3 Practical Ways to Approach Social Media Marketing

Think of Social Media Marketing only this way or that. I havs decided to share three best ways of approaching this growing marketing channel.

 

My next goal is teach myself more stuff about ML & AI because we need to bridge the gap between socialising & machine learning. And I want to start with how everyone should think about social media. There are three ways to think about social media and then there are infinite no. of biased ways.

 

First way to think is called “The next dollar”.

 

 

What’s that? Most social media companies are basic businesses with high pressure from investors and media. Even if they are at a billion dollar stage, they have the same mentality as every business owner. That’s confirming where the next dollar comes from. And since the beginning this mentality controls future of social apps causing them to develop machine learning models that track everything, then use those systems to predict the next step for a user. Humans aren’t spending more Time on social because better content or better connectivity. They are getting hijacked so that Facebook or TikTok don’t go out of business.

 

When you think like this, the only right way to use social media is by understanding the objectives of the social media updates. An update or advise in terms of paid media isn’t mean for a marketer, that update benefits the app at core. So, if an Ad format or model works for you, don’t give up in a second. Wait and understand the intent. On other hand, an update to organic social media is most of the time to benefit creators and marketers. Because that feature was launched to hijack attention of an audience. In Organic social media, marketers are also FB, TikTok & google employees.

 

Until there is a payback. BTW, this newsletter exists to help you understand the intent, ask yourself so many updates but why? You should always care about why algorithms exist & social media updates happen.

 

Second way to think is called “The NGO”.

 

 

The idea of giving away value for free and the audience will comeback. And 70-80% marketers tend to agree with this statement. But they forget that what user wants is what the platform seeks to deliver. I will explain. Yes the audience wants something valuable but what form of value they seek is still determined by the platform. A great example is threads app, Why is the engagement falling? The NGOs (creator & brands) came, the needy was there. Still a failure? The reason is the platform didn’t create an environment for the needy to stay longer on the app. The truth is nobody needs more and more value if they need it. They search.

 

You as a business or creator sell dopamine to users on social media, when they can’t survive and feel the need. They join you personally through email, slack or In-person.

Threads App failed because NGOs came to serve the needy in the time of happiness. Meta should have created an environment first like Pinterest did with shuffles app. It was invite only, those needy users took their time and became employees created shopping & eye catching content. And then NGOs came in to distribute more value. What’s the lesson?

 

You don’t show up at Beverly Hills to donate money. And you never go to a different country donating food from 5-star restaurants, that small amount is not filling up the need. Meaning if you care about value, show up where needy users deserve it and in a way(content format) those users like it.

 

Update: Was finishing the newsletter up and before scheduling I received newsletter from legendary Rishad Tobaccowala mentioning:

 

The ordinary becomes extra-ordinary when we pay attention, and we find poetry in the crevices of every day.

 

And that is what formats, placements and positioning does on social media.

 

 

Third Way to think is called “Just Don’t”.

 

I know I also talk about strategies behind some big creators & businesses but we need to stop putting a majority of creators on marketing stages knowing they never had a strategy. What occurs is you put them in a room and start praising them. Now, What can they do? The usual output they have is a self-entered realisation of what they did. Even they don’t know why it worked. Most of them focused on what spoke to them and the audiences came. Not everyone is like MrBeast. If you think of other big creators like Pewdiepie, Casey Neistat, Emma chamberlain and many more. They were into art of everything creation and had patience.

 

Listen: Sustainability is the key, If you are someone managing a business or a business owner on social media. I know it might be herd for you to give social media time. But that’s the reality. Don’t market, instead live in this world. You don’t just stop living because X or Y didn’t work. You do it for what works and makes you happy. You sustain a happy life. You have to do the same, social media marketing shouldn’t be a hassle if you chose this third way.

 

 

Infinite Biased Ways.

 

 

Only three are mainstream ways, alternative biased ways are thousands. Be funny, filter the audience; boom SALES. Go Paid Media, bring audience back; boom Community. Be Education, manipulate about limited knowledge; Boom Course sales. Be Story oriented, bring random faces; Boom sympathy growth. To be continued. Not to generalise these different ways. Those working on different journeys, I respect and adore you.

 

What should you pursue? Pursue Openness.

 

That’s why I wrote this, for you to understand there are multiple ways of social media marketing. Don’t stress out.

 

Start thinking about social media like an alternative life. Learning about how social media works is schooling & the marketers that you trust are parents. They are available to you for a period, but to achieve success and better life on social for your business. You need yourself.

 

The New TikTok Algorithm: Update & Strategy

Not many people talking about this new algorithm yet, but this updates came after the launch of new data laws in Europe. And yes, this update benefits those users the most. Do you still want the juice? Keep reading.

 

The TikTok Algorithm you know is built on an idea of interest-based targeting. The algorithm shows you content based on your interactions with old content on the app. Using your watch history, the new videos are targeted toward your ideal interests. Youtube & Instagram work the same way, what’s changed then?

 

The change is ability to turn off personalization on your TikTok Feed. This is a new rollout from TikTok because GDPR in EU is trying to protect user data from social media apps. Now, this feature will absolutely ruin your TikTok watching experience and not a single user will turn it on because from my research. The videos that you see on your “personalized feed” are popular with high engagement but irrelevant.

 

That’s the new algorithm update, allowing users to replace personalized Algorithm with Localised Algorithm. What’s a localized algorithm?

 

To explain, when I was in India even with my German TikTok Account. I was unable to use the platform. Why and how? Two main elements used by TikTok is location & User data given during account creation. That location part isn’t using your GPS or IP address, I personally tried to use VPN in India to bypass TikTok. And I failed.

 

Because TikTok uses mainly Sim card data or email account location. I assume you are not someone living in a country with a TikTok Ban. So, I want to focus on the strategy & business part. How can this new algorithm benefit you?

 

Now that you know TikTok uses location data to show content when personalization is turned off. The second metric TikTok uses is Engagement, you will only find popular & trendy videos from your city, region or country  on “Popular” feed. Yes, this feed is labeled popular by TikTok.

 

Use these two learnings, I built the TikTok strategy for Small businesses & Artists. The local element of this algorithm is a helpful way for marketers & businesses to find what the local audiences are liking & what their interests are.

 

Usually what most people do to create a tiktok strategy is: 

 

1/ Your FYP page reflects what you like. You use that research & bias to create a strategy for your business.

2/ The Viral TikTok content within your industry reflects what your ideal followers like.

These are two main research elements used to build a tiktok content strategy. And this workflow lacks “local targeting”. Because that part is where you can show more importance & build a better strategy that builds community.

 

Here’s what your new TikTok strategy should look like: 

 

1/ The Bias about your industry, niche & customers is built through FYP. Because you might think that what you experience or like is what others seek. I am not saying Bias is wrong, but validate it before building a strategy.

 

2/ The Virality in your industry & growth seen when you research on TikTok about few topics or your competitors. You learn a lot from doing that research, getting the knowledge about what goes viral. But what is viral doesn’t differentiate you, use the research & mix it with your branding.

 

3/ The Community & Local Word of mouth will be now built with help of  “Popular feed” on Tiktok, with personalization, turned off. What that means is studying the content you see there as it is local and popular within your region. Through that research you have the ability to see what makes the average tiktok user interact.
No-algorithm feed will teach you only the right thing, which is “what people react to?”.

Use these segments in your TikTok strategy to build a more loyal & segmentized audience. I feel the importance of doing so, because the more far your audience lives, the connection is still strong but not that effective. When you build local, you have more resources to empower your audience. Organising events, local referrals & PR levels up your business even more.

 

Comparing this to Youtube

 

As I cover the marketing & social media updates regularly in The Social Juice. Youtube also announced a similar algorithm update for everyone. The TikTok update is limited to EU only, this one is global. The feature is to turn off watch history, when you do that. Youtube can’t use your content interactions for new video recommendations.

Again, I know less than 0.1% of Youtube users will turn off their watch history. Especially when not many people are talking about this change. For context, while TikTok added “turn off personalization” due to privacy issues. Youtube launched this feature very randomly, giving users the ability to turn off watch history.

