Showing posts tagged with: Team Vision Marketing

March 20, 2023

Everything You Need to Know About Instagram’s “Hidden Likes” Test

Everything You Need to Know About Instagram’s “Hidden Likes” Test

If you’ve landed on our Hawaii Marketing Tips blog by accident while searching for Team Vision Marketing, please visit our homepage, creative portfolio or client video testimonials to learn more. Otherwise, please continue reading.

We all saw this coming, but in case you missed it, Instagram just launched its game-changing “Likes-Free” test update to the whole world.

Tests for the “hidden” Likes started last April in Canada and then rolled out to Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Ireland, Italy, and Brazil, resulting in mixed feelings. Recently, Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram, announced at the WIRED25 Summit 2019 that the test was expanding to the U.S., and now it’s in effect for a small group of users in every country. So far, there is no news about how long the tests will last or if the update will be permanent.

WHY IS INSTAGRAM TAKING AWAY OUR LIKES?

Instagram wants to promote a healthier environment for all of its users. According to Mosseri, the purpose of a “Likes-Free” Instagram is to depressurize the platform and make it less competitive. Moving away from likes will help users “focus more on connecting with people that they love, and things that inspire them…”

Many studies and reputable news sources have shared that interacting with social media platforms can incur negative psychological problems, especially with young audiences.

– NBC News reports that a recent study, published by the American Psychology Association, found that individuals reporting symptoms consistent with major depression increased by 52% in teens and 63% in young adults age 18 to 25 from 2009 to 2017.

– U.S. News states that “Young people who spend more than 3 hours a day on social media are susceptible to depression, anxiety, and other illnesses and are more likely to internalize bad feelings about themselves,” according to a study by Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.

– CNN shared a study published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health journal which found that content posted on social media can hinder the healthy sleep and exercise of young people.

ARE MY LIKES DISAPPEARING FOREVER?

We put quotation marks around “Likes-Free” and “hidden” for a reason. No, Likes will not totally disappear from your posts. Instead, Instagram is removing the public’s view of the Like count and replacing it with a preview of mutual followers who liked the post. Although, Instagram users can still see their Likes and other posts’ Likes by clicking on “others.”

Preview of Hidden Likes on Instagram

HOW WILL THIS AFFECT MY BRAND? WILL THIS KILL INFLUENCER MARKETING?

Naturally, brands and influencers are feeling nervous about the negative effects of this update as it rolls out. Some brands predict that their engagements will decline and some influencers are boycotting Instagram for “hiding” Likes because it will affect their brand deals.

But here at Team Vision Marketing, we see that “hiding” Likes will bring good change to how brands and influencers market themselves on the platform. Plus, Instagram has assured the public that the “disappearing Likes” shouldn’t affect your brand’s current engagement rates.

We predict that this “no Likes” update will produce non-vanity based – and therefore more valuable – engagement metrics, including comments, impressions, reach, and rise in merit. Ryan Detert, CEO and co-founder of Influential, shared with Emarketer.com that his company’s analytics sees no correlation between Likes (a vanity based metric) and sales. Instead, brands should focus on attention metrics, like views and reach, which analyze how users engage with content.

Our digital marketing firm also foresees that the update will not only see better, more authentic influencer marketing strategies, but also nurture stronger relationships between brands and influencers. Vice President of Marketing for Stoli Vodka, Dave McNulty, says on Emarketer.com that “hiding likes shouldn’t negatively impact how brands work with influencers… [because] successful content is a result of brands building real relationships with credible influencers and giving them the creative license to be authentic with their audience.”

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING TIPS FOR A “LIKE-FREE” INSTAGRAM

This new update is all about building a healthier community on social media, so naturally, social media strategies will need to be more focused on engaging with the audience or cultivating your brand’s community. Here are some social media marketing tips centered on community building for your brand to try out:

– Share something valuable for your audience to engage with, like comedic posts (see our #DreadedAgencyRequests posts) or tips and market statistics.

– Get personal with your fans. Try posting more community-based content, like office life or team bonding activities. Inviting your audience to experience your company culture will evoke sentimental feelings with your brand and foster brand loyalty.

– If you do rely on influencer marketing, develop authentic – not gimmicky – social media marketing campaigns. Also, make sure you are building a relationship with an influencer that fits your brand and can help you engage with your target audience.

– Sponsor a reaction/review video.
– Fit your brand or product within the influencer’s passions or brand, like Fiji Water’s BodyWoreWhat.
– Partner with an influencer who is advocating for a cause that your product or brand can relate to.

– Make your content thought-provoking or irresistible for your audience to share their opinions on. This type of content can include the following:

– Posting a Story with a poll, question, or a multiple-choice sticker.
– Posting a “Question of the Day” post.
– Hosting an “Ask Me Anything” session.
– Hosting a “Reaction to your assumptions” session.
– Hosting a Live Stream.
– Asking your followers to share their opinions or favorite things about your brand or products in the caption.

