Blog

New Instagram 2021 updates and what it means for your business?

Powah Team — Fri, 10 Sep 2021 09:00:00 +0000

New Instagram 2021 updates and what it means for your business?

Instagram comes second under Facebook for being the most active social media platform in 2021.

Powah Team Fri, 09/10/2021 - 12:00

With over 1.2 billion MAUs (monthly active users). With a platform this popular comes a lot of responsibility. Without a doubt, Instagram has to be on their A-game to keep up with the latest social media trends, match and go above what their competitors are currently doing and what they’re providing for their audiences with, all whilst continuing to reel in new users daily. Sounds easy right?

So, what new updates and features have Instagram brought to its platform and how can YOU as a business owner use these new updates to your advantage and implement them into your social media strategy? Well, we’re here to tell you everything you need to know in order to use Instagram to build and accelerate your businesses growth on social media.

You have to keep up with the latest trends and updates in order to stay relevant, it’s just the way it is and always has been. But they’re definitely a few updates you do not want to miss out on. The new audio tab on the Instagram app allows you to search specifically for the chosen audio which you would like to use in your Reel – which by the way Reels are a MUST when trying to increase your engagement on Instagram – like many music apps this feature will bring up a list of any audio with the name you’re looking for, and better yet, you can now save audios for later. If you create your own audio, this feature also allows you to view reels featuring your audio. Find an audio, save it and use it. Watch your social engagement skyrocket!

TOP TIP: Save audio’s that you have seen appearing frequently on Instagram, whether your followers are using it or it’s popping up on your explore page, this audio is clearly very popular and will most likely be being bumped to the top of Instagram’s algorithm. Take advantage of it.

Instagram has increased its tracking period from 30 days to 60 days. This now gives your business 2 months’ worth of insights to analyse. Instagram claims the timeframe will be increased again to “90 later this Summer”. Use this update to really delve into the data behind your posts. Analyse what has been performing well over the past two months and what hasn’t and implement the new information into your social media strategy going forward. Having this new feature now allows you to no longer need third party apps and sites, so instead of forking out a monthly fortune on Instagram analytic memberships and accounts, save your coin!

One of the most user-friendly updates Instagram has released is text translation in stories. This update means your content is now more accessible especially if your audience is from all over the world. Instagram now allowing the text on your Instagram stories to be translated into the chosen language of your audience also increases the engagement rates of your stories. The new feature supports 90 languages so if your brand/business is global you will be able to reach and engage with so many more people. What’s not to love above that?

Of course, Instagram is constantly evolving, adding and removing features from their platform to keep up with the latest trends and provide for their audience's needs and wants. So don’t get too comfortable with what’s currently on the table as it could be gone next week, just take advantage whilst you can and watch your social media grow.

Source: https://embedsocial.com/blog/new-instagram-features/

Create customised content for your brand

Powah Team — Mon, 28 Jun 2021 09:00:00 +0000

Create customised content for your brand

Making content that is unique and that stands out amongst your competitors is what will get you recognised and remembered.

Powah Team Mon, 06/28/2021 - 12:00

We strive to create as much customised content for not only ourselves but our clients too. Having your own content that’s specific to you and your brand will make you stand out from the rest, especially if your content is unique and different from everyone else’s within your market.

With every shoot we plan, we create a detailed shot list and within this list, we specify certain content we want to capture on the day. Creating personalised GIFs for our clients is one of our favourite ways to do this. Not only does it make their Instagram stories stand out and make them more memorable, but it also gives their audience content to interact with themselves.

To create GIFs, we use Adobe After Effects and Photoshop which are highly recognised applications in the professional editing world. There are loads of tutorials online that would help any beginner with this. Start by getting your Giphy account approved as a creators account and you will be well on your way to having all your GIFs available to use on Instagram stories!

One of the most obvious ways to stand out with custom content is having a bespoke logo. This will make all your social content and any marketing materials you produce recognisable as yours. Your logo is the base of your brand, it reflects you, what you do, what you stand for, it shows your brand colours and aesthetic and it's super important to get right! Our in-house team spends hours perfecting our client’s logos to ensure we start off their branding on the right page, this gives us the jump we need when creating all content going forward in making sure everything is cohesive.

Keeping your social feeds cohesive is a great way to ensure your brand looks professional and is also a brilliant way to incorporate your customised content. Having your brand guidelines at the core of all your social posts will showcase your individuality and show off your brand. Nothing looks better than a coordinated feed. Use your brand colours, fonts and logos across all platforms and your audience will start to recognise your content from a mile away.

