Conquer Social Media in 2024: The Ultimate Guide to Brand Success & Audience Engagement
Social media has become an integral part of our business lives. It is not only a platform for personal connections but also a powerful tool for businesses to engage with their audiences. Social media has empowered brand communities to like, share and comment on what it likes and hates about products and services. However, most businesses find mastering social media management can be a daunting task. The social media learning curve and decision tree is steep. We find ourselves considering a variety of platforms and their benefits, frequency of posts, processes for dealing with customer conversations, managing production of creative assets, staying on-brand, and more. In this comprehensive guide, we will delve into the key strategies and best practices to help you thrive in the digital social universe.
Set clear goals:
Before diving into social media management, it is important to establish clear goals. Whether it’s increasing brand awareness, driving website traffic, or generating leads, having specific and measurable objectives will guide your social media efforts. Your goals will drive your social media strategy.
Know your audience:
Understanding your audience is crucial for effective social media management. Conduct market research to identify their demographics, interests, and online behavior. This knowledge will help tailor your content and frequency so you engage with them in a meaningful way. This is especially important for B-to-B organizations. Attracting, engaging and keeping followers and connections on social media is difficult. Ruining these hard-won connections with too many or inappropriate posts will cost you.
Choose the right social media platforms:
With numerous social media platforms available, it’s vital to select the ones that align with your audience and goals. Target the platforms where your audience is most active and spend your efforts there rather than spreading yourself too thin. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Youtube, Truth Social, Pinterest, Reddit, and TicTok are well-known platforms, and each have specific strengths and weaknesses depending on the nature of your business. However, there are many lesser-well-known platforms that may help you reach your audience better than the big names. Do your research before you craft your social marketing strategy.
Consistency is key:
Consistency posting, consistency in tone/voice, and consistency in content published is crucial for social media success. Establish a consistent brand voice, visual identity, and posting schedule that aligns with your social media marketing strategy. Regularly publish engaging content to build audience-familiarity and to maintain your audience’s interest. Resist the urge to “go wild” when it comes to social media for your business. You can quickly create brand-disconnect, confuse your audience, and encourage follower abandonment.
Engage with your audience regularly:
Social media is a two-way conversation. Unlike more traditional marketing where commercial messaging spoke AT and audience, social media marketing allows businesses to speak WITH their audience. Engage with your audience by responding to comments, messages, and mentions in a timely and personalized manner. Encourage conversations about your brand, products and services or your industry. This not only strengthens relationships with followers, fans and connections, but also boosts brand reputation.
Analyze and iterate:
Social media marketing produces trackable results. Unlike traditional mass-media-marketing like TV, Outdoor, and Radio Spray and Pray advertising, social media and digital advertising produces trackable results (if done correctly). Regularly analyze your social media marketing performance using analytics tools. Compare digital ad spend to desired results, and make strategic changes if necessary. Evaluate key metrics such as engagement rate, reach, and conversions. This data can provide valuable insights to refine your strategy and optimize future efforts.
Stay updated:
Social media is ever-evolving, with new features and trends emerging constantly. Stay up-to-date with the latest industry news and adapt your strategy accordingly. What may be an appropriate platform for your business’ social media marketing today may become irrelevant or inappropriate within a few months. Experiment with new formats, hashtags, video styles and lengths, and other content techniques to stay ahead of the curve.
Mastering social media management is an ongoing process that requires constant learning and adaptation. By setting clear goals and expectations, an appropriate strategy and budget, researching to understand your audience, maintaining consistency, encouraging two-way communication, engaging actively, and analyzing the performance of your efforts, you can harness the power of social media. Being intentional and real with your social media audience can help you elevate your brand presence and achieve business objectives. Implementing the strategies outlined in this comprehensive guide will empower you to navigate the complex world of social media and unlock its full potential.
Hello, New Orleans! As a seasoned expert in website design, development, and digital marketing, with over 25 years of experience, We at Design the Planet are thrilled to share our passion for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) with you. In today’s digital age, understanding and implementing effective SEO strategies is not just beneficial; it’s essential for the growth and success of your business. In this extensive guide, we’ll embark on an enlightening journey into the world of SEO, unraveling its mysteries, and exploring the substantial impact it can have on your business.
What is Search Engine Optimization?
SEO is the art and science of enhancing your website to increase its visibility when people search for products or services related to your business in search engines like Google. It’s about understanding what people are searching for online, the answers they seek, the words they’re using, and the type of content they wish to consume. By aligning your website’s content with these factors, you can attract the right kind of traffic – potential customers – to your site. One of the tools we use to measure a website’s SEO and needs for improvement is Semrush.
The Perils of a Non-Optimized Website
A website not optimized for search engines faces several critical challenges:
Invisibility in Search Results: Without SEO, your website becomes a needle in the digital haystack, nearly impossible for potential customers to find amidst the vast expanse of the internet.
Poor User Experience: SEO isn’t just about search engines; it’s also about providing a seamless and satisfying user experience. A non-optimized site often fails to meet user expectations, leading to high bounce rates.
Missed Business Opportunities: The digital marketplace is bustling with potential customers. A website lacking SEO misses out on this lucrative traffic, directly impacting sales and growth.
The Cost of Neglecting Your SEO
Neglecting SEO can be costly. Businesses lose substantial revenue annually due to poor or nonexistent SEO strategies. A website that doesn’t rank well is equivalent to a billboard in the desert – unseen and ineffective. This lost visibility translates directly into lost business opportunities, with companies missing out on the vast potential of online customer engagement and sales.
The Business Benefits of Effective SEO
Increased Visibility and Traffic: Well-implemented SEO skyrockets your website’s visibility, bringing more potential customers to your doorstep. Google, Bing, Yahoo.
Enhanced User Experience: SEO involves optimizing your site’s layout, loading speed, and content, culminating in a satisfying user experience that keeps visitors coming back. Yes, Google cares a lot about user experience.
Higher Conversion Rates: SEO targets quality traffic. Visitors arriving at your site through organic search are more likely to be interested in your products or services, leading to higher conversion rates.
Cost-Effectiveness: Unlike paid advertising, the traffic generated through SEO is free. This makes SEO an incredibly cost-effective marketing strategy in the long run.
Competitive Advantage: In a city bustling with businesses, a well-optimized website gives you an edge over competitors who haven’t embraced the power of SEO. Don’t get left behind.
Now, let’s delve deeper into the cosmos of SEO. Imagine having a powerful telescope that reveals hidden constellations and guides your journey through the digital universe. That’s where SEMRushcomes in. With SEMRush, you gain insights into your website’s performance, uncover hidden opportunities, and enhance your search engine visibility. Don’t remain invisible; let SEMRush be your compass in the vast cosmos of SEO.
Remember, quality digital marketing should attract the right people for your organization. It should answer questions, solve problems, entertain, and start conversations. As an experienced digital marketing agency, we understand the dynamic landscape of online marketing and have the knowledge and tools to use digital marketing effectively. Let’s unlock the cosmos of SEO together!
SEO vs. SEM: Understanding the Difference
While SEO focuses on optimizing your site to improve organic search results, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) involves paid strategies to increase search visibility. SEM encompasses SEO but also includes pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, where you pay for top spots in search results. Both are crucial in a comprehensive digital marketing strategy, but SEO is often the foundational element due to its long-term benefits and sustainability.
Consider Partnering with Design the Planet for your SEO and digital marketing needs.
Our expertise in website design and maintenance, coupled with our comprehensive knowledge of SEO, positions us uniquely to elevate your business in the New Orleans area. Visit our Website Maintenance and Professional Graphic Design pages to learn more about our services.
By optimizing your website with us, you’re not just enhancing its online presence; you’re opening doors to new opportunities and growth. Don’t let your website be an untapped resource. Contact Design the Planet today and start your journey towards SEO excellence!
What’s the Importance of Website Maintenance?
If you own a car, a computer or home appliances, you probably know the importance of on-going professional maintenance to keep these necessary tools operating at their best. Maintenance is crucial for the health, performance and functionality of websites too. It’s also vital to your Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Launching a professionally designed website is only half the battle; keeping it up to date and properly maintained is equally important as there is a lot “under-the-hood” of a modern commercial-grade website. The definition of “website maintenance” is quite extensive and can be likened to keeping your website “healthy”. For example, it involves tasks such as ensuring security, resolving errors, enhancing user engagement, updating plug-ins, regularly updating content, and more.
Why should you care about the health of your website? Your search ranking and visitor experience depends on it. Search engine algorithms look for healthy websites, and will rank those higher than similar sites that are old, busted and broken.
What are the Key Elements of Effective Website Maintenance?
Website maintenance is a broad concept that involves many aspects. To provide a clearer understanding, let’s break it down into types of web maintenance issues that are relevant to business websites.
Broken links and forms: These need to be checked and identified to ensure your website functions properly. If a form doesn’t work, you may miss out on valuable feedback or a reach-out from a potential client. Users of your website may notice errors, or if they don’t, they may mistakenly believe their information was successfully received when it actually wasn’t. Broken links can occasionally occur, which means your users won’t be able to access the intended information you provided a link for.
Checking for spam or hacking: This is crucial for web maintenance, especially when it comes to the security of your site. Checking for malicious code or other hacking is important for several reasons. Hackers tend to target websites that appear inactive or dormant. Even in the unfortunate event your website gets hacked, regularly checking your website allows you to quickly identify if this has occurred. Inappropriate blog articles, products, or links can be placed in the site, but maintaining your website means you or someone else will spot these issues before they become a big problem or legal hassle.
Adding Content: It’s easy to forget to remove the team members who left the company recently or to update the phone numbers that changed, but these are some of the simple content errors that appear on unmaintained websites. You should also consider updating content on your site’s pages as well as adding blogs or case studies on a regular basis. Since we all love to write, this shouldn’t be a problem… right?
