There are multiple ways you can reshare a post on Instagram. Here’s a step-by-step process on how to reshare a post on Instagram via a Repost sharing app:

1.  Find the picture you’d like to repost.

2. Make sure to ask permission prior to sharing the photo.

3. Tap on the three dots ‘…’ icon next to the image in the upper right-hand corner.

4. Tap ‘Copy Share URL.’

5. Open the Repost sharing app on your phone.

6. Tap the ‘Repost’ button, and choose whether or not you want to share on feed or story.

According to eMarketer’s research, Instagram will have 26.9 million users join the platform by 2020 with a projected growth of 4.5 percent from the previous year. With so many users, there is an overflowing amount of content that is being distributed. With options for feeds, stories, highlights, and direct messages, Instagram has become a platform that has flourished for brands, influencers, and users looking to connect with businesses and friends.

Instagram is known for its visuals, photos that are posted and shared on an individual’s feeds and stories. From travel photos to product photos and videos that range from tutorials to behind-the-scenes footage, it’s no wonder it’s forecasted that 73.2 percent of U.S. marketers will use Instagram this year.

With similar functionalities like Snapchat, Instagram allows individuals to post stories that last for 24 hours. Individuals can choose to archive these stories or save them to highlights, which live on your profile, under your bio.

This platform also allows you to create brand awareness. With options to include your website and paid advertisement, Instagram encourages click-through actions, like clicking to a website, purchasing a product through Instagram, commenting or following your Instagram business page, or sharing or reposting a photo on your feed to their personal feed or story.

With so many users and businesses that have an Instagram profile, it’s important to create a social strategy. In addition to creating new content, it’s also important to curate content. For Instagram, this can be the process of reposting or resharing other individuals’ posts.

So, what is the process of reposting or resharing on Instagram?

Also known as regramming, a regram involves the process of sharing another account’s Instagram post to your own Instagram feed or story. Which involves reposting and/or resharing a particular post or story on Instagram to your own profile. Please note, that based on Instagram’s Terms of Use.

In order to share another individual’s content that is not your own, you need to obtain written permission for you to repurpose the content. You can do this by commenting on the image and asking, or by sending them an Instagram direct message. Make sure you receive consent to use the photo prior to posting on your own feed. Most individuals will agree to allow you to share their post with “photo credit” by tagging them in the photo and in the copy description of the post.

Why should you regram on your Instagram?

Reposting from an Instagram account that shares similar interests helps strengthen your credibility, user trust, brand identity, authenticity, and relatability. All crucial elements in improving your brand awareness and content strategy. Include re-posting as part of your curated content, and make sure to abide by Instagram’s guidelines and ask for photo sharing permission.

For example, on our ClearVoice Instagram feed, we love to share photos of our freelancers. Since they work from all over the world, we’re able to showcase how versatile it can be when you work remotely. It’s not just a lifestyle that we might be portraying, but through regramming, you are creating a narrative, where other freelancers who are on Instagram can feel inspired and motivated.

Additionally, those freelancer followers on their Instagram will see that ClearVoice is a great platform to receive writing opportunities, which you can complete in the comfort of your own home.

Through reposting other posts that align with your brand messaging, it encourages your users to produce more original content. According to global research company Ipsos, “user-generated content is also 20 percent more influential when it comes to purchasing and 35 percent more memorable than other types of media.”

Receive extra credibility when you regram on Instagram.

When your users share posts and tag your brand, they become brand ambassadors for your business. Sharing your followers’ posts is highly encouraged. When they tag your profile, that means they are providing you extra credibility, but also hoping that you will reshare their post in return. Therefore, both parties benefit from additional social exposure. It is almost like a mutual benefit for each individual and saying “thank you!” with a repost.

For example, you are a retail brand, and your customers are posting photos on their Instagram feed and story of the new pair of jeans, shirts, and accessories that they purchased. Share this on your story and feed because it shows customers loving and reviewing your product!

How to reshare a post on your Instagram story

Similar to Twitter’s retweet and Facebook’s share option, Instagram has a share icon on posts, that allow you to share a post with another friend or to your own Instagram story. The functionalities are definitely different than Twitter and Facebook and on desktop and mobile.

On your desktop, follow these steps to share a post on your Instagram story:

• Log into your Instagram account.
• Find the photo you would like to share.
• Click the following icon that looks like a paper plane.
• Afterward, it will provide you the following options to share to different platforms.
• Based on where you would like to share the following post, select that option, and it will open up another browser and add the Instagram link that you are sharing.

On mobile, the functionalities are slightly different:

1. Find a post you’d like to share.

Same as the desktop view, click the icon that looks like a paper airplane.

2. Choose who you want to send the post to.

After you click the icon, you will have the option to “Add post to your story” or send it to other friends who are on the list.

3. Add it to your Instagram story.

Once you click “Add post to your story” on the lower left-hand corner where your profile icon is with the “Your Story” icon, it will be added to your story.

What if you want to regram a photo to your feed?

There are multiple tools that allow you to save another user’s photo and upload it to your personal Instagram feed via mobile. After you have received permission to share the photo, you can take a screenshot of the photo you would like to share, crop and edit it accordingly, and upload it to your feed as a regular post.

Steps for using the repost app:

1. After you have chosen the post you want, select the […] icon on the top right of the post.

2. After clicking the […] icon you will receive the following options. Click the “Copy Link” option.

3. Open your repost app for Instagram. You will see the following post you just copied the link for. Select the post in your repost app feed.

4. It will provide you multiple options for copy. You can edit the copy directly within the repost app or on the Instagram platform. Click the “Repost” icon.

5. The following options will be presented: 1. Repost to your Story (full screen), 2. Repost to Story (normal), 3. Repost to Feed. Choose the third option.

6. Once you have selected the “Repost to Feed” option, choose the feed option, which will automatically open up your Instagram app with the post.

Voila! Now you know how to regram to your story and your feed via desktop and mobile.

How to incorporate regramming into your strategy

You now have the tools to regram on Instagram. So, how do you incorporate this into your content strategy? When establishing your content strategy you want a balance of original content and curated content.

This content can be user-generated-content (UGC), which brands see as word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing from your loyal customers. UGC content is seen as authentic, and followers of those individuals trust the content that is being pushed out on their profiles. Thus, when you are tagged in a post by a loyal follower, you can share that content and show that you are a brand that their followers can trust and it gives you more credibility as a brand.

Consider regramming to both your story and feed. Take into consideration where your audience is and engage with them on either the story or the feed. Also, think about the asset you are sharing. If it resonates better on story, then it would be best to share it there; however, if it transpires better on an individual’s feed, and works well with your Instagram grid, then share it to your feed.

Start sharing, reposting, regramming, and showcasing all the love on Instagram.

With a social strategy in place for Instagram with a good mix of curated and created content, you can increase your brand awareness and showcase your product through loyal customers.

Through reposting or regramming on either your Instagram story or your feed, you can craft a narrative for your followers. Perhaps you want to showcase “Client Testimonials” or “Behind-the-Scenes” at a music concert, through sharing individuals posts or stories around your product or music band, you are putting together pieces of a puzzle to better showcase who you are to your followers.

The post A Step-by-Step Guide for Resharing Content on Instagram appeared first on ClearVoice.

It is not a surprise that Instagram has been the ideal platform to use for influencer marketing. Businesses are looking for creative ways to inform their followers of their products and team culture while also creating overarching brand awareness.

So, as a business owner, it’s important to start brainstorming what an effective Instagram strategy should look like.

The following blog post will be a walk-through on how to create an Instagram highlight and why it’s beneficial to include them on your Instagram profile.

