Understand Your Audience

Before diving into content creation, it’s essential to understand your target audience. Conduct thorough research to identify their preferences, pain points, and behaviours. This insight will guide your content strategy across all channels, ensuring it resonates with your audience. 

Take advantage of the socials

Social media platforms are diverse, each with its own unique characteristics and user base. Here’s how to tailor content for some of the major platforms:

Facebook 

Audience: Broad, diverse age range, with a focus on community and engagement. 

Content Types: Videos, images, articles, and infographics. 

Our tips: 

• Use high-quality visuals and engaging headlines. 
• Leverage Facebook Live for real-time interaction. 
• Post consistently and engage with comments and messages. 
• Utilise Facebook Stories for short content. 

Instagram 

Audience: Younger demographic, highly visual, lifestyle oriented. 

Content Types: Photos, short videos, stories. 

Our tips: 

• Prioritise high-quality, aesthetically pleasing images. 
• Use Instagram Stories and Highlights to share behind-the-scenes of your company. 
• Engage with users through comments, likes, and direct messages. 

Twitter 

Audience: Wide range of ages, professionals, and news seekers. 

Content Types: Short text updates, images, videos, and GIFs. 

Our tips: 

• Keep tweets concise and to the point. 
• Use hashtags to increase visibility. 
• Focus on informing and educating.  
• Engage with trending topics and participate in conversations. 
• Share links to blog posts, articles, and other content. 

LinkedIn 

Audience: Professionals, B2B audience, job seekers, and recruiters. 

Content Types: Articles, professional updates, case studies, and infographics. 

Our tips: 

• Share industry insights and professional advice. 
• Publish long-form content and articles. 
• Engage with industry groups and participate in discussions. 

Content for Blogging

Blogging remains a powerful tool for content marketing, SEO, and establishing authority. Here’s how to create high-quality blog content: 

• Research and Plan: Identify trending topics and keywords relevant to your audience.  
• Structure and Readability: Write clear, concise, and well-structured articles. Use headings, subheadings, bullet points, and short paragraphs to enhance readability. 
• Quality and Originality: Provide valuable insights, backed by data and research. Ensure your content is original to avoid SEO penalties. 
• Engagement: Encourage comments and discussions. Respond to reader feedback to foster a community. 
• SEO Optimisation: Optimise meta titles, and descriptions, and use relevant keywords. Add internal and external links to boost SEO. 

Content for Email Marketing

Email marketing is a direct way to reach your audience. Here’s how to create compelling email content: 

• Personalisation: Use the recipient’s name and tailor the content to their preferences and behaviours. 
• Engaging Subject Lines: Craft compelling subject lines to increase open rates. 
• Concise and Valuable Content: Keep emails concise, with a clear call-to-action. Provide value, whether through discounts, exclusive content, or useful information. 
• Design and Mobile Optimisation: Ensure your emails are visually appealing and mobile-friendly. 
• Segmentation: Segment your email list to send targeted campaigns to different audience segments. 

Cross-Channel Strategies

Here are a few more tips to implement in your marketing strategy, regardless of the channel: 

• Maintain a consistent brand voice and message across all channels. 
• Adapt content from one channel to another to maximise reach and efficiency. 
• Regularly review analytics to understand what works and what doesn’t. Use this data to refine your content strategy. 

By understanding the nuances of each marketing channel and creating tailored high-quality content, you can effectively engage your audience and achieve your marketing goals. However, we understand marketing can be overwhelming. That’s why our team of marketers is here to help you. Contact us today at hello@brighterdirections.co.uk and book your free discovery call.  

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Facebook

What’s the latest on Facebook?

In January of this year, Facebook started the process of removing certain targeting options. Facebook said, “Starting January 19, 2022 we will remove Detailed Targeting options that relate to topics people may perceive as sensitive… such as options referencing causes, organizations, or public figures that relate to health, race or ethnicity, political affiliation, religion, or sexual orientation.”

So if you had a really successful Facebook ad campaign in 2021, the same targeting options that made that ad successful may not be available anymore. An example they give is that you won’t be able to target people who have an interest in “Lung cancer awareness” or “World Diabetes Day” anymore. The volume of targeting options being removed is what’s raising alarm to business owners who depend on Facebook ads for sales.

New Call Ads updates announced

Meta has announced some significant updates to their Call Ads, optimising the format to reach more potential customers and find better quality leads. One of the updates will allow customers to request a callback from a business in Messenger. Using it will help businesses show customers that their time is valued and eliminate the frustration of waiting on hold.

Instagram

Everything you need to know about Instagram’s new feature

Instagram has recently rolled out a new feature called “Group Profiles.” This means you can now have one account shared with other users where each group member can post their own unique content that all goes to the same feed and/or story. The content will be seen by your profile’s followers, other member’s followers and the group’s followers. Alternatively, you can also make it private.

