Social Media Is Changing

Social Media is Changing: A New Focus On Original Content

by with No Comment Social Media

Changes in the world of social media are not news anymore. We see tons of updates every other year. In the last decade alone, we saw unprecedented changes in tools and features on big platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. While it takes time to get used to each change, we can all agree that most of these updates make the platforms better for both users and marketers.

In the usual tradition, social media is changing things up again. What is this new update? How does it affect marketers? What can businesses do to leverage this new change? We provide answers to these and more in this expertly curated guide. Keep reading!

Instagram Update: New Focus On Originality

How often do you repost content on Instagram? No judgement here, we used to do it too. It is a great opportunity to keep your audience engaged, maintain your social media content calendar, and boost your ranking without creating anything. You simply find great content online and share it. That works the magic every time. Well, not anymore.

The new Instagram update is algorithm-based and it is looking to encourage more original content by ignoring re-posted content. The Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, announced the new algorithm change sometime in April. In his tweet, he explained that Instagram now ranks based on originality.

In summary, Instagram ranking algorithm will only reward the effort of the initial creator, not those who shared the content. Although the goal of this update is to encourage and reward creators while also clearing out repetition from users’ feeds, the truth is, this will affect marketers more than the average user.

Social media is changing: What does this mean for marketers?

For marketers, it is safe to say this is both good and bad news. On the one hand, you can no longer boost your page’s ranking with re-posted content. This used to be the deal since it is way easier than creating fresh content from the ground up.

But this is no longer a smart move as Instagram will pay no attention to shared content, hence the need to start creating fresh, original content regularly. True, that sounds like so much work but the good news is that content creators now get full credit for their work. You will agree that someone who went through the trouble of creating content deserves more credit than someone who simply shared the content, right?

This is a good means to get ahead of the competition. Smart marketers who are able to consistently create original content will enjoy increasing ranking for their hard work. You and you alone, not a competitor who simply shared your content.

Long story short, social media is changing really fast. If you are looking to boost your page’s ranking and stay ahead of the competition, you must plan to create original content.

7 Benefits of Creating Original Contents for Your Business

Why should you bother about original content? Why go through all the trouble when you could just steal someone’s content to fill your social media calendar? Here are a few ways original content benefits your business.

Increased trust and credibility

Customers trust custom content more than ads and content shared from other brands. Marketers who produce original content attract more customers than those who rely on ads and re-posted content.

Organic traffic

Social media is changing ranking factors which can affect your traffic. Your content is a great way to draw traffic to your website. If the content is originally yours, you get the opportunity to optimise it to attract massive traffic to your website.

Better customer relationship

Building a good relationship with your audience is a critical part of business growth. While you may think sharing others’ posts is keeping your audience engaged, the truth is customers can tell apart from original content. They connect better with brands that keep it original.

High brand recognition

Another important benefit is brand recognition. Consistently creating exceptional content will increase your brand recognition across the globe.

Makes you a niche leader

With tons of businesses littering the world wide web, customers want to know how much you know before entrusting you with their needs. As social media is changing focus to original content, this gives you an opportunity to show that you are a thought leader in the industry.

Bolster social media engagement

If you want to boost engagement and sharing, you should definitely release original content. This is all the appeal you need to convince your audience to share. Keep it original and genuine.

Increased sales and conversion rate

All of these benefits lead to a higher conversion rate which in turn leads to more sales and revenue for your business.

Social Media Is Changing: 5 Expert Tips to Create Original Contents

 

Know your audience

If you don’t already recognize your target audience, you have to start there before creating your content. Yes, social media is changing focus to originality but you cannot reach your marketing goal with just about any fresh content. It must be of good quality and relevant to your audience.

A good way to know the quality, demand and relevance is to identify your target audience. Who makes up your audience? What are their needs? What exactly do they want from you?

Offer a solution to their problem

The originality in the content covers the message and the way the message was delivered. The message you are passing across is just as important as the method you are using to deliver the message.

Now that you understand what your audience needs, the next step requires you to create a one-of-a-kind solution. Don’t go ripping off people’s work. Genuinely find a gap to fill and do it with original products or services.

It’s all about storytelling

As I stated above, the message and the method of delivering the message are both important in the concept of originality. With a unique solution for your audience’s needs, the next step involves curating a suitable way to deliver your solution. We find that storytelling is key.

Irrespective of the method you apply, be sure to tell a story. It could be the story of others or your brand’s story. It could also be your personal experience. The goal is to help them relate to the brand and assure them you indeed have a solution.

Show genuine emotion

Another reason storytelling is a sure bet is that it gives you the opportunity to show genuine emotion. Because the truth is sales is all about emotions. You will get no reaction if the content doesn’t move your audience.

Everyone is already on edge with the tons of ads and businesses out to get their money. To stand out now that social media is changing, you must show that you truly care. Show them it’s all about them, not their money.

Use visuals

Although written content holds lots of perks, seasoned marketers understand that visuals are the best way to gain more engagement and leave a lasting memory on your audience.

You can incorporate infographics and videos in your written content or simply stick with video content. Visuals increase the originality of your content exponentially while also helping you connect with your audience at a level written words can never reach.

