Instagram Reels vs. TikTok: which is the best short-form video platform?

Trying to decide between Instagram Reels vs. TikTok?

You’re not alone — brands are going all in on bite-sized video content right now.

Food for thought: a staggering 89% of marketers plan to increase (or maintain) their investment in short-form video in 2022.

That’s because short videos are the perfect way to build brand awareness and educate customers without losing their attention.

But content on Reels and TikTok is totally different than pretty much anything else you need on social media. If you don’t quite “get it,” we can help!

In this guide, we’ll break down these two dominant short-form social platforms including similarities, differences and best practices for both.

What is TikTok, anyway?

With over 1 billion monthly active users, TikTok is booming as the hub of short-form video on social media.

TikTok’s trademark? Loud looping videos that you share with your friends.

The platform is infamous for off-the-cuff video content that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Unlike other social networks where videos might be meticulously edited, unpolished and organic content tends to perform best on TikTok.

Here’s a quick rundown of the types of videos that are popular on TikTok:

• Hashtag challenges
• Skits and memes
• Product showcases, reviews and recommendations
• How-tos and tutorials
• Explainer videos

Although TikTok’s reputation is anything but businesslike, the platform is rightfully attracting interest from brands. Product-centric posts and recommendations dominate the platform.

This signals a huge window of opportunity for marketers and advertisers. In fact, 84% of marketers are increasing their spending on TikTok.

The good news? All of the content types above are totally fair game for brands. TikTok’s emphasis on community and sharing empowers brands to make connections with customers while also showing off products in action.

For example, brands like Yours Skincare have built an organic and ad presence on TikTok that centers around skincare tips, product showcases and explainer videos breaking down beauty product ingredients.

Coupled with fast edits, voice-overs and in-app music, these videos seamlessly blend entertainment value with education. This not only empowers brands to show off what they’re selling but also lets their brand voice shine.

If you’re still trying to wrap your head around the platform, check out our quick guide to TikTok.

What are Instagram Reels?

Released in 2020, Reels represent Instagram’s response to TikTok re: short-form video.

That’s kind of where the “Reels vs. TikTok” narrative comes from. Reels shares many of the same features and functions of TikTok which is why the two platforms are often thought of interchangeably when it comes to video content.

Recent Instagram stats reveal that Reels are among the platform’s most popular features. Coupled with Stories, carousels and even longer-form video, the release of Reels allows brands on Instagram to cover all of their bases when it comes to visual content.

Whereas TikTok leans heavily on trends, videos on Reels tend to resemble more “traditional” video content that’s simply stylized to fit the vertical format.

In the early days of Reels, many brands would simply cross-post content directly from TikTok. That changed quickly when Instagram announced that their algorithm would deprioritize content containing the TikTok watermark. This has not only reduced direct cross-posting but also encouraged brands to reimagine what they should do with Reels at large.

Popular among ecommerce brands, Reels are typically used to:

• Show off products in action
• Highlight collaborators and influencers
• Hype up announcements (product launches and drops, for example)

Check out Stitch Fix’s Reels tab, for reference. Notice the combination of seemingly “organic” content versus the more traditional videos with stylized text and backdrops.

The videos themselves aren’t so different from what you might see on TikTok in terms of visuals and music (although they’re arguably a bit more polished).

Think of Reels as an extension of your existing Instagram presence where your brand can be discovered beyond your feed via Instagram’s native search or the Reels tab on any profile.

This is where TikTok differs since their content discovery primarily happens through your “For You” page (FYP).

To learn more, check out our breakdown of how Instagram Reels work.

Instagram Reels vs. TikTok: comparing features and characteristics

The battle of Reels vs. TikTok seems like an even matchup considering both platforms encourage short-form video content.

That said, they’re far from the same.

Let’s take a deeper dive into the similarities and differences shared by both networks.

Reels vs. TikTok: how they’re similar

There’s no denying the similarities between the platforms. After all, Reels was a direct result of TikTok’s growing popularity.

And so you’ll often see the same pieces of content overlap across branded accounts with subtle differences in terms of creatives, captions and hashtags. See hair care brand Arctic Fox Hair Color’s content below:

Beyond what we’ve already discussed, here’s a quick rundown of what Reels and TikTok have in common:

• Both platforms are centered around short-form video. Again, both Reels and TikTok are prime places for fun, off-the-cuff videos. There’s arguably no better place to see brands flex their creativity. Product shout-outs and recommendations are fair game, granted whatever you post is loaded with entertainment value.
• Access to a sound library. Both platforms allow users to seamlessly attach sound effects, music, and audio snippets to any given piece of content. From memes and original audio to what’s on the radio and beyond, access to sound libraries encourages brands to make their videos “loud”.
• Filters and visual effects. Aesthetics matter for brands on social media. Visual effects and filters make your videos “pop” and allow you to put your trademark on anything you post.
• Ads. Surprise, surprise: short-form video is becoming an increasingly popular avenue for ads. Although TikTok ads are still relatively young, they’re becoming a staple of influencer marketing campaigns as creators show off their latest purchases.
• Opportunities for accounts to interact. Through Reels’ “Collab” option and TikTok’s “Duet”, accounts can interact side-by-side and create totally new pieces of content together.

