How to Target Your Audience Through Instagram Stories

/in , /by

Social media is constantly evolving. It is no longer just a platform to share and like posts with friends. Social media is now a platform for advertisers to specifically target their audience to create a more personal, customizable online experience.

social media agency

Instagram has always been a leader in the social media world, adopting the entire online community and catering to their social media needs. One of the most popular needs being Instagram stories.

Why Use Instagram Stories?

social media agencySome of you are probably wondering; why should I use Instagram stories when I can just promote my posts or pay for Instagram feed advertisements? The answer is simple: engagement and relatability. Consumers don’t like being bombarded with ads, even if they are related to their interests. Nowadays, seeing a promoted ad on Instagram is just as bothersome as seeing a pop-up ad on website. Instagram stories take away the annoying, ad-like feel of your advertisements and it helps your company establish a more personal connection with your target audience. Plus, a huge benefit of Instagram stories is the convenience of letting your consumer go directly to your website through Instagram, helping you grow your brand!

Social Media Agency Involvement

social media agencyHiring a social media agency will heighten the chances of your Instagram stories being successful. Social media agencies understand the importance of engagement through social media and will ensure that your campaign is successful. Leave it to the experts! From researching to posting, and everything in between, a social media agency will make the most out of your Instagram story. This will help you maintain consistency for your brand and keep the consumer’s eyes on your company. A social media agency will make sure your online marketing is strategically designed, implemented and managed. Instagram story ads are a very important part of social media marketing and a social media agency will ensure your budget is used strategically and thoughtfully, so your company can get the most out of every function.

How to Effectively Use Instagram Stories

social media agencyThink outside the box! If you’re stuck, start with the following suggestions. Use Instagram stories as a “countdown” for a new product or event that is coming up. This is a great way to build hype around your company and upcoming products. Fun fact: There’s even a countdown feature on Instagram stories. Another tip is to make your brand unique and recognizable. Why should consumers go to you for their needs? Make the consumer think of you as a friend, someone trustworthy and available. By using Instagram stories, you will increase awareness and gain that personal business-to-consumer relationship that both you and your target audience want! Also, videos are a must for your Instagram stories. In order to catch your audience’s attention, you must be different and more noticeable than your competitors. Last but not least, a huge benefit of Instagram stories is the interactivity. Sharing and questions and polls, oh my! There are a plethora of options for you to choose from when deciding what to do for your Instagram stories. Instagram actually makes it very easy for you to be captivating and interactive through your stories.

 

How to Engage Your Target Audience with Facebook Advertising

/in , , /by

What are Facebook Ads?

Facebook ads are very commonly seen when scrolling through your Facebook news feed. These are ads that companies pay for so they show up on the screens of their target audiences. They do exactly what their name says; advertise. They are just like any other advertisements, but these are limited to just Facebook.

How to Target on Facebook?

Many question how they should target their audience. There are many different methods that a business owner may use to create the audience they need. There’s location (by where a person resides), age (a certain age or a range), interests (anything they do that could be related to your business), and demographics (statistics) as the base methods. Then you can get into more detail with the behaviors of consumers, how they engage with the brand and their connections with/to the company. Knowing how to target an audience specifically is key to building that target audience for your company. Every brand is always looking for more consumers and getting more specific with how they target customers is the way to go.

 

Building a Successful Facebook Audience

Every company wants to know exactly who their audience is. By using Facebook Business Manager, you can create a specific type of audience with their Saved Audiences feature. You can create different audiences and save them there. You can also create an audience using emails or phone numbers of people whom you already know and would like to show the advertisements to. Once you’ve created your custom target audiences and saved them, you can start building your lookalike audiences.

 

Who to Target

New and upcoming business owners may not know who to target to create their perfect target audience. You target the people that are most likely going to click on the advertisement that you put out there. For example, you could target people who did not complete a purchase on your website. The other day I was online shopping and had a few things in my cart, but never actually bought them. The next day I had ads from that site all over my Facebook and other social media. They offered more deals and discounts and eventually I went back on that site and purchased what I wanted with a very good deal. Another option for target audiences are people who frequently visit the site or even engage with things like blogs, coupons, information, and other amenities from your website. You can make these different groups of people into separate, custom audiences that will help create your overall target audience.

