Guides to Social Media Platforms

10 Steps to a Professional LinkedIn Profile

Emma Kaiser · May 27, 2022 ·

Did you know that 75% of people who changed jobs recently say that LinkedIn informed their decision? Or that prospective clients and new hires are not just looking at your company’s LinkedIn profile, but the profiles of your employees and team members as well? LinkedIn is an incredibly useful social media channel for professional networking, and the way your employees represent themselves in their LinkedIn profiles can have a huge impact on your brand’s public image, reputation, and visibility. Ensuring that everyone associated with your company has a well-developed, professional LinkedIn profile is an important tool that you cannot afford to ignore. So if you’re looking to give your employees a push to update or refresh their profile, make sure to follow these 10 steps to looking polished and professional as a business on LinkedIn.

Step 1: Update the Profile Photo

A profile photo is likely to be someone’s first impression when coming across an account–so your employees should make sure to use a good one! After all, they are a representation of your brand. Use a photo that is polished, well lit, and centered on the face (no selfies or dark shadows!). Make sure to avoid any distracting backgrounds or patterns, and remember that solid-colored, non-busy clothing is best.

If your employees don’t have their own professional headshots, consider hiring a photographer onsite to take photos of all your employees. Not only will this look more consistent, but it will ensure that your desired level of professionalism is represented by everyone associated with your brand. Remember–even if the rest of a profile is great, it can be hard to look past a sloppy-looking or poor-quality photo. It is also sharp for all employees in a company to have the exact same background and branded headshots on their LinkedIn profiles.

See below for an example of a professional profile image:

Looking for an on-site professional photographer to take headshots of your staff? SN:D has you covered. Contact us to schedule your company photoshoot today.

Step 2: Personalize the Background Photo

Does your company have a banner image that you use for your other social media accounts, such as your Facebook page? Consider offering your brand’s banner image to your employees to use for their profile banner photo. This is one more element to provide a consistent, unified brand presentation and also shows great company morale. When people visit your employee’s profile, they are able to create an instant connection between your employee and your brand. Additionally, they can recognize right away where your employee works without the need to scroll down. This is a great way to increase your brand’s reach and market your business at the same time.

See our example below:

Step 3: Get Creative with the Headline

The headline of a LinkedIn profile is another critical part of making a positive impression and showcasing what an employee brings to the table. It’s also one of the most important parts of LinkedIn’s algorithm. The headline is typically the place that displays a person’s current position, but it isn’t limited to that! By incorporating keywords, your employee can portray themselves as credible members of their industry while also appearing higher in searches. Encourage your employees to use their headlines to say a bit about their position, why they do what they do, and what they contribute to your company.

LinkedIn will automatically create a default headline based on a user’s current job title and company, but encourage your employees to not rely on a default headline. LinkedIn gives users 220 characters to work with, so not taking full advantage of this is a mistake! Use the character count available to showcase specialized skill sets and details.

Below is an example of what we might put for a headline on a professional profile:

Step 4: Add an About Section

The About section of LinkedIn is an excellent place for your employees to share their professional stories and lead viewers to want to learn more. It’s important this section is not left blank as it is a chance for your employees to introduce themselves to others and showcase their first-rate talent. Remember, this space does not need to be just about the employees’ skills; it can also include examples of their work, the importance of their skills in their career, and anything else they want to mention.

Employees should include things about why their skills are important, specific examples of their work leveraging the skills, how the employee contributes in their current position, and the positive effects the employee has on the company culture. It’s also great if they mention your company by name. This is the most detailed personal section in a LinkedIn profile, so it’s worth going through a few drafts to make sure it’s detailed, descriptive, and refined. See the example below:

Step 5: Complete the Intro

Encourage your employees to make sure their entire profile is complete with no areas that appear spare or blank. Make sure your employee is taking full advantage of spaces to showcase their skills, education, languages, awards, publications, volunteer experience, certifications, etc. The more fleshed out a profile is, the more qualified and competent your employee appears, which in turn reflects well on your business.

You should also encourage your employees to include their entire work history. Every part of their work experience is valuable in the narrative of their career. This space is also important for networking–don’t underestimate what will catch someone’s attention. We have found it is often the smallest and most seemingly uninteresting details that catch others’ attention.

