ChatGPT and Rytr

To address these challenges, AI-powered tools like ChatGPT and Rytr offer a solution. These new technologies are reshaping how digital marketers approach ad creation and planning. ChatGPT excels in generating human-like text, providing a variety of ad format text sections. Similarly, Rytr, an AI writing assistant, specializes in creating high-quality content tailored to specific marketing needs. Both tools are designed to streamline the ad creation process, ensuring that marketers can focus more on strategy and less on the intricacies of content creation.

This blog post aims to explore how digital marketers can leverage ChatGPT and Rytr to speed up and scale their social media ad creation and planning process. We will explore the multifaceted benefits these tools offer, such as speed, creativity, and the ability to produce a greater volume of ads for testing and optimization. By embracing these AI solutions, marketers can not only enhance the efficiency of their ad creation process, but also achieve better outcomes in terms of audience engagement and overall campaign success.

History of Social Media Advertising

The landscape of social media advertising has undergone a remarkable transformation since its inception. In the early days, social media platforms were primarily spaces for personal interaction and networking. Businesses quickly recognized the potential of these platforms for reaching a vast audience. Early social media ads were basic, focusing mainly on broad messaging and brand awareness. Over time, as platforms evolved and user bases grew, the sophistication of social media ads increased, incorporating targeted strategies, diverse formats, and interactive elements.

Transition from Traditional Methods to AI Integration

Traditionally, creating ads for social media was a manual and time-consuming process, often requiring a team of marketers, copywriters, and designers. The approach was largely based on intuition and experience, with a significant emphasis on trial and error. However, the integration of AI and machine learning has revolutionized this approach. AI tools can analyze vast amounts of data to identify trends and patterns, predict user behavior, and personalize content, making the ad creation process more data-driven and efficient.

Current Landscape of Digital Marketing

Today’s digital marketing landscape is fast paced and constantly changing. Social media platforms are continuously evolving, introducing new features and algorithms. In this dynamic environment, marketers are expected to produce high-quality, engaging, and relevant content consistently. AI tools have become indispensable in this context, providing the agility and adaptability needed to keep up with the rapid changes. They enable marketers to generate content quickly, test different strategies, and optimize ads for better performance, thus playing a crucial role in the current and future state of digital marketing.

Introduction to ChatGPT

ChatGPT stands out as a groundbreaking AI tool in the realm of content creation, especially for social media advertising. Powered by advanced natural language processing (NLP) algorithms, ChatGPT can generate human-like text that resonates with specific audience demographics. Its capabilities extend to creating diverse ad formats, including persuasive copy, engaging headlines, and tailor-made calls to action. The tool’s strength lies in its ability to understand and replicate human conversational patterns, making it ideal for crafting messages that are both relatable and compelling.

In the context of social media ads, ChatGPT can be utilized to:

• Generate initial ad concepts
• Develop various versions of ad copy
• Suggest creative ideas for campaigns

For instance, a marketer can input a basic product description and target audience into ChatGPT and receive multiple ad copy variations, each suited to different platforms or audience segments. This not only speeds up the brainstorming process, but also offers a range of perspectives that might not have been considered otherwise.

Introduction to Rytr

Rytr is another AI-driven tool that specializes in content creation, and you can use it to complement the capabilities of ChatGPT. It excels in generating concise and impactful ad copy, making it particularly useful for platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and X. Additionally, Rytr offers templates and frameworks for various content types, aiding users in structuring their ad copy effectively.

While ChatGPT provides a broad range of textual content generation, Rytr brings in a specialized focus on short-form content and ad copy creation for social media ads. In a combined usage scenario, ChatGPT can be used for generating the initial bulk of ad content and ideas, while Rytr can refine these into more platform-specific versions. This synergy allows for a more comprehensive and effective approach to ad creation, catering to the nuances of different social media platforms and audience preferences.

Together, ChatGPT and Rytr offer a powerful suite of tools for digital marketers. Their combined use in the ad creation process not only enhances the quality and relevance of the content, but also significantly reduces the time and effort involved in the creative process.

The Process of Ad Creation Using AI Tools

Let’s explore the capabilities of these AI tools in more detail, demonstrating how they can be effectively utilized in the realm of social media advertising.

Generating Headlines

AI tools like ChatGPT and Rytr can produce a variety of engaging headlines that capture attention and entice the audience to read further. By analyzing successful ad campaigns and current trends, these tools can suggest headlines that are both trendy and relevant, greatly enhancing the ad’s initial impact.

Crafting Engaging Captions

The essence of social media ads often lies in their captions. AI-generated captions can be tailored to resonate with different audience segments, incorporating humor, emotive language, or calls to action as needed. This customization ensures that the content is not only engaging, but also aligns with the brand’s voice and campaign goals.

Writing Persuasive Descriptions

Descriptive content in ads needs to be concise yet persuasive, a balance that AI tools can achieve efficiently. They can generate product or service descriptions that highlight key features and benefits, appealing directly to the needs and desires of the target audience.

Creating Compelling Calls to Action

Calls to action (CTAs) are crucial in converting interest into action. AI can help create varied and compelling CTAs that encourage engagement, whether it’s making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or visiting a website. These CTAs can be A/B tested to determine which versions yield the best conversion rates.

Comparing AI-generated Ads vs. Traditional Methods

The use of AI in ad creation marks a significant shift from traditional methods. AI-generated ads are typically produced faster and can be more data-driven, as AI tools can analyze large datasets to determine what type of content performs best. This approach contrasts with the more intuitive and experience-based methods of traditional ad creation, which can be more time-consuming and less adaptable to rapid market changes.

How AI Fosters Creativity in Ad Content

AI tools like ChatGPT and Rytr don’t just automate content creation; they also introduce a new level of creativity. By analyzing vast amounts of data, these tools can generate unique and innovative ideas that might not be immediately apparent to human creators. This includes experimenting with different styles, tones, and formats, providing a fresh perspective that can make social media ads stand out. The AI’s ability to learn from a wide range of sources means that it can bring diverse and creative angles to the ad content, pushing the boundaries of traditional advertising.

Time-Saving Aspects of Using AI in Ad Creation

The integration of AI tools like ChatGPT and Rytr into the ad creation process significantly reduces the time required to generate content. Unlike traditional methods, where crafting a single piece of ad content can take hours or even days, AI can produce multiple variations in a matter of minutes. This rapid generation means that marketers can spend less time on content creation and more on strategy and analysis. The speed of AI tools also allows for quick responses to market changes or social trends, keeping the advertising content up-to-date and relevant.

Quantifying the Efficiency in Campaign Planning and Execution

The efficiency of AI in ad creation is not just about speed; it’s also about the quality and relevance of the content produced. AI tools can quickly analyze large datasets to understand what works best for a specific audience or platform, leading to more effective ad campaigns. This efficiency translates into better use of marketing budgets, as AI-optimized ads are more likely to achieve higher engagement and conversion rates. Additionally, the ability to rapidly test and iterate on ad content means that campaigns can be refined and optimized in real-time, greatly enhancing overall campaign performance.

