You may not have heard of Pinterest if you are not an avid fan of arts and crafts. Pinterest is a hub of quirk and interest, an online visual search engine that allows its users to discover, pin (aka collect on a page/profile) and share pictures and videos relating to their interests. They pin these items on “Boards” – different pages they label as subcategories like Fashion, Craft, House Inspo and so on.

Pinterest is a huge hit amongst the public as a personal tool, but what benefits can it provide to your business? Like all social networks, it can be used carefully and cleverly as a marketing tool to do 5 key things.

Grow Your Audience

The more frequently you use the site, the more likely your content is to be pinned. When this happens, your content and services are exposed to new groups of people, with massive global potential.

Grow Brand Awareness

With all these potential people seeing your content, it’s a great opportunity to reinforce your brand values and personality by selecting content that fits. As you are more active and engaging, the audience learn more about you and this helps to build brand awareness and loyalty.

Improve your SEO

Using the correct keywords across Pinterest can help to improve not just Pinterest Search Rankings, but also Google Search Rankings for your business.

Increase Website Traffic

Creating content to pin allows you to include a direct link to your website, product or service! This means that every single piece of content you are sharing can have a direct call-to-action with potentially great results.

Place Ads

Like other platforms, Pinterest even allows you to turn your content into ads and will place them across the network. These appear to a person looking like normal pins – almost. They have a small text indication that the piece of content is an advertisement. They have an easy to use ad manager that allows you to define audience characteristics including Age, Gender, Interests, Location, Language and Device. You can even use business analytics so you can see how your ad is doing.

This is all great! But how do you know if Pinterest is for you? Have a look at what your business is promoting and compare it carefully to the type of content and consumers on Pinterest. If you are a finance business, then it might not be the right move. However, if you are a fashion, beauty, furnishings or even craft brand then Pinterest could be a roaring success for you. All you need then is content that can make you stand out from the crowd.

Video has come on a long way since L’Arrivée d’un train en gare de La Ciotat scared watchers into thinking a train was going to burst out of the screen in 1896. Short video has evolved into one of the most popular and engaging forms of content on social media, and it’s understandable why. Its more attention grabbing, more authentic and more memorable. That’s why we’ve come up with 5 key ways you should be making the most of the medium on the biggest social network there is: Facebook.

Stop the Clock

Insights show that engagement takes a heavy hit once videos breach the 90 second mark. We’re a busy generation, and as such people simply don’t have time to sit down and watch long-form videos that pop up as they’re scrolling absent-mindedly on the bus. Limit you video content to between 15 and 90 seconds to get the best engagement results. For video ads, keep it at 15 seconds max to get your message across.

Make Your Point

Most viewers will decide in the first couple of seconds if they think the video is worth watching or not. That’s why you need to make sure you’re giving them a reason to keep watching in those first few seconds, otherwise you risk people moving on before they’ve got what’s going on. First impressions count!

DO Judge the Book by its Cover

After all, your audience could take one look at that cover thumbnail and decide immediately if they’ll stick around to view or not. Research shows that video ads with a more attention-grabbing, visually engaging cover thumbnail can half your cost per ad! The lesson here being: never neglect the thumbnail design.

Don’t Stop at the Feed

Animate your whole brand. Applying a video to the cover of your business page will give a great first impression to visitors. You can use the space to promote brand awareness, a new product or service, or even an event. Don’t use too much text though, and keep in mind the dimensions: 820 x 312 pixels for Desktop and 640 x 360 pixels for mobile.

Subtitle it

Studies show that 85% of users will watch videos with their sound turned off. Closed Captions will not only allow these people to know more about what’s going on in your video, but they will also be more inclusive for the deaf community. Win-win! Make the subtitles branded for an extra personal touch.

So, there you have it! Following these simple rules will certainly increase video engagement on your Facebook page. Hiring a Digital Marketing Team who know their stuff will allow you to focus on growing your business while all of this complicated stuff is taken care of. Head to our contact page to find out more about our Social Media Marketing services, and what we can do to help boost your brand!

The biggest news shaking up the world of social media (and if you’ve not heard about this yet, have you been living under a rock?) is the planned trial removal of “Likes” on Instagram.

That’s right, the social network giant is testing out a new feature that would hide how many Likes you have on your post from the public. Only the poster of the content would be able to see the Like count, whilst followers and public user would only see one named user “and others” likes this. Instagram are encouraging users to focus on the content itself, instead of the response. Perhaps this is an attempt by Instagram to reduce the amount of fake accounts circulating their network and focus more on authentic growth.