See below for an example of a profile with additional sections:

Step 6: Keep Experience Up to Date

Even while staying with the same company, people’s positions, titles, and experiences change, so make sure your employees’ current status with your company is reflected in their work experience section. You want their full history and relationship with your company displayed and accurate. This is also relevant if your company has undergone any rebranding or changes during the course of someone’s employment. Everything should be up to date.

See the image below–you can add experience by clicking the + symbol, or edit your existing experience by clicking the pencil symbol.

Step 7: Connect with An Employer

It’s essential that your employees are connected with you on LinkedIn–this will make your connection and relationship public to everyone on the site. This effectively turns your employees into a public team of brand ambassadors, and this makes you stand out from the competition. Younger generations especially value work environments with a social media presence, so seeing existing employees connected with a company on LinkedIn is a big bonus.

Employees can connect their profile to their employers by editing under “Experience,” and then searching and selecting the company name for which they work. They should be able to tell which account is your company’s by whether the logo is correct.

See below:

You can ensure that your employees are connected by seeing whether the company’s name and logo appear in their intro like in the example below:

Step 8: Grow Your Network

Once your employees are connected with your brand, encourage them to dedicate time to their own network. By following and connecting with other professionals in the industry, or synching their address book to their account, you’ll constantly be getting your company name out there and boosting your circle of influence. LinkedIn is, after all, a social networking site, and most of a brand’s engagement on LinkedIn comes through its employees.

Networking on LinkedIn is a terrific way for your employees to gain fresh ideas, new perspectives, and stay up to date on trends in the industry. They can do this by joining relevant groups or keeping an eye out for professional forums where they can connect with others and share professional insights.

Your employees should also make sure they’re checking the “People You May Know” feed of their profile to keep growing and increasing their connections!

Step 9: Ask for and Give Recommendations

Recommendations on LinkedIn are personal testimonials of someone’s work or skills, and they are a great way to boost credibility on a profile. They can also give others a more genuine idea of what your employee is like to work with, what their best skills are, what they’re passionate about, and what they bring to the table of their work environment. An effective recommendation should show and not tell. You want to give specific examples, whether it’s highlighting examples of when your employee showed leadership, when they excelled under pressure, or when they served as a collaborative team member.

You can really showcase your employees’ abilities by writing their recommendations, and they can also request them in the recommendations section of their profile. Ultimately, these endorsements can be the difference between someone contacting your company or someone else’s. It could tip the scales for a future potential employee taking the job on your team or another’s.

See the image below to see where your employee can request a recommendation:

See below:

Step 10: Share Relevant Content

Finally, make sure your employees are staying up to date in the industry by sharing relevant content such as articles, posts, resources, etc. Showing that they are active in industry news communicates professionalism, capability, and expertise. You can also direct employees to publications or accounts that post regularly so they don’t have a shortage of content to share.

Successful organizations know that by encouraging employees to share content, they are then effectively extending their content reach and engagement. This is also a great way for companies to connect more authentically with their audiences. On average, employees have much larger networks and ten times more connections than a company has followers. So if you really want to create a reputation of expertise and get content out there, share it through your employees.

Below is an example of a company blog post that SN:D Agency (and our employees) would share through LinkedIn:

LinkedIn is one of the top places to make professional connections. In fact, there are 61 million senior-level decision makers on LinkedIn right now. People want to know who they are working with–essentially, they want the faces behind a brand–and LinkedIn is a great way for potential clients to decide whether your team seems competent enough to be trusted with their business. Being active on LinkedIn and engaging with connections also offers a more personalized inside look. When your employees are active on LinkedIn and keep their profile up to date and professional, it not only makes your company feel more trustworthy but more human.

It’s also important for the future of your company’s work environment. Employees who come to a company through another employee are far more likely to stay with that company than employees who were recruited in other ways, and employees who are responsible for that recruitment also show more loyalty to that place of work. So use this guide to make sure you and your employees are all on the same page and leaving positive impressions.

What Are You Waiting for? Get Your Team Setup with Branded LinkedIn Profiles Today

Looking for help wrangling your staff’s branded LinkedIn profiles or need help with other digital marketing and branding for your business? Did you know SN Digital Agency is a full-scale digital and social media marketing agency? We have experience in marketing our clients’ brands and channels, and growing their businesses, leveraging many tried and true strategies, and we have over a decade of expertise. Don’t hesitate to contact us today!

