But with millions of photos posted every day, how do you stand out?

Here are some basics on increasing your engagement on Instagram to ensure more people see your posts and remember your brand. 

1. Be Consistent

If you only post every now and then, people are going to forget about you. As you build a following, people will look forward to what you post and expect to see regular content. You need to be posting regularly if you want people to see your posts and engage with them.

2. Tell Stories

It’s not enough just to post a beautiful photo. The art of storytelling matters on Instagram, too. People want to feel like they’re part of your brand and what you’re doing, which means you have to share the stories behind your images.  

Give people a glimpse into your world by telling stories about the photos you post. This will help them feel more connected to you and they’ll be more likely to engage with your posts.

3. Use The Right Hashtags

Hashtags are a great way to get your posts seen by more people. When someone searches for a hashtag, all of the posts that use that hashtag show up. 

Make sure you use relevant and popular hashtags to ensure that your posts get seen by the most people possible.

4. Focus On Value

You could have the best-looking photos on Instagram but if you don’t have value in your posts, no one’s going to engage with them.

Make sure that all of your posts are giving people something, whether it’s a tip, a piece of advice, or just something to make them laugh.

5. Use All of Instagram’s Features

Stories, Reels, Highlights — Instagram has come up with tons of new features you can use to share content and engage with your followers. When you use these features correctly, you can get more people to see your posts and increase the amount of engagement on your page.

So when IG comes out with a new feature, make sure to try it out and see how you can use it effectively.

6. Collaborate With Other Accounts

When you connect with other accounts on Instagram, you’re opening up new opportunities for collaboration and engagement. When you collaborate with accounts that have similar audiences, you can connect with more valuable followers that are likely to want what you have to offer. 

You could also invite followers and collaborators to share an image with you. By doing this, both of your accounts will get more engagement because you’ll be promoting each other’s pages.

It’s important to be strategic when you connect with other accounts so that your efforts aren’t wasted trying to promote someone else. Choose accounts with similar audiences to ensure both parties benefit from the collaboration. 

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If you follow these tips, you’ll be well on your way to increasing your engagement on Instagram and getting more people to see what you’re posting.

Here are nine trends you need to have on your radar to make sure your social media strategy is on point.

Get Active on TikTok

Love it or hate it, the TikTok hype is real. The app has over 1 billion users and is only growing in popularity. With its short-form video content and creative filters, TikTok is a great way for brands to show the lighter side of their company and capitalize on trends.

Plus, it can help you reach a younger audience, which is important for long-term success. Plenty of businesses aren’t taking TikTok seriously as a marketing platform, so you have an opportunity to get ahead of the competition. 

Prepare to Spend More Money on Smaller Social Media Platforms

While Facebook and Instagram still reign supreme, research is showing that people are less interested in being sold something while they’re scrolling through birthday party pictures and meme accounts. This is pushing marketers to smaller platforms like TikTok, Pinterest, and Snapchat. 

As a result, these smaller platforms are likely to explode in the new year. The more you can build a following on these platforms now, the better off you’ll be as we enter 2022. 

Implement Direct Social Media Shopping

When people are ready to buy, especially on social media, they want as few steps as possible to reach the cart. Direct social media shopping will be one of the top trends in 2022, so your business should prepare to offer this option. If you don’t, you may miss out on sales.

Stop Pushing Your Business Phone Number

As far as customer service goes, talking on the phone with customers is becoming a thing of the past. When people contact you, they will more than likely be looking for an email or live chat option first as it’s more convenient. If you’re still pushing your phone number as the only way to connect, you’re hurting your business.

Prioritize Short-Form Videos

In the spirit of convenience, saving time, and short attention spans, long-form videos are on the way out. 2022 will see a rise in shorter, “snackable” videos that can be quickly digested and provide value without taking up too much time. Unless you’re posting complex, high-value content on YouTube, stick to videos that are two minutes or less. Your customers prefer it that way.

