How to Use Twitter Trending Topics in Your Marketing Strategy

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Many people choose to use Twitter as their main source of news as they have ingrained the habit of waking up in the morning and checking the social media app for all the trending topics of the day. Since Twitter offers communication convenience paired with a visually appealing app design, it’s no wonder this platform has risen to become one of the top-performing social media sites of the century. As a Twitter marketing agency, social media experts here at Bright Age understand just how important it is to follow and strategize the use of trending topics on Twitter. Being informed about the conversations users are having on Twitter and then using this information within your own marketing strategy will help your business stay relevant in the social media loop. Your brand will appear informed, aware, and caring—everything a consumer wants a business they support to be. Keep reading to learn about a few ways your business can use trending topics on Twitter to build a strong social media marketing strategy!

Understand the Conversation

Twitter icon and hashtags for Twitter marketing agency

Twitter makes it extremely easy to see what people are talking about. This can come in handy if your business releases a new product or service and you want to find out how people are feeling about it. You can do a quick search by typing in a few keywords describing the tweets you want to see. This is one of the most useful features offered on Twitter because it automatically sorts through millions of tweets to show you exactly what you’re looking for. This information can then be used to help you better understand the conversation circulating around your products or services, so you know what to keep doing or improve on.

Use Hashtags When Relevant

Twitter hashtag symbol for Twitter marketing agency

Remaining true to brand values is essential in maintaining a successful business in the public eye. On Twitter, everything is public to your consumer base, and even deleted content can resurface, so only post content that is relevant to your brand image and be sure that it promotes your business in a positive light. As mentioned earlier, the search feature can be your best friend. You can search for trending topics or get more specific to search for particular keywords to understand the general conversation about anything you want to know. Then, you can get involved by using hashtags related to these topics. It’s obvious when brands use random, trending hashtags just to gain visibility, so be careful when deciding which conversations to join in on.

Take Advantage of Promoted Trends

People using phones at Twitter marketing agency

If your business is willing to dish out some money to advertise on Twitter, Promoted Trends are the way to go. Promoted Trends can help brands gain visibility when releasing a new product or service as they are directed toward specific audiences that have shown interest in related businesses and categories. Also, you won’t have to worry about competing with any other businesses because of Twitter’s exclusivity policy which states that only one client per country can advertise using Promoted Trends for 24 hours. This gives users plenty of time to see the trend appear in their feed, click on the trend, and become familiar with your brand. All in all, social media experts here at Bright Age, a leading Los Angeles-based Twitter marketing agency, hope you have gained some insightful strategies for using trending topics on Twitter to your advantage. Implementing trending Twitter topics into your social media marketing strategy can be especially beneficial for your business because it will make you appear informed and aware of current trends to your consumer base. Consumers are attracted to businesses who hold true to their original brand values and showcase themselves in a positive light, so make sure to join in on conversations relevant to your business. If you have any questions about building a successful Twitter marketing strategy, feel free to contact us!

How to Use Demographics in Your Social Media Advertising Strategy

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Social media has quickly become the best way to advertise a business. It gives you the chance to connect with people all around the world through the internet from the comfort of your home, office, or anywhere. The most successful businesses understand advertising on social media is all about strategy, and as a leading social media advertising agency, we know marketing a business online can be a bit overwhelming. There are quite a few social media platforms these days such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter—and each of these platforms cater to different demographics of people. For a business to succeed in social media advertising, understanding how to specifically use each of these platforms to reach specific demographics of people is key in developing a winning advertising strategy.

Facebook

Facebook display at social media advertising agency

If your business is thinking of using Facebook as one of the social media platforms to reach your desired audience, you’re in luck. With over 2.7 billion active monthly users on the site, there is a good chance your business will become recognized by the demographics of people you’re trying to reach. When thinking about using Facebook to advertise your business, keep in mind that most of the platform’s users are young (24-34 years old) and male (56%).

As a social media advertising agency, we recommend advertising universally across multiple social media platforms. However, if your target audience fits this demographic of people as mentioned above, it would be best to put more time and effort into the content your business posts on Facebook. By creating quality, eye-catching content specifically for your Facebook audience, you will be putting your business on a path to advertising success.

Instagram

Instagram app on iPhone for social media advertising agency

Instagram is one of the most widely used social media platforms to date, and for good reason. This photo sharing platform currently has over 1 billion monthly active users, making it a fierce leader in the social media industry. If your business is trying to target a younger demographic, specifically 24–34-year-old women, Instagram is the platform to use. 

Instagram has a lot to offer, making it the ideal platform for businesses to capitalize on if they are trying to reach an audience of young users. This platform is constantly pumping out new features such as Reels which are short 15-second video clips that users can post to their Stories to share with their followers. Because Instagram is known as a photo-sharing platform, businesses are given the chance to visually capture the attention of their desired audiences. If reaching a younger demographic of consumers is one of your advertising goals, make sure your business is putting out its best content on Instagram.

Twitter

People using Twitter at social media advertising agency

If your business is specifically trying to reach an audience of older adults, Twitter is the place to be. 30–49-year-old males make up the majority of the platform (68%) while females are currently only making up 32% of the platform. There is over 187 million daily active users, meaning that your business has the possibility of reaching a wide audience if you promote your brand well with intriguing, eye-catching content.

