Into the Metaverse: Understanding Facebook and Instagram in the Age of Meta
Social media is always evolving, and the arrival of Meta signals sweeping change and a fundamental restructuring for a very different future. As a digital marketer, what do you need to know?
What Is the Metaverse?
In October 2021 Mark Zuckerberg announced the consolidation of Facebook and related products—including Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp—into a new brand called Meta. The rebranding is a nod to the metaverse, which Zuckerberg sees as the successor to today’s mobile internet.
The metaverse doesn’t have a single definition, but we can think of it in general terms as the next evolution in our digital lives. Today’s mobile internet gives us access to social media, email, internet browsers, cameras and more—all in one device we carry around with us.
The metaverse will combine social media platforms, digital storefronts, gaming applications and more into a single digital experience: a more fully fledged digital world, perhaps accessed with Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) headsets.

What will this look like exactly? No one knows for sure. In short, the metaverse is not here yet, but many of its components are. It remains to be seen how everything will come together, and it won’t happen all at once.
What Has Already Changed on Facebook and Instagram?
First things first, Facebook and Instagram are so popular that the leaders of these companies have every incentive to keep the user experience consistent. Even the most loyal users will only put up with so much change. As such, the biggest changes so far have been in branding, not function.
One change you might have noticed is increased connectivity and interoperability of Meta’s platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram. Regular updates to messaging tools such as Messenger and Instagram direct messaging have brought increased coordination, allowing marketers to more seamlessly manage direct messages across multiple platforms.
Another area for updates: ads management. The new Meta Advantage Suite will collect different automated ad products under one umbrella, allowing for increased efficiency in ad management.
Meta is also boosting their metaverse platform Horizon Worlds, a virtual reality video game focused on world-building for social interaction. A new fund for creators will further incentivize user-generated content on the platform.

Three Steps You Can Take Now to Prepare for More Changes
If you’re wondering what you need to do right now to prepare for the internet of the future, our first advice is don’t panic. These are long-term changes, some of them purely hypothetical, and even Meta sees the full introduction of the metaverse as more than ten years away.
However, there are steps you can take to improve your marketing efforts now and prepare for the future.
1. One of the goals of the metaverse is to build community. The hope is that a more fully realized digital world will encourage interaction among visitors that looks and feels more like “real life.” We recommend revisiting your buyer personas to make sure you understand what makes your potential customers tick, and keep refining your messaging to feel more natural and authentic.
2. Investigate ways to incentivize and promote user-generated content. The future of our digital lives will likely look more decentralized, with greater influence in the hands of individuals rather than platforms and other businesses.
3. As Meta continues to release updates and tweaks, take advantage of new features that make sense for your business. This could mean linking WhatsApp to your Facebook page to decrease your response time to direct messages, creating an account in Horizon Worlds just to explore, or experimenting with new enhanced product tagging on Instagram.

What Is Coming Next?
The long-term plans outlined by Meta are subject to change of course, and no one can predict exactly how the metaverse will unfold.
As we head into an uncertain future, remember that while it may not be your job to explain the technical details of the metaverse to anyone, it’s helpful to have a firm understanding of the ideas behind it. Of note: the majority of consumers, your potential customers, don’t have a strong understanding of what the metaverse is.
We’re all in this together, and regardless of what we call it, we use social media to connect with others and meet potential customers where they are on the buyer’s journey. The fundamentals have not changed.
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What You Need to Know to Personalize Your Marketing Content
Every time you use your mobile device, you swipe through countless paid ads and branded posts. Most of them you don’t even notice, but some ads stick with you. What’s their secret?
Often the secret lies in personalized marketing. These ads are not created specifically for you, but they seem personalized because they are created with people like you in mind.
What exactly is personalized marketing?
Simply put, personalized marketing means targeting your content to those who would find it most interesting, and crafting specific messages for individuals or groups of customers.
Personalized content is carefully tailored to meet your target audience’s interests, covering topics that interest them, speak to their passions and address their needs.
Content that speaks to you tends to stick with you as a consumer. And for brands, personalization can get you a much higher conversion rate, turning the whole interaction into a win-win situation.

