Maximise Instagram trends for your social media campaigns
December 6, 2018
How to maximise Instagram trends for your social media campaigns
It’s been a great year for Instagram with some exciting new features and updates which not only help to make the platform even more exciting for users, but offer huge opportunity for digital marketers.
Let’s take a look at some of the best ways to reach your audience on Instagram as we start planning 2019.
Insta Stories
Insta Stories has been a huge success for Instagram, and as its daily user-base has grown by 150 million in the last year, it should definitely form part of your Instagram marketing strategy.
Why is using Instagram Stories beneficial?
- Increases engagement and your brand’s profile
- Generates buzz around campaigns
- Drives traffic to your websites as links can be added to the Instagram story by using “see more” or “swipe up” (available for business accounts with 10k+ followers)
- Using stories on Instagram is an actionable way to step away from the “on brand” feed and add personality to your profile
Insta Stories Highlights
Another great feature to concentrate on in the months ahead is Insta Stories Highlights, which allows users to create a permanent home to show off their ephemeral content without posting to the main feed.
It’s easy to create and edit a highlight, so it can be easily accessed by followers.
You can add up to 100 photos or videos to a story highlight. It makes the process of seeing what a brand has to offer much easier as all your content can be compartmentalised into the different services you offer as a whole.
How to make the most out of Insta Stories Highlights
Here’s some things you can do:
- List services/products you offer
- Highlight behind the scene type exclusives
- Share your achievements
- Announce events
- Collect user generated content to gain customers’ trust
With Stories Highlights, content is more organised, simpler and faster to navigate through.
Insta Stories Ads
With 400 million people watching Instagram Stories every single day, and the cost of Facebook advertising increasing, Instagram Story ads are the cheaper, more innovative way of advertising your products to a larger reach as we move into 2019.
With its full-screen, vertical format, businesses can share photos and videos that submerse followers in their content.
With the ability to target your ads by reach, video views, traffic, conversions, app installs and brand awareness, there’s real potential to drive business results.
Insta Stories Shoppable Stickers
The new shoppable stickers for Instagram Stories mean businesses can tag physical products from their e-commerce platform.
When users click on an item in a post, they’re able to view the item name, price, and description.
Shoppable Instagram Stories stickers can be placed on both images and videos, so it’s a great way to offer product information without coming across like you are constantly trying to push a product on your followers.
The great news is that you don’t need to be verified or have 10,000 followers to use them!
Micro Influencers
Influencer marketing continues to boom as brands collaborate with opinion leaders to enter an already-established community to promote their product. Micro-influencers have become a new trend on Instagram.
It’s proven that micro-influencers, who have a media following of anywhere between 1,000 and 30,000, drive more significant engagement than influencers with a larger following.
Why collaborating with micro-influencers is beneficial
Collaborating with micro-influencers allows you to save on promotion as their rates are lower.
You can expect a higher average engagement rate and also establish contact with them in order develop a longer term relationship and collaborate in the future.
Instagram TV
IGTV is a new Instagram feature and app for sharing and viewing video in a vertical and full screen format. It offers the potential to create hour-long episodes of a long-term series, or to use Instagram TV as an extension of your standard Instagram profile.
Play-Doh has used IGTV to great effect with its series, “The Play-Doh Show”, which brings creative, colourful fun to life. While the series likely has kids fighting over their parents’ phones, it’s fun for all ages and you can do it too! Instagram provides a wealth of opportunity to reach current and new audiences in exciting and engaging ways. Definitely not a platform to be ignored when planning your 2019 marketing strategy!
If you want to find out how to take your social media offering to the next level, contact us at agency:2 on 0203 598 9194.
The ultimate social media news roundup
July 10, 2018
A week is a long time in social media. So now that we’re in July, a lot has happened already in 2018.
Social media remains more popular than ever, although it’s been a bumpy ride for some – as you’d expect in any industry.
LinkedIn introduces native video uploading to users
LinkedIn is clearly listening to its users and has responded to a desire for native video advertising and video for company pages.
This makes sense.