Another interesting fact about Twitter’s demographics are that 42% of users on the platform hold a degree. This is higher than the 31% of total Americans who have a college degree, so advertising on Twitter could be the perfect strategy if you are aiming to reach an audience of highly educated professionals. It is important to keep in mind, however, that Twitter is used as a news source for many users and may be one of the harder platforms to successfully advertise on. On the other hand, if your business wants to reach a demographic of college-educated adults, it doesn’t hurt to try it out because Twitter could end up being a great source of visibility for your brand.

In summary, it’s extremely important to understand your target audience if you want to successfully advertise on social media platforms. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter each have their own particular set of users, giving businesses the chance to capitalize on the platform they feel will help them achieve their advertising goals. Social media experts here at Bright Age, a top-of-the-line social media advertising agency, work with consumer demographics daily. We take the time to understand each of our clients’ desired audiences and we create quality content we know will reach the demographics that will help them rise to success. Feel free to contact us to learn more!

How to Use Pinterest to Market Your Business

Pinterest marketing agency social media logo

Pinterest is one of the most visually appealing ways to get your business noticed online. Have you searched for a recipe and noticed some of the most enticing images led you to Pinterest? This is why this social platform is so great in growing your brand—it allows you to capture the attention of your audience in the most creative and aesthetically pleasing ways! Here at Bright Age, we understand how important brand image is. Because of Pinterest’s unique website design, businesses can pick and choose what images they want to display on their account to create an aesthetically pleasing theme. This helps businesses visually appeal to their consumer base while also providing information about the business. As a leading Pinterest marketing agency, we have a few tricks up our sleeve to help you navigate Pinterest to boost your business to success. Keep reading to learn more about the reasons why we love using this social platform!

Create a Business Account

Pinterest currently has 459 million monthly active users. This means there is a lot of potential for your brand to become recognized by creating a Pinterest business account. A business account differs from the typical Pinterest account because there are a few features regular users don’t have access to. Particularly, your business will gain access to Pinterest Insights which are all of the analytics behind your content. This information is crucial for a business in understanding what their consumers like to see. These analytics will provide you with information such as data about your Pinterest performance, traffic on your business account, and specific details such as the number of views your pins are receiving.

Pinterest marketing agency business account

Creating a Pinterest business account is the first step in successfully ensuring that you are on the right track to promoting your brand. The information that you gather from Pinterest Insights can help you determine the best content to post on your business account, ultimately helping your business increase engagement to drive more traffic to your profile.

Power of Advertisements

Once you have your Pinterest business account all set up and ready to go, check out the advertising opportunities that are now available to you. After you start running a few ads, users interested in similar industries or categories related to your business will start seeing your advertisements. This helps to increase your brand’s visibility and ultimately provides the potential for a larger consumer base.

Screenshot of Pinterest marketing agency account

Pinterest is one of the best places to market your business as over 85% of users have purchased items based on the brands they view on the social media platform. Running ads helps your business stand out on the platform, helping you reach a wide variety of users that could one day become loyal consumers of your brand.

Research Trends

One of the best ways to market your business on Pinterest is by making sure the content you are posting is what your consumers want to see. Pinterest makes this easy by including a list of categories related to what you typically search for on your account. For instance, if you have a clothing business, then most likely you will see a list of fashion-related categories when you go to type something into the search bar. You can then sift through these categories and see if there are any new and emerging trends to keep an eye out for. This will help you understand what people are currently interested in so you have a better idea of the content that will attract a wide audience.

Personal Pinterest marketing agency categories

As a Pinterest marketing agency, social media experts here at Bright Age are always keeping tabs on emerging trends. We understand how important it is to research current trends so we can have a better understanding of the content to post to our social media platforms. This helps us reach a wide audience and increase our visibility to ensure we are meeting our marketing goals. Overall, Pinterest offers great exposure from a marketing perspective. Businesses are given the opportunity to thrive on the aesthetically pleasing social media platform when using a business account by tracking analytics, running advertisements, and continuing to research emerging trends. Social media experts here at Bright Age understand that getting started on a Pinterest business account may seem a bit daunting, so feel free to contact us about managing your social media presence!

What is Reputation Management and Why You Need It

The wise Warren Buffet once said, “It takes twenty years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently,” and boy is he right. Word of mouth has always been a powerful influence when it comes to shaping what customers think of a business and in today’s growing digital world, social word of mouth has become a pivotal factor for businesses to pay attention to when it comes to managing their reputation. 

Brand Management Agency Yelp Review Example


Social media sites, such as Twitter, Facebook, and Yelp, have made it easy for consumers to talk about your company and sway the tone of your business’s reputation. What customers are saying about your business online should be on your business’s radar, for what they are saying about your business and how you are reacting to their commentary is either going to bring in or turn away potential customers.

Although it may seem impossible to influence what consumers are saying about your business, know that it is not. A brand management agency, such as Bright Age, can help turn a business’s negative brand image into a positive one.

Reputation Management Agency Social Media

What is Reputation Management?

First, let us define what reputation management is so you can better understand why your business needs to prioritize it. According to Sprout Social, reputation management is a business’s response to a consumer’s positive and negative reviews as well as a business’s usage of these reviews to improve its products and/or services to then influence its reputation for the better.