Persuasive Power of AI-Written Content

AI-generated content, when well-crafted, can be incredibly persuasive. By leveraging data on what has worked well in the past, AI tools can produce content that hits the right emotional tones, uses persuasive language effectively, and speaks directly to the needs and desires of the audience. This level of customization and precision in language choice can make a significant difference in the effectiveness of the ad. Additionally, AI can help maintain a consistent brand voice across all ads, further reinforcing the brand’s message and identity.

Long-Term Benefits for Brands and Marketers

The long-term benefits of using AI in social media advertising extend beyond immediate engagement and conversion improvements. By consistently delivering high-quality, relevant, and effective ads, brands can build a stronger and more loyal customer base. Enhancing brand loyalty can lead to increased customer lifetime value and more organic brand advocacy from satisfied customers. Furthermore, the insights gained from AI-driven ad campaigns can inform broader marketing strategies, leading to more effective overall marketing efforts. In the rapidly evolving digital landscape, the ability to adapt and optimize quickly, as enabled by AI, is a substantial advantage for any brand or marketer.

Navigating the Learning Curve for New Users

While tools like ChatGPT and Rytr offer numerous benefits, there is a learning curve involved in using them effectively. New users might find it challenging to understand how to best input prompts or interpret the AI-generated content. To address this, it’s important for marketers to invest time in learning how these tools work and exploring best practices in AI-generated content creation. This might involve training sessions, online tutorials, or working with experts who have experience in leveraging AI for digital marketing.

Balancing AI Creativity with Brand Voice and Guidelines

One of the challenges in using AI for ad creation is ensuring that the content aligns with the brand’s voice and guidelines. While AI can generate creative content, it may not always match a brand’s specific tone or style. Marketers need to oversee and tweak the AI-generated content to ensure it fits their brand identity. This process involves a careful balance between leveraging AI’s efficiency and maintaining the human touch that aligns content with brand values and messaging.

Preparing for an AI-driven Digital Marketing Future

To stay ahead in an AI-driven future, marketers and brands will need to continuously adapt and evolve. This includes staying informed about the latest AI developments, investing in new technologies, and training teams to work alongside AI effectively. It also involves a mindset shift, where marketers should be open to experimenting with new AI-driven strategies and learning from the outcomes. Preparing for this future means embracing the possibilities that AI offers while also being mindful of its limitations and ethical implications.

The future of AI in social media advertising promises a landscape of greater efficiency, creativity, and personalization. By understanding and preparing for these upcoming changes, you can position your business to leverage AI most effectively, ensuring that your advertising strategies remain innovative and impactful in the years to come.

The Webolutions Approach to AI in Digital Marketing

At Webolutions, our innovative approach to integrating AI into digital marketing sets a new benchmark for efficiency and creativity in social media ad planning and creation. By harnessing the power of advanced AI tools such as ChatGPT and Rytr, we empower our clients to stay ahead of the curve, ensuring that their marketing strategies are not only relevant, but also impactful. As we continue to explore and implement cutting-edge AI technologies, our commitment remains steadfast: to deliver exceptional digital marketing solutions that drive growth and success. Trust Webolutions to revolutionize your social media campaigns, where the future of digital marketing is not just envisioned, but realized.

Contact us today to schedule a free consultation. Webolutions serves clients nationwide from our offices in Denver, Colorado.

The post AI Tools to Speed Up Your Social Media Ad Planning and Creation appeared first on Webolutions Digital Marketing Agency.

What is a Social Media Strategy?

A social media strategy is a plan that outlines how a business will use social media to achieve its marketing goals.

In this comprehensive guide, we will discuss the key components of a social media strategy, provide examples and case studies, offer step-by-step instructions for developing a social media strategy, and discuss common mistakes to avoid.

The Importance of a Social Media Strategy

A social media strategy is essential for any business that wants to succeed in today’s digital landscape.

Reasons Why a Social Media Strategy is Important

1. It helps to create a consistent brand image

A social media strategy helps businesses to create a consistent brand image across all social media platforms. By having a clear and consistent message, businesses can establish trust and credibility with their audience.

2. It helps to reach a wider audience

Social media platforms have billions of users worldwide, making them an excellent way to reach a wider audience. A social media strategy helps businesses to identify their target audience and create content that resonates with them.

3. It helps to increase engagement

Social media platforms are designed for interaction and engagement. A social media strategy helps businesses to create content that encourages engagement and interaction with their audience.

4. It helps to drive traffic and sales

Social media platforms can be a powerful tool for driving traffic and sales. A social media strategy helps businesses to create content that drives traffic to their website and encourages users to make a purchase.

Key Components of a Social Media Strategy

A social media strategy is made up of several key components. Here are the four most important components:

1. Audience Research

The first step in developing a social media strategy is to conduct audience research. This involves identifying your target audience and understanding their needs, interests, and behaviors. By understanding your audience, you can create content that resonates with them and engage with them on social media platforms where they are most active.

To conduct audience research, you can use a variety of tools, including social media analytics, surveys, and focus groups. Social media analytics can provide valuable insights into your audience’s demographics, interests, and behaviors. Surveys and focus groups can provide more in-depth insights into your audience’s preferences and opinions.

2. Platform Selection

Once you have a clear understanding of your target audience, the next step is to select the social media platforms that are most relevant to your business. Not all social media platforms are created equal, and each platform has its own strengths and weaknesses.

For example, if your target audience is primarily professionals and businesses, LinkedIn may be the best platform to reach them. If your target audience is primarily young adults, Instagram and Snapchat may be the best platforms to reach them.

When selecting social media platforms, it’s important to consider the platform’s user demographics, features, and engagement rates.

3. Content Planning

Content planning is the process of creating and scheduling social media content that aligns with your business goals and resonates with your target audience. Effective social media content should be informative, entertaining, and engaging.

To create effective social media content, you should consider the following:

* Content themes: Identify the key themes that your content will focus on. These themes should align with your business goals and resonate with your target audience.
* Content types: Determine the types of content that you will create, such as blog posts, videos, images, and infographics.
* Content calendar: Create a content calendar that outlines when and where your content will be posted. This will help you stay organized and ensure that your content is posted consistently.

4. Performance Measurement

The final component of a social media strategy is performance measurement. This involves tracking and analyzing your social media metrics to determine the effectiveness of your strategy.

The metrics that you should track will depend on your business goals, but some common metrics include:

* Engagement rate: The number of likes, comments, and shares on your posts.
* Reach: The number of unique users who see your posts.
* Click-through rate: The number of users who click on a link in your post.
* Conversion rate: The number of users who take a desired action, such as making a purchase or filling out a form.

