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Latest Buzz: Facebook Building Instagram For Kids

Facebook Building Instagram For Kids

Facebook is all set to woo its younger audience with an Instagram app for kids below 13 years. Yes, kids like and learn by copying their parents and others around. But, unfortunately, Instagram smites the adults. It’s the latest fad; even a critic cannot avoid it. 

Social media and its superpower to engage people are not new, but Instagram is an entirely fresh experience. As a “no strings attached” thing, you are treated with visual delights, almost in even click. 

After its phenomenal success with adults, Facebook is working on the kids’ version of Instagram. It has already triggered a buzz among its target audience, and parents are a bit worried about it. However, to set things clear from the beginning and avoid resistance, Facebook has already clarified that it is bringing a parent controlled Instagram.

Facebook has grown much beyond a social networking site; it has been working on building additional products to enhance the brand experience. The latest product is for people under the age of 13.

Facebook Building Instagram For Kids

Facebook Building Instagram App For Kids Under 13

As Adam Mosseri confirmed, the idea of Instagram for kids is being worked on, broke to the public, it spread like wildfire. It even got parents worrying about children’s involvement with the photo-sharing app. However, Mosseri has clarified that it will be a parent controlled experience for kids below age of 13.

Why Instagram For Kids?

Looking at the developments and coming to the bare fact, it is business. As kids watch their parents and other adults around engaging with the app, they get drawn to it as well. It is pretty usual. It is how the demand for Instagram among kids grew. Markets supply what’s in demand. So, Facebook planned to launch Instagram to help kids in connecting with friends, discover new hobbies and interests.

The social media app is compelling to inspire the audience, follow a line of action, set trends and be highly entertaining. Millennial kids have risen above the usual child’s play and engaging in what grownups do. It brings them to Instagram and other apps. Facebook is building an Instagram for kids. Joe Osborne, a spokesperson for Facebook, mentioned to one of the reputed news websites that kids ask their parents if they can join apps like Instagram. It has pushed the social media giant to build a version for kids under 13. The content and user norms will be for kids that are suitable for them.

Facebook Building Instagram For Kids

Critics Ask: How Safe Will Instagram Will Be For Kids?

Social media and its penetrating influence gave birth to multiple controversies. You cannot even ignore some. Instagram views this opportunity as an essential benchmark for the company and will be trying every means to make it happen. However, they will be doing so while ensuring it’s safe for the kids and everyone related. They have options for parents. It will be a parent controlled experience to Instagram. 

Often data is fished out from such platforms and are feed to different marketing objectives. Children are its target audience. It is what sparks the security concern for kids. In 2019, Facebook’s add-free Messenger kids app ran into a mess. The app developed a bug that allowed kids to join groups with unknown people. It was highly criticized in different circles, and children’s health advocates even urged Zuckerberg to take it down. 

We Leave You With A Thought To Ponder

Entertainment or infotainment, you are the best person to evaluate a platform for your kid. Children under the age of 13 are too young to decide for themselves. So, parental guidance and control are compulsory and will be there. They have been exploring bringing a parent on board to make it a fool-proof venture. 

Instagram or no Instagram, your child should collect the best of experiences of their childhood. They should have memories to cheer and stories to share when they grow up.

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3 Instagram Tools

Ecommerce has been on the rise, and we can blame Covid-19 for that, but this trend has been around since even before the pandemic. Brands and businesses have all turned to list their products online to reach a wider group of consumers that traditional sales would not be able to.

With the advent of social media, these platforms have found a way to capitalise on their influence. Having a designated area where businesses can directly sell their products benefits the brands themselves and makes it more convenient for consumers to find what they want.

Indeed, eCommerce is taking over everywhere — including social media, and it’s time we took a look at just how vital this wave is.

Speaking of social media, of course, one of the most popular and most used platforms is Instagram itself. In fact, they are amongst the top 5 most used social media apps in January 2020, based on the number of active users. There is no doubt that Instagram has, in recent years, devised ways to help brands boost their visibility on their platform. This includes the addition of eCommerce functions, which we will be explaining in detail below.

  • Instagram Checkout

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One of Instagram’s special functions is its shoppable posts or purchasable messages, where you could put a link to a product on a platform outside of Instagram. Users will then be directed to an eCommerce site where they can place their orders.

