bgenest, Author at Barbara Genest

February 5, 2022

Increase Your Snapchat Story Views with These Easy Tips

While Snapchat can bring your business many benefits, it can be one of the hardest platforms to gain views. In order to gain more followers, you need more views, just like any other social media platform. Because Snapchat focuses on close friendships rather than discovery, it takes more work to find new followers and gain more views. However, as long as you make unique, fresh, and inspiring content while using other tools and tips, it can be quite easy to gain more views.

Here are four tips to help you attract more Snapchat story views:

Increase Your Snapchat Score

Your Snapchat score is displayed below your profile picture and username. This number increases every time you send and receive a Snap or story. In other words, this number indicates how active you are on the platform. Use this scoring feature to encourage and motivate you to be more active and show new followers that you are a real business that provides value by sharing snaps and stories.

Get Featured on the Discover Page

Use location tags and hashtags, and be sure to add your story to the “Our Story” section from your editor tool after you post your story. The Discover page is Snapchat’s version of a newsfeed that features stories from publishing partners, influencers, or other brands.

Use Other Platforms Too

Having an Instagram or YouTube to advertise your Snapchat is always a good idea. It shows others that you have more than one way to communicate with them, and they may find Snapchat a more personal tool to connect with. However, be sure the content you share on each platform is different in some way. In other words, don’t repurpose without editing the content you share on the other platform. This increases your exposure on each platform and keeps you in good standing with them as many platforms strive for original content.

Keep a Consistent and Frequent Posting Schedule

The more quality content you provide, the more likely your current followers are to share your content. Keep this content consistent and frequent throughout your day to keep your stories at the top of your follower’s feed. However, be sure the content you share always provides value. You don’t want just to throw up anything or share the same boring sales piece. Always enhance each of your stories with stickers, including one of your Snapcode, so new viewers can instantly add you. When they take a picture of this code through Snapchat, it will add you to their follower list.

When developing your Snapchat story content plan, keep these tips in mind to ensure you get the most views and gain more followers. Remember, make sure the content you post on Snapchat is unique and different from any other platform. Please take advantage of their tools and features and find a way to get on their discovery page to increase your chances of success on Snapchat.

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January 30, 2022

Four Benefits to Using Snapchat Stories to Market your Business

Did you know that there are nearly three hundred million active daily users on Snapchat, making Snapchat among the most popular social media networks worldwide, just behind Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok?

Almost forty percent of the world’s leading brands already know this and use Snapchat to market their products on a daily basis.

What’s even more powerful is that those who use Snapchat use the application for more than twenty minutes a day, right behind Facebook users.

Yet again showing you that Snapchat is still a powerful business tool to be taking advantage of.

Here are four more benefits to using Snapchat stories to market your business:

Drive Traffic and Boost Engagement

The purpose of social media stories on many platforms is to increase your audience engagement and boost your traffic or sales. The high number of daily active users means your chances of success on this platform are quite high if you use the platform right and market to a younger audience.

Connect to a Younger Demographic

Many of the users on Snapchat are said to be between the ages of twenty-four and twelve, which means if millennials and generation Z are the people you need to market to, don’t delay using Snapchat.

Offer a More Fun and Unique Customer Experience

Snapchat offers different and more unique features than other platforms. Their additional AR filters are by far the most popular. These are artificial filters that change how you, others, or animals look when shown on camera. They can even change your background, make it look like you are doing a certain action, and change the sound of your voice – making it a fun way to communicate with your audience and be less formal. While other platforms offer this, the ones created on Snapchat are often said to be more creative, fun, and easy to use.

Add Personality and Keep Followers Updated

The features Snapchat offers allow you to be more relatable and show your personality more. It is also a better way to share new and upcoming information about your brand or business. In addition, offering your audience your human side makes it more likely to grow an audience that trusts you and your credibility.