By tracking these metrics, you can determine what is working and what needs to be improved in your social media strategy.

Examples and Case Studies

A well-crafted social media strategy can have a significant impact on a business’s marketing efforts. Here are some examples and case studies of businesses that have successfully implemented social media strategies:

1. Wendy’s

Wendy’s is a fast-food chain that has gained a reputation for its witty and irreverent social media presence. Wendy’s social media strategy focuses on engaging with its audience through humor and pop culture references.

For example, when a Twitter user asked Wendy’s how many retweets they needed for a year’s supply of chicken nuggets, Wendy’s responded with “18 million.” This tweet went viral and became the most retweeted tweet of all time, with over 3.5 million retweets.

Wendy’s social media strategy has helped the brand to stand out in a crowded fast-food market and has generated significant buzz and engagement on social media platforms.

2. Dollar Shave Club

Dollar Shave Club is a subscription-based razor company that has built its brand through social media marketing. The company’s social media strategy focuses on creating humorous and relatable content that resonates with its target audience of young men.

For example, Dollar Shave Club’s “Our Blades Are F***ing Great” video went viral and helped to establish the brand as a disruptor in the razor industry.

Dollar Shave Club’s social media strategy has helped the brand to build a loyal following and generate significant revenue through its subscription model.

Step-by-Step Instructions for Developing a Social Media Strategy

Now that you understand the key components of a social media strategy, let’s dive into the step-by-step instructions for developing a social media strategy for your business or brand:

1. Define Your Business Goals

The first step in developing a social media strategy is to define your business goals. What do you want to achieve through social media marketing? Do you want to increase brand awareness, generate leads, or drive sales?

2. Conduct Audience Research

Once you have defined your business goals, the next step is to conduct audience research to identify your target audience and understand their needs, interests, and behaviors.

3. Select Social Media Platforms

Based on your audience research, select the social media platforms that are most relevant to your business.

4. Develop a Content Plan

Create a content plan that aligns with your business goals and resonates with your target audience. Determine the types of content that you will create, the themes that your content will focus on, and the frequency with which you will post.

5. Create a Content Calendar

Create a content calendar that outlines when and where your content will be posted. This will help you stay organized and ensure that your content is posted consistently.

6. Monitor and Measure Performance

Track and analyze your social media metrics to determine the effectiveness of your strategy. Use this data to make adjustments and improve your strategy over time.

Common Social Media Mistakes to Avoid

When developing a social media strategy, there are some common mistakes that businesses should avoid. Here are three of the most common mistakes:

1. Focusing on Quantity Over Quality

Posting too frequently or creating low-quality content can hurt your social media strategy. Instead, focus on creating high-quality content that resonates with your target audience.

2. Ignoring Engagement

Social media is a two-way conversation, and it’s important to engage with your audience by responding to comments and messages.

3. Neglecting Platform-Specific Features

Each social media platform has its own unique features and strengths. Neglecting these features can limit the effectiveness of your social media strategy.

Tips for Measuring Success and Making Adjustments

Here are some tips for measuring the success of your social media strategy and making adjustments as needed:

1. Set Benchmarks

Set benchmarks for your social media metrics so that you can track your progress over time.

2. Analyze Your Data

Use social media analytics tools to track and analyze your social media metrics. Use this data to make adjustments to your strategy as needed.

3. Experiment with New Strategies

Social media is constantly evolving, and it’s important to experiment with new strategies and tactics to stay ahead of the curve.

Summary

Developing a social media strategy is a critical component of any business’s marketing efforts. By conducting audience research, selecting the right social media platforms, creating high-quality content, and tracking your metrics, you can create a social media strategy that drives engagement, generates leads, and increases revenue. Remember to stay flexible and experiment with new strategies to stay ahead of the curve in today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape.

References

* Social Media Marketing Industry Report 2021 by Social Media Examiner
* The Ultimate Guide to Social Media Marketing by HubSpot
* Social Media Marketing: The Ultimate Guide by Neil Patel
* How to Create a Social Media Strategy in 8 Easy Steps by Hootsuite
* The Beginner’s Guide to Social Media Strategy by Sprout Social

The post The Ultimate Guide to Developing a Social Media Strategy for Your Business appeared first on Webolutions Digital Marketing Agency.

First, let’s cover a couple of old rules that remain the same, only because we see some otherwise-savvy businesses missing them:

1. You want a PAGE for your business, not a PROFILE.
A Profile has “friends,” a Page has “likes.” “Friends” require mutual acceptance, the Page assumes anyone who “likes” it is welcome until an administrator says otherwise. Pages provide analytics and allow for custom tabs; profiles do not. If you’re a business, you should demand analytics and…we’ll talk about custom tabs later in this series.

The easiest way I’ve found to explain how to build a Page is: Go to the very bottom of any Facebook Web page and click, “Advertising.” On the ensuing page, click, “Pages (it’s on your left),” and then on the ensuing Page click, “Create Page (top right).”

2. You want a custom, or “vanity,” Web address for your Facebook Page.
Once you’ve launched your Page, you need to acquire 25 “likes.” Surely among all your employees, relatives, colleagues, customers, friends, family members, people who owe you a solid, the guy who sold you your iPhone, etc., you can scare up 25 people to take a few seconds to “like” your new Facebook Page. If not, you need to get out more. There, I said it.

As soon as you hit this milestone, go to www.Facebook.com/Username and name your Page after your business. Triple-check your spelling. Don’t get cute–the point of having a memorable Web address is that it’s memorable. Think ahead to business cards, email autosignatures, elevator pitches and blog posts. Example: You can connect with our company at Facebook.com/Webolutions and on our Website, webolutionsmarketingagency.com. See there? I gave you three things and you only have to remember one.

The Facebook Business Opportunity

Even if your executives don’t see how Facebook fits your business equation immediately, taking ownership of your brand name in this space is a good idea, to say the least. It’s easy. So is doing it wrong.

Do I love or hate the new Facebook Page?
You love it. First of all, I can’t help but notice Facebook changes stuff frequently without asking us, so if we decide to embrace the changes, we’ll spend more time smiling about them. If we don’t, we’ll just be a bunch of grumps sitting by ourselves in the break room and later we’ll come around to realizing just how silly it was to get grumpy about Facebook instead of all the really good reasons life provides for grumpiness AND we’ll still have to figure out how to leverage the changes to our benefit.

Three Reasons You Love the New Facebook Page Functionality
1. You can take on the identity of the Page.
Now, the Page can act as a person on Facebook. It can have its own personality and make comments on other Pages leaving its own thumbnail. Is there a business with which your business would like to interact? Go to your business’s Page, on the top right, click, “Use Facebook as (your page name),” and start acting like you’ve been here before. Have you ever dropped off your kid at school and minutes later been in a business meeting? How about hanging up with your personal financial adviser to take a sales call? Right, so it might be a little weird at first but it’ll be a pretty shallow learning curve. Your Page has its own Profile, with its own messages, updates, etc., etc. Just like you do.