Personalization as a Path to Brand Loyalty
These days, brands dream of building loyalty among their customers. Customer loyalty creates a sense of community, increases customer retention, turns repeat customers into brand ambassadors, and much more.
Personalization can unlock this loyalty.
Customizing your content gives your customer an experience relevant to their career, passions and challenges. The path to falling in love with a brand starts with feeling heard and understood.
6 Ways to Implement Personalization On Social Media
Social media platforms provide numerous options for targeting and customization. Anyone interested in sharing their brand with a public audience can take advantage of these features. You can target everything from age and gender to specific interests.
Apart from this, social media platforms already know a lot about what users like—from what products they are looking for at the moment to what topics they are most likely to engage with.
So the more you think about your consumers and put yourself in their shoes, the better your content becomes.
Does this sound like a lot of work? Never fear, you can start with a few easy steps that will immediately improve your interactions with consumers.
1. Start with a study of your target audience
Each action your customers take teaches you more and more about them. Get as much information as you can about those you are addressing.
Your main goal at this stage is to get an initial, overall idea of the customers you are targeting.
2. Segment your audience
Now look into all the data you have about your audience and spend time mapping your buyer’s journey if you haven’t already.
Combining your data and your mapped buyer’s journey, break down your overall target audience into smaller groups, accounting for behavioral, geographic and cultural factors. Once you have your audience segments, it will become more clear what you as a brand can say to each of these groups to engage them and demonstrate how your product can help them.
3. Practice social listening
You can never know too much about your audience and your market. Take time to scan social media and set up alerts for mentions of your brand or relevant topics.
Use any mentions of your brand or relevant topics as an opportunity to manage your reputation, communicate with your audience, tailor their experience and find user generated content. Take a look at some examples of user generated content on TikTok in our guide to using TikTok for your business.
While doing this you will get to know more about your consumers and find new leads, both of which you can use while targeting with personalized ads.
4. Use retargeting ads
This one is obvious, but still incredibly important. Create ads for various products that match the preferences of what customers previously purchased, and/or what content they engaged with while browsing the internet.
5. Personalize your support via social media
Having a distinctive, consistent voice always matters. But it matters even more when you are directly communicating with your customers. The more you know about them (within the bounds of decency), the better you help them, the friendlier you sound, and the more they will remember interacting with your brand.
6. Create personalized occasions for interactions
With each interaction you can learn more about your consumer, and there are ways to encourage the type of engagement you need to gain this knowledge. As ordinary as they sound, polls, surveys, and quizzes have long been an effective way to learn what makes your customers tick.
With clever usage of these tools you show your customers that you care about their opinion, you encourage them to interact with your brand, and at the same time, you learn more about their preferences.
Personalization Case Studies
1. Verve Health’s personalized chatbots

Verve Health Co. gives personalized workout advice based on user feedback. Interactions like this make consumers feel special and give them the information they seek as fast as possible.
2. AirBnB’s personalized quiz
Participants answer questions to find out what kind of traveler they are. When they’re finished, they get personalized travel recommendations based on their results, with the option to share them and/or book a stay with Airbnb.

3. SEMrush and retargeting ads
After you set up a free SEMrush account, you get retargeted with a Facebook ad offering you a toolkit on how to use the service to its fullest.
Personalization in a Nutshell
The importance of personalization grows with each day. Consumers expect it, brands strive for it and social media platforms give you every opportunity to deliver it.
If you put in the effort to personalize your communication, the results will not be long in coming.
Digital marketing never stops evolving, and the most successful marketers are always finding new ways to craft a positive customer experience. Sign up for our newsletter below to stay in the loop on current trends.
Busting 5 Common Social Media Marketing Myths
Well, myths are common. And social media has been around long enough for marketers to have believed and shared some myths about it.
There is no question that social media plays a key role in boosting the success of your business. While some myths are harmless, others have a great potential to negatively affect your success. That’s why marketers need to keep themselves updated to avoid falling for the traps.
Let’s put our Mythbusters glasses on and dispel some widely believed myths about social media in this article.
Myth #1 “Our business should have an online presence on every single social media platform.”

We know you want to stay ahead of the competition, but it doesn’t mean your business needs have a presence on all networks. This notion is pretty harmful to businesses. It takes time, effort and money to maintain accounts on multiple platforms.
Instead what you need is a meaningful presence on networks that lets you connect with your target audience and engage them. We suggest researching pros and cons of all social media platforms. Maybe even try exploring them. Surely, some of them might not be worth your time. This will help you know where to invest your time and resources to get the best results.
Common practices for many local businesses is to have an online presence on Facebook and B2B companies usually expand to LinkedIn as well. For companies with products or services, Instagram and Pinterest are highly recommended.
Like we said before – research and try till you find your sweet spot!
Myth #2 “Why do we need a budget for social media marketing? Isn’t it free?”
While it is free to join and post on any social media, the chances of you getting good results without spending any money are slim to none. On Facebook, the organic reach for posts is in decline, only around 5.20%.
It is vital to have a budget for social media marketing. Boosting your posts is a surefire way of getting more attention. Running social media marketing requires an investment of resources. In addition to an online spend budget, you need to hire a strong team to build strategies according to data metrics.
The good news is that social media still won’t burn a hole in your pocket. It is still one of the most affordable ways to boost brand awareness, lead generation and ultimately customer acquisition/retention. All this makes your investment worthwhile.
Myth #3 “More Followers = More Success”
Remember the golden rule “Quality over quantity”. It isn’t the 2010s anymore where buying followers in bulk was in trend. After all, a high follower count is worthless if your engagement is low.
Brands that know their target audience well are more likely to gain success on social media. Social Sprout’s index data shows that 91% of consumers visit the brand’s website and 90% of consumers buy from that brand they are following on social media whereas 86% choose that brand over their competitor.
Myth #4 “More Hashtags = Higher Reach”