We believe having a brand that catches the eye of your audience and is recognisable as yours really sets you apart from others. If you can create customised content from social graphics, reels, logos, sharable content, GIFs and so much more, your audience is so much more likely to engage with it.

Expectations vs Reality

Powah Team — Wed, 09 Jun 2021 13:00:00 +0000

Expectations vs Reality

When you live in a world where everyone is engrossed in their online life and the world of social media, the line between what’s real and what’s not becomes blurred.

Powah Team Wed, 06/09/2021 - 16:00

When it comes to building a brand or business online it’s especially important to be realistic about what your goals are and what timeframe you’re going to give yourself to achieve those goals. Is what you’re hoping to accomplish feasible in the time you’ve given yourself to do so?

You have to remember that most people (not all) put on a show on social media, including brands, and they will show you only what they want you to see. No one is going to show you the 100-hour working weeks they’ve worked just to make sure their next product launch goes exactly as planned.

No one is going to show you the money they’ve lost through trial and error in order to try and get something perfect, and they definitely won’t show you any flaws, setbacks and bumps in the road they’ve experienced along the way.

Make sure you’re putting a good amount of your time into research. Prepare for the failures and for the successes, this is what will set you up for greatness. As a business you expect things to not always go your way, although it would be great to have everything run super smoothly, it doesn’t always work out like that, and that’s okay. We live and we learn and that’s the most important thing.

It is always important to recognise that sometimes what we expect to happen might not be the reality of what happens. When we talk about expectations vs reality, we don’t mean an unprepared Instagram picture against a posed one, we’re talking about business.

Use your past mistakes and successes to help you prepare your business for what’s next to come. At Powah we are constantly analysing what performs well and what doesn’t and we use this to better every single launch going forward. It can be things as little as the day a plan launches, if we see better results when it launches on a Friday compared to a Tuesday then of course we use that information to better our launches in the future. Be smart and analyse every little aspect to your business/brand and use it to better yourselves.

Focus on yourself and what your brand/business is achieving not what it appears everyone else is doing, because like we said earlier, what people show online is just a highlight reel, the hard work all goes on behind closed doors. Put the graft in, keep an eye on your progression and let your success speak for itself.

Using Social Media to sell your products

Powah Team — Tue, 04 May 2021 08:00:00 +0000

Using Social Media to sell your products

Where do you start when you want to sell your product or promote your service on social media?

Powah Team Tue, 05/04/2021 - 11:00

Social Media is bigger than just images and videos these days. Brands and businesses are building empires by using their social platforms to promote and sell their products and services. So how do you use social media successfully to sell your products?

Who Are You Selling To?

The first key point is, always have your target market in mind. They should be at the forefront of everything...every idea, every social post, all your written copy, everything! At the end of the day, they’re the ones you’re selling to, so if you can’t tailor your content and marketing techniques to that audience then you’re not going to be very successful.

Get Social

Design a social media matrix, from here you can establish where your product is going to excel, depending on different social platforms, demographics and target market. This will allow you to clearly identify which route you take. Will you choose Facebook to sell your product? Or will you choose Instagram? There are many routes you can take but they have to be personalised to you, your audience and your goal... other brands marketing techniques will most likely not work for you.

You Are Unique

Identify the USP’s of YOUR brand or product and highlight these in everything you do, whether it’s a social post, a blog, an ad, whatever it may be, you need to show your audience why they should buy your product or service over your competitors and what makes you different. There is no harm in bigging yourself up, because if you’re not confident in your own abilities who else will be?

Dig Deep

Do your research, see what is already doing well online and use this to set yourself apart from other businesses, figure out what else you can offer that they don’t...make yourself stand out. Use all of the features that are provided to you on social media, depending on your chosen platforms you will determine which features you take advantage of, it could be Reels, Stories, Lives, Saves, Likes and Comments and everything in between!

Features V Benefits

Similar to a previous blog we wrote ‘Sell the solution, not the product’ you want to make sure that all of your social content is focused on what your product or service can offer your audience and how it will benefit them.

Something very important to take note of when trying to sell on social media is not to make selling the focus point of your content. If every post is a pushy sales post, you’re going to put people off. Focus on happy customers first, sales/profit second.

Take advantage of being able to be really specific and detailed when creating social ads. Being too vague when segmenting your audience won’t deliver the results you want, on the other hand being extremely specific can also whittle down your audience too much, so you want to find a happy medium.

