• Marketing Agency in Roanoke, VA

Posts Tagged :

instagram

Meta’s AI Training Controversy and Instagram’s New Ad Format: What You Need to Know

 1024 576 Zack Jackson
By:
0

Meta’s AI Training Controversy and Instagram’s New Ad Format: What You Need to Know

In the ever-evolving landscape of social media, two recent developments have sparked significant conversation: Meta’s controversial use of user data for AI training and Instagram’s testing of new video ads designed to halt endless scrolling.

Meta’s AI Training Practices

Meta (formerly Facebook) has recently come under scrutiny for its approach to using user data from Facebook and Instagram to train its AI models. The company has clarified that it collects both public and private posts, including photos and captions, for this purpose. While Meta claims that this practice is essential for improving AI capabilities, it has raised privacy concerns among users (Beebom) (DeCrypt).

Users outside Europe have limited options to opt out of this data collection. Meta has made it clear that opting out is not straightforward and, in many cases, not possible. The process to request exemption from AI training involves filling out a form and providing detailed information on how this data processing impacts the user. However, Meta does not guarantee that it will honor these requests (Intego).

In contrast, European users have slightly more leverage due to stricter data privacy laws like GDPR, which allows them to object to the use of their data. Even then, the opt-out process is cumbersome and not widely publicized (Intego).

Instagram’s New Video Ad Format

Meanwhile, Instagram is experimenting with a new ad format that introduces video ads designed to stop users from scrolling further. These “persistent” video ads appear in the feed and do not allow users to scroll past them until the ad has finished playing. This format aims to capture users’ attention more effectively than traditional ads, which can be easily bypassed (DeCrypt).

This move is part of a broader strategy by Instagram to enhance ad engagement and provide advertisers with more impactful ways to reach their audience. However, it also has the potential to frustrate users who may find these unskippable ads intrusive.

Implications for Users and Advertisers

Both of these developments highlight the ongoing tension between user experience and monetization efforts on social media platforms. For users, these changes might feel like an invasion of privacy and an interruption to their social media browsing. For advertisers, however, they represent new opportunities to engage with audiences more effectively.

As Meta continues to leverage user data for AI advancements, it’s crucial for users to stay informed about how their data is being used and to explore any available options to protect their privacy. Similarly, with Instagram’s new ad format, users should prepare for a potentially more ad-intensive experience.

For those concerned about privacy, it’s advisable to regularly review and adjust privacy settings on social media accounts and to stay updated on policy changes by these platforms. For advertisers, understanding these new formats and user sentiment can help in crafting more effective and less intrusive ad campaigns.

Stay tuned to updates from Meta and Instagram as these practices and formats evolve, shaping the future of social media interaction and advertising.

For further details, you can visit the original articles on Social Media Today:

What’s working on Instagram in April 2023

 1024 576 Zack Jackson
By:
0

Don’t call it a comeback, but … gasp … pictures may actually be returning from the dead on Instagram! Crazy right? The social media site that built its foundation on pretty pictures that soothed our souls and gave us the escape from our judgemental Facebook peers has finally realized that they’ve been screwing everything up and ruining why people liked them in the first place.

I get it … TikTok got all popular and stuff. So then Instgram panicked and decided that they had to copy all of the success of our Chinese overlords in order to hold the attention spans of busty influencers and 13 year olds everywhere, and they gave Reels a boost. OK … they gave Reels a BIG boost and basically threw everything else in the trashcan and assumed nobody wanted it anymore.

Well guess what? Reels are REALLY annoying to have to constantly create, especially if you’re a small business owner who has 647 other daily tasks and jobs to deal with. Now, instead of being able to produce some well-curated photographs that were on brand, you had to spend hours trying to come up with 60 second sizzle Reels all the time just to keep up with the stupid algorithms. And that ended up creating a large group of brands that started doing Reels because they HAD to, and not because they actually WANTED to, thus flooding the landscape with a whole lotta crappy Reels that nobody wanted to look at in the first place (or create).

