Sprout Social’s 2021 Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Report

Since we first embarked on our journey with Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), our efforts have led to a team who not only understands the importance of DEI, but who see it as an essential aspect of who we are as a company.

Fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace environment is only possible when every team member is on board. And over the past year, we took a deeper look at the way our team experiences DEI at Sprout. What we found was a need to accelerate our efforts and refine our strategy so it can scale alongside us as we continue to grow. In this year’s DEI report, we share the current state of our demographic makeup along with key learnings and our goals for the future. 

Our mission is to build upon our foundation and scale our efforts so that everyone at Sprout is empowered to make DEI a part of their daily lives. By sharing our data, reflections and future plans, we recommit ourselves to championing this important work while driving further accountability and ownership of DEI across the entire organization.

We look forward to what’s ahead and want to thank our team for their unwavering dedication. To learn more, read the report and our goals for evolving DEI at Sprout in the years ahead.

Read the Report

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Buy or Connect a Custom Domain to Make Your Landing Page Professional in Minutes

Setting up a landing page is one of the fastest ways to create a web presence. All you have to do is pick a pre-designed template, then add your logo, business details, and contact information. Click publish and your page is live!

But the URL of your page will look like this:

https://ift.tt/2UXPSye...

It’s not the most shareable or professional link to use for your business.

But there’s good news: You can now buy a custom domain — like examplebusiness.com — directly from your AWeber dashboard! Then, the domain will be immediately available for you to use on one or all of your landing pages.

Do you already own a domain through IONOS, GoDaddy, or Google Domains? Connect it in seconds and set up your landing page on your domain or a subdomain. (If your domain is on another provider, you can still set this up, it just takes a little longer.)

But first, what is a domain?

A domain, sometimes called a domain name, is the text you type into a browser to access a website. For example, google.com, yahoo.com, mcdonalds.com. Although the actual address of these websites is technical, you can use the easy-to-remember domain to access the websites.

It’s very easy for you to set up a custom domain for your website or landing page, too! They are generally quite affordable and can be bought through a “domain registrar” like IONOS, GoDaddy, or Google Domains. 

Now, you can actually buy using Google Domains directly inside your AWeber account, and connect it to your landing page in about 30 seconds.

Why should I buy a domain for my business?

A lot of marketing is about branding. The name of your business carries the reputation you’ve built for it — professional, friendly, dependable, or more subtle details, specific to you.

Just like having your name on the front door (if you have one), your business cards, and in your email signature, you should have an easy-to-remember domain that represents your brand, too.

Buying and connecting domains to your website has become easier and easier to do. The fact that you can now buy one directly from AWeber proves that! There’s no downside to getting one set up.

How to buy a domain through AWeber

1.

Sign into your account and click on your name in the lower left corner, then “My Account” and “Domains and Addresses.”

2. You’ll see an option to add your domain or buy one from Google Domains:

3. Click on “Get one now from Google Domains”  and you’ll be redirected to a page where you can choose a domain. 

Note: I recommend something simple that includes your business name and nothing else. For example, if I had a coffee shop called Coffee Under the Trees, I’d search for coffeeunderthetrees.com. Google Domains will give you some domain insights, too.

4. When you find a domain you like, click Buy. As you can see, most domains will be around $12 a year. Go through the purchase process and you’ll be redirected back to your AWeber dashboard with the domain already connected!

Now we need to attach your connected domain to your landing page. 

5. Navigate to the landing page you want to connect this domain to. Click on Settings for the page and then Landing Page URL. You’ll see an option for Custom Domain, with the domain you connected available. Choose it, publish the page, and your landing page is ready to be a website.

How to connect my existing domain in 30 seconds

If you originally bought your domain with IONOS, GoDaddy, or Google Domains registrars, you can connect your domain really easily within AWeber, using our domain connect feature.

Instead of clicking to purchase a new domain, add yours in the field below Add a New Domain:

You’ll see a page that confirms you’d like to connect your domain:

Click Connect Automatically with GoDaddy (or IONOS or Google Domains) to connect your domain. Sign into your registrar’s account, and then click Connect again.

You’ll briefly see a success page, then you’ll be directed back to your AWeber account. It’ll take a couple of hours for the domain to process (which is the case on any platform) and then your domain will be ready to go!

What if I have a domain that’s not through IONOS, GoDaddy, or Google Domains?

We plan to add more domain registrars in the future. For now you can connect your domain the “good old fashioned way.” 

Check out this article that explains how to configure your custom domain for landing pages. And hey, while you’re adding DNS records, set up DKIM and SPF records for your domain, too.

Buy a domain today

Whether you’re looking to start up a web presence or create a new site for your side hustle or project, you can do so easily. Set up your domain in AWeber today or get started with a free account.

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Break the “just post this” habit: How the right social media mix enhances multichannel campaigns

Brands today have more options available than ever when launching multichannel marketing campaigns—which may be both a blessing and a curse, considering over half of marketing leaders say they struggle to effectively execute them.

The benefits of multichannel marketing are clear. It creates more opportunities to:

• Expand brand awareness.
• Reach prospects and returning customers.
• Generate qualified leads.
• Tailor content to each specific channel and audience while also maintaining a coordinated strategy.
• Maximize marketing ROI.

But just because you show up on multiple channels, does not guarantee a successful multichannel campaign—especially if your social media team was left out of the planning phase.

