It’d be easy to dismiss Instagram Reels as a shameless TikTok clone. Whether it is or isn’t, that doesn’t change the fact that people like it. Since its launch in August 2020, search activity around Reels has caught and overtaken another of the platform’s video-based features, Instagram Stories: Image source Additionally, research from Whistle Wise…

Deanna Stevens Ulrich serves as the Social Media/Community Manager within University Communications and Marketing at Kent State University. She is responsible for managing the university’s institutional accounts, along with assisting with developing and implementing the strategy for the university and presidential social media presence. Check out our interview with her in anticipation of the upcoming…

Brands in the US are expected to shell out more than $56 billion on social media marketing in 2022. But it’s not necessarily true that the highest spenders will see the best results. With the average internet user having 8.5 social media accounts, marketers must invest in the right platforms and create the right content…

As a marketer, it’s important to balance how much time you spend on social media and the results you get. That’s where time-saving strategies for social media management can help you. Expert marketers use these strategies to get the most out of their social media marketing efforts. But why do you need to optimize your…

The average brand spends almost 15% of its marketing budget on social media. That’s a lot of time and money. The problem is that it’s still barely scratching the surface for small social media teams. You want to spend your precious resources on the tasks most likely to drive fantastic results — things like analysis…

Sarah Barnes has more than 20 years of experience as a writer and editor for print and digital communications. At Harvey Mudd College, she is part of a small but mighty communications team that produces everything from web content to alumni magazines to academic department newsletters to social media and more. Check out our interview…

Whether you fill up your social media calendar months in advance or post content on the fly, you will need to have a steady source of content to post on social media. Consistent content is a challenge for many social media marketers. Alongside an increase in the number of businesses on social media, we see…

Creating and publishing next-level content is one of the best ways to invest in your brand. And, if you take a glance at people’s internet usage habits, you’ll find out just why. In 2021, the average person spent 6 hours and 58 minutes online. During those (almost) seven hours, 61% of people primarily went online…

It’s practically impossible for a business to operate in today’s market without a social media presence. Despite this fact, many business owners and marketing teams are missing the experience or resources to internally manage their social media presence in a strategic way. More and more businesses are opting to outsource their social media management to…

Livestream shopping is an e-commerce marketing strategy that sees a host — often a celebrity or an influencer — promote products via a live video stream. Also called live shopping, it’s essentially the 21st-century answer to home shopping channels. But with all the action taking place on digital platforms, the opportunities for interaction and engagement…

Are you tired of winging it when publishing social media content? A social media content calendar is the need of the hour to ensure that your content is published consistently and on time. It’s a smart way to schedule your social posts as it eliminates the stress involved in coming up with content on the…

TikTok might not be the first channel that springs to mind regarding government social media. The video platform’s most popular content categories include topics like entertainment, dance, and pranks – not necessarily the sort of thing you’d expect a government agency to be posting. There are lots of other social platforms, and you likely don’t…

People don’t read nearly as much as they used to. (Just ask all those Goodreads users who failed, yet again, to complete their annual reading challenge last December.) And they do even less reading when they’re browsing online pages. Websites are now optimized for skimming. Brands serve consumers hours of content every day, and attention…

Instagram provides a huge opportunity for small businesses to reach new audiences and establish their brand online. However, simply having a presence on the platform isn’t enough anymore. An effective, well-planned Instagram strategy is needed to drive real results. How can you do that? For starters, you must get the basics right. The basics involve…

The amount of digital content people consume has never been higher. Data shows that in 2020, the average time spent with digital media equaled 470 minutes per user per day in the United States. We can only expect this number to grow as more content becomes available. Sure, that people keep consuming growing amounts of…

Having a CEO with an active presence on social media can be beneficial for the organization for several reasons. For one thing, it seems employees like it. According to research from Brunswick Group, 63% agree they would prefer to work for a company where the CEO uses digital and social media. Only 12% disagree. And…

If there were ever doubts about the importance of agility in the fast-paced world of social media, the last 18 months have surely laid them to rest. COVID-19 forced marketers to be highly flexible. According to research from Monday.com, almost 98% of marketing teams have changed their strategies in response to the pandemic. But, easy…

How do you turn your online events into must-attend occasions? You can leverage online event marketing ideas that lead to more signups, event attendance, and engagement. Furthermore, your virtual event promotion ideas can directly influence success. But which online event marketing ideas can help you drum up increased registration and engagement? According to a recent…

Investing in high-quality content is always an excellent way of reaching, engaging, and offering value to your audience. However, to ensure that you’re getting the best possible results, you must understand that one size does not fit all. Industry experts will argue that the best way to create content is to produce articles, videos, visuals,…

Social media listening tools give you the power to discover what your (current and future) customers really think about you. That’s something we’d all like to know, right? After all, research from SuperOffice shows that the number one reason customers ditch a company is because they think that company doesn’t care about them. But it’s…

Social media strategy is complex. A ton of work goes on behind the scenes before it’s even time to start planning and scheduling content. One of the most challenging tasks is to define our brand voice and tone. After all, everyone wants to be relatable and engaging on social media. However, brand voice isn’t just…

