Sprout Social https://sproutsocial.com/insights/ Sprout Social offers a suite of <a href="/features/" class="fw-bold">social media solutions</a> that supports organizations and agencies in extending their reach, amplifying their brands and creating real connections with their audiences. Thu, 04 Apr 2024 13:16:28 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://media.sproutsocial.com/uploads/2020/06/cropped-Sprout-Leaf-32x32.png Sprout Social https://sproutsocial.com/insights/ 32 32 The journey of a data point: Turning numbers into social media intelligence https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-intelligence/ Thu, 04 Apr 2024 13:00:22 +0000 https://sproutsocial.com/insights/?p=162223/ Every company should strive to be driven by data. As organizations and technologies become more sophisticated, we’ve been able to tap into the kinds Read more...

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]]> Every company should strive to be driven by data. As organizations and technologies become more sophisticated, we’ve been able to tap into the kinds of insights that wouldn’t have even been imaginable 15 years ago. Those insights drive real business value, whether you’re proactively increasing customer retention, engagement or satisfaction, or creating new products or services that solve problems your customers didn’t even know they had. Social media analytics isn’t just about the numbers—it tells a story about your business and customers.

“When I think about data, I inevitably think about social media. That might be because I spend my days working with our clients’ executives to capture the voice of their customer, but I think it’s because social media intelligence is the next data frontier,” says Ryan Barretto, President of Sprout Social.

Social media data gives you actionable intelligence to drive your business forward. But how exactly does data turn into business intelligence? And do professionals from social practitioners to marketing leaders take advantage of social insights?

We spoke with several subject matter experts at Sprout, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Bowling Green State University (BGSU) and Madden Media, a destination marketing agency, to learn how a data point becomes social media intelligence.

What is social media intelligence?

Social media intelligence is the process of gathering and analyzing data from conversations on social networks to inform decision-making. Across the social landscape, there are trillions of data points that are essential parts of cumulative business intelligence.

Social media intelligence involves pulling these points together into something measurable, whether you’re looking at volume, sentiment, content or demographics. Once you add context behind the data, those insights can guide marketing efforts, sales strategy, product development and more.

There’s a good chance your competitors are already using social media business intelligence to their advantage. According to The 2023 State of Social Media Report, 85% of business leaders say that social data consistently informs or often informs their company’s business strategy. Over the next three years, 30% of business leaders expect that amount to increase significantly.

Why is social media intelligence important?

Collecting survey data from your customers, monitoring product reviews and conducting focus groups are extremely valuable. When you combine that feedback with social media intelligence, you get an even clearer picture of what your audience wants.

One post might not mean a lot, but the aggregation of every post on a topic that’s relevant to your business can be magical. Social data comes from a wider audience, it’s unfiltered and it gives you a real-time understanding of your market.

Social media intelligence contextualizes wider feedback

Social media intelligence provides a macro perspective when you desperately need one and can have a major positive impact on your quarter or fiscal year. While a survey helps you understand your base, social media intelligence captures the sentiment from anyone buying within your product category, opening the door to new audiences. With access to a wider range of feedback, teams can identify more avenues for driving impact with social data, which gives the edge you need to generate revenue, discover potential cost savings and reduce your risk.

“Balancing social data with creativity is so important because it gives us a direct pulse on what customers are doing, responding to and saying. We’re getting one of the best, richest pieces of audience data that we can get through social,” says Sarah Hupp Foster, Chief Operating Officer of Madden Media.

Understand your customers better with unfiltered feedback

Social media, for better or worse, is where people go to express their unfiltered thoughts. Your customers might reserve their true feelings on a survey that’s going directly to you, but on social media, they’re posting their thoughts as they come. Without a social media intelligence program, you might only notice a few posts that go viral and address those individual concerns. But once you organize that data, you can find the commonalities and adjust your strategies accordingly.

“People aren’t holding back when they tell you what they think. Whether you’re looking for improvements for operations, trying to decipher new technology to invest in or direct insights for your customers, all of those audiences will tell you what they want. As a leader you have a starting point whether it’s doing an internal survey or preparing a proposal, [social data] empowers you to have a firm ground to stand on,” Foster says.

And if you’re interested in employee sentiment or investor relations, your constituents are still people with social media accounts.

“I know of one company that tracks both employee and investor sentiment directly after earnings calls to get an unfiltered view of how their results and commentary are being received. They can use that intelligence to shape future internal and external communications, with messaging tailored for each group,” says Barreto.

Monitor feedback in real time

Consumers post to social media as soon as they have a problem, giving you a real-time window into how your product is being received. By implementing social media intelligence practices, you can keep an eye on problems faster than you could by monitoring your internal customer care. When you establish a trendline of social sentiment, if there are any sudden deviations from that line, you can investigate quickly.

“For example, one of our other agency customers discovered the value of social data after their client’s moisturizer sales started dropping and they couldn’t figure out why. By setting up a social listening query, they had their answer within minutes instead of months. While customers still loved the product, they disliked the packaging. The social team was able to pass the feedback on to R&D so they could redesign their packaging based on real customer insights,” Barretto says.

Fuels competitive monitoring and benchmarking

Social media intelligence also supports competitive monitoring and benchmarking. Jenny Li Fowler, Director of Social Media Strategy at MIT, says it’s important to know what your competitors are doing, especially what stories they’re telling and their successes. She says social data can help spot any internal gaps that your competitors are already capitalizing on.

“If you’re in the same industry, you have a similar audience, so it’s an opportunity for you to authentically add your spin. I learn a lot from my higher ed peers. We all learn from each other. That’s part of what creativity is—to be inspired by what others are doing,” Fowler says.

Brands can also see why consumers prefer your competitor—a competitive intelligence play that might take months to accomplish without the power of social. You can see what’s missing from the marketplace. That kind of intel has a ripple effect across your business and you might not ever uncover it without social media data.

Strategies for gathering and using social media intelligence

Our experts shared their strategies for getting deeper data and using that social media intelligence through social listening, sentiment analysis, social monitoring and competitive intelligence.

Social listening and sentiment analysis

Social listening involves collecting and analyzing online conversations to gather data about what people are saying about a brand, product, service or industry. Sentiment analysis uses this data to determine if the tone behind those conversations are positive, neutral or negative. Both social listening and sentiment analysis provide businesses with intelligence about consumer perceptions, trends and more.

For example, Brianna Louise Blackburn, Manager of Social Media Strategy at BGSU, uses the Sprout Inbox to track sentiment, specifically looking to see if their content and the university’s procedures, events and culture are resonating.

“It’s helpful for me as a social media manager to be able to report to our leadership. They can get a better understanding of how their decisions are making an impact across our various audiences and stakeholders,” Blackburn says.

Lindsey Wilhelm, Managing Senior Content Strategist at Madden Media, oversees a team of writers who produce organic and paid social content. Her team manages community engagement and comment moderation for clients as part of the broader array of owned social services provided by Madden. This approach is utilized not only for ad hoc sentiment analysis but also for fostering community building.

“We closely analyze user engagement to refine our client’s social strategy. Every user question, comment and interaction is a data point that we can use to inform future efforts. Community management not only builds trust between our clients’ brands and users but reveals insights that teach us about our key audiences,” she says.

For instance, when the Madden team worked on a campaign honoring Native American Heritage Month, there were many comments from people sharing excitement and expressing they wanted to participate in different types of cultural experiences like a powwow. Madden’s content team works with their clients and other internal agency disciplines like design and media to determine the best way to respond to these types of conversations.

“While it may not be appropriate to encourage people to attend these cultural events, it showed us there was a strong desire to engage with Native American culture, even if users themselves weren’t part of the community. So, we can cultivate interest on behalf of our client to encourage users to honor the culture with valuable experiences like touring historical locations,” she says.

Occasionally the team will see a trend for certain hot topics that spark negative sentiment in the comments. Wildlife images can sometimes spark debate between residents and conservationist groups. The creative team worked together to find new imagery while still maintaining the needs of their client.

“Once the team noticed a large number of negative comments, we shifted our strategy to not include imagery of those animals because the users’ negative interactions were taking attention away from our key message, which was responsible recreation and giving wildlife space. We continued to promote the message because it was a key client initiative, but we switched to showing different types of wildlife. This allowed us to avoid getting more of that negative sentiment but still get our client’s message across,” she says.

Social monitoring

Along with social listening and sentiment analysis, social monitoring can be used to provide business intelligence. Social monitoring refers to the process of tracking general activity across multiple platforms. It involves observing and analyzing user activity, interactions and trends across various social media platforms. By monitoring factors like engagement, demographics and content performance, businesses gain insights into their target audiences behavior and preferences. For example, if a marketer noticed an increase in engagement on Instagram Stories with polls, they might focus on using more interactive elements in the future.

Competitive analysis

Social data helps you benchmark your efforts against competitors. Blackburn says it’s helpful to see what other universities or brands are doing related to higher education, especially when it comes to informing event strategy on social media.

“For example, we may show how another university uses confetti, photo opportunities or video displays—anything that’s more engaging and shareable. We want to make the event a social media moment where people are whipping out their phones and taking pictures or video for their Instagram Story or whatever platform they choose,” she says.

During reporting, Blackburn explains she will often include competitor analysis tools to highlight other institutions, along with sharing comments about what people liked about BGSU’s event, to gain buy-in and demonstrate proof of concept.

“If you’re trying to market a brand or product, it’s important to know what conversations are held by your audience about your peers or competitors, especially if you’re trying to make an argument to go a certain direction. It helps to lead with data,” Fowler says.

7 ways to turn social data into actionable intelligence

Social media intelligence has a direct impact on your bottom line, so how do you create a social data program that works for you? There are several ways you can transform social media data into actionable intelligence for your organization. For Madden, social data supports their overall storytelling.

“We’re trying to tell authentic stories on social. We do that by reviewing analytics and data our client has on the destination and their target audiences. Whether it’s geo-targets or demographics to some degree, we look at the traditional metrics for our campaigns: CPC, likes, shares and comments. We can get an idea of how a message resonates based on that data and benchmarks,” says Jack Petty, Senior Director of Destination Strategy.

Beyond supporting storytelling, there are seven ways to turn social data into actionable intelligence.

1. Empower your social media team

Social data should be owned by the people working in the platforms every day. Your social media team already understands the landscape and probably has a few insights from their day-to-day work.

The next step is giving them the tools they need to surface that information to the rest of your organization. Keep them informed on metrics and goals of the business in the next quarter, year or five years. Make sure your social media team knows what matters to the business so they can mine and present insights to your leadership that will fuel your strategy.

2. Use social data to identify industry trends and opportunities

When it comes to social media intelligence, Madden’s teams are looking at major trends within the travel industry. For example, post-2020 people are looking to spend time outside and new audiences are seeking outdoor experiences.

“Social intelligence can show us the big trends and we can share those insights with our clients to help identify what’s going to resonate with audiences,” Foster says.

As a COO, Foster looks to social data to get an overview of workforce conversation, relevant industry topics and emerging technology as well. If she notices a major trend, she considers how to apply it to Madden’s operations.

“I’m able to see across all different industries at a grand scale and learn what staff are looking for.”

For example, when exploring different perspectives and reviewing general sentiment around hybrid work models, she was inspired to create a survey for the Madden team about best practices for hybrid work.

“I saw people didn’t want to fully return to the office, which allowed me to take action and get a pulse check for our staff by doing a survey. The social space informed us that we need to ask more about the topic,” she says.

3. Share insights across teams and departments

The beauty of social media intelligence is that one data point or finding can be relevant to multiple teams.

“A lot of what we do travels across different teams or departments because we’re a company of marketers working on behalf of our clients. We have an internal marketing team as well,” Petty says.

For instance, Petty explains his team may share several examples when presenting how a campaign performs. From there, the Madden marketing team will create a case study and apply those insights to Madden’s own channels.

Wilhelm says Madden Media also has a company-wide chat where teams share wins and performance stats from campaigns across the company.

“Since we have so many different teams hyper-focused on our clients, we don’t always know exactly what we’re all working on. It’s nice to have that company-wide space to talk about what’s new, what we’re doing for clients and what’s working. We share competitor insights as well,” she says.

4. Create a data dashboard

Social media intelligence is most powerful when paired with other data sources. All of your business data is valuable and it can’t live in a silo. Placing social insights with your CSAT or NPS survey results, reviews, customer support tickets and other data sources gives you a clearer view of the total landscape. When you give social media intelligence the same weight as data from your CRM or ERP, you see everything more clearly.

“As we move through this economic uncertainty, listening tools can be especially helpful to make game-time decisions. For example, retailers who need to make difficult decisions about their inventory can use social media intelligence to decide what to discount and what might be useful to keep on hand. Having all of that information in one place can help you make the tough calls,” says Barretto.

5. Be proactive, not reactive

One advantage of the real-time nature of social media is that it can be used to anticipate your audience’s needs or as a crisis management tool. Fowler explains over the past few years, MIT has used social to navigate crises and to help them better understand their audiences.

“When I think of social media intelligence, we’re trying to hone in on what our community is thinking and feeling. What is triggering them and what are their needs?” Fowler says.

During the height of the pandemic, the MIT community expressed they missed campus and seeing each other in person, so the social team started using more personal language. For example, instead of saying “We miss everyone,” they would use “We miss you, too.”

“I think when our audience read more personal language, it made them feel more heard and connected. It was a somber time, for example, and we stopped using phrases like ‘Have a happy weekend,’ but adjusted our tone to reflect how our audience was feeling,” she says.

She also shares that anecdotal data is one of the most powerful because it can help leadership inform messaging.

“Do we need a message to our community? If so, what is the tone and who needs to be heard? It’s challenging to connect all those dots, but when you’re hearing from all of the different voices on social, it helps you not be as reactive. It helps you know when it’s the right moment to say something and when it’s not,” she adds.

She explains MIT uses social listening and sentiment analysis tools to help with timing. For example, they search for relevant keywords to determine the momentum of conversations.