Original content has always been favoured above others but now social media is changing to focus even more on originality.

This is good news for smart marketers who already invest resources into original work. If you are not one of them, we urge you to avail yourself of these expert tips.

For professional assistance, don’t hesitate to contact FOME. We are here to help!

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© FOME

Collaborating With Instagram Influencers What Your Brand Needs Toknow

Collaborating with Instagram influencers: What your brand needs to know

by Digital Marketing

Social media influencers have power like nothing else on the internet. Just last week, reality TV star and celebrity influencer Kylie Jenner tweeted to her 24.7 million Twitter followers that she no longer used Snapchat. Such is the star’s influence that Snapchat’s share values tumbled by £1 billion within a mere matter of hours, demonstrating the sheer power of today’s influencers.

Of course, in this example, influencer power led to a negative outcome, but when brands position their relationships with them carefully, the results can be hugely beneficial.

Instagram in particular is a popular platform for collaborations between brands and influencers, although it must now be made completely clear when a user’s content is sponsored or if they have received an item for free to promote.

But what kind of reach can Instagram influencer collaborations have, and how can brands identify who would be a good influencer for them to work with?

The power of Instagram collaborations

Almost two-thirds (65 per cent) of the best-performing posts on Instagram are influencer posts that feature products from brands, according to research carried out by L2.

Influencers are likely to have thousands of followers to promote your brand’s products or services to, with likes and comments from their audience expanding the reach of these posts even further.

That’s basically how Instagram influencing works – a source who is trusted or respected in a particular area, whether it’s in recruitment or fashion and beauty, will put products in front of their followers that they are likely to spread the word about themselves; it’s essentially the 21st century version of word-of-mouth advertising.

Brands can interact with influencers via Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn too, but a Zine survey found that 80 per cent of influencers believe Instagram to be the best platform for collaborative posts with brands. This put Instagram significantly ahead of the next most popular medium, blogging, which earnt 16 per cent of the vote.

But Instagram is a big place – some 500 million people around the world use it every single day – so how can your brand identify suitable influencers to work with?

How to identify influencers

Using influencer posts as part of your marketing strategy can only be successful if you are working with the right people. If there are big names in your sector or speakers you’ve spotted at industry events who you know have a large following, approaching them to discuss working together could be a good place to start.

Take note of how many Instagram followers each potential influencer has. You need them to have as many relevant followers as possible to ensure your content is seen far and wide across the social platform, but you also need to make sure your products will fit with the kind of content they usually post.

Check out the hashtags users are including in their posts too. By searching for a particular hashtag on Instagram, you can see which people are using it, sharing it and talking about it, which is another good way to spot prospective influencers.

When approaching a user you’d like to work with, make sure you’re clear about what you expect from them and what they’ll get in return; for example, how much you will pay them in return for a certain number of posts that feature a hashtag of your choice.

Source: Think Creative Collective, Sprout Social, BBC

Boost your marketing efforts with Instagram

Boost your marketing efforts with Instagram

by Digital Marketing

In recent years, Instagram has developed into a hugely successful social media platform. Since launching in October 2010, it now boasts 400 million active users across 25 countries every month, and sees a staggering 80 million images uploaded each day.

What does this mean for brands though?

Well, with such a large user base, brands would be foolish not to tap into this in order to boost their own marketing efforts.

Have you heard the phrase “a picture tells 1,000 words”? In this day and age, this quote truly is relevant. With the other main social platforms being led by written content, the fact that Instagram focuses on pictures makes it stand out from the crowd.

How can you use this to your advantage?

You need to find a way to encourage people to interact with your Instagram. You posting things as a brand is obviously beneficial, and over time and with a targeted content strategy you’ll pick up followers. However, the real success will come when you have your target audience engaging with you.

Many brands find that this can be achieved through competitions and incentives. Everyone is taking pictures wherever they go, whether it’s a luxury holiday or the avocados and eggs they’ve had for brunch – it’s time for you to jump on this. The pictures already exist, so your aim should be to encourage people to share them with you.

As we’ve just said, one strategy could be to host a competition or offer an incentive. Ask followers and users to share their best images involving your brand, and choose winners from this. The prizes you give might not even cost you much, so this is a very low-cost marketing campaign.

However, this type of campaign can only be truly successful if you already have followers. If you need to grow brand awareness, then you need to look at a strategy that incorporates the use of hashtags much more heavily.

All hashtags are searchable on Google and social platforms, so by ensuring that they’re relevant and engaging, you have the opportunity to reach a much wider audience. You can also look at regramming images by users that are both relevant to your brand and include hashtags. This tactic will then increase awareness of your brand not only with those users, but with their followers as well.

The key is to ensure that you have a clear strategy for Instagram that ties in with your full content marketing strategy and is focused on your target audience.

Know who it is you’re looking to communicate with and what you want to achieve from that. From there, you can develop campaigns that will help to build awareness of your brand, increase engagement online and really help you to grow your followers. You can then tie this into your social strategies on other platforms to create a uniform approach to ensure that you’re able to reach your marketing goals.

© Fast Online Marketing Experts