#the zoom algorithm knowing whats up and putting their squares together..... | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ourbadboys23me-blog · 4 years

Text

Samsung Galaxy S8 Review: On the shoulders of giants

In the cat and mouse game between Samsung and Apple, the user is the real winner, and never has that been so apparent as with the new Samsung Galaxy S8. Undoubtedly the most eagerly-anticipated Android smartphone of 2017, the Galaxy S8 is Samsung’s first big opportunity to put the Note 7 battery debacle behind it, and instead wow consumers with its latest industrial design, services, and more. Question is, with the same camera as the old Galaxy S7, not to mention flagship feature Bixby Voice absent until later in the year, does the Galaxy S8 and its big S8+ sibling do enough today to overshadow the iPhone 8 tomorrow?

Hardware and Design

Make no mistake, Samsung has knocked it out the park, gone the distance, hit a home run, and any other sporting euphemism you’d like to level at the Galaxy S8’s design. The US may not be getting the Maple Gold and Coral Blue versions, sadly, but the moody Midnight Black more than makes up for it in my opinion. The glass front and back curve smoothly into the metal frame which runs the periphery of the handset. It feels clean and expensive, and while the Galaxy S8+ is noticeably larger, it doesn’t approach unwieldy.

They’re slim, too. The Galaxy S8 is just 68.1 mm wide, while the S8+ is 73.4mm wide. I made a lot of how easy to hold LG’s G6 was, with its unusual aspect-ratio display, but Samsung’s phone is even more hand-friendly. Its tapered edges minimize what’s already a thin device – 8.0mm for the S8, 8.1mm for the S8+. Since both phones are, aside from display size and battery size, fundamentally identical, moving forward when we refer to the S8 you can assume it holds true for the S8+ as well.

Unlike the Galaxy S7, which was offered in both regular and “edge” versions, the S8 doesn’t give you a choice of having curved AMOLED or not. Now branded “Infinity Display”, the panel extends smoothly around the left and right edges of the handset, on both the Galaxy S8 and the S8+. Combined with a black bezel top and bottom, along with curved corners, and you could almost mistake the whole fascia for being screen. Even though it’s a 5.8-inch display on the S8 and a 6.2-inch display on the S8+, the handsets themselves are impressively compact.

Some people undoubtedly prefer a flat display for day to day use, and will be annoyed by Samsung’s decision, but there’s no denying that the S8 looks incredible. Partly that’s down to moving everything possible from the front of the phone. Gone is the physical home button and its accompanying app-switcher and back keys, replaced with a pressure-sensitive strip under the bottom edge of the screen that, when you press harder, summons virtual versions of those controls.

In reality, much of the time the on-screen home button is visible anyway. It only really disappears when you’re playing a full-screen video, for instance; the rest of the time, it floats there as a discreet square. From the app switcher you can pin a section of an app to the top of the screen: Samsung calls it Snap Window, and it allows to crop a chunk of webpage, inbox, video, or something else to remain visible, and still use other apps on the rest of the display.

The Super AMOLED panel itself is, as we’ve come to expect from Samsung, a triumph. Colors, viewing angles, brightness, and outdoor visibility are superb. The panel itself ends just far enough away from the sides of the S8 so that it’s not inadvertently triggered by your grip.

Maximum resolution is 2960 x 1440, though Samsung encourages you to change that. By default it sets to 2220 x 1080, or you can optionally scale it down to 1480 x 720, the argument being that battery life could be improved if you accept a lower res. My eyes couldn’t really make out a difference between 2220 x 1080 and 2960 x 1440, but text got a little fuzzy around the edges at the lowest setting.

No matter which you pick, you’re still seeing the same amount of content on-screen. However, there are also controls for adjusting screen zoom – either small, medium, or large – and text size – through seven settings from tiny to huge – depending on how good your eyes are. There’s also the option to turn on not only a blue light filter (which, so the theory goes, reduces eye-strain) but a learning algorithm which promises to track the tweaks you make to the brightness in different settings and shape the auto-brightness to suit.

Of course, the big selling point of the Infinity Display is just how much of it you get to use when you’re watching video. It’s an odd aspect ratio – 18.5:9, in fact – which, in a similar argument to that of LG and the G6, Samsung says can be used by much more widescreen video than previous phones. Certainly, if you have 21:9 footage it doesn’t give you black bars top and bottom when you’re holding the S8 in landscape orientation. That’s assuming you have 21:9 content, though, which is slowly gaining traction but still far from the default.

My biggest complaint about Samsung’s design is the placement of the fingerprint sensor. Since the physical home button has been replaced by a virtual version, Samsung opted to put the biometric sensor it once contained on the back instead. Unfortunately it’s in a less-than-convenient spot.