How to stand out in a saturated market?

Powah Team — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 06:00:00 +0000

How to stand out in a saturated market?

Ensuring you stand out amongst your competitors is essential to your businesses growth, but how do you do it?

Powah Team Mon, 04/19/2021 - 09:00

Most people would argue that fitness is an overly saturated market, that there’s something for everyone and that standing out amongst competitors must be near impossible. So how do we do it?

Use your knowledge. Show off your expertise without bragging of course. If you’re able to show those searching for a product or service that you provide, that you can offer them top level service then hopefully you’ll be lucky enough to secure that customer. Remind yourself that you're the expert and be confident in your abilities, and definitely don’t be afraid to compare yourself to your competitors, this is where you will grow and be able to pinpoint values that set you apart from them.

Show that there are real people behind the brand. At Powah we take a very friendly approach towards all of our clients, we are just as excited to build their brand and collaborate with them as they are with us, which is why we think our work is so successful. We don’t just build a brand for our clients but we build a relationship. Relationships with your clients are key to climbing up the ladder in business, and building an emotional relationship over simply making a business deal is very important for us at Powah.

Finding your niche is the best way you can differentiate yourself from your competitors...now we know this often isn’t the easiest of tasks but we promise this is what will make you stand out. If you can offer something with great value behind it, all whilst it being something no one else on the market currently provides, you’re on to a winner.

We offer unique, bespoke, and tailored fitness plans for every client we work with and no two plans are the same. From the branding; this includes logos, fonts and brand guidelines; to the plan itself, the way it's written and how the exercise plan is put together, all the way to the social media strategy and how we will promote the plan for the client across their social platforms. From start to finish, everything is thought about and taken care of.

We make sure we go above and beyond what is expected. This is how we stand out. How you choose to stand out from the rest will be different from every brand and business out there, so unfortunately that’s something you have to figure out yourself! But we hope we have given you some tips and guidance to finding the right path and getting yourself where you want to be. Start taking those steps sooner rather than later, establishing yourself and putting your brand/business out there is a marathon not a sprint, it takes time but it will be worth it.

Once you’re out there and known for what you do, how you do it and the value at which you deliver it, there will be no stopping the influx of people queuing up requiring your services. Patience is key, and if you’re in it for the right reasons and the right reasons only, and hold the right mindset and ambitions, you will get your brand or business to where you want it to be. The top.

Sell the solution, not the product

Powah Team — Wed, 09 Sep 2020 08:44:28 +0000

Sell the solution, not the product

Why is it important to sell the solution and not the product?

Powah Team Wed, 09/09/2020 - 11:44

Typically, most brands initial thought is how can I get everyone to want to buy this product? What makes this product great and how can I make money? Although these are great questions to ask yourself from a business perspective you need to flip the switch and look at it as a consumer.

When people go online or in store to buy a product they will look at various things. Quality and price are massive factors, can they get something of better quality or better price/value for money else where? If they can, you’re going to lose that customer. This being said, don’t lower your worth to be able to compete with other brands, know the value of your product, and understand your audience.

Something customers will look at without even realising, is noticing if that product is the solution to the reason they’re making the purchase. For example, you don’t sell a car by saying it doesn’t guzzle up fuel, you would sell it by making it known to the consumer that they will save money and time by purchasing this car. Same goes for a fitness plan, your sales will be far more successful if you market it by saying, this plan will ensure you become fitter, stronger, healthier and more toned than ever as well improving your mental wellbeing and happiness, over saying buy this plan and you will lose a stone. Connect with the customers emotions. You have to answer the problem and sell why your product is better at doing this than the rest on the market.

Think about what the consumer cares about, not what YOU care about. Find compelling ways to frame your product and evoke emotion and curiosity.

Similarly, think about features vs benefit as this goes hand in hand with selling the solution not the product. Try to make the customer aware of the benefits they’re getting with their purchase, rather than just stating the obvious. Instead of telling a new customer that in the gym there are 20 treadmills, 10 bikes and 70 classes a week, you need to sell it to them, tell them the benefits! Tell them that with their membership they will never find themselves stuck without equipment available, because the gym has so much to offer, that their time will never be wasted as they can come into the gym, smash out their workout and leave without having to hang around and wait for something to become free. Same goes for the classes, tell them you have such a massive variety of classes available for free with their membership that they won’t ever be stuck finding something they will love or find classes repetitive.