In 2017, 90% of all content shared by users on social media was video.
Last August, the platform introduced native video uploading to users, and it quickly became popular.
LinkedIn stated that more than 700 advertisers have trialled Video for Sponsored Content since October.
Abhishek Shrivastava, Director of Product for LinkedIn Marketing Solutions said that, during that time, LinkedIn users spent almost three times longer watching video ads than static ads.
In addition, company page videos were five times more likely than other types of content to spark conversation amongst users.
Looks like listening has worked well for LinkedIn.
Facebook has dominated the news
After the Cambridge Analytica scandal, some predicted a mass exodus from users of the social media platform.
Facebook faced criticism over data breaches, from politicians and commentators alike.
Did that mass exodus from Facebook actually happen?
Well… Facebook is now more popular than ever – the average number of monthly active Facebook users for March rose by 13%.
While we all want to retain our privacy and want greater transparency from the tech giants, we remain attached to Facebook and the part it plays in our lives.
It’s been around too long and is too embedded with how we communicate with the world.
People accept targeted advertising as the price to be paid for what is a free means of staying in touch with family and friends. Targeted advertising that is relevant and interesting is better than boring advertising that has no value or relevance to us and our lives.
Facebook remains a commercial space and those marketers who understand this thrive on the platform. It remains the ideal space to foster a relationship with present and future customers. It’s too big an opportunity for marketers to ignore. Its reach is too great.
WhatsApp raises age limit
It’s good news that the industry is taking greater responsibility for the young and vulnerable.
Facebook-owned messaging service WhatsApp, which has over 1.5 billion users, raised their minimum age limit from 13 to 16, in part to comply with the EU’s new data protection rules.
Instagram announces hashtag and profile links in bios
The capability to follow hashtags makes the platform even more user friendly.
Instagram says this will give users ‘new ways to stay connected with the interests, hobbies, passions, and communities you care about’.
They’ve updated their algorithms too.
Two years ago they moved away from a chronological algorithm but now they want to ensure that newer posts are more likely to appear first in feed.
Looks like Instagram is listening too.
Twitter bans bulk tweeting
This is in a bid to combat spam and political propaganda bots, with 50,000 accounts being linked to Russian propaganda efforts.
Twitter’s own TweetDeck app once allowed users to post similar content from multiple accounts, while also automating liking, retweeting and following.
Twitter says these actions are ‘an important step in ensuring we stay ahead of malicious activity targeting the crucial conversations taking place on Twitter – including elections in the United States and around the world’.
Twitter introduces Timestamps
Previously, to highlight relevant times during live and replayed videos, users had to send a tweet.
Timestamps make those tweets unnecessary. It’s now possible to tweet live or replayed videos at the relevant moment rather than having to show the entire video.
After all, as Twitter Product Manager, Mike Folgner says,‘Brevity is the soul of Twitter’.
The launch of IGTV
A very exciting development for Instagram users who’ll soon have access to IGTV – a long-form video feature which will allow users to post hour-long clips. This is a huge leap forward given that up until now, the maximum video length has been 60 seconds.
The new IGTV platform will exist as a standalone app as well as on users’ homepage.
Instagram founder Kevin Systrom said he felt a “responsibility” to make these changes to the platform given data that shows people are spending less and less time watching TV and more and more time on their phones.
As each user will have their own channel where they can upload and store videos, it’ll be interesting to see how IGTV compares and competes with YouTube.
The Roundup
All in all it’s been a fast-moving and exciting year for social media, with two emerging themes so far: the continuing popularity and success of video on social media platforms and the developers of those platforms listening to and then following feedback.
That is what social media is all about after all: open and immediate interaction between participants.
Social media is an ever evolving and changing landscape and 2018 so far has been no exception. It is, after all, why we all love it!
If you want to find out how to take your social offering to the next level, contact us at agency:2 on 0203 598 9194.
Winner at Performance Marketing Awards 2018
May 1, 2018
We are so proud of our social ad team, Mighty Social , and our disruptive technology which leads the way in innovation. Our AI powered campaign for Showcase Cinemas delivered impressive ROI using our unique audience insight technology.
