Steal These 9 Instagram Templates and Make Them Your Own

There’s a myth that if you design something using a template, that you’re limiting creativity. That templates create repetitive content and miss that… special something.

It’s nonsense. Creativity thrives with boundaries.

Some of the most creative content on Instagram starts within a repeatable template or framework. And the truth is, the most successful brands in the platform depend on Instagram templates.

Templates save you time so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel with every new post.

They are also essential to brand building. When there is a level of consistency in your Instagram creative, repeated visual elements, they become a part of your brand. Your audience recognizes a color, a font, an illustration style.

It’s important to develop Instagram templates for your brand that are unique and align with your messaging. And there’s a ton of inspiration out there to kick start new template ideas for your business.

Today, I’ll be focusing on Instagram feed concepts and examples. In a future guide, we’ll review similar Instagram template ideas for Stories.

Below are 10 Instagram templates to consider using for your brand. These are concepts that you can easily recreate and make your own.

1. Messaging

Recreating SMS or iMessage conversations as social content has been around for a while. It’s still very popular, relatable, and visually engaging. More recently, some brands have used Instagram DMs as the visual inspiration for this style.

These fall into the larger user interface category of Instagram templates. A social image or video that’s inspired by design elements from apps or other software. Our first three template ideas below are user interface designs.

2. Reminders and Notifications

Reminders and notifications are perfect templates for encouraging action. Continuing with the user interface theme, anyone who uses a smart phone is already programmed to pay attention to these designs. These work for short messaging and can easily be layered with photography (phone background).

The iOS “Reminder” Instagram templates (see the Tentree example) have been adopted by many brands for short and inspirational copy. Because this specific concept is widely used, be sure to make it your own through color, fonts, and other brand design elements.

3. Calendar – Schedule

Our final user interface concept is calendars. We look at our calendars constantly. Just like with notifications, we are trained to recognize the design. This is a simple story telling medium. Consider common calendar items for your audience. Which appointments would resonate most? What would normally be the worst part of their calendar? Which items are they missing from their calendar? What can you exaggerate or simplify?

You don’t have to stick to the iOS calendar design in our examples to use this concept. Listing a calendar, schedule, or run of show in any visual format gives you the same storytelling opportunity.

4. Fake Charts

Sharing data and charts evokes authority and trust. But even if you don’t have access to insightful data every day, you can use charts as a template for other types of content. Consider using charts to compare subjective ideas, illustrate humor, or call out product/brand features.

5. Venn Diagrams

One of the simplest charts to consider using as one of your Instagram templates is the tried and true Venn diagram. It puts an immediate focus on commonalities between 2 ideas or more ideas. They create immediate intrigue to understand the messaging. To make your Venn diagrams more engaging, start with two ideas and try to brainstorm 10 or more ways they can be connected. Give special attention to the weird and uncommon items.

When attempting to create Venn diagrams with 3 or more base circles, I recommend starting with pencil and paper. There may be a lot of erasing to get it right. And don’t be afraid to more base ideas into overlap areas, and vice versa.

6. Tweets

If you’ve been on Instagram at least once in the last 3 years, you know that Twitter screenshots are a very popular format. There’s a few reasons this works so well.

When sharing Tweets to Instagram, stick to one or more specific formats. Decide whether you want this to include branding, brand colors, or other brand design elements. Consider using your image editor of choice to recreate the look of your Tweet to have more control over the design and layout.

7. Checklist

Everyone loves a list. And if that list lets you check things off, even better. This is another relatable concept and visual that encourages the viewer to be inquisitive. To mentally check off the list. Or if the checklist is really helpful, to save the post and come back to it later.

8. Technical Diagrams

A technical diagram is essentially a visual list. Taking a visual and adding technical labels to it allows the viewer to digest a longer list more easily, and with more context. This can be done with a photo or illustration. The list can even be one item long. A technical diagram can be a helpful resource or more abstract, even humorous.

Here’s an additional Delta example to checkout that creatively utilized Instagram’s tagging feature to label each item in their diagram. They creating 12 Instagram accounts so they could tag and give additional information on each of their new COVID-19 safety procedures.

9. Choose a Favorite

Perfect to engage your audience and encourage comments “Choose A Favorite” images offer a list of items for the viewer to align with. They pick which item is best, their favorite, etc. A recent trend with this format is to “Choose 3”. And throughout the 2020 Pandemic, many brands have used nostalgic product images with this template for fans to choose their favorite from the past.

The Instagram Design Blueprint (100+ Instagram Templates)

Upgrade your Instagram feed with 100+ Canva Templates (and examples!) you can swipe and use right now, plus our brand creative cheatsheet. Grab your copy of The Instagram Design Blueprint here.