Keeping a backup of your site: Make sure a backup of your whole and most current site version is stored by your hosting provider or IT team in case you ever need to revert to a previous version due to a malicious hack or technology breakdown. Your backup will need to be updated each time site maintenance is performed.
Design updates: Keeping track of whether your website needs a design update is also important. You want to make sure users are engaged when viewing your site, which means having up-to-date and visually appealing design elements and perhaps some new images. After all, this could be a customer’s first impression of your business and you’ll want to impress.
Now, let’s delve deeper into the cosmos of SEO. Imagine having a powerful telescope that reveals hidden constellations and guides your journey through the digital universe. That’s where SEMRushcomes in. With SEMRush, you gain insights into your website’s performance, uncover hidden opportunities, and enhance your search engine visibility. Don’t remain invisible; let SEMRush be your compass in the vast cosmos of SEO.
Ready to boost your SEO game? Subscribe to a Design the Planet website maintenance package, and your website’s health and functionality become our priority. Say goodbye to broken links, outdated content, and faulty plug-ins. Let us be your support team, ensuring your website thrives in the competitive digital landscape. Contact us now and unlock the full potential of your online presence!
Effective Website Maintenance: More Things to Consider
There’s many things you can do to continually improve your website, and there are also some outside factors which can impact it. As an example, search engines make frequent updates to their own search algorithms and websites that website owners must keep up with. These updates often affect your website’s SEO. Briefly, SEO is essentially the marketing strategies utilized to improve the ranking in which your website appears on web search.
To ensure your business’ website stays at the very top when searched in a web browser, attention needs to be paid to things like keywords, headlines, back-links, page loading speed, responsiveness, and other factors which influence SEO. For instance, Google algorithms rank your site depending on these factors and their algorithms undergo many updates each year. That’s one of the reasons it’s important to maintain your site to keep up with search-platforms’ changes.
Besides SEO, you should be concerned with the technical parts of owning your website. Your website’s domain must be renewed each period, whether that’s annually or for a multi-year lease. You should also be aware of data and analytics about your website and its traffic. And, as stated before, you should also make sure you have a backup of your site saved in case you have to revert to a previous version. This measure is important in case something were to go wrong in your site.
Hiring Professionals vs. DIY: Choosing the Right Approach for Website Maintenance
If this list of web maintenance tasks seem like a lot, handing it off to a professional website maintenance team may be the way to go. You can pay an agency which handles website maintenance as their specialty, or make a schedule and DIY it. Regularly scheduled website maintenance will give you peace of mind and confidence in your up-to-date website. If you intend to tackle these tasks by yourself, you’ll want to have both the time and knowledge necessary.
If your site can be considered dormant, or if you feel other areas of your business require your expert attention, then hiring a team to perform web maintenance on your site might be the way to go. This is best done by purchasing a website maintenance package from a reputable company which offers such services. Digital Marketing companies like Design the Planet offer professional website development, but also offer a range of website maintenance packages to match the type and size of your business.
Have a website already? Digital Agencies, like Design the Planet, can help keep your site up to date and top-performing even if they didn’t build it initially. They should be familiar with the maintenance needs of sites built on WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, and more. Outsourcing website maintenance allows you to focus on running your business while leaving your web maintenance needs to the experts. Or, on the other hand, if you are capable of performing web maintenance and do not require outside help, then DIY. Either way, maintaining your website is crucial.
Prioritizing Website Maintenance for Long-Term Success
For those who may not have the time or expertise to handle website maintenance themselves, there are professional services available. Third-party website maintenance service providers offer comprehensive support in areas such as site backups, updates, security checks, performance optimization, SEO and content management.
So, understanding the significance of website maintenance is essential for maintaining a secure, high-performing online presence. Whether through self-maintenance or utilizing professional services providers, regularly tending to your website “health” ensures its longevity and effectiveness in achieving business goals.
“Bye Bye Birdie” – The Rebrand of Twitter to “X”
Twitter has been a major social media platform for decades; Why did Elon Musk change everything we know about the iconic Twitter bird?
In the realm of technology, few figures have captivated the world’s imagination as much as Elon Musk. The visionary entrepreneur and CEO of companies like Tesla and SpaceX consistently surprise the public with innovative ideas and daring endeavors. Recently, Musk raised eyebrows once again by changing the name of one of the most popular social media platforms, Twitter, to simply “X.” Here’s a deep dive into Musk’s reasoning:
First and foremost, Elon Musk has sought to curb censorship and constraints on freedom of speech within online platforms from the get-go. His aim in taking over Twitter was to create an online space of free speech and expand beyond the limitations that he saw on Twitter.
In a recent post, Musk stated, “Twitter was acquired by X Corp both to ensure freedom of speech and as an accelerant for X, the everything app. This is not simply a company renaming itself, but doing the same thing”. Although the app was super successful in its run, the increasing allegations of wrongful censorship drove Musk to take over and rebrand the platform entirely.
Since he seems to have an affinity for “X”, it’s understandable he would call his proposed “everything app” X. A simple x-splanation for the rebranding from Twitter to X is that Elon Musk just loves the letter X. One of his early Tesla Models was called the Model X, his space exploration program is called SpaceX, and even PayPal was originally X.com before he sold the company. His daughter’s name too, “x æ a-12,” is pronounced as “X.”
Secondly, speaking of everything apps, the rebranding is an effort to prepare X users for new things to come. There are talks of Musk moving forward with adding features like shopping and subscriptions, which would not only bring in more revenue for the company and others affiliated with it, but would put the company ahead of the monetization curve in terms of other social media apps.
Rebranding of Twitter to “X” may just be Musk’s way of bringing Twitter into the same brand family as his other companies. One of the important aspects of good branding is consistency of brand names under a corporate umbrella. It also lets us know that Musk has no immediate plans on stepping down as the head of X, as he is beginning to make the company one of his own.
TikTok has taken the social media world by storm since its reinvention in 2017. It is reported that over 67% of teens/young adults in the US, and a whopping 150 million users nationwide actively use TikTok.
What’s the reason the app has become so popular?
TikTok offers a variety of content for virtually every audience and serves its users an endless algorithm-based feed tailored to their likes and interests. So, whether you’re interested in DIY projects, step-by-step cooking recipes, how-to properly unclog your sink, or just looking for entertainment, TikTok delivers. Its popularity has skyrocketed due to its ability to cater to diverse audiences by delivering raw, seemingly authentic content to its users’ feeds.
TikTok has received a lot of scrutiny since its rise in popularity.
From users to journalists to the US government, the app has been accused of facilitating the spread of misinformation on varying topics such as COVID19, climate change, and the war in Ukraine. Additionally, TikTok has faced numerous lawsuits on accusations ranging from parents claiming the content on children’s feeds promotes eating disorders, to the app being harmfully addictive to sensitive audiences.
Why is the US Government trying to ban TikTok?
The US Government’s main concern with TikTok is perceived national security risks.
This has been a concern for years. The first time the app was faced with a possible ban in the US was by the President Trump Administration in 2020.
TikTok is currently facing a massive challenge. The Wall Street Journal reported in mid-march of this year about how the Biden Administration has demanded TikTok’s Chinese owners sell their stake in the company’s USA-based operations or face a possible ban in the United States.
Federal US Legislators fear the Chinese government is involved in TikTok’s operation. They have expressed concern it could exploit user data to spy on US citizen’s activity while serving up misinformation and promoting narratives favorable to China’s communist leaders.
On March 23rd, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testified in Congress in effort to relieve national security concerns. During the congressional hearing, Republican and Democratic lawmakers pressed Chew on a host of topics, ranging from TikTok’s content moderation practices, how the company plans to secure American data from Beijing, and its active spying on journalists by monitoring their locations.
“Mr. Chew, you are here because the American people need the truth about the threat TikTok poses to our national and personal security,” Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Republican, said in her opening statement.
Chew’s response to the House Committee insisted TikTok prioritizes the safety of its young users and denied it is a national security risk. He reiterated the company’s plan to protect U.S. user data by storing it on servers maintained and owned by the software giant Oracle.
“Let me state this unequivocally: ByteDance is not an agent of China or any other country,” Chew said. However, it has been assumed by members of Congress as well as the USA business community that all Chinese companies ultimately answer to the Chinese Communist Government.
These concerns about the exploitation of user data stem from TikTok’s previous moderation practices. In 2019, the Guardian reported on how TikTok was instructing its moderators to censor videos that mentioned Tiananmen Square and images unfavorable to the Chinese government. The platform claims it has completely changed its content regulation policies since then.
How is TikTok planning to avoid getting banned?
TikTok has been actively distancing itself from its Chinese origins, saying that 60% of ByteDance is owned by global institutional investors such as Carlyle Group.
TikTok has generated a $1.5 billion dollar plan in an effort to avoid the ban. ByteDance’s “Project Texas” hopes to assure all US user data will be stored on US soil and managed by US employees through an entirely separate data management entity called TikTok U.S. Data Security. The question is: once the plan is thoroughly considered will it be capable enough to reassure Congress of its truth and efficacy if implemented.
What will happen next?
The consensus on this issue is still divided. Some feel TikTok should be banned entirely to avoid any possible national security risks. Others believe a ban on government-issued phones may be necessary, but a nationwide ban may be too extreme. While there are other factors involved, many have concerns a complete ban would burn bridges in other areas of trade relations with China.
“We have Tesla in China, we have Microsoft in China, we have Apple in China. Are they going to start banning us now?”, former government intelligence officer David Kennedy said. “It could escalate very quickly.”
It is assumed that a nationwide ban on TikTok would open the gate for US-based competitors to step into the gap it leaves. Users love their TikTok, and marketers have been advantaging this for their clients.
What will happen? Which platform could fill the TikTok gap if a ban is activated? All we can do at this point is wait, as a TikTok ban in the US is considered by Congress and President Joe Biden.