5 Tips for Using Hashtags During COVID-19

SN:D Agency · July 17, 2020 ·

Don’t get us wrong–we love a good #ThrowbackThursday or #MotivationMonday, but COVID-19 means that we’re all approaching and using hashtags a little differently these days.

As you probably know by now, a hashtag is a word or phrase preceded by a pound sign (#) and is used within social media posts to draw attention or engagement to certain trends and topics. Hashtags allow brands to engage certain audiences, gain new followers, join relevant conversations, and get their posts indexed by the social media network. By using hashtags, brands can expand their reach beyond those who already follow them to potentially millions of more people. But since COVID-19, we’ve seen dramatic shifts in what topics the public is focusing on.

As our cultural norms continue to change, much of the discourse and hashtags that were popular a few months ago are irrelevant now. These shifts in conversation and attention are happening daily and have altered consumer norms across industries, which means we have to shift our marketing strategies in order to keep up. Despite rapid changes, hashtags remain a great tool for engagement, leveraging conversation, and growing your digital presence to boost your brand–if you know how to use them.

In this post we’ll break down the different types of hashtags you should use, how to choose the right ones, and show how to utilize them depending on each social media platform–so read on for everything you need to know about using hashtags during COVID-19.

Using Hashtags During COVID-19: Use Top Trending Hashtags

When it comes to using hashtags during COVID-19, the first thing to ask yourself is, “which trends can I piggyback on?” A big reason people use social media is to follow trending topics and find out what people and brands are talking about. You can use an analytics tool like Hashtagify or Tweet Reach to find top trending hashtags related to your business, and see widely-used hashtags during COVID-19 in your industry that are both relevant and far-reaching.

We aren’t suggesting you use hashtags during COVID-19 just for the sake of using them. Wide reach does not necessarily equal high engagement. Make sure you are posting meaningful content and using the hashtag to add to the conversation. This means using the information on what’s trending to create an effective and relevant social media and digital marketing strategy, drafting high-quality social media messages, and then applying the trending hashtags that will bring attention to those messages.

For example, some great hashtags for healthcare brands to use are #HealthcareHeroes, #InMyScrubs, and #WeApplaud. You can, and should, use these if your brand is in the healthcare industry, and use them with posts that spotlight your nurses, or show the hard work your team is doing on the frontlines, or in some other way express gratitude for your employees. These are great ways to use trending yet industry-specific hashtags during COVID-19.

As you probably know, there are plenty of general and non-specific coronavirus hashtags, such as #COVID19, #StayHome, #SocialDistancing, etc. These are okay to use if you’re talking about your business’s new policies and guidelines related to the pandemic. Plus, they are great for getting your messages categorized on the platforms. However, because they are so general and highly saturated, there is a higher likelihood they will get drowned out quickly. Therefore, they are typically most effective when used combined with other, equally important types of hashtags during COVID-19.

Using Hashtags During COVID-19: Use Content Hashtags

Another type of hashtag you can use is a content hashtag:one that uses specific words directly related to a certain industry, product or service. These are typically keywords that your audience might be searching for when looking for information related to the industry.

Content hashtags are great for getting your messages noticed by a niche market. They are an effective tool for targeting specific audiences, as people often hashtags related to their interests. For example, when we make a social media post about marketing, we typically use popular yet industry-specific content hashtags such as #SEO, #MarketingTips, or #branding, as these are widely used buzz words. During COVID-19, however, as more and more businesses turn to online marketing, we find that hashtags such as #DigitalMarketing and #SocialMediaMarketing are even more effective than before. You can look for trends like these that have started during COVID-19 too and apply them to your own brand.

One great tool for finding effective content hashtags is Best-Hashtags.com. Here, you can type in a keyword and it will come up with a list of the most relevant content hashtags related to that topic. It is a constantly changing list, and it’s important to keep watching which content hashtags are most popular at any given time. During COVID-19, many hashtags have remained effective and widely used, but others have changed or been replaced by more relevant ones. Since it can change on a regular basis, make sure to stay up to date with what is trending in your industry. Usage of hashtags during COVID-19 may differ, but their dynamic nature is consistent.

Using Hashtags During COVID-19: Find Upcoming Cause Awareness Days

Another effective type of hashtag is one that is tied to a national observance or awareness day that is relevant to your business. This is a great opportunity not just for using effective hashtags during COVID-19, but for creating excellent content as well. Holidays like #NationalBestFriendsDay or #NationalDonutDay are great ways to get your audience to engage with posts, as well as to offer some lighthearted content during this difficult time. It can also encourage people take action and post their own content in response to your message. After all, how do you not post an Instagram story with your Chipotle meal on #NationalBurritoDay?

