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Zack Jackson

Meta vs. TikTok: The Short-Form Video War

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In the past year, TikTok has put a significant dent in Meta’s world of social media dominance of Facebook and Instagram. Facebook’s user numbers shrunk for the first time in the history of the company, and the brand identity of “Facebook is for old people” and “Instagram isn’t as good as it used to be” has continued to grow sentiment with younger demographics.

In retaliation, as outlined by Social Media Today, Meta is turning up the heat on TikTok and going all in on short form video. Facebook and Instagram Reels are rapidly adding monetary incentives for content creators and pushing their content out organically in an effort to get more and more users hooked on the short form video format. If you’ve made any kind of “regular” post recently on FB/IG (especially IG) and then made a Reels post as a reach comparison, the numbers aren’t even close. Meta is putting their eggs in the short-form video basket and doing so in a way that they hope will bury TikTok, or at the very least swing the pendulum of new growth back to their platforms.

Here’s a crazy idea … maybe had they not squashed the hell out of organic engagement in an effort to force people to buy more ads, this never would’ve happened in the first place?

I don’t know about you, but in the “good old days” of FB/IG when you could simply post good content on a regular basis and have organic growth, it actually made me WANT to spend money on ads to spread that content even further. Now I feel like I’ve gone to a restaurant where I’ve ordered a meal and they’ve served me a bunch of hot garbage on a plate, but tell me “well if you pay us a little bit more, then MAYBE we’ll bring you some better food. We probably won’t bring you the whole dish or exactly the food you wanted, but we’ll be happy to take your money and throw you a few more crumbs.” Doesn’t give me the warm fuzzies on the inside.

We’ve seen this pattern before … when Facebook first starting crushing organic growth, people started gravitating to Instagram. They could post nice pictures, get a bunch of likes, grab a handful of new followers with every post. Things felt fun and positive, and you felt like you could grow your brand in a simple and effective way. So what did Facebook (or Meta or Darth Zuckerberg or whatever you want to call it) do? They bought the company of course! Because while the old adage may be, “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em,” the mantra in a trillion dollar tech world is more “if you can’t beat ’em, copy ’em, steal their market share, crush their growth, and then buy ’em out.”

So that’s what Facebook did, and then began to apply the same practices to Instagram. Oh you actually want someone to SEE your post? Give us money and then MAYBE we’ll let our algorithm robot overlords expose it to a couple new people. Or maybe we won’t, but we’ll take your money either way. Pleasure doing business with you!

The battlefield is set yet again … this time against TikTok. So what will happen next? Will Meta win this battle too? Will TikTok be able to weather the storm? Social Media Today has some observations on how this could be a total disaster for TikTok, so it will interesting to see how it all shakes out.

Regardless of how this all shakes out, the real message here for the growth and success of YOUR brand is one that we preach over and over here at The JPG Agency … OWN YOUR AUDIENCE!!!!! Social media platforms certainly have a place in your branding and marketing strategies, but they should be a supplement to your primary objective of creating a direct line of communication with your audience that allows you to engage with them on YOUR terms.

Sure … you can make a post on Facebook, or Instagram, or TikTok, or [insert next big thing here] but you’ll always be relying on that platform to actually deliver that content to people. Meanwhile, when YOU are the one who owns your audience and has a way to reach them directly, you can do exactly that and not rely on someone else’s algorithm to do it for you. Yes … this method takes TIME to achieve, but once you have that direct line of communication, you own it FOREVER, no matter what new trend or delivery system emerges.

6 Simple Ways to Increase Facebook Page Engagement

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Guest writer: Andrew Scherer, HSBO

Almost 3 billion people use Facebook every month, including almost 300 million in the United States. With that number expected to increase to around 325 million in 2026, it’s no surprise that 93% of businesses are on Facebook. 

Furthermore, 78% of consumers in the United States have made purchases after discovering products on Facebook. However, if you’re frustrated by the lack of engagement you are getting on your Facebook page, don’t despair. With a few simple changes, you can drastically increase your Facebook engagement and drive more traffic, sales, and conversions.

Here are six simple ways to increase Facebook page engagement. 