Again, This feature changes the algorithm & marketers can learn how Youtube pushes the content forward with no watch history & content interaction data.

 

More Insights on TikTok & Social Media Algorithms:

 

If you lack context about how social media algorithms work & how this change impacts the overall tiktok marketing experience. I would recommend you to read these two guides written by me:

 

1/ How Social Media Algorithms work

2/ TikTok Marketing Guide

 

I would say, we need more education on how machine learning algorithms are used to run social media & now AI does it. The change needs to be addressed ASAP. I should get on the job of writing a guide on Algo and how small changes like this new August TikTok algorithm update impacts marketing. In ML & AI, we should value even a 1% change because it matters.

Why Social Media Strategies forget Brand Consideration?

Almost every social media marketing discussion starts without a social media expert  in the room.  The executives think of social media as direct channel marketing. Assuming their presence is charming enough to attract their existing buyers & new ones. My dreams at the age of 5 were more realistic than their ideas of how social media marketing works.

 

But why? What’s the issue? One of the biggest reason most marketers & brands suck at social media is because it isn’t real life. We understand Cinema marketing better because of the experience about why & how people enjoy the movies.

 

You can experience & learn it by just being in the room full of people. We understand TV Marketing better because the Ads connect with us if the context is relevant to the initial show we were watching & we hate it if the Ad disrupts the feeling of the movie or show you were watching on the TV.

 

In Real-life or 1:1 marketing, you can locate where the consumer exists & how you can resonsate with them. Social Media is a different world, where the consumer lives might change every single time. The same real-life person that might buy your product through a single-TV Ad might never resonate with you because you are reaching them during a different social media time. Plus, approached them through a different format.

 

That’s the issue. The continuity of a social media user & their fast consumption makes the brand think if we create enough awareness & force our Ads. We might get our next buyer. I’m like no, that’s dumb.

 

That same social media user watches a single video about Oppenheimer & goes to watch the movie in IMAX paying more than normal price. That same person watches the show “succession” comes back to TikTok & buys the outfit worn by  Kendall because someone matched the clothing with a message from the show.

 

What’s the solution? How to fix this brand awareness-only problem?

 

 

Start with Divorcing Complexity

 

Most Brands think that they need to do what they did with other marketing channel. Representing complex & Dreamy Ideas on TV  & OOH Ads because brand was targeting locally that complexity works. That Complex Idea worked because your whole real-time store experience was enough to simplfy the message.

 

The Experience and message are married. On Social Media they aren’t married, may be AI & AR will help both of them with idea of getting married. Considering those days are far away. You need to simplify what you tell. Assuming you are a small business or startup not even a brand. Maybe you are a marketer at a brand with a very diminishing presence.

 

The reason you need to divorce complexity is “consideration”. On Social Media, People don’t come to watch what they want or what they need. They are there to seek and fill the emptiness. That’s Sad but true.

 

On social media today, most people are seeking a meaning & finding what fulfills them. And no one connects with what isn’t clear. Before naming brands that suck at social media, I am not suggesting their social media manager or agency is responsible. It could be a hundred different reasons for why they are bad at it. One of my favourite example is GAP Brands, they have a message of bridging the gap between consumers, product and creative. I simplfied their message for you, the text they provided on their website is more complex.

 

Can you sell your clothing with this message on Tiktok, Instagram or Snapchat? And Is telling the audience about your message one time enough? One time isn’t enough & the audience will not connect.

 

What audience seeks today from them is “gap”. Bridging the gap? There exists 100s of gap in society & fashion culture. Your social needs to show the gap because showing is different. The algorithm can suggest another brand saying we are bridging the gap between HipHop & Street fashion to share with you: The Backzip hoodie.

 

Practicality

 

You think of complexity as unqiue & creative. Simple is what everyone else is doing. I am against both, no one I am telling you to dumb down your brand message to be like everyone else.

 

The practicality of divorcing complexity to build brand consideration is called “Remixing”. Every single social media app is a universe and Facebook universe people hate the other universes, and so on. Learning why people use a single app va other is the first part of your remixing.

 

Because that is you understanding the neighborhood. Then, you understand the consideration culture, you do it by why people follow each other. Many platforms have a culture of not following many people. Like Reddit, Youtube & Pinterest.

 

You remix why the exist & what they do with your product. And position product content around it. If I was part of GAP marketing team, I would do remixing like this:

 

My universe people are on reddit. And they discuss jeans, they like watching jeans content & discussions about jeans. What makes them follow is deal offers & clothing pairing Images. I am GAP, I would turn on social listening for reddit, have alerts for jeans & money saving related options. Someone discusses a need for outfit under $100, user replies with another brand. I will upsell a GAP sales offer at that time period. And I would make my identity clear that: I am from GAP, I like to usually help others with clothing deals & tips.

 

My Intro & showing up every single time in a reddit community will build brand consideration. Because that is me bridging the gap between the consumer & need.

 

The second Act of remixing would be, Getting an Influencer or Famous person to do a “account takeover” post on the Reddit Jeans Influencer account. Making it seem naturally organic.

 

In both style of remixes, The idea is simply that first level brand consideration is built by serving the culture & audience around you. A universe is a community, that serves each other. You need to serve first, if you don’t believe me. Think again? Why politicians exist? Study there origin to prove me wrong.

 

The serving person can’t make it complex because you haven’t contributed enough.

 

Second, How Servers become Leaders?

Wrong Question, I should ask. When do servers acheive the leader level? If you are lucky like an Indie move hero getting his talent discovered by the man on street. You might automatically have people buying from your business. And that is the strategy of many businesses on TikTok. Or should I call it dream of many businesses. Truth Bomb: I had the same strategy. 

 

Just if I provide enough value, people might discover I sell consulting calls. That never happens in most cases. People on social media are filled with 100s of different options. The way this marketing space works is like a christopher nolan movie. People remember the feeling & sense of trust.

 

They are very unlikely to remember why you exist. Don’t serve so much or so long that they forget why you exist. Value conversation in business on social media converts to a business providing either relatable or valuable content.

 

A great example would be Buzzfeed, not the perfect business for you to take as an example. But Buzzfeed was a business that kind of failed to make their buyers understand their existence. Not every piece of content was valuable but still they had 1000s of valuable articles. Mostly they were different, comparing it to my favourite Indian Show “Tarak mehta ka ulta chasma”. Buzzfeed provided more value than the show to my life still I never considered reading it regular or buying a subscription. Why?

 

 

Because value doesn’t mean connection. This statement is becoming more truthful as we approach a world full of AI models creating value. How value is seen builds the connection.

 

If I am your longtime friend who went through shitty days and losses. My words about success will mean less to you. The same other friend can tell the same thing to impress you and it will work. We see value in each other differently.

 

Buzzfeed failed because the audience never saw their value in the way buzz expected. Because they had no control. Value needs control, you need to silence and speak when needed.

 

To Explain: 

 

Think of why we value diamonds. Why you listen the least to the friend who never stops talking? Why we buy a movie ticket in a blick but scroll through 1000s of movies on netflix?

 

What’s the reason you like your cousin in another city but hate spending time with your brother? The simple answer is value control.

 

Behavioural science shows that we want more of what we have less. But most of the times companies think lets provide more even though they are already giving a lot.

 

And that’s what buzzfeed did wrong. Oh they like it, let’s have some more content about that topic. And then people hated it. We all remember Seinfeld, Jerry was very familiar with this behavioural mindset, that’s why he ended the show. Now the show is known to be the best sitcom ever made.

 

You have created emough value, now you control it. Where’s the practicality of executing this?

 

The Practicality

 

Before beginning, I would like to address a major saying in advertising which is run an Ad until it stops working. Value control is built like that but it is hard to define when to stop without doing the work of being aware.

 

The value control is you changing the framing what you do & why you do it. You were providing value to your audience & now you need them to see you as leader who influences them.

 

One of the examples I have is wikipedia, when they started asking for donations. One of the biggest strategic thing leaders do is making the ask meaningful and showing their point. Wikipedia is the home of value, and the donation  pop-up is shown while user is getting the value. That’s the first method to integrate your ask and be meaningful.

 

The value control here is donation in exchange of value. The fear.