There are holidays for almost everything you can think of, and we guarantee you can find at least a few that relate to your brand. Does your business sell pet-related products? Make a post about #LoveYourPetDay in February, #K9VeteransDay in March, #NationalPetDay in April, and many more. Is your business a liquor store or bar? Celebrate #WorldCocktailDay in May, #WorldRumDay in July, and #InternationalBeerDay in August. The list goes on and on! You can go to nationaltoday.com to find a list for every month of the year.

The great thing about holiday hashtags, similar to trending and content hashtags, is that since these hashtags are often established and well known, they help to increase visibility. However, using pre-made hashtags isn’t your only option. If you’re looking for something more original, you might be considering a more unique kind of hashtag that distinguishes your brand from others. Consider making your own hashtags during COVID-19.

Using Hashtags During COVID-19: Make Your Own

Sometimes, even if you have the most creative content and relevant hashtags, your post might still get lost in all the others. Although they are great for many kinds of posts, there are some campaigns that are too unique to your brand to fit into any pre-made hashtag. That’s when you might consider making your own unique hashtags during COVID-19 for your brand or campaign.

Brand-specific hashtags can be used for a specific marketing campaign or for general branding. They are great for promoting upcoming events, product releases, or even social media contests. If you have a new and innovative idea, making a new brand hashtag might be just the push your brand needs to propel its campaign forward.

The benefit of using unique brand hashtags during COVID-19 is that they feel more personal for people, and help make your brand stand out among its competitors. A general rule of thumb for making your own brand hashtag is keep it simple. Make it short, easy to say, and easy for others to join on in.

One great example is Purina’s #PetsAtWork campaign. The company made an announcement on Instagram that people tend to feel less stressed when working near their pets, which is why working from home can be so beneficial. They started posting regular pictures of their employees working either from home or in the office with their dogs and cats. This hashtag caught on because many people who work from home could easily join in by posting pictures of their own pet (and because everyone loves seeing cute animal pictures).

Creating hashtag campaigns that are fun, clever, and easy to join in are great ways to get your brand noticed. If you’re worried it won’t catch on right away, try combining it with other trending or content hashtags during COVID-19 so that it can gain attention.

Using Hashtags During COVID-19: Tweak Usage for Each Platform

Finally, keep in mind that every social media platform is different in how they index and show posts with hashtags to its users. Here are some general tips for the main social media platforms:

Twitter

Tweets with just one or two hashtags typically get the best engagement. Using too many trending hashtags during COVID-19 can make the post appear to have no focus and thus reduce its engagement. For Twitter, we find great results from using one unique brand hashtag and one content or trending hashtag.

Instagram

There are differing opinions on how many hashtags are best for an Instagram post. Instagram recommends to use at least 9, but no more than 30. Avoid using more hashtags than you need because irrelevant or off-topic hashtags might make your post lose engagement and then get drowned out by more popular posts. We find that posts with anywhere from 9 to 12 hashtags perform great.

Facebook and LinkedIn

These two platforms work similarly when it comes to hashtags, which aren’t as useful as they are on Twitter and Instagram. However, when they are specific and highly relevant, they can help boost your post’s reach. Using too many hashtags during COVID-19 on these platforms will lower engagement. Posts with one or two tend to get the best engagement. For Facebook and LinkedIn, it’s most effective to use content hashtags that are industry-specific and tagged onto the end of your post in order to get noticed by your audience.

YouTube

YouTube is more picky about hashtags than other platforms. We suggest using between three and six hashtags in your description. If you use more than 15, YouTube will ignore all hashtags. So pick a couple of main points of your video and hashtag the keywords that you think your audience will be searching for. Unique brand hashtags during COVID-19 also work well on this platform, so pairing a few hashtags with your own created one is a highly effective strategy.

Using hashtags during COVID-19 on your various social media platforms is a great way to help improve your business’s reach. As the pandemic unfolds, remember to keep an eye on relevant topics, especially related to your industry, so that you can add something meaningful to the conversation. Hashtags, when used correctly, do a great job of getting your message noticed, but they can only go so far if your content isn’t engaging. For tips on creating great social media and digital marketing content during COVID-19, click here.