Although at first, this may seem tedious and annoying, Facebook Advertisements do pay off in the end. It’s the little things that grab people’s attention. A business owner always wants to increase their audience, and any social media advertising will help. This will take a lot of time, effort, and patience, but in the end, you will see the results you want.

The Power of Stories in Social Media Marketing for Businesses

/in , /by

Stories on Instagram are the hot, new, marketing tool that every business should be utilizing. They provide a sense of importance, and urgency, due to their time-sensitive nature. They also allow businesses’ to create a more unique and personalized experience for their followers. With the help of a social media marketing agency, these stories can dramatically change your brand, for the better. Read on to discover just how important Instagram stories can be for your growing business.

Interaction

Stories can be an ideal tool for interacting with followers. Features such as polls can create a sense of involvement, and increase activity on your social media. They can also be used to directly interact with fans. Some instances of this could be question and answer sessions, or simply reposting fan photos. With increased community engagement, follower loyalty, in conjunction, will also skyrocket.  The bottom-line seems to be, if you can engage more with followers the more likely they are to continue to follow. Stories are a great way to do this without it being overwhelming, or annoying. The story’s time-sensitive nature provides a reminder that you care about the individuals that follow your business.

 

Special Offers/ Announcements

Stories are a fantastic way to highlight promotions, especially if they are time sensitive. It also incentivizes following your business, because viewing the story is the sole way to receive the deal. Additionally, using the stories feature to make announcements is a fantastic way to avoid cluttering your main feed. It also makes your announcement feel special and can keep your followers on their toes.

 

Behind the Scenes

Behind the scenes, stories are a great way to humanize your brand. Showing how the “sausage is made” can create a more personal feel and make your business seem less corporate, and warm and inviting. These kinds of stories show that there are real people involved in your business and can give a new dimension to your brand’s image.

Ads

Promoting your brand through a story is a great way to grab an individual’s attention. There is even an option available, through paid ads, where the viewer can swipe up to be directed to your website. If you are aware of your target audience, this is a perfect option to promote your brand. They can almost be considered as mini commercials!

Instagram Stories are becoming a critical feature when it comes to promoting your brand online. They are quick, effective, and can be used in numerous capacities.  With the assistance of a social media marketing agency, your brand’s Instagram stories could become the main marketing campaign for your entire business!

The Top Ways to Use Instagram Marketing to Grow Your Brand

/in , /by

Instagram is an extremely effective platform when attempting to market your growing brand. For one, the platform is essentially built to showcase images; one of which could be your business. And in fact, one should be your business. With the assistance of an Instagram marketing agency and these tips, you can easily promote your brand on Instagram. Read on to find out how.

Use the Story Feature

The story feature may be one of the newest, yet one of the most useful, tools to market your brand on Instagram.  Stories are temporary, yet effective ways to remind people of your presence on a day to day basis. They can also be used to interact, and show the fun side of your brand. Using polling options, your business can even engage with your fans. Additionally, the new IGTV tool is a great option to create videos marketing your brand that are slightly longer than what a story could allow. These can even be treated as a place to make your brand’s own, “commercials”. The story feature is easily one of the strongest outlets to market your brand, and should absolutely be utilized to enhance growth.

Exciting Themes

Creating consistency in your images is important; however, your brand’s posts should be exciting, and represent what your brand is all about. Branching out to images beyond your product or service is a great way to keep fans on their toes. Monotony is boring, so being exciting and original is imperative to the retention of followers.

 

 

Shoppable Tags
Shoppable tags are extremely effective when marketing your brand on Instagram. Many Instagram marketing agencies suggest implementing these icons to send the customer straight to the product featured, in order to purchase. This can dramatically increase your sales and fight the fickle nature of the indecisive, online shopper. These tags also showcase your services directly to your audience and create transparency in what you offer.

