originally posted to www.carnsight.com
It’s safe to say, creative agencies will always have a little piece of my heart. As I said in my how marketing helped me in PR blog, when I was younger I used to fast forward the programmes (on my VCR) just to get to the adverts. I loved those 30- or even 60-second sumptuous, visual treats. We were blessed with some iconic commercials in the 1990s – from Levis to Guinness to Tango. So, being able to begin my career in a London advertising agency was a dream come true for me.
The reality of working in an advertising agency was somewhat different to the expectation, however. But we worked hard, played harder and made some cracking campaigns along the way. I also made some lifelong friends and met my brother-in-law, sister-in-law and husband, so it was a fruitful period!
Pitching over presentation
While a lot of time was spent preparing and delivering pitches to clients in advertising, and winning new work, there didn’t seem to be a lot of time spent on the way agencies presented themselves to the outside world beyond that. When it came to reputations, and how strong their client work was, word of mouth ruled supreme.
However, this was also the era of poor website design and dumb phones and that bastion of careers chat, LinkedIn, was just a twinkle in a developer’s eye. So, to some extent, agencies weren’t under pressure to manage their reputations in the same way.
One click away from a review
Today, digital dominates, and you’re only a click away from a comment, staff review or glowing agency write up. That means current staff and future team can easily find out about their agency, but also clients, prospective and lapsed clients and the industry as a whole can. They can see what it’s like to work there, work with the agency and what kinds of campaigns are being produced.
Agency reputations are now created and evolve whether the company chooses to play an active role in them or not. People understand that agencies are brands, and they understand the power of those brands. Alongside that, there’s also more science to support marketing efforts than ever before. There’s very little that isn’t measurable in some form.
In short, the landscape is completely different from the one in which I started, and it needs to be managed differently.
Start with your point of difference
The good news is that you can play an active role in the way your agency’s perceived, be it through a PR strategy, social media or other agency content.
In thinking about how an agency is currently viewed, and how you’d like it to be perceived, there are various things to consider. A good place to start is interrogating the agency’s point of difference – your unique selling point (or USP). Often, agencies start off with a clear USP – it’s often the reason they’re founded in the first place – but sometimes that changes over time. That could be down to the market place changing, personnel changing or new tech advances.
When we run our Three Lens Messaging Sessions with clients, their point of difference is one of the first things we discuss. And you might be surprised at how many different versions of that USP we get from a group of senior people around the table. Sometimes we find out that they’ve been talking about the agency in a number of different ways, but not communicated those ways to each other.
All content – be it social media; white papers; PR activity; even internal communications – should spring from what the agency stands for, so it’s important to agree on this.
The key communications challenge to overcome
However, even when an agency is clear about what sets it apart from the market, and has a strategy to communicate it, there often remains a hurdle to overcome. Communicating consistently.
We see a lot of peaks and troughs in agency communication, and it’s not hard to see why. Profiling an agency is rarely one person’s job – it often sits between marketing teams, new business and the senior team. And actually, it’s actually something everyone in that agency can play a part in, to a greater or lesser extent.
Agencies often plan events or launch prominent campaigns and put a lot of effort into communicating them, and that can lead to spikes in activity at certain times. Then, another activity becomes more pressing, and social media accounts, content and PR activities are left to languish for a period of time.
While a burst of activity can certainly provoke short term interest and attention, it’s communicating consistently that helps build a strong, lasting reputation. It can also help to ensure the right messages about your agency are appearing, and the narrative isn’t being led by others.
How to harness consistency
To create consistency in agency communications, you need to create a culture of PR. Building the agency’s profile needs to part of a consistent strategy, and it should have an overall owner – even when there are different stakeholders involved.
Agencies can be excellent at telling their clients how and why they need to communicate regularly, but find it hard to turn that advice on themselves. The cobbler’s shoes are always the worst heeled.
That’s where an external eye can come in. Be it agency PR, social media, blogs, newsletters or website content – having someone else who’s dedicated to keeping on point, responding to current events and hitting targets each month can be invaluable.
If you want to see a bit more about how consistently agency PR and communication can work – have a look at our work for Fiora, Aer Studios and Armadillo.
originally posted to www.carnsight.com
In the ever-evolving world of search engine optimization (SEO), a common misconception persists: the more keywords you cram into your content, the better your rankings will be.
