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Instagram Marketing Growth: 3 Proven Tactics To Grow Followers & Engagement

The Science of Social Media is coming to you today partially from Social Media Marketing World. Podcast co-host and Buffer’s digital marketing master Brian Peters shares one of the hottest topics being talked about at the conference right now: Instagram Marketing.

Here’s a few burning questions he and Hailey answer in this latest episode:  

How can you stand out among the other millions of photos, videos, and stories posted each day? How can non-designers and amateur photographers create beautiful content for Instagram? Plus, an exciting announcement about a Buffer x Instagram partnership.

Awesome stuff ahead from one of the best Instagram marketing teams in the biz. You’ll def want to tune into this one.

• (02:15) Buffer is now an “official Instagram marketing partner,” which means they will now be able to incorporate a ton of new features into their app
• (03:15) What brands and marketers should think about when trying to grow their Instagram following
• (04:20) Why brands and marketers need to think like artists to succeed on IG and how that will help their feed and Stories tell a narrative
• (04:50) The 2 types of really successful IG accounts: Beautiful vs. Entertaining
• (05:45) Why “good looking feeds” drastically help tell your brand’s story
• (07:20) Why office and employee photos don’t fuel brand growth
• (08:15) Lessons in investing in good resources to improve design and photo quality, which both need to be top-notch to thrive
• (09:45) The power of curated and user-generated content and how it skyrocketed Buffer’s IG engagement and growth
• (10:45) The best reasons for using curated and user-generated content. One of them is the way in which those types of photos build your community
• (12:45) Posting top-performing Instagram content on other social channels to lead back to our IG account and increase engagement
• (13:25) The difference vibe to convey between your feed and your Stories and going Insta live

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5 Key Factors to Increase Email Open Rates

Dunno if y’all noticed, but we kinda love email. It’s kinda old school in this new-aged world of Facebook Messenger and Slack, but it works. And, not-so-hot take, it’s gonna keep working. Why?

Because it’s the only place where you can interact with your fans without being affected by an algorithm. Everything else—from Facebook to LinkedIn to Google—affects your ability to reach your audience because of an algorithm.

If you haven’t gotten serious about building your email list, start now. Like, right now. Like, quit reading this and start.

For those of you who have already started building your list and are still reading, we’re going to help you fix a crucial piece of your email marketing today: open rates.

Here are the 4 success factors to email opens (we couldn’t fit the 5th, you’ll have to read the blog post for that one):

• Personal sender name. Subject lines get all the love, but the sender’s name is actually more important. If you’re sending your email from “company name” you should probably change it. People are more likely to open an email from a person, rather than a company.
• Punchy subject line. You knew this would be here. Keep your SL 5 words or less because mobile email inboxes don’t show much more than that. Also, you’re gonna want to use important keywords here. Common questions that people ask you are great SL’s, as are your top performing social posts.
• Meaningful preview text. This is the text after the subject line. Most people ignore it, but it’s essential to custom write it for each email. Don’t just let your ESP determine your preview text.
• The email body (design and text). Ah, our favorite part. Consistently sending out well-designed, well-written emails packed with value will increase your open rates because people will come to expect a quality email from you.

Plenty of things in the blog post that we couldn’t cover in this email →

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You Spin Us Right Round

Breaking news! The world has stopped spinning. Scientists are desperate to figure out how to restart it because if they don’t, well, nothing good, that’s for sure.

Luckily for all of humankind, one athlete has figured out how to get it spinning again. She just has to do what her hamster does to get its wheel spinning—run. If we all run in the same direction at the same time, Earth will start spinning. Next thing you know, the whole world is strapping on their Nikes and engaged in a new movement of…movement! People everywhere beckon from streets and social media, “Let’s go!”

Is the premise of this Nike spot as bonkers as that new Sci-Fi movie? Sure. But at least it’s packed full of cameos from Kevin Hart, Kobe Bryant, Bill Nye the freaking Science Guy, and a whole lot more.

See how they all work together to save the planet in today’s Watch.

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