Instagram Checkout, on the other hand, takes that experience to another level. Instead of redirecting visitors to an external platform, Instagram now has a new function where users can make payment directly from the social media app itself. This may very well appeal to users who want to stay on Instagram and make a hassle-free payment.

  • Instagram Live Shopping

3 Instagram Shopping Tools blog image 2.jpg

Like Instagram Checkout, Instagram Live Shopping allows users to purchase products directly from the app itself, but in a live stream situation. At the bottom of a live Instagram feed, owners can add a small CTA to nudge viewers to the products. This is great for when you want to or will advertise a said product in your live stream.

Viewers who click on the CTA can have two options — either to add the product to the cart for later so they can continue watching your stream or head to pay immediately. From there on, viewers can use Instagram Checkout to buy your products directly on Instagram itself. This way, you don’t have to be worried that you’ll be losing viewers unnecessarily.

  • Facebook Stores

3 Instagram Shopping Tools blog image 3.jpg

You might be thinking, what do Facebook stores have to do with Instagram? Well, keep in mind that Facebook owns Instagram, and therefore many of its features are interlinked. Although Facebook launched Facebook Store for Facebook, it can be used for Instagram as well.

Your Instagram followers no need to create a Facebook account to interact with your Facebook store. This means that you can link your Facebook business page to other social media, including Instagram, Whatsapp, and Messenger — all of Facebook’s owned apps.

Once a store is created on Facebook, business owners can go to their Instagram profile and directly link their Facebook store. Visitors can browse products on Instagram without ever having to leave the app or create a Facebook account!

Facebook Store is an advantageous option for small businesses who can’t build an entire eCommerce website from scratch. This may be due to a lack of workforce, time, finances, or bandwidth. Instead of doing so, these businesses can turn to Facebook Stores to create eCommerce options on various social media platforms. Oberlo has a guide as to how one can set up an Instagram shop. If you do want to start an eCommerce store, Shopify or Magento is an excellent first step.

Shopping is a compelling feature on Instagram for brands, and it is likely to be even more developed in the future. Over 60% of users say they discover new products on Instagram, and more than 200 million people visit at least one business profile on Instagram daily.

Indeed, Instagram Shopping can offer so many benefits for businesses. Not only does it help to promote your products and increase sales rates, but the shopping experience for users is now more personalised as well.

The kind of products that are suggested to users on Instagram is often customised to suit each person based on what they have searched for and their other interactions on the app. This means that these products are most likely what the user would be interested in or care about. Users can even save a product and come back to it later by tapping the Label icon on a product page or a product list.

Overall, as more than 90% of Instagram accounts follow at least one other business account, Instagram is a great place to start marketing your brand. Not to mention that one-third of the most viewed Instagram stories come from businesses themselves! With more than 1 billion active users on the app, these numbers do hold some serious weight. So why not start putting these Instagram shopping tools to fair use?

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    How Long Should Your Video Content Be?

    How Long Should Your Video Content Be?

    Video length on different platforms

    Videos are increasingly becoming the more popular choice when it comes to digital marketing. After all, videos perform better than images on almost every social media platform.

    Consumers generally remember the content in videos better than in images. This is as videos are a lot more dynamic, and engage both our sight and hearing. Images, on the other hand, are static and only engage one sense: sight.

    Many marketers believe in the myth that videos are expensive and time-consuming, and not at all worth the slight advantage they hold over images. Furthermore, plenty of consumers may leave a video halfway, which would reduce the effectiveness of using such a medium.

    However, video marketing isn’t as disposable as you might think it is. 81% of businesses that use videos in their marketing strategy agree that it helps to engage your audience, deliver clear messages, and promote your brand, amongst other benefits. 95% of video marketers also noted that videos have helped increase understanding of their product or service.

    First off, videos definitely provide a significant advantage over images. Imagine if you were to convey a large amount of information via images. Your audience will most likely lose interest upon seeing such a lengthy wall of text.

    Meanwhile, videos are able to keep things concise while still answering the basic questions to help consumers make an informed choice. 64% of consumers tend to reach a purchasing decision only after watching a branded video.