These benefits should inspire you to give Snapchat a try for your business. If you have a product-based business that anyone under thirty-five can use or would be interested in, Snapchat is the place to be. Its unique features make it a fun and personal experience for you and your target audience.

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January 30, 2022January 30, 2022

How to Use Snapchat Stories

Snapchat stories are a fun marketing tool to use for businesses that need to advertise to a younger demographic. Around fifty-nine percent of those between twenty-four and thirty who use the internet use Snapchat. In 2019, the application had three hundred million downloads ranking them the seventh most downloaded application globally, showing you just how powerful Snapchat still is and can be to businesses. In fact, it is said that those who use Snapchat are sixty percent more likely to make an impulse buy. Meaning, if you have a product business, you should be using Snapchat.

Here are the four steps to using Snapchat stories:

Step One: Select Your Profile or Swipe to the Camera Function

To get to your profile, select your picture from the top left of the screen. Then select “Add to My Story” below “My Stories,” your photo, and your username. The second way to create a story is to swipe to the camera or click the camera icon currently located at the bottom center of the screen.

Step Two: Create Your Snap or Upload

From here, there are several different ways to create your story. Simply tap or hold to record or click the two small boxes located to the left of the record button. A new screen called “Memories” will appear where you will need to click “Stories” below the search box. Then click “Start a Story” to create a story with previous Snaps. The third way to create a story is to select the smile emoji next to the record button to pick a filter.

Step Three: Enhance with Features and Tags

Once you create the content, a menu to the right will appear. This menu includes adding text, stickers, choosing your font type or color, and adding popular emojis. You can also add music, links and change the time of how long each frame appears.

The most important feature from this list is the stickers that look like a post-it note. This is where you can make your stories more engaging and interactive.

Step Four: Select “Story” From the “Send To” Page

When satisfied with the way your story looks, it is time to post it. First, select “Send to” then “My story” on the next page if you used the camera feature. If you created the story straight from your profile, select the play button that appears at the bottom right.

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Overall, getting used to editing and other features is what makes Snapchat different. Once you get used to adding them, you can improve your contact and engagement with your audience over time. Snapchat is a great tool for businesses that have a younger target audience and highly visual content. Follow these steps to get your first Snapchat story live in no time.

January 30, 2022

How to Boost Sales with the Instagram Stories Shopping Feature

Visual storytelling will always be why Instagram remains the number one platform for stories and social media marketing. If you have visual products or can easily tell your message through pictures, videos, and other visuals, Instagram must be the platform you use, especially if you sell products with the Instagram story shopping feature.

Nearly eight hundred thousand users use Instagram to shop every single month. In addition, almost seventy percent of their five hundred million daily active users follow a business account even beyond the shopping feature. Meaning you will have no problem getting your stories in front of your audience. To use the shopping feature, you need to have a business account and connect to your Facebook catalog that sells physical goods.

Here are five ways to boost sales with the Instagram stories shopping feature:

Use the Product Sticker

Add or take a picture of you the product you want to promote. Tap on the “Stickers” icon and select “Product” stickers. Select the product from your Facebook catalog, then further enhance the story as needed. Be sure the product name you want to use is the name listed in the Facebook catalog. You do not have the option to change the name from your story. Select “Send to” at the bottom right of your screen when you are ready to share.

Highlight Customer Testimonials

Add other slides that include your products in action by customers or quotes about how much they love your products. Social proof or reviews is an essential part of the selling process. In fact, according to research published by Fan & Fuel, nearly ninety-two percent of consumers have stated they hesitate to purchase if there are no reviews on the product, and ninety-seven say they use reviews to influence their decision further.

Add a Swipe Up Link

Once you reach ten thousand followers, your account will unlock the “Swipe Up” feature to your stories to further encourage your viewers to click and go to your website and make a purchase.

Showcase One to Two Product at A Time

Don’t show too many products at once as it will only overwhelm your audience. Be sure each product you share is relatable to each other. For example, a clothing store highlighting a model sunglasses and hat for sale. Each of these products is near each other and has similar purposes. Thus, making it easier to market each product and tell a cohesive story.