Positioned right next to the rear camera, and with only a very small ridge to help your fingertip locate it, it’s all too easy to jab at the camera lens instead. Even when you do find it – which can be a stretch on the Galaxy S8+’s longer body – you have to make sure your finger is flat across the sensor. Otherwise, you get an error message about a partial print.

You can, of course, opt for iris recognition if the fingerprint system is too frustrating – there’s also facial recognition, though Samsung admits it’s not especially secure and can be fooled with a photo – though Samsung could’ve readily addressed it simply by moving the sensor down a little, to where its own logo is on the back. Even so, that wouldn’t have solved my other complaint, which is that you can’t just jab at the front of the phone to unlock it with one tap while it’s lying on a desk or nightstand. All too frequently I gave up and punched in my PIN instead.

Inside, Samsung uses either its own Exynos 8895 or Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835; both are 10nm octacores, and indeed both are made by Samsung itself. In the US, you get the Snapdragon, along with 4GB of LPDDR4 memory and 64GB of internal storage. There’s a microSD card on the top edge, to expand that.

Connectivity includes LTE Cat 16, WiFi a/b/g/n/ac (2.4/5GHz) with MU-MIMO support, Bluetooth 5.0, ANT+, NFC, and GPS (along with Galileo, Glonass, and BeiDou). Alongside the USB Type-C port on the bottom is a 3.5mm headphone jack. Samsung includes AKG-tuned headphones in the box, though there’s also Bluetooth Dual Audio support so that two sets of wireless headphones can be used with the S8 simultaneously.

As with 2016’s flagships, Samsung has sensibly opted to make the Galaxy S8 water and dust resistant. It’s IP68 compliant, which means it’ll handle up to 1.5m of freshwater for up to thirty minutes. If you’ve ever dropped your phone in a puddle then you’ll know how much of a lifesaver this can be; even if you haven’t, the ability to rinse the S8 under a tap means keeping its glass body free of fingerprints and smudges is a whole lot easier.

Software and Performance

Out of the box, the Galaxy S8 runs Android 7.0 Nougat with the April 1, 2017 security patch and Samsung Experience v8.1. Obviously I’d prefer to see Android 7.1 as is available on Google’s own Pixel right now, though the release of the Google Assistant to earlier versions of the OS means the most notable difference between 7.0 and 7.1 is no longer an issue. This particular S8 review unit is a T-Mobile version, and as such gets a few preloaded apps of the carrier’s own: Device Unlock, the T-Mobile manager, Name ID, T-Mobile TV, and Visual Voicemail.

Samsung may no longer call it TouchWiz, but its customized interface certainly traces its roots back to that love-it-or-hate-it UI. For the S8, Samsung has made the “edge” shortcut bar, which is swiped in from the side of the display, standard now. You can flick between an app launcher, contacts shortcuts, and Smart Select screenshot tool as standard. Dig into the settings, however, and you can add a useful Clipboard edge, which keeps a list of previously copied items, a Reminder edge, Tasks edge, Weather bar, Quick Tools, Calendar, Music controls bar, and more. There are a few dozen more – either free or paid – in the Samsung store.

Some of the apps are new with the S8. Samsung Connect promises to be the hub of your connected home, putting networked devices – whether Samsung’s own high-end refrigerators, freezers, or TVs, or third-party products like Sonos speakers and connected thermostats – in a single place for easier control. You can operate them individually or group different actions together into custom modes, such as turning everything off when you leave the house.

The reality hasn’t proved to be quite the tame smart home I was hoping for. A set of Sonos speakers showed up and were readily added to my devices list, but I could only make selections from Samsung’s own Music app; it wasn’t even possible to pause the Spotify playback I’d started from another device. My Philips Hue lights didn’t show up at all.

Using Samsung’s own devices proved more successful. One of the company’s connected TVs, for instance, populated the app with channel and volume controls. I was also able to stream video I’d recorded with the S8 directly to the set, without the hassle of setting up WiFi Direct.

Unfortunately, one of the accessories I’m most curious about trying wasn’t supplied. The Samsung DeX dock promises the “Desktop Experience” of a PC, turning the S8 into a full computer with the connection of an HDMI display and a regular keyboard and mouse. No, you won’t be able to do everything a full Windows or macOS machine might, but a combination of webapps and key titles like Microsoft Office with specially-crafted desktop UIs could certainly replicate the Chromebook experience.

I’ll review how realistic that is when I get my hands on a DeX dock. However, I’ve few doubts that the S8 can keep up. Everyday performance has been excellent, with no noticeable lag or stuttering, even when dealing with heavy webpages.

