Meta, the parent company behind Instagram, has recently announced that starting in February, the shopping tab will be removed from Instagram’s navigation bar. This change to the social media platform will alter the way that users are able to access the commerce capabilities of the app. It will also impact businesses, specifically smaller businesses, who have adapted their marketing strategy to rely on this feature.

Over the last year, Instagram has made several changes to its social commerce features. For example, in April the company expanded the product tagging option so it could be used by everyone, and then in May the company celebrated the anniversary of the new in-app shopping feature with a pop-up event. In July, Instagram launched a new feature allowing companies and consumers to complete transactions using the direct messaging feature on the platform, and in August Facebook shut down their live shopping capabilities. According to Meta, the behavior patterns of consumers showed that many users preferred to see short-form video content on the platform, such as Reels, over making purchases. Meta stated that the Shop tab on Facebook would be replaced with the Reels tab, while the button for creating and sharing content would be returning to the center of the platform’s navigation bar. 

Social media metrics are essential for companies to track as they help businesses understand the performance of their social media efforts. However, between things like engagement percentages and follower counts, it’s not always easy for companies to figure out which metrics are the most relevant for their business. Although not every metric is going to be important for every business to stay on top of to understand its social media performance, there are a few basic ones that every business should understand and pay attention to, based on the goals that the company wants to achieve.

The engagement rate is a metric that companies can use to track how engaged the audience is with the content that the company is, and how effective social media campaigns truly are, as high engagement generally means a lot of audience interactions.. Each social media platform has metrics that show the engagement rate, which is a sum of a variety of smaller audience engagements, including things like likes, shares, or comments. Looking at engagement rates by post can show companies the types of content its audience finds interesting, however, it’s important for companies to look at a variety of factors that could impact engagement such as time and date of posting or if a post is a giveaway etc..

Most companies already understand that TikTok is hugely popular with a younger generation and is growing in popularity across all age ranges, and it’s time for businesses that haven’t gotten on board to start doing so if they’re looking to reach their audiences where they are. Out of all the social media platforms available to companies these days, the unique functionality and culture on TikTok has made the platform one of the most challenging social media channels in terms of content creation for many businesses. Fortunately, for companies looking to start establishing a presence on TikTok, influencer partnerships can be a great way to begin.

Companies understand how difficult it’s become to reach their target audiences by only relying on advertising campaigns. Additionally, with the increased distrust of advertising campaigns from consumers, a lot of them have started utilizing ad blockers at an increased rate, and outright ignoring the ads that they come across on social media platforms, which has generated a decline in the effectiveness of these types of campaigns. Additionally, companies are not made to create the type of authentic content that the younger generations of consumers are looking to engage with, which is why many have decided to create partnerships with influencers that are good at creating that type of content. That means if a company wants to reach its target audiences on TikTok, it should let the local users of the platform speak on the behalf of the company. Although this concept is true for influencer marketing campaigns, no matter the target audience or social media platform, it’s especially true for TikTok because of the unique audience demographics and culture on the platform.

There are different types of emails that companies can send out to their email subscribers to get them to take a step into the next stage of the buying journey. It’s important for companies to utilize the right types of emails so that they don’t potentially end up confusing their email subscribers, or in the worst-case scenario, completely irritate them to the point where they no longer want to do business with the company.

The first type of email that companies can send out to their email subscribers is the one that the business will have to send out whenever a person subscribes to the newsletter for the first time. This is known as a welcome or a “getting started” email, which is designed to get the subscriber to start interacting with the email as soon as possible in a way that will feel natural to that subscriber. That means companies will have to make sure that they welcome the new email subscriber to the newsletter, and then encourage them to click through some of the content and learn more about the company or its solutions. A great way for companies to make sure that the new subscriber stays engaged is by providing them with a small discount that they can use for their first purchase after they have subscribed.

Companies that want to increase the number of subscribers that they have to their email newsletters can turn their followers from Facebook into email subscribers with the right strategies. There are a few different ways that companies can use Facebook to generate more email subscriptions and improve their email marketing efforts.

The first way that companies can get their Facebook followers to convert into email newsletter subscribers is by setting up an action button on the Facebook business page of the company where the followers will get to sign up for the company’s newsletter. The action button on the Facebook business page is relatively easy for companies to set up, as long as the company is using the new Pages experience. All it takes is selecting the option for the action button regarding how people will engage with the company’s Facebook business page and then inputting the email sign-up form URL. From there, anyone that visits the company’s Facebook business page will easily be able to subscribe to the company’s email newsletter. Then, companies can also create paid or organic content that will motivate potential subscribers to follow through with the call to action and generate more sign-ups on the platform as well. 

One of the great things about using Instagram as a business is the ability for companies to generate sales directly on the platform.  Here, we look at various ways that companies can use Instagram for sales. 

Providing potential customers with a discount is a great way for companies to incentivize potential customers that are still on the fence and haven’t decided whether or not they should make a purchase. Most of the time, companies tend to develop landing pages with different types of promo codes, discounts, or coupons for seasonal events, or specifically for email newsletter subscribers. However, what many companies end up overlooking is the fact that they can share the same promo codes or discounts with the followers on their Instagram accounts, by linking to the landing pages inside the Link section of the company’s account. Then, in the bio section, companies can add a short call to action that is going to highlight the link for any potential consumers that visit the company’s profile on the platform. Right now, the platform is also testing out an option for accounts to start adding multiple links to this section of the bio, which means if a company has access to that new feature, companies can link both to their promotional offers, as well as any other resources that they’re promoting at any point in time. 

Although plenty of people still think that TikTok is the go-to video platform for singing and dancing, the platform has grown over the last couple of years to encompass every type of content and community on the internet. Not only that, but the platform itself has been working on introducing brand new features that can help companies directly connect with their target audiences a lot more effectively. So, what should a company know as they are looking to begin marketing on TikTok? 

The growth of TikTok 

It’s no surprise that most of the content that people consume online these days is visual, whether that’s going to be photos and images, videos, or infographics, so it should be no surprise that companies that want to generate more attention and loyalty need to create memorable visual content for their audiences The good news is that, today, creating this content is much easier than it used to be, given the advancement in both hardware (phones, microphones and video cameras) and editing software to help with post production. Plus, the consumer has changed and while audiences still engage with high-value production, on certain platforms they are accustomed to, and even primed, for low-production, short-form content. This continues to be evident on Instagram, where companies can share in-feed posts, stories or Reels to great effect. Here, we explore how companies can effectively connect with target audiences on Instagram.

One of the best product updates for companies that Instagram has rolled out in recent years is shoppable content. With shoppable content companies can generate sales directly from their Instagram accounts, whether through in-feed posts, Instagram stories or Reels. This can be done through links to product pages on the company’s ecommerce site, or by tagging a video or Reel with product stickers that allow the audience to learn more about the product and purchase it directly within the platform. Additionally, shoppable content can be used by the brand directly, as well as in their influencer marketing – where influencers can tag products with links to shop or stickers to purchase directly.  When using shoppable content, it’s important for companies to set up the proper tracking through UTMs or in the product catalog on Instagram so that the company can see what is working on the platform directly, as they may find distinctions in how their audience shops on Instagram vs. other platforms and should adjust their strategy accordingly.