In the meantime, remember that SN Digital Agency is an experienced, results driven full service social media agency! We understand that many businesses need extra help during this time, and we would love to hear from you about partnering with your business to leverage your social media presence for success now and in the future! Contact us today!

Promoting a Facebook Live Video

Abby Sorensen · January 7, 2020 ·

Using the Facebook live video feature can be a fun and effective way to increase engagement, interact with your followers, and get your message across by starting the conversation with your online community. But what are your options for promoting your Facebook live video and extending the benefits even further by using your ad spend?

Options are limited, but there are a few ways you can make sure people tune in when you go live. From promoting separate Facebook events and posts encouraging people to tune in to using organic messaging to spread the word, you can work around the limitations of not being able to promote the Facebook live video post ahead of time or using the link in a Traffic ad. Read on to find out what options are available.

Facebook Live Video: What You CAN Do

For those of you who may not know, Facebook live videos allow you to interact in real time with your online community. This allows your friends and followers to ask questions and you can answer them right then and there in the video. It takes your online conversation to the next level! So what are your options for boosting this even more by using ad spend to promote the live video?

Promote a Scheduled Facebook Live Video Using a Facebook Event Link

One option for promoting your upcoming Facebook Live Video is to promote a Facebook event advertising the scheduled livestream. Include the link to your scheduled livestream in the text body of the event, and use the event to get people excited to join in on your upcoming livestream. Events are great because they allow people to mark whether they are “coming” or not, and can give you an idea of how many followers will be joining you on the day of your Facebook live video. Anyone who indicated their interest in the event will also receive notifications from Facebook leading up to the event, so they are likely to remember to tune in for your livestream.

Promote a Separate Post Inviting People to Watch Your Facebook Live Video

In addition to creating and promoting an event, you can also promote a completely separate post inviting people to make sure to check out your page on the day and time of the livestream. Create and promote a post with something that hooks people and contains all the information for when and on what page they can join in on your Facebook live video. You can and should also use organic messaging across your social channels to spread the word about your livestream; even without the added juice of ad spend, organic messaging can help bring traffic to your Facebook live video.

Facebook Live Video: What You CAN’T Do

While there are a couple good, viable options for promoting a Facebook live video, those options are workarounds because sadly, there is more that you can’t do than can in this instance. Facebook still doesn’t have any capabilities for promoting the live video link directly ahead of time, whether it be on a boosted page post or as the link in a Traffic ad.

You Can’t Promote a Post for a Scheduled Facebook Live Video

While you can schedule a livestream event and get the link to the post for this event, you will not be able to boost this post the way you can boost other scheduled or published posts on Facebook. As we pointed out above, you can create a separate post with the same information and promote that post, but it will not contain the actual link to the upcoming Facebook live video.

You Can’t Use the Link to the Scheduled Facebook Live Video for a Traffic Ad

You can get the link in advance for your livestream–however this link can’t be used when setting up an ad in Ads Manager as the link button. You can place the link into the text of the ad, but the call-to-action link button will have to lead to a different page, so it doesn’t make much sense to do it this way, as people viewing the ad are much more likely to click the call-to-action button than a link in the text of the ad. So trying to use a Traffic ad to promote your upcoming Facebook live video is not the best method. However, promoting an event or a separate post (as we talked about above) can be very effective in getting traffic for your Facebook live video.

While there aren’t many options for promoting a Facebook live video, there are a couple workarounds that may prove effective. While you can’t promote the actual Facebook live video post ahead of time, you can promote other posts encouraging people to visit your page the day of the Facebook live stream. And don’t discount how effective organic posts can be, so make sure to post multiple times organically leading up to the live video! Setting up a Facebook event and promoting the event can be a great way to give people a heads up about your upcoming live video stream. We are confident that, with these options, you will find an effective way to get the word out about your upcoming Facebook live video and connect with and grow your online community.

Do you have other questions about what you can and can’t do with Facebook? SocialNicole is a full-scale social media marketing agency specializing in Facebook marketing, and we would love to help you out! Contact us to get started today!

6 Tips for Growing Your Instagram Account

SN:D Agency · November 20, 2019 ·

Instagram is one of the best platforms to get your business noticed and encourage users to directly engage with your brand. We’ve all seen the brands on Instagram who seem to so eloquently connect with their audience and activate high levels of engagement on their posts. They seem to post all the right content at all the right times, and catch the attention of all the right viewers. But just how do you go about doing this, and where do you start?

