Instagram and Facebook Strategies in 2024

Season #8 May 02, 2024

00:00 - Introduction to Instagram and Facebook Strategies for 2024
00:34 - Exploring Instagram Hashtag Strategies
02:45 - The Power of Ads on Facebook and Instagram
08:36 - AI and Messenger Strategies for Engagement
13:38 - Authentic Content vs. AI in Social Media Marketing
25:10 - E-commerce and Social Media Integration

[00:00:00] Rina: I'm Pip Seymour, digital media. This is Rina from Littleworks Indymedia. And what are we talking about today, Rina? We are talking about Instagram and Facebook strategies in 2024. What's working and what's not working. I just added that second piece in because we're already in May. Okay. Let's get onto our topic though, because we only have minutes and I know you love this. This is my wheelhouse. Just a couple of things I wanted to talk [00:00:30] about and some questions I'd like to pose because I want to know what other people are trying out there.

[00:00:34] Exploring Instagram Hashtag Strategies

[00:00:34] Rina: But one of the things that came up for me recently in two different sources was the hashtags on Instagram. So there's a thought that's moved. That's circulating on social media that adding hashtags. Instagram posts might not be the best idea. So while it could get you some new followers, maybe some new people that are reading your [00:01:00] posts, what they say is that it takes like half, it takes half of your algorithm percentage away.

[00:01:08] Rina: So it splits off what would normally go to your follower list if you don't use hashtags. So, some people are saying that it's probably Possibly better to use, not to not use hashtags if you want more engagement on your Instagram posts, I suppose on the other side of it, though, if you're looking to get new users and grow your [00:01:30] Instagram, then perhaps using the hashtags is a really good idea.

[00:01:33] Rina: So has anyone tried that out there? If you have, I'd love to know if you've done any testing and how that's worked out for you. This is specific to Instagram. By the way, just to make sure that everyone's clear on that. So I'd love to hear because I haven't tested it yet, but I'm planning on rolling that out in the next few weeks just to see what kind of results that gives us.

[00:01:55] Rina: So are you going to test on so an account that has a [00:02:00] large following versus an account that has a small following for that? What are you thinking? I'll probably working on midsize because that's really what I, what my client. My clients are, but first I'll try it on my own account to see how that works and then I'll see how that does.

[00:02:17] Rina: I suspect that's going to be a big difference as to whether or not how many followers you have will, play into if that's an effective strategy or not. And so every [00:02:30] year, like Facebook and Instagram are a bit like the Google algorithm updates, there's updates and we have to identify the strategies to work around them to get to our audience, right?

[00:02:41] Rina: Because they're gatekeeping now with ads.

[00:02:45] The Power of Ads on Facebook and Instagram

[00:02:45] Rina: I know you recommend ads all the time. Yeah, so that is the, that should have been the first point. I guess I didn't really organize my points in a particularly cohesive manner, but yes, absolutely. So we're going through strategies right now that are just specifically for [00:03:00] organic tactics because ads are always the best.

[00:03:03] Rina: The better answer for so many reasons, depending it does depend on what you're, trying to do. But especially if you're a small business and you don't have a huge following ads can be really useful in that, in that mix. Yeah. And so when you do ads, you do them on Facebook and then they go on Instagram.

[00:03:23] Rina: Is that correct? Or could you just have an Instagram account? You can do both. So you can [00:03:30] run ads from an Instagram account. I recommend running your Instagram ads from your meta account. Business manager or creative that sort of thing. Everybody loves one loves to hate. You mean yeah, and, you can do, I also recommend you can just do one ad and send it out to both.

[00:03:53] Rina: You can also split and have two ads under the same campaign utilizing the [00:04:00] same ad budget. And you can have multiple ads for each, stream, which is ideal. Okay. And then test those on each stream. That's interesting that each stream, a little bit more work, but better results.

[00:04:17] Rina: I find, that's true. Yeah. Because if you're in charge of your placements, rather than allowing Facebook to organize your placements for you, it can, it really, and it also, it depends on what your, [00:04:30] goal is. You really need to be goal focused. There's not one answer that's going to be perfect for every single business out there.

[00:04:37] Rina: Ah, yes. Okay. Those generic fill you into a box don't work. Every strategy has to be slightly different depending on the client, the audience, the area, right? Because if your goal is to get traffic to your website, Based on really specific targeting on your ads, then you're gonna [00:05:00] want, you're going to want Facebook to help you figure out where to where those people are.

[00:05:05] Rina: And if it is on cross platform, because Facebook buys ads space on Google ads, it buys ad space in different places that it's called cross platform, I believe, ends up being There's a lot of that inside Google ads, those people that sell programmatic advertising. It's, actually done inside Google ads and one of the components is that you could show [00:05:30] up on Facebook depending on the targeting, right?

[00:05:33] Rina: Which is really interesting. Yeah, so they both send traffic into places that you're not thinking about and you might not know. There are some other cases where I have turned that placements off because I specifically didn't want my ads going into in articles or on apps because, it wasn't the right spot in my mind.

[00:05:56] Rina: Sometimes I find those places will be cheaper. [00:06:00] So sometimes agencies utilize them to reduce your ad spend results like, the, to make it look better because the clicks are. cheaper. So it really, again, it's a, it depends as the answer is always the answer. Yes. Oh, that is always the answer.

[00:06:19] Rina: That is always the great answer. Okay. So you're telling us. Not to, so if we're not a big, or if We might not grow as well as we like if [00:06:30] we use hashtags now. Is that the new way? That's not what I said. Sorry. It's the opposite. Okay, if you're looking for more engagement then try removing the hashtags. Okay, but if you're looking for more reach, if you're looking to grow Your audience, then perhaps hashtags might work.