What’s an Instagram highlight?

Instagram highlights live under your Instagram profile About section. Highlights are considered the table of contents to your stories. Instagram stories live on your profile for 24 hours; however, after that period of time, they are automatically archived. If you would like them to be featured indefinitely on your profile, you can add them to your highlights.

Why are Instagram stories and highlights significant?

Because “⅓ of the most viewed stories are from businesses.” If you haven’t shared on your stories yet, here are some great things to consider when building out your highlights content strategy.

Let’s use the example of a lash esthetician. You might want to inform your followers about your services. Instead of crowding your Instagram feed with text, you can create a story featuring your price list, cancellation policy, and answers to frequently asked questions, all of which can be added to a highlight titled “Services & Policy.”

Additionally, you can create a highlight titled “Client Love” or “Testimonials,” which are shared stories that your clients post about how much they love their new lashes, facial, or whichever service you provide. Remember, similar to any social campaign, you need to have a strategy in place.

What are the benefits of Instagram highlights?

You might be thinking, “Sure, sounds great, but what are the benefits of Instagram highlights?” “In a February 2018 survey by influencer marketing agency Activate, 88.9 percent of worldwide influencers said they were using Instagram for influencer marketing campaigns more than they did one year ago.”

Here are all the benefits of using Instagram highlights:

• Organize: Highlights allow you to organize your Instagram stories for easy accessibility on your profile.
• Longer shelf life: Highlights allow your stories to live on your Instagram profile for more than 24 hours.
• Visually compelling: A creative way to inform your followers about your product, service, or brand.
• Showcase why people are raving about you: A great way to showcase your client’s testimonials/reviews in an organic way.
• Behind-the-scenes: It makes your company more personable and relatable.

3 Examples of brands that excel at Instagram highlights

Here are some profiles that are doing an incredible job creating visually stunning highlights, as well as great creative narratives:

1. Anthropologie

It is no surprise to see that Anthropologie has an Instagram profile with highlights that match the creativity and color scheme of their overarching brand. With dynamic colors and icons, they provide multiple categories to let followers know more about trends, Q&As, art, and fan outfits! They have aggregated some wonderful curated and created content.

2. Buffer

Buffer is a social media marketing platform that allows you to organize and schedule your content. The Buffer Instagram account features a concise bio and highlights to answer any questions you might have. Similarly to Anthropologie, they also have a #BufferLove highlight, which features their fans.

As a brand, Instagram highlights are a great way to give a small shoutout and thank you to fans who are actively using your hashtag and sharing brand love. They are your brand ambassadors, and providing them recognition by creating a highlight and featuring their stories is a great way to say “thanks!”

3. Sephora

“Sephora is one of the most visible personal care and beauty brand stores worldwide. In 2017, the company had 362 stores across the United States and was ranked among the top 100 retailers in the United States based on revenue.”

This beauty product supplier’s highlights feature tutorials, in-store specials, and current trends to help you keep up-to-date.

Now that you have been convinced that highlights are extremely important, you might be wondering how to create one for yourself.

Here’s how to create Instagram highlights:

As previously mentioned, your highlights are the table of contents of your stories, and since they live right below your bio, it’s important to strategize what content you would like to publish.

1. Start with a strategy.

Based on your target audience and what you would like to share about your brand, you need to create categories for your highlights, similar to the Instagram profiles listed above. You can create highlights about product launches, tutorials, behind-the-scenes, trivia, client testimonials, and so on and so forth.

2. Create a design.

There are multiple tools that allow you to create visually stunning highlights. Remember that consistency is important and that you want your highlight covers to also match the overall aesthetic of your brand.

Some great resources are listed below:

• Canva offers an array of beautiful highlights that match the aesthetic of any brand.
• This Pinterest Board has categorized and grouped together different highlight covers based on themes.

3. Change your settings and archive all your stories.

This is so you can access them in the future and add them to your highlights. This will be beneficial if you decide to share a story you’ve captured previously.

4. Upload your highlights to your profile.

Once you have decided on your themes and cover design, it is time for you to upload your highlights and add them to your profile! Be mindful of how you are uploading your highlights. Make sure you don’t add text within your circular image because it will show up on your actual highlight cover.

How to add to your Instagram highlights

1. You can click the (+) new icon.

Once you click the icon, Instagram will take you to your previously archived stories. This is where you can choose different highlights you have previously posted on your Instagram before. Quick note: You have to upload your icons to your Instagram story first, prior to choosing which one you’d like to add as your highlight cover image.

2. Once you’ve selected from your stories, click next.

It will then allow you to change the title of your highlight cover. Since the image for ClearVoice is a gradient, we don’t have to change the position of the image; however, if you’d like it to fit within the circle, then click Edit Cover, and match the image within the circle.

3. After you have titled your highlight cover, click Add.

Your new highlight cover will then be showcased on your Instagram profile.

Another alternative to adding a highlight cover is going to the hamburger icon in the upper right-hand corner. Click Archive, and it will take you to your Instagram stories again. This is where you’ll be able to go through the same steps listed above.

Social media next steps

Now that you know how to create Instagram highlights, start adding to them! And if you’d rather outsource your social media to a proven partner, ClearVoice’s expert social content creators have your back. Talk to us today to see how we can boost your brand’s visibility and drive social engagement.

The post The Ultimate Guide to Creating Instagram Highlights appeared first on ClearVoice.

Learn how to maximize your presence on Instagram, including how to create a profile, choose a username, write an engaging bio, and develop a strong social strategy for Stories and Highlights.

If you are still debating whether or not you should create a business Instagram profile, you should create one immediately. Perhaps you haven’t created one because it all seems overwhelming. The laundry list of to-dos when creating a new Instagram profile and building a content strategy seems extremely daunting. I have a solution! Continue reading and you will be given steps on how to create an Instagram profile.

Before we jump into the tutorials, let me recap the reasons why it’s important to have a social presence on Instagram. “In 2019, the percentage of U.S. adults who use Instagram rose from 35 to 37 percent and the active reported users have held steady around 1 billion people,” according to Sprout Social.

Based on the following graph, it may seem like Instagram is falling behind; however, year over year, the percentage keeps growing and growing, which means it will only continue in that trajectory.

Image source: Statista

Additionally, the average time spent on Instagram is over 50 minutes. That is 50 or more minutes of opportunity for brand exposure, fan engagement, community involvement, and turning an Instagram account user into a follower and a potential brand ambassador.

“Twenty-one percent of users log in weekly and 16 percent log in less often than that,” says Pew Research, which makes Instagram the second highest used social media site, trailing Facebook by 10 minutes.

Why do you need an Instagram presence for your business?

If you are still not convinced about why having an Instagram profile is important, let’s walk through some incredible Instagram data regarding brands and user-behavior when it comes to businesses and brands that they follow.

In a recent study commissioned by Facebook to understand the behavior of users on Instagram, “the research revealed that Instagram is a platform that goes beyond awareness generation — it drives sales. In fact, 54 percent of people surveyed say they made a purchase either in the moment or after seeing a product or service on Instagram.”

Image source: Facebook

As reflected earlier, with over 80 percent of 1 million active Instagram users discovering, researching, and purchasing new products, that is a great motivator on creating an Instagram profile.

You might be asking yourself, “What if I am not an e-commerce website and I don’t have a product or service to sell?” Instagram can still be used for sharing your overarching brand voice. Now that you’re convinced that Instagram is crucial for your business. Follow along below on how to create an Instagram profile.

How to create an Instagram profile

Let’s start with the basics of how to create an Instagram profile.

