The European Union has formally announced it suspects X, previously known as Twitter, of breaching its rules in areas including countering illegal content and disinformation.

Digital commissioner Thierry Breton set out the alleged infringements in a post on the social media platform.

He said X, which is owned by Elon Musk, was also suspected of breaching its obligations on transparency.

X said it was “co-operating with the regulatory process”.

In a statement the firm said it was “important that this process remains free of political influence and follows the law”.

“X is focused on creating a safe and inclusive environment for all users on our platform, while protecting freedom of expression, and we will continue to work tirelessly towards this goal,” it added.

In October the EU said it was investigating X over the possible spread of terrorist and violent content, and hate speech, after Hamas’ attack on Israel.

X said then that it had removed hundreds of Hamas-affiliated accounts from the platform.

The investigation was the first under the EU’s new tech rules.

Under a piece of legislation introduced in August, the Digital Services Act (DSA), big tech firms operating in the EU have beefed up obligations to protect users.

Breaches can result in huge fines or services being suspended.

Read more:
EU takes action against Elon Musk’s X over disinformation

Elon Musk’s X has reinstated the accounts of far-Right influencers Katie Hopkins and Tommy Robinson, reversing lifetime bans on the pair imposed by the social network’s previous ownership.

Ms Hopkins and Mr Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, were reinstated after Mr Musk responded to a tweet which pointed that out they remained banned from the platform.

Mr Musk on Sunday said: “Why are their account handles on this platform? Free speech is allowed, provided laws are not broken.”

The decision comes days after Twitter chief Linda Yaccarino held meetings with advertising executives in London in an effort to lure them back to the platform. Companies have pulled advertising from Twitter over concerns about a roll-back of moderation policies and amid nervousness about Mr Musk’s mercurial management style.

Ms Hopkins was permanently suspended in 2020 for what Twitter said was a violation of its hateful conduct policy.

She previously posted claims that a photo showing the body of a Syrian child on a Turkish beach was staged and also tweeted “we need a final solution” after the Manchester bombings.

She left the radio station LBC shortly after the latter post in 2017 and also parted ways with Mail Online soon after.

Twitter did not say which posts triggered her ban.

Mr Robinson was banned from the platform in 2018 after tweeting “Islam promotes killing people”.

Mr Musk, who has described himself as a “free speech absolutist”, has reinstated many controversial accounts since buying Twitter for $44bn (£36bn) a year ago.

That includes Donald Trump, who had been permanently suspended after the US Capitol riots in January 2021, and the rapper Kanye West, who was suspended for antisemitic posts.

In response to a post which celebrated Ms Hopkins’ reinstatement and blamed her original ban on pressure from campaign group the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), Mr Musk tweeted “CCDH is an evil propaganda machine”.

Mr Musk has a long-running feud with the CCDH and Twitter, now called X, has sued the organisation over claims it embarked on a “scare campaign” to deter advertisers.

After her ban was lifted, Ms Hopkins tweeted: “Thank you @elonmusk. And thank you to all the Twitter family who have brought Tommy & I back to @X. Know this. You are not alone. We are many. And we are stronger together. The fight back for your freedom is on.”

Mr Robinson tweeted: “I am grateful to @elonmusk for giving me my voice back at such an important time. I’ve been censored, attacked, slandered & imprisoned for shining a light on uncomfortable truths that our government wish to hide, the public are now aware I was telling the truth. We have lots to do.”

Mr Robinson was jailed in 2019 after being found in contempt of court for livestreaming footage of defendants in a criminal trial despite a reporting ban.

Read more:
Elon Musk reinstates Katie Hopkins and Tommy Robinson to his social platform X

Elon Musk has suggested that all users of X, formerly called Twitter, may have to pay for access to the platform.

In a conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the billionaire said a payment system was the only way to counter bots.

“We’re moving to having a small monthly payment for use of the system,” the Tesla and SpaceX boss said.

It is unclear whether this was just an off-the-cuff comment, or a signal of firmer plans that have yet to be announced.

Mr Musk has long said that his solution for getting rid of bots and fake accounts on the social media platform is charging for verification.

Since taking over Twitter last year he has looked to incentivise users to pay for an enhanced service, which is now called X Premium.

This has been done by giving paid subscribers more features, like longer posts and increased visibility on the platform.

However, users can currently still use X for free.

Although there is a clear financial interest for the company to charge users, Mr Musk insisted that getting people to pay for the service is aimed at tackling bots.

“A bot costs a fraction of a penny” to make he said. “But if somebody even has to pay a few dollars or something, some minor amount, the effective cost to bots is very high”.

X Premium currently costs $8 (£6.50) a month in the US. The price differs depending on which country a subscriber is in.

The world’s richest person said that he was now looking at cheaper options for users.

“We’re actually going to come up with a lower tier pricing. So we just want it to be just a small amount of money,” he said.

“This is a longer discussion, but in my view, this is actually the only defence against vast armies of bots,” Mr Musk added.

However, a risk is that by putting X behind a paywall it may lose a large chunk of its users. That in turn, could drive down advertising revenue, which currently accounts for the vast majority of the company’s income.

Mr Musk’s conversation with the Israeli prime minister also touched on antisemitism on X.

The platform has been accused by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) campaign group of not doing enough to stop antisemitic content.

In a statement, the organisation said that Mr Musk was “engaging with and elevating” antisemites.

Earlier this month, he said that the company would sue the ADL to “clear our platform’s name”.

In the conversation with Mr Netanyahu, Mr Musk reiterated that he was “against antisemitism”.

Mr Netanyahu accepted the balance between free speech and content moderation was a challenge but urged Mr Musk to get the balance right.

“I hope you find within the confines of the First Amendment, the ability to stop not only antisemitism… but any collective hatred of people that antisemitism represents,” he said.

“I know you’re committed to that”, Mr Netanyahu added.

Read more:
Elon Musk suggests social media platform X could go behind paywall

Business owners are being urged to wait and see before signing up to the new social network Threads in case they get tangled up in pursuing a strategy that does nothing to serve their interests.

UK marketing agency JDR Group, based in Derby, says companies could lose precious time and derail their sales campaigns if they succumb to the lure of Meta’s latest online platform without proper planning.

Threads has caused a worldwide sensation since its launch as a rival to micro-messaging platform Twitter, with 150 million new users having already signed up.

Among a flurry of headlines, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s direct competitor to billionaire Elon Musk’s Twitter had many people announcing they were abandoning Twitter in favour of Threads, leading digital experts to speculate over whether the famous blue bird’s days were numbered.

But Will Williamson, a director at JDR Group, which looks after the online marketing for hundreds of companies across the country, says firms who currently rely on established social networks should resist the temptation to join the stampede – for now.

Threads definitely has potential, he adds, and there are benefits to get on board early, not least because it is easiest to build followers and get engagement in the early days before the site’s algorithm start to prioritise adverts.

But equally there is the danger that it may not be compatible with their business needs or is not likely to be used by their potential customers.

And experts – including Meta with its failed Horizons World VR project – have been wrong about the next best thing before and it might be that the latest online sensation won’t come from America at all, but from China, with a new app from the makers of TikTok called Lemon8 waiting in the wings and steadily growing its own new following.

Will said: “There is always a sense of panic every time a new social media platform launches with everyone wondering if they should get involved and what might happen to their business if they were to miss out.

“There’s no doubt Threads has made a huge impact and has vast potential. However, we all remember other social media platforms which arrived in a burst of publicity but which never fulfilled their promise, including Google Plus, which plenty of people thought would be the next big thing.

“I understand companies wanting to seek any advantage that might be gained, but our advice is that they should be cautious and do their research before getting involved.

“Social media takes time and investment and every minute and pound you spend on it is precious and so we wouldn’t advise opening an account on Threads until there is certainty about whether it’s right for your business.”

Social media has become one of the main marketing tools for businesses over the years and there are now plenty of ways in which companies can harness the power of social media in order to grow their brands.

Will added: “The huge success of Meta and TikTok may well mean that Threads and Lemon8 have potential to become really important, however I think the days of huge subscriber numbers are over because platforms are becoming more specialised and serving distinct niches.

“From having three or four giant social media platforms 10 years ago, I would say there are now 50 available, 20 of which we are actively aware of and with new ones coming along all the time.

“It means that companies need to understand who their customers are and find the social media platform that is meeting their needs the best. As ever with anything that’s new, it’s always wise to seek advice and hold off doing anything drastic.”

Read more:
SMEs told to think ahead before tying up with social media platform Threads

Meta’s Twitter rival, Threads, logged five million sign-ups in its first four hours of operation, according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, as the company seeks to woo users from Elon Musk’s troubled platform through an offer of lengthier posts, a handful of celebrity backers – and a strong resemblance to its competitor.

The Facebook and Instagram owner brought forward the app’s debut by 15 hours to 7pm EDT in the US and midnight in the UK, making it freely available in 100 countries on the Apple and Google app stores, although regulatory concerns mean it will not be available in the EU.

Brands such as Billboard, HBO, NPR and Netflix, and even us here at Business Matters had accounts set up within minutes of launch. Meta said initial celebrity backers included Shakira and Gordon Ramsay, with a recent report suggesting that Oprah Winfrey and the Dalai Lama had also been approached.

Thread users will need an Instagram account to log in. Once they have signed up, they can choose to follow the same accounts they follow on Instagram, if they too have joined the new app.

The app closely resembles Twitter visually, although some of the wording has been changed, with retweets called “reposts” and tweets called “threads”. Meta has not been averse to copying rival products in the past, including the 2020 launch of Instagram’s Reels feature, noted for its similarity to TikTok’s short-form videos.

Posts on Threads can be 500 characters long, compared with 280 for most Twitter users, and videos of up to five minutes in length can be posted while a post can be shared as a link on other platforms. Users can unfollow, block, restrict or report others. Users can also filter out replies with certain words in them.

Meta has launched Threads in the wake of another turbulent period at Twitter, which imposed tweet viewing limits at the weekend in a move it blamed partly on data harvesting by companies building artificial intelligence models.

In subsequent Threads posts, Zuckerberg addressed those challenges. “I think there should be a public conversations app with 1 billion+ people on it. Twitter has had the opportunity to do this but hasn’t nailed it. Hopefully we will,” he wrote.

Reaction to the debut on Wednesday ranged from caution to enthusiasm, many praising its ease of use and some saying that Elon Musk should be worried. Others pointed out the app’s speedy integration with Instagram showed just how powerful Meta has become. Much of the conversation, ironically, took place on Twitter, where the hashtag “Threads” was trending on Wednesday evening.

News of Zuckerberg’s impending unveiling of Threads had resulted in the Facebook founder and Musk apparently agreeing to a cage fight over the matter, although a date has not been set for the unlikely confrontation.

Meta described Threads as a “new, separate space for real-time updates and public conversations”, aiming to “take what Instagram does best and expand that to text, creating a positive and creative space to express your ideas”. Twitter has a user base of more than 250 million, while Instagram reportedly has 2 billion users.

Meta said the app would also resemble Twitter’s rivals such as Mastodon, which is based on a decentralised platform that would allow accounts to be transferred to other services. It said: “We are working toward making Threads compatible with the open, interoperable social networks that we believe can shape the future of the internet.”

Meta said it was planning to make Threads compatible with ActivityPub, technology that also underpins Mastodon and allows social networks to be interoperable, which would let users of Threads take their accounts and followers to other ActivityPub-supported apps.

Meta said users could stop using the Threads app and transfer their content to another service that uses the same underlying technology – such as Mastodon. “Our vision is that people using compatible apps will be able to follow and interact with people on Threads without having a Threads account, and vice versa, ushering in a new era of diverse and interconnected networks.” As with Mastodon, Meta envisages mini-communities forming with their own community standards and moderation policies.

Currently, the main feed is a mixture of content that users follow, as well as content recommended from the algorithm. There are currently no plans to allow people to limit that to only people they follow. People will keep their usernames from Instagram, reducing the possibility of people name-squatting high profile usernames.

Mindful of criticism from politicians and campaigners over the safety of children on its platform, Meta is defaulting every UK Threads user under 18 to a private profile that can only be viewed by people the user approves.

Mike Proulx, research director at the analysis firm Forrester, said Threads was “yet another” copycat move but had been launched at a time of “peak Twitter frustration”, although the marketplace for rivalling Twitter was already flooded with alternatives such as Hive, Bluesky and Mastodon. “This only serves to fracture the Twitter alternative-seeking user base,” he said.

Read more:
Instagram owner’s Twitter rival, Threads, logs 5 million users in first hours

Twitter CEO Elon Musk said on Saturday that the social media platform will allow media publishers to charge users on a per-article basis with one click, calling it a win for both the public and media organisations.

The feature, to be rolled out in May, will enable users who do not “sign up for a monthly subscription to pay a higher per article price for when they want to read an occasional article”, billionaire owner Musk tweeted.

On Friday, Musk had said that Twitter will take a 10% cut on content subscriptions after the first year, noting that the company will not take a cut for the first 12 months. These subscriptions include long-form text and hours-long video.

Since taking over the social media firm in October, Musk has been bringing in changes to try to boost revenue at Twitter after the social media platform saw advertising income drop last year in the run-up to his on-again-off-again acquisition that closed.

Under Musk’s ownership Twitter has reduced its workforce from 7,500 people to about 1,500, leading to fears that moderation standards and its ability to comply with upcoming European standards would suffer as a consequence.

Twitter has been repeatedly warned that it is not ready for a new European Union regulatory regime for monitoring digital platforms, with breaches risking a fine of 6% of global turnover and, in the most extreme cases, a temporary suspension of the service.

Under the rules for large platforms, they must carry out annual risk assessments outlining the risks of harmful content such as disinformation, misogyny, harms to children and election manipulation. The moderation systems and measures put in place to mitigate those risks will also be checked by the EU.

Platforms will also be banned from building profiles of child users for companies to target them with ads. Those platforms that can be reached by minors must also put in place measures to protect their privacy and keep them safe. Users must also be able to report illegal content easily.

Read more:
Twitter to let publishers charge users per article read, says Elon Musk

Elon Musk sought to assure Twitter advertisers that he is serious about the business and its culture before the completion of his $44 billion takeover.

In an open letter that encouraged them to keep using Twitter under his leadership he said that the platform was “important to the future of civilisation” and that he wanted it to be “the most respected advertising platform in the world”.

He said that was buying the company to “help humanity” and because he believed it was important to have a space where “a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner”.

There was a “great danger” that social media will “splinter into far right-wing and far left-wing echo chambers that generate more hate and divide our society”, he added.

The acquisition has raised some concerns over Musk’s support of “absolute free speech”, which could lead to him allowing previously suspended accounts, including that of former US president Donald Trump, back on to the platform. In his letter he attempted to allay such fears, insisting that Twitter “obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences”.

He added: “In addition to adhering to the laws of the land, our platform must be warm and welcoming to all, where you can choose your desired experience according to your preferences, just as you can choose, for example, to see movies or play video games ranging from all ages to mature.”

In an indication that the takeover was imminent, the New York Stock Exchange’s website said that Twitter shares will be suspended from trading tomorrow.

Last night, the billionaire SpaceX and Tesla boss posted a video of himself entering Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters carrying a sink alongside the message “Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in”. He has also updated his bio on the social media platform to “Chief Twit”.

According to reports, Musk told staff it was not true that he planned to cut back around 75 per cent of the firm’s 7,500-strong workforce.

Read more:
I’m buying Twitter to help humanity, says Elon Musk after completion of $44 billion takeover

Elon Musk has said he will reverse Twitter’s ban on the former US president Donald Trump if the Tesla boss completes a takeover of the social media platform.

Twitter permanently banned Trump in January 2021, citing repeated violations of company rules and its judgment that his tweets were “highly likely to encourage and inspire people to replicate the criminal acts that took place at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021”, referring to the attack on the building by his supporters.

Musk, the world’s richest man because of his stake in the electric car company Tesla, revealed his initial stake in New York-listed Twitter on 4 April, and agreed to a $44bn (£36bn) deal on 25 April after several weeks of rapid negotiations.

“I would reverse the permanent ban,” Musk said on Tuesday, speaking via video link at a car industry conference organised by the Financial Times.

“I do think it was not correct to ban Donald Trump,” he said. “I think that was a mistake. It alienated the country and did not result in Donald Trump not having a voice.

“I think it was a morally bad decision and foolish in the extreme.”

The Twitter co-founder and former CEO, Jack Dorsey, echoed Musk in a Tuesday tweet, saying “generally permanent bans are a failure of ours and don’t work”.

Trump has stated publicly that he would not return to Twitter even if he were allowed to, preferring instead the Truth Social network founded under his name. However, Trump did not start posting on the struggling platform beyond an initial introductory message until May – nearly two and half months after its launch.

Many of Trump’s political opponents believe he would be unlikely to pass up the opportunity to broadcast to Twitter’s much larger audience.

A return would potentially give Trump a larger platform to influence the next US presidential election in 2024, either as a candidate or as a kingmaker among Republican candidates.

Musk also reiterated criticisms that Twitter’s staff are too leftwing, saying they were influenced by being headquartered in San Francisco, regarded as one of the most liberal cities in the US . Twitter is “coming out of an environment that is very far left”, he said.

“Twitter needs to be much more even-handed,” he said. “It’s currently left-biased.”

He also said the Twitter takeover would be completed in a “best-case scenario” only within the next two or three months. “It is for me not a done deal,” he said.

Read more:
Elon Musk pledges to overturn Twitter’s ban on Donald Trump

Elon Musk has said Twitter may charge a “slight” fee for commercial and government users, in the latest hint of the changes the world’s richest person could introduce after he completes his takeover of the social media platform.

“Twitter will always be free for casual users, but maybe a slight cost for commercial/government users,” Musk said in a tweet. In another tweet, he added: “Some revenue is better than none!”

Musk’s latest suggestion of changes to Twitter came as British MPs invited the multibillionaire to discuss his proposals for the platform “in more depth” before a parliamentary committee.

The Tesla chief executive has agreed to buy Twitter for $44bn (£35.2bn), in a deal funded by $21bn of his own money, a further $12.5bn borrowed against his shareholding in Tesla and the rest made up by loans from banks.

The estimated $1bn in interest costs attached to the funding have raised speculation that Musk will introduce charges on the platform and cut costs in order to make the transaction financially viable. The Wall Street Journal also reported on Tuesday that Musk could refloat Twitter – which listed on the New York Stock Exchange nine years ago – on the stock market in a few years once he has overhauled the company.

In a series of tweets referring to his ambitions for the platform in recent weeks, Musk has suggested a number of changes to Twitter, including making the algorithms, which curate what users see on the platform, “open source” – or transparent to developers and users. He has also pledged to defeat spambots, and “authenticate” all humans.

Last week it was reported that Musk had told banks he would develop new ways to monetise tweets and crack down on executive pay to slash costs at the social media platform.

Musk also told the banks he planned to develop features to grow business revenue, including new ways to make money out of tweets that contain important information or go viral, sources told Reuters.

At the annual Met Gala in New York on Monday, Musk said the reach of Twitter was only “niche” and he would want a much bigger percentage of the American population to be on it. Twitter has 229 million daily users worldwide.

In tweets that were subsequently deleted, Musk suggested changes to the platform’s premium subscription service, Twitter Blue, including slashing its price, banning advertising and giving an option to pay in the cryptocurrency dogecoin.

Meanwhile, the digital, culture, media and sport committee published a letter inviting Musk to discuss his plans for Twitter with MPs. The letter from its Conservative chair, Julian Knight, said Musk’s reference to authenticating accounts was of particular interest to the committee, which has called for a minimum standard for age-checking that also protects privacy.

Knight added: “I … wish to take this opportunity to invite you to speak before our committee and discuss your proposals in more depth. I know you have expressed your wish that critics remain on Twitter and this may present an opportunity to address any critiques in public.”

Read more:
Elon Musk considers ‘slight’ Twitter fee for commercial users

The UK competition watchdog has called for the power to fine social media influencers if they fail to tell followers when posts are paid for by advertisers.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) told MPs it needed stronger tools to enforce consumer protection laws and deal with an “endemic marketwide problem”.

This month the advertising regulator named six social media celebrities, including Jodie Marsh (pictured) and five former Love Island contestants, for repeatedly failing to tell followers when they were paid to promote products in posts.