If you’re reading this, you already know how important logos and identities are to businesses. Logos often become a valuable asset that hold significant intrinsic value to its brand community and to potential buyers of the business.
To get a fundamental idea of what a successful logo must consist of to be successful, here’s a great quote from Smashing Magazine: “A good logo is distinctive, appropriate, practical, graphical and simple in form, and it conveys the owner’s intended message.” That’s pretty simple. I would add that a good logo works in one color as well as many, and it should be readable at one inch as well as billboard size. Let’s delve into this.
Successful Logos Must Work in One Color
Designers who have worked in logo development company long enough eventually learn why logos need to be successful in one color. Even if your logo utilizes more than one color, it still must function in one color. Inevitably, the logo will find itself printed on something in one color, and if it fails to retain its intended effect in one color, then it fails as a professional logo. Here are some examples of what I mean:
These are some successful logos you probably will immediately identify and recognize distinctively even as they appear in one color. They don’t need red, blue, or green to make an impact on the viewer. Their silhouette is all they need to convey what the company wants the viewer to see without the need of alternative colors.
The One Inch Rule
One of our absolute requirements in successful logo design is a logo must be successful at about one inch in size.
If a logo loses its readability at one inch in size, if something important starts to drop out visually, or the logo starts to lose its feeling/impact, then the logo is not successful. Professional logo designers understand all the reasons the one inch rule is vital to producing a successful logo.
Is Your Logo Memorable?
The other question that we have to always ask ourself is your logo memorable and unique? Do you know what a millennial swoosh is? Why it’s used by so many large companies continues to baffle the masses. It’s not memorable or unique, and often screams, “we slapped this together just to have something to put on the sign.”
If your logo isn’t memorable in some way, then it’s not a win, and you should keep working on it. Even great companies like Universal Studios have redesigned their logo to stay relevant to audiences across generations.
Does it Mean Something to the Company?
A logo should act the visual representation of an organization’s brand. The organization’s brand consists of many aspects and is not, as many laymen assume, just the logo of a business. The brand is the mission, culture, people, value proposition, why and how of the organization. The logo should impart and communicate these characteristics visually for the brand. For reference, here is one of our client logos for River Road Coffees. The graphical elements, the colors, and the words composing the logo are very meaningful to them.
For example, they are about expectation-exceeding service to clients and fresh handcrafted high-quality products. Their logo elements combine to communicate reliable and speedy service represented by winged wheels on a road, the swirling of beans into the basin of a coffee roaster and a fresh tub of roasted coffee beans cooling off, the swirling blue of clean water used to brew the perfect cup, and more. The essential elements of a great cup of coffee are simply the quality of the roasted beans (brown tones) and the purity of the brewing water (blue tones). But, also important to the company is a recognition of its hometown roots… a city located on the muddy Mississippi River.
So, for this company and for the viewer, the logo has an iconic feel to it. It feels comfortable, classic and a tad old fashioned, but it carries the meaning of what the company passionately delivers to their customers.
Has Your Logo Been Simplified to the Maximum?
Great artists have said, “continue to remove elements until nothing unnecessary is left to disrupt the perfection hidden within.” We created the Lucy’s Retired Surfers’ Bar and Restaurant logo several years ago. When asked to re-design it, we had to find a way to simplify the logo down to its most basic elements so it retained the essence of the original but without all the noise.
Professional logo designers must remove noisy elements from the design to find its most simplistic form, while still adhering to the other concepts addressed in this blog. Eventually, the result is a successful logo, when nothing else can be removed from it without lessening its meaning or function. Here’s the final result of the redesign:
Once you’ve achieved a logo that can’t be simplified further, works well at one inch in size, functions in one color, is unique and memorable, and holds meaning for the brand it represents, then, you are close to your final product.
Logos and Identity Systems are serious business
Clients entrust us with one of their most valuable business assets, their logo design. Here, we discussed just some of the considerations the Design the Planet logo design team thinks about for clients, their logos and identity systems.
Although there are more complicated elements to it, these are the basic concepts and ideas that make successful logos. Use this is a brief guide for what makes a good or successful logo for business, or get in touch for help.
If you are interested in the work we do, here is a link to our portfolio of past work: Click Here
How to Use Google My Business to Get More Customers
Transcript:
Hey everybody, I’m Adrienne with Design the Planet.
I’m a 25 year marketing and advertising veteran.
I have had the pleasure of helping hundreds of companies and hundreds of business owners grow their brands and grow their businesses, online and off.
today I’m here to share more about how to use Google My Business to get more customers.
Google happens to be have about what is it 92.47% of the shopping market, or the search market in general? So lots of business most of search is being done on Google.
This is why spending the time focusing on your Google My Business is so important.
If you’re looking for more customers on the web, if you’re not getting the business you want now, looking at your Google My Business is a great place to start to start generating more business.
our google my business listing while it is in edit mode
Google My Business Marketing 101
Some of the key thing every business owner needs to know and really take a care of is company name.
I can’t tell you how important it is for this company name to be the exact same name that’s also when your website and other places.
If Google is confused about your company name your company can run into search issues. this is who Google thinks your are only.
Because well, that’s what you set up.
So, you’ll see this name (New Orleans Digital Marketing & Website Design Agency) for us and then you’ll also see this name on all of our other listings properties.
Claim your Google My Business account. Not always an easy task.
If you haven’t claimed it before, you’re not sure it says on your business.
You click on this button and you go through the process of claiming your business if you haven’t done it before.
Why add your Products to GMB?
If you have a product or service you can add your product or services in here.
So here’s some products, list your products here and make sure you keep this updated curate your photos.
So these are the photos that are associated with design the planet right now.
This is actually the the photo of outside of our building.
This is a team photo from COVID, because we have masks on, and then this is this is the map.
The all important map so cute but you have the ability to go in and curate these photos.
Don’t look at your Google My Business as a “set it and forget it.”
Because it’s not you treat it almost like another social media because it has some of those same tools.
So this is our kind of our Google Google My Business and we post to this about every week or so.
We use specific keyword rich, and so that helps off with search engines.
And then when people are looking at our listing on Google, they can learn more about us and what are things that we do.
Why is it so important?
Google wants to be active in the community.
They want to want to be part of your ongoing conversation.
Why post on Google My Business?
So when you’re posting here, Google thinks while they love us. Then Google also end up sharing and posting more info.
You’re, you’re enriching Google’s information about your company, and then you reap the benefits by having more search terms out there for Google.
How to Use Google My Business to Get More Customers
Are your hours of operation up to date?
One of the biggest challenges for businesses, where they go really wrong and upset a lot of clients, is not updating their hours of operation. How do you make this change? Login to your google my business dashboard
aside {So we close soon 6pm}
If you open this up, it shows our regular hours of operation.
A lot of companies, especially retail, do not update these on a regular basis and clients get very upset when this these are not correct.
They are counting on this information being correct.
So if you’re going to have a change one day, make sure you can put in special hours for events or holidays to say that you’re going to be close.
You’ll upset a lot of clients if your hours of operation are not set up correctly
Using Google reviews to get more business
This is one of the areas where that does help you generate more business is having reviews with Google and so you can click here.
Yay.
We’re a five star digital marketing company and these are all the amazing people lots of clients who have gone through the trouble of of listing us and they say great things about us.
This is a great way to use Google to help you get more business.
WHY? People read the reviews on Google and many people make decisions on if they’re coming to your business or not.
Or if they’re consistent.
They saw you on the map on Google map and then they get haven’t maybe you’re a restaurant and maybe they haven’t tried you before.
They’re going to go read your reviews.
This is a likely THE where they will go read reviews.
So, using Google and making sure your reviews are up to date, and that you’re responding (to comments) and taking care of people super. It is super important.
The map feature this is something that is huge, and it’s becoming even bigger. Google pays more attention to Google Maps and allows people to kind of pay-to-play a bit to be promoted on Google Maps.
Google Maps is your best marketing tool when people are in a certain area, they you search for certain topics and then you know where you show up?
How do you show up?
This is super, super important to a map search.
If you’re a destination if you’re really working on getting traffic from people who are passing through or retail or specific products.
It is vitally important to make sure you’re listed – correctly.
Make sure your location is correct and make sure your hours are updated.
These are the big ways (above) and of course you can pay for Google ads. And that’s that’s good too that content can help.
But having all of this set up so it’s talking to Google and it will help your website in Google search.
More ways to use google my business to get more customers
There are so many ways that that these listings will benefit you.
So take the time and put the energy into updating your Google My Business listing claiming it the
Another way you can use Google My Business to get more business is actually just share your Google star rating on your website.
People trust Google and they trust other people who are rating you on Google because they’re real people.
Sometimes it’s a great idea to share the Google ratings on your website.
And it they can go they can click or they can go check it out and see that it’s for real (on Google).
Another part of Google My Business, that helps you do well in search, is making sure that you fill in all of the information about your company.
So this is a bit about us from design the planet.
Marketing and website development agency in Metairie, serving Louisiana (make sure you work on Geo locating.)
We build successful brands! You get the idea.
Spend the time and update the content because this is also searchable content on Google.
People. If when people search certain keywords, hopefully people are searching “Web Development Agency Metairie”, and then they can they can be taken to our listing and learn more about us.
This is one of the ways that we get new business.
Thanks for tuning in.
We hope this helps you market your business more successfully.
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So… You want to make a captivating marketing video for your business?
The power of video marketing can’t be denied.
Not all videos are easy to produce.
Design the Planet created and produced two video spots to advertise Lakeside Shopping Center Holiday events.
Using these as examples, I’ll show you how we utilize the power of video for our clients.
Video for marketing is extremely effective!
Video advertising has been one of the most effective methods of reaching audiences since videotape was invented more than 70 years ago.
