More Difficulties for Businesses to Reach Followers on Instagram
Did you know that Instagram is about to change in a massive way? Instagram has announced that they will be ditching the traditional reverse chronological feed for new algorithm-based personalized feeds.
Posts will no longer appear in a chronological order and instead, followers will see posts based on what they are interested in and their relationship with the person posting, similar to what Facebook does.
This means that Instagram is likely to place videos and photos it thinks you will most want to see from people you are following on top of your feeds, disregarding the time those pictures and videos were posted. For instance, if your friend posted a photo of her new pet 8 hours ago while you were in a meeting, Instagram might make that photo the first thing you see when you open the app. This will be based on your history of interactions with the friend.
Announcing the changes on March 5th via its blog, Instagram said its growing popularity triggered the move. Most users miss on average 70% of their feeds, and this has made it harder for people to keep up with all the content people share on a minute-by-minute basis. This has meant that people keep seeing images they don't care about most of the time.
Speaking to the New York Times, Instagram co-founder, Kevin Systrom, said the new changes will ensure that the 30% of what you care is what is give priority. However, Systrom was quick to point out that the changes will not be abrupt. The Instagram community will wake up one morning and find a different Instagram. Instagram users should expect to see the changes in the coming months.
Not everyone is happy though
Marketing experts claim that these changes are a precursor to what they call Instagram’s content monetization strategy’. You know that Facebook owns Instagram, and this is exactly what Facebook did in 2009 before it began to monetize. In essence, they are trying to limit organic reach, and many brands fear they will have to pay for what was once free to get noticed.
Currently, a post to say 50,000 followers reaches 50,000 feeds. But with the new algorithm, things will be more difficult. That means the number of followers you have will be of little consequence; instead, what will be more important is the level of engagement your content generates.
As a result, more than 190,000 people have signed a change.org appeal to maintain the status quo. With many of those opposed to the new algorithm-based feeds being small business owners, they fear they will no longer be able to reach their followers. It is very unlikely that Instagram will reverse its decision. Similar opposition reactions of “Change Facebook back to normal!!” was witnessed when Facebook changed its algorithm. Twitter also recently faced similar resistance when it tried to move to algorithm based feeds.
Therefore, brands should start bracing themselves up for the new model instead of hoping that the proposed changes will flop. Apart from increasing their Instagram marketing budget, brands should find ways of creating a more engaging content. Simply put, customer acquisition via Instagram is about to get expensive.
With millennial changes such as Instagram personalized feeds, Mjrvisuals can help you increase your reach out of that content in your website through our expertise. We run the gambit of visual imagination including video production, digital marketing, video editing, print design, advertising, graphic design, graphic animation, motion graphic and media design. Be part of our portfolio of clients and let us tell your story to the world. Click here to visit our website: mjrvisuals.com/
Design tips to attract visitors to a website
Website design should always keep millennials engaged on your web page. How to get people to stay longer and keep coming to your website should always be the ultimate aim of any webmaster. The first step is to ensure that the client is happy with the way your website looks, but attracting visitors to your website is only one of the few things you must do.
It is important to note that once you have designed the website and it is up and running, it is competing against hundreds of others in the search engine. So, you need to find ways of encouraging your visitors to stay longer in your site and keep coming back.
However, no one said that creating an engaging site is a simple process. In fact, it is one of the most difficult aspects of user experience to design for because it does not only require high quality content, the content should be delivered in the most exciting way. Moreover, sites which deliver content in a variety of forms such as video, text, images and audio normally experience better customer retention than those that only use text. If you think that your website is feeling a little lifeless, here are some tips you can use to revive it.
- Turn scrolling into engagement
It is possible to get as much as 70% more engagement from one single change in the form of parallax scrolling. Simply stated, parallax scrolling is a trend that is sweeping the web design industry because it provides an eye-catching way of visually delivering a message. With parallax scrolling, several elements are moved as you scroll down the page. This results in a dynamic experience for the user. Modern web design technology means that you can now design an amazing parallax website with pixel perfect accuracy
- Iconography and symbols
This is another great way of designing an interactive web site. Designers actually have the difficult task of presenting text in the most impacting ways. So, the use of icons can assist your visitors to find what they are searching for as quick as possible. The icons and symbols play the role of helping the visitor move from place to place. In other words, they, act like signposts. If you can get a way of using icons to support your text, your sites will become more enjoyable to read.
- Vector images for responsive visuals
Providing your visitors with text only content blocks is obviously not going to help. You must integrate images as well are you are going to create an engaging content. Typically, most images are in the form of PNG, JPEG and GIF. However, the problem with such bitmap images is that their images sizes are fixed; hence, they cannot stretch or contract to fit a new layout size or resolutions. Also, using more images in your site will have a negative impact in terms of loading times of your site.
So, the solution is to use vector graphics which are designed to render dynamic imagery. Vector images can easily be scaled to sizes depending on the screen size and resolution.
Effectively build a successful online business
Search Engine Optimization is evolving very fast from a traditional SEO that overly focuses on keywords and links into one that is more holistic and integrated. In other words, SEO is not just optimizing your page for search engine ranking, but also optimizing everything from the user experience, keyword research, link building, and content marketing to social media. I like to compare SEO to building a house that will last for decades if not centuries. You need to build your SEO on a firm foundation that will last the test of time—one that will not be shaken by any form search engine algorithm changes in future.