Samsung Bixby

Apple has Siri, Google has its Assistant, Microsoft has Cortana, and now Samsung has Bixby. The fruits of its Viv acquisition, Bixby promises not only a way to check weather forecasts, send messages, and get directions all by voice, but effectively do anything on the phone that you’d normally have to tap and swipe to achieve. Throw in object/landmark recognition, a new homecreen with customized cards of user-personalized information, and location/time-based reminders, and you’ve an assistant that could eclipse either of its better-known rivals.

Sadly Bixby’s announcement and the Galaxy S8’s implementation don’t deliver quite the same thing. The jewel in the crown, Bixby Voice, simply isn’t available at launch. In fact, according to Samsung it’ll come later in the year.

What you get is Bixby Vision, Bixby Home, and Bixby Reminder. Of the three, Bixby Vision probably has the greatest wow-factor: it’s basically Google Goggles, mixed with Amazon’s visual search, and Google Translate, all in a single interface. For instance, you can show Bixby Vision a product – like a bottle of wine – and it will tell you about that wine from Vivino’s database.

Products, meanwhile, get linked straight to their Amazon pages. How accurate the search results are depends on how distinctive the packaging is, I found: Bixby could get confused by exactly which model it was seeing. Translation works more consistently, with the ability to snap a photo of a page of text – such as on a restaurant menu – and convert it into other languages.

Bixby Home, meanwhile, is a new homescreen pane. Swipe all the way across to the left, and you’ll find custom cards for your upcoming schedule, recent messages, news Bixby believes you’ll be interested in, trending topics from Facebook, and recent additions to your gallery. The promise is that, over time, the assistant will observe how and where you use your phone and further customize what shows up, though I’ve not really noticed much personalization in my relatively short time with the S8.

Finally, Bixby Reminder is a task system. You can create new reminders for photos, webpages, or other information; build to-do lists; and set alarms for events. Those alarms could be at a certain time, or when arrive at or depart from a certain place. Upcoming reminders show up in your Bixby Home stream. It’s useful, but it’s not anything many other Android task apps can already do.

Indeed, while all of the current features work, they don’t quite warrant a dedicated Bixby button right now. I can understand Samsung wanting to put a physical shortcut to its headline service on the S8, but the fact that not only is that service not available, but you can’t reassign it to something else, undermines that. Initially it looked like third-party apps would be able to reassign the Bixby button to trigger something else, but Samsung appears to have closed that loophole too.

Camera

Did Samsung play it safe with the Galaxy S8’s camera? On the face of it, using the same 12-megapixel Dual Pixel setup as the Note 7 and Galaxy S7 before it could be seen as treading water. While LG’s G6 and the iPhone 7 Plus are doing interesting things with twin cameras, Samsung’s approach almost seems old-school.

If there’s one thing that’s become clear over the past couple of years of smartphone camera design, though, it’s that there’s much more to getting a good photo from your phone than specs on paper. Starting from an excellent sensor on the S8 is no bad thing, and Samsung’s refined software and algorithms coax even better images and video from its new flagship.

The results are certainly the equal of what you’ll get from an iPhone 7, and I prefer them to the photos from LG’s G6, too. Colors are accurate and don’t stray too far into the over-saturation that earlier Galaxy phones sometimes suffered. Low-light performance is generally impressive, too, with plenty of detail, showing a broad dynamic range.

The camera app itself has some clever touches and a couple of annoyances. The default view is the fully-automatic mode; sliding your finger up and down the shutter button controls zoom. Swipe across and you get a menu of other modes: Pro, with manual controls for exposure, ISO, and other settings; Panorama; slow-motion; Hyperlapse; Food, which puts a circular frame of focus around your plate; Virtual Shot, for shooting 3D objects; and Selective Focus.

The latter does a surprisingly good job of picking out a subject and blurring its surroundings, even if can’t call upon the help of a second lens as the iPhone 7 Plus’ Portrait Mode uses. Meanwhile, if you’re signed into your Samsung account there are several extra camera modes you can download. That includes an Animated GIF maker, Sports Shot, Dual Camera, the vaguely creepy Beauty Face, and Rear-cam Selfie.

If there’s a frustration, it’s that some of the various swipes and taps can get confusing. Miss the brightness slider by a half-fingertip’s width and you find you’ve swiped up or down to switch between the front and rear cameras, for instance. Hold a finger down a little too long, and you can inadvertently break out the separate autofocus and autoexposure reticles.

