10 Tips for Instagram Success

If you’re finding Instagram a hard social channel to get into, here are my 10 tips for Instagram Success.

Tip 1 – Post Regularly

A regular posting schedule, between 2 – 3 posts a day is the optimal number of posts to boost your reach and get your content seen on Instagram.

Tip 2 – Post during peak times

Posting at the times when your audience is online is key. This will ensure that your content is served up while your audience is online, instead of your post getting lost.

Tip 4 – Instagram Stories is your friend

Instagram Stories is getting bigger and bigger. Did you know there are some accounts that just do Instagram stories? Make sure you’re posting on both Instagram itself and stories daily. And yes, your 3 posts a day can be one story and two posts…

Tip 5 – Be Social

It sounds like a strange one doesn’t it. But it’s not. Instagram is a social network, so the more you are on it, socializing, the better. For more information on how to be social on Instagram for your business, read my blog – Being Social on Instagram is good for Business.

Tip 6 – Mix it up

Post a variety of content, ranging from product/service posts, personal posts, meme type posts, etc. depending on your audience, to ensure you’re keeping your audience interested and they don’t feel like they’re seeing the same thing from you all the time.

Tip 7 – Clean out your friends’ list

I touch on this on another blog, but a regular clean out of who you’re following is good. It show’s Instagram that you’re engaged with the platform. A regular clean out it a good thing.

Tip 8 – Hashtags

Hashtags are your BFF when it comes to Instagram. Not only should you use Hashtags for your posts, but following Hashtags that are relevant to your industry and your audience is a great way to keep in touch. Follow Hashtags that are relevant to you, or that your ideal audience use and like and comment on posts that come up in your feed.

To find out more on how Hashtags can work for you on Instagram, read my blog – Why are Hashtags so important on Instagram.

Tip 9 – Reply to every Comment

Like and reply to every comment you receive on a post. This show’s Instagram that you’re interacting with the people who are interacting with you and improves your reach. Posts that are commented on (and replied to) within minutes of posting get better reach.

Tip 10 – Be genuine

No one likes a fake account or one that’s constantly selling to them. Be genuine, show some personality and enjoy the social side of the social network.

Home

October 2, 2018October 2, 2018

Why are Hashtags so Important on Instagram?

And how to make the most of Hashtags for your brand!

If you’re new to Instagram or are just getting into Instagram for business, then you might be wondering what the fuss is all about when it comes to Hashtags.

Unlike Facebook, Instagram allows you an opportunity to get into the feed of people who don’t follow you by using Hashtags.

Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags per post so you can reach more people. But how do you make the most of Hashtags? Here are a few simple tips to get started.

Where to put them

There is a forever changing debate about the best spot to place your Hashtags. The general placement is either in the post itself or in the first comment (or a mixture of both, with 3 hashtags in the post and the rest in the comment).

There’s no one way that works and it may be a trial and error with your audience, but it also depends on the scheduling tool you use to what you can do. I personally post one or two hashtags in the post, then put the rest in the first comment.

What type of Hashtags should I use?

This is the age-old question. What type of hashtags should you use? It really depends on your type of account, your ideal market, and your location.

Look for Hashtags that are relevant to your industry, your ideal audience, and your location. Using a mixture of all three is the most effective method for reaching your ideal audience.

It’s ideal to have a mix of hashtags of varying popularity, you should pick hashtags that range from a few thousand to a few 100 thousand.

Avoid using hashtags in the millions, unless you’re a larger account.

What Hashtags to avoid

Keep away from Hashtags that are single words like #happiness and #coffee these types of one word hashtags tend to attract a lot of fake followers and accounts that use bots to gain followers, which are best to avoid.

Although Instagram came out and declared once and for all that shadowbanning wasn’t a ‘thing’, there are still Hashtags out there that you should avoid. Don’t use hashtags that have been hidden from the Instagram Community.

Hashtags are regularly reported by Instagram users for inappropriate content and will be hidden by Instagram. Instagram will alert you when the Hashtag you’re viewing is restricted, by displaying a message like this one when you look at the recent tab for that particular Hashtag.

The list of banned Hashtag is forever changing, so it’s best to regularly check by searching each hashtag directly within Instagram.

Mix it up

It’s a good idea to use a variety of hashtags and mix it up. Don’t use the same 30 hashtags for each post.

The reason? It shows Instagram that you’re putting thought into your posts and you’re being social. Instagram is a social network after all.

Have a handful of hashtags that relate directly to your product/brand, then create a Hashtag bank.

A Hashtag bank is a selection of hashtags you can use for particular types of posts so you have a selection of Hashtags ready to go for each type of post. This will help you to use a variety of Hashtags which will keep Instagram happy.

Make sure you’re regularly keeping an eye out for new hashtags that are up and coming or relate to your industry, to ensure you’re using the most relevant hashtags for your industry or your ideal audience. There are alway’s up and coming new Hashtags or trends in hashtags, so regularly research new ones.

Connect with Others

Hashtags are also a great tool to reach out and keep in touch with your ideal audience but commenting on other posts using Hashtags. To read more on this head over to my blog: Being Social on Instagram is good for Business.

Hashtags are a great way to help you get yourself and your brand out and seen on Instagram. Instagram is a fabulous social network, so Hashtags alone aren’t the only answer, being social is a big key to Instagram success.