Thankfully the team at Instagram finally came to their senses and admitted they had gone overboard on pushing Reels in the past year. Now I’m not going sit here and act like everything in world has been healed and crafting an Instagram page for your business that has solid reach and engagement is by any means “easy,” but at least we’re returning to a more competitive balance of content.

So what’s the big takeaway from all of this? I see two things …

1. Always always ALWAYS grab content in as many forms as possible. If you’re taking a picture, don’t just take that one picture and move on. Take a vertical picture. Take a horizontal picture. Take a quick vertical video. Take a quick horitonzal video. Take a LONGER video. Then save ALL of it. Never ever assume that whatever is “working” right now in social media is what will still be the standard in six months … or a year … or six hours from now for that matter. You’re spending the time to grab the content … take the extra minute to grab it in multiple forms.

2. Never ever EVER try to copy somebody else just because something seems to be “working” for them. This goes for a small business trying to copy another brand on social media just as much as it goes for the multi-billion dollar social media company themselves that tried to copy another one. They didn’t do it becuase they genuinely believed in the process, they did it because they were merely following something that looked like it was working for a competitor.

Personally, I don’t understand why all of these gigantic tech companies feel like they need to monopolize EVERY market. Why can’t they do one thing really well and serve their customers instead of feeling the need to be a retail outlet, streaming service, game hub, health care provider, social media network, and whatever the heck else they can try to control?

When you try to please everybody, you end up pleasing nobody.

Keep that in mind when working to grow your business. Do what’s genuine to you and what you do well. The rest will follow!

The JPG Top 3: SEO isn’t as hard as they make you think it is, the suckitude of organic reach and more

 1024 577 Zack Jackson
By:
0

We comb the interwebs to bring you the top 3 stories for small business social media marketing, branding, and engagement. Get it even sooner by subscribing to our FREE Top 3 email. Subscribe now

#3 SEO isn’t as hard as they make you think it is

Ahhh … good ol’ SEO.  First and foremost, SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization.”  The digital marketing world LOVES to throw out goofy acronyms all the time to sound smart like SEO, KPI, RFP, HIJKLMNOP … you name it and there’s an abbreviation for it.

When I first started in this industry I was someone who didn’t have a fancy marketing degree or whatever.  I just happened to be a person who knew how to tell a story and reach an audience.  Then all of a sudden I saw all these acronyms and thought, “OH MY GOD I AM SOOOO DUMB AND THESE PEOPLE ARE ALL WAY SMARTER THAN ME!!!”  I was totally intimidated by all the terms being tossed around and wondered if I was making a huge mistake trying to get into this business.

Then I actually sat down and looked at everything and realized that a lot of these terms and metrics that sounded hard were actually very basic.  So then I thought to myself, “Well why the hell did they have to make it sound so hard?” 

The reason?  So YOU will be super intimidated and will just fork over ungodly amounts of money to pay an “expert” to handle it for you.  We don’t roll that way at the JPG Agency.  Our goal is to actually empower YOU with the information.  Sure … we can help you (for a reasonable price) but we also want you to understand the HOW and the WHY behind everything.

So today here’s a great read that helps simplify SEO in a way that is much easier to process

#2 Privacy changes and your ads

Things continue to evolve after Apple’s iOS privacy changes, and one is a decreased ROI (oh crap … one of those acronyms again!) on your digital ad spend.  Now let’s be super clear, there are still a TON of ways to target specific audiences this way, but it has gotten a little more harder to figure out.  Additionally, many are heralding this as the rise of influencer marketing as a way to combat these privacy changes.

We are on board for influencer marketing as an effective way to reach your audience, and we also encourage you to think SMALL when it comes to your strategy.  You don’t need to shell out millions of dollars to get Mr. Beast to promote your product.  Simply find members of your industry or local community and utilize the passionate and engaged followers that they have (and for way less money).

