Facebook’s feckless ‘Fairness Flow’ won’t fix its broken AI

Facebook today posted a blog post detailing a three-year-old solution to its modern AI problems: an algorithm inspector that only works on some of the company’s systems. Up front: Called Fairness Flow, the new diagnostic tool allows machine learning developers at Facebook to determine whether certain kinds of machine learning systems contain bias against or towards specific groups of people. It works by inspecting the data flow for a given model. Per a company blog post: To measure the performance of an algorithm’s predictions for certain groups, Fairness Flow works by dividing the data a model uses into relevant groups…

This story continues at The Next Web

Or just read more coverage about: Facebook

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8 Top Brainstorming Techniques to Help You Write Killer Emails

I can’t think of anything to write.

Sound familiar? Of course it does. It's one of the top reasons our customers give us for letting their email marketing flatline. They just run out of ideas or topics to write about.

Even pro writers come up with major email block. Ann Handley, co-founder of Marketing Profs and the popular book "Everybody Writes," only sent two emails to her subscribers in 2017. (In fact, the lack of communication was her catalyst behind revamping her entire newsletter strategy.)

But when your emails stall, you can't make connections with your subscribers. You can't sell. You can't gather feedback from your audience. You're leaving money on the table!

Never waste time trying to think of a topic when you should be writing. Here are 8 brainstorming techniques that will help you create a list of topics for future emails.

Quick Notes on Brainstorming

First things first: Let’s go over a few quick notes re: brainstorming.

1. Coming up with ideas for your content is serious, but don’t get too caught up on producing the perfect idea right away. If you’re too critical, you won’t get anything written down. You never know what a random word now could make you think of later. Keep a positive mindset and be open to any and all ideas.
2. Don’t worry too much about following the rules. Brainstorming is all about creativity and finding whatever method works best for you. While one person might do well with a structured brainstorming process, another might thrive with a loose, free-flowing idea session.

The important thing to remember about brainstorming ideas for your email campaigns is that you’ll want to stay open-minded throughout your process . . . regardless of what that looks like.

Next, let’s start looking at a few specific brainstorming techniques you can try to get the ideas flowing.

Brainstorming Techniques for Stellar Email Ideas

Brainstorming Technique #1: Word Association

Start with one or two words related to a broad topic, and write down anything they make you think of. Let your inner editor rest for a bit and just jot down whatever ideas and words come to mind. If you need help, try a tool like Visuwords to get the process going.

Don’t overthink things or worry about explaining how the words are related (at least right now.) Instead, let the ideas flow and see what interesting concepts naturally arise.

Image source: Search Engine Land

Brainstorming Technique #2: Mind Mapping

This is a similar concept to the word association technique. Start with a word in the middle and draw lines outward to the ideas that word sparks. Mapping helps you visually process your ideas and decide which ones are the strongest.

Image source: CoSchedule 

Brainstorming Technique #3: The Medici Effect

If we can figure out how things are connected, sometimes we can borrow solutions or ideas from another field to solve our own problems. Look for parallels around the issues you’re facing in different areas — like your personal life or at work.

For example: Did you recently overcome a challenge at work that taught you a lesson or provided some new perspective on an issue? How can you share that experience as a story that may help your audience with their biggest pain point? You might have come to a solution that would make for a brilliant email campaign.

Brainstorming Technique #4: Blind Writing

Just. Don’t. Stop.

You don’t need a plan of attack or an outline for this — just put words on a blank page, no matter what they are. You never know what will spark an idea, and writing anything is the first step to writing something good.

Set a timer and challenge yourself to keep writing for however long you want. You may be surprised how much you can get down on paper in a short window of time.

Brainstorming Technique #5: Challenger

Make a list of your assumptions (about your customers, your content, your format, etc.) and then challenge them one by one. You might think you already know the best way to do something, but we don’t make progress by never questioning things.

This is also why split testing emails is so important. You may think one subject line will perform better over another, but without testing, you never truly know.

Related: FREE Course: Learn How to Write Better Emails

Brainstorming Technique #6: SWOT Analysis

Create a table to assess the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) to your current approach to email content. This helps you see your process in a more analytic way and logically decide if there is a more effective way to write, share, and educate.

As you complete your SWOT analysis, be sure to see what your main competitors are doing and make notes on how you may (or may not) be measuring up with your current approach.

Image source: Wordstream

Brainstorming Technique #7: Turn to Your Readers

Conversations with your subscribers can lead to a treasure trove of email ideas. Ask your subscribers questions and try to find out as much information about them as possible. What do they actually want or need from you? What are their biggest obstacles, goals, or main pain points?

Your subscribers' feedback will be immensely valuable to your business. You can use it to write your next email, and other types of content like blog posts, videos, and social media posts. You can also take it a step further by using the feedback to correctly position your product, inspire loyalty, and/or develop all-new products.

Brainstorming Technique #8: Start with the Subject Line

Set a timer for 5 minutes. Then, come up with a list of subject line ideas that you would absolutely open if they hit your inbox.

Ask yourself questions like:

• What's the key point in this email that a subscriber would be eager to know more about?
• Did I write about something in the email that would surprise the reader?
• What do readers need to know right now?

The subject lines you write may even spark some all-new content ideas.

Related: Your Guide to Writing the World's Best Email Subject Lines

Brilliant Email Ideas, Time After Time

Consistently sending emails is a wonderful way to keep subscribers engaged, but try not to forget that no one wants to open an email that doesn’t actually have any new or useful information. Having a constant supply of fresh email ideas keeps you from getting marked as spam and sent to the junk mailbox, never to be opened again.

