We see a lot of small businesses trying to market on social media. Creating great content and posting it, only for it to be pretty well ignored.

If you have done any of our courses, you'll know we go on (and on...) about posting being no more than 20% of the job. The other 80% contains engagement and marketing building (getting more of the right kind of followers to read and react to your posts).

Social media marketing is not for the faint hearted.  Each social media portal is one channel and needs a marketing campaign with all its elements to make it a success. Plus a lot of time and effort. 

Hiring someone 'young' to manage your social media is not sensible.

Neither is hiring a social media manager without checking that they are properly qualified - that means education (preferably marketing and not just social media) and experience that shows they can build leads or sales for a client.

Using a posting system, like Buffer, Hootsuite or Later, helps you post a little faster and a little easier. It does not help you market your business.

Social media marketing is marketing just the same. It needs to fit properly into the buying journey your potential clients/customers take and it needs to directly move them one or more steps closer to the buying decision. If it doesn't, it is a waste of time. 

Does social media really fit in your potential clients/customers' business journey?

If you aren't getting sales from your social media efforts - saying that it is 'brand awareness' doesn't count - brand awareness is a step at the beginning of the process and should still add sales at the end of the process, if it is working - or you aren't sure social media is where your target market is looking for your service/product, get in touch with us and we'll work it out with you.

If you are marketing on social media, here is our take on doing it yourself versus using us. Please get in touch if you would like to discuss any aspect of it.

If you have an online store, one way to shorten the process of buying your products is to set up your Instagram posts so that viewers can see your product info and click through to buy those items. As Instagram doesn't allow links in posts normally, it is a really powerful way of getting people clicking through onto your website.

There are some things you'll need to do to get Shopping set up:

1. Meet these requirements:

• You must primarily sell physical goods.
  
• Your Instagram account account must be a business profile and you must comply with Instagram commerce policies.
  
• You need to be located in Canada, US, Puerto Rico, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Netherlands, Switzerland, Ireland, South Africa, Belgium, Austria, Portugal, Poland, Greece, Cyprus, Denmark, Czech Republic, Romania, Norway, Hungary, Bulgaria, Croatia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Luxembourg, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay, Paraguay, Malta, Ecuador, Panama, Belize, Dominican Republic, Australia, New Zealand, Japan or Korea.
  
  

• Your Facebook business page can't have age or country restrictions. Message to Buy is also not supported.
  
  
• You need to have your Instagram business profile associated with a Facebook catalog (see below for how to do this).
  
  

2. Connect your Instagram business profile to your Facebook catalog. There are two ways to do this:

Option A: Add a shop section to your Facebook page.

1. Use the Facebook Page template 'Shopping template' and click the Shop tab.
   
   
2. Agree to the Merchant Terms and then click 'Set up Shop'.
   
   
3. Enter your business address and click Next.
   
   
4. Choose your currency and enter the email address you use to access your business Page and click Next. Your currency might be automatically selected for you based on the address for your Page. This currency will apply to all your products and can’t be changed unless you delete your shop and create a new one. Click Finish.
   
   
5. Add your products to the shop.
   
   

Option B: Create a catalog in Business Manager

1. From your Business Manager account (the account that owns the Facebook page linked to your Instagram account), create a new catalog or identify an existing catalog you'd like to use with Shopping on Instagram.
   
   

3. Wait while your account is reviewed. Instagram will review your account and, if using, your catalog, automatically. It can take a few days.

4. Add your product tags and stickers on InstagramUsing the latest version of the Instagram app, you turn on product tags in the following way:

1. On your Instagram business profile, tap the ... or gear icon in upper right hand corner
2. Choose Shopping under Business Settings and press Continue
3. Choose the product catalog you want to use with Shopping on Instagram and press Done

Your business profile will then be set up to tag products in posts and stories. Product tags in posts will show the name and price of your tagged products.

5. Create your first shopping post or story
In a post, you can tag up to 5 products per single image or up to 20 products per multi-image post. You can even tag products in existing posts.

In a story, you can add one product sticker per story. Product stickers show the product name and you can edit sticker color and text. You cannot edit stories that have been published - you would need to delete it and then re-publish.

1. Create a new story or feed post
2. For posts, tap Tag Products from the Share screen. For stories, tap the sticker icon and then select the product sticker option
   
3. Select the product you want to tag from your catalog and place your product tag or sticker on or near the product you are tagging.
   
4. Share your post or story
   
   

Once you have Shopping set up and running, don't forget to regularly look at the Insights to see what gets clicked on and which types of posts and stories work best. If you need any help getting set up, get in touch with us!

Instagram has just rolled out a new feature - you can now add up to 10 photos and video in one post.

To get the update, you might need to reinstall the app (we did). Then, when you want to upload to your Instagram feed:
1. Click to add a photo/video
2. Click on 'select multiple'
3. Tap or hold to change the order
4. Add filters if you want
5. You can like or comment on each photo just like Facebook
6. When you now see the blue buttons on the bottom of an image appear this means you can scroll to see all the images/video.

We'll be working on it for Life in Danderyd tomorrow (www.instagram.com/LifeinDanderyd). How will you use it for your business? Let us know so we can check it out when you have!