08 Apr 2020
Social media Permalink

How to: create the ultimate hashtag strategy

April 8, 2020

Did you know that there are 3 types of marketing strategies for hashtags? They are:

  1. Community hashtags
  2. Branded hashtags
  3. Content Hashtags

Community Hashtags

Community hashtags are hashtags that connect like-minded users around a specific subject. They’re a great way to connect with others, improve the searchability of your posts, gain followers, and grow your own community.

Here are 5 different types of community hashtags you can use for your business:

  1. Hashtags indicating your product or service, like #sneakers or #coffeeshop
  2. Hashtags indicating your niche in your industry, like #weddingphotographer or #yogainstructor
  3. Hashtags for Instagram communities in your industry, like #beautyjunkies #foodiesofinstagram
  4. Hashtags for special events or seasons, like #nationalpuppyday
  5. Hashtags using location, like #sydneyeats

We recommend using a variety of hashtags on your posts and stories so your posts can reach different communities. For instance, if you have a restaurant in Sydney, you can use #sydneyeats, but also use #foodiesofinstagram for those who are interested in your day-to-day life as a chef.

The best way to find these community-oriented hashtags is by looking to see which hashtags your audience or favourite accounts are already using.

Branded Hashtags

Brand and campaign hashtags are created to be specific tags that you are using for your own business –  they’re unique to you! They market your specific products or services.

It can be as simple as your company name, tagline, or the name of one of your products or campaigns. For example, on our Instagram, we include #thecopystudio in every post.

While community hashtags are used to increase the reach of your message, branded hashtags are designed to connect themes for you and your audience. They can be used to promote a campaign or collect user-generated content (UGC).

For example, beauty brand MECCA uses the hashtag #MECCAbeauty to drive awareness around their brand by giving their followers a place to share relevant content.

Getting your Instagram followers to use your branded hashtag in their posts and stories is key to getting discovered on Instagram by new audiences. A simple trick to gain more traction through a branded hashtag is to run a giveaway. E.g: use #thecopystudio in your post to win a free social media audit for your business.

Once you create your hashtag, remind customers they can use your business’ hashtag by sharing it on your stories or calling it out in your captions. This way, your followers can tap the hashtag and see other posts about your business.

It’s also a good idea to follow your branded hashtag to keep track of new content that’s being shared!

Content Hashtags

Content hashtags are used for directly engaging a target audience. For example, if you’re a boutique coffee shop wanting to boost brand awareness, posting photos of your amazing latte art with the hashtags #latte #art #coffeeshop will draw in interested crowds. Thanks to the flexibility of the hashtag, your hashtags will translate across networks if you share your post on multiple sites.

When using content hashtags, try to think like your customer. What are they interested in? What would appeal to them? Descriptive hashtags work best.

Remember though, DO NOT #hashtag #every #single #word, #it’s #desperate.

If you’re serious about creating successful social media marketing, hashtags should be an essential part of crafting your campaigns. Need help in getting started? Contact us.

08 Apr 2020
Social media Permalink

5 free hashtag analytics tools you need right now

April 8, 2020

Hashtags are great to use on social media to increase a brand’s online reach and engagement.

A post with at least one Instagram hashtag averages 12.6% more engagement than posts without a hashtag.

To make your hashtags work harder for you, you need to do a bit of research to ensure the ones you’ve selected are right for you. How do you do this? Through a little hashtag research of course! Here are 5 free hashtag analytic tools you need right now.

1. Keyword Tool

There is a growing number of people that follow different hashtags on Instagram. The easiest way to get in front of them is to add relevant hashtags to your posts and stories. Depending on your requirements, you can use Keyword Tool to generate a list of popular and trending long-tail Instagram hashtags. All you need to do is enter a word related to the topic of your post into the search box and press enter. You’ll then see a list of hashtags that you can use for your posts or stories.

In addition to the hashtags suggestions, Keyword Tool will show you the number of posts that Instagram has for every hashtag.

If you want to find only popular or trending Instagram hashtags, you can use “Filter Results” from the drop-down menu to get Keyword Tool to show you hashtags that have a particular number of posts. By using filters, you can choose either the most or the least popular hashtags depending on your needs.

2. Hashtagify

Hashtagify will give you all the information that you need to know about how your brand hashtags are being used– including the top influencers that are using them. This tool will also show you a stream of posts using the hashtag and the hashtag’s usage patterns.

A personal fave: The tool will display the times of day your hashtag is most used, along with information about how it performs over time and projections for how it will be used in the coming week. Hashtagify will even show you common variations of the hashtag of your choice.

3. RiteTag

If you’re choosing or creating a branded hashtag, RiteTag will show you relevant hashtags, along with information about reach, exposure, and retweets.  This tool allows you to get instant feedback on your hashtags and get recommendations on the hashtags not to use. You can get analytics on any hashtag that you are following, not just the ones that you’re actively using. #winwin

4. Keyhole

Keyhole lets you track Instagram, Facebook and Twitter hashtags in real-time. This hash-tracking tool will tell you the number of posts that contain your hashtag within a specific time period, how many users are using it, each post’s reach and the number of impressions.