What is Instagram’s Group Profile Feature?

Much like its predecessor, Facebook Groups, Instagram’s version allows multiple users to collaborate and share content on a single page. While this puts a fun spin on community-building, it does open up more responsibility for creators (and brands, if they choose) to administer safeguards and rules for the overall group. Just like how Facebook group pages require moderation and set of rules to run the page, Instagram would also require creators to ensure a safe space for interaction through these group profiles. Instagram currently allows users to create group chats, group video and group voice calls. However, for any kind of group interaction, creating a group chat is the first step. To create a group chat on Instagram, go to the Direct Messaging section in your Instagram app. Click on the top left icon and start selecting the members of the group. Name your group and tap on chat. Your Instagram group is created. You can set the message privacy for the group by selecting View Once or Allow replay options.

Get paid in Instagram DMs

Instagram has rolled out new payment options, allowing businesses to accept payment right in their DMs. Customers can pay invoices without switching apps or sites, allowing them a more convenient shopping experience while also granting businesses flexibility in how they do work. This feature is only available to eligible sellers who use a Professional Account on the Instagram mobile app. There aren’t any fees to accept payments in Instagram’s Direct Message chat, and there’s 24/7 access to customer support if needed. The customer’s purchases will be protected, and they can use Meta Pay, credit card, or PayPal.

At Brighter Directions we are always on the look out for new trends in social media, if you like help and support with your social media marketing strategy please contact us at hello@brighterdirections.co.uk and make sure to follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn & Twitter.

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What’s New

. Redesigned layout that’s simpler and more intuitive making it easier to navigate between your personal profile and your public page. It is now more simple than ever for people to see your bio, posts and other important information.

. Dedicated News Feed to discover and join conversations, follow trends, interact with peers and engage with fans. You will also see suggestions for new connections in the dedicated News Feed, including other creators, public figures, Pages, Groups and trending content that you may be interested in.

. Page Followers, instead of Page Likes. Page likes will be removed going forward, to simplify the way people connect with their favourite Pages, the focus will solely be on Page Followers. This will help give Pages a clearer indication of their fan base since Followers represent people who can receive updates from Pages.

. Safety and integrity features to detect spammy content and impersonator accounts. Facebook want it to be a safe place to connect with fans, so they’ve improved the ability to detect activity that isn’t allowed on the platform including hate speech, violent, sexual or spammy content and impersonation.

. Updated task-based admin controls giving trusted Page admins full control or partial access. When adding managers to your Facebook Page, you can now grant full or partial access. This replaces the old “Page Roles” settings, where you could grant roles such as “Page Administrator” and “Page Editor. Full access grants the same amount of access as the Admin or creator of the Page, which includes:

• Viewing tools and insights
• Editing the Page settings or deleting the Page
• Granting permissions
• Managing all content, linked accounts and ads
• Responding to comments
• Creating events
• Removing or banning people from the Page

At Brighter Directions we are always on the look out for new trends in social media, if you would like help and support with your social media marketing strategy please contact us at hello@brighterdirections.co.uk

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So what are Instagram Reels?

Reels are a new feature on the Instagram App that first rolled out in August of 2020. It is very similar to Instagram Stories and is comparable to the popular app TikTok. They are intended to be accessible, built right into your Instagram interface, and provide a source of regular content on your homepage.

Here are the basic features of Instagram Reels:

• Reels are short videos, anywhere from 3-15 seconds long.
• They can be filmed directly from the Instagram app, using the Reels camera, or you can use video from your camera roll.
• You can film a single take, or you can edit different clips together: you can cut to different camera angles, different locations, and more!
• They are mobile-only. Reels are only available on the Instagram app; you can’t post them from your desktop.
• They can be uploaded to the Stories feed or added to a special Reels gallery on your profile page. They can also appear on your home feed!

So why use Reels to market your business?

Why not just stick to story vids? Well, for one thing, Reels get more exposure because they can appear in stories, home feeds, and your profile. The unique editing features in Reels are also useful. Sure, the Stories camera works when capturing something in-the-moment, but it’s hard to be the next Alfred Hitchcock or Steven Spielberg without the option to edit different takes together.

The opportunity to film and edit different takes is perfect for tutorial videos. You can cut between close-ups of each step without worrying about the empty space or missing details from a single take.

You can also use the Reels feature to highlight giveaways, show off products, and produce room-by-room tours of your office (or a property, for those who work in real estate).

The take-by-take editing allows you to create short stop-motion films as well—especially fun and useful if any of your products need assembly.

Remember: Reels are supposed to be short, sweet, and to the point. Make your call to action as bold as possible: feature it in the audio and in any text you have on-screen.

You don’t want the viewer to miss it!

