How To Make The Most Of The New Facebook Algorithm

In recent years, Facebook’s newsfeed has gone from mainly displaying activity from your friends and family, to becoming increasingly populated by media, businesses and organisations.

There have been pros and cons to this; while it’s helped smaller brands build an audience and a community using engaging content, others have used Facebook’s algorithm to inundate people with largely irrelevant marketing messages.

Facebook is now looking to put the ‘social’ back into social network with an updated algorithm that favours meaningful conversations and content from friends and family.

In Mark Zuckerberg’s own words: “I’m changing the goal I give our product teams from focusing on helping you find relevant content to helping you have more meaningful social interactions.”

So what does this mean for brands that are still looking to engage with their audiences through Facebook?

1. Your content has to be engaging.
Content that generates engagement through likes, shares and - in particular - conversations will be favoured by the new algorithm as Facebook works to put an end to passive scrolling through the newsfeed.

2. You may have to re-think your video strategy.
Videos have long benefited from the Facebook algorithm, but this advantage is set to decline unless they generate meaningful interaction. You can help drive engagement by ensuring your video captures people’s attention in the first three seconds, or by including a call to action. Live video is predicted to stay strong, with videos that are watched for longer gaining more visibility in the newsfeed.

3. Your Facebook page will require an advertising budget.
This update will all but eliminate organic reach, which is the amount of people who see your posts without you paying for it. This means brands will have to pay to reach their audience, no matter how relevant their content is.

Engagement also affects sponsored posts, with posts generating conversation achieving higher reach. To maximise the potential of your sponsored posts, always respond to comments from followers to keep the conversation going.

4. Influencers will become even more influential.
As influencers are perceived as people first and brands second, they tend to have a very personal relationship with their audience. They know their followers well and often generate a ton of interaction on their posts, making them one of the few commercial winners of the new algorithm and an important asset for brands looking for visibility online.

For support on improving your engagement on Facebook and working with the new algorithm, get in touch with the team on 01202 293095 or hello@sunnybirdpr.com

How We Increased A Client’s Social Media Presence By Over 1,000%

Back in July, we started working with WAY Investments. As a long-established financial organisation they already had brilliant relationships with financial advisers across the country, but they wanted to become more visible to consumers.

WAY already had a Twitter account and a LinkedIn account, but posts had been few and far between. Our first point of order was to create a plan for how to increase the online presence and take the message of flexible inheritance tax planning to the public.

The Posts

We create a mix of posts on a weekly basis to ensure the WAY voice is current and topical.

Firstly, we scour national and trade press for relevant news stories on inheritance tax, the finance industry and other topics that may interest WAY’s core demographic of financial advisers. By sharing and commenting on current issues, WAY is cemented as a reliable voice of authority and a source of relevant news stories.

Secondly, we feature posts highlighting the benefits of the WAY offerings, to keep these at the front of advisor’s minds.

Thirdly, we include some light-hearted and creative posts, such as motivational quotes for those looking to plan for their future and pass wealth onto the next generation:

The activity

On a weekly basis we review and analyse post performance, to ensure that future posts are optimised to achieve the best results. We also follow at least 100 relevant new accounts on Twitter every week. This is a very effective way of getting attention from other people and businesses, encouraging them to look at the WAY Twitter profile and give it a follow back.

Where possible, we connect with other businesses by tagging them in posts on both LinkedIn and Twitter, such as charitable efforts or networking events. This not only fosters good relationships, but also helps WAY become visible to the tagged organisations’ followers.

The results

In our first four months of managing the WAY accounts, Twitter followers increased by an incredible 1,030% and it continues to grow every week. The number of Twitter impressions per month rose by 1,175% and the number of visitors to the WAY Twitter profile increased by a whopping 1,921%.

LinkedIn saw a 3,904% increase in impressions and a 700% increase in the average number of followers gained per month!

If you would like to know how you can improve your social media presence, contact the Sunny Bird PR team on 01202 293095 or hello@sunnybirdpr.com.

Organic reach on social media is going down, but can you beat the algorithms?