“Sometimes it confirms what we already know about the conversation, but seeing the sheer volume of mentions across networks along with [visualizations] shows you exactly where the data points are coming from. I will share those insights with leadership with a brief message,” she says.

Having a robust, always-on social data program is the best way to make sure your leadership is seeing the whole picture.

6. Conduct A/B testing to create content that resonates

Social media intelligence can also inform A/B testing to determine messaging and opportunities to lower the risk of content that doesn’t resonate. You can conduct organic social media experiments by testing different content types, captions, copy, images or publishing times. You can also use A/B testing for paid ads.

“We’re being the best stewards of our clients’ dollars. We don’t want our ad creative to be so high that we’re seeing a drop in CTR or other methods of engagement,” Petty says. “However many ads we’re creating, we’re using A/B tests to determine the different ways we can present it.”

He explains there are situations where ad creative takes off quickly, so the team optimizes toward that option. A different ad with a similar message may have a different image or target, but if they see it starts to shift, those options will become more prevalent over time. Either way, A/B testing enables Madden to present information and guidance to their clients.

7. Inform future campaigns

Social media intelligence has a place in their overall creative process, especially when preparing for new campaigns. After a seasonal campaign ends, the Madden team creates a slide deck to share overall performance with their internal stakeholders and the client.

“Our [media strategists] share great nuggets of insights, including top-performing headlines, primary text and link descriptions for paid ad campaigns. I like to review those decks when I’m strategizing for the next campaign. It helps me learn how the content we deploy resonates with our audiences. I can glean some information on the audience sentiment through that performance,” Wilhelm says.

The Madden team also looks at landing page performance for the exit URL of the campaign to review metrics like click-through rate, bounce rate and time on page to identify if the page met the user’s expectations after clicking.

“Those metrics help us know if we’re hitting the mark. Is it connecting with our audience and inspiring them, or giving them an awareness of this client’s destination? We reference them a lot as we are creating or reviewing social content to make sure we are following through with that data-first mindset,” she says.

3 social media intelligence tools to connect the dots

Now that we’ve covered the importance of social media intelligence and how brands can use it, let’s explore three tools you can use to connect the data points.

1. Sprout Social

Sprout’s solutions support gathering, analyzing and disseminating social media intelligence. Use our social listening solutions to learn about conversations and relevant topics, as well as measure sentiment and analyze your audience’s honest feedback. Our platform makes sharing insights easier with automated reports, which can also be exported and shared with various stakeholders.

Preview of Sprout’s Sentiment Summary dashboard showing net sentiment score and net sentiment trend.

Our customer care solution with Salesforce and Tableau integrations, enable you to see your social data alongside other business intelligence insights. You get a 360-degree view of your business data and customer care experience from end to end.  And our intuitive platform enables you to essentially register and get started right away.

Sign up for a demo to understand the full potential of Sprout and how it can fit your unique social media intelligence needs.

Request a demo

2. Similarweb

Similarweb is a social media intelligence tool centered on competitive intelligence with a comprehensive view of your competitors’ digital presence. You can explore engagement, keywords, traffic and more for up to 25 competitors at a time.

A preview pf Similarweb, a social media intelligence tool centered on competitive intelligence. The preview shows a dashboard for marketing channels and trends.

3. Semrush

Semrush is a popular search engine optimization (SEO) tool, but also offers powerful competitive intelligence features. Semrush provides tools to analyze your backlinks, paid ad campaigns, keyword ranks and social media performance.

Preview of Semrush, a popular search engine optimization (SEO) tool. The preview shows a dashboard for organic and paid search, backlinks and display advertising.

Use social media smarter

The sheer amount of data that social media can provide is unmatched. Implementing a social media intelligence program is one of the best ways to harness those insights for your business. Learn how Sprout’s premium analytics will help you reveal opportunities across your organization.

The post The journey of a data point: Turning numbers into social media intelligence appeared first on Sprout Social.

]]> UK fashion influencers redefining style https://sproutsocial.com/insights/uk-fashion-influencers/ Wed, 03 Apr 2024 13:04:13 +0000 https://sproutsocial.com/insights/?p=184375 Whether it’s a try-on haul on YouTube, a styling video on TikTok or a #HighStreet fit check on Instagram, fashion influencers have an impact Read more...

The post UK fashion influencers redefining style appeared first on Sprout Social.

]]> Whether it’s a try-on haul on YouTube, a styling video on TikTok or a #HighStreet fit check on Instagram, fashion influencers have an impact on how the world showcases their self-expression through clothing. Fashion influencers are indispensable partners for businesses because they influence purchase decisions, extend brand reach and connect with niche communities. Through influencer marketing, these digital trendsetters captivate the target audiences brands look to connect with.

They also embody what consumers seek most from brands on social media: authenticity, which is ranked as the number one thing consumers want to see from brands in The Sprout Social Index™.

In our Q1 2024 Pulse Survey, Sprout reached out to over 2,000 consumers and 300 influencers to get their take on what makes influencer marketing successful, and predict how the landscape will evolve in the future. Participants in the United Kingdom report following brands at a higher rate (51%) than in the United States (42%).

With that said, let’s walk through the current influencer landscape in the UK and what to consider when looking for the best partnerships. And to get you inspired for your next social media marketing campaign, we’ll share our list of some of the top UK influencers.

Understanding the influencer landscape in the UK

The power of influencer marketing extends into fashion and other global industries. For example, the 2023 Global Industry Report: QSR Index shows the UK is a global leader in influencing marketing for quick service restaurant brands.

Sprout’s data aligns with Instagram influencer marketing being one of the most popular avenues globally, especially on Instagram. Our Q1 Pulse Survey 2024 shows participants say they are most likely to engage on Instagram at a higher rate than participants in the US (38% UK vs. 27% US).

There’s no doubt that influencer marketing in the UK is ripe with opportunity, but social practitioners, marketers and influencers must comply with regulatory obligations. Brands working with UK influencers are required to follow Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) Guidelines. The Advertising Standards Authority is the UK’s media advertising regulator. The regulatory body offers a variety of resources including a 20-page guide.

The TLDR version? Influencers, brands and agencies must disclose when social media content is used as advertising through explicit labels such as #Ad. This includes any agreements that include payment or other incentives from a brand.

What to consider when choosing UK fashion influencers

Although we admire the massive awareness of the Rihanna’s and Kim K’s of the fashion space, brands shouldn’t limit themselves to only working with mega influencers. Nano and micro fashion influencer campaigns are just as impactful, especially for targeted campaigns trying to reach a niche audience. Sprout’s survey also confirms this trend as 40% of participants said they prefer to work with nano and micro influencers.

These subcategories of influencers tend to target niche audiences and have a more intimate relationship with their followers, leading to a higher engagement rate. A mega influencer may have millions of followers, but that doesn’t always translate to record sales or success.

That’s why it’s important to keep in mind three factors when choosing UK fashion influencers:

  • Audience demographics and relevance to your brand
  • Engagement metrics
  • Authenticity and alignment with brand values

Let’s briefly review why these considerations matter if you’re looking to maximize your marketing efforts.

Audience demographics and brand relevance

Your target audience is your north star. The fashion influencer you collaborate with should have a connection with your target audience demographic to maximize brand relevance and resonance. The influencers you consider partnering with should also be active on the same channels as your audience.

Strong engagement metrics

High, consistent engagement metrics such as comments, shares and likes indicate a dedicated, active following. Influencers with strong engagement metrics are more likely to have a genuine relationship with their followers.

Authentic brand alignment

Genuine alignment between influencers and brands is especially important in the fashion world. Choosing influencers who’s personal style and values align with your brand values, image and ethos in an authentic way supports credibility and trust with your target audience.

Leading fashion influencers in the UK

Let’s explore 10 of the leading UK fashion influencers:

1. Nyane Lebajoa – @nyane

Instagram: 2.5 million

TikTok: 2 million

YouTube: 427K

Nyane Lebajoa is a beauty and fashion influencer known for her doll-like makeup and #LetsDressMeUp video series. #GetReadyWithMe videos are a staple content type for fashion influencers, but Lebajoa adds a unique twist. In these videos, she tries on different makeup looks and outfits, non-playable character (NPC) style. With mouse clicks, animated expressions and NPC-like talk tracks, she feels like she’s a video game character. Lebajoa is the founder of TEMPER ®, a human hair wig collection, and often models the wigs in her content.

A #LetsDressMeUp video from Nyane on Instagram.

2. Koleen Diaz – @koleendz

Instagram: 721K

TikTok: 691K

YouTube: 1.58 million

Koleen Diaz merges masculine street-style attire with feminine aesthetics. She’s an avid traveler known for her #GRWM videos and vlogs where she documents her looks and stories. On her YouTube, she documents her life living alone in London, along with her journeys across the world.

An Instagram post of Koleen Diaz wearing an oversize green top, feminine accessories and track pants.

3. Chioma Nnadi – @chiomannadi

Instagram: 100K

Chioma Nnadi is an established journalist and the future of fashion in the UK. She was appointed as Head of Editorial Content of British Vogue in October 2023. She has worked with British Vogue over the past 14 years and interviewed some of the most influential people in fashion including FKA Twigs, Rihanna and Cara Delevigne.

A sponsored Instagram post from Chioma Nnadi in collaboration with Vogue and Giorgio Armani.

4.  Agnes Pusztai – @whatgigiwears

Instagram: 395K

TikTok: 36.6K

Agnes Pusztai is known for her high street flair, which incorporates oversize attire, menswear, statement outerwear and 70-inspired pieces. Pusztai inspires the women on the go who don’t want to sacrifice looking stylish for comfort.

A sponsored Instagram post from Agnes Pusztai. She's wearing an oversize suit with loafers from H&M.

5. Madame Joyce – @madamejoyce1

Instagram: 113K

TikTok: 868.5K

YouTube: 161K

Madame Joyce is best known for her podcast, Cocktails and Takeaways, but she’s also a fashion girlie. She has worked with a variety of brands including Spotify, Sony Music, Gymshark, Adidas and Gucci. Joyce’s style is just as vibrant and signature as her voice. You’ll find her rocking furs, custom gowns, opulent fabrics and textile designs.

An Instagram post from Madame Joyce wearing an Adidas x Gucci ensemble.

6. Stephen Omotayo – @somotayo10

Instagram: 153K

TikTok: 1.3 million

YouTube: 223

Stephen Omotayo #OOTD and #aesthetic videos showcase his diverse sense of style. He shows menswear fans how to style everything from business attire to #blockcore basics to Y2K inspired looks. He’s also known for his strategic color placements and unique styling.

A styling video from Stephen Omotayo on TikTok.

7. Izzy Manuel – @izzy_manuel

Instagram: 17.1 K

TikTok: 1.5 K

Izzy Manuel is a sustainable fashion and lifestyle influencer. How does she describe her style? Ethical dopamine dressing, of course. Her distinctive style is funky, textural and drenched in color. Think: pattern mixing, vibrant stockings with chunky heels, and editorial posing. Essentially, Manuel makes sustainability fun and exciting.

Izzy Manuel posing in an Instagram post. Her caption talks about her sustainable shopping journey.

8. Lydia Rose – @fashioninflux

Instagram: 2.6 M

TikTok: 470.4K

YouTube: 154K

Fashionista Lydia Rose is one of the UK’s most popular fashion influencers. She’s known for her smart casual sense of style, along with her lookbooks, shopping hauls and beauty tips. Recently, she’s stepped in the momfluencing space, sharing cozy outfits for pregnancy and postpartum.

An outfit of the day video from Lydia Rose on Instagram.

9. Lydia Tomlinson – @lydiajanetomlinson

Instagram: 1.6 M

TikTok: 210.8K

YouTube: 856K

Lydia Tomlinson is an advocate for choosing style over fashion. She creates educational style content that teaches people how to maximize their wardrobe. She shares tips for making informed purchases based on comfort and longevity. She’s a modern classic aficionado that will show you how to style a trench coat and how to wear a top several ways.

A sponsored post from Lydia Tomlinson showing how to style a trench coat.

10. Efe Efeturi – @efe.efeturi

Instagram: 388K

TikTok: 131.6K

YouTube: 1.28K

Efe Efeturi proves curating your sense of style is like fine wine–it simply gets better with time. Efeturi is an award-winning fashion influencer and model specializing in style for senior men. Along with his signature sense of style, he is known for his skincare and cologne recommendations.

A Reel from Efe Efeturi vlogging his experience at a fashion event.

UK micro-influencers: the hidden gems for targeted campaigns

Our favorite UK micro-influencers have a major impact. Let’s dive in:

1. Nicole Careri – @nicole_careri

Instagram: 39.5K

TikTok: 7,180

YouTube: 2.08K

Nicole Careri is a stylist and founder of DreamofJophiel, a jewelry brand. Her Instagram features sultry, flirty ensembles with edgy silhouettes and dramatic layering. Through editorial photography, she crafts stunning images that play around with architecture, scenery and posing. Her photos strike an impressive balance of feeling both effortless and intentional. Along with promoting her jewelry brand, Careri is a Savage x Fenty ambassador and has worked with several celebrities including rapper Gunna.

An Instagram post from Nicole Careri wearing a green fur coat and tights.

2. Zoe Llana Hill – @zoeilanahill

Instagram: 61.2K

TikTok: 64.7K

YouTube: 3.51 K

Zoe Lllana Hill is a self-proclaimed shopaholic. Like many fashion aficionados, she blends affordable to mid-range clothing with luxury accessories such as Prada sunglasses. Anyone can be inspired by her stylish panache, but Hill considers herself a petite fashion influencer since she’s 5’1. She works with a variety of high street brands including White Fox Boutique, Miss Lola, Micas and Zara. Plus she’s an avid traveler so of course she documents her outfits from her trips abroad.

A sponsored post from Zoe Lllana Hill wearing an outfit from Miss Lola.

