Social Media Archives | Online Marketing Solutions for Business

7 Secrets to Totally Rock Your Instagram Account

April 22, 2019

The five-part series on Instagram is over, but for some reason, I can’t stop thinking about Instagram. So, if you now want to know how to rock your Instagram account, keep reading.

Be as Original as Possible

There’s a camera on your smartphone, right? Use it. Take pictures as you walk the dog, hike in the woods or along the coast, or as you walk through your city’s downtown.

Whatever is iconic or beautiful to you, snap it and share it.

Creating memes is another way to be original. Add quotes to your own images or sign up for a paid photo service.

Don’t use the images that scream “I’m a stock photo.” Find great pictures and use those.

And take photos of happy customers, including before and after shots that are popular among aestheticians, hair stylists, realtors, and contractors.

Use your camera to capture the best moments in your business or introduce new products or even new services.

Focus on Your Demographic and Brand

Your business has a brand so be consistent with it across all social media networks. Find out what font your graphic artist chose for your brochure or business card and use the same one on your images.

What colors dominate your business. Use those on Instagram.

In every way possible, whether it’s the background of your quotes or the angle of your camera, create a consistent appearance.

Show that You Care

Don’t just go to Instagram to upload an image and then scamper off.

In fact, do what you do elsewhere on social media …. Be social.

Like other people’s images, leave comments, and follow your followers.

Use Hashtags

Hashtags on Instagram are huge. You can use up to 30, but 11 are the minimum you should use. The more hashtags you use, the more easily people will be able to find you.

Now, here’s a nifty trick you can use if you want to use more than 30 hashtags. On your 29^thhashtag, type &# before your next keyword. The rest of the hashtags you use won’t count.

Sneaky, right?

Create Instagram Stories

Now, this is a biggie. If you want to have success with your Instagram account, you must absolutely create Instagram Stories.

They are not hard to create. Just read through my blog post on Instagram Stories, okay?

Highlight Your Best Stories

Once you create Instagram Stories highlight the best ones. All you have to do is tap the plus sign below your bio, and you’re set.

Create Videos

Don’t forget that videos are hot and an essential part of your Instagram experience. You can even add them to your Instagram Stories so don’t be afraid to show yourself live.

What are you best tips for rocking your Instagram account?

Frances Caballo is an online marketing consultant and the author of six books on social media. Click here to schedule an appointment with her. Writing a book can serve as the best possible business card you can have and establish your authority and expertise in your field. Once you publish your book, learn to market it by visiting my other website, SocialMediaJustforWriters.com.

Social Media Weekly Update – April 19, 2019

April 19, 2019

This edition of the Social Media Weekly Update has posts on traffic generation and social media. I hope you like this week’s selection and that the posts here help you in your business.

8 Traffic Generation Secrets From The World’s Top Social Media Accounts from Blogging Wizard: “In this post, I’m going to show you exactly what the world’s biggest social media accounts do right, and what you can learn from them.”

Instagram

10 Instagram Hashtag Hacks Tricks You Definitely Want to Try from Later and by Benjamin Chacon: “If you’re searching for some great Instagram hashtag hacks to get more followers and boost your engagement, you’ve come to the right place! Whether you want to find out which hashtags are generating the most interactions on your account, hide your hashtags in your Instagram Stories, or add more than 30 hashtags to your post’s caption, we’ve got a hack for you.”

Facebook

Facebook’s Testing a New, Stories-Like, ‘Swipeable’ News Feed by Andrew Hutchinson: “As Facebook looks to evolve in line with user behaviors, and meet rising demand for new formats, The Social Network is experimenting with a new News Feed layout which would enable users to side-scroll through the posts in their feed, the same as how they can through Stories.”

Social Media

6 Effective Ways To Brand Yourself On Social Media from Blogging Wizard and by Camille Franc: “So how do you make the most of branding on social media? How do you put your best foot forward to attract new readers? How do you get those little streams to feed into a mighty river? We’ve outlined six great ways you can brand yourself on social media. Take them to heart and you’ll see more followers, more recognition, more engagement, and higher quality posts.”

5 Social Media News Stories You Need to Read This Week from Falcon.io: “Social media is constantly getting updated—so you should be, too. Here are 5 of the top social media news stories from this week that you don’t want to miss.”

Get to Know These Instagram Apps

April 15, 2019

In this five-part series on Instagram, we reach the fifth installment. Here, you’ll read about Instagram image and video apps.

Instagram Apps for Your Images and Stories

Canva
Of course, I first have to start with Canva, my favorite image-creating app. It’s so easy to use, and fortunately, you can even use it to create your Instagram stories.

Also, you can use Canva to create images for your blog and to resize images for social media.

Canva offers ready-made templates, or you can create your own. I used Canva recently to create a two-page Instagram Story about my Pinterest ebook. Then I highlighted it so if you go to my profile, you’ll see it below my bio.

You can learn how to use Canva by watching some of their tutorials.

Canva is free to use; however, there is a paid version. If you have a one-person business, the free account is all you’ll need. But if you have a crew of employees helping you with your marketing, you’ll want the paid version.

Buffer Stories Creator

Buffer, the social media scheduling app, has Pablo, an image creating app, and now Stories Creator.

Creating Stories with Buffer’s app is super easy so try it out.

PiktoChart

You can start using PiktoChart for free, but the fees are $24.17 a month for it’s Pro plan.

If you want to hit your following with data-driven Instagram Stories, PiktoChart can help.

Framatic – Collage Editor

The app has 36 adjustable layouts, 32 vintage borders, and 92 effects to apply to photos. You’ll find it in the app store for iPhones and iPads.