The difference between selling a product and selling a solution might not be apparent at first, because aren’t all products created to solve a problem? But it’s how you market your product which separates you from your competitors. Sell to fit an individual persons needs not a wide audience. Create connections with real people and understand their emotions as emotions are the biggest influence on buying behaviour.

By no means does this mean sell a product as something it's not, it doesn’t. We are really passionate about understanding what the consumer wants and making sure we market to their needs. Whenever we’re finalising anything, from workouts, pdf’s, mp3’s we watch, listen and read as a customer, this enables us to understand the impact we're making from the buyers point of view.

Source: https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/emotion-influence-buying-behavior

How important is video content to your social media strategy?

Powah Team — Fri, 28 Aug 2020 08:44:28 +0000

How important is video content to your social media strategy?

Powah Team Fri, 08/28/2020 - 11:44

How important is the use of video content on social media to you and your brand? Should you put the time and effort into the editing and delivery of making a video and will you get results?

Videos are everywhere, from Instagram to Vimeo, Facebook to Twitter, you couldn’t scroll for five minutes and not stumble across one, it’s no secret that video has become a staple in our everyday lives, but does this mean they are a successful edition to your social content?

Many people assume that using videos on your social platforms is time-consuming and involves a lot of skill, but not every video needs to be professionally put together and edited, it all depends on the platform and the purpose of the video.

Determine what type of video would positively impact your business and from there you can discover the best platform to host your video and what content would rank the most effective for you! Don't forget your social media strategy is personal to you and your brand, just because one thing works for someone else doesn't mean it’ll work for you. Be clever.

Carefully evaluate what type of videos are successful on your chosen platform, analyse the data, get the facts and you'll be heading in the right direction. Will your video be square or portrait? Will it involve a written script or just music? Will it be 1 minute long or 15 seconds long? All these variables will determine the success of your video and how it will perform online.

Social video generates 1200% more likes and shares than text and image combined, therefore making it one of the most powerful forms of online marketing you can use on your social channels or website. So to answer the question, video is crucial to the success of your brand/business’s online social presence.

Viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video compared to 10% when reading it as text, so if your aim is to get a message across, video is the key. Client/customer testimonials work brilliantly as video content, as a business that works with a lot of high profile people, adding a testimonial in video form is so much more effective than a piece of written content. These videos enable us to showcase the amazing work we do and have achieved directly from the client themselves. This gives us credibility and validates our work leading us to future successes.

We are also avid lovers of using video across our social channels, it creates great engagement and draws in potential new business opportunities. To bring it back to basics, it allows us to gain more brand awareness and up our reach, more engagement to our post and traffic to our site ultimately leading to sales/conversions.

Source: https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/video-content-the-importance-of-video-marketing

Are Tv & radio officially on their way out?

Powah Team — Tue, 04 Aug 2020 08:44:28 +0000

Are Tv & radio officially on their way out?

Powah Team Tue, 08/04/2020 - 11:44

Over the last decade the world has watched online platforms slowly but surely completely take over. 15 years ago Live television and radio were at the forefront of entertainment, if you wanted to watch anything or gain any relevant information they would be the places you would go. However, things have changed dramatically over the 2010s to the point now in the year 2020 the future of radio and television does not look bright. 6 out of 10 people prefer online platforms to television.

Live broadcasting has now primarily been moved onto the web with huge amounts of young people watching their favourite football games through online streaming, this allows them to watch games on the go and wherever. Something televised entertainment is hugely disadvantaged with. Radio has also taken a deadly hit from streaming platforms such as Spoify and Apple music. We are now able to pay a monthly subscription of £10 a month to access over 30 million songs. 15 years ago you would have to have separately purchased albums and songs which got incredibly expensive which lead to people just turning to the radio instead. In the year 2020 major streaming platforms such as Netflix and Disney + have become standard household needs, it works out significantly cheaper to have a subscription for 3 streaming services then having a subscription to a Tv company.

Technology is changing and people are changing with it. We are watching TV personalities pour more energy into online platforms such as YouTube and Instagram, this is mainly because it is so more accessible for their audience which then leads to them getting more views which will then equal in more profit for them. An example would be love islanders, they enter the biggest show in the country and gain a huge social media following from it. After they leave the show we are seeing a large majority of them start their own YouTube channels to try and capitalize on their new found fame. It would literally take them 10 minutes to set up a YouTube channel and away they go. This makes it very easy for Tv personalities to potentially turn themselves into influencers. The TV industry is in a lose-lose state as it is unwillingly fuelling the enemy.

