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Tomorrow is 🍅 Fresh Tomato Day, Reader! Two pieces of 🍞 toasted bread, mayo, salt, pepper, and thick-cut tomato slices… so good.

In today’s edition:

• Today's 👉 Tip of the Day is for Facebook

• 4 steps to 🤝 💰 converting on Instagram

• Facebook’s new 📱 video experience

• New YouTube 📊 analytics

• 📣 Additional industry news from LinkedIn, Threads, and X

Are you looking to maximize the impact of your Facebook ads, even with a limited budget?

The first step is to establish how much you should spend on your Facebook ads based on whether your business is in maintenance mode, growth mode, or hyper-growth mode.

Determine Your Ideal Facebook Ad Budget

For brick-and-mortar businesses, aim to spend 5% of revenue if you're in maintenance mode, 10–15% for growth mode, and 15–20%+ for hyper-growth. 

Service-based businesses should allocate 3–5% for maintenance, 5–10% for growth, and 10–20%+ for hyper-growth. 

Online businesses like course creators and eCommerce stores should budget 10–15% for maintenance, 15–30%+ for growth, and 30%+ for hyper-growth.

Today's tip is inspired by Tara Zirker, a featured speaker in the Social Media Marketing Society.

Stop Guessing with Your Marketing

Imagine knowing what marketing strategies or tactics will work without spending time or money on trial and error. Now imagine pulling back the curtain and seeing EXACTLY how to implement these strategies—with no stone left unturned. 

That's what happens when you join the Social Media Marketing Society. The Society is your trusted source for tips, techniques, and cutting-edge strategies that get results. Join today and discover why over 1,000 marketers trust the Society to help them eliminate guesswork. 

I’m ready to discover what works.

How to Audit and Improve Your Instagram Marketing

Are you looking to grow your Instagram account but unsure where to start? In this article, we'll share Instagram strategies to avoid and give you one strategy that works today.

Outdated Strategies to Stop Using

If you haven't changed your Instagram strategy in a year, it's likely outdated. Some outdated Instagram growth strategies to avoid include:

The Follow/Unfollow Method: This involves following many accounts, hoping they will follow you back, and then unfollowing them later. This strategy is seen as spammy and disrespectful to other creators.

Engagement Groups or Pods: These groups of people agree to engage with each other's posts to boost their engagement rates. However, Instagram can track this behavior and penalize your account.

Certain Giveaway Strategies: Giveaways that require people to follow many accounts to enter are essentially the same as buying followers. These followers are often only interested in the prize and won't engage with your content in the long run.

Untargeted Engagement: Commenting on posts from random accounts to get them to follow you back is not an effective strategy. Instead, focus on genuinely engaging with your target audience.

4-Step Strategy to Grow and Convert Your Instagram Audience

By strategically leveraging Instagram Stories and Reels, you can improve your reach, engage your existing audience, and convert viewers into loyal followers and email subscribers.

Step 1: Attract Cold Audiences With Reels

If your goal is to reach new people, focus on creating Reels. 

When crafting your Reels, remember to always include a clear call to action. This not only guides your viewers on what to do next but also ensures they are well-informed about your offerings, whether it's more tips or signing up for your email list.

You can add a call to action to your Reels by including text on the screen or saying it out loud in your voiceover. For example, you might say, "For more Instagram tips, make sure to follow me @yourhandle" or "Tap the link in my bio to sign up for my free Instagram masterclass."

Step 2: Gain New Followers With Stories

Consistently posting to your Instagram Stories helps you stay top of mind with your audience. When a potential new follower visits your profile, seeing an active story with a colorful ring around your profile picture makes them more likely to watch it. By posting engaging Stories regularly, you can draw in potential followers and give them a reason to follow you for more content.

Step 3: Convert Followers With DM Automation

Use Direct Message (DM) automation tools to deliver freebies and grow an email list. With ManyChat, for example, you can set up automated DMs that provide a freebie or lead magnet when someone messages you with a specific keyword. This allows you to deliver value and grow your email list on autopilot.

To set this up, create a keyword for each of your freebies, such as "GuideXYZ" for a specific downloadable guide. Then, set up an automated response in ManyChat that delivers the link to that freebie anytime someone messages you with that keyword. Promote these keywords in your Instagram captions and Stories to drive more signups.

Step 4: Spotlight Products With Highlights

Highlights appear below your bio and allow you to save your best stories for future visitors to view. Consider creating Highlights for your most popular blog posts, products, or freebies. 

Use clear, branded cover images for each highlight and customize them to match your brand colors. This creates a cohesive and professional look for your profile.

Keep your highlight titles to one word each, such as "Freebies," "Blog," or "Products," because you have limited space before the title gets cut off.

Today's advice is provided with insights from Millie Adrian.

🗞 Facebook Fullscreen Video Player: Facebook is launching an updated fullscreen video player that will provide a consistent design for all video lengths, including Reels, longer videos, and Live videos. The upgraded player will feature new controls such as a fullscreen mode for horizontal videos, a slider to skip around in longer videos, and the ability to tap on the video to access additional options like pausing and jumping back or forward 10 seconds. The updated video player is initially rolling out on iOS and Android in the United States and Canada, with a global release planned in the coming months. Source: Meta

🗞 New LinkedIn Ads Solutions: LinkedIn has announced new ad solutions to help businesses target and engage with their audiences both on and off the platform: LinkedIn CTV Ads: This offering allows businesses to launch campaigns and scale them across LinkedIn's network of publishers, including Paramount, Roku, and Samsung Ads. It aims to help businesses reach the LinkedIn audience through high-quality, streaming television content on connected sets. LinkedIn Premiere: In partnership with NBCUniversal, this managed offering in Campaign Manager helps businesses target decision-makers in the United States across NBCUniversal's premium streaming content on CTV. Live Event Ads: This new, global format helps businesses promote their company's live events before, during, and after they take place, dynamically adjusting based on when the event occurs. Source: LinkedIn

🗞 Threads Bonus Program: Instagram confirmed it is testing an invite-only Threads bonus payout program. Source: Instagram

🗞 X Explore Page: X is set to introduce a revamped Explore page that will showcase topic summaries created by its Grok AI chatbot. The updated Explore page will prominently feature ongoing Spaces. Source: @xDaily via X

🗞 New YouTube Metrics: This week, YouTube introduced several new features for creators. First, live streamers will now have access to real-time analytics that show the number and type of reactions viewers had during their live streams. Second, a new filter has been added to YouTube Studio analytics in advanced mode, allowing creators to see the number of impressions broken down by new and returning viewers. Finally, creators can live-stream to YouTube in HDR using the latest OBS 30.1 release. Source: YouTube

Did You Know?

The feathers, beak, feet, and meat of the Ayam Cemani chicken are black. Weird.