We all have seen posts like,
Our #employees had some #fun on #Friday with #IceBucketChallenge. Watch the video below. #officefun #socialmedia #officeculture #teambuilding #behndthescenes #peopleinmarketing
All we can say is No! More hashtags don’t mean your post gets more reach. Plus, it makes you look amateurish and spammy. Research shows that if you use more than 2 hashtags on Twitter, you will see a 17% drop in engagement.
Take some time out to discover relevant hashtags in the community and don’t overuse them.
Myth #5 “Social Media is merely a sales tool.”
There is a huge misconception is that social media is a marketplace for your products and services. Being overly promotional will make your followers run away. Put yourself in their shoes. Do you want to see sales content on your social media all the time?
Marketers need to tap into social data as a valuable resource. 47% of businesses use social data as a multi-team strategy resource. It can answer questions on how to manage and expand business across every department.
Start by focussing on areas of your business that could benefit from social data, and build your social listening strategy based on it.
It is hard for marketers to keep track of falsehoods behind social media. We hope this article helps you bust some of those myths and push you to tap into the power of social media fearlessly.
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Best Practices for Email Marketing
What is Email Marketing?
Email marketing is still the most effective marketing channel, leaving behind newer marketing channels like social media.
Data suggests that the number of email users increases every year, making it is a great way to generate more leads for your business and build a community for your brand. This is why email marketing should be the key pillar of your strategy.
Serving a purpose in the buyer journey, emails can be promotional or informational. You can announce special offers, new products, sales or discounts with a clear call-to-action (CTA) through promotional emails.

Informational emails are typically company announcements, newsletters, etc. Imagine your company reached a milestone or there are some issues with shipping, the best way to reach your contacts at once is through an email.
But if you’re confused about where to begin, that’s absolutely normal. We’ve put together a list of best practices for email marketing to spruce up your emails.
Don’t Buy Contact Lists
Well, the reason behind this is two-fold. First is the GDPR. These regulations restrict marketers to send emails to unsubscribed consumers.
Secondly, there is no point in sending emails to a person whose contact you bought rather than an interested customer through a previous interaction. You will see the results drop instantly.
Clean Your Mail List Regularly
Following the previous point, it is equally important to review your subscribers and remove the ones who haven’t engaged with your emails for a long time. We know it could be extremely satisfying to see a huge senders list, but sending out emails to non-engaged users will affect the open rate.
The key is to analyse your campaign quality against your loyal customer base.
Personalise Greetings
How often do you come across an email that reads, “Dear Member”?
Terms like members, subscribers, VIP or others should be for internal use. Using a personalised greeting gets the attention of the reader right away. And you don’t need to write 50 names and send out 50 emails manually anymore. Marketing tools help configure the greeting and automatically send the emails to the names on your list.

Incentivise the Subject Line
Want to increase your open rates? Include the offer in your subject line.
“Free shipping”, “$25 off on your first purchase” or “Earn referral bonus” are examples of some incentive focussed subject lines that could work wonders.
Great practice for subject lines is to keep it between 30 to 50 characters. Why? Email services often cut off lengthy subject lines and your readers won’t be able to read it fully without opening it.
You aren’t writing a story in the subject line; create a sense of urgency for them.
Make your CTA the Hero
If your user has to scroll down to find the main message and CTA of your email, chances are you’ve already lost him.

Research suggests that 57% of the time is spent on above-the-fold content which is the information that’s visible to readers before they scroll down. To increase your conversion rate, the first thing your recipient should see is the main message and CTA.
Email Signature and Logo - A Must
41% of marketers said they use email signatures for branding and visibility.
Even if you are sending an email to all contacts in the database on behalf of your company, it should include a signature of a specific person. The reason for this is to there is a human behind the email. People tend to read emails more when they see it is from a person rather than the marketing team.
The chances of a customer making a purchase goes up 34% when logos are included. The best way to leverage it is to include your company logo in the email signature.
Build a Cohesive Look
Your webpage should match the emails – headline, copy, and look. Consistency is the key to email marketing.
The look and feel of your emails shouldn’t be far different from your other assets like the website, landing page, social ads, etc. Not only does it help build your brand visibility, but it also increases trust in your customers.
Say No to “No-Reply” Emails
What is the point of your email marketing campaign if your customers can’t even interact with you when you send them promotional materials? Personally, I don’t even bother to open emails with the words “no reply” or if the sender’s address is noreply@xyz.com.
As previously mentioned, your customers are far more likely to open an email when they see it is from a human being. Marketing tools allow you to set automated emails from a specific email address. Set it to your first name to give your emails a human touch.
There you have it! You can use the above practices to add a competitive edge to your email marketing campaigns.
Marketers today have many channels to promote their business, but the challenge is learning how to prioritise your efforts for the best results.
Want to prepare an email marketing campaign for your business? Contact us to learn more.
An Introduction to Influencer Marketing Guide
With so many social media platforms, one surefire way to expand your online presence is influencer marketing.
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to influencer marketing, but you could make it work for your business with proper research and planning.
What is Influencer Marketing?
When an influential person known as an influencer collaborates with a business to promote their products or services, it is known as influencer marketing.
In the past, brands only had celebrity endorsements. But in the digital age we live in, online content creators with dedicated and engaged groups of followers have changed the game of influencer marketing.