    Not only that, but videos are far more engaging as well. Videos attract three times more engagement on Instagram than sponsored ads. They help to create a space for you to build connections with your audience, making your brand more personalised for them.

    So how long should your videos be?

    Be it Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, every platform has its knicks and knacks. In order to make sure your video does the best it possibly can, you need to understand not only the features each platform offers but the type of audience they cater to.

    Take for example the users on TikTok or Snapchat. They are often used to watching short clips on these platforms and would probably not appreciate it if they were suddenly forced to watch a long video. On the other hand, YouTube users are more accustomed to watching lengthier videos and therefore it is more acceptable to show them longer content. Different platforms are able to hold attention for different amounts of time, so keep that in mind.

    • Facebook

    Facebook insights have discovered that videos “get shown organically to more people when they’re at least 3 minutes long.” Keep in mind that an organic Facebook video is one that is posted and gains exposure without any advertising spend.

    At the same time, Facebook’s algorithm rewards engagement over duration, so it is not guaranteed that your video will get more exposure just because it is 3 minutes long. Therefore, make sure to focus not just on your video length, but your video message as well. By encouraging engagement such as likes, shares, and comments, your video is more likely to get a boost in their algorithm.

    The same can not be said for Facebook Video Ads.

    Marketers can also fork out a sum of money in order to get more views for their videos. For every person that watches your video for longer than 3 seconds, Facebook will charge you for a view.

    Therefore, if you’re paying to promote a video ad, you need to get your main point across as quickly as possible. The viewers that Facebook push out your ad to might not necessarily be familiar with your brand or your content, so they might lose interest easily. If that’s the case, retention is the most important target — so cut to the chase and keep it short.

    One additional tip that we recommend marketers to keep in mind is to optimise their videos to still be understandable even with the sound off. 85% of users on Facebook actually watch plenty of videos without the sound — perhaps they are in a public place — therefore, in order not to ostracise this crowd, the message of your video should be clear even while its muted.

    • Instagram

    On Instagram, there are two types of videos you can post: IGTV as well as Stories and Reels.

    The latter has restrictions on the length of your video which means that your videos generally cannot be longer than a minute. If you wish to post a video longer than 60 seconds, you would need to post it as an IGTV.

    However, HubSpot has found that videos that receive the most comments on Instagram are on average 26 seconds long. It would be best to keep videos on Instagram shorter than a minute.

    This is because people are often used to scrolling quickly through their feed on Instagram, and pausing to watch a long video actually goes against their muscle memory. As such, their attention span for videos on Instagram generally does not last as long.

    Furthermore, it is not possible to rewind these short videos on Instagram, which means that people would most likely skip or move on if they miss a part of the video and are unable to understand the point of it.

    • Twitter

    Twitter’s previous video duration limit was only a mere 30 seconds. Now, they have started allowing users to upload videos up to 2 minutes and 20 seconds long on their app, matching the character limit that they set for their tweets. However, this does not necessarily mean that you should post videos of that length.

    In fact, Twitter users are also often scrolling through their feed quickly on that very same app, which means that they would be more accustomed to shorter content. Therefore, it is still recommended to keep video content under 30 seconds long.

    If you want to get people to watch your long-form content on Twitter, you can create short teaser videos and link people out from there — be it to another social media platform such as Facebook or YouTube.

    • YouTube

    The main difference between YouTube and other social media platforms is that on YouTube, users are actively seeking out videos to watch. Instead of having a curated feed for them to scroll through, users are browsing through video content with the mental preparation to watch them.

    It is also significant to note that unlike Facebook’s algorithm, YouTube’s algorithm actually rewards videos that have more watch time by pushing them up in search results as well as users’ recommendations.

    Therefore, longer videos do have the potential to do better on YouTube — as long as viewers are engaged and actually stick around to watch your lengthy video content. YouTubers are, in fact, recording longer videos, which has been observed to rank higher in search results.

    Planning out a video marketing strategy may sound complicated, but break it down and you will see that it is easier than you think. Why not ask MIU if you have any further questions on video marketing? It is, after all, the marketing tool to look out for in 2021.

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    7 Tips to Boost Your Social Media Shares

    7 Tips to Boost Your Social Media Shares

    Having a social media strategy is a must when it comes to digital marketing. Just take a look at how much social media has influenced the way we market and communicate!