But what has the response been? Well much like opinions about social media in general, it’s a very mixed bag. This news is following ongoing claims of users becoming too obsessed with number of Likes, often relating the number to their own self-worth. A recent report from the UK’s Royal Society for Public Health found an enormous amount of negative psychological effects linked to excessive social media use, including anxiety, depression, loneliness and sleep deprivation. There are hopes that the removal of the self-worth association with number of likes will reduce the negative mental health impact. This change in the network could help promote the positive opportunities that social media has to offer, like community, authenticity and self-expression.

On the flip side of things, there has been a huge negative outcry from the influencer community. For many of these influencers, Likes directly correlate with their income. With these changes, businesses will have to change the way they make decisions about sponsorship. Influencers and businesses alike will be forced to focus much more on other measure of success, like follower count, comments and post frequency.

Instagram are even considering removing metrics on Stories, which were the inspiration for the change. This all comes after Twitter CEO discussed the possibility of removing follower counts from their network.

Currently the trial is only happening in Canada, so influencers globally are holding their breath to see if it will roll out worldwide. Will these changes affect the constant need for validation in our modern life? Or will users simply switch to a new measurement? Only time will tell.

Let us know what YOU think about Instagram’s Like removal in the comments.

Having done a lot of reflecting on our beliefs and our ethos at Social Gamma, we are embarking on a new chapter in our company story: Social Good.

Social Good is a mission, a way for us to apply our individual and collective beliefs to our work every single day. The most fulfilling projects and clients we have taken on are the ones trying to make a positive change in the world, and we want to build them up to something greater than ever before. We’ve made the decision to make a change and a difference.

We’re focusing in on just a few key industries:

• Health, Wellness and Nutrition
• Non-Profit
• Sustainability
• Education

Having worked with many clients in these industries so far, we’ve come to love not just what they do, but what we can do for them. For our health, wellness and nutrition clients we have carried out a variety of web and app development services, as well as investor and lead generation digital ads. We have helped our clients gain key investors, find leads and even maintain and develop their online presence to ensure their continued success. Our non-profit and sustainability clients have benefitted form our social media expertise. We’re proud of the achievements we have made on their channels, both in engagement and follower retention. We have also helped them to achieve fundraising goals and launch successful events and projects. Our education clients found new leads and an increased following through paid lead generation and social media ads.

And this is not just a side project. The team has always had a passion for giving back, from their university days to now. One of our Account Managers, Ana, has volunteered at a special school, helping children from the ages of 8-14 with learning difficulties and autism. She also worked with toddlers in foster care. Our Lead Creative, Rebecca, was a Team Leader for breast cancer awareness charity “CoppaFeel!”, promoting the cause, educating young people on campus and raising funds. The team won a fundraising award and ranked 3^rd on the UK CoppaFeel! University Fundraising Leader board the year she graduated. Our Managing Director and Founder, Ria, led a group called Remedy Through Music, who visited children’s hospitals every week to sing to the patients. We are inspired to this day by the people we worked with and the plans we helped carry out.

So now, our mission is clear. We will use our skills and know-how to spread the positive waves out into the world! If you are in the health, wellness and nutrition, sustainability, non-profit or education industries and you’re looking for a Digital Marketing Team who share an affinity with your values and passions, then give Social Gamma a call. We look forward to doing Social Good with you!

When you’re marketing a new product or service it’s tough to keep up with the ever-evolving online social space. Keeping pace with the millennial mindset, algorithms, demographics and new techniques can be near impossible! That’s why we’ve put together your new ABC’s, to help guide you in your decision making on Social Media.

Authenticity

If there’s one thing we know about millennials, it’s that they can’t stand things that seem fake. A recent campaign from Fanta showed a series of prank clips based around their new flavours. These videos were staged to look like common viral videos that quickly gain popularity – but these didn’t. Many of the Facebook comments were simply about how “clearly staged” and “cringy” these clips were.

This just goes to show that non-authentic content is an immediate no for millennials. Authenticity creates trust between you and your followers, something that is key for customer retention. This is one of the reasons that influencer marketing is overtaking celebrity endorsements on social media: it feels far more authentic.

Balance

It’s important to consider the main purpose of social media: to be social. If a brand’s account is all product pushing all the time, then followers can get bored quickly. They come to social media to be amused, to find fun content they want to share around, and occasionally for recommendations and shopping. A balance between personal posts that remind your followers there is a face/team behind the brand, and posts discussing the product/service can help with retaining followers and long-term brand awareness. However, make sure these personal posts are authentic and in keeping with the brand’s tone of voice.

