Social Media & SEO

In an era of severely limited organic reach, a paid social strategy that optimizes your budget is critical. But how can you best use promoted posts to reach your business goals without breaking the bank? That was the central question tackled by James Chong, senior manager of social customer engagement at TOMS, and Lauren de la Fuente, vice president of marketing and communications at Boingo Wireless, at PR News’ Digital Summit Feb. 24.

This update is important because it takes over a function of Facebook, long the platform of choice for posting albums of pictures. Another important consequence for brands: Instagram users will get in the habit of swiping left and right to see more content, thereby becoming more comfortable with carousel ads, which have already been available to advertisers but different enough from a normal Instagram post that users might not have been inclined to swipe—until now.

It looks like WhatsApp is taking a page out of Snapchat’s book, just as Instagram did before it. On Monday, WhatsApp unveiled a new wrinkle to its “Status” feature, adding the ability for users to share videos, GIFs and pictures with their friends for just 24 hours before disappearing. Those visuals can be customized with emojis, written upon and captioned as well. In the past, users could only update their status with text—now you can show, rather than just tell, your friends what you’re up to.

To look at the news about Instagram last week you’d be forgiven if you didn’t think it also is a tool for business, particularly suited to small communications shops. The rapper Nicki Minaj, who hinted all week she was about to do something big, posted a photo of her sitting on a small bed in what appears to be a tiny bedroom. True to Instagram’s acceptance of informality, the photo seems far from the highly stylized, professional picture of a celebrity that the public usually sees. The photo’s lighting is spotty, Minaj isn’t centered and the bed is disheveled. Still, it’s a very effective photo. Clad in six-inch heels with tassels, wraparound shades, bikini bottom and nothing else, Minaj makes an arresting subject. Quickly the post had in excess of 10,000 comments and thousands of likes.

[Editor’s Note: This regular feature asks communicators to spot trends and discuss their reactions to them. In this edition we hear from Larissa von Lockner, PR & social media manager, PwC.] The Trend: We’ve all been there. You’re scrolling through your social feeds wondering what your friends and family are up to and you just can’t escape the those targeted ads. Those shoes you found last week during your lunch break—the ones you added to your shopping bag but never bought—they’re haunting you!

Sponsoring a tent pole event such as the Grammy Awards does not insure you’ll pull big engagement numbers on social. In fact, none of the sponsors of the 2017 Grammys, held Feb. 12, made the Top 10 list of most-engaged brands on social that you see on this page, according to Shareablee data provided to PR News Pro.

When it comes to social listening, it can be difficult to cut through the noise. While many analytics tools attempt to measure sentiment—to quantify how positive or negative a social media post or engagement is received—it has proven to be an elusive metric, even for a brand as big as Nissan. “One big misconception is trying to model the information in social media into something you want it to be, instead of listening to what the customer is saying and fixing the problem presented to you,” says Bryan Long of Nissan.

Snap Inc.’s upcoming IPO is the talk of the tech world, and now the Wall Street Journal has reported that the company set its valuation between $19.5 billion and $22.2 billion, according to inside sources. Speculation about the success of the IPO hinges on a few important questions. New independent research might quell some people’s fears, however.

Social media has become more than another brand marketing platform. For consumers, it has created a front door to directly communicate with organizations and seek support in a timely manner. Nonetheless, it’s clear that many brands have yet to grasp the importance of customer support on social media and what a critical part it plays in overall brand marketing. So let’s debunk the top three myths about social customer care and see how brands can best benefit from having a robust plan.

You might think a small or a 1-person communications department would be unable to make use of Instagram to humanize its brand and raise awareness. Wrong, a pair of communicators who make use of user-generated content say. Here’s how they do it.