It’s never been easier to create marketing videos.
Expensive production studios are no longer a requirement. A high-quality video recording device is in your pocket. But, making high quality captivating video for retail marketing is so much more than whipping your phone out and collecting footage.
Your prospects expect marketing videos!
Today, production of short videos and promo commercials for marketing is exploding in popularity due to various new platforms, channels, and screens. Marketing videos disguised as DIY instructions, edu-tainment, customer information as well as the more obvious advertising commercial can be sent directly to mobile devices.
What’s so important about marketing good videos, anyway?
The world’s first television commercial aired on July 1, 1941 during a game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies.
Because of the success of this Bulova Watch commercial, big companies have been willing to throw crazy amounts of money at TV ad spots ever since. The right TV commercial at the right time creates a lasting, memorable impression on the viewer.
Consumers have come to expect us to serve up video when possible, and now it’s possible everywhere.
What’s changed in video and advertising?
Today, video is everywhere, not just on the TV screen. Marketers, influencers, and professionals create video for social media posts, delivering information to colleagues and collaborators, product awareness, and more.
YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, FaceBook, are some of the better-known platforms for accessing video-on-the-go, but there are many more.
Video has become a standard and expected element in professional presentations and trainings and is even used in video games to add depth and suspension of disbelief.
Producing a quality marketing video is expensive, right?
A good deal of professional video is still shot in studios with professional backdrops, lighting and editing. If you are seeking good quality and need to save a few dollars consider this. Marketers can now shoot fairly good quality material with higher-end smartphones, compact lighting and sound equipment. For best results though, we suggest you hire professionals who have the right equipment for pre and post production.
• Posting on social media channels like FaceBook Reels, Tik Tok, etc.
How does one make a strong impactful video?
Here are the steps to develop a captivating retail video?
Step 1:
Answer two important questions:
What is the marketing goal of the video?
Who is the audience?
Other important questions include:
What marketing channels will the video be delivered on?
What is our maximum budget for the video production?
When does the video need to be ready?
What are the constraints to the project?
Step 2:
With these questions answered, we begin the creative process.
For Lakeside Shopping Center, we identified two marketing goals:
Create awareness and drive interest (audience: mostly local moms and kids) for “Santa’s Arrival Celebration.”
Remind and entice the public to shop at the multitude of stores at Lakeside Shopping Center for the holidays.
Step 3:
This is the process we followed to achieve these goals.
The handmade gift tag featured in the retail commercial video
Develop a few themes and see what can drive the video campaign and other creatives. The campaign included ads, billboards, radio, and more (the channels!)
The theme we decided on was “Wish.”
Begin script development and ideation of what audiences will see on the screen. We knew we wanted to make it a little funny but intriguing.
Tool and retool the script. With large retailers like Dillards, Macy’s, JC Penney, and 100 other retail shops represented, it can be weeks before approval.
Find the right “voice” for Lakeside’s new Wish campaign.
Identify and hire the right talent to be the heroes of the videos. (Good Santas are hard to find!) They must be capable of meeting the physical requirements of the shoot.
Make or buy the props. Buy or make the costumes. Test the talent.
Identify the right video production team like Kartoffel Films and makeup artist. (Careful! Every team is different in skill, experience, and equipment.)
Nail down the location to build a huge scenic white winter background.
Find a day where all of the writers, actors, directors, team members, and more can converge on the location.
Step 4:
Shoot day.
Lots of coffee. Lots of Lights, Camera, Action. There’s energy and a lot of waiting around for the next scene or setup. There is a ton of magic in the air when you are on the set.
Many things will make a big difference later in post-production: Camera angles explored. Lighting focused or soft. Sound checks. Wardrobe tape. Props being glued together, etc. (you didn’t think the male model is really balancing all those gifts did you?)
Step 5:
Putting it all together.
After 10 hours of shooting for the two videos, we make the real magic happen. This is when professional quality editing comes in, splicing together action, voice-overs, and music to make amazing marketing videos.
The videos must grab the viewers’ attention, captivate them, while reflecting the client’s holiday advertising message.
PRO TIP:
Be flexible and ready to adapt!
Retail commercial photo of the set and actors
Day of the shoot.
We had to be ready to make decisions on the fly, like there was no tomorrow.
There was no tomorrow!
We had to get everything we needed in one long day.
Did I mention lots of coffee?
What else do you need?
Have back-up props and some duct tape.
And, if you need more pro tips please give us a call.
How to get started making videos for your business & marketing goals:
Professional and polished, or rough and gritty? This will determine your budget, equipment needs and production team. Keep your goals and audience always in mind! Make sure you deliver what your audience expects and will respond to.
Don’t know where to start or don’t want to DIY it… get help!
Are hashtags still relevant today for social media usage?
In short, yes. But its usage is not the same as it was originally intended.
What was once a hyperlinked tag used to categorize posts for easier discovery is now additionally used by social media algorithms to rank posts and show them to users who would likely be interested.
In some applications instead of users using hashtags to find posts, the social media platforms do it for them.
How did hashtags start?
Hashtags were first utilized in 2007 by San Diego resident, Nate Rider, who started appending his twitter posts with the hashtag #sandiegofire in efforts to raise awareness about the wildfires burning in California at the time. Twitter formally adopted hashtags in 2009, and later introduced “Trending Topics”, where the most popular hashtags were displayed and tweeters could join in on the trending conversations.
Hashtags were created as a way to filter relevant content for users. Individuals would search for a “#tag” in the search bar. The most popular social posts with the searched hashtag would be served up in the search results.
How are hashtags used in 2022?
Hashtags are still a great way for users to categorize their content, which in turn helps Instagram and other platforms serve up posts to relevant audiences. Using “#”‘s to search for posts is becoming less and less prevalent.
Today, over half of Instagram users do not actively search hashtags to find new content or people to follow. Some still do, but the hashtag’s function has shifted over to the social media algorithm.
Instagram’s algorithm analyzes hashtags and caption content to show your post to the right people or boost your post if it contains a trending topic/hashtag. Social media algorithms are becoming increasingly intelligent by the day, meaning they are analyzing BOTH the content of the caption and the hashtags used. This suggests that one day hashtags may no longer be necessary for social media. But for now, it is still the primary way social media algorithms will identify and categorize your posts.
How do algorithms work on social media?
While each social media platform uses algorithms differently, they have a common goal: They want to get the right content in front of the right person.
The Instagram algorithms, more than one, use a set of rules that determine which content is seen. Each time a user opens the app, algorithms immediately comb through all available content and decide:
Which posts go to the top of the newsfeed, and in what order.
Which posts are featured on the Explore Tab.
The order in which stories, live videos and reels show up.
What else are the algorithms doing?
There are different factors that go into the algorithms’ decision-making processes, but, the three main aspects that are taken into account are:
The relationship with your followers. Does this user interact with you frequently?
The relevancy of your content. Does this user typically engage with this type of post and content?
The timeliness of your content. Was this posted recently? (Pro tip: Instagram will prioritize newer posts over older ones.)
In 2022, Instagram algorithms sort through your feed and stories. Their goal is to predict how likely you are to interact with the post based upon how many likes a post got in a certain amount of time. It is also based on how many times you have interacted with the person who posted or your activity.
With this information about the advancing technology of social media algorithms, you maybe asking:
How can we effectively utilize hashtags today?
Focus on using hashtags that are relevant to your niche. The hashtags you use should be phrases that describe the content. The more closely your hashtags are related to your content, the more Instagram will boost your content to the right audience. You can identify your most relevant hashtags by researching what your competitors are using and searching Instagram for key words to see which ones have the most engagement.
Do not use overly-popular or too specific hashtags. A hashtag like “#EggsBenedictWithPepperJackCheeseAreTheBest” will not give you the results you want because it is too specific. Simply put, content with these types of #’s are unlikely to be seen because there aren’t enough people searching for it. (Searching as in, Instagram will not recognize your post as a relevant topic and will make it harder for it to find your ideal audience.)On the contrary, overusing popular hashtags may not give you the volume of engagements that you desire. The usage of hashtags like, “#instagood” or “#fashioninspo#, are oversaturated and the likelihood of your post getting seen is slim amongst the billions of others using the same hashtag. You may also risk not reaching your target audience because they’re simply too generic and overloaded with spammy content.
Diversify the hashtags you use.
Common sense suggests that consistency will produce results, but with hashtags this is not the case. When you use the same set of hashtags, you are reaching the same group of people over and over again! Most importantly, when you use the same hashtags for every post, Instagram will flag your content.
Try switching it up. Test new ones. Research trending ones, then create a couple sets of hashtags for different types of posts.
See an example of how we use hashtags in our post above.
This post was following an event we conducted for Earth Day. We invited our clients to participate in recycling used glass products with us, which was then dropped off at Glass Half Full Nola.
In order to get maximum visibility from the right audience, we made sure to use broad hashtags that were unique to Earth Day. Our goal was to attract the attention from environmentally conscious users and those who were participating in this annual environmental movement. Using the trending hashtag “#EarthDay” allowed us to gain visibility from those outside of our followers. We also wanted to tap into the niche group of those who were familiar with Glass Half Full Nola, New Orleans’ only glass recycling depot, so using hashtags pertaining to this non-profit helped us to do just that.
The truth is, hashtags are not completely dead – yet. The purpose of hashtags, and the way that we use them, has evolved.
If you refocus your efforts to gain the attention of the algorithms, you can have much more success in building your following within your target audience and increase your engagements with help of YTMonster. Let us know if any of these Pro Tips work for you and your business!
#ReadyToHashOutTheTags ?
