This Week in Social Media

News for the Week of November 14

Instagram Adds More Features to Stories

New Instagram Stories features, including Boomerang, Mentions, and Links have been added to enhance the user experience and make things even more fun. Boomerang mode allows users to take bursts of photos, stack them together in video format, play them forward and backward, and share them on their Stories. Mentions is a new feature for Instagram, which allows users to share who they’re with or who they might be thinking of in their stories. Like other platforms, simply by placing @ before a username, they can mention another user, ensuring the username will appear in the Story being shared.  That username can then be clicked to take users directly to that person’s profile. “See More” Links allow verified accounts to add more links to the bottom of their stories. The links can then be viewed directly from inside the app. Dealerships, utilize this to mention and provide links to your website or blog; you can get more content to your followers and interact in new and innovative ways. It’s a great way to keep followers interested in your brand and drive traffic to your website.

LinkedIn Now Providing Sponsored InMail to All Marketers

This newest LinkedIn tool is aimed at solving the issue B2B marketers have when trying to deliver relevant and engaging ads to the right person. Sponsored InMail is now joining the group of self-service LinkedIn products available through the Campaign Manager. Sponsored InMail allows users to create a personalized and direct message meant to engage specific target audiences. With this new tool, users will be able to “personalize outreach to prospects, drive conversions with mobile-optimized features and reach members when they’re most engaged.” This latest update is aimed at optimizing user marketing strategies and helping businesses and individuals reach their fullest potential on this platform. Dealerships, timing is essential when it comes to ad campaigns. Engaging your target audience at the right time can be difficult, but with LinkedIn’s newest tool, you can see when users are the most engaged and reach out to them at optimal times to get their full attention.

Sponsored Messages Added to Facebook’s Messenger

Facebook Messenger just got a huge overhaul, but the biggest feature update seems to be the addition of Sponsored Messages. Facebook has made this feature available to all advertisers, giving them the opportunity to more easily interact with their target audiences. Facebook advertisers can reach people in their News Feeds and direct them to a conversation in Messenger. Users have been leveraging the News Feed ads to open Messenger conversations and raise brand awareness to increase sales. The new Sponsored Messages are available to businesses and developers who have an experience built on Facebook’s Send/Receive API. These messages can only be sent to people with whom these users have already created an existing conversation.  Dealerships, provide customers with a quick and easy way to contact you so they can remain engaged with your brand.  When followers see your content come up on their News Feeds, they’ll have the opportunity to jump right in on conversations, get their questions answered, as well as give you feedback. This helps build trust and long-term relationships with consumers, which lead to more sales for your dealership.

Periscope Offers More Ways to Connect With Audience

Periscope has released three new ways for users to connect with their audiences: Superfans, Groups, and Hearts. Superfans displays a list of up to ten people who are a user’s most engaged followers. This allows broadcasters to interact with the most dedicated audience members and gain insights into what works best. Superfans also allows users to see who has them listed as Superfans, giving even more insight and allowing for great relationship building. Groups allows users to broadcast and share videos with more granular sets of people. In other words, users can broadcast videos specifically to groups of their most loyal fans or to specific groups or communities with common interests. Additionally, the Hearts feature has been added to Periscope.tv, allowing viewers to add hearts and comments during live videos.  This can be done by logging in to their accounts and joining as a member of the audience in any live video. Dealerships, use Periscope’s newest updates to better pinpoint specific audiences and provide more personalized messages. Try creating videos for shoppers who love a specific vehicle make and model, or try broadcasting maintenance tips to new-car owners.  Personalization is BIG right now, and when you define consumer subsets and share relevant content based on their needs, you’ll be letting your customers know their needs are important to you.

Tip of the Week – Calls-to-Action Are Essential

When it comes to advertising and content, your focus should be on engaging your audience and getting them to act.  That’s why calls-to-action (CTAs) are so important.  They are the way you ask potential customers to do something.  Especially for online content, CTAs are the way you gather consumer information, but to do so, you first need to convince shoppers it’s worth their while to click the button.  In other words, the payoff needs to be convincing.

There are a variety of techniques when it comes to writing and implementing calls-to-action, and there are about a million different word combinations you could use.  The important thing, however, is to find what works for your dealership, what resonates with your customers, and what—in the end—incites them to act.  Below are some quick tips when it comes to finding and using the best calls-to-action:

• Capture attention.  Think of what interests your consumers the most and focus on that when creating your CTAs.  Consider asking a question, giving special discounts or rebates, and let them know there’s more to learn by clicking.
• Make it easy.  When creating your CTAs, keep in mind the need today’s consumers have for convenience and efficiency.  Don’t overcomplicate things with long forms or hard-to-follow instructions.  Instead, keep it minimal and make it painless for them to follow through.
• Don’t overload.  The old saying “there can never be enough” doesn’t apply with CTAs. Too many can make your page look busy and unorganized; not to mention, you stand the change of overwhelming or confusing potential customers.  Exercise restraint and strategically use your best CTAs to capture the most attention.
• Create a sense of urgency.  When you create your CTAs with a timeline, you’ll let consumers know they need to act quickly to take advantage of what you’re offering.  Try a “Contact us today for your $1000 rebate!” CTA—you’ll get shoppers to prioritize their actions and check out what you’re offering.
• Use creative placement.  CTAs aren’t just for web pages, so remember to place them in your other marketing materials as well.  Use them in blog posts, email campaigns, and on sidebars.  Run some placement tests to see what gets the most attention and generates the most leads. And once you find the sweet spot, be sure to put it to good use.

The best strategies are focused on what resonates with consumers.  Unorganized or irrelevant content won’t carry you very far—especially with today’s savvy and intuitive shoppers.  Be smart with your CTAs, let customers know what you’d like them to do, and appeal to them with convincing messaging.  By implementing great CTAs in your marketing, you’ll reach more shoppers in their online research phases, you’ll capture more consumer information, and you’ll gain more in-market leads.