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.

Three Tips For Strategic Social Media Advertising

The use of fresh and informative content is an approach that most entrepreneurs use to capture target clients online. Unfortunately, this strategy may not help businesses achieve much at the moment. That explains the reason for the current shift towards social media advertising. Also, visibility is a critical requirement for successful online marketing, and that makes social media a viable option.

As a result, the investment cost of social media advertising is rising gradually, and you may not see the results immediately. For that reason, you need a strategic plan to achieve success through social media and here are some of the tips you can use.

Establish Your Objectives Opting to use social media advertisements without an idea of what you wish to achieve in the end is a waste of both time and money. Therefore, it is important to set specific goals before you embark on the campaign. That will help focus on the intended purpose of this marketing approach even as you monitor your progress over time.

Also, you do not need to be an expert in social media advertising. However, you have to get your priorities right. The reason is that your business has unique objectives, which you should capture to succeed. So, establish clear goals before embarking on the campaign.

Select The Social Platform Carefully There are several social media platforms to choose from, and you need to understand that each of them has multiple advantages over the other. Hence, the platform you opt for should be in line with the reasons for promoting your campaigns there.

Some of the aspects to consider are the frequency of target audience engagements on the social site, the demographics of the channel in comparison to your brand, the format of your advertisement and how it suits the platform, among others.

Blend Organic Content Seamlessly Most social media users are not willing to engage with brands that send them promotional content from time to time. On the other hand, your social media advertisements should not focus on capturing the attention of target clients and drive them to make immediate decisions every time.

Take Advantage Of The New Facebook Algorithms

In spite of recent announcements regarding Facebook algorithm changes and security concerns, your business pages, and social media content can experience tremendous profits right now.

The new modifications in social media ads mean your potential consumers and followers will see more relevant ads, placing you in the front of their news feeds.

There are strategies that may help ease these Facebook transitions, allowing your business to continue in the benefit of a successful social media presence.

Leverage Facebook Advertisements

New algorithm changes have made a positive impact on ad targeting abilities on Facebook. The power to promote content will give you the best advantage when paired with lead generation and website visit ads.

Your potential clients will now receive an advanced filter of relevant ads stemming from the campaigns you launch with the new algorithm processes. Since third-party app settings have launched for all Facebook users, your consumers can feel more confident about certain data that may be collected as well.

Combine Marketing Strategies

Modify your approach towards marketing your brand or services. Focus on the available resources that enable you to deliver the content and message you generally provide to the public.

Instead of separating your social media, email, blog, website, and video marketing strategies, concentrate on one combined strategy.

Drive Traffic to Owned Properties

Create a platform in which you have full control. Reconsider your websites and email lists. Establish your business website as the main designation online. You can remain in control of your content and subscribers in the event of further social media regulation changes occur.

Focus on Quality

Focus on quality over quantity. Maximize the engagement of social media visitors and the ability to reach new consumers. Assess the quality of content that is displayed on your websites, keeping topics positive while offering valuable solutions to readers who are searching keywords and phrases online.

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.         

How To Create A Winning Social Media Marketing Strategy In 2018

Today, most millennials interact with various brands on social media at least once a month, and that is why many businesses have a presence on different social platforms. Your presence on social media is a step in the right direction, but it will take more than that to succeed in 2018. Going an extra mile to invest in effective social media marketing strategies and focusing on engagement are some of the aspects you will need to consider adopting.

Failure to invest in the right marketing strategy may cause your business to lose valuable clients. Here are three steps to creating a winning social media marketing strategy for this year.

Create Goals The first step towards establishing a strategy begins with identifying what you want to achieve in the end. Therefore, as you seek to create a social media marketing strategy, you need to come up with specific goals that will help you address your most significant challenges. Setting attainable goals, in this case, is very important because it will help you stick to the original plan even when circumstances change.

That way you are capable of taking on new challenges as you overcome old milestones. Also, opt for marketing channels that will help you attain your goals in the best way possible and do not complicate your strategy with numerous targets and objectives. Simplicity will yield better results. It is wise to document your goals as well because it increases the possibility of attaining them.

Research Your Social Media Audience Before you opt for a particular social media marketing channel, you need to establish the level of engagement of your target audience in each of the options available. Some of the things to focus on include the income level of your return clients, those who buy from you and the age group that is proving difficult to engage.

You can also use the social media dashboard, which provides an overview of your followers and their interaction with your brand on each marketing channel.

Identify Your Critical Metrics Monitoring the number of followers and likes on social platforms form part of the social media metrics that are important for your marketing strategy. However, information from both parameters may not tell you everything you need to know about your brand. Therefore, analyzing other metrics to get the whole story including reach, hashtag performance, clicks and live as well as paid likes is necessary.

If you need more information on steps to creating a winning social media marketing strategy,