– Keep the discussion in the comments going. Instead of just saying “Mahalo for your comment!”, reply with a question or a conversation-starter. After all, a strong social media community is all about continuous interactions with your audience.

– Engage with your audience and the people you follow. Stay active in liking, commenting, and interacting with other posts, especially with the ones your brand is tagged in.

– You can take this tip a step further by interacting with posts on the Explore tab! Browsing through the Explore tab is a great way to find new audiences to build relationships with.

– Spotlight your top followers. Repost and share your top followers to your feed. Use this to express your appreciation for their love of your brand and products. It’ll make your spotlight followers feel good and encourage the rest of your audience to want to start sharing their love for your company.

If you need help with your Hawaii advertising, marketing or social media management for 2020, send us an inquiry via our web site. You can also check out our extensive portfolio to see our most recent creative works in our portfolio – from social media campaigns to logo designs. Team Vision Marketing is one of Hawaii’s leading full-service advertising agencies and digital marketing firms, helping local brands on Oahu, Maui, The Big Island of Hawaii, Lanai, and Kauai.

 

Contact Us:

Phone: (808) 536-0416

Email: info@www.teamvision.com

Web: www.www.teamvision.com

Hear from Bruce Barrett, former VP of Sales & Marketing at Castle & Cooke Hawaii, on his experience working with Team Vision Marketing.

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June 17, 2020

How To Succeed in Zero-Click Search SEO

If you’ve landed on our Hawaii SEO Marketing Tips blog by accident while searching for Team Vision Marketing, please visit our homepage, creative portfolio or client video testimonials.

How To Succeed in Zero-Click Search SEO

First of all, what exactly do we mean by Zero-click searches? Zero-clicks means that when people do a Google Search for information,  they get the information right on the search results page.  They never have to click on any of the organic or paid search results, which means less direct web traffic for your site. As you can imagine, Google realizes that keeping visitors on their SEO results page is of great value (versus having visitors click out to 3rd party web sites), so they are doing everything they can to provide the information people are looking for  right there within the search results page. A prime example of this is the expansion of their Google My Business listings over the past couple of years.  Visitors searching for your business first see your Google My Business listing which includes your business description, hours of operation, location, phone #, products and services, pricing,  and more.  For many businesses, such as hotels and attractions, you can also book their offerings right from the Google Search Results page.  You get the idea, right?  Google is going to keep adding more and more features that keep searchers on their search engine results page.  This may eventually make your organic search listing irrelevant.

Last year, about 50% of organic Google searches generated zero clicks. Zero-click searches are on the rise and are causing businesses to receive less impressions, CTRs, and organic web traffic.

According to Spark Toro:

  • 34.4% of desktop searches in 2018 resulted in no clicks
  • 62.5% of mobile searches produced no clicks in 2018
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To stay competitive on the coveted first page, Hawaii businesses must adapt their SEO (Search Engine Optimization) marketing to include optimizing their websites for the Zero-Click Google Rich Features, which are effective for spreading brand awareness and positioning your site as a hub of information. In this article, we will share tips on how you can optimize your website to be featured in Rich Features and take back your top SERP glory!

What are Zero-Click Search Rich Features?

Rich Features are blocks of information that help Google users find the answers they are searching for effortlessly. Zero-click search Rich Features provide the answers to a search query, so users don’t have to click through a bunch of websites to find the desired information—hence the name zero click search.

You may have noticed these Rich Features pop up on the SERP in various formats for key phrases, like “Aloha meaning” (see example below). Voice searches using Siri, Alexa, or the Google Assistant read off of these Rich Features when you ask for specific inquiries, like recipes or trivia questions.

Aloha definition rich feature

Does That Mean That Zero-Click Rich Features Are Bad For Businesses?

No, zero-click Rich Features can be instrumental in spreading brand awareness and sharing useful information. Rand Fishkin, the founder of SparkToro, said in a Search Engine Land interview that zero-click Rich Features are similar to billboards. Both types of media are hard to collect measurable data but are very useful in building brand familiarity and sharing information.

When Do Zero-Click Searches Or Rich Features Appear On The SERP?

Zero-click searches usually occur for the following types of searches:

  • Database Searches
  • Dictionary or Encyclopedia Searches
  • Map Directions
  • Longer tail keyword searches
  • Searching for notable people, companies, places, news articles, and more.
  • Recipes or “How To” searches
  • Asking an FAQ

However, it’s hard to determine which search phrases trigger a Rich Feature to show up. It depends on the search query, the algorithm, and if the other websites on the SERP have optimized their pages for Rich Features. Ahrefs’s report found that only 12.3% of searches produce a Rich Feature. To see the full list of Google Rich Feature formats and where they might appear, click on our previous blog post here.

How Do You Optimize for  Zero-Click Rich Features?

First things first….