According to the latest Sprout Social Index™, 86% of marketers believe social media influences their bottom line. However, social teams are still frequently left in the dark about larger marketing campaigns until late in the game.

A social media manager’s job is to provide expertise, build strategy, craft engaging platform-specific content, and decide if that content fits into the current overall conversation on social media–not to just blindly post when someone says “post this.”

— Jon-Stephen Stansel (@jsstansel) August 3, 2021

Instead, social marketers need to be brought into conversations early and often to support cohesive multichannel marketing.

3 reasons to include social teams in multichannel campaign planning

1. Social data can strengthen your campaign strategies

The best multichannel marketers know where their target customers are, why and what kinds of content resonates in each place. Social marketers are inherently multichannel marketers as they strategize, publish and engage on several social networks at a time. As a result, they have a direct view into customer preferences thanks to social data.

When social teams are brought into multichannel campaigns from the start, they bring data to the table that can refine your campaign goals and personas, inform your messaging and dictate which channels you show up on.

Going forward, social media is expected to become organizations’ primary source of business intelligence. Tap that data source and the experts on it now to get ahead of the curve.

2. There’s more than one way to post on social

Just as audiences differ from network to network, so do the features and formats. Sending a last-minute request to “just post this” boxes social marketers in and may limit how they can promote a campaign. When the social team is in the loop from the beginning, they can plan a social media mix of posts, stories, long or short-form videos and other content that boosts the visibility, creativity and overall impact of a multichannel campaign.

Social networks also have specific dimensions and limitations for what you can and cannot post that non-social marketers may not be aware of. By taking a social-first approach to creative production, businesses can avoid pushback from their social teams, last-minute requests for resized assets and low performance.

Life of a social media manager:

Them: here's a great pic to post.

Me: It IS a great pic! But could you… um… retake it without the garbage and recycle bins in the foreground?

Them: You have a lot of rules.

— Heather Badenoch 💉💉 (@HeatherBadenoch) December 9, 2020

3. Social marketers are in tune with the voice of the culture

Social provides a view of culture at large. Breaking news, viral memes, hot takes, social justice movements and other trends constantly swirl around social, making social marketers cultural connoisseurs. By tuning into the voice of the culture, they can surface perspectives and provide insights that result in relevance and true business impact. Their ability to read the moment and consumers’ mindsets can also help businesses avoid social missteps.

Give yourself more credit than just intuition. If a sea captain has seen and analyzed 1 million waves, no one questions his directions to the helm. We've seen 1 million social posts. These two scenarios are different because … not much. Our 'seas' are plenty treacherous, too.

— Vince Golla (@vincegolla) November 20, 2019

Social listening, and listening to social marketers, gives businesses the power to reject assumptions about their customers or culture and instead use compelling, real-time insight to build multichannel campaigns.

Create a social media mix that complements other channel investments

Deploying a campaign on every channel possible is not only cost-prohibitive–it’s unnecessary. Marketing teams need to strike a balance between the channels that complement one another and the campaign at hand. How you determine that balance depends on your goals and, of course, your target audiences.

Let’s say you’re a direct-to-consumer, e-commerce brand looking to promote a new product launch with sights set on attracting prospects, qualified leads, web traffic and sales.

Together, marketers that specialize in email, paid search, digital advertising and social media can share expertise and data from past campaigns to decide which investments will be most effective.

Diversify content across platforms while maintaining your campaign identity

Once you’ve identified your channels of choice, marketers need to create a mix of content that is cohesive and tailored for audiences on each channel.

I do not recommend posting the exact same thing in every platform.

Each platform has its own nuances, accepted practices, vernacular … and you have use them to know them.

People can tell when you don’t.

— Jenny Li Fowler, 이경실 (@TheJennyLi) August 25, 2021

Spotify’s annual Wrapped campaign, which spans digital and traditional channels, gives customers a personalized review of their listening habits and the world at large a rundown of the year’s top songs, artists, playlists and more. It’s a master class in multichannel marketing.

Here are a few ways the streaming giant’s 2020 campaign built brand awareness, inspired customer loyalty, generated leads and compelled businesses to advertise on Spotify.

1. Email marketing and in-app notifications alerted Spotify users that “Your year in music is here.” The messaging is simple, direct, puts the focus on the customer and includes a CTA that drives right to the campaign landing page, where users have to sign in to gain access.
2. The colorful, personalized and interactive experience is optimized for social, encouraging users to share their Wrapped report with their networks. As a result, users spread brand awareness for Spotify and inspire enough FOMO among the have-nots to get them to sign up for the streaming service.

When everyone is posting their #2020Wrapped but you use Apple Music pic.twitter.com/jKzpHdJdPE

— Dezmon♓️ (@Dezpanther) December 2, 2020

3. In addition to social ads and UGC, Spotify used organic social content as an opportunity to hype the campaign before launch day and extend engagement after.

#2020Wrapped is coming, but there's still time to help your friends help their results… pic.twitter.com/wmaL0gdPiu

— Spotify (@Spotify) October 1, 2020

Fill in the #2020Wrapped blank:
"I was in the top 0.5% of listeners for ______."

— Spotify (@Spotify) December 2, 2020

4. Billboards were placed across the globe with streaming data and messages of gratitude to the artists, podcasts and playlists that got us through the year.