Work with Some Influencers

Just like word-of-mouth advertising, today’s consumers trust their favorite influencers and creators way more than they trust traditional ads. Whether you’re paying an influencer to review your product in a video or you’re sending them a discount code to share with their followers, influencer marketing will be a keystone of any successful social media strategy.

Brush Up on Your Paid Advertising Skills

As effective as influencer marketing is, conventional advertising isn’t going anywhere. Understanding how to structure your paid ads and where they’ll work best is crucial for getting the most out of your ad budget. 2022 will be all about smart ad placement and targeting. If you’re not already well-versed in paid advertising methods, now is the time to start learning.

Implement a Social Listening Strategy

If you’re not familiar with the term “social listening,” you need to get on board. Rather than play another unsuccessful guessing game with your customers, social listening promotes being a part of the conversation so you can understand what your audience wants from you and the public perception of your business. The more you know about your customers and their wants, the easier it will be to give them what they’re looking for.

You’ll Need a Social Audio Strategy

And finally, you can’t ignore social audio. Audio-only content like podcasts and platforms like Clubhouse and Anchor FM are taking social media by storm and establishing themselves as must-haves for any successful social strategy. If you’re not already incorporating social audio into your plan, you’re going to be left behind.

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As your business looks ahead to 2022, these are the nine social media trends you can expect to dominate in the new year. Keep them in mind as you plan your strategy and you’ll be sure to stay ahead of the curve!

If you need some help getting your business prepared for the next year, click here to book a strategy session with SiMar. Together, we can get your business is ready for the future!

Social media can radically transform your business.

As much as we might long for pre-Instagram days, social media is here to stay. And it’s important for businesses to maintain an online presence if they want to stay competitive.

The fact is, social media provides businesses with a unique opportunity to connect with customers in a way that no other marketing tool can. Social media allows you to build relationships with customers, create brand advocates, and generate leads.

Of course, social media isn’t a magic bullet. It takes time and effort to use it effectively. From attracting traffic and generating leads to building relationships with customers, here are five ways social media can help power up your business.

1. Building Brand Awareness

The more people who know about your company, the more customers you can attract. Social media is a great way to get the word out there.

With billions of active users, various social media platforms provide businesses with a massive audience to reach. You can use social media to share your company’s story, post about new products and services, and engage with customers.

Social media also helps you build brand awareness over time. As people see your company mentioned more online, they’re more likely to remember it and consider doing business with you. Every time you post and share online, you have an opportunity to increase the number of people who see, interact with, and trust your brand.

2. Generating Leads

In today’s digital age, it’s more important than ever to have a lead generation strategy in place to stay ahead of the competition. 

By sharing your company’s content on social media, you can attract people who are interested in what you do and looking to learn more. You can also use social media to offer exclusive deals and discounts to followers, which can entice them to become paying customers.

If someone is unsure about your product or service, social media offers an opportunity to learn more through educational content. You can also answer questions on social media comments to address people’s concerns and reservations, driving more people to purchase your product or service.

3. Enhancing Customer Relationships

One of the best aspects of social media is that it allows you to connect with customers on a personal level. You can build relationships with them by responding to their comments and messages and sharing content that they’ll find interesting.

Today’s consumers are all about authenticity. They want to know the human behind the brand, have their voices heard, have their opinions valued, and purchase products from companies that care about them.

That’s why social media is so important for building relationships with customers. By being active on social media, you can show your customers that you’re paying attention to what they have to say and eager to interact with them.

Rather than viewing social media as a selling tool, try thinking of it as a community-building tool. When customers feel like they’re part of your community, they’re more likely to become loyal advocates for your brand.

4. Driving Traffic to Your Website

Social media helps people learn about your company and directs them to your website. You can use social media posts and paid ads to drive traffic from social networks directly to your site. Clickable images and posts that link to a landing page with product information, a coupon code, or a discount code also direct traffic to your website.

When people click through to your website from social media, they’re interested in what you have to offer and want to learn more or purchase. There’s a good possibility that these visitors will become customers, because they’re already interested in what you do. 

