YouTube Mobile Live Streaming: This Week in Social Media

Welcome to our weekly edition of what's hot in social media news.

To help you stay up to date with social media, here are some of the news items that caught our attention.

YouTube Expands Mobile Live Streaming and Launches Super Chat: YouTube rolled out mobile live streaming to "every creator with more than 10,000 subscribers" and announced that other creators will have it "soon." YouTube announced that mobile live streaming is built "directly into the YouTube mobile app" and has "all the same features as regular YouTube videos" such as search, the ability to find videos through playlists and recommendations, and protections from unauthorized use. YouTube began testing this new feature last June with a select group of creators.

YouTube also released Super Chat, "a new live stream monetization tool… [that] lets any fan watching a live stream stand out from the crowd and get a creator's attention by purchasing chat messages that are highlighted in bright colors and stay pinned to the top of the chat window for up to five hours." YouTube began beta testing Super Chat in January and has since opened it to creators in more than 20 countries and viewers in over 40 countries. A complete list of the eligibility requirements for Super Chat and the countries where it's currently available can be found on the YouTube Help page.

Pinterest Adds New Visual Discovery Tools: Pinterest introduced three new visual discovery tools "that turn any image into an entry point to finding more ideas" and make it "easier than ever to find ideas across Pinterest and from the world around you." These new tools include Lens, which uses your phone's camera to take a photo of an object and search Pinterest for related items that might interest you. Not only will Lens find "visually similar" items if you point your camera to specific items such as sneakers, it will also return outfit ideas with similar sneaker styles. Lens will also "find ideas related to constellations, galaxies and UFOs" if you point your camera to the night sky. Pinterest Lens is currently being beta tested on iOS and Android.

Pinterest's new visual discovery tool, Lens, uses your phone's camera to take a photo of an object and search Pinterest for related items that might interest you.

Pinterest also rolled out two new buttons, Shop the Look and Instant Ideas. The Shop the Look button is found on home and fashion pins and offers users "a new way to shop and buy products you see inside Pins." This new feature uses a combination of computer vision technology and human curation to surface a variety of related products and styles that users can buy on Pinterest with just one tap. The Instant Ideas button can be found on pins in the home feed and presents users with additional personalized pin recommendations in real time. The more frequently a user taps on one of these pins, the more refined and customized all future recommendations will be. Pinterest's new Shop the Look and Instant Ideas buttons are available now on iOS, Android, and the web.

Pinterest also rolled out two new buttons, Shop the Look and Instant Ideas, that make it easier than ever to find ideas across Pinterest and from the world around you.

LinkedIn Adds Option to Disable Comments on Long-form Articles: LinkedIn now allows publishers to directly manage comments on individual published articles on LinkedIn "at any time." LinkedIn's company blog states that this option is currently only available for long-form articles on the site. However, LinkedIn plans to add the option to turn off comments on all posts "soon." LinkedIn publishers can now also report, flag, or hide abusive or offensive comments on their LinkedIn articles. Users have been able to report posts in the past. This is the first time specific comments can be reported.

LinkedIn rolled out the ability for publishers to directly manage the comments on their long-form articles.

In this week's show from Friday, February 10, 2017, Michael Stelzner and guests discuss the top news in social media. Topics include details from Snap Inc.'s IPO disclosure (4:17), the rollout of YouTube's SuperChat and mobile live streaming (8:15), and Pinterest's new visual discovery tools (22:40). Subscribe to future shows here.

YouTube Glitch Falsely Drops Channel Subscriber Numbers: The Next Web reports that "YouTube has been affected by a massive glitch which is causing channels to lose huge chunks of subscribers in a matter of minutes." As individual viewers unsubscribe from a channel, YouTube seems to be "falsely" removing two subscribers from the account. This error "essentially allows trolls to repeatedly subscribe and unsubscribe from channels… [and cause] massive drops in the total subscription count."

YouTube Adds Double-tap Function to Move Ahead or Backward in Videos: As part of the latest update to the YouTube mobile app, the platform rolled out a new feature that allows users to double-tap on the left or right side of their screen to move ahead or back in videos by 10 seconds. The Next Web reports that this functionality only works when the video is in full-screen mode and it's currently available in the latest versions of the YouTube app for both iOS and Android.

YouTube now lets you double-tap on videos to skip ahead or go back 10 seconds https://t.co/slraAOhGKk pic.twitter.com/79RHpgDsy4

— The Next Web (@TheNextWeb) February 4, 2017

Facebook Updates Policies, Resources, and Tools for Combating Discrimination in Advertising: In November, Facebook scaled back marketers' ability to exclude ad viewers based on "ethnic affinity" when promoting "industries that have a history of racial discrimination" such as housing, employment, or credit opportunities. Facebook also committed to developing tools and policies that clearly define and prohibit discriminatory advertising practices on its site. After collaborating with policymakers and civil rights leaders, Facebook drafted new advertising policies that "make [its] existing prohibition against discrimination even stronger" and rolled out new educational resources for advertisers. Facebook also introduced stronger enforcement tools such as new technology that quickly detects and responds to discrimination violations.