On a regular basis, brainstorm new topics through these different approaches and keep a swipe file of your best and brightest ideas. You’ll never hit a bottleneck in ideas for email campaigns again.

Ready to start sending killer emails to your list? Then sign up for AWeber Free today!

The post 8 Top Brainstorming Techniques to Help You Write Killer Emails appeared first on AWeber.

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What day is leg day? And 8 other questions answered with listening data

Social listening is a social media superpower. And with the right tool, you can wield that power for the good of your brand.

Sprout Social’s Listening solution lets you create highly customized Topics that surface conversations that matter most to your brand and answers to your burning questions.

Read on to discover how Sprout customers and employees have used Listening to answer nine brand-critical questions.

 1. What day is leg day? 

A major music streaming brand’s agency had the idea to create and promote playlists based on their listeners’ workouts. Ultimately, this begged the question, which day is leg day?

You gotta have a seperate playlist for leg day it’s essential

— Jordannn (@lockha12) August 15, 2018

Using Sprout Social’s Listening tool, they were able to set up a simple Topic query with “leg day” as the main keyword and Twitter, Facebook and Instagram as the networks of choice.

To tap into Facebook data, the network requires that you include specific pages, so the agency selected several fitness outlets like Women’s and Men’s Health and people like Mark Wahlberg, who is known for his intense workout routine.

The agency reviewed a month’s worth of data and looked at which days trend with the highest volume of messages referring to leg day. There was a clear answer: Wednesday.

2. Who was the artist of the summer in 2020?

In 2020, 96.5 (WTDY-FM) Philadelphia, a RADIO.COM pop radio station that’s part of the massive Entercom brand, wanted to know, “who was the artist of the summer?”

The radio station launched a competitive voting poll so fans could crown a decisive winner. In order to vote on Twitter and Instagram, fans had to include the radio station’s handle, an artist’s name and #ArtistOfTheSummer. Those voting requirements matched the keywords set up in the station’s Listening query, so each entry was automatically captured.

After nine rounds of voting, former One Direction member Louis Tomlinson was crowned the 2020 #ArtistOfTheSummer. The contest was so successful that 96.5 (WTDY-FM) Philadelphia has continued using the methodology for more contests to crown Album of the Year, Best Music Video and more.

See the full list of 🤩 WINNERS 🤩 from tonight's #TDYAwards 🌟 https://t.co/1EnKQGqccR

— 96.5 TDY (@965TDY) January 17, 2021

Learn more about how 96.5 (WTDY-FM) Philadelphia uses social listening to connect with loyal listeners.

3. What should the next season of our podcast focus on?

haarper., a Melbourne, Australia-based boutique consultancy, relies on Sprout’s Listening solution to deliver exceptional insights and results for their clients’ strategies. As their client, Puka Up, began planning season two of its podcast on mental health and well-being, listening was instrumental in determining its editorial focus.

What is mindfulness and how can it improve our mental health and lives? Marike Knight explains on the PukaUp Podcast. Listen here: https://t.co/soEs6zB8E5 #RUOKDay2019 pic.twitter.com/fN4zFBwD3O

— pukaup 👌 (@puka_up) September 12, 2019

“We made it a focus to find out what people wanted to hear about after the first season of the Puka Up podcast, and we found ways to combat mental health issues were more important than who suffers from them,” said Dan Wilkins, the General Manager and Co-founder of haarper.

“That had a direct impact on how we approached season two of the podcast. Finding guests who are trained to treat mental health issues was a goal for launching a second season, and that has happened.”

Learn more about how haarper. helps clients realize their potential using social listening.

4. Who is the NFL’s GOAT?

In the final weeks of the 2020 NFL season, quarterbacks Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers and Patrick Mahomes all ended up in division championship games, which prompted the age old question, who is the greatest of all time (a.k.a. the GOAT)?

Sprout’s own Chris Long, a social listening pro, decided to investigate.

When he applied keywords and the goat emoji to analyze listening data, Mahomes was in the mix, but as people discussed the possibility of a “GOAT bowl” matchup, Brady and Rodgers became the frontrunners. Going into the big game, however, Brady emerged as the clear victor in terms of message volume. Not to mention, social was abuzz with conversations about Brady making his 10th appearance in the big game and chasing his seventh ring at age 43.

The “GOAT bowl” never came to fruition, but if you watched the big game, it should come as no shock that Brady’s status as the GOAT only became more solidified.

5. How does our customer service compare to our competitors?

These days, social media is (or should be) a major part of any customer care strategy. When a leading chain restaurant wanted to see how their customer care compares to their competitors, they turned to Sprout’s Social Listening.

Example of Sprout’s Competitive Analysis Listening tool

Using the Competitive Analysis Topic Template, the brand created queries that would capture any messages that included the word “service” and mentioned or were directed to the specific competitors they identified. They also created themes to collect insights on “good” and “bad” service. With those insights and anecdotes from social media users, the brand is able to benchmark its performance, refine its own customer care strategy and go above and beyond what its competitors offer.

6. How can we position the advantages of our product in a way that speaks directly to the needs of our customers?

A leading medical device manufacturer wanted to understand conversations about efficient heart valve technology within its industry and which factors influence patients’ buying decisions.

With Sprout’s Social Listening, the brand was able to determine that 36% of the messages in its Listening Topic discussed procedural and economic benefits of efficient heart valve technology. The economic advantages, in particular, only accounted for 7.7% of the conversation, which they saw as an opportunity to create a differentiated narrative and claim a critical share of voice in this space. Using this data, the manufacturer created a go-to-market strategy and messaging that capitalized on its product’s financial upside.