While keywords are undoubtedly necessary for SEO, the strategy of keyword stuffing is not only outdated but also harmful to your website’s visibility and user experience.
What is Keyword Stuffing?
Keyword stuffing is the practice of excessively repeating keywords in a webpage’s content, meta tags, or alt texts with the intent of manipulating search engine rankings.
In the early days of SEO, this tactic may have resulted in short-term gains in visibility and higher rankings. However, search engines like Google have since evolved their algorithms to prioritise user experience and relevant content over simple keyword frequency.
Risks of Keyword Stuffing
Poor User Experience:
When content is overloaded with keywords, it often reads awkwardly or unnaturally. People coming across this content may quickly become frustrated and leave the page, leading to a high bounce rate. A poor user experience can signal to search engines that your site is not valuable, ultimately harming your rankings.
Penalties from Search Engines:
Modern search engines utilise complex algorithms designed to identify and penalise websites that engage in keyword stuffing. Google, for instance, emphasises quality content and user engagement. If your website is flagged for keyword stuffing, you could face penalties that result in a significant drop in rankings or even removal from search results altogether.
Weakening of Content Quality:
Focusing excessively on keywords can weaken the quality of your content. Instead of creating informative, engaging, and relevant articles, you may find yourself writing for algorithms rather than your audience.
This approach is counterproductive in the long run, as compelling content is what truly attracts and retains visitors.
Competition:
The digital landscape is highly competitive, and keyword stuffing alone won’t make you stand out. Competitors are equally knowledgeable about SEO and are likely to focus on creating valuable content that resonates with their audience.
By prioritising quality over quantity in your keyword strategy, you really can stand out in an overcrowded market.
Balance is the Key
Rather than giving in to the temptation of keyword stuffing, take a balanced approach to keyword usage. Here are a few strategies to keep in mind:
Keyword Research:
Do thorough research to find the keywords your audience is actively searching for.
Tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Ahrefs can help you find high-value keywords without overstuffing your content.
Keep it natural:
Incorporate keywords naturally within your content. Aim for a conversational tone that flows well and provides real value to the reader. This not only enhances user experience but also signals to search engines that your content is relevant and engaging.
Use Synonyms and Related Terms:
To avoid redundancy and enhance readability, use synonyms and related terms. This approach broadens your content’s appeal and can help capture a wider range of search queries without resorting to keyword stuffing.
Focus on Content Quality:
Prioritise creating high-quality content that addresses your audience’s needs and questions. Engaging, informative, and well-structured content is more likely to attract organic traffic and encourage shares, enhancing your overall SEO strategy.
While keywords play an essential role in SEO, keyword stuffing is an out-of-date practice that can harm your rankings and user experience. By focusing on creating valuable content that naturally incorporates keywords, you can improve your SEO efforts and ensure long-term success. Remember, it’s not just about getting to the top of search results; it’s about providing a meaningful experience for your audience. In the world of SEO, quality will always win over quantity.
Would you like to learn more about SEO? Click here.
originally posted to www.carnsight.com
There are many aspects to PR, and its fast pace can make it all the more difficult to understand. But there are certain aspects within PR, and getting to grips with the definitions can help you better communicate with your PR agency. When you know what exactly you’re trying to achieve, and what aspects of PR can help you achieve this, it becomes much easier to set long-term goals and objectives.
PR is all about managing communication. This means as times have changed and technology has developed, we’ve often found the landscape of PR changing to adapt to these different communication styles, leading to Traditional, Content and Digital. That doesn’t mean we have to dismiss the traditional methods, but it can be handy to know the PR updates and how you can implement this in your brand’s messaging.
Traditional PR
Traditional PR has always been around, and it’s become a long-established way to amplify a brand’s message. This uses print – such as newspapers, magazines and books – combined with press – such as TV and radio, to raise awareness for a company. This differs from the online networking that Digital PR focuses on, however that doesn’t mean it’s ineffective. In fact, combining Traditional and Digital PR can show great results in expanding your coverage.
Content PR
Content PR is a spin-off from content marketing, which uses social media to attract and retain a relationship with a brand’s audience. In the context of PR, this can include blogs and infographics to help build brand credibility and increase brand awareness. Whilst traditional press coverage is still very much important, the use of social media is increasingly gaining brand visibility, particularly for younger audiences. Content PR is therefore great for sending purposeful messages to your audience, but you need to consider your goals before deciding if social media is the best way to align with your objectives. And for more information on mastering success behind social media, you can check out Leigh-Ann’s blog on the importance of quality over quantity.