Include Hashtags and Locations

Always include hashtags and location tags. This way, your viewers who don’t follow you have the chance to see your content. In addition, while stories advertise to your current followers, this gives you an increased opportunity to be placed on Instagram’s Explore page and those who search public accounts.

Use these tips to get your first sale through Instagram right away. Instagram shoppable posts and stories have been shown to increase traffic by over one hundred thousand percent — showing you just how important developing an Instagram stories content plan is to your overall business success.

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how to boost online sales on instagram

January 30, 2022January 30, 2022

Four Fun Ways to Use Instagram Stories Polls and Questions

Social media stories are attractive because they are highly interactive and engaging for you and your target audience. One popular way to increase your engagement while learning more about your audience is using Instagram story poll stickers and questions. Adding polls, stickers, or emojis is an easy and simple process that keeps your audience interested and curious about your business. In addition, polls and questions provide you an opportunity to educate your audience and learn more about them.

To add a sticker or emoji, select the “Polls” icon after taking a picture or recording a video for your story. Next, type the question you would like to ask in the field that appears above “Yes” and “No.” After you input the question, you can even choose your different responses by simply tapping the “Yes” or “No” field to change it. The response fields can only be twenty-two characters long. However, there is no text limit for the question filed. Select “Done” in the top right of the screen to finish the poll.

The following are four ways to use Instagram Stories polls and questions:

Put Your Best Products Up for Battle

Compare your best products and have your audience pick the winner. Be sure to share the results of the polls so your audience can see how they relate to others who follow your business. It will also persuade them to participate more. For example, if you are a food blogger, you can share a story with one cake recipe you made on the top with another of your recipes on the bottom, such as chocolate versus caramel, and see which your viewers pick the most.

Develop a Creative Survey or Quizzes

Get to know your viewers more by asking them different questions related to your business or industry. Think outside of the box to know their most common problems and the goals they would like to achieve in life. You can even make fun quizzes that test their knowledge on the topic you would like to teach them or spread awareness. This is done by using the “Quiz” icon near the “Polls” icon when you swipe up from your story.

Test Your Audience Knowledge with Feedback Questions

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Ask your audience a series of questions to see if you understand their main problem. Not only does this create more engagement with your target audience. It also ensures you know what you can do for them and that you are providing value. Successful business solves problems, and asking them a direct question allows you to be sure you know what it is. Yes or no stickers or the sliding hand sticker where you use text to offer different answers is a great way to further learn about your audience and get them to interact with your stories.

Overall, using the Instagram polls, questions stickers, and slider features is a powerful way to understand and get to know your audience fully. It is not only fun for your audience to participate but gives you valuable information to perfect your craft, product, and services.

January 30, 2022January 30, 2022

What You Need to Know About Instagram Stories Highlights

Instagram story highlights are a vital section of your Instagram page, especially if you run a business or share many content creations through Instagram Stories. This section of Instagram appears below your profile picture and is a collection of videos or pictures of information you shared through your Instagram stories in the past. It is then organized in a way that is more easily digested amongst your audience.

These videos or pictures do not disappear unless you choose to remove them from the highlight. In other words, a highlight is a story you shared that is worth saving because it is valuable to your audience. It also provides a more organized and streamlined way for your readers to take in the important information you want to share and offer them while boosting your engagement and interaction.

Here is what you need to know about Instagram stories highlights and a few tips to take more advantage of its benefits:

Use Highlights to Extend the Life of your Stories

Highlights allow you to extend the life of your stories that normally only last twenty-four hours. You can even use stories that have been archived, a saving feature that Instagram offers of stories older than twenty-four hours that only you can see. This feature must be turned on or added to your archives before the time limit is reached.

Add Branded Highlight Covers

The Highlights section appears on your profile, below your picture and Instagram bio. Meaning it is an important area to update with your branding. Include your colors and a title, so your followers know what information you are saving and sharing.