And just a further reminder that the single BEST way to reach your audience is to OWN YOUR AUDIENCE.  We say it here all the time.  When you control the engagement point, you control everything.  You also don’t have to rely on somebody else’s algorthims and motives, which leads us to …

#1 The continued slow death of organic reach

Social media marketing is a beast for many many reasons.  It is absolutely necessary to tell the story and create the voice of your brand, but is also an endless grind of frustration. Not to mention the constantly changing landscape where you’re seemingly at the mercy of a bunch of robots and their algorithms (side note: you are). 

If you’ve ever thought to yourself, “it sure does feel like my post performance stinks and nobody is seeing it.” I’m here to let you know there’s a really good reason for why you feel that way … because it IS that way.  Organic growth continues to get crushed by both Facebook and Instagram, and here’s a great analysis that highlights exactly that.

So what the heck do we do about it?  First and foremost, you need to shed the concerns about any of the vanity metrics given to you by these platforms.  Ultimately, what does it really matter how many likes or comments a post gets?  What truly matters is your business being successful and making MONEY.  So start thinking of your content with that filter … does this post tell the story of my brand and invite my audience take action?  If the answer is yes, then you’ve done the right thing regardless of what some algorithm tells you.

Second, it comes back yet again to the OWN YOUR AUDIENCE mindset.  Don’t sit there and rely on Instagram to arbitrarily decide how many people will see your post.  Instead, figure out ways to collect direct contact information of your audience and use it to your advantage.  Take control of your information!

The JPG Top 3: How to post Reels content without totally losing your mind

 1024 577 Zack Jackson
By:
0

We comb the interwebs to bring you the top 3 stories for small business social media marketing, branding, and engagement. Get it even sooner by subscribing to our FREE Top 3 email. Subscribe now

#3 How do I get to be a “recommended post” on Instagram?

You know all those “recommended posts” Instagram likes to clog your feed with?  While you may shake your fist at them and wish they would go away, Instagram execs have made it clear they absolutely aren’t going anywhere (if anything, you’re going to see even MORE of them).  Instagram’s real goal is to make these recommendations just so darn awesome and perfect for your interests that you’re going to be happy to see them (and stay scrolling on their app longer and longer). 

So instead of trying to fight the impossible, we encourage you to embrace the inevitable and learn how the Instagram algorithm selects recommended posts.  These posts are going to be present whether you like it or not, so you might as well have it be YOU who’s being recommended, right?

#2 Email ain’t dead!

We see it all the time … we recommend email marketing to a prospective client and they roll their eyes and say, “Does that even work anymore?”  

The answer?

Yes.

Actually let me say that more emphatically … YES!!!!!

96% of consumers check their email every day, 81% of online shoppers are likely to make additional purchases because of email, and 60% say they prefer email communication from brands versus any other method.  Oh and it is free (or relatively cheap) to send them an email. (Thank you EmailIsNotDead for the factoids.)

Our clients see great results from email marketing as a way to sell products and events, but also simply as a way to stay top of mind with their customers and we HIGHLY recommend it as a tool in your marketing arsenal.  Still not convinced?  Read this … and if you do and still think email marketing sucks, well then we can’t help you and you should probably just delete us.

#1 An easy way to post some Reels content without losing your mind

Welp … here we are talking about Reels again.  If this makes you want to chug from the nearest bottle of tequila and pray to the Internet Gods that Instagram will change their minds, let’s run down some simple facts …

FACT #1:  Everybody is mad at Instagram.  

And yes, “everybody” is an over-exaggeration, but when you see articles like “Why Instagram Sucks Now” and top influencers are bagging on the platform, it’s pretty obvious that people are annoyed.  That said …

FACT #2: Instagram ain’t going anywhere.

Even if they “suck” and “everybody” hates them, Instagram is still a multi-billion dollar company that is owned by a megalomaniac who seems hellbent on world domination (or at least virtual world domination).  You would have to roll the cold dead corpse of metaverse overlord Darth Zuckerberg away before he would give up on Instagram or have it “lose” to TikTok.