Digital PR
Digital PR also involves social media engagement, but the focus is mainly on boosting search engine rankings. This prioritises generating coverage and backlinks from websites with high domain authority, as well as maintaining that relationship with the brand’s audience. This all helps to improve a brand’s search engine optimisation (SEO), which increases organic traffic to the brand’s website, increasing its online visibility.
This may also include an influencer partnership, where a brand uses the influencer’s audience to amplify their message, creating wider reach and higher engagement.
Choosing the best PR strategy for your brand isn’t easy, but having more of an idea about the differences between traditional, content and digital PR can help inform you on what would work best for your audience. And if you’re stuck – that’s what we’re here for! Have a look at what we do to see how we can help you get noticed by the right audience, at the right time.
originally posted to www.carnsight.com
As Digital PR continues to be a success, more and more brands are looking to influencers to help amplify their message. This can be a highly effective way of building credibility, but you have to be careful. It’s always best to take your time when planning a collaboration, as a rushed partnership could associate your brand with someone who doesn’t actually align with your brand’s core values and messaging.
Here are our top tips for fostering creative collaborations:
Make sure the influencer collaboration aligns with your goals and audience.
Not every partnership would be beneficial for your brand’s message. If you want to promote a beauty product targeted at middle-aged women, then a young male influencer is going to create a disconnect. Make it clear what it is you actually want to achieve through a collaboration with an influencer. If you want a specific influencer, who has never done a product review on their socials, then the chances are they won’t promote your product either. However, that same influencer may be helpful in boosting your overall engagement, or increasing your brand awareness. But remember, define your goal before you pick your influencer; don’t pick an influencer and try to define a goal around them.
Research, research, research.
Your influencer won’t be a quick Google search away, so be prepared to dedicate time and resources to finding the perfect creative collaboration. Your research should be thorough: Is the influencer linked to any controversy that could negatively impact on your brand? What platform is the influencer most active on? Does this influencer align with your brand? Does this influencer’s audience align with your brand?
It’s also important to look back through their previous collaborations – do they seem like a genuine, trustworthy person? What was their engagement rate like on collaborations for previous companies? This is where follower count is not overly important, but more so how active their audience is. A smaller following with higher engagement will deliver better results than influencers with large but passive followings.
Show the influencer you’ve done your research.
There’s no point doing a deep dive into an influencer’s background just to send them a generic message. Tailor your message to show you understand the influencer’s content, audience and style. Be complimentary, but not overly eager! Just highlight what exactly it is you admire about their content, and how that aligns with your brand’s values. After you propose the partnership, make sure you explain the mutual benefit for both you and the influencer – they have to know what’s in it for them.
Some influencers may be hard to reach, especially with the rise of closed DMs. In some cases, it may be easier to find their agent, as their agent is more likely to have a visible email address.
After the creative collaboration is over, make sure to keep in touch. Maintaining relationships is key, and will save you much more time if a second collaboration rolls around. And if you want to track the success of the collab, have a look at Leigh-Ann’s blog on social media statistics, and what goal they are useful towards.
For more ideas, have a look at Modash, which gives a complete guide for collaborating with influencers.
originally posted to www.carnsight.com
Ask Gen Z what their favourite platform is, and the majority will say TikTok. It has been a prime source for entertainment across a wide variety of topics, hitting audiences far and wide. But in recent years, the digital landscape has evolved TikTok even further. In fact, the younger generation not only uses it for fun, but as a reliable source of news.
According to Emarketer, nearly 10% of Gen Z users now prefer TikTok over established search engines like Google when looking for information. What’s more, a big reason behind this growing popularity comes from the short-form video format. Instead of having to read through multiple websites, viewers can now watch a video tutorial to answer their questions.
Of course, this is not the death of Google. But it is something to think about, and optimising both Google and TikTok SEO could combine to give you great results.
How are they the same? How are they different?
Similarities:
When searching for specific content, the Google and TikTok algorithm are incredibly similar. As you type in a key word, the search engines will show you content that matches your keyword. Both search engines are also prioritised for mobile optimization, meaning they work great on our phones for accessible and user-friendly content consumption.