Through our commitment and agility in managing the campaign, we were able to sell out four different films exclusively on Facebook. Not only did we exceed ROI targets by 70% but we drove over 51,000 link clicks to booking sites.
What a fabulous achievement to add to our awards list.
Winner of 2017 Deloitte UK Technology Fast 50
November 16, 2017
We are delighted to announce that our sister company Mighty Social is a 2017 Deloitte UK Technology Fast 50 Winner.
Launched in 1998, the Deloitte UK Technology Fast 50 awards are a celebration of innovation and entrepreneurship. The award measures sustained revenue growth over four years, and being one of the 50 fastest growing technology companies for the second year in a row in the UK is an impressive achievement that we are extremely proud of!.
At agency:2 and our sister company Mighty Social, smarter technology driven segmentation is enabling us to target customers fast – this in turn means we can reach them when they are more likely to be poised and ready to purchase. Tapping into behavioural patterns means delivering ads that hit the mark and generate excellent results for our clients.
As innovators, we are constantly improving and updating our unique algorithms – we never sit still because technology keeps shifting – we are happy to in one of the most exciting sectors, riding a wave that just keeps growing and evolving. We have fantastic teams here of social media, technology and paid media experts – so thank you everyone and let’s keep innovating!
Best use of Facebook at the global Shorty Awards
April 10, 2017
We are delighted to announce some exciting awards news today. We are a Shorty Awards winner: Best use of Facebook.
A couple of months ago we entered one of our Facebook advertising campaigns for the prestigious Shorty Awards. The award honours the best in social media across the globe, with a glitzy ceremony held in New York on 23 April 2017.
We delivered a ground-breaking Facebook campaign for our client Showcase Cinemas which was fuelled by our unique audience insights technology – the Social Insight Engine. By tapping into the audience’s passions and interests on social, we achieved outstanding social media marketing results for our client. Our team of paid social media experts and the creative team here at agency:2 are very proud of the campaign results.
Today we received the fantastic news that agency:2 is a winner of this highly competitive category which saw some of the world’s leading digital agencies enter their Facebook campaigns. We would like to thank our client Showcase Cinemas and our team here. Together we truly pushed the boundaries of what excellent Facebook marketing can deliver and we proved its ability as a highly cost-effective acquisition channel for businesses.
http://shortyawards.com/9th/thomas-friends-the-great-race-cinema-launch
More awards: agency2 is a finalist at the CIM Excellence Awards 2017!
January 20, 2017
What a brilliant start to the year. We were thrilled to receive the news earlier this week that our Thomas & Friends ‘The Great Race Cinema Launch’ Facebook marketing campaign was selected as a finalist for the ‘Best Use of Social Media’ CIM Excellence Awards.
The Chartered Institute of Marketing is the world’s biggest professional marketing body, with over 50,000 individual members across the globe. The prestigious CIM Excellence Awards identify and celebrate outstanding marketing by organisations, individuals and teams. Now in its eighth year, these awards continue to recognise that high standards of quality and integrity are vital to the success of marketing. The awards recognise and celebrate the innovation delivered by marketers across the UK who are at the cutting edge of their profession.
With our Social Insight Engine technology, we deliver game-changing social media campaigns for the world’s leading brands. We love to showcase our innovative campaigns and were excited to submit our awards entry back in December. This year’s judging panel consists of senior marketing professionals from brands such as Avon, 3M, Google, LinkedIn, Universal, IBM, Prudential, JLL and Mondelez International to name but a few, so we were honoured to be considered for this award in this highly relevant category.
The awards ceremony will take place on 27 April 2017 at the Grosvenor House Hotel, Park Lane London. We will be joining 700 of the UK’s best marketers to mark the occasion. Watch this space and wish us luck!
We had a fantastic year of growth in 2016 including being ranked the 3rd fasted growing tech company in the UK out of 45,000 media companies at the 2016 Deloitte UK Technology 50 Awards. With such a great start to 2017, it looks like we are well placed to push boundaries in our ever-changing industry throughout the year.