A few years back, those of us promoting via social media would have measured success by the amount of likes and followers generated. This was true across the board from Facebook, Twitter & Instagram.

However as the social network giants changed their algorithms to prioritise the most relevant content for its users, a lot of likes are no longer a guarantee for reaching your fans. Now, your posts will only reach a small percentage of your followers through what we call “organic reach” (the amount of people who see a post without you paying for it). It’s the social networks’ way of encouraging businesses to pay for promotions, ensuring the ‘social’ aspect doesn’t drown in a sea of brand promotions.

These changes have made it increasingly difficult for businesses to reach their consumers without breaking the bank on sponsored posts, no matter how amazing the product is. To help you along, we have compiled some tips on how to maximise your social media strategy:

Twitter’s organic reach is 3.61%, meaning if you have 500 followers, your posts will reach 18. You can improve these numbers by commenting on current news and trending hashtags. If you post about today’s big news from the perspective of your business, you become visible to the thousands of Twitter users following current events. You can also collaborate with people and organisations around you, when you tag them in your posts and vice versa, you will reach new followers - a win-win situation!

Facebook has the lowest reach, with an average 2.6% of users reached per post. To get your posts into more newsfeeds, you should feature more video content as they are favoured by Facebook’s algorithm. Make your content shareable; whether it’s by including cute cats, cool facts or amazing achievements, you want people to share your post with their friends and family.

Last week saw the rollout of the “Explore Feed”, this new feature can be found in the menu with your groups, pages and events - look out for a tiny spaceship in a red circle! This new feed is designed to show you posts that Facebook thinks you will find interesting from pages you may not be following yet.

In a few countries (not the UK), an alternative version of this feed is being trialled where the original news feed is reserved for posts from friends, family and advertisers and the pages you follow are pushed into the Explore feed. Countries in the trial are reporting a loss of around 60% in both organic reach and number of interactions (likes, comments and shares). Facebook says there are currently no plans on taking this feature globally, but with it already being tested in six countries, we will be keeping an eye out for it as a UK rollout could mean big changes for us and our clients.

Instagram used to be the king of organic reach at around 20% thanks to its chronological news feed, but since introducing a new algorithm to show users the posts they would “care about the most”, this number has gone down.

Instagram does still favour more recent posts however, so it’s important to know when your followers are online and post at those times. Another way of increasing your Instagram presence is by using hashtags, but make sure they are specific and relevant to reach the people who are genuinely interested in what you have to say (stay clear of #LikeForLike and #FollowForFollow!). A good idea is to look at which hashtags are frequently used by your friends and competitors and use these. A word of caution though; if you use the same hashtags too often this can lead to what is known as a “shadowban”, where Instagram flags your posts as spam and blocks you from showing up in some searches without informing you. Hence it’s always best to keep your content varied and original.

If you have done all of the above and still wish to take your social media presence that little bit further, paying for sponsored posts doesn’t have to cost a fortune if you know who you want to target. If you’re not sure how, we’re here to help. Call us on 01202 293095 to find out more!

Instagram Update – Interactive Polls

You may have noticed in the last few weeks that Instagram has introduced a new feature that allows users to add polls to their Instagram stories. The new ‘interactive poll sticker’ enables users to upload a photo to Instagram stories and create a simple two option poll which they then place on top of the photo. The poll collates the results in real time and then like a normal Instagram story, it disappears after 24 hours.

As the creator of the poll you’ll be able to see how many votes each option receives, along with the choices that each voter makes. It provides direct interaction with your followers and has proven very popular since its launch at the beginning of the month.

Simply create an Instagram story, swipe up and choose the poll function, customise the options and then the app collates the results for you.

There are a number ways that this new fun feature can be used to boost your Instagram game. Below are just a few suggestions to get you started…

1)       Ask for feedback

There’s no better way to find out what your audience wants than to come straight out and ask them. The new poll tool is a quick and effective way to do this. Questions could include:

·         Do you like our new packaging design?

·         Would you like to see our product in a bigger size?

·         Would you like to see more blog posts with tips? Or fun personal blog posts?

·         What flavour do you prefer?