Reels vs. TikTok: how they’re different

We’ll say it again: TikTok and Reels aren’t identical! Here are the key differences that marketers should know:

• Video length. Both TikTok and Reels have actually expanded the duration of their videos since launching. TikTok began with 15, 30 and 60-second uploads but now allows for videos up to 10 minutes long. Instagram Reels also offers three video lengths of 15, 30 and 60-seconds. Even with these expanded options, data says that creating shorter-form videos is ideal for both platforms.
• Music and sound options. TikTok users have a wider selection of audio materials while Instagram business accounts are not allowed to use copyrighted music. That said, recent updates on Reels will include new text-to-speech and voice effect features.
• Audience. While both platforms are popular among younger audiences, social media demographics point to how popular TikTok is with Gen Z and teenagers.
• Availability. If you’re already on Instagram, you already have access to Reels (which are available to access in 50 countries). On the flip side, TikTok is banned in some regions due to censorship laws and has faced some scrutiny due to privacy concerns.
• Analytics. TikTok analytics tracks both the overall profile and individual video performance. This includes big-picture metrics like total playtime, average watch time and geolocation. While Instagram users similarly had to rely on general Instagram analytics, the platform rolled out Reels-specific data to get specific insights. This covers metrics such as plays, interactions, reach, “likes”, comments, and saves.
• Advertising opportunities. Both platforms are rolling out new ad features and rightfully so. That said, TikTok puts a much greater emphasis on creator-based ads and campaigns versus Instagram’s more traditional, shoppable ads via Reels.

Can’t pick between Reels vs. TikTok? Why not both?

Both TikTok’s rapid growth and the popularity of Reels signal the importance of short-form video moving forward.

While competition is fierce in industries such as fashion and beauty, there are so many opportunities when it comes to short-form branded videos.

Whether you stick to one platform or go with both, you need to brainstorm how to tie your social video campaigns to actual business goals.

If you haven’t already, make sure to read our guide to building a social media marketing strategy that does exactly that.

The post Instagram Reels vs. TikTok: which is the best short-form video platform? appeared first on Sprout Social.

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The complete guide to Twitter listening

Social media is more than just a place to promote your business. It’s also where your customers come together to have conversations, ask questions and voice their opinions.

If you’re not utilizing social media listening tools to acknowledge and respond to these customers, you’re missing out on a lot of potential growth and revenue. Listening to relevant conversations about your brand can help you in multiple ways, from improving products to informing content strategy to identifying new partnership opportunities.

Social listening is the tracking of specific keywords and phrases relevant to your brand. It involves using specialized tools to monitor data with a bird’s-eye view and then analyzing it to create strategies that help improve your business.

In this article, we’ll walk you through the value of social listening on Twitter, how to perform social listening on Twitter and how to take advantage of Twitter listening insights.

• Value of social listening on Twitter
• Using Twitter listening tools
• Taking action from Twitter listening

Value of social listening on Twitter

Twitter is one of the best platforms for social listening. Its users are active, socially aware and aren’t afraid to speak up when they have a question or are unhappy with a business.

More importantly, Twitter is a community-based platform. This means its users love to expand their networks, and follow and engage with content they’re interested in together.

In the Sprout Social Index, Edition XVII: Accelerate, we found that social media was consumers’ most preferred channel for leaving feedback about a product or service and reaching out with an issue or question.

We also found that 88% of customers are likely to purchase from a brand after reading reviews from other customers on social media.

For businesses, social listening on Twitter offers valuable insight into what their customers feel, think and question about their company and products. This helps those businesses create better marketing and product strategies that align with their customers’ needs.

The result? More sales and loyal customers who recommend your brand within their circles.

Our research shows that the number one action that brands can take to get consumers to buy from them over a competitor is to promptly respond to customer service questions.

But what about those who don’t mention the brands at all or are merely discussing general trends in the industry? Social listening picks up on these trends and informs your company’s next steps.

Listening is not limited to only your brand. It includes everything from your competitors to trending topics and hashtags on Twitter.

For example, your hotel might need to drive up interest in a certain city. By listening in on geographic micro-influencer conversations, you’ll glean tips on the best new restaurants and shops nearby. You’ll also be able to use listening to find new influencers.

One thing to keep in mind as you explore social listening is that each network is different and that social listening is only a slice of the overall listening pie. Other listening channel options include tracking press articles, forum discussions and review sites.

As you begin listening, you’ll learn how your customers and competitors utilize each network. Twitter may be used more for customer service while Facebook is for recommendations.

But you won’t know for sure if you don’t put your social listening strategy in place.

Using Twitter listening tools

In this section, we’ll walk you through five easy steps to performing social listening on Twitter:

1. Identify goals for Twitter listening
2. Choose a Twitter listening tool
3. Search for specific keywords
4. Analyze your reports
5. Respond quickly to brand mentions

1. Identify goals for Twitter listening

Before you start listening to customer conversations, you need to know what you hope to achieve out of your social listening activities.

Why is this important? So you know which specific keywords and topics to look out for, how to analyze and make sense of your findings, and how to use that information to improve your business.

Below are five goals brands usually have for Twitter listening:

• Attracting leads: By keeping track of trending topics and conversations in your niche, you’re able to not only find prospects easily but also craft more compelling messages and valuable offers that attract the right people. Better yet, you can join the conversation to expand your reach and get more eyeballs on your brand.
• Obtaining feedback: Keeping track of brand mentions, reviews and conversations allows you to better understand what customers think about your company and products. You’re also able to uncover their pain points, challenges and frustrations as well as what customers love about your brand.
• Identifying influencers or brand advocates: Find out who’s leading the conversation, who has the most impact or influence and who’s spreading the word about your brand. This helps you partner with the right influencers and learn more about your most loyal customers.
• Improving customer service: Setting up alerts for brand mentions helps you respond to questions, issues and concerns as soon as they arise. The quicker you’re able to solve problems for your customers, the happier they’ll be with your brand.
• Analyzing the competition: Don’t just track mentions of your own brand. Make sure you’re also listening to conversations about your competitors. Pay attention to what customers are saying about them, what they like and dislike, and how those brands are responding.

