Digital Tips & Trends, June 2021
Greetings from The Birdbath! This monthly newsletter from Bower Blue takes a look at digital tips & trends impacting the visual arts & design communities. Any questions? Let us know!
Diving into what’s been on our and our clients’ minds lately…
#1. What time should you post?
The pandemic changed a lot of things, including (on the less significant side of things) the best times to post on social media. Sprout Social has the rundown for 2021:
- Best day/time = Tuesday, 11am–2pm
- 2nd best = Monday thru Friday, 11am
- Worst = Sunday
And according to Social Media Today, Instagram carousel posts overtook single-image posts and video posts as the most engaging content. Likewise, the caption lengths that saw the most engagement are between 1,000 and 2,000 characters (200–300 words).
Point being: Every Tuesday you should post an Instagram carousel with a 200-word caption. Sprinkle in a few weekday morning posts and you’re good to go.
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#2. Bye-bye, Instagram Likes?
This is big: “Starting today, we’re giving you the option to hide Like counts on all posts” — that means you can hide Like numbers on your posts and on all posts in your Instagram/Facebook feeds.
The goal, Instagram says, is a noble one: “This way, if you like, you can focus on the photos and videos being shared, instead of how many Likes.”
Sounds refreshing. But what about the business side of things?
The influencer economy — meaning $$$ and, let’s not forget, the actual influence therein — is in for a reckoning. How will an influencer’s influence be affected when numbers aren’t transparently attached to their output? We’re about to find out.
But IG needs influencers. Likes are “too deeply integrated into the product experience to be fully removed.” Instagram needs Likes because its power users (influencers) need Likes.
So Instagram found a middle ground: Make it the user’s decision to see Likes on their own posts and on all the posts in their feed. That gives IG cover to “depressurize” the user experience while we all wait to see how the influencer economy handles it.
What’s not to Like?
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#3. How can your podcast guest help you?
It’s a common scenario: A podcast host has a guest who’s more famous, with a bigger following and a broader reach. That’s a good thing! It’s a solid plan to help the podcast boosts its signal. But often it’s not quite so simple. How can you activate your guest’s reach and popularity? Podcast Movement has some tips — both personal and professional — for getting the most out of your podcast guest.
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RECENT WORK
You haven’t seen Jacob El Hanani’s work until you’ve seen it in person. The exquisite details — all hand-drawn — are difficult to fathom. We interviewed Jacob in his SoHo studio, where he has lived and worked for nearly 50 years, to find out more about his process and his new exhibition at Acquavella Galleries.
Bower Blue produces digital content & strategies for galleries, museums & cultural nonprofits. (Take a look at some of our clients.)
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