At least the whole thing is whippet-fast. Double-tapping the power button opens the camera app, even if the S8 is locked; that takes a split-second, as does snapping an image or hitting the video record button. It’s worth noting that, by default, Samsung wants to upload your photos and videos to its own cloud backup service, though it’s an easy thing to switch off.

Battery

Somehow Samsung has finessed a 3,000 mAh battery into the skinny body of the Galaxy S8, and an even larger 3,500 mAh battery into the Galaxy S8+. The official runtime estimates are top to 20 hours of talktime on the S8, up to 16 hours of video, up to 14 hours of WiFi browsing, or up to 12 hours of LTE browsing. Those numbers increase to 24 hours of talktime with the S8+, up to 18 hours of video, and up to 15 hours of WiFi or LTE browsing.

In reality, with mixed use, the S8 lasted me a solid day. Obviously individual usage patterns vary from person to person, and I’ve no doubt you could stretch out into a second day with a little care (and maybe lowering the screen resolution too). It’s still early days in our battery testing with both the S8 and S8+, so we’ll update with more feedback as things level out.

As before, there are several ways to recharge. A 2A travel charger is included in the box, along with a USB to USB-C cable. Samsung also bundles a Type-C to USB adapter and a Type-C to microUSB adapter, which are welcome. With a Fast Charging compliant power supply a full charge should take about an hour and a half.

There’s also wireless charging support, including the latest generation of fast wireless pads. The S8 will work with both Qi and PMA wireless chargers, so either you have already – or find built into the table at Starbucks – will play nicely. However, Samsung has its own new fast wireless charger which can flip between a flat pad or an upright dock.

Samsung Gear VR with Controller

Aside from the DeX dock and the new fast wireless charger, Samsung’s other big accessory for the Galaxy S8 is an updated Gear VR with an Oculus-powered controller. Like Google’s Daydream, the small handset tracks 3DoF movement in a VR environment when you slot your S8 into the bay at the front. A circular trackpad on the top effectively replicates the touchpad on the side of the headset previously used for navigation.

Not every game, app, and virtual reality experience is updated to support the new controller. Those that are, however, gain a new degree of interactivity: there’s nothing quite like gesturing your way through a game or 3D environment. Those who already have a Gear VR can pick up the controller separately, meanwhile, at $39.99.

Wrap-Up

There had been suspicions that the fallout from the Note 7 battery fiasco might sour would-be Galaxy S8 buyers. Based on the degree of pre-launch excitement, however, those fears seem to have been unfounded. Whether it’s the safety promise implicit in Samsung’s new 8-point battery check, or simply a sign of our general appetite for the latest, greatest, and shiniest gadgets, it suggests neither apathy nor explosion anxiety will do much to dampen sales.

It’s helped by the fact that the Galaxy S8 is a tremendously good phone. Samsung has wrapped the latest hardware in a sleek, premium-feeling design that, with its curved touchscreen and waif-like bezels, leaves the iPhone 7 feeling chunky and a little tired. The reappearance of Samsung’s Dual Pixel camera only serves to underscore how ahead of the game the same sensor was last year.

Questions remain, though. Bixby in its current form is a faint outline of its overall potential: Bixby Voice could be an epic leap ahead of what Siri and the Google Assistant offer, but we won’t know for sure until it rolls out later this year. Similarly, the DeX dock and Samsung’s attempt to condense a desktop PC into a phone form-factor is ambitious and intriguing, but for now it’s hard to say whether the reality lives up to the promise.

Happily, neither of those big questions undermine what is, essentially, an excellent device. The Galaxy S8 is easily the best Android smartphone on the market today, and in several ways it ousts the iPhone 7 too. Samsung’s real battle will come with the arrival of the new iPhone 8 later this year, mind, and until we see just what Cupertino has been working on, all bets are off. At the very least, Samsung has set its highest bar yet for its arch rivals, and I couldn’t fault you if you weren’t able to wait it out.

Vincent Nguyen contributed to this review

There are many more Galaxy S8 and S8+ photos, plus camera samples, and comparisons with the iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, Pixel XL, Huawei P10 Plus, and LG G6 in the gallery below!

0 notes

bizmediaweb · 5 years

Text

12 Instagram Marketing Tips to Fuel Your Strategy

Instagram marketing is competitive.

More than 25 million businesses use the platform to capture attention, incite interest, create desire, and compel action.

With so much competition, a thoughtful, proven strategy is necessary for success.

These tips will help you shape that strategy.

But first…

Bonus: Download a free checklist that reveals the exact steps an adventure photographer used to grow from 0 to 110,000 followers on Instagram with no budget and no expensive gear.