2. The ownership issue is resolved.
Once upon a time, somebody at your company started a Facebook Page but she doesn’t work there anymore and nobody knows exactly what the password is and she didn’t make anyone else an administrator before she left. Or, an agency set up your Page and you’ve decided not to continue with that agency. Or, you created an email address just for the Page and the more you think about that the less sense it makes…Never encounter this scenario, or anything similar, again with the upgraded Facebook Page! We still recommend multiple administrators including at least two from the client company, but that has changed from a fundamental requirement to a best practice for backup.

3. The Page has its own news feed.
Your Page can now “like” other Pages, meaning the status updates that come from those businesses make up the news feed on your Page’s Profile. Ever heard this story? Dad hires son, son is not working out. Dad calls son into his office. Dad is wearing a hat labeled, “CEO.” Dad tells son, “I’m sorry, but we’ve decided to let you go.” Dad removes “CEO” hat, puts on another hat labeled, “Dad.” Dad now says, “Son, your mother and I feel terrible that you lost your job and want you to know we love you and we want to help.” This type of separation is enabled in Facebook. Consume and share items of personal interest from your personal profile, then click over to your Page and do the same thing from your company’s brand identity.

The Business Opportunity
Brand identity and the development and proliferation thereof. Ownership of your assets. Separation of personal and professional.

How does Facebook decide what goes in the news feed?

First, let’s define the term: “News feed” is the chronological list of posts from your friend and Pages you “like.” It’s the stream of information you see when you log into Facebook. Anymore, this works (links) the same when you’re using Facebook as yourself or as your business Page.

Just like Google and other search engines, Facebook uses an algorithm–Facebook’s is called EdgeRank–to determine what “news” it “feeds” you. If the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach (and even if it isn’t) then the way to your human audience is through that algorithm. So: What shall we feed the algorithm?

The Facebook Post Quality Score

If you’ve ever posted anything on a Page you administer, you’ve seen the “quality score” for that post. Every single post on Facebook gets a quality score. The higher the quality score, the more likely it is that more people see that post.

The factors influencing the quality score are:

• Number of interactions–comments, likes, shares–the post receives.
• How quickly these interactions begin.
• How close in time these interactions occur with each other.
• How long the conversation stemming from the post continues.
• The “interaction rate,” which is the number of comments divided by the number of connections you have. So: If your page has 100 “likes” and twelve of them comment on any single post, the interaction rate for that post is twelve percent. The interaction rate for a post that gets 120 likes, comments and shares on a page with 100,000 fans is 0.12 percent. This is a very good measurement for how effectively you are recruiting and speaking to your fan base.

(Of course, if you have 100 “likes” on your page, the total available market for your message is 100 people. That’s beyond the scope of this post but it is worth contemplating.)

Based on these criteria and and observed consumer behavior, you can assume that self-promotion posts will receive low engagement a low quality score and therefore be seen by fewer people. People are most likely to interact with business page posts based on promotional offers.

The Business Opportunity
In social media, quality counts. To get more of the right people to “opt in” to your message on Facebook, your objective must be to generate conversations on your Page in a timely manner. Understanding the rules of the game provides quantitative metrics against which goals and your ROI can be set and success measured.

How often should I post to Facebook?

Not all social networks are the same. When I speak to groups, I talk about this in the context of “culture.” In this post, we’ll focus on the practical, matter-of-fact stuff, but it still makes sense to address, briefly, the nature of how people use the network.

Constants in the Equation

Very few of us interact on Facebook with a primary goal of selling something, and those who project that are broadcasting to an empty channel. We use Facebook for entertainment and keeping in touch, and we make time for this on weekends. We’ve seen recent data that says messages on Facebook are most likely to be consumed on Saturdays and Sundays and Tuesday through Friday before the work day starts, but we haven’t seen that data broken out to the granular degree we would like and we suspect that Facebook is consumed with less discipline and efficiency than, say, email is today.

Frequency

Webolutions’ clients, for whom the audience is consumers, start on a schedule of Saturday morning, Tuesday evening and Thursday evening. As the brand grows more social, the results from A/B testing are collected and interpreted and the audience preferences become more clearly identified over time, the schedule adjusts. The next test we run is to change from Tuesday and Thursday evenings to mornings before work on those days, and A/B testing continues from there until we find the sweet spot.

Dependability

Your audience should get what they expect, when they expect it. I’m a Simpsons geek. Every Sunday, 7:00 pm, this cartoon comes on. Bart is going to say something irreverent, Homer will do something stupid and the rest of the characters will enable by way of filling in the slow spots. If the show hits the air at 7:04 some Saturdays or 6:53 some Thursdays and every once in a while throws in a live action cameo from Eleanor Clift recounting her experiences as a McLaughlin Group panelist…well, I’ll have better places to be. A schedule, an Editorial Calendar, provides structure to your internal processes and frames the expectations for your audience.

Sanity

It bears mentioning that tools exist to help you schedule your output and manage your time. For scheduling output ahead of time and monitoring multiple social media channels in real time, my favorite is HootSuite.

Summary

There’s no easy answer, but start with every other day, outside of work hours. Use what you know about your customer and their tendencies to implement the next step. Collect and analyze data, and do it again. And again.

The Business Opportunity

We’ve suggested where to start. Your challenge will be to find the point at which the timing and frequency of your output appeals to the audience. When your most engaged members become your brand evangelists by sharing your content, smile. You can’t stop analyzing and improving, but you can enjoy a small victory.

The post New Rules for Facebook Marketing appeared first on Webolutions Digital Marketing Agency.

How Do I Use Facebook as a Viral Marketing Resource?

Personalize Your Business – The first thing to do is build your business a Facebook page. This is a public profile that enables you to communicate information about your business and products to other users. These pages are visible to everyone and do not have limitations on the number of fans. Your business page should engage your visitor and establish credibility around your brand, services and products. Showcase the value of what you are promoting, target your desired audience and encourage your visitors to interact with your brand on a personal level.

Red Bull does a great job at targeting their audience and engaging their fans. Click here http://www.facebook.com/redbull to view Red Bull’s Facebook Page. When entering the page, you’ll immediately notice that Red Bull promotes an active lifestyle and encourages fans to interact with their page. They do a great job of targeting and engaging their audience through promotional videos, polls, music downloads and events hosted by Red Bull.  Red Bull advocates an active lifestyle for individuals in their late teens to early thirties with events such as break dancing battles, concerts, skateboarding, snowboarding and surfing contests, all promoted through their Facebook page.

Regularly updating your Facebook page will keep your fans returning. Sending your fans upcoming announcements such as promotions, events and news will not only keep your fans coming back but will also expose your business to the friends of your current fans when they browse your fan’s interests.