Clarity

Make it clear who you are as a brand from day one. If you are a serious company then take your social media seriously by posting industry knowledge, important events and milestones within the company and present your product/service as a clear-cut solution to something. Memes have no place on a serious company’s feed and can cause confusion amongst followers. If you are a quirky, friendly brand then make it clear with a conversational tone of voice and humorous, highly personal content.

Having a social media marketing team behind your brand is paramount to hitting these key points regularly with your content, whilst keeping up with the finer details of the online world. Even great content needs expert knowledge on the best times of day to post, the best channels for a brand, and optimisation of hashtags. These things ensure your content is not just being seen, but being seen by the right people, in the right light. With all this behind you, there should be no trouble with increasing the number one thing that matters on social media: engagement.

With these simple rules in mind, you should have the components necessary for a flourishing social feed. All you need now is an excellent product or service to show people!

Contact us for further information on how Social Gamma can help you present your brand online.

Businesses nowadays are no stranger to the cultural phenomenon that is Instagram. With over a billion users on the platform, those who don’t get on board risk missing out on a whole untapped double-tapping audience.

More recently, businesses have started to realise that simply having an Instagram account isn’t enough. There is a fine art to ‘gramming’ for your business, so read on to find out about some of the top businesses taking it in their stride.

1: @balletoperadeparis

Copyright @balletoperadeparis on Instagram

The ballet uses banners (pictures spread across multiple posts) on Instagram to elevate their already stunningly beautiful photographs. Amongst these is sneak peak shots at practices, to entice followers and excite them about shows and events to come.

2: @lego

Copyright @lego on Instagram

You might expect a Lego Instagram to be full of cute shots of kids playing with bricks… but you’d be wrong. Lego have done something really clever by curating their feed to be Lego built images of popular culture, and beautifully directed images of their new products. See unique film announcements, or even a life size carriage for the Royal Wedding.

3: @gucci

Copyright @gucci on Instagram

This renowned high fashion brand ensures all their posts aren’t just basic product images. They contain eccentric, over the top foregrounds and backgrounds laid out in an almost obsessive manner, to give their feed the feel of excess. You are buying into the lifestyle, not the product.

4: @jessicavwalsh

Copyright @jessicavwalsh on Instagram

Whilst she might not be a business selling a product, Jessica Walsh is selling her design services, and he has a beautiful Instagram feed to show the world exactly what she’s all about. This kaleidoscope of colour and surprising imagery is designed to freak you out and challenge perceptions of modern life.

5: Haagen-Dazs (multiple handles)

Copyright @haagendazs_us on Instagram

The popular ice cream brand is updating themselves to be more accessible to millennials. Their redesign covers packaging, instore look and online presence, with the whole direction of the visual identity being to make it “instagrammable”. It’s said to be the biggest packaging overhaul in almost 20 years.

Instagram itself underwent a rebrand to keep up with the beast it evolved into. They understood that they were no longer just a photo sharing service, but a massive opportunity for businesses. To reflect this, they changed their logo to the simple shape with a gradient background you see today. People took a while to get used to it, but now curating your feed is a huge deal, with whole marketing teams dedicated to perfecting posts for business.

https://vimeo.com/166138104

To find out more about how Social Gamma can boost your social media, drop us an email via our contact page.

Are robots really taking over?

Well, kind of. But not in the way you think! A while ago, AI was considered accessible only to large multinational corporations which had big budgets, data and tech experts. Today, the situation is completely changed. Almost any business, big or small, has some sort of AI tool that helps them in their digital marketing efforts. Whether it’s a chatbot, tools for advertisements or email marketing, there are so many options on the market right now and it has become not only affordable, but also a way to reduce costs in the marketing budget.

According to Salesforce’s survey, 51% of marketers are already using AI, and 27% more are planning on incorporating this technology in 2019. Marketers around the world are focusing on AI technologies in 2019 and it’s surpassing even the popularity of marketing automatization and Internet of Things (IoT).

5 jaw-dropping changes AI brought to Digital Marketing:

Creating, Generating and Curating Content

Before all you creatives freak out, there’s nothing in this world that can replace imagination, spontaneity and creativity. So it’s safe to say you don’t have anything to worry about. YET.

Leaving jokes aside, AI has made it possible to generate content based on data and information you provide it with. Imagine not having to write that annoyingly long report ever again. I know, right? It sounds like a very, very, very distant possibility in the future. Except it’s here already, in 2019!

Quill, Wordsmith, Heliograf or Articoolo are just a few of the most popular tools that big publications like Forbes and the Washington Post are already using to drive traffic to their website by just allowing these platforms to access the news data and add it into templates. Associated Press, CBS, Reuters, BBC and the New York Times have plans to implement AI to generate content in the near future. Next time you read a piece on the New York Times, be aware that it might not have been written by a human.