Facebook Adds Weather Tool to Desktop and Mobile Apps: Facebook introduced "a useful new feature that puts a full weather forecast inside its mobile app and desktop site." The new weather tool is powered by Weather.com and replaces Facebook's short "weather greeting" previously found at the top of the news feed each morning. TechCrunch reports this new feature has been rolled out to 95% of Facebook's global population "as of this week" and can be found on the news feed or within the More menu within the mobile app. Facebook is currently testing additional notifications and more detailed greetings and expects to make these more widely available by the end of the month.

Facebook can now replace your weather app https://t.co/x8oakLCKib by @sarahintampa

— TechCrunch (@TechCrunch) February 8, 2017

Facebook Rolls Out Community Help: Facebook expanded Safety Check to include Community Help, a new tool that allows users to "find and give help and message others directly to connect after a crisis." The Facebook Newsroom site states that Community Help posts can be viewed by category and location, which makes it easier for people to find the help they need. Facebook is initially rolling out Community Help "for natural and accidental incidents" happening in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, and Saudi Arabia "for the first couple of weeks." The feature will eventually be available to all countries and additional types of incidents as Facebook learns more about how people use the product.

Facebook Community Help allows people to find and give help such as food, shelter, and transportation and connect with one another after a crisis or natural disaster.

Twitter Plans Update to Collapse Abusive and Low-quality Tweets: Twitter will roll out three new ways to help users manage abusive, low-quality tweets and accounts. These updates to Twitter Safety include the ability to stop the creation of new abusive accounts and offers "safer search results" that omit sensitive content and tweets from blocked or muted accounts. Twitter also developed a new way to identify and collapse potentially "abusive or low-quality replies" such that only "the most relevant conversations" are brought forward in your timeline and replies. Twitter announced that these changes should be available to users "in the coming weeks."

We're working hard to make Twitter safer.

Here's an update on some changes we're introducing today: https://t.co/RFRMIczsFf

— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) February 7, 2017

Creative Commons Beta Tests New Photo Search: Creative Commons is beta testing a new feature that allows users to "search across a variety of open content through a single interface… by license type, title, creator, tags, collection, and type of institution" and offers easy "one-click attribution" with pre-formatted copy. The new CC search also provides social features such as the ability to create and share lists, add tags and favorites, and save searches. Creative Commons hasn't announced when a final product is expected to be released.

Creative Commons is beta testing a new CC search feature.

Medium Announces Upcoming Subscription Service: Medium will officially launch the first version of its new subscription service in Q1 2017. Earlier this year, Medium announced plans to move away from an ad-driven publishing model and roll out a compensation model for its writers and creators "based on the value they're creating for people." TechCrunch reports that a subscription service could help develop an additional revenue stream apart from advertisements and build a different business model for publishers. Medium hasn't yet provided additional detail on how much these subscriptions will cost and what they'll include.

.@ev officially announces @Medium will launch subscriptions in Q1 2017 @upfrontsummit pic.twitter.com/lWyOO875K4

— Matthew Ball (@ballmatthew) February 3, 2017

The Effects of Firm-generated Content in Social Media on Customer Behavior: A new study published in the Journal of Marketing examines the effects social media content has on consumer spending, cross-buying, and profitability. It also examines the effectiveness of social media marketing campaigns on sales when combined with television and email campaigns. Using data from several large retailers with multiple locations in the U.S., this report found that "highly engaging" posts have the greatest impact on consumer spending. Retailers that published highly engaging social media posts reaped the benefits of more in-store sales.

The Marketing Land #Hashtag Bowl Study: Marketing Land's sixth annual #Hashtag Bowl study tabulated all television ads shown during Super Bowl LI and found that only 30% included a hashtag. This is a significant change from last year when 45% of Super Bowl ads used a hashtag and is a huge drop from the all-time high of 57% of ads in 2014. Meanwhile, 41% of ads displayed the advertiser's URL, which indicates a strategy shift from driving social media "likes" and "follows" to driving website traffic. The study also revealed that "Twitter barely beat Facebook and Instagram as the most-mentioned social network, though neither was explicitly mentioned often."

LinkedIn Workforce Report February 2017: LinkedIn kicked off a new monthly report that will illustrate "how much hiring is increasing or decreasing across the U.S., cities, and industries; which skills cities need most; and where workers are moving to and from." For example, this month's LinkedIn Workforce Report highlights a year-over-year 11.4% increase in hiring across the U.S. in January 2017 versus January 2016 and shows which cities are gaining the most workers or have the highest "skill gaps." These findings are based on LinkedIn's wealth of data from personal profiles, company pages, and job listings posted on its site and are focused on U.S. workforce trends only.