Establishing brand templates is an empowering, time-saving step. That’s why we’re excited to launch this new resource designed specifically for you. It includes:

• Over 100 Editable Instagram Feed Canva Templates
• 50+ Instagram Story Templates
• Idea Bank of Brand Examples (130+ examples for inspiration!)
• Tutorial videos to walk you through customizing our easy-to-use templates
• Additional tools and resources to improve your Instagram creative

 

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Lessons Learned From Hosting A Virtual Conference

It turns out that running a live events company during a pandemic is not optimal. Like many other companies, we had to adapt. In the last week of April, we launched tickets for our virtual conference, Social Fresh X.

We moved quickly to host a virtual conference because so many businesses were struggling with how to respond to the coronavirus crisis. They didn’t know what to post, when to post, or what the tone should be.

We gave ourselves 5 weeks, the quickest we’ve ever produced an event.

 

Our lessons learned from Social Fresh X fall into two main categories: Planning and Platform. Let’s start with Planning.

Virtual Conference Planning

We had 3 key goals for the virtual conference:

1. Feature talented speakers and quality sessions.
2. Make the event accessible to businesses in need.
3. Replicate the quality, intimacy, and community of our live conference.

GOAL 1: Feature talented speakers and quality sessions.

Social Fresh puts a big focus on the quality of sessions for our social media conferences. We put most of our time and attention into crafting our sessions and working directly with speakers.

There were some roadblocks. More speakers declined than usual. Many were overwhelmed with work or family obligations due to the crisis. Completely understandable.

We’re thankful that so many speakers were able to join us, and responded quickly to the timeline. We were able to create presentations and discussions that were timely and useful, including:

• Empathy As Marketing During COVID – Miri Rodriguez, Storyteller – Microsoft
• Overcoming Visual Content Challenges – Chad Mitchell, VP Head of Content – TD Bank
• Future of Marketing Post Coronavirus – Adrian Parker, Global VP of Marketing – Patrón

One benefit of virtual conferences is they allow you to cast a wider net for talent. Speakers did not have to worry about travel and we were able to confirm many talented keynote speakers in a short window.

Getting the right speakers on stage is time intensive, but a task Social Fresh always work hard at, so this piece of the puzzle was in our comfort zone.

GOAL 2. Make it accessible to businesses in need.

We knew there were many businesses that needed help. We did three key things to make sure as many businesses as possible could get access to the event.

First, we created a low-cost tier for attendees to opt-in to keynotes and select session. This was our General Admission ticket level, which included Facebook, Guy Kawasaki, Kara Goldin (CEO of Hint Water), and more.

Second, we made the General Admission ticket free for the first 500 hundred sign ups. No catches. After 500 attendees, the prices for this ticket was $25, still allowing easy access to some of the best sessions of the conference.

TIP: An important technical piece to consider is determining the cost of a free ticket to you as the organizer of a virtual conference. Platforms will have a per-user cost (or an attendee max). For example, we paid a per-user fee for all attendees, including the free tickets.

Third, we offered a Coronavirus Scholarship to anyone who was out of work, furloughed, or otherwise impacted by coronavirus. Dozens of social media pros took advantage of this opportunity.

GOAL 3. Replicate the quality, intimacy, and community of our live conference.

This is the most challenging goal for any virtual conference. It’s not possible to recreate the magic of hallway conversations and happy hour introductions for a virtual conference.

But, there’s a lot you can do to create community interactions for virtual conferences, and some of it can be an improvement on in-person events.

The Power of Live Chat

Virtual conference speakers lose access to the body language and mood of the room that you typically have with an in-person audience.

But, with the live chat feature on most virtual conference platforms you gain a more precise feedback option. Speakers see nuanced questions they can reply to immediately. Speakers can get more detailed responses from attendees in realtime and at a greater scale.

Additionally, the audience can talk to each other, without interrupting a speaker’s flow. All of this adds a level of community to a virtual conference that’s different from an in-person conference, but holds unique value.

Virtual Happy Hours

We hosted two virtual happy hours during our conference. One for all attendees and one for our speakers and VIP ticket holders.

Patrón Tequila was the sponsor for our main happy hour. They provided a brand mixologist for a challenge we titled the #PantryPatronChallenge. The mixologist challenged attendees to make at-home cocktails with whatever they had in their kitchen cupboards. We had a ton of attendees Tweet their creations and Patrón gave out live awards. Big thanks to Adrian at Patrón for this idea and making it such a success.

Our Speaker + VIP happy hour was a group video meeting of 40 speakers and VIP ticket holders. The icebreaker we implemented, a scavenger hunt game, was a big success. Everyone had to try to find simple, but not very common things in their home (or wherever they were). It was a fun way for people to get to know each other without any pressure.

