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5 Tips to Get Those Instagram Reels Rolling

Rosewood Marketing Instagram reels tips for making short video.

Want to grow your business and reach your dedicated community? It may not be for everyone, but consistency is key for staying at the top of your followers’ feeds. You may have posts and stories worked out, but what about Reels? Don’t let them fall by the wayside with these tips for great Instagram reels. Instagram currently prioritizes Reels for suggested content. This means they are the best way to reach your target audience and grow your following and reach on the platform. 

Need some tips to help get you started? Here are 5 to get your Insta Reels rolling:

  1. Take advantage of the all the features: Instagram’s algorithm prioritizes creators who use the new functions and features. Adding filters, camera effects, audio, and/or text to your video will give your Reels a leading edge for appearing in viewer’s feeds. Just don’t add too many. Instagram prefers a little over a lot. Bonus – Captions: The majority of video on social media is watched without sound, so adding text or captions is essential for reaching most viewers. Your content will be more discoverable and also more accessible to anyone with hearing difficulties. 
  2. Not too much production: Pretty, produced videos are great for selling your product(s), but people also love seeing what makes your brand tick. Informal and genuine short clips from behind the scenes are a great place to start for Reels. They’re easy to make, take little planning and time, and have a personal touch. Just make sure to keep the video quality high. Neither Instagram’s algorithm nor viewers like a blurry Reel.
  3. Use trends and brands for inspiration: Look through the Reels tab see any current trends and aesthetics that are consistently popping up. Look at other creators you like or members of your industry for ideas. But don’t just copy. What are they doing? What do you like? How can that content work for your brand?
  4. Be authentic and sincere: Sell what your brand is, not what it isn’t. Don’t underestimate the ability of a customer to see right through false or insincere content that’s hopping on another major trend. Your followers were drawn to your brand in the first place, so make sure to keep emphasizing that niche and give your content that unique touch.
  5. Share content from your community: Not only is this content you didn’t have to make, but it’s also a genuine positive response to your brand. Sharing that content engages with your community, strengthening that connection and making people feel a part of your brand. Don’t just share though. Some extra text creates engagement, and Instagram deprioritizes content that is simply reshared.

These tips should give you a better handle on making great Instagram Reels. Don’t forget to have fun and flex those creative muscles. A couple other general tips. 

  • Include a call-to-action that drives viewers to the link in your bio. 
  • Share your Reels to your main feed and add hashtags to increase discoverability. Just 3 to 5 will mean reaching more viewers.
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Does Your Website Have Traffic From European Countries?

Graphic of a man and a women touching different parts of the website on a screen. There is another man off the sign holding an EU flag and a megaphone to their mouth

As a website owner, it’s critical that you ensure you are in compliance with worldwide laws regarding website cookies. If your business website has traffic from European countries, take the time to consider whether you are meeting the EU minimum website cookies compliance standards. If not then it’s time to make the necessary updates to your site.

Who Needs to Comply with the European Cookie Law?

The EU cookie law applies to any website which attracts visitors from the EU. Even if your business is located in the US, Canada, or elsewhere in the world, you need to make sure you are meeting the minimum standards when you have EU visitors. In order to remain in compliance, your website should not load or save any cookies until the site visitors confirm their decision via your cookie consent form. This form needs to offer the option to decline cookies entirely, or you will be breaking this law.

When designing your cookie consent form, another part of the regulations in the EU is the colours and sizing of the buttons. You must not force or influence the actions of the visitors, so the accepting and declining buttons must be the same colour and size. Another regulation to keep in mind is that in Austria, the use of Google Analytics to track website usage became illegal in January 2022. At the moment, this only impacts Austria, but there’s a chance we may see other countries follow this trend in the future.

Different Types of Cookies

To remain in compliance with EU law, it’s critical that you are aware of what cookies are in terms of your website. Cookies are text files that contain smaller pieces of data to identify your computer within a network. The data that’s stored within the cookies will be created by your server when you connect, and it’s labelled with a unique ID for your computer. The server can then read your ID and know how to serve you best.

HTTP cookies are created by a web server when someone browses your website. They will then be placed on the device or computer by the user’s web browser, allowing web servers to store information on your device. They can be used to track a user’s activity or save information that they’ve previously entered online.

Another type of cookie that you may use on your website is an authentication cookie. These are used by web servers to check that a user is logged in and the account that they are using. This stops users from having to authenticate themselves on every single page that has sensitive information, offering a better user experience while keeping your site secure. Finally, tracking cookies are used to create long-term records of a user’s browsing history. These are non-essential cookies, and so you will need to ensure you are receiving informed consent from your website visitors for storing these on their devices.

As you can see, it’s critical for website owners to keep in compliance with EU laws when they are attracting visitors from European countries. To help you keep up to date with GDPR cookie compliance, we highly recommend using this WordPress plugin on your site.

Contact us today if you would like us to look into whether your website is complying with the EU laws.

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Why You Should Hire a Social Media Manager

Graphic of a cell phone with a lady talking out of a mega phone. The graphic title says 'Why you should hire a social media manger"

As a business owner, you no doubt know how challenging it can be to stand out online today. With millions of businesses using Facebook and Instagram to attract new customers, social media marketing is more important than ever. Keep reading as we share the top reasons you need to hire a social media manager this year.

Stay Up to Date With Social Media Trends

Instagram, Facebook and Tiktok are constantly changing and are always introducing new features. In order to keep ahead of the competition, you need to use these tools to your advantage. An account manager will be able to share the current algorithm trends and ensure you adapt your content strategy to continue reaching a wider audience online.

Build a Stronger Social Media Plan

When it comes to posting, you need to have a strong plan in place for your content. Instead of yourself or another employee just randomly posting pictures and updates, social media marketing will help you to have a more strategic plan for your upcoming campaigns. An account manager can monitor your current content and work with you to find ways to improve your digital marketing. 

Assist Your Customers in a Timely Manner

An account manager will be here to support you in replying to your customers as quickly as possible. They’ll also be able to deal with any negative feedback you receive promptly to avoid damaging your digital reputation. Many business owners are juggling dozens of tasks each day, and social media marketing is the last thing they have time to do. By hiring someone who will be dedicated to this task, you can be sure you’ll stay on top of your accounts at all times.

Grow Your Following

In order to thrive in the online world, you need to continually attract new followers. This can be a huge challenge in competitive industries. A social media manager will know the top ways to find potential customers. They can help you to get featured on another brand’s page and work on collaborations that will spread the word about your business.

Reporting

If you are looking to improve your online marketing strategy, you’ll need to receive updates and reports about how your work is going. A social media manager will provide you with regular reports, which will give you a clear idea of how your accounts are growing. From there, they’ll be able to identify any weaknesses in your current strategy and work with you to make changes in the future.

With so many benefits of working with a manager, this is something we recommend any business invests in this year. No matter what type of business you own, you can benefit from increasing your online following and improving your social media strategy. For more information about working with our team on your social media marketing, contact us today.

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