5. For Spotify users, the Wrapped campaign is all about their personal listening habits, but there’s another audience that this campaign intrigues–advertisers. In addition to the swell of Spotify users sharing their listening accomplishments, Spotify publishes a Wrapped report for advertisers that’s chock full of consumer data and insights and concludes with a lead generation form.

Spotify’s Wrapped campaign is a massive multichannel campaign. While your business might not be able to go quite as big, the takeaways here are transferable:

• Coordinate your strategy in collaboration with various marketing disciplines.
• Create an identity and core concept for your campaign that carries over from channel to channel.
• Customize messaging and content for the audience, features and goals of each channel.

Don’t overlook social data and social experts

The success of any campaign hinges on showing the ROI, which has long been a challenge for social marketers. However,  only 29% of marketers use social data to assess campaign performance. The other 71% are missing out.

A social media management tool like Sprout simplifies the process of measuring campaign performance and sharing analytics across teams. Marketers can use this social data, combined with insights from other channels, to test, learn and refine campaigns for maximum effectiveness.

Don’t just take the social data and run though. Giving social marketers a seat at the table to share their knowledge, ideas and creative vision are critical to the success of your multichannel campaigns, even when social is just one component.

Trust your social media manager.
Listen to your social media manager.
Give your social media manager a seat at the table.
Let your social media manager be a part of the decision making process.

Stop treating your social media manager as someone who just posts things.

— Amanda Shepherd (@missamander) February 5, 2021

If your next campaign is around the corner, prepare to launch with a social media campaign brief that empowers and aligns your team. Download this template to get started.

The post Break the “just post this” habit: How the right social media mix enhances multichannel campaigns appeared first on Sprout Social.

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‘OK Boomer:’ how a TikTok meme traces the rise of Gen Z political consciousness

The phrase “OK Boomer” has become popular over the past two years as an all-purpose retort with which young people dismiss their elders for being “old-fashioned”. “OK Boomer” began as a meme in TikTok videos, but our research shows the catchphrase has become much more. The simple two-word phrase is used to express personal politics and at the same time consolidate an awareness of intergenerational politics, in which Gen Z are coming to see themselves as a cohort with shared interests. What does ‘OK Boomer’ mean? The viral growth of the “OK Boomer” meme on social media can be traced…

This story continues at The Next Web

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Sprout Social named a strong performer among social suites by independent research firm

We’re excited to announce that Sprout Social was named a strong performer in The Forrester Wave™: Social Suites, Q3 2021 report. Forrester evaluated the nine most significant social suites across 36 criteria and gave Sprout the highest possible scores in 13 criteria including onboarding and account management, performance, and usability.

According to the report, “Sprout Social’s culture-first mindset drives its strong service and unified social suite. Sprout Social’s emphatic “culture as a business model” go-to-market approach translates into strong account management, employee retention, and overall customer satisfaction. This Chicago vendor has a singular focus on solving social media problems and perfecting its craft there.”

The report adds, “Foundational user experience, user management, and collaboration and workflow capabilities are Sprout Social’s strengths, culminating in unified dashboards and reporting. Expansion into social commerce is evident with a soon-to-be generally available Shopify integration in the Inbox module and an Instagram bio link-to-shop feature in the Publishing module.”

These features, while not generally available at the time that Forrester conducted its evaluation, are now available to all Sprout customers.

To us, the evaluation reflects Sprout’s unique values and strong understanding of what our customers need in order to succeed today and in the future. Our driving focus is to deliver powerful solutions to our customers, empowering them to make a real impact on their business. To do so, we have not only built an intuitive platform with critical data and insights, but we have also created a culture that invests in and deeply cares for our customers and employees. 

We believe our “culture-first mindset” has enabled us to deliver top-rated onboarding and account management while also attracting strong talent who continue to innovate Sprout’s platform to address digital transformation and an evolving market. 

According to recent research, 90% of executives agree that businesses are increasingly moving their e-commerce strategies to social media and that social media will soon become the primary communications channel for companies to connect with customers. Anticipating these trends, Sprout has built powerful capabilities for customer engagement and continues to make advancements to its platform to meet growing needs in social commerce. 

Access the report’s full analysis of Sprout Social here (available to Forrester subscribers and for purchase) and if you’re new to Sprout, get started with a free 30-day trial.

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7 ways to use social media for market research

As marketers, it’s our job to know our target audience’s needs and preferences. It’s why we conduct market research every year to better understand what our customers want and uncover new business opportunities.

But sometimes market research alone isn’t enough, especially when consumer preferences can change overnight. While focus groups are helpful to reference at the start of new product or campaign development, they’re less useful for gathering customer feedback once said post-launch. And annual surveys reveal little about what current events or trending topics are most relevant among consumers right now. To stay on top of the latest trends and maintain a more accurate pulse on your audience, you need to incorporate social media market research into your strategy.

What is social media market research?

Social media market research is the practice of gathering historical and real-time data from social media channels to better understand your brand’s target market. While it’s possible to conduct market research natively on social platforms, tools like Sprout Social enable you to collect and analyze information from all of your brand’s social accounts in one centralized platform.

Social media market research is also:

• Affordable. Social media is much cheaper than surveys or focus groups, which can cost thousands of dollars depending on the size and complexity of your research panel.
• Quick. While traditional market research methods can take time, social media is always updating in real-time and you can pull existing social data for immediate results.
• Comprehensive. With over 3.6 billion social users in 2020, there’s no shortage of data on social media and tools like social listening make it easy to analyze conversations and trends around your entire industry, not just your brand.