Conquer Social Media in 2024: The Ultimate Guide to Brand Success & Audience Engagement
Social media has become an integral part of our business lives. It is not only a platform for personal connections but also a powerful tool for businesses to engage with their audiences. Social media has empowered brand communities to like, share and comment on what it likes and hates about products and services. However, most businesses find mastering social media management can be a daunting task. The social media learning curve and decision tree is steep. We find ourselves considering a variety of platforms and their benefits, frequency of posts, processes for dealing with customer conversations, managing production of creative assets, staying on-brand, and more. In this comprehensive guide, we will delve into the key strategies and best practices to help you thrive in the digital social universe.
Set clear goals:
Before diving into social media management, it is important to establish clear goals. Whether it’s increasing brand awareness, driving website traffic, or generating leads, having specific and measurable objectives will guide your social media efforts. Your goals will drive your social media strategy.
Know your audience:
Understanding your audience is crucial for effective social media management. Conduct market research to identify their demographics, interests, and online behavior. This knowledge will help tailor your content and frequency so you engage with them in a meaningful way. This is especially important for B-to-B organizations. Attracting, engaging and keeping followers and connections on social media is difficult. Ruining these hard-won connections with too many or inappropriate posts will cost you.
Choose the right social media platforms:
With numerous social media platforms available, it’s vital to select the ones that align with your audience and goals. Target the platforms where your audience is most active and spend your efforts there rather than spreading yourself too thin. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Youtube, Truth Social, Pinterest, Reddit, and TicTok are well-known platforms, and each have specific strengths and weaknesses depending on the nature of your business. However, there are many lesser-well-known platforms that may help you reach your audience better than the big names. Do your research before you craft your social marketing strategy.
Consistency is key:
Consistency posting, consistency in tone/voice, and consistency in content published is crucial for social media success. Establish a consistent brand voice, visual identity, and posting schedule that aligns with your social media marketing strategy. Regularly publish engaging content to build audience-familiarity and to maintain your audience’s interest. Resist the urge to “go wild” when it comes to social media for your business. You can quickly create brand-disconnect, confuse your audience, and encourage follower abandonment.
Engage with your audience regularly:
Social media is a two-way conversation. Unlike more traditional marketing where commercial messaging spoke AT and audience, social media marketing allows businesses to speak WITH their audience. Engage with your audience by responding to comments, messages, and mentions in a timely and personalized manner. Encourage conversations about your brand, products and services or your industry. This not only strengthens relationships with followers, fans and connections, but also boosts brand reputation.
Analyze and iterate:
Social media marketing produces trackable results. Unlike traditional mass-media-marketing like TV, Outdoor, and Radio Spray and Pray advertising, social media and digital advertising produces trackable results (if done correctly). Regularly analyze your social media marketing performance using analytics tools. Compare digital ad spend to desired results, and make strategic changes if necessary. Evaluate key metrics such as engagement rate, reach, and conversions. This data can provide valuable insights to refine your strategy and optimize future efforts.
Stay updated:
Social media is ever-evolving, with new features and trends emerging constantly. Stay up-to-date with the latest industry news and adapt your strategy accordingly. What may be an appropriate platform for your business’ social media marketing today may become irrelevant or inappropriate within a few months. Experiment with new formats, hashtags, video styles and lengths, and other content techniques to stay ahead of the curve.
Mastering social media management is an ongoing process that requires constant learning and adaptation. By setting clear goals and expectations, an appropriate strategy and budget, researching to understand your audience, maintaining consistency, encouraging two-way communication, engaging actively, and analyzing the performance of your efforts, you can harness the power of social media. Being intentional and real with your social media audience can help you elevate your brand presence and achieve business objectives. Implementing the strategies outlined in this comprehensive guide will empower you to navigate the complex world of social media and unlock its full potential.
Unlocking the Potential of Your Website: A Comprehensive Guide to SEO Mastery
Hello, New Orleans! As a seasoned expert in website design, development, and digital marketing, with over 25 years of experience, We at Design the Planet are thrilled to share our passion for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) with you. In today’s digital age, understanding and implementing effective SEO strategies is not just beneficial; it’s essential for the growth and success of your business. In this extensive guide, we’ll embark on an enlightening journey into the world of SEO, unraveling its mysteries, and exploring the substantial impact it can have on your business.
What is Search Engine Optimization?
SEO is the art and science of enhancing your website to increase its visibility when people search for products or services related to your business in search engines like Google. It’s about understanding what people are searching for online, the answers they seek, the words they’re using, and the type of content they wish to consume. By aligning your website’s content with these factors, you can attract the right kind of traffic – potential customers – to your site. One of the tools we use to measure a website’s SEO and needs for improvement is Semrush.
The Perils of a Non-Optimized Website
A website not optimized for search engines faces several critical challenges:
Invisibility in Search Results: Without SEO, your website becomes a needle in the digital haystack, nearly impossible for potential customers to find amidst the vast expanse of the internet.
Poor User Experience: SEO isn’t just about search engines; it’s also about providing a seamless and satisfying user experience. A non-optimized site often fails to meet user expectations, leading to high bounce rates.
Missed Business Opportunities: The digital marketplace is bustling with potential customers. A website lacking SEO misses out on this lucrative traffic, directly impacting sales and growth.
The Cost of Neglecting Your SEO
Neglecting SEO can be costly. Businesses lose substantial revenue annually due to poor or nonexistent SEO strategies. A website that doesn’t rank well is equivalent to a billboard in the desert – unseen and ineffective. This lost visibility translates directly into lost business opportunities, with companies missing out on the vast potential of online customer engagement and sales.
The Business Benefits of Effective SEO
Increased Visibility and Traffic: Well-implemented SEO skyrockets your website’s visibility, bringing more potential customers to your doorstep. Google, Bing, Yahoo.
Enhanced User Experience: SEO involves optimizing your site’s layout, loading speed, and content, culminating in a satisfying user experience that keeps visitors coming back. Yes, Google cares a lot about user experience.
Higher Conversion Rates: SEO targets quality traffic. Visitors arriving at your site through organic search are more likely to be interested in your products or services, leading to higher conversion rates.
Cost-Effectiveness: Unlike paid advertising, the traffic generated through SEO is free. This makes SEO an incredibly cost-effective marketing strategy in the long run.
Competitive Advantage: In a city bustling with businesses, a well-optimized website gives you an edge over competitors who haven’t embraced the power of SEO. Don’t get left behind.
Now, let’s delve deeper into the cosmos of SEO. Imagine having a powerful telescope that reveals hidden constellations and guides your journey through the digital universe. That’s where SEMRushcomes in. With SEMRush, you gain insights into your website’s performance, uncover hidden opportunities, and enhance your search engine visibility. Don’t remain invisible; let SEMRush be your compass in the vast cosmos of SEO.
Remember, quality digital marketing should attract the right people for your organization. It should answer questions, solve problems, entertain, and start conversations. As an experienced digital marketing agency, we understand the dynamic landscape of online marketing and have the knowledge and tools to use digital marketing effectively. Let’s unlock the cosmos of SEO together!
SEO vs. SEM: Understanding the Difference
While SEO focuses on optimizing your site to improve organic search results, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) involves paid strategies to increase search visibility. SEM encompasses SEO but also includes pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, where you pay for top spots in search results. Both are crucial in a comprehensive digital marketing strategy, but SEO is often the foundational element due to its long-term benefits and sustainability.
Consider Partnering with Design the Planet for your SEO and digital marketing needs.
Our expertise in website design and maintenance, coupled with our comprehensive knowledge of SEO, positions us uniquely to elevate your business in the New Orleans area. Visit our Website Maintenance and Professional Graphic Design pages to learn more about our services.
By optimizing your website with us, you’re not just enhancing its online presence; you’re opening doors to new opportunities and growth. Don’t let your website be an untapped resource. Contact Design the Planet today and start your journey towards SEO excellence!
How Does Website Maintenance Contribute to Better SEO?
What’s the Importance of Website Maintenance?
If you own a car, a computer or home appliances, you probably know the importance of on-going professional maintenance to keep these necessary tools operating at their best. Maintenance is crucial for the health, performance and functionality of websites too. It’s also vital to your Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Launching a professionally designed website is only half the battle; keeping it up to date and properly maintained is equally important as there is a lot “under-the-hood” of a modern commercial-grade website. The definition of “website maintenance” is quite extensive and can be likened to keeping your website “healthy”. For example, it involves tasks such as ensuring security, resolving errors, enhancing user engagement, updating plug-ins, regularly updating content, and more.
Why should you care about the health of your website? Your search ranking and visitor experience depends on it. Search engine algorithms look for healthy websites, and will rank those higher than similar sites that are old, busted and broken.
What are the Key Elements of Effective Website Maintenance?
Website maintenance is a broad concept that involves many aspects. To provide a clearer understanding, let’s break it down into types of web maintenance issues that are relevant to business websites.
Broken links and forms: These need to be checked and identified to ensure your website functions properly. If a form doesn’t work, you may miss out on valuable feedback or a reach-out from a potential client. Users of your website may notice errors, or if they don’t, they may mistakenly believe their information was successfully received when it actually wasn’t. Broken links can occasionally occur, which means your users won’t be able to access the intended information you provided a link for.
Checking for spam or hacking: This is crucial for web maintenance, especially when it comes to the security of your site. Checking for malicious code or other hacking is important for several reasons. Hackers tend to target websites that appear inactive or dormant. Even in the unfortunate event your website gets hacked, regularly checking your website allows you to quickly identify if this has occurred. Inappropriate blog articles, products, or links can be placed in the site, but maintaining your website means you or someone else will spot these issues before they become a big problem or legal hassle.
Adding Content: It’s easy to forget to remove the team members who left the company recently or to update the phone numbers that changed, but these are some of the simple content errors that appear on unmaintained websites. You should also consider updating content on your site’s pages as well as adding blogs or case studies on a regular basis. Since we all love to write, this shouldn’t be a problem… right?