2)       Jump on the back of trending topics

If there’s a trending topic or current event, then join in the discussion and engage with your audience. Pose questions around the topic in a way that will relate to the majority of your audience, whether that be through playful questions or questions of a more serious nature. It shows that you’re aware of the events that are important to your consumer and that you relate to your target demographic.

Remember the trending photo of the trainer that recently divided the nation? Some people were adamant that the shoe was grey and aqua, others convinced that it was pink and white. This would’ve been a brilliant time to harness the new Instagram poll feature in a fun and engaging way.

3)      Market Research

The new poll tool can be used as a free way to collect data from your audience. If you’re sourcing responses from other social media platforms then including your Instagram stories audience will boost the volume of data collected.

There are many creative ways to incorporate the new polls feature into your social media strategy. It’s a useful and fun feature that can easily be used to engage with your audience. Give it a go today!

How to...Work With Bloggers

Did you know that bloggers can often be viewed as more trusted than celebrities, journalists, brands and politicians? In the digital world, bloggers are becoming more and more influential. While this is nothing new, recent research has shown that over 80% of all consumers will make a purchase after reading about the product on a blog. It has been known that 18-34 year olds ranked bloggers as their most valued and important sources of information.

Bloggers build a solid following by producing interesting content, quality images or articles on a regular basis. People trust these sources; they can relate to them and respect their opinions – as opposed to an advert.  Many brands now turn to influential bloggers to reach new audiences or to engage with consumers in a different way. These brands are collaborating with bloggers so that their messages are being told by a source that people recognise, respect and trust.

At Sunny Bird PR we have cultivated working relationships with prominent bloggers. Below are three examples of successful blogger campaigns that we have supported and driven sales for our clients:

Bliss Sanctuary for Women

Based in beautiful Bali, Bliss Sanctuary for Women is a stunning women’s only retreat designed to cater especially for women travelling unaccompanied or with a few friends. Bliss Sanctuary for Women is all about the freedom of finding your bliss, your way, whilst offering a variety of different packages to suit your needs.

Sunny Bird PR recommended key, online influencers be targetted and invited to visit and review Bliss on their blogs and social media platforms. We researched target Instagrammers and bloggers who fit the client’s demographic, negotiated their stay in terms of coverage and organised their visit.

These visits from Instagrammers and bloggers will result in social media posts across their various platforms and blog impressions in which followers will be educated about the sanctuary.

Regrowz

Regrowz, the UK’s first natural hair restoration product was looking for a way in which to educate potential consumers on its brand new product.

As Regrowz was a brand new product to the market, it needed to build consumer trust to get those all-important reviews. So, how do you get those initial reviews before the product is available to the consumer?

Sunny Bird PR targeted bloggers who were suffering with hair loss or thinning hair and asked if they wanted to take part in a six month trial of Regrowz. In return, bloggers gave us valuable assets such as headshots, feedback, Trustpilot reviews and video reviews to use on the Regrowz website, social media channels and within press.

As well as creating these assets, bloggers also wrote posts for their own blogs revealing the results to their followers.

The best blogger reviews were used as case studies in press, achieving even more coverage for the new Regrowz product with over 66 million people reading about the success of Regrowz from first-hand case studies in The Daily Mail Online and The Express Online.

The Good Night Anti-Snoring Ring

Our client, The Good Night Anti-Snoring Ring, is a natural, non-invasive product to help reduce or stop snoring. We recommended that we target blogger and organise authentic product reviews to increase sales.

The most important event of the year for The Good Night Anti-Snoring Ring is National Stop Snoring Week (24th – 28th April). The Sunny Bird PR team reached out to suitable bloggers asking them to review the ring in time for National Stop Snoring Week. To allow bloggers enough time to trial the product, trouble-shoot any problems and write a review, the Sunny Bird PR team contacted bloggers in March.

At the end of April, we had a host of blogger reviews with most posting their blog reviews during National Stop Snoring Week. A simple, yet effective way of achieving extra exposure and coverage for our client during the most important time of the year for the brand.

Our client said, "Following the brilliant coverage achieved by Sunny Bird PR our online sales and traffic doubled! We couldn't be happier!"