The CMA’s senior director for consumer protection, George Lusty, told the digital, culture, media and sport committee in the House of Commons that court action, which could result in fines, took too long and called for his organisation to have the power to issue fines to enforce its rulings.

“We think therefore there is a need for more powerful deterrents, and we really welcome what the ASA [Advertising Standards Authority] is doing, but ultimately we think that civil fines would be an important addition to the arsenal of regulators here,” he said.

The government is proposing to give the CMA the power to fine influencers for breaches of consumer protection law, under changes to competition and consumer policy that are currently under consultation. Deceptive or “hidden” advertising is illegal in the UK.

“The market has blossomed, the influencer marketing market has doubled in two years and it’s very, very effective,” Lusty told MPs. “It’s much more powerful than traditional advertising techniques and it’s particularly powerful with younger people in persuading them to buy things.”

However, Lusty said there was a low level of enforcement by the social media platforms themselves. “We’re still seeing across all platforms a very low level of sanctions actually being applied and practised against influencers.”

Last year Instagram, the photo and video sharing app, committed to a package of measures to crackdown on undeclared paid-for posts after an investigation by the CMA. This included Instagram vetting people’s posts if it appears that they have been paid to promote a business.

In 2019 the CMA said it had secured formal commitments from 16 celebrities, including Alexa Chung and Ellie Goulding, to state clearly if they have been paid or received any gifts or loans of products that they endorse.

The chief executive of the ASA, Guy Parker, told the hearing that the “scale and pace” of influencer advertising online and its “ephemeral” nature – some Instagram Story posts disappear after 24 hours, making them difficult to capture for monitoring purposes – contributed to difficulties with enforcement.

Read more:
Watchdog calls for fines for influencers who fail to declare sponsorship

Social media stars including Jodie Marsh and five ex-Love Islanders including Francesca Allen are to be subjected to a name and shame Instagram campaign by the UK’s advertising watchdog for continuing to flout social media marketing rules.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), which issued a final warning to 122 UK-based Instagram influencers over repeatedly failing to tell followers when they were paid to promote products in posts, has resorted to using the social media platform to highlight their behaviour to users.

The ASA has created personalised ads that name the social influencers – Marsh, Allen, twins Jess and Eve Gale, Belle Hassan and Anna Vakili – stating that they have been sanctioned for not declaring paid posts to followers and pointing to a webpage listing all of those who “break these rules”.

On Tuesday, Love Island winner Amber Rose Gill was added to the ASA’s non-compliance webpage, although she is not part of the targeted Instagram ad campaign.

“For the minority of influencers that repeatedly fail to disclose their paid-for posts, it’s important their social media followers are told,” said Shahriar Coupal, director of advertising policy and practice at the ASA. “In a new front of enforcement activity, we’re using targeted ads to highlight the breaches of six social media personalities to the very same audience they are seeking to influence.”

The ASA, which is running the targeted campaign for an initial two weeks to assess whether the ads have an impact on the behaviour of the influencers, has not ruled out further potential sanctions.

“When we see the necessary changes to their disclosure practices, we’ll call off the ads,” said Coupal. “But, where non-compliance persists, we’ll look to more direct forms of enforcement.”

Social media influencers who continue to break the non-disclosure rules could be referred to Trading Standards or the Competition and Markets Authority, which has the ability to impose fines. The watchdog has also previously said it could also work with social media companies “to have their content removed”.

Under the UK advertising code, promotional posts must clearly indicate they are paid-for endorsements, typically using the hashtag #ad, short for advertising.

In 2019, the CMA secured formal commitments from 16 celebrities, including Alexa Chung and Ellie Goulding, to clearly state if they have been paid or receive any gifts when publishing posts on Instagram.

Read more:
Love Islanders to be named and shamed for not declaring paid-for posts

Chief executives are being warned to “think twice before they tweet” after the boss of takeaway company Just Eat Takeaway was told his Twitter spat with Uber threatened to undermine the firm’s reputation.

Jitse Groen this week became the latest in a growing list of chief executives to be rebuked by customers, investors and even regulators over ill-judged tweets.

Cat Rock Capital Management, an activist investor which has a 4.7% stake in Just Eat, highlighted Groen’s Twitter battle with Uber boss Dara Khosrowshahi as an example of outbursts that damaged the brand. The investor said Groen’s tweets had partly led to the firm being “deeply undervalued and vulnerable to takeover bids at far below its intrinsic value”.

Earlier this year Groen had a rant at financial analysts on Twitter, claiming that “some can’t even do basic maths”. He tweeted that he was “amazed how bad these analysts have become … All of them mix up definitions. It’s unbelievable.”

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Brand and marketing expert Mark Borkowski said Groen’s case highlighted the difficulty executives face when trying to engage with customers on the platform.

“Everyone sees Twitter as a huge marketing opportunity that can drive a business forward, and it really can,” Borkowski said. “But these bosses must stop and think twice before they tweet, as just one misjudged tweet can send their share price plunging.”

Possibly the most expensive tweets ever sent were posted by Elon Musk, the maverick boss of electric car company Tesla, in 2018. The US Securities and Exchange Commission fined Musk and Tesla $20m each after he tweeted that he had “funding secured” to take the company private at $420 a share. The regulator said the tweet, which sent Tesla’s share price up by as much as 13%, violated securities law. As part of the settlement, Musk was ordered to step down as Tesla’s chairman.

Musk’s tweets continued to anger some investors. Pirc, an influential adviser to shareholders including the UK’s local authority pension funds, last year recommended that investors voted against Musk’s re-election to the Tesla board because his tweets posed “a serious risk of reputational harm to the company and its shareholders”.

The SEC sued Tesla CEO Elon Musk in 2018 after he tweeted about the company’s market shares.
SEC watchdog says two Elon Musk tweets violated settlement deal
Read more
Pirc said his controversial outbursts on Twitter had cost Tesla millions of dollars in settlements, but Musk easily won the vote, and has continued to tweet several times a day to his 59 million followers.

“Twitter is all about personality,” Borkowski said. “While Musk’s tweets can be very controversial, they fit with his brand. Twitter is perfect for renegades, mavericks and disruptor brands. It’s much harder for well-established brands with solid reputations, if something goes wrong for them they risk damage to their hard-earned brand.

“People now think that to run a successful business, you have to be on social media and every brand has to have a Twitter account,” he said. “The chief executives see that the bosses of their rivals have a Twitter profile, and they feel they have to have one too.”

Borkowski said some bosses have been very successful at building a presence and personality on Twitter, and using their platforms to promote social issues such as LGBTQ+ rights and the Black Lives Matter movement (as well as promote their brand and products).

James Timpson, the chief executive of shoe repair shops Timpson, this week celebrated passing 100,000 followers on his account on which he weaves photos of his colleagues working in shops with posts tackling tax avoidance and prisoner reform.

This week, he responded to Boris Johnson’s proposal to create “fluorescent-jacketed chain gangs” of people found guilty of antisocial behaviour with a tweet suggesting offenders should be helped into work instead.

Instead of making offenders wear high viz jackets in chain gangs, how about helping them get a real job instead? In my shops we employ lots of ex offenders and they wear a shirt and tie. Same people, different approach, a much better outcome.

— James Timpson (@JamesTCobbler) July 27, 2021

Tim Cook, the chief executive of Apple, has won praise for using Twitter to successfully pressure the governor of Indiana into revising proposed legislation that had threatened to allow discrimination against gay people on religious grounds.

Researchers at Harvard Business School and Duke University said Cook “effectively framed the debate using social media at a time when opinions were being formed and the impact went beyond the political”.

Borkowski suggested that before chief executives tweet they should “consider whether they have the personality and temperament to get the tone right each time”.

“There is nothing more inelegant than a chief executive going after rivals publicly on Twitter,” he said.

It was exactly that sort of behaviour that Cat Rock had accused Groen of undertaking. When Uber Eats announced earlier this year that it would take on Just Eat in Germany, Groen lashed out in a tweet directed at Khosrowshahi, accusing him of “trying to depress our share price”.

Khosrowshahi replied that perhaps Groen should “pay a little less attention to your short term stock price and more attention to your Tech and Ops”. That sparked Groen to reply “thank you for the advice, and then if I may .. Start paying taxes, minimum wage and social security premiums before giving a founder advice on how he should run his business”.

Alex Captain, Cat Rock’s founder, said: “The response should not happen on Twitter. It should happen on a credible forum with the facts, data, and analysis that the company has at its disposal.”

A Just Eat spokesperson said: “Just Eat Takeaway.com has a regular dialogue with all its shareholders and we take all their views very seriously.”

Read more:
‘Think before you tweet’ CEOs told after Just Eat spat with Uber

Read any guide on the best way to market your business and you’re bound to find social media high up the list — and sometimes, the only thing on the list.

But what if the thought of all this posting, sharing, liking, boosting, engaging, following and whatnot else leaves you cold? Should you suppress these feelings and slog over social media anyway?

It may be music to the ears of social media dodgers that, according to Gina Hollands, Commercial Director from creative marketing agency PMW that’s the worst thing you can do. “For marketing to be effective, it needs to be authentic,” says Gina. “If your heart isn’t in one type of marketing and you do it regardless, your audience will see right through it and the outcome won’t be desirable — it could even be detrimental for your business.”

So, in this age of social media seeming to be the only way to win the hearts and minds of consumers everywhere, what’s the alternative if it’s just not your bag? Here, Gina gives her top five tips.

1. Focus on your strengths

Identify where your strengths lie and focus on these. So, if you’re a great networker, spend your marketing time networking; if you enjoy liaising with the media, then make PR your go-to marketing strategy; if you’re more of a personal relationships type, then make a few appointments to have coffee with people you already know in the industry and see where these conversations take you. When you concentrate on what you do well, your results will be better and you’ll enjoy the process a lot more.

2. Try it, you might like it

If you just think you might not like social media, but haven’t ever really given it a go, then try it out — you might be surprised how you take to it. There is a lot of prejudice around social media that it’s just a bunch of teenagers dancing around or people sharing pictures of their dinner, but in fact, many a contact can be made and a deal done when you get it right. Consider taking a beginner’s course or asking a friend who knows their way around the platforms to teach you the basics, and go from there. If you still don’t like it after a few months, then at least you’ve tried. But if you don’t try, you’ll never know!

3. Invest in the experts

Love it or loathe it, it is no secret that social media has propelled many a brand from zero to hero. That’s not to say of course that it’s the only way to market a business, but it is definitely a cost effective and accessible way. It may be that you have absolutely no motivation to go there, however, and if that is the case it’s worth paying someone else to take the pain away. Depending on how far you want to go with your social media, you could enlist the help of a local freelancer to create your pages and make a few posts or, if you want to really get serious with your social and use it as a platform for advertising your brand and providing insight and analysis, then hiring a social media specialist could be the answer.

4. It’s not the only way!

It may be hard to believe, but you can still market your business without the need to turn to social media immediately. Certainly, once finances allow, it is wise to invest in hiring a third party to undertake your social media if you don’t want to do it yourself, but in the meantime, consider other routes to market, such as trade fairs, traditional advertising, press releases, events and other marketing methods which suit you and your brand.

5. Pick one thing and do it well

We always say at PMW to do something well or don’t do it at all. Diluting your marketing budget by spreading it too thinly across an array of marketing platforms won’t get you anywhere, other than destination disappointment. It’s better to choose one marketing method which appeals to you, which you can afford and which suits your brand and do it well. Once you’ve perfected that, consider investing the return from this activity into your second chosen platform, and repeating the process.

The key things to remember when marketing your brand are to remain within the realms of affordability and — if you’re doing your own marketing — likeability. When you’re authentic to yourself, your passion will shine through and marketing success should follow.

Read more:
How to market your business – when you really, really HATE social media

Facebook is being investigated by UK and European competition watchdogs over concerns it uses advertising data to gain an unfair advantage over rivals.

The Competition and Markets Authority is looking into whether it uses information to benefit its own services, such as Facebook Marketplace.

The European Commission is examining if Facebook violated EU rules by gathering data from advertisers to compete with them in providing classified ads.
Facebook said it would cooperate fully.

It said it will demonstrate that both the UK and EU investigations are “without merit”.

The CMA said Facebook collects data through its digital advertising service as well as its single sign-on option. This allows people to sign-in to other websites, services and apps using their Facebook log-in details.

The watchdog said it is examining whether the company has unfairly used the data to compete with people and businesses who use Facebook Marketplace, where firms and users put up classified adverts to sell items, as well as Facebook Dating which was launched in Europe last year.

The European Commission said it had opened a formal antitrust investigation “to assess whether Facebook violated EU competition rules by using advertising data gathered in particular from advertisers in order to compete with them in markets where Facebook is active such as classified ads”.

It said: “The formal investigation will also assess whether Facebook ties its online classified ads service “Facebook Marketplace” to its social network, in breach of EU competition rules.”

Facebook said its “Marketplace and dating offer people more choices, both products operate in highly competitive environment with many large incumbents”.

The CMA and the European Commission said they will work closely with each other as their “independent investigations develop”.

Andrea Coscelli, chief executive of the CMA, added: “We intend to thoroughly investigate Facebook’s use of data to assess whether its business practices are giving it an unfair advantage in the online dating and classified ad sectors.

“Any such advantage can make it harder for competing firms to succeed, including new and smaller businesses, and may reduce customer choice.”

The opening of European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager’s first competition probe into the world’s largest social network is latest fight with the US tech giants.

She has already his Google with more than €8bn (£6.8bn) in fines, and is also investigating Amazon and Apple.

“In today’s digital economy, data should not be used in ways that distort competition,” Ms Vestager said.

Read more:
Facebook investigated by UK and EU competition watchdogs

Instrumental in LadBible’s meteoric rise to publishing and social domination, Tim Hyde chats to me about work and cliffhanger moments in my latest podcast.

A snippet of how he does what he does follows but hear the whole podcast here …

So everyone pretty much is on social media today, but it’s only very few people in the world that can say that they’ve increased daily traffic on their website from 1 million to 5 million per day in as little as 10 months. Social media guru to the likes of Puma, Ford, Spotify, the list is endless. Tim how did you come to realise that your work could effect such a ginormous reach?

My first ever job was a writer at LadBible. I ended up interviewing one of the CEOs, I went from thinking that they were just a Facebook page to being almost overwhelmed by what they could achieve. When you really start to see firsthand the power of social media being able to engage such an incredible volume of people, at your fingertips from your phone or laptop to reach the world is pretty insane, especially at a young age. Over time from experimenting you learn specific tips, tactics, hacks, if you like to get the most out of that audience. And, you know, whether it’s cynical or not, I’ve kind of taken that with me into a marketing slant and using social media to specifically influence purchase decisions.

In terms of making profit from a service social media is not going anywhere any time soon so it’s a good way to go. Have you seen a massive rise in social media use during the past year with brands turning to ecommerce to survive the lockdowns?

Sort when COVID happened, a lot of the really big advertisers, the likes of Expedia, came out and said, they normally said spend seven billion a year on advertising and in 2020, they spent 1 billion. And so when you’re talking about those sorts of numbers, and you know, not all of that went into social by any means, but you know, a lot of retail and hospitality and sort of more traditional FMCG brands, pulled their advertising spend while they were figuring out what was going to happen. So a mass volume of traffic disappeared. However, because we were all at home, trying to keep up with the news that created a really brilliant time for consumer brands and anyone with an online presence, because that’s where people’s attention was. A lot of businesses have sort of continued to do very well from that.

Do you think that’s going to continue when lockdown lifts? Or do you think we may see a dip as people are going back onto the high street? Will all these brands continue to see the value in what they’ve done this past year and keep it going?

My kind of take on it is that it’s sped up the adoption of ecommerce and social media advertising within the UK, by a couple of years. The US were definitely ahead of us by a couple of years, whether that was, you know, people ordering everything on prime for next day delivery. So they didn’t have to go to the shops and things like that. I think in June when we all get released, there probably will be a little dip in traffic to certain websites and initially in online sales figures. But at the same time, I think that the trends and the ease of use and people’s relationship with online businesses has changed for the long term.

In retrospect has Covid made your business better?

I’d actually say that it has. I’ve always been working remotely, whether that’s sort of travelling around the world meetings in London and kind of getting work done on the train in, I’ve been very used to this cycle, so if anything Covid has enabled me to be a lot more efficient. There’s also no need for a giant office or kind of posturing on traditional senses, everyone’s on zoom and now everyone’s a lot more forgiving when there’s a delivery that you have to answer because everyone’s been in the same boat.

Yes hopefully, that sense of understanding within people working from home is now embedded in British culture. So I know from speaking to business owners that they kind of hold their breath when they go live with a social campaign. Do you still hold your breath and hope that you’ve predicted human behaviour correctly?

I’ve gotten to work with incredible clients with incredible people. I got to grow up in such an amazing environment, you know, people that were pushing each other, we were pushing the boundaries of what had been done in social media, we were all learning, we were trying something. Sometimes things worked. Sometimes things didn’t work. Okay, let’s double down on what did work. And to be honest, it was a great learning experience of what social really is. You have to try something, see what works, refine it, improve on it, and continue from there. And, you know, it’s definitely not rocket science. But I like to think of social media strategy in its truest essence, is all just about incremental improvement. Are we using the right posting times? Hashtags, right? Content, right? Amplification strategy? It’s never ‘we’re going to make this one bit of content that’s going to suddenly blow our social channels up’. It’s actually a lot more pragmatic and all about consistency, rather than these swinging for the fence tactics that, you know, some articles will have you believe.

I think our social media shy readers will definitely like to hear that. Because if you’re, you know, caught up in the day to day of running your own company, you know you should be on social, but I think a lot of people are just signed up for absolutely every single platform out there and then they freeze. They can’t post anymore. They just don’t know what’s right, or they don’t see the return on it. And then it just gets lost. Whereas actually, if it’s double down and strategised, then it can work incredibly well. What sort of platforms, what would you say to the SMEs, that are really worth looking at moving forwards into 2021 2022?

From a paid perspective, Facebook, Instagram, their advertising platform, although it’s going through a lot of changes is still arguably one of the most powerful marketing tools out there. Same with AdWords and Google and getting your advertising on pre-roll on YouTube, these can be absolutely phenomenal.

If you’ve got the right brand, you know, product, market, fit, budget, all of those things align, Tick Tok’s advertising is actually something that I think is very much worth exploring, especially if you have content that’s native to the platform. It really has to feel like content on Tick Tock, which is, which is very different than native editing style, maybe a bit more tongue in cheek and this probably segues nicely to talking about organic but I think certainly in 2020, what we saw was huge corporate brands, the likes of Walgreens and Doritos, throw away their kind of traditional brand guidelines simply for Tick Tock and then we’re getting you know, employees, having fun with the platform, you know, doing dances, doing routines, you know, whatever it was, which is very much native to the platform, but you know, you’d have never seen that on a corporate Facebook channel. That’s something that actually a lot of brands have really managed to leverage. So, you know, I think in 2021 it’s gonna be massive for a lot of brands. I’ve been speaking to the guys at TED Talk and in Europe they’re starting to see quite a much older demographic. But surprisingly, the adoption of the 30 plus in Europe is actually much higher than the US.

That’s really interesting to know, isn’t it? The days of portraying your company as being this perfect, component in the world are long gone. People want to see the authenticity.

In the early days of social media, ‘going viral’ was very appealing to people, you know, that dictated a lot of the brands that we got. I think, in those sorts of days, it was about pushing the boundaries, and swinging for the fences and seeing what crazy returns you could get for a specific campaign with either millions of comments, millions of views, and hopefully, therefore, millions in sales. As I’ve evolved as a marketer, I tend to be a little bit more pragmatic now, and focus on that relationship between organic and paid and how you can really just use social and digital as an acquisition channel. Be smart and build up that brand equity through putting out great content, engaging people, inspiring them. You need to educate them about your product and proposition. So yes, there’s times to be bold, but I think now, it’s about looking at that holistic kind of strategy.

So if it’s all about the holistic side of things and authenticity, is it better for an agency to design and manage the campaign, but best for the owners to interact with their followers so it’s genuine.

Yes, that can work really well. We did a little bit of work with Deliciously Ella, probably two or three years ago. They must have been £10m+ business, yet Ella spent two to three hours every day responding to people on Instagram because that was how she started it all. She was giving advice to her target audience, it was real, it was authentic.

LinkedIn has invested millions in their blogging platform and space in the past few years, is it a good way forward for brands to develop a presence and lead to sales these days?