[00:06:49] Rina: Oh, that makes a lot of sense. Actually. Yeah. So this is going to be some testing that we're going to roll out. I'm very excited about that because I always love testing the theories, but I [00:07:00] couldn't help but note it. I felt like a weird theory to be circulating, but I saw it a number of times. So I'm going to try it out.

[00:07:07] Rina: Did you hear the weird one? So it makes sense. It does make sense because it sounds like you're just, if you want to just talk to your already existing audience. Don't try to spread yourself out. So that makes sense. It's What was it? Apple? They just came out with how you're supposed to close your tabs, basically, [00:07:30] that takes up more battery.

[00:07:32] Rina: So you're supposed to just leave everything running now. And that's the opposite of what they originally trained us to do. You're saying that leaving all your tabs open is ideal for battery? That's what they're saying, yeah, to save battery life. I feel like I'm winning all of a sudden. That's funny. So yeah, I guess You know, I think paying attention more now to social [00:08:00] strategies and a combination of strategies, like actually using search and social together is making more and more sense as we develop into this beast of an online space, right?

[00:08:11] Rina: Like you can't just be one place really anymore, or you have to be attentive to these different platforms, depending on your business and what you're doing what is it focus on one, get good at it. Move to the next, right? I think that's, yeah, and then [00:08:30] have a few more other things on our thing.

[00:08:34] Rina: We do.

[00:08:36] AI and Messenger Strategies for Engagement

[00:08:36] Rina: So I think one of the big ones is the AI stuff we should talk about. Cause I don't know what's going on in there for AI, for social content and things like that. But one of the things that is It's becoming more and more evident on, meta is to be using AI powered messenger experiences.

[00:08:55] Rina: Now it takes a little bit of time and organization and you don't want to choose the [00:09:00] default settings on this because, Oh my God, the default settings are hilarious. One of my team members put on a default. for messaging, on one of my ads and I could not figure out for the life of me why I was getting all these weird messages from people on the ad morning.

[00:09:19] Rina: And it turns out that physically anyone who leaves a comment gets an automated message. How can we help you? Which you can see how annoying that is [00:09:30] because they're like, what do you mean? How can you help me? I didn't ask for help. It doesn't make any sense. You have to make it make sense. important to do that.

[00:09:40] Rina: And, so that's one thing. So, this is, where is this on Facebook or Instagram? It's messenger. Okay. So it's, so from what I, see, it comes on Facebook. So it's only the engagement that happens on Facebook. I haven't seen any evidence [00:10:00] of this particular system happening from Instagram.

[00:10:04] Rina: Although, I haven't looked like this is one case study that we're doing. That kind of messaging. AI messaging could be useful. I have set up messenger sequences that are super fun because they help you. They help people self identify out of a funnel, which can be useful. So you can set up sort of two spaces.

[00:10:29] Rina: So the [00:10:30] people who are good, ideal clients can go in one direction and get that phone call. And then people who are still on the fence or still don't understand they're high up in the funnel. They can go into a different, end result and get onto your newsletter list or book of webinar or whatever.

[00:10:49] Rina: So that can be quite useful, but the AI one, I'm not entirely sure how complex it could be because the AI. I'm not sure if the AI helps you do the [00:11:00] setup for these automated messages or if the AI actually speaks for you like some of the other, yeah. That piece I'm looking forward to exploring again.

[00:11:10] Rina: We are exploring Messenger stuff in LinkedIn. I like talking to people in Messenger in Facebook, but that's, is that through? So they're talking to not the person, but the business in Messenger, right? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So it's really funny because you want to position yourself as a business [00:11:30] with a team generally out there, but you also want to realize that people want to do business with people.

[00:11:37] Rina: It's true. It is absolutely true. So you can actually set up the messenger on Facebook to to be auto sent to a member on your team. So that's one thing that you can do. I'm not, I still think that they get the page. Messenger, but it can allow people to go in and [00:12:00] introduce themselves so that would be useful.

[00:12:02] Rina: But yeah, it works completely different than LinkedIn, which is really not that great for brands, much, much better for people. So that's true. I would agree. That's interesting. So I think we've seen a lot of people this year go over to Instagram. We've seen a lot of people that are now coming back into Facebook, into Instagram.

[00:12:24] Rina: People are maybe making some decisions leaving TikTok or making a alternative [00:12:30] plan because of the news. So it's going to be really interesting to see what, The different platforms do, especially with the AI and all the things happening in that space, right? I think we're seeing I think Phelan had Gemini in bedded in his phone search results.

[00:12:50] Rina: And we got I wonder, are you seeing anything with AI stuff inside? Like Facebook, are they generating posts for people yet? What do you think they will? Oh, [00:13:00] they will help you organize your creative. And they have the whole messenger thing set up. Those are the only two aspects that I've seen.

[00:13:09] Rina: I haven't seen anything with posting in content planner, but I also haven't looked today, but I will go to look. You gotta look every day. I didn't think of that. Every day, right? Isn't that interesting? Cause every day new things are coming up. This industry is on fire, but in a really positive way, which I think, [00:13:30] we're not all realizing, which is great, which is there's great.

[00:13:33] Rina: It's great. There's AI, but we need people to wield it. Like it is.

[00:13:38] Authentic Content vs. AI in Social Media Marketing

[00:13:38] Rina: Thing about AI that contradicts the next issue that we have on our checklist is authentic content. So how do you actually implement and utilize AI in a way that is going to come across authentically? And that is That's always the issue.

[00:13:56] Rina: So you need to actually make sure that your brand voice is there, that you're, [00:14:00] that nothing, not everything says discover or unleash. Oh, what's the one? Deep dive and delve are my two. Oh, delve I like deep, dive because I, have the fish as our logo. But if it's going to be, if you're going to use, I guess the thing about authenticity And from me and people get this wrong all the time, in my mind, it's I know we're not supposed to say it.

