instagram Archives

15/10/2021

Importance of videos on social media

Whatever social media platform you’re browsing, you're bound to come by a video. Especially with the introduction of TikTok and the lockdowns we had when staying in was the new going out, more and more video content became available.

Have you noticed or maybe you’re already familiar with the button at the bottom of your screen when you’re on the Facebook app where it says ‘Watch’ or on Instagram where you can go straight to watching Reels.

Have you found yourself scrolling on TikTok for hours or watching YouTube video after YouTube video? It’s been a long time since social media was just text or images.

Even out of the lockdowns, video content is still a big hit and there are several reasons why businesses are jumping on the bandwagon and producing more and more of it.

Importance of videos:

Grab your audience’s attention

Videos are great for capturing attention. The start of your video should indicate what it’s about and leave the viewer wanting more.

Also, video content on social media is great for turning your information into digestible content - easier for the audience to consume.

They encourage conversation

When you provide content that is on-trend or about a popular topic you’re encouraging conversation, opinions and people to engage with your video.

Humanise your brand

By personifying your brand and showing your audience the people and processes behind your business, you’re gaining trust.

Videos are popular

Even pre-pandemic, videos were gaining popularity across all social media platforms. Video is one of the most effective ways to deliver engaging and entertaining content.

Appeal to the Gen Z audience

Gen Z has very much been connected to the internet compared to others and use it for not only entertainment purposes but education as well.

The introduction and growth of TikTok has become incredibly popular due to this. The user-generated short videos have a great appeal and it’s why many businesses are hopping onto this platform as well.

Can be repurposed

Quality videos may be more of an investment in terms of time and money but they can be used across all social media platforms, shortened to be put onto Instagram or Facebook stories.

If you haven’t started creating video content, it’s time to start planning now. It’s a great storytelling tool so share your brand, product or service, industry knowledge and provide entertainment.

There are some category ideas you can use!

About 22Group

22Group are a digital agency providing all your website, branding and marketing needs under one roof.

Our fantastic team of experts are on hand to help you deliver successful results. We’re happy to answer any questions or have a chat about any projects - get in touch.

Published by twentytwo in Marketing & Analytics, Social media

Tags: contentmarketing, digitalmarketing, Facebook, instagram, socialmedia, tiktok, video, videocontent, youtube

26/08/2021

How to make social media accessible

Is your social media content accessible?

While social media continues to expand with new features, so do its users. By having inclusive content, that is accessible, you can reach a larger audience.

Especially with the last year and a half, people have been relying on social media and online platforms to interact and keep in touch with people throughout the many lockdowns. For people who are blind, visually impaired, deaf or hard of hearing, these small, easy changes make a huge difference in their social media experience.

It’s good to take note that smartphones already have some built-in tools to make their device more accessible, including text to speech, enlarging the text and in addition, lots of apps that can do all sorts.

Tips to make your social media content more accessible:

Image descriptions

Sometimes known as alternative text (alt text), an image description allows a screen reader to describe an image out loud. A lot of content on social media platforms are visual and the image descriptions really allow them to imagine the post.

Tip: keep it short and concise, the key features will help paint a picture.

Subtitle videos

Where possible for video content, create subtitles for them. There are many apps which can help do this for you or if you are posting on Facebook, it does have the functionality to automatically create subtitles, however, it may not be 100% accurate.

CamelCase hashtags

By capitalising the first word in a hashtag, it makes it easier to read not only for screen readers when they read aloud but also for everyone else.

#MakeSocialMediaAccessible

Emoji usage

If a screen reader is being used they will pick up on the emojis, so if you use a lot in one go it could go something like “Hugging face. Hugging face. Hugging face. Hugging face. Hugging face.”. Now, that’s pretty annoying!

All of these are simple yet effective ways to make social media more accessible.

While technology develops, keep an eye out for new accessibility tools being revealed on platforms.

Need help with your social media?

At 22Group, we can slot right in where you need help whether that’s creating impactful social media assets or doing the leg work and posting on your platforms. Our flexible, experienced marketing team are happy to listen to your needs and work with you to achieve your goals.

Ready to have a chat? Get in touch with us today.

Published by twentytwo in Social media

Tags: content, contentmarketing, Facebook, instagram, marketing, socialmediamarketing

01/07/2021

Social media scheduler

Wimbledon is back this year and it got us thinking, is the ball in your court? Social media marketing can be a handful when you’re on several platforms. Keeping up with social media dates as well as trending topics and conversations is constant. Do you use a social media scheduler?

Planning in advance is a great way to get on top. There are certain dates in the year that don’t change like Christmas and there are also social media calendar dates too like National Siblings Day.

It’s great if you’re able to get ahead with creating assets or even what the caption for a post will be, but where can you put it to ensure you don’t forget when the time comes?

That’s where social media schedulers step in. They’re there to make your life easier, help with planning and even execute the posting so if you’re busy elsewhere or don’t have the time on the day, the post is done for you.

notebook and post-it notes for noting down social media scheduling plans

Why use one?

Manage multiple accounts

Instead of logging in and out of different social media accounts, manage them in one place. Login once and see all your accounts from there.

Save time

As well as logging into one place, if you’re doing the same post across all channels, many will allow you to select those accounts instead of individually posting.