For more tips on how to make the most of Instagram for your business, read my blog: 10 Tips to Instagram Success.

Home

July 12, 2018July 12, 2018

What’s Your Brand?

Seems like a strange question right? What’s your brand?

My brand is all about being: Kind; friendly, approachable, understanding, helpful, committed, hard working, dependable.

These are mine and my businesses core values. What’s yours?

How do you show your core values to others?

The best way I show my core values is through my branding and my actions.

It’s how I communicate, how I present myself, how I share information and how I talk to others, in person, on the phone, in emails and on social media.

You are representing your brand in everything you do online and in your socials, your replies to comments on social media, they way you conduct yourself in your stories, your replies to reviews on your products, the way you speak to others in Facebook groups, it’s all a reflection on your brand.

So before you reply to that review, rant on your stories, speak negatively to someone else in a Facebook group, talk to others about a negative experience, ask yourself first;

“Is this on brand”

“is this response representing my brand and how I want to be seen?”

If the answer is no, then write it, read it back, get it off your chest, then delete it.

Because that one negative comment, one ranting email, one frustrated story, one rude comment on social media, can be seen by anyone, anywhere and they won’t get the message that you’ve been trying to portray in your branding, they’ll see something completely different.

So Stop. Think. Act.

And always stay on brand.

What’s your brand?

Home

June 29, 2018July 12, 2018

Why doesn’t Facebook like my Ad Image?

So you’ve created your first Facebook ad, or your a few ads in but you’re wondering, Why doesn’t Facebook like my Ad Image?

Facebook collects data from all the ads run every day across there platform and have access to a large amount of information about what ads are most successful.
From this, Facebook has determined that ads with images which contain little copy, also know as text overlay, perform better.

Because of this, Facebook judges your images by the amount of text they contain for your ads and will rank the ad porly if it has too much text.

Facebook does this because it want’s your ads to be a success, but how much text is too much?

Tools to help you

Facebook understands that it’s hard to figure out if your image is going to pass the 20% rule, so it has created a Text Overlay tool you can use to check your image before you upload it to Facebook in your ad campaign.

Here is a link to Facebook’s Text Overlay tool so you can try it yourself: https://www.facebook.com/ads/tools/text_overlay

Also, here are a few examples of what Facebook sees to be ok, a little too much text and way too much text.

Image Text OK

Your ad will run normally.

Image Text Low

Your ad’s reach may be slightly lower.

Image Text Medium

Your ad’s reach may be much lower.

Image Text High

Your ad may not run.

Need help?

If you are having trouble with your Facebook Advertising or need assistance creating stand out images for your ads, get in touch, I’d love to help you create captivating, appealing and clickable Facebook ads for your business.

Home

June 14, 2018July 12, 2018

7 Top Tips for Advertising on Facebook

Here are a few quick tips to help you get your Facebook advertising going from a flop to a raging success:

Tip 1 Install Facebook Pixel on your website

Facebook’s Pixel tool is an essential part of advertising on Facebook. It allows you to deep dive into the type of people who are visiting your website and purchasing your products.

It then allows you to re-target the people who have been on your site and haven’t made a purchase. You can also use your Facebook Pixel to create a lookalike audience based on the people who have visited your website.

Tip 2 Get to know your Google Analytics

Now I know what you’re thinking “but we’re talking about advertising on Facebook”.

Facebook is only one piece of your marketing funnel. To effectively market to your audience, you need to understand where all your website visitors are coming from and their demographics also.

Tip 3 Understand your ideal audience

When you keep your audience in Facebook Advertising broad, you’ll have two possible outcomes: you’ll be less likely to find your tribe, or you’ll find them but it will cost you a lot to do so.

The reason for this is that everyone is different, and although your target market may be Women between the ages of 25-45, this is still a really broad category.

Getting to know both your ideal audience and the people who are already visiting your website, is the key to narrowing down on your target market for advertising on Facebook, which will get you better results or a better price.

Tip 4 Don’t be afraid to try a few things

Everyone is different and what appeals to one person, may not appeal to others. So, it’s always best to split-test your ads so that you can see what appeals to your audience. You can split test the copy, images etc.

Tip 5 When you have a campaign running which is generating traffic to your website, make sure you have a re-targeting campaign in place

Why? Because if it’s the first time someone has seen your business, they aren’t likely to purchase from you on the first visit to your website.

Having a re-targeting campaign so that they see you again in their news feed, gives them another opportunity to see your business and get to know you before making that purchase.

Tip 6 Have goals set up so you can track the effectiveness of your campaign

It’s one thing to have an add that is generating click through’s to your website, but it’s a completely different thing to have an ad that’s also converting into sales.

When you set up event tracking, you can effectively track not only the click through’s, but the conversions from your campaigns also.

Sometimes an ad with low click throughs might be generating more sales, so it’s always best to monitor both.

Tip 7 When in doubt, hire a Facebook Advertising professional

Facebook advertising can be tricky. If you’ve tried the above tricks and just can’t seem to get the results you think you should be, then it might be time to either do a course in Facebook Advertising or hire a Facebook Advertising professional.

A professional should run an audit of your existing socials and analytics, provide you with recommendations, set up audiences for you to use and run a campaign for you, providing you with a report at the conclusion of the campaign.

When searching for an advertising professional, make sure you ask them their results, ask them to see ads they’ve run in the past for clients, and even ask for testimonials from past or current clients.

Home