It is common to find yourself asking, “Does influencer marketing bring any positive results?”. Well, Civic Science reported that 14% of 18 to 24-year-olds and 11% of millennials in the U.S had bought some products or services in the last six months because an influencer recommended it.
When it comes to influencer marketing campaigns on social media platforms, Instagram currently tops the list, but it seems like TikTok is catching up. With 68% of U.S marketers planning to use TikTok for influencer campaigns, it is becoming as popular as Facebook to be the preferred platform.
Types of Social Media Influencers
When we say social media influencers, usually celebrities come to your mind. As we said earlier, while celebrities are the top influencers, not all influencers are celebrities.
On the contrary, influencers with a niche follower base could be more effective for brands as they have a higher engagement rate than celebrities. Plus, it won’t burn a hole in your pockets.
Usually, influencers are grouped based on their audience size. Let’s look at different types of influencers.
Nano-influencers
These are the ones who have just started out and have less than 10,000 followers.
While their reach is low, their influence on their small, tight-knit community is enormous. Nano-influencers may know most of their followers on some level.
It could be beneficial for a brand because we are more likely to buy a product on family or friends’ recommendation than some celebrity. Nano-influencers bring a sense of relatability and trust that is rarely seen with celebrity influencers.
Micro-influencers
The most common influencers you will find are micro-influencers who have between 10,000 and 100,000 followers.
Micro-influencers are more specialised and have a more engaged audience than their bigger counterparts, thus bringing in more qualified leads for your business.
Macro-influencers
With followers between 100,000 to 1 million, macro-influencers have a celebrity status of their own.
Since macro-influencers have grown their follower base from scratch, they know their audience well. The strong connection with the audience makes macro-influencers a preferred choice for brands with more major marketing campaigns.
Mega-influencers
With more than 1 million followers, mega-influencers have a following outside the social media world. They are usually celebrities, actors, singers or internet personalities who have risen to fame recently.
However, mega-influencers don’t have a personal connection to their followers, so they could be considered less trustworthy.
Tips for Creating an Influencer Marketing Strategy
Know Your Audience

The first step is to define who your audience is for your campaign. To make your strategy effective, you need to target the right people.
So how do you know who the right people are? Through buyer personas.
Developing your buyer personas is a great way to know your audience. Defining your audience helps you understand the kind of influencers you should collaborate with.
Establish Your Goals
For marketers, the number one goal of influencer marketing is to reach a new audience. Your brand visibility increases when your products or services reach the influencers’ followers.
Usually, the top goal for brands is to reach potential customers, while bringing an actual sale is lower on the list. It is essential to create measurable goals that you can track.
Shortlist Influencers
Trust is the most significant factor when it comes to choosing influencers. If your audience doesn’t trust or respect this person’s opinions, you will find yourself scrambling to get tangible results.
One way of finding out if your potential influencer is trusted is through their engagement. You should check if their posts have plenty of views, comments, likes and shares.
When an influencer has a reasonable engagement rate, they have a loyal following. So check if their follower count is inflated through bots or fake accounts.
Do Your Research
Now that you’ve compiled a list of influencers you would like to work with, the next step is to find out how often they share sponsored content.
Check how they are keeping their audiences engaged – do they post a lot of organic, non-sponsored content, or is there a ton of paid posts on their page? Posting paid content often affects the engagement rate.
Before you approach an influencer, make sure you do your homework. Know what channels they post, their audience, the frequency of sponsored content.
Track Results

It is pretty normal to get impressed by the sheer number of likes and comments on the influencers’ posts. But to measure the campaign results, you must figure out its return on investment.
One of the most effective ways to measure results is UTM parameters. Prepare unique links with UTM codes for each influencer. This way, you can know how many sales you made through an influencer and get a clear idea of how your campaign is performing.
Don’t forget to request your influencers to send you insights and detailed reports on their posts’ reach and engagement levels.
So there you go, a starter guide to help you start working on your influencer marketing strategy. If you find the right approach, you will soon be inundated with many new customers and sales.
Do you want marketing services? GoViral Digital has a whole decade of experience specialising in inbound marketing, and we are taking clients for 2022. Request a proposal to help you improve your business.
Content Strategies for Different Stages of the Buyer Journey
What is a Buyer Journey?
We usually don’t make purchases on a whim, and instead, there is a whole process of research and consideration before anyone shells out those bucks. So in simple terms, a buyer journey is your buyer’s path to purchase.
Buyer Journey gives marketers an insight into the pains and problems experienced by their customers and the influencing factors that push them to make a decision. It allows you to better empathise with the buyer and position your products or services along the process.
With the aftermath of the pandemic, around 57% of the buyer journey happens without any human interaction even taking place. So how do you engage your buyers without actively interacting with them?
Content strategy is your answer. It is essential to prepare a content strategy for each stage as it will be easier for you to motivate the buyer to make a purchase when they hit the human interaction part of their journey.
Let’s dig in a little further to understand better the different stages of a Buyer Journey and the types of content for each stage.
There are five stages to a Buyer Journey:

Awareness Stage
Example: “I am thirsty.”
This stage is where the buyer realises that they have a problem. They don’t know how to meet or solve the problem yet. Their goal is to alleviate the pain, but this is only an information-gathering step.
They are looking to get a better idea and give a name to their problem. They are not ready to make any decision.
Your content strategy should focus on the pain and problems of your buyers and provide them with big-picture industry-focus resources that can help them define their problems. Your best choice is press releases, social media promotions, or advertorial content that leads them to the next stage.
Questions to ask yourself:
- What is the priority of the challenges for buyers?
- How do buyers talk about their goals or challenges?
- Are there any misconceptions buyers have about addressing their problems? If so, what are they?
- What are the consequences of buyers’ inaction?
Research Stage
Example: “Where can I find some drink?”
Once buyers have a little understanding of their problem, they get interested in finding a solution. They start discovering products, brands, and trends.
The goal of your content plan is to educate and help buyers evaluate buying criteria. Usually, buyers trust videos, webinars, events, or ebooks in the research stage.
Questions to ask yourself:
- How do buyers educate themselves on these goals and challenges?
- What are the symptoms that bring their attention to the problem?
- What will help them identify the problem and push them to your products or services designed to help them?
- What online or offline sources do they find reliable?
Consideration stage