1. Download the Instagram mobile app. The reason being, you’ll probably be snapping the majority of your photos with your mobile device, which makes uploading photos directly to Instagram from your phone that much easier.
2. Input your information: you have the option to sign in via your Facebook account. If you have a Facebook account, this might be the easiest way; therefore, both accounts will be linked. If not, enter your mobile number or email, full name, username, and password.
3. Instagram username character count: 30
4. Tip on creating an Instagram username: Put thought into your username. This is how you are discovered by users, and how users tag you in their photos or Stories. If your username is 30 characters long, users might not remember or want to type out that many characters. Additionally, if there are too many periods or underscores, individuals might mistakenly forget to add the punctuation mark. The best Instagram strategy when it comes to choosing your username is to be consistent. Try to have your username be the same across all your social platforms so individuals can easily find you on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and any other platform you are on.

How to write an engaging Instagram bio

Now that you are logged in and have an Instagram account, it’s time to start writing your bio. A couple of things to consider when writing your bio:

1. Instagram bio: 150 characters
2. Explain who you are in a very short and concise manner. Remember that when it comes to Instagram, individuals do judge based on your profile. Your bio can include a brief description of who you are and what your brand is, contact information, emojis, hashtags and more.
3. Use of emojis, hashtags, and font: Be creative with your Instagram bio. You want individuals to get to know who you are in 150 characters or fewer. This can be a quote that you love or emojis that can easily depict what you represent.
4. Your profile is the first thing that individuals see, which leads me to your profile photo. This oftentimes is your company logo. Instagram strategy tip: make sure to have the logo within the circle. When it gets cut off, it looks like it was not cropped to the right dimensions. Have your profile image be crisp, even though it is a small circle, you don’t want to upload a blurry photo.
5. Include your website: If your Instagram strategy is brand awareness or to drive traffic to your website, then you should include a link to your website in your bio. You ultimately want to provide your followers with the resources to purchase, discover, read more about your business and your brand.

Instagram bio examples:

SoulCycle got creative with emojis and a simple description of what they offer to encourage their target audience to follow them.

ClearVoice’s account provides a clear description of what they offer and is indicative of the content you’ll find on their Instagram account.

How to build an Instagram social strategy

Now that you have your profile image uploaded, and your bio written with a link to your website, it’s time to think about what to post! The first step to creating an Instagram strategy is developing a content marketing plan. This is an opportunity for you to share product photos, behind-the-scenes footage, and testimonials.

It might seem extremely overwhelming, but start small and then continue adding on so you don’t feel overwhelmed. Often, my clients want to go full steam ahead with posting multiple times a day, seven days a week. I have to inform them that the quality of content is more important than the quantity of content. You want to be thoughtful and strategic with the content that you are pushing out. Especially if your goal is to increase engagement. So, how do you do that?

1. Start with posting 2-3 times a week. Consistency is extremely important when developing an Instagram strategy. For example, if you visit a store and you research their hours, you know that they are always open Monday through Friday from the hours of 8:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.. If there is a business with sporadic hours, you’ll never know when they are open or closed, and that might lose your interest after attempting to go multiple times and they aren’t open. Having consistent branding and content curation is important because this allows your followers to know when they can check-in, and when they can see interesting content about your brand. You can also reshare Instagram posts.
2. Look at other brands that inspire you. I recommend this to everyone! Follow other brands on Instagram that you love. Whether it’s motivational, health and well-being, travel, photography, and the list goes on and on, this is to help spark your creativity and ignite your content vision. Seeing what others are doing on Instagram can be extremely beneficial.
3. Start curating and creating social content. What that means is, start aggregating photos, videos, and other content around your brand and your business. Organize all your photos and information on Google Drive or DropBox or Box, so it can easily be accessible. Group your materials by category. For example, if you’re a jewelry brand, upload all photos of necklaces in one folder, earrings in another, new product lines in another, and so forth. Start organizing your content and see what new content you need to create.
4. Build your Instagram strategy in a social content calendar. Combine all the steps listed above and populate it into a social calendar template. If you are starting to post 2-3 times a week, then block off those days (Monday, Wednesday, Friday) or if your business gets more foot traffic on the weekend, perhaps posting more on the weekend will be more beneficial. Once you have your calendar aggregated with photos, videos, product launches, and more, it is now time to post!

How to find Instagram metrics and understand what they mean

Let’s take a moment to congratulate yourself on getting to this point! It takes quite a bit of work to start an Instagram profile, and you did it! Now that you have clicked “post” on your Instagram, you’ll see a photo populated in your feed. As you continue posting, you will see that your profile will keep adding photos on your profile in rows of three.

After you have posted quite a few, it is a great opportunity to start reviewing your metrics and seeing how your content is performing. Your profile will showcase how many posts you have posted thus far, how many followers you have, and how many followers you are currently following.

Additionally, if you have a professional Instagram account, you will be able to view your profile metrics. Why are social metrics so important, and why should they not be ignored? This is an opportunity to gauge your audience’s behavior and interest, thus making it better for you to create a stronger more effective Instagram strategy.

Here are things to look for in metrics that will assist you with continuously building out your social strategy:

1. Take a look at your audience’s demographics. Are there more women or men who are coming to your page? What is the age range? What days are they visiting your profile more? You might be asking what is the purpose of all of these questions. That’s a great question! How else are you going to communicate and provide your audience with what they want to see and know about if you’re not learning more about them? The audience section tells you more about your followers, including growth in follower count by day or week.
2. Take a look at your content: In this section, you will be able to see your posts, Stories, and promotions insights. What type of engagement are you receiving on your content? Perhaps some individuals like to watch videos more than viewing your static images. This means in your next month’s Instagram strategy, you can post more videos to see if this hypothesis is correct. The amazing benefit of social media is that it provides you so many opportunities for A/B testing, trial and error, and, ultimately, a great creative outlet for your business or your brand.
3. Check out your audience’s activity on your profile: “This section lets you view important insights on your profile, including Interactions (such as profile visits and website clicks) and Discovery (how many people see your content and where they find it).”

What is an Instagram Story and how do you create one?

It is a feature on Instagram that allows you to view short snippets of video on an individual’s profile. Similar to Snapchat, it lives on your Instagram Stories for 24 hours. Afterward, it is archived in your profile.

This provides individuals an opportunity to learn more about you! Many brands will post a static image on their feed, but utilize Instagram Stories to provide more in-depth information about what they posted. Perhaps it’s a photo of a job opportunity, the Instagram Stories can be a behind-the-scenes video of your company culture or maybe even short videos of employees providing their testimonials.

Instagram Stories are an integral part of your Instagram strategy and should be thought-out and impactful.

1. How to navigate to Stories: On your profile photo, there is a little blue plus mark. Click the blue plus mark. This will navigate you to your Stories portion. You will then see different options on the bottom of the screen: Live, Create, Normal, Boomerang, Layout, Superzoom, Hands-Free. There are multiple options within each of those categories that allow you to utilize filters, and different text options to design and create an engaging Story.
2. One of the simpler ways to share your posts on an Instagram Story is by walking through the following steps showcased in the video. Scroll down to your feed, and choose a post, then click the arrow icon right next to the heart and comment icon. Once you click the arrow icon, you will choose the “Add post to your Story” option, which will then populate into your Instagram Stories. Then you can click the “Aa” button to add text.
3. Once you’re ready to add to your Story you can click the “Your Story” button on the bottom or click, “Send To” and you can post on your Story or send it to multiple individuals!

Voila! You have just published your first Instagram Story!

What is an Instagram Highlight and how do you create one?