What do you think of mobile live streaming on YouTube? Have you checked out the new Shop the Look and Instant Ideas buttons on Pinterest? Please share your comments below.

YouTube Mobile Live Streaming and other social media news for Feb. 11, 2017.

View the original article here

Original source: YouTube Mobile Live Streaming: This Week in Social Media.
http://www.jretechnology.com

The Real Cost of Buying Followers (And How To Fix It)

Social media marketing isn't a simple game of Likes and followers if you plan on being taken seriously as a business, building relationships with your customers, generating more leads and seeing real results.

There are tons of websites offering thousands of followers for a low cost, but a high a follower count means nothing if your audience isn't engaging with you. In the end, buying social media followers will hurt your brand more than the illusion of popularity you think you're creating.

I will admit that going to a business' social media channels and seeing a big follower number is impressive at first glance. Your social media channels are often the first line of contact between your customers and your brand – but who uses brands they don't take seriously or trust?

Besides creating a horrible first impression, the smoke and mirrors are a waste if you aren't getting your audience to actually interact with your posts.

Not only will savvy professionals know what you're up to, but consumers are becoming more aware of what adds up to an account with a purchased following. At a time where being transparent is so important, your potential audience will turn away for this insult to their intelligence.

Buying your followers will cost your credibility.

Buying your followers will also cost you in audience interaction.

When you talk to a bunch of fake or inactive users guess what happens? Nothing. Your posts get no likes, or comments, and if they do it's mostly spam. How awful does it look to have 100,000 fans and two  likes on a post? Ouch.

What's more, no interaction means your subsequent posts will have lower organic reach, as social algorithms take this as a sign that your content is not engaging.

What's the point in that? Why waste your time creating content that won't go anywhere past your fan Page?

A slew of purchased followers will absolutely muddy your metrics – although if you are spending money on your audience (in this way) then maybe metrics don't matter to you. But they do to any serious marketer, who wants results.

With your post reach affected by the bought members, any trace of a real audience behavior is clouded.

Without an organic audience to spread your content, no new eyes will see your brand, and no one will click on any links you put out there – so again what is the point of all this?

Yes, any trace organic following may not ever see your posts because the way the algorithms are set up. Your channel essentially becomes spam, which, in turn, attracts more spam, and could eventually cause your channel to be suspended or removed permanently… another ouch.

Based on all of these reasons, buying followers is a big waste of time, energy, and money. Bottom line – if you're on social media to cultivate an audience, get traffic and results, stay away from buying followers.

If you have bought followers, don't wonder why your messages aren't getting shared, or your links get no clicks. If your accounts do get deleted for being spam, consider it a blessing in disguise as you can begin to build an organic audience the right way.

Flushing fake followers is one of the most frustrating and time consuming processes. Most of the time it's easier to just start over, but if you can't there are ways to bring out real followers, or attract new ones.

There's a heap of third party tools that can help you identify and get rid of followers, but here are some more organic methods to help you bring out any real followers and attract new ones:

Keep putting out quality, brand-relevant content on a regular schedule.

Remain consistent and share quality content that will resonate with potential followers who will actually be interested in your brand or business.

Attract the right followers by using hashtags that are relevant to your content and brand.

Learn how to find hashtags that will work for your business here: How to Find the Right Hashtags for Your Brand or Business

Influencer marketing can be a great way to expose your business to a relevant audience. Concentrate your efforts on getting the attention of one person or specific key players to help you build buzz and awareness about your brand, product or service.

Working with influencers can be cost-effective, and will help build organic brand awareness through simple campaigns like product demo's and account takeovers. 

Okay, so the last thing you probably want to do is dump more money into channels where you've bought followers, but social ads can help you reach the right customers.

Social media ads offer very specific targeting – LinkedIn allows you to target specific groups, Twitter lets you target the followers of specific accounts and multiple hashtags, Facebook has the option to show your like campaign to friends of the people who already like your page. More recently, Facebook and Twitter have included custom audiences – using your list to target your customers and then serve your ads to other people who mirror your list. It's a little creepy, but very effective.

On Facebook you can also try using the audience restriction functions to define who you're reaching

The Preferred Audience option enables Facebook to show your content to those who've expressed interests in line with the topics you cover in each individual post. You can choose up to sixteen interests – this won't limit reach, and should help your content get in front of audience members who'll be most responsive to your content.

Pages with over 5,000 likes will have Preferred Audience turned on automatically – for the rest, you'll have to dive into your settings to get the feature.

In you Facebook Page settings, look for "Audience Optimization for Posts" in the 'General" menu and tick the check box. Click "save changes" and you'll be ready to roll.

Look for the little target circle under the field in which you write the text for your post. From there a lightbox will pop up where you can choose targeting criteria. Facebook will help you with general ideas, but you can get creative and target publications, other Pages, relevant companies etc.

Choose your interests click save. Now you can publish or schedule your post.

Just as you can choose a Preferred Audience for each post, you can also defined a preferred audience for your Page.