  • Research and list the keywords that show zero-click Rich Features that you currently use in your SEO strategy.
      • Ahrefs has provided a useful graph of common keywords that are more likely to meet a Rich Feature, see below.
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  • Identify and optimize the web pages that would work best as a zero-click Rich Feature. You can start by asking yourself:
      • Can my content define any keywords?
      • Do we have a top ten list that’s relevant to a keyword search?
      • Do we have any material discussing an in-depth comparison?
      • Do we have a step-by-step video tutorial?
  • Target question-based keywords. Zero-click searches usually appear on question queries. Revise your content so that keyword terms are incorporated in the sub headlines and the precise answer is listed right below it.
      • You can find inspiration and examples on how to word your questions from existing Rich Features, “People Also Asked” boxes and related searches located at the bottom of the SERP.
  • Create quality content. Of course, the quality and relevancy of your content will help determine if it will be featured as a Rich Feature.
  • Make your content more attractive for Rich Features with schema markups.
      • Schema markups are microdata that create enhanced descriptions of your content. It helps Google understand your content.
      • However, using structured data does not guarantee that your content will show up on the SERP.

Now, let’s proceed to our top recommendations for zero-click Rich Features:

How To Optimize For Definitions Rich Features

  • Start your first sentence by defining the keyword using verbiage like “[keyword] is a….” or “[keyword] means to….”
  • For keywords definitions that require further explanation, organize your content using the inverted triangle method: share the most important and concise information first, important details second, and general information last.
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How To Optimize for “People Also Asked” Rich Features

  • Sometimes, Google will show alternative questions other users have searched for and provide the answers for them in a dropdown toggle box.
  • Write complete questions and answers.
  • Use clear, plain language. Google likes to share clear and to-the-point answers.
  • Avoid sales language. Remember, people want to find answers to their questions on search, not see promotions.
  • Add Q&A schema to your webpages.
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How To Optimize For List Rich Features

  • Lists work best for searches that are asking for step-by-step tutorials. For example: “Why is SEO marketing important” or “How to win at zero-click searches.”
  • Lists can be unordered (bullet points) or ordered (numbered).
  • How you structure your lists is very important. Start a list with a title incorporating the keyword in a question format and make the title H2, H3, etc.
  • List major points that relate to the search query and make sure the text is readable and clear.
  • It can also work for FAQs and “Top Best” lists
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How To Optimize For Comparison Rich Features

  • It’s recommended to use tables to map out comparisons. This is because it’s easier for Google to read and searchers to study the pros and cons, or similarities and differences on a topic.
  • Similar to how to optimize for a list rich feature, Comparison rich features should have a title incorporating the keyword in a question format above the table and make the title H2, H3, etc.
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How To Optimize For Image Rich Features

  • Google pulls images from different websites to accompany Definition and Text Rich Features.
  • To make your images zero-click SEO ready, add alt text that’s a variation of the headline used for the Rich Feature.
  •  Also, place the image directly under your Rich Feature optimized text or within content, full of relevant keywords.
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How to Optimize Google Business Listing Rich Feature

  • This Rich Feature usually appears on a branded search on the right side of the SERP. It displays your business’s contact information, operation hours, location, reviews, photos, and more.
      • This Rich Feature is a great way to be displayed on the SERP for branded searches.
  • To use this Rich Feature, you must claim your business’s listing or create one of your own. Then, optimize it by filling in all the required fields about your business with the most recent information:
      • Business name
      • Hours of operation
      • Contact information
      • Address
      • Photos of your brick-and-mortar store, logo, products
      • Additional optimization tips:
          • Frequently create posts about your products, business, tips, offers, etc.
          • Collect Google Reviews
          • Answer questions and reply to Google reviews.
Hawaii SEO - Google Rich Result Feature

The Takeaway…

With the rise in Zero-Click searches, securing a position on the top of the Google SERP for your Hawaii website has become even more challenging. Although your company will see lower CTRs and organic web traffic, using Google’s Rich Features for Zero-Click Searches can be a valuable organic SEO strategy and it can help generate awareness for your brand and position your website as a credible source of information.

If your Hawaii business needs digital marketing help, please reach out to Team Vision Marketing, Hawaii’s leading advertising and digital marketing agency for over 20 years. We’d love to help!

This is the blog of Team Vision Marketing, a full-service Hawaii advertising agency located in Honolulu, Hawaii and serving clients on Oahu, Maui, Kauai and the Big Island of Hawaii.

 

Contact Us:

Phone: (808) 536-0416

Email: info@www.teamvision.com

Web: www.www.teamvision.com

Dolly Moreno, former Director of Sales & Marketing at Honua Kai Resort & Spa on Maui, talks about her experience working with Team Vision Marketing on all of her advertising, graphic design and digital marketing needs.

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November 9, 2019

Your Guide to Google Rich Search Features

If you’ve landed on our Hawaii Marketing Tips blog by accident while searching for Team Vision Marketing or Hawaii Advertising Agencies, please visit our homepage, creative portfolio or client video testimonials for more information. If you’re here to learn more about SEO strategies, please continue reading.

Is your business looking for more effective Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies to improve your online presence and search engine results? A critical SEO strategy that many small businesses overlook  is Google Rich Search Features or Rich Snippets. Using these enhanced search features can help boost your SEO ranking and drive web site traffic.