So LinkedIn has been a pretty organic platform for probably five or six years, they realised that the more time that people spent on the platform, the more advertising they’re able to sell. So instead of rewarding the people that just looked for jobs, scrolled and got off the platform, they started rewarding people that actually posted, and you’re now seeing some really great uses of the platform. Brands are leveraging LinkedIn to generate millions and millions of views a month. Clearly, LinkedIn is still a phenomenal platform to get attention and connections with a vast audience.

Tim Hyde has also joined Business Matters as a regular columnist

Read more:
Social media shy? Tim Hyde, the million clicks man, shares some truths

Social media companies and search engines will be forced to remove scams from their websites or face fines under plans being considered by ministers.

Boris Johnson will use the Queen’s Speech this week to confirm plans for an Online Safety Bill, regulating the internet for the first time.

The legislation will make tech companies legally responsible for the online safety of their users. Ofcom will become the regulator of the sector and will be able to impose fines of £18 million, or 10 per cent of a company’s global turnover, if they fail to show a duty of care to users.

Campaigners including Martin Lewis, founder of the website MoneySavingExpert, have given warning that the legislation will be a failure if it does not protect people from scams.

Ministers are understood to be receptive to the concerns and the bill could be changed to cover scams during pre-legislative scrutiny by MPs.

Fraud costs the UK economy about £190 billion every year. Elderly people are particularly vulnerable to online scams encouraging them to cash in their pensions early. An estimated £10 billion in savings has been lost to pension scams since 2015, affecting 40,000 people.

Earlier this year a cross-party group of MPs warned the government of an “online free-for-all” that had resulted in tens of thousands of pensioners being defrauded of their life savings.

The work and pensions committee said that it was “immoral” that tech companies such as Google were profiting from adverts posted online by scammers.

Google has about a 90 per cent share of the UK market in keyword search advertisements. Not only do fraudsters pay Google to advertise their scams but financial regulators also pay Google to host warnings about the scams.

“It should not require legislative solutions to deter global firms from benefiting from the proceeds of crime but unfortunately legislation is clearly needed,” the committee said. “It is immoral that tech firms such as Google are accepting payment to advertise scams and then further payment from regulators to warn about the scam.”

Anabel Hoult, chief executive of Which?, said: “The biggest online platforms have some of the most sophisticated technology in the world, yet they are failing to use it to protect scam victims who are suffering devastating financial and emotional harm due to the flood of fake and fraudulent content posted online by criminals.

“The time for self-regulation is over, as clearly it has not worked. The case for including scams in the Online Safety Bill is overwhelming and the government must take the opportunity to act now. Online platforms must be given a legal responsibility to prevent, identify and remove fake and fraudulent content on their sites so that their users are better protected.”

Lewis, who is also founder of the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute, said: “It beggars belief that the government’s Online Safety Bill could ignore the epidemic of scams that the UK faces — but that’s the plan.

“Scams don’t just steal people’s money, they can take their self-respect too, and those with mental health problems are three times more likely to be affected. The policing of scams is critically underfunded, leaving criminals to get away with these frauds with impunity. The government has a chance to at least deny them the ‘oxygen of publicity’ by making big tech responsible for the scammers’ adverts it is paid to publish.

“I plead on bended knee for the government to take that opportunity by putting scams in the Online Safety Bill. Failing to do so will betray its promise to create world-leading online protection and will leave vulnerable people defenceless against online crime in the midst of a global pandemic.”

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has taken down more scams in the past year than in the previous three combined. There was an increase in phishing attacks using NHS branding, with the Covid-19 vaccine rollout used as a lure to harvest people’s personal information via email and text messages.

Officials took down more than 286,000 fraudulent enterprises. Emails and digital adverts entice people to visit hoax websites about “get rich quick” schemes. They are then encouraged to click a link to invest but the money is sent to cybercriminals.

Ian Levy, the NCSC’s technical director, said criminals falsely claimed to have the endorsement of celebrities such as Martin Lewis, the personal finance expert.

Overall 700,500 campaigns were taken down. HM Revenue & Customs was the most copied brand used by fraudsters, followed by the gov.uk website and TV Licensing. The NCSC’s annual two-day CyberUK event starts tomorrow.

Read more:
Social media companies and search engines face fines over scam adverts

Twitter has launched a new “tip jar” feature which will allow people to send money to others on the site.

To begin with, only a select group of people will be able to receive tips, including journalists, experts and content creators.

The social media giant says the feature is “an easy way to support the incredible voices that make up the conversation”.

show your love, leave a tip

now testing Tip Jar, a new way to give and receive money on Twitter

more coming soon… pic.twitter.com/7vyCzlRIFc

— Twitter (@Twitter) May 6, 2021

The tip jar function will add a small icon next to a user’s profile with a drop-down menu for payment providers such as PayPal and Venmo.

However, the feature has come under fire for exposing personal information, such as email addresses.

Because the payment is made through external systems, some users have noticed that tipping a PayPal account notifies the recipient of the sender’s postal address.

After the issue was highlighted by security expert Rachel Tobac, Twitter thanked her for the “good catch” but said they could not control how PayPal handled the information.

15 days ago I tweeted a thread including my concern about the just then announced PayPal Tip Jar Twitter integration and how email, physical address, and more might be visible during the tipping flow in receipts, which Twitter users might not realize during tipping. https://t.co/LnKtop8hFL

— Rachel Tobac (@RachelTobac) May 7, 2021

Twitter said it would update the information around the feature to make it clear that details may be shared.

Meanwhile, PayPal said the issue was down to the Twitter tip jar using its “goods and services” payment option, which shares details for shipping.

PayPal encouraged people to use the “friends and family” option during payment to avoid the issue.

Twitter said that more people will be able to use the system soon, but there are some concerns about the way it will be used.

Journalists are typically banned from accepting gifts and it is unclear how news organisations would use them.

The new feature is the latest experimental move from Twitter, after seeing user growth slow down in recent years.

Earlier this month, it purchased Scroll, a service that removes adverts from participating news websites.

Read more:
Twitter launches ‘tip jar’ to let users send money to favourite accounts

Dulux has apologised after making fun of Tottenham Hotspur – immediately after being signed as their new sponsor.

The paint brand said it was “deeply sorry” for social media posts that mocked the team’s performance and would investigate them.

It’s the perfect match – Dulux has become the first ever Official Paint Supplier to football giant Tottenham Hotspur!

To kick things off the Dulux Dog took a tour of the stadium to inspect the decorating work that’s underway…#Dulux #THFC #COYS pic.twitter.com/qI6HbgZP2U

— Dulux UK | Colour & Inspiration (@duluxuk) April 15, 2021

The apology came after the paint supplier announced its new partnership with Spurs on Twitter on Thursday.

It posted a picture of the famous English sheepdog it uses in adverts getting a pretend tour of New White Hart Lane.

But as comments from fans started to roll in, the brand’s responses took an unexpectedly sarcastic turn.

Responding to one message asking whether the Dulux dog could play centre back, it said: “He might do a better job.”

Another post asked if the brand planned to repaint the trophy cabinet, prompting a reply that surfaces should be “dust free” before painting.

A third comment showed an empty trophy cabinet for sale.

The unusual responses were quickly deleted, but fans of rival clubs were quick to join in.

An apology statement quickly followed, saying: “We’re deeply sorry for the posts from Dulux this morning in response to the announcement of our relationship with @SpursOfficial.

“These do not reflect how proud we are to be the Official Paint Supplier of the club. We’re investigating what happened and apologise to all Spurs fans.”

Manager Jose Mourinho appeared bemused when he was asked about it ahead of Spurs’ match against Everton on Friday.

“I don’t know what you are speaking about but maybe it is an amazing strategy move,” he said.

“But in any case, it is not a football-related thing and I don’t know.”

Tottenham have not won a major title since 2008 when they lifted the League Cup trophy.

Before that their most recent top achievement was in 1961 when they won the old First Division.

Read more:
Dulux apologises after making fun of Spurs – immediately after being named as new sponsor

The UK advertising watchdog has warned social media influencers that they face being named and shamed, after a spot check of posts found widespread flouting of advertising rules.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) monitored the Instagram accounts of 122 UK-based influencers over a three-week period last September, which involved assessing more than 24,000 posts, to see if they were following rules that state they must declare when their posts are ads.

It found that while nearly a quarter of the posts were ads, only 35% of those were clearly labelled as such.

The ASA said the level of noncompliance with the UK ad code was “unacceptable” and it has contacted all the social influencers, and a number of brands, putting them “on notice” that future breaches could lead to them being publicly named and shamed by the regulator.

“There’s simply no excuse not to make clear when positive messages in posts have been paid for by a brand,” said Guy Parker, the chief executive of the ASA. “We have given influencers and brands fair warning. We are now targeting our follow-up monitoring and preparing for enforcement action.”

While the ASA did not specifically name any of those who flouted the rules, the spot checks were carried out on individuals who had previously been contacted about breaches.

The ASA has previously issued rulings against influencers including Emily Canham, in its first censure of a post on TikTok. Canham, who has more than 700,000 followers on TikTok, has been profiled by several newspapers and magazines, because of her marketing skills and her relationship with Busted band member James Bourne. Others to fall foul of the ad rules include the former Love Island contestant Luke Mabbott and Zoë Sugg, a fashion and shopping blogger who has also written a novel, Girl Online.

The ad watchdog said that it experienced a 55% increase in complaints about social media influencers last year, rising from 1,979 in 2019 to 3,144 in 2020. More than 60% of the complaints last year were about postings on Instagram.

In October, Instagram said it intended to crack down on social media influencers and celebrities in the UK who break rules regarding advertising disclosures, following an investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority. In 2019, the CMA secured formal commitments from 16 celebrities, including Alexa Chung and Ellie Goulding, to clearly state if they have been paid or receive any gifts or loans of profits when making posts on Instagram.

Read more:
UK social media influencers warned over ad rules breaches

If you’re currently in the position of wondering which social media platforms to register with for your business or how to go about creating a marketing and ad spend strategy take five minutes to hear Romain Bertrand’s perspective as he talks all things social and marketing.

After untying his feet from the boots of Amazon and JustGiving, Romain Bertrand came to eharmony in 2013 to ensure it became a household name within the UK scene of meaningful relationships. 

So working previously for JustGiving, was it important to you to hold a role that involved a higher purpose? 

Yes absolutely. Encouraging people to do good things, break boundaries all for the good of a specific cause was inspirational. I’ve always wanted to work in marketing functions for consumer tech businesses where they have a strong message. At eharmony I see it as my mission to combat loneliness and ensure people make meaningful relationships.

So it’s all about defining that higher purpose before even looking at other company goals?

Yes and it’s that purpose that I feel every company needs to work with. When you have your higher purpose it creates n energy that every staff member can feel and work towards. So when I see the sales figures going up I’m actually not simply thinking of the amount, I’m thinking of the people who have met and wishing them well on their journey. Every company needs to have a higher purpose to work to in order to inspire real growth for their product or service.

In terms of merging values with the science of love, is the passion for your purpose felt company wide across the staff?

Yes, we only hire and work alongside people who believe in what we do. It just wouldn’t work otherwise. We know who are, we have we have a strong sense of purpose and mission in the business overall. We’re passionate marketers and product specialists, but we definitely have a strong sense of what the business is trying to do.

What do you think the future of love, looks like moving out of lockdown?

We have seen some big shifts this year, I think we’re in the stage where we’re observing what’s happening. A lot of people have made the transition to online dating as opposed to face-to-face, the barriers are down and it’s become a lot more mainstream in the last few months. We’ve seen an increase in traffic and registrations month on month since April. I think that is going to stay.

In terms of your marketing strategy is social media still massive for you?

It’s definitely a large part of the mix, both from an organic perspective so in terms of, you know, managing and building a community on the different platforms. But I think from a marketing strategy perspective, I think we’ve seen an increase in investment in in the paid social side of things in the past year and a half. We’ve invested more time, effort and money into the various channels. It used to be a lot of static content but now we’re doing far more videos. Back when I first started it used to be nearly exclusively Facebook and Twitter. Today we have a presence across Instagram, Pinterest and we’re looking into other channels as well.

How do you continue to lead your team with direction across the social media landscape?

With so many channels, you have to be completely clear about which audience is available on each one. What that audience means to you and how you want to engage and interact with each channel. We then devise a different strategy for each channel really because the people who are on Facebook today are very different from the people on on Instagram for example. So, you know, you’ve got to treat them totally separately.

Yes it can become completely overwhelming for business owners trying to keep up. Do you always begin with current data before working out your ad spend?

Always. Because we analyse where our customers find us, we push where the demand is highest. Google is by far the dominant search engine so that’s naturally where we will spend most of our budget, but we do operate on on bing as well for example in the UK. It’s a small share but it’s quite an intense audience. And then we do occasionally do some marketing on Yahoo but more from a display targeted programmatic perspective, not so much from a search perspective.

What’s the emphasis placed on marketing within eharmony?

After the product and technology team, the marketing team is by far the largest team inside eharmony. Online dating is much more about brand and marketing and if you’ve got a strong product you also need a strong brand. Yes, we do have quite large marketing teams in every office worldwide.

What online platforms do you find effective to market on in the UK?

YouTube is important people watching a lot of video content and look for, you know, use it as a search engine as well so you’ve got to you’ve got to be where people are looking for your brand and your product.

We have a very popular blog; it’s established and has got a lot of content so it ranks very highly from a search engine perspective. Last year we experimented with a Facebook Live, which we produced ourselves every week. That was quite popular. A podcast is on the list of channels that we are considering. It’s making the right choice because you know once you start something like that, you have to really do it properly. So, we’ve got to make sure we’ve got the common long term commitment if we start doing something.

In terms of your competition, did you see a drop in services when when the likes of Tinder, Bumble and those kind of instant meet-up apps, come out?

Actually it was strange because we saw pretty much the opposite happen. We always say that it’s been a good thing because essentially it’s really defined our marketable consumer. We have very different goals and a very different proposition at eharmony in comparison to the free dating apps. What those apps did was bring in a whole cohort of new users, especially the younger demographics, who were quite hesitant to do online dating in a more traditional way. We’re finding that the people who started using free dating apps in their early 20s, now have different relationship goals.

So they’ve actually expanded the online dating scene as a whole?

Absolutely and because we know we don’t compete for the same consumers they haven’t really taken any of our market share, in-fact they’ve simply grown the market overall.

What would be your number one takeaway piece of advice for people devising a marketing strategy right now?

Everybody needs to watch their cashflow right now, more than ever before. So ensure that every single penny of your marketing spend goes to the right audience by analysing all of your current customer data, feedback and results. We do this daily. It keeps us investing budget on adverts and methods that bring us new customers, as opposed to throwing money into a dark pit.

Being crucially aware of your customer data and how they find you, come back to you and recommend you is crucial to being able to change and pivot very quickly when different circumstances occur. If you monitor your data closely you’ll know which channels to communicate your messaging on and be able to guide your consumers through any necessary changes. The more on the spot information about your business you can know means that not only can you

It sounds so simple and obvious doesn’t it – the more you know about your customers, the more you can plan products and services that will make them smile and want to do more business with you. Analysing customer data leads you to being in the best position to maximise your value add, no matter what the current climate.

Read more:
Romain Bertrand, VP Marketing eharmony shares advice for creating a social and marketing plan to lead you out of covid

If you’re trying to grow your business online, social media is an efficient and cost effective way to do it.

The step from being a regular, ‘organic’, social media user to one that puts money into various platforms can be tough to get your head around.

But once you have a clear understanding of what different platforms have to offer, and how certain features can work for you, the decision will be made easy.

Aside from social media, advertising is an opportunity to reach more people and grow your business, but at the end of the day it all comes down to your budget, and maximising the resources at your disposal.

Which platform should you advertise on?

As a business owner with little marketing experience, it can be extremely difficult to decide what social media platforms to create an account on, let alone advertise on.

It’s easy to feel pressured to advertise on every social media platform out there, but this really isn’t the case.

The question you need to ask yourself is “do my audience demographics match that of Instagram”, for example. Knowing your audience is vital to your decision, and if you don’t know your audience that well, you probably shouldn’t be advertising just yet.

To aid your decision, we will be analysing four of the top ten most popular social media platforms, Facebook, Youtube, Instagam and TikTok.

Facebook ads

Popularity: #1

Monthly users: 2.6 billion

(Source: Sprout Social)

At this given time, Facebook is the most popular social media platform in the world.
If you were to advertise on Facebook, your campaign objectives would be broken up into three categories that have various underlying focuses:

● Awareness: Increase your brand awareness and reach more people

● Consideration: Reach people that have some interest in what you offer and may want more information.

● Conversion: Commitment based objective promoting people to visit your store, sign up to your newsletter or register to something, ect.

Now you’ve chosen your campaign objectives, it’s time to create an ad that generates results, so here are some common ad formats that you will use if you advertise on Facebook.

1) Video

Marketer or not, by now you probably know that video content is way more successful than a standard photo, in fact 92% of marketers say it’s a vital part of their marketing strategy.

A video ad will allow you to show off your product features in action as opposed to a still image. It’s more engaging and consumers will prefer it.

2) Image

I know that I’ve been raving about video content and somewhat drowning image ads, but they can act as a quick and easy method to get people to visit your store or chosen destination.

A high quality image is sometimes enough to grab the attention of someone whilst scrolling through their feed.

Maybe your ads are viewed on public transport or a public place, no one will want to watch a video in that environment.

3) Collection

Collection ads make it extremely easy for people to browse your collection.

Designed for mobile devices, a collection ad will consist of a primary image or video that is accompanied by four smaller images in a grid layout.

Not only is it a great way for your audience to browse your products, but they can also check out at the same time with the seamless experience Facebook has designed.

4) Carousel

If you have multiple products that you want to show off, Carousel ads are your friend.

They allow up to 10 images or video ads, with their individual links to be shown at once. This means that your audience can browse through your products and decide which one to buy, whilst being directly linked to the corresponding product page.

5) Lead generation ads

A lead is a person who is interested in your products/services, deeming them a potential customer.

Lead generation ads are ads that target people who may share an interest in what you sell, hopefully turning them into a potential customer.

This ad format can be presented as an image or a video, and is also available on Instagram.

Targeting & measurability

There are 3 main types of audiences Facebook allows you to create in order to target your ad delivery efficiently.

Core Audiences: Primary stage of creating an audience based on:
● Location
● Demographics
● Interests
● Behaviour
● Connections

Custom Audiences: Get back in touch with people who have previously engaged with you:
● Contact Lists
● Site Visitors
● App users

Lookalike Audiences: Reach people who share the same interests as your existing customers. Your page audience data will be used to create a Lookalike Audience.

It’s important to assess the performance of your ads in order to see if they are successful or not. This will allow you to optimize your budget for future/existing campaigns.

Your ad performance will be visible in your ads manager, and will be able to tell you the following:

● Performance – Clicks, reach and overall results.

● Demographics – How your ad performed across different ages and genders.

● Placement – Performance across different placements like Facebook, Instagram, etc.

(Source: Facebook)

Key benefits of advertising on Facebook

● Most popular social media platform

● Huge monthly user base of 2.6 billion

● Extremely diverse user demographics

● Fast to use

● Extremely easy to measure your results

● Easy to optimize around your budget

● Various creative capabilities

Youtube ads

Popularity: #2

Monthly users: 2 billion
Youtube is one of the largest video sharing platforms in the world, and if you regard it as a search engine, it would rank 2nd behind Google.

The platform provides video and non-video ads, which is great as it allows less tech savvy businesses to advertise on YouTube.

However, video will make up 82% of consumer internet traffic by 2021, so optimizing it into your marketing is almost a necessity.

YouTube has 6 different ad formats (video and non-video) that you should become familiar with before advertising on the platform.

1) TrueView ads

Key facts:
● Video ad
● Skippable after 3-5 seconds
● Often consist of a short tutorial or a product display
● Low risk
● Two types In-Stream and Discovery

TrueView In-stream

In-stream ads are self explanatory in terms of their positions (in the middle of a video), they can be up to 3 minutes long and are skippable after 5 seconds.

In-Stream ads are implemented with a display ad in the top right corner of viewers screens, which shows more information about the company and a clear call to action (CTA) button for viewers to click.