7 market research insights you can get from social media

According to the latest Sprout Social Index™, there are seven unique consumer insights marketers can gather from their brand’s social platforms to apply toward their strategies. Below, we’ll break down all seven social media market research examples and how to find this information on your brand’s social channels.

1. See how customers use your products or services

Tried @weareomsom tonight for the first time. It was delicious and pretty idiot proof.

Instructions:
1. Cook fish
2. Add sauce & cook more
3. Eat pic.twitter.com/6ZMmf7XsmA

— Greg Baroth (@gbaroth) July 12, 2021

Consumers aren’t shy about sharing how they use certain products and will rush to share their thoughts on social media. Omsom, a company that creates pantry shortcuts for specific Asian dishes, is regularly tagged in consumer reviews and photos of people’s home cooked meals. In one Tweet, a customer shares how they use Omsom to jazz up their leftovers while another attributes a successful dinner to the Asian pantry shortcut.

How to find this information: When customers want you to know something, they won’t hesitate to tag or mention your brand. Search for your brand and the name of your product on social platforms like Twitter or Instagram to learn how customers actually use your goods and services. Reddit is another treasure trove filled with conversations and communities relevant to your brand or products. And with a tool like Sprout Social, you can easily monitor those branded keywords and phrases to stay up to date with what customers have to say.

2. Learn what customers dislike about your brand

I don't like the way @netflix skips the credits.

— toastfundraiser (@ToastFundraiser) August 13, 2021

One guarantee of any social platform is you can always find someone who dislikes something about your brand, product or service. In the example above, an individual shares a specific feature that forces viewers to skip the end credits of a film or TV show. Even if they’re tough to digest, the negative comments can actually help brands identify areas for improvement to strengthen their offerings.

How to find this information: Truth be told, you probably don’t need to search too hard to find what people dislike about your brand or your products. Beyond searching for branded keywords and phrases, consider checking your social inbox for direct messages that contain constructive criticism. This is also a great opportunity for social teams to solicit feedback from sales or customer service teams who hear directly from customers about their likes and dislikes.

3. Discover what customers like about your brand

Even after spending 6 hours waiting to leave Pensacola, I still love @SouthwestAir. They’re the best airline, even in crisis mode!

— Dr. Erica M. Stone (she/her) (@ericamstone) August 16, 2021

As fast as people are to point out what they dislike about a brand, they’re just as quick to heap praise on the businesses they love. Travelers, for example, may have a favorite airline and are eager to share what makes them a frequent flier of one airline over another. For brands, this is also an opportunity to learn more about what attracts customers to your competitors. If you notice customers can’t stop praising the competition’s exceptional customer service on social, consider reevaluating your own service efforts to find potential opportunities for improvement.

How to find this information: There are several ways you can find positive feedback about your brand. You can search for branded keywords and phrases organically on social; you can also peruse the reviews section on platforms like Facebook, TripAdvisor and Google. In addition to monitoring the conversation around your brand, you should also keep a pulse on what consumers are saying about your competitors. With Sprout’s Listening tool, you can easily set up a competitive analysis report to better track and understand consumers’ attitudes toward the competition.

4. Gain insight into what customers expect from your brand in the future

Hint hint feature request @SproutSocial

— ✨ Brittnee ✨ (@BrittneeCoomer) August 3, 2021

Consumers frequently take to social to share what they want to see from brands in the future. A brick-and-mortar retailer might receive a request for a future store location while a coffee company might see comments asking for a specific roast or drink to come back on the menu. At Sprout, we often field Tweets from customers with new feature requests which we pass along to our product team for consideration down the road.

How to find this information: One place where you’re likely to find customer feedback is right in your inbox. With Sprout’s tagging capabilities, you can even label and sort messages by type as they come through, making it easy to pass along product requests to the appropriate teams. Another way to solicit feedback around what customers want to see from your brand is to simply ask. You’d be surprised how many people respond to a question published on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook with their thoughts and ideas.

5. See what trends customers are interested in

General Mills is trying to target my childhood nostalgia! There is Dunkaroos and Pokémon cereal now. pic.twitter.com/VWrYyt0cKp

— Lexi Birmingham (@LexiBirmWX) January 22, 2021

As volatile as they may be, trends have a significant impact on a brand’s social strategy and how they connect with their audience. Jumping on the right trending topic at the right time on social can be a jolt to brand awareness and customer engagement. Nostalgia marketing, for example, is a rising trend among consumers and big name brands like General Mills are capitalizing on people’s desire for a childhood throwback in their latest campaigns.

How to find this information: To quickly see what’s trending, check out the explore tab on platforms like Twitter and YouTube or use a tool like Google Trends to see what topics are gaining traction. You can also use Sprout’s listening tool to identify trends within your industry and topics most relevant to your customers. With listening, you can uncover keywords and terms most commonly used by your target audience and discover related topics frequently mentioned with any terms you’re currently tracking.

6. Get to know your customers on a personal level

soo Peloton, what milestones are we celebrating this week?