 Galaxy Theatres is a great example of a company that manages its reputation by reviewing and responding to its customer reviews regularly. Galaxy responds to all of their Facebook and Yelp reviews to help relieve any guest issues and to show future guests that they are a worthwhile business that properly handles conflict as well as listens to their customers to maintain their brand image. Bright Age can help you strategize how to respond to customer reviews to manage your business’s reputation.

Yelp Customer Relations Galaxy Example

Why Reputation management is important for your business:

 Customers are talking about your business with other potential customers and if you want to paint your business as trustworthy and customer-friendly, then you need to be aware of what they are saying. A Yelp study showed that “ 85% of Yelp users share the business they find on yelp with friends frequently.”  This means if you pay attention and engage with your customers’ reviews then you will be working towards building strong customer relations which in turn will spread your business’s positive reputation through word of mouth and will bring you new customers. A great example of customer word of mouth can be seen in Galaxy’s post below.

Word Of Mouth Reputation Example

Reputation management is not only crucial for its ability to build strong customer relations, but it can impact conversion rates. Sprout social shares that, “the average consumer needs to see about 10 positive reviews prior to trusting a business.” This means that your business’s online reputation heavily sways your business’s well-being and monetary flow. If your business has negative reviews from customers and your business is not engaging with these reviews to address customers’ concerns, then your business is showing potential customers that you do not care and they therefore will take their money elsewhere.

How to manage your reputation:

Engaging with customers through thoughtful communication is key to managing your business’s reputation. Engagement with customers shows current and potential customers that your business cares about what they have to say. Lastly, monitoring what content your business posts is highly important when it comes to reputation management. When drafting social media posts it is important, to think in advance, how posts will be perceived. One poorly reviewed post can ruin a brand’s reputation within minutes. Bright Age can help your business create a game plan before posting social media to avoid content disasters.

Social Media Agency Bright Age

Learn how Bright Age can help your business during these crucial times of building and maintaining a positive reputation. Contact us today!

How to Use Social Media for B2B Marketing

Social media is one of the best things to ever happen to businesses. Without social media, businesses wouldn’t have the convenient opportunity of marketing on multiple platforms and reaching an audience of people from around the world. Years ago, this would be seen as a dream! We have access to the world right at our fingertips, and it’s important for businesses to use these social platforms to the best of their advantage. With business-to-business marketing, also known as B2B marketing, using your social media resources is vital for success in a competitive industry.

People using B2B social media agency

As a B2B social media agency specializing in content creation, experts here at Bright Age know it can be hard to rise to the top of the algorithm and understand what kind of content your audience wants to see. There is a multitude of ways a business can use social media to rise to the top in B2B marketing, and this article will help to highlight a few of the key strategies businesses should start acting on right now to meet their marketing goals.

Prioritize the Right Social Channels

B2B social media agency color logos

Everyone uses social media for different reasons. Some people may turn to Instagram to check out their favorite brands while others prefer to use Facebook to find information. As a business, it’s important to know where your audience is. Most businesses have accounts on each main social media platform—Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. This is especially helpful because it allows your content to reach as many people as possible. On the other hand, depending on your specific business and the audience you are targeting, prioritizing the social platform with the most engagement is critical for your success in social media marketing.

Tracking engagement is necessary for businesses to understand which social media platform is most popular among their audience. If you notice your Instagram engagement tends to be higher than your Twitter engagement, it would be more beneficial for your company to spend more time creating content for that particular platform. This will pay off in the long run as your best content will reach the people you want to see it. As a B2B social media agency, we know it can be hard to think of the right content to post. If your business is in need of some ideas, feel free to check out our blog about creating content for B2B marketing!

Use Hashtags to Widen Your Reach

Hashtags are your best friend when talking about B2B marketing. Almost every social media platform allows you to include hashtags in your posts and they can help you reach the right audience if you use them in your favor. If your goal is to reach potential clients that you want to work with, then make sure to include hashtags you know they would have a strong chance of seeing. For example, here at Bright Age we pride ourselves on being digital marketing and content creation experts, so we make sure to include hashtags such as #socialmediamarketing and #contentcreation under most of our posts.

B2B social media agency Instagram engagement

Get Creative

Visuals catch the eye, and that is especially true when using social media for B2B marketing. Long blocks of text aren’t always visually appealing as it takes effort and time to understand what the message is trying to convey. Posts that include videos or gifs quickly catch the attention of a viewer, making it more likely they will interact with the post and increase your overall engagement.

People working at B2B social media agency

It is important to understand, however, that every business has their own personal marketing techniques. Some businesses pride themselves on being more professional, so short animated clips may not be their go-to social media marketing strategy. On the other hand, many businesses want to appear casual and relatable, so including short video clips helps them reach the clients they want to partner with. The best thing your business can do is test it out! If you try including video content and the engagement doesn’t turn out how you want it to be, you will then know that you need to work on finding another strategy. It all depends on the way you want your brand to be perceived by your audience!

Social media is making B2B marketing as easy as ever. With access to a multitude of social media channels to market your business, the trick is understanding what strategies to implement to help your brand reach the right people. Prioritizing the right platforms, using hashtags, and getting creative with your content are some important tips to help you reach your B2B marketing goals. Here at Bright Age, we pride ourselves in helping brands succeed, contact us today to learn more!

