Here are Instagram’s most-followed trending hashtags of 2021
This may come as your first surprise for 2022. More people than you think follow hashtags on Instagram.
The social network has published a list of their top 10 most followed trending hashtags in 2021. You can see the whole list here. Here are 3 common themes that we noticed among the 10 winners:
- Half of the hashtags are related to Asia or anime. #bts, #anime, #squidgame, #genshiniimpact, and #blankpink to be specific.
- Two of the hashtags are B2B related. #nft and #smallbusiness were hashtags that people probably followed hoping to earn some extra money.
- Two hashtags are geared towards raising awareness. #pridemonth for June’s Pride Month, and #freebritney for the singer’s conservatorship issue, which ended in early November 2021.
What we can learn from this: If you want to increase your organic Instagram reach, adding hashtags to your post is a good place to start. How many hashtags? There have been some recent studies trying to find the sweet spot.
Also, when adding hashtags consider the themes we listed above and ask yourself:
- Can I use any popular movie/music/singer hashtags?
- Is there a trending hashtag trying to raise awareness of something? Can I relate my post to it?
- Is there a popular B2B topic around my niche I can use?
Being thoughtful about these three things can definitely pay off.
ADVERTISING
What do seniors, less affluent consumers, and mobile gamers have in common?
They’re all audience segments you’re probably not targeting enough (or targeting in the wrong way), according to Melody Lin, a columnist for AdExchanger:
- Male teens aren’t the only ones who enjoy video games. New types of gamers emerged during the pandemics. Seniors playing word search games on their smartphones are one such new type of gamer. Also, 65% of US females between 10 and 65 now play mobile games.
- Advertisers don’t personalize their ads enough for less affluent consumers. Less than one-fifth of less affluent consumers felt they’ve received personalized ads, according to one study. Here’s one additional stat for thought: Low-income consumers spend up to 40% of their budget on luxury items. Combine this with personalization and you have yourself an opportunity.
- 60 is the new 40. People over 55 control nearly 70 percent of US wealth. 91 percent of active adults have a smartphone, and 70 percent use it on a daily basis. Our grandmas and grandpas aren’t what they used to be.
2022 brings us an opportunity to rethink things, and one of the things worth rethinking is the segment of people you’re (under)targeting.
SPONSORED BY CLEARBIT
Your ‘hidden pipeline’ is full of high-intent prospects – Clearbit helps you find them
The prospects visiting your site – and not converting – are your ‘hidden pipeline’.
Does this sound familiar? You spend good money driving traffic to a new offer on your site, only to see 90%+ not convert. “Oh well… at least sales has a few people to follow up with!”
As opposed to shrugging it off, what if you could match your anonymous, non-converting traffic to real, high-fit accounts your sales team is prospecting?
It’s 2022, dammit. It’s time to unlock your hidden pipeline.
Clearbit is offering a tool that does exactly that – for free. Sign up today, and you’ll receive an interactive dashboard of de-anonymized companies visiting your website every Friday.
For the low cost of a 5-minute setup, this dashboard will help you:
- Know which accounts are on your site, broken down by data that you care about (employee count, industry, and more)
- Identify high-intent accounts so your sales team can take action accordingly
- Understand which pages & channels are driving the right traffic so you can optimize
High-fit prospects are on your site right now, not filling out your forms. Don’t wait!
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MARKETING
Storytelling elements B2B can take and adapt from B2C
B2B marketing shouldn’t be “Boring 2 Boring.”
You can get creative.
B2B clients are more logical, and buying software requires a different thought process than buying a gym subscription.
However, storytelling can be important in the B2B world too.
- It humanizes your brand.
- Creates an emotional connection with customers.
- Helps with customer retention.
The benefits are real and they will directly impact your bottom line.
And if you’re trying to achieve that, Adriana Stein wrote a Moz blog post about B2C storytelling elements you can use:
1) Give your brand a personality: Decide the human characteristic your brand should have, live, and breathe by this personality you create.
Your brand can be entertaining, motivating, inspiring, sensual, rebellious, or efficient.