We are a Deloitte Technology Fast 500 EMEA Winner!
December 9, 2016
agency:2 is thrilled to be ranked the 144th fastest growing tech companies in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). We would like to thank our amazing clients and hard-working team for helping us to achieve this fantastic recognition by Deloitte.
The Deloitte Technology Fast 500™ EMEA award is a prestigious acknowledgement of the 500 fastest-growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and energy tech companies across EMEA.
“Innovation is more than technological advancement; it’s also a state of mind,” said Paul Sallomi, vice chairman at Deloitte LLP and global technology, media and telecommunications industry leader. “The winners of the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 program in EMEA recognize that this new type of thinking is essential for business success. We look forward to your continued leadership in introducing new tools that can enhance the personal lives of consumers, and drive growth for companies worldwide.”
Joel Davis co-founder of agency:2 commented on another great achievement. “We’re excited to be placed alongside the most innovative and fastest growing companies in EMEA as it’s a real compliment to our team. To also be recognised as the 3rd fastest growing company in the UK media sector is an incredible testament to our ability to deliver game-changing results for our clients and a recognition of our drive for achieving innovation in social media marketing. I’m immensely proud of everyone at agency:2.”
About agency:2
agency:2 is an award-winning social media agency powered by audience insight technology. Our leading social media advertising technologies and expertise enable us to deliver results that far exceed expectations. As innovators for the social ad industry, we work with world leading brands such as Barbie, Worldpay and Sony to deliver the best social media results.
Additional resources
Learn more about agency:2 here: www.agency2.co.uk
Learn more about our Social Insight Engine technology: www.socialinsightengine.com
Contact Joel Davis: 00 44 (0)203 567 1381
agency:2 ranked in the prestigious Deloitte Technology Fast 50
November 21, 2016
Out of 45,000 tech start-ups, we have been ranked 22nd at the 2016 Deloitte UK technology 50 Award
agency:2 is thrilled to be ranked 22nd of fast growing tech companies in the UK. We would like to thank our clients and team for helping us to achieve this amazing result.
The Deloitte UK Fast 50 is one of the UK’s foremost technology awards programmes. Now in its nineteenth successful year, it is a prestigious acknowledgement of the fastest-growing technology companies in the UK. The ranking is based on revenue growth over the last four years.
Upon being recognised as one of the UK’s fastest growing technology companies, Joel Davis co-founder of agency:2 commented “It’s an amazing accomplishment for the whole team, to not only to create one of the best social ad products in our space, but grow the company so rapidly. I’m proud of everyone at agency:2.”
About agency:2
agency:2 is an award-winning social media agency powered by audience insight technology. Our leading social media advertising technologies and expertise enables us to deliver results that far exceed expectations.
As innovators for the social ad industry, we work with world leading brands such as Barbie, Worldpay and Sony to deliver the best social media results using our technologies and expertise.
Additional resources
Learn more about agency:2 here: www.agency2.co.uk
Learn more about our Social Insight Engine technology: www.socialinsightengine.com
Contact Joel Davis: 00 44 (0)203 567 1381
Christmas comes early on Facebook: How will you maximise your #smm?
November 16, 2016
Christmas comes early on Facebook: How will you maximise social media during this busy period?
The countdown to Christmas is now officially on…only 39 more days. Can you believe it? Each year consumers say the same thing: the build up to Christmas gets earlier and earlier. Audiences are surely switching off from the Christmas messaging….or are they?
During the run-up to Christmas, new research released by Facebook actually shows that consumers are more interested in consumer products and messaging in this busy pre-Christmas period. (Source: Facebook)
As a social media marketer, you may be asking yourself:
- Did our Christmas campaigns hit the mark last year?
- How can I beat my competitors during this Christmas period?
- Is my agency doing the best possible job with my Christmas budget?
So, before we look into how to improve social media marketing in the busy pre-Christmas period, let’s have a look at what Facebook had to say:
- Christmas conversation begins on Facebook on October 24 (yes, October!).