3. Jordan Grant – @jo.rdan

Instagram: 108k

Jordan Grant is one of London’s rising it girls. She’s currently content director of Heat, a luxury mystery box brand. Grant is a regular at fashion shows and events for high end brands like Miu Miu,  Jacquemus and Loewe. She also sports mid-tier brands like Aritzia (she is currently a partner with the brand). Grant’s style is eclectic yet chic as her wardrobe features striking silhouettes, rich textures and intricate patterns.

A sponsored Instagram post from Jordan Grant posing in clothing from Aritzia.

4. Olivia – @oliviasshoppingdiary

Instagram: 11.9 K

TikTok: 43.8 K

Olivia is known for her detailed moodboards and minimalist, yet posh style. As her @-name suggests, she uses social media to document her fashion adventures. If you want to pursue her “inner fashion monologue,” check out her Substack. She’s an advocate for purchasing pieces designed to last. Her followers look to her before splurging on a designer purchase or simply elevate their wardrobe with quality finds.

A moodboard from @oliviasshoppingdiary showing black and brown accessories and a navy Chanel clutch.

5. Liv Blankson – @livblankson

Instagram: 31.2K

TikTok: 590

If you’re ever looking for charming accessories, the perfect swimsuit for vacation or just styling tips for casual everyday looks, Liv Blankson is your girl. She’s great for brands looking to reach very niche audiences since her content often features various interests: cats, natural hair care and F1 racing. In the video below, she styles an outfit inspired by Scuderia Ferrari:

A Reel from Liv Blankson. In the video she styles an outfit inspired by Scuderia Ferrari.

Best of the high-street fashion influencers in the UK

We’ve talked about several influencers who are known for their impact on luxury fashion, but let’s dive into some of the best high street fashion influencers.

1. Eleftherios Vogiatzis – elefv

Instagram: 145K

TikTok: 98.1K

Eleftherios Vogiatzis is the epitome of someone who has impeccable everyday style. His Instagram features casual, yet sophisticated outfits complemented by eye-catching scenery. Head to his TikTok page for vlogs where he shows his shopping runs or showroom visits. He has worked with a variety of high street brands including H&M, Cos and Zara.

A vlog from Eleftherios Vogiatzis on TikTok. He shows his day visiting the H&M showroom.

2. Joel Mcloughlin – @gallucks

Instagram: 330K

YouTube: 159K

Joel Mcloughlin is a fashion blogger and stylist known for his edgy, vintage wardrobe. Almost all of his looks are all black, but you’ll find him stepping outside of his signature color, too. He’s best known for his vlogs where you’ll find him sharing about his hair transplant journey or fashion weeks.

An Instagram post from Joel Mcloughlin and friends posing under the Eiffel Tower during Paris Fashion Week.

3. Patricia Niamh O’Dwyer – @patriciaodwyer

Instagram: 15.2K

Three words to describe Patricia Niamh O’Dwyer’s style? Colorful, fun and classic. She showcases her authentic daily style through her #WaysToWear videos where she styles her favorite staple statement pieces. Along with being a fashion influencer, she’s a contributor to Sheer Luxe and the Wedding Edition, two of the UK’s leading digital publications.

A sponsored post from Patricia Niamh O’Dwyer in collaboration with Free People.

4.  Claudia Berresford – @claudia_berresford

Instagram: 29.9K

TikTok: 1.7K

Claudia Berresford is a content creator and fashion blogger that has worked with a variety of high street brands including & Other Stories and Free People. Along with talking about the landscape of fashion on her Substack, she flocks to social media where she takes styling advice to the next level with her seasonal mood board, outfit formulas and layer tutorials.

A sponsored post from Claudia Berresford wearing Really Wild Clothing.

5. Omer Elsarrag – @omerelsarrag

TikTok: 76.3K

Omer Elsarrag is a men’s fashion influencer known for his styling videos that feature tips for elevating high street attire. His style is clean and classy, incorporating essential basics, premium pieces and affordable accessories. He creates style guides for essential basics like corduroy shirts, polos and Chelsea boots. If you’re looking for ways to style trousers or properly tuck a polo, Elsarrag has you covered.

A TikTok video from Omer Elsarrag showing how to properly tuck a polo.

Top plus size fashion influencers in the UK redefining standard

If you’re a brand that focuses on inclusivity, body positivity or fitness while refining beauty standards, consider these five plus size fashion influencers:

1. Alexia – @curvylexie28

Instagram: 39.5K

TikTok: 7,180

YouTube: 2.08K

As she mentions in her bio, Alexia is a “body confident plus size blogger breaking stereotypes and redefining beauty.” She is currently a Fabletics ambassador and has worked for a variety of high street brands including Boohoo, Savage x Fenty and Shein. Although a lot of her content features her outfits, she also works with her husband, @nubianprincefashionstyle, who is also an influencer.

As a growing micro-influencer, you’ll find her social media filled with outfit inspiration, try-on hauls and fitness journey content. For example, in the Reel below, she shares stretches for people who work from home or want to improve their mobility and posture while wearing several Fabletics sets:

A sponsored post from @curvylexie28 wearing Fabletics sets. In the caption, she talks about the importance of exercising for better mobility and posture.

2. Talisha Jade – @talishajade

Instagram: 1,239

TikTok: 51.6K

Talisha Jade is a model and rising micro-influencer with an ensemble for any occasion. Her TikTok page is filled with outfit ideas and lifestyle vlogs featuring brands like She Oath and Bravissimo. Whether it’s for a wedding, a day-to-night look or date night, Talisha has an outfit for it. In the TikTok video below, she shows off a night look for people in their “comfy girl era”:

An outfit inspiration video from Talisha Jade on TikTok.

3. Laura Ferry – @whatlauraloves

Instagram: 255K

TikTok: 13.9K

Laura Ferry is a former contestant on BBC’s I Can See Your Voice and travel blogger, but her content isn’t just about glitz and glam. She uses her social platforms to talk about issues like confidence and mental health. She shares her experience navigating ADHD after being diagnosed at 34.

A Reel from Laura Ferry. In the caption, she talks about confidence, anti-bullying and her sponsorship with Moet Chandon and Virgin Voyages.

4. Natasha Lee – @ceoofbbw

Instagram: 41.2K

TikTok: 4,292

YouTube: 29.3K

Natasha Lee is a stylist and confidence coach. Through her vlogs, fashion content and private consultations, she helps her “big baddies” look and feel fabulous. She’s a Fashion Nova Curve ambassador and provides styling tips curated for plus size women. In the Reel below, she shares a trick for adjusting swimsuits she uses while on holiday:

A Reel from Natasha Lee. She shares a trick for adjusting swimsuits she uses while on vacation.

5. Diana Sirokai – @dianasirokai

Instagram: 1.3 million

TikTok: 341.7K

YouTube: 12.5K

Diana Sirokai is a plus size model and Fashion Nova Curve ambassador. Along with her confidence chats on TikTok and YouTube, you’ll find her encouraging others to embrace their beauty through bold, eye-catching ensembles from bright bikinis and body con jumpsuits to chic two-piece sets and flirty miniskirts.

Diana Sirokai wearing a jumpsuit from Fashion Nova Curve.

Male fashion influencers in the UK

Let’s cover five of our favorite male fashion influencers in the UK:

1. D’nieccio Mitchell – @dnieccio

Instagram: 201k

TikTok: 280k

D’nieccio Mitchell is known for his nostalgic sense of style. He blends modern style with staples of the 90s and early 2000s streetwear staples. Think American sports jerseys oversized jeans, varsity jackets and a nice pair of sneakers to finish the look. He’s known for his outfit of the day series, “Documenting My Fits.”

A sponsored Instagram post from D’nieccio Mitchell in collaboration with Vinted.

2. Artur Kramer – @arturkramer

Instagram: 1.8 million

TikTok: 3.1 million

Arthur Kramer is a high street influencer known for his bold editing and swift transitions. He is a NovaMen and Boohoo ambassador. He also has fun creating looks based on themes and requests from the comment section.

An Instagram post from Arthur Kramer wearing a pink and white outfit for his Boohoo Man sponsorship.

3. Sam Gray – @samgraystyle

 Instagram: 19.4k

TikTok: 268

Sam Gray has a timeless style. He’s known for showing off classic ensembles such as a white t-shirt and Wrangler jean jacket ensemble or a custom tailored suit with cufflinks. He partakes in luxury indulges like hand-crafted loafers, cashmere sweaters and watches.

A sponsored Instagram post from Sam Gray wearing a Wrangler outfit. 4.   Gurj Sohanpal – @gurjsohanpal

Instagram: 23.7K

Gurj Sohanpal is a London based blogger and photographer focused on menswear and travel. His suave attire is complemented by stunning, picturesque landscapes. Along with clothing lines, he collaborates with niche fragrances like Penhaligon and luxury watch brands such as Tag Heuer.

An Instagram post from Gurj Sohanpal in Bolivia.

5. SM – @dapperclassic

Instagram: 120K

SM is known for his sophisticated, timeless menswear style. He refers to his Instagram as his “daily style diary.” He loves all of the staples of classic menswear attire: tailored suits, structured jeans, knitwear and penny loafers. He’s a Proper Cloth partner and has a collection on their website where customers can view his custom clothing guide.

An Instagram post from @dapperclassic. He shows every outfit he wore in February.

Make a lasting impression with British fashion influencers

Our list of UK fashion influencers can inspire your next collaborations and activations, but this is just the beginning. The beauty of fashion influencer marketing is that there are so many partnerships waiting to be created. Remember to focus on finding influencers who align with your brand, embody authenticity and maintain high engagement.

There are so many influencers to choose from, so we recommend using influencer marketing tools to narrow down your search. These tools can help you find the right partnerships, track progress of your influencer campaigns and more.

The post UK fashion influencers redefining style appeared first on Sprout Social.

]]> 13 Strategies to increase Facebook engagement https://sproutsocial.com/insights/facebook-engagement/ https://sproutsocial.com/insights/facebook-engagement/#comments Tue, 02 Apr 2024 14:36:44 +0000 http://sproutsocial.com/insights/?p=84921 One of the main components of any social media strategy is increasing your overall social media engagement—and the same goes for Facebook. If you’re Read more...

The post 13 Strategies to increase Facebook engagement appeared first on Sprout Social.

]]> One of the main components of any social media strategy is increasing your overall social media engagement—and the same goes for Facebook. If you’re promoting your business and its products or services on Facebook, you want your target audience to engage with your content.

However, increasing your Facebook engagement can be tricky. You need to know the right strategies to implement and how to get started.

Throughout this article, learn more about what Facebook engagement means, how to calculate your Facebook engagement rate and 13 key strategies for improving engagement on Facebook.

Table of contents:

What is Facebook engagement?

Facebook engagement refers to any action that a Facebook user takes on your Facebook page—mainly likes, comments, shares and clicks. Increasing the number of engagements you see like this on your page proves that your Facebook marketing strategy is working and that your content resonates well with your audience.

How to calculate your Facebook engagement rate

You can calculate your Facebook engagement rate with a simple formula:

Facebook Engagement Rate = [(Total Likes + Comments + Shares)/Total Reach] x 100

You can find these metrics via Facebook insights or by using a third-party Facebook analytics tool. In your Facebook page dashboard, you can get a quick overview and grab your numbers from the “Post reach” and “Interactions” sections in order to discover your Facebook engagement rate.

A screenshot of insights in Facebook

The median Facebook engagement rate is 0.063%. While this engagement rate seems low, if you implement the 13 strategies below, your brand will be more likely to surpass that average.

13 strategies for improving Facebook engagement

Increase your organic reach with these 13 strategies—though don’t forget the power of Facebook ads in the meantime. These 13 organic reach tactics mixed with an ads strategy can ensure your business is reaching the people it needs to on Facebook.

1. Understand your target audience

Knowing who you’re trying to target with your content can help better inform your strategy, direct your messaging and ensure your content resonates with those your business can help the most.

Start by getting a basic understanding of social media user demographics so you know who is on each platform you market on. For example, we can see that Facebook’s basic demographics look like this:

Statista chart showing the demographics breakdown of Facebook users by age and gender.

Make sure this lines up with your business’s basic demographics. But then look even further. Who does your business help with its products or services?

For example, if you’re trying to reach men in their 30s, you should:

  • Make sure they’re on your platform of choice (in this case, you’re in the clear)
  • Create a strategy that caters to that audience
  • Keep them in mind when you’re writing your content

2. Know the best times to post on Facebook

The more engagement a post receives, the more likely Facebook’s algorithm is to reward it with reach. This might seem a bit backward but it speaks to the importance of timing your posts to perfection.

By posting when your followers are most active, you instantly increase the likelihood of getting likes and comments.

And yes, there are data-driven best times to post on social media which can clue you in on what your posting calendar should look like.

The key here is to not just post at random and expect engagement. With the help of the chart below and analyzing your past post engagement, you can zero in on a schedule that makes sense.

Based on Sprout Social data, a heatmap showing the best times to post on Facebook globally in 2023

We recommend using a Facebook scheduling tool to plan your social media calendar days or weeks in advance. It’ll keep you from forgetting to post and give you the flexibility to test different posting times.

Plus, by taking advantage of Sprout Social, you can discover optimal times for your specific brand to publish, rather than relying on global data. Just simply use the “Optimal Send Times” dropdown to see when Sprout’s AI recommends you share your posts.

A screenshot of Sprout Social's Optimal Send Times feature

3. Post consistently

While the next post talking about quality is just as important, you also need to post consistently. While global data showcases that some brands post around 4-5 times per day on Facebook, that’s a lot of content to share and also remain consistent.

What you need to do is figure out how many times your team can reasonably post each day or each week—and do so consistently. Consistent content creation increases your likelihood of appeasing the algorithm and getting your content seen by more people.

If you’re posting on a consistent and reliable basis, you’re on the right track.