Social Fresh X 2020 – VIP Speaker Happy Hour Zoom

We wanted to have more live networking “happy hour” opportunities, but our bandwidth and platform limitations did not allow for it. There is a lot of opportunity here to make your virtual conference feel special.

Q&A Sessions

In general, the more sessions you can do that allow for live audience questions through chat, Q&A tools, or social media, the better. We had several Q&A sessions built into the event and each of these added energy and connectedness to the event.

There were other community building tactics that we wanted to invest in, but we ran into time constraints or technology limits. I’ll dive into some of those below in the Platform section.

Virtual Conference Platform

Choosing the right platform for your virtual conference is a consequential decision for your event.

The platform drives much of your resource allocation decisions, attendee experience, speaker onboarding and more. We identified 3 main needs for our virtual conference platform:

1. Multi-stage (or ability to gate sessions to ticket type).
2. Make “at home” production seamless for all speakers.
3. A quality community experience for attendees.

Virtual Conference Platforms we considered closely.

We knew we wanted to do something more than just a series of Zoom meetings. Zoom is a great tool, but did not match our goal for this conference to create a virtual conference with the spirit of a live event.

We reviewed over 50 virtual conference platform options. We realized right away that there was not a perfect solution for us. Over a few weeks, we narrowed the list down to these 5 options:

• Hopin
• Accel
• RunTheWorld
• Attendify
• HeySummit

Our list focused on newer platforms, which typically feature better design and user experience.

Many of the new platforms were getting such a large amount of inquiries that we could not get a product demo (or get questions answered). Even today it’s still very difficult to schedule a demo for most of the platforms we reviewed.

Two of the platforms, Accel and Hopin, allowed you to quickly set up an account and test an event, which made our onboarding and testing much easier. Though with Hopin, you do have to pay $100 for an admin account to do that testing.

For our needs, Hopin ended up being the best fit. Here is the process we went through to ultimately decide which platform to choose.

Platform Fit For Our Virtual Conference

HeySummit is a great platform for quickly creating simple online conferences. They have fewer features than most of the solutions we reviewed, but the platform is very accessible and affordable. For our needs, HeySummit was missing the community features that would attendees to interact as well as options to feature sponsors.

Attendify is a ticketing solution and event app that we had used before. Their new virtual event solution was closest to what we wanted feature wise, but unfortunately it did not launch out of beta until after our conference dates.

RunTheWorld is very new, and looks like a strong contender in this space. Unfortunately, we were not able to get a demo or a response from their team in time to fully consider their platform. This is not a strike against them, just a reality for many of these platforms right now. They also take a 25% cut of ticket sales, the highest fee we saw. Since we reviewed them in April, they have launched more options to test out the platform for free.

Accel and Hopin are very, very similar in look and feature set. The main difference we noticed was that Hopin was easier to set up and had fewer bugs during our testing.

It’s hard to compare the two platforms on price, because they price their product very differently.

Accel was a more expensive solution for our event, mainly because they were charging per attendee and per day. So the fewer days your conference is planned for, the more affordable Accel might be.

Of all the platforms we looked at Accel was the most responsive to our inquiries, getting on the phone with us several times and always responding quickly to our support chats. They also had the most features and were adding features quicker than any of the other platforms.

Hopin has a low cost option that starts at $100 a month per admin (including up to 500 attendees) and a more premium option that was quoted to us at $15,000.

With Hopin, we were able to get a test event up and running more quickly than the other platforms and their solution had fewer bugs and issues as we tested. As conference organizers, we know testing and rehearsals are critical, so ultimately we decided to go with Hopin.

Features We Would Like To See Added

There were a few features we would like to see every virtual conference platform adopt that could really improve the overall event experience for attendees and organizers.

Better Backstage Options

This is probably the biggest opportunity and yet the most technically challenging for platforms.

Many of the virtual conference platforms have a way for speakers and organizers to login, test, and video chat before going live.

What is missing is the ability to have a backstage area, while another session is live. If you have two sessions back to back, which almost every conference does, you either have dead air (to onboard the next presentation) or you have to use some type of livestreaming software for more in-depth production, like eCamm or Switcher Studio.

Comments and Community

Most virtual conference platforms have a live chat feature that works well for live community and feedback.

But there was less opportunity for threaded discussions. Adding some type of comment board or community page where organizers and attendees can start threaded discussions and ask questions would more of a networking component to events. And a good support solution.

This type of feature would also allow events to open their doors early and allow attendees to interact in useful ways to build networking and momentum leading up to an event. An alternative here is to have a separate community space using Facebook Groups, Slack, or other options.