As powerful search engines, both TikTok and Google have a significant influence on consumer behaviour, and both are essential tools for maximising your brand’s visibility.
Differences:
Despite both search engines covering a wide variety of topics, Google is relied upon for its more comprehensive and accurate information. It can provide in-depth research, academic resources, and multiple different source materials. For TikTok, the video format is prioritised, but it is yet to go beyond that.
However, TikTok has a highly personalised algorithm, thanks to the invention of the ‘For You Page’. This shows you content aligned with your particular interests, meaning TikTok can function not only as a search engine, but also as a discovery tool. As Wordstream puts it: “TikTok promotes passive discovery, prioritizing each user’s behaviour to guide it. Google focuses on active discovery since you have to tell it what you want before it shows you anything.” Keeping this in mind can be essential for your strategy: what do you want people to search for, and what do you want them to stumble across?
How to improve TikTok SEO
If you’re new to TikTok – don’t panic! It is a rapidly growing platform, but it seems it’s here to stay, so it’s definitely not too late to start implementing it into your social media strategy. A lot of tips to help your algorithm will be similar to other platforms like Instagram, such as careful use of hashtags, concise captions, and clear CTAs. However, with TikTok you have the opportunity to incorporate audio, and using trending sounds to compliment your content can boost engagement. A lot of people also choose to watch TikTok’s on mute, so make sure to include text and subtitles so people don’t just scroll past. Regularly monitoring analytics will tell you your best posting time, and you can check Leigh-Ann’s statistics blog to find out more.
So no, TikTok is not the new Google, and it is in no way a direct replacement for Google. However, it isn’t something to ignore. If you want to maximise your brand’s visibility, consider aligning your TikTok SEO strategy with your Google SEO strategy. Combining TikTok’s short-form video content with Google’s comprehensive and reliable information is a sure-fire way to reach more audiences.
And if you’re looking to maximise your content even further, have a look at our repurposing content tips.
In today’s social world, AI creeps up on everything. It’s great for maximizing efficiency, but when over-relied on it can make your content feel impersonal. And with so much technology being thrown at content, we often forget to reveal who is behind the brand and what they stand for.
So let this be your reminder: human-driven content is the best content you can make. The use of AI was a new, exciting thing a few years ago, and naturally people took it to level up the quality and professionalism behind their content. Things took on a sleeker, polished aesthetic. And whilst this was effective for a while, now that people are accustomed to technology it’s starting to fall flat.
And why? Because it’s not human. Whilst technology is great for crafting that perfect look, you’re delivering it to an imperfect audience. The message is no longer resonating because it’s not a message your audience finds relatable. It’s easy to get carried away with AI in your content – we don’t blame you! But here are some tips for ensuring your content, particularly your social media presence, stays authentic and personal:
People connect with people – not robots.
When you use AI for writing all your copy, or crafting all your visuals, it becomes something people can’t naturally align with. Even if your paragraph seems personable and friendly, one word can throw the whole copy off. If it’s not a word people would use in a conversation in real life, it won’t be a word they’d use on social media. So, if you do need some help from AI software, make sure this is heavily looked over and refined.
Let people see who’s behind the content.
Again, human-driven content is all about connecting with people, so don’t be afraid to introduce yourself. Examples such as ‘Founder Spotlight’ and ‘Q&A videos’ can be great for this – it reminds people there is a person, just like them, behind the business.
Honesty is key.
Whilst scripts can be handy when making video content, a lot of times it can feel staged and over-rehearsed. It’s completely normal to prepare for a talking video, but no one speaks perfectly. There’s been a big increase in people sharing bloopers, or showing they get their words wrong. And that’s great! It doesn’t look unprofessional to make a mistake – it looks human.
Don’t spam your audience with content.
The beauty of human-driven content is that it is well-crafted and thought out, with its audience in mind. When we use AI, we can produce content much quicker, but this doesn’t mean you need to increase the number of posts you make. You don’t want to flood your audience with multiple different messages a week. It may not expand your reach, but actually deter people away. If it starts to feel like spam, people will unsubscribe.
It doesn’t end after you hit post.