5. Helping to Predict Trends and Build Better Products.

Social media has many advantages over traditional marketing, such as television or billboard ads. One of its main advantages is that it facilitates direct interactions between businesses and their customers. In addition to feedback that customers provide on their own, you can ask customers what they want, what they like, what they don’t like, and what they want to see from you. 

This feedback is essential for predicting trends and building better products that serve your customers. You can also see what your competitors are doing and how customers are receiving them to learn more about how to improve your products, marketing efforts, and interactions.

Social media gives businesses the ability to get real-time feedback from customers. This feedback can help you make informed decisions that will ultimately help you grow your business.

Leverage the Power of Social Media

Social media is an essential part of any business’s marketing strategy. It allows you to connect with customers, build relationships, and generate leads.

The next time you’re thinking about how to market your business, consider implementing a social media strategy. You might be surprised at how much it can help boost sales and take your business to the next level.

With 1.3 million new social media accounts being opened every day on average, many people live their lives through various social platforms. These include, but aren’t limited to, Facebook, Instagram, Tik-Tok, Twitter, and LinkedIn. 

Due to social media playing such a large role in our lives, marketers and business owners understand the massive amount of opportunity within social media marketing. And, if done properly, a solid social presence can revolutionize your business. 

What Is Engagement In Social Media Marketing? 

Social media engagement is what every marketer strives for with their social media campaigns. It’s what communicates a successful post and overall strategy.

Engagement consists of many different sub-metrics, which can be infinitely valuable when crafting and re-evaluating a current strategy. These sub-metrics include:

– The number of shares

– The play rate

– The number of likes

– The number of comments

– The number of saves

The engagement rate shows you how many people have interacted, in some way, with your post.

Why Is Engagement So Important For Social Media?

Your engagement rate shows you how many people have paid attention to your posts. This will tell you if your social content resonates and creates the impact you set out to create in your social media strategy. 

Engagement is the first step toward profiting from your content and marketing efforts, so it’s arguably the most important and telling metric when using social platforms to market your business. 

How to Keep Your Audience Engaged On Social Media

Now that we understand how engagement works and why it’s so important, let’s look at how to keep your audience engaged on social media. 

Remember, engagement is absolutely pivotal. If you can cultivate a loyal following with a high engagement rate, you’ll see your efforts paying off quickly and effectively. 

1. Analyze Your Current Engagement Rate 

Before improving your engagement rate, you need first to know where your social media platform sits on the engagement scale.

For example, on Instagram, generally speaking, anything between 1% and 3% is classified as a ‘good’ engagement rate. 

Learn where your engagement rate is currently so you can monitor it as a KPI to assess whether your strategy is working.

2. Determine Your Strategy

After considering your current engagement rate, you need to outline your new strategy. This should all revolve around your ideal buyer or client, considering carefully what form of content will capture their attention and encourage engagement most. 

Lean on your foundations. Specifically, consider your ‘why’ and ensure your content communicates this. 

3. Conduct Audience Research 

This step will inform the second, too. 

Conducting audience and market research will indicate what type of content resonates most with them.

Reflect on your audience avatar, and find a handful of social media channels that encompass similar qualities to that of your avatar. Trace their activity, paying particular attention to how they engage with business and brand pages. 

Try to spot patterns between each of the accounts, looking too at what they are posting.

4. Conduct Competitor Research 

Similar to audience research, competitor research can open up a world of possibilities. 

You should aim to research direct and indirect competitors, focusing on what they post and where. 

This is especially useful if their target audience is similar or even identical to yours. Focus on the metrics of their posts before breaking down why the post was or was not successful.

These findings will play a prominent role in your new social media strategy. 

5. Provide Value 

The key to social media marketing is to provide value. This can be through educational, inspirational, or motivational posts. You’ll need to know what your audience is hungry for so you can then cook them up some content with value sauce. 

People act when they are triggered to act. Therefore, providing value will create an emotional response, particularly if you address a pain point and offer a solution. 

