The simplest way to understand why Instagram is such a popular platform is to refer to the old adage “a picture is worth 1000 words.” There is a reason that the social media giant Facebook bought them out; it is an excellent platform for image-oriented social promotion.

Using Instagram’s photo and video format, you can create visual stories that resonate with your audience, and people who are following you will see a signal on your profile that a new story is ready to be viewed.

Instagram Story Success: Order of Business

After you’ve decided on the story you wish to tell, the next thing to do is to download the integral Instagram story app onto your Tablet or Smartphone. As a way to introduce you to what your viewers will see when you release your first tale, the app will now display the latest stories from the personalities you follow.

Next up is the personalization of your story settings – just head to your profile and alter the settings to reflect your privacy wishes. Remember; people will be able to send you messages regarding your story if you so choose.

Creating Your Instagram Vision

Now that you’re ready to create your vision, you should familiarize yourself with the ready-made icons on the Instagram story page; use the camera on your mobile device to capture what you will and edit what you get. When finished, choose the option “add it to your story” to have your profile appear at the top of the screen. Add a high-resolution cover photo to give it a brush of professionalism.

You can choose to have your Instagram story be an ongoing process, of course; just look for the circle icon on the upper part of your screen to automatically add any new camera shots. A host of other story-alteration options are also present for full editing abilities.

Want to know how successful your story is, or how well it’s resonating with your audience? Good – Instagram has a built-in Analytics platform that keeps a tally of views and tells how many people read portions of your story (and what portions) as well as who watched the whole thing. After that, the only thing left to do is to sit back and wait for the feedback to come in. When you’re ready to make another story, let the analytics help you deliver the kind of content your audience is searching for.

Contact Blast Creative for all of your Social Media Needs!

The post How to create an Instagram Story appeared first on Website Design and Marketing.

Facebook Live debuted about mid-year, and is already ratcheting up interest from business owners. The fact is, if you use it correctly, you can extend your influence on the world’s largest social media network. Given that it’s video, you can clearly see that it will reduce the amount of time you previously invested in providing content – blog posts, webinars, articles, etc.
With that said, are there some best practices to fully leveraging Facebook Live in your marketing schemes? Of course – and here they are:
1.Open Up You Digital Doors
Use this opportunity to allow your loyal crew inside the inner workings of your business. You’d be surprised how many of them actually want to start a similar business, but don’t know how, nor know what to expect. This reality opens up the way for a Facebook Live video session; in it, you show them how you’re getting it done, and field questions as to what their passions are and how they relate to business.

2. Question and Answer Format
Facebook Live is also highly-amenable to the question and answer format, during which you gather common questions for a week or so, and then open up the airwaves – so to speak – and answer them live. This also allows you to field requests for new content, and combine these with analytics to see what your next posts/videos should talk about. Furthermore, this provides you with content that you can late put on your business blog, or use for a Facebook Wall Post when inviting people in for the next Live stream.

3. Notify Your Network of Giveaways and Events
What better way to create engagement with a Facebook Live video announcing company plans that will benefit users? Whether you’re heading to a convention or a trade show, this helps you notify users as to the date and time of your whereabouts, and perhaps even get some of them to come out to see you and your company booth. Facebook is huge; so, they can pass the information to friends and family that may be interested in your services and your message could spread like wildfire.
Always include a link to your webpage elaborating on the details of this event or giveaway; then, make a trackable channel url using Google Analytics – or other reliable analytics platform – so you can understand where the engagement is coming from for future Live broadcasts. One very useful action is to have your Live stream running while you’re at a conference, giving a truly intimate look to your social network as to where the company is headed.

4. Blog Comment Elaboration
Of course, you should already be answering blog comments daily. Not necessarily as they come in; but certainly before more than a few days have passed. The Facebook Live video option gives you the opportunity to really elaborate on some of these questions – in fact, this could be an entire series, and could provide weeks of content as you put up new posts.

People are always looking for a connection to the company in which they’re investing time and resources, and Facebook Live lets the savvy business owner take full advantage of that.

Please contact Blast Creative for all of your Social Media needs.

The post 4 Tips to Master Facebook Live for your Business appeared first on Website Design and Marketing.

It should be pretty clear by now that the micro-blogging platform, Twitter, isn’t going anywhere. As one of the biggest social media platforms out there, it’s a serious oversight on your part if you’re not using it to grow your business, or get your message out there. I mean, you’re missing out on over 300 million monthly users! That’s basically the entirety of the United States. And, with the natural word-limit built into the Tweeting system, you don’t have to worry about long pieces of content to engage – just make every word count.

Twitter: 140 Characters Goes a Long Way

What do Megan Trainor and Twitter have in common? It’s all about that bass! As it is with most social media networks, Twitter is all about that follower-count; so make your content matter. This can include a short motivational quote, or even just a link to a relevant article on the web. This makes Twitter the easiest social network to latch on to for newcomers.

Simply create an account, use an avatar of yourself (people love getting to know the real you, so to speak), and start following other people that you find interesting.

Why Should You Follow Others?

Why not? After all, it’s a social network; reciprocation is its lifeblood. The more people you follow, the more end up following you back – thereby building up your stable of Twitter-colleagues. A major difference between this platform and Facebook’s is that, when you tweet something out, every single person that’s following you sees your tweet – it shows up in their feed. Facebook makes you pay for that privilege; otherwise, only a small fraction of your friends see your Wall posts.

Now you’re starting to understand the importance of what we mentioned earlier: post good content. Think about it this way: when you tweet a short message (this is called microblogging), or tweet a link to an interesting image or website, your followers may choose to retweet your original post. This can cause it to go viral – which can be an absolutely tremendous boon to your business. But if you tweet nonsense, your followers will start to ignore you. Some may even – gasp – unfollow you!

The Keys to a Dazzling Twitter Setup

1. Right off the bat; you need to understand the importance of your profile; it’s pretty much everything on Twitter; at least in the beginning stages of the hunt for followers. Your account username must be relevant to your brand, so that people have an easy time remembering what you’re all about, and how to reach you on the platform.
2. Next, pick an avatar or account picture. It’s best if it is the most flattering or carefree image of your face – or even your product, in some cases – that you can find. Just remember; you want to convey a personal touch to your impending viewers.
3. Fill out your profile completely – we mean EVERY field. Think of social media as a real-life introduction to people, and do most of the things that you’d do for a face-to-face.
4. We mentioned this above and now is the time to actually do it – start following people.
5. Start tweeting. This is just a practice run, so don’t feel like you have to say something comparable to the writings of Confucius. Just start talking; it’s best if you read some of the things written by others and put in your thoughtful two-cents. Remember; as you get more and more followers, you’ll have more people see your tweets and possibly retweet what you write. You can also send direct messages (DM’s) to your followers.
6. Last but certainly not least – this is the essential part for search engine optimization (SEO); you can start including a link to your website in your tweets – but remember to say something of substance, in order to compel people to click on the link and drive traffic to your site.

Contact Blast Creative if you are interested in our Social Media Marketing Services.

If you are a business owner in any of these genres, financial, photographers, dentists, hotels, restaurants, construction, HVAC, hardware stores, real estate, or any business owner and want more information on Internet Marketing, please contact Blast Creative today!

The post Twitter 101 appeared first on Website Design and Marketing.