4. Focus on quality content

Next, make sure your content is engaging, fun and quality to increase the chances that your audience interacts with your content. In this endeavor, many brands make the mistake of putting themselves in a box when it comes to their content.

Let’s say you’re running a Facebook page for your sandwich shop. Should you exclusively post content related to sandwiches?

Of course not.

For starters, there’s only so much that can really be said on a day-to-day basis about your brand or product. As soon as your content starts to feel repetitive or stale, your audience will tune out.

Here’s some food for thought: your Facebook content isn’t all about you. It’s about your audience. They might like you, but that doesn’t mean they only want to hear about you all day long. Once you start to embed that idea into your strategy, increasing Facebook engagement becomes much more realistic.

And if you’re struggling to find ideas for fresh content, you can start by asking yourself a few questions.

What’s trending?

Pulling from pop culture and current events is a smart move if done tastefully. Check out how HubSpot put out an awesome post to coincide with Valentine’s Day.

Hubspot Valentine's Day Facebook Post

Do you have any fun facts?

Infographics and shocking statistics are prime for discussion and debate, both of which are huge pieces of Facebook engagement. Activity in the comment sections spells good news to the updated algorithm.

Have you shown off your brand’s personality?

Like it or not, Facebook has become a hotbed for memes and humorous content. Although humor might not be the perfect fit for every brand, funny content typically performs well and is a lighthearted way to diversify your posts.

It might be tempting to simply talk about yourself, but that’s not going to drive much engagement. Strive to stick to the common rule of content curation that says only 20% of what you post should be self-promotional.

Besides, filling your feed with a variety of content will always keep your followers looking forward to what’s next.

Oh, and if you want to have instant access to fresh pieces your audience will love, tools such as content suggestions from Sprout can do the digging so you don’t have to.

A screenshot of Sprout Social's "Find Content" feature

5. Respond to your customers

Improving your Facebook page engagement isn’t a “one and done” affair. If someone takes the time to comment on your content, make sure you’re taking the time to respond.

People overwhelmingly want to interact with brands, which is the reason why so many businesses that reply to comments score more interactions.

If nothing else, taking the time to reply to fans shows that you’re listening to them. This is a good look from a branding perspective and also encourages more interaction among fans in the future.

If you don’t have time to respond to each and every inbound message, you can create a Facebook chatbot to do so for you, or use a third-party messaging tool to keep all of your social media messages in one easy-to-organize place.

Sprout Social's Facebook direct message inbox

6. Improve your use of images and video

Visual content totally crushes it on Facebook—plain and simple—and Facebook isn’t shy about how much they love video content on their platform.

Other than links, photos and videos are one of the most common post types on the platform, signaling that people would much rather engage with a visual than a wall of text. So if you want to improve Facebook engagement, get visual.

However, the type of images and videos you post make a massive difference in terms of performance.

Many budding businesses make the mistake of relying on stock photos or videos pulled from elsewhere rather than creating their own content.

Instead, brands should strive to show the personality behind their business. There’s a reason why photos “in the wild” are so popular from big brands, as are stories from employees.

After all, it’s the social network, not the stock photo network.

Also, keep in mind that images can be powerful tools to encourage serial scrollers to stop in their tracks and look at your posts. Images containing striking colors and stunning landscapes typically do well, as evidenced by brands like GoPro who kill it with their photo content.

In addition, Facebook encourages brands to upload videos—rather than share video URLs—to drive discussion among their followers.

This means simply copy-and-pasting a link to your recent YouTube video as a post isn’t going to cut it.

Instead, brands should upload and publish videos within their Facebook posts whenever possible. Whether it’s animations, commercials or jumping on Facebook Live, regularly publishing video content on Facebook is a smart move supported by the platform itself.

7. Consider user-generated content

User-generated content, or UGC, is content that is created by your audience that you then share on your own feed. This type of content is highly engaging and fun for your audience to see their own content shared by a brand they love.

If your audience hasn’t given you any UGC to choose from, there are a few strategies you can use to change that.

First, put out an ask. Make a post asking people to share photos or videos of your products. Consider gamifying it or turning it into a contest where you randomly select a winner out of the people who commented or messaged you with their UGC and provide them with a gift card or free product.

Second, consider hiring a UGC creator. This is different from an influencer as it’s someone who is hired specifically to make content for your brand to share on its page, rather than promote your brand to their own followers. This can be a great way to start off your UGC journey even if it’s not quite as authentic as the real thing.

8. Use Facebook analytics to inform your strategy

Sometimes the key to increasing Facebook engagement is to look inward.

Let’s say you have a post that knocks it out of the park. Tons of likes and shares, and plenty of love in the comment section.

Rather than treat that post as an anomaly, you should instead take steps to recreate the same social magic again.

Maybe it was an unexpected meme. Perhaps it was an epic case study.

Either way, you should have a pulse on your top-performing content instead of playing guessing games. Again, your fans’ activity is key to understanding what to post.

To better break down that activity, take a close look at your Facebook analytics to see firsthand what’s receiving the most reach. The answer might very well surprise you.

A screenshot of Sprout Social's post performance page

9. Leverage employee advocacy

Instead of solely relying on your brand page to share your latest content, why not ask your employees to do some of the heavy lifting?

Use an employee advocacy tool like Sprout’s Employee Advocacy platform to curate your latest articles, videos and other content for them. Then, all they have to do is log into their dashboard and they can share the content to their personal Facebook page.

Through Employee Advocacy, you can even add suggested text for your team to use in their Facebook post which makes it super simple for them to just find the content they want to share and publish. On top of that, they can share it to Twitter and LinkedIn as well.

The best part is employees are ready and willing to share your content. Some of the most common barriers noted in our employee advocacy launch checklist that prevent them from doing so are lack of bandwidth, hesitation and lack of confidence or simply forgetting. Employee advocacy removes these barriers, making posting more seamless.

Sprout Social's employee advocacy feature

And the benefits of advocacy go way beyond just reaching more people. Sure getting impressions is nice, but what you really want is for people to read the articles and engage. According to LinkedIn, employee-posted content gets twice as high of a click-through rate than company-shared content.

If you’re not using employee advocacy, you’re missing out on easy engagement on Facebook. If you’re interested in learning more, check out Employee Advocacy by Sprout.

10. Learn how the Facebook algorithm works

The Facebook algorithm is a set of rules that dictates what content appears in the news feed. It does this by looking at four things for each individual user:

  • Inventory: Facebook takes inventory of all the content that could appear in a feed.
  • Signals: Facebook uses signals like type of content and how often a user has interacted with that content to decide if it should appear in their feed.
  • Predictions: Facebook uses predictive analysis to predict what each user wants to see in their feed.
  • Relevancy scoring: Facebook uses relevance scoring to dictate how relevant content is to a user.

With these four criteria in mind, Facebook’s algorithm will push content into its users feeds.

To increase the chances of your content appearing, you need to make sure it’s relevant to your target user, a common type of content and an engaging piece of content that makes it likely for your audience to interact with your posts.

11. Create Facebook stories

Facebook stories are another great type of content to create to engage with your audience. Because stories show up in a different part of the feed—at the very top—they can provide you with yet another way to reach and engage your followers.

Facebook stories are disappearing posts that stay on your feed for 24 hours. These can be images, videos or graphics that show off your product, share company announcements and even engage your audience through polls, Q&As and more.

Incorporate consistent Facebook stories into your strategy to further increase your overall engagement.

12. Partner with influencers

Influencer marketing is another great way to engage your audience. By partnering with influencers that have a large Facebook following, you can get even more eyes on your business. Influencers can share photos and videos of your product or service on their Facebook pages, tagging your business.

You can easily reshare or repost that content to increase engagement from the people who are coming over to your page. This, in turn, increases the chances that more of your content will appear in their feeds.

13. Get verified

Finally, get verified! Getting verified proves your business’s credibility, making it more likely that people will want to follow your page and interact with your content. Verification puts a blue check by your brand name so that every user knows you have an authorized Facebook page.

In order to get verified, follow these steps:

  • Make sure your page fits the criteria
  • Open the verification request form
  • Upload the necessary documents to provide authenticity
  • Add articles that prove your brand is of public interest
  • Completely fill out the form

And then you wait. You can reapply if you’re rejected, but check out our Facebook verification guide to gather tips for increasing your odds.

Start ramping up your Facebook engagement

At the end of the day, what matters most is simply having some sort of Facebook engagement strategy. Period.

If you look at the top brands on Facebook, you’ll notice that they’re consistently posting and interacting with followers. On the flip side, dead pages are the ones that simply parrot their own content and make no effort to, well, engage.

The good news? You can start implementing these tips into your Facebook strategy ASAP without lifting a finger. To get started, consider trying out a free trial of Sprout Social for help.

The post 13 Strategies to increase Facebook engagement appeared first on Sprout Social.

]]> https://sproutsocial.com/insights/facebook-engagement/feed/ 13 The rise of virtual influencers: are they here to stay? https://sproutsocial.com/insights/virtual-influencers/ Tue, 02 Apr 2024 14:00:00 +0000 https://sproutsocial.com/insights/?p=184368 The steady popularity of influencer marketing, coupled with rapid advancements in AI and metaverse technology, is fueling the growth of a new social media Read more...

The post The rise of virtual influencers: are they here to stay? appeared first on Sprout Social.

]]> The steady popularity of influencer marketing, coupled with rapid advancements in AI and metaverse technology, is fueling the growth of a new social media superstar: virtual influencers. These computer-generated personalities function a lot like real human influencers. They post selfies and content from their day-to-day lives alongside brand partnerships with major companies. The only difference is they don’t exist in the physical world.

Are virtual influencers a trend with staying power or more of a novelty for brands looking to cut through the noise of an increasingly crowded social media landscape? In this article, we’ll define virtual influencers and how they work, the major considerations brands should have before working with one and some of the most prominent virtual influencers on the scene today.

What are virtual influencers?

Virtual influencers are digital personalities that exist primarily on social media. They’re not real people but computer-generated characters created with advanced CGI, motion capture and AI technology.

There are different types of virtual influencers, ranging from non-human characters to highly realistic human-like personas. They’re often developed and managed by creative agencies specializing in AI, robotics or marketing. However, some brands have even created their own virtual influencers, like Brazilian retailer Magalu’s Lu. These brand-specific characters function more like spokesmodels or mascots, as they rarely have a platform or following outside of the brand.

How do virtual influencers work?

Virtual influencers operate much like regular social media influencers. These online avatars interact with social media users like human influencers, sharing content, endorsing products and engaging with followers. They offer a unique and innovative way for brands to connect with their audience. But there’s a core difference: The interactions they have with real-life products or services and the engagement with followers are completely fabricated.

A virtual influencer marketing example would be Barcelona-based virtual influencer Aitana’s recent partnership with hair salon Llongueras. Aitana shared pictures of her new hairstyle on her Instagram feed and even documented a fake trip to the salon in her Instagram Stories.

An Instagram brand partnership between virtual influencer Aitana and hair salon Llongueras

The benefits of virtual influencers

Influencer marketing and AI are two huge trends that are quickly taking over the marketing industry. In a Q3 2023 Sprout Pulse Survey of 307 US-based social marketers, 81% said influencer marketing is an essential part of their overall social media strategy. And, our Sprout Social Index found that 81% of marketers say AI has had a positive impact on their work. But what happens when you combine the two? Here are a few of the most significant benefits of partnering with virtual influencers.

Control over content

Brands who want to get across a certain message or have a specific point to make with an influencer partnership have a different level of control over content with virtual influencers. Having more control over what an influencer posts can be appealing to some brands with a very specific message to share.

Adaptability

Virtual influencers never age, can speak any language and can ‘travel’ to any place. This level of adaptability and flexibility means brands can potentially use one virtual influencer for campaigns in different regions instead of finding different influencers for various markets.

Consistency

Unlike human influencers whose brands might evolve as they age or enter different life phases, virtual influencers have a consistent appearance, personality and content. This stability means brands don’t have to worry about unexpected shifts and can rely on a virtual influencer to promote their offer in a predictable way.

How virtual influencers impact brands

Are virtual influencers the future of social media marketing? Well, it depends. A 2022 consumer research survey found that nearly half of people who follow social media personalities are interested in following a virtual influencer. However, many brands and agencies are cautiously pursuing virtual influencer partnerships, as the new technology poses some risks.

Here are some key points brands need to think about as virtual influencers become more popular.

Brand safety and reputation

Virtual influencers may seem like a safer bet than real-life influencers, but they’re not completely immune to controversy. For example, influencer Caryn Marjorie made headlines for creating an AI version of herself that some people criticized for being demeaning to women and enabling anti-social behavior.

Additionally, AI has a black box problem. Humans don’t fully understand how these systems work or make decisions, which poses a huge challenge for advertisers and agencies. Without that clarity, it’s hard for brands to trust these virtual influencers completely. So, while AI has a cool factor, marketers must be careful about diving in headfirst to avoid future PR disasters.

Transparency and authenticity

Most people already struggle to tell the difference between authentic and AI-generated images. A recent study found that participants could only do so 61% of the time. As technology advances and virtual influencers resemble humans even more, it’s imperative for brands to be transparent about how they use these tools.

The FTC said virtual influencers should disclose brand sponsorships just like human influencers, and the ad agency Ogilvy is pushing for clearer rules about AI-generated content. Still, virtual influencer regulations and guidelines are a work in progress.

Additionally, most brands work with influencers to tap into their authentic relationships with their audience. While there are still real people behind a virtual influencer, they can’t directly connect with their followers in the same way. They also can’t interact with products or give honest reviews like human influencers can, which can make their endorsements feel less genuine.

Audience sentiment

Virtual influencers can impact how people feel about brands—for better or worse. While AI tools have recently exploded in popularity and have dozens of benefits for marketers, the more human-like applications of the technology can sometimes produce an “uncanny valley” effect where people find them off-putting.