Example: “The vending machine has water, soda and juice. What should I buy?”
Now that your buyers have clearly defined the problem and are committed to solving it, the next step is to guide them through different approaches or methods available to them. Your content strategy should help them make a decision.
While case studies or data sheets can prove helpful in this stage, offering demos or leading them to trusted reviews will motivate buyers to solve their challenges.
Questions to ask yourself:
- What are the different categories of solutions available to the buyers?
- In what way do buyers educate themselves on the various categories?
- Are there any pros and cons for each category? If so, how do buyers perceive them?
- What factors influence the buyers’ decision for the right solution for their needs?
Purchase Stage
Example: “I will buy a soda.”
When your buyers reach this stage, they are ready to make the final decision and has a solid reason for their choice. They have already decided on the solution and evaluated providers. As a marketer, you should focus on learning if they have any objections before making the purchase.

Your content should not only validate their decision but also make the purchase process easy. You need to cater to their every question and provide the best service to them. This stage could be where your buyer makes his first human contact with your business.
Your sales approach must highlight a unique selling proposition that provides value and set you apart from the rest. While they are talking to sales, your content strategy offers support to keep their attention. Engage them in live training, demos, user guides or kick-off events
Questions to ask yourself:
- What do buyers know about your products and services?
- What do they like about your products and services compared to your competitors?
- Do they have any concerns?
- Do buyers want to test the products or services before making a purchase?
- Do buyers need any additional information, such as user guides or manuals?
Post-Purchase
Example: “The soda is flat. I should have got water.”
Excellent customer service leads to brand loyalty. In this stage, your buyers expect an exceptional product or service performance and excellent customer service. Play your cards right, and you get a loyal customer base. Who knows, they could turn into an advocate for your brand. After all, word-of-mouth is one of the only forms of marketing that comes from your buyers.
To keep them coming back, offer loyalty programs, build customer communities (online and offline), send newsletters, or even check in through phone calls. The goal is to make them feel cared for.
Questions to ask yourself:
- How are buyers expecting to receive post-purchase support and guidance?
- What obstacles could buyers face in your products or services?
- What are buyers’ expectations of your products or services?
- What actions do buyers need to take to achieve the best result?
- How do buyers rate your product or service, its value, and their satisfaction?
So there you have it – The buyer Journey and all its stages.
Before you jump on creating your buyer journey, make sure you know your buyer personas. Be sure to read our article, “The Importance of Buyer Personas“.
Don’t forget that the primary goal of Buyer Journey is to build a more customer-centric strategy to meet the needs of your target audience.
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What’s better for your business: Facebook or LinkedIn?
As a marketer, choosing which social media channel to focus on is always a puzzle. Many are left scrambling their heads with a multitude of doubts like “Where do I start?”, “Which platform gives me the best ROI on my efforts?” or “Is one platform better than the other?”
While asking questions about different platforms is normal, it isn’t smart to gamble your way out. The key to a successful marketing campaign is identifying your target audience and your marketing goals.

Among dozens of social media platforms, Facebook and LinkedIn are popular choices with marketers. Let’s break down what works best for your business.
LinkedIn is a professional network that was initially founded as a recruitment platform. Over the years, it developed to mimic many features similar to other social networking sites. For example, you can share status updates, send private messages, and connect with people.
On the other hand, Facebook was intended to be a platform for people to share and communicate. However, you can now find plenty of new features that let businesses reach their target audience. One survey by the company found that 74% of American consumers use Facebook to discover new products and brands.
So what are the differences between the two platforms?
Statistics
When it comes to numbers, Facebook is the clear winner.
There are 2.8 billion monthly active users worldwide on Facebook, while LinkedIn’s number stands at 64.7 million.
According to reports, the most active age group on both platforms is 25 to 34-year-olds. However, due to its popularity, Facebook has a broader range of users. 10% of Facebook users are under 18 or over 64. The reason behind this is that Facebook is for everyday users, but LinkedIn caters mainly to professionals.
B2B or B2C?
Undoubtedly, LinkedIn is a more robust B2B platform. Since the platform was designed for networking, it is a go-to place for business-driven individuals. Which also makes it easy to identify key decision-makers and target them directly.

Social selling is embedded into the platform. Reports suggest that LinkedIn has the largest share of B2B display ad spending.
While Facebook can be B2B, it is recognised more as a B2C platform. If you want to reach consumers directly, Facebook is the preferred choice. Not only it is a perfect place to generate brand awareness and engagement, but it also provides you 10X more prospects.
According to reports, marketers see the highest return on investment on Facebook. The networking site wins in numbers hands down, but LinkedIn generates tangible leads.
Thought Leadership
When it comes to thought leadership, LinkedIn beats Facebook relatively easy. The platform promotes business conversations, and one of the ways brands gain credibility and visibility organically is by thought leadership.