They are the table of contents to your Stories. You can house Instagram Stories for more than 24 hours under your Instagram Highlights. Often, this is an informative way to categorize your Stories into Highlight buckets that live indefinitely on your profile, unless you decide to remove or delete the Highlight.

1. To navigate to your Highlights portion, you will see a + “New” icon below your “Edit Profile” portion. This is where your Highlights will live on your Instagram feed.
2. Once you click the + “New” Instagram Story archives will pop up which will allow you to choose which Stories you would like to include under the Highlight category.
3. After you’ve picked Stories to include in your Highlight, you can update the Highlight icon to whichever design you’d like. It is an opportunity for you to be creative, once again! See below for some inspiration:

Instagram Highlight examples for ClearVoice:

Instagram Highlight examples for my profile (Sing Weist):

Instagram Highlight examples for Netflix:

4. When followers or Instagram users come to your profile, they’ll be able to see a full list of your Highlights. They can click on the Highlight and see all the Stories that were stored under that particular Highlight.

Now, it’s time for you to create your own Instagram profile!

Whew! That was a lot of information. You now know how to create an Instagram account, write a personable bio, choose an engaging profile photo, create a content strategy, measure performance through metrics, and maximize your presence on Instagram.

Based on data, it is a missed opportunity if your business or brand does not have a presence on Instagram. It might have seemed overwhelming, but by following the steps listed above in this blog, you can create a stellar Instagram account! Now start posting, scrolling, and capturing some amazing content on your Instagram to build brand awareness and drive traffic to your website.

The post How to Maximize Your Instagram Strategy: Tutorials for Stories, Highlights, and More appeared first on ClearVoice.

According to eMarketer, Instagram will reach 112.5 million U.S. users in 2020. That is a whole lot of Instagram profiles to scroll through for a little motivation. Luckily, I have narrowed down 10 of the most eye-opening, thought-provoking, and just stunning profiles to spare you hours of scrolling through literally millions of photos.

Here are 10 Instagram accounts writers should follow:

1. Self-discovery, growth, and empowerment

Author of ‘Milk and Honey’ and ‘The Sun and Her Flowers,’ Rupi Kaur shares pages of her work on her Instagram, while sprinkling in photos of herself. With stunning imagery, this profile is simple yet powerful. Rupi’s content includes self-discovery, growth, and empowerment.

2. Moody vibes with sepia tones

As you scroll through R.H Sin’s profile, you will undoubtedly feel uplifted by his photography, words, and perspective. He welcomes you into his family and the way he sees the world.

3. Different perspectives on love

Through memes, pop culture, and pieces of her own writing, Marie Jo Schwarz’s Instagram profile will have you longing for the truly meaningful experiences that life has to offer.

4. Good books and adorable dogs

Not only does Alexandra Bracken’s Instagram feature her adorable dog Alfred, Lord Tennyson, (named after one of her favorite poets), but her beautiful book layouts will remind you to dive into your favorite book.

5. A writer and a fashionista

Julie Murphy’s quirky sense of style and playful photos are sure to bring a smile to your face. Her cute #WOTD (Wardrobe of the Day) posts, as well as her day to day festivities, spark adventure and coziness.

6. Thoughts illustrated on paper

The TypeWriter Daily features paper journals and motivational words that send a powerful message. This Instagram profile will make you want to doodle, draw, write, and express yourself.

7. Post after post of beautiful poetry

Simple, powerful, and moving. Poets is a no-brainer to follow if you love poetry.

8. Book on books on books

This is a great profile to read if you are looking for book recommendations. Folded Pages Distillery offers not only vibrant #Bookstagram layouts but also in-depth reviews of the books featured in each photo.

9. Go ahead and judge a book by its cover

On Book Bento’s Instagram account, each post features colorful books laid out from a perfect overhead view. Each photo is so dreamy and perfectly curated.

10. Real people, real stories

Humans of New York is an incredible profile that shares a quick personal story of someone you’ve never met.

Ignite your creativity

These are just a few of the many Instagram profiles that can help ignite your creativity. Try searching through Instagram tags (#BooksofInstagram, #Poetry, #Authors) to sort through a curated selection of posts to help you discover what tickles your fancy.

Whether it’s people, books, stories, art, or poetry, follow these Instagram profiles to get your creative juices flowing!

The post Top 10 Inspiring Instagram Profiles to Follow as a Writer appeared first on ClearVoice.

Read our comprehensive guide on how to start an LLC, including defining the differences between a sole proprietorship and an LLC as well as a thorough list of pros and cons, state and federal filing fees, and the different types of LLCs.

If you’re debating whether or not to turn your sole proprietorship into a limited liability company (LLC), you likely have more than a few questions. When tasked with establishing my LLC, I’ll admit that my mind was spinning with so many questions: when is the right time, where do I start, how much does it cost, what does it mean for my business, and the list goes on.

As a small business owner, it can be extremely overwhelming figuring out the state laws, yearly costs, and overall risks and benefits of establishing an LLC. But with any successful business growth comes greater responsibility and a different employment tax.

To ensure that you are taking the necessary steps to pay taxes accordingly, I will teach you how to start an LLC.

What is the AB5 freelancer law? And what does it have to with starting an LLC?

On January 1, 2020, under California’s state labor laws, media outlets are required to publish no more than 35 pieces of content (blog posts, long-form content, articles) from their individual freelance writers (residing in California) unless they are classified as a part-time or full-time employee.

After Vox Media announced a huge reorganization of their company strategy by letting hundreds of freelancers go, many freelancers came to bat to fight for their right to freedom of speech. As reported in the Los Angeles Times, “The Pacific Legal Foundation argues that putting a cap on the number of stories a journalist can write for a single publication is unfair since similar restrictions aren’t placed on other industries, such as graphic design.” So, what does that mean for you as a freelancer?

More and more California independent contract writers/journalists are finding new strategies to work now that the AB5 freelancer law is in effect. One of these strategies is setting up a limited liability company (aka an LLC).

What are the benefits of setting up an LLC?

Setting up an LLC allows freelancers to maintain their independent status, while not losing the amount of work they can accept. The U.S. Census Bureau data shows that the total number of business applications reached an all-time high of nearly 900,000 in the last quarter of 2019, with California contributing in large part to the increase.

Data from the U.S. Census Bureau also shows the number of LLC registrations in California increased 5.7% from 2018 to 2019.

With such a large spike in new applications, it might be time for you to consider submitting your application to form a business entity and change your sole proprietorship to an LLC. How, you might ask? Continue reading on!

What are the differences between a sole proprietorship and an LLC?

Let’s start with the basics. What is the main difference between a sole proprietorship and a limited liability company?

When you are a sole proprietorship, there’s no distinction between your business and personal funds. Having a sole proprietorship is essentially the first step to creating a business, with minimal taxes and little effort needed for setup.

When you have an LLC, you have your own distinct business entity that separates your business from personal funds and includes broader protections, as well as responsibilities, in the process.

3 key things to know about an LLC:

1. As an LLC, individuals are required to separate their funds between business and personal. This will require you to set up a separate bank account; therefore, your business funds are not mixed with your personal assets.
2. An LLC provides more protection as a business entity. If a client were to sue you as a sole proprietor, for example, they can sue you and go after your personal assets (home, car, etc.); however, if you are an LLC, your personal assets are protected since a client would only be able to sue based on your business assets.
3. An LLC provides more protection, but with more protection means more costs. Based on which state you are in, an LLC requires you to pay an annual tax that is a lot pricier than a sole proprietorship. If you’re convinced that you would like to turn your sole proprietorship into an LLC, it is also important to understand the different types.

What are all the different types of LLCs?

