What's up in NZ Social Media?
New Zealand is a beautiful country of 4.4 million, but it punches way above its weight with it's social media presence!
Here's an idea of where we pack the most punch:
The most popular Facebook Page in NZ is YouTube sensation 'Jamie's World' with 9.8 million global fans (more than double the population of NZ).
Also within the top three Facebookers are Lorde (6.6m fans) and the All Blacks (4.2m fans).
When it comes to favourite brand pages, Air New Zealand is firm favourite with 1.2 million fans, followed by Whittaker's Chocolate Lovers (608,688 fans) and Nutella (625,795 fans).
#intheworldofTwitter
Lorde holds the most popular Twitter account in NZ by far, with 4.35 million followers.
Coming in a distant second is T Mulligan (917,606 followers) and Daniel Gillies (842,062 followers).
Kim Dotcom comes in at number eight. I'm sure we know better number eight's and they play on the rugby field!
While Air New Zealand, grabaseat, and Serato are the most popular brands.
YouTube
In not so surprising news, Lorde is the most popular Kiwi YouTube star, with her Vevo channel amassing over 900 million views.
Air New Zealand is also the runaway leader for brands on the platform, with total channel views topping 65 million (of which you must check out if you haven't, for it's clever and witty safety videos.)
Hell Pizza NZ comes second with 38 million views.
How to create great captions to encourage engagement
Yes, Instagram is largely about visual impact but is a great photo enough to drive people to engage?
With the recent changes to Instagram’s algorithm, posts now appear in feeds “based on the likelihood [the audience] will be interested in the content.” That means that a photo or video with lots of comments and likes has a better chance of appearing at, or near the top of your followers’ home stream. Game changer, right?
#funfact - Captions can be up to 2,200 characters in length, include emojis as well as up to 30 hashtags.So now you realise the significance of a great caption, here are some tips to help you lift your game.
1. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
- Who are your customers or target audience?
- Will my audience understand this reference?
- Are emojis and jargon appropriate to use here?
- Do I need to add more context to this photo?
2. IDENTIFY YOUR BRAND VOICE
In general, Instagram users don’t expect a formal or serious tone. Of course it depends on the industry and audience, but you should strive to keep things light, use humor where appropriate, and show your personality.
3. CONSIDER LENGTH
Keep it brief unless your story is especially compelling (Like Humans of New York for example.)
4. PLACE THE MOST IMPORTANT WORDS AT THE BEGINNING OF YOUR CAPTION
A caption under an image on Instagram only previews three lines. Hook the reader in and be sure to leave hashtags to the end.
5. USE HASHTAGS WISELY
Don't fill your sentences with hashtags. They're kinda annoying!
The best way to display them is to... not display them! Either hide them in a comment or use 5 lines with 'full stops' on each to drop them down below the preview lines like pictured above .
6. USE A CALL TO ACTION - ASK A QUESTION
Invite people to answer a question, tag friends or give an opinion. A sure fire way to encourage engagement!
7. GIVE A SHOUT OUT OR @ MENTION
Try tagging a company, brand or person into your caption! You'll be impressed with how many companies will reply and some may even repost. By tagging in a person it makes them aware of the post, if you ask them a question it encourages them to engage.
8. USE APPROPRIATE EMOJI
If the image speaks for itself, don't be afraid to NOT leave a word-filled caption. Leave one, two, or a train of emoji! The bright colours and images will be sure to get peoples attention and perhaps reply with an emoji also.
9. USE A QUOTE OR OVERWRITE A PHOTO WITH ONE
Have you noticed how many reactions a classy quote gets? Why not choose some of your favourite, uncluttered images and find a quote that isn't completely unrelated to write over it? I personally love Pixlr for personalising images when I'm using my mobile or Canva when on my laptop. There's also Ripl which we mentioned in last weeks blog.
10. SCHEDULE YOUR POSTS FOR OPTIMAL ENGAGEMENT
Have you tried Hootsuite? It's a clever scheduling app for all forms of social media. This means you can either post on, for example, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter all at the same time, or you can stagger them throughout the day, make longer captions for Facebook, shorter for Twitter and do them hours, days or weeks in advance.
Very handy for our busy bodies and out range contacts.
Hootsuite also allows auto-scheduling for prime times. Failing that, take a look at your Instagram Business Metrics or Facebook Insights and identify your busiest times.
LinkedIn update
LinkedIn has added a few new handy features in the last month, making it a little more user friendly and easier to navigate.
Your search bar is smarter than it used to be!
Instead of being able to only search for people and businesses, you can now search for posts and content. Really handy when looking for specific information and useful to connect with others with similar interests.
2. Now when you use hashtags within your LinkedIn posts, they're clickable!
Just like all other forms of social media, clicking on a hashtag will now take you to every post that includes the same hashtag within the platform. It also allows you to search for that hashtag in the new search bar.
Handy!
Chanelle O’Sullivan is Grass Roots Media's Social Media Specialist. She originally studied agriculture, before moving south onto a Station, followed by a stint dairy farming. After three years vet nursing, she is now a Mum to two kids and creator of Farming Mums NZ and ‘Just a Farmers Wife’ while also working part-time for the NZ Landcare Trust and Grass Roots Media.
Follow her on Instagram.