In summary, working with bloggers is invaluable when it comes to building consumer trust. As a final word of advice, remember to always be respectful of the bloggers you work with as this form of promotion can evolve into a long term relationship over time.

If you require support with an existing blogger campaign or wish to speak to us regarding a future blogger campaign, drop us a line at hello@sunnybirdpr.com or give us a call on 01202 293095.

How to...Get the Most From Your PR Agency

First Date

You know all there is to know about you; now your agency needs to know all of that too. The more information you can give your agency the better, they need to know who you are, where you came from, what makes you tick, your story, your audience, your tone of voice, your likes and dislikes. It’s like starting a new relationship and staying up ‘til 3am swapping life stories – you need to do that with your new agency. And in the same way you’d bare your soul and tell your worst secrets to your new beau, you need to tell your new agency the bad bits too so they have the best chance of managing any future issues that might rear their ugly head. Once your agency knows you inside out and back to front then they can truly be an extension of you and your brand.

Meeting the Family

If there’s more to your company than just you then your agency needs to get to know them too, give them access to your company’s thought leaders. At Sunny Bird PR, we speak to the movers and shakers at your company, the product managers, marketers, customer service representatives, case studies, ambassadors, you name it, anyone that can give valuable insight or a juicy story to get your brand into press.

Plan for the Future

Together, you and your PR agency should agree on a strategy including timings and KPIs. This should be a document that you’re both happy with that you can each refer back to week by week, month by month so you know where you are and what’s happening. Life does get in the way of the best laid plans and agencies are flexible enough to work around your changing business needs so don’t feel that your timing strategy is set in stone. If you need to change your focuses or tactics just let them know and they will accommodate you and your needs.

Expect the Best

You can ask and expect creative ideas from your new PR agency, share yours, get their input and see where your fledging relationship goes from there. A PR agency should be open to your input and also not afraid to guide and advise you on how they can tweak your ideas to achieve more coverage, followers or engagement – or even break the news to you that your brilliant idea is not quite as brilliant as you thought. An agency will be built on a team of experts so always remember that you’re investing in the team’s creativity and industry knowledge – a bunch of heads are better than one!

Communication is Key

This really is a two way street, you need to keep your agency fully up to speed with all developments your end, you might not think something is press worthy but your agency might know the journalist who’s looking for that angle. Your agency should also be in regular contact with you so you know what they are working on each week. This goes back to being flexible, a weekly email gives you the perfect prompt to change your agency’s focus for that week.  Communication also keeps goals on track as agencies will communicate with you at the end of each week to let you know how they’ve spent your hours and what they’ve achieved with them.

Do More

PR agencies don’t just stop at writing media releases and meeting journalists for you. Most offer a wide array of services, including creative campaigns, press trips, social media management, blogger campaigns, case study management, event management, internal communications, videography and photography services, design, web content creation and award applications. So next time you’re faced with a challenge, don’t overlook your PR agency, chances are they can help.

Be Realistic

This needs to happen from the word go and is key in establishing a successful, long-term relationship with your PR agency. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither is PR, the most realistic expectation is that the process takes time. The best news is that PR usually offers the best ROI from the marketing mix, it often makes up the smallest part of the marketing budget whilst delivering the best results.

PR works best when it is supported by other marketing disciplines but remember PR is different to advertising. An agency doesn’t pay the publications or TV channels for the media exposure it secures, hard work and relationship cultivation does. It’s that third-party endorsement that gives PR its power and credibility.

Set Objectives

Work with your agency to set short term and long term objectives, these need to be reviewed regularly (monthly/ quarterly/ six monthly). Status meetings at agreed intervals with you and your agency can make sure that these objectives are on track and reflecting your focuses.

Who’s Doing What

In an ideal world there should be just one person from your end that is responsible for managing the agency. Too many people working with the agency at once or having to gain approval or input into written materials will slow the process down and limit the results your agency can achieve. Equally, you should have one point of contact at your agency so there’s no risk of mixed messages or instructions.