Again, head to your settings, but click on "Preferred Page Audience" on the left. You'll be able to choose your target audience's interests so your Page is more likely not be shown to those who care about the subjects you're posting about.

A fun extra with Preferred Audiences – you'll be able to see in your Page Insights which posts you selected a preferred audience for. You can then compare and see which posts drive more engagement and reach.

Remember to experiment with interest tags to gauge which ones work best for your business.  Your posts with preferred targeting will have a different icon under "Targeting" column in post insights.

Clicking to get further insights will show a "Preferred Audience" insights tab so you can see how your targeting did.

I took this screenshot right after I put my post up, but your post will needs least 100 views before you can see the Preferred Audience insights.

Once you can see insights they'll look something like this:

Image via Social Media Examiner

Unlike Preferred Page Audience, Audience Restrictions will only show posts to people that fit the criteria and interests you choose.

This works well for when you have location specific promotions and you don't want to bother the rest of your audience – the option shows your post only to those accounts that fall under restrictions you've set for each post.

Narrowing your audience down may feel a little counter intuitive, but hyper-segmentation enables you to create very specific content to appeal to individual sub-sets within your audience. This option came in super handy when I worked on experiential marketing campaigns which involved samplings in different regions across the U.S. – we used post targeting to let followers in specific regions know where sampling would be happening without disturbing the larger audience.

You'll find Audience Restrictions by clicking on the same little target button you do to choose the Preferred Audience, but this time you'll look under the "Audience Restriction" tab. Here you'll be able to restrict who sees your post by age, location, and language.

No good ever comes to people who pretend to be what they're not, and faking it till you make it clearly doesn't work either. Apply this train of thought whenever paying $5.00 for 10,000 followers becomes tempting.

Building an organic audience is hard work, but it's worth it when you start seeing your audience interact, drive traffic and build real leads.

This post originally appeared on Dhariana Lozano's blog.

View the original article here

Original source: The Real Cost of Buying Followers (And How To Fix It).
http://www.jretechnology.com

How to Create Instagram Lead Ads

Do you advertise on Instagram?

Want more leads?

Instagram lead ads let you collect valuable contact information from potential customers without pushing them off of the platform.

In this article, you'll discover how to set up lead ads on Instagram.

How to Create Instagram Lead Ads by Deirdre Kelly on Social Media Examiner.

To get started with lead ads, create a new ad campaign and select Lead Generation as the objective.

Choose the Lead Generation objective at the campaign level.

Next, continue to ad set level to define your audience targeting. If you have existing lead/customer data, always use a lookalike audience. Upload your customer list to use as the source audience to build your lookalike audience.

Define audience targeting for your Instagram lead ad.

Using your customer list as the source audience will give you better results than simply using existing leads from previous marketing efforts, which include people who have yet to drive any real value for your business. People who've actually spent money with your business (rather than just signaled interest) provide much stronger data for Facebook to work with.

It's even better if your customer base is large enough to segment out a portion of higher-value customers (e.g., repeat purchasers, high-spend purchasers, premium subscribers, etc.) to use as your lookalike source. Remember, though, Facebook recommends using a source audience of at least 1,000 users for best results.

Always exclude existing leads so you're not wasting impressions and ad dollars. By continuously retargeting the same users, you can stimulate negative feedback, which will deflate your relevance score and hurt your CPMs (cost per thousand impressions).

Facebook now lets you create an audience of users who successfully opened and submitted a lead form, so you can dynamically exclude incoming leads. With all other leads, you'll have to manually upload data to Facebook before excluding people.

Create a custom engagement audience in Facebook Audience Manager.

Under Placements, select the Automatic Placements option, because that only includes the Facebook news feed and Instagram anyway. Audience network and all other Facebook placements are ineligible.

Choose the placements where you'd like your lead ads to be served.

Although lead ads were originally rolled out just for mobile, Facebook realized that advertisers face all of the same obstacles on desktop too. Users are impatient, and making the process easier (by letting users submit their info in just a few taps) benefits both parties regardless of device. By selecting auto placement, your ads will be delivered on both desktop and mobile.

In your bidding, make sure you optimize for leads vs. link clicks. Link clicks may result in a higher click-through rate but you should always optimize for what your true goal is, which is simply leads in this case.

Optimize your Instagram ad for leads.

Now you're ready to move to the ad level. The front end of the ad unit is the standard format for regular ads, with the same creative options available.

A carousel ad that highlights the benefits of your service or product features/use cases can work nicely here. Incorporating testimonials and reviews is also a good idea. Although video works well, a slideshow can be an easier, cheaper alternative and Facebook provides simple tools for creating one.

Here's the carousel ad format used with Instagram lead ads.

It's finally time to create your lead form! You should be thinking quality over quantity here.

To make sure your leads are qualified, always use a context card. The context card appears after users click on the ad and before they submit their information. This is where you lay out the benefits of submitting the form to your prospects. You can choose a paragraph or bullet point format for this card.

