Social media is one of the fastest-changing industries out there. It is changing everything: Your customers’ expectations, the way they find and interact with you. Is your business keeping up? Here are a few ideas … The post Three Social Media Marketing Trends to Embrace This Year! appeared first on Paper.li blog.
Social media is one of the fastest-changing industries out there. It is changing everything: Your customers’ expectations, the way they find and interact with you. Is your business keeping up? Here are a few ideas …
Social media for e-commerce has become a critical element in sales growth for many businesses. Using social media to boost your marketing offers many benefits to help build your business, so don’t wait to explore these valuable channels.
Sprout Social reports that after following a brand on social media, consumers continue to engage in other ways. Ninety-one percent check out the brand’s website or app, 89 percent make a purchase, and 85 percent recommend the brand to someone they know.
Let’s look at what you can do to promote your e-commerce business with social media and which tools and best practices you should use.
14 Steps for E-Commerce Companies to Find Success Using Social Media
The more people integrate social media platforms into their daily routines, the more it makes sense to market to them here. Consumers spend almost two and a half hours per day on social media channels.
Why not reach them with social posts where you know they spend a significant amount of time? For example, eye-catching posts with appealing visuals like these posts from Sephora are a great way to market products on Instagram.
How can you stay on top of new developments and know what you should be doing to serve your customers best? Follow industry leaders in your feeds and keep tabs on trending topics in your industry. You can also discreetly watch what other companies are doing that seems to gain traction.
While social commerce is still relatively new, it’s making a significant impact on e-commerce businesses and how they market to customers. As each platform improves its features to help users sell, opportunities grow for businesses to tap into these audiences to boost their marketing.
The steps below can help you develop best practices in your business to optimize your social media for e-commerce.
1. Define Your E-Commerce Company’s Social Media Goals
There are two main ways to use social media for e-commerce: to drive traffic to your company website or drive sales. While each can be important in its way, it’s essential to identify which you value most so you can effectively plan how to use your resources.
It’s essential to establish your goals before investing time into strategy and implementation to ensure you’re taking action to move you closer to your goals.
If you don’t set goals, you can’t measure your success or repeat what works.
2. Decide If You Want to Become a Social Commerce Company
Social commerce is selling directly to your customers on social media platforms. Everything from discovering your product or service, to a buying decision, to the checkout process happens in the app or platform they are already using.
Target’s Facebook page, for example, has a shop built right into it where customers can browse and purchase products.
You might find success with social commerce if you sell products that a potential customer can quickly evaluate online from a photo and might buy on impulse. Think lower price points and items that aren’t likely to need returning.
An apparel company might successfully sell their clothing and accessories on social media as the process suits how people tend to buy these products.
When is social commerce perhaps not a great fit? If your products or services are higher ticket items where customers want to discern quality in-person. A customer buying an engagement ring will want to spend more time evaluating options and vetting sellers than social commerce might allow.
Start by focusing on the networks your ideal customer and target audience uses the most. Take time to engage your audiences and respond to their comments and questions.
Whether or not you want to pursue social commerce for your business, you should still be investing in social media marketing. Social channels can help boost your visibility, increase website traffic, generate leads, and help you engage with your customers.
3. Create a Social Media Strategy for Your E-Commerce Company
You’ll need a social media strategy for your e-commerce company that considers your goals, your resources, and the best platforms that will help you reach your customers. Once you clarify these parts of your strategy, you can expand on each element to create effective campaigns that fit your goals.
When you work from a social media strategy, you’re also more likely to use best practices to help you be more effective overall. Get a clear idea of your target audience, where they spend time, and their worries. From here, do some research to check which platforms are most popular with your target demographic.
With this information, you’ll be better able to plan where your time and effort will pay off.
4. Determine Which Social Media Channels Your E-Commerce Company Should Target
First, look for established platforms that offer a range of features, different ways to advertise and sell products, and focused targeting. Some may appeal to you because they are an excellent fit for your products.
The apparel brand we mentioned earlier would likely want to use Instagram because it is image-focused, and consumers are already used to discovering and purchasing apparel on the app.
Next, consider which platforms attract your target demographic. You’ll want to go where your ideal customers spend time.
What kind of data might inform your decision? With some research, you might discover 60 percent of Pinterest users are women, and 98 percent of Facebook users access the site via mobile devices. From these and other data points, you’ll be able to pinpoint which platforms might be best for your business.
5. Optimize Your Social Media Accounts for E-Commerce
One of the first steps you’ll need to take is to optimize your social media accounts. Fill out your profiles completely, adding helpful information wherever you can.
Make it easy for people to find the information they need at a glance to understand your business and buy from you. Perform research to identify relevant keywords and hashtags to use so you show up in search results. Make your location obvious.
Be sure to link to pages where customers can find the products they clicked through to see. Use clear CTAs so people know what to do to buy from you.
6. Run Social Media Paid Campaigns Optimized for E-Commerce Companies
Nearly every social platform has a version of paid advertising that can allow you to raise visibility even as organic reach becomes more challenging to achieve.
There are also different ad types on each, so it can be valuable to explore the various options. You may try different types of ads on each platform. You might try retargeting ads on Facebook, but use Shoppable posts on Instagram. Take advantage of audience targeting capabilities on each.
7. Use Automation Tools
If social media is a part of your sales strategy, you’ll need to explore automation tools and use what you can. Why is automation so key to social selling? People expect timely and personal interaction on social media networks. To meet their expectations, you’re going to need help.
It’s simply not possible to run a successful business and spend every waking moment online replying to comments and answering questions. Social media is like a storefront that is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week (plus holidays!), so don’t take the chance of turning people away or missing crucial requests or concerns.
8. Consider the Mobile Experience
More people are accessing social media networks and websites via their phones than ever before. When it comes to social media for e-commerce, however, mobile design is just the first step. The whole purchase journey needs to be seamless.
Payment options should be mobile-friendly. Apple Pay, for example, allows you to let users make purchases from their phones. We’ll look at more payment options further down the page.
Consider content formats as well. With more than 100 million hours of video consumed on Facebook every day, you’ll want to offer videos in vertical format for mobile users. People like convenience, a personalized experience, and to feel like they can easily navigate and engage with your site.
9. Optimize Landing Pages for E-Commerce
Optimizing your landing pages for e-commerce helps create a better user experience by providing people with all the information they need to make a buying decision.
If they click through to your site, you want them to understand quickly they’re in the right place. They should be able to move seamlessly to purchasing the item they wanted.
Ensure you have high-quality product images and videos, if appropriate, with well-written product copy outlining features and benefits. Include sizing or specifications on the product page and clear calls to action (CTAs) to help them convert.
10. Create Clear CTAs on Social Media Optimized for E-Commerce
CTAs are what motivate your user to convert to a customer. Take the time to craft these carefully and include them in each interaction you have with potential customers.
You can use different CTAs, like asking questions, including hyperlinks, or simply adding clickable buttons. Your page design might include banners with clear offers, sidebar clickable buttons, or pop-up ads to help customers convert.
