing process.

Slate is a must have social media tool for all communications professionals. It serves as an online platform that helps social and marketing teams create seamlessly branded content. Founded by social media experts who relate to the pain points of running social media accounts, Slate does not disappoint. Whether you’re needing to create, edit, design, optimize videos and images, Slate is here to help. Within seconds, you can develop elevated content for Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and more.

Pinterest has been a key player in the social media world since 2009. Many digital communications professionals may overlook Pinterest and the power that it has within 21st-century social media. Pinterest is not a platform of the past and it is here to stay. Pinterest surprised fellow digital communications professionals when it “closed out 2019 by overtaking Snapchat as the third-biggest social network in the United States. Facebook and Instagram hold the top spots” (Insider Intelligence eMarketer). Pinterest allows individuals to explore their creativity and interests. 

Looking for a way to see what your Instagram profile looks like before you upload your next post? Plan out and layout your Instagram with UNUM.

How does it work?

Use UNUM to design the order in which you upload your posts. Download the app and sync your personal or business account by logging into your Instagram through UNUM. All of your previous posts will appear in the Instagram layout in UNUM.

Next, select the photos that you are considering posting. You can move the photos in the order that appeals to your brand aesthetic. You can also hide previous posts if you are considering deleting content.

What is my aesthetic?

Your aesthetic is whatever feels right and stays true to your personal brand. Consider the colors in the photos. Look at where you have used photos with similar colors and space them out between posts that look good on the layout of your content.

For example, if you have recently posted a photo with a high black point, contrast, or dark-colored background, post the next dark-colored photo after posting about four other photos with a different background color. Your Instagram content will start pulling together an aesthetic that appeals to the eye and you will be creating a pattern that evenly distributes color and theme within your Instagram content.

Why should I plan out my Instagram with UNUM?

Planning out your Instagram layout helps you figure out your personal brand and aesthetic. It will help you find photo opportunities. If you know you need a future post that showcases your food, you will find yourself looking for opportunities to eat nice meals or create a colorful plate of food through a new recipe. Likewise, if you know you need a photo with a high black point, contrast, or dark-colored background, you will start manifesting nighttime adventures.

Finally, planning out your Instagram with UNUM helps you pay attention to the beauty of your world and what makes you happy. UNUM turns your regular Instagram content into a comprehensive piece of art. You are art, so start portraying that through your profile by downloading the UNUM app now.

LinkedIn is known as the best social media platform to display your achievements, and its algorithm works to focus on you by increasing engagement with your most relevant and readable posts. Use the LinkedIn algorithm to your advantage by keeping in mind these tactics for increased exposure.

Relevance

Within the first hour your LinkedIn post is up, the algorithm watches its engagement. The algorithm classifies your post as spam, low quality, or high quality. The more users who engage with your post within the first hour, the more likely your post will gain exposure over the coming weeks. It is important to post during working hours. According to HubSpot, the best times to post on LinkedIn are 7:30 to 8:30am, 12pm, and 5 to 6pm on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.

Readability

In order to see an increase in content exposure, it is important to put out high-quality content on LinkedIn. This means no grammar, spelling, or punctuation problems. Focus on making your content easy to read.

Try not to use hashtags like #follow, #like, or #subscribe. Use hashtags for broad keywords followed by focus keywords.

Do not use multiple links. If you have more outbound links to share, put them in the comments of your post.

To increase engagement, consider posting something that elicits a response. The easiest way to do this is by asking your audience a question.

Only tag people who you know will respond within the first hour. Do not post random people who do not know you, unless they are known to respond to strangers at the time of your post.

Always come back to your post to interact with comments. This will improve your engagement rating and increase your post exposure throughout LinkedIn.

Increase Exposure

LinkedIn gives you the ability to be seen and heard by people you know and by the masses, as long as your content is good. LinkedIn has over 500 million users and only 1% post regularly. Allow LinkedIn to focus on you by posting relevant and readable content.

Nowadays, it can be difficult to make new friends or build relationships with others. Why? The Coronavirus (COVID-19), of course! However, with the help of mobile devices, we can change that. With a simple search through one’s app store, a variety of apps to connect people are offered! As such, here are two fun mobile applications.

Bumble BFF

To promote community and make new friends, Bumble BFF is one of the first options to highlight. This app is offered by the same creators of the famous dating application, Bumble, but supports meaningful friendships. After the user creates their profile, they can narrow down potential friendships through similar interests and hobbies. Because of Bumble BFF, there are raving reviews of finding the perfect workout and travel buddy, or even stories of bringing people together. This includes an excited and newfound soccer team.