What we’re getting at here is you can be rest assured that IG will be part of your social media plans for quite some time and that means it is important to incorporate best practices for the platform, and right now that’s with Reels.  It remains the single best (and free) way to have your brand reach new eyeballs.  But here’s one more fact …

FACT #3: Reels are a pain!

Posting a cute picture with a fun description is SO much less time consuming than a dang Reel!  Buuuut … if you really want to up the reach and engagement of your brand, you gotta suck it up and do ’em.  Doing Reels from scratch takes a lot of time and a little bit of skill (we’re happy to help if you need it BTW), but there’s also a way to balance that with something that is super easy … repurposing old Stories and turning them into Reels.  Meta has just added the ability to easily do this from your archives, and it is a great way to breathe life into some old content and post some Reels without going insane.  Is this the best practice for ALL Reels for your brand?  Probably not, but it’s at least something you can use to supplement your content.

Also, in other great news, you will soon be able to schedule Reels directly through the Instagram platform (as well as any third-party resources you may use), which is incredibly helpful if you’re someone who likes to stockpile and schedule content in one session versus having to develop it on the fly.  It’s still the added effort of creating Reels, but it’s at least a helpful way to schedule them out.

The JPG Top 3: The Ultimate Guide to Reels, LinkedIn Content That Works, and Who Owns YOU?

 1024 512 Zack Jackson
By:
0

We comb the interwebs to bring you the top 3 stories for small business social media marketing, branding, and engagement. Get it even sooner by subscribing to our FREE Top 3 email. Subscribe now

#3 Do You Know Who Owns You?

This story is an interesting one about what happens to sponsorship deals when an influencer couple breaks up (Yup … we’re at that point in the world where we’re talking about). But the reason we bring this up is to ask the question … do you know who owns YOU?

We see it time and time again when we work with a small business who has absolutely no clue who actually owns their digital assets. Their Facebook page was started by an employee 7 years ago who no longer works there (if they can even remember who it is at all), their website is hosted somewhere and they forget where or which email set up the account, and they have no clue what their Instagram password is because “it’s just saved on my phone.” (Any of these sound familiar?)

Would you treat your banking information like this? Of course not! So why are you treating your digital assets this way? Owning and controlling this information is absolutely vital. Without it you are unable to make certain growth decisions for your business, and you also run the serious risk of having your information deleted by someone who no longer cares about it. We HIGHLY recommend taking a look at all of your assets, making sure you control them all, and trimming access to only the most trusted members of your team.

#2 The Best Content to Post On LinkedIn

LinkedIn can be a powerful weapon in your digital arsenal. While other platforms make people slap each other in the face with tortillas just to get noticed, LinkedIn presents itself as more of a professional hub for both your brand and personal image. This becomes an opportunity to share your opinions and experiences as a business owner while networking with others in your industry and beyond. To be honest, it’s kind of a refreshing change from the grind of Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.

So the question becomes … What kind of content works best on LinkedIn? The Top 5 Content Types That Work Best on LinkedIn

#1 The Ultimate Guide to Instagram Reels

Like it or not, Reels are here to stay and they are a HUGE part of what’s working right now on Instagram. Gone are the days (for now) of just posting a quick picture and watching the engagement roll in courtesy of a few well-placed hashtags. And yes, photo content is still an important part of showcasing your brand’s voice, but to grow your presence beyond your current followers, Reels is the way it’s going to happen.

It’s pretty simple … Instagram is currently getting their butts kicked by TikTok, so they are pushing Reels HARD as a way to get people to stay on their platform as much as possible. As a result, you stand a MUCH better chance of having your brand reach new eyeballs when you play the game and do what the Instagram robots want you to. A real life example … We posted a Reel recently for a client that reached FIVE TIMES as many accounts as their current follower base. Needless to say, this video helped grow their brand to new people who otherwise would never see a single thing they post.

There’s a lot that goes into building successful Reels … video length, hashtag use, collaboration tags, etc … so we recommend this Ultimate Reels Guide as a good starting point. Good luck!

  • 1
  • 2