There are various state regulations that apply to the different LLC structures available.

Single-member or multi-member

Similar to the title, this option means one or more individuals exist in your LLC. The owner of an LLC is a member, and you have the option of including multiple members. A single-member LLC is very similar to a sole proprietorship. When an LLC consists of multiple members, then that means each member is responsible for transactions, debts, and taxes from the business. They will also share profits and losses.

Domestic or foreign

A foreign LLC is one that is formed in one state and does not do business in another. When you have a foreign LLC, you are subject to both states’ laws; however, you may benefit from some of the tax laws depending on your state of formation.

Member-managed of manager-managed

 This one is a little bit of a tongue twister! If you are considering a member-managed LLC, then the question is whether or not you would like all members to have equal control of the company’s business. If the LLC is formed with only one person, yourself, or a small number of members, then you might consider being a member-managed LLC. If the LLC has multiple individuals that are making business decisions, and some that are not actively contributing, then you might consider a manager-managed LLC.

Professional LLC or not

There are different types of services that qualify as a professional limited liability company (PLLC). Some of these services include attorneys, physicians, certified public accountants, veterinarians, architects, life insurance agents, chiropractors, and similarly licensed businesses. The major difference between professional LLCs and normal LLCs is that the “only persons licensed to practice the profession may be members of a professional limited liability company.”

How much does it cost to start an LLC?

Prices vary per state for an LLC filing fee. See a full chart of state fees on IncFile.

Costs to start an LLC:

In California, the state LLC filing fee starts at $70, but has an annual or biennial fee of $800 every year, along with a $20 fee every two years. Each state has its own costs and ongoing fees associated. According to LLC University, filing fees range from $35 to $500, putting the average cost to form an LLC in the US at $132 in 2025.

LLCs don’t technically pay taxes to the state or federal government due to a tax structure known as “passthrough taxation.” It essentially means that the tax-paying responsibility passes through the business structure (the LLC) to the business owner(s).  From there, the business owner(s) then pay taxes on any business income generated by the business on their individual income taxes (aka form 1040). The only exception is for LLC owners who choose to have their LLC taxed as a C corporation; however, this is relatively rare.

When and why should you consider going from a sole proprietorship to an LLC?

Now that you have a grasp on the types of LLC options that are available and the different costs, and know the basics of how to start an LLC, when is it time to convert from sole proprietorship to an LLC?

If the AB5 freelancer law (which applies to permanent residents of California only) is prohibiting you from taking on more work, then applying for an LLC is a great next step for you.

The best benefit of an LLC over a sole proprietorship is that the LLC can shelter you from liability. Let’s say in the worst-case scenario, you are sued, then the potential plaintiff could only sue the LLC and not you personally. Therefore, if the plaintiff wins the lawsuit, they would receive assets of the LLC and not your personal assets.

If you are a single-member LLC, which is the closest resemblance of a sole proprietorship, your profits and losses are part of your individual tax return. Unlike a sole proprietorship, an LLC allows you to have multiple members who share the business assets.

Remember, there are affiliated costs when creating an LLC, but ultimately, it helps you protect your personal assets while allowing you to continue saying, “YES” to more writing projects and contract work.

The pros of starting an LLC:

1. Low lift, big reward: The process of starting an LLC and maintaining it is pretty straight-forward. Although there are variations in state fees and taxes, which are higher than a sole proprietorship, you receive greater protection of your personal assets.
2. Slightly more flexibility than a corporation: Even though an LLC must file articles of organization with the state, it still presents more flexibility than a corporation. According to the editors at AllBusiness, “The flexibility evolves from the phrase ‘unless otherwise provided for in the operating agreement.’ This allows business owners to create a structure tailored to the business owner’s requirements.” In your own LLC, you can choose to have it managed by its members, or by managers.
3. Protection of your personal assets: The LLC, as listed in the title, offers protection to the owner and any members or shareholders from liability. This means members of the LLC’s personal assets — homes, cars, bank accounts, investments — are protected from individuals who sue the business.  This protection will remain if your LLC is still running and you are diligent with keeping your personal and business finances separate.
4. Tax options: As an LLC, you have multiple options on how you would like to be taxed. You can be taxed as a sole proprietorship, partnership, S Corporation, or C Corporation. An LLC is a pass-through entity where profits go directly to its member(s) without being taxed by the government on the company level.
5. Fewer compliance issues: In most states, an LLC doesn’t need to have an annual meeting,  and the LLC isn’t required to have a board of directors. Plus, there’s less paperwork and record keeping required compared to a corporation.
6. Perpetual existence: Like a corporation, an LLC has a life of its own and can continue to exist after the owners sell their shares or die.

The cons of starting an LLC:

1. Pass-through taxes: Since an LLC is similar to a sole proprietorship, all profits and losses that are reported for the owner or members of the LLC will reflect on their individual tax return, whether or not they receive dividends. With the pass-through taxation, it’s usually easier for an LLC to be suited to one individual, especially if members or shareholders do not want to be a part of the pass-through taxation.
2. More money going into taxes: As listed previously, an LLC comes with more fees! In addition to the franchise tax, Articles of Organization fee, new bank account fees, and more, “if your LLC is taxed as a partnership, the government considers members who work for the business to be self-employed. This means those members are personally responsible for paying Social Security and Medicare taxes, which are collectively known as self-employment tax and based on the business’s total net earnings” (Source: NerdWallet).
3. Less structure: If your LLC has multiple members, it is important to have a detailed operating agreement in place; therefore, there is a business structure that is set in place. Often times LLCs will not have this document, and if a member leaves the company (dies, retires, or goes bankrupt), then all remaining members will be responsible for legal and financial obligations needed to terminate the business. So, make sure that you have the right documents in place.
4. Limitations: If your LLC is taken to court, a judge can rule that your LLC structure doesn’t protect your personal assets. This action is called “piercing the corporate veil,” and you can be at risk for it if you don’t clearly separate business transactions from your personal expenses, or if you’ve been found to have run the business fraudulently in ways that resulted in losses for others.

Now that you know how to start an LLC, you can grow your business further!

Although daunting, creating an LLC is such a rewarding part of growing your business. It affirms that you are taking the necessary steps to improve your business, pay your taxes, and protect your assets. With the information provided in this article on how to start an LLC, you can jump-start your application process from sole proprietorship to LLC.

Remember that it is a process and there is a lot of information and accountability when it comes to paying taxes; however, it also provides a great opportunity to continue building your business, growing your client base and taking on additional projects.

Disclaimer: This article is meant as a guide for informational purposes only. It does not constitute a solicitation or provision of legal or financial advice, nor does it establish a client-attorney relationship. Please consult a professional in making any decisions for your business or finances.

Now that you know how to start an LLC, read more articles about growing your business:

• How to Set Long-Term Goals for Your Business
• How Freelancers Can Stay Relevant as the Gig Economy Grows
• Online Courses to Improve Your Freelancer Toolbox
• Top Conferences for Freelance Writers and Creatives

The post How to Start an LLC: A Comprehensive Guide for Freelancers appeared first on ClearVoice.

Sure, community management is often included in social media management; however, that does not mean that they are one and the same. In this situation, it is important to allocate the right amount of resources for both; therefore, you are creating a content marketing strategy that will resonate with your audience across all social platforms.

What is community management?

Just like it sounds, community management is the active component of interacting with your community of followers, fans, and target audience across your social media platforms. This includes active listening, which is an important element of engaging with your followers to understand their wants and needs regarding your services.

Nowadays, customers reach out to brands via social media, hoping for a quick response or resolution to a problem. In fact, “an estimated 67 percent of consumers now use social media networks like Twitter and Facebook to seek resolution for issues.”