- Black Friday, November 25, is the biggest shopping day of the year for women on Facebook.
- Last year Cyber Monday, November 28, online spend totalled £968m in the UK.
- The build up to Christmas and last minute shopping takes place within the period from 8-31 December.
- Boxing Day is topical on Facebook throughout all of December with an amazing 21.6m interactions related to it.
- The first two weeks in January can offer some of the best value CPMs seen all year on Facebook.
How can we use this information and insight in our social marketing to enhance our Christmas campaigns and capitalise on the increased spend?
agency:2’s Christmas marketing advice:
a) It’s always important to stand out from the crowd as this is a very busy period on social – 32m pieces of content are posted to Facebook every day over Christmas! Your brand will need to be the best e.g. use video to boost audience reach.
b) You can widen your audience by adding grandparents, uncles and aunties, as they are the true Christmas buying audience for anything over £50.
c) Increase reach further through audience insight tools such as the Social Insight Engine. For example, by using our unique ad serving software we can select parents with siblings in a similar age range, and therefore sell more to the same user. Overall, this will improve return on investment.
d) As it’s such a busy period, clever targeting is important to get your message in front of the right people at the right time. Linking targeting to consumer behaviour and interests is a great way of making an emotional connection, which can lead to strengthening purchasing intent.
e) It is also important to connect social media activity with offline behaviours, PR and other marketing activities.
f) Use Facebook’s unique abilities – for example, friends can tag each other in comments e.g. ‘this is the one I wanted you to get for my daughter’. You can’t do this as easily with other marketing channels so make the most of these features.
g) Make sure your posts are mobile friendly as 86% of Christmas posts are shared on mobile and 88% of all videos are shared on mobile.
Here at agency:2 we have already applied these strategies to our social media marketing for some of the world’s leading brands, achieving fantastic ROI for our clients. Find out how you can take your social offering to the next level. Call us on 0203 567 1380.
Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn marketing: Social media targeting capabilities revealed
October 28, 2016
Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn marketing: Social media advertising targeting capabilities revealed
Digital marketers face an ever expanding list of options when it comes to choosing the best channel for their social media marketing campaigns. This infographic compares the reach and targeting capabilities of three main social channels: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
As we work with some of the world’s leading brands, we have gathered enough data to select the most popular targeting criteria which are applicable to both B2B and B2C brands. Our expert team have then rated each channel’s ability to target and deliver brand messages to the desired audience using this established criteria.
social media advertising targeting
Key social ad targeting takeaways:
1.Social marketing success is partly driven by testing. Without requiring major cost outlays, you can effectively measure, refine and improve your campaign’s targeting and creative approaches to achieve favourable results. So don’t be afraid to experiment with a new channel – as long as you believe the targeting options are suitable for your brand’s desired audience.
2.Work with a specialist agency to ensure that you fully maximise the marketing opportunities each channel offers. This will allow you to benefit from the agency’s experience of working with similar brands to yours and all the additional audience insights this offers.
3.LinkedIn works well for B2B audiences and we have rated the targeting capabilities as outstanding, especially as users regularly update their own data. But be mindful that it takes time to grow a company’s follower base and that LinkedIn advertising is relatively expensive.
4.Twitter’s advertising offering is still somewhat limited. But its users hugely enjoy the conversational / mini blogging style it offers. It also lends itself well to engaging with key influences in your sector. So if this suits your brand story, we recommend that Twitter is a must have addition to your marketing mix.
5.If you need to get in front of a new audience, Facebook advertising offers especially cost-effective ways of achieving this and it lends itself well to capturing UGC and highly creative ad formats. Add to this smart targeting techniques, and you can achieve game-changing campaign results using Facebook marketing.
Here at agency:2 we’re passionate about social media and we work with some of the world’s leading brands. By selecting the best channel for your brand, together with optimum timing, creative execution, smart targeting criteria and techniques, we will ensure that you maximise the ROI of your social campaigns.
Are you ready to take your social media marketing to the next level? Call our social media experts on 00 44 (0)203 567 1380