Social Media Marketing Revolves Around Engagement 

Social media plays such a pivotal role in our lives in 2021. Being a business owner nowadays means leveraging the power of social media to benefit our businesses. 

However, it’s not as easy as simply posting a few cute photos. 

Everything needs to be underpinned with strategy, with a solid reason for posting that particular piece of content. 

Use the 5 methods above to keep your audience engaged on social media so you can build a presence and grow your business. 

Currently Social media is indeed a great way to connect with people who are already aware of your brand. At the same time, it also provides an excellent opportunity to reach out to new potential customers and make them aware of the products & services that your brand has to offer. Unlike the common belief, nothing is overwhelming about social media for you to worry about.

Tips on How to Use Social Media for Small Business

Even when you are starting, some simple social media tricks could help you out. The leading digital marketing experts at SiMar –a reputed digital marketing agency, lay out some of the essential social media tips for your small business. Here are some:

Start with a Proper Plan

As you start to implement social media in your business; it is essential you start with a proper plan. Social media tools are immensely simpler to use. You can start over by using organic posts for free to kickstart your social media marketing campaign for beginners. Like every other reliable business marketing strategy, your social media marketing campaign should also start with a proper plan. When you are preparing the right social media plan, here are some additional tips:

• Set specific social media objectives.

For instance, you can consider acquiring customers or raising conversion rates instead of just looking for more likes.

• Research the competitors.

Relevant competitive analysis can help you to know about working for other businesses in the given niche.

• Conduct a proper Social Media audit.

As a part of the audit process, we recommend to look out for impostors that might be stealing your social media reputation.

Decide the Right Platforms for You

There are several social media platforms out there. Some of the famous ones are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and others. Depending on your social media marketing goals, you should select the right social media platform to execute the same. 

Know Your Audience Well

As you wish to target the respective audience through your social media marketing campaign, we recommend knowing your target audience in the first place. With the help of relevant social media analytics, you can look forward to analyzing the respective behaviors and preferences of the end consumers. Upon customizing your social media marketing strategies based on the users’ interests, you can look forward to gaining optimum success.

Expand the Audience

Once you are aware of the target audience, you can rethink the social media plan. It is time to look out for innovative ways to reach out to more target audience in the given market. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, in a small business, it is imperative for you to pay attention to the right social media marketing strategies for optimum results. 

There is a long list of services available on the internet, such as virtual assistant, social media manager, business coach, web designer, app developer. However, when it comes to importance and broadness, marketing and professional training takes the cake, even encompassing some of the other services stated above.

Two Major Online Services to Boost Your Service

Marketing

 Marketing has always been an integral part of a firm’s success. However, the intricate process of advertising, getting feedback, and landing new clients is quite different from production. Over the years, research has shown that hiring a marketing firm is more efficient than setting up a marketing department, especially in your business’s early stages.

Today, marketing agencies are going over and beyond, offering a broad range of services from market analysis, market strategy, online adverts, ad tracking, etc.

Their broad range of services and packages provide a distinct flexibility level that makes them a handy tool in an entrepreneur’s pouch. That is why, outsourcing the marketing of your business’s product isn’t only cheaper but also frees up your time concentrating on other aspects of your business.

Professional Coaching

Another online service that would give your business a considerable boost is professional coaching or training. Putting your staff in the right mindset and equipping your team with up to date skills shouldn’t be done lightly or do independently.

A wide array of professional coaches have the necessary skills and expertise to service your workforce, ensuring that they are always working at optimum like a well-oiled engine. Many online firms offer this service, taking care of your employees to not have to worry about their mental, emotional, or performance needs. With your workforce well-coached and educated, they would be ready to adjust to any changes your business might encounter. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, online firms provided these types of services at a premium, with firms like SiMarInc. They are offering a combination of three to four of these services. Hiring one firm to handle all your outsourcing needs is cheaper and easier to manage. Relating with three or more firms can be an administrative nightmare; therefore, you might want to get an all in one package.