 

Another example would be Apple’s weekly show rollout versus Netflix’s one time release. Or any paid community that holds weekly calls. That time frame is the value control, you generate control through no-spoiler conversations, video leaks & much more.

 

Even when you were a server, you might have become a leader in front of few. They became your early followers. And in scenarios like above,
those early ones help you with value control, they might become your referrers, conversation starters within the space. You have controled the value in a product/ paid service, those adopters are now bringing new people because they are still servers connecting with servers bringing others to awareness about your leadership & controlled product.

 

At last, If I am selling a candle kit. And I have educated my audience about candles k & provided value over time. What value control would look like to make them my buyer is by increasing my role.

 

I have done regular value, now it is all about me. Starting an interactive candle buying series on how to find a perfect candle, how the touch of your hand helps to define a good versus bad candle.

 

I am becoming the center of everything & the candles I sell will be the examples in those content series. Now, the controlling poing would be the action-taking from the buyer side.

 

Are my candles available at Target? I would do a video at Target; the value perceived will change with this.

 

In a TikTok livestream, I could do “how long my candles last?” Content. Connecting the value with time & use case.

 

In my 50% videos, I would stop generalizing. Moving from you need this candle to someone specific & niched being talked about.

 

The value control doesn’t mean stop giving the value. It is about who you hand the value. Think of why most celebrities are given exclusive clothing before store launches.

 

This act of me controlling the value and giving it to only people who want to see interactivity, availability & durance of my candles. Build my community & early adopters.

 

Then, that brand consideration moving forward is always built strategically and in boxes. One box of audience interactivity of candles focused connects with another squared box. The rectangle box of audience focused on durance connects with other similar box.

 

A relevant brand consideration is built through value control existing in your content & social media strategy.

 

End with Continuity

 

One of the biggest reason I wanted to talk about this issue within social media marketing was My own struggles. I am very much aware about everything in marketing because that’s my job. Running a newsletter about change in marketing. It includes more than social media updates, Google search news. Everything that happens in SEO is known to me, still I am very bad at doing it.

 

Awareness doesn’t change much. Unless you connect the dots. That’s why brands should focus on how the content builds consideration.  Now, to do that don’t chase attributions & tracking of what connect lead to X result and made the buyer join the funnel.

 

Chase your competitors, continue to maintain a track of what they do. Very much chase how your followers & non-followers react to message-oriented non-complex content & value-control content.

 

By now you have simplified your content & controlled the value to build the brand consideration. Now it all ends with continuous guidance. Every platform provides you with features or existing tools assisting the audience with purchase decisioning.

 

On Instagram, You have Story highlights & Multiple links as the guidance tools for potential buyers. When they visit your profile make user you have content that introduces them to what you do & sell.

 

On TikTok, The pinned posts feature & Stan store page are heavily used by creators & marketers to introduce the audience to paid offerings.

 

On LinkedIn & Facebook, Your main profile has a lot to offer in terms of guidance & past work.

 

Your Social Media Accounts are actual landing pages, you build your own UI/UX by having what is needed on your profile. Too many people take the profile for granted. Show Continuity in tracking how the profile visits on these platforms change & improve them.

 

Now I need you to show continuity in the trend tracking & cultural changes. Social media moves fast, now more users are comfortable with uses of social media in a more open way. People are sharing a lot on these platforms. That’s changed only recently. The social media universe changes, and you need continuity to adapt.

 

The biggest reason for showing continuity is because context changes. Social Media changes their context about someone very frequently & especially the users trust each other more than businesses or creators. That’s also why chasing virality isn’t mentioned here, most brands are never ready to have so many different points of view impacting their brand. Be consideration focused and show continuity in practicing the right tactics.

 

With that, I end this insight here. In case you find this too much to execute yourself, feel free to consult with me. I am always open to help brands & marketers in the space. May be it is your time to show consideration and buy my work.

 

Social Media Marketing is going through its worst state

First, why should you even listen to me (Jaskaran) about state of social media being worse than ever? First, I track this industry every week with my newsletter & mind for 20,000+ marketers. And mainly because I care about this social media marketing space.

A little context: These insights below are more oriented toward helping marketers, creators & Big Businesses working in Social Media Marketing. If you are a small business or newbie, I suggest reading my other blogpost on social media trends & Insights for beginners.

1/ Average & Inspo are the constant

Most users are very much tapped out while watching short-form content. They are on the app to watch tiktok, reels or youtube. That’s the first thought and every time user open the app, the algorithm shows the average of what they already saw. All the recommendations are the same, that is the loop.

This really means to be memorable & do brand marketing through social. You need to be creative. But what’s the advice on internet? Blend into the tiktok styles, and that’s happening.

 

Every f**king brand & agency is using the same trending audio & Capcut template. That doesn’t build anything for you. You are becoming the part of average, the best advice is to be creative about what your brand is, don’t become the part of loop. You will get lost.

2/ Social Media Search is future but

TikTok’s search feature and their Keyword Ads currently rolling out to Advertisers are making a splash in the space. But Apart from Youtube, All other search features on Twitter, Instagram & LinkedIn are going through a nightmare.

Instagram’s search feature isn’t fully capable of showing accurate content.

LinkedIn’s Content Search always shows more recent content, instead of relevant.

Twitter is growing their own stuff. They have advanced search feature but regular search is filled with bot content for every industry.

For Retail & DTC, Social Search is driving massive growth on TikTok. But the way overall state of social search looks, it will take much longer to make the results more relevant.

3/ Influencer marketing is dumb

Especially with agencies & Influencer tools, this is a honest take as someone who consults these newly born agencies. The issue is most brands don’t see it as brand marketing. It is still very much: we have a budget. One of the biggest examples is Chipotle, they get influencer marketing but are experimenting so much with agencies & platforms. I have seen their testimonials on 2-3 different new influencer agencies.

The industry is moving very dumb because of the whole heavy VC funding into creator economy & new agencies. It is very clear to me, that smart brands will make more internal hirings to find better influencers & oboard matured creators as influencers strategy consultants.

 

Major Clarification: I am not suggesting this marketing channel doesn’t work or all the tools are worthless. I am a marketing influencer myself, what I mean is understand saving time vs getting valuable.

Most Agencies & Ad Tech in the Influencer marketing space is saving time. If you want to save time, just hire another employee who reaches out to influencers. Because that’s what 99.9% agencies do. If you want value, choose your agency or Tech solutions carefully. You can hire an expert like Jaskaran (me) to quality check your agency & Tech. It can save you thousands of dollars.

 

4/ Data Gaps are getting huge; AI will save Paid Media

There is more data than ever in this industry with users spending more time online. At the same time, there are huge data gaps causing irrelevant Ad targeting. Meta’s Interest based Ad targeting has been suffering. Snap & Pinterest have growing audiences but in the last earning report, statememts are pretty same. AI will make the advertising functions better.

The whole Ad Tech industry is preaching AI to fill the gap within the third party datasets. I can’t predict the future of AI targeting for social media advertising. But currently you need to focus on your data and market knowledge before relying on the targeting done by the platform or recommended by your Ad Rep.

5/ The Industry is Going through “Know it all”

In your workspace or as a solo marketer, at the end of the day your boss is also a social media consumer. And they are very likely to he “I know it all” based on their social media feed. Showing the sign of being a bad marketer, generalising is a marketing sin.

That’s why to prevent yourself from the bad ideas and strategies. Build pattern sheets and your own social media guidelines. A pattern of how your social looks and what the general guidelines of content in social for X industry are, both will help you.

Hand them the sheet before moving to the idea. Because doing anything relative to brand marketing leads to someone in the marketing or higher level saying what’s the ROI of this month for social?

Trends & Ideas from other people at the company don’t bring a good ROI. Plus, ROI of Social Media strategy work needs to be calculated every 90 days not 30. After 90 days think of switching to at least get the insights out about why it did or didn’t work.

I hope this helps you to understand. To find how reddit reacted to my insights, You can visit my original post on reddit.

Understanding the TikTok Growth Loop

I am currently studying GenZ, AI & Social media for a research. The pattern tells: ‘Welcome to the average world’.