Session Feedback

I’d like to see more stats on video engagement or session completion percentages, along with specific ratings and feedback on sessions and the event as a whole.

I’m sure some of the more technical enterprise solutions have this built in, but many of the solutions we reviewed did not.

One issue we encountered was that Hopin collected feedback from our attendees on the event as a whole (along with feedback of Hopin itself), but would not share it with us when we looked for the data and contacted their support.

Small Group Networking

One of the biggest challenges for virtual conferences is recreating that in-person networking magic. The platform that gets this right, will have a killer feature. Our vision for this would be very similar to Zoom’s breakout room feature, allowing larger events to break attendees out into smaller 10 to 20 person group discussions.

If you can do this in a way that does not require a human moderator to be involved in each group, for instructions and quality control, even better.

Our Virtual Conference Key Lessons Learned

We learned a lot from this first conference and it will heavily impact how we plan and design our next virtual conference.

1. Go Simple

Simplify your event content, networking, and ticket types. It is harder to manage complexities virtually than it is for an in-person event. At live events, you can quickly jump on the mic or mobilize team members to make changes or do quality control. Online, virtually, everything has to be even more precise and planned.

Every layer of complexity adds training and admin hours that can be better utilized elsewhere.

For instance, I recommend utilizing one ticket type or as few ticket types as possible. If you do need multiple ticket types, I would group ticket-specific content by day. If someone is paying to access to certain sessions, speakers, or networking, consider grouping all of those benefits together on the same day/time to simplify access and organization.

Panels, interviews, and pre-recorded training are your friends. Sessions that focus on discussion are a stronger organic fit for virtual conferences.

Live presentations with slides create the highest technical need and more potential challenges.

Most screenshare presentations prevent speakers from being able to respond to live chat feedback. There are ways around this, but again, they add technical complexity for you, your speakers, and/or your team.

2. Adapt Your Speaker Prep

We had very few technical challenges during our conference because we rehearsed and anticipated many issues, so there was a plan in place if X happens. But we definitely had to adapt quickly in a few moments and learned some key lessons.

We rehearsed with all of our speakers at least once before the conference. One adjustment we would make is adding a day-of or day-before rehearsal for anyone presenting slides from their computer (the most technically challenging presentation type). It’s easy for people to forget things, so we’d add a refresher rehearsal.

I also recommend creating a simple event day checklist for speakers, and ask them to print it out (or mail it to them) before they present. A sample checklist might look like this:

1. Speaker headphones are plugged in and working (sound check).
2. Speaker knows where the mute button is and it works.
3. Speaker slides are open and working.
4. Speaker is in right place/room/time.
5. Speaker knows how and when their session starts and ends.

A checklist like this is simple and can include details specific to the platform. A checklist, combined with a rehearsal very close to their session time, should eliminate most live presentation tech issues.

For pre-recorded sessions, if your platform allows, I encourage adding a live Q&A session, and have the speaker answer questions live during the chat. This breaks the fourth wall a bit, but the end result is answering more questions for attendees.

3. Match the Programming To The Platform

If we went back to redo Social Fresh X again today, I would change how we planned the content. We designed our ideal event first and then tried to match it to a platform.

Each platform is so unique and offers varying degrees of support and technical challenges. Virtual conference organizers should decide on the platform that best fits your resource needs and broad event details first.

This might include presentation type, event length, budget, and attendee count. Then tailor your programming to fit that platform.

Making decisions about networking session details, the number of ticket types, and the number of content tracks can be decided after you pick your platform. This will allow you to limit technical challenges and reduce stress on your team during the virtual conference.

Utilize Outside Experts

For over 10 years, we’ve produced high quality conferences and we still regularly reach out for help and support when we we needed backup. Since our virtual conference, we’ve helped multiple companies walk through these decisions and planning for their own virtual conference.

Get Support: If you’d like more info on how we can support your virtual conference, please reach out to team@socialfresh.com.

There are a lot of layers to building a virtual conference, and many of these decisions will be new territory for organizations. Bring in experts where possible.

A few places to consider for support:

1. Planning: Work with someone that has produced a virtual conference before. They will know much more about the challenges you are going to face – and need to anticipate. They will foresee how small decisions can make larger impacts on the live event.
2. Production: Understand how to get the most out of your technology and/or bring in AV professionals to help free up important time and focus for your team. The less you have to worry about slides, video, and software, the more attention you can give to event experience and engaging directly with stakeholders.
3. Programming: The quality of presentations and speaker performances is even more important for a virtual conference. With fewer hallway conversations and live venue options to improve an experience, your stage is your conference experience. Work with professionals who can help make sure slide decks are designed well. Train your speakers and executives so they understand how to engage an audience when in an online format.
4. Community: Just as larger conferences bring in influencers or hosts to help organize and amplify conference experiences, there are opportunities to add a layer of knowledge and support to your event through community support. Emcees and hosts can add an important lift to your attendee experience and keep things moving along smoothly for the audience.