Once you’ve identified your goals for Twitter listening, it’s time to choose the perfect tool to help you look for relevant topics, keywords and phrases.

2. Choose a Twitter listening tool

When it comes to Twitter listening tools, you have several options to choose from. For starters, you could use Twitter’s own advanced search features, which let you filter the results by date range, language, author, location and more.

If you’re looking for a more comprehensive social listening tool, Sprout’s social listening features can help you out. With a tool like Sprout, you can stay on top of customer feedback, trends, sentiment and more.

After choosing a social listening tool, it’s time to set up your queries — specific keywords, phrases and topics to look out for.

3. Search for specific keywords

To perform Twitter listening at a basic level, you need to identify the keywords and terms you want to search Tweets for.

However, it can be difficult to keep track of searches for every term you need to follow. This is where a tool like Sprout can help you out.

Imagine you own and run a restaurant. Let’s say that it’s in Chicago and, unsurprisingly, is focused on selling pizza. With Sprout’s social listening suite, you can create queries that will track almost every variation of Chicago pizza.

Below is a simple query that will start to pull these insights for you.

Instead of individually searching each term, you can keep a pulse on conversations, sentiment and trending themes around:

• Chicago pizza
• Chi-town pizza
• Chicago deep dish

4. Analyze your reports

Once you’ve set up your social listening query, you can start uncovering new trends. Going back to the Chicago-based pizzeria example above, you’ll be better equipped to answer questions like:

• Are there new flavors Chicagoans crave?
• Where are there under-served locations we can branch out to?
• Are Chicago slices really better than New York slices?

Sprout will automatically compile and analyze this data for you. In one report, you’ll find what your brand sentiment is on Twitter while another one will tell you what type of content is resonating with your audience.

Sprout’s Listening suite provides a variety of insights to give you feedback from keyword monitoring to your Listening Topics. The Twitter Keyword Report will take your search parameters and give you insight into how your brand is being discussed. Additionally, you can also use Sprout’s Smart Inbox to quickly review and respond to brand mentions and brand keywords.

In the Twitter Trends Report, you’ll find topics and hashtags that are frequently mentioned with your brand on Twitter. This report is used to identify what’s most commonly said about your company.

If you’re managing Twitter for a coffee shop, you may have seen a few mentions that included words like “great service” or “oat milk.” But without tracking the number of times these appear together with your brand, you won’t know if they’re actionable insights – such as clear requests for new menu items – or just one-off mentions.

The Twitter Keyword Report takes the Trends report a step further by tracking individual keywords and their corresponding volume, days and influential Tweets.

You’ll be able to see when certain keywords are most popular and identify the influencer accounts that are discussing them.

If you want to delve even deeper into listening insights, Sprout’s advanced listening features are designed with you in mind. Here, you can set up both basic and advanced queries to distill the information you want the most. Each query comes with toggles per network.

Being able to filter via network is important because you’ll learn what customers on each one discuss the most. Maybe customers on Twitter are more into social customer care while those on Instagram are interested in product promotions. Without this filter, you won’t know these deeper insights.

5. Respond quickly to brand mentions

Customer service is one of the biggest reasons why both customers and brands come together on Twitter. Your customers are expecting a timely response to their questions and frustrations, and your brand needs to give it to them.

But here’s the thing. To really benefit from social listening, go beyond just answering questions and addressing negative reviews. Respond just as quickly to praise and neutral Tweets about your brand. Customers love recognition and will appreciate that you acknowledged their opinion — whether it’s good or bad.

Another way to join the conversation is to also respond quickly to questions and Tweets that don’t mention your brand but are still relevant to your business.

For example, if you’re selling smart watches and someone is asking for smart watch recommendations on Twitter, you could respond (in a non-salesy way) by highlighting the features or value of your product. You can even throw in a special discount for good measure.

Taking action from Twitter listening

Now that you’ve set up your search parameters and queries, and have your reports in front of you, the next question is “what now?” What do you do with all this new data?

There are several ways businesses can take advantage of the valuable insights obtained from social listening. Below are a few ideas:

Improve your products

Depending on your search parameters and social listening goals, you may have results that include product-specific customer feedback, feature requests and some brand sentiment.

Use this data to understand how to improve your product and identify new use cases for it.

For example, a new yoga tank top you just released can be tracked to reveal how people feel about it. If people are Tweeting about a flaw in the design, quickly respond before the criticism becomes unmanageable.

Monitor industry trends

It’s likely that you’re already following the top influential brands in your industry or that you’re one of those brands. But discussions move fast on Twitter and monitoring what other industry voices are talking about will help inform your business strategies.

Tweets surrounding a local or national industry conference is an easy way of tracking what’s an emerging trend.

Tweets that discuss a scandal might affect your sales strategy in a region. For example, if a product reseller was involved in an event that directly conflicts with your brand values, social listening will identify this conversation point.

The number of people talking about it will tell you how important it is to respond immediately. Without social listening, your sales team might not be aware of the scandal for days. But by incorporating social listening, you’ll know within hours and give your sales team a heads up.

Inform content strategy & campaigns

There are many ways to use social listening to inform your content strategy. The first is to use your Twitter analytics reports to see what type of content is resonating with your audience. Perhaps your audience engages more with questions that you Tweet, or more frequently re-shares educational content.