— Peloton (@onepeloton) July 5, 2021

The beauty of social media is it encourages two-way conversations between brands and their customers, giving brands an opportunity to get to know their audience on an individual level. Facebook communities, for example, provide consumers a space to get to know one another, celebrate personal milestones or share challenges. Peloton is known for curating massive communities where riders can find support and motivation from peers, while Peloton gets to learn a little more about the people who make up their audience.

How to find this information: To get to know your audience better, consider building out your community management strategy on platforms like Instagram or Reddit to stay connected with your customers. Give your customers a reason to engage with your brand by responding to their questions or posting topics for conversation. To help nurture those relationships with your audience further, Sprout’s social media engagement tools ensure you never miss a message from someone in your community.

7. Pinpoint what social content resonates with your audience

Which topic would you be most interested in seeing social listening insights about?

— Sprout Social (@SproutSocial) July 21, 2021

With millions (if not billions) of posts publishing on social daily, brands need to be strategic about what content they post in order to capture their audience’s attention. Take stock of your existing content to see what themes or content formats fuel your performance goals. If video in-feed posts garner more impressions than text posts and raising awareness is your top goal, consider investing more in video production. Or, if you want to drive conversation, look at what posts with high engagement (e.g., comments and shares) have in common. Finally, it never hurts to ask your audience directly what topics or social content they want to see from your brand in the future.

How to find this information: To find the content that resonates strongest with your audience, start by looking at the native analytics and data report tabs per social channel. Sprout’s Post Performance Report helps you break down the types of content you’ve published and identify which performed the best. For more granular insights, you can sort by impressions, engagement and clicks to determine what formats and themes are most effective on specific networks.

Better research starts with social

The best marketing campaigns are the ones that show a brand really gets its audience. When brands demonstrate they understand their customers’ wants and needs, they stand to strengthen their bottom line and develop customers for life.

Thanks to social media marketing research, brands have access to fast and reliable insights that deepen their understanding of what makes their audience tick. From identifying new opportunities to improving customer relationships, data from social empowers brands to make smarter decisions that contribute to their business goals.

Ready to turn your social data into valuable insights about your industry and customers? Download this worksheet to learn how to conduct quick and valuable market research in under 90 minutes.

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Accept Payments in 100+ Currencies with AWeber Ecommerce

At AWeber, we’re proud to be an international company helping customers connect with their audiences around the world. So we’re excited to announce that you can now accept payments on your landing pages in over 100 currencies.

Why did we add 100+ currencies?

This is one of the most requested features since we launched our ecommerce landing page builder earlier this year. We are so glad we can now offer full payment options to business owners around the globe.

Dealing with conversion rates can result in lost money and time. With 100+ currencies now available, businesses outside of the United States can save time spent with less conversion math, save money that could be lost in market fluctuations, and face one less factor in price decision making.

New currencies could open up your international market

Selling products in multiple currencies is an opportunity for every business. Think about it: You can now offer digital products like courses, ebooks, or paid newsletters internationally without requesting that your customers do price math. 

Plus, showing your customers prices in their currency lets them know your services are available and useful for them.

Selling across borders increases the number of prospective customers you can reach. If you’re a specialist, you can market to and reach those with niche needs —  worldwide.

How can you expand your marketing to capture the international market? Well, you could simply add a secondary pricing button to your current landing page. Or create a new page by copying your existing landing page and updating the payment button’s currency and other location-specific information or languages.

How do I change currency on my sales pages?

1. Log into your account, then head to landing pages. 

2. Click on the landing page you want to update or create a new one and choose a template.

3. Add an ecommerce button from the element panel on the left of the screen, and click on it to choose your settings.

4. When you set up a product, you may already have available products in your currency. If not, create a new one.

5. Below Name and Payment Type and next to Price, you’ll now see a Currency option. Scroll or begin to search for the 3 digit currency code. For example, GBP, AUD, CAD, etc. Choose yours, and your payment will update automatically.

That’s it! Finish setting up your button and page, then click publish and start promoting it.

A full list of the currencies available are here on Stripe’s page.

How do you plan to use currencies in your business?

We’re curious: Is this a feature you’ve been dying to hear about? Are you thinking of new ways to implement currencies in your sales strategy? Create or update a landing page and let us know what you did in the comments.

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13 ways to use Instagram for small business

By now, you’ve seen the power of Instagram. From customer complaints to a product going viral, the platform offers many features for small businesses, leveling the proverbial digital playing field between small and large businesses. But because it’s been around for a while, there’s loads of information available to you on how brands can use it. In this guide, we break down how to use Instagram for your small business from taking advantage of the platform’s features to specific ideas on how to increase your digital footprint.

Why should you use Instagram for your small business?

When your presence properly planned and managed, Instagram offers a wide set of advantages to small businesses. If you’re using the platform as a marketing outlet, then you need a documented Instagram marketing strategy. Yes, even if it’s only you running the account. According to Instagram’s own study, 81% of users said that Instagram helps them research products and services. You don’t want to miss out on a whole set of customers just because you’re not active on the network. Read on for tips to maximize small business accounts on Instagram.

1. Basics: Set up your profile

You might roll your eyes at this but it’s a necessary reminder. Once you’re set up as a business account, take a moment to comb through your Instagram profile. New features and settings are changed all the time, sometimes without notice. It doesn’t hurt to check if you’ve got some new features to try out. Other standard essential business profile items to consider include updating the business categories, hours, location(s), a contact method and linking any service or product catalogs. While you’re over here, check and make sure your profile elements, such as your bio and profile picture, are in line with your general social media branding.