Our virtual conference ended up reaching more people across the world than any event we’ve ever hosted before. It was well worth the time and effort.

Let us know if we can help your organization adapt to the new challenge of producing virtual conferences.

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Facebook Boycott: How To Pivot Your Ad Dollars #StopHateForProfit

Facebook’s 3 billion monthly users is larger than any country, organization, or religion in the history of humanity.

With that size comes influence. And responsibility.

Social networks, Facebook especially, have a responsibility to reduce their negative impact on society. That’s the premise behind the #StopHateForProfit Facebook boycott campaign from the ADL, NAACP, Sleeping Giants, and a few other non-profits. The boycott challenges brand advertisers to stop all ads on Facebook owned properties during the month of July.

The purpose of the Facebook boycott is to reduce bad actors on the platform, specifically any content promoting violence, white supremacy, or voter suppression.

Facebook can do a lot of good in the world. We want them to make these updates to improve the health of the platform.

Joining The Facebook Boycott

Social Fresh has joined the boycott because we believe Facebook can do more in these areas.

The North Face was the first household name to sign on. As I’m writing this, more big brands are coming on board including Verizon, Unilever, Coca-Cola, and more.

If your business is considering joining the boycott, it’s important to have a plan and be intentional. Let’s walk through some questions you should consider. And get specific about how to pivot your ad dollars away from Facebook – and still be successful.

4 Questions To Ask Before Joining The Facebook Boycott

Question 1: Do you believe in the campaign?

Don’t join the Facebook boycott out of fear. Truly consider if your business aligns with the cause. And why. Understanding why you support this boycott is important. How does it align with your brand purpose?

For example, two of our brand values at Social Fresh are a focus on inclusion and improving platform health on social networks. The boycott aligns with these values by both protecting targets of hate on Facebook and reducing the impact bad actors.

Question 2: Can you join the boycott?

We are in a trying time. Many businesses are struggling. And many depend on Facebook and Instagram ads for a large part of their revenue. If it is going to do significant harm to turn your ads off, do not join the boycott.

Question 3: Where will the money go?

Whether you are stopping $5k worth of ads or $500k, decide where that money will go. I have some suggestions for you below. It comes down to 3 main options: supporting relevant causes, alternative ad platforms, and working with publishers.

Question 4: What statement will you make?

If you choose to support the Facebook boycott, say why. Even if you cannot pull your ad dollars, explain that. Maybe you can pull 10% of your ad budget for the month and work on becoming less reliant on Facebook in the long term.

Talk about that, and why even that small step is important for your business. Anyone will be able to see if your business is running ads on Facebook, so if you support the boycott say so early to get ahead of being called out.

Those 4 questions ground your decision to join the #StopHateForProfit boycott (or any boycott).

Let’s walk through 5 steps to help you reallocate your Facebook dollars to meaningful marketing options.

5 Steps For Reallocating Facebook Ad Dollars

1. Identify Your Business Goal

Every business has different business realities. Can you invest your ad budget in a relevant cause? Does it need to drive sales? Decide what percentage of your Facebook ad dollars needs to drive business results for July and define those results.

If the freed up ad budget needs to work for your business through other ad channels, that’s fine. Make it a conscious decision.

2. Make A Statement With Your Ad Budget

Consider how your ad spend can both work for you and make a statement. Jerry Daykin, Media Director at GSK, suggested that brands “need to think about where they are investing positively.” Specifically, look to invest in “a direct partnership with a minority-owned/focused publication to really validate the point.”

Look for partnership opportunities with businesses or causes that align with your brand values.

3. Invest In Alternate Ad Platforms

If you need your ad budget to work hard for the business, there are many platform alternatives to Facebook ads.

Scott Monty, former Global Head of Social at Ford and executive advisor, recommends focusing on the results you need. “Use Youtube and Google for awareness, split 80/20. And for sales, use Twitter and Pinterest, split 50/50.”

Don’t try to spread your budget across a dozen new channels. Choose 1-3 options that make sense for your business.

Mindy Thomas, Marketing Director at Paul Mitchell Schools, said for their locations, lead generation is always the main objective. They are advising schools that opt into the boycott to split their budget 70% to Google and 30% to Snapchat ads.