How to Develop Creative Social Media Content for Businesses

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It’s common to see businesses marketing products and services for consumers, but there’s also another kind of marketing known as B2B marketing or business-to-business marketing. B2B marketing strives to capture the attention of other businesses in hopes of working together. There is one challenge though—creating innovative content that pushes your business to the top of the algorithm.

Advertisements currently flood the internet. It seems like nowadays anytime you access a website, some form of advertising will also pop up on your screen. This is typically B2C marketing or business-to-consumer marketing. This type of marketing tends to be very creative and even humorous at times, while B2B marketing has a reputation of being more straightforward.

As a leading content creation agency, Bright Age understands just how important it is to create the most eye-catching content, no matter the target audience. We specialize in understanding the audience your business wants to reach, and we create content to help you reach your business goals. If your business is specifically looking for a few tips to maximize your B2B marketing presence, then keep reading because you came to the right place!

People sitting with computers at a content creation agency

Maintain a Consistent Social Media Aesthetic

One of the best ways to stand out among the competition is to maintain a consistent social media aesthetic. Often times, many business pages on Instagram and Facebook post random content without thinking about how jumbled it looks when viewing these pages as a whole. When posting new content online, it’s helpful to think of each post as a piece in a puzzle. If one piece doesn’t fit correctly, the whole puzzle is off. The same goes for social media—consistency is attractive.

Businesses are visually attracted to other businesses that have a neat and professional feeling about them. Why would a business want to partner with a company that appears to be messy and unorganized? Small details like this are essential in grabbing attention in B2B marketing to ultimately build successful brand partnerships.

Emphasize Company Achievements

Workers in office at a content creation agency

Brands only want to partner with other brands they know will benefit them—it’s simple business. One of the best ways to get a better understanding of the services a business offers is by evaluating their achievements. Many brands like to use testimonials that help to show customer opinions and product demonstrations. You’ve probably seen some kind of testimonial as a commercial or even by manually searching for product reviews on a brand website. Even though most people are familiar with being on the consumer end of this form of marketing, testimonials are just as important in B2B marketing.

Although testimonials are useful in B2B marketing, many brands have now turned to creating case studies to provide a detailed analysis of the work they did for a particular client. Case studies allow other businesses to become familiar with their work as they highlight achievements and provide detailed analysis on solutions and results. For example, here at Bright Age we found that creating case studies was the best way to market our successes in a visually appealing format for clients such as Galaxy Theatres and Parex USA.

Bright Age content creation agency case studies

B2B marketing is just as important as marketing to an audience of consumers. B2B marketing allows other businesses to recognize the kinds of companies they want to partner with in order to maximize their successes. As a leading content creation agency, Bright Age specializes in creating eye-catching, yet informative marketing campaigns to set your business apart from the rest. By maintaining a consistent social media aesthetic, your business will appear organized and professional to other brands viewing your content. It’s also important to emphasize company achievements in B2B marketing because it informs other businesses that you are a leader in your industry. Improve your B2B marketing today and contact us here at Bright Age!

Improve Customer Relationships with Professional Community Management

Social media feedback banner in community management agency

Happy customers are the reason why companies become successful. If there are no customers, there’s no way for the business to continue operating. As customers keep businesses running, businesses need to continue meeting the demands of their customers by understanding the products they want to buy—it goes both ways. Why would someone want to give their hard-earned money to a business that doesn’t care about the opinion of the people who keep it above water? That’s why voice of the customer (VoC) programs are essential for a community management agency to understand customer satisfaction.

Most businesses have some kind of VoC program, and most likely you’ve encountered one. Surveys on the back of receipts and emails asking you to rate your experience are some of the common ways companies go about collecting feedback from their customers. In this case, any feedback is positive feedback. It’s important for a business to understand exactly what their customers either loved or hated about their experience purchasing a product or service. This feedback helps the business to understand what they need to do more of or change in order to remain successful in their industry.

As a leading community management agency, we understand just how important it is to listen to our own clients. We want to please them because if we aren’t providing them with the services they desire, they will choose to go elsewhere for business.

Here at Bright Age, we recognize just how important it is to build strong relationships with our clients. To help any businesses looking for some advice, we’ve outlined a few key tips to help you understand the customer satisfaction process.

Collecting Feedback

People working at a community management agency

One of the best ways to collect feedback from your customers is by offering surveys. Surveys are helpful because the business can ask a variety of questions about the customer’s experience and then use this data to help strengthen the business. These surveys can be emailed, linked at the bottom of a receipt, or even conducted over the phone. Businesses can also offer incentives such as gift cards or free products to entice customers to take the surveys.

Another great way of collecting data is by asking customers to leave ratings online. Ratings are often the deciding factor in helping potential customers decide if they want to purchase a product or service from a particular business. Since these ratings are visible to both the customers and the business, they definitely motivate the business to stay on track in providing the best quality service.

Analyzing the Data

Working on social media at community management agency

After gathering the feedback, the next step is to analyze the data for any common themes. If a lot of customers are mentioning the same issue about a product or service, it becomes evident to the business to quickly take any needed action.

This part of the voice of the customer (VoC) process can be very time-consuming because there is going to be a lot of data to get through. As a community management agency, we understand just how important it is to meet the needs of each of our valued clients. We recognize that our clients have many other agencies they could have decided on, so we want to use their feedback to continue strengthening our agency to meet their demands.