7. What bugs are popping up in our software products?

Before using Sprout Social, a software company known for its smart cutting machines and apps manually scoured Facebook and other social networks to surface product bugs and complaints. The company viewed social media as a massive, unorganized focus group. But with Sprout’s Social Listening, the brand was able to tap into that focus group in a structured, prioritized way.

I can't stress enough how important social listening and community management is for brands on social media.

You need to take the feedback and put it into action. Please don't ignore your audience. It will come back to bite you in the long run. #SocialHotTakes

— Anthony Yepez (@AnthonyYepez) August 25, 2020

Social listening helps the team catch all customer feedback, whether the brand is mentioned or not. Using keywords like “bugs,” “glitches” and “issues,” the team can also quantify customer service trends and product mentions to complement the research being done by their consumer insights team.

8. What alcohol-free beverages are people drinking during Dry January?

Every year, adults all over the world kick off the New Year by kicking alcohol out of their diet. This year, a health-boosting beverage brand wanted to capitalize on the trend, raise awareness for its non-alcoholic beer option and expand its audience by tapping into social conversations between big beer brands and their fans.

.@Heineken made a 31-pack of alcohol-free beer for Dry January: https://t.co/3JQs5A93Xk pic.twitter.com/4zd4Lx9kwZ

— Muse by Clio (@MusebyClio) December 12, 2019

By setting up a Listening Topic with a Theme focused on alcohol-free drinks, the brand was able to analyze messages mentioning or by brands like Guinness, Heineken, Carlsberg and other brands that sell alcohol-free beer. They honed in on keywords around health and wellness, which gave them an opportunity to jump in and promote their product as an alternative.

9. What brands were best-in-class in 2020?

The Sprout Social Spotlight Awards recognize the inspiring brands and creative people behind powerful social marketing. And we just announced the finalists for our biggest award yet: Brand of the Year.

At the start of the awards season, our social team set up a query around the #SproutSpotlights hashtag. Since each award category was run in different time periods, we were able to filter the query to capture and organize nominations. We pulled data from Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, then manually tallied nominations from LinkedIn.

By looking at the listening data from the nomination period, we were able to identify which brands inspired the social media marketing community in 2020 for our Brand of the Year award: Monster, Lodge Cast Iron, Velveeta and LCMC Health.

#SproutSpotlights Brand of the Year Finalists:

✨ @LCMCHealth
✨ @EatLiquidGold
✨ @LodgeCastIron
✨ @monster

Learn more about their teams: https://t.co/dS0fZEYuN9 pic.twitter.com/U6x8YXRtwH

— Sprout Social (@SproutSocial) March 24, 2021

Stop wondering, start answering questions with listening data

Sprout’s Listening solution provides powerful and intuitive tools to help you tap into the social conversations that answer your brand’s most pressing questions. Listening can also provide critical cultural context around your brand performance and surface strategic opportunities that drive your business forward.

What questions does your brand need answers to? Get the answers by requesting a Listening demo today.

 

This post What day is leg day? And 8 other questions answered with listening data originally appeared on Sprout Social.

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6 brilliant Facebook campaigns (& why they worked)

As the widest-reaching social network around, Facebook boasts nearly 2.8 billion monthly active users. But given the continuous changes to the Facebook algorithm and the platform’s shifting demographics, many marketers are stuck scratching their heads when it comes to their future on the platform.

“How can I make sure my posts aren’t getting buried?”

“Should we totally give up on organic reach and go all-in on ads?”

“Which sorts of ads are going to give us the most bang for our buck, anyway?

Perhaps the best way to break down the answers to these questions is by assessing what is working for brands today.

Now is a prime time to reassess how you approach Facebook and come up with campaigns that drive your business forward. That’s why we’ve outlined some recent success stories from brands, ranging from killer Facebook ad campaigns to smart posts that receive tons of love organically.

And with these brilliant Facebook campaign examples from big brands in mind, you can roll out your own campaign that totally slays.

1. Adore Me

Adore Me, a lingerie brand that’s known for celebrating women of all shapes, sizes and colors, created a Valentine’s Day campaign focused on self-love. Instead of using more stereotypical Valentine’s themes centered around loved-up couples and dressing up for a partner, Adore Me empowered women to celebrate themselves.

The brand leveraged its rich influencer network and customer-generated content to create a campaign driven by real women, for real women. Product shots of the lingerie the women wore were interspersed between the messages of empowerment and body positivity, so customers could easily shop the looks.

Even the little things make Adore Me’s Facebook campaigns a standout. For example, the CTA and product page link in every social post are customized to match the content.

Can't stop, won't stop! 🎈 The self-love V-Day vibes continue, and you could say we're in a pretty-in-pink mood. 💕 Comment below & tell us how you've celebrated the long weekend! 🍷https://ift.tt/2PEvnUv

Posted by Adore Me on Monday, February 15, 2021

To maximize reach to potential customers, drive purchase conversions and complement organic efforts, Adore Me used Facebook’s targeting options.

Adore Me’s Chief Marketing Officer Chloé Chanudet said in a statement, per AdWeek, “Adore Me has been increasingly impressed by the content created by its influencer community. Facebook’s advertising products allowed us to segment macro- (at the top of funnel) and micro-influencer content (for conversion). Distribution of influencer content at the brand level is always a challenge, and this level of targeting does an amazing job at helping us better find the right viewers for our influencers.”

Ultimately, Adore Me’s Valentine’s Day efforts resulted in 226% more purchase conversions than the brand’s 2020 campaign, at a 6% lower cost per acquisition.

The takeaway: Collaborate with influencers and leverage customer-generated content to create Facebook campaigns that authentically reflect your values, brand and customers themselves.