Creating Groups – Creating a group is one of the best viral marketing tools on Facebook. It allows customer evangelists to invite other people with the same interests to join your group, increasing your fan base. Facebook groups are one of the best ways to establish a community around your company’s brand. Establishing a group will bring people together with the same common interests and allows for open discussions around your brand. Out of the box, Facebook groups come with a discussion wall, events, photo sharing, video distribution and links. It allows the administrator to send news and updates to members. Like a Facebook page, updates on a consistent basis will keep users and fans returning to the group.

A Few Helpful Hints for Growing Your Facebook Fan Base

Community Appeal – It is important to target the right audience. Make sure your page/group is categorized correctly. It should include a title and description that complements your brand and encourages people to join your group or become a fan of your business.

Invite Existing Friends – Send an invitation to existing friends that may find the page or group interesting. This technique may become viral as friends of friends see what they have become fans of and provide your group or page the opportunity to grow in popularity.

Events – Facebook events are a great way to arrange meetings with friends and promote upcoming events in your community. Once an event is created, it is much like a group, in that it is a full-page and includes all the features of the group. For example, this application allows the user to hold discussions and upload photos and videos. When inviting friends to your event, they’ll receive a notification and have the ability to send a request to their friends so that they may attend the event with them.

Mini-Feed – The Facebook mini-feed becomes viral in that these applications document your fans’ interactions with events, groups and business pages, while adding their interaction to their friends’ mini-feeds. The mini-feed can be viewed by everyone and is showcased on the profile page of the user. The mini-feeds can create exposure for your company on a large scale, without too much effort on your part.

Photos – The most popular feature on Facebook is photos. Therefore, it is a good idea to upload photos frequently to your Facebook page. Photos add the human element to your company. Post photos of events, customers, social gatherings and your employees.  Every time photos are added to your page, your fans receive updates that new photos have been added and increase the chances of visitors returning to your page. Be careful how you use the photo section. If your company only posts pictures of your logo, it may appear redundant and credibility is lost.

Video – Videos are a great way to engage your fans. It is a personal way to promote products and showcase your company’s culture. Videos enhance your customer experience and can provide evidence on the quality of your products and services. Not only does it put a face on your company, but can build trust with your viewers.

Like photos, your fans will receive updates as videos are added and tagged. It increases the chances of your visitors returning to your page. Also, your fans are more inclined to share the videos with their friends, which will increase the potential of gaining additional fans to your company’s Facebook page.

Facebook Wall – Facebook wall is a public place for your fans to post comments about your business, products and services. This interaction is visible to anyone who views your Facebook page, if you allow your fans to post. When you write on your Facebook wall, it is important to keep in mind that you are writing on behalf of your company, not your user profile.

Facebook wall has additional features, such as the ability to add videos and photos.  These can help in the interaction of the fans with your brand. Be sure to use these tools to engage your fans, target your desired audience and build credibility around your business. Credibility is established by your customer evangelists promoting your business for you. Their videos put a real face on the people who use your products and services. Having people who don’t work for your organization, promote your business, establishes trust in your company.

Applications (Widgets) – A widget is a graphical element created to display information and allows users to interact with the application. Most widgets include buttons, pull-down menus, icons, forms and scroll bars. So what does this mean for marketing? If an application is created as a valuable resource that your fans enjoy, they can send the widget code to friends to embed on their Facebook profiles and pages. It becomes viral because it can be downloaded and forwarded on to as many people who desire the application. These applications are an extremely valuable resource because of their potential to spread at a fast rate. It will introduce your Website to users who would never know that your site exists. If done correctly, it can reduce your Website’s reliance on search engine optimization, search marketing and provide one-way links.

The post Social Marketing with Facebook appeared first on Webolutions Digital Marketing Agency.

First of all, most businesses use Twitter for:

1. Brand Building
2. Lead Generation

So, if you are like a lot of businesses that use Twitter, you know how difficult it can be to ensure your tweet gets noticed and distributed to a larger audience. After all, the average life of a tweet is only 17 seconds—the average time it takes for your tweet to move below the fold on a feed. But, there are many tricks to help your tweet stand out and get retweeted.

People Notice Pictures

Like a moth drawn to a light, people are drawn to visuals. The number one thing with a tweet to help it get noticed is to include an image. An image, naturally, takes up more screen space and provides more visual appeal. In fact, with free visual tools such as Canva, you can create sharable images that are custom designed for Twitter.

Important stat: 34 percent of tweets with images get retweeted.

So, if you want to broaden your audience exposure on Twitter, use images in your tweets.

The Science of URL Placement

In your tweet, think about where to place your URL. It is common practice that people put their URL at the end of their tweet.

But…you are 26 percent more likely to get retweeted if you put a URL in the middle of the tweet.

Hash It Out!

Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake are the kings of the hashtag, but there are some interesting stats involving hashtags. While common sense may say that the shorter the hashtag the better, the science says otherwise.

Hashtags containing 11 or more characters get 117 percent more retweets than those that only contain 6 to 10 characters.

And, your tweet is 69 percent more likely to be retweeted if you only use one hashtag versus two hashtags. Sorry Jimmy and Justin.

The Direct Approach Works

We all love email as it is among one the most affordable and effective marketing tactics. But, studies show an even higher click-through rate on Twitter direct message campaigns. In fact, they enjoy a 300% higher click-through rate. So, next time if you are considering an outbound email campaign, test it against a Twitter direct message campaign and compare the results.

Twitter Ads Grow Followers

Advertising on Twitter is relatively new, compared to Facebook. But, those businesses that use Twitter ads have about 13x more followers than those that do not use it. So, if you need to grow followers, Twitter ads is a very strong tactic.

But, it is also a double-edged sword. You have to keep those followers engaged. Businesses that gain users via ads lose about 15 percent within three weeks unless they keep them engaged with new content.

How to Use This Information

When it comes to Twitter, it still has to be the right match for your company and your audience. If it matches your personas, it is still a viable marketing channel. It just needs to be utilized correctly and you have to commit to it. A once-in-a-while tweet will not work. Tweet strategically and with frequency. If you need help, we are here to assist you. Call us at 303-300-2640.

The post Twitter for Business – How to Make it Work appeared first on Webolutions Digital Marketing Agency.

Thankfully, effective Facebook advertising doesn’t have to be an inside joke you feel like you’re on the outside of. These are five of our tried and true tips to get more out of your Facebook advertising efforts.

Define Your Goals Before Launch

This is the first tip because it’s both crucially important and regularly neglected. The go-to answer to the question of “What do you want from this?” is often “more sales,” which is a good end point, but it will likely take more than running a limited Facebook ad to get there. To help you align expectations with your efforts, check out the categories below and pick the one that best defines your audience. As with all things marketing, none of this is written in stone and there are always exceptions, but you should be able to see some similarities that pull you toward one or the other.