Implementing Necessary Changes

Workers on computers at community management agency

Once all the customer feedback has been thoroughly collected and analyzed, the business then needs to decide if they should make any changes. If there was a certain issue that was continuously brought up in the surveys or ratings, it’s pretty obvious the business needs to take action to fix the situation. If the ratings are flooded with five-star reviews about a certain product or service, it helps the business to know they are on the right track with keeping their customers happy. Overall, it is essential for businesses to have voice of the customer (VoC) programs to create an organized way of interpreting customer feedback. Starting with collecting the feedback, many businesses choose to send out surveys and ask customers to leave reviews either on Google or on the personal business website. Once the business feels like they have a good amount of feedback to sort through, they need to start analyzing the data. They should look out for commonly mentioned issues or product ratings that have glowing reviews. After all the data has been analyzed, the business can then implement any necessary changes according to the feedback left by the customers. The VoC program will help your business remain a leader in your industry by understanding the opinions of the ones who keep it running—your customers.

The Benefits of Mobile-Friendly Websites

The Benefits of a Digital Marketing Agency Developing Mobile-Friendly Websites:

Mobile-friendly websites are a critical factor for a business’s success in today’s growing world of mobile users. For instance, data gathered from emarketer shows that in 2021 approximately 81.5% of the U.S. population are mobile users.

Digital-Marketing-Agency Mobile Device For Mobile-Friendly Websites

Not entirely sure what a mobile-friendly website is? That’s okay, as a digital marketing agency, Bright Age can help you better understand. A mobile-friendly website is essentially your business’s main website adjusted to be visibly pleasing and easily accessible across a variety of mobile devices such as smartphones, like the iPhone, and other handheld devices, such as on tablets, like the iPad. An example of a business with a mobile-friendly App and website that we at Bright Age assist with is Galaxy Theatres, pictured below.

Digital Marketing Agency screenshot of  Ux design Mobile-Friendly Website example

The growing population of mobile users is a critical behavior of consumers that businesses need to adapt their online presence to. If you are not entirely sure that a mobile-friendly website is essential to your business then here are three major benefits to having a mobile-friendly website that will most likely change your mind.

Digital Marketing Agency Mobile-Friendly Website Example

1.Enhances your SEO :

As a digital marketing agency that is a qualified Google partner, we cannot stress enough the importance of utilizing SEO for your business’s website.

Google has dominated the search engine market as it is the number one search engine used by consumers. With that being said, Google has a set list of factors that are used to determine the ranking of your website when products or services that are similar to what your business offers are being searched for by potential customers. If you want to optimize your website’s visibility on search engines like Google then you need to adopt the factors used by Google to better rank your site! Having a mobile-friendly website is indeed one of Google’s ranking factors. Ensuring that your website is mobile-friendly will improve your SEO which in turn will increase your website’s visibility, site traffic, and sales. 

Mobile-friendly website UI design Example

If you would like to learn more about SEO and its benefits, be sure to check out our article and SEO case studies and learn how we at Bright Age can assist your business in maximizing SEO to reap its benefits.

2.Improves Users’ Experience and Your Brand image : 

Nothing will turn potential customers and sales away quicker than a terrible user experience. Having a mobile-friendly website with a pleasing UX and UI design will result in satisfied customers who have a positive image of your business. UX, as explained by Sprout Social, refers to the interaction a customer has with the design of your brand’s physical products and or, as this article focuses on, the design of your website. For reference let’s say you have a website that when accessed on mobile devices lags and is hard for customers to maneuver through. This inherently will have customers leaving your site quickly with frustration and with a negative image of your business. UI design on the other hand is the look of your website. For instance, are the tabs on your website located in a way that is aesthetically pleasing, does the look of your site make users want to stay and engage? It is incredibly important to keep UX and UI design in mind when designing your mobile-friendly website because it ultimately will impact your business’s image amongst users. Once you master a mobile-friendly website that is aesthetically pleasing and easy to navigate through, you will have satisfied customers who trust and respect your business, which in the end leads to our final benefit.

3. Increased Conversion Rates

Statista estimated that in 2021 there are 17.3 million Mobile buyers in the U.S. This means if your business does not have a mobile-friendly website, then you are missing out on reaching a significant amount of customers and potential sales.

mobile-friendly UI and UX design online shopping example

Creating a well-developed mobile-friendly website ultimately will extend your reach, increase your site visibility and traffic through optimizing SEO, and will build positive customer relations and a positive brand image, which in all will lead to an increase in conversion rates.

The Importance of Brand Monitoring on Social Media

Brand Monitoring on social media is one of the easiest ways to grow and manage your digital presence. By giving your audience the ability to share, like, comment, and react to certain products or services, you have a direct line of feedback from your customers. This way, you can easily have your own social media brand management from the platforms you are posting on. 

What is brand monitoring?

Brand monitoring is understanding and viewing the way your brand is perceived and accepted by your customers. It is tracking how your brand does when you post a product or launch a new campaign. It is an important part of understanding and growing your brand. It really boils down to seeing how your audience reacts to your posts, products, and services. Knowing this information is crucial to every brand. 

Why is this important?

Your brand is only as good as your customers see it. Being a business, your company depends on customers that will buy your product or service. Without seeing how they perceive your brand, you are left without direction on how to change or improve your brand to better fit your audience. There is no way to successfully grow your business without understanding how your brand stands with your audience. 