2. Optimize your link in bio

Social media managers have gotten creative on how to take full advantage of the single link field that Instagram offers. It’s become common to refer to your  “link in bio” in posts, and use this link to serve up a landing page with a mix of recent content and evergreen links to your most important product and service pages. If your business is one that shares links, has multiple links you want to provide to customers, has multiple offerings or all of the above, then the landing page approach is for you. There are several tools that let you create a link in bio landing page. Sprout Social’s SproutLink makes setting one up easy by offering a landing page that replicates your grid and provides clickable links for each post to highlight and drive traffic to your most important content. Plus, you can stay within Sprout’s Instagram publishing workflow to optimize and schedule the rest of your content. Just like you want to set up your profile with essential business information, small businesses should share the most important information with customers via link in bio.

3. Geotag your posts

When you post from your small business physical location, add the location name to the post. If you didn’t do this when posting before, you can scroll into past posts and edit them. What does geotagging do? Instagram compiles all of the posts tagged at that location, sorting them into top and recent. Your brand photos live among customer photos. The “View Information” towards the top links to information about the tagged business. All of this adds up to brand awareness and helps customers research your business. Don’t know what to order at a restaurant? Just browse the most recent photos and see what people recommend.

4. Use the save post feature

This strategy is not public-facing but could be useful for boosting your small business’s Instagram content strategy. Instagram offers the ability to “save” a post and sort them into a collection for you to view later. While it is not necessary to create collections, it’s advisable. There are many ways to use this feature for research and inspiration. Some collection ideas include:

• What your competitors are posting about
• Visual inspiration for photos
• Great captions you’ve come across
• Ideas for future posts
• Customer reviews
• Both happy and unhappy customer posts
• Potential influencers

As you can see, there are quite a few options for you. If you find yourself thinking, “Oh, this is a great post,” hit that save button.

5. Use Highlights to showcase what your business is all about

Instagram’s Stories Highlights feature offers you a chance to share even more about your company. Highlights prolong the life of your Stories by featuring them on your profile after they would normally disappear, and can help you collect those Stories into an easy source of evergreen content. Since they display above your grid, start with the basics, such as:

• About: Just a few posts on your values, hours and brand
• Locations or highlights per location: If you have multiple locations, talk about each one and share photos from them
• Customer reviews or posts: Repost from customer feed posts or create a graphic that highlights reviews from elsewhere
• FAQs: Share information that customers often request. This also saves you time when responding to customers because you can then redirect them to this Highlight
• Product/service features: Do an overall one or a Highlight per product or service. Some things you just can’t fit into one post. This is where you can go deep into the details.

And now that you’ve got the basics down, it’s time to get even more creative. A good place to start from is what content topics you’re already creating in your feed. Are you doing a series on each staff member? Save this all to a Highlight. Maybe you’re an event planner. Go behind-the-scenes on your process to demonstrate what you do for the client. Have fun with your Highlights. This is where your brand voice can shine.

6. Create guides

Much like Instagram Highlights, Guides gives you a chance to compile your favorite posts into one piece of featured content. But there are some key differences. It’s more editorial in format, almost as if you were reading an article. You can include photos and posts from your own feed and from others’ feeds that you’ve saved. Each embed allows a caption, where you could write even more about the product or location that you’re featuring. In addition to the ideas already mentioned in the Highlights section, Guides are great for compiling a list of location recommendations. They can be all of your locations or the local businesses you recommend. You can expand the topic to an introduction to your city, exploring the neighborhood you’re in or influencer recommendations. And if you’re hesitant about using this feature? No worries. Guides are able to be saved as drafts until you’re ready to publish them.

7. Pay attention to captions

Your first line in the caption is the one that grabs people’s attention and decides whether they expand to read more. In addition to paying attention to the first line, you should check the rest of your caption. With the recent addition of keyword search in Instagram, what you write in your Instagram caption is more important than ever. Before, you could be cutesy with your words or stylized, and while it’s not to say that you can’t still do this, you should make sure you’re including words that you want others to associate you with. Similar to conducting basic keyword research, this could include your brand and product names, or general terms related to your business category.

8. Use Instagram Live constantly

Going Live for brands skyrocketed in popularity in 2020 when marketing managers and business owners found themselves working from home but still needed to connect with customers on a personal level. There are numerous benefits to using Instagram Live. The biggest one is that followers receive a notification when an account they follow goes Live. This instant communication is vital especially when you’re trying to stand out on the network. A few ideas to start you off on Live:

• Go behind the scenes: Do a tour of your space or showcase a creative process. Anything that the customer does not have public access to is where you should start.
• Run a Q&A: Instagram has a Q&A feature where if you’re using the associated sticker, the story post also changes to reflect it. Live Q&As can be ask me anything (AMA) or centered around certain products.
• Conduct an interview: Share the live stream with another account. Having a guest on the Live allows you a chance to interview them on the spot or gives them the mic to feature what they’re passionate about.
• Showcase a product or service: Is it easier to show than tell for your product or service? Use Live to detail this. If comments are on, your viewers will also give you tips on what they want to see.