Some of the most popular virtual influencers also have racially ambiguous features, which marketing experts interpret as a way for brands to appeal to a broader audience. However, this approach could also work against a brand, as it can be seen as a shortcut to appearing more inclusive than they actually are—an issue many beauty and fashion brands have been criticized for.

The top virtual influencers making waves on social media

The trend may be gaining momentum now, but virtual influencers have actually been around for quite some time, quietly revolutionizing the world of influencer marketing and building massive social media followings. From fashion icons to animated characters, here are the top virtual influencers to follow.

Lil Miquela

According to her Instagram bio, Miquela (@lilmiquela on Instagram) is a “19-year-old robot living in LA.” A pioneer in the virtual influencer space with 2.6 million Instagram followers and 3.5 million TikTok followers, she was launched in 2016 and is now managed by creative agency Brud. She’s partnered with brands like Prada, Pacsun and Calvin Klein and even earned a spot on TIME magazine’s list of the ‘25 most influential people on the internet.’

An Instagram brand partnership between Lil Miquela and Pacsun

 

Imma

Imma (@imma.gram on Instagram) is a virtual girl in Tokyo with over 390,000 Instagram followers. The brainchild of Aww Inc., she’s known for her iconic bubblegum pink bob and killer sense of style. She is also curious and often questions her identity, using the hashtag #ithinkimcgi. Recently, Coach launched a campaign featuring Imma alongside celebs like Lil Nas X and Camila Mendes, where she visits each ambassador in their virtual worlds.

An Instagram brand partnership between virtual influencer Imma and Coach

Janky

Janky (@Janky on Instagram) is a mischievous cat-like character with 1 million Instagram followers and 11.9 million followers on a shared TikTok account with fellow virtual influencer Guggimon. They were created by Superplastic, a company known for its animated synthetic celebrities and designer toys. As a virtual influencer, Janky has collaborated with brands like 7-Eleven, Fortnite and Gucci.

Janky's Instagram profile and one of his collaborations with the other virtual influencer Guggimon

What’s next for virtual influencer marketing

Virtual influencers bring a fresh and attention-grabbing twist to marketing campaigns. But there’s still a lot we don’t know about this technology.

Our advice? Vet a virtual influencer just like you would any other influencer, and weigh the risks and benefits for your brand. Pressure test the idea against your audience’s expectations and your brand’s core values. Would your audience find value or entertainment in a virtual influencer partnership, or do they prefer real creator collaborations? Make sure the influencer is ultimately the right fit for your brand.

If you do choose to move forward with a campaign, transparency is key. Use hashtags like #PoweredByAI to let people know it’s a virtual influencer campaign, and closely monitor any interactions between the influencer and your audience.

Ready to start planning your next virtual influencer marketing campaign? Check out our influencer marketing budget template to optimize your spending and ensure you allocate your marketing dollars to the right partnerships.

The post The rise of virtual influencers: are they here to stay? appeared first on Sprout Social.

]]> How women are building a more inclusive creator economy https://sproutsocial.com/insights/women-creator-economy/ Thu, 28 Mar 2024 14:00:40 +0000 https://sproutsocial.com/insights/?p=184059 Author’s note: Insights from this article were pulled from Season Two, Episode Six of #CreatorTeaTalk—The Tea On Women In The Creator Economy, sponsored by Read more...

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]]> Author’s note: Insights from this article were pulled from Season Two, Episode Six of #CreatorTeaTalk—The Tea On Women In The Creator Economy, sponsored by Sprout Social.

Whether founding our own brands and online communities or working behind-the-scenes to partner with creators and influencers, women are leading the way in shaping a more inclusive creator economy. By creating opportunities for ourselves and other creative entrepreneurs—or “creatorpreneurs”—we are building a space that is equitable and profitable.

Despite us dominating the content creation and influencer marketing conversation, men still outearn women when it comes to revenue from their businesses. According to ConvertKit, 35% of men earn over $100,000 from their businesses compared to 19% of women; additionally, men are twice as likely to earn over $150,000. The obvious pay gap and other challenges beg a discussion about how we can better support women making way for themselves in the creator economy.

To find out, I spoke to five women in the space who are carving their own paths and empowering other women to do the same.

The creator economy is the gateway to entrepreneurship

For many female creatives (particularly Gen Z), starting a business is an opportunity to reimagine what work looks and feels like. As cultural attitudes toward the traditional 9-to-5 have shifted toward a desire for autonomous and remote work, more creatives are looking for opportunities that make that lifestyle their reality. Over 50% of Gen Z individuals desire a job as an influencer (or creator) and see it as a respectable career choice, according to a Morning Consult study. Simply put, the creator economy allows women to secure our bags.

An Instagram Reel from Morning Consult, featuring an infographic showcasing how 57% of Gen Z and Millennials would become an influencer if they could

Qianna Smith Bruneteau, Founder of the American Influencer Council, has built a nonprofit that prepares female creators for entrepreneurial success through mentorship, small business development, educational resources and community.

“I started the American Influencer Council to support women creators. When I think about women starting their own businesses, influencer marketing feels like such a great segue into entrepreneurship. During the pandemic, we saw how brands couldn’t work with many production companies, so they turned to creators. Now, whether they are full-time or part-time, we’re seeing women transform and redefine the future of work.”

While more people see influencing, creating and entrepreneurship as viable career options, stigmas around the influencer role may still cause individuals to hesitate.

Tiffany Hardin, CEO of Gild Creative Group, an award-winning full-service influencer marketing firm, says that while that has been the case, a female influencer’s point of view and voice still matters because they bring financial value to businesses that other influencers may not be able to replicate.

“Influencer marketing, at its core, is about trust. Back in the day, people didn’t take mom bloggers seriously. Still, the companies that were [partnering with] mommy bloggers were getting paid big bucks to activate and mobilize those groups of women because they were trusted [by their communities]. We’re even seeing it now with the Stanley cup craze. There’s a direct correlation between women involved [in influencer marketing] and profit.”

Of course, as more women step into their creatorpreneur eras, monetization opportunities become a priority, whether through sponsorships, product and service offerings, e-commerce, or more. Knowing these income streams are essential to the success of their business, women are calling on marketers and brands to challenge gender biases, promote equal opportunities, and ensure fair compensation for all creators—regardless of gender.

The pay gap is a systemic issue

The pay gap—and its impact on women in and beyond the workplace—has become a topic of conversation across industries. When women are not valued or compensated fairly for their creative work compared to their male counterparts, it perpetuates systemic gender discrimination. While women make up the majority of the creator economy and influencer marketing space, economic disparities still make it difficult for women to have financial stability and advance their creative careers.

For Georgina Whalen, Influencer Marketing Expert and Consultant, early education is the key to closing the pay gap.

“It’s similar to other issues in the world and [the US] in particular. It’s a systemic issue that starts when we are very young in school or when we are given career guidance. Then it travels all the way to [the workplace] in hiring, promotions, or how we’re perceived when we’re negotiating. Until those systems are broken down and rebuilt, we’re only going to see incremental change.”

An Instagram post from Hashtag Pay Me, explaining that creators should stop waiting for permission to get paid for their work

Georgina and many other women in the space feel that more conversations around the pay gap are needed to foster an environment of transparency in the creator economy. However, the responsibility of pay transparency falls on more than creators and influencers. It’s also the responsibility of individuals who partner with them. Christina Le, Social Media Manager at OpenPhone, has had first-hand experience.

“Women and girls have always been taught to portray themselves in a way that’s likable, whereas boys and men have audacity [because] they were built to ask for what they want, and they think in their heads, ‘This is what I deserve.’ I’ve seen how when you ask women for their rates, they will always ask for less than the man does. If you’re working on the brand side, do your due diligence and help a girl out. Tell her what she could be making.”

Pay transparency throughout the creator economy, whether you’re on the creative side or brand side, allows women to advocate for themselves so they can get the compensation and opportunities they deserve. This is how we create an industry that is equitable for everyone.

Advocacy and community leads to equity

While more conversations around the pay gap and pay transparency are bringing to light many of the challenges we face in the creator economy, we must advocate for ourselves and go after the things we want with confidence—or, as I like to call it, standing on business.

Brianne Fleming, Brand Marketer and Creator of the Making the Brand podcast, feels being direct and knowing what value you bring is the best approach for getting the opportunities you want.

“We don’t have to wait for someone to see us. We need to be more confident in asking for higher rates. That’s something that I have worked on when trying to negotiate—coming to the table, knowing what I offer, and knowing how to communicate it. I don’t use filler language or things that water it down for likability.”

As more women excel in the creator economy, there are a growing number of tools and communities available to help them build successful, sustainable businesses. When asked which creator or influencer platforms and tools they recommend for people who want resources on pay transparency, establishing rates, negotiation, marketing, and branding, the ladies mentioned the following brands:

Okay, okay. I put the last one there myself, but this article is about taking control of your narrative. The reality is that the creator economy is ripe with opportunities for women who want to be the entrepreneurs they want to be and build the brands they want to develop.

As someone who has done it herself, I have found that leveraging my community, advocating for change in the industry, and championing other women is part of a more significant social justice movement. One that fosters equality and fairness for all individuals, regardless of gender.

As Beyoncé’s husband once said, “Nobody wins when the family feuds.” For all of us to win, we need women to win.

Want to dig deeper? Read more about why diversity in marketing and social media is non-negotiable.

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]]> How to use LinkedIn hashtag analytics to boost content reach https://sproutsocial.com/insights/linkedin-hashtag-analytics/ Thu, 28 Mar 2024 14:00:31 +0000 https://sproutsocial.com/insights/?p=184206 With over a billion members in 200+ countries and territories worldwide, LinkedIn is one of the most popular social networks for brands looking to Read more...

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]]> With over a billion members in 200+ countries and territories worldwide, LinkedIn is one of the most popular social networks for brands looking to reach a professional audience.

But with millions of posts flooding users’ feeds daily, how do you make sure your content gets noticed? Hashtags may be the answer. LinkedIn hashtags are searchable, which increases your content’s reach and gets your posts in front of more of the right people.

In this article, we’ll dive into why hashtags matter, how they boost your brand’s visibility and how to use LinkedIn hashtag analytics to add fuel to the fire of your LinkedIn marketing strategy.

Table of Contents

What are LinkedIn hashtag analytics?

LinkedIn hashtag analytics reveal how popular specific hashtags are on the platform and how they impact content performance.

For example, hashtag analytics offer insight into how many people see your posts because of the hashtags you use, which hashtags get the most traction and how much engagement your posts get because of those hashtags. Understanding the data behind your hashtag strategy will help you fine-tune your approach and content to reach more of your target audience.

Why tracking LinkedIn hashtag analytics is important

On LinkedIn, 40% of users organically interact with a page weekly, making it an excellent choice for brands that want to get noticed without paid promotion. Adding LinkedIn hashtags to your organic content can help it reach an even broader audience, but you need to be strategic to make the most of them. This is where LinkedIn hashtag analytics come into play.

Here are the top reasons why you should keep track of LinkedIn hashtag analytics.

Identify the best hashtags for your brand

Have you noticed that a particular hashtag has a high follower count and consistently drives engagement on your company’s posts? Those are good signs that you should keep using it. Analyzing these metrics over time will allow you to pinpoint the exact keywords and phrases that resonate the most with your audience.

Understand which hashtags compliment your brand

Prioritize relevancy over popularity to reach the people most interested in what you’re sharing. For example, suppose you’re a social media marketer at a B2B marketing software company for small businesses. You might opt for the more specific #smallbusiness hashtag, with around 800,000 followers, over the general #marketing, with over 20 million followers. Despite its smaller follower count, picking the more relevant hashtag will help you cut through the noise and speak directly to your ideal customers.

Subscription design service Superside recently used this approach for a LinkedIn post promoting an upcoming webinar, using very niche hashtags like #aitutorial and #3dmoviestylecharacter with a broader but still targeted hashtag #characterdesign, which has over 14,000 followers.

LinkedIn post from Superside, promoting workshop on how to create 3D movie-style characters based on a human model.

Track the sentiment for certain hashtags

A solid social media strategy also tracks how people feel about the content you’re putting out. Monitor what hashtags drive more positive or negative engagement to ensure your content hits the right notes.

For example, creating a Listening Topic in Sprout Social will enable you to analyze the topic’s most common keywords and hashtags and see a breakdown by sentiment for related keywords and hashtags.

The Related Keywords & Hashtags screen in Sprout Social’s Listening Report

Monitor your competitors

Incorporating hashtag analysis into your competitive monitoring will help you optimize your social media strategy by staying competitive and increasing your share of voice more relevantly. For example, if competitor posts with specific hashtags consistently get high engagement, that’s an indicator that those hashtags are hitting the mark with their audience, and you may want to start incorporating those or similar keywords into your content.

Sprout’s Listening solutions make this process easy. They enable you to gather key metrics like volume, engagement, likes and impression breakdowns for specific competitor hashtags, or a broader overview of your competitors’ top hashtags.

How to generate LinkedIn hashtag analytics

Not all social media analytics are created equal. Knowing how to generate this data will make all the difference in maximizing your post reach and engagement. From leveraging built-in LinkedIn tools to browser extensions to third-party social media management platforms, here are the primary methods for generating LinkedIn hashtag analytics.

Use the native LinkedIn hashtag analytics

LinkedIn offers follower count numbers for all hashtags. To see how many followers a hashtag has, use this URL formula:

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/hashtag/keyword

For example, if you wanted to see the follower count for #socialmediamarketing, you would enter the following URL into your web browser:

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/hashtag/socialmediamarketing

The follower count will be displayed prominently at the top of the page. It’s not the most efficient system, but this method will show you the popularity of specific hashtags. From there, make a shortlist of industry-specific hashtags and test them to see how they affect performance.

The #socialmediamarketing hashtag follower count

Use a LinkedIn hashtags analytics extension

Hashtag Analytics is a free Google Chrome extension by Engage AI. The tool allows you to check hashtag follower counts directly on LinkedIn, get real-time insights while scrolling through your feed and get hashtag suggestions as you write your posts.