Working on brand work online

Integration of Social Media

Social media is a great tool to use for brand monitoring because of the access you have to your audience. When you put your business on social media, especially on platforms that customers can openly communicate with you on (Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter), you are more likely to see immediate feedback when posting new content or even new products. Social media brand management is simple and effective. For example, if you upgrade your Instagram or Facebook account to a business account, you can unlock specific insights on your post information. This will include how many likes, comments, shares, and saves your post gets. It will also show the demographic of your audience, the best times to post, how many people saw/engaged with your post that were not following you, and so much more. 

 

Brand monitoring is not just tracking your audience. It is also finding out ways to further engage and grow your audience. By getting the information from your social media, you are now able to take that knowledge and input it into your brand. This does not mean a total makeover of your brand, but just constantly fine tuning it so that your brand fits your audience. The more you monitor your brand, the better information you have to improve your brand, products, or services. 

people working together to build a successful online

Brand Elements to Monitor

There are certain parts of your brand that should be carefully looked at when gathering information. These parts include: channels, name variations, competitors, trends, and public figures. Channels are ways that your brand is seen by your audience. This can include social media, news, review sites, and the list goes on. Specifically on social media, you want to make sure that people can easily find your page and that page looks professional and intriguing. Name variations are how people refer to your brand. These can be nicknames, abbreviations for your brand or other words that your brand might be associated with. If you do not recognize a different name variation for your brand, you could be missing out on important information that could be used to improve your brand. Competitors of your brand are extremely important to be aware of. Your customers may be split between a competitor and your brand and to make sure your customers are engaged and stay engaged, it is important to know how your audience reacts to certain posts, products or services. Overseeing trends is important in order to keep your brand up to date with what is happening in the world. The absence of trends in brands could result in a negative connotation of the brand which would lead to poor engagement or even product sales. By incorporating trends, you are not only engaging your audience but demonstrating that you care what is happening in the world. Public figures come into play when they are mentioning, using or influencing people to use your product or buy your service. Monitoring the figures that do represent your brand is important because you want to make sure their actions and words correspond with the values and intentions of your brand. 

 

Social media brand management is extremely important and useful when creating and expanding your brand. Monitoring your audience can only give you more information on your engagement and activity. If you are having trouble with this crucial part of brand monitoring, Bright Age Digital Creative Agency is here to help. 

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What Happened on Social Media in 2020

2020 was a challenging year. There were many unexpected events that changed how the entire world operated. Despite all the bad that happened this year, 2020 was a huge year for social media. With the rise of the use of technology, due to everyone being stuck in their homes, this was a great opportunity for social media to expand their normal uses and make some change. 

online systems communicating and updating

January

In January of this year, no one was in lockdown and everything was almost normal. People were interacting with others in person and going about their lives without a pandemic. 

Meanwhile, Facebook was putting together some new tools to increase privacy settings and efficiency. Facebook created new privacy tools in order to increase the control that third parties have of a user’s data. This will give you the ability to have an “off-facebook” activity and will alert you when third parties are trying to take your information. This also connects to Facebook making ads more controllable for users. This addition will give the user the option to be in a targeted market hence either keep their information to themselves or let brands use their information. You now have an “active status” option for Facebook, meaning you can say whether you are online or not and who can see that status. 

Instagram was busy as well. IGTV had an upload update, now you can upload IGTV videos from your central button. Instagram was testing the ability to check your direct messages on a desktop instead of a phone which would make it more accessible. They also added some features to their Stories which includes new stickers and new boomerang modes. 

Twitter made strides to reduce harassment on the platform by adding restrictions in replies to tweets. Twitter was also testing the ability to pay users for viral or popular tweets or accounts. Twitter promoted Trend Spotlight ads which would let brands place their ads in the explore section to boost engagement. These ads could be videos, GIFs, or static images. Sadly, Twitter’s audience insight tab is now gone. 

LinkedIn has a new feature where you can invite your first degree potential connections to follow your page, thus gaining connections easier. This is optional to avoid spamming. There is a function to stop the invites at 50 per day, but even then it might be spam-like. LinkedIn has also started to roll out a streaming feature where you can stream from third party websites such as Restream, Wirecast, and Socialive. This would make it easier for those to expand their connections which may lead to more job opportunities. This would also help businesses who are looking to expand their network. 

TikTok had an explosion of popularity in the fall of 2019. Since then, they have quickly adapted to the standards of Facebook and Instagram. During January, they created a new search page which will give you more control over your feed. These pages include beauty, gaming, and pop culture. They also created a dark mode. 

Some new social media networks that emerged in January were Byte, somewhat like TikTok but only includes 6-second video uploads, and YourStand, a social media platform that is centered around products and sharing people’s passions about products. 

February

During the month of February, the pandemic had not quite hit the US. People were still going about their normal lives. 