Most of our audience doesn’t know who we are: If this sounds like your company, you’ll be mounting branding and awareness campaigns. It’s going to be awfully difficult to convince someone to buy from you if they’ve just met you. At this stage, you’ll want people to see your brand logo and/or products often, so that when it comes time to make a purchase decision, you’ll already have a trust and awareness that your competitors (hopefully) don’t. No matter the stage or size of your company, branding and awareness is always important. Just ask Coca-Cola and Nike. The goal of your campaign is to familiarize your audience with your brand and products or services.

Some of our audience knows who we are, but we want to increase the rate at which they are purchasing: There’s a lot of good news at this stage. Your audience has enough brand and product familiarity to consider you when it comes to time to make a purchasing decision. In this stage you will want to focus on delivering value propositions that resonate with your audience. The primary goal of your campaign is to win clicks from your audience. The secondary goal of your campaign is to win conversions, be that a sale, newsletter sign up, an event RSVP or a lead.

We have a large volume of one time purchasers that we would like to turn into more frequent customers: This is fantastic news. If the statisticians are correct, the cost to get this audience to convert again should be at around an 80% discount from what you’d pay to gain that new customer. The primary goal of your campaign is to win clicks from your audience. The secondary goal of your campaign is to win conversions, such as a sale, an appointment, or an event RSVP.

Test. Test. Test.

This will be most important if you’re running a campaign with clicks and conversions as your goals. The reason for this is because, unlike in a branding campaign, you’re looking for your audience to take action. The big question to answer in your campaigns is:

What wins a click with this audience?

Having to guess the correct answer to that question the first time out is an incredible weight to bear, and an unnecessary one. Make sure that you have a budget that’s large enough to allow you to learn what makes your audience respond so that you can communicate with them better. To that end, think of your Facebook marketing as a science (yuck, we know, but we promise it’s easy science!):

Make a hypothesis – “I think X is my audience’s pain-point”

Test – Run an ad offering a solution to that pain-point.

Evaluate – Review your results. Did your audience respond to your message?

Judging the success of a campaign is tough if you don’t know what you’re testing against. For that reason, we always recommend running one idea against another. If you want to see if people in New York respond better than the rest of the country, run those ad groups at the same time. If you want to see if an image of a dog gets more clicks than an image of a lawyer, run those ads at the same time.

To make sure that you’re learning what specifically drove your better results, we always suggest tests where you’re running (almost) the exact same ad but with only one changed variable. The variables can be (but are not limited to):

Headline
Image
Text
Call To Action
Link Description
Audience Gender
Audience Age
Audience Location
Audience Device (mobile vs. desktop, etc.)
As your ads run, you’ll inevitably have to decide which variable won out. How do you decide? You’ll know that you can safely pick a winner when one more click won’t make a difference to the outcome.

Learn How To Create a Facebook Username for Your Business Page

Budget Correctly for Your Audience.

Another obstacle that may be derailing your paid Facebook efforts is entering with too low of a budget to accommodate the size of your audience. While no one can seem to agree on how many times someone needs to see your ad in order to take action, it’s almost universally agreed upon that it’s more than once.To correctly budget for your audience, especially without a strong history of results, you’ll need to rely on some general rules of thumb:

Estimate that you will reach 75% of your potential audience. If Facebook says your potential audience is 10,000 people, you should estimate that you will actually be able to reach 7,500. The reason for this is because some of the potential audience won’t be using Facebook while your campaign is running. Another reason is because your ad is competing in a real-time auction for ad space, which means you may lose impressions to another advertiser competing for that user’s attention. If you stink with figuring out percentages, like me, you can rely on this percentage calculator to help with your estimates.

Estimate that you will be able to deliver 1,000 ad impressions for $10. This will almost certainly fluctuate, but I’ve found that estimating a $10 CPM generally puts my budgets in the right ballpark. If my estimated reach is 7,500 people and I want each person to see the ad once, I should have a budget of at least $75.

Aim to deliver 8 ad impressions to everyone in your audience within the campaign’s duration. With this estimate, if it will cost me $75 to reach everyone once, I need to multiply that budget 8 times for the correct hard cost spend. This means my budget should be $600.

If you find that your budget won’t allow you to execute properly on your audience size, the next step is to either increase the budget or decrease the audience size. A great starting point for reducing audience size is to reduce your geographic footprint. Perhaps your national campaign needs to be reduced to a single state, or your city campaign needs to be isolated to just the city, rather than the city +25 miles.

Track Your Results

Another easily neglected step that couldn’t be more important to your success is making sure that you’re reviewing your reports. Checking out your campaign’s results can be done by visiting Facebook’s reporting and clicking the “Create Report” button.There’s so much information that you may not know what’s important. Data overload is a very real thing, and you may be tempted to just toss the evaluation thing altogether. But it’s worth the extra time, and there are ways to know what metrics mean the most to you right now. Based on the goals we established in tip #1, here are the metrics that you should be checking:

Most of our audience doesn’t know who we are: The goal of your campaign is to familiarize your audience with your brand and products or services.

Metrics to follow: Reach (the number of people who saw your ad) and Average Frequency (the average number of times each person saw the ad). These details can be found by selecting “Delivery” from the “Columns” drop-down menu. You will then see your campaign’s Reach and Frequency.

Some of our audience knows who we are, but we want to increase the rate at which they are purchasing: The primary goal of your campaign is to win clicks from your audience. The secondary goal of your campaign is to win conversions, be that a sale, newsletter sign up, an event RSVP or a lead.

Metrics to follow:  Click-Through-Rate. This accounts for the rate that your ad was clicked on against the number of times it was shown. This is far more important than the raw number of clicks without any other context. These details can be found by selecting “Performance and Clicks” from the “Columns” drop-down menu. Scroll to the right and you will then see your campaign’s CTR (Link Clicks) and CTR (All).

We have a large volume of one time purchasers that we would like to turn into more frequent customers: The primary goal of your campaign is to win clicks from your audience. The secondary goal of your campaign is to win conversions, such as a sale, an appointment, or an event RSVP.

Metrics to follow:  Click-Through-Rate and Conversions. This accounts for the rate that your ad was clicked on against the number of times it was shown. This is far more important than the raw number of clicks without any other context. These details can be found by selecting “Performance and Clicks” from the “Columns” drop-down menu. Scroll to the right and you will then see your campaign’s CTR (Link Clicks) and CTR (All).

Theoretically, your conversions (purchases, sign ups, RSVPs) will have taken place on your website and you will have access to those results as they roll in. Facebook also provides conversion pixels that your programmer can install on your site to track conversions.

Regular tracking of your results can help you not only account for the return on your ad spend, but it can also help guide future advertising efforts so that you can capitalize on what worked, and hopefully make it work even better next time.