Engagement

Creating ads for your brand is great, but they are not going to fully take you where you want to go. In order to continually keep individuals interested in your business, and accumulate new fans, the key is to stay active and maintain engagement. There are numerous ways to do this. As mentioned earlier, utilizing the stories feature is a fantastic avenue to take. Additionally, interacting with followers on a regular basis can create loyalty and will encourage your fans to also contribute.

Instagram has proven time and time again, that it is a very fruitful platform on which to market your growing brand. If you utilize these tips, and tools, with the consultation of an Instagram marketing agency, your brand has the potential to grow exponentially.

How Social Media Monitoring Grows Sales and Brand Recognition

/in , , /by

For any business it’s very important to carefully manage, monitor, and listen to their social media accounts. Social media monitoring and community management can give a company so much information that they can then use to improve their engagement, sales, and growth. Customers love to spend time on social media, so why not engage with them, listen to what they have to say, and then make further connections to grow sales and gain brand recognition.

Consumer Talk

Customers love to talk about, rate, leave reviews, and post about products and services on social media. Yelp, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter are just a few to name. Social media listening, and monitoring, can help a producer know where their product is trending. They’ll know what platform it’s talked about most on, which hashtags are used, which search terms are most popular, where they’re located, what language was used, and even who their biggest competitors are. Yes, all of this can be drawn from constant watch over social media. All of this makes it easier to know what platform my good or service is being talked about on most and with that, will help me build a greater audience for what I’m trying to sell.

 

Thinking Ahead

Being ahead of the game, or at least ahead of the competitors, is what every company should constantly be thinking about. When looking at the data from social media, not only can you see what social media platform your product/service is most talked about on, but you can also see the growing trends. For example, your product could be very talked about on Facebook, but graphs and data charts show a growing trend on Instagram. Keeping up and constantly staying ahead is key to the growing success of any business, brand, and company.

Initiating and Ending

What initiates conversations about your product or service on social media and what ends it? With the possible data being collected, one could see whether certain key words, phrases, location tags, hashtags, events, and people initiate conversation or end it. For example, if I were to want to buy notebooks some key word initiators could be “ballpoint pen”, “school supplies”, or “office supplies”. Location tags could be local Office Depot, Staples, or any school/office supply store.  Some end words could maybe include a competitor brand, better pricing, different website, or anything else that strays you away. With all of this information, a business could easily create more effective social advertisements, find new influencers/ambassadors, and ultimately growing your sales.

Be Smart

With your new information and analytics, your business could do so much more to increase awareness, engagement, and growth. With the information regarding which locations are most active, your business/company/brand could set up conventions, pop up stores, or campaigns in those specific areas. Knowing what types of conversations people are having about your goods or services can assist a business in knowing how to improve their quality. It’s all about what your company can do to make your customers happy.

Social Media marketing, listening, and community management are all very important to the growth and consumers of a business. If consumers aren’t happy, the business will not grow as fast as it has the potential to. It is not easy to actively manage social media accounts, but if truly invested it could produce incredible results.

 

How to Use Pinterest to Promote Your Business

/in , /by

Pinterest is a social network that is quickly becoming a media powerhouse. For many businesses, Pinterest is an untapped resource for social media marketing potential; that when utilized can dramatically increase brand awareness. This social network allows businesses to market themselves in new and innovative ways. Read on to find out the best ways to promote your brand through Pinterest marketing.

Create a Content Strategy

One way to promote your business is through innovative techniques, by implementing a content strategy. One of these strategies is creating, “DIY” tutorials to share with your Pinterest followers. These types of posts are extremely popular on the website and create a new angle of content with which to interact with customers. Additionally, these “DIY” posts can highlight your services and your businesses unique skill set. Not to mention, these tags are continually saved, shared, and reposted which can make your business go viral.