TrueView Discovery

When someone searches for something in the search bar, let’s say marketing, a video which relates to that topic will appear at the top of the search results.

These are great to increase your brand awareness and generate relevant viewers.

2) Non-Skippable ads

You have probably watched a Non-Skippable ad before, they are the annoying ones at the start of videos which you can’t skip.

They can fall at the start of videos (pre-roll) but also in the middle of videos longer than 10 minutes (mid-roll).

These are great for communicating a message that you know is going to be heard, or anything that takes advantage of the 15-20 seconds you have before a viewer is able to skip.

3) Bumper ads

Bumper ads are like Non-Skippable ads in the sense that they can’t be skipped. However, they only last 6 seconds long.

This type of ad can communicate your message in just enough time before viewers get frustrated that they can’t skip the ad, and as a result develop a bad relationship with your business from the get go.

4) Overlay ads

Overlay ads are the small boxes which appear at the bottom of a video, with an image, a small amount of text, and a call to action (CTA) button.

Even if a user wanted to get rid of your ad, they are going to have to look at it to find the exit icon. They are a simple but effective method of advertising.

5) Display ads

With Display ads, YouTube gives you a huge amount of screen real estate to show your ad, catching the attention of a large audience.

Display ads are shown on users’ home screen of the app, just above their suggested videos.

6) Cards and Sponsored Cards

Cards are a simple way to further engage your audience and viewers of your video. It involves putting small, card like images of your other video as part of the one viewers are watching, with the intention prompting users to watch more of your content.

Targeting & measurability

There are various methods to define your target audience. Combining the targeting methods will allow you to reach a specific audience and generate better value for money from your ad spend.

The YouTube targeting capabilities are as follows:

● Demographics & detailed demographics – Specify an audience’s age, gender, income, and marital status. Detailed demographics take into account home ownership, education and parental status.

● Affinity and Custom Affinity Targeting – Target users from Google’s predetermined categories, such as Banking & Finance, Beauty & Wellness, News, Sports, etc. You can create a custom affinity group based on terms users search on Google.

● In-Market, Live Events and Intent audiences – All three targeting capabilities catch users at different stages of their buying journey, In-Market targets those searching for products like yours, Live events target people who have accomplished a milestone, and Intent audiences target users ready to make a purchase.

● Remarketing – Target people that have watched your videos or a specific video on your channel.

● Keywords, Topics and Placements – Target relevant users based on location of your ad. Specify the placement of your ad through related keywords and topics. You can even decide what channel you want your ads to show up on.

(Source: Social Media Examiner)

Your YouTube ads can be controlled through the YouTube ads manager, however, they can also be controlled through Google ads manager, which is recommended.

Google ads will produce the following data about your ads performance:

● Core performance (Views, view rate, Avg. CPV, watch time & Avg. watch time)

● Click performance (Clicks & CTR)

● Engagement performance (Engagements & engagement rate)

● Reach Frequency (Unique users, unique cookies, unique viewers, Avg impressions…)

● Video viewership (Video played length, 25%, 50%, 75% & 100%)

● YouTube engagement (Earned views & earned subscribers)

Key benefits of advertising on YouTube

● Huge reach

● Younger demographic, but still diverse

● Potential to have a positive influence

● Advanced targeting (to reach a relevant audience)

● Encourages creativity

● Enhances your video skills & business capabilities

Instagram ads

Popularity: #6

Monthly users: 1 billion

Instagram is the king of photo and video sharing. Since 2012, it’s ownership has been with Facebook, allowing you to create a Facebook ads campaign, but also run it on Instagram.

For that matter, the process of creating a campaign, setting an objective and targeting an audience is exactly the same as described in the Facebook ads section above.

To top it off, most campaign objectives are compatible with Instagram Feed, Story and Explore ads!

(Source: Facebook)

However, as an Instagram user, you have the opportunity to ‘promote’ one of your feed posts that has previously been posted.

Here is Instagrams step by step guide to promoting your Instagram post:

1. Go to your profile.

2. Tap the post you’d like to promote.

3. Below the post’s image, tap Promote.

4. Fill in the details of your promotion by setting things like Destination (where to send people), Audience (who you want to reach), Budget (how much you want to spend daily) and Duration (how long you want your promotion to run). Tap Next once you’ve completed these details.

5. If you didn’t link to a Facebook Page when you set up your Instagram professional account, you will be prompted to connect a Page. You can choose an existing Page or tap Skip.

• If you tap Skip, you won’t see this step when you promote future posts. You can still connect a Facebook Page to your profile at any time.

6. To complete your promotion, tap Create Promotion under Review.

Unlike the more formal ad process every other social media platform offers, when you promote a post with Instagram, it’s fast and easy to set up – you don’t have to be a marketing guru.

Instagram says it only takes around 60 minutes for your ad to be reviewed, meaning you could create it in the early hours of the morning and let it run all day.

Targeting & measurability

When promoting a post, you can target people by location, interests and age & gender.

Although this process is far more simple than the likes of YouTube/Facebook targeting capabilities, there’s no need for it to be overcomplicated.
When you are selecting various locations and interests to target, a search bar appears with a drop down menu, allowing you to search for any niche.

Once this is completed, your budget can be set and your potential reach reviewed. These will be two key insights that you will use to track the performance of your promoted post.

When it comes to measuring the success of your promoted post, Instagram will tell you how many people it reached and how many liked it, shared it and saved it.

However, let’s say you chose to direct visitors of your post to your profile, here is where your page analytics are useful.

Insights

Insights are the data points collected from your Instagram page, which are split into Activity, Content and Audience.

Your page activity tells you how popular you really are, allowing you to see the number of accounts you’ve reached, total impressions, interactions, profile visits and website clicks.

The great thing about content insights is that it tells you how many times each of your posts have been seen, letting you know if your audience is engaging with your content.

Finally, Audience takes a look at your following in terms of gender, then reviewels how many followers you gained at 12 am, 3 am, 6 am, 9 am, 12 pm, 3 pm, 6 pm, and 9 pm each day.

On Top of this, your audience is broken down further into top locations.

(Source: Later)

Key benefits of advertising on Instagram

● Fast Growing platform

● Easy to promote a post

● Easy to engage with your audience
● Detailed page insights that break down your audience, content and page performance

● Facebook intergration

TikTok ads

Popularity: #7

Monthly users: 800 million

All the way from China, TikTok, formally known as Musical.ly, is a slightly different form of social media, one that requires some confidence.

TikTok posts are 15 seconds long, and the time is often filled with a trending dance, prank or funny video. It doesn’t seem long, but a lot can be achieved in this short time.

Being an upbeat, ‘current’ platform, it caters to a younger demographic than most, but the platform is growing rapidly so there’s nothing to say its demographics could diversify.

In december 2019, the 18-24 age bracket dominated the platform, and moving closer toward 2021, they still rule TikTok. The app even says that 60% of its users are Gen Zers (born between 1997-2012).

(Source: Statista)

There are 4 ways you can advertise on TikTok, all different in their position and creative ability.

1) Brand Takeover

Either an image, gif or video, a Brand Takeover ad will appear in users feeds when they are scrolling through content. If you know TikTok, then you will understand the apps split into categories, which means each ad will show in its specific category once per day.

2) Native Video ads

A Native Video ad can only be a video (9 -15 seconds) and is positioned in the ‘for you page’, similar to the explore page on Instagram.

Unfortunately, these ads can be skipped and, therefore, not as effective.

3) Hashtag Challenges

A hashtag challenge is as simple as it sounds, you create a hashtag specific to you or your business, and promote it to your audience.

Hopefully, your audience will use it on their posts and share it with friends, creating the network affect and boosting your brand awareness.

4) Branded Lenses

If you’ve used Snapchat before, you will know all about lenses and filters. Basically, they are small bits of visual effects added to the background of your image or on to a users face.

Just like Hashtag challenges, a Branded lens has the opportunity to blow up and become extremely popular on TikTok!

Targeting & measurability

TikTok targeting capabilities are similar to that of Facebook, letting you define your audience by location, age, gender, languages, interests, devices and connection type.

You can also upload a custom audience through a CSV, TXT, or ZIP file.

(Source: Social Media Examiner)

For Brand Takeover and Native Video ads you will receive basic information like views, shares, likes, and so on, but TikTok says that utilising third-party tracking on your ads will feed back more specific insights.

Any from the lists of third-party tracking services that work with TikTok use ‘Last Click Attribution’, telling you the following:

● Click-through attribution

● View-through Attribution

● Attribution Window

If your TikTok ad links to your website, installing the TikTok Pixel will allow you to track the successfulness of your ad.

Similar to the Facebook Pixel, the TikTok Pixel is a HTML code snippet that is added to your site. Visit TikTok for more information on how to install it.

Measuring the performance of Hashtag Challenges and Branded Lenses is venturing into the unknown.

The average price of a 6 day Hashtag Challenges is $150,000 and a branded lens design is between $80,000 – $120,000.

The sheer price of these two ad formats suggests that you would be working very closely with TikTok and receive a personalised analytics package to review your campaigns performance.

Key benefits of advertising on Instagram

● Extreme brand exposure (but expensive)

● One of the most creative ways to advertise online

● A chance to start trending

● The opportunity to reach a new niche

Decision time

First things first, just because one platform works best for one business, it doesn’t mean it’s going to work for you.

Analyse your audience demographics, outline your campaign objectives, and review your budget, then you will be able to decide what platform is best to advertise on.

Go, it’s time to generate results!

Read more:
Best social media ad platforms for small businesses

Social media offers access to great audiences, but reaching a million people is still a challenge that requires a huge amount of creativity, effort, and planning.

Many social platforms, such as Instagram and YouTube, can aid you to become an online celebrity with hundreds of thousands of followers, but to make your dream a reality, you must get many free followers so that you can be ahead of the competition. Currently, TikTok, formerly known as Musical.ly, has gained immense popularity, even from actors, singers, and socialites. Thus, it is crucial to board this outlet and obtain followers. There are many marketing strategies you can utilize to acquire TikTok followers.

Use the “Follow, Unfollow” method

This technique is a simple and effective approach to catch the attention of the most influential users in TikTok. First, you must identify the most successful TikTokers in your preferred niche and follow them. Second, you can commence interacting with their videos and commenting on them in their profiles. If you post ingenious and clever comments, other users will upvote your comment and even reply to you. This can cause you to obtain extra TikTok followers along the way.

Finally, you must unfollow said influential Tiktoker and refollow them multiple times. How does this help? When you refollow a TikTok, you appear higher on his “Followers” tab, therefore increasing the probability of more users viewing your profile. If you offer relevant content, they will follow you as well. Additionally, the famous TIkToker may follow if your comments become the most favorite ones in their profiles.

Make a dynamic and hard-hitting Profile

Every detail matters when it comes to enhancing your profile. Your profile picture, username, and personal information can induce a notable impression on the users that visit your profile. A long username that is difficult to remember can impair from getting recognition, primarily because most of your potential TikTok followers will forget shortly after they view it. Thus, you must choose a short and ingenious username that shines from the rest and try to use the same username on your social media outlets.

In regard to your content, it is highly advised to post upcoming events or videos that you will do to invite people to follow you or to catch their attention. For example, if your niche is based on fitness, you can inform people about a new workout you are designing and will launch in the next days. This way, the users are aware and pursue your forthcoming videos.

The basic information displayed in your profile may be a passive means to get followers for TikTok.  If you write peculiar annotations or characteristics that set you apart or that they are able to relate to can increase your follow rate. Sometimes, adding a country flag depicting your nationality can be a motor to get recognition. For example, if you are Colombian and place your flag, other Colombians will identify you as “family” because showing patriotism deters personality and character. Just be original and innovative!

Participate in Viral Challenges

Engaging in the latest trends is crucial due to the fact that you are able to view what different kinds of content are popular at the moment. Some viral challenges, like the “Don’t Start Now” challenge, involve dancing a popular song, which makes them an excellent option to create new content dedicated to different niches. Participating in these trials show different sides of your persona, appealing to more people. On occasion, it is not even necessary to participate directly in them. For example, if you are not keen on dancing in a video, you can simply employ the song in the next video so users can resonate with you and your content.

The value of hashtags is another aspect relevant to viral challenges. Videos shared in your profile that contains trending hashtags will make them visible to millions of people, thus boosting your TikTok followers drastically for just a few days. Keep in mind that engaging in these challenges can help you explore a different niche or expand your musical genre to areas you are not accustomed to. It can help you create a brand that extends your fanbase.

Connect to Other Social Media

Do not restrict yourself to a single social media account because you will miss out on the potential audience available on those platforms, like Youtube, Instagram, or Facebook. Statistics reveal that Facebook has two million active users monthly and Youtube’s revenue was recently established to fifteen billion dollars in 2019. Connecting your other social profiles is a great method on how to get followers on TikTok.

Handling various social platforms with the same username can also be an effective path to construct your online reputation because you can post videos, informing people that they can subscribe to your channel or add you on Instagram. On the other hand, users can recall your username in TikTok and search on another and follow you. Additionally, you can diversify your content by using different accounts.

Collaborate with Others

Running solo may not yield good results, especially if you are new to the world of Tik Tok. Filming a duet with a friend who is as creative as you or create a collaboration video can have a positive feed in relation to your Tik Tok followers. It is important to team up with users that have the same drive as you to create exceptional content. Be careful not to get cooperate with users that have different passions as you because it is irrational to team up with someone who does fashion tips while you are prominent in comedy videos.

Certain videos can be created with a duet option so people all around the world can film their videos with yours, boosting even further your audience.

Be Authentic!

This may be the most important thing you can do to establish yourself in TikTok. People love ingenuity, humbleness, and originality. Some people become viral because of the spontaneity behind them or because it shows how you really are in your everyday life. People love viewing content where you play with your friends, inform certain events that occur in your life or simply pouring certain emotions you are feeling at that moment. It appeals to our humane side and leads to empathy. Therefore, it is essential to be yourself and do not try to portray someone you are not.

The question “how to get followers on TikTok?” can be easily answered if you follow this advice. So, go on and become an online influencer!

Photo by Kon Karampelas on Unsplash

Photo by dole777 on Unsplash

Photo by Perry Grone on Unsplash

Read more:
How to get followers on TikTok – The complete guide

In late 2019, TikTok came out of nowhere and overtook snapchat and twitter with the number of users on the platform.

In 2020, it is expected that TikTok will start competing with Instagram for the number of total users, logins and the amount of content posted.  If you are just starting on TikTok now, don’t panic, we can show you how to successful grow your account in 2020.

Trending Hashtags

Like Instagram, the currency of TikTok is hashtags, you need to use them to make sure that your post is visible to other users. It isn’t enough just to put on whatever hashtags you think are popular onto your post. You need to focus your efforts on understanding what hashtags are trending and which ones can relate to the content that you are posting.

It is easy to use generic short tailed hashtags in the hope that it will get your post noticed, but you also need niche long tailed hashtags that relate to your community and target audience. If it appears that you are highjacking a trending hashtag that has no bearing on your content, subject matter, community or niche, your audience on TikTok will not thank you, so make sure when you use trending hashtags, they are relevant to your content.

There are multiple services available to you to check on trending hashtags, these lists are updated live to make sure you get the latest information and data points that you can apply to your posts. Through deploying carefully researched hashtags, you will maintain the important follow/engagement ratio.

Automation Tools

If you have spent any time at all managing a social media account, you’ll be aware of the time it can take to grow a following. Automating actions with a growth service like TokUpgrade will help free up valuable time and allow you to get back to what is important, creating content. Automation can provide a variety of services for you, from liking other posts all the way through to sending out direct messages.

The better you know your target market the better you will be able to configure your automation tool, you don’t want to use a mass marketing approach on TikTok, you really want to get into your niche and community.

It all comes down to personal preference and how much you want the automation to interact on your behalf. You can allow the tool to manage pretty much all aspects of your TikTok account, or you can just let it run to follow and unfollow other users.

Either way, the tool will make sure that your account grows and you get more TikTok fans. When you configure your tool, make sure that you don’t set it to follow thousands of accounts per day. Whilst we’re not 100% sure of the algorithm TikTok runs, we do know that it is similar to Instagram in that following too many accounts per day will get the actions flagged and your account potentially blocked.

Final thoughts

Growing your TikTok account in 2020 doesn’t have to be difficult or time consuming, especially when there are two types of service available to you that will help you stream line your actions and reduce the time spent researching and making the choice on which hashtags you want to use.

Growing social media is time consuming, so through automating actions such as liking and following other users, you can free up time that will allow you to not only create content, but find the most popular hashtags that will help your content get seen and noticed by other users. Don’t waste time in 2020, outsource your growth to get the most out of TikTok.

Read more:
How to grow your TikTok account in 2020

Instagram is a place where careers and businesses are made overnight. If you are good enough with your tactics, utilizing Instagram to its fullest, and your business can touch the limits of zenith in a very brief period.

With so much popularity and traffic, Instagram has introduced some very interesting and useful features recently. If you have a business page or you are about to open one, here is everything you can do to increase your sales through Instagram.

Use Product Tags

For shopping posts on Instagram, you can now add product tags where you tap on a product you like, the app allows you to see the price of it. If your target audience finds it useful, appealing or interesting they will click on the item available on the Instagram photo. This will allow them to see the details of the product such as its name and proven if they are willing to go further and buy it right then, then they can click on the product tag. They will then be directed to the website for shopping at the very instant.

On today’s age, where we have do not have much time for anything, this feature is a great addition to the app. Once you buy real followers on Instagram, many big shopping pages are using these product tags to make the experience less time consuming and more convenient for their customers.

Use Sponsored Ads

The Instagram logarithmic works wonders for its users. Depending on your target audience, Instagram will advertise your paid ads to them from time to time. If the advertisement seems genuine and good enough, they will click on the ad so that they can be directed to the shopping website.

If companies want to get more likes and audiences on their sponsored posts, they also go the extra mile to buy real likes on Instagram. Today these processes are very convenient and easy to follow. Some trustworthy companies offer exclusive offers and packages on such deals and this investment will be a wise decision on your part.

Launch of the New Checkout Tool

Instagram is now about to launch a new tool that will help the clients to shop directly from the app in an instant. The option will be available in the explore region of the Instagram app that will give a new meaning to your shopping experience.  Instagram has assured all clients and the brand’s taking part that this process is completely safe and secure for everyone, so they can shop in peace without any hesitation. Once you click on the image you will be asked to fill out your details such as e-mail address, residential address, and phone number and so on. The whole process will take a couple of minutes to finish.

Some of the biggest brands are already into the process of participating in this new shopping experience. Reputed brands like Zara, Prada, MAC Cosmetics, Adidas, Nike and many more are known to be a part of the Instagram Checkout Tool.

Read more:
Create ways to increase your sales through Instagram

Is the year 2019 the year of social media automation solutions? Without a doubt.

If you do not use social media automation platforms yet, you are very likely to start using at least one now, after reading our short article.

We are going to show you a few great social media automation solutions that you can use on a daily basis. Don’t be scared – automate your tasks!

Social media automation with NapoleonCat

NapoleonCat will be of help for you when it comes to a social media posting schedule. However, it allows you to do more than just to schedule posts. With NapoleonCat, you can keep an eye on analytics throughout social media platforms and generate reports. It also offers a handy social media inbox where you can handle requests and messages from your clients. If you need a complex social media management suite, this one will hit the jackpot for you. More information about this tool can be found at https://napoleoncat.com/features/automate/.

Social media automation with IFTTT

If you already use some apps, you may be thinking how to make your work even more productive and automate even more processes. IF This Then That, known as IFTTT, pairs tasks, apps and devices, giving you access to powerful integrations, including social media automation. You can create your own “recipes” from scratch or use some of the premade rules generated on the platform. You never knew you always needed it.

Social media automation with Chatbotize

Let’s say that you need to deal with many clients on Facebook, on a daily basis. They keep clogging your inbox and you, instead of thinking about a new set of social media tactics, need to answer them all. It is time-consuming, isn’t it? How about using some social media automation solutions to build an intuitive and user-friendly chatbot that can help you with customer service on social media (and not only) or marketing activities, such as contests or quizzes? This kind of bot can support community management and give you some space for building a strategy around it, as well as increase customer satisfaction. Give it a go – you may get addicted.

Social media automation with RocketLink

Among all of the social media automation tools, RocketLink stands out for automating your targeting abilities. Adding special pixels and personalized call-to-action buttons to the content you share can result in building a custom audience you can use for your marketing campaigns on social media. Doing it manually would take a lot of time or would not be possible at all.