Keyhole lets you run a test search on its home page and offers a free trial, after which it has multiple paid plans.

5. TweetReach

TweetReach’s free plan lets you access 100 free “snapshots” that give you a quick hashtag analysis. The tool gives you your top hashtag’s estimated reach, impressions, and contributors. TweetReach’s paid versions will also give you analytics on Instagram and Facebook in addition to Twitter.

Happy researching! Remember, we’re here to help you with your social media strategy. If you’re #stuck, contact us for a free quote.

 

 

08 Apr 2020
Social media Permalink

How many hashtags should you use in your social media posts?

April 8, 2020

A really popular question…

How many hashtags should I use in my social media post?

Using the right amount of hashtags can be confusing. ? You don’t want to underuse or overuse them. With that being said, the correct amount of hashtags to use really comes down to the social media platform you are posting on.

Here is a list of the optimal amount of hashtags to use based on platform:

  • Instagram: 9-15
  • Facebook: 1-2
  • LinkedIn: 1-2
  • Twitter: 1-2

Specific platforms use hashtags differently, so make sure your strategy takes this into account. Most of all, make sure you do your research on hashtags and keep them relevant to your content and your audience!

Want to up your overall hashtag game? Who doesn’t. We’ve got loads of tips for you in a post we wrote on how to up your social media hashtag strategy in 2020.

#readon

08 Apr 2020
Social media Permalink

3 reasons you need to use hashtags in your social media posts

April 8, 2020

Did you know a social media post with at least one hashtag averages 12.6% more engagement than posts without a hashtag? ?

Businesses often underestimate the importance of hashtags (and getting it right). Hashtags should be more than just an afterthought to your social media caption.  A hashtag strategy not only builds your brand’s online presence, but it also helps you grow your account (yes, we’re talking extra followers). So how do you build a hashtag strategy in 2020?

Let’s start with a quick history lesson on the humble #hashtag. ?

Twitter started the trend in 2007 when the platform began using hashtags as a way to index trending keywords. Since then, nearly every social media site has leveraged hashtags as a way to make trending topics and content more easily searchable.

Now, when someone types an update on a social media platform, there is often a hashtag present in the post copy. This is particularly true with Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and LinkedIn. While Facebook uses it too, hashtags are not as popular on that platform.

While hashtagging every word under the sun may be tempting, it’s not the most effective way to have hashtags work for you. Instead, here are 3 reasons to use hashtags in your social media posts and how they will influence your hashtag strategy.

1. Increased Engagement

Using hashtags in your social media posts will greatly increase brand awareness and more importantly, engagement. Twitter reports that businesses and brands that use hashtags have a 50% higher rate of engagement than those who don’t.

2. Brand Engagement

A good hashtag strategy is key when it comes to brand engagement but you want to use the right hashtags and use them in a way that is relevant. Doing so leads to increased engagement with your brand, and in turn, builds your audience. Implementing a solid brand hashtag strategy will help you serve more relevant content to the audience that is #searching for it.

3. Finding Your Audience

A good hashtag strategy in 2020 is not only great for user engagement, but it can help you find a target audience. Using relevant hashtags that your audience can connect with is a perfect way to make your brand searchable to them.

At The Copy Studio, we specialise in social media strategy, this includes hashtag strategies! If you want a few more tips, why not get in touch with us?

30 Sep 2019
Social media Permalink

Quick tips for starting your business social media profiles

September 30, 2019

You’ve just set up your business’ social media pages, now what? Here are 5 quick tips to have you winning the game.

The world isn’t a one size fits all, so why should social media be?

Create a social media plan for each social media platform. Often content that works on Instagram may not work as well on Facebook, and vice versa. Carefully track your content on each social platform and tweak it accordingly.

Another thing. Size your imagery and video according to the specs of the platform. Instagram favours squares while Instagram Stories is another set of specs. There are free online tools like Canva that easily help you resize creative with just a click of a button.

Audience obsession is an art.

How do you avoid losing online audience interest?

  1. Respect their time. Be short and concise.
  2. Care for them. Show genuine interest.
  3. Celebrate them.
  4. Add value.
  5. Master the art of anticipation.

Budget isn’t everything.

Want more eyeballs on your ads, content, website, social media posts? Budget helps, but it’s not the be all, end all. Use free analytic platforms to measure and tweak your online activity like Google Analytics and Facebook Ads Manager. There are valuable insights in every piece of information you put out the internet!

Being late ain’t fashionable.

Don’t ever be in a position where you’re embarrassingly late to respond to customer enquiries on social. Set up an alert in your calendar to regularly check your social media inboxes. Better yet, set up an auto response on Facebook Messenger. It’s quick and easy to get it up and running. Feelin’ fancy? You can also personalise the message.

Don’t underestimate the power of an image.