Community management is similar to customer service. As a brand/company, to ensure that your customers are satisfied, you must assist with resolving conflicts and providing ongoing solutions, which improves your overall brand reputation. Since “nearly 70 percent of consumers have said that they have used social media for issues to do with customer service on at least one occasion,” it is important to establish a community management strategy for your overarching brand.

Community management includes monitoring conversations across all your social platforms, engaging with your audience (either through a third-party app like Hootsuite, or natively within the platform), responding to messages and following potential new customers in a timely manner, and gauging the overarching sentiment of your company’s brand.

Lastly, community management contributes to content strategy, as well. Since they are customer-facing, community managers understand their followers’ wants and needs. For example, while you’re monitoring your beauty brand’s Facebook feed, a customer leaves a comment asking how to apply a particular face mask. Rather than just answering the question in your comments, you can use this idea to create engaging, shareable video content, such as a tutorial that showcases how to apply the face mask.

What is social media management?

While most community management strategies are focused on how to actively engage with your audience, social media strategy is focused on how to effectively distribute your content across all social platforms.

This includes understanding which social platforms to use, measuring analytics and building out a content marketing calendar, along with how to effectively convert your followers to leads via social.

Social media management is more focused on the overall brand strategy, such as how you distribute your content, what type of content you should be sharing with your audience and gauging their interest by reviewing metrics and social insights.

If you didn’t already know, “90 percent of brands use social media to increase brand awareness. But 58 percent of brands say measuring the effectiveness of social is a challenge, and only 34 percent measure social ROI.” Therefore, as part of your social media management, it is crucial to understand how to measure your social ROI to effectively continue building out your social strategy.

Along with community management responsibilities, social media management includes a small percentage of time spent monitoring social feeds. To understand brand awareness and insights, you are required to integrate community management into the development of an overarching brand strategy, as well. It requires collaboration with the team’s customer representative/support to better understand your target audience’s needs and how to distribute the content they would like to see on your social platforms.

What’s the difference?

Whether you are hiring a consultant, agency, or in-house social media manager, you must understand the difference between community management and social media management; therefore, you can split tasks accordingly.

Community management would fall under the responsibilities of a sales representative, reputation manager or customer service representative. The community manager must understand how social platforms work and how to monitor and actively listen on each social media platform to respond to critical matters effectively.

Social media management, on the other hand, would fall under the tasks and responsibilities of a social media manager. This individual actively builds out the social content strategy and publishes content across designated social media platforms. They need to have a thorough understanding of how each social media platform works and where to best reach a brand’s audience through social analytics.

The social media manager tracks engagement, impressions, follows and the overarching audience sentiment (with the help of the community manager), to better deliver content to targeted audiences.

By understanding the difference between these two roles, your company can better conquer each of these tasks and excel at both. Therefore, the responsibilities of community management and social media management are streamlined.

How to excel in both

Sure, a social media manager is also able to do community management; however, for community management to excel, you should allocate effective resources from your customer service representative to actively monitor and respond to tweets and comments (both positive, negative or neutral).

You might ask, “Why do I need to respond to positive comments, don’t you usually just address the negative?” On platforms such as Yelp, Glassdoor or Indeed, you can read both positive and negative comments regarding customer service.

To let your readers feel heard, thank them for their time in writing an honest review or providing feedback. Regardless of whether the feedback is positive or negative, let them know that you acknowledge what they have to say. Letting your followers feel heard is extremely important when you are establishing a strong customer and loyal follower base.

What to do next

Find a strategy that fuzes community management and social media management together. Each of these roles is important to help your business excel. One requires you to engage with your audience and network with your followers to build brand awareness, while another is focused on curating content and strategically finding ways to distribute your brand’s content across social.

Based on the infographic above, it is important to see where each percentage lies and how much effort needs to be allocated to each responsibility.

Remember that both community management and social media management are different and each one requires time and dedication to build out an effective plan. By being strategic with how you educate, engage and entertain your followers, you are building a content marketing strategy that will not only be beneficial to your target audience, but you are also delivering what their needs are by actively “listening” to their comments on your social posts.

Want some help?

Now that you know the difference between community management and social media management, it is time to start monitoring your feeds and building a strategic content marketing plan to be distributed on each social platform. If you need some help, don’t be afraid to work with a proven partner in the space. A content agency like ClearVoice can be a great cost-effective solution that maximizes the impact of your content strategy.

Connect with us today if that’s something you’re interested in.

The post Community Management vs. Social Media: What’s the Difference? appeared first on ClearVoice.

Social media marketing is a numbers game. If you manage social accounts, you’ve likely encountered the dreaded character limit for your posts. In this series, we will break down the right character count to use on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to effectively get your point across to your followers on social. Let’s begin with Facebook.

Did you know that on Facebook, a post can contain up to 63,206 characters, which averages to about 20-50 pages of a novel, depending on the size of the font? Wow, that is a lot! However, as most content marketers, brands and writers would suggest, you typically lose your followers’ attention after 500+ characters or fewer.

With so many different options and character lengths, it is understandable for brand marketers, freelance writers and content strategists to seek the secret recipe for the perfect number of characters to effectively engage with their followers and audience.

What is the suggested character count for Facebook?

Buzzsumo conducted a survey earlier this year of over 777 million Facebook posts to find the most engaging pages, brands and videos. They determined that the highest amount of engagement on Facebook social posts occurred when the total character count ranged from 0-50.

Based on the graph below, the character count that exceeds 50 characters loses engagement. This might help explain why Twitter is so successful. Tweets are the easiest social content to digest because they are short and simple.

Often times on Facebook, video and image posts generate more engagement, so the description within the post can be short and sweet. It is recommended that the description be a concise, engaging summary of the collateral asset you uploaded. “The key to Facebook engagement in any marketing strategy is to focus on offering value.”

Data Source: BuzzSumo

What works for Facebook might not work for other platforms

Sure, BuzzSumo might have suggested an average of 0-50 characters on Facebook, however, as a brand, you know your followers and audience the best. You want to offer your clients something of value.

For example, since Halloween is just around the corner, if you are a retailer, upload photos of your Halloween-themed clothing, accessories and household items. Next, write a description that appeals to your fans and encourages engagement, such as “Trick-O-Treat, we have something super sweet! 10% off all Halloween goodies w/ code: Boo19!” (That sentence was exactly 91 characters.)

Although tricky to condense to exactly 50 characters, you can create a spooktacular graphic or GIF that also advertises your 10% discount. Combined with an eye-catching photo, you can condense your description to “Trick-O-Treat, we have something super sweet!” which is exactly 45 characters.

The key is to try different strategies on how to best deliver your content in an engaging way that catches the attention of your audience, while providing them with something of value.

So, what next?

Writing short descriptions can be challenging, but remember that the attention span of your audience is extremely short, especially when they are inundated with a lot of content on their social feed.

Engage with your audience, showcase your company through visuals and videos, and educate them on how your company or services can bring them value, regardless of the character count.

And if you need extra help with your content, reach out to us. We can ensure you unlock the full potential of content marketing.

The post What’s the Ideal Facebook Character Count for More Engagement? appeared first on ClearVoice.

Does anyone else deal with the constant need to refresh your Twitter feed just to try and catch up with what conversation might be trending for that day? With so much information constantly being thrown at you a tweet per minute, or 5,787 tweets per second, to be exact, how do you filter through all that information without missing a beat?

Before we jump into how you can filter through all that noise, let’s start with explaining the purpose and usage of Twitter. 