Why I say that is because your social media feeds are now average of everything you like, when you close and open the app again. You see average of what you watched. And TikTok’s Algorithm is building average content loops for users consistently.

 

The Reason this works making the average work shine is because of our human nature and how these platforms are designed to make you feel. Average isn’t bad, it is the constant feeling we seek to become comfortable in where we are.

Systems and Content strategies are designed to fulfill the average need, and that is what users expect when they open TikTok next time.

On other hand, Creative Content & Brand Stories  break the average loop. You share something unique, the loop either doesn’t reward it because you weren’t clear or focused to reach the audience. Or the average loop rewards you for what you shared. And that creative content is the differentiator in your TikTok growth loop.

 

Understanding the loop

This is Jaskaran, he likes Aesthetic furniture, Japanese Denim & Productivity tips. The loop starts for him with consumption of Viral content on TikTok. The platform knows nothing about his interests, then one day he likes a post about aesthetic furniture from a creator, and his feed is getting mixed with content averagely related to that furniture video. Then, that furniture creator shares productivity tips, connecting Jaskaran to his second interest: productivity. That productivity creator now likes japanese denim. Jaskaran reaches the average content about Japenese denim.

Algorithm works on data & stats, there is pattern building up every time you interact with a video. Your next 5 videos are average of the last 15 you watched in your bed. Yes, the average loop leads you to new people every single time. But that experience you are giving people doesn’t impact them until you build your own loop.

 

The building your own loop vs being part of TikTok loop looks like this:

”I learned this from TikTok” to “I learned this from XYBrand’s last TikTok Video”.

Algorithmic Loop is built on data, but your brand loop is built on emotion & message. Can you make them connect with why you exist? Like a netflix series, can you get them invested in your journey?

Now what does that look like? That natural Creative loop.

 

It looks like when Victoria paris told her audience about a man in elevator and then she builds a whole story around him instead of potraying dream date lifestyle like every other influencer.

It looks like Martin Rese stitching his industry related videos instead of choosing creating just regular videos on that topic. Because that shows his authority & presence to address the industry trends. He isn’t another person on TikTok talking about water, he is the person on tiktok to know about water. Because he brings the average loop audience to his loop through that stitch & review TikTok strategy.

Or this 16 Year-old designer blending his identity with an aesthetic trend on TikTok to steal the existing audience of that trend.

 

Have you observed the pattern here? It’s simple to break into TikTok Creative loop, If you are a sci-fi moving lover.

 

You will know the plot of pretty much every Sci-fi follows the newton law “Every Action leads to an equal reaction”. Those movies always focus on a bigger issue caused by a smaller issue, now the bigger issue will be fixed by another small issue. The plot will only change if the director seeks a Hero movie ending where everyone wins. That’s a pretty hard scenario because not many people watch Sci-fi for a Hero Ending. They watch it for complexity, creativity, continuity. The 3Cs, yeah I am amazed right now. Because that framework is mine & used by many.

The End

 

1/ Algorithm loop is based on complexity, that’s data. You don’t see it, what you see is the end product. You are different than your average follower, they don’t have the same persona or knowledge as you, right?

So, to understand the algorithm loop create a new account. Do the market research, come back to interact with the content that your ideal customer likes. See the algorithm loop in action, monitor and work on it.

2/ Now you have expertise & Brand, Don’t settle for content that fuels your growth in Algorithm loop. That brings you awareness not consideration. Be Creative & Get your message out there, figure out your ideal strategy like Victora paris or the 16-year old boy. The biggest part don’t expect quick results like you get for algorithm loop-focused content. This is now brand engagement & connection building at a play, you need to give your content & loop time.

 

Creativity moves slow, but the waves of this loop are stronger.

3/ Reaching the last loop, Continuity. This loop is all about listening to the audience throughout the journey. Don’t lose the touch. Delivering an ending that doesn’t connect to the movie plot isn’t harmful at all. People will tell you they loved watching it, but they will have no reason in their mind to watch the next part of it.

TikTok is scary when brands lose the touch with what they share and how the audience reacts. Seek Continuity, build a sustainable growth loop that is trackable and can go on forever.

I genuinely believe 99.9% brands & creators on TikTok don’t know what type of  content loop joined their target audience. Be the 0.1% and understand what style of content might exist in your audience’s content loop.

 

 

Rise of Shitposting; Why Brands & Creators do it?

Why your favourite brand is acting like a child on social media? The Internet is sick of professionalism and now shitposting is the language to express everything. I mean everything.

 

Internet confirms if you are good shitposter or not. As a reddit creator, shitposting trends have been my favourite, when done right. If you have like no-relationship with your audience shitposting could be hard way to gain and audience that buys from you. Because shitposting doesn’t justify why your price is valid or what makes you special. You still need other style of posts. But first, what is shitposting? And who is a shitposter?

 

Shitposting

 

No shit. This act has 100s of different definitions because shitposting is basically a social media act of posting that is low effort for X audience & then impactful/relevant to Y audience.

Shitposting is primarly famous on Reddit & Twitter. The twitter definition is way more political and reddit one is simple.

 

Reddit & TikTok

 

A Shitpost to a redditor is a piece of content with low effort & literally no value. But it might provoke a huge discussion why because internet loves to mess with shitposters. I am very active in r/entreprenuer sub-reddit, every month there exists a shitpost with no-value but it becomes the most upvoted post of the day. Why and how?

 

It becomes the conversation starter for that topic. Internet/ Reddit feels like they need to educate the audience and fix the issues in that post. To explain, there is a new version of shitposting on reddit & TikTok where the post isn’t a shitpost. But to provoke the audience like a shitpost, the creator makes a mistake. An example is below, Lala sadi always pronounces “hummus” word wrong and makes people engage more often with her video. Because Internet loves to correct others and be smart.

 

 

@lala_sadii 1 AM SNACK! I CAUGHT AT THE END BY MOM😭 #humus #foryou #fyp #viral #hungry #1am ♬ original sound - Lala

 

I think that sums up why shitposting work. Because the urge to correct someone is a human habits. And shitposts & the act of shitposting in a regular video provokes that discussion & brings more organic reach.

Twitter

Because Twitter is married with Politics and strategy, Shitposting on this platform is more oriented toward influencing consumers and getting your message across the table.

 

A majority of users even marketers think that shitposting is being you or building a funny persona. A shitposter shares whatever is on their mind and it is building transparency. Very likely that isn’t the case.

Coming to Political Twitter, Shitposting is very much controlled and influenced to build a message around the business. Through a low effort content publishing act, shitposting doesn’t fall into the idea of content creation or strategy. It is about having an intent and purpose to either cause a bad feeling in mind of a user or make them feel angery.

 

And that’s what occurs on twitter (X) where not only some brands and users shitpost. The CEO Elon Musk is very well know  for his regular shitposts about different political issues & tech world. A lot of people hate that and many love it. Why?

 

The reason is once you identify as a shitposter to an audience. You will have people that connect with style of content and the others that hate it or just ignore it. For Example, Wendy's is known for their funny twitter content. The SaaS platform on TikTok 'TL;DV' is known for their Roleplay videos.

 

But when by a mistake an Instagram user sees a Wendy's tweet. They might find that tweet strange because they have never seen the brand post content like that on Instagram. They will have a hard time grasping the humour. And that's okay.

 

Because shitposting is tailored toward a different audience that is either unknown to you or the audience believing heavily in the brand, creator or a user.

 

Again, This isn't a strategy. It is an intent focused publishing.

 

Confusing Humour for Shitposting

Everything above came from my experience, when I went to validate what I wrote. I found a bunch of TikTok videos referring that what brands like Wendy's, Duolingo & RyanAir do is called Shitposting. These brands aren't the examples of how shitposting works or what it means.

These brands are building humour based content around different personas of their business. Through funny content & Trends they seek to be more relatable. Humour is a huge part of marketing, research shows Ads with humour makes the audience remember your business for a much longer period.

 

On other hand, Shitposting isn't all humour, it is opinionative and could be harmful to your brand image. What these brands do is targeting emotions through research and consumer insights. Ask yourself, Would Billion dollar brands like these risk business for more viewership on social media? The obvious answer is no.

 

Even if you are a small brand or creator, do shitposting carefully, don't do it at the expense of losing your current audience. Right?