It also offers additional data like hashtag follower growth over time, the maximum number of likes and comments based on the top 20 recent posts and the total reach of a post after incorporating hashtags.

To start exploring hashtags, add the extension to Chrome, log into LinkedIn, and access the tool icon in your browser.

The Hashtag Analytics Chrome Extension

Use a third-party social media scheduling tool

Creating a tag for different hashtags in Sprout Social will enable you to track how each one performs in engagement, reach and clicks across your posts. Say, for instance, you work for a virtual event software company and want to compare posts with #eventprofs to ones with #eventtech.

Creating a tag for each hashtag will enable you to generate Tag Performance Reports that provide metrics like impressions, engagements, engagement rate (per impression) and top posts. This data will help refine your social media strategy and drive more meaningful interactions with your target audience.

The Stats by Tag screen in Sprout Social

Harnessing the power of LinkedIn analytics

It’s challenging for brands to stand out in the ‘pay to play’ social media landscape. Fortunately, hashtags are an easy way to boost your content and organically get it to the right people. Just make sure you monitor your hashtag analytics to see which hashtags drive the most results to maximize your LinkedIn content efforts.

Of course, hashtags are just one feature that can affect content performance. If you want to dive even deeper into the world of LinkedIn performance data and learn more about the best platforms to track metrics, check out our roundup of the top LinkedIn analytics tools on the market.

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]]> 24 must-know Pinterest stats for marketers in 2024 https://sproutsocial.com/insights/pinterest-statistics/ https://sproutsocial.com/insights/pinterest-statistics/#respond Wed, 27 Mar 2024 17:42:09 +0000 http://sproutsocial.com/insights/?p=67042 Pinterest is a visual social media platform great for many different industries and types of brands. However, to decide on whether Pinterest is right Read more...

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]]> Pinterest is a visual social media platform great for many different industries and types of brands. However, to decide on whether Pinterest is right for your brand, it’s a good idea to take a look at some Pinterest stats.

Having a basic understanding of social media statistics gives you an idea of the type of people who use the social media platform, if they fit into your audience and what people expect from brands on each platform.

Throughout this article, we’re covering Pinterest statistics like demographics, behavior, business stats and more.

Table of contents

Pinterest stats every marketer should know

1. Pinterest is the 15th most-used social media platform

When it comes to users, Pinterest is the 15th most popular social media platform worldwide as of January 2024. The first four are, of course, Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp and Instagram. (WhatsApp and Instagram are tied for third place.)

While Pinterest may not be as giant as some of the other social media platforms, that doesn’t mean it’s not worthwhile. In fact, we have one compelling reason to have a presence on Pinterest as our next stat.

2. 1 in 3 Pinterest shoppers have an income of over $100k

Pinterest is a platform that’s perfectly poised for social commerce. Because one-third of the platform’s users have an annual income of over $100,000, they’re ready to buy when they browse the platform for products. This makes luxury brands want to flock to the platform, making it the number one platform for shopping luxury.

3. Pinterest generated $981 million in revenue in Q4 of 2023

Q4 of 2023 was Pinterest’s all time best performing quarter for revenue–producing $981 million dollars in that quarter alone. The platform also generated over $3 billion in revenue throughout the whole of 2023.

All this to say, Pinterest is a profitable platform, which means it’s stable. It’s a good idea to invest in a Pinterest marketing strategy so you can take advantage of this platform.

4. Pinterest’s annual trend predictions have an 80% success rate

Every year, Pinterest publishes a new “Pinterest Predicts” report, sharing upcoming trends they’re predicting based on their user searches and behavior. Because the platform’s data is so reliable, this report has had an 80% success rate for four years in a row. This makes Pinterest incredibly useful for identifying whether the platform is relevant to your target audience’s interests.

Pinterest’s 2024 trend predictions include things like:

  • Eclectic grandpa aesthetic
  • Jellyfish decor
  • Kitschy kitchens
  • Cafécore aesthetic
  • Oversized beauty and accessories
  • Blue being used in beauty
  • Bow stacking
  • Badminton
  • 70s-inspired weddings

Check out the full 2024 predictions list to see if your brand can take advantage of any upcoming trends.

Pinterest user statistics

5. Pinterest has 498 million monthly active users

Pinterest has half a billion monthly active users. This is a small fraction of Facebook’s nearly 3 billion users, but Pinterest is steadily growing year after year (we have a stat for that, too).

6. Pinterest sees a 7.5% year-over-year growth

Pinterest has a healthy growth rate of 7.5% each year. It’s the third fastest-growing platform right now, behind Snapchat and LinkedIn. Facebook is still growing, but at a rate of 1.6% each year, and YouTube and Instagram are both losing users.

7. 84.6 million users are located in the U.S.

If you run a U.S.-based business, Pinterest might be a great option for you. The U.S. audience is by far Pinterest’s largest, with 84.6 million of its 498 million users located in the U.S. (17%).

The next four most popular countries for Pinterest are as follows:

  • Brazil: 28.05 million users
  • Mexico: 19.45 million users
  • Germany: 15.88 million users
  • France: 10.65 million users

Pinterest usage statistics

8. 78% of users say Pinterest makes them feel positive

The vast majority (nearly 8 in 10) of Pinterest users get a positive feeling from using the platform. Plus, another study showed that browsing Pinterest for a healthy dose of inspiration can help prevent burnout and stress.

There are so many benefits of Pinterest, but the fact that its users are happy and at peace has to be a major one.

9. 85% of weekly users have made a purchase from Pinterest pins

Pinterest users are shopping on the platform—a whopping 85% of weekly Pinners have made a purchase based on a pin they saw from a brand. Creating boards that feature your products can help you get them in front of even more users, increasing the chances someone makes a purchase.

10. 85% of Pinners use the platform to start a new project

85% of users say they hit up the platform each time they’re going to start a new project. This might be for DIY inspiration, products to use or instructions on how to do something. But Pinterest is the place they go. Use this knowledge to your advantage when creating and sharing Pins.

Pinterest audience and demographics statistics

11. 76.2% of users are women

More than 3 in 4 users are women, with 17.2% of users men and 6.6% of users unspecified or identify with another gender. If women are a big part of your target demographics, Pinterest is the perfect platform to find them.

12. Pinterest’s biggest audience segment is women aged 25-34

The largest portion of Pinterest’s audience is Millennial women aged 25-34, with that segment accounting for 28.5% of its global audience. The second largest segment was women aged 18-24, taking up over 18% of the user base.

13. Pinterest has 25.1 million Gen Z users

According to projections done in 2020, the platform should have around 25.1 million Gen Z users this year, accounting for around 5% of its entire user base. This is up from 16.4 million in 2020 and 23 million in 2023, showing that Gen Z consumers are continuing to join the platform.

Pinterest advertising and marketing statistics

14. Pinterest delivers a 2x better ROAS than other platforms

Pinterest ads have been shown to deliver a 2x higher ROAS (return on ad spend) for retail brands than other digital platforms. Get more bang for your buck by promoting Pins on Pinterest.

15. Users save more than 1.5 billion Pins per week

Pinterest’s users are pinning more than 1.5 billion Pins each week to more than 10 billion Pinterest boards. These users are planning home decor, recipes, product inspiration and more.

16. Brands see 2.3x more efficient cost per conversion

Get a better ad performance than you do on other social media platforms. Pinterest ads generate a 2.3x more efficient cost per conversion than other social media sites.

Pinterest traffic and engagement stats

17. Pinterest averages over 1 billion monthly visits

Pinterest received over 1 billion monthly website visits in December 2023, making it one of the more popular websites in the world. This means its users are visiting the site an average of 2 or more times per month.

18. 38% of Pinterest’s web traffic comes from the U.S.

The U.S. is Pinterest’s most popular country, so it makes sense that over one-third of its traffic is coming from the United States. The next four countries that visit Pinterest.com most often in order are Brazil, the Russian Federation, India and Colombia.

19. 96% of searches are unbranded

Nearly all searches on Pinterest are unbranded. This means people are searching for things like “brown sofa” or “floral wall art” rather than specific brands. This presents a great opportunity for your brand to be discovered. Pinners aren’t loyal to a single brand and instead are hoping to find new brands and products they can buy from.

20. Pinterest saw a 50% year-over-year increase of buyable items being saved to boards

Pinterest is making a conscious effort to make its platform even more shoppable. The platform’s efforts haven’t been in vain as it now sees a 50% year-over-year increase in shoppable Pins being saved to boards. With more than half of Pinterest’s users seeing the platform as a place to shop, these buyable items make it even easier.

Pinterest stats for business

21. Pinterest is the 5th most popular social commerce platform

The top five most popular social media platforms where online shoppers are most likely to make a purchase are:

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • TikTok
  • Messaging apps
  • Pinterest

This means your brand should be taking advantage of social selling capabilities on Pinterest so you can increase the number of conversions you receive directly from the platform.

22. 80% of weekly users have discovered a new product or brand on Pinterest

Pinterest is the perfect platform for businesses to get discovered. 4 in 5 users have found a new product or brand on Pinterest, likely resulting in a purchase or a follow. Promote your products on Pinterest to increase the chances that you reach a new audience member or potential customer.

23. Shoppers on Pinterest spend twice as much as shoppers on other platforms

Pinterest users spend 2x as much when shopping on Pinterest than they do when shopping on other social media platforms. This makes Pinterest an ideal platform for products with a higher price point, like furniture and designer clothing or accessories.

Don’t be shy about putting your products out there when it comes to Pinterest. Demographic data shows that Pinterest users have a higher income and are spending more on their shopping sprees.

24. Brands using a Pinterest Catalog get 5x more impressions on their products

If you needed one more reason to convince yourself to take advantage of Pinterest’s social selling tools, let this be it. Brands that set up their Pinterest Catalogs receive five times more impressions on their product pins than brands that don’t.

Use these Pinterest stats to inform your strategy

If these stats tell you anything, let it be that it’s time to get your social selling strategy set up. Learn how to sell on Pinterest so you can start generating even more sales and conversions through your chosen social media platforms.

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]]> https://sproutsocial.com/insights/pinterest-statistics/feed/ 0 Target audience: What it is and how to find yours https://sproutsocial.com/insights/target-audience/ Wed, 27 Mar 2024 15:08:54 +0000 https://sproutsocial.com/insights/?p=184232 A strong marketing strategy always comes back to one thing: a deep understanding of your target audience. Successfully marketing to, engaging with and building Read more...

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]]> A strong marketing strategy always comes back to one thing: a deep understanding of your target audience.

Successfully marketing to, engaging with and building brand loyalty in customers is a complex process. Simply knowing your ideal customer’s age and location isn’t enough. Demographics are a part of defining a marketing target audience, but truly resonating with your customer—and their changing wants, needs and challenges–requires much more.

In this guide, we’ll help you understand what a target audience is and the different types. We’ll cover the benefits of finding your target audience (and how to do that) and a few target audience examples from brands doing it well.

Table of contents:

What is a target audience

A target audience is the group of people you want to purchase your products or services. Very few companies will ever have a target audience of “everyone”—trying to sell to everyone will often result in selling to no one. Instead, your target audience will be made up of people who will benefit the most from your products. This group is defined by certain demographics and behaviors, which can be segmented into specific personas. These personas give you a mock individual who represents the average person in a specific target audience.

A callout card defining a target audience that says, "A target audience is the group of people you want to purchase your products or services. This group is defined by certain demographics and behaviors, which can be segmented into specific personas."

Different channels in your marketing strategy (e.g. TikTok, billboards, Facebook, radio ads) will be a better fit for some of your personas than others. Understanding the different types of target audiences is helpful in creating useful personas and strategizing where to best communicate with them.

Types of target audiences

Within your main marketing target audience there are sub-groups of people who share unique characteristics. Exploring these sub-groups, or types, helps you create specific personas. Here are the most common five.

Demographics

This is likely the target audience type you’re already familiar with. You can create target audiences based on things like age, location, marital status and gender identity. A married Millennial based in a large coastal city will have different needs than a single Gen-Z at a midwest university.

Social media demographics vary by channel.For example, according to Statista, 18% of TikTok’s global audience is women aged 18-24. The same group makes up only 8.9% of Facebook’s worldwide users.

Psychographics

Psychographics are used to group a target audience by belief systems, values, interests and more. Often, these characteristics are what defines your customers’ motivations, challenges and needs. If your brand offers an alternative health remedy, your audience’s beliefs and values likely reflect an openness to natural medicine and a priority on wellness. In many cases, your target audience wants to see that your entire brand speaks to their beliefs, not just through a single product. Sprout’s 2023 Social Index ReportTM found that 21% of consumers follow brands on social media because their values or mission align with their beliefs. Tapping that connection is key to building ongoing brand loyalty.

Purchase intention

Customer journey lengths differ across products and services. A target audience defined by purchase intention highlights this fact, helping you understand where customers are on a purchase timeline. For example, a customer looking for a new car might start doing in-depth research several months before they actually make a purchase. A potential customer for a boutique clothing brand, however, is often not searching for clothing months before they hope to buy. Also, larger purchases usually happen infrequently or just once (e.g. the car) where smaller purchases may happen on a regular basis (e.g. the clothing).

Subculture

A subculture is a group of people who share a common interest.  There are likely several of these groups among your broader audience, and they will shift in popularity over time, such as Star Trek’s “Trekkies” or Taylor Swift’s “Swifties. Even if your brand doesn’t have a product specifically targeted to a subculture, there are ways to leverage your marketing to speak to trends authentically.

In this example post from Dunkin’, an ad for their new energy drink directly targets winter sports fans in a season where hot drinks normally take precedence.

Dunkin’s Instagram page, featuring a photo of a skier jumping over an enlarged Dunkin’ cup reading “Send it.”