What are Rich Search Features?

Rich search goes beyond the typical page title, page URL, and meta description optimizations. It  displays information extracted from your web pages that can help make your web site look more attractive on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) based on specific schema markups, which are snippets of code that help Google’s algorithm read your site’s content. Rich search results can include reviews, images, contact information, carousels or other elements. You may have already noticed other sites using these rich search features, as seen in the comparison below.

Basic Vs. Rich Search Feature

Hawaii SEO - Basic Google Result Feature - Hawaii SEO
Basic Google Result Feature
Hawaii SEO - Google Rich Result Feature
Google Rich Result Feature

In this article, we provide an overview of our most recommended rich search features that your brand should consider adding to your website. That being said, implementing rich search features on your web pages requires some technical knowledge. Contact us if you would like more information or assistance with your Hawaii SEO needs.

Why Use Rich Search Features?

Rich search features are used to enhance the SERP, making information about local businesses and content more discoverable and easier to access. Companies who take advantage of rich search features are not only able to gain access to prime SERP real estate at the very top of the search results page,  they can also have their content displayed in an enhanced designed container to draw attention.

This can help boost your SEO ranking, increase organic click through rates (CTR), and potentially boost conversions.

How to Implement Rich Search Features

Each search feature has its own code to help Google crawl through the information and translate it into its designated feature design. This gives you the ability to control what information will be displayed in the enhanced search feature. Read the introduction to structured data on Google Search Developers to learn the standard guidelines required by Google Search and the specific guidelines for your content type and any enhancements.

It’s important to note that there is no guarantee that your page will appear on the SERP with its assigned specified feature. This is because search features depend on many factors, including the search device type, location, and whether the Google algorithm thinks the feature would provide the best search experience for the user.

Recommended Rich Search Features to Use:

Reviews

Your brand should consider adding the review rich search feature markup because reviews are so influential for conversions. According to a 2016 PEW Research Center study, 82% of Americans read online reviews and 51% trust their accuracy.

Once the structured data is added to your site, it will show up as an aggregated or singled out star rating on the SERP, as seen below. Depending on what code you use, your brand can also feature how many reviews were made, display the percentage of people who gave you high star ratings, and more.

You can also create a review snippet in the Google Knowledge Panel, an information box that appears on Google when you search for entities.

Hawaii SEO - Google Review Rich Result Feature
Review Rich Result Feature
Hawaii SEO - Google Review Rich Result Feature
Review Rich Result Feature on a Google Knowledge Panel

Business Listing

We highly recommend that local Hawaii businesses add schema about your business information, including contact information, business hours, reviews, price scale, address, and so on, to show up prominently on the SERP. Google uses this information to populate a large Knowledge Graph that may appear in Google Search Results or on Google Maps. In addition to adding your business information, you can also add a Call-to-Action button like “Book an Appointment.”

Tip:

  • To yield the best results, complete your Google My Business profile to strengthen your local business presence.
  • Make sure the information in your local business schema matches up with your Google My Business profile.
Hawaii SEO - Google Local Business Rich Result Feature

Product

If you manage an e-commerce website, we highly recommend your company take advantage of the Product schema markup. Google will use this information to display detailed product information in rich search results and Google Images, including the product’s price, availability, and review ratings directly on the SERP.

Using this rich results feature can help your brand attract potential customers. We recommend that you regularly update and maintain your product information to attract more potential customers.

Tips:

  • Use markup to highlight a specific product, like a bestseller.
  • Do not use the product schema markup on a category or list of products.
Hawaii SEO - Google Product Rich Result Feature

Top Stories

This feature is ideal to use if your site has a blog page. This feature can show up as a rich result or rich result list, such as headline text and larger-than-thumbnail images, depending on the code you use (see example below).

Tip: When structured data is combined with Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), your rich results can provide search audiences with a better experience on mobile by having the content exhibited in a Top Stories carousel, host carousel, and in visual stories. Our team highly recommends adding AMP codes in addition to rich search markups to your web pages because 141.9 billion searches are were made on mobile so far in 2019, according to Statistica.

Hawaii SEO - Google Top Stories Rich Result Feature

Events

Have an upcoming event? Instead of relying on a Facebook Event or an EventBrite post to spread the word, use the event markup so that users can easily discover  your events through Google Search Results and Google Maps. With these code snippets, your brand can share the address, date, time, Call-to-Action button, and more.

Additional Tips:

  • Do markup for multiple day events correctly by specifying the start and end dates for the event.
  • If there are several different performances or keynote speakers on different days, each with individual tickets, add a separate event element for each performance or lecture.
  • Don’t promote non-event products or services as events. For example, “A Hotel Package for 5 nights or more” is a non-event product.
  • Don’t promote short-term discounts or purchase incentives, such as: “Cheap trip to Hawaii — buy your tickets now.”
  • Do not promote business hours as events.
Hawaii SEO - Event Rich Result Feature combined with AMP
The Event Rich Result Feature combined with AMP

Social Profile

Use this schema to add your brand’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media profiles to the Google Knowledge Panel. By signaling Google to add your social media profile to the SERP, your channels are getting much desired exposure. As we mentioned in our 2019 SEO Tips blog post, optimizing your social media efforts will drive a lot more traffic to your web site which can positively affect your SEO rankings. Utilizing the Rich Search Features can result in your website gaining more traffic, brand awareness, and social media followers.