[00:14:27] Rina: Be judgy. But the fact is, that [00:14:30] people sometimes get mixed up about what being authentic is. It doesn't mean sharing every little aspect of yourself online, because I would never get behind that, but sounding like your, brand voice, your personality, like having a well developed personality and brand voice is super important.

[00:14:47] Rina: And so when, and being accurate, and this is what, And that's what really irks me when I read other people's marketing, who are using AI is they'll say things like, and this, came up for me with a client because she actually [00:15:00] moved to our agency away from another agency based on this one thing alone, or one of these, this is one of our top pet peeves is that they kept saying it's a deep dive when it was really a half an hour podcast, right?

[00:15:15] Rina: Which is never a deep dive. You cannot deep. If it's going to surface. Okay. Yeah. If you're going to say deep dive, it actually needs to be a freaking deep dive, right? Yeah, you could say, dive, dive, just take, a dive in, dive into this topic [00:15:30] for half an hour. Great. And that's real. That is real.

[00:15:34] Rina: That is believable. That is. It's grounded in reality. And that's the thing that I find is the most frustrating thing with AI is it makes everything sound fan freaking tastic and way, and blows, blows it up way more than it actually is. Something is, what was the word that came out yesterday that I had to redo?

[00:15:54] Rina: It was wasn't extraordinary. It was something, but it was something like fan freaking [00:16:00] tastic. And it, I looked at the content, I'm like, is this though? Is this that? Is this exciting? Is this really do we really love this? Or is this actually just really useful and and a great start to learn about a topic, yeah and that's the thing. I think things now will take more research to sift through the plethora of content. Good content is still. [00:16:30] Good content, which can't just be spit out. Like you actually have to have knowledge. Also personalized content. And this is where they're trying to like Google in particular, trying to get rid of the the the content farming practices that have been done.

[00:16:46] Rina: So the idea that you can pull stuff off of the internet and re, Restate the exact same things that have been said millions of times already is not helpful. So what they're looking for [00:17:00] that's going to be helpful is to personalize it for your company, personalize it for your clients or like the case studies, introducing case studies.

[00:17:08] Rina: So you might have the top five things to do on Instagram as opposed that everybody's done, but you might put like your examples might be actually client examples rather than just Statements of do this, and this, these are the results we got when we did it with this client so that you're [00:17:30] actually creating personalized content, like custom content for yourself.

[00:17:35] Rina: And that's going to be super important when it comes to creating this authentic brand feel that is less about. Farming information, which is what they're trying to get away from. Super important. And that farming information thing, which is really interesting in SEO. If there's two pieces of content that are identical, Google has to wait, which one [00:18:00] is better.

[00:18:00] Rina: And so if you would say have two websites and you have the same content on both, you can actually tell Google to prefer one over the other. Yeah. So you can still have, or as a, for your own content. For your own content, for your own content I don't like, I don't know how you would devalue someone else's if they've copied you.

[00:18:21] Rina: They just go down over time because they're the spam. But, for somebody who's maybe separating their businesses or they have, [00:18:30] a piece of content on one business that will suit the other one somehow versus upping it and removing it, yeah. So I, there's a lot going on in, in the digital.

[00:18:42] Rina: space, I believe for especially for socials. I know I talk about SEO and stuff a lot, but I'm so interested in the, cross platform integration, the AI stuff that's happening, the, I'd like to up my game on Instagram. [00:19:00] And so I'm going to be following you, Rina.I'm very excited about that.

[00:19:04] Rina: Cause we're going to be doing some really fun stuff on our Instagram page soon. Okay, so what I wanted to talk about is again, hi the, idea of this authentic content also includes high quality and what we're moving around, and we've seen this on almost every platform, we're moving away from highly branded content.

[00:19:25] Rina: So you might not want to put your logo on every single thing that you put up. That's or you might [00:19:30] not want a template exactly for everything. The same every time. Okay. Yeah. Those especially cards on videos. So you, the thing that we know gets the best engagement is especially for video is when it's a picture of a screen cap of a stop.

[00:19:50] Rina: Yeah. Yeah, that one. So those kinds of images, I hope nobody's screencapped in that one. But those [00:20:00] images actually got way more clicks. So if you're targeting the right people, then that's going to give you a more higher click. And it also seems more believable and less less slick. Do we put, are we putting, I know YouTube took off their story or their short thing cover.

[00:20:22] Rina: Do we still have Instagram covers and for reels and things? Yeah, we do. Yeah, we do. We don't, I [00:20:30] don't use them anymore. Sometimes I'll use them. Okay, so that's the line. So we'll use them so that you can't actually see them. So what we do is we take the very first frame that's going to happen. We create a still, and then we might put the hook Like the hook, the video on that particular screen.

[00:20:48] Rina: So it looks like we've put a sentence on the video itself, but we actually haven't. That's how we technically, how we do it. Yeah. So there's a big strategy [00:21:00] that goes on in there now. Oh, totally. Yeah. Totally. I a lot of that strategy I'm picking up from TikTok, but it seems to work really well on Instagram also.

[00:21:10] Rina: Yeah. That's the, so where do people go from TikTok? They're going to go to Instagram. Would you recommend them separating their Instagram and Facebook feeds? Again, it depends. You're going to ask me all the questions and I'm just going to always say it depends. It depends on what your goals are for Facebook.

[00:21:28] Rina: We do, for most [00:21:30] of our clients I will post them. Facebook and put it out as a real on sorry post a real on Instagram and put it as a real on Facebook. Ideally, if you have all the time in the world and you're creating a ton of content, then it's better to separate. But at the same time, I don't think it brings, it depends on where you are in your business.