At Powah we believe that within the next 10 years the world is going to watch live television and radio fade into the darkness. Smart televisions will take over the TV aspect and radio will mainly be a thing that an older generation tunes into. Younger generations will not see the need to tune into radio when they can easily access any music they want straight from their fingertips.

15 years ago streaming platforms seemed like an impossible thing, they appeared to have just creeped up out of nowhere. The interesting question is, could there be a new technological breakthrough over the next few years which puts streaming services on the line?

https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/greening-the-media/201811/is-television-dying

https://observer.com/2019/03/streaming-vs-tv-subscriber-loss-details/

How important is it having your own brand?

Powah Team — Wed, 29 Jul 2020 08:44:28 +0000

How important is it having your own brand?

Powah Team Wed, 07/29/2020 - 11:44

Brands reach out to influencers and negotiate with money, products, exposure. The influencers will typically advertise these products on their social media feed. But there’s a way to dispose of the negotiations altogether, while still promoting products the influencer love…

But there’s a way to dispose of the negotiations altogether, while still promoting products the influencer loves just as much…and it’s called starting your own brand. While this may not sound simple, Powah is here to tell you it really is! Influencers have already done a lot of the hard work without even realising. A difficult part of becoming an influencer is maintaining a substantial following and level of engagement. If the influencer has already achieved this they have the key factor in starting a brand right at their fingertips.

By cutting out the initial back and forth between a brand and influencer, promoting products becomes less of a job and more of a hobby. It allows the influencers to put out content they believe in and which benefits themselves, their followers and enhances their personal image.

Starting a brand as an influencer is not only a way to invest in yourself, but also a way to express and expand the brand you’ve already created. The pressure of pleasing another brand is eliminated, and you gain the freedom of having your own creative control.

It’s important to be able to create content the influencer wants people to see, and how they want to be shown to the public. Some influencers post ads of products they would never use and it can sometimes have a less favourable outcome.

Influencers creating their own website, e-com shop and product will expand their opportunities… no more being tied down to just photos and videos on social media. Having a website, logo and many other platforms and assets opens new doors. Starting a brand is a way to break through the creative limitations and move away from always answering to someone else. When influencers can create content that hasn’t come with a brief and set parameters, it allows them to have a lot more freedom and opens up personal growth.

Who to go to when starting a brand?

Powah is here to help. We provide a service which will eliminate all the headaches. Powah works collaboratively with you to create the perfect brand for you. Our team of branding experts will ensure the look is uniform and filters down to everything from the website to social media content ensuring your promotional content, supporting content, sales content and after-sales content is professional. Our team has extensive experience working with many influencers and know how to create designs to suit your brand, we create high-quality content for influencers that they themselves can be proud of. Highly skilled in the software required to make high-quality graphics, you can take your designs and content to the next level. We also provide influencers with state-of-the-art web applications using the very best build methods. Content is king, so Powah makes video content to stand out from the crowd.

Source: https://www.theinfluencernews.com/community-source/2018/3/10/why-influencers-should-start-their-own-brands

How Powah thinks Social Media will change after lockdown

Powah Team — Wed, 22 Jul 2020 08:44:28 +0000

How Powah thinks Social Media will change after lockdown

Powah Team Wed, 07/22/2020 - 11:44

Without a doubt, there will be a huge number of changes to life as we know it after lockdown is officially over. People have been starved of normal everyday things that they may have taken for granted pre lockdown. People have naturally turned to social media more because of the inability to do other things in which they enjoy. Will people use social media less after lockdown? Or will they use it more

Usage of Instagram on Friday and Saturday nights have shot up, by 13% and 15% since lockdown started, but this doesn’t mean it’s a benefit for Brands and Influencers. Actually the uses of the #ad hashtag have dropped by 35% on Instagram, due to there not being much adverts during this time. The whole world has been glued to their phones and TVs during the lockdown period, here at Powah we believe that for the first few weeks when lockdown is officially lifted people will gravitate away from social media, we believe that there will almost be a slight dip. People have been starved from seeing their friends and family and just doing everyday normal things. Why would people want to be glued to their screens when they have essentially been freed and are able to go to the pub, see friends, family. However, because Instagram is its own black whole in which sucks everything in, it would not be long until people rush back to it to upload all of their ‘free from lockdown’ pictures.

Source - https://marketingtechnews.net/news/2020/may/06/instagram-and-social-engagement-rises-but-influencers-having-less-impact/