1. Analyze Your Most Popular Posts

Your first step should be to analyze your most popular Facebook posts. That will allow you to discover things such as: 

  • Which topics are driving the most engagement
  • What type of media gets the most likes, shares, and comments
  • Whether short or long posts fare better
  • Which CTAs work best

For example, you may find out that posts with memes get more reactions or that posts with GIFs get more shares. Or, you may learn that asking a question leads to more comments or that using a specific type of CTA results in more click-throughs. 

Facebook Insights has all that you need to analyze your top posts. There, you can sort your top posts by shares, likes, or comments. I suggest doing all three to figure out the specific factors that lead to each of those three. Then, you can try to combine all those factors in future posts to get more post interactions. 

Like in SEO, the 80/20 rule applies here: You will likely discover that 20% of the strategies or tactics you have been using generate 80% of all your success on Facebook. 

You will need a Facebook page, as opposed to a private profile, to access those insights. 

2. Post What Your Audience Wants

It sounds simple, but it’s necessary to stress nonetheless. That’s because too many businesses post what they want to post instead of what their audience likes. 

Or, they post what they think their audience enjoys. However, their audience may want something different. 

So, how can you find out what your audience is interested in? Analyzing your top posts is one way to do that, but you don’t have to stop there. There is a lot more information you can glean from other sources. 

I suggest using Facebook Audience Insights, which you can access in the Facebook Ad Manager. There, you can drill down into the specific demographics of your target audience, including: 

  • Age 
  • Gender
  • Relationship and marital status
  • Education
  • And a lot more

I advise taking a look at the Interests section. There, you can learn about the types of pages your target audience has expressed an interest in on Facebook. If a large percentage of your audience seems interested in a topic, consider incorporating it in your future posts. 

It’s also worth asking your audience directly. An easy way to do this is to set up a poll on Facebook. If you have a Facebook page, this is straightforward – create a post and select the poll option. Add a few different response options, and set a time for your poll to end. 

3. Keep Your Posts Short

Facebook doesn’t limit the length of your posts like Twitter does (technically, there is an upper limit, but it’s over 63,000 characters). Nevertheless, if your posts are too long, people will just gloss over them. 

When long posts show up in users’ news feeds, Facebook will only show the beginning of those posts. Users will have to click on “See more” to reveal the rest of the post. That’s why your most important information should be at the top of your post. At the very least, include an intro that is eye-catching and engaging. 

However, if people click on your post to read more and discover a lengthy essay, they won’t bother reading through it. 

Consider keeping your posts to just one or two paragraphs. That way, people will be able to read your entire post, without any of it getting hidden by Facebook in the news feeds. 

You’ll be surprised by how short you can make your Facebook posts and still get superb engagement. You might think that longer posts engage better, but they don’t. The ideal Facebook post length for optimal interaction is just 50 characters, according to a Buzzsumo analysis. Generally, the longer posts get after that, the less engagement they attract. 

4. Don’t Disregard Images and Videos

Did you know that Facebook posts with images get more than double the amount of engagement as text-only posts? 

The reason for that is simple. Humans are visual creatures. Half of our brains are involved with processing visual information. We can identify images we see for just a few milliseconds, and we learn and remember information better when it’s presented in a visual format. 

When people are scrolling through Facebook, they are often relaxing or distracted. They might not be in the mood to force their brains to concentrate on a block of text. Seeing what their friends are up to by browsing images and videos they uploaded is a lot easier and requires less effort. 

Facebook, above all, is a social platform. People go there for the social aspect and less so for discovering businesses and products. Nevertheless, by using visual imagery, you can overcome that obstacle and make your posts eye-catching, fun to look at, engaging, and interesting. 

As you may expect, videos also make your posts infinitely more exciting and engaging. Typically, video posts do a lot better than posts with images. Nevertheless, you can’t make all your posts into video posts – you want to spice things up a little. 

Even when posting images, you want to vary the type of photos you post. For example, you can include professional product pictures in some posts, but include snapshots of your team and office space in others. You can upload GIFs and memes to foster a stronger relationship with your fans and catch the attention of even more followers. 