Video

Add structured data to your video content to make it easily discoverable on Google’s Search Page. The Rich Search Result can include a description, thumbnail URL, upload date, and duration of your video. You can also add additional structured data to enhance your video preview with a video carousel, which displays multiple videos that you’ve produced.

Tip:

  • There is a structured data option available for live stream videos. Once added, your live stream video feed could show a “Live” badge right on the video card during the time it’s live on the search results page.
Hawaii SEO - Google Video Rich Result Feature

How-To

This markup is great to use if your brand has tutorial blogs or if you have posted a tutorial for your product or services. Use the How-To structured data to alert Google that your content is a How-To post. Depending on how you mark it up, the instructions will show up in either an accordion or carousel format. If properly labeled, your marked up How-To content may be eligible to be featured on the How-to Action for the Google Assistant or voice search, which can help your site reach the right users.

It’s important to note that optimizing for voice search is a trending SEO strategy that Google users find convenient for searches on trivia questions, recipes, how-tos and more. Not convinced? Here are a couple of voice search statistics:

  • 50% of all searches will be voice searches by 2020, according to comScore.
  • 6 million Americans used a voice-activated assistant device at least once a month in 2017, reported by eMarketer.

To learn more, check out our recent post on Google voice searches.

Hawaii SEO - Google How-To Rich Result Feature

Logo

Use the Logo markup to provide Google with the correct company logo to use in the rich search results for your company. This markup is also a strong signal for Google’s algorithms to show the logo image in Knowledge Graph displays, as shown in the example below.

Hawaii SEO - Google Logo rich result feature

Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) Snippet

Brands can use this type of markup to display their FAQ page in the FAQ Rich Search snippet, which is different than the Q&A snippet. If properly labeled, the FAQ pages may be available as a rich search result on Google Assistant, which means that your content is available for voice searches.

Additional Tips:

  • Don’t use the FAQ mark up for advertising purposes.
  • Make sure each question code includes the entire text of the question and the answer code includes the entire text of the answer.
Hawaii SEO - Google FAQ Rich Result Feature

By deploying rich search features, your business can make its website content more discoverable and easier to access on the search results page, making it possible to earn a higher SEO rank and increase organic click-through-rates and conversions. These are just a few of the many ways your brand can beef up your SEO. To learn more, reach out to Team Vision Marketing. We’ve been a leading full-service Hawaii advertising agency, Web design company,  and digital marketing firm for over 20 years. Take a minute to view some our client video testimonials and hear directly from our key clients on how we’ve helped grow their businesses, or check out our most successful digital marketing and advertising projects in our portfolio.

 

Contact Us:

Phone: (808) 536-0416

Email: info@www.teamvision.com

Web: www.www.teamvision.com

Hear from Harry Saunders, President of Castle & Cooke Homes Hawaii, on his experience working with Team Vision Marketing.

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Contact Us for Help with All Your Marketing Needs

Call Us Today at (808) 536-0416.

September 3, 2019

Top 5 Facebook Story Sticker Tips

Accidentally landed on our Hawaii Marketing Tips blog while searching for Team Vision Marketing? Please visit our homepage, creative portfolio or client video testimonials to learn more about our  Hawaii advertising agency and digital marketing services.

Top 5 Facebook Story Sticker Tips

Facebook Stories are entertaining, 24-hour content that are easy to create and easy to engage with. While most of Facebook’s 500 million daily users post about their day-to-day experiences, local Hawaii brands can use Stories as an alternative to market their businesses organically on Facebook, seeing that its new algorithm is purposefully deprioritizing business content on the feed. To create an even bigger impact, Team Vision recommends that businesses incorporate Facebook Stories with interactive stickers into their social media marketing strategy.

If used strategically, Interactive Story stickers will not only enhance your Story content, they can also help generate new leads, improve engagement, and increase sales and web site traffic. Brands can also track the effectiveness of every interactive Facebook Story sticker and use the analytics to help their business.

Do you want to learn how to use Story stickers to market your brand on social media? Continue reading this post to learn Team Vision Marketing’s top five interactive Facebook Story stickers tips and tricks to creating engaging Stories to market your business.

How to Access and Post Facebook Stories

Before we jump into our tips and tricks, here are the three ways your brand can post Stories on your Facebook Business Page.

1. The easiest way to post a Story is by tapping on your profile picture with the blue plus (+) sign on your page.

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2. You can also post Facebook Stories from the desktop by clicking on your profile picture with the blue plus (+) sign on your page. However, you will not be able to access any of the Story stickers or other decorative features.