Social media automation with Mention

Do you want to know what people say about you on social media, but you don’t know how to check it out? Social media automation solutions like Mention automate the process of finding mentions and help you reach them quickly. Managing your online presence with precise monitoring is crucial for your company’s reputation. That is why this kind of social media automation tools is crucial for social media strategy.

Social media automation with Grytics

Groups are getting increasingly more popular on Facebook. No wonder that more and more brands decide to manage a group. They focus on creating content and interacting with members, which is great, but it is often lacking any analytics. If you want your group to grow, you need to take a look at statistics and analyze them in order to find the best performing posts. Grytics allows you to do this.

Sum it up

There is no exaggeration in saying that social media automation solutions can really save the day. All of those tasks that in the past had to be accomplished manually can now be completed with a little help from tools or can even be automated completely. As great as it sounds, we should not forget that social media automation tools won’t do all of the work for us – we still need to do our best and reveal our creativity to interact with the desired target groups. If you combine high-quality community management with the right selection of useful social media automation software, you will definitely be onto a winner.

Read more:
The top 6 social media automation solutions to use in 2019

Whether it comes from hackers, disgruntled customers, or is simply a backlash against something you post, negative social media content can destroy trust in your brand in a matter of minutes.

“Social media is the most immediate threat to your company’s reputation,” says Pete Knott, digital consultant at UK PR agency Lansons Communications.

“If not taken seriously it can and will directly impact your company financially and culturally.”

Fake news remains one of the biggest challenges – despite machine learning crackdowns by networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

In May, for example, shares in the UK’s Metro Bank plunged 11% before it could shake off inaccurate social media rumours that it was facing financial difficulties.

And according to Ilia Kolochenko of Geneva-based internet security company Immuniweb, the consequences could potentially be much worse.

‘Dropping a bomb’

“Hackers can cause huge damage if they can find a way to post fake news on social media,” he says.

“Imagine if they managed to hack into the BBC accounts and post a story about Iran dropping a nuclear bomb.

“The effects could be devastating – especially if other news networks picked up the story.”

Social media posts don’t have to be inaccurate to damage your brand, though. Sometimes, the truth hurts too.

In 2016, battery manufacturer Samsung SDI’s market value plummeted by more than half a billion dollars when Tesla boss Elon Musk tweeted that the company was working with Panasonic on its next electric car.

If not properly thought out, your own posts can also cause problems, as US bank Chase found out earlier this year when it was accused of “poor shaming“. It published a post suggesting customers with low bank balances save money by avoiding taking cabs and buying coffees.

Stealing your good name

Other threats include fraudsters taking your brand name in vain.

“Creative crooks often exploit big companies’ names to run social media scams,” Mr Kolochenko says.

“For example, they might set up an ‘Amazon India Support’ account on Twitter and ask customers who contact them about missing parcels to pay a customs fee.”

And even posts by unknown customers can do a lot of damage if other users pick them up.

“Consumers have recognised that social media is a very fast way to get a response from customer services,” says Claire Twohill, social media director at global PR agency FleishmanHillard.

“That’s why social media attacks are often a direct result of a problem with the supply chain, or a change to a popular product.

“But whatever the reason, you need to react fast.”

‘Planning is crucial’

Masha Maksimava, a vice president at Belorussian social monitoring company Awario, says: “The key to online reputation management is handling negative feedback quickly to prevent it turning into crisis.”

So it pays to be properly prepared.

“Planning is crucial,” says Lopa Ghosh, an associate partner at global professional services provider EY.

Equally important, however, is not to overreact.

“You don’t need to jump on every negative tweet,” Ms Twohill says.

“Sometimes it’s better to do nothing to avoid creating a crisis for no reason.”

Either way, finding the right tone is key.

Get it spot on, and you might even be able to turn events to your favour.

Employee activity

“Social networks are a great place to rebuild reputation,” Mr Knott says.

“So try to think about how you can use your response to a crisis to demonstrate your company’s values and show its human side.”

Employee activity is one of the biggest social media pitfalls.

Cyber criminals, for example, often use information gleaned from employees’ social accounts to infiltrate an organisation.

Richard Horne, a cyber security partner at accountants PwC, says: “People expose a lot about themselves on social media.

“So attackers could look at someone’s profile, see they love skiing and email them a malware link to a cheap chalet deal in Switzerland.

“It’s a very common way of infecting companies’ systems.”

Passwords and posts

The challenge, therefore, is to manage how your employees use social media, without impinging on their rights.

“You can’t monitor your employees’ social media accounts – that’s getting into very ethically murky waters,” says Ms Ghosh.

“Instead, you have to educate them about passwords and what sort of thing they post.”

It’s also important to be clear about how they should respond – if at all – if the company becomes embroiled in a crisis.

Read more:
How social media could ruin your business in minutes

Building your personal brand on Instagram involves growing an engaging following that can help your page rank high on users’ feeds.

Since Instagram has grown into a formidable marketing platform, it is not just enough to have a large following. You need to have a following that is engaging. This means that your followers participate in most of the activities that you bring up on your account and actually take action. You can opt to buy real Instagram followers, but they might just have inactive accounts. That is why you need to be patient and get followers that you can interact with.

Identify Your Target Audience

Before you even start building that brand, identify first who you want your audience to be, and what you intend to sell to them. This will be your primary product. If you do not know why you want to grow this brand, then you will not know what to present to your would-be followers and clients. This means that there will be no need for even creating that brand on Instagram.

Use a Mixture of Pictures and Captions

Instagram is not only about the pictures you post. You need to find a voice and have your audience here it. Take good quality pictures, and add witty or funny quotes. Apart from informing and entertaining your audience, you need to speak to this audience. You need to get as clear and concise as possible and be consistent. Try to be as unique as possible and do not imitate others. Your audience will identify with your unique voice and relate to your brand.

Interact and Promote

This step is particularly very important if you want to grow and popularize your brand. When you have decided what you want to do, you will have to post content on a regular basis. However, it should not stop at just posting content, you need to promote this content to have your audience see the content and react to it.

Take your time to respond to comments and participate in the conversations that arise within your posts. You can even initiate these conversations yourself. The more your audience interact, the more you increase your engagement and the more you are able to reach out t other users. Reach out to key influencers within your field and have them participate in your conversations.

If you have other active social media accounts like Facebook and Twitter, consider promoting your Instagram account on these other accounts. You need to let as many people as possible to know the existence of your Instagram account and your brand. Make use of your blog if you have one to promote your brand. The more platforms you use, the more people you will reach and the more popular your brand will be.

Use Direct Messages

Make use of direct messages to reach out to others that are already established on Instagram. You can ask them to repost your content and also return the favor. You can ask as many influencers as possible. If you do share the same ideas, some of them will consider reposting your content hence exposing you to their fans and followers.

Use Hashtags

Now, you are on your way to having your brand known, but you still need to increase your following. If direct messages are not getting enough responses, take advantage of hashtags. Use them creatively to have them get you what you really want.

You can start by identifying other Instagram users that share your passion. Tag these people in your posts, but do not misuse the tags or else Instagram will flag your posts as spam. You can have a maximum of about five hashtags per post. The trick is to tag the right accounts so that you can reach out to the right audience that is likely to follow you.

Use Insta Stories

People love to be entertained. It is the main reason Instagram even exists. Get personal with your audience using these stories. You can show them behind the scenes on what your life is really like. Avoid being that perfect person with no flaws. People want to relate to what is real. The good thing is that most Instagram users watch these stories more often than they do other feeds. So, make good use of them.

Read more:
How to build your personal brand on Instagram

Is Twitter, a social media dinosaur, about to become extinct or is there life in the old dog yet?

Twitter is one of the oldest and most well-established social media platforms, having been created in 2006 (two years after the advent of Facebook.) While the site is still a firm favourite with original users, who remain loyal to its relative simplicity and restricted character limit, new sites like Tumblr and Instagram are snapping at Twitter’s heels with a younger and increasingly more influential set of users.

So, is this social media dinosaur about to become extinct or is there life in the old dog yet?

Twitter has remained pretty constant since its conception, sticking to its restricted word limit concept as a USP (though this has now increased from 140 to 280.) Twitter still forces its users to focus on what they want to say, cutting out waffle and conjecture. Many users enjoy this restriction, but as sites like Reddit and word limit as its defining factor, limiting posters to a set number of characters (now increased from 140 to 280) in order to make them focus on what they really want to say. But as blog-based sites like Reddit and Tumblr rise in popularity, it seems we may increasingly require more space to air our views.

While Facebook has moved through various changes (adding a buy/sell marketplace, pay per click advertising and suggesting content to users, for instance) Twitter remains relatively and comfortingly unchanged, a fact which ensured many original users remain loyal to the platform. As more and more social media sites come to market, however, the younger generation is starting to expect more variety from sites. Twitters lack of innovation may soon become a drawback rather than a USP.

Like Facebook, Twitter does now offer a range of paid advertising options which help to attract new users and bring in revenue. For some time now, large and small brands have taken to Twitter in order to directly communicate with customers, using the site as a free platform both to advertise and interact. It’s also very easy for customers to get in touch with companies, accessing the Twitter app via their phone or tablet in order to fire questions, concerns, suggestions and comments at their favourite big brands. And they have a great chance of receiving a reply too – making it easier than ever before to truly engage with your favourite brands.

Another unique feature of Twitter is the fact that the site makes it perfectly acceptable to interact with a total stranger, something that is frowned upon and problematic to Facebook users. Our Facebook ‘friends’ tend to be people we spend time with in real life, with an added layer of colleagues and acquaintances that surrounds our inner circle. The site offers the chance to build networks of shared connection and, to a large degree, our Facebook ‘friends’ will share many common interests and preoccupations with us. Twitter allows us to form less lasting and meaningful but, perhaps, more interesting and challenging connections with strangers, whether on a personal or business level. Our conversations are often fleeting and shallow, but many of us prefer this to Facebook’s requirement to stay constantly involved and connected.

Unexpectedly, Twitter has become a great platform for social change. The campaign (hashtag) blacklivesmatter, for instance, wouldn’t have gained so much publicity and momentum without trending on the site. Whenever a big event, positive or negative, occurs – Twitter is amongst the first to see it trending as users begin to engage with what’s happening in real time. Twitter has the capacity to bring people together and make a big difference to what’s going on in the world.

From the early days, however, Twitter has suffered from the publication of fake news stories, spam and various types of abuse. It’s also become a platform for individuals and organizations to hammer home political agendas, which some people find off-putting, preferring their social media sites to be places of pure fantasy and fun. Some African governments have gone as far as to cut off all in internet provision in their countries around election times, claiming that the sharing of fake news stories on sites like Twitter has the capacity to alter results.

GIF via Techcrunch

Many people also worry about Twitter’s safety. The site makes it shockingly easy for an individual to create a multitude of fake profiles, making the potential for cyber-crime and bullying a real concern. As an organization, Twitter seems to have done little, so far, to address this issue. With this ease of anonymity, it’s not difficult to see why the platform attracts more than its fair share of trolls – individuals whose presence on Twitter only serves to disrupt and denigrate the content posted by others.

One of Twitter’s most appealing qualities was its ability to allow everyday people to engage with famous faces on an equal platform. These days, many once-prominent celebrities like Kanye West and Emma Stone have stopped using the site altogether, finding it irrelevant in comparison to other rising social media platforms. If this trend continues, Twitter may lose some of its core followers who access the site to follow and interact with their most loved celebrity or political figure.

The Twitter hashtag remains one of the sites’ most valuable and most used features. It seems that many millions of us fell in love with Twitter’s instantly recognisable symbol and won’t be giving it up anytime soon. For millennials, the word ‘hashtag’ has become part of their vocabulary, used in daily life rather than solely through the site. Though Twitter does have some issues, the statistics speak for themselves. Twitter has over 30 million active monthly users and remains the third most popular social network worldwide. With this in mind, the site’s creators probably aren’t too worried just yet. As social media sites morph into hybrids (gaming apps, online dating platforms etc) the ultra- simple yet highly effective premise of Twitter may be what keeps users hooked for generations to come.

Read more:
Is Twitter slowly dying?

Research has shown that more and more companies are choosing to utilise digital marketing strategies to improve their bottom line and increase brand recognition among markets.

In 2019, the number of social network users is expected to increase to 2.77 billion from 2.46 billion back in 2017.

The ever-changing landscape of social media has also caused changes with the way businesses, especially small and medium enterprises (SMEs), operate. Small and medium enterprises usually operate on a smaller scale, with the owner or CEO still having direct involvement in managing and running the business.

With sites like Facebook and Instagram offering a high level of reach and scope, most SMEs are taking advantage of various social networks to market and advertise their brand.

Below are examples of how small and medium enterprises utilise social networking sites in their digital marketing strategy.

Business pages and accounts

Most SMEs nowadays will usually have a Facebook business page. Because the average Internet user spends the majority of their time on social media, especially on Facebook, it makes sense for businesses to create a page on social media separate from their business website.

Facebook also provides a host of tools for businesses to optimize their presence on the social network. Facebook Insights, for one, provides businesses with a dashboard containing statistics, graphs, and additional data to help SMEs understand their audience. These analytics make sure that they are posting content relevant to their market.

While Instagram does not have a business page, they do have an option to turn an Instagram account into a business account. This unlocks a host of tools that will provide business profiles with analytics about their followers’ behavior so they can better cater to their market.

Social media algorithms

Due to the increasing amount of user-generated content, the social network has done away with showing all posts from all liked pages in reverse-chronological order. Facebook has now developed an algorithm for how posts appear on users’ News Feeds.

Understanding how Facebook’s algorithm works allows businesses to figure out what types of content will show up on their target audiences’ News Feeds.

Instagram has also done away with showing posts in chronological order, and has adapted algorithms similar to Facebook’s in that it prioritizes content that it thinks will be relevant to a user. This is especially true in Instagram’s Explore page.

When a post generates a high number of likes in the first few hours, or if a page has a high following, their content is more likely to show up in the first few rows of the Explore page. A lot of SMEs find ways to work around the algorithm; they buy Instagram followers, join Instagram pods, or use third-party apps to schedule their posts during peak hours.

These are just a few of the many ways that small and medium enterprises use social media to market their brand better. Other tricks that SMEs can use are really simple, such as creating quality content or holding contests or giveaways on their social media pages.

Other tactics can be a little time- or resource-consuming such as hiring influencers or brand ambassadors. Either way, social media has now been ingrained into the digital marketing landscape, and will likely continue to remain relevant in the years to come.

Read more:
How social media has changed digital marketing for SMEs

Social media channels provide brands with invaluable opportunities to interact with customers and engage them far more directly than via any traditional marketing methods.

The strategies surrounding the effective use of social media are always changing, as this handy guide proves. So here is a quick look at some of the latest techniques being adopted by brands that want to stand out from the crowd.

Automation 

This is clearly something for the bigger players, but it is interesting to see just how widespread the use of chatbots has become, even on social media. What’s more, the most innovative brands are making sure that their automated customer-facing support services have a bit more personality, providing a dose of entertainment alongside their practical benefits.

Domino’s Pizza is perhaps the best example of this, with its cute and approachable chatbot called Dom allowing customers to ask questions and place orders via a number of chat platforms, including Facebook Messenger. Dom definitely has an appealing attitude, with quips and replies that might make customers chuckle and feel like they’re part of a real conversation, even if the automated nature of the interaction is actively emphasised rather than hidden through artifice.

Inter-Brand Banter

Gaining traction on social media is often tough, but a good amount of mileage can be gained not just from interacting with customers, but also other brands. Casumo Casino’s Twitter presence is a good example of this, as it regularly replies to posts from suppliers it has worked with in the past, creating cross-promotional momentum that might otherwise have been impossible to achieve.

Higher profile instances of brands trading banter on social media include US mobile networks swapping innuendo-laden tweets to playfully taunt each other about their coverage,  or two fast food chains weighing in on a post from Kanye West.

Clearly the aim can be purely promotional, or unabashedly provocative; all that matters is whether or not the message is able to strike a chord with modern audiences. This does leave brands flying fairly close to the sun in some cases, making the risk of creating negative PR fairly high. Thankfully the rewards of an impactful interaction mean that this gamble is more than worthwhile.

Polls 

One sure fire way to stimulate interactions on social media is to pose a question and provide users with an easy way to share their opinion proactively. Polling has therefore become an impressively potent tool for brands to leverage in their marketing efforts.

Instagram is a particularly effective platform for polling, with the Stories feature allowing brands to get their followers more involved in what might otherwise be a relationship of passive consumption.

There is no need to be especially controversial with polls; they can be based on something simple and universal. The point is that the poll itself is the most important aspect, not necessarily the question being asked, since by soliciting a response you are automatically going to draw in audiences and get them to pay closer attention to the rest of the content.

User Submissions 

This is another excellent option for brands operating on social media, although it is not exactly a new development and is really just the natural evolution of a strategy that has been around for decades.

Running competitions where users can submit their own creative entries, vote on the best posts from other contributors and try to take home a top prize is both simple and rewarding.

This practice is best exemplified by Lego IDEAS, a campaign which means that customers can potentially get their work turned into a true retail product just by coming up with cool ideas. This is clearly advantageous for the toymaker as well since it means they can crowdsource the development of new playsets, rather than having to handle all of this in-house.

Unsurprisingly the best social media interactions tend to require brands to think outside the box and be bold with their offerings. Getting customers interested and building a brand identity can go hand in hand, but this process still needs to be carefully planned and precisely managed in order to avoid any mishaps.

Read more:
New ways brands are interacting on social media

Instagram is a social network – and that means you need to maintain all the networks you form on the platform.

It can be an amazing way of building connections with your followers, but you also need a solid plan of maintaining these relationships. Otherwise, you risk letting them go and losing the progress you have made.

Instagram has a good advantage because it allows you to have interactions with people who do not follow you necessarily, just like Twitter, as long as their account is not a private one. That means you can find your advocates, customers and social media influencerson the platform. However, Instagram bears a difference to twitter, because it is not easy to manage followers.

Twitter will provide you an opportunity to make lists of your followers and sort them out easier, but there is no alternative format in Instagram. The element that sets Instagram apart though is the algorithm, which orders your feed and places the accounts you interact with the most at the top of the page. This makes it important to interact with the right people for you to manage your followers easier.

Read on to find out some ways you can manage your followers on the platform, as well as some tools you can utilize.

Implement the big unfollow sometime

When you start off on any social media platform, you probably start off following dozens of accounts, as well as following anyone that followed you. With time though, you realize that many of these accounts that are now irrelevant to you, and you realize you need to let go of some of them.

Similar to any other account you may have on social media, it is important to have a purging period sometimes. The time you take will ultimately depend on the number of people you are unfollowing, but it can be a tiresome process, so it is important to set some guidelines before you start.

First, determine the kind of content you want to see on the timeline, and then set to examine these accounts. Set the kind of content you want to see, and the qualities you want the accounts to have. Once you set these in place, it will be easier to select the people you want to follow and the ones you can remove.

Start to interact with influencers

If you are a business and seeking to expand your audience, it is important to reach a wide audience as much as possible – and influencers can help you achieve that. However, you need to also build a relationship with them.

If you are not sure on who you need to work with, do not worry – that is what hashtags and geotags are for. When you search specific hashtags and geotags, you may notice certain accounts popping up in the feed. Check these accounts out, and also check the kinds of comments they are getting (so that you ensure you are working with a genuine influencer, and avoiding those that use suspicious methods). Geotags will help you locate influencers who live or operate near where you live.

In addition, you can also use certain services to help you connect with influencers. These include Agorapulse, which sorts out Instagram content and hashtags that people within a geographic area post. It will also help you in managing your follower count on the platform, and removes the agony of doing daily searches of how your content is performing.

Another service called Whalar is another good one when it comes to determining whether an influencer is genuine or not. The introduction of the algorithm has led to the problem of fake followers, and many influencers using new services for auto followers Instagram. When you are working with an influencer that is not genuine, it will lead to problems when trying to prove your own validity on the platform, especially when these bots get shut down by the site.

The service allows you to compare the statistics behind different accounts you are interested in. these measurements include the follower ratio, the average likes they get for each post, the engagement rates (very important in determining their genuineness), and the average number of comments on every post.