2. Owlet Baby Care

Owlet Baby Care’s mission is to keep babies safe so that parents can relax, worry less and find more joy in the parenthood journey. Their core product, the Smart Sock Baby Monitor, monitors a baby’s oxygen and heart rate while they sleep, and notifies parents if the baby needs to be checked on.

According to Edison Research, 81% of moms on social media use Facebook, making it the top channel for the demographic. On top of that, the largest age demographic on Facebook is 25–34 year-olds, a ripe time for becoming a new parent.

The audience is there for Owlet Baby Care, but to build brand awareness with new parents on Facebook and increase Smart Sock sales, the brand knew they needed to create “thumb-stopping ad creative.” At the time, restrictions on in-person, studio production were in place due to COVID-19, so the brand decided to try something new— pastel accent colors against a night sky background, animated illustrations, smooth scrolling motion and product highlights. Each ad also included a “Shop Now” call-to-action button, so potential customers could head straight to Owlet’s website.

Seth Lofgreen, Director of Digital Marketing for Owlet Baby Care told Facebook, “This Facebook ad campaign proved the importance of crafting a visual story that sells the product features while staying true to our brand promise of providing parents with peace of mind.”

Using Facebook Ads Manager to create a split test comparing the new Facebook campaign to an older studio-built ad campaign, Owlet Baby Care was able to see a clear return on their latest investment. The new ad creative drove:

• 6% higher return on ad spend
• 19% higher average order value
• 60% lower cost per purchase
• 55% higher click-through rate

The takeaway: When your typical creative process runs into roadblocks, embrace the opportunity to test new, lower-lift creative options against your past campaigns.

3. Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams

Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams consistently creates Facebook campaigns and content that are as splendid as their name suggests.

At the heart of each campaign is eye-catching, colorful, interactive, product-focused content. And the brand’s campaign to introduce their new Buttercream Birthday Cake ice cream flavor was no exception.

Similar to how they’ve unveiled other flavors, Jeni’s dropped teasers and hints about what the new flavor would be. Leading up to the launch, the brand posted virtual invitations to a surprise birthday party to “meet the flavor that was born to party,” building intrigue among their fans.

Meet the flavor that was born to party. This Thursday.

Posted by Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams on Tuesday, February 23, 2021

Then, once the flavor was unveiled, Jeni’s used its Facebook feed to host a full-on Buttercream Birthday Cake celebration campaign. Stop-motion confetti graphics, an animated pint “jumping” in a bouncy house, up-close product shots with vivid descriptions of the “spongy, pale yellow (gluten-free!) cake pieces with a crumbly, celebratory texture”—they even hired a balloon artist for the occasion.

Amongst all the fun, Jeni’s embedded Facebook Shop tags, so even if there isn’t a Jeni’s location near you, you can get in on the goodness.

The party starts when Buttercream Birthday Cake walks in 🥳

Posted by Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams on Saturday, February 27, 2021

The takeaway: Don’t be afraid to have fun with your campaigns, but make sure you’re consistent.

4. GoPro

GoPro is living proof that social media contests still have staying power. To promote their new HERO9 Black camera, the brand launched its third annual Million Dollar Challenge. This campaign invites GoPro’s fans around the world to share their best, unedited GoPro footage. The winners then receive an equal cut of $1 million from the brand.

With over 10.9 million likes on their Facebook page, it’s a no-brainer to leverage the channel for this campaign. Within 80 days, more than 29,000 people from 125 countries submitted their HERO9 Black video clips. Ultimately, the brand compiled 56 of those submissions into “2 minutes of what it means to be part of the #GoProFamily.” Then, they published the final cut on Facebook, and the video now has over 664,000 views and counting.

GoPro Awards: Million Dollar Challenge Highlight | HERO9 Black

The #GoProMillionDollarChallenge Highlight is here. In September, we asked you to show us the world through your lenses—to capture life's most meaningful moments. The result was 29,000 #GoProHERO9 Black submissions from 125 countries. Today, 56 of those submissions compose 2 minutes of what it means to be part of the #GoProFamily. From backyards, to backcountry, + beyond, this was created by you, for you. Congratulations to the 56 #GoProAward recipients taking home $17,857 each. Learn more: https://ift.tt/39IPZlJ

Posted by GoPro on Tuesday, December 15, 2020

GoPro’s customers are inherently a community of creators. The brand’s Facebook feed consistently features user-generated content, GoPro’s most valuable creative asset. So, while $1 million might seem like a lot to shell out for a campaign like this, the brand is giving a platform to the people that drive their business forward while building awareness for their new flagship product.

After closing the competition, GoPro continued to schedule Facebook posts that featured quotes from individual winners, a short clip from their submission and links to Q&As that go behind-the-scenes. GoPro’s unique ability to spin video submissions into additional content adds longevity to their campaign.

Airborne artistry via #GoProMillionDollarChallenge awards recipient Martin Trotz 🌅⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Formation-flying happens…

Posted by GoPro on Tuesday, February 2, 2021

Takeaway: Give back to your biggest fans and immortalize their creativity.

5. The Teaching Company

The Teaching Company is a leading developer of educational courses. During the early days of the COVID-19, the brand wanted to capitalize on people’s growing ambitions to learn something new.

Knowing that people were expanding their horizons in lockdown, they saw an opportunity to  expand their reach and increase subscriptions for their product, “The Great Courses.” Unlike other brands that pulled back on ad spend, The Teaching Company scaled up.