[00:21:53] Rina: If you're just starting out, then don't do that. Like just do the same thing, put it out make, little changes on how you're [00:22:00] presenting the information and feed the algorithm. And, especially if you have no ad budget and you want to make sure what we're trying to do with that, with the organic.

[00:22:13] Rina: With the organic strategies, which is what we're really focusing on here is we want to get the best algorithmic push. For our money. So let the numbers tell you when the next post should come out. Don't, go on a sequence [00:22:30] of a one post every day. That might work better on Instagram. It's not going to work that great on Facebook.

[00:22:35] Rina: I know that much. They also talk about video versus photos. So video is definitely a king, but photos are still working quite well on Instagram. So we shouldn't abandon them completely. Not everybody's flipping through reels on Instagram. Some older people like me is scrolling through the feed, right?

[00:22:56] Rina: So you want to make sure there's something there for them. And same [00:23:00] with Facebook, cause you got to go to a different spot to look at reels on Facebook. And, So yes, it depends. And what we don't want to do and what I never recommend is creating a whole pile of content and just continually posting.

[00:23:14] Rina: It's just not the best idea. So what happens on most of these algorithmic platforms is that you will get continue to get reach every time you post something, and then you get some engagement, you get a little more, and then you get another piece of engagement, you get a little more, you get another. And [00:23:30] that's why engagement so important and why we're always looking for it.

[00:23:33] Rina: But as soon as you make another post, the algorithmic push on that previous post flattens. Interesting. Yeah. So best to, yeah, okay. That makes sense. So you want to have the, your content do the best job it can before you're posting new content. Yeah. And if you look at your insights, You can actually see what is the best cycle for my [00:24:00] content on Facebook.

[00:24:01] Rina: You can do that. And you can decide that it might be every three days on Facebook, or you might want to make sure that your best post, your more important post comes after the post that has gets you, that you know is going to get you the most engagement, because you're also rewarded with your algorithm.

[00:24:19] Rina: So whatever, if you did a really good job on one post, and that's why you see a lot of these weird polls and memes and things that go out right before right before [00:24:30] a sales post. So you kick up that algorithm, and then you make your sales post. And then that sales post will do better than say you do it the opposite way where you do the sales post first that week and then the, meme or whatever fun post you've got going on second.

[00:24:47] Rina: So you, that, that's something to consider too. And we're just, we only have three more minutes. Can we just take, make sure that we, yeah. The cross platform integration. Generate quality [00:25:00] leads. There's one really big topic that we haven't talked about that I think we can just at least cover enough to get, to get going.

[00:25:09] Rina: And that's the integration.

[00:25:10] E-commerce and Social Media Integration

[00:25:10] Rina: It seems that all platforms are integrating shopping even more seamlessly. They're trying to remove all the friction points so that you can actually just go straight from post to shop. And and if you're not, if you've got an e commerce site. Set up somewhere, or if you have products that you can sell online fairly [00:25:30] easily, then you want to be utilizing that ask that aspect and looking into that area of social media across the board, not just Facebook and Instagram.

[00:25:39] Rina: And to make sure that you're set up for success, I buy things and I buy things how I buy, I am a discerning shopper and Okay, so in a rush, yeah, I might head over to [00:26:00] Amazon. I know that YouTube has been integrating video with shopping. I know that TikTok does it.

[00:26:06] Rina: I haven't bought anything off TikTok. I don't know if you have. I've almost, but then and then I'm like, ugh. This is a lot of work. I actually don't know because I know I bought something from either TikTok or Instagram and it was a very big something like that was a very big. What is the something?

[00:26:24] Rina: You got to share the something. Oh yeah. No, I think I've mentioned it before. Oh. [00:26:30] Yes, you bought a program. Yeah. So I bought the top funnel program and then I bought the large program that they were sold me afterwards. So that's I don't know, that was a lot of money that I, paid. And you're not the only one.

[00:26:44] Rina: I know. I'm not, embarrassed about it. It was the perfect targeting for me. It was exactly what I was looking for at that time. And they did an excellent job of targeting me. And it probably helped you. Yeah. And it took me about eight [00:27:00] times of seeing that ad before I booked the sales call. That'd be right.

[00:27:05] Rina: So seven, eight touches. Yeah. You can't, when you look at the, yes, exactly. Although I think I got the same ad over and over again, that many times, which surprised me. Oh, so that, you know what strategy that is. No, that's repeat, repeat, When you're addressing your ads, when you're looking at your ad results, you want to be looking at [00:27:30] I forgot what the metric is called.

[00:27:32] Rina: It's called it's not repeats. Now I got that in my head. What is it called? It's called, I don't know, but it's a word. Is it's usually people turn it off even if it's at 1. 5, but I usually wait until at least. It's not retargeting, it's it's the number of times that your ad is served to the same person.

[00:27:55] Rina: Yeah. Yeah. You can I know in Google ads, you set that up to be only four, [00:28:00] if you're going to do that. Four max. In, I don't think they have that option in Facebook. You just get there. Yeah. You have to check in on that. That is not when you're not changing the content out. After 1. 3 times.

[00:28:17] Rina: And we are out of time. Ah, it's good to be back. If you're joining us, pipe in and say hi. I see Phalen shot us another message about chatbot and messages. Oh, wow. It's crazy out there. And Rina?

[00:28:29] Wrapping Up and Looking Ahead

[00:28:29] Rina: Before [00:28:30] we go, do you know what we're talking about next week? Yes, I haven't hit this. I am I'm so on it today.

[00:28:36] Rina: It's so weird. So we are talking about the key elements, every website homepage needs, and I believe that will be me and Greg. That's awesome. I guess Phelan's getting a little break after the seven weeks. I think I might buy him a cake for managing the slash video podcast that we do. If you're joining us for the first time on another channel, we [00:29:00] post Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, I think now, Rina our Geek Speak, which we do weekly, right?