4. Look To Creators and Influencers

Like many marketing channels, influencers and smaller media outlets were hit hard during the pandemic. Podcasters and YouTubers have seen drops in revenue. Look for industry-specific creators and niche influencers that align with your needs.

Podcasts are a great low lift option that any business can tap into.

I recommend using a free audience search tool like SparkToro. It focuses on helping you find podcasts, influencers, or YouTube channels that might be the best fit for the audience you need to reach.

5. Test Something New

If your business has been wanting to test ads on Snapchat, TikTok, or LinkedIn, now is your chance to invest in something new.

Shama Hyder, Founder and CEO of Zen Media, recommends a PR focused approach. “Most companies try to advertise direct and push to their site but a much better move is to amplify 3rd party credibility.”

Once you see earned coverage results, Shama recommends that businesses should “amplify those using LinkedIn ads and Twitter ads.”

Another alternative for brands to consider is spotlighting their thought leaders or executives. Scott Monty also recommends brands “look into Reddit as a place for community involvement – particularly an AMA, if appropriate.”

Will It Work?

People have asked me if I think this boycott can effect change at Facebook.

In short, yes.

I don’t think Facebook is going to lose a ton of money from this – that’s not the point. It’s about public pressure and consistent improvements to the platform.

There are two main reasons I think the #StopHateForProfit Facebook boycott is working and will create change:

1. It’s building on the anti-racist and anti-hate movement of Black Lives Matter. The energy and power of the BLM movement has created real change. Brands are responding in real-time.
2. Anyone can track who is running ads on Facebook through their Ad Library. That makes the boycott transparent on a massive scale. And, that ad library would not exist if it wasn’t for past public pressure on Facebook.

Public pressure from advertisers has already resulted in positive changes on Facebook. We won’t solve everything in one month, but every step to reduce the negative impact of social platforms is important. Brands that get involved to drive change are making a difference.

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The Social Media Technology Pyramid

What makes each social network different is the type of content created, how that content is created, and why that content is created.

Consumers share a large variety of content for different reasons on different social networks. And social media platforms are evolving, which changes what we share. Snapchat and TikTok have been big drivers of these evolutions.

In a January interview Evan Spiegal, CEO of Snap, was asked what he thinks about TikTok. In a refreshingly honest answer, he said he “loves TikTok” and is a “big fan.” He went on to describe how he thinks about TikTok as a technology platform compared to other social networks.

He thinks about the category of social technology as three tiers in a pyramid.

1. Communication – Self-expression, talking to friends and close contacts, higher frequency. This would be where Snapchat and Messenger sits.
2. Status – Showing people who you are, that you’re cool, getting likes and comments, lower frequency than communication. Instagram is the best example here.
3. Talent – Making media to entertain other people, even lower frequency, higher production. Think TikTok and YouTube.

As you go up the pyramid, the time and energy needed to create content goes up and the frequency of content produced goes down accordingly.

It’s easy to send a simple, image, video, or text on Snapchat. It does not take a lot of effort. There are few mental barriers. It’s much harder to learn a TikTok dance or put in the production time needed for a more polished YouTube video.

Spiegal says the appeal of Status content as more limited because “people only do something ‘cool’ once a week or once a month and not necessarily every day.”

Another important aspect of this pyramid is the ratio of the content creator to the content consumers. At the bottom of the pyramid, everyone creates and consumes almost equally. As you go up the pyramid, the potential audience size increases and the number of people actually creating the content decreases.

Talent social platforms are more of a lean-back experience for most consumers. While Communication social platforms are lean-in. There is more discussion, engagement.

I like how this theory matches up with the relatively recent trend of personified brand personalities on Twitter. If Twitter is closer to the Communication tier than it is Talent, it makes sense that brands who can make the platform more personal and conversational are doing well.

Compare the pyramid to your social media strategy. Do your assumptions of how users consume your content on each channel match up?

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How To Adjust Your Social Media Marketing During Coronavirus

Marketing in the age of coronavirus can feel like shouting into the ether. It’s an unprecedented time for many folks (and their business models) to say the least. Fear, stress, and uncertainty is a universal tax on all of us.

And yet, there is still work to do. So, as marketers and professionals, how do we adjust?

There are three main challenges you’re probably facing right now as a marketer — or will face soon.

• Business: For airlines, fewer people are flying. For retail, fewer people are shopping.
• Messaging: Consumer attention is focused on the coronavirus, not your brand.
• Mental Health: As one colleague told me earlier today, “I’m just drained.”

Here is a list of recommendations on how you and your social media team can adjust. Thanks to those who added their insights below.

BUSINESS

You might have the least control here. That’s ok. Focus on what you can do and get creative.