One thing to note with all these accounts – it also helps to examine the audience that follows them, and se if they fit your profile of an ideal customer.

Once you clean up, keep in touch with the people that matter to you

So you went through the time consuming stage of cleaning up your follower count, and you also began to find the right people to engage with. That is the next step to take – making sure you engage with the most important people to you.

It feels nice to scroll through the feed and comment on worthwhile posts as well as liking them, but there are also people you will also want to keep communication channels open with.

The rule is engaging with your market more often means you will have a greater influence when it comes to getting new customers and sticking with your loyal ones. If you are wondering how to do this, there are certain applications that can help in making your management skills easier.

These include Instagram Save, which is a new feature that the site introduced recently. Its concept is similar to Facebook due to the ‘save contacts/posts’ feature. In addition,you can also use third party services such as Agorapulse that helps in managing multiple groups of people on a regular basis and making lists you would like to sort your followers in.

You can also filter your users through the number of likes they have given your posts in total, or the comments they have given, and then add them to lists.

Final thoughts

If you are living with a cluttered feed, it can very irritating to try and sort it out. However, you need not despair over it; there are still methods you can use to make sure your experiences with followers are as smooth as possible.

Read more:
Top three tips on managing your Instagram followers

Social Media has grown gradually with both globalization and ingenuity spectrums. Today, as we know it, we are looking forward towards a digital age that has reformed our lives competently.

The advancements made by humans has created a single platform where everyone could gather and share their professional involvements into something much bigger, better, and business wise it really hits the chartbusting success.

Over the past few years the SM development has become a necessity in order to gain a virtual victory for your endeavors. Whether it’s your E-commerce involvements or a new brand you want to introduce on social media, you’ll be needing some essentials tool out of hundreds of them available. Though, there are hundreds of online platform utilities available and almost all of them have that particularizing nitty gritty wonders to give your digital ventures. But here are my top favorite 6 that’ll give you a head start towards a prolific career in 21st century’s cyberspace domain.

Buffer: Best social media managing tool

Here is one of those crop of the cream management tools you’ll definitely require in order to create a perfect pathway for your progression processes to follow on. What does it actually do is that it keeps your publications align in an accord synchrony. Your timeline will become more efficient in a timeline flow and give users a perfect timing of viewing your posts in a specific timeframe.

Buffer comes in both free and paid versions and creates an ideal analytics dashboard in order to give your social media streamers a spellbinding back to back streamline effect. Moreover, it lets you evaluate the performances of each and every post for Buy Real Instagram Followers, letting you direct your publications on specific niches and day to day conducts. In short, it also gives you an unswerving memo of what type of posts are trending on which days of the week. Hence, letting you know your users backgrounds and interests that keep them online for ours on various social media platforms.

Sprout Social: Customer relationship management tool

This one comes on the top of the list due to its dedicated diversities in offering various tools for your social media improvements. Founded in 2010 by Justyn Howard, Aaron Rankin, Gil Lara and Peter Soung and ever since it made its debut, is expanded just like ink on a piece of cloth. One of the best catalogue of SM tools for your esteemed customer care cordiality. A great management tool with proficient advocacy and an integrated analytics’ software for businesses.

Furthermore, Sprout’s summing up success acquires users the ability to assimilate with social media giants’ such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Instagram, Google Analytics, Feedly, Zendesk and a few more as well. Alike Buffer, it also offers’ some great free to paid utilities alongside with its exclusive customers’ relationship management tool.

A few important features defined by SS in terms of cramming up E-businesses credibility for its employing consumers comprise scheduling abilities, social listening operations, analytics platform, and multi-purpose access for integrated coordination between teams. Likewise, Bambu by Sprout Social lets user curate content so that coworkers can access and share each other’s posts across different social networks. Astoundingly, Sprout Social allows managers to nurture associations via prompt replies to reviews and requests by respected clients.

Hootsuite

Hootsuite is one of the biggest social media utility brands that has come across user-management magnitude gratitude by about more than 15 million users worldwide. Created by Ryan Holmes in 2008 and since a decade it has superbly multifaceted to offer supreme analytics sophisticates to let you operate better online on plentiful social media platforms.

One of the best UI systems that assumes a preamble of tools adjusted dashboard that upkeeps your social network combinations comprising a revolving circle between SM sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, and YouTube. One of its best feature is the whole of it due to its free availability, and to add the treat twist to it, the paid features are relatively economical in costs as compared to its SM augmenting counterparts.

Hootsuite is a hot cake when it comes for experts to use its diverse set of tools to accomplish specified target oriented employments online. The trio-triggered competition is always on between Hootsuite, Sprout Buy real instagram likes and Spredfast. All of these three offer integrated dashboards with exclusive online marketing extensions.

Feedly

One of the best auto organizers and a news aggregator application for your social media postings. This social media marketing tool keeps your content on autopilot mode with the best timeline preferences. It is better known as a great social media discovery tool like another popular one known as BuzzSumo, but has a bit different operational standards. All you have to do is add the RSS feeds of your preferred blogs and writers, and let Feedly create a composite magazine for you related to the niche and nature of subjects you’ve selected.

Feedly performs posts on up to date indexes and keeps you online UI neat and tidy. Besides, it lets you create the perfect social media scheme and a syncing chronology for your SM postings schedule. The best part of this feeds amplifying tool is that it always offers you something out of millions of publications and out there and keeps you socially active throughout the day with your online E-commerce endeavors. You always have something to share with your customers via the basic to boosting posting tool Feedly.

Bitly: Best content summarizer

Here you go with another amazing find that lets you keep your illustrated content into a proficient précis that really helps your business grow on a rapid pace. Simply put, it mostly shortens your URL address to keep your non-friendly URL social media apps like Instagram and Twitter on scope with business cycle unifications.

Besides, Bitly assists you in understanding which abridged web addresses are working more accurately to your desired e-marketing goals straightforwardly on a single platform without hitching out tool-to-tool analytics here and there. A great concept to let you keep up with single to multiple linkage CTA (call to action) persuasions by users as well as giving you significant insights. Hence, letting you optimize your online business efforts via statistics you’ve collected.

What makes Bitly so important for your social media ventures, is that it lets you summarize your website addresses for social networking websites to proficiently adjust on their in-mobile applications. Simply put, Bitly keeps your web pages well managed with short lengths. It lets you adjust them on a single page without the need of hesitantly distorting your written profiles into a mess that no one wants to land on. A great tool to increase your excited target audience for bmmagazine.

Canva: Best visual content architect tool

Canva gives you the best consolation for your creative concepts. One of the wonderful visual amplifying tools for your social media E-commerce enterprises. The visual content is such an important aspect for your SM oriented e-commerce regulations that you cannot throttle around progressive online marketing grounds without it. Canva comes with a lot of options you can render graphic immersive gimmicks to your genuine content online.

One of the best suite of Productivity Apps and powerful editing templates with a better usability interface than Adobe InDesign and Photoshop. The best part of Canva is its minimalistic and has a rather easy-to-use palate to go with the best visual endorsed renderings for your content.

Read more:
6 new social media marketing tools the experts use

Consumers will most likely come into contact with a business via social media. Are you using the right voice for your business online?

Social media is an essential part of every business’ online presence. It’s the platform that customers or clients will most likely find you on (other than Google). Which means, you need to retain consistency throughout your social networks. What does this mean for your social media? Well, you need to ensure that the voice, tone and language of your social media match up to your brand. Otherwise, you run the risk of alienating potential and existing consumers.

Whether you use a digital marketing agency or keep your social media management in house, it’s vital that you make sure the voice you use across all your platforms matches up to your business. Why? Because brand consistency makes or breaks a business (especially online), and believe it or not, the tone and style of your writing can do the same. You need to make sure it’s in line with your brand. So, without the right voice on your social media your business might flop online. Luckily for you, we have a guide on creating the right social media voice. Here’s all you need to know!

For the people

Creating the right tone of voice for social media is mainly about research, initially. You need to know everything about who your audience is and who you want to target too. An older audience requires a different tone to a younger one, and vice versa. So, knowing your audience is the first step towards creating the right voice for your social media. Remember, that you’re posting for the audience and not for yourself. Never post things that only appeal to you. It’s about the audience after all, as they’re the ones who make or break a business. Whilst every audience is different, there are some themes that work for every audience.

• Quality Writing

If there’s one thing everyone on the internet agrees on is quality content. Yes, if you can upload HQ images and videos, you’re on track to appealing to a wide audience but captioning it with the right words is key too. It needs to make sense, read right and above all, be error free. Young or old, male or female, it doesn’t matter – as long as the content is of a high quality it can appeal to a vast array of users. Another good thing is to vary your content as well. Make sure it’s all different and all interesting and engaging, for both your audience and everyone – but remember, it’s not about you. Never post content that only appeals to you.

• Engaging Language

Whilst we’re on the subject of making appealing content, you should make sure to vary your content with something that has an entertainment value – for your audience. A lot of the time, businesses are bogged down by taking themselves too seriously – and whilst your turn can reflect the seriousness of your company, using engaging and interactive language and content at times can benefit social engagement. Just don’t go overboard. Remember to remain consistent with your tone but making a joke here and there won’t harm anyone (as long as it’s not offensive).

Discovering your Voice

Your brand’s voice and tone should be defined already – unless you’ve never worked on branding. If you haven’t, you’ll probably be unfamiliar with the actual ‘voice’ of your business. See your brand should have a voice, something that is consistent throughout your website’s content, as well as through the way phones are answered and even emails are signed off. Retaining this consistency is key to maintaining the voice of your brand. Your voice is dependent on the nature of your business. For example, an ice cream shop sounds different to a funeral director on social media, so it’s important to use the right voice and tone in your writing and posting on social. Primarily, you voice style should focus on the interests of your audience. You need to use the right language and tone for your business, audience and scenario too.

Cultivating your voice

So, if you’ve worked on branding or not, you should begin to craft your voice for social media. There’s 4 key parts of forming a voice for social media, and for your business too. These parts are the persona, tone, language and purpose. These will all make up your voice on social media.

• The first, persona, is about imagining your business as a person. How would you describe them? What characteristics would they have? By imagining your business as a person, it can help you begin to craft a voice for social media. Think of adjectives to describe your business.
• Next up is tone. Tone is different to voice. Your tone can vary, and many tones make up your business’ ‘voice’. Tone is situation dependent at times, whether you’re being apologetic or humorous, for example, your tone will vary. The tone of voice is largely scenario dependent.
• Third is language. Imagine your person and a scenario, what language would they use in that situation? Is it in line with their hypothetical personality? Keep your language consistent with the persona and tone of your business.
• Finally, there’s the purpose. We spoke about different scenarios for tone, but your voice needs to have different tones to meet a purpose. Whether you’re writing to provide information or to engage, your voice needs a purpose – otherwise it becomes redundant.

By defining these four parts, you’re on your way to crafting your voice for your brand both on and off social media. The key to creating a voice on social media is to try and stay in line with your brand. Your business’ voice must echo throughout your social pages, website and even internally through your business. As your voice is part of branding, it’s important to remain consistent – that is one of the most important rules in branding.

Developing the right voice for your social media can make or break your business. Just remember, you need to appeal to your audience, you’re writing for them and not yourself. The voice of your business should not only emulate your company but be suitable for different scenarios. This is where you utilise different tones for different situations. Build the 4 pillars of your brand’s voice – tone, persona, language and purpose – in order to create the right tone for your business online.

All information on social media voice has been provided by Revive.Digital.

Read more:
The right tone of voice for your social media

According to the recent news, Instagram is not just a social network anymore. With the help of Facebook, it has become a payment system. Read the review to find out more.

Instagram is Snapping at PayPal’s Heels: a New Feature of the Social Media Giant is Rolling Out

Online payments have taken our life to a new level, in terms of safety, сonvenience, and reliability. The advent of e-Wallets has brought about various online commercial businesses. It became far easier to shop, book a table in a restaurant, or rent a room in a hotel. In a matter of seconds, you can transfer money to your relatives, pay your bills, or anything.

Shortly about PayPal

PayPal was the first company in the market that implemented person-to-person (P2P) transactions. Over the course of time, it has become one of the largest online payment companies in the world. Speaking about the benefits of PayPal, there are many of them:

1. It allows you to send money across the globe, from any place in the world;
2. PayPal is easy to use – transferring funds is simple and quick;
3. It’s safe – SSL encryption and other protective programs took care of that;
4. The ability to exchange currencies;
5. 24/7 availability;

Instagram is Bursting into the Online Payment Market

PayPal’s revenue is rising year by year, amounting to 13.09 billion U.S. dollars in 2017 (in comparison with 2016, it was $10.84 billion). Overall, it seems that there is nothing that can bring a halt to the company’s growth. Instagram has a contrary view. A few weeks ago, Facebook rolled out payments on Instagram, to a limited group of people. The selected audience was given a chance to be the first to try out the new feature of the social media giant. At first glance, the list of available operations is rather unimpressive: the people can pay for products and services advertised on Instagram. But the latter feature can turn the world upside down. If you want to buy the thing on Instagram, you just press one button. It won’t transfer you to the shop’s website, nor ask you for any additional confirmation. It’s easy, fast, and reliable.

Instagram has made an excellent marketing move. By implementing this feature, it will gain even more advertisements than it has now. And what is going to happen to PayPal, which has greatly benefited from the growth of mobile commerce in recent years? Facebook can provide a much better seamless experience and pricing for commercial adds on Instagram than PayPal.

How Facebook’s Payments System Works?

By answering the analysts question about payments across Facebook’s apps, Mark Zuckerberg said: “In general, our strategy is to offer those services at cost, and make it so that businesses can bid what it is worth to them to run ads in the system.” It becomes obvious that Facebook treats online payments as an additional value to its advertising business.

Facebook connects payments with advertisements, thereby encouraging those who make spontaneous decisions. More and more people start buying products, which leads to advertising distributors receiving more revenue. Meanwhile, the company increases the price for its service, thus boosting the profit. Everybody benefits from it.

Summary

Instagram is becoming even more popular than it was before. According to the recent research, users spend over 27 minutes per day on the social network. It seems that, with the introduction of the native payment system, Instagram will become an integral part of modern society. It’s highly likely that it will overshadow online payment systems like PayPal, which appears to be slower and consumes more time than Facebook’s payment system.

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New killer feature of Instagram

When you think about it, brands are powerful things. People associate your brand with a certain identity, and this identity sticks with them for life.

For instance, when a person wants a perception of an adventurous individual, they post pictures of themselves travelling to different countries or cities, trying different foods, or even watching different shows – as long as they show you they are doing extraordinary things. Even if they spend much of their time in their home watching TV, the audience does not really know that – so they will see this person as a traveller.

That perception never leaves the mind, and businesses that are successful understand this, and always want to show the best of their brand.

Why choose Instagram to craft brand identity?

Unlike other social media platforms, Instagram offers an individual or business the perfect opportunity to showcase their brand identity – that includes their individual or company personalities.

As long as your brand looks interesting, the audience will connect with it, and it can even encourage them to follow you and become your loyal customers. One-time customers can also get the encouragement to become regulars, because they will form emotional attachments to your brand.

So how do you craft a brand identity?

Similar to other social media platforms, the key to establishing your brand among many and making it stand out is consistency.

Consistency in messaging helps

If you want your brand to stand out, follow the rules of a typical business. Make sure that all the content on your account matches you brand and reaffirms it.

The most important question you need to ask yourself when establishing your brand identity is what you want people to know you for, and what you want to get from your endeavour.

For instance, when you want to recruit young people to your business, they need to know that your company is a fun and enjoyable place of work and gives them plenty of freedom to express themselves. When you establish this, you can put pictures of your employees doing fun activities or getting out of their comfort zone, such as team building activities.

Consistency in visual representation

Branding involves a visual element as well. Your Instagram followers should look at your pictures and recognize them as yours, without looking at the logo for confirmation. That means, strive to get your own watermark, your own identity.

One way you can achieve this is giving all your photos a similar filter, because this will give them a similar feel. When posting images, the artistic feel and theme needs to be consistent, even if the images themselves are different. Use the same color schemes as well throughout, and this will cement a certain feel that is unique to you.

Consistency in fonts

Instagram is purely a visual medium, so the words you use in your pictures can break or make your brand. For this reason, use a consistent one or two fonts throughout your brand identity, or you can pick some that are thee standard of your industry in case you do not have one.

Consistency in timing

This is one factor that kills many businesses – unpredictability in posting. You do not want your audience to not look forward to your posts, as the bulk of your exposure comes shortly after you post a new picture.

When you post on certain days and ours, your followers begin to expect a certain timing to your content, and they will always anticipate it.

Engage with the audience

Instagram is a social media platform for a reason. You need to engage with your followers, and that means posting things such as Instagram stories can be helpful here.

Instagram has a wide user base, not just in the US, but globally. In fact, over 600 million people around the world use it, and this can represent a great business opportunity for you if you handle it well.

Instagram stories in particular, give brands an excellent chance to provide links (an option that you cannot use much on the site), and show people behind-the-scenes content of your work. It is an even better option than the bio section, and it can encourage people to go to your main website, watch videos on YouTube, or download resources.

Hire a pro

In case you do not have the expertise of capturing amazing photographs, or you are not the creative type that makes the images capture enough attention, then consider hiring a professional to do the job for you.

Social media managers are experts at this, especially those that have backgrounds in photography or design. Keep in mind that it is difficult enough to keep your followers and turn them into customers, so it is a good option to begin early enough.

When you outsource visual assets, they can do photo shoots for you and give you images that are high quality and you can use them on your website or Instagram page. You can always find someone that is willing to partner with you in the journey.

Hashtags – do not underestimate them

These will help other users discover your brand, even if they do not follow you on the platform. The maximum you can use per post is 30, but remember that less is more in this case.

Aim to use a maximum of ten and see if the post performs well, and you can even see how many new followers you get from that post. In addition, the hashtags do not need to be complicated, they can be simple. Keep in mind that the most popular hashtags have more people checking them out, so use more of them in your posts as long as they are relevant.

Consider partnering with other brands

Nothing seals a good reputation like working for a good cause. Partner or support brands that have good reputations on Instagram, as it also works as a connector to like-minded people, extends your reach and encourages users to check out your business.

Final thoughts

Extending the reach that your brand has is not an uphill task; you can simply go with some company who can build a targeted strategy for you in instragram such as Famed.co, so you can achieve your goals, resulting in an increase in your Instagram followers and a strong community. For your business, this reach is invaluable and will assist you to expand your community base for the long-term.

Read more:
How to use Instagram to enhance brand visibility – 8 tips you can use

Pub chain JD Wetherspoon has announced that it is quitting social media.

The firm’s head office and 900 pubs will quit the micro-blogging site, alongside Instagram and Facebook with immediate effect, it said.

The pub chain linked the move to bad publicity surrounding social media including the “trolling” of MPs.

“I don’t believe that closing these accounts will affect our business whatsoever,” chairman Tim Martin said.

The firm said decision had also been influenced by the concerns regarding the “misuse of personal data” and “the addictive nature of social media”.

“We are going against conventional wisdom that these platforms are a vital component of a successful business,” said Mr Martin.

The chairman reassured its followers that it would “still be as vocal as ever”, but would instead use its magazine and website as well as the press for news updates.

He said customers could also get in touch with them by speaking with their local pub manager.

“It’s becoming increasingly obvious that people spend too much time on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, and struggle to control the compulsion,” Mr Martin added.

The pub chain currently has more than 100,000 Facebook followers and more than 6,000 on Instagram.

Read more:
Pub chain Wetherspoon shuts down all its social media accounts

What is Facebook Organic Reach?

Facebook organic reach is the total number of unique people who see your business’s unsponsored social post on Facebook as search results.

Marc Dane, SEO & Content Manager at WebCreate.io explains that this means, every time your company posts to Facebook without sponsoring it — a small percentage of your followers will see it the post.

This amounts to roughly two-to-four percent of your overall social audience. So why do I argue that organic reach isn’t dead if the number of people who see your brand’s posts is so low?

According to Facebook Business, pages organically reach about 16 percent of their fans on average. This leaves brands with a gap to fill, and it comes in the form of sponsored content to reach a wider audience.

Is Organic Reach Dead?

The good news is, no. Even with the recent release of two updates which aim to ‘fix the news feed’ and de-emphasis commercial content, Facebook has yet to kill organic post reach.