Interestingly, users on Bumble BFF have agreed that it is harder to make new friends during COVID, and turned to this app to build those much-needed relationships. And, unlike Bumble, women, and men have the ability to make the first move to make new friends and build relationships.

Hey! Vina

Another option in fun mobile applications is Hey! VINA. As featured in Cosmopolitan, ELLE, and even InStyle, Hey! VINA is on a mission to connect a supportive and empowering community. Though it’s meant as a female-only application, Founder and CEO, Olivia June, takes pride in promoting a “by women, for women” approach. She also believes in the simple idea that one friend has the ability to change an individual’s life in a positive way.

Taking root in 158 countries, Hey! VINA is a helpful app to build one’s #girlsquad and make new friends. With its simple interface, women can easily swipe and connect. This application is even offered on both Android and the Apple store.

It might be difficult to make friends in these uncertain times or to even try to build relationships. However, with our growing advancements and fun mobile applications, we still have opportunities at our fingertips. For times like these, digital communication is an asset in connecting with others.

When selecting social media platforms to focus your organization’s digital efforts on, Pinterest is often the forgotten platform. Other platforms, like Instagram, Linkedin, and Facebook, tend to be the focus of most communication and marketing campaigns. However, Pinterest should not be disregarded entirely.

Last week, we reviewed the beginning stages of the digital communication plan. To reiterate, the digital communication plan is critical for meeting your communication goals as panning keeps your team focused in the right direction. Aside from the previously discussed situational analysis and goals and objectives sections, the plan also includes key publics, messages, activities, monitoring, and evaluation portions.

Key Publics

According to Steve Lee, Digital Communications professor at Southern Methodist University, “goals lead to objectives which combine with publics which lead to activities.” We’ve covered goals and objectives, but what are publics? Publics are the audience of your digital communication plan. They are groups of people who value your organization or are valued by your organization. They have sales, financial, political, and positional power. Furthermore, the audience essentially determines your reputation. Publics are essential to reaching your goals.  

The first step in evaluating your publics is to list each significant audience. Next, eliminate the publics that are not necessary to reaching your goals. Then, group the publics by psychographics, demographics, geographics, traits, and habits. Lastly, prioritize the groups most imperative to reaching your goals. Additionally, it is important to highlight the “intervening publics,” or influential opinion formers. 

Messages

Messages are key to reaching your publics.  The messages draw your audience towards your organization.  There are three steps to the messages section of the digital communication plan.  The first step is to write a master message.  The master message is a general statement that is not geared towards anyone in particular.  The next step, is to edit or rewrite the master message to fit each public.  To target specific publics, change your voice and tone to match theirs.  Additionally, cover what is specifically important to them.  Lastly, modify the message to appeal to each tactic.  

Next week, we will wrap up the last steps of the digital communication plan.

As one of the most popular and used social media platforms in the world, Instagram’s unique features allow users to share photos and videos with their followers. The article is a beginner’s guide on how to use Instagram.

Download The App, and Sign Up For Free

First things first, you need to sign up by downloading the app on a desktop, iPhone, Android, or any smart device. Users have the ability to sign up through Facebook, email, or phone number and can create a personal username and password for their social media profile.

Uploading And Posting A Photo

At the bottom of the center of the screen, users can click the “+” button to post a photo from their library or take a new photo or video through the Instagram camera. After selecting a photo, click “next” where then users can both filter and edit their new photo or video. Users then can adjust the brightness, contrast, exposure on the photo while also selecting and adjusting different filters. After being satisfied with the photo or video, users can tag people in their posts and have the ability to add a unique caption that can include hashtags, links, or other usernames. When it is ready to be published, click “Share” at the top right of the screen to post on your social media profile.

Adding To Your Story

Instagram users have the ability to post a “story” to their profile that disappears after 24 hours. This feature allows more casual posting that allows for a glimpse into the users everyday lives. At the top left of the screen, click on the camera icon to then add a photo, video or post to your story. Instagram users have the ability to tag their location, other users, drawings, polls, text, music, stickers and links to their story.

Following Other Social Media Accounts

On the bottom of the screen, there is a magnifying glass icon where users can search for other profiles, hashtags, or places. This feature allows users to search anyone or anything on Instagram and follow their accounts. Once on their account, users can click the blue “follow” button to follow their account. The following article is another informative guide on how to use Instagram, https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-instagram-how-to-use-guide

Adjusting Notifications

In order to make sure you stay on top of your updates, users can select personal perfections to adjust notifications received. Users can adjust notifications received for “likes”, “comments”, comments on photos of you”, “direct message”, and a handful of others. Users also have the ability to choose who you receive notifications from, whether it be “from everyone” or specific people that you follow. 