 

Last: Should you do it or not?

 

For Individuals, If you are being true to yourself by posting your opinions that deliver no value. Keep doing that, It doesn't matter what others think, you might find your tribe by being true to yourself. On other hand, when you care about your work life or use social media to craft an image hold back on shitposting or define the intent behind that shitpost.

 

For Businesses, Be Careful with this type of intent focused content. Always get an approval from the legal team. At the core of doing this content style do the market research. Did it work for somebody else? Yes, Analyse why it worked and what type of tactics were at the play while shitposting.

 

May be your other promotional content on social media helped to convert that free exposure into a buying exposure. Shitposting alone will leave you stranded. Focus on your overall social media strategy to succeed on social.

 

The Social Media Marketing World is becoming more exposure oriented. There is always someone getting more exposure or views than one. But the number of businesses getting their audience into their purchase funnel is decreasing because the quality bar is high. For that I recommend to be strategic and exposure oriented at the same time.

12 Reasons Why Your Reels Aren’t Going Viral in 2023

Every Instagram and Facebook creator/business dreams of their reels going viral. However, this task isn’t as straightforward as it may seem, and there are many factors involved. With over 1 billion active Instagram users worldwide, there’s no shortage of competition. But don’t fret, because if you’ve been asking yourself questions like, ‘Why aren’t my reels doing well?’ or ‘How can I make my reel go viral?’ – you’ve come to the right place.

 

My Clients & Friends have asked this question a billion times and they often listen to dumb advice from Instagram coaches with no-real knowledge about marketing & consumer trust. If I had to sum up the Instagram Reels Strategy for you in few words, I would say.

Think before you act, Check before you publish. Then Rethink.

Only 10 words to focus for going viral on  Instagram Reels.

1. Your Hook Doesn’t Matter as Much as You Think

Contrary to popular belief, the first few words of your Reel aren't always the make-or-break point. Users often make the decision to continue watching or skip after a few seconds into the video, not necessarily after the first few words.

 

This skip behavior is usually triggered by either a lack of practical solutions offered to the viewer or a weak storytelling framework.

 

Do you know Casey Neistat? Casey’s videos have an overarching narrative structure that doesn't depend on hooks in the initial seconds but relies on a compelling storyline throughout the video.

 

The narrative follows a clear arc, where an event happens, a change occurs, and an outcome results. The event-change-outcome structure keeps viewers hooked, driving them to continue watching till the end.

His Youtube videos about Nike are worth studying for creators. In case you never saw any of them, Watch the one below and focus on how the video flows. Don’t watch or enjoy. Instead Study

 

 

2. The Importance of Visual Identity

 

The algorithm needs to identify your Reel's content to match it with the appropriate audience. Therefore, creating a visually identifiable brand that the algorithm can associate with a specific demographic is crucial.

For instance, if you're a fitness brand, your reels should feature workout sessions, healthy foods, or fitness tips, creating a visual identity that the algorithm will associate with fitness enthusiasts.

 

 3. Understand Trends Before You Jump On Them

 

Reels trends offer a great way to engage with your audience & earn virality, but it's vital to understand a trend before incorporating it into your Reel.

Study the trend, ensure it's relevant to your audience, and assess whether you've done anything similar in the past.

When the "Ice Bucket Challenge" went viral, it was because it resonated with a wide range of audiences and was easily adaptable across different industries. Trends like that apply to everyone.

Many Trends are often unique to an industry & community. Finding those trends within your community make you spark the most.

 

4. The Pitfalls of Watermarked Content

 

While Instagram's CEO, Adam Mosseri, confirmed that using watermarked content from other apps doesn't violate any policies, it's advisable to avoid it.

 

Removing watermarks, especially from repurposed TikTok videos, helps present your content in a more professional light.

 

5. Patience is a Virtue

 

Reels exist in a continuous loop on Instagram, unlike the regular home feed where the most recent and relevant content shows up.

 

Your reel might only start getting traction a few days after publishing when it has reached the right audience and received adequate interaction. It has happened to me in the past a few times and the engagement quality is always better. When reels go viral after few days of publishing.

 

For Further read into understanding Instagram Algorithm, I have a deepdive blog about Instagram & Social Media Algorithms .

 

6. Consistency with a Fresh Perspective

 

Your audience consumes video content much faster than regular content, meaning your content can become stale quickly.

Take a cue from MrBeast, who has achieved YouTube stardom not just by posting consistently but by continually bringing fresh and interesting challenges and charitable acts to his audience.

 

His approach emphasizes the importance of consistently publishing new ideas that resonate with the audience.

 

 

7. Don't Underestimate Video Editing

 

Video editing plays a critical role in the success of your Reel. Well-edited videos are more engaging and easier to understand. Instead of trying to do it all, hiring a professional video editor can help streamline your content and highlight the key points effectively.

 

I can’t tell how many brands & creators had low video quality & ugly transitions causing them low reach & engagement. Many people do get blind to some Reels Mistakes that matter. Other people & experts like Video editors can help you see & fix those mistakes.

 

 

8. Building Authority Takes Time

 

You have yet to build authority. Without that, your reels won’t go viral. Video content on Internet has always required authority building from creators & businesses. It took MrBeast years to crack the youtube system, and he said because when he started he knew his content wasn’t that good. Same case could be with you, you have yet to build your personal brand and authority through  content after that you will be able to go viral on reels.

 

From my experience, Instagram Stories & Profile Structure also help you build that authority. What you need is the focus to always have niched focus to create content that is connected to a set of different niched topics. Making sure you are becoming part of that authority circle.

 

Urgently need it fixed? You can book a consultation call with me.

 

 

9. Don’t Disallow Shares to Facebook

 

Allowing your content to be reshared to Facebook Reels can open up an entirely new audience base.

 

This cross-platform sharing can result in more engagement and validation for your content.

10. Harness the Power of Keywords

Strategically using keywords can make your Instagram Reel stand out and reach the right audience. Keywords help align what people are searching for with the content you provide.

Most online content, including your Reels, is indexed. This means that the right keywords can make your Reels appear in wider web searches, shining a light on your content for the right audience.

When creating your caption, integrate relevant keywords that correspond with your Reel’s content and resonate with your target audience. However, avoid keyword stuffing - the overuse of keywords. Your caption should be readable and provide value, with keywords incorporated naturally.

11. Use Instagram Reels Analytics

 

Analyzing your Reels' performance can help you understand what type of content resonates with your audience.

You should study your reels performance and find what’s the difference between engagement for different type of instagram reels. Analyse the best performing reels reaching the most followers and most non-followers. Give your 50-50 to them. Nurture your existing audience for authority & invite new audience through broad topics that worked in the past.

Plus, Instagram’s recent update provides insights into the average watch time for Instagram reels, allowing you to see how long viewers are engaged with your content. Retention is one of my favourite metrics to track for video content.

 

Reels analytics for an Instagram reel

Source: Screenshot

12. Adopt the AIDA Strategy

 

AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) is a classic copywriting strategy that can be adapted to your Reels.

The strategy works by first grabbing the viewer's attention, sparking their interest, creating a desire for whatever you're promoting, and then prompting them to take action.

 

A majority of creators & businesses have shifted this strategy a little bit by switching A (Action) from the end of the video to middle of the video. Asking the audience to take action when you are building interest of the audience in the reels.

Tiktok & Instagram Safe Zone Templates + Usage Guide 2023

Like button isn’t visible. I am always screaming this when someone asks why they are getting a huge amount of views on Tiktok. But the engagement is down. The biggest reason remains not paying attention to Tiktok & Instagram Reels UI.

The user interface of both Apps have tiny engagement buttons. Even though they aren’t tiny for many users, most people tend to forget they had to like the video.

This happens to me all the time on reddit. Link to my newsletter is always there but people still ask where is it? That happens. Because of that, for all social media platforms I have my vault of safe zone templates.

 

On LinkedIn & Twitter, Safe Zone templates are more text focused. But Instagram & TikTok Reels have both text & video safe zone templates.

 

Tiktok Safe Zone Template & Examples

There could be chances you don’t need a safe zone template. Many creators & businesses on TikTok are naturally creating safe zone friendly content.