The following example uses bullet points to relay the main selling points to potential leads.

Spell out the benefits of your product or service on the context card for your Instagram ad.

Keep questions to a minimum; less is more in this case. The user information fields, which consist of primary contact info along with some basic demographic and work information, will pre-fill with users' personal details as long as they've included them in their Facebook profile. This makes it easy for users to submit this information.

However, be careful not to include fields that aren't necessary, because users might be reluctant to hand over too much personal information this early in the relationship.

You can add up to three custom questions, but use these sparingly. If possible, ask multiple choice questions rather than open-ended questions. The more convenient the process, the more conversions you'll achieve.

Customize the fields and questions on your Instagram lead form.

If you're collecting customer information, you should already have a written privacy policy. Hopefully, it's posted on your website so you can provide a link to your privacy policy. This is a required field for creating the lead form.

Lastly, you can add a link to your website that users will see on the thank-you page along with a View Website call-to-action.

The thank-you page of your Instagram lead ad includes a link to your website.

Conclusion

As Facebook's mobile ad inventory skyrockets, the platform is determined to make it easier for advertisers to generate value from mobile users. Introducing Instagram placement for lead ads is the latest example of this.

To get the most out of the leads you generate, make sure you follow up with them in a timely fashion. If you have a customer relationship management (CRM) system in place, you can set up your leads to sync automatically, so you can follow up as quickly as possible when the leads are most valuable. Manually downloading leads can result in a long lag between receiving a lead and following up with a prospect.

Facebook already supports many of the most popular CRM systems like Salesforce, MailChimp, and Zapier. You can find more information on the available integrations here. If you don't see yours listed, it might take some work by your developer to set up lead syncing through the Facebook API. Alternatively, you could use a middleman integration like LeadsBridge.

What do you think? Will you try Instagram lead ads? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

How to Create Instagram Lead Ads by Deirdre Kelly on Social Media Examiner.

View the original article here

Original source: How to Create Instagram Lead Ads.
http://www.jretechnology.com

Instagram Stories: How to Create Engaging Stories

Do you use Instagram?

Wondering how Instagram stories work?

To explore how to craft Instagram stories for business, I interview Sue B. Zimmerman.

The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.

In this episode, I interview Sue B. Zimmerman, an Instagram marketing expert who helps businesses and marketers take their Instagram marketing to the next level. She's the author of the Instagram Strategy Guide ebook and a regular speaker at Social Media Marketing World.

Sue shares how a number of businesses are creating engaging Instagram stories.

You'll discover several techniques to improve your own Instagram stories.

Instagram Stories: How to Create Engaging Stories featuring insights from Sue B. Zimmerman on the Social Media Marketing Podcast.

Share your feedback, read the show notes, and get the links mentioned in this episode below.

Listen now: Play in new window | Download

You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, Stitcher, or SoundCloud.

Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:

Why Marketers Should Consider Instagram Stories

Sue started using Instagram Stories as soon as the feature rolled out in 2016. She still uses Snapchat, but she says now she mostly relies on Instagram Stories. She says pulling together content to tell a story is creative work, similar to scrapbooking.

Sue recommends that you develop a thread that keeps people engaged in your story from start to finish. Also, create Instagram stories with content that's original to Instagram, rather than duplicating content from other platforms.

Press the home button and then the camera icon to create an Instagram story.

Sue says Instagram stories have three main benefits:

First, Instagram stories direct followers to your actual Instagram feed, where your posts are always available. (Instagram stories disappear after 24 hours.)Stories that are entertaining and engaging give your followers a quick and easy way to consume your content.Engagement is important to the new algorithm that determines what people see in their Instagram feed. Because Instagram stories boost engagement with your Instagram posts, they improve your chances of showing up at the top of people's news feeds.

Listen to the show to discover when Sue still uses Snapchat instead of Instagram Stories.

Instagram Stories and Posts

We talk about the highly produced content that marketers often feature on their Instagram feeds, and Sue says high production value is not necessary for Instagram stories. Sue shares a few examples of businesses that use Instagram stories in creative ways. These businesses create stories that are different from the content in their regular Instagram feeds.

For example, Jenny Schatzle, who owns a gym in Santa Barbara, uses Instagram stories to let people know when she's starting new sessions. Her stories are more like ads, which is a completely different approach than her regular posts on Instagram.

Sue has also seen companies with products (such as shoe company M.Gemi) use stories to feature sales and direct people to their Instagram feeds.

Bring attention to time-sensitive information, like a sale, through Instagram Stories.

Sue notes that marketers use text differently on Instagram posts and stories. The more successful accounts on Instagram typically include the text in the description, not on the photo itself, so people connect with the experience of the product or service that the photo depicts. However, in an Instagram story, text can add value. People who don't have the volume turned up in the story can read the text on the video or the photo.

I ask how Instagram Stories has changed the way people interact with content on Instagram. Sue shares a few changes she's noticed since the release of Instagram Stories and the algorithm change.