The second step is to look at what your competitors are putting out and what’s resonating with their audience. Is it worth it to imitate what’s working for them? Where and why are they failing so you can fill that need? Are you dominating the conversation topic in your industry more than your competitor?

And finally, social listening reports can drive your next campaign. What are customers talking about the most online? Identify their needs and create a campaign around those topics. You can use the listening results from one campaign to inform your next one, ensuring you precisely meet your customers’ needs.

Identify new partnerships

When you put social monitoring and listening into place, you’ll often find yourself surrounded by new marketing opportunities. These could be new influencers for your product and co-marketing partners for your next campaign.

The Engagement widget of your Listening topic in Sprout will help you out here. Those who are interacting with your Tweets through Replies, Shares and Likes are those who are more likely to be interested in being an influencer.

In addition to identifying the influencers, listening will also help you focus on hot topics in those spaces. Is there a trend of coffee bars in boutique hotels? As a travel company, you can ask your influencers to push that discussion point more.

Practice Twitter listening to uncover business opportunities

Including social listening in your marketing efforts will improve your overall brand strategy. Utilizing Twitter’s search parameters with a robust social listening tool helps you distill information into actionable items.

To execute social listening well, you need to first understand its value for your brand, identify specific goals, and then set up a powerful listening tool. Finally, you need to look at the overall data, analyze reports and utilize this information to improve your business and products.

Social listening does not happen overnight. It’s an ongoing process that requires active tweaking of parameters and an analytical mind. Twitter is a great source of real-time reactions that allows brands to see how new product campaigns are performing as well as track what the hottest industry topics are.

Learn more about how to set up social monitoring, especially on Twitter, with the help of our social listening cheat sheet.

How do you use social listening on Twitter for your brand? Tweet us @SproutSocial with your ideas!

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Who rules social media? Industry benchmarks for 2022

Sharing your performance data without including industry-specific social media benchmarks is like putting on a play without setting the stage. Sure, people will get what you’re saying, but they’ll probably come to their own conclusions about the bigger picture.

When you look at social media benchmarks by industry, you can find insights that tell a richer story about your strategy, its challenges and its successes. To help, we pulled social metrics to show marketers how different industries performed across all social platforms last year.

Use Sprout’s 2022 Year in Social report to illuminate opportunities and fine-tune your strategy in a way that resonates with your target audience. Before you dive into the data, keep reading to learn more about the metrics, why they matter and how you can use them to make sure 2022 is your best year yet.

What to measure in 2022: Social media benchmarks by industry

Our Year In Social report focuses on four priority metrics: Impressions, posts published, new followers and engagements. These metrics are network-agnostic, which means you can use them to assess your full social media strategy.

Impressions

To understand impressions, you need to understand reach. These two awareness metrics are often used interchangeably, but a distinct difference makes impressions the one to watch.

Reach measures the total number of people who see your content. Impressions measure the number of times your content is displayed in total, meaning a single person could have multiple impressions on a post.

This repeat exposure is a brand awareness game-changer. The more often people see your content, the more familiar they become with your brand. That familiarity builds the momentum needed for next-level engagement, such as comments, follows, DMs and even purchases.

Industry spotlight: Computer software

B2B social media strategy has always been a tough nut to crack, but last year computer software brands stepped up their game in a major way. In 2021, the industry’s average number of impressions reached 1.8 million.

It seems the secret is playing to the sector’s strengths. Software purchases are complex, multi-step processes. It makes it hard to use social as a bottom-of-the-funnel sales tool. That’s why successful brands are shifting their focus to awareness.

Brands like Drift use social to provide audiences with free insights from industry experts, supporting their followers as they get closer to their professional development goals. This proactive engagement builds trust with target audiences before they’re in the buyer’s seat.

Posts published

Posts published is a straightforward metric. It measures the number of posts published across accounts during a specific period. While this may seem simple, it’s oftentimes at the foundation of a successful social media strategy.

Narrowing in on posts published can help you reverse engineer the publishing volume needed to reach certain impressions, engagements and engagement rates. If your social media goals are data-informed, then figuring out how to reach them is just a matter of reviewing your previous performance reports.

This isn’t to say you should sacrifice quality in favor of quantity. It’s more a matter of prioritization. If you’re a one-person social media team, then focus your energy on the networks that make the biggest impact on your overall marketing strategy.

Industry spotlight: Professional sports

When it comes to publishing volume, sports franchises are knocking it out of the park. Last year, professional sports teams published 3.1K posts on average. To put that number in perspective, it’s more than double the social media benchmark across all industries.

To be fair, this industry has an edge over the rest. Footage from a single game can be repurposed into a ton of posts. For example, the Atlanta Hawks got over 10 Instagram posts out of their game against the Portland Trailblazers.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Atlanta Hawks (@atlhawks)

Even if you’re not a major sports team, you can still replicate this strategy. Next time your business has something fun or interesting on the calendar, look at the event through a social-first lens to get more mileage out of your presence.

New followers

Somewhere along the line, follower count got mistakenly labeled as a vanity metric. In reality, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

According to the latest Sprout Social Index™, nine out of 10 consumers will buy from brands they follow on social and 86% will choose that brand over a competitor. As social shopping continues to grow in popularity, getting your follower count up has the power to contribute directly to revenue.

Industry spotlight: Retail

Retail brands stand a cut above the rest when it comes to courting new audiences. On average, the industry attracted a whopping 4.8K new followers in 2021.

