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,…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Thanks to our year of physically distancing from friends, colleagues, and family – consumers have come to rely on social media more than ever before. For many, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, and Snapchat became the go-to source for connecting with loved ones, discovering new products, shopping, entertainment, and engaging in activism. As we head into…

The holidays are upon us, and while 2020 has brought many changes to the way we live our lives, retailers and consumers alike are still eagerly looking forward to this traditional shopping season. Parties and gatherings may be smaller, but consumers are looking to make this season feel more festive than ever before, and they’re…

500 million. That’s how many people use Instagram daily. That’s a huge consumer base that shouldn’t be ignored. Users spend, on average, 28 minutes on the platform. That’s how much time you have to convert them into paying customers. So what are people doing in these 28 minutes? Typically, people on Instagram are engrossed in…

Social media ROI is a bane for most marketers. In fact, it is the biggest concern of 55% of marketers, according to a Sprout Social survey. Out of the 2000 marketers surveyed, most said they have no clue how to define, measure, or report social media ROI. Image via Sprout Social If you’re in the…

Social media is a powerful tool for finding new customers and moving them through the sales funnel. While all businesses should have a social media presence, the value of social media for small business cannot be understated. Here are some effective strategies to use social media for small business marketing to stand out in the…

Adrian Domocos is a marketer with 10+ years of experience in both large (multinational) and smaller companies (startups). At this moment, Adrian is the brand ambassador of Flipsnack (a company that has 4+ million users), one of the organizers of Digital Days, the largest digital marketing event in the Western part of Romania, and the…

In 2015, Charlene Tassinari + Carly Potock founded YouTube’s first brand strategy team for small-to-medium businesses. Their insights-driven methodology was delivered to 500+ brands globally through client workshops and industry events, including Google’s annual CMO Academy, hosted in partnership with Columbia Business School. In 2018, they built first-of-kind video production solutions for YouTube’s customers. In…

Brendan Gahan is Partner & Chief Social Officer at independent creative agency Mekanism, leading the agency’s social division. Gahan has been at the forefront of the social & influencer marketing space since 2006, creating disruptive campaigns for brands such as Mountain Dew, Unilever, MillerCoors, and The Olympics. Brendan has been named to Forbes 30 Under…

Every decade since the 1980s seems to have ushered in a new technology that changes the game. The 1980s saw the rise of the personal computer in the form of the Apple II and the Commodore. The 1990s saw the introduction of the internet that swiftly changed the way we share information. The 2000s was…

Around ¾ of U.S adults, or 73%, say they use Youtube according to a 2019 survey from Pew Research Center. People use Youtube to listen to music, watch their favorite influencers, get answers to questions or help with things like recipes, hacks and more. Religious institutions can use Youtube to reach a larger audience and…

The power and presence of social media continues to increase daily amongst the lives of Americans. A 2019 study by Pew Research found that 72% of U.S adults used at least one social media site. The study found that 90% of Americans ages 19-29 use at least one form of social media.  Americans use social…

Social media is an essential component of the marketing strategy of your business. But the way you design your social media strategy might vary depending on the type of business you have, e.g. business to consumer (B2C) or business to business (B2B). Social media and B2B marketing are a better pair than many business people…

The Influencer Summit team had the change to talk with Joel Beckett, CEO of The Outloud Group, a Detroit-based influencer marketing agency, about the value of influencer marketing, the opportunity it presents for brands, and how brands should think about influencer marketing as a full-funnel strategy. Tell us more about how your educational background led…