Setting up an Instagram for business account

This’ll be quick. If you already have an Instagram For Business account, feel free to skip this.

If you’re brand new, here’s what you do:

Step 1: Download the Instagram app

You can do this from the App Store for iOS, from the Google Play store for Android, or from the Windows Phone Store for a Windows device.

Step 2: Sign up

Once Instagram is installed on your phone, open it.

Then tap “Sign Up” and enter your email address. You can also sign up with your Facebook account, which, if you’ve created a Facebook business page, will be slightly faster and easier.

Step 3: Navigate to Settings

Then scroll down to “Switch to Business Account.”

Okay, now you’re ready. Let’s go.

12 Instagram marketing tips you can’t afford to ignore

1. Optimize your bio

Aside from your business name, username, and website URL, your Instagram profile provides 150 characters for writing a bio.

Your bio is an opportunity to make a first impression, to articulate what your business offers and why people should care. Your bio should explain who you are and what you do while conveying your brand’s identity.

This is difficult when you only have 150 characters at your disposal, so it’s important to keep your copy:

CLEAR: Use short, simple words and separate your text with line breaks.

CONCISE: Use emojis to quickly create a sense of brand personality in a few characters.

COMPELLING: Use a CTA, or call-to-action, to tell visitors what they should do next.

That said, if your tagline communicates everything people need to know without emojis and in less than 150 characters, use it, like GQ:

2. Choose the right profile photo

Before visitors ever read your Instagram bio, they’ll see your profile picture. It’s your first impression.

Therefore, the right profile photo for a Business Instagram account is usually your logo.

Your logo should be clear and uncut by the Instagram’s trademark circle. If your logo is a square, for example, just zoom out, like Home Depot:

3. Establish your brand’s “look” on Instagram

Establishing your brand’s look on Instagram means creating a sense of visual consistency on the platform.

Visual consistency is important because it makes your brand’s images instantly recognizable in a sea of other content. This increases the chance that people will engage (e.g., like or comment) with your posts.

“Since your goal is to get Instagram users to stop scrolling once they see your image,” explains Sarah Dawley, Senior Copywriter at Hootsuite, “the more instantly recognizable your photos are, the better.

This can be achieved by using the same filter on every image, no exceptions. For example, notice how 33 Acres Brewing Company uses the same, white-color pallet filter across every post:

“Scrolling through their feed, the style quickly becomes familiar,” explains Dawley, “and you start to associate images that meet these characteristics with the brewery.”

4. Have clearly defined goals

If you don’t create goals, you won’t know if your Instagram Marketing investment is paying off.

Creating goals starts with choosing the right metrics to measure your success. These break down into two categories:

“Vanity” metrics (e.g., likes, comments, shares, followers)

“Business” metrics (e.g., reach, engagement, traffic, lead-gen, revenue-gen)

The former will tell you if your content is resonating with your target audience. Vanity metrics will also help you measure your Instagram presence against competitors.

The latter will help you track and understand how social media is contributing to your broader business results.

Both are important in their own right, and should be seriously considered before launching a Business Instagram. To help you think through your agenda—and the metrics that ultimately define it—we’ve put together a plan that breaks down how to set and reach social media goals.

5. Create compelling content

Compelling content drives action. It makes people want to share, comment, and click.

But before you can make someone take action, you must first get their attention, a finite commodity. That said, there are several proven content formats that make people stop scrolling and focus. These include:

Behind-the-scenes shots

Use this type of content to introduce and showcase the people behind your business.

Behind-the-scenes images and videos humanize your brand, reminding followers that your business is the product of community and collaboration, people working together to create something bigger than themselves.

You can create posts that profile executives, showcase your office, or feature employees hard at work (or not!). Anything that gives outsiders and inside look, like this:

Quotes and text-based images

People love reading quotes they understand and can relate to, which makes this a simple yet effective strategy to boost engagement.

Bonus: Download a free checklist that reveals the exact steps an adventure photographer used to grow from 0 to 110,000 followers on Instagram with no budget and no expensive gear.

Get the free checklist right now!

You can create text-based content that leverages:

Quotes from influential people in your space

Industry-specific facts or statistics

Reviews from happy customers

Anything that’s valuable and easy to consume, like this:

Daily hashtags

This is a great way to focus your content, creating a theme that gives your audience something they instantly recognize and even look forward to. It’ll also help you generate ideas in a pinch.

You can create classic hashtags, like #tbt (Throwback Thursday), which most people know. Or you can create something new, something unique to your business.

Anything that’s entertaining or inspiring, and gives people a theme to latch onto, like this:

6. Master the little-known features and hacks

Did you know you can:

Change the color of individual letters or words to make your text stand out?