 

    1. Jules Terpak- Her Videos always have a black background and that helps very well with users seeing the
    2. Sun Yi, Night Owls - This creator also uses very similar structure to Jules Terpak but there isn't a background. Only how well the text is aligned in the organic video.
    3. Colin and Samir - The creator economy OGs also have a great style to always have video design that doesn't bother the ideal TikTok or YouTube shorts viewer.

 

Yes the examples I gave you are from high level creators and they have the production to do what they want. If you are like me with a small budget and crappy video skills. I have the quick insights ready for you.

 

First, Always observe the videos you love and the ones that annoy you. To build a better user experience for others. You have to always check your own experience. That's what good UI/UX designers do to build experience. As a creator yourself, you should care about the viewer experience. Second, I would suggest to make sure your video isn’t too bright that makes the users scroll faster. As they might be watching at night or are usually afraid of too much light. I fall into this category, a video with high brightness makes me scroll and skip to next video.

 

Now, Coming to the easy part where you can download the TikTok Safe Zone Template and overlay the template over your Tiktok videos in Capcut editor:

TikTok Safe Zone Template

(Click or Hold to see the download option.)

 

Alternative TikTok Safe Zone Hack

 

You can create a transparent box with size: 258 x 926 pixel format and overlay it over the Tiktok Caption & Profile name size of the video.

 

And for the engagement tab (likes, comments & Shares) create a transparent box with size: 177 x 1254 pixels. Do the same as you did with the first box, and overlay this 177 x 1254 px box over the TikTok engagement tab.

 

And you are good to go even without needing a template.  Create two images in These formats and use it everytime you edit a TikTok video.

Instagram Safe Zone Template

Well, Instagram Tab is slightly thinner than TikTok engagement tab. But the important to remember is how long captions show up on your video.

 

On TikTok, Clicking on the Caption, You can also access to see captions like this:

An image showing how tiktok captions tab looks like

Source: My Screenshot

 

You can assume this enhances the reading ability & experience of the users. On Instagram, A long caption majority of time covers the video. And if your video is too bright & visualisation is pretty heavy in the content. The user experience can get worse. That’s why always try to make sure your long caption & video style don’t ruin the viewership.

Moving Back, Here is your Instagram Safe Zone Template. Just a little thin on the engagement tab:

 

Instagram safe zone template

(Click or Hold to download)

 

Alternative Hack:

You can create a 435 x 1000 pixel Transparent Box to overlay the Instagram captions tab. And a thin rectangle for engagement tab with size: 155 x 805 pixels.

Save these two boxes as images and overlay on your next Instagram reels to always have perfect Instagram reels.

Youtube Shorts Safe Zone Template

 

Title didn’t say Youtube? Take it as a bonus. If you are creating TikTok or Instagram Reels content, you should be repurposing content to Youtube. I always say squeeze the social juice out of your every single piece of content. Because your hard work shouldn’t end at posting. You need more than that to grow your following or business.

With that, Here is your Youtube Safe Zone Template:

 

Youtube safe zone template

(Click or hold to download)

 

Alternative Hack:

Create a 243 x 926 pixel size transparent box for the caption side of  Youtube Shorts. Then, You need to create a transparent rectangle box with dimensions: 164 x 1148 pixels for Engagement tab.

Save them as images and overlay on your Youtube Shorts. Everytime you create content.

But Why do you need Safe Zone Template?

I will say your Short-form content success doesn’t start with finding a template to increase the probability of a user engaging with your content. It starts at you understanding Tiktok marketing and create what people on Tiktok what to see.

 

Same with Instagram, First Understand the marketing part and then find what people want to see on Instagram. That also applies to Youtube & Pinterest where short-form content is also taking place.

 

Engagement tatics only work when you understand the dynamics of the platform & do the market research about why people exist on TikTok, not on IG.

 

Then, Use these Safe zone templates to enhance your ordinary content to 99.9% golden content. To achieve that, You need guidance and constant idea of how these short-form content apps are changing.

 

Sounds hard, It’s easier than ever. I have a newsletter that helps businesses and marketers to keep up with everything social media & the best practices. You got your templates, it is time to learn the best strategies.

 

 

 

Instagram Story Analytics: Most Metrics Don't matter

As Instagram continues to grow and change every single week, it’s more important than ever for businesses to leverage every change at their disposal to connect with their ideal audience.

 

One of the most effective ways to do this is by taking advantage of Instagram Stories, which provide a unique platform to engage followers on a more personal level.

 

I personally love stories and have been consistent with them from years building a story engagement with followers. 

 

However, the key to utilizing Instagram Stories to their fullest potential lies in understanding the Instagram story analytics behind them.

 

Instagram Story Analytics provides valuable insights into your content's performance, allowing you to fine-tune your strategy and maximize your reach.

 

In this insightful short-guide, I will share & dissect the intricacies of Instagram Story Analytics, explaining each metric's significance, and how they can inform your Instagram Stories strategy.

 

We'll also explore practical strategies for using these insights to boost your engagement. 

 

Plus, stay tuned for a bonus section at the end: "Instagram Story Ideas for July 2023".

 

Understanding Instagram Story Analytics

 

Instagram Story Analytics can seem overwhelming at first, but understanding these metrics can give you an edge over your competition.

 

A recent survey shows most social media strategists do better job than their competitors by learning social media analytics like Instagram Story analytics

 

Here's a breakdown of the key metrics and what they mean for your Instagram Stories strategy:

 

1. Navigation Metrics

 

These metrics reflect how users navigate your Instagram Stories. And by analysing these metrics you will learn what instagram story analytics do or don't matter in 2023. 

 

Back: Indicates when a viewer swipes back to revisit your last Story or someone else's Story they saw before. 

 

Forward: Represents when a viewer taps to move on to your next Story.

 

Next Story: Denotes when a viewer moves on to view someone else's Story.

 

Exited: Signifies when a viewer leaves the Stories interface altogether.

 

If your Stories encourage more Forward and Next Story actions, Instagram is likely to push your content to more followers. This is because Instagram wants to keep users engaged within the Stories interface where they can serve more ads.

 

2. Interaction Metrics

 

Instagram story Interaction metrics provide insights into how viewers are engaging with your Stories.

 

Polls/Question Stickers/Quiz: When viewers interact with these features, Instagram sees your content as engaging and starts pushing it to a broader audience. I love polls and one of my most read Instagram marketing post is actually about instagram story poll Ideas, available to read on my blog.

 

Profile Visits: If a viewer visits your profile through your Story, that particular Story will likely receive more views than average. This implies that your content is compelling enough for viewers to want to explore more. I suggest anyone focused on Instagram growth optimising their profile, because most people 10x profile visits compared to no. of people leaving a follow on your page. 

 

3. Reach and Impressions

 

Reach is the number of unique accounts that have viewed your Story, while impressions indicate the total number of views, including multiple views from the same account. 

 

Leveraging Instagram Story Analytics

 

Armed with the understanding of these metrics, you can now leverage this knowledge to fine-tune your Instagram Stories strategy. Here's how:

 

1. Make Your Stories Engaging

 

Ensure your Stories are compelling enough to keep viewers from tapping forward or exiting. Interactive stickers like polls, quizzes, or question stickers can help increase engagement.

 

Earlier this year, I shared a list of 30+ Instagram story Ideas to spike your engagement. You can read them here. But remember you have to be creative with these ideas to make sure your audience finds them engaging. 

 

2. Encourage Profile Visits

 

Profile visits from Stories indicate high viewer interest and can increase your Story's visibility. You can encourage profile visits by posting teasers of your new post, running exclusive profile-only promotions, or sharing interesting behind-the-scenes content that prompts viewers to check out your profile for more.

 

A good story to profile visit conversion rate tells us that your followers might be interested in working with you or buying products. Always try to encourage them to check more of your offerings and old content that they loved. 

 

3. Optimize Your Content for More Organic Reach

 

More views translate to higher reach and impressions. Keep an eye on what type of content garners more views and replicates it. Additionally, regularly posting Stories can increase your chances of appearing at the front of your followers' Stories feed, thereby increasing your reach.