“The twin goals of increasing user engagement and fending off “fake news” and foreign manipulation prompted the company to announce a major change last night. Facebook is going to prioritize content from friends and family and de-emphasize content from brands, businesses and media publishers (so-called “public content,”) Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post on his goals for the social media giant in 2018.

Who will the change affect?

Although organic reach isn’t quite nonexistent, Facebook’s updates will likely cause the metrics of some small business pages to decrease. These changes will undoubtedly affect the over 65 million local businesses on Facebook. The social media giant’s goals are to cut out content getting in the way of connecting more personally with friends and family. In a way, it seems that Facebook is returning to its roots of connecting friends, family and even strangers around the world — allowing them to build a network of trusted individuals.

What will be very clear in the end is: Company pages run the risk of a lower reach and referral traffic could decrease. This will be mostly influenced by the quality content and how much interaction it receives. For example: If a post about BitCoin causes friends to interact and to have insightful conversation — it will see less of an effect in lowered page/post metrics.

Brands Must Adjust

Facebook is primarily used for other users’ content and operates around the clock. The social media platform also has over two billion active users worldwide, and the average user spends 53 minutes of his/her day on Facebook, Instagram (also owned by Facebook) or Facebook Messenger.

Consequently, brands must take action to ensure their content is organically seen as frequently as possible, and by the most relevant audience, too. Below, you’ll find four tips to help your brand optimize content to align with Facebook’s latest set of updates.

Produce more relevant content

An important element of building a great brand that customers will eventually grow loyal to is establishing trust. How else to establish trust than to provide only the content your followers need/want?

For starters, gain a deep understanding of who your company’s audience really is, what they are looking for, and how they want the content delivered.

Next, you want to consider reliability.

For instance, if you’re a florist and typically provide deals for Mother’s Day and other important holidays — not offering a deal via social media might be seen as inconsistent and cause followers to go elsewhere and make a purchase.

Another element of consistency has to do with post frequency as well. The more often you post, and the more relevant content is, the stronger your interaction has the potential to be, thus growing brand recognition as well.

Schmooze with Influencers

Another key ingredient to this cocktail of social media success is schmoozing with influencers in your space. Remember, influencers have a following and reach that is likely relevant to your core brand.

It is always a great idea to have influencers on your side when you need them most. In fact, brands often work with influencers in terms of content sponsorship or promotion, overall helping boost your brand’s credibility and authority.

Find the Optimal time to Post

Depending on what service your brand offers — you may or may not already know the most optimal time to post to social media. This means posting during the time where the most followers would not only see your post but be most likely to interact with it as well.

You should be aware of a few elements when considering when to post:

• Consider who you want to see your post.
• Once you find a sweet spot — don’t change it up.
• Test a few different times and see which performs the best.

Lastly, according to CoSchedule — the most optimal days to post are Sunday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. And the best times to post are between 9am, 1pm and 3 pm. As always, I’d encourage you to test a few posts to see if you have your own sweet spot that also performs well.

Use Facebook’s Audience Optimization Tool

There’s actually a tool designed for organic post targeting, so why not use it? Facebook’s Audience Optimization tool is an organic targeting tool that helps posts reach the most relevant audience without restricting its reach.

It allows users to add interest tags, and Facebook then uses these them to deliver content.

When choosing from interest tags, you should be as specific as possible, to attract the most relevant audience and sub-audiences. This means that brands can set parameters that specify who will find the post most appealing or relevant based on age, gender and more

It’s a Wrap

In a way, Facebook seems to be working toward leveling the playing field for all brands to have equal access to increasing Facebook organic reach.

Of course, there’s always the option of subsidizing organic content with paid content to help stir the pot and get users more engaged, or you can run a campaign just for likes and build a strategy on how to best engage new and old followers.

Your brand can also implement a Pay-Per-Click strategy to help offset what it isn’t receiving in organic traffic.

Finally, realizing there’s no perfectly-built model that guides brands on how to engage and interact with their social following is the first step, and will undoubtedly force you to get creative when thinking of ways to engage a Facebook audience.Marc Dane is the SEO & Content Manager at WebCreate.io – a knowledge hub for small business owners looking to build a presence online. The site offers website builder reviews and comparisons, guides for building a website and resources on related tools, platforms and more.

Read more:
Despite Facebook’s latest updates — organic Facebook reach still exists  

Facebook is firing back against misleading and deceptive ad practices, and ICOs, cryptocurrencies and binary options are at the top of their list.

In a blog post by Facebooks’ Rob Leathern, the social media giant is trumpeting a new policy, banning ads that “promote financial products and services that are frequently associated with misleading or deceptive promotional practices.”

Without a clear regulatory framework for ICOs, Facebook is just trying to protect its users — of which there were 2.7 billion as of Q2 2017 — and prevent bad actors from promoting their scams on the site. The policy is a broad-brush approach for the time being but seems to target sketchy ads making unrealistic claims and flying in the face of expert advice from blockchain veterans not to invest more than you can afford to lose in any digital coin.

They point to “many companies” that are advertising ICOs and cryptocurrencies, as well as binary options, that aren’t on the up-and-up.

“This policy is intentionally broad while we work to better detect deceptive and misleading advertising practices, and enforcement will begin to ramp up across our platforms including Facebook, Audience Network and Instagram. We will revisit this policy and how we enforce it as our signals improve.” — Facebook

It’s unclear if Twitter or other social media sites will follow suit with similar ad guidelines.

Flurry of Reasons

With a lack of clear regulation for upcoming ICOs, Facebook must have felt it had to do something. Meanwhile, they’re parroting some of the same concerns that blockchain veterans have similarly expressed.

Wences Casares, head of bitcoin wallet startup Xapo, recently reminded investors not to put more into ICOs than they can afford to lose, which supports Facebook’s ban of ads that urge people to redirect their retirement savings into token sales. Ethereum and Ripple founders have similarly been vocal about warning investors about possible scams circulating in the cryptocurrency industry.

Another ad that Facebook is targeting is the one that promises the absence of risk. That seems to have been the approach of Bitconnect, which was guaranteeing fixed returns and has since been hit with its second class action lawsuit claiming an investment scam.

Facebook’s ICO and cryptocurrency ad ban come on the heels of a warning issued by SEC and CFTC chiefs Jay Clayton and Christopher Giancarlo, respectively, to the cryptocurrency industry. They admonished the industry participants who capitalize on the “limited” jurisdictional reach of the regulators, touting this as an attractive feature by which to invest in a digital coin. Meanwhile, the SEC has charged the decentralized AriseBank with fraud, stopping the company’s ICO right in its tracks.

Read more:
Facebook bans all Cryptocurrency adverts Including Bitcoin, ICOs

There are no two ways about it; today’s consumer world is almost constantly on the move, and when customers are looking to make their next move, they tend to be using mobile devices to help them get there.

Deloitte’s sixth annual Mobile Consumer Survey delved deep into the mobile habits of 4,000 consumers and discovered that four in five UK adults now own a smartphone, equating to a potential market of 37 million consumers. Mobile platforms are therefore incredibly important for businesses to tap into the millennial marketplace. Mobile technology has now become a focal point for all types of businesses, with technology rapidly advancing and consumers growing increasingly accustomed to having all the information they need immediately at their fingertips.

The saying ‘there’s an app for that’ has never been truer – there certainly seems to be a mobile application or platform catering for virtually everything. For example, it’s now possible to arrange your next family holiday without even having to leave your living room armchair. There are apps for purchasing flights, reviewing and booking hotels, and even making restaurant reservations and bookings for excursions. Mobile platforms certainly make life easier and businesses need to acknowledge that their millennial customers don’t really know any different, having been brought up in the dotcom boom.

The benefits of mobile platforms for businesses

Undoubtedly, having a mobile platform widens your audience reach, helping to generate greater exposure for your brand and ultimately higher revenue. Last year, for the very first time, adults in the UK confirmed they spent more time on their mobile devices than with desktop and laptop computers. With this shift towards mobile consumerism, businesses must embrace mobile platforms to secure the following benefits:

• Maintain and grow customer loyalty
  By embracing mobile platforms, businesses can effortlessly reach out to their customers wherever they are, building a direct connection and nurturing long-term customer loyalty. For instance, in the world of iGaming, award-winning applications have helped fledgling brands such as MrGreen to grow their player audience with exclusive app-only offers, including 200 free spins, that make customers feel valued. Sandwich addicts will also note the positive effect the Subway app has on its customers, allowing them to customise their favourite sandwiches, locate their nearest Subway store and inch towards free food offers by accruing points with every purchase.
• Positive brand reinforcement
  In today’s throwaway, disposable consumer climate it’s ever more important that your brand is at the forefront of your customers’ minds. When they think of your product(s) or service(s) you want your brand to be the first they recall.

It’s no surprise Domino’s has become the go-to pizza takeaway service given that their app automatically sends messages to its customers, alerting them of exclusive deals on their doorstep so that the moment they do fancy a pizza, Domino’s will always be the first port of call. This gives developers and cross-platform experts the chance to hone their creativity and innovation to help build an app that’s not only useful but enhances your brand’s credibility.

• Connect with millennials on the move
  Even if prospective customers don’t always have access to a computer, by embracing mobile platforms it’s possible for consumers to interact with your brand whether they’re at the gym, doing the food shop or on the way to work. Millennials almost always have their smartphone with them, so as a 24/7 marketing tool, it’s difficult to beat mobile apps today.

Not only do mobile platforms offer your business an additional marketing channel, they’re also a valuable source of advertising – a great way to make consumers aware of new product lines, exclusive offers and services, creating new revenue streams in the process. It’s an exciting time for brands to get ‘mobile’, creating a consistent user experience that resonates with the personality and character of your business.

Read more:
Why businesses must embrace mobile platforms to appeal to millennials

Facebook being an excellent marketing tool, is a fact all businesses should already be aware of.

This social media giant does more than connecting old friends and bringing together new ones. It can be used to promote your business, gain new customers, and engage current customers.

In coming up and implementing your Facebook marketing plan, consider the following pointers:

Learn all the important details about Facebook.

In order to take advantage of Facebook, you need to know it well. You need to learn its different features and the role it plays in the present social media sphere. Get acquainted with everything marketing-related about Facebook. Find out how others use Facebook for marketing. Know the trends and the latest developments that can affect the use of Facebook for marketing. Learn how you can optimize conversions within Facebook. Also, importantly, you need to be properly aware of Facebook’s policies and guidelines. Be sure that your marketing strategies will not lead to having your account/page suspended or deactivated.

Set goals.

Once you have a good grasp of what Facebook can do for your business, you can proceed to setting your goals. Set short-term and medium or long term goals. Short-term goals may include attracting a thousand followers on your Facebook page or getting a thousand likes. For the medium and long term goals, they could be about generating leads, increasing sales, enhancing brand awareness and identity, or achieving business growth at a certain rate. Also, be sure to include in your goals the forging of brand loyalty and favorable feedback from customers.

Put emphasis on using Facebook as a lead generator. Facebook should serve as an effective tool for targeting marketing campaigns, attracting potential customers, and retaining current customers. If you want to engage in Facebook marketing, make sure that Facebook is contributing significantly to your marketing efforts.

Study the target demographic.

Properly identify who your product’s potential buyers are. Facebook is the most used social network for 18 to 29 year-olds. This does not mean, though, that you are limited to this age bracket. There are still a multitude of younger and older Facebook users. What’s more important is that you know who your target customers are so you can come up with suitable marketing copies and strategies.

Map your Content

You can publish informative articles that help attract attention to your product or highlight the benefits your product is able to offer. However, content is not just about articles. Many times, the more effective content to use for Facebook marketing are images and videos. You can develop highly informative and interesting infographics, memes, and videos. You can also collect interesting or humorous content from your customers or fans on Facebook. By the way, if you are publishing articles, be sure to add images on them because images can increase engagement by around 2.3 times.

Other types of Facebook content you should also consider using are links, shares, and Facebook Live. You can share stories from other sites or you can post links to pages that present information helpful in promoting your product. For example, if you are selling coffee, you can share recent research that report on the health benefits of coffee. On the other hand, you can also use Facebook Live to engage customers or to have a captive audience for your announcements or new product launches.

In creating your content, avoid the use of slang and jargon. Make sure your content exudes some personality, something that is relatable. If you want to use humor, be sure that your content is indeed humorous or convincingly funny. Moreover, be sure to carefully review your content for possible offensive language or undertones.

Schedule, Plan and Automate

Next up, you would want to establish a proper schedule in order to create a constant social media presence. This Facebook Marketing plan template can give you an idea as to how an orderly Facebook page marketing should ideally look, schedule-wise.

Also, not “autopiloting” your Facebook marketing does not mean that you can’t do automation. There are aspects in online marketing, including Facebook marketing, that are best automated. For instance, instead of manually posting your marketing copy on Facebook and other social media accounts, you can use social media management apps. You don’t even have to spend for them. There are free apps you can readily use. They can help you schedule the publication of your content and analyze the best time for releasing new content.

An important reminder: avoid posting excessive promotions. Schedule your highly promotional content at frequency that does not annoy your audience. You can sandwich explicit advertisement posts with informational or interesting posts. Don’t barrage your Facebook followers and potential customers with incessant advertising copy.

Get everyone in the company involved.

Facebook is something virtually anyone can use. As such, there’s no reason not to get everyone in your company involved in your Facebook marketing efforts. Take full advantage of Facebook’s social networking function by having everyone in your business playing a role. It could be something as simple as liking or sharing the content posted on your official Facebook page. Employees can also help check the accuracy or propriety of the content being published. They can also respond to inquiries and criticisms. Especially in cases when your online presence is being underhandedly assailed by a competitor, everyone in the company needs to be taking an active part in using Facebook to create a favorable image.

Monitor the achievement of goals.

Lastly, be sure to monitor your Facebook marketing efforts. Keep track of the goals you set earlier. If you are missing your targets, do tweaks or adjustments in your strategies and the marketing content you produce. Make this monitoring periodic or regular.

Plan your Facebook marketing with the points above in mind. Don’t just do Facebook marketing because everybody else does it. Be sure to have a plan and exploit all the advantages Facebook can offer. Facebook marketing is something you should direct and adjust acc, not something that drifts aimlessly because you are just doing it for the sake of doing it.

Read more:
Facebook marketing for your business: Don’t autopilot It – Plan it!

Once upon a time there were clear lines of demarcation between business concerns and your social life.

That has all changed with the advent of one of the most transformative phenomena of the modern age: social media. Nowadays every organization, from corporate giants to one-person enterprises, requires the oxygen of a web platform.

The Internet is crucial for customer engagement or for keeping in touch with potential stakeholders through sites such as TopOffers network. Without this connectivity your business may well undergo virtual asphyxiation. Analogies aside, social media actually underscores why it is so important to maintain clear boundaries between business and pleasure.

We all love social media because it is such a convenient way of touching base with colleagues. Our first port of call is no longer that long list of email contacts but pages where we can interact with groups, experience live chats, and share information around as many people as we consider necessary.

But much as this easy and informal communication is tailor-made for your social circle, it is not the most ideal way for conducting business. Companies use Facebook to reach out for customers, whether they form part of their existing base or they are reaching out to new ones. The advertising rates are considerably more cost effective than the previous scattershot approach of poster campaigns and blanket email. But there is a danger when the company page nestles alongside those same pages we all navigate when seeking gossip with friends.

Customers might be concerned about issues such as security when getting in touch with an organization. Platforms offer the option of private messaging if you feel the business under discussion wouldn’t be appropriate for a public posting. As well as Facebook pages, companies will still operate websites containing contact details for personal emails or telephone communication.

But the issue can be cultural more than anything else. There should be clear dividing lines between the way you approach social sites, whether this is Facebook, or others such as Instagram or Twitter. If a company employee has just spent the weekend posting items about their social life, they might well remain in ‘flippant mode’ when posting content at work. We all spend so much time on social media that it can be quite difficult to formalize how we address people on these platforms during the day job. Whether subconsciously or not, there may be a temptation to message business contacts as if they are part of your friend circle and adopt informal tones. ‘Dear sir’ gives way for ‘How you doin’?’

That social media has spread into so many niche area brings new complications. What if an employee has spent the previous evening getting to know someone on some england dating site? Whether subliminally or not, they might remain in overly flirtatious mode when discussing financial reports with some young executive in London. Once emojis, textspeak and slang make the leap from friendship groups to your virtual workplace, then your professional image will disappear into the ether.

Read more:
Why social media should maintain barriers between business & pleasure

Social media has been blamed for the growing trend of office workers using out of office emails to brag about their summer holidays, glamourous lifestyles and even new babies.

Experts at LondonOffices.com claim there is a growing trend for the once sober out of office auto responder to be loaded up with boasts about how much fun the worker is having while they are away from the office.

Brags include details of the person’s holidays, their access to glamorous sporting events and landmark life events such as weddings and new babies – some even attached photographs.

Many will mask their boasting in self-deprecation – turning it into a ‘humble brag’ while others prefer to deflect the boastful nature of the content with humour.

But despite the jokes out of office messages are increasingly being used to communicate to contacts how wonderful the worker’s life is – with many sending out thousands of emails including personal details to clients and work associates with whom they have a purely professional relationship.

Chris Meredith of LondonOffices.com believes our addiction to social media has blurred the boundaries of what should and should not be shared for many office workers.

He said: “We are all used to seeing people share details of how incredible their lives are on social media and many of us feel a need to compete or keep up with others who seem to be leading a more perfect life than we are.

“What we are now seeing is that trend is spilling over into business communications and the out of office auto responder is a great example of that.

“In the early days of email the out of office responder was purely a tool to be used to inform contacts of the dates we would be out of the workplace and when they could expect us back. It might also include the contact details of a colleague who could be contacted while we were away, but nothing more.

“But what we have seen over the last couple of years is an increase in the use of the responder to include private information such as where we are going on our holidays, what we will be doing at these glamourous locations and how much fun we will be having.

“Many workers, particularly young professionals, don’t stop to consider who this information will be sent out to. An auto responder will send this email to everyone who drops you a line over the next two weeks.

“This will include co-workers, managers and employers. It will also include clients and even prospective new business contacts.

“What we are seeing is a trend of social media infecting professional communications so workers are sharing far more on their auto responders than they ever would if they were emailing some of these professional contacts directly.”

Here are a selection of auto-responses received by the team at LondonOffices.com this summer:

“Thanks for the email, I’ve been very lucky and managed to get tickets to Wimbledon so won’t be back in the office now until Friday the 7th.”

“I am currently soaking up the sun and eating allllll the feta cheese in Greece.”

“I’m taking a long weekend to reorganise my stamp collection.”

“Last autumn, my wife and I started working on a little project. It got off to an exciting start; then things got a bit bumpy; but we’ve even managed to deliver on our objective two weeks early. I hope you’ll be as pleased with the results as we are… (Picture of baby) I’m off for a couple of weeks for a thorough debrief.”

“I’ve abandoned London, flown across the pond and set up camp in NYC for the summer to work for a cool magazine, drink cocktails and eat bagels.”

“I am away with my family dancing, meditating, eating lovely food and taking part in fun interesting workshops at a festival so won’t be picking up any emails.”

“I am away at a festival meditating, walking mindfully, eating lovely vegan food, meeting new and old friends, recharging and enjoying the sunflowers in France.”

“Something old, new, borrowed and blue,
My friend’s about to say ‘I do’,
So as I walk her down the aisle,
I won’t check emails for a while.”

“Here’s some news: I’ve bid adieu to this job in order to variously pursue projects of my own and to trek off to Sri Lanka for a volunteering venture.”

“I’m on a trip trying to find Komodo Dragons in Indonesia.”

Read more:
Social media ‘bragging’ spilling out into workplace communications claim experts

The Business Network International (BNI) found that 75 per cent of business owners are put off engaging with a small business because of its lack of social media presence.

With over 270 million Twitter users and 1.2 billion Facebook users, there is hard evidence that social media is a powerful tool for business owners, however many SMEs are still reluctant to build an online following.

However, on the contrary, social media is a business savvy tool that should be harnessed into any businesses marketing strategy. Here are the benefits:

1. Increased Traffic

The most common route to generating an influx of traffic to your website is through sharing content on social media. If your content, whether it be a simple Tweet or Facebook post, is shareable amongst your followers, it can create both a surge of new followers and an increase in website traffic. Reports show 73% of adults are online and use social media, meaning the industry is certainly thriving.