Growing your Instagram following can directly translate into higher brand recognition, a wider consumer base and significantly more sales for your business. In this guide, we answer all of your questions, including how to gain followers, activate and engage with your consumer base, and grow your Instagram account.

1. Growing Your Instagram: Posting Creative Content

Before you can start marketing your Instagram page, there has to be something there worth marketing. Every post should be something you’re be proud to show the world, and this means being creative in the development and publication of your content. Your creativity should be displayed by having great images, as well as having a strategy for displaying them.

Quality Images

The images you use depend on your brand, but no matter what, it is important that you choose high-quality, professional photos. Each image should be representative of your brand identity. Unlike Facebook or Twitter, where information is primarily offered through text, Instagram is image-centric. A viewer may never stop to read your caption, but they will always see your image. This means that the argument you are trying to make must be visually demonstrated in one small square canvas.

If at all possible, take your own professional photos. But if you don’t have access to resources for this, you can use free, high-quality stock images from sites like Unsplash or Pixabay. You can edit the photos on Instagram to adjust certain features such as tone, saturation, highlights, and contrast.

Profile Layout

That being said, while the individual posts themselves are important, equally important is a well-designed profile. What’s the first thing people see when they click on your profile? The page layout of course. Your brand’s Instagram profile should represent the brand’s personality artistically. There are several ways to do this.

One way to do this to maintain a consistent theme. Check out @Toyota, for example, who uses a theme of coordinated rows, where every row contains 3 pictures of the same vehicle in different positions or angles. It takes a second to notice it, but once you do, you are almost compelled to keep scrolling. This is a great tactic for engaging users!

Another option is to use a consistent type of picture. As another example, @Expedia uses a variety of distinct views of different worldly wonders.

There are plenty of other ideas for themes you can find on popular Instagram accounts. Whether you use a coordinated color scheme, a repeating content method, or any other kind of theme, the content on your profile should look like it belongs together. Ultimately, it should all be in adherence to the same single brand identity.

2. Growing Your Instagram: Writing Good Captions

If your images are good they will get likes, but if the captions are good they will get likes, comments and shares. In other words, captions can make or break engagement.

Furthermore, the words you put attach to your post represent your brand’s voice. One example of a brand that knows their identity and writes great, on-strategy copy is @Chipotle. They use their caption as a space to connect and relate to their audience in a way that is authentic, witty, and often downright hilarious.

Below are some examples of their content:

When I see memes like these, I can’t help but feel like the brand sort of “gets” me. This is because they are directly responding to a common pop culture theme in their posts and even using customer-created content. What better way to make your audience feel heard and to drive engagement?

Humor is great for a fast food company like Chipotle, but figure out what strategy is best for your particular market. Look at what others in your niche are doing for some ideas. And then decide how you want to portray your brand voice, whether that’s with a tone that is witty, sentimental, passionate or educational. No matter what it is, it should always be on-strategy with your overall brand messaging.

Another effective way to get engagement through your caption is to directly initiate conversations. This brings us to our next point.

3. Growing Your Instagram: Using a Call to Action

Every post should be an invitation to do something, whether it’s stated directly or indirectly. The indirect way to state something is demonstrated in the above examples. Chipotle never says “come to Chipotle,” but we know it’s what they mean.The direct way is by using a Call to Action.

There are different kinds of calls to action that encourage different types of engagement. A call to action can be as simple as asking viewers to click a link in your bio, shop your sale, or follow you on other social media channels.

As we mentioned above, one effective kind of call to action is a conversation starter. This typically means including a question at the end of your caption asking viewers to share their answer in the comments. It can be open-ended, such as “How was your weekend? Share in the comments below.” Or, it can be more directly brand-related, such as “Which of these [products] is your favorite? Share what you’d pick in the comments!”

Below is an example of a conversation starter by a gardening brand, @gardenista_sourcebook. As you can see from the comments, this was extremely effective in garnering user interaction.

Another effective strategy is telling users to tag a friend in the comments. You will see this strategy used often by clothing brands. They will post pictures of their apparel with the caption “tag a friend who would look amazing in this.” This is a great way to get your followers to indirectly recommend your brand to more potential consumers. Each person who comments brings one more potential follower to the post, who might then tag another potential follower, who will tag another, and so on.

