With the introduction of video, Instagram has become even more visually stimulating and consuming. So how do you keep up with your progressive Instagram community? No need to feel intimidated - here are 7 simple tips to boost your Instagram game!
Fans want to see what you’re selling, so take advantage of this intrigue and post a picture of that delicious special your restaurant is serving tonight, or a preview of that dress you just can’t keep on the rack. It will remind fans what you have to offer and why they want to spend money with you.
You can easily find success on Instagram by utilizing a hashtag to highlight key subjects in your photos. Hashtags like #Puppy or #Beach can bring a lot of eyes to your photo. However, it is possible to have too much of a good thing. Try and keep your hashtag count to less than 3 per post. The most effective way to choose a hashtag is to search various options and see what has the best results.
Don’t let curiosity kill the customer! Your fans want to know how your products are made, or a little known fact. Give them a taste of the action and show them a little something from behind the scenes. A shot of the kitchen, organic product shots or even just your employees working together in the conference room, the goal is to capture the moment!
Leverage the audience you’ve built on your other social networks by cross promoting your content and increasing your Instagram follower count. A great way to do this is to share your latest captivating video or best performing picture via a link on your Facebook or Twitter account. You can also incentivize fans by hosting contests and giveaways via Instagram and promoting them with your other pages.
Don’t spam your Instagram followers. 1-2 posts daily will keep you on your fans’ radars, but not overwhelm their feeds.
Engage with your audience by following your own hashtag, @replies and location tags. Also, be sure to “like” and even comment on the photos fans post. This will alert fans to your account and make them feel appreciated by your brand.
Trust us, they’re fun, easy to make and an engagement driver. The goal is to produce 15 seconds of easily digestible content. Unlike Vine, you can edit as you go and adjust the exposure as you shoot. You can even save the videos to embed later. Don’t forget: good lightening, sound, and a stabilized camera are critical!
Want to learn more about Community Management? Feel free to reach out to Cheristy at Cheristy@Socialtyze.com
This 2013 summer has been an exciting time for the Socialtyze team! We’ve had the opportunity to work on a few interesting projects that are definitely worth highlighting. Here are just a few of the Apps and Campaigns we’ve been working on:
“Best Father’s Day Film Ever”
It was a dream scenario, two clients with complementary needs. A film studio needed to activate 16 Facebook fan pages. A restaurant brand with a powerhouse page wanted some content to give their fans something fun to do.
A movie match-up of 16 titles going toe-to-toe to see which made the best Father’s Day film.
12 fans won ALL 16 titles and a $50 gift card to The Cheesecake Factory. One lucky player landed a $100 gift card and a box set of the best Warner Bros. films of the last 90 years.
BuildaJoe.com
With the movie, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, rapidly approaching its launch to DVD, our team has created a microsite (optimized for iPad and Mobile) hosting an interactive avatar builder and an exciting sweepstakes involving Hasbro.
Users can go to the website and build their own G.I. Joe Avatar with access to over 500 assets to choose from to customize their Joe. Once users complete their avatar, they can choose to do one of three things; download it to a trading card, make it into a screensaver (desktop and mobile), or enter their avatar into the sweepstakes.
Paramount has partnered with Hasbro to recreate one lucky winner’s Joe avatar into a real life figurine.
“How Southern Are You?”
Southern Living was looking for a unique way to engage their current Facebook fan base but also discover new email leads through an engaging and fun social media application. The Socialtyze team has created the "How Southern Are You?” checklist where users can check off how many “southern” things they've done, and receive custom Southern badges based on their level of completion. Afterwards, they are encouraged to share and complete the entertaining list with their friends. The app has been promoted with media and email blasts, which lead to a significant increase in awareness. We’re particularly excited about this campaign’s success with mobile audiences.
The app has generated to date 79,000 unique visitors, 35,000 email leads for the brand, and over 8,000 shares! The interesting part of these results is that over 50% of app play took place on a mobile device, with 86% of our users being female and 96% of them being 25 years and older. This demographic directly aligns with their target consumer.Curious how Socialtyze can help your next campaign? Email Garret Houts at garret@socialtyze.com or visit our website for more info!
Part 1: The Ever-Present Social-Media Measurement Question
According to eMarketer, $6.6 Billion will be spent on Facebook advertising this year and potentially hundreds of millions more on community management. Yet, the industry lacks a clear and compelling sense of how to measure Facebook marketing. Since late 2008, media departments have negotiated with Facebook vendors for the lowest “cost per fan,” and the one with cheapest rate usually wins.We all know that "cost per fan" is not the best way to measure the success of Facebook marketing but, in large part, it is widely used and hasn’t changed.So what is the answer? How do you measure the value of your Facebook marketing?Below is your 3-Step prescription:
While number of Likes has been the de facto standard, it is rather meaningless, as most fans are dormant. Even worse, fans that spread negative sentiment are also counted as a positive on the Like scale.
