Algorithms

Everything you need to know about social media algorithms

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Given its growing importance in digital marketing, attention has steadily shifted towards social media algorithms. Whether you’re searching online, scrolling through your social media feed or receiving recommendations from Netflix, you are being guided by an algorithm that understands your consumption habits perhaps more than you do.

Social media algorithms show people things they’re most interested in and likely to engage with. This is based on two factors:

Algorithmic quality: the quality standard of the content available.

Your previous history: the actions and reactions you’ve taken to specific content in the past.

Why do social media algorithms exist?

There is an endless amount of content floating around in the social media space. Literally thousands of posts, photos and videos published every minute. Without algorithms, sifting through all of this content would be impossible. So algorithms do the legwork of delivering what you want and weeding out content that is deemed irrelevant or low quality.

In theory, that is.

How do social media algorithms work?

Networks are traditionally vague about the specifics of their algorithms. But through experimenting and trial-and-error, it can be easy to identify algorithms. But the key is finding a balance between what an algorithm wants and creating compelling content for your audience.

Here are some general algorithm-outsmarting strategies that work across all channels.

Ask questions to encourage comments from your audience

Social media algorithms treat engagement (i.e. likes, comments and shares) as a snowball effect. So the more engagement a post gets, the more likely it is to be shown to more people.

Therefore a simple way to encourage engagement is by creating discussion and asking questions. This way, you’re connecting with your audience at the same time.

Tag other accounts in your posts

Tagging other accounts serves as an invitation for more users to check out and hopefully engage with your content. If you’re mentioning another business, brand or customer, always tag their account accordingly.

This tactic can be applied to tag-a-friend posts where people are invited to tag friends in response to a question or comment. But this should be used sparingly rather than engagement bait. They are especially useful for promotions such as giveaways.

Optimise your post timing

Timing is a huge factor in determining how much engagement a piece of content will receive. Posting when your audience is most likely to be active means that your posts are more likely to be seen and engaged with. The best times to post on social media vary on different platforms and for different businesses. Conduct some of your own research and look at analytics such as Instagram Insights, which clearly tells you the times and days your followers are most active.

Publish frequently

Social media algorithms tend to reward accounts that post on a frequent basis rather than every so often. This is why it’s important to create a content calendar that allows you to regularly post. I recommend using Buffer, a free online tool to schedule posts in advance and manage multiple platforms in one place.

Publish more video content

All platforms’ algorithms favour video content (published straight to the platform rather than an external link). Whether it’s a looping video or a mini commercial, any type of video is fair game.

Mind how you present your links and craft your captions

You won’t see posts simply promoting a link and nothing else gain much engagement. Social media algorithms don’t want to see accounts share links and walk away – it’s spammy. Instead, provide context to your links and promotions. Spice up your captions with some commentary or humour.

Try to tone down transactional terms such as “buy now” which could potentially flag your posts as being too salesy.

Experiment with different types of content

I always tell my clients this. Variety is key! Keep followers on their toes and stay in the good graces of any given algorithm by experimenting with different types of content. Here are some examples:

  • Image-based posts versus text-based posts
  • Long-form versus short-form videos
  • Content with links versus content without links
  • Posts with one hashtag versus posts with multiple hashtags

Experimenting first-hand can give you the most insight in regards to what performs well and what doesn’t.

Love them or hate them, social media algorithms are here to stay. But having an understanding of them should give you an advantage in your posting efforts. As a social media manager, I always ensure I keep up to date with the latest algorithm changes, as they are constantly being adjusted across all platforms.

Facebook page reviews

How to encourage customers to leave you a review on Facebook

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Regardless of the size, reviews are crucial to any business. From a customer perspective, they provide a place to share someone’s experience and act as a form of accountability for a business.

From a company’s perspective, they work as a digital form of word-of-mouth promotion. Potential customers have a source of genuine feedback and comments on your business. They can be a powerful tool to encourage new customers, although just as effective as turning them away.

But having positive reviews of your business is an excellent way to grow your business. But where do you start? Here are 5 tips to encourage customers to sing your praises online.

Make sure people can actually leave reviews

On Facebook, you may notice some pages don’t have any reviews. This is usually because the feature is turned off – you might be in the same situation without realising. To turn this on, head to settings, then under the general tab you’ll find reviews. You can activate and deactivate the feature here.