Keeping a backup of your site: Make sure a backup of your whole and most current site version is stored by your hosting provider or IT team in case you ever need to revert to a previous version due to a malicious hack or technology breakdown. Your backup will need to be updated each time site maintenance is performed.
Design updates: Keeping track of whether your website needs a design update is also important. You want to make sure users are engaged when viewing your site, which means having up-to-date and visually appealing design elements and perhaps some new images. After all, this could be a customer’s first impression of your business and you’ll want to impress.
Now, let’s delve deeper into the cosmos of SEO. Imagine having a powerful telescope that reveals hidden constellations and guides your journey through the digital universe. That’s where SEMRushcomes in. With SEMRush, you gain insights into your website’s performance, uncover hidden opportunities, and enhance your search engine visibility. Don’t remain invisible; let SEMRush be your compass in the vast cosmos of SEO.
Ready to boost your SEO game? Subscribe to a Design the Planet website maintenance package, and your website’s health and functionality become our priority. Say goodbye to broken links, outdated content, and faulty plug-ins. Let us be your support team, ensuring your website thrives in the competitive digital landscape. Contact us now and unlock the full potential of your online presence!
Effective Website Maintenance: More Things to Consider
There’s many things you can do to continually improve your website, and there are also some outside factors which can impact it. As an example, search engines make frequent updates to their own search algorithms and websites that website owners must keep up with. These updates often affect your website’s SEO. Briefly, SEO is essentially the marketing strategies utilized to improve the ranking in which your website appears on web search.
To ensure your business’ website stays at the very top when searched in a web browser, attention needs to be paid to things like keywords, headlines, back-links, page loading speed, responsiveness, and other factors which influence SEO. For instance, Google algorithms rank your site depending on these factors and their algorithms undergo many updates each year. That’s one of the reasons it’s important to maintain your site to keep up with search-platforms’ changes.
Besides SEO, you should be concerned with the technical parts of owning your website. Your website’s domain must be renewed each period, whether that’s annually or for a multi-year lease. You should also be aware of data and analytics about your website and its traffic. And, as stated before, you should also make sure you have a backup of your site saved in case you have to revert to a previous version. This measure is important in case something were to go wrong in your site.
Hiring Professionals vs. DIY: Choosing the Right Approach for Website Maintenance
If this list of web maintenance tasks seem like a lot, handing it off to a professional website maintenance team may be the way to go. You can pay an agency which handles website maintenance as their specialty, or make a schedule and DIY it. Regularly scheduled website maintenance will give you peace of mind and confidence in your up-to-date website. If you intend to tackle these tasks by yourself, you’ll want to have both the time and knowledge necessary.
If your site can be considered dormant, or if you feel other areas of your business require your expert attention, then hiring a team to perform web maintenance on your site might be the way to go. This is best done by purchasing a website maintenance package from a reputable company which offers such services. Digital Marketing companies like Design the Planet offer professional website development, but also offer a range of website maintenance packages to match the type and size of your business.
Have a website already? Digital Agencies, like Design the Planet, can help keep your site up to date and top-performing even if they didn’t build it initially. They should be familiar with the maintenance needs of sites built on WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, and more. Outsourcing website maintenance allows you to focus on running your business while leaving your web maintenance needs to the experts. Or, on the other hand, if you are capable of performing web maintenance and do not require outside help, then DIY. Either way, maintaining your website is crucial.
Prioritizing Website Maintenance for Long-Term Success
For those who may not have the time or expertise to handle website maintenance themselves, there are professional services available. Third-party website maintenance service providers offer comprehensive support in areas such as site backups, updates, security checks, performance optimization, SEO and content management.
So, understanding the significance of website maintenance is essential for maintaining a secure, high-performing online presence. Whether through self-maintenance or utilizing professional services providers, regularly tending to your website “health” ensures its longevity and effectiveness in achieving business goals.
Why Did Elon Musk Change Twitter to X?
“Bye Bye Birdie” – The Rebrand of Twitter to “X”
Twitter has been a major social media platform for decades; Why did Elon Musk change everything we know about the iconic Twitter bird?
In the realm of technology, few figures have captivated the world’s imagination as much as Elon Musk. The visionary entrepreneur and CEO of companies like Tesla and SpaceX consistently surprise the public with innovative ideas and daring endeavors. Recently, Musk raised eyebrows once again by changing the name of one of the most popular social media platforms, Twitter, to simply “X.” Here’s a deep dive into Musk’s reasoning:
First and foremost, Elon Musk has sought to curb censorship and constraints on freedom of speech within online platforms from the get-go. His aim in taking over Twitter was to create an online space of free speech and expand beyond the limitations that he saw on Twitter.
In a recent post, Musk stated, “Twitter was acquired by X Corp both to ensure freedom of speech and as an accelerant for X, the everything app. This is not simply a company renaming itself, but doing the same thing”. Although the app was super successful in its run, the increasing allegations of wrongful censorship drove Musk to take over and rebrand the platform entirely.
Since he seems to have an affinity for “X”, it’s understandable he would call his proposed “everything app” X. A simple x-splanation for the rebranding from Twitter to X is that Elon Musk just loves the letter X. One of his early Tesla Models was called the Model X, his space exploration program is called SpaceX, and even PayPal was originally X.com before he sold the company. His daughter’s name too, “x æ a-12,” is pronounced as “X.”
Secondly, speaking of everything apps, the rebranding is an effort to prepare X users for new things to come. There are talks of Musk moving forward with adding features like shopping and subscriptions, which would not only bring in more revenue for the company and others affiliated with it, but would put the company ahead of the monetization curve in terms of other social media apps.
Rebranding of Twitter to “X” may just be Musk’s way of bringing Twitter into the same brand family as his other companies. One of the important aspects of good branding is consistency of brand names under a corporate umbrella. It also lets us know that Musk has no immediate plans on stepping down as the head of X, as he is beginning to make the company one of his own.
Why is the US Trying to Ban TikTok?
TikTok has taken the social media world by storm since its reinvention in 2017. It is reported that over 67% of teens/young adults in the US, and a whopping 150 million users nationwide actively use TikTok.
What’s the reason the app has become so popular?
TikTok offers a variety of content for virtually every audience and serves its users an endless algorithm-based feed tailored to their likes and interests. So, whether you’re interested in DIY projects, step-by-step cooking recipes, how-to properly unclog your sink, or just looking for entertainment, TikTok delivers. Its popularity has skyrocketed due to its ability to cater to diverse audiences by delivering raw, seemingly authentic content to its users’ feeds.
TikTok has received a lot of scrutiny since its rise in popularity.
From users to journalists to the US government, the app has been accused of facilitating the spread of misinformation on varying topics such as COVID19, climate change, and the war in Ukraine. Additionally, TikTok has faced numerous lawsuits on accusations ranging from parents claiming the content on children’s feeds promotes eating disorders, to the app being harmfully addictive to sensitive audiences.
Why is the US Government trying to ban TikTok?
The US Government’s main concern with TikTok is perceived national security risks.
This has been a concern for years. The first time the app was faced with a possible ban in the US was by the President Trump Administration in 2020.
TikTok is currently facing a massive challenge. The Wall Street Journal reported in mid-march of this year about how the Biden Administration has demanded TikTok’s Chinese owners sell their stake in the company’s USA-based operations or face a possible ban in the United States.
Federal US Legislators fear the Chinese government is involved in TikTok’s operation. They have expressed concern it could exploit user data to spy on US citizen’s activity while serving up misinformation and promoting narratives favorable to China’s communist leaders.
On March 23rd, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testified in Congress in effort to relieve national security concerns. During the congressional hearing, Republican and Democratic lawmakers pressed Chew on a host of topics, ranging from TikTok’s content moderation practices, how the company plans to secure American data from Beijing, and its active spying on journalists by monitoring their locations.
“Mr. Chew, you are here because the American people need the truth about the threat TikTok poses to our national and personal security,” Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Republican, said in her opening statement.
Chew’s response to the House Committee insisted TikTok prioritizes the safety of its young users and denied it is a national security risk. He reiterated the company’s plan to protect U.S. user data by storing it on servers maintained and owned by the software giant Oracle.
“Let me state this unequivocally: ByteDance is not an agent of China or any other country,” Chew said. However, it has been assumed by members of Congress as well as the USA business community that all Chinese companies ultimately answer to the Chinese Communist Government.
These concerns about the exploitation of user data stem from TikTok’s previous moderation practices. In 2019, the Guardian reported on how TikTok was instructing its moderators to censor videos that mentioned Tiananmen Square and images unfavorable to the Chinese government. The platform claims it has completely changed its content regulation policies since then.
How is TikTok planning to avoid getting banned?
TikTok has been actively distancing itself from its Chinese origins, saying that 60% of ByteDance is owned by global institutional investors such as Carlyle Group.
TikTok has generated a $1.5 billion dollar plan in an effort to avoid the ban. ByteDance’s “Project Texas” hopes to assure all US user data will be stored on US soil and managed by US employees through an entirely separate data management entity called TikTok U.S. Data Security. The question is: once the plan is thoroughly considered will it be capable enough to reassure Congress of its truth and efficacy if implemented.
What will happen next?
The consensus on this issue is still divided. Some feel TikTok should be banned entirely to avoid any possible national security risks. Others believe a ban on government-issued phones may be necessary, but a nationwide ban may be too extreme. While there are other factors involved, many have concerns a complete ban would burn bridges in other areas of trade relations with China.
“We have Tesla in China, we have Microsoft in China, we have Apple in China. Are they going to start banning us now?”, former government intelligence officer David Kennedy said. “It could escalate very quickly.”
It is assumed that a nationwide ban on TikTok would open the gate for US-based competitors to step into the gap it leaves. Users love their TikTok, and marketers have been advantaging this for their clients.