9. Offer “followers-only” promotions

Everyone loves a good sale. But an exclusive sale? That’s using the marketing tactic of FOMO and urgency. If you run a followers-only promotion for a limited time, it gives your followers another reason to stay engaged and stick around for the next one. Utilize the countdown Stories sticker if you want to build up hype or do a flash sale so the promotions become unpredictable.

10. Host a giveaway

One of the best ways to organically grow your Instagram account is by hosting a giveaway. Something that people love more than a good sale is free stuff. Depending on how you structure the giveaway, it could create additional post engagement for you. Beyond asking people to follow your account, add requirements like saving a post, commenting on a post or sending it to a friend. Instagram contests are low-hanging fruit for small businesses. You can also pair up with other small businesses that share a similar audience to further your brand awareness. Of course, you should not rely on this strategy as your sole social media strategy. Give your new followers more reasons to stick around beyond only hosting giveaways.

11. Host a takeover

Another way to increase brand exposure to your small business is to host a takeover or take over another business’ account. Typically, social media takeovers consist of a series of scheduled posts over a period of time. Some take all day while others post daily for a week. These posts can be feed-only, stories-only, Live or a combo of all of the posting features that Instagram offers. When hosting a takeover, think of it like structuring a story. You need to introduce the person, talk about what they’ll be covering, post the takeover contents and then end with a conclusive goodbye. Common takeover guests include fellow industry experts, representatives from other small businesses that you’re friendly with and staff members.

12. Increase your DM usage

Community building is a slow process and one of the aspects of it is creating that connection between you and your customer. What better way to do this than personal messaging?   In our Sprout Social Index, Edition XVII: Accelerate, social media was strongly preferred by consumers as a customer service channel. In addition to being their preferred channel to reach out to brands, 47% of consumers identified brands responding in a timely manner to be a key differentiator that would cause them to buy from them over competitors. Increasing your DM usage doesn’t mean only responding. You should also actively engage with the customer on their own feed and stories.   As your Instagram DM usage builds, you’ll find yourself needing a way to manage all the messages. This is where Sprout’s Smart Inbox feature comes into play. Manage your Instagram DMs using a workflow so you can spend more time responding to customers.

13. Track your analytics

It’s worth repeating this advice that’s found in other guides: track those Instagram analytics. Without data to back up your gut feeling of success, your strategies don’t hold up. If you’re just starting out, you can wade into your native insights through either the Instagram app or Facebook. You also want to be sure that you understand the differences between impressions, reach and other network-specific metrics. Sprout’s Instagram Business Profiles Report tracks engagement, hashtag performance and top post performance. You can compare your Instagram performance to your other networks with the Profile Performance Report in Sprout, too. Examine your Instagram data for more insights on what’s working or where you can improve your strategy.

Taking your Instagram for small business strategy further

This list is a great place to start with Instagram marketing tactics that small businesses can use to improve their presence on the network. Beefing up your Instagram strategy with tips like using Stories Highlights and using Instagram Live regularly will help you establish a connection with your customers. Are you starting your Instagram brand strategy completely from scratch? Create a personalized Instagram marketing strategy with our in-depth resources. Learn how to set goals, create a content plan and more.

The post 13 ways to use Instagram for small business appeared first on Sprout Social.

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Thanks for the memories: 5 ways to tap into the power of nostalgia marketing

Space Jam, Dunkaroos, Gossip Girl, the Motorola Razr—these days, it seems like everything is getting a reboot, remake or revival. The trend might appear to some as creatives and brands lacking fresh ideas or mitigating risk by banking on past popularity to fuel future success, but it goes deeper than that.

Our current cultural landscape is steeped in nostalgia, a wistfulness for aspects of our pasts.

In challenging, uncertain times especially, we cling to familiarity, comfort and what we recall from the “good old days.” It’s no surprise that during a global pandemic, nostalgia marketing is all the rage.

More often than not, the feeling of nostalgia clings to positive memories, so when a brand, event or product is a part of that memory, they’re at an advantage.

Campbell’s soup making a return for dinner prep this week. Bringing back alllll the comfort foods of my childhood. Mushroom chicken. Army food goulash. Casserole.

Classic 80’s and 90’s dishes that taste like home. pic.twitter.com/mtLopGXkcA

— Scar (@ScarletBjornson) May 11, 2021

If my hair was tested, I’m sure they’d detect Campbell’s tomato soup and Kraft Singles from a childhood worth of that. #Classic

— Combat Artist (@CombatArtistBJJ) September 28, 2020

 

When used correctly, nostalgia marketing is an effective way to excite, inspire brand affinity and give people a warm fuzzy feeling they won’t forget. Here are five ways to get it right.

1. Tune into the nostalgia melting pot on social media

When I was a young middle schooler, newly obsessed with makeup, Maybelline’s Dream Matte Mousse foundation was a prominent fixture in my life. More than a decade later, thanks to the resurgence of the Y2K aesthetic powered by social media creators and influencers, the foundation found its way into my timeline, and back into my heart.

@roseandben

I didn’t expect to like it 😱 #viralmakeup #makeupreview

♬ original sound – Rose Siard

This isn’t an isolated event. Social media is a melting pot of nostalgia where you can reminisce and feel connected to a larger community of people with shared interests. Social is swirling with conversations and content about what consumers miss from the past, the memories that bring them back to their childhoods and the brands that left a mark along the way.