Ask!

This might seem like a given. But if you don’t ask your customers for reviews, you’ll be far less likely to get them. If you approach your customers in a friendly way, you’d be surprised at how many will be more than happy to do this for you. It’s even better to ask just when they’ve just experienced good service from you.

Make it as easy as possible

Reviews take time, so to help your customers, make the review process as easy as possible. Instore, you could have flyers or business cards with QR codes directing customers to your Facebook page. Then at point of sale, ask customers to like your company and leave a review.

Or you can send customers an email, including a direct link to your Facebook page.

Social media is another way to approach your customers. If they’ve already liked your page, it’s fair to assume they like your business. This means they’re not only likely to leave a review, but a positive one too.

Incentivise

Consider offering people something in return for their time. One suggestion – if you run an online store or company, is to provide a limited discount code after writing a review.

Another idea is to provide entries into a prize draw which is either regular or a one-off. If you do this, announce the winner on your pages to show the legitimacy of the draw.

Respond

Do respond to every Facebook review – that includes the good, the bad, and the ugly. Engaging with positive reviews will deepen the customer’s experience with the business. For those with not so kind words, it shows that you care and are willing to grow and adapt.

Follow these tips and you’ll receive plenty of reviews from your customers! You can repurpose them by putting them on your website or creating graphics for social media. They’re crucial to any business.

Social media polls

How social media polls can help your business

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Both people and businesses are now using social media much more to communicate and navigate their way around the digital world. Social media polls are a great tool to engage and build your customer base, showcasing what your business does and also bringing an audience together. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter all offer poll options.

Social media polls help people to discover their audience’s opinions and thoughts on particular subjects. The polls can be an effective way in finding out what your target audience engages in the most and help your business make any decisions on products and marketing. Polls also allow your audience to interact with your brand effortlessly. The customer is able to contribute by sharing their opinion on a subject matter quickly and efficiently.

Once you have received all the feedback from your poll, you can use that feedback for any existing services or products as well as marketing strategies. Being creative with these poll ideas is an effective way to get more engagement and build a bigger audience. Creating polls about trending topics can be also help to boost engagement.

Here are four top ways that polls can help your business:

1. To gather interest in a service or product

You want to provide customers with a service or product that they are interested in. In order to find this out, you can ask them via a poll. Twitter and LinkedIn are good sites for any text-based polls, while Facebook and Instagram are better for polls with visuals.

2. Educating your audience on subjects that relate to your business

You can create polls that help educate your customers and audience by sharing any knowledge surrounding your business. You can also help them learn a new fact that relates to your business.

3. Helping to engage with your target audience

You can aim towards being approachable and communicative towards your customers via social media and they’ll find that much more interesting. Interacting regularly with your audience via polls and other informative posts is a good way of mixing up your engaging content

4. Working on generating new content ideas

Having polls can help you to discover what content your audience engages with the most. Whether it is interviews, new information on your products and services or knowledge about your business industry.

With the digital age increasing in our daily lives, having an active presence as a business on social media is a great benefit for boosting sales and audience engagement. Start to create your first poll post today and see where that takes your business!

Hashtags social media

The Complete Guide to Hashtags

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With the rise of businesses having more of a social media presence, it’s important for businesses, brands, marketers and influencers to be reaching out to audiences and boosting new potential customers via social media platforms.

A hashtag is a label used on social media sites that makes it easier to find posts of information with a theme or contains specific content. It is created by including the symbol ‘#’ in front of words or words without spaces”. Hashtags are used across various social media platforms. They help simplify the process of finding a post, tweet or video of the content you are searching for. Also an action is created because a user will then spend time looking through a particular hashtag if they see content they like brought up by that original hashtag. The main benefit of a hashtag is that it helps people find information more easily on social media.

We’ll look at how to use hashtags on 3 different social media sites: Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Instagram

A post with at least one Instagram hashtag averages 12.6% more engagement than posts without any”. Using relevant hashtags can help you get discovered by new audiences which then result in more followers.