Go beyond “One and Done”

The customer journey is a little more complex than “see the ad, make a purchase.” Think about it this way – how often have you experienced an unknown brand’s ad and immediately followed through with a purchase? If that has ever happened, it’s probably far more likely that you’ve clicked the ad, investigated the offer and brand, and then taken time to consider whether or not you want to proceed.

Consideration almost always comes before purchase in the customer journey. So, how do you nurture them through to becoming a sale? Through the magic of remarketing. If you’ve installed Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, and Twitter code on your site, you likely have the ability to create remarketing audiences which will consist of people who have been to your site. By creating remarketing campaigns across these networks, you will be creating the opportunity to re-engage those visitors who have not converted and make them an offer, or message the deeper benefits of your product or service.

And finally, consider the audience who saw your ad, but didn’t need your solution at that moment. How do you reach them when they do find that they are ready to purchase from either you or your competitors? Most journeys will incorporate a Google search at some point. For this reason, it’s important to ensure that your website is optimized for terms that are likely to be searched by your potential customer. If you’re not sure, or if you want to give your brand more opportunity to “win the click”, we’d also recommend a paid search campaign, managed by a Google AdWords certified professional.

No one wants to have another lackluster campaign on Facebook. It’s frustrating and wasteful. By incorporating these tips into your next Facebook advertising effort, you’ll not only set yourself up for success, but you’ll also learn how to best speak to your future customers. And don’t forget that you have a team of certified experts (and enthusiasts) at Webolutions just waiting to take your digital marketing to the next level.

Key Takeaways:

• Facebook advertising can be overwhelming and ineffective, but there are proven techniques to change that
• Before launching a campaign, you must first define your specific goals (and not just ‘get more sales’)
• Testing is key to success – to test effectively make a hypothesis, run the test, evaluate and repeat
• Budget correctly – on average it’s $10 per 1000 impressions and you’ll want to get 8 impressions per viewer
• Key tracking metrics will vary depending on campaign goals, but it’s vital you view reporting
• Use the customer journey as a core for your ads

Facebook advertising is not rocket science, but it does take time, effort and practice to manage. Need an expert to create and optimize your Facebook campaigns? We can help. Our team of experts work daily optimizing performance and results for Facebook campaigns. Give us a call at 303.300.2640 or get started here.

The post 5 Ways To Boost Your Facebook Ad Performance appeared first on Webolutions Digital Marketing Agency.

Social media had an explosive year in 2016—new channels, new features, new lessons learned about what works and what doesn’t. That set the stage for social media managers and organizations to develop further engagement with key audiences as we look to the new year. There was one thing that did stay the same amid the torrent of change—social media marketing continues to be about relationship building.

In addition to prioritizing your efforts to continually support the conversations and relationships you have with your target audience, we think the following are the primary drivers of success for your 2017 social media plan:

1. Well, First You Need a Social Media Plan

The only way you know if you attained success with your social media marketing is to define what that looks like. What are your goals? And what is your strategic plan to reach those goals? You should post with a purpose—every. single. time. The way to avoid wily-nilly effort is to create a thoughtful plan that you execute and then evaluate. Make sure your goals are specific and attainable. The only thing worse than not having a plan, is having a plan that is so lofty you have no chance of achieving it; so make your goals realistic.

2. Your Key Audience for Social Engagement

We all know there are lots of options for social media channels, but just because they exist doesn’t mean you should jump on every bandwagon. Facebook may be a gimme. But even though the allure of Instagram is great—70.7% of brands are expected to use Instagram in 2017 (which would surpass Twitter usage) —if your audience isn’t ON Instagram, you shouldn’t waste your resources on it. With all the changes 2016 brought to the social media sphere, do a check-in with your audience. Review the demographic information for each platform and even consider a survey of your audience to ensure you are focusing your social media efforts where your audience is.

3. Video in Social Media is in Vogue

Video is taking over! Live video was launched last year, and most companies are just beginning to realize its potential on several platforms such as Facebook Live, Live on YouTube, Instagram and Periscope. Since there are so many ways you can include video in your social media plan from live videos to how-to videos on YouTube, priority No. 1 for this year is that you incorporate video in some way!

4. Pay to Play with Social Advertising

You must invest in social media advertising, because it continues to be a challenge to get the results you want by just relying on organic traffic and SEO. Algorithm changes pushed many to dabble in social media advertising, so the competition has increased. Therefore, it’s essential for you to produce compelling ads that stand out from the masses and that lead to conversions. Even with price increases for ads, social media advertising remains one of the most cost-effective ways to reach your audience.

5. Customized Content for Better Social Interaction

Not only are people going to expect quality content, they expect brands to recognize them by delivering tailored content—the key to improving conversion rates. Expend more energy on delivering valuable content that is personalized to your audience rather than churning out marginal content just for the sake of posting a certain amount of times each week. Explore how you can deliver private social media communities and influencers to your target market.

6. 2017 Social Media Goals

As we learned in 2016, the social media landscape is constantly shifting, and it’s difficult to stay on top of the latest best practices. That’s why having a larger team at your disposal can help sift through the chatter to determine the best social media strategy for your organization. Join us for a latte and discuss how we can support your marketing efforts. Give us a call at 303-300-2640 or contact us online to get the conversation started.

What goals do you want to achieve with social media in 2017?

If you’re looking for internet marketing tips, you may also like our article on SEO Tips & Techniques.

The post 6 Tips for 2017 Social Media Success appeared first on Webolutions Digital Marketing Agency.

With such a capable and experienced team in charge, millennium trust company provides dependable services to assist its clients in long-term asset protection and management.

If you are unable to prove a value you can’t effectively adjust your strategy based on performance

We’ve broken down how to calculate social ROI and then capitalize on it.

Steps to Determine ROI for Social Media Marketing

1. Set Goals:

Before embarking on any new (or optimizing existing) initiatives, it’s imperative to set goals. These goals should be channel specific and thoughtful. They will also serve as the springboard for calculating your social media ROI. Why does your company need a Facebook presence? What are you hoping to accomplish? What are realistic benefits your business can gain from social media?

Many companies find social media marketing channels do not produce direct response revenue, but that doesn’t mean they’re not influencing actions and sales along the way. Common social goals include focus on…

• Improving brand recognition
• Driving users to site
• Increasing engagement with customers
• Reaching new customers

For our example, we will use the first two goals, improving brand recognition and driving users to the site. However, each of these would follow the same steps.

2. Set KPIs to Measure Marketing Goals

For each goal, you’ll want to set KPIs (key performance indicator) to measure progress. If you aren’t familiar, a KPI is simply a metric used to evaluate factors that would indicate success. Since we are using the goal of driving users to the website and improving brand recognition, we’ll use the following KPIs.