11. Ensure Easy Website Navigation
User experience (UX) should be your priority when you launch your e-commerce site. You want shoppers to find products quickly and understand how to move from browsing to purchasing without confusion.
The easier you make it for people to buy from you, the better the chance they’ll convert from visitor to customer. Keep your navigation simple to understand and avoid design elements that are too unusual for people to use easily.
Organize your site information with clear labels for product categories and avoid tricky navigation styles that could create confusion.
12. Offer Easy Payment Options for Customers
If you’re going to run a successful e-commerce site, you need to offer reliable and trustworthy ways for people to pay for your products and services.
You can explore a wide range of payment options for your e-commerce business, each with its features and policies. Options include Square, PayPal, Stripe, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and many others.
Some social media platforms allow customers to purchase directly from the app, depending on what features you choose to use. A few of these options include Facebook (with Facebook stores, Messenger Chatbots, and Ads), Instagram (with Stories, Shopping, Live, IGTV, and Ads), and Pinterest (with Promoted Pins, Rich Pins, and Shop the Look Pins.)
You also can investigate third-party websites as a way to advertise and sell your products. Keep reading to learn more about a few of these that may support your e-commerce business.
13. Advertise and Sell on Third-Party Websites
There are other options for boosting your sales beyond your website. Third-party websites allow you to benefit from established functionality and huge audiences while building your legitimacy and website traffic.
One example of third-party website selling is Amazon. While shoppers on Amazon may realize they’re buying from you instead of directly from the retail giant itself, you still benefit from the credibility of their brand and purchasing capabilities. You also get to tap into their vast audience of visitors with a solid intent to buy.
Another option is using sites like Like to Know It, which allows readers to purchase an item or items from an Instagram post by linking the product emailed to them.
RewardStyle is an invitation-only affiliate network focusing on lifestyle, fashion, and beauty products, allowing sellers to earn money through content creation featuring certain products.
14. Track the Success of Your E-Commerce Company’s Social Media Strategy
It’s essential to track your strategy’s results as you implement your ideas, so you can accurately analyze your successes and where you need to improve.
Choose quantifiable metrics representing engagement (such as likes, shares, comments, or retweets). Track your website traffic and how much traffic you are getting from your social media channels. Keep track of sales generated by social media marketing and sales completed online or through your campaigns.
It’s not always easy to tie your efforts to your results, but you can try. With specific metrics, you’ll be better able to repeat the working tactics and revisit the areas that don’t seem to be offering you the same return on investment.
Conclusion
Social media is a big part of everyday life for many people and offers an excellent opportunity to get in front of potential customers and sell your products and services. You can use various platforms to strengthen your brand, increase sales, and develop loyal fans.
If you also sell online, using social media for e-commerce is a natural step for your business as you plan future growth. If you haven’t tapped into the benefits of social media marketing yet, start now, so you don’t miss out on the opportunity it represents.
With the steps outlined above, you’ll be ready to reap the benefits of social media for your e-commerce business. If you haven’t explored these options or want somehelp to make them work for you, reach out for digital marketing support.
Have you invested in social media for e-commerce in your business? Which of the above tips will you try next?
Social media is often your customer’s top choice to try and solve any issues they are experiencing with your site or your product. This brings up a few challenges for big and small businesses: Customers …
With more than 3.6 billion social media users worldwide, social media marketing cannot be ignored.
Savvy marketers know social media is a vital part of every marketing campaign. For businesses, every social media platform is an opportunity to engage with their target audience.
Even marketing stars know that strategizing and managing even a few social networks can be overwhelming without the right management social media tools in place.
Consider this:
60 percent of company mentions on Twitter occur when you aren’t in the office.
How can you keep up with your Twitter account when you haven’t even checked Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok today? What about all those new social media sites that are popping up every other day (or so it seems)?
How do you know which ones to target for your brand and which to skip?
Take a deep breath.
Managing your social media shouldn’t be overwhelming. Social media tools can help:
Save you time by doing the posting, social listening, and hashtag research for you.
Save you money by allowing you to allocate resources to other tasks.
Maybe even save your brand’s reputation by catching a negative post in time for you to run interference and resolve the issue quickly.
I’ve done the research for you and organized the top social media marketing into five categories. We start with tools that help with the four stages of social media marketing: discovery, creation, monitoring and scheduling, and analyzing. Then, I added a fifth miscellaneous category at the end.
If you find yourself stuck in a particular stage, just head down to the relevant section.
Are you ready to get productive, optimize your social media marketing, and become an expert social media marketer?
Let’s begin.
Content Research and Discovery
According to Statista, users post 347,222 stories to Instagram, and 157,000 share messages on Facebook every minute. It can be overwhelming to find value-added content in all that noise.
Let’s look at content curation social media tools that help filter meaningful content so you can find images, posts, and conversations that will resonate with your audience.
This tool organizes stories shared by friends and followers on Twitter, Facebook, and other social apps. It’s available as a web, Android, and iOS app.
It displays aggregated stories from your social media circle as easy-to-read links in a feed. You can also add influencers in your niche.
You can catch up on news from the last hour, or go through the past week using the “Sort By” option. You can tap into content shared by your second-degree connections, as well.
Finally, you can also curate content from your newsfeed into an email newsletter.
Feedly aggregates the top content in your niche from industry blogs and other publications. Their AI bot, Leo, acts as a research assistant that learns your reading habits and delivers articles you’ll be interested in.
It then “reads” each article and annotates them with relevant summaries, analyses, and links to relevant content.
Leo learns from your behavior. If you save an article, it will show you more like it. If you click “less like this,” Leo will remember and show you fewer articles on that topic.
You can also set up priorities within topics. Choose a sub-topic, and Leo will include those articles under a Priorities tab.
There are several reasons I love this tool. On top of content discovery, you can use it to research keywords, track online trends, and even find influencers within your vertical.
Use it to dissect your competition, understand your audience, and find content with the most social network shares.
The Chrome extension lets you do your research while you browse, as well. To use it, enter your keyword or phrase to discover the top-performing content.
You can use the filters to customize your search by language, time frame, country, and a number of other parameters.
You can find the popularity of content on a particular social network by using the “sort by” feature.
You can also plug a blog URL into the tool to find its top-performing content pieces.
According to Venngage, 49 percent of surveyed marketers rated visual content as very important, but 43 percent said producing it consistently was their biggest challenge.
Social media has become undeniably visual, and having a presence on Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, YouTube, and other visual platforms is paramount.
Here are a couple of social media tools to help you create videos, images, diagrams, Pinterest boards, infographics, and more.
This is a simple graphic design web tool with pre-made templates for all kinds of social networks and uses.
It combines some of the best elements of Photoshop with a drag-and-drop functionality.
For every template, there are a variety of layouts, fonts, and backgrounds to choose from. And if you find yourself having trouble with a particular functionality, there are free tutorials to help you design better graphics.