A lot of times creators spend ages on human-driven content, only to barely interact with it when it’s out there. You have to keep engaging with your community, reminding them that you’re there. Make sure to interact with others’ content as well! This could be starting conversations in comments, liking or even sharing their work. Either way, people will start to notice.
Overall, it’s so important to stay committed to authenticity. When you relate to your audience, you can’t go much wrong.
Human-driven content is not limited to social media, but also interacts with PR. To learn more about honesty in PR, check out Leigh-Ann’s blog: Why you should spill the beans to your PR agency.
originally posted to www.carnsight.com
Understanding the ups and downs of social media metrics
One of the most important lessons in social media management is understanding that not every metric will show continuous upward growth. There will always be ups and downs—fluctuations that reflect the natural ebb and flow of audience behaviour, content performance, and market trends. It’s essential not to expect green across the board every month, and if you do, it’s worth questioning whether your growth is truly organic and sustainable.
The pitfalls of artificial growth
Quick growth strategies like giveaways and competitions can indeed give your social media metrics a smile-inducing boost. It’s exciting to see a sudden spike in followers, likes, or shares, and these tactics can create a temporary buzz around your brand. However, it’s crucial to recognize that this kind of growth often presents a false impression of long-term success.
Giveaways and competitions attract participants who are more interested in winning a prize than in engaging with your brand. As a result, while these strategies can inflate your numbers in the short term, they don’t necessarily build a loyal, engaged audience. Once the excitement dies down, you may notice a drop-off in engagement, with many new followers becoming inactive or unfollowing altogether. This cycle can lead to peaks and troughs in your social media performance, making it harder to gauge the true effectiveness of your content strategy.
Focusing on sustainable growth
Sustainable growth is the foundation of a successful social media strategy. This means prioritising quality over quantity—focusing on attracting followers who are genuinely interested in your brand and likely to engage with your content over the long term. Instead of relying on quick fixes, invest in creating valuable, relevant content that resonates with your target audience.
Engage with your followers regularly, respond to their comments, and build relationships that encourage loyalty. Sustainable growth may not be as immediately gratifying as a quick spike in numbers, but it leads to a more engaged and active community, which is far more valuable in the long run.
Evaluating your social media success
When reviewing your social media metrics, it’s important to take a holistic view. A dip in one area doesn’t necessarily indicate failure; it might reflect a shift in strategy, audience behaviour, or even seasonal trends. The key is to focus on long-term trends rather than short-term fluctuations. Regularly check your analytics, but understand that sustainable, organic growth is a marathon, not a sprint.
If you do see continuous, unbroken growth, it’s worth scrutinising the factors driving it. Is your content genuinely resonating with your audience, or are you relying on tactics that might not be sustainable? The ultimate goal is to build a social media presence that not only looks good on paper but also drives meaningful engagement and supports your broader business objectives.
The long game in social media success
It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of quick wins and impressive metrics. However, true success comes from playing the long game—focusing on sustainable growth, understanding the natural ups and downs, and consistently delivering value to your audience. By recognising the limits of quick growth strategies and investing in a solid, data-driven approach, you can build a social media presence that’s not just momentarily successful, but enduringly impactful.
Learn more about our approach to social media management and the value of continuous optimisation.
originally posted to www.carnsight.com
An effective social media strategy isn’t set in stone. It’s a living, breathing entity that requires constant attention and refinement. Social media doesn’t exist in a vacuum, either.
It’s part of bigger social and media landscapes that are subject to change daily, if not hourly. Content trends, user interactions, tech updates and changes to platform affordances, news cycles, global events – all of these things (among many others) can and do affect the way these apps work, and the level of success you can find on them. Keeping your finger on the pulse is a must. Paying attention to the landscape itself, and also how your content and interactions perform within this space, and are mediated by it.
Hence, our approach is rooted in continuous optimisation, where we regularly monitor social media analytics, extract performance insights, and adapt our content strategy in real time. That means we don’t sit around waiting for the monthly review to roll around to take a look at what’s working and what’s not. But what does this really mean, and why is it so crucial for success on social media?
Why continuous optimisation matters for social media success
Like I said in the beginning – the social media landscape is dynamic, with algorithms shifting, audience behaviours evolving, and trends emerging at lightning speed. Waiting until the end of the month to review performance metrics is like trying to steer a ship by looking at a map once a month—you’re bound to miss crucial turns and adjustments, and probably won’t end up at your desired destination.