    However, we can all agree that the right social media strategy will bring you the best returns. Not all methods built equally, which is the difference between a good strategy and a bad strategy.

    One area to focus on in your social media strategy is the number of shares you accumulate. After all, part of what makes social platforms so powerful is the ability to expand your reach and gain enormous amounts of exposure — only by word-of-mouth. Going “viral” is a thing — and it’s not always bad.

    Social shares do precisely that. However, to get the maximum amount of social media shares, there are steps to follow. Results don’t come by easy — they need the effort to achieve it. Here’s what we think can help you get the shares you need.

     

    1. Prioritise the most shareable content format

     

    This might go without saying, but a lot of times, marketers make the mistake of sharing all forms of content without considering what sort of content they are.

    Research has shown that visual content is the most shared on social media, as they are quick to read and easy to digest. TikTok is one such proof that visual content is all the rage right now — look at how rapidly it has grown within the past few years. Sprout Social Index found that of all content that has been shared on social media, 68% of them are images, and 50% are videos.

    Use the functions that are already available in these social media platforms to your advantage. For instance, Twitter allowed you to pin one tweet that your followers would see above all else, and Instagram has the Highlights section where your audience can click in to discover more about your brand. So prioritise putting videos and images in these areas for maximum shares.

     

    2. Use in-built features to generate responses & increase engagement

     

    When we talk about the function, social media platforms are now rolling out many features to cater to the increasing number of brands that use their site. Twitter has an in-built poll feature, as does Instagram. Besides that, Instagram also has a question-and-answer feature for their Stories. Get your audience responding and boost your brand awareness with such features!

    LinkedIn also just released a new update where users can add links to their stories as well, to redirect viewers to their site. There are plenty of inbuilt features that you can play around to increase engagement on your social media platforms, so don’t hesitate to try it out!

     

    3. Ride the wave on trending topics

     

    This is the formula for getting viral — which, as mentioned, is not always bad. Want to score more shares? Find out what are the hot topics and capitalise on that. Better yet, use a popular meme to capture your audience’s attention. Not only does this personalise and humanise your brand, but your audience is also more likely to want to share it around. When you project your brand to be more than just a business-oriented figure, your consumers would be able to relate with you more.

     

    4. Craft engaging captions

     

    Captions are another essential part of what gets your post noticed. Without a good caption, you would probably lose half your audience. Depending on the platform, you need to adjust your captions accordingly — for example, people go onto Instagram for the pictures, and hence they are more unlikely to want to read a lengthy caption. However, those scrolling on Facebook and LinkedIn would be more open to reading and taking in an enormous amount of text and information.

    Whether your caption is long or short, make sure that it includes the keywords that you want to highlight about the post. Furthermore, always remember to put a call-to-action (CTA) at the end of every post to make it more engaging. Whether it is to ask your audience to follow your brand, purchase something, or click a link, we cannot stress enough the importance of having a CTA. Just remember not to overdo it and stick to only one CTA instead of having multiple — that will confuse your audience and result in them not wanting to take any action at all.

     

    5. Come up with a strong hashtag strategy

     

    Captions aren’t the only things that can help boost your post. Hashtags are just as important when it comes to building up your social media strategy. Using the right hashtags would bring your brand not just more exposure, but the right kind of exposure. An excellent first step is to use your own branded hashtag so that new followers can find your content easily.

    Additionally, you can engage in tools to help you find the best hashtags. Our previous blog post talks about some of the best free SEO tools beginners can use so that you can start there. Some helpful tools include All Hashtag’s free hashtag generator and Influencer Marketing Hub’s hashtag generator tool. Others like Sistrix, Kicksta, and HashtagsForLikes are all free as well.

    Since Instagram only allows a maximum of 30 hashtags, All Hashtag will give you up to 30 relevant hashtags based on one single keyword. The site also has an analytical tool to help you get useful information about your hashtags for your marketing strategy. And if you’re not sure where to start, they can offer you insights into the top trending hashtags on Instagram. So start exploring and experimenting with some of the incredible free tools out there!