For example, if you’re considering repurposing your most shared content for an infographic, there’s a tutorial for creating simple infographics with Canva.
Here are ten websites to source free and premium stock photos you can use in your designs.
Biteable allows you to create videos, animations, motion graphics, and a number of other visuals for social, ads, and even presentations. You can use any of their templates to get started.
You can sync your marketing calendar with theirs to get tips and ready-to-go video templates for relevant seasons, holidays, and events.
Pixlr is a freemium service with a lot of the functionality of Photoshop.
Its free services include Pixlr X (for express) with essential tools for quick editing. Pixlr E (for editor) offers a more extensive selection of tools for more sophisticated content creation and Remove BG, an AI-based background removal tool.
If you need even more photo editing capabilities, they offer a subscription-based plan that includes more stickers, overlays, and visual effects, as well.
Pixlr offers templates, as well, some free and some part of the subscription service.
Pro Tip: One-Pixel Pinterest Image
The images you share on Pinterest should be vertically aligned. But, if you insert a tall image directly into a blog post, it’ll take up a lot of real estate.
The solution is uploading the tall Pinterest image below the first picture of your post. Then, change its height and width to one pixel each.
Now, the image will appear when you click on the “Pin it” button to share on Pinterest. The alt text of the Pinterest image automatically serves as the caption for the image.
Monitoring and Scheduling
It’s impossible to manage your brand’s social media accounts 24 hours a day, seven days a week. But the world of social media doesn’t turn off at 5 p.m.
Social media tools for monitoring and scheduling can help. They can save you hours every week by combining your brand activity from multiple social media networks into one dashboard.
8. Hootsuite
Hoot is a full-service social media management tool that lets you track mentions, engagement, and other metrics across all of your social platforms. You can schedule and track posts using their analytics tools and respond to mentions via your dashboard.
Hopper HQ connects your brand with top content creators in your vertical. Once you choose from a list of recommended creators, they deliver content you can share in posts and paid ads.
CoSchedule is a simple, integrated social media and blog publishing calendar.
It also includes a suite of organizing tools for social media, brand assets, work, and content. Schedule your blog posts, collaborate with different authors on a post, and assign specific tasks to different people.
It has an easy-to-use, drag-and-drop interface, as well.
In the calendar view itself, you can also keep track of the most shared and engaged with content.
If This Then That is a fantastic social media tool to connect applications and automate social actions. IFTTT offers a series of applets that allow you to connect platforms and streamline your work.
For example, you can send your Instagrams to Twitter as native tweets. You can also get a weekly notification email of all of the people who followed you on Twitter. You can also archive tweets to a Google spreadsheet.
You can create your own applet from scratch by choosing a trigger and appending an action to it.
Or, you can use applets created by other people.
In this article, Kristi Hines explains a killer recipe to directly schedule social media updates from your Feedly account.
You can schedule the articles you choose to read later in Feedly on your social network accounts through Buffer. You only need Gmail and Buffer accounts to set up this applet.
Social Media Analytics
The best way to find the most effective social network for your business is by tracking your social media marketing efforts.
The right data allows you to calculate ROI from your social media marketing campaigns. It’ll help you find your top-performing content, so you can tweak your campaign and optimize your marketing efforts.
Let’s look at a few social media tools to measure and analyze your social activities.
Google Analytics is one of the most widely used analytics tools to track user behavior on websites. But, you can also track social reports under its reporting tab.
To access your social network standing, log into your Analytics account. Then, head over to the Reporting tab. Click on Acquisition > Social.
Set up goals inside Analytics to access these social reports. There are standard templates inside analytics you can use to set actionable goals for your social media marketing campaigns.
There are eight reports you can see under social analytics–Overview, Network Referral, Data Hub Activity, Landing Pages, Trackbacks, Conversions, Plugins, and Visitors Flow.
Once you set up goals, you’ll be able to see your social media impact in Overview.
The most important report is conversions.
You can break down your social media campaign by network and find out the most successful platform.
If you’re interested in the user behavior–the like and share buttons your visitors are clicking–you’ll need to set up social plugins.
Although setting up this report might take time, the end results are worth the effort:
A clear picture of the social network that provides the best ROI and the kind of content you should create for it.
HubSpot has a number of tools, from marketing automation to a full content management system. Their Marketing Hub allows you to create and manage social media posts, video for social, and conversations from their platform.
Olapic is a great tool to add to your visual marketing arsenal. You can use the tool to discover, curate, and schedule user-generated content across Instagram, Pinterest, and all your other social accounts.
Use it on your site, in your social ads, and in your emails to lift engagement and increase conversions.
Not only does Semrush allow you to create, schedule, and track your own posts, it also lets you track and analyze your competitors’ posts, too. You can also use it to optimize your social ads.
SEMRush is also helpful for general keyword and content research in your vertical (or you can also use Ubersuggest for this).
Miscellaneous Tools To Increase Social Engagement on Your Website
You are already equipped with the best social media tools to research, curate, plan, schedule, monitor, and analyze your social media marketing efforts.
What about social engagement on your website? The end goal of most social campaigns is to increase your website’s engagement and traffic.
Here are some tools to power your website and drive social media interaction.
A simple way to increase the number of tweets on your blog post is by adding a link to every actionable comment. When a reader clicks on the link, it automatically adds a tweet to their Twitter account.
You can track all of your embedded links from the dashboard.
You can also analyze their performance using their analytics tool.
If you’re on WordPress, there is a simpler alternative–Better Click to Tweet plugin.
Floating share buttons can either help or hurt your engagement and conversions, according to BigCommerce. For example, sharing buttons with counters can hurt conversions if the number of shares is low, while adding share buttons to product pages can actually distract users.
The best way to find out when and where to use share buttons is through extensive testing.
If you’re on WordPress, you can start with Share Buttons by AddToAny plugin. It has the option to activate share buttons in the sidebar, as well as above and below every content piece.
You can also customize the number of social networks you want to show your visitors, from the ones below.
Influencers are a trusted source of information for your customers. A recommendation from them can lift your product sales and brand visibility.
But, how can you find influencers interested in your post, service, or product?
That’s where Onalytica comes in. It finds relevant influencers for your brand based on your article link or uploaded file.
It scans an article, then generates a list of targeted influencers in under a minute. After reverse-engineering relevant influencers, you can connect and start building a relationship.
CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer is a great tool to ensure headlines attract attention—and clicks.
Using it is simple:
Head over to www.coschedule.com/headline-analyzer.
Plug your headline in the “Type your headline here” bar.
Press the “Analyze Now” button.
You’ll get an overall score for your headline and a grade for the variety of words you’ve used, top keywords in your headline, and the sentiment your headline evokes
If a large section of your audience hangs out on Facebook, then activating Facebook Comments on your website can increase engagement and bring you closer to your social media marketing goals.
But, beware. There is a risk of comment scams that easily pass spam filters. You’ll need to stay on top of comment moderation.