Facebook photo ads were centerpieces of the campaign, which promised a one month of free courses. But what really made a massive difference in reaching their goals was the brand’s targeting choices. In Facebook Ads Manager, the brand expanded their typical age demographics and reached new audiences in the UK, Canada and Australia by creating lookalike audiences with characteristics similar to the brand’s “best” customers.

“In March and April 2020, we expanded our core targeting strategy from narrow audiences to a broader one. This allowed us to reach new audience segments, which led to the highest levels of customer engagement we’ve ever seen on the Facebook platform,” said Kim Phillips, Director of Marketing Acquisition at The Teaching Company.

The numbers speak for themselves. Between March 15 – April 30, 2020, the campaign generated 5,540 subscriptions and increased the total average monthly subscriptions by over 10x, compared to the previous year.

The takeaway: You don’t need fancy creative or gimmicks to achieve your goals. Straightforward, targeted ads placed during opportune moments will convert.

Achieve your campaign goals and then some

Running Facebook campaigns might be a bit more complicated than it used to be, but the tactics outlined above are fair game for brands of all shapes and sizes.

Overcoming the algorithm isn’t the only challenge when it comes to campaign management. From spinning up Facebook campaign ideas and building creative assets to monitoring and reporting on performance—there’s a lot to juggle.

Sprout Social is like a swiss army knife when it comes to campaign management. Everything you need to run a campaign is all in one easy-to-use tool. Read this guide to find out how to run your smoothest, most successful campaign yet using Sprout.

This post 6 brilliant Facebook campaigns (& why they worked) originally appeared on Sprout Social.

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Paid social 101: The basics of running effective ads

Getting started with paid social media feels like a big leap for most businesses.

That’s because we’ve become so used to social being totally free.

The reality, though? A staggering three-fourths of all marketers run paid social campaigns. Even for small and solo businesses, social ads have largely become a matter of “when” and not “if.”

From raising brand awareness to driving traffic and leads, a well-crafted campaign can produce immediate results for your business.

Consider this your guide to paid social 101 to cut through the noise and break down exactly how.

Why paid social media is “worth it”

Just like email or SEO, social media represents a marketing channel. As is the case with most channels, “free” will only take you so far.

It’s important for businesses to understand that paid and organic social media isn’t a matter of either-or. In fact, paid campaigns can support your organic social media efforts in the long-run.

How so? Whether you’re skeptical yourself or you need buy-in from your coworkers, consider the following benefits of investing in paid social media.

Paid social gives your business guaranteed reach

This is the big one.

Today’s social media algorithms are tricky. If you ever feel like some of your posts blow up while others get buried, you’re definitely not alone. No matter how much you optimize your posts, reach isn’t guaranteed.

On the flip side, paid social media ensures that your campaigns get seen. You’re essentially paying for your audience’s undivided attention.

Consider that 28% of consumers discover new products directly through social media, with that number skewing higher for millennials and Gen Z. If nothing else, ads are a surefire way to introduce your brand to new customers and grab the attention of former ones without being restricted by an algorithm.

Paid social allows you to target your most relevant customers

Piggybacking on the last point, social ads today have seriously smart targeting.

For example, you can set up campaigns to only serve followers of a specific income level or people living in a particular area. You can likewise create campaigns that only target followers, previous customers or people who’ve bounced from your website.

Since you get to set the parameters of your ad targeting, you also benefit from making sure your ads are served to folks that are most likely to click on them. In short, you’re in control (see an example from Facebook’s ad targeting options below).

The widespread use of paid social has also pushed networks to make the process of targeting less complicated. For example, Facebook’s automated ads are designed to do the heavy lifting for businesses in terms of who to target and when to run.

Paid social teaches you a ton about your target audience

Most native social analytics leave a lot to be desired.

However, the insights from paid social go seriously in-depth. Ad campaigns can provide you firsthand insights on the social media metrics that matter most for your business. You can also learn:

• Which types of promotions result in the most engagement
• What your social media audience looks like demographic-wise (see the example below from Facebook)
• How your social ads perform versus your organic social

The takeaway? Testing the waters with paid social also means stepping up your social media reporting, and can teach you more about your target audience. Even if you run a few one-off campaigns and don’t invest in paid social regularly, you can use these insights to inform your organic social strategy moving forward.

When is the right time to start with paid social media?

Fair question! Although there is no correct answer here, there are a few points to consider before diving into a paid campaign.

Before you start: Make sure you have an established following and understanding of the network you’re looking to run ads on.

This might be obvious, but it can raise suspicion when a brand runs ads but has a totally silent organic page. Having an established presence signals that you’re a legitimate business. Plus, the opportunity to serve ads to existing followers is a nice added bonus since people that already know you are more likely to engage.

After you’ve laid the groundwork for your organic presence, allocate an appropriate budget to your campaigns to ensure the best results.

We get it: creating a budget for social media can be a challenge. How much your ads end up costing depends on a ton of variables, including your industry, CPC (cost-per-click), necessary creatives, and how long you’re looking to run a campaign.

As a business, you should be ready to commit to your paid campaign with the right amount of cash to spend. If you’re running “value” campaigns that don’t actually reach your target audience, you aren’t going to see much of an ROI. You need to be able to commit to your goals and take full advantage of the targeting and visibility paid social provides.

You should also tie your social ad campaigns to bigger-picture business initiatives. Whether that’s a product launch, time-sensitive promotion or holiday special depends on your business. The takeaway is that you should never run ads “just because.”

If you can stick to these principles, you’ll overcome many of the most common challenges related to paid social media.

Paid social 101: 5 keys to running a successful first campaign

Let’s say you’re itching to get started with ads. Great! Below is a basic breakdown of the five must-dos when running a first-time paid campaign.