 

The opposite also works as taking a 24-hour break and coming back to post something engaging is also very beneficial. 

 

Growing Followers Through Instagram Stories

 

Growing your follower count through Stories is possible, but it typically happens indirectly. If someone shares your Story with someone who doesn't follow you, and they decide to follow you after viewing your Story, that's a direct gain. 

 

However, consistently posting engaging Stories can indirectly lead to follower growth by increasing your brand visibility and engagement.

 

 

 

Fine-Tuning Your Instagram Story Strategy

 

With Instagram Story Analytics in your toolkit, you can continually fine-tune your strategy. Here are some ways to do this:

 

1. Experiment and Adapt

 

Don’t be afraid to try new things. Analyze the performance of different types of content in your Stories and see what resonates with your audience.

 

Use a variety of Instagram content types, such as photos, videos, boomerangs, and carousel posts, to keep things fresh and engaging.

 

Your other feed content also gives algorithm signals that show how interested a follower will be in watching your instagram stories. And this was recently revealed by Adam Mosseri in a recent video about Instagram algorithm. He mentioned: By calculating user interest in your content, we like to push the content to more people. 

 

It is very much based on the probability of an algorithm calculating the interest of your audience correctly to push more of your content. I wrote about the Instagram algorithm too, You can check that for more context about how content rankings work. 

 

But overall you have to always experiment with engaging pieces of content to adapt and rank higher in IG stories. 

 

2. Encourage Interactions through stories

 

Create content that encourages your viewers to engage. Ask questions, create polls, and make use of the interactive stickers provided by Instagram. 

 

High interaction rates can signal to Instagram's algorithm that your content is engaging, making it more likely to be promoted.

 

Here is a list of engaging instagram poll & sticker ideas shared to help you spark your stories' engagement. It is important to try these interactions as you can find if your followers are paying attention to your stories or just scrolling through them.

 

3. Monitor Instagram Story Trends 

 

Keep track of your analytics to identify trends over time. Which type of content is increasing in reach or impressions? What kind of Stories encourage the most profile visits? Once you have these answers, you can focus more on creating similar content.

 

Instagram Story Ideas for July 2023

 

Jaskaran’s Take 

 

Remember to continually test and adapt your strategy based on your analytics, and don't be afraid to get creative with your Stories. People don’t judge your stories as much as they do the posts. It is always appreciated when you over deliver in them. 

 

I want you to Remember, Instagram Stories aren't just about promoting your products or services; they're about sharing the messaging behind your brand or content (for creators), connecting with your audience, and fostering a community around your business. 

 

And It is never too late to begin with them, while Instagram story analytics will help you from now on. Moving forward, try to take notes and build a pattern of what you shared in your Instagram stories. 

 

At the end of next month, try to connect your stories like dots. You will find what mistakes you might have made and where you could have improved your approach to reach more people. And impact more of your followers. 



Digital Marketing Trends & Updates Breakdown

I wrote this on 30th June,  Social Media Day. A breakdown of what changed in world of Digital Marketing Trends & Updates this month.

You can read on for recap of everything in terms of social media & content marketing that changed in June 2023.

 

TikTok - Tell me your Desire 😈

 

I have to say, TikTok is going to be the biggest e-commerce and social media platform in the US & UK. With The launch of their “Trendy Beat” shopping program in the UK and internally it is called the project “S”. TikTok is aiming to achieve higher levels in terms of live shopping and selling their products.

 

The Intent here you need to know is TikTok is great for business, they also introduced a new creative challenge encouraging creators to submit UGC content directly to brands and marketers.

 

TikTok marketing attacks consumer wants! Not what consumers need. People on Reddit & Facebook groups are there to get information about products and services they need to live.

 

TikTok & Short-form content is a form of marketing that targets the audience's desire. And Tiktok will help marketers and businesses the most to target that desire but remember to take your time off. As a marketer, I hope it doesn’t strike back at your desire to buy X, Y, and Z.

 

Google Analytics - Secure your Data Before it’s too late!

 

Less than 24 hours are left now, Google Universal Analytics will sunset and you will have to use Google Analytics 4.
​
You might feel all caught up on the change to Google Analytics, but in reality, there were more than 7 Updates to GA4 announced this month.

What are the complaints about GA4:

​
And the biggest complaint of all is, You can’t copy in GA4, and this is the worst thing of all.

What is Better in GA4:

​

If you’re fully into the Google Advertising & tracking ecosystem it is better now. For Marketers with a focus on social media Ads, Influencer marketing & Other elements you need to use a tool like Supermetrics to track and combine your cross-channel data.*

Recent News for GA4 Users: New accounts can only access Last Click and Data-Driven Attribution for now. This is a huge data attribution problem! (Link)

Supermetrics has put together a GA4 Knowledge Center with everything you need for a successful migration to GA4. Find tips and tricks for how to make the most of your GA4 data, how to store your Universal analytics data, or a migration tootlkit which helps you to easily transition your reports from using Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4.

 

Instagram - Good for once! 😁

 

Instagram is here to tell you all the secrets and they revealed how their feed algorithms work. And Yesterday they announced how the AI models are distributing your content on Facebook and Instagram.

 

While I’m pretty happy to see what I wrote about how social media algorithms work in one of my recent newsletters was 100%. You can read more about my social media algorithm Insights here!

 

Moving forward! Instagram continues to develop its Reels editing tools. A set of new reels features was launched this week and a huge bug got fixed by the platform.

 

Instagram broadcasts are the new hype, they’re global now. I would suggest creators & brands use them wisely. Don’t use broadcasts only as a “new post” notification center. No one likes that! Try to share more human talks on these channels.

 

 

Agencies - You need a face!

 

Other than Apple’s marketing chief shouting out that Agencies live forever. Things aren’t looking that well for smaller agencies.

 

At Cannes Lions,  The spark of new agencies was hard to catch while the campaigns that won the awards were deserving. And the AI talk was at the center of everything.

 

Coming to AI, the WPP and Nvidia-AI partnership aims to build an AI content engine while their partner Ogilvy asks Influencer marketing agencies to disclose the usage of AI in their campaigns.

 

Agencies today need an AI talk show or a major brand face like Terry Crews. Terry with the launch of his agency is going crazy. He has plans to run his brand after he dies with AI tech, meaning building an Agency face that lives forever.

 

Recession, AI, and brand face. I will say small & new agencies need to rediscover themselves to survive in this growing agency world war. What agencies need today is changing!

 

LinkedIn - We Breath AI 🤦

 

Consumers are now already sick of AI-generated content. Etsy is completely off the charts, Reddit is getting AI bots replying and AI could kill a social media app. And LinkedIn could be it!

 

If it wasn’t for layoffs & recession, LinkedIn’s growth might have been a little different. LinkedIn knows that very well. To protect the future, LinkedIn is trying to go all in on AI.

 

LinkedIn is testing an AI-powered post-creation tool and launched AI Collaborative articles. LinkedIn is also testing AI assistants & expanding AI copy suggestions.

 

While doing that from Monday, LinkedIn creators started experiencing engagement & content issues. The same day LinkedIn revealed how its algorithm works. As of me writing this newsletter, LinkedIn is recovering from this change as revealed by Taplio in their recent updates.

 

Overall sentiment: LinkedIn is pretty active for now. I hope all this AI stuff doesn’t make it worse for them in the upcoming months.

 

Meta - Listen we’re growing but traffic 🤷‍♂️

 

Giving up on Facebook or Instagram? Meta continues to share that they are growing faster with the help of AI. Earlier this month Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta will be introducing Generative AI to all of their platforms.

 

Last week, they bragged about the increase in time spent on meta platforms at their AI marketing summit. The stories on the publisher side are quite different, as web traffic from Facebook has seen a huge drop. The reason behind this is all the AI model recommendation systems.

 

Each content interaction is playing a huge role now and AI models are still in training. They do make mistakes, publisher and website content rankings are random due to this factor.

 

Quick Feature Update: Facebook reels got more than 4 updates this month with the launch of the inspiration hub, promotion reels, and editing tools for users. WhatsApp also introduced two security features and launched WhatsApp channels + discovery filters for them.