Just be original! Don’t lift memes off the internet. Instead, follow meme pages on Instagram to learn about recent meme trends and make unique variations of those memes, geared towards your niche and followers. Remember that memes won’t work well for every niche – they tend to work better with younger audiences. 

5. Post at the Right Time

Not all businesses realize this, but Facebook won’t show your post to all your followers. It will only show each post to a small percentage of fans. Facebook looks at the pages and profiles a user engages with most often when deciding which content to show them, and in which order to prioritize that content. 

In addition, it won’t necessarily show all your posts to even your most engaged followers. Or, it might display some content further down in their feeds, and they may never see it. 

Posting at the right time can help you beat the algorithm, as it increases the chances of your followers coming across your content. When your followers spend more time on Facebook, Facebook will end up showing them more content than usual. 

So, what is the best time to post on Facebook? Many studies have been done on this, with different studies suggesting different optimal times. However, as a general rule, afternoons seem to be a good time, especially on Thursdays and Fridays. At those times, people are at work but are tired and are looking for distractions. 

Early morning during the week may also be a good time. Weekends may not work as well, as people may be busy spending time with their families or relaxing. 

It’s worth pointing out that your followers may live in different time zones, especially if you run a global ecommerce store. Look at your audience demographics to see where they are located. 

Also, the optimal time varies from one target audience to another. That’s why it is better to do your research instead of relying on the research of others. Publish posts at different times, on different days, and track engagement for each post. Eventually, you will notice trends, and you will be able to pinpoint which times work best for you. 

6. Engage With Commenters

Finally, engage with commenters! If people comment on your posts, but you never reply or even like their comments, they will eventually stop commenting and engaging with your posts. Nobody wants to feel ignored, as if their opinions are not valued. 

Reply to comments regularly. Even if you schedule posts to be published in advance, you need to check in on your page and engage with comments. You don’t have to respond to each comment, but the least you can do is like or react to them. 

Final Thoughts

Engagement on Facebook is critical. Facebook uses engagement to decide which content to show to which users. If you can get people to engage with your content, it will create a snowball effect. The more they interact with your posts, the more Facebook will show them your content, leading to even more engagement. That makes it easier to eventually convert them into clients. 

Wanna Preserve Your Privacy? Good Luck With That!

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One of the big buzzwords heading into 2022 in the digital space is “PRIVACY.” First … the word “buzzword” may actually be the most annoying buzzword people use for articles like this, but I’m not sure what other word to use.  The point is, everybody’s talking about how they want to protect their privacy and they don’t want Big Tech messin’ around in their data.

So let’s get the facts out of the way … protecting your privacy ain’t gonna happen.  All these companies may ACT like they care about protecting your privacy, but if you believe that then you probably also believe that Mark Zuckerberg actually cares about “community” and “bringing people together” on FaceMetaBook or whatever they call it now. 

Really what Big Tech wants to protect is their own behinds from any kind of lawsuits, so they may SAY they want to protect your privacy, but they’ll also be more than happy to mine all of your digital activity for anything and everything they can.

OK … rant over.  Now let’s get to something helpful … what does this mean for you as a small business owner looking ahead to 2022?  

1) It means people at least want to THINK that their privacy is being protected.  So first and foremost, don’t be all spammy and invasive. Lurking around in people’s data is the digital marketing version of that creepster in the bar who tries to buy you free drinks and take advantage of you.

2)  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it this time in all caps … YOU NEED TO OWN YOUR OWN AUDIENCE.  There should be no need for third party data on your customers. You need to be engaging with them first hand and gathering it yourself.  That way once you have it, it belongs to YOU and you are in control of how you use it.  

No algorithms, no confusing SEO, just you interacting with your customer base who actually WANTS to communicate with you.  Crazy concept, right?

I encourage you in 2022 to have FIRST-HAND interaction with your customer base, whether that be thru digital engagement, email communication, or even … gasp … actual human interaction in your store, or at an event, or however you connect.  Now when you reach out to these people again and again, their loyalty and support continues to grow and grow.

Don’t rely on somebody else to tell you about your customer base.  Gather that information yourself and own it forever!