The social landscape changed dramatically over the past year and multimedia content has never been more important for audience expansion. This presents both a challenge and an opportunity for social marketers. Videos can be repurposed in a lot of different ways, but they tend to be more time-consuming to create and edit.

@cocokindskincare

#duet with @bondenavant if you try this, let us know!!! #cocokind

♬ original sound – Brooksie

The key is to not overthink it. Follow Cocokind’s lead and lean into informal, product-driven video content that inspires fans with new product uses.

Total Engagements

Total engagements measures the number of times users engaged with your posts during a specific reporting period. This is a cross-network metric. It covers all engagements including likes, reactions, retweets and other network-specific interactions as well.

Social media engagement benchmarks matter because they help you identify the content that resonates most with your audience. As you pinpoint the factors that compel people to interact with your content, you can repeat those successes down the line.

This all contributes to a more audience-centric understanding of what makes a great social post. Having this data at the ready can help you become more intentional about your strategy at the individual post level. It can also help you politely refute any pesky “just post this” requests.

Industry Spotlight: Higher education

Last year, the higher education industry saw 190.9K average total engagements. That’s over 70k more than the standard across all industries.

Higher education institutions have a difficult content mix to manage. Finding an even spread of content related to the institution, alumni, athletics and specific colleges is almost impossible. That’s why many have opted for a segmented approach.

When you search “Purdue” on Twitter, you’ll see they’ve created a number of handles for specific audience interests. This relieves the pressure of being everything for everyone, so they can speak directly to specific audiences.

The benefits of social media engagement benchmarks

Benchmarks can turn last year’s data into this year’s advantage. Leveraging social data is the most meaningful way you can tailor your strategy to your audience’s needs and business goals. Now that you have some new insights at your fingertips, here are three ways you can use social media engagement benchmarks to level up your strategy:

1. Industry benchmarks serve as inspiration

Every industry has its own unique approach to social media. If you want to revamp your social media strategy, looking beyond your competitors can be the first step to your next game-changing campaign.

Use industry benchmarks to find out which brands are outpacing the rest when it comes to the metrics listed above. As you look through their social presences, try to identify what they’re doing differently and how your brand can emulate them. This is a great way to come up with innovative ideas that bring something new to your target audience.

2. Competitive benchmarks give your performance context

Understanding how your brand stacks up against competitors can help you tell a richer story with your performance data. With competitive benchmarking, you can better translate your efforts to business stakeholders who may not know what social media success looks like.

With Sprout, you can use network-specific competitor reports to compare your performance with your top business rivals. These reports offer insights on publishing behavior, fan growth and engagement so you can benchmark the metrics that matter.

3. Personal benchmarks inform your immediate goals

Your personal social media engagement benchmarks should be your go-to resource for creating actionable goals. While industry social media benchmarks can give your performance color, your brand’s own year-over-year benchmarks tell the story of your growth over time.

This is especially meaningful for brands that pilot new social strategies or adopt a new network presence. It’s not fair to compare a strategy in its early stages to one that’s had a chance to mature and yield results.

Comparing your month-over-month or year-over-year performance can provide meaningful insights on how you’re pacing toward your growth goals.

Year in Social: Sprout’s 2022 social media industry benchmark report

Now that you know where to start with industry, competitive and personal benchmarks, you have everything you need to optimize your strategy for maximum success.

Use Sprout’s Year in Social report to see how your brand stacks up against your industry and social at large. Check it out here and unlock more social media success in 2022.

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No-Reply Email Addresses: Why They’re Bad and What To Use Instead

Have you ever received an email with a “do not reply” address like noreply@example.com or do-not-reply@example.com.

I don’t like the way they look in my inbox, with their tough and unwelcoming facade, so I marked the emails as trash without even reading them.

If you’re being disregarded based on the email you send from, you’ve got a great opportunity for better open and click rates. Avoid the trash folder and spam complaints by opening up a line of two-way communication, and making your audience feel like individuals – not just another email address.

What is a no-reply email address?

A no-reply email address (or “do not reply” address) is the “‘from email address” that is set up not to receive a response email. They are often formatted as noreply@DomainName.com or donotreply@DomainName.com.

Why you shouldn’t use a “noreply@” email address?

1 - Poor customer experience

The number one reason you shouldn’t be using no-reply email address is because it creates a poor customer experience.

No reply addresses take a channel like email, which is best used as a two-way communication, and make it one dimensional. 

2 - Decrease email deliverability

Additionally, “do not reply” addresses actually negatively impact email deliverability. 

Why? 

Because if your subscribers don’t have a positive interaction with you, they may be pushed to click the “spam” button. If enough of them do it, a delivery problem arises. 

To subscribers, spam isn’t just unsolicited bulk email, it’s any email they don’t want. And not many people want to hear from people – or companies – who refuse to hear back from them.

3 - Filtered to spam folders

Your subscribers may not even have the chance to mark your email as spam. Email providers, such as Yahoo and Gmail will often add no-reply emails to the spam folder. 

And you may not realize the negative impact because emails appearing in the spam folder still show as delivered. 

Take a look at these emails which appeared in my spam folder. I’ve purchased from Hallmark and have a Dropbox account, but because these email addresses are a from a “noreply” address, my email provider send them to the spam folder. 

Here’s the actual addresses:

4 - Difficult to add to “safelist”

Many email providers won’t allow you to “safelist” an email address that starts with noreply@. Safelisting is when a subscriber adds your email address to their contact list. Being added to your subscriber’s contact list increases the likelihood of your emails showing up in the inbox instead of the spam folder.