[00:29:07] Rina: So just tune in wherever you are and we'll see y'all next week. Sounds good. Yeah. Bye. Bye.

Episode Transcript

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[00:00:00] Rina: I'm Pip Seymour, digital media. This is Rina from Littleworks Indymedia. And what are we talking about today, Rina? We are talking about Instagram and Facebook strategies in 2024. What's working and what's not working. I just added that second piece in because we're already in May. Okay. Let's get onto our topic though, because we only have minutes and I know you love this. This is my wheelhouse. Just a couple of things I wanted to talk [00:00:30] about and some questions I'd like to pose because I want to know what other people are trying out there.

[00:00:34] Exploring Instagram Hashtag Strategies
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[00:00:34] Rina: But one of the things that came up for me recently in two different sources was the hashtags on Instagram. So there's a thought that's moved. That's circulating on social media that adding hashtags. Instagram posts might not be the best idea. So while it could get you some new followers, maybe some new people that are reading your [00:01:00] posts, what they say is that it takes like half, it takes half of your algorithm percentage away.

[00:01:08] Rina: So it splits off what would normally go to your follower list if you don't use hashtags. So, some people are saying that it's probably Possibly better to use, not to not use hashtags if you want more engagement on your Instagram posts, I suppose on the other side of it, though, if you're looking to get new users and grow your [00:01:30] Instagram, then perhaps using the hashtags is a really good idea.

[00:01:33] Rina: So has anyone tried that out there? If you have, I'd love to know if you've done any testing and how that's worked out for you. This is specific to Instagram. By the way, just to make sure that everyone's clear on that. So I'd love to hear because I haven't tested it yet, but I'm planning on rolling that out in the next few weeks just to see what kind of results that gives us.

[00:01:55] Rina: So are you going to test on so an account that has a [00:02:00] large following versus an account that has a small following for that? What are you thinking? I'll probably working on midsize because that's really what I, what my client. My clients are, but first I'll try it on my own account to see how that works and then I'll see how that does.

[00:02:17] Rina: I suspect that's going to be a big difference as to whether or not how many followers you have will, play into if that's an effective strategy or not. And so every [00:02:30] year, like Facebook and Instagram are a bit like the Google algorithm updates, there's updates and we have to identify the strategies to work around them to get to our audience, right?

[00:02:41] Rina: Because they're gatekeeping now with ads.

[00:02:45] The Power of Ads on Facebook and Instagram
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[00:02:45] Rina: I know you recommend ads all the time. Yeah, so that is the, that should have been the first point. I guess I didn't really organize my points in a particularly cohesive manner, but yes, absolutely. So we're going through strategies right now that are just specifically for [00:03:00] organic tactics because ads are always the best.

[00:03:03] Rina: The better answer for so many reasons, depending it does depend on what you're, trying to do. But especially if you're a small business and you don't have a huge following ads can be really useful in that, in that mix. Yeah. And so when you do ads, you do them on Facebook and then they go on Instagram.

[00:03:23] Rina: Is that correct? Or could you just have an Instagram account? You can do both. So you can [00:03:30] run ads from an Instagram account. I recommend running your Instagram ads from your meta account. Business manager or creative that sort of thing. Everybody loves one loves to hate. You mean yeah, and, you can do, I also recommend you can just do one ad and send it out to both.

[00:03:53] Rina: You can also split and have two ads under the same campaign utilizing the [00:04:00] same ad budget. And you can have multiple ads for each, stream, which is ideal. Okay. And then test those on each stream. That's interesting that each stream, a little bit more work, but better results.

[00:04:17] Rina: I find, that's true. Yeah. Because if you're in charge of your placements, rather than allowing Facebook to organize your placements for you, it can, it really, and it also, it depends on what your, [00:04:30] goal is. You really need to be goal focused. There's not one answer that's going to be perfect for every single business out there.

[00:04:37] Rina: Ah, yes. Okay. Those generic fill you into a box don't work. Every strategy has to be slightly different depending on the client, the audience, the area, right? Because if your goal is to get traffic to your website, Based on really specific targeting on your ads, then you're gonna [00:05:00] want, you're going to want Facebook to help you figure out where to where those people are.

[00:05:05] Rina: And if it is on cross platform, because Facebook buys ads space on Google ads, it buys ad space in different places that it's called cross platform, I believe, ends up being There's a lot of that inside Google ads, those people that sell programmatic advertising. It's, actually done inside Google ads and one of the components is that you could show [00:05:30] up on Facebook depending on the targeting, right?

[00:05:33] Rina: Which is really interesting. Yeah, so they both send traffic into places that you're not thinking about and you might not know. There are some other cases where I have turned that placements off because I specifically didn't want my ads going into in articles or on apps because, it wasn't the right spot in my mind.

[00:05:56] Rina: Sometimes I find those places will be cheaper. [00:06:00] So sometimes agencies utilize them to reduce your ad spend results like, the, to make it look better because the clicks are. cheaper. So it really, again, it's a, it depends as the answer is always the answer. Yes. Oh, that is always the answer.

[00:06:19] Rina: That is always the great answer. Okay. So you're telling us. Not to, so if we're not a big, or if We might not grow as well as we like if [00:06:30] we use hashtags now. Is that the new way? That's not what I said. Sorry. It's the opposite. Okay, if you're looking for more engagement then try removing the hashtags. Okay, but if you're looking for more reach, if you're looking to grow Your audience, then perhaps hashtags might work.

[00:06:49] Rina: Oh, that makes a lot of sense. Actually. Yeah. So this is going to be some testing that we're going to roll out. I'm very excited about that because I always love testing the theories, but I [00:07:00] couldn't help but note it. I felt like a weird theory to be circulating, but I saw it a number of times. So I'm going to try it out.