Conclusion
Social media can become a huge distraction, even if it does help drive your business. Manually logging in to post blogs and business updates can eat up valuable time you could use to build a new product, take care of vendor orders, or handle customer concerns.
Start incorporating the above tools in your armory to automate repetitive tasks and batch your social media posts.
They’ll save you time every week. They’ll also improve your ROI from social media marketing and your bottom line.
Have I missed any of your favorite social media marketing tools? Can you share your social media productivity secrets? Please let me know in the comments below.
In the world of digital marketing, content is king. And keywords hold the keys to that kingdom.
They unlock connections to your target market—people who are looking for what you’re trying to sell.
When you’re setting up paid social media campaigns, keywords can help you make those critical connections and ensure your campaign’s success.
Knowing which keywords to use throughout the copy of your campaign can be a pain. If you’re not sure which ones are right, you might miss the mark and, by extension, your audience.
Popular hashtags can be the source of inspiration that gets your paid social media campaigns off the ground.
The Importance of Hashtags in Paid Social Media Campaigns
Why are the top hashtags important for inspiration and keyword ideas? Because they can provide a lot of information if you know how to look for it.
Here are the questions you should ask when looking for hashtags:
What are people talking about?
What’s the demand for a particular product or service?
Is there a rise in interest? Or is the trend on the decline?
Who is using those hashtags?
What’s the context of those conversations?
Researching popular hashtags can provide relevant insights into the conversations happening around a topic. Their power is in the data you can mine from real-life, real-time sources.
Top hashtags can also lead to other hashtags and keywords you may not have considered. As you continue to dig deeper, you may start to see some patterns to add to your campaigns.
Be on the lookout for:
New or up-and-coming hashtags
Hashtags used by other relevant target markets
Questions or concerns people are expressing
Phrases in the associated content that come up often
How to Use Trending Hashtags for Your Paid Social Media Campaigns
First, you have to find the top hashtags. Begin with what’s trending in your industry and go from there. We’ll go into more specifics on different social media platforms later.
As you dive in, explore the content surrounding the hashtags.
How do you use the information you found? It’s all about inspiration. The hashtags, phrases, and keywords you find can inform your paid social media campaigns in the following ways:
For text: What you’ve learned can be a launching point for your ad’s language. Look at the posts’ content in addition to the hashtags, and incorporate the language people in your target market use. Knowing how people talk about things can teach you how to best speak to the pain points they face and the solutions they love.
For images: What kinds of images are those hashtags often associated with? Whether you plan to use a stock image in your ad or create your own, let what you find attached to hashtags help determine the type of images you use. You may even find a meme that you can join in on, making your social media ad more engaging.
For target audiences: Use the hashtag research to inform the parameters of your social ad reach. Who is using these hashtags? Where do they live? How old are they? What else are they interested in? These stats can help you narrow the ad reach to your target audience.
For sponsored post research: In addition to helping your paid social ad content be more relevant, hashtags may also help pinpoint a recent post to put cash behind. Experiment with different top hashtags in your posts on each social platform you use. Those hashtags may help your posts perform well organically, and then you can choose to boost them with sponsorship.
Using Facebook Top Hashtags for Paid Ads
Let’s start with Facebook, one of the most popular platforms for online marketing.
You are probably only connected with a tiny number of those people, but don’t let that stop you. In fact, you can choose who sees your Facebook ads:
But, before you create the ad, you need to find the right words to use that are getting the most visibility. This is where hashtags come into play.
A quick search for #tacos on Facebook shows some drool-worthy meals from strangers around the world who made their posts public as well as from brand pages. You do this from your search bar.
That list shows you what words most commonly follow that hashtag. Additionally, when you submit the hashtag you’re searching for, Facebook shows you on the top of the next page how many people are talking about that topic:
When you type in the hashtag that interests you, Facebook also auto-fills other hashtag options to explore.
You can also explore the bookmarks that Facebook makes available, including local events, crisis response, or other timely topics. These can provide insights into why people are using this hashtag.
Using Instagram Top Hashtags for Paid Ads
Instagram is a hashtag-heavy environment, making it ideal for top hashtag research.
Much like on Facebook, you can start by typing your hashtag ideas into the search bar. Instagram not only auto-fills suggestions but also shows you how popular those hashtags are based on how many posts include them.
Instagram Explore
Are you still looking for more hashtags to dig into? Head to Instagram’s “Explore” section, with the compass icon, to see top posts related to content you have interacted with in the past. You may discover new or emerging hashtags that you didn’t know about.
Now is an excellent time to stop and talk about how hashtags don’t always translate directly into keywords and phrases for paid social media campaigns. You may have to convert from a succinct hashtag to a robust, natural way of talking. Here are a few tips for doing that:
Listen to What Influencers are Saying With Those Hashtags: Take some time to watch the video posts and Instagram stories associated with the hashtags you’re researching. Hear how they talk about the subject. What are some key phrases that come up often?
Read and Take Some Notes About What the Hashtags are Saying: Now it’s time to turn off the videos and read the actual content. What are they using those character counts to say? This is where you can learn about key phrases that everyone is using and the meat behind the hashtag topics you are researching. For instance, a top hashtag may be “#cleanbeauty,” but it’s not about skin cleanliness—it’s about toxicity in beauty products, congressional oversight, regulations in the industry, and how to know what’s safe for your family’s skin. Learning about the issues and conversations behind the topics can help you frame paid social media content in a usable way.
Talk Out Loud Using the Instagram Hashtags: Hopefully, you’re working by yourself because this could get a little awkward: It’s time to start talking to yourself. Go ahead. As you’re writing down ideas that we talked about earlier and starting to craft your social media ad content, actually saying it out loud may help disconnect you from “internet speak” and get you into using a more natural tone.
Using Twitter Top Hashtags for Paid Ads
If you’re using Twitter on your mobile device, you can hit the magnifying glass icon at the bottom of your screen to see what’s trending. If you’re on your desktop, hit “#Explore” on the left side of the screen, then click “Trending” to see currently popular hashtags.
You can see what topics Twitter thinks are important now based on their editorial board and algorithms, as well as how many tweets are using those hashtags. Keep in mind some of these are promoted hashtags, not organic ones, though—they are labeled, as you can see with “#Godfall” at the top of this screenshot.
To learn more, click on “Show More” or the “Explore” section on the desktop layout to see more about these topics and find more currently in use.
You may need to dig deep to find hashtags that are relevant to your niche. When you see a conversation or post around topics pertinent to your industry, check out those hashtags.
Don’t be afraid to see a spark of inspiration, such as a new hashtag that’s just starting to catch fire, and get onboard that topic before it becomes a wildfire.
Using LinkedIn Top Hashtags for Paid Ads
Where do you go to find the top hashtags on LinkedIn? There are a couple of different ways to start your research.
You can look up hashtags in the search bar at the top, just as you do on other social media platforms:
And like other platforms, LinkedIn will auto-recommend other options.
When you choose a hashtag, LinkedIn shows how many people are currently following that hashtag. This data can help you understand how many people may see your posts that incorporate that hashtag. You will also see top posts with that hashtag.