Facebook had a huge February with many changes to the platform. They created a Creator Studio App which makes life easier for those that manage business pages on multiple platforms. Using this app will allow you to: manage multiple pages at once, view/edit posts, respond to fans, receive notifications, and see insights on their posts. This will be life-changing for those that post similar content on different social media platforms. For example, if you managed two different companies on Facebook, Creator Studio would allow you to view both pages easily without having to have one login. This is more efficient especially for those who manage more than a couple pages on Facebook. They also created a one-time notification API. This will make it easier for businesses to send a one-time notification to their customers when they want to be notified. This will limit spamming. In efforts to better protect a user’s privacy, Facebook partnered with Reuters to identify misinformation in posts. This will give Reuters the ability to fact-check posts on both Facebook and Instagram. Therefore, more data will be given to other parties but there will be more regulation for posting, especially political posting. There is also a new stories discovery page, new color highlight for tags, and new feed sorting options. 

Instagram also took on many changes to their platform. They added a new way to manage followers by adding a most and least interacted with when going through followers. They also added a new option for simpler communication for business accounts. There is a button on your profile that is labeled “Messages”. By clicking on this, users can be directed to messenger, WhatsApp, or direct messages. 

Twitter introduced two new exciting features. First is Chroma Labs, which enables you to edit your stories with templates and frames. In addition to this, they created labels for manipulated videos and pictures. This label which will read, “manipulated media” on a post will show you whether the picture or video is real or not. 

TikTok decided to add direct website links on profiles in the biography section and created a profile that is similar to Instagram.

Snapchat had a unique addition in February which was a swipe up feature for their ads. This means that if you saw an ad, by swiping up on the ad you would be directly taken to a website or an information center about what the ad was for. For example, if you see an advertisement for sunglasses, when you swipe up on the ad it will take you right to the product. This will help customers find the products they are looking for and help companies sell the products they are advertising.

March

The pandemic hit the US in March of this year. Almost every social media created a response to Coronavirus in their own way.

Starting off with Facebook, they had an information take on their COVID response. They increased their fact-checking function on posts regarding the pandemic and also banned ads that were exploiting the pandemic as well. They also made a COVID information panel at the top of all users’ feeds in order to efficiently spread reliable information. They gave the World Health Organization free ads to increase awareness on the platform. In addition to changes on the Facebook page, Facebook announced a $100 million grant program that would be used to support 30,000 small businesses that were affected by the virus. New features in Facebook that were not centered around COVID included Facebook Live tool, an updated dashboard for managing live broadcasts that includes new settings for efficiency, and mood mode for stories. 

Instagram made their app COVID friendly as well. They added informational prompts at the top of the feed section as well as launched new stickers promoting users to stay at home. When these stickers were clicked on, the user would be taken to informational pages like the World Health Organization and the Center for Disease Control. Another feature that was influenced by COVID was the new co-watching feature to bring people together when they were quarantined in isolation. This would let a group of people watch content with each other even if they were miles away. 

Twitter contributed to the COVID response by supporting and verifying informed voices, such as health experts, on the app. This way, users could see who was verified to give out information regarding the pandemic. Twitter announced a $1 million pledge to two organizations, the Committee to Protect Journalists and International Women’s Media, during COVID. Twitter is one of the last of the big social media platforms to add some sort of stories function to a profile.

LinkedIn created free Working From Home courses to continue educating those that needed jobs. They also created a news section that featured news from reliable sources about the pandemic. 

TikTok was becoming a very popular app when people were forced to quarantine. Since they had this booming platform, TikTok did everything they could to inform people about the pandemic. They created an informational page about the pandemic. They also united with the World Health Organization (WHO) to make this page and do livestreams with experts from WHO that answered user’s questions and gave advice. TikTok then donated $10 million to the WHO’s response fund. In addition to this, TikTok created a new analytics tool that would measure engagement statistics for creators. 

staying at home and communicating

April

During April, people were quarantined and in many parts of the world. Platforms had to start to think of how to keep users interested and engaged.

Facebook created the Facebook Gaming App for users to play, stream and engage with others playing a game. They also included a function called Quiet Mode, made to help people control their time online. Quiet mode gives you a break from your technology. It mutes your notifications and will not let you back into the app before your time limit goes away. 

Instagram shifted their accessibility to a desktop with livestreams and direct messages now accessible through those devices. IGTV was also updated with new features such as a section on the explore page for popular IGTV creators, ability to share an IGTV on your story, and the ability to record IGTV using a new hands-free mode. 

Twitter updated their explore section to be based more on location rather than popularity. For example, instead of seeing generic advertisements for events or services that are not close to you, you will see advertisements that will be more centered around where you are. They also updated their data sharing policy by limiting the data Twitter uses to only ads that you have seen on the app or on your device. This data will be shared with other platforms in order to see what ads are being looked at and how to improve them. 

TikTok also extended their device accessibility by making it possible to log into the platform via desktop. They also created a donation sticker that is being used to boost or donate to TikTok creators. 

Snapchat made a new ad format as well as a new story sharing integration between multiple platforms. This will let those exchange photos or videos between Snapchat and other platforms. A new addition to Snapchat is it’s vertical video conversion tool which will let you change a horizontal video into a vertical one. 

May

Facebook was very busy in May. A new AR studio was released, Sparks AR studio with more tools. This studio gives anyone with the skills necessary to create effects for their own stories. These effects could be saved and used by other users. There was also a music section of the studio that will allow you to make effects that change depending on the music you were using in your stories. Facebook also released 15 new Blueprint courses, which are educational courses for social media marketers, which will continue to teach people about marketing. Facebook also released ‘Shops’ that will give businesses the opportunity to create an online store through Facebook. 