LOOKING TO 2022: WHAT IN THE ACTUAL HECK IS THE METAVERSE?

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You probably saw it in the news … Facebook announced its parent company was changing their name to “Meta.”  And in true Facebook fashion, it came equipped with creepy statements like “we are a company that builds technology to connect people, and the metaverse is the next frontier.”  (Cue sinister Dr. Evil music and your own sippy cup of Kool-Aid for the journey.)

The reality is, Facebook owns a lot of things … Facebook, Instagram, your personal data(!)  … the list goes on.  So at the core, it DOES make sense for them to rename the parent company, but it may leave you scratching your head and wondering what the heck this “metaverse” actually is.  

My opinion? It’s the future of social and digital media and something that your business should be prepared to capitalize on to reach and grow your customer base.  

I don’t make this statement because I’ve done hours of research or have some sort of crystal ball, I just see what the giant companies with tons of MONEY are doing.  Those companies are sinking money and resources into the metaverse.  Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft … you name it … they have their hands in this.  So I keep it simple … go where the big money is going and figure out how to capitalize on it.

So what is the metaverse?  Really it’s just a fancy buzzword for “virtual reality,” but with a cool and scary twist … we basically all live inside it.  Have you seen the movie “Ready Player One?”  If you haven’t, then go watch it, because more and more I have the feeling the “fiction” of the story has a very eerie possibility of coming true.  People will basically spend most of their waking hours living in virtual worlds.

And while it’s scary at its extreme, think of the practical business applications.  For example:

  • A restaurant shows an entire table of food laid out to an interested diner before they visit
  • A dog trainer gives hands on training to an animal 1,000 miles away
  • A clothing designer lets you “try on” an outfit without ever leaving your house.

Pretty cool, huh?  

Is it also kinda terrifying to think about people “living” in a fake world?  Yup! But all we can really do as small business owners is understand the trends, and then figure out ways we can use them to make our own surroundings better (and hopefully those we interact with).  

Start thinking out of the box and ask yourself how you can take advantage of this virtual world for your business. Like it or not … the metaverse is coming and it’s time to understand how to take advantage of it.

I’M OUTRAGED!!! (wait … am I?)

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“As a business owner, I love navigating the minefield of social media outrage!” … said no one ever.

Down one path, social media can be a wonderful way to connect with friends, family, and clientele.  A place to stay in touch, share life moments, and as a business be able to interact on a personal level with current and future customers.

The other path?  Yikes.  Remember in “Beauty and the Beast” when the Dad looked down one path in the forest and the weather was beautiful, the birds were singing, and the colors were glorious?  Then the other path looked like darkness, death, and destruction?  Yeah … that’s what we’re dealing with here.

Side note:  WHY DID HE CHOSE THE SCARY PATH??? The other path was lovely! Wanna know why?  If we make the jump and compare this to social media, it’s because he was trained to take the dark path.

Researchers at Yale recently measured expressions of “moral outrage” on social media (specifically Twitter) and found out something very interesting … the algorithms and engagement metrics encouraged people to continue their outrage.  You see this all the time on Facebook as well where someone expresses their outrage, and then basks in the glory of all the likes and comments that they get from their friends and followers.  So guess what? That trains their brains to crave that attention and do it even more!

Feel free to also throw in a recent NYU study that showed that misinformation on Facebook gets SIX TIMES as much attention as actual facts.  Six times!  So basically now we have a situation where people are being spoon fed misinformation, and then their brains eat it right up with a dash of “moral outrage” to further complicate everything.

So what, as a business owner, do you do about it?  

Nothing.

That’s right. NOTHING!

Remember that sunshine-filled path from “Beauty and the Beast?”  Go down that one instead!

What I mean specifically when it comes to operating a business on social media, is to stay true to the identity and voice of your brand. Resist the temptation to get pulled into things that stray away from it. Instead, focus on creating the best possible experience you can for your customers.

I tell my clients all the time … stop caring about how many likes and comments ANY post gets, and instead care about how that post speaks for your brand and how it appeals to your customer.  You don’t make money off Instagram likes, you make money by selling your product or services to your target audience.  Don’t get tricked into pointing your arrow away from that target!