When you follow a hashtag you’re interested in, you can click on the three dots on the right of your followed hashtags and choose “Discover new hashtags.”
Now you’ll see all kinds of popular hashtags to inspire you.
If you want to skip those steps and just start exploring, you can go straight to LinkedIn’s Follow Fresh Perspectives tab to see the top hashtags, accounts, and companies LinkedIn recommends to you.
Context Is Key When it Comes to Using LinkedIn
Here’s the critical thing to remember about LinkedIn: It’s a popular platform for content, but it’s also very specific in its contextual use. LinkedIn is generally about professional or career conversations.
Using Pinterest Top Hashtags for Paid Ads
Are you trying to reach a creative, DIY crowd with your paid social media ads? Pinterest can show you what’s hot right now.
With Pinterest, hashtags aren’t as critical and promoted as they are on other platforms. Keywords in a post seem to be just as crucial for searching.
Here is a search for the popular term “Hygge:”
And a search for “#Hygge:”
You’ll notice similar results. So, just searching around for popular topics on Pinterest and exploring the top posts may prove just as useful.
However, if you are looking for top hashtags, there is a workaround. You can log in to the mobile app, click to create a new pin, and type a hashtag into the description section. This will give you a listing of top alternatives and stats for how popular they are.
More Tools For Finding Hashtags
If you’re still looking for the right hashtag, you may want to try one of the many hashtag search tools. These online and app tools allow you to plug in hashtags you’re using, and find related and popular hashtags. A few options include:
The key to using hashtags for paid social media is to use them as a launching point. They should inspire relevant content for your very specific target market. Hashtags can help you understand who they are, what they care about, and how they talk online.
Popular hashtags can also open the door to new opportunities for your social media strategy as you join fresh, ongoing conversations happening online and reach out to new markets.
Which popular hashtags will you be analyzing to inform your next social media ad campaign?
Suddenly you notice that none of your social media activity seems to be showing up at all. It’s like you don’t even exist on the site… Weird!
Is it a bug? Every website suffers from them sometimes, and the interactive features can often be the first to go haywire. Server maintenance could also be the culprit.
But another possibility is that you might have been “shadowbanned” (previously called ghostbanned).
Accounts that are shadowbanned are put into a kind of invisible mode. In other words, they become a “shadow” that no one can see.
In this post, we’ll talk more about what exactly shadowbanning is, and how you can tell if it happened to you.
What Is Shadowbanning?
Shadowbanning is when your posts or activity don’t show up on a site, but you haven’t received an official ban or notification.
It’s a way to let spammers continue to spam without anyone else in the community (or outside of it) seeing what they do.
That way, other social media users don’t suffer from spam because they can’t see it. The spammer won’t immediately start to look for ways to get around the ban, because they don’t even realize they’ve been banned.
Now, all of this might sound a little odd or shady. Since many websites and apps deny that they shadowban, there’s no way to know for sure that it’s happened.
If you suspect a shadowban, a change in the website’s search or newsfeed algorithm might actually be to blame. And since the algorithms are the property of social media companies, it’s not in their best interest to reveal everything about them publicly.
Regardless of whether you’ve been penalized deliberately or accidentally, the effect is still the same… no one can see your posts.
Sites That Shadowban
There’s no way of getting a full list of sites that shadowban people, since the practice isn’t entirely out in the open.
Respondents to a survey called Posting Into the Void reported four general types of shadowbans:
a username or hashtag not showing up in search suggestions
a decrease in follower engagement
certain features (e.g. likes or replies) being blocked
a temporary ban that then reverts back to normal later on
Here’s how to tell if you’ve been shadowbanned on some popular social media sites:
Twitter Shadowbanning
Does Twitter actually shadowban people? Well, yes and no.
In a blog post, Twitter claimed that they don’t “deliberately make people’s content undiscoverable to everyone except the person who posted it”, and they “certainly don’t shadowban based on political viewpoints or ideology.”
However, they did say they “rank tweets and search results” to “address bad-faith actors”. Basically, if Twitter thinks you’re a spammer or a troll, its algorithm will penalize your content.
How to Avoid Getting Shadowbanned by Twitter
Twitter lists these as some of the factors they use to tell if you’re a “bad-faith actor” or not:
Whether or not you’ve confirmed your email address
Whether you’ve uploaded a profile picture
How recently your account was created
Who you follow and retweet
Who mutes, follows, retweets, and blocks you
To avoid getting shadowbanned on Twitter, you should confirm your email address and upload a profile picture.
Don’t spam people and don’t be overly promotional. If you’re trying to sell a product or service and are posting too much, other users might block your content, causing a shadowban on your account.
You should also try to avoid trolling, getting into online arguments, or being too confrontational in your posts and comments. This can lead people to mute or block you.
How to Tell If You’re Shadowbanned on Twitter
There’s no way to tell for sure if you’ve been shadowbanned on Twitter. However, you could try using the site Shadowban.eu, which claims to be able to detect a shadowban.
Specifically, they mention sexually-suggestive content. According to their Community Guidelines, spammy content and content associated with illegal activity or violence is also a no-go.
Instagram prefers “photos or videos that are appropriate for a diverse audience”… so less family-friendly content may be at risk of a shadowban.
How to Tell If You’re Shadowbanned on Instagram
There’s no surefire way to tell if you’ve been shadowbanned on Instagram, but there are sites that say they can test it. Triberr is one option.
Reddit Shadowbanning
Shadowbanning on Reddit is a bit different from shadowbanning on other social media sites. Up until 2015, Reddit openly shadowbanned users who broke the site’s rules by hiding their posts.
Reddit then announced that the shadowbanning system had been replaced with an account suspension system. Basically, some Reddit staff thought that the shadowban tool had been useful for dealing with bots, but that banning real human users without telling them what they did wrong was unfair.
However, the site appears to still occasionally be using shadowbans, with the r/ShadowBan subreddit still active.
According to their official content policy, Reddit may enforce their rules by “removal of privileges from, or adding restrictions to, accounts”, and also by “removal of content”, among other methods.
How to Avoid Getting Shadowbanned on Reddit
Of course, to avoid getting shadowbanned on Reddit, you’ll need to follow their rules. But one tricky thing about that is that the rules on Reddit actually depend on the subreddit you are submitting to.
You’ll want to read and comment a lot first before submitting your own links. Watch how people react to various types of submissions within a specific subreddit, and then act accordingly.
Don’t spam or post too many links to your own content (if you post a lot of other things too, posting one or two links to your own work is OK)
Don’t harass or constantly downvote another user
Don’t dox others or encourage doxxing (posting someone’s personal information without their consent)
Don’t post illegal or inappropriate content
Don’t abuse moderators or admins
How to Tell if You’re Shadowbanned on Reddit
To find out if you’re shadowbanned on Reddit, make a post in the r/ShadowBan subreddit. A bot will respond to you, letting you know if you’re shadowbanned.