 

Optimize For Google

Optimizing your pins for Google is imperative for creating a widespread promotion of your brand. You may notice when you google something, and the images pop up, many of them are from Pinterest. When the image is clicked, it leads the viewer directly to the Pinterest page it originated from. This is all possible through optimizing your pins for Google. If your Pinterest images are among the top results on Google, your business will instantly gain more attention.

 

Buyable Pins

An amazing detail about Pinterest is that your pins do not have to be simply images. They can lead the viewer to other places. Buyable pins are a great way to lead people to your services. If a viewer stumbles upon your buyable pin, all they have to do is click in your image and they will be instantly brought to the place to purchase the said item. Consumers have extremely short attention spans and will, most likely, not follow up to find your business to purchase something if it the information is not readily available to them. By creating buyable pins, your customers will be lead directly to the source and are more likely to make a purchase. 

 

Creating Pinterest Ads

Similar to buyable pins, ad pins serve the same purpose. The ultimate goal of this advertising tool is to find individuals that like your pin and are interested in knowing more. Once your images grab their attention, a single click can draw a potential customer to your website.

 

Article Pins

Article Pins can be incredibly useful for Pinterest marketing because they can promote your brand through blogs and articles which can showcase what you’re all about. These can give the customer insight on what your company is like. These can even inspire them to further look into your services. Although the initial pin in centralized around a single image, it can lead to much more. Pinterest is a not particularly, “word heavy” social media. Being predominately image-centric, it can be difficult to connect with customers using solely images. Article pins provide a great option to still utilize the fast-paced, image-driven world of Pinterest while still being able to communicate in various ways.

 

Pinterest, although often overlooked, is a marketing goldmine. By using Pinterest marketing to promote your business, it is possible to open up brand new avenues, in which to engage customers. By implementing these techniques, your brand can be increasingly promoted.

Top Ways to Use Social Media to Increase Brand Awareness

/in , /by

It can be difficult to create a following for your brand on social media. Many individuals find themselves desperately trying to increase their brand awareness, to no avail. However, growing your social media presence is simpler than one may believe. Read on to discover the top ways to use social media to increase brand awareness.

Be Unique               

It is easy to compare your brand to others, especially when everyone is so deeply interconnected through the internet. However, there is a massive difference between taking inspiration from other brands, and completely duplicating their style. What will really cause your brand to stand out and be discovered is to be innovative and original. Seeing what works for others is a fantastic jumping off point for brands looking to define themselves. Though, what will really spark the recognition every brand strives for, is creating a one-of-a-kind experience for the customer.

Be Recognizable

The absolute key to increasing social media brand awareness is through having a customer recognize your brand. Individuals have very short attention spans, so your brand has mere seconds to make a lasting impression. The goal should be that the customer, if encountering your brand again or thinking of anything related to your brand, will recall who you are. The most fool-proof way to do this is through logos. Individuals are very visual; so being able to be identified, through an image, is imperative to brand growth. Because of this, your brand’s logo should be clean, representative, and unique.

Tagging and Creating a Network

Your brand’s social media accounts are their own little world. Everything in them is content from you, but that is a very closed circuit. If nothing from the outside world ever comes in, it is significantly more difficult to create a community. Posting things that inspire you, or relate to your brand is a great way to broaden your community. Tagging relatable brands, individuals, or events can alert others, “Hey we’re here too”.  More individuals than one would think, click on tagged images. If they can find you, with stellar content, your brand will speak for itself.

Oh Caption, My Caption

Whether or not you enjoyed my pun referencing Walt Whitman, it caught your attention, right? This highlights a major point that captions do not have to be so serious! Whether it’s a pun, a joke, or even a more casual way of writing; captions can engage your viewers, and draw them into your content. It is an innovative way to highlight who you are and can give your brand a unique voice. Individuals are also far more likely to engage, share, and like if they see something new, or intriguing. This tip is also applicable to commenting and engaging with fans. It is oh so common to receive a corporate, “thanks for sharing” or, “great pic”. These types of replies are lacking in both personality and enthusiasm. Individuals appreciate personalization, so taking a minute of your time to handcraft a response will go a long way.