Lifestyle

A target audience defined by lifestyle characteristics includes things like income, spending habits, travel, likes and dislikes. It’s also useful to understand what your customers’ discretionary income is like, especially if your product requires a large investment. Knowing their media consumption habits, particularly where they go to make purchases, is also critical. For example, are they comfortable making purchases on apps like Instagram shops, or do they prefer to make purchases in person?

Benefits of finding your target audience

So, why should you invest the time in finding your target audience (aside from the nerdy fun of diving into stats and data)? There is a wealth of benefits to finding your marketing target audience, making the process well worth the effort.

Increase ROI

In marketing, return on investment (ROI) decides everything—from software purchases, to department budgets and your social media advertising plan. Finding your marketing target audience will set you up for success from the very beginning of implementing your strategy. You’ll know where to prioritize and what approaches to shelf, so that come reporting time, you’ll have an impressive social media ROI to show.

Stand out from your competitors

When doing a competitive analysis, see if you can suss out how similar companies are defining their target audience. What types are they using and how are they marketing to them? Does this seem correct to your industry? You could discover opportunities your competitors are missing or stand out by marketing more authentically to your shared audience.

Develop your brand voice

Though your brand likely did a lot of development long before making a sale, your brand voice is really created once you start speaking to customers. With a well-defined target audience, you know exactly who you’re talking to and what questions they’ll ask. With the right background knowledge, you’ll soon be answering those questions in your unique tone and voice.

The Calm app helps burnt-out young to mid-age adults relax. In this Instagram post, the brand shares a light-hearted jab at “hustle culture” with a cute image and an invitation to engage, all in their defined brand voice.

Calm’s instagram page featuring an image of a Threads post that says “Stop glamorizing ‘the grind’ and start glamorizing whatever this is” with an image of forest animals having tea.

Cultivate brand loyalty

There’s no replacement for authenticity because customers can spot a fake right away. When you know your target audience, you can communicate with them in a more human way. Your customers are real people, and they want that to be acknowledged. Throw out the generalities, give customers personalization and you’ll build brand loyalty in return.

How to find your target audience

Finding your marketing target audience involves some research, data mining, listening and a bit of creative thinking. Here is a brief guide to some of the key steps.

Use market research

Market research is necessary to keep a pulse on your individual industry and what trends are affecting your customers. Conducting market research will help you uncover your potential target audience’s pain points, what they’re searching for and what they’re buying. A key part of market research is also analyzing competitors. Find your top competitors and do an audit of their target audience. The chances are that they’ll be connecting with people who could also be valuable to your business.

Dig into your business intelligence

Business intelligence includes insights from both internal and external data. Analyzing this broad collection of information helps you make better marketing decisions, including discovering and refining your target audience. You may even realize you have more than one target audience, whether that’s because of subgroups or different products your brand offers. Data tells a story, and business intelligence will help you form that story.

Tap Voice of Customer data

Your Voice of Customer data comprises direct and indirect feedback from existing and potential customers across sources such as reviews, social media comments and surveys. It contains data that clearly defines your target audience, personas and subgroups. When reviewing, look for patterns in questions, complaints or praise. Also, look for themes in the location or age groups of respondents tied to those patterns.

Leverage social listening

Social listening is the practice of tracking conversations your target audience is having about your brand and related topics. This requires looking beyond posts your brand is tagged in, and reading between the lines to analyze what’s really being said. Use the information to refine your target audience into sub-groups and adjust as you go.

Target audience examples

A key way to learn how to market to your target audience successfully is by studying brands that are doing it well—whether they’re in the same industry as you or not. Let’s take a look at four standout brands when it comes to target audience marketing.

Nike

Nike’s target audience is made up of athletes, fitness aficionados and sports enthusiasts. The brand often targets specific subgroups, including women in sports and younger athletes. While the majority of their target audience enjoys professional sports, many of them are also big fans of college sports and rising stars on the field and court. In this video celebrating Iowa Hawkeyes basketball player Caitlin Clark becoming the NCAA Division 1-all time highest scorer, Nike taps a few of their specific target audience types and gives a young athlete a highlight reel video worthy of the pros.

Nike’s Instagram page showing a video of Caitlin Clark and some comments.

CISCO

With an impressive following of six million on LinkedIn, CISCO’s social media marketing approach reflects their likely target audience of tech professionals who use the company’s products at work. CISCO knows most of this audience consumes their content at work or on breaks, looking for information that helps them grow and uplevel in their careers. This post offers a link to an article on the very timely topic of AI, and includes a bite-sized video to grab attention (and play to the algorithm).

CISCO’s LinkedIn page, featuring a post on AI trends and insights.

Domino’s

Domino’s is a great example of leveraging different social media platforms for different audiences. While they do use some of the same content across all of their social channels, there are key differences that point to an understanding of their various audiences on each platform. For example, Facebook audiences tend to skew slightly older, and re-sharing memes is a popular activity. Knowing this, Domino’s posted this tongue-in-cheek, ready to share image.

Post on Domino’s Facebook page, featuring a Domino’s sign with the words “Stop trying to please everyone. U R Not Pizza.”

On TikTok, the audience tends to be younger and interested in videos they find a personal connection to. Astrology is a popular hobby among this demographic, as are “__ as Zodiac signs” videos. Millennials and Gen-Z love to know which item lines up to their personal sign, and this can even be used as a sales tactic. Dominos tapped into this trend on TikTok, matching each Zodiac sign with a menu item.

Video from Domino’s TikTok account, featuring a woman with brown hair and a septum nose ring in a striped sweater, and text on screen that reads “Domino’s Astrology Part 1.”

Cook’s Illustrated

Cook’s Illustrated is known for their scientific and educational approach to cooking, as well as their beautiful yet minimalist imagery. The magazine’s audience loves food, and wants to learn the science behind why and how different cooking methods work. And who doesn’t enjoy browsing pictures of delicious food?

In this Instagram post, Cook’s Illustrated offers an interesting lesson on ways to cook onions while keeping imagery the focus and the text easily digestible. The post is saveable for followers to come back to, and includes bright photography.

Cook’s Illustrated Instagram page featuring an image titled “The overlooked flavor of softened onions” and photos of onions cooked four different ways.

Create authentic connections with your target audience

Knowing how to find your target audience is the first step in creating a marketing strategy that really resonates with your customers. No one likes to be “sold” to, and building relationships with your target audience that last brings strong ROI to your brand and establishes you as a trustworthy partner. Take the time to get to know your audience on a personal level and you will reap the benefits. Download our free worksheet for creating authentic connections with your marketing target audience to start developing your customer relationships.

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]]> Review management: What it is and how it benefits brands https://sproutsocial.com/insights/review-management/ Wed, 27 Mar 2024 14:00:39 +0000 https://sproutsocial.com/insights/?p=184049 Translating reviews into actionable steps allows you to take control of your online reputation, identify areas for improvement and showcase your commitment to customer Read more...

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]]> Translating reviews into actionable steps allows you to take control of your online reputation, identify areas for improvement and showcase your commitment to customer satisfaction. But it can be time-consuming and often overwhelming, especially when you’re struggling to keep up with reviews on different platforms.

In this article, we cover what review management is, how it supports reputation management and what its benefits are. Plus, see the top five review management software to manage reviews for business intelligence and explore examples of how brands have used review management to their advantage.

What is review management?

Review management is the process of monitoring, responding to and using customer feedback across different online platforms. It involves actively tracking reviews on websites like Google, Yelp and TripAdvisor, as well as social media channels like Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly known as Twitter).

Promptly addressing negative reviews and expressing gratitude for positive ones shows your commitment to customer satisfaction. It helps you increase brand trust, leads to higher search engine rankings and ultimately, attracts more customers.

How review management empowers reputation management

Review management is a crucial component of reputation management, but it’s just one piece of the puzzle. Reputation management also includes:

  • Social media listening
  • News monitoring
  • Customer experience
  • Crisis communication

While online review management focuses on improving customer brand visibility, reputation management takes a broader view. It considers the expectations of various stakeholders—investors, employees, government institutions and the general public.

Incorporating review management into your overall reputation management strategy leads to a threefold effect: you gain valuable insights into customer perceptions, address customer concerns promptly and showcase your brand’s strengths to potential customers.

Reputation management also goes beyond customer interactions—it monitors social media and news outlets for brand mentions to ensure a positive customer experience across all touchpoints.

This ultimately leads to a stronger, more resilient brand.

5 benefits of review management for businesses

Review management helps you address immediate concerns, but it also sets the stage for long-term growth in five ways:

Measures business stability

Are your customers happy with your products or services? Positive reviews indicate satisfied customers who are less likely to be swayed by competitors. Negative reviews reveal on-edge customers who may be more susceptible to competitor offerings.

Use review management and insights to develop proactive strategies to counter customer attrition and strengthen business stability.

Builds customer loyalty

Engaging with customer feedback shows you value their opinions. This proactive approach turns satisfied customers into loyal advocates for your brand.

For example, multiple reviews mention long wait times at the Japanese restaurant Gyubee, but customers still gave 4-star ratings due to the exceptional food quality. Inserting image…

Reviews from Yelp highlighting Gyubee’s long wait times and exceptional food quality.

Reviews from Yelp highlighting Gyubee’s long wait times and exceptional food quality.

To address long wait times, Gyubee allows customers to get into a waitlist on Yelp which shows estimated wait times and the customer’s place in line. This transparency manages expectations and allows customers to plan.

By addressing the wait time issue and maintaining high standards, Gyubee can foster long-term customer loyalty.

Fuels competitor analysis

Review management platforms give you a unique view of customer sentiment on competitor products and services such as revealing common pain points. Use this information to your advantage. For example, if multiple reviews for a competing product mention poor customer service, emphasize exceptional support to gain an edge.

Plus, competitive analysis allows you to anticipate shifts in market share and demand. If a rival sees a sudden increase in 5-star reviews, it indicates increasing interest in their product you may need to counteract with tailor messaging and solutions.

Leads to personalized marketing

Review management provides valuable insights to help you develop targeted marketing strategies. When you analyze customer reviews based on demographics and sentiment, you understand the preferences, needs and pain points of different customer segments. Use these to create personalized experiences that foster genuine customer connections.

For example, reviews for Sprout on G2 highlight how lean corporate marketing teams benefit from its scheduling and reporting tools.

Review from G2 highlighting how well Sprout Social works for corporate marketing teams.

Replying to user reviews individually shows we value their feedback and use it to improve our product. We appreciate their input, highlight the impact of praised features and share how their feedback drives meaningful improvements that benefit them and similar users.

Plus, considering that reading reviews before purchase is quite important for 75% of software buyers, our presence on G2 works as a marketing channel in itself when potential customers research social media management sentiment analysis solutions and are looking for positive reviews that validate our value proposition.

Product innovation

Analyzing customer reviews provides valuable insights into your product roadmap. You uncover what your customers love, what they find lacking and what they hope to see in future iterations.

Reviews often have gems for product innovation and improvement that you can share with your development team. For example, this review for Semrush on G2 reveals the need for a multilingual platform:

Review from G2 highlighting Semrush’s response to customer feedback.

These insights lead to potential product differentiation that can set Semrush apart from competitors in meaningful ways. Plus, the fact that the brand responded emphasizes its focus on customer satisfaction.

Top 5 review management software

To keep up with the constant influx of reviews across multiple platforms, you need a centralized solution to simplify the process and manage your online reputation. Here are our top five picks for review management software.

Sprout Social

Sprout Social improves online reputation monitoring by unifying social media and reviews in a single platform. Monitor and respond to reviews across the top four review platforms on the web: Facebook, Google, Yelp, TripAdvisor and Glassdoor.

Preview of Sprout’s review management dashboard showing sources, ratings and tags.

Quickly sift through reviews with sorting, filtering and custom views to prioritize reputation management tasks that matter most.

Aggregated reviews and social data pinpoint opportunities for improving customer and employee experiences. This includes specific areas for improvement, like enhancing product features or customer response rates so you can directly impact the bottom line.

Sprout Social’s integrated platform and social media tools enable brands like yours to manage their reputation on both a granular and macro level. It also enables you to connect this data with social media business intelligence to maintain a holistic online presence. Experience the impact firsthand with a free trial of Sprout’s solutions designed to help you work smarter.

Podium

Podium facilitates online reputation management by connecting review sites in one platform. Automate asking for reviews, track feedback sources and monitor reputation improvements over time.

Quickly respond to reviews with personalized, on-brand replies using Podium’s assisted response tools. Visualize trends to understand performance and areas for focus.

Its strengths center on consolidating reputation efforts across review sites and saving time through automation and response assistance.

Mention’s The Brand Grader

Mention’s Brand Grader analyzes online reputation across the web. It tracks mentions, sentiment and metrics on various websites, review platforms and social channels.

With this bird’s-eye view, gauge overall brand sentiment, spot potential issues early and identify top sources of buzz and conversation about your brand online. The Brand Grader makes it easy to visualize and understand these important reputation indicators at a glance.

Birdeye

Birdeye is an AI-powered reputation management platform that simplifies monitoring and responding to reviews across 200+ sites from a single dashboard.

You can reply at scale while keeping a human touch with auto-response rules and personalized templates. Its language translation feature also automatically converts reviews into English and responds back in the customer’s language to enable multilingual customer service.

Trustpilot

Trustpilot helps you collect, manage and showcase customer reviews to build trust and drive growth. It integrates with tools like Zendesk, Freshdesk and Slack, so you can manage reviews without disrupting workflows. This streamlined approach saves time and ensures consistent review management.

Built-in tools also help you identify unknown reviewers and flag reviews needing attention to enable quick issue resolution and maintain profile integrity.

Use cases for leveraging review management

Business review management tools offer multiple ways to manage customer feedback. But their true value lies in how you translate their features into practical applications that drive meaningful change. Here are four use cases that show this in action.

Identify the reason behind lower customer satisfaction

Review management platforms enable you to dig deeper into customer sentiment data and pinpoint the root causes contributing to lower satisfaction scores.

