As Instagram passed 400 million users in September, this week’s articles include a case study of how one small business is quantifying the Instagram platform, one that highlights the top social media trends of 2015, and another that outlines 7 ways to get more out of your search rankings. It’s a wide variety of articles, but if we know anything about the digital space, it’s that an integrated effort of content, social media, SEO and digital will go much farther than a silo’d approach. Happy reading…
Crain’s Chicago Business: How One Small Business Won on Instagram
It’s hard enough to quantify Instagram efforts (as compared to other social platforms), but it’s often even more difficult for small businesses to justify branching out to the photo-centric social network. This article highlights a growing Chicago-based coffee company and how they’ve utilized Instagram to the fullest, growing community and brand awareness by simply being “natural.”
Forbes: Instagram Hits 400 Million Users
Soaring past Twitter’s user numbers after gaining 100 million users in the past 9 months, the question of whether or not Instagram is a worthwhile social media platform is a thing of the past.
Social Media Advertising
The Wall Street Journal: Pinterest CEO Says Advertiser’s Needs Take Back Seat to Users
It’s a brave new world in the online advertising sphere – particularly when it comes to social networks. Long gone are the days of force-feeding messages to the masses – case in point are these recent comments made from Pinterest CEO Ben Silbermann, “People are tired of ads that try to grab their attention away.”
SEO
Website Magazine: 7 Ways You Might Be Missing Out on Search Rankings
While Search Engine Optimization is typically best left to the experts, there are certain aspects that small marketing departments can do to at least cover their SEO bases. This article provides somewhat of a sliding scale (from fairly simple to not so simple), and at the very least, highlights some good things for all of us in the marketing communications world to understand as search becomes more and more of a communications function.
Social Media Trends
Ragan: Infographic: The Top 5 Social Media Trends of 2015
October means the arrival of the 4th Quarter of 2015, which means we’ll start to see a lot of “planning for 2016” stories. Its always nice to take a look back before looking forward – Pinterest growth, Facebook videos and messaging apps have been all the rage in 2015.
On the GFM Blog this week:
New Research on Millennial Habits and Corporate Social Responsibility