 Consistency

To play, you have to show up. This saying perfectly describes the necessity of being a consistent presence on social media. If your brand posts rarely, there will be no opportunity to engage with followers and accumulate new ones. Because truly, who wants to waste their time on a brand that is never active on their accounts? By consistently posting, and building your presence, individuals will be more susceptible to discovering your accounts, and subsequently, more inclined to stay updated on your brand.

Attempting to generate social media brand awareness for your company can often seem daunting, and even slightly overwhelming. Rather than shooting in the dark, there are tactics that can minimize this stress. By utilizing the tips listed above, or by consulting with a social media agency, expanding your reach on social media can be significantly simplified, and much more effective.

The Top Industries that Should Maximize Social Media Marketing

/in , , /by

Social Media marketing is easily one of the most important resources of today’s business’ and industries. But you may be asking yourself, is it really that necessary for companies to invest in. In short, the answer is yes, absolutely. Put simply, businesses, companies, and industries cannot experience maximum growth without attempting to maximize social media marketing, […]

Read more

Importance of Reporting and Analytics on a Social Media and Digital Marketing Campaign

/in , /by

People often ask why brands or businesses spend a significant amount of time looking over the analytics and reportings they receive from their digital and social media marketing campaigns. Individuals assume they are there to show how many likes, views, and interactions your business gets on social media platforms. While that is true, reporting and analytics can show much more information that a brand, business, company, or their digital marketing agency could use to grow.

Knowing Your Target Audience

Reports and analytics are one of the most beneficial ways a business, social media marketing agency, or digital marketing agency can learn about who their service or good is attracting. Using tools like Google Analytics and AdWords can tell you statistics ranging from how many people viewed your page, to what city it was viewed from. It can even suggest what mobile operating system was used to view it. Knowing even the smallest of details such as age, gender, and what language viewers communicate in can strengthen a business. It can do so by giving ideas on how to continue to attract the current audience of the brand or service as well as how to attract new clients. Knowing all about the target audience ultimately provides more information on how a company or its marketing team can customize posts, messages, advertisements, emails, etc. to continue to attract their certain audience.

Knowing the Best Times to Interact on Social Media

Digital marketing reports and analytics can provide copious amounts of information on when, what time, and how many people are interacting with your social and digital media platforms. These reports and analytics make it easier for a business or their agency to know when the best social media interaction times for them are. Using Sprout Social, for example, will show exactly how many engagements your posts (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) or advertisements gets. By using the information given you may or may not be able to see a pattern develop that shows your business when the best interaction times are based on previous posts and engagements. It’s not always about how many likes or views the post gets, but about what information you can get out of it.

Knowing How to Interact on Social Media

Knowing how to interact with social media is equally as important as knowing the best interaction times. One could post something at a prime posting time and still not get as many likes as possible of because of the content. Although reports and analytics do not specifically show how to maximize your use of social media, looking deeper into these reports can give you a sense of what works for your company and what does not. Locations, hashtags, captions, and tags are just a few things that can help take a company’s engagements, and posts, to the next level. Utilizing what your audience likes to see can help attract customers to your product, page, and business. Having an aesthetically pleasing profile, pictures, website, Instagram, Facebook, etc. also adds to the number of views and engagements a company’s social media platforms can get. The little things in social media, quite honestly, matter almost as much as the big things.

Networking

One important way that reporting and analytics can improve a company’s platform is through networking or getting its name out there. People, brands, and businesses ultimately use social media platforms to connect with others. Businesses use these platforms to connect with clients, whether they be current or future, and other businesses/people that are in the same or very similar fields. This gives businesses a chance to collaborate, gain new customers from their followers, get new ideas, and learn from the mistakes of others. Posting content, keeping everything up-to-date, and being active online through social media, email advertisements, and pop-up advertisements could also improve a business’ search engine ranking. The better the SER, the more page visits a website could potentially get since their page will be closer to the top when their content is searched.

