Instagram’s Paid Posts, Thinking Mobile First, Customer Direct Linking, and the power of Recommendation — Stories of Mobile Madness Episode 3
TL;DR
- Facebook has brought paid posts to Instagram — allowing influencers to post ads as posts
- Thinking mobile first is no longer a ‘nice to have’, it’s essential if you want to survive
WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW: MORE INSTAGRAM ADS?
Of all of the future facing developments that Facebook is trying to install, they’ve decided in their infinite wisdom that more advertising on the already ad-packed Instagram platform is the way forward.
Their latest endeavor, known as ‘branded content’ will make it possible for Instagram to turn influencer posts into ads. This will allow companies to turn posts into ads, and then get twice their money’s worth when the content is reused in an ad.
These will be reflected to the end user as ‘paid partnerships’, and shows an interesting dilemma for Instagram. On the one hand, this will undoubtedly create greater revenue. On the other hand, it may also have an effect on the authenticity and credibility of the influencer and turn people off from the platform.
WHAT IT MEANS TO BE MOBILE FIRST FOR SELLING
Research from eMarketeer shows as of March 2019, nearly 52% of all social network users are exclusively using mobile devices. An Adobe Digital Insight has shown that over 70% of referrals to e-commerce sites come from smartphones.
This means that shopping is now social, and people are using their phones more. In fact, people in the US now spend 3 hours and 43 minutes on their phones every single day.
When it comes to strategy, there are three major opportunities for you to think mobile first.
- Keep an eye out for social media platforms which allow you to sell through them. Instagram is already testing a checkout feature, and the @shop channel features in their header bar.
- Social media — and therefore mobile marketing — has a much greater influence on a potential customer’s buying influence. 42% of media users rely on social platforms for research; 24% discover brands via recommendations; 21% are motivated to make a purchase based on likes.
- When 72% of Millennials are more likely to be loyal to brands that respond appropriately to feedback on social media, social media offers a unique opportunity to scale your feedback. Look at ensuring you have live chat and chatbots to make your feedback process as painless as possible. You want to ensure you are relevant, personal, and scalable.
AVOID GETTING CRUSHED BY YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA ENDEAVORS
It’s a simple rule at this point. If you don’t use social media, your business won’t survive.
What fewer people realize is that if you depend entirely on social media, you’ll probably get crushed at some stage. Social media is built with one single purpose only: to keep users on their platforms at all cost.
That’s why you really need to create your own audiences off-platform.
This is where Tappable can help. You can create Stories that are findable, sharable, and linkable across the internet.
Stories are loved by 1.5 billion daily active users, yet are confined presently to social media platforms. So if you’re sick of your Stories disappearing after 24 hours, or frustrated by the fact that your Stories can’t be shared across platforms, we’re here for you.
With Tappable you can build your stories in as little as 15 minutes and share them with your audience by email, tweets, notifications, SMS or even QR codes.
THE POWER OF A DECENT RECOMMENDATION
In 2016, 7,5% of Digital advertising went to affiliate fees in the US. That’s nearly $5 billion. Word of mouth marketing is big money, as net-savvy individuals become more mistrustful of direct advertising.
This year, New York Magazine expects to make more than 10 million USD in revenue from affiliate fees in their ‘Strategist’ section. Their year-on-year affiliate revenue doubles every month.
Within e-commerce in the US, affiliate marketing is now responsible for 16% of sales. So when it comes to making the most of the recommendation industry, the potential is currently limitless.
All it takes is a publisher to write pieces of content about branded products, and add links to brands or a retailer’s site.
Want to know more?
Watch or listen to the full episode
