Influencer Marketing Trends To Watch In 2018

As more companies turn to influencers to reach more customers on social media and grow their sales, you need to find ways of getting the most from them. Also, you need to appreciate the fact that past strategies may not work in 2018.

Therefore, adapting to changes in the current business environment can give you insight on how you can harness the potential of influencer marketing in 2018. Here are some of the trends that will promote influencer marketing success this year.

Focusing On Other Social Media Channels As much as Instagram is the leading platform for influencers, it is wrong to assume that this is where you should draw all your attention. In fact, it is not surprising to discover that some of these experts are not on Instagram.

Hence, as you check Pinterest, Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat, and Twitter, you will realize that they are active on these channels as well. The fact that most influencers are on Instagram means that you expect to pay more for their services. On the contrary, those using other channels may have cheaper rates, which can yield your firm a better return on investment.

Therefore, in addition to accessing better conversions, you stand a better chance in 2018 by working with influencers who are not on Instagram.

Leveraging Useful Content Using photos of an influencer holding your product as they explain how much they love it is no longer the in thing. These are generics ads that will do little to propel your business forward in 2018.

Most buyers are looking for content that educates, entertains, and what invokes some emotion. Therefore, you need to shift from such ads to content marketing to achieve your goal. Backing your influencer marketing campaigns with the right content will help you convey the right message to your audience for the achievement of desirable results.

Establishing Long-term Relationships In most cases, the relationship between business operators and influencers is purely transactional. The implication is that when such entrepreneurs access the services they require for a particular amount, it marks the end of interactions between the two.

Unfortunately, such influencers tend to act as short-term contractees who may not satisfy your expectations. As a result, your audience may not connect to your brand once they capture that from an influencer. The solution, in that case, is seeking to build lasting relationships with your influencer to promote enthusiasm and earn their loyalty to your brand.

If you need more information on influencer marketing trends for 2018, contact us today!

New Instagram Hashtag Feature Increases Followers and User Engagement for Businesses

Many business owners' Instagram marketing strategies have come to a halt when considering the caution from Instagram shadow-bans in the previous year's algorithm releases, paired with the recent hashtag risks.

Regardless of the Instagram algorithm changes, a seemingly favorable dispersant in filtering spam and irrelevant hashtags for users, business-marketing managers have a superior advantage in gaining endless Instagram followers and increasing social media engagement for business owners with potential consumers.

Use the Hashtag Follow Feature and Algorithm Changes to Your Advantage

This year, Instagram introduced the new 'follow' feature, exclusively for hashtags. Last year's algorithm changes along with the 2018 'follow' feature now collect data for the user to complement requested searches, placing the most relevant and latest posts at the top of their feed.

Therefore, copying and pasting the same hashtags repeatedly will now lead to increased spam filtering against business posts that may have been appropriate.

With the latest influence for users to follow hashtags, inbound marketing strategies now necessitate new methods concerning hashtags research and the proper insertion of tags into single posts.

As a business owner, enable the Instagram algorithm process to support your inbound marketing initiatives by:

• Ending the repetitive use of identical hashtags for every post.

• Researching the most relevant hashtags using the 'follow' feature data.

Additionally, obtaining real-time suggestions from Instagram's algorithm data for individual posts lowers the opportunity of plunging into the shadow-ban algorithm as spam or inappropriate to users.

Add Hashtags Directly to Business Profiles

The new release comes with the ability to add relevant hashtags directly into the Instagram business profile, in addition to the posts.

Instagram explains in a 2018 press release, " We have introduced the ability to follow hashtags, giving users new ways to stay connected with the interests, hobbies, passions, and communities they care about. With hashtag and profile links in your bio, you can express yourself and your interests right in your profile."

Prospective new followers will now have updated feeds reflecting business owner posts, old and new, along with algorithm recommendations leading to the best-related business profiles.

Hashtag profile implementation provides opportunities for business owners to:

• Receive the latest tag suggestions directly from Instagram algorithms with a much higher relevance than previous years analytics.

• Insert Hashtags directly into the business profile and posts, based on new analytics extracted from the highest probable followers for your industry.

For further assistance with integrating Instagram and other social media profiles with the latest applicable updates, gain support towards elevated social media solutions with an expert inbound marketing specialist.

How To Accurately Measure Facebook VR Ad Engagements

The rapidly growing consumer interest in virtual reality makes it critical for forward-thinking marketers to seriously consider the technology today. According to Statista, the year 2018 should see the number of virtual reality users exceed 170 million globally. However, the failure to track VR performance using proper analytics may mean that brands incorporating the technology in their social media marketing campaigns are engaging in a wild goose chase, wasting their effort, time, and budget.

So, if you're using Facebook 360 to give your audience an immersive, interactive VR experience, it's imperative that you assess whether you're achieving your marketing objectives. Here are critical ways and tools you may use to track and evaluate your VR marketing efforts:

Heat Maps

Facebook introduced heat maps to enable creators to track how their 360-degree video content is being viewed. You can use the analytics tool to see the video frames receiving the most user attention. A heat map will show the parts of your proposed solution that are most engaging, helping identify areas that require improvement. With the accurate analysis, your social media marketing team may then dedicate more efforts and content to VR aspects that most users relate to well.

Tracking the Angle of View

The primary objective of deploying 360-degree videos in Facebook marketing is to let users look all around the content. In a VR ad, for example, you want to measure the degrees viewed, and to ascertain where your audience looked. Thankfully, the heat map feature helps track a specific user's scope of vision based on factors such as the angle of elevation or vision. It is possible to use the analysis and create an improved VR experience for your audience.

User Feedback

Do not forget to find out what your audience thinks about the 360-degree videos you publish on Facebook. Engage users and ask them about their favorite experiences with your promotions. You could send them questionnaires via email or SMS and learn more about their likes and dislikes. Feedback collection is a reliable way to measure engagement and gather consumer insights. Based on the feedback, you may create effective VR experiences, accurately target potential buyers, and track return on investment.

Facebook 360-degree videos are an ideal way for advertisers to offer potential customers a more engaging and immersive experience. However, it is imperative to use VR analytics and assess the quality of the user engagement created. Contact us today to learn more about the effective deployment of such social media marketing strategies.