Ultimately, reporting and analytics are there to provide a business or their digital and social media marketing agencies with the tools necessary for their success. They were made as the stepping stones for a business’ social and digital media campaigns improvement. Today, social media is a necessity for any business, brand, or person to get their word out. It’s a huge part of our daily lives and can be a powerful factor in whether a business will be mediocre or taken to the next level.

7 Ways to Maximize the Use of Technology and Social Media for Your Brand

/in , /by

Being able to interact with clients, customers, and consumers are essential to the livelihood of a growing business. Bright Age is a digital marketing agency that understands that social media is more than just a space to post. It needs to be interactive. Through the implementation of an interactive social media strategy; engagement and traffic can be significantly maximized, on your business’ social media platforms. Utilizing social media’s interconnectivity, effectively, you can alert new customers to your services, completely organically. Read on to learn about seven ways to maximize the use of technology and social media for your brand.

Geotags
Geotags are a fantastic way to engage with customers while promoting your brand in the process. A creative and strategic company for social media will utilize geotags on Snapchat to illustrate where the user is currently. This can be done with an illustration, or simply the name of the location. When customers come to your location, they can share photos with their contacts, easily highlighting your brand. Snapchat is a unique media outlet because of its fleeting nature (posted images are only available for 24 hours). Therefore, it is essential to make an impact when it is used in the context of your brand. Your geotag should be bold and be representative of your service. Customers can essentially promote your business for you, and create organic advertising, through the implementation of geotags.

 

Aesthetics
Details, such as a consistent color scheme, can enhance your social media presence quickly and effectively. Individuals are more likely to engage with your content if it looks presentable. Therefore, having good quality images as well as aesthetically pleasing themes can increase your brand’s following immensely. A potential consumer is more inclined to engage with your brand if it looks reliable, professional, and strategized. Bright Age is a company for social media that practices what we preach. Our social media accounts are maintained to be clean, accessible, and modern. Having an aesthetically pleasing social media presence enhances the chance that individuals will like and share your content. This will spread your brand in a positive, not to mention free, way.

 

 

 

Unique Hashtags
Being able to find individuals interacting with your brand is essential to the success of your social media strategy. One solution to this is through the use of unique hashtags. Hashtags allow your brand to be easily organized and found by potential customers. Specifically, brand-specific hashtags can organize your media for customers to view, as well as allow you to see how individuals are posting about you. This is specifically very effective on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. By encouraging individuals to use brand specific hashtags when interacting with your business, you can more effectively create connections with those supporting you.

Engage Followers
Interacting with individuals that support your brand is a simple way to maximize your use of social media. This makes the customer feel valued and can create a sense of loyalty. This is essentially an extension of customer service. Just because the interaction is over social media does not make it any less impactful or important.

Location
Tagging your location can create another access to individuals supporting your brand. By clicking on the location tab, an individual can see where your services are located and who has posted there. This is yet another tool that you can use to engage with customers and see how they are interacting with your brand. It is fantastic when costumers tag your location because it gives their followers a direct link to where you are and will highlight what other individuals have been doing there.

 

Acknowledge Customers
Crowdsourcing content is completely acceptable. Showcasing what consumers have posted on your social media accounts is a terrific way to engage with them and showcase your brand in a new light. It continually makes your brand appear reliable by highlighting customers that love the service you are providing. It is a small way of thanking individuals for taking the time to acknowledge your brand and increase the interconnectivity of your social network.

Play to Your Audience
Your social media traffic can easily be maximized by tailoring it to the specific demographic your brand is geared towards. By being aware of the individuals that actively use your service, your social media can better promote your brand using techniques, such as the ones listed above. This will maximize your follower count and engagement.

Technology and social media are essential to the prosperity and survival of a growing business. It is a way to connect to individuals and effectively alert potential customers of your services. A digital marketing agency can assist in growing your presence and generate acknowledgment of your brand. By implementing these seven techniques, you can organically grow and maintain a successful social media presence.