Even if you’re not, the bot will tell you which posts of yours have been removed recently (if any).
TikTok is a popular social network for sharing short videos. Unfortunately, you can get shadowbanned there too (kind of).
While there’s no official mention of the term “shadowban” in TikTok’s Community Guidelines, like other social media networks, TikTok uses algorithms to privilege certain content. If you get on the wrong side of the algorithm, fewer people might see the content you post.
To have more people see your content and avoid penalties, try to follow best practices for TikTok’s recommendation algorithm, and always follow the Community Guidelines.
Stay away from illegal material, violence, hate speech, spam, and other similar topics.
To check if you’ve been shadowbanned on TikTok, look at your pageviews and “For You” page statistics. You can also use a hashtag and see if your post shows up under that hashtag.
Basically, content that violates Facebook’s Community Standards will be removed from the site, while other undesirable content (like misleading information) may be less visible on Facebook or have a warning label placed on it.
If Facebook is consistently “reducing” your content, that could be considered a type of shadowban.
The main thing you can do to trigger a shadowban on Facebook is to share links to fake or misleading information. Content on the site is checked by independent fact-checking organizations.
Facebook groups where a lot of misleading links and clickbait are frequently shared may be shadowbanned.
If you’re worried your personal page, business page, or group might have been shadowbanned on Facebook, check for a change in engagement levels on your recent posts.
LinkedIn Shadowbanning
While people don’t often think about getting shadowbanned on LinkedIn, it’s possible for your content’s reach to be throttled there.
Like other social media sites, LinkedIn has Community Policies that all members need to follow to avoid problems.
Since LinkedIn is a professional site, its content policies are even stricter than other platforms. Not only should your content be safe, legal, and appropriate, it has to be professional as well.
Although LinkedIn is obviously a place for career growth and self-promotion, spamming people is still a no-go.
You’ll need to respect others’ privacy and intellectual property. You should also avoid harassment or unwanted romantic advances towards other members.
If you violate LinkedIn’s policies, they may “limit the visibility of certain content, or remove it entirely.”
That said, the LinkedIn algorithm is pretty complicated. Even if your content is perfectly professional and high-quality, it might still not be getting the reach you want.
Engagement and relevance are the top two factors to keep in mind when creating content for LinkedIn.
YouTube Shadowbanning
While it’s not exactly a social network, it’s definitely still a site where people go to learn and share content. Can you be shadowbanned from YouTube?
Well, YouTube shadowbanning has been in the news because of popular creator PewDiePie. According to his fans, the Swedish videogame YouTuber’s channel was penalized in YouTube search.
YouTube’s official response was that it doesn’t shadowban channels, but that some videos might be flagged and need to be reviewed before they show up in search.
7 Ways to Avoid Getting Shadowbanned on Social Media
Different social networks have their own opinions on what type of violations merit a shadowban. However, we can definitely see some general trends that are worth noting.
Adhere to these guidelines if you want to be safe from a shadowban:
Always stick to the Terms of Service
Follow and watch power users in your category (see what and how they share)
Don’t post links or copy-pasted content over and over
If you’re unsure if the content is appropriate, avoid sharing it
Treat others politely and respectfully
Don’t use banned hashtags
Avoid posting about illegal topics
Conclusion
You may not have any idea you are being shadowbanned. At least not at first… though over time, you may begin to suspect it.
What you should do to protect yourself is to be careful that what you post isn’t against the terms and conditions of the site or app. Also, try to avoid spamming content, starting fights with and trolling other users, or posting things that might be considered inappropriate.
A shadowban can be frustrating, especially if you don’t feel like you deserve one. Maybe you don’t agree with the social media algorithm about what is or isn’t inappropriate, or maybe you think you were having a constructive debate while the algorithm thinks you were being a troll.
However, hopefully the tips in this guide can help you avoid being shadowbanned in the future, so your content can get better engagement.
What other ways can help people know if they’ve been shadowbanned? Let us know in the comments.
This is where Instagram filters can be a game-changer for your marketing and particularly your paid social media campaigns—they can make your images look as sleek as if they’d been professionally shot.
Here’s an example of an unfiltered image vs. its filtered twin:
Not only do Instagram filters make things look cleaner, but they also allow you to edit your image with one click. Where most editors make you alter contrast, saturation, and so forth individually, Instagram lets you pick a pre-set filter that suits your image—though you can tweak them if you’d like.
While these filters have been around since 2011, they’ve taken off in recent years. With the added capabilities of augmented reality (AR) technology—which adds imaginary images to those of the real world—they can significantly impact your social media campaigns.
Why Should You Use Instagram Filters in Your Paid Posts?
Social media platforms are competitive, and standing out from the crowd isn’t easy. If you’re going to get the best cost per click with your paid social media campaigns, then your brand needs to grab attention and drive engagement.
When you run an Instagram ad, you don’t have much real estate to work with, so you’ve got to find ways to draw your audience in with the limited space you have.
If you can combine innovative use of filters with creative images and excellent text, then you could achieve exceptional results— as Opel did with their “Opel Adam” campaign. In just two weeks, the campaign achieved a 2.5x increase in registrations and significantly lowered Opel’s cost per registration.
It’s possible to achieve the same results for your business, but you’ve got to make the most of the tools available to you.
Social media platforms crave engagement, and if your advertisements give them that, you may find you reach more people for less—and Instagram filters are one of the best tools to help you achieve this.
How to Use Instagram Filters for Your Paid Campaigns
Turning your posts into paid campaigns through the Instagram app couldn’t be easier. All you need is a business or creator account, and then you can get set up with your paid ads.
Click the profile icon in the bottom right-hand corner.
Select promotions.
Choose a post to promote. Instagram will prompt you to use your top post, but you can select any of your previous posts to promote.
Select where to send people— your profile, website, or direct messages.
Define your audience. The easiest option is to choose “automatic,” which targets people similar to your followers, but you can create your own.
Choose your budget, setting your daily cost and how long you want the campaign to run for.
Review and publish.
To create a promotion through the app, you need to have already created your post or story. Luckily, Instagram makes it exceedingly easy to snap an image on the go, add a great filter, and promote it within seconds.
Tips for Picking the Right Instagram Filter for Your Campaign
The right Instagram filter might be a quick way to give your images the professional touch, but the wrong filter can have the opposite effect. When you’re choosing your filter, keep these three points in mind:
Your images reflect your brand
Consistency works well on social media
Don’t go filter crazy
Your images help define your brand, so the filters you choose matter. Your filters should reflect the mood of the product or service you’re promoting, and you need to stay consistent with this.
A great example of this is JetBlue’s Instagram account. You can easily spot how consistency has allowed them to develop their own simple yet effective style by using similar image styles, colors, and more.
While the right filter can make things look amazing, “over filtering” can have the opposite effect. You don’t want to alter things so much that they look surreal. Instagram filters are optimized to please, so it’s often worth sticking to the tried and tested rather than over-editing.
If you’re looking for inspiration, Canva studied the most popular filters, and Clarendon, Gingham, and Juno came out on top.