Instead, we believe in keeping our finger on the pulse, making data-driven decisions on a weekly or even daily basis. This agile approach ensures that your content is always resonating with your audience and staying ahead of the curve. If you’re pumping out content that your audience isn’t engaging with, or is pushing back on, then it’s important to stop and look at the reasons why. Is it simply the wrong time? Is there a disconnect with the form/medium? Have you overcomplicated a graphic? Or not gone into enough detail, with a bland and uninteresting post?
Turning social media analytics into action
The beauty of social media analytics lies in their ability to provide real-time feedback. We don’t just collect data; we act on it, and we don’t just act on it every now and then. By continually reviewing metrics like engagement rates, click-throughs, and audience growth, we can quickly identify what’s working and what’s not. If a particular type of post is outperforming others, we’ll double down on that approach. Conversely, if something isn’t landing, we’ll pivot immediately rather than waiting for the monthly review. This proactive mindset allows us to maximise the effectiveness of your social media efforts, ensuring that your audience is always receiving the content they actually want to engage with.
Social media success is more than numbers
Depending on your objectives, that is – but a good, holistic objective will always go deeper than surface-level stats.
You want 50 comments a month? Why? What about? How does this link to your bigger-picture objectives? 50 comments might be pretty worthless if they’re spam. Sure, they at least show your community is engaging with you, but is it the right kind of engagement? The right kind of community? Is it connected to the broader action you want them to take or the change in thought/motivation/behaviour your hope to incite? All things to think about (which we do, and can help you do to 😉).
Interrogate what you want the end result to be – and please, please think about the bigger picture. Actions, metrics, objectives, social accounts and content – it’s all connected. And that’s how you need to be thinking of it. No post exists in isolation, no action is made without a broader impact. So understand where its place is in the wider picture of your business, and what you want to achieve. Break down the overarching objective into smaller objectives, and keep going until you’ve worked back to your initial metric. Now you understand how it fits in, and you’ve ensured it’s relevant and meaningful.
Social media success isn’t just about chasing likes and shares.
While it’s essential to give your audience what they want, it’s equally important to ensure that your content aligns with your broader brand goals. This balance is where our expertise shines. We craft content strategies that not only appeal to your audience but also serve your business objectives – whether that’s driving website traffic, generating leads, or building brand awareness. Sometimes, a post that generates moderate engagement may still be a success if it drives significant traffic to a new product page. It’s all about understanding the bigger picture.
Sometimes big numbers aren’t as valuable as you may think. Interrogate the value of your objectives – of course, reaching thousands of eyes is great. But are they the right eyes? If your post goes viral, it’s great for visibility and meeting new audiences. But if you discount the value of reaching targeted audiences – the people who are actually interested in your business, who your content is actually relevant to and who are more likely to convert into a lead/customer/advocate, then what do you put more stock in? It’s all a balance – pursuing one object doesn’t discount the other, but it’s important to understand this when thinking about what success on social media looks like to you and your business.
The benefit of adaptability in social media management
The key takeaway from our approach to social media management is adaptability. In a digital landscape that’s always in flux, the brands that thrive are the ones that can quickly adjust to new realities. We continuously analyse formats, messages, and strategies, fine-tuning our approach based on what the data tells us. This continuous cycle of testing, learning, and optimising ensures that your social media presence remains vibrant, relevant, and effective.
There will likely always be ups and downs – you shouldn’t expect to see green on every stat, every month, and if you do – question whether your growth is organic and sustainable. Quick growth strategies like giveaways and competitions are an easy way to give your metrics a smile-inducing boost, but it often gives a false impression and it doesn’t often last.
Crafting a dynamic social media presence
Successful social media management is about more than just posting content—it’s about building a dynamic presence that evolves with your audience and the market. By embracing continuous optimisation, we ensure that your social media channels are not only engaging but also strategically aligned with your business goals. We’re not just reacting to trends; we’re actively shaping them to deliver maximum value for your brand.
Let us help you transform your social media strategy into a powerful, realistic, and sustainable tool for growth. With Carnsight’s approach to continuous optimisation, your social platforms won’t just survive – they’ll thrive.
