A safer way to advertise with TikTok

TikTok has taken the world by storm with its unique blend of music, dance, and social media. The platform has become a go-to destination for young people seeking entertainment, information, and connections. With its massive user base and unprecedented reach, TikTok has become a prime platform for advertisers looking to target a younger audience.

Having a teenager at home, it is constant in my world that I will turn the corner to see her and her friends creating music videos or funny skits and watching the latest TikTok recipe craze! I have to admit, I am guilty of jumping into a video or two and I have found myself preparing cinnamon rolls all the ways TikTok has shared with me.

TikTok has become one of the most popular social media platforms worldwide, with over 1 billion active users. The platform has been a favorite among advertisers for its ability to reach a younger demographic and create highly engaging content. TikTok has been downloaded over 2 billion times worldwide. However, some states in the United States have raised concerns about the platform’s privacy policies and potential risks to national security, leading to the proposed banning of TikTok.

The state of New York was the first to propose a ban on TikTok due to concerns about the platform’s data privacy practices and the potential risks to national security. Other states, including Indiana and California, have also proposed similar bans. These proposed bans have not been successful, with courts ruling that they violate the First Amendment’s right to free speech.

Recently Montana, became the first state to approve a full ban of TikTok. 

The bill makes it illegal to download TikTok in the state, with penalties of up to $10,000 a day for any entity, such as Apple and Google’s app stores or TikTok itself, that makes the popular video-streaming app available.

If enacted, the ban in the state would not start until January 2024.

Over the past few months, several major brands have announced that they are pulling their advertising off TikTok. These announcements have come amid concerns about the platform’s privacy policies and content moderation practices.

TikTok has faced criticism for its data collection practices and the potential risks to user privacy. Some brands are concerned that advertising on TikTok may put their customer’s data at risk. In response to these concerns, TikTok has implemented several measures to protect user privacy, such as data security audits and greater transparency around data usage.

Another concern that has led to brands pulling their advertising off TikTok is content moderation. TikTok has faced criticism for hosting inappropriate and harmful content, including hate speech, bullying, and misinformation. Some brands are concerned that advertising on TikTok may associate their brand with such content. TikTok has implemented several measures to address this issue, including content moderation teams and community guidelines.

Brands that have pulled their advertising off TikTok include major companies such as Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, and Under Armour. These companies have announced that they will no longer be advertising on the platform due to concerns around privacy and content moderation. Other brands, such as Procter & Gamble, have announced that they are monitoring the situation on TikTok and may make a decision to pull their advertising in the future.

The potential implications of brands pulling their advertising off TikTok are significant. If more brands pull their advertising off TikTok, it could impact the platform’s revenue and potentially lead to a decline in its popularity.

But don’t panic!

There is a safer way to advertise with TikTok using Social Mirror.

Social Mirror ads look like your social media display or video posts but appear on other websites and apps, linking back to the social media platform and your website, and run across all devices using our targeting strategies. We are “mirroring” the EXACT look of your social post as an ad that runs on thousands of OTHER websites and apps, targeted just to the people you want to reach across all devices.  Social Mirror ads can be done with any organic or paid posts from your business account on these 8 social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, Snapchat, or YouTube and TikTok.

And with Social Mirror the best part is the ad has three call-to-action opportunities:

Clicks on the Social Media logo and your profile image, take the users to your Social Media business page.

Clicks on the Call-To-Action button take the users to your website.

Clicks on the Social Media icons below the ad take you to that post on your Social Media page

One aspect of Social Mirror ads that differs from that of Social Media Advertising is the ability to reach your target audience.

Behavioral Categories – Showing your Social Mirror ads to specific consumers based on their previous on-line behavior, across all devices.

And we also have the ability to target by social media users, like TikTok User and TikTok Active User.

Keywords – Showing your Social Mirror ads on webpages and apps that contain keywords related to your business, across all devices.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) – Showing your Social Mirror ads to people using machine learning to target consumers based on who is engaging with the ad, across all devices.

Retargeting– Following people after they leave your website and showing them your Social Mirror ad, on other websites and apps they go to, across all devices.

Custom Audience Matching and Look Alike – We target people (or businesses) on your list of emails, addresses, or phone numbers when they go online and show them Social Mirror ads when they are browsing across websites and apps.

Once we have uploaded your database, we’ll be able to provide you with an Insights Report.  Just another advantage over traditional Social Media Advertising.