Don’t Go Over One Hundred Clips or Photos

The Highlights section can save one hundred clips and photos. Going over this number will automatically take off the one you put first, one hundred videos or pictures ago. It is important to keep track of this by creating a constant rotation, so you know each section is clear and provides value to your audience.

Use Highlights for Big Announcements

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Company announcements or important information about who you are and what you do is a good section to include in your Highlights. This gives potential new followers a quick look into who you are and what you can provide them by following.

Use Highlights for Commonly Asked Questions

A frequently asked question section is another important section that saves you time and makes it easy for your new audience. Add in as many questions as you can, including ones that involve your audiences’ answers.

Use Highlights to Create Interactive Tutorials

Finally, but certainly not least, a great way to use your Highlights feature is to create an interactive how-to tutorial. Interactive tutorials are an enjoyable way to get your viewers and followers involved while providing maximum value.

As you can see, if you are posting Instagram stories, then you should be taking advantage of highlights to store and share important information with your readers. Highlights allow you to organize your content better to communicate, engage and interact with your audience effectively. With Instagram highlights, you can now ensure that your readers will never miss out on valuable content.

January 23, 2022

How to Use Instagram Story Analytics to Improve

In order to know if your Instagram stories are making an impact, you must check and keep up with your analytics. This background data gives you a direct insight into how well your content is performing with your audience. Without this information, you won’t be able to put a content plan together that maximizes your benefits and success.

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You can locate your analytics, individual story analytics, or the full page and stories in two places. To find the analytics for a specific story, select the story you need the information on and swipe up to view its insights. You can also view the insights from the Archive button located in the upper-left corner of your profile. Then select “view all saved stories” and then swipe up on each to view the analytics or insights of both. To locate the analytics page for all of your stories, select the Insights button from the top right of your profile screen on the menu.

Here are the Instagram story analytics to keep track of and what to do to improve your conversions:

Overview

The first set of metrics you will see is just a quick glimpse of important metrics that will be covered shortly, including the number of accounts reached, your content interactions, and profile activity.

Reach

Next includes your reach, a set of metrics that refer to how many people see your content and where they find it. Be sure to add important hashtags and location stickers so your story can appear on the Explore page and expand your reach. Reach metrics includes:

Accounts Reached – The unique number of times your story has been viewed or seen, at least once.
Impressions – The total number of times your story has been viewed or appeared on the screen. This can include repeat views by the same Instagram user.

Content Interactions

Content interactions are a group of insights or metrics that show your viewers’ or followers’ actions when engaging with your stories. Include questions, polls, slider stickers, and a clear call-to-action to increase your content interactions. These metrics include:

Shares – The number of times a viewer shares your story.
Replies – The number of responses you received from your story, including quick reaction replies.
Forward – How many times viewers tapped forward to view your next slide.
Exited – The number of times viewers exited your story before finishing it.
Next Story – The number of times your viewers viewed your next story after finishing the story you selected to view metric information for.

Profile Activity

This group of insights shows the actions your viewers or followers take when engaging with your story. Update your call-to-actions and get your viewers more engaged if you want to improve your profile activity. You can’t expect your viewers to react if you don’t ask them. Profile activity metrics include:

Profile Visits – Profile visits are the number of times your profile was visited after viewing or viewing a story.
Follows – Follows are the number of times someone followed your Instagram account while or after viewing your story.
Call Button Taps – This is the number of taps you received to call your business.

Keep track of these analytics and update your plan with these tips to maximize your engagement and other conversions with Instagram stories. Instagram stories are a powerful marketing tool as long as you know how to use them correctly and pay attention to the information it shares.

January 23, 2022

Five Steps to Posting your First Instagram Story

By far, the number one platform to take advantage of for social media stories is Instagram. However, while Snapchat was the first, that does not make them the best. Instagram has nearly double the number of active users compared to Snapchat – making it not even a close comparison.