Build an identity by diving deep into your brand value.
2) Create a unique narrative: Every piece of content you publish should tell a story that is universal, memorable, consistent, and organized. If you can focus on these principles, your content will be more powerful.
A B2B example here is Microsoft, which created Microsoft Story Labs. This is where they share stories of businesses using Microsoft products.
3) Display strong emotions: Your B2B audience is still made of real people. Write out the fears, joys, and anxieties of your audience. And connect that to how your brand can help them diminish or amplify certain emotions.
4) Get to know them: Get your clients on interviews or conduct research to know them better. Ask open-ended questions to find out their quirks and nuances.
5) Make it personal: People are drawn to a message that appeals to their personalities.
The more you can personalize your content, user experience, and messaging, the better you can appeal to them.
6) Hone in on the data: Collect data on your marketing campaigns, or use social listening to find stories that are already working for your brand.
SPONSORED BY THE DAILY UPSIDE
If Mark Zuckerberg and Tim Cook agreed on something, it would be this business newsletter
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THE CREW’S INSIGHTS
How we find micro-influencers for TikTok campaigns
We started working with TikTok creators in Q4 2021 (you might have seen us there first) and we wanted to share what we’ve learned so far.
How do you find the right creators? Instead of using tools, we decided to get our hands dirty and find them ourselves.
We typed the most relevant keywords in TikTok’s search bar, like social media, PPC, SEO, Facebook Ads, and so on.
This lets us find creators that used these keywords as hashtags or normal words in their posts and accounts.
We aimed for a 5,000 to 200,000 follower range, with an average video view of 5,000 to 20,000 in their last 20 videos.
How to reach out to creators: The DMs of these accounts are flooded with messages, so we decided to search for their emails:
- Most of them had an email in their bio or a link to their website which led to an email address.
- We used Hunter.io to find the emails of creators that didn’t have an email or a website shown in their bio (more than expected).
- We used Instagram for the ones who didn’t have anything.
Out of 105 creators initially listed, we made a deal with 9 of them, with an average price per video of $252.
Lessons we learned:
- Followers aren’t the only factor to consider when searching for creators. What matters the most is how strong is the connection with their audience.
- Check out the comments section to see if people are actively participating, paying attention, and responding to the message of the creator.
And this is a great way to start venturing into the world of TikTok marketing!
ROUNDING UP THE STACK
GOOGLE: No two language versions of your site are the same, according to Google.
COPYWRITING: Inspiration. Something we all could use more of. Here’s one app that nailed their landing page.
BUSINESS: Can you guess what the most popular holiday tech gift was last year? After you find the answer, you’ll probably get in the same camp with us that VR advertising will be a thing in 2022.
PRODUCTIVITY: We won’t blame you if one of your New Year’s resolutions is spending less time on social media. Here’s one person who got into action and used iPhone shortcuts to limit their Twitter addiction (you can re-apply these principles to any social media site).
BRAIN TEASER
No matter how little or how much you use me, you change me every month. What am I?
You can find the solution here.
POOLSIDE CHAT
Cool tech, (funny) business, lifestyle and all the other things marketers like to chat about while sipping cocktails by the pool.
I’m an artist, not a COVID variant!
Corona beer just got itself a new competitor.
Since the Omicron variant surfaced in the US, many people have (mistakenly) referred to it as the Omarion variant (if you’re unfamiliar with US pop culture, Omarion is a popular R&B singer).
We’ve all heard the saying, “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.” And Omarion has begun to do just that. The singer posted a series of TikTok videos, saying, “Hi, this is Omarion. I am an artist — not a variant.”
The video continued with the singer stating, “Please be aware that if you just so happen to run into me on the street, you don’t have to isolate yourself for 5 days.”
Omarion also posted a few follow-up videos saying that “While it’s important not to touch me and keep your distance because you know that’s how it’s supposed to be, you don’t need a negative test to dance to my music.”
While Omarion is enjoying the unintended virality, Delta Airlines is probably relieved that their turn has come to an end.