Businesses can repurpose their fun and edgy TikTok videos they’ve already built and run on other websites and apps. If a business is worried about safety concerns and perception, the TikTok icons can be removed. Or we can take TikTok creatives and build them into any social format like Facebook or Instagram.

Social Mirror is about as versatile as you can get and works well for many B2C and B2B businesses. And on average we see 7x higher click-through rates than the national average.

Brand safety concerns on TikTok should not be dismissed. The potential implications of brands pulling their advertising off TikTok are significant, and it is essential for the platform to continue to prioritize user privacy and content moderation to retain the trust of its users and advertisers.

Shifting those dollars from TikTok to Social Mirror is an easy transition and a way for your marketing plans to soar!

The post A safer way to advertise with TikTok appeared first on Vici Media.

Do You Know How to Read Your Facebook Insights?

When I think of Facebook, there is one thing that comes to mind and it’s the song “Changes” by David Bowie, because they are always ch-ch-ch-chaning things up! Some of the most recent changes that Facebook made has been discontinuing the use of Job Listing ads, no longer showing ads in Instant Articles, and only being able to target 13- to 17-year-olds by gender and location, to name a few. Another big change when Facebook switched to Meta Business Suite was the Insights Reports. Facebook Insights Reports is a comprehensive guide to measuring performance on Facebook.  Think of it has Facebook’s version of Google Analytics but for your Facebook Business page.

With Facebook being one of the most popular social media platforms in the world, it has become an essential marketing tool for businesses of all sizes because it allows them to reach a vast audience and build relationships with customers. Measuring the performance of your Facebook content can be challenging, especially if you’re not familiar with the platform’s analytics tools. That’s where Facebook Insights Reports come in because they offer a wealth of data that can help you understand how your content is performing, what your audience is interested in, and how to improve your social media strategy.

Facebook Insights Reports are a set of analytics tools that allow page admins to track the performance of their content on the platform. They provide data on a wide range of metrics, such as post reach, engagement, and follower demographics, among others.

Insights Reports are available for both Facebook Pages and Groups, and they’re updated regularly, providing admins with real-time data on how their content is performing. With Insights Reports, admins can gain a deeper understanding of their audience and adjust their content strategy to better serve their followers’ interests.

There are two ways to access Facebook Insights Reports:

Option 1: To access Facebook Insights Reports, you’ll need to be a Page or Group admin. Once you’re logged into your Facebook account, go to your Page or Group and click on the “Insights” tab in the top menu.

Then you will go “Professional Dashboard”. In that dashboard, it will default to this brief overview section where you will see Post Reach, Post Engagement, New Page Likes, and Recent Content. These metrics are displayed for the past 28 days.

From there, you’ll be able to see a range of data on your Page or Group’s performance, including:

Reach– The number of people who saw your content at least once. People reached is different from impressions, which may include multiple views of your content by the same people. This metric is estimated.

Post Engagement– The number of reactions, comments, shared, and clicks on your post.

New Page Likes– The number of new likes the page has received.

To dive in a little deeper, you go to the Insights navigation toolbar and click on “Your Page”. That will give you an overview of Post Reach, Post Engagement, New Page Likes, and New Page Followers. It will also show how people are interacting with your posts via Reactions, Comments, Shares, Photo Views, and Link Clicks.

If you click on “Content” in the Insights navigation toolbar, it will show you the content you have posted chronologically, and it will be break out the Post Reach and Post Engagement for each of those posts:

If you click on “Audience”, that will show you the people interacting with your page in the past 28 days by gender, age, and location:

Option 2– This is an where you will find more expanded insights. You still must go to the Facebook page and be logged in as an admin, and then you will click on “More Tools” and go to “Meta Business Suite”. If you don’t see “Meta Business Suite” as an option, that means you have not set up the Facebook Business Page in Facebook Business Manager. If you need instructions on how to add a Facebook Business Page to Facebook Business Manager, click here.

Once you click on “Meta Business Suite”, then you will click on “Insights”, and you will see a pop-up window that gives you your last week in review of activity, goals, and results, and when you click on “View All Insights”, you can look deeper:

Next you will see a dashboard that defaults to an overview page and it will show data from the last 28 days, but you can change the date range:

A new section in this dashboard is “Set Goals”. This is a feature where you can set goals to grow either your reach or your followers of your Facebook and Instagram page over a period of time. When you click “Get Started” under Set Goals, it will go through options on how to grow your reach or followers, and you can monitor that progress.

Further down, it will show results for Facebook Page Reach, Instagram Reach, and some of the top Content during the time period listed.