Visually see your schedule

If you’ve been planning ahead and already put posts in your schedule, check and visually see all your posts on a calendar or similar format. You’ll be able to see if you already have posts going out that day or see how many are planned to go out that week or month.

More than scheduling

A lot of the social media schedulers go beyond scheduling. To help with engagement or other parts of your digital marketing there can be other tools like a keyword researcher to help with SEO.

Analyse results

Want to find ways to improve your digital marketing? You’ll be able to monitor and see results and after some time you can then see what might need to change or what is working.

How to choose one?

There are many social media scheduler platforms out there so you’re probably asking yourself “How do I choose one?”.

They’re not all the same so there are some questions to ask yourself to help choose:

What is your budget?
Which social media platforms do you use the most?
How many people will need access to it?

Most of the scheduling tools will have a USP and that might be that they specifically tailor more to one platform than another.

22 group employees discussing social media scheduling

Downsides of schedulers?

Although they sound great, like most things there are downsides:

Instagram

A popular platform that is very app focused. There is restricted functionality outside of the app for scheduling posts on the grid, IGTVs and Instagram stories.

Stories have become increasingly popular with many saying they prefer to watch stories than scroll their home feed. Do thoroughly check when a scheduling tool mentions you can schedule Instagram stories because there might be an asterisk mentioning it doesn’t publish it but reminds you to do so.

Number of users

When looking at the pricing plans for different social media scheduling platforms, you most likely just look at their price per month. If you have a few people that need to use the platform, check the number of users allowed. On a lot of plans, they just allow 1 user on the platform at a time and anymore incurs extra charges.

Full functionality

Social media platforms are advanced and constantly changing making them complex. Unfortunately, the scheduling tools might not be able to do absolutely everything you’re looking for. Whether that be posting videos on some platforms or creating Facebook carousel posts.

Most of the scheduling tools offer free trials or demos, we highly recommend making use of these so you can see what it’s like using the platform.

Limitation with the free option

You may be a small business owner or just need a little help. A few of the scheduling tools offer a free option however, it is very limited in what you can do. This could simply be the number of social media accounts you can have on the platform or how many posts you can schedule.

diary and pencil for writing down social media plan

What can 22Group help with?

If you are struggling with your social media marketing, whether that be keeping on top of it, generating content or creating visuals, we can help!

Our talented and experienced marketing team are passionate and proactive when it comes to social media marketing.

Ready to get started or want to learn more? Get in touch.

Published by twentytwo in Marketing & Analytics

Tags: Facebook, instagram, marketing, Social Media, socialmediamarketing

03/06/2021

Promote feature on Instagram

With algorithms on Instagram making it increasingly harder to reach your organic audience, have you been thinking about putting money behind your Instagram post? The promote feature on Instagram allows you to do this.

This can be done directly on the app - along with anything else Instagram related, it is generally easiest done through the app.

In the past few years, Instagram has seen a big increase in users and the app itself has developed to compete and improve its offerings.

instagram app open on an iphone on a table

How do I create a promotion on Instagram?

The first thing to check is that your Instagram profile is set up as a business profile.

Click ‘Promotions’ on your profile and from there you can select a post to promote. Another way to do it is if you have already created the post, there is a button on the bottom right of the image that says ‘Promote’ and when you click on it you’ll see the following steps:

Step 1: Set a goal

What do you want to achieve from your promotion? There are three options to choose from: more profile visits, more website visits or more messages.

Step 2: Define your audience

You have a choice between ‘Automatic’ or ‘Create your own’, an automatic audience means Instagram will target people similar to your followers. If you choose to create your own, you just need to choose locations, interests, age and gender.

Step 3: Choose your budget and duration

Once you select how much you want to spend and for how long, you can see your estimated reach.

When reviewing your promotion choices at the last stage, you can preview your ad on Feeds, Stories or the Explore page.

Then just click ‘Create Promotion’.

Pretty simple right? It’s similar to boosting a post on Facebook. On Facebook, you actually get the choice when you boost your post if you want it displayed on Instagram too.

lady scrolling through instagram on her phone

Is it worth promoting on Instagram?

If you are looking to improve your reach and brand awareness, then yes, promoting is definitely an option you should be looking at. Promoting on Instagram will help improve your vanity metrics - increase your likes and follower count.

Additionally, promoting on Instagram only takes a few clicks and is easy to use. Compared to creating a Facebook Ad, there are a lot fewer steps to advertising.

What’s the drawback?

We mentioned there were more steps in creating a Facebook Ad, this is because there are more sophisticated advertising options.

From selecting your goal to targeting your audience, you can be very specific about it whereas promoting on Instagram is vaguer. In addition, when creating a Facebook Ad you can reach more than one audience at once. If you want to see if your post does better with men or women, this testing can be conducted but not with promoting on Instagram.

hands pointing to a laptop screen evaluation an instagram and facebook ad

If you didn’t know much about promoting on Instagram or didn’t even realise it was possible we hope this has helped you to understand it.

If you’re interested in advertising on Facebook, read our Facebook Ads vs. Boost blog where we explore the differences, benefits and when to use which one.

What can 22Group help with?

We have a talented and experienced marketing team who can help you create social media adverts. From creating the assets, writing the content to reporting on how it performed, we’re here to help.

Ready to get started or want to learn more? Get in touch.

Published by twentytwo in Marketing & Analytics

Tags: instagram, socialmediamarketing