As a business owner, you will face many challenges in ensuring that the target audience recognizes your brand. From meeting the problems of the overall lack of funds to facing the lack of time, trouble finding the right employees, and issues with promoting your brand’s products & services, there are several aspects of a business owner’s pain points.

Getting the SiMar Advantage

Allison Todd –Founder & Chief Strategist at SiMar –a leading digital marketing and business consultancy agency, explains the importance of relevant brand positioning for your business. She goes ahead with sharing the SiMar advantage that you can look forward to obtaining with the help of their professional services. 

Brand Positioning Tips

Whether you are starting or a seasoned player in a given business field, some of the effective brand positioning tips for your brand are:

 Identify the Value of Your Brand

When you wish to position the brand, one of the most important steps is to differentiate your brand from potential competitors. This would help in communicating with the customers why they should choose your business over others. Think about what your company does and how you can differentiate the same from others in the competition. 

Ensure Effective Digital Marketing

We live in a digital era. Given the rapid advancements of digital technology, it is high time that your brand should leverage the benefits of the trending digital marketing strategies out there. Right from implementing SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to ensuring proper content marketing, social media marketing, and more, there are several online marketing strategies to help you out. 

Focus on the Content

As they say, “Content is King,” you should pay attention to the content creation & marketing strategy for your brand. Whatever industry your business might belong to, it is imperative to develop a relevant content marketing strategy to reach out to the target audience. In addition to website content, you should focus on creating rich, user-friendly website blogs, articles, press releases, product descriptions, and more to be assured of the best outcomes. If possible, you might consider hiring services from some professional service provider to help you with the right content creation & marketing solutions.

List Building

To ensure that you are going ahead positively in brand positioning, coming up with a good list of potential customers and reaching out to them is an essential step. List building involves preparing a list of the prospective customers out there and reaching out to them through innovative ways like emails, messages, and others. 

Conclusion

Make the most of the reliable brand positioning strategies for your brand.

Day 1 – Learn how to automate your social media. I’ll share my favorite productivity tools. Each attendee will receive a FREE Social Media Resource Page & Planning Template.

Day 2 – Learn about each channel (FB, IG, LI).This will include channel descriptions, helpful tips and the benefits of each channel. Each attendee will receive a FREE Social Media Resource Page & Profitable Profile Template.

Business-In-A-Box Bonus Attend BOTH days and receive a bonus. Gain access to a Intro to Social Media Training – Set Up Your Social Media with SiMar. Learn how to set up your LinkedIn Channel and gain helpful tips to automate and optimize! Each attendee will receive a FREE Learn 2 Love LinkedIn eBook.

Grab your virtual seat now! You must be a member of position2profit.com in order to access this training. Hint! Hint! JOIN position2profit.com.

To learn more about SiMar and the business services offered, contact us.

• Be sincere when you meet people for the first time. When you are sincere, your smile is usually brighter, your handgrip tighter, and your warmth can be felt by the other person or the other group.

• It is recommended to talk on a first name basis to build rapport but be wary of cultural differences. Japanese, for instance, prefer last name basis for formal talks.

• Make good use of easily understood terms so you will not sound condescending. Using jargon not familiar to the other party can easily turn a conversation to a bumpy start.

• When talking, try to keep eye contact and let your nonverbal cues mimic what you are saying. Lean towards the person you are talking to. Keep your hands open and your legs uncrossed. A relaxed manner will help the other party feel welcomed. It also makes you feel more relaxed.

• Practice empathetic listening by being attentive. Nod every now and then or make appropriate sounds and gestures. Ask questions to make the other party know that you are listening.

• Clarify any confusion or unclear matters. This will prevent misunderstanding. When in agreement, always openly say so to motivate the other party and build trust. When you disagree, however, always give the reason why.

• Be genuine and be honest. It is best to admit a mistake or acknowledge some points that you have no idea of. This helps to build trust.

• Don’t forget to offer compliment and maintain politeness all throughout.