Although she's been posting less frequently on Instagram, Sue gets more engagement with her posts over a longer period of time. She attributes that engagement to having active Instagram stories. People discover Sue through her stories, which provide value. Then people go to her feed and comment on and like her photos. She likens an Instagram story to a broadcast reel of your Instagram feed that can drive engagement.

When I ask whether people prefer the video or still image component of Instagram Stories, Sue says people are using the Stories features in a variety of ways. People who aren't comfortable on camera do creative text overlays using the writing tools, stickers, and emojis.

In general, Sue thinks regardless of whether you use text or video, dynamic and entertaining stories get more click-throughs. For example, people are using the text tools in creative ways to keep people clicking through each four-second image clip. Sue emphasizes that when people feel like they're with you, they want to stay until your story is done.

New fans discover Sue's Instagram feed through her stories.

As you develop Instagram stories, Sue notes that you need to be aware of how the text and video formats work. Photos always display for four seconds (whereas you can change that time frame on Snapchat). Videos are a maximum of 10 seconds. You can move backward or forward and pause a story. In a video, Sue writes a note asking viewers to turn up the volume because otherwise, people won't hear what she has to say in her video.

Sue and I talk about the data Instagram shares about your story viewers.

You can see which accounts watch each clip in a story, and Sue recommends you focus on the people who view your story until the very end, especially the people who comment and reply to your stories. Sue believes the people who are responding to your Instagram stories (not just watching) are the ones with whom you can ultimately have an intimate conversation. Those people are your superfans, your buzz agents, the people who talk about you.

Sue connects with these viewers through a private direct message such as a thank-you message. To thank those who say they like her content and why, she'll often send a video as her direct message because she believes being real and authentic helps her connect with those viewers. Private messages live forever, so the conversation you have with that individual is in a thread that continues as you build a relationship.

Listen to the show to hear why and how to make businesses, products, and locations part of your Instagram stories.

Companies Using Stories Well

Sue shares four types of businesses that are using Instagram Stories well. The North Face showcases people using their product (such as a jacket) so viewers get a sense of their product in use. For example, you see people wearing the jacket while they're snowboarding or skiing and on a running toddler.

In their Instagram stories, The North Face features people of all ages using their products.

Another account Sue recently discovered is JugglinJosh, a very entertaining juggler. To learn what types of videos he should try doing again, he asks followers to tag him in their favorite clip.

JugglinJosh asks his audience to vote for their favorite videos of him through tagging his posts.

Boston photographer 617Images uses Instagram stories to give viewers a behind-the-scenes look into setting up the perfect Instagram photo. Everyone loves to know how things are done and a lot of work goes into those Instagram-perfect pictures. Sue thinks this inside look is a clever way to use Instagram stories.

Finally, Sue loves Chase Jarvis, the founder of CreativeLive. Chase, who wasn't even on Instagram a year ago, has embraced the platform and does stories on a regular basis. Chase excels at personalizing and humanizing his stories, while driving traffic to his YouTube videos. Because he's verified on Instagram, his account can link directly to his YouTube channel.

Listen to the show to hear our conversation about becoming verified on Instagram.

How to Craft an Engaging Story

Sue created a color palette for her brand, making her Instagram stories easy to spot. When she draws or writes text that enhances a story, she uses only one of three colors. To choose colors that are consistent with your brand, you can press and hold one of Instagram's 27 colors to see additional color options.

Choose from three different writing tools and 27 colors for your Instagram stories.

For the content of each story, make sure you have a beginning, middle, and end. If you can't map out a story in your head, Sue recommends storyboarding with sticky notes. Also, think about how you're going to entertain, educate, and inspire in some way that gives value.

Next, consider whether you're best at video or writing. Even if you aren't comfortable on camera, you can still do video; you just need to decide what's going to work for you. Sue has found that changing the way she tells her Instagram stories makes them successful. However, her stories on @TheInstagramExpert (her business Instagram account) always share an Instagram tip or tactic. (She uses her personal account @SueBZimmerman differently.)

Sue believes Instagram stories should be quality over quantity. Create stories with intention and strategy. Additionally, Sue recommends you align your stories with whatever you're posting on your feed to draw more eyeballs to it. That's adding even more value for you.

Align your stories with your Instagram feed.

The maximum length for an Instagram story is one minute, but Sue recommends keeping your stories a bit shorter. For video clips, you don't need to use the whole 10 seconds. Small bursts of content work really well.

To build a text story, Sue has had success writing copy that develops her point while using the same photo in each text clip. For a video, Sue suggests starting from an interesting point of view (focus on an interesting subject or visual, like a tree or the sky), and then walk into the frame. Or start with the camera up high (or down low) and then bring it to your face. The effect is like panning in a movie.