Using my favorite model, my dog, I can show you how it works.

Go to iTunes and pay $1.99 for the Instagram app. Be sure to connect it to your camera roll.

Select a collage style. I chose the three-image style. Using Framatic, I took three pictures of my dog.

Next, I decided whether I wanted to create an Instagram Story or just add the collage to my feed. I chose only to add it to my feed.

Next, there were various options to add filters. I almost chose the black-and-white filter, but in the end, I decided not to add a filter and tapped Next.

I think that Framatic would be a great app to use for Instagram Stories. My only complaint is the watermark.

Layout

Instagram also has a collage creator. You can use images from your camera roll or ones that you take live. It also includes filters.

Just go to iTunes if you have an iPhone and look for Layout from Instagram.

Square Sized

Square Sized is another app you can find in the iTunes store. Basically, it allows users to import photos from personal albums on Facebook and optimize them for Instagram. You can also use this app to edit your images.

LiPix – Photo Collage Maker, Picture Editor

LiPix has 90 adjustable templates, 54 different borders, and 20 photo effects.

Instagram Video Apps

Boomerang

Instagram’s Boomerang feature has been around for quite some time. It works like a GIF except that a boomerang plays a video forward and backward really fast. You can have a lot of fun with it.

InShot – Video Editor

This is another app you can find in iTunes. This app provides borders, filters, voice-overs, and more.

The app is specially designed to make the content fit in with your feed and your Instagram Stories.

VSCO

VSCO has free filters so you can keep a cohesive brand aesthetic. You can also make adjustments to contrast and brightness. Video editing will cost you $19.99/year.

Color Story

According to the app’s makers, “Color Story is all about making images cracks with intensity and life.”

To edit your video, select Albums then choose your video clip. Then, select your filters, effects, and tools to change the overall look of your video content.

Social Media Weekly Update – April 12, 2019

April 12, 2019

In this installment of the Social Media Weekly Update you’ll find posts on varied topics. Learn to buff up your LinkedIn account and delve into email marketing — a necessity these days. You’ll also find posts on social media marketing and analytics. Enjoy!

5 Tips and Tools for Developing a Winning LinkedIn Visual Content Strategy by Lilach Bullock: “LinkedIn hasn’t always been the most visual of social networks – it’s no Facebook, and it’s certainly no Instagram. However, that’s changed quite a bit in recent years, and even though it might seem that LinkedIn isn’t as visual a platform as the other top social networks, the truth is that visuals do still play a key role … ”

Email Marketing

3 Email Marketing Statistics That Are Shaping 2019 and Beyond by Convince & Convert: “Email has been around since the 1970s, but it’s still extremely effective, even with younger audiences. It’s sure to remain an integral part of your marketing strategy this year and into the future.”

Social Media Marketing

The 5-Step Social Media Marketing Plan for 2019 by Falcon.io: “So what makes a successful social media strategic plan? Aside from being clear, concise, and measurable, it also needs to outline your goals for the year and how you’ll achieve them. In this guide to effective social media strategy planning, we will look at five actionable steps that you should take to ensure your brand produces an ambitious yet attainable social media marketing strategy. Let’s get started.”

The ROI of Social Media: Measuring What Matters by Melonie Dodaro: “Do you know what the return on investment (ROI) of your social media efforts is for your business? Do you know which key performance indicators (KPIs) are most important to your business and how they are tied to your business goals?”

Analytics

5 Tools to Help Analyze and Improve Your Instagram Stories Performance by Adina Jipa: “Now with over 500 million daily active users, Instagram Stories is fast becoming an essential consideration for all social media marketers and businesses looking to make the most of social connection.”

Social Media Weekly Update – April 5, 2019

April 5, 2019

Here’s another edition of the Social Media Weekly Update. Instagram is the fastest growing social media network so it’s no surprise that I selected two posts on Instagram. Also read the posts on advertising, LinkedIn, and Blogging. There are great tidbits in them.

Instagram

5 Tips to Help Maximize Instagram Stories for Your Business by Darnelle O’Brien: “Is your business one of the 500 million users active on Instagram stories every day? Instagram stories provide a unique opportunity to reach a large audience with engaging and timely content. If you’re still dipping your toe into the Instagram stories pool, check out these tips that will have you creating more engaging stories content in no time.”

How to Create Instagram Stories People Love to Watch from Social Media Examiner and by Christian Karasiewicz: “Want more views for your Instagram stories? Looking for tips to create stronger Instagram Stories content. In this article, you’ll find six ways to enhance your Instagram stories for better audience engagement.”

Advertising

Which Is Better, Facebook Ads or Google Adwords (And Why You May Fail with Both) by Gill Andrews: “Hi Gill. My updated website looks great, thank you. But I have no visitors. I was thinking about running some ads. Which is better, Facebook ads or Google AdWords? I had to answer this question multiple times this week, so I thought I put it into the post. What should you do if your website isn’t getting any traffic?”

How to Perfect Your LinkedIn Profile and Generate Sales Leads [Infographic] by Mark Walker Ford: “Are you just getting started with a LinkedIn marketing plan for your business? Want to know how to create the perfect LinkedIn profile optimized for social selling? The team from HubSpot share their guide to a sales-focused LinkedIn profile in this infographic.”

Blogging

How To Engage Blog Readers Year Round With Content Themes from Blogging Wizard and by Lyn Wildwood: “Keeping your blog active with fresh content is hard enough on its own. When you toss in the fact that what your blog truly needs is an active audience, things can become really difficult really fast.”