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3. Last but not least, you can share your Instagram Story to your Facebook Story. Look for the small, white Facebook icon on the bottom right corner, which shows up when you view the Story you just posted on Instagram. Forewarning, by using this method, most of your Instagram Story stickers will not translate over onto Facebook. This means that your audience cannot interact with most Instagram stickers on Facebook.

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How to Access and Post Facebook Story Stickers

After you capture a photo, video, boomerang, or upload content from your phone, you can scroll up or click on the Story icon to add the interactive stickers. Tap on the sticker to change its color and look.

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Drive Web Site Traffic With The Swipe Up Sticker

The Swipe Up sticker is the most beneficial Story sticker your brand can use on Facebook Stories. These Call-to-Action (CTA) stickers allow businesses to easily direct their audiences from their Stories to their web site. The Swipe Up stickers will not only help drive web traffic, but they can also help increase sales.

Unfortunately, this feature is only accessible to certain profiles. For Facebook, your business page must be verified (shown as a checkmark next to your profile name) by Facebook to access the five standard Swipe Up buttons: “Book Now”, “Call Now”, “Shop Now”, “Learn More”, and “Get Directions”.

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When your business page reaches 10,000 Page Likes, you can add a Swipe Up button with a custom link. For Instagram, your business profile needs to be verified or have at least 10,000 followers to use their Swipe Up feature.  

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To access this Story feature, tap on the link icon on the top right corner, then add the desired button or assign a custom URL link to the Story.

TIP: If you are just short of 10,000 page likes, you can post the desired link on your page, then pin it to the top of your feed. Then, direct your audience to see the link on your profile page by tagging your profile with the Tag sticker.

Promote Your Event With The Event Story Sticker

This Facebook exclusive sticker is ideal for creating buzz for an event on social media. This is a great way for your brand to spread awareness for an event and track followers who are interested in attending. To add this to your story, select the Event sticker in the sticker menu, then type in the name of your event. You can see how our team used the Event sticker to promote the Made in Hawaii festival on Castle & Cooke Hawaii’s Facebook Story, which attracted 116 unique views.

An event can also be shared on Stories via the “Share to my Story” option on the event page. Once shared, your followers and friends will see a clickable sticker on your Story that direct them to the event page to see all the event details, RSVP, and see who else is interested in attending.

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TIP: Encourage your followers to share your event on their Story.

BONUS TIP: Combine the Story Event sticker with a Swipe Up link to the landing page where people can register or buy tickets to attend the event.

Use Polling Story Stickers To Your Advantage

Just like Instagram, your brand can post interesting, quick polling questions on Facebook Stories to add some fun to your social media feed while increasing audience interaction and engagement. Social media users enjoy interacting with the one-touch Polling stickers, especially since it gives the instant gratification of seeing if your vote is part of the majority. Our team has seen high interactions with our client’s and our own polling stories.

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TIP: Use these polls to survey your audience and use the data to improve your marketing efforts on Facebook. For example, you can ask your followers where they prefer to get the latest news on their favorite brands.

Followers Can Rate With The 5 Star Rating Story Sticker

Increase engagement on your Facebook Stories with the new 5 Star Rating sticker that functions similarly to the Emoji Slider sticker on Instagram. Ask your users to rate something without the need for them to have to write a detailed written review. For example, for our client, Dole Plantation, we asked Followers to rate their Dole Plantation experience from 1 to 5 stars on their Story feed, which attracted 400 unique views.

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From what we have seen, this sticker does not affect your Facebook Recommendation, so direct your audience to your profile (using the Tag sticker) if they want to leave a recommendation. 

TIP: You can use this to crowdsource new ideas for your brand. Ask your audience how they feel about a new feature or colorway.

Direct People To Your Page with Tag Stickers

The Tag sticker is a great way to grow your Page Views, reach, and engagements. Direct the audience on your Story to interact with your business page, whether it’s to like and follow your page, or to write a Recommendation, by tapping on the Tag sticker. From there, they will be instantly directed to your page.

To add this sticker to your story, tap the Tag sticker, shown below, and type in the profile name.

TIP: Tag affiliated profiles or influencers on your Story to increase the post’s exposure. They might repost your story to their feed! 

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In conclusion, Team Vision Marketing highly recommends local Hawaii businesses incorporate Facebook Stories and Facebook Story stickers into their organic social media marketing strategies. Facebook Stories provide a great opportunity for you to market to your audience on a platform that is openly giving less exposure to business pages. To enhance your Story content, use the trending Story stickers to help your business reach a wider audience, generate new leads, grow engagement, and increase sales and web site traffic. 

If you found this article helpful for your social media marketing planning, please subscribe to the Team Vision Marketing Tips Blog to get the latest news on advertising, social media trends, digital marketing tips and more.

Need assistance with social media marketing or content creation? Team Vision, experts in social media management and digital marketing, is more than happy to assist. Team Vision is a full-service advertising agency and digital marketing firm with over 20 years of experience working with some of Hawaii’s top advertising brands, including Castle and Cooke Hawaii, Honua Kai Resort and Spa, Dole Plantation, and more.

