by tradespeopleinsights | Apr 9, 2021 | Social Marketing, Tradespeople Insights
By Matt Sonnhalter, Vision Architect
Brand posts on Instagram had an average engagement rate in 2020 that was more than four times higher than on Facebook or Twitter. This is according to recent findings from Socialinsider, which also analyzed social media engagement benchmarks across 35 different industries.
The study looked into over 22 million posts on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter and created a comparison between the social media performance of 2019 and 2020.
Here are the key stats for “industrial,” which is the most relevant industry for Sonnhalter’s B2T market. Brands within the Industrial category have high average engagement rates per post across the board. 
Average Engagement Rate Per Post
Instagram – 1.36%
Facebook – 0.52%
Twitter – 0.08%
This confirms what Sonnhalter has seen for our clients. Instagram is by far the best performing social media platform.
Are you seeing similar success and engagement with your Instagram channel?
The study also delved into understanding frequency of postings, and what mix of photos and videos were used across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Want to read the full study?
2021 Social Media Industry Benchmarks – Know Exactly Where You Stand in Your Market
by tradespeopleinsights | Apr 2, 2021 | Marketing Tools, Tradespeople Insights
by Matt Sonnhalter, Vision Architect
Businesses can no longer manage their expanding content libraries with siloed repositories or simple tools like spreadsheets. So, if you’re exploring a DAM technology for your company, this report from Forrester is a must read. Forrester covers the 14 DAM providers that matter most and how they stack up against each other.
Vendors are evaluated against 28 criteria, which are grouped into three high-level categories:
Current Offering
- Library services
- Work-in-progress assets
- Video and emerging content support
- Marketing support
- Usability and user interface
- Enterprise platform integrations
Strategy
- Product vision
- Past performance
- Market approach
- Supporting product and services
- Delivery model
Market Presence
- Product revenue
- Average deal size
If you are already using a DAM, I’m curious which one do you use and what has your experience been?
For more commentary on DAM, read:
Warehouse Your Marketing Too
by tradespeopleinsights | Mar 26, 2021 | Marketing Tools, Tradespeople Insights
by Rosemarie Ascherl-Lenhard, PR Foreman
By now most everyone knows that video is where it’s at. If you want to grab attention on social media, in your e-newsletter or in a press release–make sure it contains a video!
Video is a powerful communication tool that provides a more personal feel to your message. You will be far more likely to connect on an emotional level with your audience if you use video versus another content type. And, when it comes to social media marketing, video is a great way to engage with your audience.
But there are different types of video, some more appropriate and effective than others depending on what your marketing goals are. Joe Forte recently broke down the types of video in his recent post for Content Marketing Institute, “5 Types of Video to Add to Your Social Media Marketing.”
Live Video – Best for when your brand has a significant following, Facebook Live, YouTube Live, and other streaming services make it easy to connect with your audience. Livestreaming allows you to talk with your followers and are most effective for announcements, behind-the-scenes looks, and product information videos.
Tutorial Videos – Among the most frequently shared on social media, tutorial videos have mass appeal by relating to your products and services. Or, they can be broader topics that relate to your audience and industry. Tutorial videos need to be clear, educational and entertaining. They need to be long enough to show every step and short enough to be engaging.
Informational Videos – Informational videos can cover any topic. Build your content archive with videos on a variety of relevant topics. Make them unique, clever or insightful. When adding video to your social media, concentrate on content likely to be shared, something valuable to make it worth the viewer’s time.
Behind-the-Scenes Video – Behind-the-scenes videos are a great way to make your company and your team more personable by highlighting day-to-day operations, your offices, your manufacturing processes, and more. Designed to build trust and brand identity, this type of video really gives the opportunity to dig down into what makes a brand exceptional.
User-Generated Video – UGC is quickly becoming a fantastic and easier way to engage an audience. You can encourage your followers to create videos and ask them to incorporate your hashtags into the upload. User-generated content is a brilliant way to grow an audience because users are more inclined to share content they create. Viewing the user-generated content also is an excellent way to get a feel for your audience’s personalities and what they’re interested in.