Click the + button at the center of your home screen.
Select the image you want to use from your library, or select “photo” or “video” to create a new one. Click next.
Choose your filter from the list at the bottom of the screen. Remember, you can add more by clicking manage at the end of the reel.
Add your caption, tag people in your posts, post your location, and choose other social platforms you would like to post to.
Hit share.
Instagram Filters for Stories
Instagram stories allow you to post photos and videos that vanish after 24 hours. One-third of the most viewed Instagram stories are created by businesses, so they are an excellent way to make your posts go further.
The process of posting stories with filters is just as simple as with posts, but you’ll notice a lot more options when it comes to AR filters.
For a live video or image:
Select your profile icon.
Hit the + button in the top left-hand corner.
Select “story” from the pop-up menu.
Use your camera to take live video or images, or select an existing one from your library by clicking on the image in the bottom left-hand corner.
Choose between your front-facing and rear-facing camera if you’re taking a live image.
Select your filter from the reel at the bottom.
Tap the center button to take a picture or hold the button to take a video.
Use the editing buttons in the top right-hand corner to add extra filters, overlay text, or download to your library.
Hit “send to” and select where to share your story.
Bonus Instagram Filter Tip
If you’re scrolling through Instagram and see a filter you like, you can save it to use on your own stories.
Go to the profile of the person with the filter you like.
Click the smiley face emoji to see all their filters.
You can save it by clicking the down arrow or try it on.
When you’re trying on the filter, click the drop-down menu.
From here, you can save the effect or send it immediately as a story.
The next time you send a story, the filter will be ready for you to use.
Instagram Filters for Faces
When you created your first story pin, you likely noticed there are a lot of things you can do to your face with AR.
AR allows you to add computer-generated effects over the live image you see on your camera. For example, if you want to see what you look like wearing sunglasses, there’s an AR filter for that. The sunglasses appear on your face and follow you as you move.
There are endless Instagram filters with AR, which gives you more options to engage your audience. However, as with any Instagram filters, it’s essential to find the ones that suit your brand.
Some companies have had great success with AR filters on Instagram, such as this one by Ray-ban. But if you’re going to use these filters, then you’ve got to make sure you stay on-brand.
To create a story with AR filters, simply follow these steps:
Select your profile icon.
Hit the + button in the top left-hand corner.
Select “story” from the pop-up menu.
Choose between front- and rear-facing camera.
Slide between the filters at the bottom and watch as your face is brought to life with AR.
For more effects, slide to the end of the reel and select “browse effects.”
Choose a filter.
Click the middle button to take a photo, hold to take a video.
Click send and then select where to share.
Other Instagram Features to Help Your Paid Campaign
One of the reasons Instagram is so popular with advertisers is because it gives you lots of tools to give your paid campaign extra oomph. The beautiful thing about it is it’s so easy for anyone to add filters, gifs, text, and music to their images.
A gif is a quick and easy way to add something extra to your story, and once again, Instagram makes it exceptionally easy to do:
Select your profile icon.
Hit the + button in the top left-hand corner.
Select “story” from the pop-up menu.
Choose between front and rear-facing cameras or open your library via the icon in the bottom left-hand corner.
Take a picture, or choose an image from your library.
Choose the square smiley face at the top of the screen.
Select gifs, or use the search bar to find a specific gif.
Make your gif bigger or smaller by pinching in or out with two fingers and drag it into position.
Select “send” to and choose who you want to see your story.
Adding Text
Instagram might be a very visual platform, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t use for text. The right use of text can help give your posts and stories context, grabbing people’s attention and linking the image to your brand.
Hashtags not only help people find your posts, but they also boost engagement and allow you to zero in on what’s popular in your industry. The statistics show that Instagram posts with even just one hashtag can see an increase in engagement of 12.6%. So with only a little extra text, you can give your campaigns a better chance of success.
You can also use text overlay on your stories. You’re in control of your text’s font, color, and look, which means you have another way of giving your images a professional look.
To add text overlay to your stories, simply:
Select your profile icon.
Hit the + button in the top left-hand corner.
Select “story” from the pop-up menu.
Select your image or video.
Click the “Aa” in the top right-hand corner.
Type your text.
Choose your font, color, and effects, using the tools at the top of the screen.
Hit “done.”
Select “send to” and choose your audience.
Adding Music
Music has always played an important part in advertising. Music helps make advertisements more memorable, evokes emotion, builds the story, and accentuates the brand, so it can be an essential tool.
While some people will use Instagram with the sound off, Instagram makes it so easy to add features such as music that you don’t lose anything by using them.
Again, make sure whatever you choose fits your brand and is going to engage your audience.
Here’s how you can add music to your Instagram stories:
Select your profile icon.
Hit the + button in the top left-hand corner.
Select “story” from the pop-up menu.
Choose between front and rear-facing cameras or open your library via the icon in the bottom left-hand corner.
Take a picture or choose an image from your library.
Choose the square smiley face at the top of the screen.
Click the music icon.
Choose your song.
Edit which part of the song you want to showcase, clip duration, and how you want to credit the song.
Click “done.”
Move the music sticker, making it bigger or smaller to suit your image.
Hit “send to” and select your audience.
Instagram Filter Features Within Other Photography Apps
You might be thinking, “I want my Instagram posts to stand out, so why would I use the most common filters such as Clarendon?” While many brands find success with Instagram’s filters, you have other options if you choose to go that route.
To help you with this, there are lots of photography apps that have curated Instagram filters you can pay for or give you the ability to create your own, including:
VSCO
Afterlight
A Color Story
Tezza
Spark AR
You may have to invest some time in finding or creating the perfect Instagram filter, but once it’s saved to your Instagram account, you can add it to all your posts and stories in seconds.
Conclusion
The right Instagram filter can immediately improve your images and give your brand an identity. When you’re running paid media campaigns, you want to give your images and videos every chance of standing out from the crowd, and filters can help you achieve this.
Instagram makes it incredibly easy to add this extra element to your posts. Turn your images into posts that people want to engage with and share, then watch how they may improve your paid social media campaigns.
Whether it’s your personal account, your business account, or both, getting that little checkmark next to the profile name is massively important.
And not so that you look like one of the ‘cool kids.’
A verified social media account provides instant social proof and credibility when anyone looks up to you or your company online.
Verification can also help with networking and push your company to your industry’s forefront as a trusted option.
Getting verified on social media can be a challenge, and it might take some time, but it is definitely worth it.
But maybe you’ve already tried to become verified, and you were rejected.
Or perhaps you don’t know where to start.
Unless you’ve got a huge following like Beyonce, becoming a verified account takes some commitment and trial and error.
If you’ve tried to become verified before and you’ve been rejected, you’re probably not following the rules closely enough. For some sites, it’s a lot harder than others to show your worth.
But don’t give up.
I’m going to explain why your business isn’t verified on social media.
Twitter was one of the first social media platforms to introduce verification, and it took a while for it to become as important as it is today.