[00:07:07] Rina: Did you hear the weird one? So it makes sense. It does make sense because it sounds like you're just, if you want to just talk to your already existing audience. Don't try to spread yourself out. So that makes sense. It's What was it? Apple? They just came out with how you're supposed to close your tabs, basically, [00:07:30] that takes up more battery.

[00:07:32] Rina: So you're supposed to just leave everything running now. And that's the opposite of what they originally trained us to do. You're saying that leaving all your tabs open is ideal for battery? That's what they're saying, yeah, to save battery life. I feel like I'm winning all of a sudden. That's funny. So yeah, I guess You know, I think paying attention more now to social [00:08:00] strategies and a combination of strategies, like actually using search and social together is making more and more sense as we develop into this beast of an online space, right?

[00:08:11] Rina: Like you can't just be one place really anymore, or you have to be attentive to these different platforms, depending on your business and what you're doing what is it focus on one, get good at it. Move to the next, right? I think that's, yeah, and then [00:08:30] have a few more other things on our thing.

[00:08:34] Rina: We do.

[00:08:36] AI and Messenger Strategies for Engagement
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[00:08:36] Rina: So I think one of the big ones is the AI stuff we should talk about. Cause I don't know what's going on in there for AI, for social content and things like that. But one of the things that is It's becoming more and more evident on, meta is to be using AI powered messenger experiences.

[00:08:55] Rina: Now it takes a little bit of time and organization and you don't want to choose the [00:09:00] default settings on this because, Oh my God, the default settings are hilarious. One of my team members put on a default. for messaging, on one of my ads and I could not figure out for the life of me why I was getting all these weird messages from people on the ad morning.

[00:09:19] Rina: And it turns out that physically anyone who leaves a comment gets an automated message. How can we help you? Which you can see how annoying that is [00:09:30] because they're like, what do you mean? How can you help me? I didn't ask for help. It doesn't make any sense. You have to make it make sense. important to do that.

[00:09:40] Rina: And, so that's one thing. So, this is, where is this on Facebook or Instagram? It's messenger. Okay. So it's, so from what I, see, it comes on Facebook. So it's only the engagement that happens on Facebook. I haven't seen any evidence [00:10:00] of this particular system happening from Instagram.

[00:10:04] Rina: Although, I haven't looked like this is one case study that we're doing. That kind of messaging. AI messaging could be useful. I have set up messenger sequences that are super fun because they help you. They help people self identify out of a funnel, which can be useful. So you can set up sort of two spaces.

[00:10:29] Rina: So the [00:10:30] people who are good, ideal clients can go in one direction and get that phone call. And then people who are still on the fence or still don't understand they're high up in the funnel. They can go into a different, end result and get onto your newsletter list or book of webinar or whatever.

[00:10:49] Rina: So that can be quite useful, but the AI one, I'm not entirely sure how complex it could be because the AI. I'm not sure if the AI helps you do the [00:11:00] setup for these automated messages or if the AI actually speaks for you like some of the other, yeah. That piece I'm looking forward to exploring again.

[00:11:10] Rina: We are exploring Messenger stuff in LinkedIn. I like talking to people in Messenger in Facebook, but that's, is that through? So they're talking to not the person, but the business in Messenger, right? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So it's really funny because you want to position yourself as a business [00:11:30] with a team generally out there, but you also want to realize that people want to do business with people.

[00:11:37] Rina: It's true. It is absolutely true. So you can actually set up the messenger on Facebook to to be auto sent to a member on your team. So that's one thing that you can do. I'm not, I still think that they get the page. Messenger, but it can allow people to go in and [00:12:00] introduce themselves so that would be useful.

[00:12:02] Rina: But yeah, it works completely different than LinkedIn, which is really not that great for brands, much, much better for people. So that's true. I would agree. That's interesting. So I think we've seen a lot of people this year go over to Instagram. We've seen a lot of people that are now coming back into Facebook, into Instagram.

[00:12:24] Rina: People are maybe making some decisions leaving TikTok or making a alternative [00:12:30] plan because of the news. So it's going to be really interesting to see what, The different platforms do, especially with the AI and all the things happening in that space, right? I think we're seeing I think Phelan had Gemini in bedded in his phone search results.

[00:12:50] Rina: And we got I wonder, are you seeing anything with AI stuff inside? Like Facebook, are they generating posts for people yet? What do you think they will? Oh, [00:13:00] they will help you organize your creative. And they have the whole messenger thing set up. Those are the only two aspects that I've seen.

[00:13:09] Rina: I haven't seen anything with posting in content planner, but I also haven't looked today, but I will go to look. You gotta look every day. I didn't think of that. Every day, right? Isn't that interesting? Cause every day new things are coming up. This industry is on fire, but in a really positive way, which I think, [00:13:30] we're not all realizing, which is great, which is there's great.

[00:13:33] Rina: It's great. There's AI, but we need people to wield it. Like it is.

[00:13:38] Authentic Content vs. AI in Social Media Marketing
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[00:13:38] Rina: Thing about AI that contradicts the next issue that we have on our checklist is authentic content. So how do you actually implement and utilize AI in a way that is going to come across authentically? And that is That's always the issue.

[00:13:56] Rina: So you need to actually make sure that your brand voice is there, that you're, [00:14:00] that nothing, not everything says discover or unleash. Oh, what's the one? Deep dive and delve are my two. Oh, delve I like deep, dive because I, have the fish as our logo. But if it's going to be, if you're going to use, I guess the thing about authenticity And from me and people get this wrong all the time, in my mind, it's I know we're not supposed to say it.

[00:14:27] Rina: Be judgy. But the fact is, that [00:14:30] people sometimes get mixed up about what being authentic is. It doesn't mean sharing every little aspect of yourself online, because I would never get behind that, but sounding like your, brand voice, your personality, like having a well developed personality and brand voice is super important.