1. Keep Calm, Have a Plan

“[Most] business will not grind to a halt from this”, said Scott Monty, Executive Advisor. “If that’s the case, communicate your plan and what alternatives that leaves their customers.”

More crisis communication principles from Scott.

2. Focus on Brand

Many social ad folks are seeing a decline in performance metrics this week. Consumers are still spending time on social (maybe even more), but they’re just not buying as much stuff. Outside of groceries and Purell.

You may need to pull back on some of your ad spend right now. Especially ads focused on performance/conversion. Consider putting resources into marketing that increases your brand affinity and keeps you top of mind over the next few months.

3. Pivot Your Product

One colleague is seeing a 70% slump in sales for their retail clients in Malaysia. In response, they’re working to bring more of the in-store experience online to drive ecomm sales. They are also studying how Chinese companies adopted to these same challenges.

“Look for ways to deploy your services that make up for face-to-face experiences being lost at present,” said Chris Brogan, founder of the StoryLeader system.

What can you do to make your product easier to use in this unique time? Research what your industry peers might be testing in China, South Korea, or Italy.

MESSAGING

First of all, reassess all the content and campaigns you have going out. All the way down to your customer service response and daily low-lift social media content.

4. Pick a Lane

Imagine the worst coronavirus news is sitting right next to your post on Twitter or Facebook. Does your messaging sound awkward? Tone-deaf?

“Some brands are going to be fine with business as usual, some should keep quiet, some should go into PSA mode,” said Nathan Allebach, Social Media Manager at Allebach Communications.

“A good social content action right now could be brainstorming creative PSA posts.”

5. Scale Back and Keep a List

Adjusting the volume and type of social media content you post is probably a good instinct right now. Give some additional care to the empathy and tone of your social content.

Since there is less attention to go around, don’t be afraid to post less content. But don’t stop coming up with ideas. Keep a running list of those ideas for when things get back to normal.

6. Invest In Trust Content

Consider investing in long-form projects and campaigns.

Trust Content is content that allows you to spend more time and more meaningful moments with your audience. It’s great for building trust in your brand. Which is a good place to spend time right now. Consider creating long-form articles, video series, podcasts, essays, entertainment, training content, and more.

7. Adjust Your Social Listening

While social media time-spent is likely going up around the globe, the way consumers spend that time and the types of conversations they have are different during a crisis. How are your customers, employees, and community talking about the crisis?

Zontee Hou, founder of the agency Media Volery, recommends a review of this for all in-house teams. “Start monitoring conversations if you have not already, especially if you’re in an industry that’s highly affected. And be ready to activate your internal spokespeople if your brand needs to communicate important messages.”

MENTAL HEALTH

Social media managers are already in a stressful role, and a prolonged crisis does not help. Remember to check in on yourself, your team, and industry friends.

And the fact that so many folks are suddenly working from home adds even more of a challenge. To keep things manageable, consider these recommendations for keeping a positive outlook.

8. WFH Plan

Make sure you have the tools and processes needed to work from home (here’s a good tool list from Sarah Evans).

9. Get Offline

Find an at-home workout that works for you. I’m doing more short yoga classes at home. Invest in offline activities that recharge you. Read more books. Take walks. Find a great podcast.

10. Connect

Remember to reach out to friends. Make a phone call (yes, those still work). Use FaceTime. Start a group chat. Ask for help when you need it.

11. Review Your Media Consumption

Set boundaries on your personal social media time and news binging. The coronavirus news is unending. Your consumption of it should not be.

You got this.

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If you want any additional strategic support, please let me know. We’ve opened up additional consulting time this month and I’m available to help you work through any challenges you might be having.

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Seek Surprises in Your Instagram Data

At our 2015 conference, I talked on stage about the large shift we were seeing in Instagram becoming the most important social network for brands going forward. In large part, that is still true today.

On recent episode of The Social Toolkit podcast, I got to speak with Bob Gearing, who is the Global Head of Enterprise at Socialbakers. We got to talk about some of the big brands Socialbakers works with and every topic we touched on — from the Super Bowl to shoe brands — always circled back to Instagram.

You can listen to the full podcast here. Here’s a few highlights from our conversation.

Seek Surprises in Your Data

Bob talked with me about working with Crocs on their Instagram data data and learning that product photos and carousels were producing the most engagement in their feed, but not being posted very often.

Both of these insights could be surprises.

Carousels

There is an impression for some Instagram users that carousel ads can produce lower engagement than a single photo. For Crocs, Carousels were producing their highest engagement numbers.

Carousels are definitely an underutilized format in social. They are especially undervalued as a Twitter ad format, but Instagram has a very special benefit. Bob points out in the podcast that Instagram will often resurface each frame of your carousel, even if a follower does not engage with the first image they see from the post.

