It may seem at times to be an almost impossible task; keeping up with the constantly shifting tides of social media change, whether it be updated algorithms, content streams flooded with competitors, or simply the number of options you have to present your brand to the world. Just when you think you’ve got a handle on your @handle, it all changes again. If you’ve made it this far into 2018 without pulling your hair out, here are some of the top problems you may encounter in the months ahead, and some of our best tips to help you conquer them, and finish out the year stronger than ever before.
Problem: Updated Instagram feed algorithm
You may remember that last year you started seeing posts made by friends and followed pages that came up in your feed days after they were originally posted. Instagram had adjusted their calculations to favor posts that fostered engagement and reposting, and also time spent viewing the post. This is one of the key reasons to utilize a carousel of photos for posts if you can’t be posting video; it would help keep a viewer’s attention longer, driving up its rating value. Chronological order was not taken into account with this update, but it’s back in the mix now. That’s not to say that the other factors don’t still weigh heavily on a post’s ranking, but time is now also a factor.
Solution: Experiment with posting times
Though it may take a few weeks to nail down the ideal posting times for maximum engagement, start by posting content with regularity, but vary the time of day and watch closely for the levels of viewer reaction. With the erstwhile update, you could post at 3am and still get great engagement over the next few days, as your followers’ feeds were less cluttered in the middle of the night and it would rise to the top of the heap without competition. Track your most successful posts with each day, and then begin experimenting with quantity of posts per day. Wait until you see numbers start to go downward again, and then back off and you’ll have found your sweet spot.
But don’t rest on your laurels. Keep track of these posts success and if you start to see variation again, change it up. With over 600 million users of Instagram, the competition is fierce, but it continue to drives the quality of content ever higher, and that can only be a good thing for a business and brand like yours.
Problem: Low interaction with organic Facebook posts
Ever since December of 2017, Facebook’s updated News Feed algorithm has made the posts of our friends and family far more prevalent in our news feeds, and reciprocally made it difficult for a business page to reach their following through simply organic posts. It’s even speculated that the larger the audience a page has, the smaller percentage of it is reached without more detailed targeting – some pages over 50K followers are reaching 1-2% of fans with each post!
Solution: Video is your new best friend
If you’ve read some of our other articles, you know that text-only posts are the most grave of sins in the Facebook Universe. At the very least, a photo should accompany your copy. A link or a video rank even higher, and it’s believed that Facebook Live video ranks up to 6X higher than other video posts. Utilize it to give your fans an insight into your day-to-day, events you’re engaged in, or exciting news on the horizon. It’s easier than you think, but if you’re having trouble, we can help you out! One of the many services we offer is conducting workshops with your staff to bring them up to speed with the endless tools within their smart phones, turning each member of your team into an organic content generator. Contact us through the link at the bottom to find out more!
Problem: Paid advertisement costs have increased
If you regularly run paid ads on Facebook and Instagram, you may have noticed that the average pricing for a similar result has increased recently. While this may seem daunting at first, it’s time to buckle down and make the Ads Manager do all the heavy lifting for you!
Solution: Reassess your audience and hone your key buyer personas
Even today, we see business doing paid advertisement across social media without focusing on who it is they’re trying to target. With over 2 billion Facebook users, you can’t hope that the platform will do all the hard work for you. Dive into the Custom and Lookalike audience options within your Manager Dashboard, and identify key behaviors and interests that your ideal consumer relates to. Take the time to talk face to face with your customers, and see if they’ll be an insight into how your product can help them, no matter which stage they may be at in their Buyers Journey.
Is that phrase unfamiliar to you? Then we should definitely talk more, because it’s one of the key principles we adhere to with our belief in Inbound Methodology, and focusing on a buyer-centric experience. If you haven’t built out an Buyer Persona at all, let us help you make the first steps! Just call or message us through the link below and we can show you the workshop of free tools you already have at your disposal!
These three tips should get you started as you rework your marketing strategy and utilize your social platforms to their full potential. With a growing numbers of users on platforms around the world, competition is fierce for placement on people’s screens, but it also means that your sea of potential customers is expanding just as quickly. Contact us through the form below, and follow us on our social channels to get the latest on what you need to know to connect to consumers in the strongest possible way.
