Common Mistake #1 – Not Incorporating Data

Instagram and Facebook provide all business accounts with a wealth of data about their posts, called insights. Some of this data includes audience demographics, reach, impressions, and individual post metrics. This information is incredibly valuable and should be taken into consideration when planning your content. Audience demographics can tell you the age and location of your followers, giving you the opportunity to tailor your messaging. Insights even tell you what time your audience is most active, and when your content is most likely to be seen. Engagement metrics help identify which types of posts have performed well in the past, showcasing the types of posts you should consider publishing more of in the future. Reviewing the data and making adjustments accordingly is the first place to start if you’re trying to increase engagement.

Common Mistake #2 – Not Utilizing All of the Features Offered

To stay ahead of their competitors, social apps are adding new features constantly. On Facebook and Instagram, you are able to tag other accounts, geotag your location, and even add product information as part of the shopping feature. Beyond feed posts, Instagram and Facebook also have a video tab and options for posting stories. Social media platforms want their users to use all available features, so they tend to reward those who do. Try posting a variety of content types like feed posts, stories, and videos, and utilize some or all of the in-post features. The platform may begin placing your content in front of the right audiences, increasing your engagement.

Common Mistake #3 – Not Interacting With Other Accounts

Pleasing the algorithm is everything when it comes to improving your post-performance. Above all else, Facebook and Instagram algorithms favor accounts with high engagement.You need engagement to increase engagement; sounds redundant but it’s true. We recommend being active on your page by liking, commenting, saving, and sharing others’ posts. You might even consider private messaging other accounts. This demonstrates to the algorithm that you’re an active user, and in return, it may begin to show your posts to those you’re trying to interact with.

While these are the biggest mistakes we see users making, there are a number of other ways to improve your post performance. Try implementing posts that your followers can interact with: post a poll on your story, include a CTA in your caption asking for opinions in the comments, create a hashtag unique to your business and encourage followers to use it in their posts. The frequency with which you post could also impact post-performance. Posting every day or multiple times a week further proves to the algorithm that you’re active on their site. Additionally, you might consider removing inactive followers so that your active followers have a better chance of seeing your content and interacting with it. One thing we know for sure is that algorithms are always changing, so we recommend keeping tabs on current trends to ensure you’re giving your posts the best chance for success.

A final note we want users to keep in mind: reach and impressions are a much better metric of measuring post success than likes. Reach is the number of unique people who saw your content, while impressions is the total number of times your post was displayed. Just because your post only got 18 likes, doesn’t mean only 18 people saw it; in fact, your reach may have been much higher. When evaluating post performance, the best indicator of success is reach or impressions, so don’t dwell on the number of likes.

Social media best practices are constantly being revamped, and our social media team is dedicated to ensuring we’re at the forefront of emerging trends. At Paperkite, we know just how to create content that will perform well and increase your business’s online presence. Let’s talk about the ways our team can help your business reach a new audience and increase sales using the powerful tool that is social media marketing.

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The pros of posting every day? One school of thought is, the more you post, the more engagement your page will have overall. Each post is another opportunity to increase your reach, so it makes sense that posting more leads to higher engagement. Another argument in favor of daily posting is repetition, repetition, repetition. The more people see something, the more they are likely to remember it. Seeing a post from the same account every day may spark just enough curiosity for them to click on your page to learn more. That conversion is the ultimate goal, and when you post frequently, the chances of achieving that conversion are higher. At the very least, posting every day will keep your brand at the top of your followers’ minds. Our final “pro” for posting every day is, major brands are doing it. In fact, larger brands with hundreds of thousands of followers often post multiple times a day. The average posting rate for large brands is actually 1.5x a day. If your goal is to amass a huge following, doing what the popular brands do is certainly a route to consider.

But wait! Don’t make up your mind just yet, because there are a few solid arguments against posting every day. First and foremost, the biggest downside to daily posting is it’s a lot of work, especially for small business owners. Social media management is a full-time job in itself. If you want to create impactful posts, you will need dedicated time for content planning, creation, publishing, and engagement. Not everyone has the time to devote to social media, so if your business is essentially a one-man show, posting every day can be more stressful than it’s worth. Additionally, there’s the classic mantra, quality over quantity. You want your posts to be eyecatching and engaging. If posting every day means that you’re throwing posts together to meet a quota, it’s probably not going to be as beneficial as taking the time to create quality content less often. Furthermore, fresh, relevant content is always the goal. It’s very possible that there simply may not be enough post-worthy things happening, and that’s okay! Saving social media for when you have a new product launch or an announcement can be even more impactful because it’s something current. Our final argument against daily posting is that if you post too much (more than once a day) it could be considered spam. That’s really only an issue in extreme cases, if you were to post 5 times a day, every day. Either way, odds are you shouldn’t be posting more than twice a day to avoid the risk of annoying your followers with constant content.