There are many different types of Instagram hashtags and understanding them will help you develop your own ‘Instagram hashtag strategy’. These types include:

  • Community hashtags: connecting like-minded users for a subject that is specific (your product,  industry, seasons, locations).
  • Branded hashtags: hashtags unique to a particular business (company name).
  • Campaign hashtags: shorter term hashtags that relate to a specific campaign your business or industry is running (new products, launches, partnerships, events).

Using the most popular hashtags on Instagram may not boost your content or followers as much, so it’s better to use hashtags that are ‘more niche’, smaller and are relevant to your industry with an engaged audience. Looking at specific topics and themes is a good way to create those ‘niche’ hashtags. Also researching your audience before is key to finding out the hashtags your audiences are using, keeping them relevant with key words. When posting, post a comment below with the hashtags (write them in the caption first, then copy and paste them down immediately after sharing the post).

Twitter

Hashtags on Twitter are similar to Instagram, but different in terms of how they engage audiences. Hashtags were first seen on Twitter in 2007 and originated there. Using hashtags to refer to a specific topic is the best way to use hashtags on Twitter. Topics can include: events, places, themes, things, verbs, industry terms and sometimes ‘twitter chats’.

On Twitter, you can use more than one hashtag anywhere within the tweet, however Twitter recommends using two or less hashtags per tweet. To check where the most trending hashtags are you can use the left-handed sidebar under where your profile is and it gives you the option to view the top 10 trends personalised for you based on who you follow and also where your location is. With trends, you can get topics as well as hashtags. It’s easy also to select another location and not keep your tailored trends.

Studies show that tweets which include hashtags are 33% more likely to be retweeted than those without them. When considering hashtags for your business, think about whether your audience will engage with a tweet that is relevant around the subject of the hashtag. To check the relevancy of your hashtags on Twitter, see what influencers use and the definition of any existing hashtags. Take into consideration the length of the hashtag – keep it short and make sure it exists already.

Identifying topics on twitter using hashtags is a great way to start the process of boosting more followers for your business.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn uses hashtags in a similar way to Instagram and Twitter. But because LinkedIn is solely used as a business tool within social media, it’s important to make sure the hashtags used are more professional. Some popular hashtags that are trending on other sites may not be the best fit for LinkedIn.

When posting an update, adding hashtags to that post will help gain more audience and increase your chances of being noticed by other LinkedIn members. Also hashtags should come after ‘at least one line of descriptive copy’ with the addition of a ‘call-to-action’. Hootsuite recommends limiting each post to a maximum of five hashtags because using too many could make the algorithm on LinkedIn mistake your post for ‘spam’.

With your LinkedIn profile, if you want to start posting with hashtags, make sure posts and your profile are set to public so audiences can see the posts and engage with them. Similar to Instagram, finding your company ‘niche’ on LinkedIn through specific hashtags will help build a community of potential clients and customers therefore bringing more engagement throughout. Balancing the use of ‘niche’ and popular hashtags will also help with audience building.

Overall there are many differences but also similarities of how hashtags work across Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn. This applies to all social media platforms that use hashtags and by making sure you’re up-to-date with the latest trends and most successful ways to post hashtags, this will help you get on the right track to being at the top of your #SocialMediaGame.

Social media campaign ideas to try

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Structuring your social media content plan according to current events and seasons can create a good flow for your content and help your brand stay fresh and up-to-date. If you’re in need of inspiration, look no further – I’ve brought you five creative social media campaign ideas.

1. Partnerships with local businesses, charities and influencers in your industry

Partnerships and collaborations are a win-win scenario for all parties involved. They will increase your brand’s credibility and reach a wider segment of your target audience, whilst engaging the partnered business/influencer’s audience.

Partnering with charities is a good method of bringing your community together, while helping you communicate your brand’s values. Whether your goal is to encourage donations or raise awareness, there are plenty of creative ways to work with charities.

2. Create a giveaway

Giveaways are a fantastic way to drive engagement for your brand and develop new relationships with your target audience. The first step is to decide what you’ll by giving away, which will depend on your business. It could be a free meal for your restaurant, gift cards for online stores, and more. Just ensure that the prize is tangible and worth entering for. You could also offer special discount codes to runners up.

Then decide what you want from the giveaway – usually businesses would like more likes/follows on their page. Incorporate this into the giveaway entry requirements. And by asking entrees to tag their friends in the comments and share the post, this will provide extra organic reach.