1. Pick the social platform(s) you’re going to prioritize

According to the Sprout Social Index, the potential reach of a platform is the most important factor in determining whether to invest in it. The same rings true for ads.

As noted earlier, you should invest in social platforms that you’re familiar with and have an established audience on. We recommend sticking with a single platform initially, ideally where you’re scoring the most direct customer interactions.

The takeaway here is not to cross-publish your ad campaigns or try to do too much at once. Different networks involve different goals, not to mention creatives and ad specs. The exception to this is Facebook and Instagram (which share the same ad platform), but even then you’ll likely want to feel things out before trying to juggle two paid campaigns.

2. Establish goals and desired outcomes for your paid campaigns

Simply put, you need to figure out what you want to get out of your social ads prior to running them.

Looking to build brand awareness? Drive sign-ups and sales? The choice is yours.

Modern ad platforms make it a cinch to pick a particular goal and build a campaign around it (see Instagram’s goal options below).

Your goal will ultimately inspire your campaign and its creatives. Goal-setting also ensures that you’re tracking the right metrics and KPIs associated with your campaigns.

3. Look for inspiration from successful campaigns

Chances are you’ve seen some stellar social ads. You’ve probably seen some stinkers, too.

Researching competing ads is a crucial piece of paid social 101. Specifically, make a point to research ads from smaller competitors and not just big box brands and corporations. Comparing ads that a local business or cafe runs versus, say, Sephora or Starbucks, is apples and oranges.

You can look up businesses directly via the Facebook Ad Library or spend some time browsing social to get served ads yourself. Take note of what sort of creatives you like and how “good” ads talk to customers.

4. Research appropriate creatives, copy and targeting

There’s a lot of work that goes on behind-the-scenes of any given paid social campaign.

Thankfully, ad platforms today are pretty good about walking first-timers through the process step-by-step. As a refresher, take the time to familiarize yourself with:

• Ad specs and sizes to make sure you have the right creatives for your campaign(s)
• Call-to-action phrases and marketing messaging so your ads actually land
• Your target audience and their demographics

Expect to have to do a bit of fine-tuning with your first ads, particularly when it comes to targeting. As you go through the initial stages of any given campaign, you can make appropriate tweaks. Doing so speaks to the need to not only do your homework but also to have a proper budget available for these adjustments.

5. Track your paid efforts with analytics

Determining whether or not your campaigns were a success really boils down to your analytics.

Between your ad analytics and platforms like Sprout, you can take a deep-dive into your campaign’s performance. Beyond engagement metrics and clicks, analytics can help you understand:

• How your organic social media performs versus paid social media
• Whether you saw an ROI for your paid campaign(s)
• Opportunities to optimize future campaigns

Having these answers and reports available does double-duty of improving your campaigns while also reporting your results to colleagues.

If you’re satisfied with your performance, you can refine your targeting and budget accordingly in the future. If not, you can uncover opportunities to make changes or put more energy into organic social media (or vice-versa).

And with that, we wrap up our guide to paid social 101!

Looking to go beyond paid social 101? No problem

Now that you have an understanding of the basics of paid social media, you can work toward your first campaign with a much-needed sense of confidence.

And sure, there’s a lot to cover. That said, the wealth of paid social ads and success stories today speak for themselves.

Need help with buy-in from your coworkers when it comes to social ads? We’ve got you covered. Make sure to check out our guide breaking down how to make a business case for social media.

This post Paid social 101: The basics of running effective ads originally appeared on Sprout Social.

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Landing Page Duplication: Share Your Success With Your Audience

Do you have an envy-worthy landing page design others love? Want to share it with other small businesses to help them get up and running as quickly as possible?

Or, do you want to become the trusted expert in your industry, willing to hand over secrets to help others grow their own businesses?

With AWeber, you can.

Introducing AWeber's new Landing Page Duplication feature! With the simple click of a button, you can share your best performing landing pages with your audience.

Why you should make your landing pages shareable

Shareable landing pages can save you (and your audience) valuable time and money.

You may want to make your landing page shareable if...

• You want to establish yourself as an expert in your industry by sharing successful landing page designs with others.
• You're an AWeber Advocate looking to create a starter template for your specific program. Your goal is to get your audience set up on AWeber as quickly as possible.
• You want to grow your audience by creating and sharing a landing page starter pack.

Plus, creating a shareable landing page is barely any additional work on your end. See how simple it can be in the GIF below.

Make your landing page shareable today

In 3 easy steps, you can get started with sharing your landing pages.

1. After creating your landing page you'll find a 'Page Sharing' toggle under your Page Settings.

2. Enabling this toggle places a clickable hyperlink at the very bottom of your landing page.

3. When clicked, a new tab will open with the copied landing page loaded as a template for those who are already logged into their account. For those who are not logged in, they will be presented with an opportunity to do so.

If you need support, our help article can help you on your way to duplicating landing pages in no time.

Want to learn more about landing pages?

Landing pages are an incredibly valuable tool to grow your audience and build deeper connections. Whether you're selling digital products on your landing page, or simply setting up an online presence for your business, landing pages can help you accomplish your goals.

Learn 10 of the best ways to use landing pages in your business.

The post Landing Page Duplication: Share Your Success With Your Audience appeared first on AWeber.

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8 Instagram trends to pay attention to in 2021

With each new year, social marketers like to predict what’s going to happen in their industry for the next 365 days. But you can’t predict everything and 2020 is an excellent example of this. This being said, social media evolves constantly and Instagram, with over 1 billion monthly active users, is no exception.