Hide your Story from specific users to create segmented messaging?

Add line breaks in your bio to make it easier to read?

Instagram is a deep, feature-rich platform that anyone can use to create unique content. Mastering these little-known features and hacks will ensure that you’re using Instagram to its full potential, creating content for someone rather than just anyone.

Te help you with this, we’ve put together a list of Instagram tricks and features you probably didn’t know about.

7. Partner with relevant influencers

A paid partnership with a a relevant influencer (i.e., a popular account that shares your audience and/or industry) is a proven way to drive attention to your business.

But not all influencer partnerships are created equal.

According to Lee Vosburgh, who created the blog Style Bee and the Instagram account @LeeVosburgh, there are several questions you should ask yourself as you consider the right influencer to work with, including:

“Does this influencer’s brand align with mine in terms of values, aesthetics, and personality?”

“Is their photography of the style and caliber you want your products associated with?”

“Are the brands and products they have previously worked with similar to mine?”

You should also plan to pay for your partnership.

“The bottom line,” writes Vosburgh, “is that free product won’t pay the rest and the work is worth real dollars if it’s going to generate sales for a brand.”

8. Write great captions

When it comes to engagement, captions are arguably as important as the image or video they compliment.

“A great caption will add context, show off your brands personality, entertain the audience, and compel people to take action,” explains Michael Aynsley, editor of the Hootsuite blog.

Like any good copy, the best captions are clear and concise, easy to read. The best captions, in fact, don’t make the reader think at all. They’re effortless to consume and understand.

Achieving this effect comes down to knowing your audience and your brand voice. The former will ensure that your content is interesting, memorable. The latter will ensure that your content is consistent, recognizable.

You can also practice good copywriting tactics (e.g., placing the most important words at the beginning of the caption; using small words and short sentence) and techniques (e.g., always making time to edit after you write; posing relevant, thought-provoking questions).

For more help with this, read our post on how to write good Instagram captions.

9. Choose hashtags wisely

In the battle for attention, hashtags are a potent tool.

Used well, a hashtag can drive hoards of net-new visitors to your post, profile, and brand. But if the hashtag is misleading—if it’s overused or irrelevant to the content altogether—it can be extremely counterproductive.

Why? Because when a user follows a hashtag and sees something they don’t like, they can select the “Don’t Show for This Hashtag option:

“This feature is designed to teach the Instagram algorithm what content a particular user likes,” explains Hootsuite editor, Michael Aynsley. “No, there’s no such thing as the Instagram ‘shadowban.’ But if too many of your posts are flagged, it’s reasonable to assume your content will be shown less often (or not at all).”

When creating hashtags:

Be relevant (i.e., stuffing hashtags is considered spammy)

Be specific (i.e., target niche audiences with tags they’ll recognize)

Be careful (i.e., make sure the hashtag means what you think it means)

Be concise (i.e., short hashtags are easy to remember)

For more hashtag tips, read our hashtag guide.

10. Get on the Explore tab

The fastest way to boost your brand’s visibility is to get onto the Explore tab.

The Explore tab is where users find curated content based on their previous actions and engagement patterns. In other words, Instagram watches what you do on the platform (e.g., the posts you like, share, and comment on), then populates your Explore tab with similar content.

Instagram also sources content with high engagement as well as content from accounts similar to those the user already follows.

It’s all about data and pattern recognition, which begs the question: How do you get your content on the Explore tab?

While there’s no hard-and-fast method, there are several things you can do to increase your chances:

Know your audience:

Who’s your target customer? What interests her? Who does she already follow on Instagram?

Reverse engineer your target audience to truly understand what moves them to engagement.

Use hashtags:

Hashtags are the most effective way to make your content discoverable, to get it in front of net-new eyeballs. Hashtags enable people to find your content, which is why every marketer must use them.

If you study the do’s and don’ts of using hashtags, your content will enjoy more engagement— and that could land you on the Explore tab faster than you think.

Which brings me to my next point…

Encourage engagement:

The more likes and comments and shares an Instagram post gets, the more likely it is to appear on your target audience’s explore tab.

Encourage engagement by geo-tagging your posts and mentioning other relevant accounts in your captions. The more relevant you make your post to other people and brands, the more action you stand to compel.

11. Target the right audience with ads

If you’re in a competitive space, you might consider using Instagram ads to market your brand.

Instagram offers five ad formats: videos, carousels, photos, canvas Story ads, and Story ads. Each format is incorporated into your target audience’s Feed or Story, making it hard to miss.

Of course, you can grow your Instagram presence organically, without spending a cent. But this will take time. If you don’t have time, ads will help you get where you’re going faster.