According to the platform itself, “Twitter is what’s happening in the world and what people are talking about right now.” When building out a content strategy, often strategists and marketers will look to Twitter to see what content is currently trending.

What does it mean for a topic or hashtag to be trending on Twitter? “Trends are determined by an algorithm and, by default, are tailored for you based on who you follow, your interests, and your location. This algorithm identifies topics that are popular now, rather than topics that have been popular for a while or on a daily basis, to help you discover the hottest emerging topics of discussion on Twitter.” Businesses have used this feature in order to join in on conversations that are trending and build brand awareness or to just observe what the potential customers care about.

Do you want to find out what trending holidays are coming up? Take a look at the forecast of upcoming trends on your Twitter Analytics dashboard and click the drop-down menu “Events.” This will list out different types of trending events that are either coming up or recurring.

You might be asking yourself how this is relevant to you or your business. Based on recurring Twitter trends, if your business is a travel agency, for example, you can look up the following hashtag #TravelTuesday and engage with potential customers who care about travel content. Additionally, you can feature incredible travel tips and experiences on #TravelTuesday to try and get discovered by individuals who are interested in learning more about your business. Not only are you increasing your brand awareness but, best of all, it’s also free!

At ClearVoice, we often look to Twitter trends in order to inspire our freelance writers on meeting-filled Mondays. We feature #MotivationMonday quotes from poets, authors, and other freelancers to help encourage them during a full day of content meetings or blog writing and editing.

Now that you know the basics of how to use Twitter, what does it mean to create a Twitter list and why is it important?

That is a great question and the next point to address! Let’s go back to the travel agency example.

Let’s say you just tweeted out a beautiful Hawaiian sunset photo with the copy: “The perfect summer getaway, @ tag who you would want to take with you. Learn more about our Hawaii getaway deals today! #TravelTuesday.”

You then received a bunch of tweets and retweets from individuals inquiring about your Hawaii travel packages. These are all potential customers who are actively reaching out to you. Perhaps they booked, or maybe they just browsed your website. The next step is to organize them into buckets of “potential customers.”

This is where Twitter lists come in handy. To create a list, head over to your Twitter main profile page, and click your profile icon to see a drop-down menu option. Choose the lists option.

Once you click “Lists,” you will be given two options: “Subscribed to” or “Member of.” “Subscribed to” are the lists that you are currently following or have been added to. “Member of” are the lists that you personally create from your own Twitter account. On the left-hand side, you have the option to “Create a List.” With this, you will be able to choose whether or not you want this list to be private or not. Perhaps it is a public “#TravelTuesday” list and it includes all the accounts that feature amazing travel photos, or it can be a private list of all your “Potential Customers” that you want to keep hidden.

Now that you have created your Twitter lists, what do you do with them?

Twitter lists are essentially a modern-day Rolodex. (For anyone who doesn’t know what that might be, it is an address book where you organize your contacts alphabetically.) While Twitter lists will not categorize alphabetically, it is a great way to engage with individuals on your list quickly. As mentioned previously, thousands of tweets are pushed out daily, so to engage with individuals that matter to you most, you can head over to your Twitter Lists to review a live feed from the accounts that you have added to each list. This allows you to easily access the tweets from the people that you want to see and follow-up within an organized feed.

You’ve built your Twitter list, now check it twice… or maybe multiple times.

Now that you are a Twitter list-making machine, this is your opportunity to narrow in on your searches and actively correspond with the influencers, potential customers, thought leaders, and important profiles that have made it on your Twitter list. Also, it’s important to note that Twitter lists are public and can be followed by other Twitter users too.

Instead of sifting through every tweet or trending hashtag, you have created a feed that allows you to view important tweets that you want to see and engage with. Engagement and community management with your designated Twitter lists allow you to fine-tune your message for the specific audience you want to reach, or read about what is current within your industry in one fell swoop. Cut through the noise and start building your own Twitter lists to better organize the accounts you want to follow and engage with. Then, expand into other areas of Twitter, like X Spaces, to get the most out of the platform.

The post Building an X(Twitter) List and Checking It Twice appeared first on ClearVoice.

Additionally, Instagram stories are a great way to provide fans and users with a behind-the-scenes look at the life of a rockstar, must-explore travel destinations, and the lifestyles of your family and friends. Sure, Instagram seems to be simple enough to use; you head over to an individual’s profile, look at their feed, and “double tap” if you like their photo. However, as a brand, have you ever thought about what users preferred when browsing your Instagram profile?

Breaking Down Instagram User Experience in Nine Simple Questions

As an avid Instagram user, I love seeing snapshots of the lives of friends, strangers, brands, and influencers. Through Instagram stories, I feel like I am being spoken to directly. It is no surprise that “32% of marketers say visual images are the most important form of content for their business,” and why Instagram has such a high number of engagement. With square-format images that can quickly be scrolled through and spur-of-the-moment videos captured in Instagram stories, it’s no wonder why people stay engaged and continue utilizing the platform.

1. How many hours of the day are users on Instagram?

Of the individuals in my survey, more than 50 percent stated that they utilize Instagram for less than 1 hour. This is a surprising amount since “total time-spent in mobile apps grew by 69 percent year-over-year.” Thirty-nine percent of users stated they would use Instagram for about 1-3 hours daily.

2. What actions do you perform on Instagram: Do you click the link in the bio?

Fifty-six percent of individuals stated that they would not click a link in the bio section of an Instagram profile. So what’s the importance of having the link?

One of the cons of Instagram is that it does not support link sharing unless you have over 10K followers and have a swipe-up function. Otherwise, the only place you’re able to add a click-through link is in the bio section of your Instagram profile. Create a unique URL that is trackable; therefore, you’re able to see how many clicks the URL receives through the social platform. Although most individuals do not click the bio link, it’s good to have your website link added to the bio section to provide user’s further information on your brand services and products.

3. What are Instagram highlights, and do you re-watch them?

Instagram highlights “are a new space on users’ profiles where stories that have previously shared can be added, giving them a way to give their stories life for more than 24 hours.” Highlights can stay on your Instagram profile indefinitely until you delete the story. One great use of highlights is if you want your fans or followers to revisit an exciting moment (i.e., Shaun White’s highlight of the 2018 Olympics, Justin Timberlake’s highlights of his tours). Highlights help categorize events, promotions, launches, and travel that you’d like to keep on your Instagram for an indefinite duration of time. Yes, it makes sense to group your stories into highlights, but do users watch them?

While 63 percent of individuals stated that they would watch highlights on the accounts they follow, 82.6 percent of Instagram users indicated that they would not re-watch highlights:

Highlights are easily accessible and viewed on a profile, but once watched, there’s little interest in re-watching unless followers are watching it to remind themselves of a particular product they wanted.

4. How likely are you to “Swipe Up” on brand/influencer stories?

Swipe up and through. I see it all the time on particular Instagram accounts that I follow, but should I do it?

Individuals who have over 10K followers have a “Swipe Up” feature in their Instagram stories. “Swipe Up” allows users to perform the motion of swiping up and directing them to a specific URL. On the following Likert scale of Extremely Unlikely (1) to Extremely Likely (5), 34.8 percent were indifferent to the use of the “Swipe Up” feature, while more than 19 percent were extremely unlikely to “Swipe Up” on a particular Instagram story.

5. How likely are you to “Swipe” through multiple photos of brands’ / influencers’ posts?

Swiping up might be a limited functionality for some business profiles; however, swiping through multiple images is a function that’s available to all Instagram users. When multiple pictures are posted, you create an Instagram album, and there will be little dots below the photo that inform individuals to swipe through the images. Although most individuals might not swipe up in Instagram stories, there is a high percentage of users who are extremely likely to swipe through multiple photos.