5 - Increased unsubscribe rate

An email with a noreply address is such an impersonal way to communicate with your subscribers, that they may unsubscribe from future emails. 

Try this instead

Instead of using an unfriendly “do not reply” address, try using an address like “info@example.com,” “help@example.com” or an address from a specific individual. 

These addresses show readers that you care about them and are there to help! This really opens up a two-way communication, shows your customers that they can reach out and lets you better connect with subscribers.

What do YOU think of “do not reply” addresses?

Have you ever sent a campaign using a “do-not-reply@” or "no-reply" address? Ever received one? What do you think of them?

Share your thoughts below.

Need an easy-to-use tool to send emails that will get delivered? Start with a free AWeber account today!

The post No-Reply Email Addresses: Why They’re Bad and What To Use Instead appeared first on AWeber.

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Everything you need to know about WhatsApp marketing

Remember the feeling of “being a regular” somewhere? No shopping experience can compare to spending money with a company that knows who you are and what you like.

In this era of accelerated digital transformation, the concept can feel like a thing of the past. The truth is, it’s not gone; it’s just changing shape. Stand-out customer experiences still hinge on creating that sense of familiarity and personalization. Now, marketers can pull it off at scale with 1:1 messaging tools, like WhatsApp.

WhatsApp marketing taps into the preferences of today’s always-on, digital-first consumer. As of 2021, WhatsApp is the most popular global messenger app worldwide. With over two billion active users, WhatsApp is more than likely where your customers connect with family, friends and maybe even your competitors across the globe.

Marketing with WhatsApp can modernize your approach to customer care, helping you create stellar experiences that people remember and repeat. Keep reading to learn more about WhatsApp marketing and its role in your social media strategy.

Why you should include WhatsApp marketing in your social strategy

You’ve likely experienced frustration caused by an impossible-to-find support center hotline.

Or the boredom brought on by a seemingly endless customer service wait time.

These common customer experience pain points used to seem inevitable. Now, people can and will avoid them.

Your customers want to connect with businesses the same way they connect with their friends and family. No special hotlines or single-use platforms. Just fast, simple and convenient messaging.

WhatsApp marketing supports seamless customer experiences, encouraging retention and even evangelism. If you’re still on the fence, here are three prime reasons you need to include marketing with WhatsApp in your social media strategy:

It’s how you’ll beat your competition

As I said above, customers can and will avoid disjointed customer experiences. The latest Sprout Social Index™ found that responding to customer service questions in a timely manner is the easiest way to get customers to buy from a brand over a competitor.

With WhatsApp, your brand can secure a competitive edge that makes a measurable difference on your bottom line. A WhatsApp Business account allows you to set up messaging tools that guarantee quick response times with less effort. When 77% of consumers expect a response in less than 24 hours, speed is what will make your business stand above its rivals.

It’s where your customers are most responsive

WhatsApp marketing open rates are much higher than traditional email open rates. In fact, many estimate they’re on par with SMS marketing open rates, hovering somewhere around 90%.

This responsiveness opens the door for more meaningful interactions that go beyond support requests. Now, customers are using social messaging to ask questions about products, provide feedback, and give shout-outs. These behaviors empower your social media and customer care teams to act as digital sales floor associates, giving them real-time influence on purchasing behaviors.

It’s the future of commerce

According to Meta’s Head of Messaging Developer Partnerships, Martha O’Byrne-O’Reilly, messaging is here to stay. She believes this influx of 1:1 messaging, combined with social commerce, is creating a new wave of what’s known as conversational commerce.

“[Conversational commerce] encapsulates the full range of reasons people chat with businesses, from asking about store hours to booking appointments, tracking deliveries and resolving issues,” says O’Byrne-O’Reilly. “And it’s happening in all the places where people are spending time online, which is predominantly social and messaging platforms.”

New technologies, like machine learning, chatbots and messaging, are ushering in a new era of customer experience. In fact, 77% of consumers say they’re more likely to buy from a brand if they could browse or get questions answered via messaging. Building WhatsApp marketing into your social strategy today can help future-proof your marketing strategy for tomorrow.

The 3 best WhatsApp marketing examples we’ve seen (so far)

A quarter of the world’s population, mainly in Latin America, Asia and Europe, use WhatsApp. It’s no wonder brands from those regions lead the pack when it comes to stand out WhatsApp marketing strategies.

If you’re planning to roll WhatsApp into your social marketing strategy, here are three brands you can look to for inspiration:

1. World Health Organization

In March 2020, the World Health Organization launched dedicated COVID-19 WhatsApp hotlines to service users in seven languages.

Users can access the hotline by messaging a location-specific number via WhatsApp. They’re then given several prompts to pick from for more information on the disease, vaccines and more.

This automated chatbot provides users with a solid middle ground between self-service and live support.

2. Lidl

Lidl, an international food retailer specializing in discount goods, has been riding the WhatsApp train since May 2020.

Initially, in response to the pandemic, the brand created a “Quiet Time” chatbot that allowed shoppers to check store capacity before heading over to shop. Now, Lidl has rolled out a full scale customer care strategy on the platform to provide a seamless support experience to their shoppers.

The company uses the platform to provide instantaneous support with automated greeting messages. When a customer sends a question or request, they get a message thanking them for their business. The message also shares that a live support agent will be with them shortly.

3. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines

Flight information typically lives in two different places: in a password-protected account or somewhere in an email. Neither of these options are particularly helpful when you’re speeding to the airport, trying to catch a flight. KLM is using WhatsApp to provide their passengers with something better.