To help you with this, we’ve put together an Instagram advertising guide for marketers.

12. Track your performance with Instagram analytics

Tracking and understanding your analytics is the only way to ensure you’re on track to achieve your Instagram Marketing goals (see: #4) and objectives.

Whether you’re tracking impressions (i.e., how many people saw your post), reach (i.e., impressions divided by number of followers), or general engagement (i.e., how many times a post is liked, commented on, shared, or saved), there are tools you can use to make the process easier, quicker.

If you have a business profile, you can immediately access Instagram Insights. This is the platform’s built-in analytics tracker. Instagram Insights gives you a simple, at-a-glance dashboard to review. The data is fairly limited, and you can’t export any of it from the app.

If you’re looking for a deeper dive, our Instagram Analytics piece breaks down seven tools that’ll help you make the most of your data.

Save time managing your Instagram presence using Hootsuite. From a single dashboard you can schedule and publish photos directly to Instagram, engage your audience, measure performance, and run all your other social media profiles. Try it free today.

Get Started

The post 12 Instagram Marketing Tips to Fuel Your Strategy appeared first on Hootsuite Social Media Management.

12 Instagram Marketing Tips to Fuel Your Strategy published first on https://themarketingheaven.tumblr.com/

0 notes

unifiedsocialblog · 5 years

Text

12 Instagram Marketing Tips to Fuel Your Strategy

Instagram marketing is competitive.

More than 25 million businesses use the platform to capture attention, incite interest, create desire, and compel action.

With so much competition, a thoughtful, proven strategy is necessary for success.

These tips will help you shape that strategy.

But first…

Bonus: Download a free checklist that reveals the exact steps an adventure photographer used to grow from 0 to 110,000 followers on Instagram with no budget and no expensive gear.

Setting up an Instagram for business account

This’ll be quick. If you already have an Instagram For Business account, feel free to skip this.

If you’re brand new, here’s what you do:

Step 1: Download the Instagram app

You can do this from the App Store for iOS, from the Google Play store for Android, or from the Windows Phone Store for a Windows device.

Step 2: Sign up

Once Instagram is installed on your phone, open it.

Then tap “Sign Up” and enter your email address. You can also sign up with your Facebook account, which, if you’ve created a Facebook business page, will be slightly faster and easier.

Step 3: Navigate to Settings

Then scroll down to “Switch to Business Account.”

Okay, now you’re ready. Let’s go.

12 Instagram marketing tips you can’t afford to ignore

1. Optimize your bio

Aside from your business name, username, and website URL, your Instagram profile provides 150 characters for writing a bio.

This is difficult when you only have 150 characters at your disposal, so it’s important to keep your copy:

CLEAR: Use short, simple words and separate your text with line breaks.

CONCISE: Use emojis to quickly create a sense of brand personality in a few characters.

COMPELLING: Use a CTA, or call-to-action, to tell visitors what they should do next.

That said, if your tagline communicates everything people need to know without emojis and in less than 150 characters, use it, like GQ:

2. Choose the right profile photo

Before visitors ever read your Instagram bio, they’ll see your profile picture. It’s your first impression.

Therefore, the right profile photo for a Business Instagram account is usually your logo.

Your logo should be clear and uncut by the Instagram’s trademark circle. If your logo is a square, for example, just zoom out, like Home Depot:

3. Establish your brand’s “look” on Instagram

Establishing your brand’s look on Instagram means creating a sense of visual consistency on the platform.

This can be achieved by using the same filter on every image, no exceptions. For example, notice how 33 Acres Brewing Company uses the same, white-color pallet filter across every post:

“Scrolling through their feed, the style quickly becomes familiar,” explains Dawley, “and you start to associate images that meet these characteristics with the brewery.”

4. Have clearly defined goals

If you don’t create goals, you won’t know if your Instagram Marketing investment is paying off.

Creating goals starts with choosing the right metrics to measure your success. These break down into two categories:

“Vanity” metrics (e.g., likes, comments, shares, followers)

“Business” metrics (e.g., reach, engagement, traffic, lead-gen, revenue-gen)

The former will tell you if your content is resonating with your target audience. Vanity metrics will also help you measure your Instagram presence against competitors.

The latter will help you track and understand how social media is contributing to your broader business results.

5. Create compelling content

Compelling content drives action. It makes people want to share, comment, and click.

Behind-the-scenes shots

Use this type of content to introduce and showcase the people behind your business.

You can create posts that profile executives, showcase your office, or feature employees hard at work (or not!). Anything that gives outsiders and inside look, like this:

Quotes and text-based images

People love reading quotes they understand and can relate to, which makes this a simple yet effective strategy to boost engagement.