     

    6. Make your posts mobile-friendly

     

    Let’s face it — most consumers nowadays are scrolling through social media on their phones. More than 80% of shares from social media visits come from mobile devices. To reach them properly, it is exceptionally vital to make sure your social media posts are crafted not just for the desktop version but also for mobile versions.

    Take into consideration each platform’s image previews so that the main point comes across in a single glance. Check those graphics are legible (even on a small screen) and zoomable so that your message is readable by your audience — otherwise your words will be for nought.

     

    7. Find out when the best times to post are

     

    Although this sounds like common sense, you may be surprised to find out how many marketers don’t consider this when planning their marketing strategy. Knowing which days and times your audience are the most active on social media is a crucial step to getting your post noticed.

    Sprout Social has an in-depth guide to helping you find out which are the best times to post, depending on the platform you’re using. Of course, this differs based on the industry you’re in and from company to company, so it is best to track your analytics to decide what works for you.

    Do also keep in mind that Covid-19 has changed the way consumers use social media and how they engage with brands. For your marketing strategy to work effectively, it is best to adjust your brand behaviour to adapt to such changes. Why not check in with MIU to find out how you can further optimise your marketing strategy? We offer free consultation services for anyone who’s looking to up their marketing game!

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    How to Run A Successful Instagram AR Filter Campaign

    How to Run A Successful Instagram AR Filter Campaign

    It wasn’t just in 2020 that the trend of digital marketing became immensely popular. Over the past few years, many businesses have started transitioning to the digital realm to offer their products and services there instead.

    And it’s not hard to see why. Internet penetration is at an all-time high right now, with the majority of people consuming social media voraciously. In fact, the Digital 2020 report from Hootsuite and We Are Social shows that almost 300 million people came online for the first time over the last 12 months. More than 4.5 billion people use the internet today, with at least 3.8 billion of them on social media.

    Not only are there plenty of users on the internet, but they spend a great deal of their time on it as well — a potentially large audience to tap into, so why wouldn’t businesses jump onto that opportunity? Statistics show that we are spending an estimated time of 6 hours and 43 minutes online everyday. To put that into perspective, that’s more than 100 days a year! Of this, the daily social media usage of internet users worldwide averaged out to 144 minutes.

    With Instagram being the fastest growing social media platform, many brands are turning towards the app to market themselves in order to stay relevant. Just on Instagram alone, 80% of users follow at least one brand while 60% of users regularly discover new products on the platform. Additionally, 75% of them have taken action (such as visiting the website) after seeing the brand content.

    This, alongside the rising popularity of Instagram Stories, means that brands are sure to up their social media game to produce better and more engaging content. Facebook has even revealed that there are 500 million daily active users just of Instagram Stories alone. After all, we know that video posts are more popular with consumers and often receive twice as many comments as image posts.

    So what can we do with all this information? Well, perhaps it’s time to take a look at how brands can use Instagram Stories to their advantage. Evolve your online video strategy to stay ahead of the times and remain savvy. What do we mean?

    Instagram’s augmented reality filter campaign.

    Yes, you heard that right. Instagram recently partnered up with Spark AR to allow users to create their own custom AR filter. Not many brands have made use of Instagram’s AR filter function which is really a pity since it could very well be the future. Want to know how to run your own AR filter campaign successfully? Here’s how.

    1. Define your objectives

    Are you aiming for more conversions, engagement, or just increased brand awareness? Having a goal guides your creative team and makes it easier for them to settle on a clear design for the filter, depending on what you want to achieve. Remember to also keep in mind which audience you want to appeal to. Build out a persona for this group so that you can provide them the value they seek.

    2. Get familiar with Spark AR

    Facebook has a free downloadable programme for users interested in making their own AR filter. Brands can use this to experiment and find the best filter that works for them. The app also has plenty of pre-made templates to help beginners who are just starting out.

    Alternatively, you can outsource the task to a talented filter creator. As a creative digital agency, MIU has the capability to design for you a captivating filter made specifically for your audience. While it might be more of an investment, the end result would be worth it if your brand manages to stand out amongst its competitors. AR filters or otherwise, we take pride in our work. Click here to contact us for more information today!