When a person books a flight with KLM, they can opt into WhatsApp communications. This allows them to centralize their booking, baggage and flight status information in a single, searchable conversation thread.

Blending WhatsApp into your social media strategy

WhatsApp marketing isn’t a magical solution to connecting with your customers. A poor messaging conversation will drive a customer away just like a poor in-person experience might. Like all marketing strategies, you get what you put into it.

If you’re ready to start marketing with WhatsApp, here’s everything you need to do before jumping in.

Decide on your team goals and operating norms

Your WhatsApp marketing goals will be different from your goals for traditional social media networks. Instead of engagements and impressions, you’ll want to start by tracking customer care metrics.

KPIs like average reply time and total response volume can help you benchmark your initial WhatsApp marketing efforts. Eventually, you’ll be able to use that data to inform more commerce-driven channel decisions.

You’ll also want to use this time to decide on operating norms. WhatsApp Business accounts only allow for one active user at a time, so creating a clear channel management schedule is imperative.

Luckily, you won’t have to experience this issue for long. Sprout is bringing WhatsApp messaging into its product suite before the end of 2022.

Sign up for WhatsApp Business

You won’t run your business account out of the general WhatsApp app. Instead, you have to use WhatsApp Business.

WhatsApp Business is available for both iOS and Android devices. Once you’ve downloaded the app, you’ll see the account setup is pretty simple. All you have to do is verify your phone number and update your business information. For a full walkthrough, check out the video below.

Craft templated messages

WhatsApp Business offers several messaging tools to streamline your workload and customer response times. All you have to do is craft your message.

These templated responses are designed to help you act on important conversations in advance. WhatsApp’s messaging tools include:

• Away message: When an away message is enabled, customers who message you will automatically receive a reply indicating that you’re busy or offline for the day.
• Greeting message: Your greeting message automatically sends out a warm welcome when customers interact with you for the first time or after 14 days of no activity.
• Quick replies: These canned responses can be used to quickly reply to frequently asked questions. They can be accessed in message conversations using specific shortcuts and you can save up to 50 at a time.

Build out a product catalog

The catalog is a powerful WhatsApp marketing feature that allows customers to browse through your products or services directly within the app. Once a product is in your catalog, you can share its link anywhere for more discoverability.

If you offer several products, try starting with your most popular items. As you continue to build out your product offerings on the app, you can sort them into collections for easy browsing.

Promote your presence on other channels

WhatsApp isn’t an “if you build it, they will come” platform. Customers need to know your WhatsApp number to reach out.

Once your business profile is all set up, run a lightweight awareness campaign to let people know you’ll offer customer care through the platform. This might include an email to existing customers, promotions across other social media networks, and a quick update to your website’s “Contact Us” section.

Say “what’s up?” to WhatsApp marketing

Marketing with WhatsApp sits at the intersection of marketing and customer care, opening up new ways for brands to connect with fans and prospects alike. If your approach to messaging is more reactive than strategic, now is the time to use WhatsApp Business to step into the new normal.

If you want to learn more about messaging as a channel, then check out this guide we created in partnership with our friends at Zendesk. Use it to learn how to effectively integrate social messaging into your customer experience so you can prepare for the future of customer experience.

The post Everything you need to know about WhatsApp marketing appeared first on Sprout Social.

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Introducing ‘Watch History’ will solve one of TikTok’s most annoying issues

I did. I finally did it. I bit the bullet and downloaded TikTok. And, within minutes, I was hooked. There was an issue I bumped into quite quickly though — it’s tough as hell to find something you watched earlier. There have been plenty of times where I scrolled past a video that somehow lodged in my brain, but, when I tried to find it again, I was lost. It was gone. Thankfully, it appears the solution to this problem may be close at hand: NEW! TikTok Watch History https://t.co/vxXy9L0VJb — Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) March 26, 2022 Shared by social…

This story continues at The Next Web

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9 Instagram trends to pay attention to in 2022

Social media is constantly evolving—and Instagram, with over 2 billion monthly active users, is no exception. This is why it’s important to stay up to date with the latest trends.

Read on to learn more about the Instagram trends you need to keep up with in 2022.

Instagram Reels continue to rise in popularity

Instagram Reels were launched in 2020 and slowly rolled out to all users throughout 2021. This micro-video addition to Instagram was created as a competitor to TikTok, which has exploded in popularity.

Initially starting out as 15-second clips, Reels can now be up to 60-seconds long. Reels generate more engagement than regular videos on Instagram, proving their popularity and why you should be adding this content type into your Instagram strategy.

Many users will simply repurpose TikToks onto this platform, but there are many ways you can take advantage of Reels’ popularity.

For example, take a look at how Smile Direct Club worked with content creator Kelli Erdmann to create this fun reel:

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

Link sticker gives full access to story links

Instagram dealt a big blow to those of us who worked so hard to get past that 10,000 follower threshold with their new link stickers. Now, links in stories are available to any Instagram user—even personal accounts.

Simply create your Instagram story, then tap the “Stickers” icon on the screen to access sticker options. Of course, there are questions, polls, surveys, GIFs, music and many other stickers, but you’ll want to click the “link” option. From there, you’ll paste in the target link and place the sticker wherever you want it to appear on the sticker.