Email Marketing

Companies are taking advantage of this more and more as AI technologies are now more developed and are able to perform as efficiently and at times, even more efficiently than humans. AI allows businesses to really customize their emails to the characteristics of each individual, which overpowers the abilities of a human being. Machine learning can track down any behavioral aspects, from the time the user prefers to open marketing emails to the type of content he likes and what type of titles will be more likely for him to click on.

Phrasee is one the AI tools that you can use for email marketing and according to their statistics, their “generation of email subject lines surpasses those of a human by over 95%”. 

Digital Advertising

We know what you’re thinking! This is one of the most obvious examples, but digital advertising had a really smooth and impactful transition to AI technologies. Platforms such as Google AdWords or Facebook Ads are always looking into what people like, where they work, what they do in their spare time and ultimately, their buying behaviour.

Digital Advertising is increasingly important for most companies which operate online and want to push their content/product/services at the top of our feeds or generate leads for their business.

While Google AdWords has been very innovative with their recent auction-based system which allows bidders to pay the lowest amount possible per conversion, we can’t wait to see what the next thing is going to be!

Chatbots and Image Recognition

This was exciting! Implementing AI technology to allow you to have an actual conversation with a chatbot completely revolutionised the sales process. You can literally find the perfect products from your favourite drug store by chatting with their bot. You want to find a new shampoo that’s suitable for your hair? Done! You can find it in minutes and it’s highly efficient.

It’s always easy, fast and reliable and that makes it so popular today. Consumer goods companies will have to up their game and make friends with the robots in 2019 because if they don’t, their competitors will and sales will go through the roof.

Sephora is one of the brands that upgraded their chatbot, turning it from a regular customer service assistant bot to a beauty-guru-make-up-artist-best-friend kind of bot. It’s called “Visual Artist” and it lets you virtually test out beauty products. It’s INSANE and wonderful at the same time. The AI recognises facial features and adds the eyeshadow, lipstick, contour to your face so that you can see what it would look like. Yes, it’s not the same as if having an in-store experience, but it will save you precious time when you decide to go in the store and buy what you’ve already tested.

Image recognition used to be just about objects, but AI has changed the whole game. It helped recognise facial features and emotions. This could be the end of long queues at the bank and a huge improvement for customer service. Amazon Rekognition is one of the tools that could make all of this possible in the next years.

Seeing Figures Into a Crystal Ball

Predictive analysis is another great transformation made by AI technology to digital marketing. An analysis made by a software on data from the past can be calculated into future probable figures. That allows you to understand what is likely to happen to your business in the following months or how engagement is going to go on your social media. This is an amazing opportunity for businesses to prevent losses or at least minimise them ahead of time.

Ultimately, AI is making everyone’s lives so much easier as far as digital marketing is concerned. It helps marketers get an in-depth understanding of their audience and their buying behaviour, as well as transforming the user experience. AI is also increasing productivity, efficiency and eventually, ROI. We can’t wait to see what this year brings on next!

As the end of the year is approaching fast and we are getting ready to decorate our Christmas trees and wear our Christmas jumpers, we looked back on the amazing year of 2018 and the best Social Media trends. So get comfy and grab a hot chocolate to enjoy next to your fireplace before checking out:

Our Top 5 Favourite Social Media Trends of 2018

Video, Video, Video!

GIFs, Boomerangs, Live Videos, and many more. One of the top trends that have marked 2018 is video content, which has taken a leading position on all platforms as the most preferred content. We’ve seen Instagram integrate live videos, IGTV etc; Facebook lives have taken over and are used by brands and businesses to create a connection with the audience.

According to these statistics, 87% of marketers utilise videos into their campaigns and viewers believe that 95% of messages from videos are retained on their minds.73% of B2B organisations using videos in their marketing campaigns are reporting positive results to their ROI. Video has really taken over 2018 and people feel the need to share moments from their lives even in more detail, video providing them this option. 

Brands and Engagement

The world of social media has allowed both consecrated and new businesses to grow and improve their customer engagement. In 2018, most brands realised the power that engaging on social media can have for their brand and opened up communication channels for their customers by using Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Brands can now address their customers’ issues much quicker and more effectively, reinforcing the concept of brand loyalty, a key feature for a brand to succeed in today’s marketplace.

An example of a brand that has used social media to build up their brand loyalty is the very well known coffee chain Starbucks. Since the beginning of the year, Starbucks saw the power that social media has in engaging with their audience and launched a campaign that encouraged their customers to tell them what the next Starbucks drink should be.