If you are looking to boost your Instagram marketing, why not give us a call and see how we can help?! hello@brighterdirections.co.uk

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In 2013, Cambridge University researcher, Aleksandr Kogan created a personality quiz app. This app was installed by around 300,000 Facebook users, who shared their data as well as some of their friends’ data. This meant Kogan was able to access tens of millions of their friends’ data due to the way Facebook worked at the time.

On Wednesday, Facebook founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg finally commented on the fiasco after 5 days of silence and said: “The good news is that the most important actions to prevent this from happening again today we have already taken years ago. But we also made mistakes, there’s more to do, and we need to step up and do it.”

Zuckerberg’s reply followed hours of Twitter trends; #DeleteFacebook and #WheresZuck, which included none other than, WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton!

Let’s be realistic… deleting Facebook is really not an option. Yes, people are angered by the illegal sharing of data, and rightly so, but could you imagine how angry the 65M+ businesses would be if Facebook suddenly off-lined, never to be seen again, after they’ve spent countless hours and money, building relationships, engagement and fans.

Zuckerberg’s response lays out plans going forward for the platform, to ensure this breach of data privacy cannot ever happen again. This includes investigating historical apps that had access to large amounts of information before the policy change in 2014, and informing any users that have been affected by this, plus restricting developers’ data access even further.

Facebook also intends to make it easier for users to view and revoke app permissions in the near future.

Read more about how you can improve your social media presence, we have lots of insights and content on our blog!

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In a post in its newsroom , Facebook wrote:

People have told us that they dislike spammy [sic] posts on Facebook that goad them into interacting with likes, shares, comments, and other actions. For example, “LIKE this if you’re an Aries!” This tactic, known as “engagement bait,” seeks to take advantage of our News Feed algorithm by boosting engagement in order to get greater reach. So, starting this week, we will begin demoting individual posts from people and Pages that use engagement bait.

The guidelines on what kinds of language will be accepted (or not), are at this stage, still somewhat loose, but what it does mean is that Company Pages will certainly be affected, particularly those that encourage competitions or increased audiences using the methodology.

The general rule of thumb is that if you don’t want to be caught out and penalized for just trying to encourage more reach – then, stick to content which engages users and provide interesting posts, rather than playing the click more game!

** Are you looking for assistance to develop your Facebook presence and want to stay within the guidelines of Facebook for maximum output? Contact our professional and friendly team today for a free initial consultation on 01246 586330 ** 

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Previously, a post had to be shared on to the brand page before it could be boosted. The updated features will enable direct post boosting, from the creator’s profile, and as it appears on their page. The creator simply needs to tick the permission box when they’re composing their post, and tag the Page using the ‘branded content’ tool.

The target audience will see that the post originated from the creator, even though it was boosted by the brand.

In order to ensure affiliations are properly represented, it’s now possible to authorise which creators can tag a brand in their ‘branded content’ posts in the Page Settings.

Branded content insights show key data such as reach, engagement, total spend and CPM to help determine the effectiveness of the creator’s posts.

The branded content tab has been refreshed in Page Insights, and Business Manager to include:

• Detailed tool-tips and explanations to more easily view and understand results
• Total spend from both the creator and the marketer on each post
• Separate summaries of total spend and CPM – in multiple currencies, if needed

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You can fit a surprising amount of content into just 20 seconds, and you don’t need major editing skills, a particularly vivid imagination or a massive budget. Even the smallest of companies could quickly and easily create a showcase video using a simple slideshow.

I am really excited by this as the possibilities appear endless! A million ideas are flying through my head as I type of what I can do for our clients that span a wide range of sectors!

Here are some ideas of how a simple slideshow video could work for you:

For everyone and everything:

• Share testimonials for your company.
• Share images of work you have carried out – this could be beneficial to anyone, from ‘one man band’ carpet fitters to large design agencies.
• Share key insights relevant to your target audience.

More specifically:

Designer of… anything (websites, logos, leaflets)?

Showcase work you’ve previously completed, ensuring you cover everything from the professional and ‘plain’ to the exciting and ‘quirky’.

Have a wide range of products?

You could have these scrolling along the top of your page.

Are you an events Company?

Use pictures of your biggest and most elaborate events. Use this opportunity to really showcase what you can do.

Photographer?

If you cover various photography types, this is the perfect opportunity to demonstrate this.

Run frequent competitions?

What better way to grab the attention of your page’s visitors?!

Have multiple offers?

Make sure your slides are vibrant and eye catching so it’s easy to decipher one from another.

Targeting corporate?

Show off those big name brands you already work with!

Have a tech product?

Let people see it working.

Recruiting?

Scroll through the best paid vacancies you currently have.

We’d love to know how you plan to use the new video feature, and of course, if you need any help!

01246 252 855

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