For Instagram, some of their newest features were clearly responses to the ongoing pandemic, fueling new and maintaining old connections. Other trends were driven by the users themselves. Here, we’re highlighting some Instagram trends to keep an eye on as you continue to develop your 2021 social media marketing strategy.

1. Instagram Live streams get longer

First introduced in 2016, Instagram Live has evolved as a way for businesses and individuals to broadcast in the moment. During 2020, they experienced a spike in interest as a way to maintain connection and conduct announcements and events digitally. From February to March 2020 alone, there was a 70% increase in Live views.

Live videos have also been extended from one hour to four hours at maximum and now appear on the Explore page. Going Live on Instagram might seem overwhelming at first, which is why we created a Live guide for businesses that will walk you through all the essential steps.

Mani-pedi company Olive & June uses Instagram Live to run a 7-day “Bootcamp.” Users new to at-home manicures or pedicures can sign up on their website and then follow along on Instagram Live each day. It’s a great way to introduce new users to their products and keep them connected to their social media presence.

Ways to use Instagram Live:

• Plan shared livestreams with other Instagram accounts and creators
• Use the Q&A sticker to answer questions live
• Introduce a new product or service

2. Generate revenue through Instagram

No longer relegated to shopping for products from businesses, Instagram now offers several ways for customers to convert without leaving the app. In 2020, Instagram Shop was extended to all business accounts, offering customers a way to save, purchase, and checkout in the app. To support Shop, product tags are available not just on posts but also in stories and Live broadcasts.

Instagram beefed up their support for creators in 2020, a trend that might continue into 2021. With the introduction of video ads in IGTV, creators can receive 55% of the cut. Taking a page from Twitch, badges were launched to support creators during their live streams. When watching a creator’s Live broadcast, supporters can purchase badges in three different price levels. Badge purchases appear in the comments, get listed on the creator’s list of badge holder and unlock a special heart.

Ways to generate revenue through Instagram:

• Set up Instagram Shop for your business
• Use product tags in your posts and stories
• Partner with creators as part of your influencer marketing strategy

3. Short, digestible graphics in carousel posts

With the help of free and easy apps, creating Instagram graphics is easier than ever. Carousel posts include up to 10 posts and accounts of all kinds are using it for education. Topics range from mental health to racial justice to relationship advice and everything in between.

Anti-Racism Daily is a daily newsletter that tackles a different anti-racist topic every day. To supplement the newsletter article, their Instagram posts also sum them up in an easy-to-read format.

Ways to use carousel graphics:

• Pick a topic you’re passionate about and turn educational tidbits into slides
• Find apps that have ready-to-go templates
• Turn your established infographics into slides

4. Educate or summarize with Instagram Guides

The original introduction of Guides in May 2020 was meant to be for well-being tips. Instagram worked with companies and creators to put together self-care Guides that might help alleviate grief or anxiety while sheltering in place. Since then, Guides have been introduced to everyone and have been used in a variety of ways.

There are three types of guides:

• Places: recommend places in your city or elsewhere
• Products: recommend or introduce your favorite products
• Posts: recommend posts that you’ve created or saved

Each guide has a small section at the top where you can summarize what it’s about. These also live on your Instagram profile page as its own tab, right next to the IGTV tab, so they’re another way to highlight your most important evergreen content similar to Stories highlights.

Jenn Yee of @pastrywithjenn used a Place Guide to introduce 10 of her favorite restaurants and bakeries in San Francisco’s Chinatown. The Guide includes a small blurb per place, a map with the tagged locations and a way for you to send it to your fellow foodie friend.

Ways to use Instagram Guides:

• Introduce your product lineup
• Show off your favorite businesses in your area
• Create informative articles on any topic your brand is passionate about

5. Reel out your silliness

Inspired by TikTok’s features of easily creating short videos with fun music pairings, Instagram Reels was also newly introduced in 2020. Reels are limited to 15 seconds and offer you the ability to string multiple clips together into one video. These tend to be casual and a little bit silly.

Reels are shareable and when saved, lives in its own tab on your profile page and might show up in the Explore page.

The Lip Bar uses Reels to create quick how-to videos. In this one, the company paired up with beauty influencer @therealteshamarie to show how she uses their products in her hydrating winter routine.

Ways to use Instagram Reels

• Put together quick how-to guides on using your products or services
• Find a trending meme and add your own spin on it
• Partner with an influencer to share how they use your products or services

6. Accept an Instagram Challenge

Challenges aren’t exactly a new thing on Instagram but they’ve certainly exploded during the pandemic, likely due to extra time on creators’ hands. Challenges might include the word “challenge” in them but one thing they all have in common is their own hashtag.

Challenges spread quickly like memes and follow a set of guidelines or rules. Each one leads to one or more posts and is a fun way of mixing up your content.

The #imjustakidchallenge began on TikTok and was a product of cabin fever creeping in. Using Simple Plan’s song, the challenge asks family members to recreate an old family photo with the same people, outfits and poses. Each video follows the same format with participants getting into a pose and once it’s reached, the old photo appears on the screen.

Ways to use Instagram challenges

• Follow popular video creators to find the current trending challenges
• Start your own brand challenge

7. Support small businesses & nonprofits with stickers

Stickers in Instagram Stories have been around for a while but new ones are being continually added. Because small businesses are having a tough time with ever-changing dining guidelines, Instagram introduced new ways to help support them.

Each sticker allows the viewer to click through for an action. Restaurants can use the Order sticker to easily promote their to-go menus, anyone can use the Donation sticker to help fundraise for their favorite nonprofit and you can add the Support Small Business sticker to share about your favorite business.