InstaStories

InstaStories have taken over the year of 2018, brands have been using it for promoting their products in a more innovative and interactive way. They got even better when Instagram implemented the “Swipe Up” feature. Brands can now post stories that contain products and by adding the the “Swipe Up” feature, viewers can get redirected to the brands product page, making shopping through Instagram an even easier for users.

Besides the powerful effect that InstaStories have had for product promotion and brand growth, it has also become more and more popular with users as well. The majority of people now use InstaStories to communicate daily activities and are more conscious on how they are curating their Instagram feed. Instagram stories are a fun way of sharing your moments with your followers, the great thing is you can add stickers, GIFS and filters.

Influencer Marketing

Influencer Marketing has reached a culminating point in 2018, brands from all industries are using influencers to promote their products and ideas. Why? Because audiences trust influencers and also identify themselves easier than with ads/models etc.

The statistics on influencer marketing show that the conversion rate for ROI for brands is 10x and that 50% of social media users trust influencers and the products they use. It is the leading marketing tool in 2018, we have seen more and more people become influencers and can now find influencers for all industries.

Filters, Filters, Filters

Our last favourite trend is the most fun and makes us remember that social media is for sharing what you are up to with your friends. Filters are essentially augmented reality and this technology is present on most social media platforms.

Snapchat was the first to integrate it but soon Instagram and Facebook took over the filter game and made them available on stories so now turning from an unicorn to a cat is easy just with a swipe. In 2018 everybody took on augmented reality and even the new iPhone adopted the fun trend.

Click here to find out more about Social Media trends in 2018!

Overall, 2018 has been a great year for Social Media as more and more technologies are being introduced in the digital space. The rise of social media in marketing is an opportunity for brands to share an equal marketplace for both new and old brands, bridging the gap that has existed so far. Communication and fun have become easier and social media is a tool that is now part of most of our lives. Are you excited for 2019? So are we!

Let’s face it, Instagram is becoming a part of daily life for many people across the world. The number of consumer usage is vastly growing, and it definitely won’t stop anytime soon. Instagram is constantly creating new ways for consumers and businesses to share content. Thus, meaning more ways to use the app and present daily life across a variety of platforms. 

In recent news, the public has been questioning the obsession consumers are having over the app and the way life is represented online. Posting is endless, from where a consumer’s recent lunch date was, to a recent vacation. The expectation for Instagram is to represent daily life flawlessly, and excitably. Cara McGoogan from The Telegraph stated, “we should not let the quest for the perfect Instagram shot dictate every aspect of our lives”. McGoogan’s statement is certainly impactful and relevant regarding the obsession some consumers have over the application. Social influencers that have made a solid career through posting on Instagram are a prime example. There have been members of the public who have attempted such a lifestyle, and ended up in an extreme amount of debt. All for the cost of a “perfect Instagram shot”. 

In March 2018, the Independent wrote an article on Lissette Calveiro, who uprooted from Miami to New York and aspired to live the “Sex and the City dream”. Whilst living in New York, she was interning which covered little costs, which meant she had to spend savings and take on a part-time job. Calveiro told the New York Post “I was shopping… for clothes to take ‘the perfect ‘gram”. As a result of this, Calveiro racked up $10,000 (£7,256) of debt. This expectation of “the perfect ‘gram” post, resulted in a magnitude of debt. Calveiro admitted to “…a lot of the travel i was doing in 2016 was strictly for Instagram”. The commitment for one single app is outstanding, having the ability to spend an extortionate amount purely for the representation of daily life. 

Calveiro is a prime example of the lengths consumers will go to for the perfect Instagram feed. Going back to McGoogan’s article, she quoted, “art should not imitate life – especially if its an inedible seven-stack burger”. Art is an element to be admired or appreciated, rather than something to be attained. Calverio drastically slowed down her spending after realising the dramatic plummet of finances, and managed to pay off her debt by committing to cutbacks. However, this may not be the case for other consumers who are still striving for the perfect portrayed life. Author Tanya Goodin stated, “… this is just another example of how the relentless pressure [to] have a perfect ‘Instagrammable’ life can get seriously out of hand and cause real problems in real life”. 

Instagram is a great platform, but should definitely be used with caution. The app can portray the perfect, yet occasionally unattainable, lifestyles of others. On occasion, it reflects an unhealthy image of how life should be, but consumers do not need to live up to this. We aren’t saying to boycott Instagram, but to use it with caution. All social media should be used to a certain extent, and certainly not to the level of racking up excessive debt just to have an aesthetically pleasing feed.