Do Your Bit

One of the most frustrating stumbling blocks for PR agencies is sending out a press release to journalists only to discover that your company spokesperson isn’t available for interview. It’s up to you to ensure a spokesperson is on hand and available for interviews on the day the story is pitched to journalists. This can be tricky with work commitments and meetings, but if you want to get the most out of your PR agency, you need to be able to provide a spokesperson who is actually available for interview. Journalists are notoriously short on time so if they have to chase, follow up, wait or hassle someone to get their story the likelihood is they’ll move onto the next message in their inbox that does offer all assets at their fingertips.

Honesty is the Best Policy

If you don’t like something your agency has done or the way they have handled something, don’t bottle it up – tell them. There’s no way issues can get ironed out without airing them. A good PR agency will want to address this issue and remedy it immediately by finding a solution that everyone’s happy with.

If your relationship with your PR agency doesn't read like this then get in touch with us and we'll give you the Sunny Bird PR treatment!

Email us at hello@sunnybirdpr.com or give us a call on 01202 293095

How to...Get the Most From Facebook

Despite the plethora of social media platforms coming into existence every minute, Facebook remains the wise old grandfather of the social world with over 1.8 billion people using the platform every day. As a business, ignoring Facebook would be as daft as a high street shop locking the door and covering the windows on the busiest day of the year. There is no way the social media giant can be ignored but how to get the most from it? With such a powerful tool it’s important that the manual is well and truly read. As a PR agency we make it our mission to know how best to use all platforms and we’ve compiled a ‘How to’ for Facebook.

Build your Presence: First and foremost you need to be in it to win it. If you don’t have a Facebook business page already, make one as soon as you’ve finished reading this. A Facebook business page allows you to communicate directly with customers, helping them learn more about your business while offering customer service and visually compelling stories.

Create and Boost Posts: For help with creating eye-catching and professional posts read our blog on How to…Get the Best Out of Social Media Tools here. To reach a larger audience you can boost your posts (paying to increase their reach) easily and effectively. When you boost a post, you select the audience that you want to see it. Choose people who like your page, extend it to their friends or even select a new audience that you tailor by age, location, interests and more.

You're in control of how much you spend on a boosted post; the budget that you select is the per-day price of boosting a post. Depending on the audience and budget that you choose, you may or may not reach the maximum amount of your budget each day. Facebook will even recommend which posts you should boost depending on their organic success; these posts already have more likes, comments and shares than other recent posts which usually means that they'll perform well after boosting.

Talk About Your Business: Keep people updated on all that’s new with the business. People can check your page for information and updates or follow it and sign up to get notifications about your Facebook posts. To keep people interested you need to tell your stories beautifully; share updates through text, photos, and videos to keep people interested and coming back to your page.

Connect with your audience: Get to know your followers, who are they and why do they like you? Facebook is the platform for humanising your brand and letting your followers see your warm, fuzzy side. As well as adding a face to your business with Facebook you can also add a voice and become an expert in your industry by sharing your blogs or tips that your followers might find useful. Share meaningful updates; whether its content related to your industry or updates on what your business is doing, stay in touch with your audience with Facebook posts. Use short, fun-to-read copy and eye-catching images to get attention. You can even schedule your posts to save time.

Get More Attention: When your post is published, you can bring more attention to it by pinning it to your page or embedding it in your website. When you pin a post, it will remain at the top of your page so it’s the first thing people will see.

Understand Customers: Once you've captured awareness and created demand for your business, encourage potential customers to sign up for more information, spend time in your app or on your website, or visit your shop – actions that signal that they may make a purchase. Understanding which groups of people are thinking about purchasing helps you reconnect with those people later to encourage them to complete the transaction, so you can boost sales.

Entice Customers: Use posts to make special offers to your customers, invite them to events or share the moment with a live video.

Boost Sales: Sell more by showing people things that they may want to buy.

Plan advertising campaigns for your leads, website visitors and app users or shoppers you haven't reached yet. With Facebook adverts, you can prompt people to purchase by showing them products based on interests they've expressed on your site, app on Facebook or other places online. You can also offer promotions and encourage people to shop online.

Know it’s Working: Page Insights allows you to see exactly how your Facebook page is helping you accomplish your business goals. It analyses the performance of each post so you can compare and tailor your posts to become even more effective.