Granular insights allow you to prioritize improvement efforts and address the most pressing customer concerns.

Picture a bustling chain of coffee shops with declining customer satisfaction. An in-depth customer feedback analysis reveals two issues: long wait times and inconsistent product quality.

They implement a new staff training program focusing on efficiency and consistency in product preparation. Plus, they introduce mobile ordering and payment options to reduce wait times during busy periods. This proactive approach displays their commitment to customer satisfaction.

Compare locations for variations in service

Location-based insights from review management platforms support consistent brand standards and ensure all customers receive the same high-quality experience, regardless of location.

By analyzing customer sentiment across multiple locations, you can identify differences in service quality and customer experience to pinpoint which locations are excelling and which need work.

Imagine a popular gym chain with multiple locations across a city. Sentiment analysis reveals one location emerging as a shining star while another one indicates room for improvement.

Peeling back the layers of aspect-based sentiment shows that customers at the underperforming location experience issues like limited equipment availability and less attentive staff compared to the high-performing location.

With these key takeaways, the gym has the details it needs to tackle these location-specific issues head-on and ensure a positive customer experience at every location.

Scope out what resonates with your customers

Understand what makes them tick by analyzing the frequency and sentiment of keywords and phrases in customer reviews. Use review management platforms to zero in on recurring themes, popular products or services and areas that require attention.

Word clouds like Sprout’s visually represent the frequency of words used in customer reviews, so you can quickly grasp which aspects are most important to your audience.

Preview of Sprout’s world cloud feature with smart categories.

This visual representation is like a roadmap that guides you to the core elements driving customer sentiment and engagement. Concentrating on these aspects lets you fine-tune your offerings, messaging and overall customer experience to strike a chord with your target audience.

Monitoring changes in the word cloud over time will reveal shifting customer priorities and preferences, so you can stay nimble and adapt to evolving market demands.

Identify the trends in user experience

Review management allows you to keep your finger on customer satisfaction. Continuous monitoring spotlights emerging trends in user experience before they become widespread issues.

Imagine you own a popular e-commerce website selling clothing and accessories. As you monitor your customer reviews, you notice an increase in comments about checkout difficulties. Confusion over shipping options is causing some customers to abandon their carts, while limited payment options frustrate others.

As more reviews highlight these issues, you realize this trend threatens your sales and customer loyalty if left unaddressed.

You take action to improve your checkout process. You simplify the shipping options, offer clearer explanations and expand your payment methods to include popular digital wallets.

You then monitor subsequent reviews to see if there’s a marked improvement in customer satisfaction around your checkout experience.

Your proactive approach, guided by review management insights, would not only mitigate customer churn but also position your business as a customer-centric brand that listens and adapts to user needs.

Strengthen your market position with review management

When you compete on the littlest of details, every review matters. A 360-degree overview of customer sentiment allows you to manage your online reputation, build strong customer relationships and solidify your market position.

An all-in-one review management solution that also integrates with social enables you to do just that. From real-time alerts and in-depth analytics to seamless cross-platform publishing, Sprout enables you to make data-driven decisions and deliver top-notch customer experiences.

Learn how Sprout Social can help you unlock the full potential of business review management with a 30-day free trial.

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]]> 50+ Social Media Video Marketing Statistics for 2024 https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-video-statistics/ Tue, 26 Mar 2024 18:18:05 +0000 https://sproutsocial.com/insights/?p=156099/ Videos are quickly overtaking all other forms of content on social media. They’re dynamic, engaging and drive incredible results. In fact, 87% of marketers Read more...

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]]> Videos are quickly overtaking all other forms of content on social media.

They’re dynamic, engaging and drive incredible results. In fact, 87% of marketers report a direct increase in sales through video.

It’s no wonder video is becoming a staple in most brands’ marketing strategies. If you’re still not making the most of this medium, you’re missing out big time.

In this article, we’ll share top social media video statistics from reputable sources to update you with the latest video marketing trends and highlight the true value video offers.

Table of contents

Social media video marketing statistics

Anyone who’s scrolled through Facebook, Instagram or Twitter recently knows that videos play a major part in your experience with these social media networks.

Video has been a buzzword in marketing for years, and today brands are using it to carve out devoted followings on social media. Did you know users will retain 95% of a message watched on video as opposed to only 10% read in text?

For brands and marketers, choosing to ignore video’s massive role would be a big mistake. If you want to truly connect with your audience where they’re spending time, you have to speak their language—video.

But just throwing any videos out there won’t cut it. That’s why understanding the latest data and trends is so important for an effective video marketing strategy. It’s about knowing what kinds of videos truly stop the scroll, spark engagement and drive results.

  1. Nine out of 10 businesses are using video for marketing in 2024.
  2. Short-form video delivers the highest ROI compared to other marketing trends, and will secure more investment in 2024 than any other format.
  3. Eighty-one percent of consumers want to see more short-form videos from brands in 2024.
  4. For US adults, video’s share of the average daily social media time is plateauing.
    A graph by Insider Intelligence showing video consumption is plateauing
  5. Sixty-six percent of viewers will watch the entirety of a video if it’s less than 60 seconds long.
  6. Users watched an average of 17 hours of online video content per week in 2023, down from 19 hours a week in 2022.
  7. Sixty-nine percent of US consumers prefer watching videos on a smartphone, making it the top device for digital video consumption.
  8. Eighty-six percent of consumers spend a quarter or more of their time on social media watching videos
  9. Eighty-four percent of people said they visited a website after watching a video ad about the brand’s products or services.
  10. Seventy-five percent of video marketers have used AI tools to create or edit marketing videos.
  11. Video production is the most common service social media marketers outsource.

What this means for your social media marketing video strategy

Video continues to dominate social media, especially short-form video. Marketers need to double down on snackable videos optimized for mobile. However, since overall video consumption is plateauing, brands need to work harder to create content that stands out. Be consistent, track your performance and experiment to see what resonates with your audience. Also, consider using AI tools and outsourcing video production to speed up content creation time without sacrificing quality.

Facebook video statistics

Over the past few years, Facebook has expanded its suite of video options. Today, the Watch tab allows users to view and engage with focused video content. Stories offer a chance for brands to connect and interact with their audience.

Additionally, Facebook Live allows brands to host live events, give a peak behind the scenes or engage in real time with their audiences. The following statistics highlight opportunities for social media marketers to optimize their Facebook marketing strategy with video.

  1. Over 2 billion people stream videos on Facebook each month.
  2. Facebook users spend 50% of their time on the app watching videos.
  3. Live video currently dominates Facebook, garnering 3x the median interactions compared to carousels, the next most engaging post type.
A horizontal bar graph from Emplifi showing the top performing post types on Facebook worldwide
  1. Eighty-six percent of marketers use Facebook for video marketing, making it the second-most popular platform for that purpose.
  2. Seventy-one percent of marketers find Facebook to be the most effective video marketing channel, after YouTube.
  3. Facebook videos have an average engagement rate of 0.06%, making them the third-most engaging post types on the platform.
  4. Mobile-first video ads are 27% more likely to drive brand lift and 23% more likely to drive message association compared to video ads that are not optimized for mobile.
  5. Three-hundred million people use Facebook Stories every day.
  6. Eighty percent of Facebook Stories that have sound or voice-overs drive better lower funnel results.
  7. The vast majority (74%) of Facebook videos are watched without sound.

What this means for your Facebook video marketing strategy

With Live video winning on the platform, marketers should prioritize real-time, interactive sessions with their audiences. When it comes to paid media, creating mobile-first ads can boost Facebook video metrics. Finally, since a big chunk of users are watching Facebook videos without sound, brands should focus heavily on visual storytelling and use captions and text overlays to make their content more accessible.

Instagram video statistics

​​Instagram offers a wealth of video marketing opportunities. With formats like Reels, Stories and posts, marketers have a great deal of choice when it comes to sharing Instagram content.

However, it can also be overwhelming for those less experienced with the medium. The following social media video stats shed light on where brands should focus their efforts on Instagram for maximum impact.

  1. Fifty-three percent of consumers prefer Instagram Reels over TikTok and YouTube Shorts for watching short-form videos.
  2. More than half of Instagram users watch stories on a daily basis.
  3. Fifty percent of Instagram users have visited a website to buy a product/service after seeing it in Stories.
  4. Instagram Reels generate twice as much reach on Instagram compared to other post types.
A bar graph from Socialinsider that shows Instagram Reels have 2x higher reach than other content types on the platform.
  1. More than half of Instagram users like, share or comment on a reel at least once a week.
  2. Reels make up over 50% of the content reshared in direct messages (DMs).
  3. Fifty-six percent of industry professionals increased their video activities on Instagram in 2023.
  4. Influencers find Instagram Reels to be the most engaging types of social media posts, followed by Instagram static posts then Stories.
  5. In 2023, Instagram Reels saw a nearly 50% drop in reach for accounts with 50,000 to 45 million followers, while those with under 500 followers experienced a decrease of over 75%.

What this means for your Instagram video marketing strategy

With Stories, Live streams, Reels and in-feed videos, Instagram offers a variety of options for social media marketers to consider. However, with so many available video options, the key is not to pigeonhole your brand into using only one. Provide value by using videos across the network to find your ideal audience regardless of the tab they frequent the most.

X (Twitter) video statistics

If you’ve scrolled through your X (formerly Twitter) feed lately, you know video is integral to the network’s appeal. Whether it’s a glossy brand announcement, a blockbuster movie trailer or a recording of your neighbors’ kid snuggling their cocker spaniel, X users engage with videos more than any other content type. The social media video statistics below offer insights into how brands can jump on the bandwagon and use Twitter for marketing effectively.

  1. People watch 2 billion videos on Twitter daily.
  2. Posts with a video get 10x more engagement than those without video.
  3. Adding a website button to your Twitter video ad can drive a 2x higher clickthrough rate.
  4. Ninety-three percent of Twitter videos are watched on mobile devices.
  5. Videos with minimal copy versus longer copy have a 13% higher recall and overall view time.
  6. Twitter videos that don’t require sound to be understood (with closed captions or text overlays) gain 28% more view time and 1.8 times the return on investment.

What this means for your Twitter video marketing strategy

While not all of your videos should be product-focused, these Twitter video marketing statistics do showcase that users are not opposed to a sales message when it’s delivered through a well-crafted video. Of course, your brand’s specific mix of entertaining, educational and product-centric content will depend largely on your industry’s standards and your audience’s preferences. But, as you define that blend, consider sprinkling in a few videos that highlight your products in a positive way to drive sales, brand awareness and Twitter engagement.

YouTube video statistics

As the second-largest search engine (behind Google), YouTube is more than just a network where you can watch dog videos after work. YouTube allows brands to showcase their unique value propositions in an engaging way.

But because video is the only kind of content supported, it can also be a bit resource-intensive for many marketing teams. These next few statistics lay out some insights to help brands optimize their YouTube marketing efforts.

  1. More than 500 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute.
  2. Users are twice as likely to buy something if they saw it in a YouTube video.
  3. Seventy-five percent of users report that YouTube makes them more aware of new brands.
  4. Viewers rate YouTube as the #1 platform for delivering personalized video content.
  5. Seventy perecnt of users say they made a purchase after seeing the brand on YouTube.
  6. Social media users are 4x more likely to use YouTube to research a brand, service or product than other platforms.
  7. Globally, YouTube Shorts see an average of 70 billion views each day.
    A bar graph from Statista showing the average daily views on YouTube Shorts worldwide in the last three years.
  8. Forty-seven percent of social media users follow brands on YouTube.
  9. 88% of marketers plan to increase or maintain their investment in YouTube in 2024.

What this means for your YouTube video marketing strategy

YouTube is where consumers are going to learn more about your brand—what you stand for, what you do and how you do it. And those users are clamoring for more video content from the brands they follow. This presents a major opportunity for businesses that aren’t already active to jump in. Or for those who have only dipped their fingers to consistently execute and promote their YouTube video ideas.

TikTok video statistics

TikTok is a relatively younger platform compared to giants like Facebook and YouTube. But its short-form, vertical, sound-on format has thrown brands into a new era of viral video marketing.

However, with trends evolving at breakneck speed, marketers need to have a data-driven pulse on what performs on TikTok and how their audience is using the platform. The social media video stats below will help you keep your TikTok marketing competitive.

  1. Half of TikTok users bought something after watching TikTok LIVE.
  2. Seventy-four percent of Gen Z users would seek more information about a product after seeing a Dynamic Showcase Ad on TikTok.
  3. The number of TikTok shoppers in the US increased by 72.3%, totaling 23.7 million.
  4. US adult users will spend a total of 4.8 billion minutes daily watching TikTok videos in 2024.
A line graph showing the average daily minutes US adults spend on TikTok
  1. Over 71% of TikTok users made a purchase after seeing the product/service in their feed.
  2. Based on video views, TikTok’s average engagement rate stands at 4.07%, which indicates a YoY drop of 20%.
  3. Shorter is not always better. TikTok videos that generated the highest number of views in 2023 were over 54 seconds long.

What this means for your TikTok video marketing strategy

TikTok is not just for dance challenges and crazy viral videos. It’s increasingly becoming Gen Z’s go-to platform for product research, shopping and more. Brands targeting younger audiences, should prioritize TikTok for product promotion—leverage formats like LIVE and dynamic ads, and create engaging content that highlights your products/services without being salesy.

Using social media video in your marketing

Looking at the social media video statistics above, one thing is clear. Consumers are asking brands for more video presence, and you must give it to them. With so many choices for how to present your brand via video available, you’re sure to find a good fit for you and your audience.

An important first step is to develop clear goals for your social media video strategy so that you have benchmarks to measure against as you track your progress.

If you’re looking for a starting point, download our social media video metrics and ideas cheat sheet. In it, you’ll find recommended indicators to track along each stage of the marketing funnel, content ideas and relevant examples from brands that are winning with social video.

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