5 Tips to Kickstart Your Social Media
Does social media often feel confusing and hard to understand? If you said yes, we agree!! That’s why we sat down with our AMAZING Creative Director, Katie Bergmann, to help us understand how to effectively use social media to market your brand! She came up with 5 awesome tips to help you take your social media to the next level!
1. USE FACEBOOK GROUPS
Facebook is coming out with a new algorithm very soon that is transitioning the site to a more friends/family focus, instead of business. That means, if you currently have a Facebook page for your business, it will soon be nearly obsolete. However, there is another way!
Transition your Facebook page to a Facebook group. Groups don’t have the algorithm, so members are free to post whatever without fear of it not being seen. Groups are a great way for passionate people to easily engage with each other.
2. USE VIDEOS
Videos and live streaming are becoming more and more popular already, and it is because Facebook is giving them priority. If you use videos, your content will be seen by more people! People are used to seeing “unprofessional” videos (videos shot from smart phones) so it’s totally ok to use them here!
3. ENGAGEMENT IS EVERYTHING
Engagement is huge with the new Instagram algorithm. Within the first hour that you post, only 6% of your followers see the content. If it performs well within that first hour, it will be sent out to the rest of the Instagram world! They want real, intentional people to be commenting, liking, and sharing. They are trying to get rid of all the bots and spam.
Katie recommends spending 1 hour per day going and commenting on and liking other posts (the hour right after you post is a great time to do this.) Engagement on other people’s posts is even more important than people engaging on your posts. Try to find something that you genuinely like about the post, and comment that. Keep your comments to four words or more or else you will be considered spam. A good start is to comment on 3 new accounts, and like 50 photos in a day.
Try to post at least 5 times per week. This keeps people engaged with your page and expecting to see new content every day. Consistency is key!
4. USE HASHTAGS
Hashtags are incredibly popular on Instagram because you can now search and follow different hashtags. However, be careful what you are hashtagging because hashtagging the wrong thing could get you shadowbanned. Instagram allows 30 hashtags, and Katie recommends using all of them! She says a good rule of thumb is to have the first 10 be content specific, so related to the post. The next 10 should be business specific, so hashtags that you use on every post to market your brand. The last 10 hashtags should be vague, so that you will show up in searches. Don’t use all vague hashtags, though, or else your post will get lost.
Always put your hashtags in the caption, not the comments. They will not show up in searches if they are in the comments, only the caption.
Do not edit your captions!! If you edit, even once, it will not be sent out to your followers. It will have an immediate block on it. We don’t know why or how this happens, it just does!
5. USE INSTAGRAM STORIES AND VIDEOS
Like Facebook, Instagram is prioritizing videos and stories. Instagram Stories are the biggest marketing trend right now. Did you know that they were the #1 place that people watched the Olympics!? That’s crazy! If you post to your story, it will intrigue people to go check out your page. Again, engagement is everything!
Katie likes to alternate between pictures, videos, and boomerangs to keep viewers interested! Mixing it up creates excitement. Katie likes to keep her Instagram feed cohesive and professional, and then post fun, behind-the-scenes stuff on her story to connect with her followers!
So, we just have you a TON of information! Digesting all of that can be difficult, but here are five key takeaways:
Be intentional: caring about what you are doing and commenting thoughtful comments will cause your engagement to grow!
Use Instagram like it’s your job: take that hour every day to make sure you are engaging with people. In some cases, Instagram IS your job, but even if it’s not, acting like it is will cause you to have social media success!
Embrace the algorithm: some people try to beat the algorithm, but if you embrace it and do what it’s asking, you will increase social media following!
Social media is not life: what if all social media platforms shut down tomorrow? This is a real possibility. Make sure you are using it what’s it meant for: a tool. You don’t want to have your entire business plan based on social media because it could be gone in a second!
Always, always, always have fun! Social media started out as a way to have fun, and we try to keep it that way! Sure, a lot of people promote their brand or business using social media, but do that while having a darn good time!
We hope you enjoyed these tips and tricks! For more awesome social media tips, check out our Instagram!
-Tyler and Kelley