    3. Include a call-to-action

    How to Run a Successful Instagram AR Filter Campaign slide 4.jpg

    The end-goal of every marketing plan, a CTA is important to nudge your audience into taking the necessary next steps you want them to take. Otherwise, you might miss out on reaching the objectives you set.

    Ask yourself this: what will your filter enable the user to accomplish, and how does it support your business objective? Whether your CTA is just to raise awareness for a certain issue, your brand, or to increase engagement, you need to keep it in mind so as to push the audience to take a certain action, be it subconsciously or otherwise, and reach your objectives — even if it is just to grow awareness.

    4. Promote your filter

    Once your filter is completed, it will be published directly to your profile and you can use it on your own Stories and Highlights. It can also be accessed via a dedicated filter tab found under your Highlights reel once it goes live. When you use said filter in your Stories, you can add a ‘Try It’ button for your viewers to test out the filter themselves. Anyone who uses your filter will automatically have a button linked to your filter so that their followers can easily try it out for themselves as well.

    If you have a branded AR filter, your business partner can also promote your AR filter through their Stories! Branded AR filters also gets access to metrics (including impressions, captures, and shares) to allow brands to keep track of how their filters are performing. Furthermore, every Instagram AR filter has its own unique URL that can be found inside your SparkAR hub or from Instagram itself. Post this link across your social media channels and website to drive even more engagement.

    Another efficient and effective way to promote your filter is by entering into a partnership with Instagram influencers. Reach out to those who are popular in your industry and you could work something out! Otherwise, you could also set up a paid promotion which allows brands to partner with influencers as business partners as well.

    5. Check your ROIs

    Even as your filter has been officially launched, your work is not done. Measuring your metrics and watching analytics is but part of the job. In order to know what works and what doesn’t, it is important to keep track of how your filter is faring and if it’s meeting the objectives you’ve previously set. This will allow you to better optimise your filter for future reference and improve on your marketing strategy.

    That said, the world of social media is evolving ever more rapidly with new techniques and tools constantly being introduced every single day. It is up to you, as a brand and a business owner, to learn to stay with the times and keep your brand relevant. Hopping onto new trends early not only expands your marketing possibilities but also gives you a competitive advantage.

    With the wide variety of tools that Instagram offers, it is the perfect platform for launching new social media campaigns. From Stories to Highlights to filters and so much more, these functions allow your brand to be even more interactive with your audience. Always keep a close eye on new innovations that surface to boost your business performance and craft a successful social media strategy.

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    Marketing on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube

    Marketing on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube

    If you’ve scoured through many marketing articles, you have no doubt picked up on the fact that digital marketing is the new form of marketing. As internet penetration soars at a record high – and is still rising, the number of users on the internet is expected to increase.

    Digital marketing provides brands with a way of reaching out to an audience that they might not traditionally have access to. As social media becomes a highly popular platform for everyone to connect on, businesses are able to use this opportunity to grow their audience and brand.

    While digital marketing can span plenty of aspects, from SEO to PPC to email marketing, this article will discuss the details of social media marketing in particular. Read more if you want to find out how to use social media to your advantage!

    Digital marketing on social media

    Social media as a marketing strategy is all the rage right now. It has been proven that social media is often the driving factor (and one of the most influential) behind word-of-mouth and evangelist marketing.

    In the information age, consumers often turn to the internet to seek answers to their problems and pain points. While this may be the best chance for your brand to put itself in the spotlight, it can also be a double-edged sword if your brand does not have much of an online presence — or worse, a negative one.

    This is where marketing can step in to help. Managing your brand’s online presence is no easy feat, but it is possible to do it — and do it well. Of course, it helps if you understand what each social media platform is meant to do and how it aligns with your brand. Here are some tips to help you get started.

    Facebook

    facebook marketing

    Facebook is one of the most versatile social media platforms as it is widely used not only for personal use but for professional matters as well.

    Businesses can use Facebook to connect to their followers by sharing photos, updates and general news on their page. Fans of your brand may visit your Facebook page to explore events, check updates and more.

    As of April 2019, Facebook was reported to have 2.38 billion monthly active users worldwide. It is an absolutely useful place to start building a fanbase for your brand. Remember to engage with your audience bty posting status updates, photos and more! Start by publicising your page and linking it everywhere, including your website.