3. Encouragement of user-generated content

Depending on your business, another giveaway idea could be for people to share photos of your brand on social media and tag you. User-generated content gives you fantastic content to use within your own feed, whilst generating brand awareness. It could be an ongoing activity where people are automatically entered into a monthly prize draw.

4. Create content relating to holidays and national/international days

Incorporating seasonal trends is a great way to boost engagement and reach on social media. Creating content for the big national holidays, awareness days and “hashtag days” adds your brand’s voice into the mix while diversifying your content.

For example, a chocolate brand could campaign for Easter several weeks before, whereas Earth Day could be a great campaign topic for environmentally conscious businesses and charities.

There are official national days and holidays which are usually always relevant to reference. You can visit this website to see what they are. These will also show you “hashtag days” which are popular on social media. Examples include #InternationalWomensDay and #NationalPizzaDay. These types of posts should be used sparingly unless they tie in nicely with your brand.

5. Live stream

Livestream parts of any event on social media to create more buzz, encourage interaction with attendees, and show the best parts to those who couldn’t attend. Other ideas include chatting with your customers or industry partners, or conducting a live Q&A session. Livestreams help you connect with your audience in a way that personifies your brand.

Social media engagement

Topics that will drive engagement on social media

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One of the biggest reasons people give for not being more active on social media is because they feel like they can’t find interesting things to talk about.

You definitely don’t want to churn out poor-quality content, or pushy, salesy stuff that sounds spammy and impersonal. Your social media content should be interesting, insightful, real and shareable. Have a read of my 8 talk-worthy topics below for inspiration.

1. Things you love

Posting about things you love and what makes you smile introduces you to your audience. Plus you’re also likely to have some interesting things to say regarding something you’re passionate about. So what makes you smile? Whether it’s personal growth things, lovely food you like to eat, or funny things your kids say, chances are, the things that lift your spirits will have a positive effect on your audience too.

2. Things that inspire you

What sparks your creativity and pushes you (or your business) to innovate? Where do you go to affirm your inner greatness? A favourite author? Leaders in your industry? Post about things and people that motivate you to make things happen.

3. Bragging rights

This can feel uncomfortable at first, but the internet is a big place and being modest is not a sustainable marketing strategy. Share your accomplishments and show your audience how great you are! Is your schedule booked for the next two months? Brag about it! Or showcase exactly how you help your clients/customers.

4. Things from other people

If someone you follow posts an insightful article or provides unique value to you, through insights, analysis or just plain fantastic products, share that goodness with your own audience.

What newsletters do you always read? What website offers great content for your industry?

5. You couldn’t stop laughing because…

Everyone needs a good laugh, at least daily. Laughter is incredible because it’s one of those universal things that takes you out of your head and plants you firmly in the present. And when it’s contagious, it really is the best medicine.

Funny things are always a worthwhile share on social media. Search for funny videos on YouTube, or find a meme or gif that cracks you up.

6. Ask questions

Get curious with your community. It doesn’t have to be about your work – focus on getting to know who you are connected with on your social media profiles. What are their thoughts about current affairs? What are they doing this weekend? What books do they read? How do they manage family and work life?

These questions can inspire interesting topics to talk about in future posts too.

7. Witty musings

You know those strange but lovely things that happen to us in life? Like that time a butterfly landed perfectly on your window when you were daydreaming about something special. Or when the barista drew a flower in your latte. People enjoy reading about these nice moments. They also show your human side, and give others a chance to connect with you.

8. Promote your own things

You don’t always have to search far and wide for interesting things to talk about because you’ll be doing some very cool things within your business, so don’t be afraid to share your goods too! Revive those old blog posts and share them again for new people to discover. Tell people if you’re holding an event or speaking on a podcast as an expert in your field.

Share information about the services you offer – but in balance with the other items on this list. The point is to nurture a connection with like-minded people who will enjoy following you and your business – because of you.

Social media post ideas for restaurants

Social media post ideas for restaurants and other food businesses

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The majority of people mainly use their socials to share their lives with family, friends and so on. But do you know what else is big on social media? Food! So one of the best ways to boost your profits and get more customers dining with you is through having an active presence on social media – especially on Facebook and Instagram.