Here’s an example of what this could look like:

Ways to use the link sticker

• Promote products and services, sending followers directly to your sales pages
• Tease an upcoming event or webinar and link to the event details page
• Share information about a blog post and add the link to read more on your blog
• Have influencers link directly to the products they’re promoting

Instagram Stories get even more engaging

In addition to link stickers, Instagram Stories has a number of other stickers to help engage your viewers.

One of the more recent options is the “Add yours” feature, where you create a prompt and your followers can add their own photo to the prompt by sharing it on their own stories.

Take a look at this in action:

In addition, Stories may be getting even longer. Around the end of 2021, Instagram began testing 60-second stories. While it’s currently possible to create longer stories, they must be broken up into 15-second chunks. This new feature would allow you to record or upload continuous videos of up to 60-seconds to your story.

Ways to use Instagram Stories

• Share behind-the-scenes photos and videos that might not fit in with the content on your Instagram feed
• Create stories that you can add to the highlights on your Instagram profile
• Use story stickers to engage with your audience, like creating polls or quizzes, linking to fundraisers, asking questions and more

Instagram Story ads run the promo show

If you’re looking for the best place to run promotions on Instagram, look no further than story ads. Story ads appear in between user stories, making it more likely that users will see and engage with your ads.

There are a few different objectives you can choose from for your Instagram story ads, like brand awareness, traffic, engagement, video views and conversions. Be sure to create full-sized, 1080 x 1920 pixels creative assets for your ads, otherwise they won’t take up the full screen and may not have the desired effect.

Here’s an example of an ad that isn’t full-screen. While it still has a nice design, it could have a much better impact if they’d kept the Stories dimensions in mind:

Instead, let’s take a look at this example, where the brand has chosen a full-screen ad creative. It’s much more compelling and feels like it fits right in with the rest of the stories users are watching.

Ways to use Instagram Story ads

• Create compelling videos that grab attention in the first few seconds to keep users from tapping to the next story
• Add clear calls-to-action that get your viewers to take the desired action after viewing your ad
• Test a variety of different story ad objectives to reach users at every stage of the sales funnel

Cross-promote Twitter and Instagram content

If you have any kind of presence on Twitter, you’ve likely seen link previews in tweets. However, Twitter prevented previews for Instagram links. Thankfully, the platform recently released the ability for Instagram photos to have the same kind of link preview.

Now you can share new Instagram photos with your Twitter followers as a way to increase your following across both platforms.

In addition, you can also share your tweets directly to your Instagram stories. Head to the tweet you want to share, click the share icon then select Instagram Stories from the options. It’ll look something like this:

Ways to take advantage of cross-promotion

• Seamlessly hold conversations with your audience on multiple platforms
• Share your Instagram photos to Twitter to get more reach and engagement
• Post your tweets to your Instagram story when you want to get more insight from followers

Share tweets and memes

If it fits in with your brand personality, have some fun with your Instagram account. Share memes that are relevant to your business, or cross-promote your tweets onto your feed. (We already talked about how to share them in stories, but sharing screenshots of tweets is also a popular Instagram feed trend.)

Here’s a meme from Chipotle to get an idea of what you might consider sharing:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Chipotle (@chipotle)

Now let’s look at how you might want to share tweets. While you could always screenshot and crop the tweet by itself, the better—and more visually appealing—trend is to share your tweet on a colorful background.

Here’s a perfect example of what this should like like:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by theSkimm (@theskimm)

Ways to share tweets and memes

• Take a fun tweet that you’ve posted or a customer has posted and use that screenshot in a post
• Find a trending meme and fit your own brand’s voice into it
• Create your own memes to show off your brand personality

Let your audience shop on Instagram

Over the last couple of years, Instagram has made it increasingly easier for e-commerce brands to generate revenue through the platform. 70% of shoppers look to Instagram for their purchases, so brands want to make sure their products are as accessible as possible.

With Instagram shopping features, brands can create an entire shop that is broken down into collections, new arrivals, sale items and more.

Take a look at how one boutique has categorized some of their products in their Instagram shop:

Then, you can link to these products anytime they’re featured in an image. See this in action here:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Dress Up (@shopdressup)

Ways to use Instagram shopping

• Create various collections and categories that make your products easy to find
• Share photos with your products and tag the listing in each photo to make them instantly buyable
• Add new products to your shop immediately so they’re available for shoppers

Working with creators has never been easier

Because influencer marketing is so prevalent on Instagram, the Network has been making it easier and easier for brands and creators to collaborate.

One of the most important new features was announced in late 2021—the ability to search for and communicate with creators right inside the Instagram app.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Instagram’s @Creators (@creators)

Streamlining the influencer-brand relationship helps entice more brands and creators to utilize Instagram for their campaigns.

Furthermore, Instagram is testing a native affiliate platform, helping creators to earn even more revenue by promoting products and earning affiliate income.

Ways to work with creators

• Start searching for creators with a similar target audience in the partner discovery list
• Work with influencers to create stunning UGC that the two of you can share with your respective audiences
• Create (or promote) an affiliate option for creators to use when promoting your products

IGTV is no more – but Instagram video is better than ever

IGTV was Instagram’s foray into long-form video, but the idea never really caught on. So instead of continuing to support a platform that wasn’t taking off, Instagram got rid of IGTV and instead ramped up their existing in-feed video features.

Now, Instagram feed videos can be up to 60 minutes in length, allowing brands who were taking advantage of IGTV to still share long-form video content with their followers.

Ways to use Instagram video

• Interview thought leaders in your industry to provide value and educational information to your audience
• Create an educational video series
• Make sure to select a cover that matches your feed for your video before you post it

What Instagram trends are you excited about in 2022?

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.

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