[00:14:47] Rina: And so when, and being accurate, and this is what, And that's what really irks me when I read other people's marketing, who are using AI is they'll say things like, and this, came up for me with a client because she actually [00:15:00] moved to our agency away from another agency based on this one thing alone, or one of these, this is one of our top pet peeves is that they kept saying it's a deep dive when it was really a half an hour podcast, right?

[00:15:15] Rina: Which is never a deep dive. You cannot deep. If it's going to surface. Okay. Yeah. If you're going to say deep dive, it actually needs to be a freaking deep dive, right? Yeah, you could say, dive, dive, just take, a dive in, dive into this topic [00:15:30] for half an hour. Great. And that's real. That is real.

[00:15:34] Rina: That is believable. That is. It's grounded in reality. And that's the thing that I find is the most frustrating thing with AI is it makes everything sound fan freaking tastic and way, and blows, blows it up way more than it actually is. Something is, what was the word that came out yesterday that I had to redo?

[00:15:54] Rina: It was wasn't extraordinary. It was something, but it was something like fan freaking [00:16:00] tastic. And it, I looked at the content, I'm like, is this though? Is this that? Is this exciting? Is this really do we really love this? Or is this actually just really useful and and a great start to learn about a topic, yeah and that's the thing. I think things now will take more research to sift through the plethora of content. Good content is still. [00:16:30] Good content, which can't just be spit out. Like you actually have to have knowledge. Also personalized content. And this is where they're trying to like Google in particular, trying to get rid of the the the content farming practices that have been done.

[00:16:46] Rina: So the idea that you can pull stuff off of the internet and re, Restate the exact same things that have been said millions of times already is not helpful. So what they're looking for [00:17:00] that's going to be helpful is to personalize it for your company, personalize it for your clients or like the case studies, introducing case studies.

[00:17:08] Rina: So you might have the top five things to do on Instagram as opposed that everybody's done, but you might put like your examples might be actually client examples rather than just Statements of do this, and this, these are the results we got when we did it with this client so that you're [00:17:30] actually creating personalized content, like custom content for yourself.

[00:17:35] Rina: And that's going to be super important when it comes to creating this authentic brand feel that is less about. Farming information, which is what they're trying to get away from. Super important. And that farming information thing, which is really interesting in SEO. If there's two pieces of content that are identical, Google has to wait, which one [00:18:00] is better.

[00:18:00] Rina: And so if you would say have two websites and you have the same content on both, you can actually tell Google to prefer one over the other. Yeah. So you can still have, or as a, for your own content. For your own content, for your own content I don't like, I don't know how you would devalue someone else's if they've copied you.

[00:18:21] Rina: They just go down over time because they're the spam. But, for somebody who's maybe separating their businesses or they have, [00:18:30] a piece of content on one business that will suit the other one somehow versus upping it and removing it, yeah. So I, there's a lot going on in, in the digital.

[00:18:42] Rina: space, I believe for especially for socials. I know I talk about SEO and stuff a lot, but I'm so interested in the, cross platform integration, the AI stuff that's happening, the, I'd like to up my game on Instagram. [00:19:00] And so I'm going to be following you, Rina.I'm very excited about that.

[00:19:04] Rina: Cause we're going to be doing some really fun stuff on our Instagram page soon. Okay, so what I wanted to talk about is again, hi the, idea of this authentic content also includes high quality and what we're moving around, and we've seen this on almost every platform, we're moving away from highly branded content.

[00:19:25] Rina: So you might not want to put your logo on every single thing that you put up. That's or you might [00:19:30] not want a template exactly for everything. The same every time. Okay. Yeah. Those especially cards on videos. So you, the thing that we know gets the best engagement is especially for video is when it's a picture of a screen cap of a stop.

[00:19:50] Rina: Yeah. Yeah, that one. So those kinds of images, I hope nobody's screencapped in that one. But those [00:20:00] images actually got way more clicks. So if you're targeting the right people, then that's going to give you a more higher click. And it also seems more believable and less less slick. Do we put, are we putting, I know YouTube took off their story or their short thing cover.

[00:20:22] Rina: Do we still have Instagram covers and for reels and things? Yeah, we do. Yeah, we do. We don't, I [00:20:30] don't use them anymore. Sometimes I'll use them. Okay, so that's the line. So we'll use them so that you can't actually see them. So what we do is we take the very first frame that's going to happen. We create a still, and then we might put the hook Like the hook, the video on that particular screen.

[00:20:48] Rina: So it looks like we've put a sentence on the video itself, but we actually haven't. That's how we technically, how we do it. Yeah. So there's a big strategy [00:21:00] that goes on in there now. Oh, totally. Yeah. Totally. I a lot of that strategy I'm picking up from TikTok, but it seems to work really well on Instagram also.

[00:21:10] Rina: Yeah. That's the, so where do people go from TikTok? They're going to go to Instagram. Would you recommend them separating their Instagram and Facebook feeds? Again, it depends. You're going to ask me all the questions and I'm just going to always say it depends. It depends on what your goals are for Facebook.

[00:21:28] Rina: We do, for most [00:21:30] of our clients I will post them. Facebook and put it out as a real on sorry post a real on Instagram and put it as a real on Facebook. Ideally, if you have all the time in the world and you're creating a ton of content, then it's better to separate. But at the same time, I don't think it brings, it depends on where you are in your business.

[00:21:53] Rina: If you're just starting out, then don't do that. Like just do the same thing, put it out make, little changes on how you're [00:22:00] presenting the information and feed the algorithm. And, especially if you have no ad budget and you want to make sure what we're trying to do with that, with the organic.

