Here in Saint John, we are entering another lockdown at midnight. Many of my current clients, friends, and past colleagues running businesses, including myself, are going into this weekend with pretty valid concerns.
Everyone is tired of the constant changes, the gaps in rules and the overall changes to their business. On top of that, ensuring communications are up to date or using social media to show ways to support the company can be even more overwhelming when shit is hitting the fan.
Last week I put out part one of Instagram Tips, but part two is specifically to help small businesses and creators showcase their companies, use their budgets a bit more effectively and have some fun with social media during the storm and lockdown. I hope it helps. If I missed something or can help you, please reach out.
Alright, let’s get rollin’!
Support Small Business Sticker In Stories
Brands and companies are spending less on social media and ads. The “Panini,” As Bestie Cherise Letson calls it, has caused chaos in the marketing and branding industry. It is essential to use what can help your business when it matters and use your money even more strategically to stay in business and stick to the growth plan when things return.
You can use this sticker to showcase outstanding businesses, products, and menu items on IG stories. Very collaborative tool and allows the other party to repost for additional engagement. Very helpful to reach new audiences, elevate other entrepreneurs and increase traffic to websites or shops.
There is a tonne of function in this, so be sure to check it out, but you can visit profiles after posting the sticker, see other small business stories in your area and use the thank you hour to recognize those you feel should get some extra love.
REELS
Please, if you are not using them, start! I can help you! Book me here!
Suppose you have started to use reels already; excellent. When people start using it, I tend to see uploaded horizontal video rather than vertical uploaded to reels.
Hot Tip:
- Use a free video editor. I use InShot.
- Change the canvas to vertical.
- Use the blank space more strategically then upload to reels
- Access trending audio and adjust your original volume so its louder
- Utilise the captions under advanced options to make them accessible
- Add all the flair to it 😉 LOL
Reel Remixing and Duets Feature
When you watch reels, you will see a little plus button on the top right-hand corner, which allows you to duet a video or remix that reel. Like TikTok duet and stitch, you can control creating within the app or uploading content after the fact. You can also adjust both volumes and enable remixing so others can use this, remix it and potentially become a trending audio snippet.
Few reasons why this could be advantageous:
- Add your personality or perspective to it
- Collaborate and engage bigger audiences
- Add your expertise and use for public relations
- Find others in your niche and trending audio
The Extras and Hot Tips You All Want:
- Use the link sticker in all your stories. Used to only be for accounts 10 K and up but baby, they are here, and I encourage you to use them to drive traffic, create awareness and help others.
- Use a poll sticker on the first story of the day to create engagement on other posts
- Carousel images can be edited and reordered after being published
- Short Form Vertical Video is Here to stay, Yay!!
- Scheduling Live Videos and Live Rooms are finally here. Live Videos are fantastic but only when you have an audience. With this new function, you can let your followers know that you will be going live and notify them minutes before it starts.
- Use the Add Yours sticker in stories to help drive engagement on your stories and create conversation.
Example: Take a story of your coffee and use the add your sticker and type in a prompt like, what is your go-to morning beverage, prompting users to upload their photo rather than swiping onto the next story or exiting out. OR, focus on how people can buy from you right not in this crazy time and where to get it.
And the last tip comes from an incredible industry expert, Todd Collins, who I will be speaking to soon on his podcast. Stay Tuned.
Tiktok Watermark: Months ago, you could save it to your iPhone, and it would still show the watermark but once saved to your camera roll, you could go into, hit edit and hit create a video, and you would have a copy without the watermark.
Now, I got this tip from Todd Collins, but if you save the video, exit it before it is finished downloading, and then pop back into the app, the watermark will be gone. Check out his video below and be sure to follow him on IG and TikTok for more tips.
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMLJH3eW2/
I super hope this was helpful. I know times are stressful and I just am trying to get as much as I learn out to my audiences to help in this crazy time. If you need some assistance, please reach out.
Stay safe everyone.
-Cait