What will happen? Which platform could fill the TikTok gap if a ban is activated? All we can do at this point is wait, as a TikTok ban in the US is considered by Congress and President Joe Biden.
What Makes a Successful Logo?
If you’re reading this, you already know how important logos and identities are to businesses. Logos often become a valuable asset that hold significant intrinsic value to its brand community and to potential buyers of the business.
To get a fundamental idea of what a successful logo must consist of to be successful, here’s a great quote from Smashing Magazine: “A good logo is distinctive, appropriate, practical, graphical and simple in form, and it conveys the owner’s intended message.” That’s pretty simple. I would add that a good logo works in one color as well as many, and it should be readable at one inch as well as billboard size. Let’s delve into this.
Successful Logos Must Work in One Color
Designers who have worked in logo development company long enough eventually learn why logos need to be successful in one color. Even if your logo utilizes more than one color, it still must function in one color. Inevitably, the logo will find itself printed on something in one color, and if it fails to retain its intended effect in one color, then it fails as a professional logo. Here are some examples of what I mean:
These are some successful logos you probably will immediately identify and recognize distinctively even as they appear in one color. They don’t need red, blue, or green to make an impact on the viewer. Their silhouette is all they need to convey what the company wants the viewer to see without the need of alternative colors.
The One Inch Rule
One of our absolute requirements in successful logo design is a logo must be successful at about one inch in size.
If a logo loses its readability at one inch in size, if something important starts to drop out visually, or the logo starts to lose its feeling/impact, then the logo is not successful. Professional logo designers understand all the reasons the one inch rule is vital to producing a successful logo.
Is Your Logo Memorable?
The other question that we have to always ask ourself is your logo memorable and unique? Do you know what a millennial swoosh is? Why it’s used by so many large companies continues to baffle the masses. It’s not memorable or unique, and often screams, “we slapped this together just to have something to put on the sign.”
If your logo isn’t memorable in some way, then it’s not a win, and you should keep working on it. Even great companies like Universal Studios have redesigned their logo to stay relevant to audiences across generations.
Does it Mean Something to the Company?
A logo should act the visual representation of an organization’s brand. The organization’s brand consists of many aspects and is not, as many laymen assume, just the logo of a business. The brand is the mission, culture, people, value proposition, why and how of the organization. The logo should impart and communicate these characteristics visually for the brand. For reference, here is one of our client logos for River Road Coffees. The graphical elements, the colors, and the words composing the logo are very meaningful to them.
For example, they are about expectation-exceeding service to clients and fresh handcrafted high-quality products. Their logo elements combine to communicate reliable and speedy service represented by winged wheels on a road, the swirling of beans into the basin of a coffee roaster and a fresh tub of roasted coffee beans cooling off, the swirling blue of clean water used to brew the perfect cup, and more. The essential elements of a great cup of coffee are simply the quality of the roasted beans (brown tones) and the purity of the brewing water (blue tones). But, also important to the company is a recognition of its hometown roots… a city located on the muddy Mississippi River.
So, for this company and for the viewer, the logo has an iconic feel to it. It feels comfortable, classic and a tad old fashioned, but it carries the meaning of what the company passionately delivers to their customers.
Has Your Logo Been Simplified to the Maximum?
Great artists have said, “continue to remove elements until nothing unnecessary is left to disrupt the perfection hidden within.” We created the Lucy’s Retired Surfers’ Bar and Restaurant logo several years ago. When asked to re-design it, we had to find a way to simplify the logo down to its most basic elements so it retained the essence of the original but without all the noise.
Professional logo designers must remove noisy elements from the design to find its most simplistic form, while still adhering to the other concepts addressed in this blog. Eventually, the result is a successful logo, when nothing else can be removed from it without lessening its meaning or function. Here’s the final result of the redesign:
Once you’ve achieved a logo that can’t be simplified further, works well at one inch in size, functions in one color, is unique and memorable, and holds meaning for the brand it represents, then, you are close to your final product.
Logos and Identity Systems are serious business
Clients entrust us with one of their most valuable business assets, their logo design. Here, we discussed just some of the considerations the Design the Planet logo design team thinks about for clients, their logos and identity systems.
Although there are more complicated elements to it, these are the basic concepts and ideas that make successful logos. Use this is a brief guide for what makes a good or successful logo for business, or get in touch for help.
If you are interested in the work we do, here is a link to our portfolio of past work: Click Here
How to Use Google My Business to Get More Customers
How to Use Google My Business to Get More Customers
Transcript:
Hey everybody, I’m Adrienne with Design the Planet.
I’m a 25 year marketing and advertising veteran.
I have had the pleasure of helping hundreds of companies and hundreds of business owners grow their brands and grow their businesses, online and off.
today I’m here to share more about how to use Google My Business to get more customers.
Google happens to be have about what is it 92.47% of the shopping market, or the search market in general? So lots of business most of search is being done on Google.
This is why spending the time focusing on your Google My Business is so important.
If you’re looking for more customers on the web, if you’re not getting the business you want now, looking at your Google My Business is a great place to start to start generating more business.
our google my business listing while it is in edit mode
Google My Business Marketing 101
Some of the key thing every business owner needs to know and really take a care of is company name.
I can’t tell you how important it is for this company name to be the exact same name that’s also when your website and other places.
If Google is confused about your company name your company can run into search issues. this is who Google thinks your are only.
Because well, that’s what you set up.
So, you’ll see this name (New Orleans Digital Marketing & Website Design Agency) for us and then you’ll also see this name on all of our other listings properties.
Claim your Google My Business account. Not always an easy task.
If you haven’t claimed it before, you’re not sure it says on your business.
You click on this button and you go through the process of claiming your business if you haven’t done it before.
Why add your Products to GMB?
If you have a product or service you can add your product or services in here.
So here’s some products, list your products here and make sure you keep this updated curate your photos.
So these are the photos that are associated with design the planet right now.
This is actually the the photo of outside of our building.
This is a team photo from COVID, because we have masks on, and then this is this is the map.
The all important map so cute but you have the ability to go in and curate these photos.
Don’t look at your Google My Business as a “set it and forget it.”
Because it’s not you treat it almost like another social media because it has some of those same tools.
So this is our kind of our Google Google My Business and we post to this about every week or so.
We use specific keyword rich, and so that helps off with search engines.
And then when people are looking at our listing on Google, they can learn more about us and what are things that we do.
Why is it so important?
Google wants to be active in the community.
They want to want to be part of your ongoing conversation.
Why post on Google My Business?
So when you’re posting here, Google thinks while they love us. Then Google also end up sharing and posting more info.
You’re, you’re enriching Google’s information about your company, and then you reap the benefits by having more search terms out there for Google.
How to Use Google My Business to Get More Customers
Are your hours of operation up to date?
One of the biggest challenges for businesses, where they go really wrong and upset a lot of clients, is not updating their hours of operation. How do you make this change? Login to your google my business dashboard
aside {So we close soon 6pm}
If you open this up, it shows our regular hours of operation.
A lot of companies, especially retail, do not update these on a regular basis and clients get very upset when this these are not correct.
They are counting on this information being correct.
So if you’re going to have a change one day, make sure you can put in special hours for events or holidays to say that you’re going to be close.
You’ll upset a lot of clients if your hours of operation are not set up correctly
Using Google reviews to get more business
This is one of the areas where that does help you generate more business is having reviews with Google and so you can click here.
Yay.
We’re a five star digital marketing company and these are all the amazing people lots of clients who have gone through the trouble of of listing us and they say great things about us.
This is a great way to use Google to help you get more business.
WHY? People read the reviews on Google and many people make decisions on if they’re coming to your business or not.
Or if they’re consistent.
They saw you on the map on Google map and then they get haven’t maybe you’re a restaurant and maybe they haven’t tried you before.
They’re going to go read your reviews.
This is a likely THE where they will go read reviews.
So, using Google and making sure your reviews are up to date, and that you’re responding (to comments) and taking care of people super. It is super important.
The map feature this is something that is huge, and it’s becoming even bigger. Google pays more attention to Google Maps and allows people to kind of pay-to-play a bit to be promoted on Google Maps.
Google Maps is your best marketing tool when people are in a certain area, they you search for certain topics and then you know where you show up?
How do you show up?
This is super, super important to a map search.
If you’re a destination if you’re really working on getting traffic from people who are passing through or retail or specific products.
It is vitally important to make sure you’re listed – correctly.
Make sure your location is correct and make sure your hours are updated.
These are the big ways (above) and of course you can pay for Google ads. And that’s that’s good too that content can help.
But having all of this set up so it’s talking to Google and it will help your website in Google search.
More ways to use google my business to get more customers
There are so many ways that that these listings will benefit you.
So take the time and put the energy into updating your Google My Business listing claiming it the
Another way you can use Google My Business to get more business is actually just share your Google star rating on your website.
People trust Google and they trust other people who are rating you on Google because they’re real people.
Sometimes it’s a great idea to share the Google ratings on your website.
And it they can go they can click or they can go check it out and see that it’s for real (on Google).
Another part of Google My Business, that helps you do well in search, is making sure that you fill in all of the information about your company.
So this is a bit about us from design the planet.
Marketing and website development agency in Metairie, serving Louisiana (make sure you work on Geo locating.)
We build successful brands! You get the idea.
Spend the time and update the content because this is also searchable content on Google.
People. If when people search certain keywords, hopefully people are searching “Web Development Agency Metairie”, and then they can they can be taken to our listing and learn more about us.
This is one of the ways that we get new business.
Thanks for tuning in.
We hope this helps you market your business more successfully.
Remember to Like share and subscribe so you can be notified of our next great video!
Thanks for watching.
How To Create A Captivating Retail Video
So… You want to make a captivating marketing video for your business?
The power of video marketing can’t be denied.
Not all videos are easy to produce.
Design the Planet created and produced two video spots to advertise Lakeside Shopping Center Holiday events.
