A good Instagram layout is key to help you gain followers, get noticed and get more sales. An increase in followers leads to more opportunities to promote your brand with different platforms and companies. With over 1 billion active users today, having a curated Instagram feed matters for every brand out there. Take your company’s feed to new heights using these photo editing tricks designed to help with engagement. Read more
Nearly 9 in 10 parents are likely to travel with their children in the next 12 months, according to the Family Travel Association. It’s hardly surprising, then, that many properties are expanding their on-site offerings to include additional activities, facilities and room features specifically for children. Take inspiration from McConnell Marketing’s list of the top hotels catered to kids and start booking more families. Read more
#Hashtags took over the early 2010s, but their purpose for professionals became higher in relevance in the significant usage of #hashtagclouds — a group of relevant or strategic hashtags which can greatly increase your current and future exposure on Instagram. Since Instagram turned into one of the most popular marketing platform today, businesses large and small carefully craft a specific, targeted group of hashtags to garner more interaction. Understanding the intricacies of clouds and creating a viable set of hashtags gives many agencies a competitive social edge. So, what’s their purpose and how can #hashtagclouds could help you expand your reach socially?
Instagram hashtag clouds are a different way to label and categorize your reels, posts, and stories. This method of organization helps Instagram better serve your posts to relevant audiences that are more likely to interact with posts through commenting or sharing, based on their algorithm. In their most simple function, the hashtags you use help make up the search results on the Instagram Explore page, which are different for every user and are based on what the user is interacting with.
From local businesses to giant media corporations, many are implementing the usage of hashtags into their social media as a way to drive engagement. Businesses typically use anywhere from three to five targeted hashtags such as location-based (#Youngstown), branded (#McConnellMarketing), and descriptive (#WeeklyGroceryStoreAd) These help narrowly define the target market and ensure posts are showing up. Cloud sets can be as custom-tailored to posts as your time and budget allocate for creation.
McDonald’s hashtags clouds have a proven track record of success with a recent study comparing the number of hashtags used per post with average reach rates of over 18 million Instagram feed posts in late 2021. In the study, reach rate increases by 11% (from 24% to 35%) as the number of hashtags grows from one to 30. Start with a small number of targeted hashtags and slowly increase the number over time.
Interested in testing #hashtagclouds out, but don’t know where to start? Contact us today to set up a consultation with one of our content specialists!
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Viral marketing allows companies to better market their products by reaching consumers that ordinarily would not be targeted by its traditional marketing campaigns. This expanded reach allows the company to enter new markets and potentially expand its customer base. This approach can help in creating a lot of positive impact during promotional product launches or campaigns. It helps to get tremendous visibility, exposure, and better traffic which results in increased sales revenue. Creating successful viral campaigns is no easy feat; read more to learn about their excellent execution and what you can take from them.
Popular KPOP (Korean Pop) band BTS have exploded on social media within the last decade, easily having the largest fan base on every media platform imaginable. In an effort to share their message, Hyundai teamed up with BTS to produce a 60-second video ad that absolutely went viral with more than 105 million views on YouTube (one of the biggest counts of these recent viral marketing examples). Through this example of relationship marketing, BTS fans may now have a better awareness of the Hyundai brand in comparison to before the commercial aired, while Hyundai audiences may choose to listen to BTS’ songs or vote for them in award shows.
Zoom took off in popularity during the COVID-19 lockdown that made remote learning and working the norm. During that time, to capitalize on their popularity, Zoom started a virtual background contest in 2020 where they invited users to share the virtual backgrounds they made to use on Zoom calls on social media using the #MeetHappy hashtag. While it wasn’t the most viral campaign, it was done so to promote their hashtag, which is easily replicable for your business! Now Zoom uses #MeetHappy on many of its posts to help with brand awareness and announcements regarding the product and company.
McDonald’s is known for their meal deal specials and affordable prices, but in 2021, they branched out to try some influencer marketing featuring Travis Scott, who had just put out his new hit record. This meal took center stage on TikTok where users recorded themselves placing orders for the meal by playing the hit song “Sicko Mode” at drive-thru windows. As a direct result trend, many McDonald’s franchises couldn’t keep up with demand and McDonald’s quickly made the meal available only through the app. Months later, McDonald’s used all their new app members as the testers of their new rewards program.
One of the best (and most cost-effective) ways to attempt virality is to share what your existing audience is saying about your business. Simply looking through your businesses reviews and comments could lead to anywhere from a weekly to monthly post about what exactly your audience is thinking about your business. Reposting reviews and comments on Instagram and other social networks can drive more traffic to your site and make people like your brand more. Plus, it increases interaction as more people will comment and review in hopes of being featured in the next social media post!
Are you trying out any of the above ideas? Let us know by following us on social media and staying up to date on our monthly newsletters, full of more helpful tips and tricks!
Pantone Color of the Year Results Are In!
Pantone, the world-leading expert in color, has announced its Color of the Year 2022 is a new shade of blue. Known as Very Peri – officially PANTONE 17-3938 Very Peri – the shade fuses a what Pantone describes as a “dynamic periwinkle blue hue with a vivifying violet red undertone.”
For over 20 years, fashion designers, home furnishing curators and everyone in between look to the Pantone Color of the Year for inspiration in the following year. That being said, a lot of time and thought goes into selecting just the right color. The Pantone Color Institute combs through a variety of industries looking for trends that could inspire the year’s color. Influences might come from socio-economic conditions, upcoming sporting events, art collections, you-name-it. Overall, the color sets the tone for the year to come.
Very Peri marks the first time the company has manufactured a color instead of delving into their pre-existing archive, a decision that was a vital element of this year’s selection process. “It was really important for us to come up with a new color, because we have a very new vision of the world now,” said Pantone Color Institute’s Executive Director, Leatrice Eiseman, in a video call. In 2021, the company was inspired by a new vertical: technology. From NFTs (non-fungible tokens) and space shuttle joyrides to Mark Zuckerberg’s promise of the metaverse, the year was characterized by our increasing reliance on automation and the digital realm. It’s a relationship that partly spurred on Pantone’s decision to work with Microsoft, among other partners, for its Color of the Year launch.
One of our favorite jobs as a hotel marketing agency is telling a brand’s story. How? Selecting the right colors and patterns are just one piece of the puzzle. If Very Peri fits into your brand, or might work for an upcoming event, let us help you incorporate it!