In both text and video stories, Sue introduces herself and says, "Hey Instagram. Here I am and here's what I'm going to talk about today." Then she'll write or say, "Tap." She builds each Instagram story toward an end goal. An end goal might be to get more eyeballs on your blog, grow your email list, or get subscribers on YouTube. Sue typically uses stories to direct viewers to her Instagram Strategy Guide or a blog post.

Give viewers an action without sounding bossy, she adds. Offer them something special. For instance, if you're selling a product, reward the people who've watched your whole story by giving them a coupon code. Simply say, "Thanks so much for watching my story. Here's 10% off your next ______."

Listen to the show to discover how many new followers Sue gets each day.

Stickers for Stories

Instagram Stories includes a bunch of cool Snapchat-like updates, such as stickers and frames, which Instagram rolled out during the holiday season. Users could tap the special holiday stickers to turn them into another version of the sticker. For instance, you could turn a regular Christmas tree into a cactus or a white Christmas tree.

I asked Sue for her thoughts about marketers using stickers. Sue says that when a sticker makes sense with your content, the sticker can give your content a little extra creativity so it stands out. One of Sue's favorites is the Location sticker.

Instagram has a variety of stickers to add to your stories, including a Location geotag.

When you select the Location sticker in your Instagram story, you can geotag where you are, which is especially great for businesses with a physical location. Another sticker option is Time of Day, which is great for letting people know you're doing something at a specific time.

Sue doesn't think stickers are gimmicky, as long as you use them in the context of the story. The sticker content can make you stand out.

Listen to the show to hear the suggestion Sue gives me for using Instagram stories to promote our Friday morning live Social Media Marketing Talk Show.

Ninja Tips

Sue runs through several of her ninja tips, starting with Hyperlapse from Instagram. Use it to speed up your video. Then save it to your camera roll and upload it to your Instagram story.

Boomerang creates a one-second GIF within the app. The GIF can shake up your story and make it fun. Sue has created a Boomerang GIF in which she points her finger to draw attention to something. Others have used it for holding up a mug, taking off a hat, and so on. The GIFs are a quick little second and they're entertaining.

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With another cool app called Flipagram, you can create a 10-second video of photos for your Instagram story. For instance, if you just met 10 amazing people at a conference, you don't have to upload 10 photos to your Instagram feed. Instead, create and upload a Flipagram video.

Any clip in your story can be shared in your Instagram feed, Sue adds. Just edit it within the app.

Music is another thing that adds creativity to your Instagram stories, especially if it plays a part in your branding. Music can give your story energy.

Text formatting is also important. Instagram Stories lets you choose the text size, color, and line spacing. Keep your text formatting consistent as part of your business branding.

Finally, you can use any emoji or symbol you want on Instagram, as long as it's part of your branding and not gimmicky. Sue thinks emojis can work with anybody's business to some degree. For example, if you have a certain link to a download or webinar, point an arrow or a finger emoji to the link as a subtle call to action.

Listen to the show to learn what text on Instagram stories previously looked like.

Listen to the show!

Ways to subscribe to the Social Media Marketing podcast:

What do you think? What are your thoughts on Instagram Stories? Please leave your comments below.

Instagram Stories: How to Create Engaging Stories featuring insights from Sue B. Zimmerman on the Social Media Marketing Podcast.

View the original article here

Original source: Instagram Stories: How to Create Engaging Stories.
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How to Create Social Media Marketing Videos Without Appearing On Camera

Do you want to market your business with video?

Are you unsure about appearing on camera?

You can easily create compelling and budget-friendly videos while staying comfortably off-screen.

In this article, you'll discover how to gather and combine video assets to tell your story, all without getting in front of a camera.

How to Create Social Media Marketing Videos Without Appearing On Camera by Megan O'Neill on Social Media Examiner.

First things first: Decide on the story you want to tell and what type of video is best for telling that story. Not sure where to start? Several categories of videos may resonate with your audience and none require you to appear on camera.

A video to explain what you do is always a good idea. For this type of video, talk about who you are and what your brand, business, or product does. You can post this video on your website and in the About section of your business's Facebook page.

In this example from Blue Apron, the video explains how their meal service works, what cooking expertise you need to follow their recipes, how they source their ingredients, and why their service is valuable.

Create a video about what your business does to share on your website and Facebook page.

How-to videos can be a great way to establish your expertise, serve up share-worthy content, and reach new potential customers. For example, New York florist City Girl Flowers created a video about how to make a floral gift box. Don't want your hands on camera? This video would work just as well using photos throughout the various stages of the process without showing the florist's hands.

Stories resonate with consumers, particularly on social media. A video telling an interesting story behind your product can make that product feel all the more valuable.

For instance, Nu-Era Bakery in West Virginia created a video about the connection between their pepperoni rolls and West Virginia history. The story resonated with their Facebook fans, who shared the video more than 4,000 times!

A video can tell an interesting story about your product's history.

A testimonial video can showcase the great work you do through your customers. Because your customers do the talking, you don't have to be on camera at all. In this great example from Slack, several members of the Sandwich Video team talk about how Slack improved the way the team coordinates its video projects.