Page Reach– The number of people who saw any content from your Page of about your Page, including posts, stories, ads, social information from people who interact with your Page, and more.

Under the “Results” section, you can view Page Reach, Page Visits and New likes:

If at any point you’re not sure what metric is that you are looking at consists of, the “i” icon explains what each section is that you are viewing:

If you continue to scroll through the “Results” tab, it’s going to show any new likes and followers on Facebook and Instagram, during the period of time selected:

Under “Audience”, you get a break down of ages and gender of Facebook and Instagram Page Followers separately, and below that is the top cities of those followers:

Further along in Insights is “Benchmarking”. Here, you can see how your page compares to similar businesses in your same service category and what percentile you rank on Facebook. On the dropdown you can also view the same for Instagram. It also shows a comparison on followers, new page followers and interactions. On “Businesses to Watch” you can add specific business pages you want to compare to. These reports are only available for every 28 days:

This report will automatically default to Facebook. To switch to Instagram, you will toggle it here:

This will also show how your Facebook Page Followers, New Facebook Followers, and Content Interactions compared to other businesses in your service category:

Another feature in this “Benchmarking” report is “Business to Watch” where you can add your top competitors and compare the same information against people that you are competing with for the same type of client or customer:

Under the Content navigation bar, “Overview” will show trends and content recently shared and created, and this can be viewed by the last 90 days only. Here you will see Facebook Posts, Facebook Stories, Instagram Posts, and Instagram Stories, and shows it by Reach and Engagement:

Under the “Content” section, it’s going to break out all the top content and it’s going to share what type of content it was, the Reach, Likes and Reactions, and Comments during the date range that is specified, can you can change that date range:

You also have the option to look at Ads AND Posts, just ads, or just posts:

Some of the key takeaways that will help you maximize your social media presence are:

Audience demographics– By analyzing follower demographics such as age, gender, and location, you can tailor your content to better suit your audience’s interests and preferences
Post performance- This information can help you identify which types of posts are resonating with your audience and adjust your content strategy accordingly
Best days and times to post- Insights Reports can help you determine when your followers are most active on the platform, allowing you to schedule your posts for optimal engagement
Reach by audience- This can help you refine your targeting strategy and ensure your content is reaching the right people
Engagement metrics- By analyzing engagement metrics such as likes, comments, shares, and clicks, you can gain insights into how your audience is interacting with certain posts and/or ads

Before diving into Insights, it’s important to establish clear goals for your social media presence/campaign. Whether you want to increase engagement, drive website traffic, or generate leads, having a clear objective will help you make sense of the data and you can use that to change your strategy, if needed. Once you’ve established your goals, regularly monitor your performance on Facebook using these Insights Reports. Then, look for trends in your data and identify which types of content is driving the most engagement. From there, based on what you are seeing, refine your social media strategy to better meet your goals. For example, if you notice that videos are driving the most engagement, focus on creating more video content. Lastly, don’t be afraid to experiment with different types of content and posting schedules. This is where you can once again rely on the Insights Reports to help measure the impact of these ch-ch-ch- changes so that you have the most effective social media presence and/or ad campaign.

The post Do You Know How to Read Your Facebook Insights? appeared first on Vici Media.

What digital advertising products to use for Summer festivals and attractions?

Cowabunga Dudes!

Summer is just around the corner, and for festivals and summer attractions, it’s time to start thinking about how to best use your marketing budget to help increase business this year.  Using Digital Advertising will allow you to pinpoint the audience you want to reach and invite them into your business.

There are many ways that you can do that digitally, but here are a few of my favorites:

Facebook and Instagram –

With Facebook and Instagram, you have the flexibility to use a range of ad formats including photos, video, carousel ads, and more.  Being able to showcase your attractions and allowing your potential customers to experience what it’s like to be at your location.

Here’s an example of a carousel ad:

This Carousel Ad allows you the ability to highlight up to 10 different images/videos of your business.  If you’re a waterpark, imagine being able to showcase your top 10 rides/slides!   If you’re a beachside bar, imagine being able to showcase up to 10 different menu items!  If you’re a family entertainment center, imagine showcasing your cart racing, miniature golf, roller coaster and arcade in one single ad unit.

These carousel ads allow users to swipe (or click) through to see everything you offer.  And, this also allows you to be able to promote something for everyone.

Another use of Facebook/Instagram would be if you’ve been creating a database of people that have been into your business before.  Do you have a list of everyone that has bought tickets online to your theme park?   Do you have a list of phone numbers of those people that registered for your text club?  Emails for your newsletters?