Almost eighty-seven percent of its nearly billion monthly active users post stories. Even better, a quarter of millennials and generation Z who use the platform say they use stories to find and purchase new products. So if you are a business not taking advantage of Instagram Stories, you should get right on it.

Here are five steps to posting your first Instagram story:

Step One: Plan Your Content

Always have a plan before you upload or record a story. You want to be sure everything you share is not only valuable but entertaining and engaging. The more you plan it out, the more likely you will have well-rounded stories to share sustainably.

Step Two: How to Upload or Record a Story

Find the plus icon from the Instagram application. The plus icon is currently located on the top right of your profile. You can also create a story by selecting the plus icon below your profile picture where it says “Your Story” when you open the app or swipe with one finger all the way to the left for the camera to open. Then from the bottom, select “Story.”

Step Three: Upload or Record Your Content

Now you can either upload your previously recorded story, take a picture, record a video or go live. Select or hold down the white circle in the middle to take a picture or record your video. Select the box in the bottom left field to upload content and choose the content you would like to upload from the new window selections. Select the filters from the button next to the record or capture button to edit your content.

Step Four: Personalize and Enhance Your Story

After taking a picture or recording your story, you can enhance it with stickers, emojis, text, and music. Tap the center of the picture or video to add text, change the font style, size, and color or add motion. Select “Done” from the top right of the screen when you are finished with the text. Then you have an option to add a link, save the story, add stickers, and do other things you can do via the menu located in the top right of the story.

Step Five: Tap Publish and Watch Your Metrics

Select ” Send to ” from the bottom right corner. Then, select ” Send to ” from the bottom right corner. Next, select ” Send to ” from the bottom right corner – once you add in features that increase understanding and engagement, select “Send to” from the bottom right corner. Then select “Share” next to “Your Story” and profile picture. From here, you can even choose to share it with others.

Don’t neglect your Instagram stories any longer with these five easy steps. Instagram stories are a valuable resource to better market and increase your sales or engagement among your target audience. In addition, stories allow you to make your products, services, or business more interesting, personable, and trustworthy.

January 23, 2022January 23, 2022

Four Ways to Make Your Social Media Stories Stand Out

While social media stories are a good tool to market and advertise your business, they can easily get lost in the competition. Over five hundred million active users post Instagram stories alone – showing you just how important it is to make valuable and important content that stands out to your target audience.

Here are four ways to make your social media stories stand out:

Show Behind-The-Scenes Content

Give your audience a view of what it is like to be you behind a business every day. This is content that many viewers are interested in and attracted to. It also allows you to show a more vulnerable and personal side that your audience will admire. Social media stories are powerful because they are seen as less informal and more direct. Behind-the-scenes content is a great way to take advantage of it.

Post During Audience Active Hours

Post content when your audience is the most active. Not only does it make it more engaging to your viewers, but it also shows that you are aware of their needs while making it easier for them to view your content. You don’t want them to rely on coming to you, and many stories only last twenty-four hours. Therefore, posting content when they are active increases your exposure, engagement, and overall success.

Actually, Tell a Story

Don’t click bate or post generic content to your social media stories. Actually, plan out a consistent story that provides value, whether that be through new information or relatable entertainment. Stories need to be just as valuable, if not more, than your other posts to keep them engaged, interested and to persuade them to become loyal customers.

Ask Your Audience to Share Their Opinion

Always get your audience involved in some way through the platform features by asking them questions, submitting their own content or simply replying to your story. The more active and involved your audience is, the more likely they will convert into loyal or paying customers. Getting their feedback also allows you to improve your content further and provide superior value that your competition can keep up with.

As you can see, making your content stand out is really about highlighting and showcasing your audience. If you have good content and understand your target audience, you won’t have any problem creating quality social media stories that stand out. Solve a problem and get your audience more involved to see more results and benefits with your social media stories.

January 23, 2022