I am “Dream Matte Mousse ” years old. https://t.co/GdKFNh4qpW

— Nai, the Internet’s Esthetician (@LaBeautyologist) November 5, 2020

When marketers use social listening to stay tapped into social conversations about their brand, they can capture and capitalize on moments when people are reflecting on your brand’s legacy. For example, Maybelline might use the modern Dream Matte Mousse moment to reminisce with their audiences or jump in to highlight their new and improved formulas.

2. Focus on audience and relevance

To effectively use nostalgia marketing in your strategy, brands need to understand what resonates with their audience. What makes one person nostalgic, could make another person feel out of the loop. Age, interests, historical events and more influence what we hold dear.

On the surface, nostalgia marketing seems to narrow the audience you’re able to target. But at its best, it can get your brand and legacy in front of new audiences.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of its Monster Cereal brands, General Mills created a new Monster Mash cereal that combines old favorites like Count Chocula, Boo Berry and Franken Berry, and the previously discontinued Frute Brute and Yummy Mummy. In addition to the cereal, the campaign launched with a remake of the 1962 hit song “Monster Mash” available on Spotify and a behind-the-music mockumentary. Plus, a special QR code on the cereal boxes redirects to “The Remaking of the Mash” homepage.

With this approach, the campaign targets a spectrum of audiences and gives nostalgic parents a fun way to introduce the cereals to their own kids.

Who needs milk when I have Tears of Joy!

— Andrew Dunn (@drewpdogg99) August 16, 2021

3. Reintroduce products back by popular demand

Shopping trends and consumer preferences continuously change, which is why many brands frequently discontinue and launch products. But when a favorite or go-to product disappears and is no longer available for purchase, people frequently share their disappointment on social.

With social listening, brands can take stock of the products that people miss. If the conversation is large enough, you might even consider bringing a discontinued item back to surprise and delight customers.

It’s been like 3 years and honestly I’m still not over the fact that @mcdonalds got rid of Orange Hi-C

— Molly Marie (@MollyOhhdonnell) July 29, 2019

For years, people begged McDonald’s to bring back Hi-C® Orange Lavaburst®, a drink that first appeared on the menu in 1955. The fast-food brand’s social media manager, overwhelmed by fans’ passionate pleas, used social listening to create a fan-driven pitch to put the drink back on the menu. At long last, Mcdonald’s said, “We hear you and we ‘C’ you.”

Hi-C Orange Lavaburst is *officially* back at participating McDonald’s

— McDonald’s❄️ (@McDonalds) June 1, 2021

4. Embrace the #TBT

On August 12, 2021, the MLB hosted a Throwback Thursday treat—for the first time ever, two major league teams, the Chicago White Sox and the New York Yankees, faced off at the site of the legendary 1989 baseball movie, Field of Dreams. Everything about the evening evoked nostalgia, from Kevin Costner and the players emerging from the cornfields accompanied by the tender movie score to the throwback uniforms. It paid off.

The #MLBatFieldofDreams was the most-watched regular season baseball game in 16 years, with 5,903,000 viewers across FOX and FOX Deportes ⚾️

Chicago and New York ranked as the top two markets, and it was the most-streamed regular season baseball game in FOX Sports history 🌽 pic.twitter.com/EfzfrUUik2

— FOX Sports PR (@FOXSportsPR) August 13, 2021

In addition to being the most-watched regular season baseball game in 16 years, the Field of Dreams game was the most in-demand regular season game for Vivid Seats. The official ticket vendor reported that the average price for a ticket was $1,176. If you build it…they will come.

The Field of Dreams game made this Millennial feel like a kid again, but you don’t need to go that big to evoke nostalgia.

People love a #TBT moment, as evidenced by the more than 577 million Instagram posts that include the hashtag. Businesses can join in and share throwbacks of their own. Archival video footage and photos make for fun, retro-tinged social content while also serving as a reminder that your brand has staying power.

Throwing it back to the 60s or 70s when, just as it is today, the choice is clear. #tbt pic.twitter.com/2mzvqjoxxk

— Genesee Brewery (@GeneseeBrewery) August 12, 2021

#TBT or self-reflective posts can also be an endearing way to show how far you’ve come. Remember all the “how it started vs. how it’s going” memes that emerged in 2020? They became a simple, charming way for both individuals and businesses to demonstrate growth or change, and you don’t have to have a long brand history to create your own version.

How it started how it's going pic.twitter.com/wX0kPOprt2

— Xbox FR (@XboxFR) October 7, 2020

5. Don’t force it

It might seem like a reboot means that there’s an automatic, built-in audience, but it also comes with risks. Nostalgia is an emotional experience that makes us feel bonded to our longtime favorite and iconic brands, products, music, movies, etc. These things are precious to us, so if it’s redesigned or repurposed in a way that fans aren’t receptive to, you will hear about it.

Nostalgia marketing is a tactic, not a long-term business strategy, so don’t try to force it. If your business is new and tied to being modern, fresh and innovative, market it that way. Look forward and capitalize on emerging trends rather than trying to draw on the past for inspiration.

Keep listening to your customers

Want to know what makes your audience nostalgic, what challenges they have that your product solves or what kinds of content they want to see more of from your brand? Start listening.

Best-in-class brands listen to the voice of the customer (VoC) to make strategic, data-driven business decisions. Download this guide to learn how to harness VoC data and uncover a potential nostalgia marketing opportunity today.

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