What if you utilized Facebook’s Custom Audience to reach the people that have already done business with you?  With this strategy, we can take your database of emails, phone numbers, or even full names with zip codes and upload that database to Facebook.  Here, we are trying to find as many of those individuals with profiles on Facebook/Instagram.   Once we do, we can serve your ads to that audience/group specifically.

To top that off, we can even create a Lookalike Audience.  This means that we can create an audience that also looks like those people we were able to find matches for on Facebook/Instagram.  This would allow you to promote to an audience that may not know who you are yet.

Another tool you can use is Social Mirror.

Social Mirror ads look like your social media display or video posts but appear on other websites and apps, linking back to the social media platform and your website, and run across all devices using our targeting strategies. We are “mirroring” the EXACT look of your social post as an ad that runs on thousands of OTHER websites and apps, targeted just to the people you want to reach across all devices.

We live in and out of social platforms all day long and sometimes don’t even realize what app or website or social platform we are even on, because we are like busy bunnies hopping around all the time. Social Mirror ads play really well with this consumer online activity. Social Mirror ads run actually outside of social media.  Social Mirror ads can be done with any organic or paid posts from your business account on these 8 social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest, Snapchat, or YouTube.

One of the big benefits of Social Mirror is getting to repurpose and reuse your Social Media content, which you’re probably putting a lot of time and money into.  With these ads, you no longer have to design an ad to a specific size.  You just provide the URL of the post you want to use, and that’s it.  We take care of the rest!

Targeting options for Social Mirror ads include:

Behavioral – thousands of targeting categories including demographics, on-line and off-line behaviors, and interests.  Think about targeting people that love waterparks and amusement parks, or happy hour and craft beer.
Keywords – target a list of up to 500 keywords related to your business, and show Social Mirror ads on the web pages where they appear.  Keywords could include travel terms, specific airlines, competitors and even roller coasters themselves.
A.I. Targeting – Showing your display or video ads to people across all devices, using machine learning to target consumers based on who is engaging with the ad
Retargeting – Following people after they leave your website and showing them your Social Mirror ad, on other websites and apps they go to, across all devices.  One of the most popular and fundamental strategies.  You spend so much time working to get people to visit your website, and now what?! You want to make sure you can stay top of mind with them after they leave, so they can come back and buy from you!

And these ads work! At Vici, Social Mirror Ad campaigns have proven to outperform other ad types and on average we see a Click-thru Rate 7 times higher than the national average.

Lastly, I believe that some sort of video would be an amazing way to get the summer customers to virtually experience what you have to offer!

There are a lot of video options to choose from out there, but Video Pre-Roll is one of my favorites.  It is one of the more well-known forms of video advertising, as it’s been around for quite some time.  Pre-Roll video is the video ad that runs prior to the content that you’re about to watch.  Whether you’re on ESPN.com watching highlights of March Madness that just ended, or on HGTV watching a re-run of your favorite show, pre-roll ads are everywhere.   The biggest benefits to pre-roll video ads are that they can be placed on thousands of websites that utilize video content.

With Video Pre-Roll, we’re using the same strategies as Social Mirror.

Behavioral – thousands of targeting categories including demographics, on-line and off-line behaviors, and interests.  Think about targeting people that love waterparks and amusement parks, or happy hour and craft beer.
Keywords – target a list of up to 500 keywords related to your business
A.I. Targeting – Showing your display or video ads to people across all devices, using machine learning to target consumers based on who is engaging with the ad
Retargeting – Following people after they leave your website and showing them your Social Mirror ad, on other websites and apps they go to, across all devices.  One of the most popular and fundamental strategies.

But this time, you’re exclusively showcasing a video of your business.  This gives the end users, your potential customers, the ability to feel what it’s like to be at your business!   Give them an opportunity to experience a roller coaster from the actual ride, or see the theme park from an arial view.   Maybe your video showcases Happy Hour in progress, or a clip from the live music you have onsite.

Video isn’t going anywhere.  In fact, more and more video is being consumed every day.  It’s a critical part of consumers’ behavior and because of that, having video be a part of your marketing mix, while isn’t mandatory, is a smart move.

No matter where the summer travels take your potential customers, they’re looking for a new experience.  They’re looking for a fun experience.   You can give them this experience.  You just get to decide how you invite them to your experience.

The post What digital advertising products to use for Summer festivals and attractions? appeared first on Vici Media.