Progressing to the next step, there are four Facebook Insight Metrics that matter most. All of these are Page Metrics.
a) Organic Reach - The number of people that saw your post in their news feed, ticker or on your page. In large part, this is the number of your fans that saw your post.
b) Viral Reach - The number of unique people who saw your post from a story published by a friend. These stories can include liking, commenting, or sharing your post, answering a question or responding to an event. In large part, these are the friends of fans.
c) Engagement – The number of times users engage on your page, including clicks on post likes, comments, shares, as well as clicks on photos, videos, outbound links, etc.
d) Impressions – Total impressions generated by your page via your post or visits to your page.
While paid media metrics (Impressions, Reach, Engagements, and Fans) are also important to consider, the best media campaigns will positively affect the above four metrics. In essence, you can measure the strength of "the media" by watching how it affects "the page."
The smartest brands and agencies are looking at both media and page metrics and determining how one affects the other. To look at each in a silo is like running a banner campaign with the goal of driving sales but not measuring conversions. The media and the page are completely intertwined and should be treated as such.
So, what is the problem with stopping here and just looking at the media and the page to measure success? It is only half the story, and there is real value in looking deeper.
For example, much of the Engagement could be negative. In essence, a brand’s most derogatory and influential fans could be spreading negative news. If a brand uses the premise that bigger is better, it could be doing itself a great disservice.
Facebook metrics alone also fall short of providing insight on what is impacting Reach and Engagement as well as the demographic/psychographic make up of your best fans. Facebook Insights lacks detail on:
So, where does this lead us?
The next and best step in measuring Facebook Media and Pages is through the use of proprietary technology and analytical tools that tap into the Facebook API and provide:
1) An Overall Page Score that measures Page Health through a combination of Page Engagement, Influence and Sentiment rankings, i.e. unique algorithms and sentiment tools that take into account:
2) Sentiment Score as a separate metric that measures the positivity or negativity of the page.
3) Fan Groups that allow you to categorize, track and analyze Super Fans, Influencers, and Villains. Measuring total fans is useless; however, keeping track of your best fans and gaining an in depth understanding of their characteristics and behavior, with the intent of acquiring more that look just like them, is invaluable.
By using the above metrics together, you will get a much better guide on the strength and weaknesses of your pages and fans. In addition, by using the right analysts to dive into the data, you will gain tangible results that increase engagement, build better fans, and lead to sales.
In the next 12 months, there will be evolutionary advances for gaining a better grasp on how to leverage Facebook as an asset to build advocacy and results. The question is, why has it taken the ad industry this long to use good data to assess billions of dollars in spending, and why would anyone remain on the sidelines only using the "Like Scale" or even Facebook metrics as the guide to results?
This article is Part 1 of 3. Part 2 will use the above analysis in a case study, and Part 3 will look at how you can use data to generate better results.
We have entertained ourselves with movies for over a century, but within the past decade another form of entertainment has crept into our lives. Social Media is quickly becoming our favorite past time and a useful tool in analyzing movie insights and trends… So the question at hand: Can Social Media actually predict box office outcomes?This study will attempt to illustrate a connection between the volume and sentiment in the social space surrounding a film’s release and the performance the film has in theaters.
Socialtyze took a look at the top 10 box office successes as well as the bottom 10 box office failures of 2012. The success or failure of a film is measured by its gross revenue in relation to the cost of production, or more simply put, by profit or loss.Socialtyze then conducted a social listening study spanning one month pre and post the release date for each of the 20 films. Our goal is to look at the data and determine whether or not the volume and sentiment surrounding the film provides any relationship between the success or failure of the film. All numbers regarding budget and performance were determined using IMDB.com. Social Listening data was sourced from Crimson Hexagon.
Anybody who pays money for a social presence knows that volume and traffic toward your page, app or ad are critical metrics when assessing the effectiveness of your media. In this case, the amount of volume a film receives should be partially representative of its box office potential. Volume is broken down as follows:Box Office Hits ¹
Box Office Flops ³
The volume of a hit is almost 6 times that of a flop, and this is where we start to etch out the difference between a films potential to be a hit and the likelihood it will be a flop.Key Insight
The sentiment of the volume is equally as important as the volume itself. What people are saying about a film will ultimately help decide the traffic to theaters. Negativity surrounding a film may not only deter someone from seeing an upcoming film; it may also change someone’s mind who otherwise was going to see the film. For that reason, negativity is looked at as the most pertinent sentiment category. Negative sentiment is displayed below as a share of conversation.Box Office Hits
Box Office Flops
Key Insight:
While volume is a key factor in determining box office success, the real determinant is the amount of negative sentiment surrounding a film and, more importantly, the rate at which that sentiment increases. What people are actually saying about the movie and the scale at which it is being said can influence others to see the film or not.This study shows that movies with negative sentiment under 12% do very well while movies over 20% tend to struggle at the box office.How Can You Use This Information?Box Office HitsOpening day is the single highest volume day for both categories so leverage that day accordingly.