Ways to use supportive stickers

• Add your preferred delivery service to your profile page to make use of the Order sticker
• Promote your favorite cause and help them reach a fundraising goal
• Collaborate with other brands by creating a series that promotes your favorite small businesses

8. Don’t be afraid to be more casual

With the spillover of challenges and memes from both Twitter and TikTok, Instagram brand accounts are not as beautifully curated as they used to be. And that’s a good thing! Creating content in a pandemic is challenging, which means videos and photos take on a more casual and fun tone.

Imperfect photography, screenshots of Tweets and jumping in on popular memes can only make your brand feel more engaging and relatable.

Reese Witherspoon created a 9-photo grid that showed her progression from January to September 2020. With the addition of her #2020challenge hashtag, accounts began posting their version of 2020 feelings.

Ways to be more casual on Instagram

• Take a fun Tweet that you’ve posted or a fan has posted and use that screenshot in a post.
• Find a trending meme and fit your own brand’s voice into it.
• Instead of creating a highly edited and produced video, see if you can film it on a phone and make it more casual.

What Instagram trends are you excited about in 2021?

If 2020 has any summarizing lesson, it’s that things can and will change often. Instagram trends get created with influences from other networks and introductions of new features. Keeping up with the current trends freshens up your content and shows your audience that you’re not afraid to try new things.

To get inspiration on what kind of topics and posts your audience would be most interested in, keep tabs on the most essential Instagram metrics.

This post 8 Instagram trends to pay attention to in 2021 originally appeared on Sprout Social.

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Why you need to share an executive summary of your social media reports with leadership

To most social marketers, metrics like impressions, engagements, conversions and clicks need almost no explaining. These are the numbers you’re likely already tracking on a regular basis to help measure your social performance and identify areas for improvement.

While these metrics may make complete sense to you and your team, things like follower count and reach are as good as gibberish to an executive who doesn’t work in social. Worse still, when an executive can’t immediately see the impact of social on business goals, the harder it is for them to see the value in social at all. As a result, this makes it difficult for social teams to ask for the executive buy-in and investment they need to take their social strategies to the next level.

This is where social media reports can help you bridge knowledge gaps at the executive level and translate the raw data into a narrative that resonates with anyone in leadership. Armed with an executive summary of your social media report, you’ll be able to convince even the most skeptical of executives about the impact social can have on your business.

Eager to dive into your social media reporting? Get your copy of the toolkit here for free!

Download Now

An executive summary of your social media report gets you the buy-in you need

One of the reasons why executives brush off social data is because it’s not always clear how it impacts their respective disciplines. And when leadership can’t immediately connect how social influences different parts of the business, they’re less likely to throw their support behind the social team’s efforts.

This is troubling because according to the Sprout Social Index^TM, 41% of social marketers say they need buy-in from their leadership teams in order to make a greater business impact with their strategies. With something as simple as a monthly social media reports, marketers can build trust with their leadership team and clearly communicate why executives need to invest in social media.

I’ve always believed one of the most important roles of a social media lead is to educate internal stakeholders to get that trust and buy in. You were spot on.

— Jen Hartmann (@jenalyson) October 15, 2020

The ability to communicate your social results can also help you secure executive buy-in when it’s time to ask for things like additional budget and resources. Suppose you want to increase your budget for a paid social campaign. You stand a much better chance of winning your finance executive over if you can show them how your social campaigns are performing and measure the return on investment.

Don’t underestimate the power of personalizing your reports

To ensure your social report has the greatest impact on your executive team, it’s important to tailor the content and language used based on your audience. Your sales executive, for example, isn’t interested in a report with engagement metrics but you can hold their attention if you share conversion data and other insights that directly impacts new business.

Do you tailor social reports based on the stakeholders who ask for them?

— Sprout Social (@SproutSocial) September 8, 2020

Put yourself in the shoes of your reader as you begin to build your report. What social metrics and insights matter most to an executive in marketing or product? If you’re sending a report to an executive on the product team, will they find data around message volume and sentiment essential for their team’s strategies? The more you can tailor your report to your stakeholders’ preferences and offer insights directly related to their goals, the more valuable it will be.

Here's what I've learned about social media reporting:

• Make it easy to open

Use a format your audience prefers. If the report is meant for a specific person, find out how that person likes to consume information—spreadsheets, graphs, in-person meetings— and use that method.

— Jenny Li Fowler, 이경실 (@TheJennyLi) June 23, 2020

Brevity is also key when building your executive summary social media report. Don’t try to stuff every last detail into your report. Your leadership team is looking for key highlights and insights that are specific to their goals, but don’t have the time to dig through a multi-page report. Be concise—your executive summary should make it easy for any executive to quickly digest and understand the impact of your social efforts.

Consistency is key for an effective social media report executive summary

So you’ve done your data analysis and compiled the need-to-know insights into one report to share with your leadership team—great! Now it’s time to make reporting and data sharing a regular habit.

Consistently communicating your social results to the executive team keeps stakeholders informed of everything you’re doing and helps build trust between leadership and social. These updates can be as simple as a weekly Slack message with timely insights or as in-depth as a monthly report. Communicating your social results on a regular cadence eliminates any ambiguity in your social strategy and ensures executives are always looped in on relevant efforts.

If the idea of consistent reporting sounds daunting or you’re unsure of how to create a monthly social media report, we’ve got you covered. In our latest social media reporting toolkit, we’ve gathered the tools and templates you need to stand up your own reporting system. Ready to send your findings to your executive team in a way that packs the greatest punch? Download the toolkit to get started on your social media reporting today.

Download Now

 

 

This post Why you need to share an executive summary of your social media reports with leadership originally appeared on Sprout Social.

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