This gives you multiple opportunities to gain awareness and reengage a user on Instagram Carousels are the only format that this is true for.

Carousels are also a more creative format. You can do much of the story telling that the story format allows you. You can overlap messaging and image across multiple images. You can even share long form copy, treating each frame as the page of a book or slide deck.

Bob also mentioned that carousels will start to allow shoppable tags some time this year (2020). Which is a great opportunity for all ecommerce brands to pay attention to.

Product Shots

The other surprise might be that product shots of Crocs were also one of the highest engaging types of content from their Instagram. As social media pros we are taught not to hit our audience over the head with “salesy” content or too many calls to action.

But, that’s not always the case.

Especially in fashion and aspirational goods, consumers want to see the product. And maybe only the product. Bob said this was very clear for Crocs in the data Socialbakers reviewed.

Not only was they able to tell that product shots were doing really well, but they broke down product shots into 3 categories: shoe focused, foot/leg focused, and full body. The closer you zoomed in on just the Crocs shoes, the more engagement posts received on average.

Always test new content types and formats and always look to be surprised by your social media data.

Listen to Engage

Bob also talked with me about how Crocs looked to their Instagram content to try and understand what colors were getting more reaction than others. Which colors were over indexing on engagement. It turns out that there was a lot of love for the basic white Crocs clog. Another win for contrast.

They also saw this in a photoshoot they did at Mall of America with a couple volleyball teams. Bob said, “Everybody was doing the white classic clog.” There is even a hashtag for the trend, RockWhiteCrocs, that Crocs and fans both use to celebrate this new-ish fashion icon.

Social media is a data gold mine, but the important thing to remember is you are looking for insights to act on. Any time you are thinking about “social media listening” – remember the phrase “listen to engage.” Always think about how you can act on the data.

“Ultimately, listening to engage with their audience and their photo shoots lead Crocs to double down on some of those pieces that were trending with their younger audience,” said Gearing. “That younger audience has actually helped reinvent the brand over the last few years.”

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Get more insights and interviews like this from industry leaders every week. Search for “The Social Toolkit” in your podcast app today or click here to listen today.

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Facebook Is Testing Two Rows of Facebook Stories

Facebook has been very clear. They see stories as the future of social media.

In 2017, Facebook added stories to the top of the app’s home screen. And every day since then, they’ve worked to get the app’s mainstream user base to adopt and love stories.

And it’s working.

Earlier this year TechCrunch shared numbers that showed Facebook Stories reaching 500 million daily active users, in less than a year from the feature’s launch. This matched WhatsApp and Instagram story user numbers.

Facebook has not shared new DAU numbers for any of their story platforms since (so we are due some new numbers). But since Facebook is twice the size of any other social network, we can feel pretty confident that Facebook is currently the largest stories platform.

Anecdotally, I’ve seen the quality of Facebook stories increase dramatically over the past 18+ months. The Facebook Stories platform is not just a copy of Instagram’s story feature. Even though it benefits dramatically from users and brands being able to easily cross publish from Instagram Stories.

The main way Facebook is working to convince users to create and view more stories is through shear pixel brute force. Over the course of the past 18 months Facebook Stories have increasingly taken over more and more of the Facebook home screen, a few hundred pixels at a time.

Here’s a rough timeline of what percentage Facebook Stories take up on the Facebook home screen when you launch the app:

• Pre-stories Facebook – 0% (an innocent time)
• March 2017 – 13%
• Early 2018 – 20%
• Early 2019 – 30%
• November, 2019 – 45% (current test)

We saw this most recent test last week and it’s the biggest leap yet. Some users are now seeing this test of a double stack of Facebook Stories on their home screen.

Source: Nicole D’Alonzo

Let’s see how this looks visually over time. Stories are slowly taking over as the main thing Facebook wants you to do when you open the app.

Facebook makes a big discovery leap here. Besides giving way more real estate to stories, the double stack of stories means they are now surfacing 7+ story thumbnails instead of 2-3 story thumbnails, as with the previous treatment. More than twice as many faces you already know and might click on.

They’ve basically given over the whole home screen to stories when you open Facebook. The next step for Facebook is to get more users to CREATE stories. More stories equals more inventory for ads. Watch for more tests to encourage all users to not just view stories, but CREATE more stories.

If Facebook wants stories to be the dominant social media content format, they can influence that trend heavily. Brands should consider how a story-first social media world might change their content strategies.

At Social Fresh we produce high level industry briefings on the State of Social Media. We review platform updates like this, macro trends, tactical spotlights, and a ton of great brand creative from the quarter. Email me jason@socialfresh.com for more info.

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