Instagram has now incorporated IGTV advertisements up to 15 seconds long. They also have included a new way to tip during live streams. Viewers can now simply press the newly added badge icons to tip the creators they are watching. The platform also added a messenger room for group chats which will allow you to start video chats with people as well. Additionally, Instagram expanded on their features by adding a ‘Guides’ tab to certain profiles which highlight recommendations or tips toward more business related content. 

Twitter did not incorporate new features but was in the spotlight when Trump attacked Twitter. In simple terms, Twitter started flagging some of Trump’s tweets and he accused Twitter of being against conservative speech. This was a legal battle regarding Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. This act protects social media platforms from their users. Trump wanted to remove this act but its removal would negatively impact social media networks. As of now, nothing has been removed. 

LinkedIn launched a polls feature for posts and merged live streams with events pages in order to host events through the platform to keep people safe yet engaged online. For example, instead of having to be invited to a livestream, you can enter the livestream through the homepage. This will make it easier for bigger businesses to host live events.

TikTok has now launched music rules and now can only use royalty-free commercial music for videos.

June

June was a slow month for social media with only new updates from Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. 

Facebook launched the ability to switch between personal and business accounts on messenger. This will make it easier for business owners to switch between their professional and informal lives. In preparation for the upcoming election, they also launched a voting information center and the option to opt out of political ads. 

Instagram now has ads that are not connected with Facebook. This will reach different audiences more effectively. For example, a company can create specific advertisements that will be more suitable for their different audiences on different platforms. Instagram also created pride month effects for Stories.

Twitter launched audio tweets which will change the way tweets are received and given. 

July

Facebook created a new algorithm that will make original content, this meaning posts from friends, be prioritized in your feed. They also created a Touch ID and Face ID security feature for messenger that makes your chats more private.

Instagram created brand deals for TikTok creators for their launch of Reels, which launched in August. Instagram also created a feature that lets you pin a comment on a post. 

Twitter launched the ability to have direct messages on a desktop. This will increase accessibility to your messages. 

LinkedIn created a new career opportunities hub that was centered around the pandemic. This would give free access to skills training to help those get a job. For example, LinkedIn offers skills and educational tests that add to your profile that give you badges. When you go into the hub to find a possible new job, these free skills training badges will stand out to employers that are hiring. 

TikTok was under consideration for being banned in the USA due to low privacy features.

Pinterest created a new feed algorithm that would highlight videos, new features, and content from diverse backgrounds.

online communication via the computer

August

Facebook released a whole new look for their homepage. This was a Horizon Virtual platform that gave people that ability to have an avatar and create new experiences while online. Facebook also expanded their analytics to group administrators. This would give those users the information about their posts within the group.

Instagram launched Reels, a 15 second video that is a new section of content on Instagram. This is similar to TikTok. Instagram also added suggested posts to your feed, these posts are of people that are similar to the accounts that you follow. There was another addition that gave users the ability to merge messenger and direct messenger. 

Snapchat has new sharing options that would let the user share snapchats with those that are not on the platform via a shareable link. 

TikTok worked this month to not be banned. They also had Microsoft and Oracle interested in buying the app which would save it from being banned.

September

Facebook launched a Facebook Business Suite which will combine your business profiles from Facebook and Instagram into one space that is available on desktop or through an app. This tool will increase efficiency when you manage an account on multiple platforms. For example, a company that has pages on Facebook and Instagram will be able to work both profiles in one studio so that it is easier to monitor the activity as well as interact with clients.

Instagram created a Rights Manager which helps find copyright infringement on both Facebook and Instagram posts. This will alert sensity content to users and creators.

TikTok made an official deal to sell to Oracle, but Oracle must develop a new feed algorithm in order to seal the deal. 

LinkedIn now has a Stories feature that is globally used. This is one of the last platforms that has added a Stories feature to their platform.

learning online

October

Facebook created a new messenger look to change it up. It is more customizable and gives the users backdrops and themes to choose from. For the Facebook Groups section, new features were added to the page. This includes an administrator assistant, group topics, groups added to brand collaboration manager, realtime chats, Q&A tools, and public group discussions in the feed. This will change how the Groups page is used. 

Instagram created new resources for small businesses in a site called ‘The Season for Shops’ in order to showcase smaller businesses that need help during the crisis. 

TikTok became unbanned in the US and launched a partnership with Shopify, a tool to help users shop on the app. 

November

Since we have just exited November, there have not been too many updates about social media apps from this month. 

Facebook created a vanish mode for messenger that would imitate the ability to delete messages like Snapchat. This would be set by the user and messages would automatically vanish after the message is seen and the chat is closed. 

Instagram redesigned their Homepage and gave easier access to Reels and Shop sections by creating their own tabs on the explore page.

Twitter officially launched Reels, similar to an Instagram story, where users can add content on their profile page for a limited amount of time. 

This year was a very eventful time for social media. Although our world was turned upside down from this pandemic, social media platforms took it upon themselves to make the internet more accessible and user friendly. 

Source List:

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https://www.socialmediatoday.com/topic/social-media-updates/

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https://awario.com/blog/social-media-news-march-2020/

https://awario.com/blog/social-media-news-april-2020/

https://awario.com/blog/social-media-news-may-2020/

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https://awario.com/blog/social-media-news-july-2020/

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