 What is Instagram Marketing? Using Instagram to market your business is a very excellent engagement tool to use. I consist of using video and images and it does require consistent work and new posts preferably daily if not twice a day at the very least. Using this app will give you the market share of Millennials and Gen X that you need to tap into. Plus it give you a great mobile platform to build off on. Why Instagram Is Important to Your Business This past year especially during the holidays we have seen product sales soar over the roof, and one of the biggest contributors is social media marketing, more precisely Instagram marketing. It has a better reach than older social media networks and undoubtedly the best engagement among them. A recent study Instagram has 15x more engagement than Facebook and 20x more than Twitter. To make Instagram work for you however, you need to not only be pro-active, but you need to pay attention. Here are some tips that I found that will help your business grow. Don’t make these mistakes first and foremost when using Instagram. 1. Poor Audience Engagement Nothing is worse than having new followers or influencers that are ignored. You have to engage them to keep them. This will make your followers happy and could, in turn, make them into loyal customers. Besides, Instagram notices your engagement levels and recommends high performing profiles at the top of Instagram Search and Explore section thereby increasing visibility and discoverability. 2. Making it too Personal Showing a little bit of personality isn't bad but as a business, you have to keep things professional still. Do not engage in your own opinions on politics, social matters, or your personal life or problems. Nobody wants to hear about it on your business Instagram Account. 3. Hashtags Need to Be Used Properly Instagram hashtags are of great importance in case you are not aware. It serves in place of keywords on Instagram, without it, no one can find your content. Hashtags for Instagram improve your chances of being found by many folds, if used properly that is, which is simply avoiding overused hashtags such as #love and steering clear of banned Instagram hashtags. Using those will not improve your chances of being found. 4. Making your Profile Private Apart from Instagram hashtag mistakes, this is another big mistake most businesses make on Instagram. No one has all the time in the world to wait for your approval before viewing your posts and what you have to sell. For a personal profile, it's okay but business wise this is not a popular move. Make your profile public, in case you have it on you, can change it in the options menu in the top right-hand corner of the app. Also, make sure that you are using a business profile. 5. You need To Fill Out Those Caption Fields Otherwise You Will Get “What Is This Supposed to Be?” When you share a photo or video on Instagram never leave empty caption fields. Captions can be used to pass additional information like addresses and contact info. Business slogans and most importantly your CALL-TO-ACTION usually goes onto the caption. Other popular unpopular Instagram marketing mistakes include posting random stuff on your business profile, like comedy skits and vines that detract from your core business identity, totally avoid that. Not filling out your bio info, not adding a link to your website, etc. Conclusion Instagram is growing leaps and bounds and will continue to do so in 2019. It has already doubled its competitor, Snapchat in app usage. The other good thing is Instagram is owned by Facebook and while Instagram is doing better than Facebook, the interaction of instant sharing of the two makes this a valuable platform. Don’t makes mistakes, keep your content fresh, use the right hashtags and watch your audience grow as well as your business! -Roy Hashtags: #instagram #marketing #advertising #social media #mobility #apps
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 Word of Mouth Marketing is not only getting your brand or product to gain trust, it is also the inexpensive way to advertise. The drawbacks is it takes work, it takes trust building, and your network of friends, associates and others you have empowered, (influencers) must start sharing your marketing progression. Getting a trusted friend or colleague to talk and share about a cool new product or service that has made their work life easier or simple make the product or service offered less sensationalized and more genuine. You start to want that product or service. That is the power of a good word of mouth marketing strategy. But is this something we can control? To some extent, yes. The worst thing you can do is to leave it up to chance. Let’s talk about some specific ways in which you can ignite positive word of mouth and use it to spark further customers. Here are a few tips I found that can help you with word of mouth marketing. 1. Build Trust Nothing builds a customer-company relationship faster or more solidly than trust. Yet, trust is a quality sadly lacking in many companies. In our me-first world, customers often get the short end of the stick. Whether it’s hidden fees or a disappointing product experience, people have endured incredibly frustrating situations when dealing with some companies. A wonderful way to prevent this and build trust is to do right by your customers. For example, did they receive a faulty product? Get them a new one as soon as possible and go the extra mile to make them not only satisfied but also happy. When a company goes above and beyond to champions its customers, those efforts build confidence and loyalty. Through strategic content marketing and thought leadership initiatives, you can establish a solid foundation of trust with everyone who experiences your brand. 2. Create an Unbeatable Customer Service Strategy Customer service is an area where many brands fail to hit the mark. When you hear about negative experiences, it’s rarely during a sales pitch or initial install of a product. Usually, it’s when something goes awry and people reach out to customer service. Make sure to have a solid and reliable team of customer service agents to care for customers. Make your agents available across all platforms, including phone, chat, and social media. Such positive experiences will cement a customer’s relationship with your brand. And when a customer shares those experiences, it will create a ripple effect. 3. Be Different People don’t talk about middle-of-the-pack brands. If you strive to be carbon copies of your competitors, nothing will distinguish you in your customers’ minds. Differentiate yourself in simple ways, such as the language of your marketing. Don’t use the same language as every other company in your industry. Strike out on your own and individualize your messaging. Think of words that describe your product in new and engaging ways. From your website to your email marketing campaigns, make your messaging reverberate. 4. Find Passionate Advocates Across every brand there are passive customers and then there are advocates. Advocates are those who are loyal and passionate about your brand. They keep coming back — whether it’s to use your again or upgrade to a new tier of services. Look for individuals who are… · Well-connected across online and offline networks (social media a must!) · Credible among friends, family, influencers, and colleagues · Willing to share opinions in a sound and positive manner. 