4. Growing Your Instagram: Interacting with Followers

This is arguably the most effective way to gain followers. It is also the most labor intensive.

It is important, especially if you are a small business just getting your name out there, to engage directly with your active followers. Businesses with a strong social media presence are the ones who make an effort to respond to as many comments as they can. This is the most authentic representation of your brand. When you reply to your viewers, they feel heard. This leaves a positive impression of your business with your audience. It demonstrates that you are dedicated to customer service and care about your consumers.

One account that does a great job of this is @Headspace. They reply to each comment, even if it’s as simple as a few words or an emoji. As you can see below, it is effective in promoting their brand image as a self-care advocate, and they have 6 times more followers than their main competitor, Insight Timer. It pays off!

And if that’s not incentive enough, know that every comment you add makes Instagram register your post as more active. And the more active you are on Instagram, the more the app rewards you with a higher placement on your followers’ feeds.

Speaking of staying at the top of the feed, let’s talk about hashtags.

5. Growing Your Instagram: Using Hashtags Strategically

Hashtags are a wonderful tool for growing your Instagram account. They are arguably the best way to gain new followers. They help categorize posts, draw in users to a specific niche, and reach a specific target audience

Begin by researching other Instagram pages in your niche. Find out which hashtags are being used by your competition, by both influencers and by personal profiles. There are several apps for Instagram that can help you find the most popular tags, but once you’ve figured out the ones that draw in the most engagement, keep a list of these on file so you can use them in future posts.

Once you’ve figured out what the most effective hashtags are, there are a few ways you can incorporate them. One way is to use them directly in your caption. You can do this by picking some key words and tagging them. Here is an example of a post by @Nintendo using this method:

However, be careful with this, as you want your text to remain easy to read and uncrowded. You don’t want a clump of hashtags to be too visible because it can appear tacky. To avoid this, many accounts use the strategy of tacking them on at the end of the caption, often after several paragraph breaks, or placing them all in the first comment. This way, they won’t be visible until the viewer clicks the “see all” button. Here’s an example by @beautifulsmoothies:

It sounds tedious, but keeping your post clean and simple helps with the overall image that your brand portrays.

6. Growing Your Instagram: Interacting with Other Brands

Interacting with others in your market is a great way to demonstrate credibility. You are becoming a major player in your market, so show it. Don’t expect that consumers will automatically come to you. Find other brands in your industry, both big and small, and interact with them publicly on the platform. Like and comment on their posts. Encourage them to check out your page. This will begin to get your name out there in the community.

If you are featuring a certain vendor or another brand in your post, make sure to mention them in your caption. Sometimes, the business will share your post with their own followers. This is a great way to start gaining a wider online audience.

Overall, building an Instagram following, like anything else, takes hard work and persistence. It is much more than just having good images and setting ads. It takes a certain level of dedication to creating the highest quality content, as well as a consistent engagement with your community and your audience on a regular basis. It also requires you to be flexible, to evolve with your audience as they evolve, and to understand the ever-changing and transforming platform that is Instagram.

Did you know that Instagram marketing is a big part of our work here at SocialNicole? To learn more about our social media marketing services and the ways we leverage Instagram to grow your business, contact us today!

In the meantime, sign up now to receive free blog updates in your inbox. We have posts on all aspects of digital marketing coming out every month.

How to Set Up a Facebook Ad Naming System

Abby Sorensen · December 13, 2018 ·

Has your business begun advertising on Facebook yet? Facebook ads can be a profitable part of your business plan, but they can be a bit confusing. The three-layered ad level system of campaign, ad set, and ad can seem complex, which is why it is important to implement a consistent and clear naming system for your Facebook ads. Naming your Facebook ads will help your business keep its advertisements organized, and will ultimately lead to more effective advertising on Facebook.

What Are Facebook Ads Names?

When your business advertises on Facebook, your ad needs three parts in order to run:

Campaign – Top level where you set your advertising objective (the goal for your ads)
Ad Set – Mid-level where you set your ad budget, audience, and schedule
Ad – Micro-level which contains your actual Facebook ads – your creative visuals and content that drives your audience to what you are trying to promote

It is important to understand how these parts all work together to launch an ad in order to create an effective Facebook naming system and be able to easily identify your ads and review the results of your ads. Each advertising level needs to be set up and named well in order for your business to get the most out of its Facebook advertising.