Make Sure To Connect Other Social Media Accounts

When posting content on Instagram, users have the ability to share it to their other social media accounts like Facebook or Twitter. On the applications settings tab, users can select and “link” their post to any of their other social media accounts. This feature allows for convenient and easy sharing across many social media platforms. To learn a little bit about social media usage, click on the following link, https://smusmc.com/03/07/2021/4-things-to-avoid-for-better-social-media-usage/

As an easy-to-use and engaging social media platform, Instagram allows users to share photos, videos, and stories with a larger audience while also connecting and staying in touch with friends.

Three weeks ago, we talked about the difference between organic and paid social marketing. Last week, we talked about 3 distinct ways to advertise on Instagram. Today, we’re going to talk about how to advertise on Snapchat, and how advertising on Snapchat is different than advertising on other social media platforms.

How Advertising on Snapchat Works

Advertising on Snapchat is unique because, according to Peter Naylor, Vice President of Sales at Snapchat, 95% of advertising on Snapchat is auction-based. Snapchat explains Snap Auction as a Goal-Based Bidding model, “which means you will be bidding on a specific goal such as Swipe Ups, Impressions, or Shares.” From there, Snapchat will deliver your advertisements to those Snapchatters who are most likely to help you reach your goal of x amount of Swipe Ups or Y amount of Impressions.  

How to start you auction campaign

There are a few ways to go about setting up your auction-based ads on Snapchat:

1. Auto-Bidding: Auto-Bidding puts the bidding process in the hands of Snapchat; they set the bid for you based on your goals, budget, and target audience.
2. Max Bid: The Max Bid strategy lets Snapchat know the most you’re willing to spend while keeping the CPA (cost per ad) as low as possible.
3. Target Cost: The Target Cost strategy tells Snapchat that you want your average CPA to stay “at or below the amount set by the ad set end date.” Snapchat warns that this strategy might be risky if your target cost is set too low.

Other Ways to Advertise on Snapchat

There are other bidding strategies available on Snapchat such as Minimum Return on Ad Spend and Suggested Bids. Before you decide how you want to manage your ad campaign on Snapchat, though, you need to decide what type of ad you want to run. At present, there are more than 10 different types of ads that exist on Snapchat from Single Image Ads to Swipe to Call or Text Campaigns. To get started, visit Snapchat’s For Business site.

TikTok is changing the music industry one new voice at a time. The video-based platform has become a resource for many aspiring artists to share their voices with the world. According to Tech Radar, “TikTok has produced some of the most compelling music industry success stories.” For example, Nathan Evans was an aspiring folk singer whose videos went viral, leading him to score a record deal.

Reaching the Right People

Nathan is just one example of how TikTok can turn dreams into realities. Before the start of TikTok, many aspiring artists would use YouTube to reach millions with their voices. Now, TikTok is the hot new video platform for artists to use, and their algorithm allows people to post videos for thousands to see. As a result of TikTok’s large audience, artists can gain tremendous exposure from their own homes.

The Making of a Star

TikTok has not only helped up-and-coming artist’s big break, but has also had a large effect on the music industry by promoting and popularizing songs. Many TikTok influencers have come up with fun and popular dancers that have subsequently promoted songs even more. One example of a song becoming popular by TikTok is “Rockstar” by DaBaby. After a TikTok dance to Rockstar went viral, the song saw a large spike in streams.

The future of TikTok Music

TikTok has a huge influence on what people listen to. Many artists who won Grammys at the 2021 award show had their music used in popular TikTok dances and other videos. It will be interesting to see how TikTok will create a whole new generation of artists and musicians who might not have been found otherwise.

It is clear that TikTok has a huge influence on the music industry as it can take an ordinary person and turn them into a star.

Increase Social Media Engagement by Posting at These Times

So, you’ve poured time and energy into creating interesting content for your company’s social media pages. However, engagement numbers for your content are low and you’re having trouble figuring out what the best posting times are for high engagement on social media. 

Don’t worry – the solution to increasing engagement could be as simple as posting at different times. Keep in mind that the best times to post are different for each company. This depends on your audience type and time zone. 

However, some times generally perform better than others for posting content on social media. With that said, here’s a platform-by-platform guide to what posting times perform the best on social media for high engagement.