Through thought leadership articles, brands can educate, prompt conversations, and push to action. These programs increase website traffic and subscribers, thus helping with lead generation and brand awareness.
Marketers see more success with thought leadership content on LinkedIn compared to Facebook.
LinkedIn Groups vs Facebook Groups
On both platforms, groups are where businesses can connect with prospects and other like-minded users. Before engaging in groups, marketers need to ask themselves –
“Which platform is my target audience mostly active on?”
Keep in mind that users engage on different platforms with different motives. On LinkedIn, conversations revolve around work-related topics, whereas on Facebook, users connect to share their personal opinions on various topics like food, lifestyles, hobbies, etc.
Let’s look at an example. If you want to create awareness about your latest blender, targeting users in cooking groups on Facebook will get you the best results.
However, LinkedIn is a better bet if you’re providing a high-priced service like personnel management.
Facebook Ads Vs. LinkedIn Ads
In terms of variety, Facebook and LinkedIn fair equally. Both platforms offer a diverse range of ads types like carousel, video, dynamic and lead ads.
Targeting capabilities for ads on both sites rely on user input and content relevant to the information provided by them. So, you can easily target users based on basic information like job title, company, age, location, etc. However, Facebook also targets based on their life milestones, behaviour, and other personalized information.
Who wins? Facebook or LinkedIn?
You decide!
Our verdict is that despite sharing standard features, Facebook and LinkedIn have different audiences and intentions.
Which platform you want to use for marketing depends on your industry, target audience and goals.
Another essential thing to remind every marketer is – you don’t have to choose. You can always select Facebook for user engagement and LinkedIn for targeted lead generation.
All we can say is the winner lies in the eyes of the marketer!
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Best Marketing Practices for Black Friday and Cyber Monday
The world-famous shopping weekend – Black Friday and Cyber Monday – has always been an excellent opportunity for businesses to maximize profits. Along with boosting your revenue, it is also an opportunity to build brand awareness and visibility.
However, it can be challenging to get noticed when you are practically competing against every other business out there. And this year, we only expect it to be busier. Online shopping is a preferred option for more and more buyers in the pandemic.
A clear and thoughtful campaign with the best Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) strategies will ensure that your brand stands out this holiday season. But no matter how great deals you offer, buyers won’t know about them without a solid marketing strategy.
To help you get ready for BFCM, we put together a few best practices for marketing your sale this year.
Stand Out by Giving Away “Extra Perks”
We always say that content is your biggest weapon to hold your audience’s attention. But with 116.5 million emails sent out on Black Friday, your email will likely get lost in the endless space of offers and promotions.
To stand out against your competitors, you need to offer your buyers better deals. Consumers expect businesses to put out the best deals on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. However, you can get in the game earlier with “early access” Black Friday deals. Promoting deals a week early as an “exclusive offer” is a popular strategy to increase visibility.
Some companies have already started promoting Black Friday deals along with Thanksgiving offers. Another clever tactic used by businesses like Levi’s is giving extra perks like “Free Shipping” if you subscribe to their emails.

Not only does it increase sales, but it also helps you grow your database of engaged customers.
Target Engaged Contacts More Often
An engaged contact is someone who has interactions with your marketing emails. Interactions could be actions like opening the emails, checking out the offers on your websites, or purchasing.
For example, only send multiple emails to contacts that previously opened your email but didn’t buy anything. The chances of these contacts making a purchase are higher than someone who never opened your email.
Emailing only engaged contacts more often results in higher open-rate, click-through rate and increase in sales. Tools like Mailchimp lets you keep track of the engagement data of your marketing emails.
Leverage All Your Social Media Channels and Website Pop-ups
Even though email marketing is the highest-converting channel, social media is your best friend for faster visibility of your BFCM campaign. Promote your offers on every channel, including paid ads.
Sometimes, just a social media post can create a huge impact. Take a look at how this simple Instagram picture posted by fashion brand ASOS to promote their Black Friday deal was well received by their audience.

The key to boosting sales for the website is to have your promotion take all the attention instantly. One of the ways to do this is through pop-ups. Usually, businesses use pop-ups to garner more engaged contacts. Still, many users often find them to be intrusive to their experience.
However, buyers don’t seem to mind when pop-ups include special offers. An important thing to remember is to set up the signup offer in the pop-up is the same as your most significant sale of the year, so your customers aren’t confused.
Send Multiple Emails on High-Volume Days
One of the basics of email marketing is “don’t spam your contacts”. But as we mentioned earlier, customers get inundated with emails on high-volume days – Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Your subscribers will most certainly miss it if you send only one email on these days. Send multiple emails to avoid getting buried in the inbox and make the most out of your email marketing campaign.
If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.
Revamp Your Product Pages
Ask yourself: “Is my products display compelling buyers to make a purchase?”
Check your product pages and categories, and make sure the images are attractive and the descriptions are accurate. Invest time in beautifying, simplifying or adding detail to product pages to make them more compelling and streamline the buying process.
Elevating the design and look of your page reflects the value and increases the conversion rate.
Make the Checkout Process Simpler
Bringing attention to your webpage is only half the battle. Your buyer journey is complete when the buyer purchases your products or services.
You are responsible for providing a better user experience, especially when your buyer wants to cross the finish line. One of the areas to focus on is the checkout page, and making checkout faster and easier will lead to high conversion rates.
One way to make checkout easier is enabling Google Address Auto-filler, and it makes the process seamless and eliminates unnecessary distractions. Making buying process easy for your customers will help them focus on completing their purchase faster.