Let’s dive a little deeper into each level:

Facebook Ads: Campaign Level

The campaign level of Facebook advertising is the level in which you will set your objective. Each campaign has only one objective. The campaign contains ad sets, which in turn contain the individual ads, so the campaign level is the largest, overarching level of Facebook advertising. Your objective might be traffic, brand awareness, likes, or a number of other options. When you set up your ad campaign on Facebook, you select one of these advertising objectives. Because campaigns are where the advertising objective is set, and each campaign has a different objective, the objective should be clearly identified in the name.

Facebook Ads: Ad Set Level

Within a campaign, you can have one or more ad sets. Ad sets are groups of ads which share a budget, target, schedule, etc. The individual ads go into the ad set. There are typically multiple ad sets within a campaign, and you can use multiple ad sets to test audiences, budgets, etc. for a certain objective, to find out which is most effective.

It is important to be precise and refined at the ad set level. You can create and save audiences with unique names so you can easily differentiate between audiences when creating new ad sets. An ad set name will typically include the objective of the campaign it is under and the audience.

Facebook Ads: Ad Level

Within each ad set, there will be one or more advertisements. The ad is pretty self-explanatory – it is the singular advertised post, the image or video and text used in the ad. Of the three levels of Facebook ads (campaigns, ad sets, ads), there are the highest number of ads. Ads often look like any other organic Facebook post. The budget (which is set at the ad set level) will be allocated across all the ads within the ad set, and Facebook will use more of the budget on ads that are performing best. If there is only one ad within an ad set, this ad will use the entire budget. When naming an ad, it will often have the same name as the ad set it is in, with the objective of the campaign and the audience, as well as description of the image to make it easy to identify.

How to Set Up a Facebook Ad Naming System

When naming campaigns, ad sets, and ads, many businesses like to come up with a system for naming their ads. These naming systems will often be a combination of identifiers that may include information about the campaign and ads, the audience, objective of the ad, image description, and dates the ad will run, etc. Using a system like this makes it easier to identify which ads are which and allows you to evaluate and review the performance of your ads, campaigns, etc.

What Information Should You Include in Your Facebook Campaign, Ad Set and Ad Name?

In order to keep your ads organized and efficiently sift through them, they need to be properly named. But what information should be included in the names? If you’re running ads for multiple companies or pages, the first thing that should be included is the company name. You can then include the item promoted/ or the ad name, the objective, and then any other variable that sets this campaign apart from others.

If you use a consistent structure for naming, you will be able to locate your ad campaigns easily later. If you want to check up on an ad and see how it performed, you can search using filters with information that you know was included in the campaign name, because you include consistent information from campaign to campaign.

How Should You Structure Your Facebook Ad Name?

Keeping your campaigns and campaign names simple and consistent will go a long way in helping your business stay organized and on top of your different ad campaigns. There isn’t necessarily a right way to structure your campaign names, but you will want to pick a structure and then stick with it, so all your campaigns are consistent.

There are a few key indicators that we like to include in our ad names for optimal organization. They are:

Category: B2B, B2C, recruiting, service promotion, professional promotion (classes, events, etc), general promotion, campaign (contest, drive, etc.).
Ad Objective: Traffic, brand awareness, like ad, video views, promoted post.
Audience: Whatever selected audience you have for the ad.
Topic/Title or Details About the Ad: any significant details about the ad that will clue you in to what the ad is about.
Image Name: We use this only for campaigns that have multiple ad sets and/or ads in each set so we can quickly pull metrics and identify each individual ad.
Dates: The timeline of when the ad is running.

So, following this method, if you are looking to recruit nurses in the month of November, your ad name may look like this:

Recruiting(Category)_Promoted Post(Ad objective)_Nurses in Minneapolis(Audience)_Recruting (Detail about ad)Hospital room image(Image detail)_November 2018

You can play around with the naming system of your ad until you find what works for you, but once you find it, stick with it! It will save your business time, resources, and maybe a few headaches when you keep your ad naming system clear and consistent. Remember the three-level set up of Facebook advertising (campaign, ad set, ad), and use information within the names of your campaigns, ad sets, and ads that will set them apart from one another. Efficient, effective advertising can lead to more business success for your company!

Think you may need help setting up your Facebook ads? We can do it for you! Make sure to sign up for our free updates and feel free to contact us with questions!