Using these as examples, I’ll show you how we utilize the power of video for our clients.
Video for marketing is extremely effective!
Video advertising has been one of the most effective methods of reaching audiences since videotape was invented more than 70 years ago.
It’s never been easier to create marketing videos.
Expensive production studios are no longer a requirement. A high-quality video recording device is in your pocket. But, making high quality captivating video for retail marketing is so much more than whipping your phone out and collecting footage.
Your prospects expect marketing videos!
Today, production of short videos and promo commercials for marketing is exploding in popularity due to various new platforms, channels, and screens. Marketing videos disguised as DIY instructions, edu-tainment, customer information as well as the more obvious advertising commercial can be sent directly to mobile devices.
What’s so important about marketing good videos, anyway?
The world’s first television commercial aired on July 1, 1941 during a game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies.
Because of the success of this Bulova Watch commercial, big companies have been willing to throw crazy amounts of money at TV ad spots ever since. The right TV commercial at the right time creates a lasting, memorable impression on the viewer.
Consumers have come to expect us to serve up video when possible, and now it’s possible everywhere.
What’s changed in video and advertising?
Today, video is everywhere, not just on the TV screen. Marketers, influencers, and professionals create video for social media posts, delivering information to colleagues and collaborators, product awareness, and more.
YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, FaceBook, are some of the better-known platforms for accessing video-on-the-go, but there are many more.
Video has become a standard and expected element in professional presentations and trainings and is even used in video games to add depth and suspension of disbelief.
Producing a quality marketing video is expensive, right?
A good deal of professional video is still shot in studios with professional backdrops, lighting and editing. If you are seeking good quality and need to save a few dollars consider this. Marketers can now shoot fairly good quality material with higher-end smartphones, compact lighting and sound equipment. For best results though, we suggest you hire professionals who have the right equipment for pre and post production.
• Posting on social media channels like FaceBook Reels, Tik Tok, etc.
How does one make a strong impactful video?
Here are the steps to develop a captivating retail video?
Step 1:
Answer two important questions:
What is the marketing goal of the video?
Who is the audience?
Other important questions include:
What marketing channels will the video be delivered on?
What is our maximum budget for the video production?
When does the video need to be ready?
What are the constraints to the project?
Step 2:
With these questions answered, we begin the creative process.
For Lakeside Shopping Center, we identified two marketing goals:
Create awareness and drive interest (audience: mostly local moms and kids) for “Santa’s Arrival Celebration.”
Remind and entice the public to shop at the multitude of stores at Lakeside Shopping Center for the holidays.
Step 3:
This is the process we followed to achieve these goals.
The handmade gift tag featured in the retail commercial video
Develop a few themes and see what can drive the video campaign and other creatives. The campaign included ads, billboards, radio, and more (the channels!)
The theme we decided on was “Wish.”
Begin script development and ideation of what audiences will see on the screen. We knew we wanted to make it a little funny but intriguing.
Tool and retool the script. With large retailers like Dillards, Macy’s, JC Penney, and 100 other retail shops represented, it can be weeks before approval.
Find the right “voice” for Lakeside’s new Wish campaign.
Identify and hire the right talent to be the heroes of the videos. (Good Santas are hard to find!) They must be capable of meeting the physical requirements of the shoot.
Make or buy the props. Buy or make the costumes. Test the talent.
Identify the right video production team like Kartoffel Films and makeup artist. (Careful! Every team is different in skill, experience, and equipment.)
Nail down the location to build a huge scenic white winter background.
Find a day where all of the writers, actors, directors, team members, and more can converge on the location.
Step 4:
Shoot day.
Lots of coffee. Lots of Lights, Camera, Action. There’s energy and a lot of waiting around for the next scene or setup. There is a ton of magic in the air when you are on the set.
Many things will make a big difference later in post-production: Camera angles explored. Lighting focused or soft. Sound checks. Wardrobe tape. Props being glued together, etc. (you didn’t think the male model is really balancing all those gifts did you?)
Step 5:
Putting it all together.
After 10 hours of shooting for the two videos, we make the real magic happen. This is when professional quality editing comes in, splicing together action, voice-overs, and music to make amazing marketing videos.
The videos must grab the viewers’ attention, captivate them, while reflecting the client’s holiday advertising message.
PRO TIP:
Be flexible and ready to adapt!
Retail commercial photo of the set and actors
Day of the shoot.
We had to be ready to make decisions on the fly, like there was no tomorrow.
There was no tomorrow!
We had to get everything we needed in one long day.
Did I mention lots of coffee?
What else do you need?
Have back-up props and some duct tape.
And, if you need more pro tips please give us a call.
How to get started making videos for your business & marketing goals:
Professional and polished, or rough and gritty? This will determine your budget, equipment needs and production team. Keep your goals and audience always in mind! Make sure you deliver what your audience expects and will respond to.
Don’t know where to start or don’t want to DIY it… get help!
Are hashtags still relevant in 2022?
Are hashtags still relevant today for social media usage?
In short, yes. But its usage is not the same as it was originally intended.
What was once a hyperlinked tag used to categorize posts for easier discovery is now additionally used by social media algorithms to rank posts and show them to users who would likely be interested.
In some applications instead of users using hashtags to find posts, the social media platforms do it for them.
How did hashtags start?
Hashtags were first utilized in 2007 by San Diego resident, Nate Rider, who started appending his twitter posts with the hashtag #sandiegofire in efforts to raise awareness about the wildfires burning in California at the time. Twitter formally adopted hashtags in 2009, and later introduced “Trending Topics”, where the most popular hashtags were displayed and tweeters could join in on the trending conversations.
Hashtags were created as a way to filter relevant content for users. Individuals would search for a “#tag” in the search bar. The most popular social posts with the searched hashtag would be served up in the search results.
How are hashtags used in 2022?
Hashtags are still a great way for users to categorize their content, which in turn helps Instagram and other platforms serve up posts to relevant audiences. Using “#”‘s to search for posts is becoming less and less prevalent.
Today, over half of Instagram users do not actively search hashtags to find new content or people to follow. Some still do, but the hashtag’s function has shifted over to the social media algorithm.
Instagram’s algorithm analyzes hashtags and caption content to show your post to the right people or boost your post if it contains a trending topic/hashtag. Social media algorithms are becoming increasingly intelligent by the day, meaning they are analyzing BOTH the content of the caption and the hashtags used. This suggests that one day hashtags may no longer be necessary for social media. But for now, it is still the primary way social media algorithms will identify and categorize your posts.
How do algorithms work on social media?
While each social media platform uses algorithms differently, they have a common goal: They want to get the right content in front of the right person.
The Instagram algorithms, more than one, use a set of rules that determine which content is seen. Each time a user opens the app, algorithms immediately comb through all available content and decide:
Which posts go to the top of the newsfeed, and in what order.
Which posts are featured on the Explore Tab.
The order in which stories, live videos and reels show up.
What else are the algorithms doing?
There are different factors that go into the algorithms’ decision-making processes, but, the three main aspects that are taken into account are:
The relationship with your followers. Does this user interact with you frequently?
The relevancy of your content. Does this user typically engage with this type of post and content?
The timeliness of your content. Was this posted recently? (Pro tip: Instagram will prioritize newer posts over older ones.)
In 2022, Instagram algorithms sort through your feed and stories. Their goal is to predict how likely you are to interact with the post based upon how many likes a post got in a certain amount of time. It is also based on how many times you have interacted with the person who posted or your activity.
With this information about the advancing technology of social media algorithms, you maybe asking:
How can we effectively utilize hashtags today?
Focus on using hashtags that are relevant to your niche. The hashtags you use should be phrases that describe the content. The more closely your hashtags are related to your content, the more Instagram will boost your content to the right audience. You can identify your most relevant hashtags by researching what your competitors are using and searching Instagram for key words to see which ones have the most engagement.
Do not use overly-popular or too specific hashtags. A hashtag like “#EggsBenedictWithPepperJackCheeseAreTheBest” will not give you the results you want because it is too specific. Simply put, content with these types of #’s are unlikely to be seen because there aren’t enough people searching for it. (Searching as in, Instagram will not recognize your post as a relevant topic and will make it harder for it to find your ideal audience.)On the contrary, overusing popular hashtags may not give you the volume of engagements that you desire. The usage of hashtags like, “#instagood” or “#fashioninspo#, are oversaturated and the likelihood of your post getting seen is slim amongst the billions of others using the same hashtag. You may also risk not reaching your target audience because they’re simply too generic and overloaded with spammy content.
Diversify the hashtags you use.
Common sense suggests that consistency will produce results, but with hashtags this is not the case. When you use the same set of hashtags, you are reaching the same group of people over and over again! Most importantly, when you use the same hashtags for every post, Instagram will flag your content.
Try switching it up. Test new ones. Research trending ones, then create a couple sets of hashtags for different types of posts.
See an example of how we use hashtags in our post above.
This post was following an event we conducted for Earth Day. We invited our clients to participate in recycling used glass products with us, which was then dropped off at Glass Half Full Nola.
In order to get maximum visibility from the right audience, we made sure to use broad hashtags that were unique to Earth Day. Our goal was to attract the attention from environmentally conscious users and those who were participating in this annual environmental movement. Using the trending hashtag “#EarthDay” allowed us to gain visibility from those outside of our followers. We also wanted to tap into the niche group of those who were familiar with Glass Half Full Nola, New Orleans’ only glass recycling depot, so using hashtags pertaining to this non-profit helped us to do just that.
The truth is, hashtags are not completely dead – yet. The purpose of hashtags, and the way that we use them, has evolved.
If you refocus your efforts to gain the attention of the algorithms, you can have much more success in building your following within your target audience and increase your engagements with help of YTMonster. Let us know if any of these Pro Tips work for you and your business!
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