Have you noticed how we spend so much time on our phones, mindlessly browsing different feeds, images & platforms?
Instead of this, how great would it be if we spent that time maybe on learning something that truly interests us or a skill that we really want to pick up on?
This is the exact thought that crossed the mind of CJ Adams, Co-founder of Keen. With the help of Area 120, a workshop for Google’s experimental projects, Keen was born!
Currently only available on android and on the web, this app runs on Google search’s machine learning expertise and helps you curate & share content based on certain interests.
To use Keen, you must first sign into a Google account. Then you can enter the topic that interests you the most.
Keen will then give you multiple suggestions that relate to your topic of interest. You can choose only the suggestions that you want to track.
You will then be directed to a pinboard consisting of various images that link to different web content that suits the topic you chose. You can find blog articles, YouTube videos, shopping links and much more.
Every collection you create, Keen uses Google’s search engine to help you discover, curate and share content related to your topic of interest. Remember, the more you save to a keen and organize it, the better the recommendations become.
Finally, you can click on the little Gem next to each article in the explore section, and that article will be saved in your Gems providing you with easy access to the links that you like the best.
Once a Keen is created, you can keep editing it, remove or save links from the list, either make it a public or private keen as well as share the keen with others and allow them to collaborate and add content as well.
When you go to look at it, Pinterest does an amazing job of being a source for ideas by helping us collect images, information and much more & now Google Keen does resemble Pinterest in a way, definitely making it a solid competitor.
At the end of the day Google Keen seems to be the new talk of the town and the real question we need to ask is:
Instagram recently announced that it would be releasing a new sticker called ‘Food Order’ to help support small businesses in the food industry. The sticker will help the restaurant keep in touch with their customers & bring more people to support their business.
As the unlock face begins, restaurants are looking for ways to increase their business. Businesses can now share this sticker on their stories, and just by one tap on the sticker a customer will be directed to Swiggy or Zomato website for them to order.
In order to be able to use this sticker, the restaurant is required to:
Here is how you can set up the sticker on your Instagram Profile:
Go to your profile & tap “Edit Profile”
Under “Public Business Information” tap Action Buttons
Under “Select a Button”, tap Food Orders
Select a partner (Swiggy or Zomato) for your food orders. In case you haven’t set up food orders with a partner, follow the instructions on the partner’s site.
Then add the website that your business is using for the food order services.
Tap Done
Now you are set up and all that is left to do is to use the sticker to promote orders and connect with your customers.
When sharing the story, you can share photos and videos, add the Food Order sticker and share your story. The colour of the Food Order sticker can also be changed based on your preference. There are a few things to keep in mind regarding the sticker. Only one Food Orders sticker can be added per story. Your viewers can reshare your story to their own story, but you will not receive notifications for every reshare of this Food Sticker Story.
The sticker is easy to use, easy to share among customers and NOW is the best time for restaurants to make the highest use of them. Since it is a fairly new sticker, Instagram will keep pushing the stories and accounts of people using this sticker.
Instagram is rolling out all these new stickers to help businesses not lose connection with their customers. Last month the Support Small Business sticker was released in order to help businesses reach new customers and stay connected with people. People made really good use of that sticker when it was released. In the same way, this new Food Orders sticker is part of Instagram’s ongoing efforts to safeguard and support small businesses during COVID-19, and to help them get back up on their feet. Now it’s time for us to make use of the new benefits we receive.
Social media is a place for people to engage, have fun and to learn something new. Building a relationship between the brand and the audience is an important aspect on social media. It is necessary to maintain a personal touch with your audience. As a social media strategist, it is always good to keep growing with your social media platforms, learn from your mistakes and to share the knowledge.
Here are 10 Do’s and Don’ts for social media
Do’s
Always Always Interact:
Interacting with your audience is one of the most important aspects of digital marketing. You need to make sure your audience trusts you and can come to you with their queries. If you see a friendly comment or review, leave the person a nice reply or you could give them a shout out via stories. This shows them you care.
Keep calm! It is only a negative review:
Negative reviews or feedback is received by every brand at some point in time. It is always beneficial to have a plan ready in a situation like this and to deal with it in a nice manner.
Why am I here?:
As a brand, you must never forget the reason why you are on social media. Set your goals and work towards achieving them. Also remember that it is never about you and is always about what your audience wants.
Be Visual:
People scroll though social media when they are bored. Always make sure your creatives, photos or videos stand out. It is a matter of a second to grab a person’s attention and get them to like what you have shared. Aim to make your content stand out and grab your audience’s attention.
80/20 rule:
People are on social media for three reasons – to be entertained, to gain information and to connect with others. With this in mind, it is helpful to follow the 80/20 rule for social media content. Always make sure 80% of your content is entertaining and informative while the other 20% sells your products or services.
Encourage user generated content:
Remember that your audience loves to get involved with the help of contests and engagement posts. You can also get their feedback, reviews and can further use the tagged content on your page.
Make sure your profile is always upto date:
It can be a real turn off for your potential audience when they come to your page expecting certain information, but instead, they end up with an incomplete profile with no information. So always keep your profile up to date, be it your working hours or your contact number.
Post Regularly:
Keep your audience aware of your presence and post regularly. Two to three times a week is a good amount of posts, but this may vary based on the brand and the industry.
If it is not yours, give credit:-
When you see an image that you like and know that it would resonate with your brand, you need to give credit to the creator of the existing picture. It is never right to just steal!
Content for your social media platform:-
Every social media platform is different and the same content cannot be used on all the platforms. Similarly, your audience may vary on each platform and based on it your talking style must change. Trial and error is the best way to see what content suits a particular platform.