[00:22:13] Rina: With the organic strategies, which is what we're really focusing on here is we want to get the best algorithmic push. For our money. So let the numbers tell you when the next post should come out. Don't, go on a sequence [00:22:30] of a one post every day. That might work better on Instagram. It's not going to work that great on Facebook.

[00:22:35] Rina: I know that much. They also talk about video versus photos. So video is definitely a king, but photos are still working quite well on Instagram. So we shouldn't abandon them completely. Not everybody's flipping through reels on Instagram. Some older people like me is scrolling through the feed, right?

[00:22:56] Rina: So you want to make sure there's something there for them. And same [00:23:00] with Facebook, cause you got to go to a different spot to look at reels on Facebook. And, So yes, it depends. And what we don't want to do and what I never recommend is creating a whole pile of content and just continually posting.

[00:23:14] Rina: It's just not the best idea. So what happens on most of these algorithmic platforms is that you will get continue to get reach every time you post something, and then you get some engagement, you get a little more, and then you get another piece of engagement, you get a little more, you get another. And [00:23:30] that's why engagement so important and why we're always looking for it.

[00:23:33] Rina: But as soon as you make another post, the algorithmic push on that previous post flattens. Interesting. Yeah. So best to, yeah, okay. That makes sense. So you want to have the, your content do the best job it can before you're posting new content. Yeah. And if you look at your insights, You can actually see what is the best cycle for my [00:24:00] content on Facebook.

[00:24:01] Rina: You can do that. And you can decide that it might be every three days on Facebook, or you might want to make sure that your best post, your more important post comes after the post that has gets you, that you know is going to get you the most engagement, because you're also rewarded with your algorithm.

[00:24:19] Rina: So whatever, if you did a really good job on one post, and that's why you see a lot of these weird polls and memes and things that go out right before right before [00:24:30] a sales post. So you kick up that algorithm, and then you make your sales post. And then that sales post will do better than say you do it the opposite way where you do the sales post first that week and then the, meme or whatever fun post you've got going on second.

[00:24:47] Rina: So you, that, that's something to consider too. And we're just, we only have three more minutes. Can we just take, make sure that we, yeah. The cross platform integration. Generate quality [00:25:00] leads. There's one really big topic that we haven't talked about that I think we can just at least cover enough to get, to get going.

[00:25:09] Rina: And that's the integration.

[00:25:10] E-commerce and Social Media Integration
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[00:25:10] Rina: It seems that all platforms are integrating shopping even more seamlessly. They're trying to remove all the friction points so that you can actually just go straight from post to shop. And and if you're not, if you've got an e commerce site. Set up somewhere, or if you have products that you can sell online fairly [00:25:30] easily, then you want to be utilizing that ask that aspect and looking into that area of social media across the board, not just Facebook and Instagram.

[00:25:39] Rina: And to make sure that you're set up for success, I buy things and I buy things how I buy, I am a discerning shopper and Okay, so in a rush, yeah, I might head over to [00:26:00] Amazon. I know that YouTube has been integrating video with shopping. I know that TikTok does it.

[00:26:06] Rina: I haven't bought anything off TikTok. I don't know if you have. I've almost, but then and then I'm like, ugh. This is a lot of work. I actually don't know because I know I bought something from either TikTok or Instagram and it was a very big something like that was a very big. What is the something?

[00:26:24] Rina: You got to share the something. Oh yeah. No, I think I've mentioned it before. Oh. [00:26:30] Yes, you bought a program. Yeah. So I bought the top funnel program and then I bought the large program that they were sold me afterwards. So that's I don't know, that was a lot of money that I, paid. And you're not the only one.

[00:26:44] Rina: I know. I'm not, embarrassed about it. It was the perfect targeting for me. It was exactly what I was looking for at that time. And they did an excellent job of targeting me. And it probably helped you. Yeah. And it took me about eight [00:27:00] times of seeing that ad before I booked the sales call. That'd be right.

[00:27:05] Rina: So seven, eight touches. Yeah. You can't, when you look at the, yes, exactly. Although I think I got the same ad over and over again, that many times, which surprised me. Oh, so that, you know what strategy that is. No, that's repeat, repeat, When you're addressing your ads, when you're looking at your ad results, you want to be looking at [00:27:30] I forgot what the metric is called.

[00:27:32] Rina: It's called it's not repeats. Now I got that in my head. What is it called? It's called, I don't know, but it's a word. Is it's usually people turn it off even if it's at 1. 5, but I usually wait until at least. It's not retargeting, it's it's the number of times that your ad is served to the same person.

[00:27:55] Rina: Yeah. Yeah. You can I know in Google ads, you set that up to be only four, [00:28:00] if you're going to do that. Four max. In, I don't think they have that option in Facebook. You just get there. Yeah. You have to check in on that. That is not when you're not changing the content out. After 1. 3 times.

[00:28:17] Rina: And we are out of time. Ah, it's good to be back. If you're joining us, pipe in and say hi. I see Phalen shot us another message about chatbot and messages. Oh, wow. It's crazy out there. And Rina?

[00:28:29] Wrapping Up and Looking Ahead
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[00:28:29] Rina: Before [00:28:30] we go, do you know what we're talking about next week? Yes, I haven't hit this. I am I'm so on it today.

[00:28:36] Rina: It's so weird. So we are talking about the key elements, every website homepage needs, and I believe that will be me and Greg. That's awesome. I guess Phelan's getting a little break after the seven weeks. I think I might buy him a cake for managing the slash video podcast that we do. If you're joining us for the first time on another channel, we [00:29:00] post Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, I think now, Rina our Geek Speak, which we do weekly, right?

[00:29:07] Rina: So just tune in wherever you are and we'll see y'all next week. Sounds good. Yeah. Bye. Bye.

Instagram and Facebook Strategies in 2024

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