6. How likely are you to watch brands’/influencers’ Instagram stories?

So, what does that mean for you if you’re a brand and trying to engage with your followers?

Tell a story through your photos. Create engaging content through posting videos of behind-the-scenes footage on your Instagram story, and aggregate some of the best pictures to create an Instagram album. Since Instagram is a highly visual platform, remember to post vibrant, stunning images with minimal text. More than 34.8% of individuals are more likely to watch Instagram stories. Therefore, if you’re not utilizing the platform for Instagram stories and posting photos, you’re missing the mark on engaging with your followers.

7. How likely are you to join in on brands’ / influencers’ Instagram live?

Fifty percent of individuals are extremely unlikely to watch and participate in a brand/influencer’s Instagram livestream.

Lastly, I wanted to see if individuals interacted with Instagram Live since a high percentage of individuals watch stories. What is Instagram Live? It allows individuals to “stream video to followers and engage with them in real-time.”  The numbers showcased below illustrate that more than 50% of individuals are extremely unlikely to watch and participate in a brand/influencer Instagram Livestream.

Do You Think You Now Have What It Takes to Become an Instagram Influencer?

You might be telling yourself that you aren’t Shaun White or Justin Timberlake and don’t have much to share; however, “92 percent of consumers trust an influencer more than an advertisement or traditional celebrity endorsement,” which means your brand voice is more authentic and personal than a paid advertisement.

I’m sure you’ve heard that consumers prefer brands they can trust; therefore, a personable and trustworthy campaign is always the right route to take. Utilizing Instagram stories is a way to break down that fourth wall and have a personal one-on-one conversation between the brand and the fan.

Like any other platform, building a following on Instagram is a balance between art and science. Sure, it needs to be visually compelling, but it is also essential to understand your audience’s behavior and engagement on your social platform. If they gravitate towards specific images and content (i.e., pictures of puppies) more so than images of flowers, maybe feature an Instagram Story where there is a “Take Your Puppy to Work Day!” There is great content to be shared, but the key to understanding what to share and post is first to comprehend the data behind your Instagram user’s behavior. Speak to a content specialist today about your content goals.

The post Focus Group on Must-Know Instagram User Behavior Stats [Data Study] appeared first on ClearVoice.

Maybe your holiday goal is to recreate a memorable social media campaign, similar to the Oreo “you can dunk in the dark” Super Bowl blackout commercial that went live on Twitter and was an immediate trending sensation. However, the truth of the matter is that not everyone has $5.4 billion to spend on Super Bowl ads.

So how do you create a killer social media marketing campaign that is successful? First, you have to define what success means to your company. Is your goal to drive brand awareness, engagement, donations, or follows? I’ll jump into answering those questions shortly, but I would like to preface that not every social media campaign has to be a video or a TV ad, the power of social media is getting the right content, in front of the right people, at the right time.

A social media campaign is not the same thing as a social media marketing strategy.

Yes, it is essential to have a detailed day-in and day-out social media marketing strategy, but it is not the same as a social campaign. A campaign has a definitive start and end date. With a particular set timeline, a campaign usually revolves around an event, promotion, product launch, or convention that your company would like to highlight (i.e., March of Dimes, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Comic-Con, new iPhone release).

However, you cannot start a campaign without setting goals. How do you achieve a successful social media campaign if you have nothing to strive to accomplish? Whether it be a fundraiser, promoting ticket sales or sign-ups, or brand awareness of the new product, each campaign is strategic on what the goals and objectives are. Work backward on your campaign timeline. If you know when you would launch your campaign, then you can figure out how many weeks of promotion you would like to include, then brainstorm and execute what the imagery and messaging will be. Moreover, from there, you will be able to formulate how much time you will need to create the assets required for your campaign launch properly.

Successful campaigns that perform better are ones with a clear message.

Dove created an incredible beauty campaign that featured women discussing #BeautyBias and videos showcasing what real beauty means to them. In the following tear-jerker campaign, women in Real Beauty Sketches describe how they see themselves to an artist, who draws through their depiction of their features, then he brings a random encounter who describes the same woman after meeting her. The artist puts the two sketches side by side, and each woman realizes how critical they are of their features. While some woman viewed their features as flaws, others saw as beautiful.

The campaign executes a clear message on how we portray ourselves and how we should feel comfortable and beautiful in our skin. Since Dove’s mission is to “ensure the next generation grows up enjoying a positive relationship with the way they look – helping girls to raise their self-esteem and realize their full potential,” they were able to communicate their message effectively through the campaign. Dove’s message was concise, which made their campaign exceptionally relatable and successful.

So, how do you set up a social media campaign?

You have to be clear with what your mission and objectives are. Know who your audience is and what their interests are. Dove created a campaign that featured women because they know that the majority of their demographic is women, while Oreo was tailoring their messaging to the masses.

Whether you’re offering food, product, or services, understand who your target demographic is. This is an excellent opportunity to listen to the feedback of your fans and followers. For example, Denny created an interactive tweet that asked followers to participate in a meme that required them to zoom-in on the small text.

Sure this photo might look tasty, but it is not comparable to some of the delectable sweets and foodie pics we see on Instagram. So, what made this tweet receive over 234K retweets? It was smart and relevant. They engaged with their audience and sent tweets back like “if you zoom in on the heart tweet it says thanks!” How clever is that?

You can’t forget that social is a two-way conversation. To have a successful campaign, you have to know what your audience likes, be smart with the messaging, and time it accurately. Denny’s call-to-action (CTA) was to highlight their food, and they were exceptionally successful when they had you zooming in on a pancake image with syrup and butter.

All right, you’ve set your goal. Now it’s time to get the narrative down.

All campaigns should have a common theme that is relatable to their target audience. The messaging they convey draws viewers in, as well as the individuals who should want to share it with their friends. Sure, you can post on every platform to generate more buzz, but know that each platform has a different function and can offer a separate action. So choosing the right platform will dictate the narrative for your campaign.

For the Oreo “Dunk in the Dark” and Denny’s zoom meme, Twitter was more appropriate because it’s a platform that can catch on extremely quickly, especially since a retweet is a lot quicker than a share on Facebook or a repost on Instagram. The main purpose of the campaigns was to be relevant and clever in a short amount of time, and that was achieved. The functionality and behaviors associated with Twitter enabled better execution.

And to contrast, if your campaign requires funding, Facebook provides tabs that allow you to donate, which was key for the tremendously successful ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Coupled with the fact that Facebook is a more video-friendly platform, the “ALS Ice Bucket Challenge led to 17 million videos made and $220 million raised, according to the ALS Association — $115 million of which went to the association.” The social campaign videos generated over 10 million views on Facebook and 1 billion views on YouTube.

Want to move the needle in a big way?

Look into social media influencers within your industry. Most fundraisers have speakers or partners that will assist them in getting the message out. It is a strategy on reaching the influencer’s followers.

We follow brands that we trust, and when they share the newest skin product or unboxing video of new technology, we want that item too! Why? Because we believe them; their message is clear; and we know that they are honest and trustworthy. That is why we follow social influencers for their advice and knowledge. Teaming up with a social media influencer will allow you to get your message across, in their original brand voice, to their followers.

Think of all the different scenarios in your campaign and find ways to be relevant.

Whether it be a food picture meme to promote your brand or a fundraising campaign that encourages individuals to participate and donate through awareness, being on trend will make you that much closer to being on the hashtag leaderboard. Understand your audience, choose the right platforms, and be concise with your messaging to help you execute a successful social media campaign.

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