    Share your products, offers and services to keep your followers informed about your brand. Better yet, if you can invite them to engage in your posts by including things that nudge them to like, comment or share your content, it would do wonders for your brand.

    Although you might be running a business page, it’s important to remember that plenty of your followers also use Facebook as a personal network to connect with their friends and family. Make sure your brand fits into this atmosphere rather than constantly hard-selling your products and services. This way, people will be more interested and engaged in your brand.

    With Facebook Ads, you can check details like social graphs and activities to better understand your buyer persona. Knowing the preferences of your page visitors will go a long way in helping you market your brand, be it on social media or otherwise. Use this information to tailor your content to your main audience and turn them into leads!

    Instagram

    instagram marketing

    While it may have started as a personal social media platform, Instagram is quickly turning that around. Since it has been bought over by Facebook, plenty of business-oriented functions have been introduced to the app to help brands connect better with their audience.

    With 1 billion monthly active users, Instagram is a fantastic place to market your brand and improve your online presence. In Singapore itself, there are 1.9 million total active users — a huge audience that you can potentially market to!

    Since being bought over by Facebook, Instagram has introduced many tools that can help businesses market themselves more efficiently in a non-salesy manner. From polls to FAQS, such tools supported by the platform itself can simplify the customer service process so much more — so take advantage of it!

    When consumers are satisfied with their customer experience, they will naturally have a better impression of the brand and are more likely to patronise them again.

    Twitter

    twitter marketing

    Twitter’s 310 million users may pale in comparison to Facebook’s and Instagram’s user statistics, but make no mistake. The social media platform is a concise way to connect with your audience by serving them bite-sized information that they can consume on the go. In fact, 175 million tweets are generated in a day, making up for what Twitter lacks in the quantity of its platform users.

    With 280 characters or less in each tweet, Twitter is a sea of content waiting to be read, followed, and re-tweeted. By allowing you to share quick bites of information and photos, the social media platform is a perfect vehicle to drive people back to your landing pages.

    Since each tweet is often short and sweet, people tend to scroll through them quickly in an effort to consume as much as they can. When marketing on Twitter, make sure your content is enticing enough to capture your audience’s attention and make them pause on your tweet.

    Try incorporating quotes, photos, GIFs or even polls related to the link you’re tweeting to get people wanting to read more. Remember to build relationships with followers — while people may follow you because they enjoy what you have to say, it is important to engage them in conversation as well.

    Like you would on Facebook, ask and respond to questions, respond to mentions and direct messages. This not only personalises the brand but is a good way to show your customer service as well.

    An important marketing function that you can adopt is to use hashtags on Twitter. They allow you to reach a wider (and more targeted) audience, as people who are searching for specific information often turn towards hashtags to find what they are looking for. Conduct some research to see what your buyer persona is hashtagging to make sure your posts will be found by the right people.

    YouTube

    youtube marketing

    Since it was bought over by Google in 2006, YouTube has become the leading video-sharing platform in the world. As one of the world’s most used search engines, Google has since incorporated its advanced technology and algorithm into YouTube as well. YouTube is now but another platform that the search gives priority to in its search results.

    It is no doubt proven that videos are a lot more engaging and shareable than text content. Not only that, but they also help your search rank in Google. Talk about killing two birds with one stone!

    Creating videos for YouTube therefore matters a lot. You want to make sure that there’s a purpose and value to the video you are uploading, so as to provide high quality content for your audience. Keep in mind your production value as well. Both the video and audio of what you upload should be crisp, clear, and easy to understand. No shaky cameras!

    YouTube gives you a gateway to be an educator in your industry. Upload webinars or videos speaking on important topics that further the education of your audience. When you position yourself as the source of important industry news, people will naturally flock to you for trusted updates and information. In return, your brand will gain a reputable name for itself.

    Hashtags on YouTube are also another important aspect that you can take note of when posting your video. Though they are not often talked about, hashtags can actually help your video go a long way in finding the exposure that it needs. Read more about our guide to YouTube hashtags here.

    All in all, no matter what social media platform you choose to engage with, the best tip is to use whatever is available to you at hand while keeping a customer-centric view. Your brand will go much further this way and your consumers will thank you in the long run.