Which type works the best for your brand? It’s a great idea to experiment with these and see which generates the most interest and engagement. Read the complete post for more information, examples and tips on producing each of these valuable types of video content.
Read more on the importance of video in marketing:
B2B Video is on the Rise: Are You Taking Advantage?
Are You Using Videos to Connect with the Professional Tradesman?
by tradespeopleinsights | Mar 19, 2021 | Events, Tradespeople Insights
by Matt Sonnhalter, Vision Architect
As more companies are utilizing webinars as part of their overall marketing strategy, there are some critical steps to help maximize success. ON24 has some great resources on their website, including their step-by-step webinar best practices guide.
Here are some key highlights from their five steps: 
1) Planning and Strategy: This includes setting your goals and identifying your audience, developing your team and creating killer content.
2) Driving Registration: It’s important to plan ahead. Email is essential. While other marketing tools help widen your reach, 80% of webinar registration is generated by email promotions. Don’t forget to simplify the registration form. Only ask for the basics and don’t scare registrants off by asking for too many details.
3) Before Your Webinar: Design a presentation that resonates. Keep slides clean with no more than three bullet points per slide. Make sure your team is equipped with the appropriate audio and video technology.
4) During Your Webinar: Your presenter should be well-rehearsed, energetic and engaging. Also, invite your audience to get involved by using polls and surveys and take advantage of feedback during a Q&A.
5) After Your Webinar: Having the right “on-demand” strategy will ensure your webinar lives on. But, also make sure you follow up with the attendees and have an effective post-webinar strategy in place.
There are a lot of moving parts that go into putting together a great webinar. It takes planning, people and technology, all working together to create the perfect event. What are some of your webinar best practices?
Want more content on the topic of webinars? Visit these blog posts.
Marketing Minute: Preparing for a 2021 Without In-Person Events
10 Tips to Ensure a Successful Webinar Targeted at the Professional Tradesmen
Webinars are an Option for Continued Learning
by tradespeopleinsights | Mar 10, 2021 | Tradespeople Insights, Uncategorized
By Matt Sonnhalter, Vision Architect, Sonnhalter
Have you seen the renderings for Amazon’s headquarters in Virginia?
I recently ran across an article on Building Design & Construction Magazine’s website from John Caulfield which outlined some of the key features of this new campus. Amazon’s proposed design for the second phase of its corporate headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, includes a $2.5 billion investment that will encompass five office buildings for 25,000 employees. 
Here are some of the key highlights:
- The Phase 2 site, called PenPlace, will be anchored by The Helix, a 370,000-square-foot, spiral-shaped building
- 2.8-million-square-foot campus with three, 22-story buildings that target LEED Platinum certification
- PenPlace’s sustainable features include an onsite water reclamation system for reducing cooling, irrigation, and flushing demand by 50%
- 2.5-plus acres of public open space and connected walkways, a dog run, a 250-seat amphitheater, woodlands, and art installations
- Over 950 onsite bike spaces, including 180 for visitors; there will be one-quarter mile of new protected bike lanes
- All-electric central heating and cooling system that runs on 100% renewable energy from a solar farm in southern Virginia
What other cool building renderings have you seen recently?
by tradespeopleinsights | Mar 2, 2021 | Social Marketing, Tradespeople Insights
by Andrew Poulsen, Content Engineer, Sonnhalter
In past blog posts, we’ve discussed some of the ways companies can hit the ground running with Instagram and make it a useful cog in their marketing machine. Now that you’ve set up an account, accumulated some followers and fired off some posts, you may be wondering why your posts haven’t performed as well as you had hoped. The reason may be that your posts aren’t optimized for the best possible engagement. What do I mean by that? Well, as you may have noticed, your Instagram feed is no longer chronological. Instead, the feed is actually run by an ever-changing algorithm that is constantly trying to figure out and prioritize and show you posts that you are most likely to interact or engage with.