Here are some social media post ideas for restaurants and other eateries.

The menu

Encourage customers to dine with you by showing them snippets from the menu that are just too good to refuse. Use social media to advise customers what is available on your menu. If it changes seasonally, showcase it.

Be sure to have posts that boast about the dietary requirements you cater for as well. Clean eating is on the rise, and it’s becoming more important to have something for all appetites.

Photographs of your food

You make delicious food, to start taking photographs that you can show off to potential diners.

If you want to stand out from the crowd and get people talking about your food, you need to plaster it everywhere (metaphorically, of course), especially on Instagram. #foodporn is a hashtag on Instagram with over 220 million posts – people love looking at food. Other popular hashtags to use include #foodie and #foodgasm.

You’ll quickly build up an audience. Plus anybody looking up your business online is likely to come across it on Instagram, and be interested in seeing how tasty your dishes look.

Also, don’t think you have to be a world-class photographer to take great photos of your meals. Nowadays we all have smartphones with good cameras – just focus on presentation and find a spot with good natural lighting.

Special offers and seasonal promotions

Why should someone follow you on social media?

People don’t just follow accounts now for satisfying pictures or funny things to read. Consumers want to feel like they’re gaining something by following you. Make it worth their while.

Chances are you run regular special offers, like a lunchtime menu special or a set menu for Valentine’s Day or Christmas. Make sure you’re shouting about these offers on social media, as consumers love to get good value for money.

Also run promotions exclusively on social media so customers need to be following you to be aware of certain offers, such as 2 for 1 on particular cocktails or ‘Wing Wednesdays’. Go the extra mile and create a mailing list for people to sign up to via social media, which offers them treats when they enter their details. Perhaps a special discount for signing up, or a unique gift on their birthday.

These types of posts should be boosted on Facebook and Instagram for extra impact.

Behind-the-scenes content

People like people – rather than being a faceless business, show off your staff to add some personality to your brand. This content works particularly well on social media.

Consumers are more interested than ever in what goes on behind closed doors, so show your followers what happens before their food gets to them. If you use locally sourced produce, shout about it.

Show off your chefs working hard in the kitchen or your waiting staff preparing for a special event. There are lots of ways that you can pull back the curtain and offer something unique.

Share other people’s content

When people take the time to buy into your business and take even more time to post about it on their social media accounts, engage with their content and reshare it. It not only gives you extra free content to use on your socials, but if people are encouraged to share photos and tag your business, that’s free brand awareness as well. A double win!

Repost photos that you’re tagged in and always remember engagement is key.

Recipes, how-tos, and tutorials

Show off your expertise by showing your followers how to make your food. If you run a carvery on a Sunday, then record a quick video sharing how you make your famous gravy, or tips on getting those Yorkies perfect.

By sharing some tips, you’ll not only show people you’re an expert at what you do, but you’ll create some valuable content that can be shared time and time again.

Would you like more tailored advice for your business?

I can provide a social media strategy, bespoke to your business, based on your industry, target market, and what you wish to achieve from social media. It includes specific content ideas, the platforms you should be using, the best free online tools to use, and much more. This is priced at just £195. Get in touch to find out more!

Social media content for travel agencies

Social media content ideas for travel agencies

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The content you post on social media is critical to engaging your audience and creating a solid fan base. Yet many travel professionals struggle with knowing what to post. So I’ve provided some travel content ideas to help get the creative juices flowing.

Your holidays

We’ll start with the obvious. Showcase the beautiful holidays you can put together for people! The more details you can include (itinerary, location information, pricing, etc.) the better, and make sure you entice your audience with some dreamy holiday photos.

Customer travel photos

Repurpose travel photos that are taken by clients who booked holidays with you. The photos taken will be authentic which works incredibly well for social media engagement, and you can show off to your audience how much of a great time your clients are having on trips organised by you.

If you can back it with some positive client feedback about your service, even better.

Destination fun facts

Everyone loves a good bit of trivia. It’s informative, engaging and can help position you as an expert in your field. Many tourist boards and hotel properties have fun facts available, just ask to see if they can help you out. Or the internet is filled with never-ending trivia about different destinations.