Learn more about our approach to social media management and the natural fluctuations of metrics to expect.
originally posted to www.carnsight.com
When it comes to social media, there are a lot of brands and businesses we speak to that think the best way to see success is to post multiple times a day, every single day, across every possible social media platform. But this isn’t the way to go.
Why?
Well, because of exactly that: Why? Why are you doing that? What are you actually gaining from it? Is this way of posting helping you reach and engage the right people? Or rather is it overwhelming your audience with content, pushing the same sales messages over and over and over?
I’d make a guess on it being the latter.
Social media in 2024 is about quality over quantity. If you want to succeed, you need to think about the purpose of every post and how it’s driving your overall goals and objectives. You also need to ask yourself if you really need to post at the volume you’re pushing currently, or if you only feel that you do.
Here are our top tips for ensuring quality over quantity when it comes to your social media content.
- Choose your platform(s) carefully – Do you really need to be on Threads? Or FaceBook? Or TikTok? Ask yourself, where are the people I actually want to reach? Go there. You don’t have to be everywhere.
- Be guided by the analytics where logical – Assess what types of content perform well and do make more of that. When you post three or four times a day, do you actually see results reflected in the stats? Think critically about your approach.
- Focus on the relevant analytics – See our blog all about what the social stats actually mean in order to ensure you’re measuring the correct metrics for your specific goals.
- Assess the purpose of each post you draft and ensure it leads back to one of your goals – Don’t post for the sake of posting. What is each piece of content aiming to do? Build your likability as a brand? Educate your audience? Push a service? Do you have a balance of all these across your content?
- Remember the 80/20 rule – 80% of your social media content should give to your audience (educational or entertaining etc), only 20% should be self promotional.
To see how we use social media at Carnsight, you can check out our Instagram and LinkedIn.
We hope this quick blog helped you assess your current social media output. Now go forth and make every social media post count.
originally posted to www.carnsight.com
It’s all good and well looking over your social media analytics, but if you don’t understand them then you might as well not be tracking at all. It’s important to know what each stat represents and what goal they are useful towards.
So, without further ado, here’s a basic breakdown of some of the common stats tracked on social media. Social media stats 101 if you will!
Engagement Rate: Fostering Community and Loyalty
Why It Matters: Engagement rate, which includes likes, comments, shares, and other interactions, measures how actively your audience is interacting with your content.
Goals: High engagement means that you’re posting content that really resonates with your audience, fostering a sense of community and loyalty. Engagement is essential for building relationships and encouraging positive word-of-mouth interactions. Businesses aim for high engagement to cultivate a dedicated following and to enhance brand visibility through organic reach.
Reach and Impressions: Expanding Visibility
Why It Matters: Reach refers to the number of unique users who have seen your content, while impressions count the total number of times your content is displayed, regardless of clicks.
Goals: These metrics are crucial for understanding the scope of your content’s visibility. A broad reach and high number of impressions mean that your message is being seen by a wide audience, helping with brand awareness and recognition. Businesses track these stats to ensure their content is getting in front of as many people as possible.
Click-Through Rate (CTR): Driving Traffic
Why It Matters: CTR measures how often people click on the links in your posts, leading them to your website.
Goals: A high CTR shows that your content is compelling and effectively driving traffic to your site. Businesses aim to optimize their CTR to convert social media engagement into something actionable, such as website visits or product purchases.
Conversion Rate: Achieving Business Objectives
Why It Matters: Conversion rate tracks the percentage of social media interactions that result in a desired action, such as making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or downloading a resource.
Goals: This metric is directly tied to the return on investment (ROI) of your social media efforts. A high conversion rate means that your social media strategies are effectively turning interactions into tangible business results.
Follower Growth Rate: Building an Audience
Why It Matters: This statistic measures the rate at which your social media following is growing over time. It’s the stat most people seem to hone in on, but it’s not always what you want to focus on.
Goals: A steady growth rate indicates that your content is attracting new followers, expanding your audience base. It’s vital for long-term success, as a growing audience means more potential customers and increased brand influence. Businesses monitor follower growth to assess the effectiveness of their content.
It all comes down to the fact that each social media statistic serves a unique purpose and aligns with specific business goals. By properly understanding these metrics, businesses can craft effective social media strategies that work towards their specific objectives.
Want to learn more about Social Media? Have a look at Laura’s Day in the Life to understand the typical roles of a Social Media Manager.