Bonus: Download a free checklist that reveals the exact steps an adventure photographer used to grow from 0 to 110,000 followers on Instagram with no budget and no expensive gear.

Get the free checklist right now!

You can create text-based content that leverages:

Quotes from influential people in your space

Industry-specific facts or statistics

Reviews from happy customers

Anything that’s valuable and easy to consume, like this:

Daily hashtags

This is a great way to focus your content, creating a theme that gives your audience something they instantly recognize and even look forward to. It’ll also help you generate ideas in a pinch.

You can create classic hashtags, like #tbt (Throwback Thursday), which most people know. Or you can create something new, something unique to your business.

Anything that’s entertaining or inspiring, and gives people a theme to latch onto, like this:

6. Master the little-known features and hacks

Did you know you can:

Change the color of individual letters or words to make your text stand out?

Hide your Story from specific users to create segmented messaging?

Add line breaks in your bio to make it easier to read?

Te help you with this, we’ve put together a list of Instagram tricks and features you probably didn’t know about.

7. Partner with relevant influencers

A paid partnership with a a relevant influencer (i.e., a popular account that shares your audience and/or industry) is a proven way to drive attention to your business.

But not all influencer partnerships are created equal.

“Does this influencer’s brand align with mine in terms of values, aesthetics, and personality?”

“Is their photography of the style and caliber you want your products associated with?”

“Are the brands and products they have previously worked with similar to mine?”

You should also plan to pay for your partnership.

“The bottom line,” writes Vosburgh, “is that free product won’t pay the rest and the work is worth real dollars if it’s going to generate sales for a brand.”

8. Write great captions

When it comes to engagement, captions are arguably as important as the image or video they compliment.

“A great caption will add context, show off your brands personality, entertain the audience, and compel people to take action,” explains Michael Aynsley, editor of the Hootsuite blog.

Like any good copy, the best captions are clear and concise, easy to read. The best captions, in fact, don’t make the reader think at all. They’re effortless to consume and understand.

For more help with this, read our post on how to write good Instagram captions.

9. Choose hashtags wisely

In the battle for attention, hashtags are a potent tool.

Why? Because when a user follows a hashtag and sees something they don’t like, they can select the “Don’t Show for This Hashtag option:

When creating hashtags:

Be relevant (i.e., stuffing hashtags is considered spammy)

Be specific (i.e., target niche audiences with tags they’ll recognize)

Be careful (i.e., make sure the hashtag means what you think it means)

Be concise (i.e., short hashtags are easy to remember)

For more hashtag tips, read our hashtag guide.

10. Get on the Explore tab

The fastest way to boost your brand’s visibility is to get onto the Explore tab.

Instagram also sources content with high engagement as well as content from accounts similar to those the user already follows.

It’s all about data and pattern recognition, which begs the question: How do you get your content on the Explore tab?

While there’s no hard-and-fast method, there are several things you can do to increase your chances:

Know your audience:

Who’s your target customer? What interests her? Who does she already follow on Instagram?

Reverse engineer your target audience to truly understand what moves them to engagement.

Use hashtags:

Hashtags are the most effective way to make your content discoverable, to get it in front of net-new eyeballs. Hashtags enable people to find your content, which is why every marketer must use them.

If you study the do’s and don’ts of using hashtags, your content will enjoy more engagement— and that could land you on the Explore tab faster than you think.

Which brings me to my next point…

Encourage engagement:

The more likes and comments and shares an Instagram post gets, the more likely it is to appear on your target audience’s explore tab.

11. Target the right audience with ads

If you’re in a competitive space, you might consider using Instagram ads to market your brand.

Instagram offers five ad formats: videos, carousels, photos, canvas Story ads, and Story ads. Each format is incorporated into your target audience’s Feed or Story, making it hard to miss.

Of course, you can grow your Instagram presence organically, without spending a cent. But this will take time. If you don’t have time, ads will help you get where you’re going faster.

To help you with this, we’ve put together an Instagram advertising guide for marketers.

12. Track your performance with Instagram analytics

Tracking and understanding your analytics is the only way to ensure you’re on track to achieve your Instagram Marketing goals (see: #4) and objectives.

If you’re looking for a deeper dive, our Instagram Analytics piece breaks down seven tools that’ll help you make the most of your data.

Get Started

The post 12 Instagram Marketing Tips to Fuel Your Strategy appeared first on Hootsuite Social Media Management.

12 Instagram Marketing Tips to Fuel Your Strategy published first on https://getfblike.tumblr.com/

0 notes