5. Give People a Platform Not many people will spread the word about your brand if you don’t give them the opportunity. Social media pages, customer testimonial sites, and case studies are all excellent ways for your customers to share their happy experiences. You might include a link on your site or an email that encourages customers to leave a review. This could be as simple as "Did we make your day? You can make ours by leaving a great review!" Keep it light and conversational. If you know of an especially positive experience a customer has had, you might even reach out for an even more in-depth review or a case study about their experience. Eager and happy customers may not know how to support you and let others know of their wonderful experience. It’s best to give them several options, across different online platforms. 6. Incentivize Your Audience Some of your customers may need some motivation or incentive to spread the word. Somebody might love your brand, but not do much else about it unless they have a push in that direction. How can you solve this? Create a loyalty or brand advocacy program that rewards audiences for different levels of engagement. Everything from following a brand on social media to retweeting a post can all be rewarded. 7. Be Enthusiastic My final words of advice: Love what you do. Enthusiasm is contagious. If you have a great product or service you personally believe in, love what you do, and do it well, others will be naturally attracted to your brand. And these enthusiasts will tell others about you who in turn will tell others and on and on. In conclusion, a word of mouth marketing strategy can at times be a fickle friend. There are no guaranteed recipes for success. Every industry has its own quirks so be real that not everything you do will work. Be patient and be up for changes in deployment. -Roy Tags: #social media, #marketing, #advertising, #branding
 As 2019 fast approaches, social media is in for some changes. Every year, social media morphs into something bigger and better and typically, one platform becomes the “next big thing.” Here are some of the expected social media trends of 2019. Some of them are already here, and as stated, some are going to grow in the next year. Some of it good and some of it more demanding for you and I. Like it or not. Here are some takeaways I found interesting and wanted to share. 1. Social listening Social listening or crawling the web for information is hot and will be hotter. Using keywords or newsies is how we find information. This includes untagged brand mentions on social media, mentions of industry keywords that signal the interest to buy a product, mentions on blogs, forums, and news sites. While using social listening for these two causes is expected to become even bigger, the real trend of 2019 is going to be using social media listening for lead generation and social selling Some tools are even introducing features made specifically for lead generation in their toolbox. Given that people sharing their frustrations, ideas, and recommendations online are not about to stop, social listening usage will continue to grow, and expand to include new possibilities. 2. Video content Every year, video content continues to grow, and in 2019, video content is expected to once again dominate the market. In fact, according to some experts, over 80% of what we do on line will be watching video content. That is amazing! This is especially true for live videos. Having always been popular on YouTube, the trend has now taken over Facebook and Instagram, to the point when we get notified when someone is going live. It should go without saying that you have to deliver engaging and exciting content, just as you would on a blog or anywhere else. The main reason that videos have become more and more popular is that it’s getting easier to film, even on a rather good production level. But while your audience will be forgiving - it’s understood that live videos are spontaneous and things can go wrong - you definitely should seek to avoid annoying technical problems where possible. 3. Micro-influencers In the past couple of years, social media influencers have become a major trend. We now have Instagram stars, Twitter influencers, YouTube millionaires. These people have millions of followers - their every post, or vlog, or tweet is instantly seen by more people than TV ad makers could ever hope for. It was grand and revolutionary when the power of social media influencers became clear to everyone - and it still is. However, as the number of social media influencers has grown over time, prices for their services have also skyrocketed. That's lead more businesses to look at other alternatives, including micro influencer marketing. As opposed to major influencers, micro-influencers exist in every marketing niche. They have followings of fewer than 10 000 people, but most of their followers are genuinely interested in what they have to say. And they're very engaged - micro-influencers are often considered experts in their niche. These smaller names are not massively targeted by advertisers, so they are trustworthy and down-to-earth. The marketing potential is very high and marketers are about to recognize this in 2019. 4. Personalization Given the vast amount of information being uploaded by people each day, it's become very easy to get insights into all kinds of information about the people sitting behind the screen. This has opened the door for enhanced personalization, and that, in turn, has increased consumer expectation for the same. Content, products, emails - all of it can now be based on the consumer’s purchase history, clicked links, social media posts, and other behavior. Booking.com, for example, notifies you about deals in the locations you’ve been to, Netflix offers shows to watch based on your taste, Amazon and eBay show products similar to the ones you’ve bought before. And this is before you even consider Google and Facebook who seem to have data on us for everything. 5. Time: “I Want My Info Now!” The almost immediate future of marketing is real-time communication. The social media trends in marketing are the 24/7 customer support, real-time social selling, chatbots, and constant monitoring for a potential social media crisis. This is because social media never sleeps - customers continue to use your products, talk about them online, and buy new items at any given moment. This has been happening for a while, and finally, technology has caught up - we now have the tools to look for mentions of a brand in real time, tools that schedule content to be posted at any point, chatbots that offer immediate help. In 2019, consumers will expect their Twitter complaint to be answered straight away, Conclusion As a marketer, I can’t wait for these trends to come into more significant effect, and to change our lives for the better. As always, 2019 will prove to be challenging as marketers seek to adapt, but new tools and options will enhance the consumer process, and provide new ways to connect and convert in real-time I can’t wait. Ugh! -Roy Tags: #social media, #social platforms
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