Did you know that your visual cortex is a small part of your brain that’s hidden toward the back of your head? But its effects are massive: it produces the reality you see all around you. And it’s fast: it processes visual information 60,000 times faster than words. #scienceyo

Images “speak” a different language than words and convey their meaning faster, too. That’s why one of the most important things you can do to put a finishing touch on any piece of content is to add an image.

One of your goals should be to create content that gets noticed and read, and great images make us stop and look. A study by MDG Advertising showed that content featuring compelling images averages 94% more total views than content without.

Your images should do aim to do one or more of the following:

  • Entertain
  • Educate
  • Provoke
  • Inspire

 

 

16 Sep 2019
Social media Permalink

Instagram hides likes, Facebook to follow?

September 16, 2019

Remember the huge storm around Instagram likes being hidden? Well, Facebook has confirmed that it may soon extend its “hiding likes” experiment from Instagram to the mothership.

Facebook started testing the removal of total post likes in Canada back in April this year and since then, has expanded the test to six other countries. The same media spin is being used.. the changed dubbed to be for the greater good of society. That is, they’re doing it for ‘user wellbeing’. Which let’s face it, is total BS because at the end of the day Facebook and Instagram are in the business of making money, not improving a person’s wellbeing.

Whether Zuckerberg and his crew of “wellbeing warriors” will go all out on hiding likes on their two signature networks has yet to be seen, but it’s clearly being carefully considered.

06 Aug 2019
Social media Permalink

Things brands do on social media that people hate

August 6, 2019

Some brands on social media are just… awkward.

People love to hate and should your brand get it wrong on social media, you can expect to hear about it quickly. Really quickly.

Let’s get into what you should avoid doing on social media. At. All. Costs.

1. Obvious self-promotion

We see this all the time, especially in small business. If you view social media as just another sales channel then you have an issue. Sure, go mad on selling yourself on the paid social side of things (dark posts) because that’s what it’s there for but on organic posts (the ones that are on your feed)? Use the 80/20 rule. 80% useful (informative, entertaining, inspiring) 20% promotional.

Switch it around and spend 80% of your time promoting yourself and watch how quickly your audience numbers and engagement rates take a dive. Not everything is about you and your 70% off sale.

2. Too much AI

Sure, AI is cool and slick and great. What’s not great is when it provides a crappy user experience. Let’s take customer service bots on Facebook Messenger as an example. Unless it’s actually more efficient and provides a faster, better customer experience than a real-life employee, don’t do it. On top of this, a bot is usually rigid and has no personality.  Don’t risk alienating your existing and potential customers just because bots are trendy and your competitor has one.

3. A crappy apology

Brands get it wrong on social all the time. And an apology isn’t hard to get right if it’s authentic and from the heart. Problem is, some brands do a really crappy job of admitting when they got it wrong. Take the New England Patriots as an example. As the Patriots’ Twitter feed neared one million users, they set up an auto-response to thank their fans as they became Twitter followers. The error came when they automatically thanked a user with a racist name, retweeting the offensive Twitter handle in the process. The team realised its mistake and issued this apology.

Okay, Patriots. It was the systems’ fault. In other news, here’s a FANTASTIC apology from KFC.

Some key ingredients of a good apology:

  • Accept responsibility
  • Acknowledge the other person’s feelings
  • Don’t make excuses
  • Commit to being better

4. Not listening

OMG is this a bugbear! Social media is not a billboard campaign. When you’re crafting every post with the goal of actively encouraging engagement, at some point you’re going to receive less-than-positive feedback. Don’t ignore complaints, don’t delete negative comments. Social media is a democracy. If you’re on the socials then you gotta be prepared that not everyone will like what you have to say and that’s okay. But for the love of god don’t delete negative feedback because your ego can’t handle it. Instead, take the opportunity to learn from the comments.

5. Acting too cool

Some brands try hard. Way too hard to be something that they’re not. Of course, some brands win by being witty and weird but it doesn’t mean you have to do the same.

6. Using hashtags when you don’t know how to use hashtags

Of course you’ve squinted at a hashtag before and thought… what is that meant to say? Or worse, you see a company who hasn’t  thought out or researched their hashtags. Like the #LoveDP campaign from Dorothy Perkins. Or #McDStories – which went from hashtag to bashtag, real quick.

Don’t crash and burn –  be diligent and do your research before you start creating hashtags for you brand and campaigns.

12 Jun 2019
Social media Permalink

The best time to post on Instagram

June 12, 2019

It’s probably the most common question we get asked, so let’s get into the best times to post on Instagram.

If you want to get more engagement, it’s best to find out what your personalised best times to post are based on your unique audience. If you have a business Instagram profile, you can do this by hitting the ‘Insights’ tabs in your Instagram settings.

By posting at peak times, you are going to get the most amount of eyeballs on your posts.

The end result is more:

  • Likes
  • Shares
  • Comments
  • Followers
  • Reposts
  • Tags

Generally speaking, here are the best times to post on Instagram.