More Offers Throughout the Sale Season
With the holiday shopping experience extended into Cyber Monday, you must offer discounts consistently throughout the season. Sales continue to spike when businesses keep offering more compelling offers throughout the week.
Let’s take a look at how Amazon does it. The company has created segments like “Deals of the Day”, further split into ‘Available’, ‘Upcoming’, ‘Missed’ and ‘Watching’. In doing so, it pushes a sense of urgency amongst buyers and attracts more customers.

The key is to give consistent offers shoppers can’t get enough of!
In conclusion, ready or not, Black Friday and Cyber Monday e-commerce is coming. There is no ‘one size fits all’ campaign for it. Look around, see what others are doing and figure out what works best for your marketing plan. We hope you found some strategies you can apply to your business this year.
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Keeping Up with Instagram Updates in 2021
Instagram never stops surprising us. While the world is trying to stay positive through these challenging times, it is exciting to see how Instagram rapidly develops new features and functionalities to tackle main business issues and help users support their favourite brands.

And now, more than ever, keeping up with what’s new on Instagram can be quite a challenge. There are new Instagram features almost every week. We know it is essential to stay up to date with the latest changes on Instagram, so we put together a list of important updates announced by Instagram in 2021 so far.
More Security for Users Under 18
The world of the internet can sometimes be overwhelming for young users. Providing them with protection online is the real need of the hour.
Here are some latest safety features for young users by Instagram:
Private account by default for everyone under 16
Instagram’s main priority is to stop strangers from making unwanted contact with young users. Private accounts for users under 16 is the best way to deal with it. It lets you control who can see and comment on their content, and it won’t be possible for unwanted users to see their content on Explore or Hashtags.
No unwanted contact
Having a private account is the first step to avoid unwanted contact. But that’s not all! Instagram goes above and beyond to ensure young users aren’t exposed to unwanted contact from adults they don’t want to hear from.
Instagram has developed a new technology to keep “potentially suspicious behaviour” away from users under 16. Accounts belonging to adults that may have recently been blocked or reported by a young user is defined as potentially suspicious behaviour.
With this technology, these accounts won’t be able to see any young users’ accounts or content in Explore, Reels or ‘Accounts Suggested for You’. They won’t be able to follow them even if they find these accounts by searching their usernames. So much so that they won’t be able to see comments from young users and won’t be able to leave comments on their posts.
We think this is one of the best features Instagram has introduced so far!
Advertising limitations for targeting young people
Another game-changing feature that Instagram introduced is how advertisers can target young users with ads. The platform now allows targeting ads based only on their age, gender and location, which means that advertisers no longer have the options to target based on their interests or activities.
When these users turn 18, Instagram will inform them about the advertising policy change and the tools to control their ad experience.
No Place for Hate Speech
Protecting its users from abusive comments and DMs has been of the biggest concerns for Instagram for a long time. It seems like Instagram is working hard to deal with the situation, and the company rolled out an excellent feature called Limits.

With this feature, you can now limit or hide comments and messages from users that are not on your followers’ list or have recently started following you. The purpose of Limits is to help protect public figures from offensive comments and DMs.
It is no ‘Breaking News’ that Instagram creators and influencers often receive hateful comments from random profiles. Since the pandemic, it only seems to have gotten worse. A step in the right direction, we say!
A New Tab - Audio
Instagram is looking to lean into video-form after seeing the success of competitors like TikTok and YouTube. The company announced that it is no longer a photo-sharing app and promotes users to use reels and short-video form posts.
Recently, a new audio tab has appeared in the app. This tool gives users the ability to search for reels by song. Like any other music app, Instagram will provide a list of songs when users swipe and search.
Users will then be able to see 30-second reels with the song. Users can save any music they like for later, or there is also an option “use audio” to create a reel if they wish.