See more of our creative work in advertising, branding, web design, social media marketing, digital marketing and more in our extensive digital portfolio.

Listen to what Dolly Moreno, Director of Sales & Marketing at Honua Kai Resort & Spa,  says about her experience working with Team Vision Marketing as her full-service advertising agency.

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July 11, 2019

Know The Common Difference: Black Hat SEO vs. White Hat SEO

If you landed on our Hawaii Marketing Tips blog by accident while searching for Team Vision Marketing, please visit our homepage, creative portfolio or client video testimonials to learn more about us.

Know the Common Differences: Black Hat vs. White Hat SEO

What is Search Engine Optimization or SEO?

If you’re not in the know, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a vital digital marketing strategy that is used to improve a website’s Search Engine Results. SEO  helps drive web traffic to your site organically. You can read more about SEO marketing and additional tips on our SEO Tips for Hawaii Businesses blog post.

Black Hat SEO vs. White Hat SEO

In this blog post, we provide an overview of the Black Hat and White Hat approaches to common SEO Marketing strategies. By understanding their differences, you can confidently distinguish which SEO marketing tactics will improve or hinder your online presence. 

You may have heard that White Hat or Gray Hat is the preferred and ethical practice of SEO marketing. This idea is prevalent because the White Hat approach follows the Webmasters Guidelines, which lists techniques that have long term benefits for your online presence. These techniques will also reduce the risk of being penalized by Google’s algorithms because they’re geared towards creating a valuable audience experience on your site. Going the White Hat route does require more effort and time on your behalf, but the payoff is well worth it. 

Black Hat SEO marketing includes “quick win” approaches that work outside the Webmaster Guidelines, thus manipulating the search engine’s algorithms to get a higher SERP ranking. Although controversial, these methods do work, but only for a short amount of time and the result of using these taboo techniques may get your web site penalized by Google and other search engines. We here at Team Vision Marketing  highly recommend avoiding the use of Black Hat SEO techniques because they cater to the search result’s algorithms, instead of benefitting your customers with rich content. Remember, the health of your online presence relies on the number of people that visit your site, how long they stay on your site, and how many pages they visit. 

What Happens When You Use Black Hat SEO?

You can’t cheat your way to the top of the SERP unscathed. Although it’s not illegal, Black Hat SEO tactics are shady tactics that violate the Webmasters Guidelines. If caught, Google will send a preliminary warning against your site and lower your ranking, giving you the chance to correct the wrong. Once you fix your SEO issues, you can submit a reconsideration request to restore your ranking. If your site continues to break the search engine’s rules, the site will be excluded from the SERP. Ultimately, this will your weaken your online presence and negatively impact your company’s reputation.

Creating Web Content

Content is one of the top key factors that affect your search rankings. However, your web page’s content is a broad web component that isn’t limited to materials created by you. It also includes the information or materials shared from other content creators.

White Hat:

White Hat SEO marketers understand that Google rewards sites that regularly post valuable content. The higher the rank, the more likely you will receive increased web traffic and new leads to your site.

Knowing this, you should create excellent content that covers trending topics, and that includes popular search words and phrases. Your content should also include credible links and share other high-quality materials, like videos or infographics, that help your audience discover new content creators or in-depth information sources. You should also regularly update older pieces of content with current information.

TIP: We suggest writing longer blog posts (current recommendation is 2,500 words or more). Longer blog posts help make your posts stand out not just to your audiences but to Google, as well. Think about it, longer content means more keywords and backlinks.

Black Hat:

When it comes to creating content, Black Hat SEO marketers will try to use auto-generated content. This is content created programmatically, using a set of rules or scripts instead of original content to trick Google filters. If you come across an online article that is full of grammatical and spelling errors, has duplicated information, is full of spam adverts, or includes nonsensical strings of keywords, it was probably auto-generated.

Adding Keywords and Key Phrases

Mixing in popular, relevant keywords and key phrases in the content, tags, and metadata are important to improving your  SERP ranking. These tactics help direct leads to your web site via search engine inquiries.  

White Hat:

The proper way of using keywords is to pair  your content with a blend of primary and secondary (AKA related) keywords. We suggest brainstorming search phrases related to your content or research keywords with tools like Google Trends, Google Search Console, and Google Correlated. You can even use the “Search related to _____” section at the end of the SERP for keyword inspiration (Image 1). 

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TIP: Optimize your content for long-tail keywords (long-tail keywords are keyword phrases that contain at least three words). They’re more specific and less competitive than generic keyword terms. Long-tail keywords are also optimized for voice searches.

Black Hat:

A common Black Hat hack for incorporating keywords into content, according to HubSpot, is keyword stuffing. Essentially, keyword stuffing is using an unnecessarily large amount of irrelevant or repetitive keywords in an attempt to rank higher for key search phrases. This is most commonly seen as blocks of text repeating the same words or phrases so often that it sounds unnatural. 