Don’ts
Hey Robot! It’s nice not talking to you!:
People prefer human touch and interaction. So when you set up a chatbot or ready message that sounds like a robot, it drives away your audience. Instead have a normal conversation with your audience as the effort will be worth it.
Spell check:
It is important to always check your spellings. Grammatical errors can be a real let down and may cause your audience to immediately turn away and ignore your content.
Never forget your audience:
Never delete or ignore something your audience has to say, as it will only prove to the rest of the audience that you do not care. Start a conversation with a smart reply and show your audience that you care about their opinions.
Do not be repetitive:
Do not use the same content again and again. Your audience will get bored and you will immediately lose a good amount of followers. Instead get creative and think of new ways to entertain your audience.
Everybody hates a spammer:-
Do not ever spam your audience. Posting 3 to 4 times a day will annoy your audience. No one wants their feed filled with content from just one page.
Do not abuse hashtags:
Hashtags are an amazing way to get your post seen by a bigger audience. By using appropriate hashtags you are bound to get more engagement and followers but overusing hashtags will make your content get lost among other posts.
Do not miss out on what is trending:
Be it current affairs or trending formats, it is always important to stay on top. It is also better to stay out of politics when dealing with brands.
Do not lie:
If you are not 100% sure of certain information, then do not share it at all. It would be better not to share rather than make your audience think you lied to them and fed them false information.
ALL CAPS?! :
Writing in all caps will give your audience the impression that you are yelling. Use all caps in the right way or avoid it at all costs.
Why obsess over the numbers?:
Do not obsess on the numbers! Create fun content and watch your followers grow. The growth might be slow, but slow growth is better than no growth. Always aim to try something new to increase the growth, but never obsess over the numbers as it will only divert your attention from your real goal on social media.
Social media is the most effective method to promote a small business. Each social media platform is used for a different reason and has its own set of users. It is important to consider which social media platforms suit your business rather than joining all the available social media platforms.
Here are a few important tips that you can follow before you choose a social media platform for business marketing
Finding the right target audience:
In order to select the best social media platform for your business, you must first know who your audience is. This can be done by finding out the age, gender, occupation, likes, dislikes and problems that your audience might be facing.
You can further look at the social media platforms and see which platform can be used to solve the problems of your audience. While doing this, you must also keep in mind the purpose of your business and the content you want to share with your audience.
Setting business goals:
As a business owner, you know what goals suit your business. It can either be a single goal or multiple goals. On social media, your goals can be to drive traffic to your website, increase followers, attain brand awareness, increase sales, to build relationships with your potential buyers or can even be used for customer support.
As a business, you can use different platforms to solve various problems that your audience may face. Make sure that the platform you choose goes with your business style and that you enjoy the platform. You will be spending hours testing and trying the platform work.
Selecting the right platform:
Once you have figured out who your audience is and what your business goals are, the next step is to check the demographics of each social media platform. See where your audience lies and where your business will fit in.
Each platform should be utilized differently and the same content should not be posted on all the platforms. Your audience and potential customers come to you to find valuable and relevant content. Therefore, unique content should be posted on each platform.
The brief below can help you choose the best social media platform between the platforms available
FACEBOOK
Facebook is a large platform that has a diverse audience of about 2.41 billion monthly active users. People of all ages can be found on Facebook, although the largest user base ranges from the age category of 25 – 54. The platform is used to build relationships and to keep in contact with friends. Since this platform is highly populated, it can be tedious to reach your audience. If your business goal is to build brand awareness then this may not be the platform for you. However, if your goal is to build relationships and keep in contact with your clients, this is the most suitable platform.
INSTAGRAM
Instagram is the most fast-paced platform, with more than 1 billion monthly users. As the main focus of the app is the visual content, the age demographic mainly ranges from 18 – 29. People use Instagram to build relationships and conversations. This platform works best for visual-based businesses like art, food, retail and beauty. It can be used to showcase your products and tell your brand’s story through high-quality images and videos.
TWITTER
Twitter has 330 million monthly users worldwide, of the younger age group from 18-29 years. As a brand, Twitter can be used to reach and engage with your audience and also to build brand awareness. Hashtags can be used to participate in trending topics as well as to reach new audiences that might be interested in the content being put out. It is mainly used to take part in popular conversations and to follow real-time news.
LINKEDIN
LinkedIn is the best social media platform for professionals. It is used by the audience in the age group from 25-40. It can be used to showcase your blogs and articles and to update news about your business. It is also a great platform to network with like-minded clients and professionals, great for B2B business and to recruit new employees.
YOUTUBE
YouTube has more than 1 billion users and has become one of the biggest search engine platforms. It is an amazing platform to engage with your target audience by creating and publishing video content. Service based industries that make compelling video content will benefit largely on YouTube. Content posted on YouTube can also be found on Google.
PINTEREST
Pinterest has reached an audience of about 300 million active users. Pinterest is used for “scrapbooking” and to save content by pinning pictures to a board. This platform works well for brands that have high-quality images to share, as the pictures can be linked back to the site and drive more traffic. The commonly saved pins are of recipes, photographs, DIY’s, quotes and infographics. Brands can use the platform to create boards to showcase their products and style. Google displays the Pinterest images in its image search results.
As there are multiple social media platforms available, it is crucial to find the right fit for your business. Although it is a tedious process and requires trial and error, a great Social Media Company can assist you with this. Upon finding a suitable platform, it is easy to communicate with your audience and generate traffic towards your business. For more information have a look at Alt-er Social.