Translation Features
The company announced that a new accessibility feature would be added on Instagram – Translation. This feature supports 90 languages right now, and however, it is only possible to translate written text.
This new update will translate the text in Instagram Stories. Instagram will give you a “See Translation” option to translate the overlayed text in Stories. When the users click on it, they will be presented with a translation panel.
Brands in global markets will love this new update as users globally don’t have to miss stories from their favourite international brands. A similar option is also available for feed, comments and profiles.
Exciting News for Businesses
Data Tracking is made easy with the latest update. Instagram expanded the data tracking period for insights from 30 days to 90 days. Companies can quickly analyse their quarterly insights on the platform to create a better strategy. Something to look forward to for small businesses!
Additionally, the company announced testing a new feature that provides businesses options to display ads in the shopping tab. The ads can vary from a single image to a carousel.
Marketers can even use Reels as ads that look no different than any usual Reel, with a difference of ‘sponsored’ tab on it.
Research shows that users on Instagram are looking for more video, messaging and shopping content rather than images. There is no doubt that the platform will be making many changes to entertain its users more.
As the world of digital marketing continues to change and evolve rapidly, make sure to stay current with the latest trends and keep your marketing strategy fresh. Sign up for our newsletter below to stay in-the-know.
How to Grow Your Brand’s Following on LinkedIn
Recently, LinkedIn decided that the Stories feature is not for their platform. The announcement to shut down the feature by the end of September was made on the company’s official blog on August 30th.
Stories were first made famous by Snapchat, and soon Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn followed suit. Stories refer to short video content that automatically gets deleted after 24 hours. LinkedIn’s decision to remove Stories came after Twitter shut down its Fleets feature in July.
In one year, LinkedIn tried different methods to boost promoting Stories feature to all users. They even published themed Stories curated by their own teams only to fill the Stories bar for the users. However, nothing helped push users to use the feature more often. The temporary nature of the feature was the reason users kept away from it. So they decided to ditch the feature. Instead, LinkedIn plans to pivot to short-form, rich interactive videos. They are also looking for ways to bring audio to their platforms with groups or events. This will give users more ways to connect with each other.
But, does all this mean that the Stories format, in general, is not popular anymore? The answer is NO! Video is taking over other social media platforms and should be an integral part of your social media strategy. Instagram recently announced that they are not a photo-sharing app anymore. Stories are getting hugely popular on Instagram while Tiktok is gaining traction for marketers. Seems like people want certain formats on certain platforms. All in all, it was a great experiment for LinkedIn. They know that Stories is not the way to go for them, but it also led them to re-focus their vision to find a tool that their users actually want to use to promote their services or products.

But if Stories isn’t working on LinkedIn, then how to grow your brand’s following without it? While we wait for LinkedIn to launch their short-form video format, we bring you some tips that will help gain an edge and grow your business on the platform.
Here are some expert tips on how to grow your brand following on LinkedIn:
Boost Credibility of Your LinkedIn Page
To stand out from the rest, your LinkedIn page needs to represent your brand in the best way possible. Professionals mostly rely on LinkedIn pages for acquiring brand information and having a weak LinkedIn page instantly makes the user lose interest in your company. Some of the best practices to drive growth to your page are:
Fill in all Company information
Did you know that a page with complete information gets 30% more weekly views? From logo, to key terms, and a call to action (CTA), don’t miss filling out any information.
Encourage people to follow
Push your first-degree connections to check out your page and follow it by sending out regular invites.
Engage in conversation
Join conversations on LinkedIn, invite others in, go on live chats, share @mentions of your company are a few ways that allows you to build a deeper connection with your audience.
Leverage on your employees content
Take advantage of your employees’ content to drive traffic to your page by adding “My Company tab”. This not only gives your brand more credibility, but also lets your employees show their voice in their own way.

Establish Thought Leadership
Want to know the quickest way to elevate your brand image? Posting thought leadership articles! Thought leadership has evolved from being a fluff piece that fills in your social feed to an influential factor in brand reputation. Thought leadership is a powerful way to connect with your audience through a consistent voice and vision.
You can set goals and expectations for thought leadership and through views, you can witness an instant rise in your reputation, demand generation, market consideration and engagement. Make sure to check out Edelman’s Flywheel of Thought Leadership. It will help you create a thought leadership vision that catches the eye of executives and top decision makers.
Increase Customer Engagement
Gone are the days of your generic sales pitch! B2B customers today want the brands to connect with them on a personal level. It is vital that you understand your buyer personas, and how your product/services are going to bring their problems to an end.
If you are still unsure about your customers’ needs, you can consider hosting a LinkedIn event or a discussion which focuses on them, instead of your product/services. Straight from the horse’s mouth!
Show your creativity to stand out
Taking a page from the B2C playbook, B2B marketing is upping the game lately. They are leaving no stone unturned to connect with the users on an emotional level to influence their decisions.
To make people stop scrolling, you need to be creative, interactive and eye-catching. Carousel ads and Conversion ads give you the opportunity to create engaging content while showcasing your visual storytelling skills. Recycle your content to get the most out of it. Turning articles into videos or infographics is another fool-proof way to stick out.
Make most of LinkedIn Insights
If you are a marketer, you should make LinkedIn Reporting and Analytics your new best friend! Data is the best tool that tells how to harness the power of analytics and work around your marketing strategy. It helps you understand the effectiveness of your campaigns. It leads you in the right direction for achieving the best results in the future and how to stay ahead of the pack.

Maximise Objectives with Ads
No social media strategy is complete without ads. To reap the most benefit out of content on LinkedIn, marketers are boosting it through paid promotion. In fact, 80% of B2B marketers invest in their content marketing strategy on LinkedIn.
Adding ads to your regular marketing strategy not only brings more traffic to your page but also drives the three components of inbound marketing: attract, engage and delight. Reports suggest that ads make brands look more professional and respectable.
Marketers need to be on their toes and keep themselves updated with the latest updates on different platforms. Your social media strategy should be aligned with these changes and keep evolving. This gives us more opportunities to grow and achieve more success than ever.
As the world of digital marketing continues to change and evolve to be more video-focused, make sure to stay current with the latest trends and keep your marketing strategy fresh. Sign up for our newsletter below to stay in-the-know.