While Instagram hasn’t publicly divulged the specifics of its algorithm, those able to read between the lines understand that getting the most exposure on the platform comes down to engagement, not just “likes” and a regular posting routine. What this means is that the algorithm is specifically looking for posts that users spend time and interact with, or content that will illicit more shares, saves, comments and longer video views. So, how can you get better engagement and overall performance with your Instagram channel? Here are five suggestions!
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Create content that users will “save” or “share.”
Instagram now has a “save” feature which allows users to archive photos and videos into a special folder that they can view later. Saving a post signals to the algorithm that a user found the post to be worthwhile, which helps boost the post’s visibility. Additionally, if a user “shares” a post via direct message, that also scores better for the algorithm than standard likes and comments. As a company, there are plenty of ways you can create savable or shareable content. Examples include infographics, how-to videos, tips, tricks and sharing fun content created by influencers.
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Post when your followers are most likely to be online.
While posting daily (or at least 4-5 times a week) is crucial for growing your channel, posting at the wrong time can cost you meaningful exposure. Since Instagram’s algorithm favors posts that receive a lot of interaction in a short amount of time, it’s important to post when your followers are most active and have the best chance to see your content. While early first thing in the morning, lunchtime and right after 5 p.m. are generally viewed as acceptable times to post, Instagram now offers business accounts an Insights tab that allows you see the exact hours your followers are most engaged.
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Improve the quality of your content.
This one might seem obvious, but if your content isn’t working, maybe it’s time to take a step back and see things from the user’s perspective and what they would like to see. Everyone on Instagram is fighting for attention, so what can you do to pull people in? Consider posts with real people, good lighting or some sort of action shot. If you’re making a video, try to get right to the point within the first couple seconds to grab people’s attention and try to make the length as short as possible to increase your views. Or, think of a thoughtful caption with helpful product or how-to info that your followers would want to read. These minor tweaks can help keep eyeballs on your content for longer periods of time, which will lead to a boost in the algorithm.
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Explore all of Instagram’s new features.
Another tactic that both pleases the algorithm and gives you more ways to interact with your audience is utilizing all of Instagram features for content creation. A few years ago, Instagram introduced Stories, a feature that allows users to share short clips and moments that disappeared after 24 hours, and IGTV, a feature for long-form videos that allows users to create content that more resembles vlogs and other web series. Last summer, Instagram introduced Reels to compete with Tik Tok and give users a space to easily share and swipe through 15-second and 30-second clips with all kinds of audio and visual effects. While not every company is the right fit for trying to replicate the kind of Instagram content that goes viral or participating in the latest meme or social media “challenge,” companies need to research these features and see if there is a natural segue to use them for fun product demos, instructional videos, Q&As and other types of engaging content your followers might engage. As previously stated, when it comes to engagement, the longer a user is looking at your content, the better. Plus, Instagram has been known to reward accounts that utilize more of its features.
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Monitor what works and what doesn’t work.
Any social media manager will tell you that a successful Instagram account is one that is flexible, persistent and versatile. Don’t be afraid to experiment with a variety of different content types and see which ones your audience responds to best. Analyze the elements of your posts that seemed to start a conversation in the comments or received a lot of saves and shares and let that steer you in the right direction. While some of these metrics can be viewed in your Insights tab, companies interested in taking a deeper dive into these analytics should consider social media listening and monitoring services like Agorapulse, Sprout Social and many others.
While we can’t anticipate the next big change in Instagram’s algorithm or user experience, I believe making a strong commitment to making quality, engaging content on a regular basis will always be in a company’s best interest.
To read more about optimizing your company’s efforts on Instagram, read:
Getting the Most Out of Your Company’s Instagram Account (Part 1)
Getting the Most Out of Your Company’s Instagram Account (Part 2)