So what’s our final conclusion? The best number of posts is what you can reasonably pull off.
Above all else, consistent posting is the most important part of an active social media strategy, though there is room for variation depending on your goals. If your goal is to increase your overall reach, posting every day can certainly help achieve that goal. If you’re looking to boost engagement, fewer, but more interactive posts may be the way to go. We recommend that you pick a frequency that you can maintain over time. Decide your goals and your schedule, then stick with it.

Our social media team understands the importance of creating quality content for your business, and has experience managing daily posting schedules for social media accounts across various industries. If you’re looking to up your social media game but simply don’t have the time, let’s talk about how Paperkite can help.

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What is a Hashtag?

A hashtag is a word or phrase preceded by the pound key (“#”), that signifies a certain type of content. (Younger generations don’t even call it the pound key anymore; they’ve only ever known it as a hashtag.) Examples of popular hashtags include #travel, #food, and #makeup. Hashtags can be added to the captions of social media posts and will act as a live link to a collection of all other photos and videos that are posted with that same hashtag. Instagram, Linkedin, Twitter, and Facebook all allow for hashtag usage, though we typically don’t recommend them for Facebook. Twitter is where hashtags originated, but for business social media accounts, Instagram is where we see them being utilized most effectively. This is because Instagram is increasingly pushing e-commerce on their platform, a feature all businesses can, and should, take advantage of. On Instagram, you can include up to 30 hashtags per post, and up to 10 hashtags per story. Later, we’ll discuss whether or not you need 30 hashtags, but you do have the option. 

Why Should You Use them?

There are many reasons you should be using hashtags on your social media, the most important being that hashtags can increase your post reach, thus expanding your audience. When you include hashtags, your post becomes more discoverable to users that are interested in that hashtag. For example, if you own a doughnut shop and add the hashtag #dessert to your post, anyone searching for desserts will be able to see your photo, regardless of whether or not they follow you (so long as your profile is public). Hashtags are also incredibly useful for building an interactive online community. Creating hashtags that are unique to your business can be a way to build your brand while giving your followers a way to engage with your business on a more personal level. In addition, we recommend that you follow the hashtag you are utilizing as a way to keep tabs on competitors who may be using the same tags. 

Hashtag Tips and Best Practices

If you’re new to using hashtags, here are our tips for ensuring they’re being used effectively. When it comes to the number of hashtags per post, it’s more beneficial to start with 5-7 “good” hashtags, rather than including the maximum number possible. “Good” hashtags are ones that are relevant to your post, as well as your business. Including countless unnecessary hashtags can annoy audiences and may even be flagged by Instagram as spam. In terms of hashtag placement, Instagram recently recommended users include hashtags in the original caption, as opposed to posting them in the comments section, as some creators have done in a bid to “hide” the hashtags. We recommend taking it a step further by incorporating your hashtags into the caption organically (i.e. “With #spookyseason over, it’s time to start thinking about getting a head start on all of the #holidaygifting. Here’s our #giftguide for the dad in your life”). Finally, as a general rule, we recommend to our clients that when choosing hashtags, think about what your audience is looking for and try to include a hashtag that can speak to those needs. 

Hashtags are an incredibly useful tool that, when used correctly, can help your business get noticed. Our social media team has experience in implementing hashtags to help our clients grow their social media presence and attract new audiences. Make an appointment with us to discover the ways we can help grow your online following and how we can bring more potential customers to your business through social media.

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Marketing agencies, Social Media Managers, and everyday Facebook users were without the vital communication network that allows us to connect with our friends, loved ones, and consumers. Many small businesses that rely heavily on Facebook for day-to-day operations were essentially closed. The fear of a potentially disastrous revenue loss loomed overhead. 

Though Facebook and all subsidiaries did eventually return to operational, we’re left reflecting on how much power apps have, and how little control we have. As Facebook users everywhere attempt to catch up on lost time, we want to use this as an opportunity to shed some light on ways that social media users, and business owners especially, can take back control of their online platforms. 

Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Basket

For small businesses, it’s difficult to avoid relying solely on Facebook to conduct business. The social media giant really is a one-stop-shop for almost everything you need. Advertising campaigns, e-commerce markets, customer outreach, and data tracking can all be performed in-app. Facebook’s wide variety of business tools can make it seem like a paradise for business owners. However, this outage is a scary reminder that all of these elements can disappear in a matter of minutes. 

 To combat this lack of control we’re all undoubtedly feeling, we recommend that business owners start by making a point to differentiate their strategic marketing efforts. We know you’re probably thinking “but I can do everything I need right on Facebook!” And you’re right, you probably can; but it’s worth investing in Google ads, Amazon Ads, or other social media advertising channels, depending on what’s right for your business. Have you considered Pinterest for Business, leveling up your LinkedIn presence, developing a TikTok strategy, and boosting your Youtube? Not only does this lessen the fear of losing your entire online presence to another outage, but it also gives you more control over your advertising, and allows you to potentially reach a broader audience as a result of utilizing different channels.  

Put More Effort Into Your Website

For the many small business owners who partially (or entirely) rely on Facebook for selling their products and services, this outage was especially damaging. For 6 hours, almost an entire business day, online business owners were losing out on revenue. The outage also highlighted the fact that their business was largely dependent on an outside organization whose operations are completely out of their hands. In this case, the outage was temporary, but there may come a day when the internet monolith that is Facebook is no longer a viable business tool. 

We feel the best way to prepare for the unknown is to focus on your business’s website, the largest online presence over which you have complete control. If someday, customers can no longer find you on Facebook, your website will be the next place they look. Focus on building up your website so that no matter what happens in the world of social media, you will still have a strong internet presence, and you will still be able to conduct business online. We surely hope Facebook is here to stay, but it never hurts to prepare. 

No matter what the future holds, Paperkite is here to guide you. Our Digital Marketing team would love to help you explore and utilize the many different advertising platforms at our disposal. Meanwhile, our Social Media Team knows just how to ensure your online presence is broad enough to withstand the constant changes that underpin the social media landscape. Let’s Talk about how we can work together to ensure your business is protected.

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The How 

The enjoyment of food and beverages comes in two forms: taste and visuals. We’ve all had that moment where we’re scrolling through our feeds and see a colorful, eye-catching photo of gourmet doughnuts, or a juicy steak with perfect grill marks, and instantly our mouths are watering. TikTok operates using this same method: showing consumers the delicious food they could be eating. TikTok takes this visual attraction a step further by providing unlimited ways for brands to showcase their food and beverages. Aside from the classic videos of cheese pulls, bartenders pouring up mixed drinks, and the always popular recipe videos, TikTok’s community-centered platform allows brands to tap into the ever-growing influencer market. Popular forms of this type of advertising include simple brand shoutouts, “come along with me” tours of one user’s experience at your restaurant, customer reviews, and more. 

Additionally, food and beverage brands can take advantage of already existing trends. Kentucky Fried Chicken was one brand to take a stab at a recent TikTok trend that involved calling out your friends or family for their behaviors. While this trend had nothing to do with the company, and the TikTok didn’t even mention their brand name, they were able to showcase their products to thousands of viewers by participating in this popular trend. Sticking with KFC as a case study example, they also were successful in terms of capitalizing on user-created content. After releasing their Nashville Hot Chicken Tenders, TikTok users went crazy for the signature crunch that could be heard when biting into one of their chicken strips. Countless TikTokers recreated the original video, showcasing their first time biting into the now-viral chicken tenders.  When this trend was at its peak, many KFC locations were often sold out of this famous menu item because the demand was so high as more and more users wanted to be a part of the trend. 

Why It Works

These are just a few examples of the countless ways that food and beverage brands can utilize TikTok in their marketing efforts. Reposting user-generated content is one of the easiest ways for brands to promote their products without having to create their own advertisements. Additionally, TikTok can be used to showcase a snippet of the experiences users can have at your brewery, winery or restaurant. And of course, visuals are everything so a quick video of your food and beverages being made or even a clip of the final product can go a very long way. At Paperkite, we have experience creating TikToks for our clients, and we would love to help your business grow using this new and exciting platform. Let’s Talk about how we can help you showcase your food and beverages in a way that will drive business and build your brand!

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