Here’s an example of keyword stuffing:

Honolulu, Hawaii Search Engine Optimization - Keyword stuffing example
Image 2

Another common controversial keyword hack is hiding text, which is used to trick audiences without raising red flags. This method can trick the search engines into taking account of all these keywords and ultimately result in a higher search engine ranking. 

Here are the following ways Google says that black hat practitioners can disguise text and links:

  • Using white text on a white background
  • Locating text behind an image
  • Using CSS to position text off-screen
  • Setting the font size to 0
  • Hiding a link by only linking one small character—for example, a hyphen in the middle of a paragraph

Getting More Backlinks

Backlinks or inbound links are incoming links to your web site. These links help add credibility to your content, as they are considered as a vote of confidence that your content is high-quality.

White Hat:

There are a number of authentic ways you can increase backlinks, but they do require time and effort. Here are our 3 tips on effective, Google-compliant methods of increasing backlinks:

1. Build a reputation as an expert in your field by frequently producing high-quality content, like blog posts, infographics, videos, or reports. Once established, other reputable web sites will want to share your content on their site and add backlinks to your site.

2. Network with popular blogs relating to your field or participate on news web sites as a guest blogger. Guest blogging, when executed within Google’s guidelines, is a highly effective SEO marketing strategy where you publish your content on another web site. This gives you the opportunity to increase brand awareness and create backlinks, thus enhancing your web traffic with a new set of audiences.

3. Moz.com suggests trying out “Ego Baiting”, which is a type of well-researched content that recognizes the excellence of highly reputable bloggers, industry leaders, etc. for the purpose of building a link networking relationship. “The hope is that, by being included, these people feel better about and are more inclined to share the content with a link,” according to Moz.com. This process includes outreaching to the recognized companies or individuals to encourage them to share the link to your “ego baiting” content on their site. 

Black Hat:

Creating Private Blog Networks (PBN) is a Black Hat SEO technique used to increase backlinks inorganically.  PBN are a collection of spam web sites or blogs that will backlink to a central web site (see Image 3). PBN cheat Google’s algorithm by artificially boosting the “trustworthiness” of the central web site. You can easily tell if a website is a part of this scheme if the content of the PBN web sites are basic or repetitive and if they all backlink to one site.

Hawaii SEO Tips - Black Hat vs White Hat Hawaii SEO Blog Post
Image 3

Building Structured Data & Schema

Think of Structured Data and Schema as something similar to metadata. These HTML tags help organize your web site’s data and add more descriptions to your content. This, in turn, helps search engines understand your web site better to create enhanced search results via rich snippets like reviews and phone numbers. 

White Hat:

White Hat SEO marketing will use Structured Data and Schema to enhance their look on SERP by adding extra helpful details that their search audience will find valuable. For example, a boutique hotel will add tags to include room rates (Image 4) or a cooking blog will add tags that will show the calories of their dishes (Image 5).

Hawaii SEO, Honolulu Search Engine Optimization, Black Hat vs White Hat SEO Blog Post Hotel Rich Snippet
Image 4
Hawaii SEO Strategies - Black Hat vs White Hat SEO Blog Post Recipe Rich Snippet
Image 5

TIP: Write strategically compelling tags that will help your site stand out from your competitors. Make sure to monitor your competitors search listing results so that you can evaluate and modify your Structured Data and Schema to remain competitive.

Black Hat:

Someone practicing Black Hat SEO will abuse Structured Data and Schema by providing inaccurate information to fool search engines and users into clicking onto their web site. For example, you can use Schema markups to artificially inflate your positive reviews or ratings with a fake review site, and use structured data to make the fake reviews stand out on search results pages.

 

Conclusion:

White hat Search Engine Optimization is the best way to sustain your long-term online presence and increase your overall web traffic. With our White Hat tips, you can increase your web traffic organically, build strong networks with other reputable sites, and strengthen your site’s credibility. 

Black Hat SEO techniques should be avoided as much as possible. While these shady tactics can achieve short-term results, search engines have created specialized algorithms to penalize Black Hat techniques:

  • Florida, which penalizes keyword stuffing
  • Panda, which penalizes content farms
  • Penguin, which penalizes certain bad linking practices

These penalties include lower search engine rankings, a decrease in web traffic, having your web site banned on the SERP, and a crippled reputation. 

If you found this blog post on common White Hat vs. Black Hat Search Engine Optimization techniques interesting and insightful, please give us a call at (808) 536-0416 to learn how we can help you improve your digital marketing efforts. For over 20 years, we’ve been a leading full-service Hawaii advertising agency, web design and digital marketing firm. But don’t take our word for it, please view our client video testimonials and hear directly from our key clients on how we helped grow their businesses.

 

Contact Us:

Phone: (808) 536-0416

Email: info@www.teamvision.com

Web: www.www.teamvision.com

Hear directly from Dolly Moreno, Dirctor of Sales & Marketing at Honua Kai Resort & Spa, on her experience working with Team Vision Marketing.

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Contact Us for Help with All Your Marketing Needs

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Sources:

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/331480

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/black-hat-seo

https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-link-building/tactics

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