And these are just a few examples. You can also create promotional videos about your projects or services. Seasonal videos might relate to Valentine's Day, summer vacation, Halloween, or other special occasions.

After you have an idea for your video, it's time to compile the photos and video clips that tell your story. To get this content, you may not need to pick up a camera at all. Your marketing material both on and off social media, as well as user content, can all be resources for your video.

Existing Marketing Content

Even if you haven't been making videos to market your business yet, you've likely been doing other things to spread the word about your products or services. You can repurpose content you've used for other marketing projects and campaigns. Look for reusable content on your website, printed materials, marketing projects, and campaigns.

Crate and Barrel's marketing team repurposed images from their Spring 2016 product catalog to create a marketing video for Instagram and Facebook.

As you look for content to use in your video, keep an eye out for assets like these:

Your company logoProduct shots (like in the Crate and Barrel example)Team photos or headshots from your About Us pagePhotos used in brochures, signage, and so forth

Instagram and Snapchat Stories

Have you created an Instagram or Snapchat story? Save these videos and repurpose them, along with the other photos and videos you've already posted on your social pages.

It's easy to download your full Instagram story (or just part of it) to use again later. First, open your Instagram story and tap at the bottom where the names of the people who have viewed your story are listed.

Open your Instagram story and tap at the bottom of the screen.

On the next screen, you have two options. To download the entire story, tap the arrow at the top of the screen. To download a clip, scroll through to select a clip and tap the arrow below your story.

Download your entire Instagram story or just a clip.

The process to download Snapchat stories is similar. In the Stories section, tap the download icon next to My Story.

Navigate to your Snapchat Stories section and tap the download icon.

When a dialog box asks if you'd like to save your story, tap Yes to confirm and the entire story is downloaded.

Tap Yes to save your Snapchat story.

Downloaded stories from Instagram or Snapchat are saved to your camera roll or gallery, where you can use them in new marketing videos.

User-generated Content

Don't have many photos and videos of your own? Ask your customers! You can create fantastic videos using photos and videos from the people who use your products and services (and love you!).

You can look online to see if fans are already posting photos or videos, or send out a call to action asking fans to share content with you. Then edit those assets together into a video. An added benefit is the people whose photos and videos you include are likely to share your video with their friends!

Ask Permission to Use Customer Content

Before you use other people's content, make sure they give you permission. To get permission, reach out via email, send a message on social media, or comment on their post. Be sure to let users know exactly how you'll be using their photo or video and keep a record of their response.

If you reach out on the post itself, follow up via email so you can keep a record of the person granting permission. Here's a simple format you can use: Hi [person's name]. We really enjoyed your [photo/video/etc.] and we'd love to feature it in our own video. Please let us know if you'd be okay with that!

When you aren't on camera to talk to your audience, you need other channels for telling a story. Lucky for you, text offers an easy solution.

You may have heard the phrase, "Text is dead; long live video!" That's not exactly true. Text still lives on and can help you tell stories in your videos. When you put text to good use, your video may need only a handful of photos or video clips. Author Bunmi Laditan has an amazing example of the power of images and a little text.

Author Bunmi Laditan used a few images and well-chosen text to create a funny video.

Text is the glue that holds your photos and videos together and helps you tell a story. To start writing your text, think about the story you'd like to tell from start to finish. Write it out. Then organize the photos and video clips you've gathered or shot in an order that you feel best represents your story. You can do this in your video editing software, on notecards, or by arranging printed photos.

After you create a basic storyboard, use text to fill in the necessary holes and tell your story. You can use stand-alone text slides or place text on top of video clips or photos (as in the video above). Make your text as concise as possible so viewers feel like they're watching your video, not reading it. Also, be sure the text is easy to read and stays on-screen long enough for viewers to scan it.

When you're done, share your video with someone you trust to provide honest feedback. Ask him or her to repeat the story to you after viewing the video. Were there any holes in the story? Are there any questions that weren't answered? Improve the video based on this feedback.

Conclusion

When you think about marketing videos, perhaps personality-based campaigns like Old Spice's "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" or Dollar Shave Club's viral hit, featuring co-founder Michael Dubin, come to mind. If you're not comfortable on camera, the prospect of doing something like this can feel understandably terrifying.

That being said, you've likely heard that video is becoming a must-have for marketing, especially on social media. According to 2016 data, video is performing better than other types of posts on Facebook, social video viewing is linked to purchasing decisions, and more marketers than ever are embracing the medium.

The good news is that you've got everything you need to start making great videos without having to turn the lens on yourself.

What do you think? Which story will you tell first? Have you ever created a video from content you already have? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

How to Create Social Media Marketing Videos Without Appearing On Camera by Megan O'Neill on Social Media Examiner.

View the original article here

Original source: How to Create Social Media Marketing Videos Without Appearing On Camera.
http://www.jretechnology.com