 

Youtube - Please don’t do it! 🙅

 

Vidcon happened this month. And what I have to say is “Creator's Dilemma”. This is a fact that most agency owners and marketers I meet live in their dilemma of knowing it all and they make decisions based on their own bias.

 

And this same style of dilemma can originate from events like Vidcon in the future where creators come and talk about creation. Instead of building a feedback loop from their fans. The event is becoming more corporate than ever.

 

Creators & Influencers need the best advice from their audience. And a perfect example is MrBeast, creators who listened more to his advice started copying him. Instead of just taking the short lesson and getting feedback from viewers.

 

This needs to be fixed, Tickets are getting expensive every year. In the next two or three years, there will be no fans visiting. A creator version of Cannes Lions getting ready!

 

Quick Features Update: New Youtube Shorts remix feature was launched & best of all: the Youtube thumbnail A/B testing feature is launched and will be expanding to more creators slowly!

 

Twitter - Movies are here!

 

Twitter is announcing new features and changes very quickly but the advertiser trust isn’t recovering that much. It was reported that Twitter US Ad Sales are down by 5the 9%.

 

But as promised from next week, many Twitter creators will be eligible to sign up for their share of Ad revenue. Twitter is also planning to allow creators to collect the email addresses of their followers when they want to move off Twitter.

 

The biggest shift is Twitter’s plan to move its attention to video content. There have been multiple improvements to make Twitter better for video content sharing and this week Apple made a huge announcement.

 

AppleTV posted the first episode of the upcoming series Silo on their Twitter account: watch here.

 

Video is making a spark on every platform, I will suggest waiting a while and start repurposing your video content on Twitter. Twitter is a discussion space if the platform achieves a balance between video watching + tweeting. This could work!

 

Brands - Ads & PR

 

Warner Bros. Team is blowing their budgets out on marketingBarbie. Barbie’s marketing campaign isn’t a genius, It is highly relevant. With the Barbie villa on Airbnb, the Times magazine cover, and a lot of cheeky product placement. Barbie is set to kill the cinemas this year. (Link)

 

Amazon is planning to introduce Ads to prime video. We are going back to TV-style streaming with Ads, without Ads, it will be a luxury. Have your marketing spend ready!

 

Smrinoff’s new brand strategy & MISCHIEF’s cannes lions campaign are two winners of our newsletter’s best brand campaign of the month. Both are built on the idea of consumer attention-grabbing elements.

 

And this AI-targeting campaign from Nikon was one of the highlights of the month: Watch here! 

 

Advertising - Uncontrollable 💇‍♀️

 

We started with Microsoft & Google testing AI Ads from advertiser accounts without asking for permission. And we are ending the Advertising month of June with Google getting accused of misleading advertisers with Video Ads.

 

In the advertising world, AI updates are coming in quickly but not the ones to help you. Most of the updates are focused on helping you create better Ad creatives. And the development on that side isn’t that great. Yes, AI can help you regenerate copy and get new Ads on Microsoft & Google Ads.

 

But that is AI training on your existing data and Ad creatives. To progress further, you need to create new creatives yourself.

 

The second update is that keyword-targeting Ads are now available on every single platform with the launch of conversational Ads on LinkedIn. And keyword Ad targeting is expanding on TikTok & Reddit.

 

I look forward to testing keyword Ads, but this uncontrollable access to AI Ads from Google & Microsoft isn’t a good idea. They need to stay within their policies and don’t need to test Ads created for different formats.

 

Reddit - Why Is it alive?

 

It's doomsday, Tomorrow Reddit’s new API pricing goes live. While many users are still protesting and against the change. What made Reddit survive was Google!

 

Recent research has found that Google’s User experience went down as Reddit communities went on blackout. More than 50% of Google searches are unique with only user-generated content from platforms like Reddit, Twitter, and Quora ranking.

 

With Reddit being the most trustful source, many non-Reddit users visit the platform through search engines.

 

Reddit has taken an advertising revenue hit with few communities going NSFW. But it will survive, my thoughts here might look biased but put anger aside you will see Reddit users interacting with users. While other apps have gone, only media interacts with users.

 

AI - Funds & Regulation.

 

While the EU is trying its best to put AI regulations into action. And making AI content have labels to prevent disinformation. US Big Tech is launching funds for new AI startups to help them grow.

 

With Dropbox announcing their fund and Meta launching an AI community forum. Martech will be growing in the next few months.

 

Brands are asking Influencers to use AI, Adobe is helping creators do that by launching new features for AdobeFirefly.

 

Callout: I will be releasing an AI version of what changed in Marketing in Q2 2023. You find out morehere, I suggest sharing this newsletter edition to receive it early!

 

Apple Vision - Opposite of Meta

 

Apple Vision made a huge spark within the tech space and most of what we heard from Apple wasn’t pointed at Marketing.

 

But a huge product positioning lesson here. Mark Zuckerberg targeted a point through his metaverse that was too salty and the idea of Meta Quest was you went into a different universe.

 

The positioning statement scared people away. On the other hand, Apple’s statement was simply it will be part of your existing life & Apple ecosystem.

 

Meta’s failure doesn’t mean Metaverse will never succeed. Meta’s failure showcases that your passion and bias don’t matter in the real world. Mark can be seen as someone too passionate about the metaverse and people like him exist.

 

Apple went with data and market research, Understanding what consumers fear and how they can showcase their product. Not passion!

 

Pinterest - Positivity & Agency Partner

 

Pinterest continues to focus on building a safe and positive platform. Last month, I shared they made changes to the Pinterest algorithm to share more diverse and positive content.

 

This month, Pinterest released its positivity report and pledged to make its platform safe for everyone, especially teens.

 

Pinterest has ended its contract with the US-SMB team. One of our readers was part of that team: Alex Thomas was working at Pinterest for the last two years as Agency Partner Manager.

 

Alex and I have been in connection and he is a great marketer. Now, open for work. An expert at marketing & Pinterest with 5 years of experience in Sales & 7 years of experience in Marketing.

 

You can Contact Alex Thomas for marketing work!

 

Tiny Socials - Discord, Twitch & Patreon

 

These Tiny platforms made a huge spark this month. As Patreon launched a free membership option for creators.

 

The reason behind the launch matches my vision. Those algorithms are now more about serving relevant content, instead of serving a specific brand or creator. In the future, it will be hard for creators & brands to access these audiences on bigger social media platforms.

 

Discord and Twitch are seeing recent developments and more user acquisitions from creators launching their channels. And Twitch introduced a better payout to fight the rival platform “Kick”. The monetization policy of Twitch is still not that on the side of small creators. Hopefully, we see more improvements.

 

Marketing - Influencers, Budgets

 

FTC announced a new major update to its Endorsement guides for Influencers & Brands. You can read the breakdown from one & only Rob Freund, The social media lawyer.

 

Dropping your Instagram reels & TikTok Audio to 0% removes the link back to that audio. This Tiktok marketing tactic is now debunked by Bri Reynolds, SMM at Lyft.

 

Gartner launched their Budget Guide for CMOs.

This month includes a few insightful points for all marketers looking to get CMO roles in the future.

 

iOS 17 will strike back at Marketing attribution and tracking elements. As Apple looks to have more control over link tracking in Safari. (Link)

 

Everything TL;DR - Find Weekly News on Jaskaran’s Blog

 

I have a weekly updated blog on my website, where you will find the latest updates curated from my newsletter available to read on the web:

 

Marketing News of the week

 

You can bookmark it on your browser and share it with others. And all the sources are not linked here. You can find the links to all the June updates on that page. I don’t delete and add new updates, scroll by scroll to find updates of the first week, second, and then this week!

 

Jaskaran’s Latest Writings

 

 

I Ask: How do you make marketers market you?

 

Yes, I am asking you because after reading this newsletter. In case you were not planning to share this newsletter with others! I wonder what I missed?

Data shows Consumers don’t care about behind the scenes, how much time they spend on the product. If the end product isn’t fit or good enough.

 

That’s what matters, Telling you I spent hours every week writing this newsletter is salesy. In case, you liked the end product. Share this blog with other marketers.

 

Wishing you all the best for the second half of 2023!

 

Your friend,

Jaskaran Saini