In a world where we can reach audiences with highly sophisticated and targeted campaigns via any number of channels, we often overlook the simplicity of the text message. After all, the very first SMS message was sent way back in 1992. Over one-fifth of the U.S. population wasn’t even born then! Yet peer-to-peer texting –…

Have you ever thought about generating leads from social media? No? You may be missing a huge opportunity. With a user base of 3.78 billion (as of 2021), social media presents countless lead-generation opportunities to marketers. When done right, social media marketing can help generate tons of qualified leads for any business. That’s why 79.3%…

Government agencies can leverage social media to share (sometimes critically) important information with their communities. With the plethora of social media channels and content formats available, finding creative ways to get that content out that will engage and inform can be challenging – but it’s also an incredible opportunity to share your agency’s work in…

Government, political, and advocacy agencies all play an important role in the world: they work to keep people safe and informed. Facebook can be a helpful resource in that mission. Your ability to build an online community and share updates with your constituents on Facebook has never been stronger. People want to hear from their…

Whether you work at an agency like I do or are a member of an in-house team, generating engaging content is a driving force behind what we do for our organizations every day. Content for social media, websites, e-marketing, CRM campaigns, and more needs to be fresh and relatable to support marketing strategies and business…

Content that engages an audience and compels them to act is at the heart of every successful marketing campaign. From informational content driving early-stage awareness to detailed content needed at the decision-making “buy” stage, content in many different forms is the infrastructure on which marketing and sales success is built. Yet too much content is…

It’s hard to understate the importance of social media in higher education marketing. Why? Because teens – in other words, the ideal target audience for most higher ed marketing campaigns – use social media a lot. According to Common Sense Media, US teenagers average almost 7.5 hours of screen time a day, with about 16%…

Build a strong brand and you will get yourself a strong community of loyal customers and brand advocates. Or, is it the other way around? Some might argue that a strong community is what makes a brand stronger and loyal customers are the best way to promote a brand. Maybe it is an ongoing process…

Instagram is the world’s fifth-largest social media site. What’s more, its parent company also owns three of the other four platforms to appear in the top five, including Facebook, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger. Only Google’s YouTube breaks the Zuckerberg-owned monopoly. Image source So you might think the team at Instagram would be pretty content with…

Social commerce is big business. How big? Well, between 2021 and 2028, the global market is expected to grow by 28% a year to almost $3.4 trillion. To put that in context, by 2028, the B2C e-commerce market is projected to hit $7.6 trillion. In other words, social commerce could account for almost half of…

If I asked you to tell me about social media marketing, you’d probably describe an e-commerce brand promoting its products. Or maybe a B2B company using social platforms to generate leads. But those aren’t the only use cases for social – far from it. Social media for government agencies can be a key tool for…

Clubhouse is the hottest topic in social media right now. It’s basically mandated that any article about it has to use words like “buzzy” and reference its myriad of A-list users, from Elon Musk to Oprah Winfrey. The excitement around the app is so intense that it was recently valued at an eye-watering $1 billion,…

As we head into 2021, marketers are reflecting on how much consumer behavior has changed over the course of the last year. Isolation and physical distancing have forced us to embrace technology now more than ever; newfound importance has been infused into community building; growing support for local businesses has emerged. These trends, likely to…

Want to know why social media listening should absolutely, 100% be part of your marketing plans right now? Well, let me give you an example. Imagine you own a bookshop. One day, you overhear two customers chatting. The first says: “I love this place!” “Me too,” says the other. “I just wish they sold food…

Image via Pixabay Social media is a fun and dynamic place where nothing remains constant. One day everyone is obsessed with a silly social media challenge and the next day everyone forgets about it and moves on to something else. Given that social media trends keep changing constantly, it is important to keep up with…

Are you interested in getting on a new platform before mass adoption happens? Would you like to build an audience on a platform with no algorithm? Does automating your content distribution to go to the world’s biggest platforms at once – without any interaction from you – sound appealing? Would you like to have your…

Millions of businesses are trying to survive COVID-19 conditions. In today’s competitive commercial landscape, marketing professionals increasingly depend on digital channels for assistance. In the US alone, research from Statista shows that B2B marketing spend has already decreased by over 50% in early 2020. With limited marketing funds, businesses are now looking for avenues that…

When it comes to using Instagram to market your brand, your follower count isn’t the be-all-end-all. Engagement is equally essential, if not more so. While having a high list of followers will get your content in front of more people, having better engagement gets those people to convert. Your Instagram captions are an opportunity to…

After a year where most of us spent more time on social media than ever, it is not surprising that 63% of marketers intend to increase their influencer marketing budget in the next year. Indeed, as many of us were separated by physical distance, we looked more and more towards the influencers we follow to…

Although the idea of chatbots has been around for quite some time (see: A Visual History of Chatbots), it has only been over the past several years that they have really come into the mainstream. Businesses like Pizza Hut, Sephora, Starbucks, and many others have used chatbots to streamline their customer service, reinforce brand awareness…