In an era where there?s plenty of ways to get seen and heard online, sometimes it can all get a little? confusing. To tweet or not to tweet? Does anyone Instagram on the ?grid? anymore or is it all about the stories? And what on earth is Facebook up to?
It?s ok, we?ve got you. Here?s our snappy guide to getting social in 2018 across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter…
How could we not dedicate our top spot to the fastest growing social channel in THE WORLD?! Instagram is evolving at a pace that makes even the most top-notch social manager cling on to their keyboard in fear. But fear not as it?s also a channel that can do great things for your biz. Let?s break it down. First things first, if you?re thinking about using Instagram to post sponsored stories, then make sure you add the ?Business Profile? option in the settings. You?ll then need to link it to a Facebook business profile (stay with us) to make the most of their audience targeting which is pretty darn nifty at filtering out the people you want to see your posts.
We?d advise doing a mix of Instagram posts for brand awareness, but make sure that if you want to refer readers to a link you?ll need to change it in the bio and direct them to this as there?s no linking in posts (booo).
Instagram stories have overtaken the traditional ?grid? format with over 300 million users per day! That?s a huge amount of potential eyes on your brand. Brands with over 10k followers can take advantage of the ?swipe up? linking function on stories, which works very well for influencers peddling sponsored brands. Like Facebook, the Instagram algorithm keeps a beady eye on the engagement your posts are getting via likes, comments etc. so try to keep readers on your post as long as possible by adding more text and using multiple images to encourage a good old scroll.
After that meaty read, you?re probably wondering whether Facebook?s days are numbered due to its shiny pal, Instagram taking the glory. Not so fast, as with Facebook, it’s all about choosing your audience. Did you know that the fastest growing demographic of Facebook users are 65+, whereas the majority of Instagram users are below 30? (Target Internet).
That changes things, especially as the targeted post advertising options are so vast you can literally navigate a needle straight into haystack that is the billion+ users of Facebook and choose the audience you wish to target. Want to promote your restaurant venue for birthdays? Simply target people within say, a ten-mile radius of your venue who have an interest in food and have a birthday coming up in the next month using the ‘life events’ function.
Image via Wordstream
But what about Facebook stories you ask? Well, it doesn?t seem to have taken off too well is the short answer. Mashable reported in 2017, ?no one’s using “Stories,” the Snapchat clone that sits on top of your News Feed on the mobile app. Facebook wants this to be the place where you “show friends what you’re up to,” but it’s amounting to bupkis, a worthless void taking up a prime slice of the internet’s most important real estate.? Ouch. We?ll be keeping an eye on it, but for now, Instagram takes the crown for videos and snippets due to the proven engagement.
Ever stared into the face of the abyss Twitter and wondered what on earth to write in those 280 little characters? That?s right, Twitter doubled the character count in 2017, to a mixed response from users. Some revelled in the freedom of their extra 140 characters whilst others lamented the step towards long-winded social captions. The key to Twitter is to realise exactly who you are speaking to. We all know it?s the place to go for world leaders, cutting-edge news and Katy Perry updates, but did you know that The average Twitter user follows five businesses? (Brandwatch Dec 2017). It?s the best place to be for customer service chat, seeing as Brandwatch found;
77% of Twitter users feel more positive about a brand when their Tweet has been replied to.
Good news for nipping complaints in the bud and turning things around publically. It?s also a great opportunity to talk to peers and create networks across the world in your industry by utilising hashtags. It?s certainly not for everyone, but we?d suggest thinking about whether your audience is on Twitter and if they are, perhaps you should be too.
Fancy giving your social a boost? We?d love to help. Get in contact.