Box Office FlopsIf your movie is struggling with sentiment:
Socialtyze helps brands gain deep understanding of their fans to drive real ROI through social media. We work to create smarter data and deliver better results for top CPG & Entertainment clients. You can follow our blog at http://blog.socialtyze.com/For more information contact Socialtyze Research at Cheristy@Socialtyze.com.¹ On average a Hit Movie brought in 136% profits above budget and 78% of its entire budget within the first weekend ² Mentions are defined as any chatter on Twitter or Facebook that specifically talks about the movie. ³ A flop movie only brought in 17% of its entire budget within the first weekend. On average a Flop movie lost 55% of its budget
Every Community Manager on Facebook makes three major choices when they create a post:1. What type of post should it be? Should it be a “Fill in the Blank,” a “Quote,” or a “Fan Appreciation Post?”2. What is my tone? Is it funny, professional, or promotional?3. When is the best time to post this?Really good Community Managers will tell you that there is no hard and fast answer to these questions. However, the best approach is to match your strategy to your audience. In the same way you would never speak to your daughter or niece the same way you talk to your boss, tone/type/time choices heavily impact the response a post gets.It was our goal to give Community Managers a blue print for reaching the audience they want to reach. Facebook has recently added more opportunities to segment who sees your posts, making actionable data about your audience more important than ever. For the purpose of this study, we will be analyzing ways to reach the most valuable audience on Facebook: females.
Socialtyze took a look at 200 posts in 9 different communities in the CPG category. These groups were selected based on similar size, a consistent posting strategy, and a lack of seasonality to protect against any skews.The first step in our analysis was to create a baseline of performance for every age. So we knew exactly how 13-18-year old females responded to posts vs. 35-44-year old females. Response was defined by PTAT by audience type.After establishing our baseline, we monitored how posts with differing tone, type, and timing performed in every age group.
Your strategy can drastically change your audience; in some cases, Socialtyze saw shifts of 200%. That’s why it is imperative that brands know exactly what to share with their fans. Before launching into the best performing posts, there are a few key points that should be highlighted:
As your fans get older, the idea of the “Thank You” economy starts to become more important.
The words and tone you choose are critical for reaching the right age group on Facebook. The big takeaway is that Facebook is meant to be a fun place. Just like any good party, no one likes it when someone is trying to hand out business cards.
Were especially responsive to tone, and leaned heavily (+295%) towards funny and casual posts. Keep this in mind with your copy. They want content that comes from a voice that is familiar and relatable.
Showed more tolerance toward posts with a promotional tone – as long as it stayed casual. Funny, cheeky posts underperformed with this group, at 52% below the average. Their expectations from a brand are clearly different. They aren’t looking for entertainment so much as deals.Below are some basic rules to live by when it comes to tone:1. Talk to your young fans like a real friend. Females under 25 were more likely to respond to posts written in a conversational form. These fans were 83% more likely to respond to these posts when compared to their average performance.2. Your older fans are far more receptive to posts written in a promotional and promotional-fun tone. While 13-24 year olds were 71% less likely to engage with such posts than other posts, Females 25 and up were 9% more likely to engage.3. Activate the moms: 25-34 year olds and 35-44 year olds are more likely to respond to posts written in a promotional tone than to other posts.Females 25-34 and Females 35-44 were respectively 9% and 29% more likely to respond to promotional-fun posts than to others.
As the chart below indicates, understanding how women spend their time on Facebook will help you capture the correct audience.
Are more active in the early evenings as they settle in and are ready to socialize with their friends.
There is a dramatic shift in posting times as females move into adulthood. Once they’ve effectively transitioned their schedule from the school to workday, their Facebook exposures move with them.Primarily, what our results indicate is how much age and work schedule are reflected in Facebook usage. The higher likelihood a demo is to have a job with a 9:00-5:00 schedule, the more likely they are going to interact with Facebook during lunch breaks and early mornings.To activate this information follow the table below to best reach your desired audience at the right time.
It is Socialtyze’s hope that with this information you will be able to optimize your posting like you optimize your Facebook ad buys. Keep your audience in mind when creating your posting calendar and strategy. Know when it’s the best time to reach them and how they want to be reached.
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