If you fail to build your SEO campaigns on these key pillars, your business will greatly suffer as a result of low visibility in search engines and competition. Of course, SEO is still going to change drastically over the coming days, but if you focus on building your house on long-term foundation stones, you can expect to dominate your niche for many years to come. Without much further ado, here are six key areas to focus your SEO campaign.
- Good Quality Content
What is quality content?
You have definitely heard the phrase “content is king” for umpteen times. However, if you were to ask any random marketer what quality content is, you would get varied answers. For some, quality content is one that has x number of words where x can be anything like 400, 500, 700, 1000, 1500, 2000 or 5000 words. For others, quality content is relevance. But what really is quality content?
Quality content is simply content that is evergreen. It should be useful to the users who will in turn keep coming back for more. It should stand the test of time. A website with great content will always be ahead of the competition when it comes to search engine rankings. In order to produce top-notch content, follow the guidelines below.
- Understand what makes your followers tick
There is a reason why some marketers struggle to market their products. The best marketers know whom they are marketing to. They know what makes their audience tick. Therefore, they speak the language of their audience. Writing something that your audience does not care about is a waste of time. Do a proper research before creating content for your website. This will ensure that your content will resonate with your audience and persuade them to buy from you.
- Get feedback
Once you have produced the content, encourage your readers to make comments, react, as questions, add on the content, or even disapprove of the content. Some marketers make the mistake of turning off commenting.
- Provide real value
The best way you can differentiate yourself from the competition is by providing real value to your audience. When users come to your website, they expect to find unique, original, actionable and resourceful content.
- Provide easy-to-read content
Did you know that Google hates content that isn’t easy to read? People have way too many things to do and if your content isn’t easy to read, they won’t read it. Do not create content that looks like it belongs to a scientific journal. If it isn’t easy for a 5th grader, then your content needs to be redone. Follow the following simple rules to increase readability of your articles.
- Ensure your sentences are short. Paragraphs should also be short.
- Break up content into headers, sub-headers and bolding.
- Font size should not be too small or too big. I prefer size 16.
- Include images, charts, videos and other graphics that act as visual aid
- Create lists (like this one)
It does not matter how great and valuable your content is. If it is not readable, you will get high bounce rates. Make it as easy as possible for your readers to find the information they are looking for.
Content with titles that grab readers’ attention result in more shares and are read more. Your title is what sells your content. Certainly, titles act as your content’s sales representative in social media, search engine and in email campaigns. So it is no surprise that titles tell half of the story.
- Linking Strategy
Links act like streets in the search engine universe. They give search engine bots clues on how content is interrelated within pages. Although links aren’t everything in SEO, they are very important because they not only determine the popularity index of a website, they also determine metrics like spam, trust and authority. You can also compare links to votes. If you are getting links from trustworthy sites, it is a good sign even to the search engines that your site is also trustworthy. It is imperative that you get your link building right if you want to build a Google-proof link network.
Here are five quick tips to ensure that your link building strategy is right
- Avoid low quality guest posting. Google is harsh on thin, rehashed or unauthentic content that does not give value. Cookie-cutter guest post still fall in the category of scraped content as far as Google is concerned
- Avoid scarping content from popular website. There is nothing wrong with using content from other well-established and authority website so long as you modify it to suit your audience such as including relevant stats, views, opinions or data. So, do not just copy paste everything including links.
- Concentrate on link quality instead of link quantity. If you were sick, an advice from one qualified doctor is better than 100 advices from 100 random individuals. The same applies to link building in SEO. It is better to have one or two links from relevant, high authority website than having thousands from irrelevant sources. If your website is about dog nutrition, a link from the National Dog Health Association would carry more weight and relevance than one from a blog about fashion.
- The more quality links you have the better. It is a great thing if you are or can get many links from different quality website.
- Beware of link anchor text. The link anchor text says a lot about what you are good at. The text link tells the search engines what your website is all about. Most importantly, make your anchor text relevant to your content. For example, if you are talking about child toys, a link text like “horse racing” will send wrong signals to both users and search engines
- Responsive web design
Responsive web design has become an integral part of search engine optimization. With more people using their tablets and smartphones to access the internet, it is very important for marketers to create websites that can be access across multiple channels. Therefore, responsible web design (RED) means that website pages are able to render seamlessly depending on which devices they are being displayed on. This means that irrespective of whether you are accessing the website from a desktop, tablet or smartphone, the website will remain user-friendly.
Google loves RWD
Google is the divine being in the web universe that makes commandments. What Google wants is what you give it. Google favors responsive websites when it comes to search engine ranking. As a matter of fact, mobile-friendly sites, all factors held constant, generally rank higher than non-responsive sites. What this means is that Google is effectively penalizing sites that are not responsive.
- Passion for the brand
It is difficult do anything without passion. This is one item that many business owners do not take into consideration, yet it is the most important one by a mile. You must have a passion for your brand; otherwise, you will soon burn out. Before you jump into keyword research, content and web design, first make an assessment of how passionate you are with the niche. Are you willing to go an extra mile to create an extraordinary business? Are you willing to learn? Start with passion and you will build a very successful online business.