A Message from our Head Raven, Joleen Emery:
Social media is constantly changing. New platforms are coming out and the old ones are constantly updating; it’s a lot to keep up with! That’s why we’ve created the raven round up, to stay up-to-date on the latest and greatest in everything social media advertising and marketing. This week is super Instagram-heavy. We've got a lot of news regarding stories, scheduling posts, and even video calling!
To help you sort through all this awesome information, we’ve created a ranking system from 1 - 3 ravens. The more little birdies you see, the more significant those articles will be. Want to learn more? Just click the titles for the source links!
● "Facebook Zero" is the new algorithm update that aims to show users more content from their friends and family and less from pages for a company or brand.
● Why focus on Instagram?
This platform has remarkably high engagement statistics. The wide variety of features such as hashtags allows you to extend your reach.
Instagram prioritizes building connections with brands
● What can I do?
Build your following!
We've talked about hashtags before, so we won't bore you with more details here. Quick review: Hashtags are important.
Ask people who follow you on Facebook to follow you on Instagram. You can tease Instagram exclusive offers and info to get them to follow you.
Try hosting a contest! These are super engaging and will help you bump up your follower count.
● Use Instagram to send people back to Facebook.
If you're hosting an event and have an event page on Facebook, you should promote it in your Instagram posts and even temporarily in your Instagram bio
● Stories are now an essential part of the Instagram experience and you want to make the most of every second.
● What statistics can you analyze on Instagram Stories?
Reach and Impressions
These stats will show you just how big of an audience you really have.
Reach= The number of people your story makes it to.
Impressions= How many times your story has been viewed.
The larger your brand, the less engagement you'll have on average. To counteract this, focus some time on the quality of your stories. Try using geotags, hashtags, and feature your followers from time-to-time.
● Story Features
You can use geotags and hashtags to get featured in the story for these tags.
● Taps Back, Forward, and Exit Rate
Look at the number of taps forward to figure out what people wanted to see and what they just tapped through.
Taps backward indicate that someone liked your story enough to go back and rewatch it.
Exit rate is the number of people who stopped watching your story before it was finished. To combat premature exits, try telling a coherent sequence of stories rather than individual stories. Add different elements to make your story more interactive.
● Newest stories features are now available.
You can now use Hootsuite to schedule your Instagram posts directly.
Create stories without an existing image or video.
Post stories in a variety of sizes and formats, just pinch and stretch a picture to fit the screen!
● What else is in the works?
Cinemagraph
This feature is currently being tested. It allow people to post an image where a portion of the image is actually in motion.
Portrait Shutters for Stories
This feature is being tested under the name "Focus" and is essentially like a portrait mode for Instagram that would blur out the background and focus in on the subject.
● Voice and Video Calling
This feature has yet to be announced or released, but Tech Crunch found coding for it within Instagram.
This would allow voice and video messaging over direct message channels. This could be a useful way to provide better and more thorough customer service.
● One of these tools would allow advertisers to connect for branded content opportunities on Facebook. Creators set up a portfolio and then advertisers can search for the creator that best matches their brand needs and campaigns.
● This opens up potential revenue streams through reward video ads and in-app purchases.
● Instant Game developers will be able to build ad campaigns to try and get more players from Facebook.