Archive for September, 2016

Marketing Tip Monday: When to Post on Social Media

Posted by bert

You don’t need to be a marketing expert to know that content is king on social media.  To get the most interactions and reach out of your social media strategy, you need to be posting content that your fan base responds to.  However, what is the point of having this great content if you aren’t posting it when your audience is active?  In this Marketing Tip Monday, we answer the question of when to post on social media.
Timing is everything.  This mantra rings especially true in your social media marketing efforts.  Even though Facebook and Instagram have an algorithm in place that will show content based on a variety of factors, it is still very important to look at the times you post on social media.
 According to this infographic from Surepayroll, the best time to post on Facebook is between 1 and 4 pm.  Twitter is most active Monday-Thursday between 9 am and 3 pm.  Late night/early morning posts perform much worse than posts during the middle of the day.  The weekends are a fine time to post as long as you stick to posting in the middle of the day.
This information seems to be rather common sense.  By following these best practices you can certainly get more mileage out of your posts.  If you want to maximize your efforts though, you need to dive deeper into your analytics.  Most social media platforms provide built in statistics showing when your content is being interacted with.  Experiment a little bit and see what times your audience is responding.  If you’re marketing to mostly college-aged people you may be able to post a little later at night and get away with it.  If you’re marketing to professionals, you may want to only post early morning, during lunch times or towards the end of the work day.  Knowing your audience and their behavior patterns is the key to having a deeper understanding of your posting strategy.  It takes a little leg work, but it is totally worth it in the long run!
To summarize, there are definitely best practices to follow when it comes to when to post on social media.  To get the most out of your campaigns though, you will have to do some research and analysis in order to really figure out when your audience is there to engage with your content.

 

 

Why Coins Have Ridges

Posted by bert

Fun Fact Friday :: Sept. 23rd, 2016

 

 

Have you ever wondered why some coins have ridges on the edge?

why do coins have ridges fun fact friday multiple choice

 

Correct Answer :: D

There are actually several reasons. Originally it was to prevent shaving off precious metal from the coin back when they were made of silver and gold but the tradition carried on because of additional uses. It also helps to make the coins harder to counterfeit and makes them easier to distinguish for people with visual disabilities as the penny and dime are similar size and weight.

 

 

Instagram Stories: Facebook Continues to Dominate Social Media

Posted by bert

instagram stories

 

Facebook is the social media behemoth and with the addition of Instagram Stories that doesn’t seem like it’s going to change any time soon.

It seems to happen every time.  As soon as a social media platform arrives on the scene and starts to take some of the spotlight, Facebook swats it away like Godzilla with a fighter jet.  While previous social sites like Myspace and Friendster had a brief moment in the sun before fizzling out as users gravitated to the next big thing, Facebook has remained the number one social media service for years and doesn’t appear to be losing any steam.  In fact, as of the second quarter of 2016 Facebook boasts 1.71 billion monthly users (Statista).  The next two closest are messaging service WhatsApp (1 billion users per month) and Facebook’s own messaging service at 900 million users.  Safe to say that Facebook has a stranglehold on the social landscape, and is looking to continue this with Instagram Stories.

While the numbers that Facebook can boast are staggering, there has been a movement away from the platform: young people.  Maybe it’s the ads, or the fact that their parents are active on Facebook, but Snapchat has been the platform of choice for teens and millennials, who account for 70% of Snapchat users (eMarketer).

Many people were taken aback at the $1 billion price tag Zuckerberg and Co. paid for Instagram.  At the time, Instagram was simple photosharing app with a medium sized user base of 30 million.  However, it was growing fast and starting to capture the younger fan base from Facebook.  After the acquisition, Instagram continued to grow into the brand it is today, boasting 500 million monthly users and surpassing other popular social media platforms such as Twitter and Pinterest.

Looking at the past, it’s no surprise that Facebook has made a move to directly compete with Snapchat. Instagram Stories are fairly transparent in their attempt to ape the functionality of Snapchat.  Users can take photos and videos (or use existing captures), insert custom overlays, and post for all of their followers to see.  Stories get rotated out, so that users have to keep uploading new content.  Anyone who has used Snapchat would be instantly familiar with the way Instagram Stories work.

While Snapchat users may just opt to use Instagram rather than another app, what does any of this mean for advertisers and brands?  Advertising on Snapchat has had mixed results for brands, due to a lack of user data to be used for targeting as well as the limited scope of the Snapchat audience.  It would seem that having the advantage of Facebook’s robust advertising platform, in addition to a larger, more diverse built in audience has Instagram Stories poised to overtake Snapchat in terms of brands on the platform.

Of course, only time will tell whether Instagram Stories are the “Snapchat Killer” some expect it to be. What is clear is that Facebook has once again poised itself to dominate social media for years to come.