Companies Getting it Right: We love a good Facebook page and we think these businesses have really hit the mark with theirs…

Farrow & Ball is renowned for its classy colour palette, the premium paint brand has transferred this seamlessly onto the Facebook page by using professional photography.

Hello Big Idea is really good at engaging other businesses (and therefore potential clients) with tips and blogs that are created to help and improve; these kinds of posts will always prove popular.

Stylist makes it its job to be at the cutting edge of all things trending in the fast-paced world of style and fashion, sharing articles like this that gives its followers the best hairstyles for hot weather is, as always, bang on.

Try it For Yourself – Have a good look at your competitors as well as your favourite Facebook business pages for inspiration. Think about how you want to come across and what your tone of voice will be. Compile a brand board for Facebook so that all your posts are consistent and can be recognised as yours. Once you’ve settled on who you are then you can start sharing with your followers, gaining more and more followers with your fluid, engaging and beautiful content.

If you don’t have the time or resources to dedicate to your Facebook page or if you would like some advice and creative ideas call the Sunny Bird PR team on 01202 293095 or email the team on hello@sunnybirdpr.com

How to…Get the Best Out of Social Media Tools

Social Media plays an integral role in today’s public relations; the Sunny Bird PR team make it our business to be social media gurus so we can get the best results for our clients (and us!) from the wide array of social platforms.

Engagement is the key to building and maintaining a social media following, and visuals can play a crucial role in enhancing and growing engagement. In fact, a recent study found that posts with images have a 37% higher engagement rate.

You don’t need to be a graphic artist to come up with engaging images for your social media posts – we’ve tried and tested a whole host of image making tools and we’ve included some of our favourites here.

Another important element of engagement is measuring and monitoring results so you can analyse your posts and learn how to optimise them effectively. Facebook and Twitter have inbuilt analytics which are very user friendly but what about Instagram? How can you measure that? We’ve tried a few monitoring tools for Instagram and we’ve included Rian’s favourite below (a.ka. Instaqueen).

We hope the tools suggested help you get the most from your social media platforms, if you would like additional support contact the team on 01202 293095 or hello@sunnybirdpr.com.

Lucy’s Favourites

A Beautiful Mess

This is my favourite app to create any image to ensure its social-media- ready! If that be overlaying text, creating a frame or even have three images within one frame. Creating quotes or images that include text is no challenge for A Beautiful Mess. Choosing from many colours, text fonts, shapes and decorations gives you the endless opportunity to create beautiful image.

 Repost It!

I’m sure there’s been a time when you have found a picture on someone else’s Instagram that you love and want to share – if that be a quote, an image of a stunning view from the Maldives or a picture of a cute cat! 

But Repost It! has made it quick and easy for you to repost an image from someone’s feed and credit the image back to that person who took the original image. The image displays a bar at the bottom of the image clearly stating that you have reposted that picture and it states the name of the account you took it from, therefore crediting that person.

 

Rian’s Favourites

Planoly

One of the best visual planners for instagram. It is the perfect app for those who love to create a consistent instagram theme as it allows you to drag and drop your images so that you can arrange them all before posting them live to instagram. Planoly also enables you to analyse the likes and comments that your instagram channel is getting and will let you see which posts are getting the most engagement.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pictapgo

A simple, easy to use, photo editing app that enables you to layer photo filters on top of each other to create the perfect photograph. The app remembers your most-used filters and saves them into a ‘photo recipe’ so that you can access it easily each time and keep you photo finish consistent.

 

 

Lizzie’s Favourites

Over

Make your images more interesting by adding text to them with Over. This iOS and Android app lets you pick any image that you have saved on your device and add text to it.

Customise the font, colour, and text size to get the best results.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ease.ly

Infographics are all the rage right now, and you can get in on the action with Easel.ly. The idea of creating infographics might seem daunting, but you can use templates with this tool. You can go with a standard template and customise it to your liking or you can build your infographic from the ground up. Regardless of which option you choose, you'll have objects, icons, and shapes at your disposal. Just drag and drop them into the tool and watch your infographic grow right before your eyes.