Every year we see wondrous new things across all social media platforms. In fact, stunning new developments seem to be a requirement if you want to be a player in the social media site game. This high tech, low contact form of interaction has been around long enough and has become widespread enough that it has managed to become an integral part of not only social aspects of the lives of its users but the business aspect as well. Whether you are hoping your make-up tutorials get you discovered, your DIY holiday centerpiece gets over 1000 likes, or to increase revenue for your business, social media has quickly become the cornerstone of accomplishing… well, almost anything.
Instagram has now reached over 800,000 users and that number is on the rise. Bloggers and vloggers from the far corners of the Earth seem to have settled on Instagram as THE app to use to promote your business, your YouTube channel, your micro-company, and just about anything else you can imagine. The influencers are flocking to Instagram. If you are interested in the new and upcoming social media trends that we are going to see from Instagramming 2018, pause that Snapchat story, ignore that post from David Avocado Wolfe on your news feed, and read on.
Instagram Stories
This popular Instagram feature is only about a year old. Its immediate rise to popularity is indicative of an upward trend in video content. Instagram stories will continue to be refined and video content and quality will continually improve. The story feature is already being utilized by several niche markets and, as a result, companies are going to want to partner with influencers who are comfortable reaching out to their market in this way. The site’s algorithms are even being redone to include videos receiving more updates and thereby becoming the more promoted posts. In order to receive higher engagement rates, companies will have to get comfortable in front of the camera if they want to stay competitive on social media platforms.
Sandwiching
According to an article on digiday.com, sandwiching is “strategically placing promoted posts between imagery forecasted to have high rates of engagement, based on existing data.” Influencers accomplish this by taking a post and publishing it in between two posts that they know from experience will have high engagement, such as a post for a contest and a post for a giveaway. This new trend comes on the heels of the new algorithm that Instagram has implemented, which left a lot of brand owners wondering why so many of their posts were suddenly receiving such low engagement. While this current attempt to beat the system has proven successful, Instagram surely has lots of other nooks and crannies where future surprises are hiding.
Shopping
Since late in 2016, it has been possible to shop directly from within the Instagram app itself through a feature known as “shoppable photos”. This capability was limited, however, as the shoppable feature was only used by certain brands.The feature went through extensive testing by Shopify throughout 2017 and in 2018 this feature is really expected to take off, with only a few minor limitations this time. Merchants can only sell physical products like food, clothes, books, toys, art, stationery, and electronics. There is a limit of five tagged items total in new and old posts combined.
It’s a smart bet that these three trends will not be the only ones you see blow up on Instagram in 2018, but these are definitely they three you will need to know about in order to increase your brand recognition and drive your company’s sales upward. With all of these brand new app innovations, cell phone companies are developing increasingly higher tech phones in order to keep up with the current market. Given the right combination of cell phone capability and social media know how any aspect of any business will soon be able to be accomplished from anywhere.
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Instagram provides excellent digital marketing opportunities, and many small businesses use it to raise awareness of their products and services. That said, Instagram marketing can be an extremely competitive space, especially during major shopping seasons. If you want to stand out from your competition on Instagram during the holidays this year, you might want to brush up on your knowledge of how to use the app as a promotional tool. We have some tips that can help you begin.
Put a Holiday Theme in Your Profile
Your Instagram profile is somewhat akin to the homepage on your website—it’s the first screen users will see when they click on your name, just like your homepage is (usually) the first screen they’ll see if they click on a link to your site. Would you change your website to reflect a seasonal trend? Probably, so you should do the same thing for your profile. Try updating your bio with a brief holiday message, like this.
Run Smart Holiday Instagram Ads
Instagram provides excellent digital marketing opportunities, and many small businesses use it to raise awareness of their products and services. That said, Instagram marketing can be an extremely competitive space, especially during major shopping seasons. If you want to stand out from your competition on Instagram during the holidays this year, you might want to brush up on your knowledge of how to use the app as a promotional tool. We have some tips that can help you begin.
Ads are a pretty new feature on Instagram, so a lot of people are still figuring out how to make the most of them. You can beat them to the (holiday) punch by being clever about the ads you place. Instagram ads are partnered with Facebook ads, but it’s a mistake to forget that these are separate platforms requiring different approaches. Consider using ad formats that perform especially well on Instagram specifically, like carousel ads and videos. Engagement for video posts on Instagram has risen by 53% in the last year alone, beating the growth rate for photo engagement. Just make sure that you have the available capital to place an ad that will reach a substantial audience… and remember to put some holiday content in your videos—maybe a carol or two?
Connect with Influencers who Thrive During the Holidays
Influencer marketing remains one of the most effective ways to reach Instagram users. The most successful profiles on Instagram aren’t businesses—they’re individual influencers and celebrities. Still, a lot of businesses waste time trying to figure out how they can convince an influencer to plug their products or services when the answer should be obvious: just hire them. Since influencers can often achieve up to 16 times more engagement than paid media, hiring one normally proves cost-effective in the long run.
Some Instagram-based holiday marketing strategies are easy and inexpensive, but most require a certain investment of capital as well as time. To make sure you can afford to overhaul your Instagram for the holidays, look at practical short-term borrowing options. Taking out a working capital loan to fund your next ad campaign can be a smart choice, especially since the average consumer spent nearly $1000 extra last season. The more eager shoppers you net with your marketing this year, the easier it will be to pay off debts and collect substantial profits.
Social media has provided small businesses with many versatile options for digital marketing during the holidays. Whether you make small adjustments to your profile or invest in major campaigns through ads and influencers, this time of year represents an opportunity you won’t want to miss.
Nick Rojas is a business consultant and journalist who lives in Chicago and his hometown Los Angeles with his wife. His work often discusses social media, marketing, and branding in regards to small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
The WordPress User Statistics are in. Guess what? You’re not alone! There are over 60 million websites using the WordPress platform, and the numbers continue to grow. With statistics like that, you know you can’t go wrong with a WordPress website.
Our post will show you 10 awesome WordPress user statistics. We explain the top 10 most popular reasons why people use it for their business (big or small) or personal blog.
WordPress powers 39.6% of the internet in 2021, a growth of nearly 5% from 35% in 2020, and a 4% rise from the year before.
If you count only the CMS-built sites, then 64.1% of them are WordPress – 4% growth from 2020.
Over 400 million people visit WordPress sites each month.
In 2016, nearly 118 billion words were published on WordPress
But WordPress is not only for blogging – nearly 28% of all e-commerce goes through WooCommerce
281 new WooCommerce shops appear on average every day
661 WordPress sites also pop up daily
WordPress.org offers over 50,000 plugins and over 4,100 GPL-licensed themes
In 2018, the non-English WordPress downloads were more than the English ones
WordPress has been around since 2003
WordPress is, by far, the most popular content management system in the world and one of the most popular blogging platforms. These WordPress statistics prove that its popularity is driven not only by its relatively low costs and simplicity but also by factors like the wide choice of plugins and themes, availability of language packs, security, and SEO-friendliness. With such a powerful platform behind it – including over 60% market share for CMSs alone – you may be wondering how to get started with this tool?
The quickest way to do so would be through our website development service (powered by Queen Bee Media!), which offers everything from domain registration to web hosting all wrapped up into an easy-to-use interface.