Example:

• Improve brand recognition KPIs: impressions
• Drive users to your site KPIs: website clicks

3. Determine Values Behind Social Media Goals:

Once you have determined your goals and KPIs, it’s time to attribute value to the KPIs. This is probably the trickiest part, but essential to determining your ROI. It’s important to determine how each of these goals impacts your overall business and financial status.

Example:

Brand Recognition Value: To determine the value of an impression, you can compare it evenly with what you would spend elsewhere. Perhaps the market rate for CPM (cost per thousand impressions) is $40. Then, that number should translate to $40 CPM for organic social as well. Let’s say you have monthly social impressions of 50,000.

(50,000 impressions/1000 impressions) * $40 CPM = $2000 monthly social site clicks value

Site traffic Value: To calculate the value of a site click, you’ll need to look to your site analytics. Here’s the formula: New revenue generated / Number of website visitors = value of each website visit. For example, let’s say your site drove 2 million last year and had a total of 100,000 annual visitors. 2,000,000  annual revenue / 100,000 website visitors  = $20 value per visitor. This assumes all channels are of equal value. You may be able to drill into Google Analytics to determine individual channel values.

125 monthly site clicks X $20 value per site visitor = $2500 monthly social impression value

Total gain: $4500 monthly social gain

4. Budget Hard and Soft Marketing Costs:

The great thing about social media is the costs are usually minimal. However, many are apt to write off the channel as free, aside from direct advertising costs. This simply isn’t the case. Make sure you attribute proper cost for the time and resources spent on the channel. Creating images, content and posts all take time. Determine the cost of resources and time in addition to hard spend.

Example:

Your company spends $500 in advertising across channels. You have a graphic designer who spends 1 hour a week and a social manager who spends 5 hours a week managing social channels. Your formula for costs would be:

$500 (advertising spend) + $200 (internal graphic designer 5 hours) + $500 (social media manager hours) = $1200 monthly costs

5. Social Media Marketing ROI Calculation:

Once you’ve completed steps 1-4, ROI tracking is a straight-forward calculation. It’s simply the total profit divided by total cost X 100. Once you’ve determined the value of your KPIs and your hard and soft goals, it’s just a mater of plugging them into the equation. For our example, here’s the calculation:

Example:
ROI = ($4500 (investment gain) – $1200 (investment cost)) / $1200 (cost) X 100

ROI = 275% or 2.75X

6. Regular Reporting & Ongoing Optimization

Determining your social media ROI is not a one time activity. It requires ongoing analysis and reporting that should lead to optimization.

Set up a regular schedule for reporting and track progress over time using KPIs. We recommend a set interval, typically weekly or monthly. Track the numbers closely. Be sure to annotate successes/changes. Don’t be afraid to test new strategies – simply evaluate their effectiveness using the reporting.

Once you have a solid handle on the ROI, don’t be afraid to adjust your goals or KPIs. You may find your goals have changed or your results favored a different goal. That’s okay! Social media is constantly shifting and so should your strategy!

Need help building a powerful and ROI positive social media strategy? Webolutions can help!

Contact us for a free consultation.

The post 6 Simple Steps To Calculate Social Media Marketing ROI appeared first on Webolutions Digital Marketing Agency.

What is Snapchat?

What is it? Snapchat is a mobile messaging app released in 2011 where Snaps—photographs and videos that can be edited using overlays, stickers, filters and text—are used for instant expression. Snapchat Stories are a compilation of Snaps that appear in chronological order. Stories can be viewed an unlimited number of times for 24 hours and can also be saved if you’d like.

From Snapchat’s CEO, Evan Speigel:

Snapchat by the numbers:

• 150 million people use it each day
• 10 billion videos every day
• Reaches 41% of all 18- to 34-year-olds, but adoption is growing for those over 25

What you need to know: If for no other reason than its popularity with the highly coveted millennial audience, brands should pay attention to this social media channel. However, there are other reasons savvy and even older users are jumping on the Snapchat ship including:

• Early adopters of social media channels have an easier time standing out from the crowd than those who jump on the bandwagon later.
• As a mainstream communications channel, no different than Facebook or Twitter, marketers have to learn the system to stay competitive.
• It is not expensive or difficult to get involved. Literally with a push of a button, you can get your thoughts and brand message out to a broad audience.
• Snapchat is authentic and allows you to build a loyal audience.

What is Instagram?

What is it? Instagram launched in 2010, and is a mobile photo and video sharing social media network. Instagram Stories were unveiled in August 2016, a feature that mimics the functionaltiy of Snapchat Stories where you can post photos and 10-second videos that only survive for 24 hours unless you save it.

From Instagram:

Instagram by the numbers:

• 300 million daily users
• On an average day, 80 million photos are shared
• 90% of Instagram users are younger than 35

What you need to know: While nearly half of all brands are on Instagram, this number is predicted to grow to 70.7% by 2017 to make it one of the most popular social media platforms. This year, Instagram launched new business tools that aren’t available to regular accounts to make it more effective for businesses.

• Brands perceive Instagram to be very brand friendly, because it is easy for fans to follow them and like their posts.
• Currently, Instagram is larger than Snapchat. Facebook purchased the Instagram platform in 2012.

How Do You Pick Between Snapchat and Instagram?

1. Don’t overcommit. Rather than attempt to do it all in every social media platform, pick the one that feels most comfortable to you and jump in with both feet, full energy and resources.
   If your company already has an Instagram following, it might make sense for you to stay on that platform instead of starting over with Snapchat. Vice versa, if your community is on Snapchat already, your decision may already be made for you! Here’s what Jeff Mindell, an avid Snapchat user, photographer and social media influencer said:
   “For me, it’s not really about the numbers. It’s 100% about the community. I’m not saying I won’t be using the new Instagram Stories, I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t cool, but it’s not where my most dedicated audience is.”
2. How will they find you? Since Snapchat doesn’t have an effective search to find followers, it may be more difficult for people to discover you on Snapchat. Brands currently experience huge reach on Instagram. The first day Instagram Stories were available, Nike generated 800,000 views in 24 hours, whereas its best reach on Snapchat was only 66,000 views.
3. Although alike, there are differences. While Instagram tends to portray a perfectly coifed “highlight reel” of our businesses and lives, Snapchat made sharing “real life” moments fun. What image do you want to portray?

How to Use This Information

Social media is just another way to push content out to your ideal audience. You should always start by defining your social media goals and content marketing objectives to determine if Snapchat Stories or Instagram Stories (or any other social media platform for that matter) are where you should be to achieve them. Our strategic marketing experts will help you navigate these decisions to create a plan that produces results. Give us a call at 303-300-2640 or contact us online.

Have you taken the plunge to Snapchat or Instagram Stories? Which one did you choose and why?

The post How Do You Choose between Snapchat and Instagram Stories? appeared first on Webolutions Digital Marketing Agency.