It began as a way for the platform to identify which Twitter accounts belonged to celebrities.
Now, getting verified on social media tells users which accounts belong to brands, companies, and influencers.
Basically, social media verification serves as an instant way to tell other users, “Hey, this account isn’t just your average Joe — pay attention to it!”
This is especially useful for trying to target younger users, who are the prime social-media demographic.
About 60% of Instagram users are between the ages of 18 and 29. Twitter is checked by 81% of Millennials every day.
Having that badge of proof means that your account is worth following, paying attention to, and interacting with. It’s how you know it’s really me on Facebook:
It immediately shows customers that any other accounts with that name are fake.
Which isn’t as huge of a problem for me as it is for mega-brands like Walmart. Check out this fake Walmart YouTube account:
Looks pretty legit at first glance, right?
There’s an official Walmart logo as the profile picture, and the description even says, “Walmart Official YouTube Channel.”
But upon further inspection, the account only has two video uploads and three subscribers.
So this fake account was probably created to gain followers, create a scam, or even potentially destroy Walmart’s brand by impersonating the company.
Based on the videos on this channel, it was probably created to use the Walmart name to gain subscribers or views:
See how much trouble it is to find out if the account is real or not? Since it has no checkmark, we can guess it’s probably not the real deal.
But not every brand or company is verified, including Walmart’s official YouTube page when I first wrote this article. (Today, they’ve jumped on the verification bandwagon.)
So you can’t be sure until you evaluate things like the account’s number of followers and the kind of content on the page.
If it had a checkmark, there would be no guessing or research.
The benefits of verification are pretty easy to identify, and while the process can be easier said than done, it’s pretty painless overall.
The processes for getting verified are unique to each social media platform. So let’s go through the big ones.
Here’s how you can get verified on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, and Snapchat.
The gray checkmark means that businesses (like Starbucks) or certain pages in specific locations are authentic.
Facebook for Influencers
To verify your personal account to become an influencer in your industry, begin by ensuring that your Facebook page is updated.
Add a recent profile picture and make sure your profile information is all filled out.
If you haven’t been posting regularly (on Facebook or any social media platform), you’ll need to wait until you’ve regularly posted for a consistent amount of time before trying to verify it.
You’ll also need to make sure your account is authentic, unique, complete, and notable, according to Facebook:
To verify your business’s Facebook account, head to your Business Manager, then look for security settings. Note that not all businesses need to be verified — and you might not be eligible. For example, if you use Monthly Invoicing to pay for ads, you won’t have to submit any documentation.
Once you find Security Settings, click on the Confirm Identity button. Submit a photo ID or upload the requested documentation. Enter your business details, then select your business from the list.
Then, select a phone number you can access from the list provided or select Use Domain Verification button. You can also select to have the verification code delivered by text or email.
Enter the verification code, and hit Submit.
You should expect to hear back from Facebook about verifying a business page within a few days. You will get a notification on your personal Facebook page when it’s been approved.
2. Get Verified on Twitter
According to Twitter, verification indicates an “account of public interest. Typically this includes accounts maintained by users in music, acting, fashion, government, politics, religion, journalism, media, sports, business, and other key interest areas.”
So if your account doesn’t fit into any of these areas, trying to verify it is pointless.
But if you do, Twitter gives some verification tips to increase your chances of getting verified.
For example, you have to have:
A verified phone number
A confirmed email address
A bio
A profile photo
A header photo
A website
A birthday (if your account is not a company, brand, or organization accounts)
Tweets set as public in Tweet privacy settings
Once you’ve met all these criteria, you can submit a formal verification request. (Note: Twitter sometimes puts their verification process on hold. If that happens, you’ll have to try back another time.)
Be sure to fill out the form and include some backstory, in 500 characters or less, about why Twitter should verify your account.
You’ll also have to provide some website links that back up your claims.
You can expect to hear back from Twitter within about a week.
3. Get Verified on Instagram
Out of all social media platforms, Instagram is probably the most selective when handing out verified badges.
According to Instagram, “Accounts representing well-known figures and brands are verified because they have a high likelihood of being impersonated.”
“We want to make sure that people in the Instagram community can easily find the authentic people and brands they want to follow.”
So becoming verified was pretty easy for someone like Justin Bieber:
If you’ve already got a huge following or you’re a mega brand, Instagram will probably go ahead and verify your page without you having to do anything:
But if you’re not, focus on these two key tactics in the meantime:
Build your following and post engaging images.
Add as much identity-supporting information as possible to your profile to make it appear, official, even though there’s no checkmark.
If you take the time to make your account legitimate without having the official Instagram seal of approval, people will notice.
And hopefully, after a while, Instagram will too.
4. Get Verified on LinkedIn
Since LinkedIn is like Facebook of the professional world, you might think that their verification process would be a lot like Facebook’s.
But it’s not. The LinkedIn verification process works a little bit differently.
Anyone who pays for a Premium Membership gets this logo, but it makes things look a bit more official than those who don’t have it.
5. Get Verified on YouTube
Verifying your YouTube account and verifying your YouTube channel have almost nothing to do with one another, but they’re usually thought of as the same thing.
Here’s the difference between each kind of verification and why they’re both important.
Step 1. Verifying Your YouTube Account
Usually, this can be done once you first make a YouTube account.
YouTube will remind you at the top of your video manager page to give a cell phone number to tie to your account.
Once you’ve done this, and you should, YouTube will send you a verification code that you can enter in to prove that your account is real.
They’ll look to see if your channel is authentic and complete and give you the badge.
6. Get a Verified Account on Pinterest
Being verified on Pinterest means that users will know that it’s really your company pinning to boards on the platform. It will display a red checkmark and your URL at the top of your page, like this:
To start, make sure that the Pinterest account is a business one and not a personal one.
If they deny your request, you can always inquire about becoming verified at a later date once you’ve built an even larger following on their platform.
The more followers and connections you have on the app, the better chances you’ll have of Snapchat verifying you on the social media app.
8. Get Verified on TikTok
There are two different types of social media verification on TikTok: the blue check, for brands and organizations, and the yellow check, for public figures and famous creators.
Currently, you cannot apply to be verified by TikTok, but that option may be available soon. If you have any questions, the sites suggest sending an email to verification_feedback@tiktok.com.
Conclusion
Getting verified on social media isn’t a one-size-fits-all task.
It actually isn’t even possible on all social media networks — Reddit, for example, does not verify any accounts.
If you’ve tried to become verified on social media platforms and were rejected, try to follow the platform’s requirements more closely.
Then, submit your request again once you’ve met all of the criteria.
If you do it right, you can get those check-mark credentials that everyone desires to help you build brand awareness.
Which social media platforms do you think are most important for verification?
Wonder how you can get started boosting your Social Media Presence? Founder of Razor Social and Social Media Service and Tools guy, Ian Cleary shared his favorites with us! Check them out! The post Social Media Presence: 25+ Tools & Tips! appeared first on Paper.li blog.
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