Travel tips and advice

Your job role must mean you’re an expert in most things travel. There are ednless hints and tips you can provide around travel, such as handy travel apps to use, the best times of year visit particular places, recommended items to pack, and so on.

Answers to common questions

If there are travel questions you regularly receive, use the opportunity to share the answer with a wider audience. It may even prompt people to start engaging by asking more questions. Show everyone you know your stuff and they will be more likely to trust and book their next adventure with you.

Discussion topics and polls

Engage your audience by asking them questions about things such as their favourite holiday destination, the best thing about booking with a travel agent, what makes their holiday a perfect one, if they prefer the beach or a city, etc. Get them talking to you and use the opportunity to do some behind-the-scenes market research.

Would you like more tailored advice?

I can provide a social media strategy, bespoke to your business, based on your industry, target market, and what you wish to achieve from social media. It includes specific content ideas, the platforms you should be using, the best free online tools to use, and much more. This is priced at just £195. Get in touch to find out more!

Social media content for recruitment agency

Social media post ideas for recruitment companies

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Recruitment is worth an impressive £32.2 billion in the UK alone. It’s one of the country’s most competitive and cut-throat industries, and there’s never been a better time to have a presence in the market and make a splash.

Demand is on the up, and recruitment firms can truly capitalise. Below, I’ve put together social media post ideas for recruitment companies, to help you find clients, candidates for jobs, and increase your profit margins in no time.

Job vacancies and opportunities

This one’s obvious, but you should of course be sharing your vacancies and opportunities on social media. Although agencies often have a talent pool and match candidates with positions behind the scenes, it’s still good to show that you’re advertising for lots of positions. Not only does it encourage people to sign up as candidates, but it shows businesses you’re a popular choice, and could therefore help match the right people to the appropriate positions.

Think about ways to mix up your social media content. You can post the details of the job opportunity with contact details, or create custom graphics to show off other adverts. See what type of way brings in the most engagement for you.

But be consistent with the frequency of posts, rather than posting a new job every day for a few weeks to then disappear for a month. Schedule posts in advance.

Show off staff behind-the-scenes

Recruitment is a pretty dry industry, let’s face it. The majority of the time you’ll be showcasing new job openings or reasons why your recruitment agency is the best.

But it’s good to go behind-the-scenes and show off your staff, for people to connect with your business. Doing this will increase engagement on your social media, humanising your brand. Take photos in the office and introduce the team, consider ‘day in the life’ posts, and share staff and company milestones. Keeping it fun is key.

Breaking up the content from just sharing vacancies will keep followers engaged and interested, helping you to appear on their timelines more often as a result.

Events, exhibitions and career fairs

In usual circumstances, chances are you’re active in attending exhibitions, events and careers fairs to promote your services. These events are great for not only spreading the word about your business, but networking and increasing your followers as a result.

Tune in with any event profiles and relevant hashtags, as these are likely to be engaged with by people outside of your following. Take some photos and let people know where they can find you on the day of the event.

Share client success stories

Case studies are effective in encouraging new clients to sign up and work with you. Whether you helped recruit a whole new office of staff or helped one business find their dream manager, there are lots of ways to tell stories and spread the word about your successes.

Ask clients to write testimonials that you can share on social media. These will improve your brand’s reputation.

Be a source of information and news

If you’re struggling for social media post ideas, position your businesses as authority on recruitment, and share news from the wider industry.

Brexit is currently one of the biggest stories in the recruitment world, with many businesses changing their strategies or pulling out of the UK due to staffing and market uncertainty. You could react to these stories, sharing your advice or tips to affected workers.

Also report on the changes in the recruitment industry (i.e. many businesses now using Facebook and LinkedIn to recruit), interesting or funny advertising campaigns, new innovations in the industry (such as automated interviewing) and advice for job seekers.

The more useful your content is, the more people will follow you on social media, therefore clicking through to your site when they see a job they like the look of.

Too busy speaking with clients or interviewing candidates? Or would you like more tailored advice?

I can provide a social media strategy, bespoke to your business, based on your industry, target market, and what you wish to achieve from social media. It includes specific content ideas, the platforms you should be using, the best free online tools to use, and much more. This is priced at just £195. Get in touch to find out more!

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