2. Builds Branding

Your SME can gain significant exposure through social media, making it an effective source of increasing brand awareness. Although TV advertising is still the leading channel for branding, social media follows in close second. Many studies suggest this is due to the large number of millennials on social media, but it is also down to the rise in technology. To help create professional and compliant business content, invest in Templafy. An SME’s brand is important, and by using chaos-free software, your business will never be off-brand again.

3. Online Presence

A lack of online presence is one of the biggest reasons as to why start-ups fail. The issue is, many SMEs are not digital ready, and therefore do not become exposed online, meaning they miss out on vital marketing opportunities that are needed in today’s technology-based world. If you have an online presence, then your business will be able to reach a wider geographical audience and target certain audiences such as age, gender, education and even relationship status, meaning better sales and revenue.

4. Building Trust and Personality

People will only buy or invest their time and money in companies they can trust. If you are able to create an emotional connection with your audience and generate a personal feel to your business, then your company will become more attractive and trustworthy. Behind the scenes photos and employees images on social media tend to rank highly on Instagram, a platform that is becoming increasingly popular. A simple like or follow can have huge benefits to the business.

5. Time and Cost Efficient

The benefit of using social media is that marketing is free and incredibly cost effective. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube are all free to use, and creating an account only takes a matter of minutes. With apps being readily available on mobile phones and iPads, businesses can post at any time, in any place, meaning it is quick and considerably easy to use, regardless of location. Advertising has never been so accessible!

Read more:
Why social media marketing is important for an SME

Here are some important tools you can use to take your marketing to the next level:

Cyfe

This is a social media dashboard that enables marketers to monitor their accounts in the simplest way. Cyfe is a cross-channel tracker that incorporates performance as its main feature in place of scheduled posts. The app is free, so you only need to take a few minutes to sign up and customize your dashboard.

Mondovo- Competitor Analyzer

Every marketer must keep track of what other competitors are doing to attract a bigger audience. The Mondova account helps you compile data about other competitors’ performance on Facebook and Twitter. It analyzes your competitors, and shows you the number of times they are posting on social sites, and the number of fans they have. The service requires you to pay a few cents per each feature.

Cinamatic

Cinamatic is a video creation app that enables users to create short films that they can share to their audience on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. The best thing about this app is that it enables you to create short video clips and add filters to enhance professionalism and attractiveness. The app costs $2.99 and can be downloaded from the App Store.

PhotoVideoCollege

This app is useful for business owners who normally host live events and would like to showcase their products in use. With this app, you are able to combine pictures with music to come up with a good slide of creative gallery. The app enables you to create attractive backgrounds for your photos for better advertising.

Hyperlapse

Hyperlapse enables you to create some fun moment videos that are short and to the point. The software has strong capabilities because it was developed by Instagram. With this software, you are able to create better quality videos using your phone camera. More people will be interested in such videos because they are less time consuming.

Mulpix

Mulpix is an important tool that makes keyword search easier on Instagram marketing. This search engine filters information according to the requirements you have indicated. It helps search through different hashtags that are related to what you have typed in. Mulpix is most effective when considering geographical guides.

Rafflecopter

One of the most effective social media marketing strategies is engaging your audience in a contest. Rafflecopter helps you create giveaways in the easiest way. Once you’re logged in, the app directs you to choose a price you intend to offer, the people who can enter the contest, and your time parameters. This is a simple process to quickly create a contest.

Read more:
Useful tools to use for social media marketing

Brits are being urged to choose their words wisely in 2017 if they want to get ahead in the careers race.

As thousands of us rush to update our CVs and profiles, LinkedIn has revealed the nation’s most popular words, which those looking to get noticed should avoid. The list, which shows the ten worst offenders from the past twelve months, has been revealed during what is historically the busiest week in January for UK profile updates.

‘Buzzwords’ is an annual list drawn from analysis of LinkedIn’s global membership, including its more than 21 million UK members. At number one on the list, and making an appearance in nearly half a million profiles across the UK, is “specialised”, followed by “leadership” and “experienced” respectively. The top five is completed by “passionate” and “strategic”, with last year’s most overused word, “motivated” dropping entirely from the list.
The top ten UK buzzwords for 2017 are:

Specialised
Leadership
Experienced
Passionate
Strategic
Excellent
Focused
Creative
Enthusiastic
Successful

LinkedIn’s Darain Faraz commented, “Don’t sell yourself short this year. Whatever your career goal, whether it’s getting a new job, building a better network or taking a step up the career ladder, make sure you stand out for the right reasons. If you’re looking to grab someone’s attention, words which appear on hundreds of thousands of other profiles is not the way to do it.

“Historically, this is one of the busiest weeks in the year so far for members in the UK to spruce up their LinkedIn profiles, which means there’s some stiff competition to stand out.”

Sandford commented, “The language we use says a lot about us so it’s important to choose your words carefully, especially in a professional context. Too often we hide behind buzzwords which don’t mean anything, whether out of a desire to keep things simple, or because we don’t feel confident talking about our work accomplishments.”

Author, Christopher Sandford has provided his advice for those looking to improve their LinkedIn profile this year:

Mind your language

Your profile summary is one of the first things people look at, so it’s important to get it right. You want the reader to want to know more about you, so start with something punchy.

Be direct

It’s often tempting to speak in the third person when it comes to our working lives – don’t! It’s impersonal and won’t draw the reader in.

Show, don’t just tell

While language is important, so is showing real examples of your work. Instead of using buzzwords like ‘strategic’, prove it by uploading presentations or projects that bring this to life.

Read more:
Top 10 business buzzwords on LinkedIn

The image-sharing platform has also seen around 1.5 million users switch to its ‘Business Tools’ programme, since its launch earlier this year, giving users instant, one-click access to brands. Not only are consumers able to get a business’s contact information, but they can even get directions from their current location. Business users are also able to gain information on what resonates well with their customers with Instagram Insights, and see the impact that their posts have in terms of impressions.

As a business, you don’t just want to exist in the Instagram space, you want to add value, generate awareness and increase revenue. So, with the 500 million-user app firmly on the radar, what can marketers do to measure the success it’s bringing to their brand?

Value comments over clicks

One of the very first metrics marketing teams can look at is the level of engagement being achieved. Just as you would on other social channels, such as Twitter or Facebook, make a point of evaluating your interactions.

When it comes to Instagram, some believe it’s all about the number of likes you get for photos. However, a like is easy, but a comment is more valuable. Almost 99 per cent of interactions come in the form of likes, with comments only accounting for roughly 1.1 per cent.

Comments take longer to write and require some thought, meaning whatever you have posted has sparked a reaction from those it’s reaching. Think about the content you’re posting and work out how best to entice a response from people. It might be that you run an Instagram-based competition, asking users to comment and re-share content, or that you move beyond posting just images, engaging video as an additional extra. Moving images are an even more engaging way to grab the attention of your audience and Instagram’s introduction of video app Boomerang enables users to bring everyday moments to life.

If you notice that the number of comments on your content begins to increase, you’ve successfully boosted your engagement, but remember, not all comments will be 100 per cent positive. In a study of 100 top brands using the app, engagement per post has grown 53 per cent year-on-year. In fact, B2B brands see 20 times more engagement on Instagram than on LinkedIn, a platform solely designed for business interactions.

Watch the clock

Marketers getting the most out of Instagram are those that not only consider the ‘who, what, where, why’, but also the ‘when’.

An Instagram post typically has a lifeline of around four hours before it’s buried on a persons feed, making them a lot less likely to see it at all. For brands, this means choosing the time you know the majority of those you’re trying to reach will most likely have eyes on their feed.

The average Instagram user is likely to interact with a brand either first thing in the morning between 8.00 and 9.00 am (checking their phone before or on the way to work), during lunch at 1.00 pm, or in the evening at 5.00 pm (just as they finish work). Knowing this information, but more importantly using it, will help marketers develop a posting timeline that will be most effective.

By keeping track of your most engaged posts and the times they were published, you will begin to see a clear pattern of activity and pin point your audiences optimum time.. Getting an idea of what content works best, at what time for y our brand, means you’re one step closer to connecting with your target audience.

Start tracking traffic

One of the most important things for marketers is knowing just how effective Instagram is at driving leads to their site. This is where the platform’s new ‘Business Tools’ offering comes in handy.

With a business profile, brands can choose exactly how they want people to get in touch with them, be it via phone, email or even text. Instagram’s addition of the ‘contact’ button makes it effortlessly simple for marketers to monitor just how many people are reaching out to them, and their preferred method for doing so.

Not only that, it makes it easy to monitor your followers, tracking both boosts and drop-off’s on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, depending on how suits you and your business. That being said, while tracking daily will help you stay on top of your account, it won’t provide enough data and results to assist in making informed decisions.

The only way to make improvements to your social media offering, including Instagram, is to know what works for your business, something that can only be achieved by tracking, monitoring and benchmarking over time. Learning more about the people that follow and engage enables you to create more relevant and relatable content for your audiences.

The platform has some of the highest engagement rates and lowest bounce rates across social media, meaning the traffic produced is extremely valuable for any business. So, if you’re not measuring your engagement on Instagram and ploughing the learnings back into your overall marcomms strategy, you’re missing out on this touchpoint with key audiences.

Read more:
#Instagram – a marketing goldmine yet to be uncovered

Twitter won the rights to livestream 10 ‘Thursday Night Football’ games throughout the NFL season back in April, paying an estimated $10M for the rights. This is a lot less than the $17M that Yahoo spent for the rights to livestream an NFL International series game in London between the Buffalo Bills and Jacksonville Jaguars last year. It’s also a considerable mark down from the $45M per game that CBS and NBC are paying to air the same games on their own networks.

Twitter have been pushing video and event livestreaming recently, with Vine and Periscope now integrated into the platform, enabling users to post 6 second videos or livestream anything directly to their ‘followers’. This push has come around the same time as Facebook launched their ‘Facebook Live’ system, which allows livestreaming to your friends or people that ‘like’ your page and saves the videos on your page as soon as you have finished.

Twitter trialled the streaming of Sports events by livestreaming Wimbledon matches and a College American Football game between Georgia State Panthers and Air Force Falcons. They have also livestreamed events such as the Democratic and Republican conventions in America and the red carpet premiere of ‘Suicide Squad’.

Twitter cofounder and CEO Jack Dorsey will be hoping this livestreaming push helps Twitter recover from the declining growth in users and revenue. Twitter reported its revenue rose by 20% to $602M in the second quarter of 2016, which is its smallest gain and eighth period of declining growth in a row. However advertisers are sceptical about how successful this will be, as the viewing base will be different to that of the TV audience, as typically older people tend to have larger disposable incomes would use the TV network coverage, whereas younger people who tend to have smaller disposable incomes would be using the free livestream. The majority of the 300 million Twitter users also access the platform via the mobile app, so a large proportion of the viewers will be seeing the stream via a screen around 5 inches wide, instead of a television screen that could be anywhere from 20 to 50 inches wide for the average TV viewer.

There’s also a poor track record when it comes to NFL games being livestreamed for free, with Yahoo’s livestream of a London game last year reporting 33.6 million views, although only 2.36 million people were estimated to have watched the stream. This pales in comparison to the average viewing figure for NFL on TV networks in America, which can be anywhere from 13 million on ESPN for Monday Night games to 28.6 million on Fox for late Sunday afternoon games. However you could put this down to the fact the game kicked off at 9:30am for those on the East coast and 6:30am for those on the West coast of America.

You can watch the Thursday Night Football games for free on Twitter via the link: tnf.twitter.com

Sept. 15: New York Jets at Buffalo Bills
Sept. 22: Houston Texans at New England Patriots
Oct. 6: Arizona Cardinals at San Francisco 49ers

Oct. 13: Denver Broncos at San Diego Chargers
Oct. 20: Chicago Bears at Green Bay Packers
Nov. 17: New Orleans Saints at Carolina Panthers
Dec. 1: Dallas Cowboys at Minnesota Vikings
Dec. 8: Oakland Raiders at Kansas City Chiefs
Dec. 15: Los Angeles Rams at Seattle Seahawks
Dec. 22: New York Giants at Philadelphia Eagles

Read more:
NFL set to embrace twitter to boost reach of the sport

Indeed, ten years ago, small businesses remained virtually the same – they still used physical offices, performed admin tasks with paper and communicated via meetings – and simply used the Internet to bolster their efficiency. However, if we fast-forward a few years to 2013, we see that eight million Brits were in charge of an online business.

Thanks to the advent of cloud computing, online services and remote communication platforms, small business owners don’t need an office, diaries or meeting rooms. In fact, as long as someone has a computer, an Internet connection and a stream of work they can run their own business from anywhere they like.

Remote Earning is Now a Reality

In fact, over the last few years the term “digital nomad” has been used to describe those who now have their own mini-business and work virtually when they want and where they want. According to Lottoland’s tips for being a digital nomad, earning an income from a remote location is possible if you have the right conditions.

After picking your venture, such as a travel blog, and where you want to live, the blog posts suggests that you need to consider how you’re going to get yourself online, what sort of device you’re going to use and how you’re going to generate business. In recent years, social media has become one of the best ways for small businesses – whether that’s an individual working alone or a small team of people – to promote their services.

Using Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to alert the masses to your latest service, product or offer has been the go-to strategy for many businesses since things went digital. In fact, one of the very reasons why operating a small business can now be an all-digital affair is because of social media, so the news that Instagram is now offering new business tools should be seen as another step forward.

Instant Ways to Make Money

Following the release of three new tools, UK businesses with a partner account on Instagram can now promote their posts, analyse their interactions and show off their business in a more efficient manner. Dubbed Instagram Business Profile, Promote and Insights, the new features will make it easier for businesses to generate income using Instagram which, in turn, will make it easier for business owners to run their services without the need for physical objects and locations.

The business world has changed dramatically over the last ten years and it will continue to evolve as we move forward. While it used to be that the Internet was an accompaniment to a physical operation, today it’s the case that a small business can exist entirely online. Whether it’s a digital nomad trotting the globe or a team of ten working from remote locations to achieve a common goal, working online is now becoming the norm and Instagram’s latest update is a testament to that.

While the world of the web might still fill some with a sense of dread and confusion, the inescapable reality is that it now pays to be online. Running a small business from the comfort of your lap is not only possible, but encouraged. Through social networking, cloud computing and digital communication, it’s easier than ever to manage a small business and live life as a digital nomad.

Read more:
Instagram’s Business Update Makes a Nomad Life More of a Reality

According to research undertaken by The Social Habit, 42% of people who make a customer complaint via social media expect a response within an hour. A further 32% demand direct action in as little as 30 minutes.

How can businesses make the most of social media?

With customers becoming so demanding, smaller businesses in particular are really feeling the pressure. While a renowned brand with thousands of employees and a designated social media team working around the clock can easily deal with customer queries and complaints, companies with far more modest resources aren’t so well equipped.

Here are 10 essential tips for you to follow…

1. Be quick – very, very quick!

Kevin Mullaney, Head of Digital at  Flagship Consulting, believes that most consumers expect a rapid service 24/7.

“Brands should, and customers expect them, to respond within one hour of a complaint being left on social media. This doesn’t need to be the full answer to their question but an acknowledgement of the comment and when the customer can expect a follow up. Customers expect this level of response on weekends too so if your social media teams aren’t available 24-7 then make sure to specify when they are active in the profile’s bio,” he commented.

2. Show empathy and interpret those emojis

With a 140 character limit and no sarcasm filter to speak of, it can be really hard to gauge the sentiment of some tweets.

Responding to a sarcastic tweet in a serious manner, or conversely offering a jovial response to a serious grievance can be embarrassing and potentially damaging.

Kevin Mullaney added:

“Social customer service is riddled with pitfalls because not only do you have to quickly and accurately respond to resolve an issue in public but you need to consider a customer’s emotional state and tone which could be very tricky in short, emoji-riddled social posts.

“Some situations require a friendly, empathetic response with an honest admission of mistakes, while others need to be much more formal and procedural. In some instances, the complaint may be so severe that 140 characters or a short response won’t cut it and you will need to take the conversation offline and away from public view to resolve an issue to satisfaction and any misstep or a lack of emotional intelligence can lead to prolonged negative sentiment on social.”

3. Don’t try to hide negative responses

No brand wants to receive negative feedback in a public forum, but the last thing you should do is delete complaints from your timeline (unless they are offensive, of course). You can read more about Twitter’s offensive comment guidelines here.

Removing genuine complaints will only serve to anger the person who has left them, potentially escalating the situation and making it much worse than it would have been if you’d simply held your hands up, accepted responsibility and offered a solution.

Having negative reviews shows that you are real. Mistakes happen – it’s how you deal with them that matters. A report by Reevoo showed that customers spend more than five times as long on a site that has bad (but trustworthy and genuine) reviews. They also convert nearly 85 per cent more often.

4. Carefully direct upset customers away from an open forum

Social media is the first touch point for many disgruntled consumers, as they know that the company in question must respond.

However, businesses need to be able to direct these people to their own live chat facilities so that they can get to the bottom of the problem, offering a greater level of personalisation in the process.

Marina Kalika commented: “If a [person] has not received a delivery and has taken to Twitter to express their frustrations, the brand is able to contact the customer to reassure them via social media, and offer them the chance to seamlessly transition the conversation to their online live chat function on their website. By doing so, it takes the customer from an open forum, to a private conversation whereby a customer service representative can provide the answers they need and deliver one-to-one personalised support.”

5. Hire a Compliance Officer who focuses on brand reputation

Sufiyan Kala heads up our social department at Love Energy Savings and he highlighted the point that having a designated Compliance Officer in place can help to ensure that all customer feedback is treated in the appropriate manner.

“We have policies whereby I’ll alert the Head of our Pre-Live Team, who will liaise with our Compliance Officer. The reason our Compliance Officer gets involved is because as a business we want to ensure every customer’s feedback (good or bad) is given the same amount of time in terms of investigation, liaison and, obviously, resolution,” he remarked.

This, Sufiyan told us, helps to build trust in the brand.

Read more:
5 surefire ways to improve your customer service via social media

Community engagement and professional support can be the best way to boost your brand awareness, helping to set up your start up.

You need to actively engage your community, but what is the best way to do this?

Be an Industry Leader

Firstly, establishing yourself as an industry leader by demonstrating expertise is a fantastic way to instil community confidence in your business. If people can see that you know what you are doing, they are far more likely to trust you in the long term. This requires finely tuned interpersonal skills, tact no matter the situation, thick skin and compassion for those that you are dealing with on a daily basis. Good leadership inspires the same in others, which helps a community to grow as a result of forward-thinkers taking the reins and moving the community in the right direction.

Interact and Engage

A great way to engage your community is through volunteering. Showing you are actively working to make the community better, that you hold a degree of social responsibility towards it, and actually care, gives your company a good image. The relationships that you form are the bread and butter of your business. The idea of ‘giving back’ to the community is a strongly instilled ideology; a lot of big businesses actively do so and promote this work as a part of their brand.

Understand Your Community

If you are aware of the needs of the community, knowing the people that it comprises of, you have already taken the first step to a good relationship. A large part of beginning to understand your community is to talk to them one on one. Speak to them about the issues they face and learn from the source. Learning about a community from anywhere else would be ill-advised, especially if this research was fundamentally wrong and thus leading to a completely ineffective engagement strategy.

Host or Sponsor an Event

Community engagement works best in situations which gather the community together. A fun event, especially with a lot of activities for children and families to enjoy, is a fantastic way to bring the community to your door. Sponsoring local fairs or other events helps to keep the spirit of the community alive and would be greatly appreciated. There is a growing separatism in communities, a feeling of isolation from neighbours as much as from businesses. Helping to bridge this gap helps to solidify your company as a community business.

Use Social Media

Most people use social media as part of their daily routine. Brand engagement, with content-led marketing, is a brilliantly effective way to reach audiences in this growing modern world. Sharing fun articles, promoting offers or adding a level of exclusivity for following your company on social media is a great way to increase engagement on a digital platform. Getting to know your community online is also a great way to understand what strategies to use offline.

There are many ways in which you can engage your local community. The fruits of your labour will create a feeling of good will, both towards you and your business. After all, no business can be an island.

Quality Formations are a professional formation company assisting with the start-up of a range of businesses with a variety of bespoke company structures.

Read more:
How your business can engage with the local community