There are different types of ads you can use for your social media accounts to promote your company and its latest news. Are you fully aware of what your ad is actually supposed to do and what you're paying for?

Hello readers, and welcome back to the blog! We hope that you've been reading through our blogs and applying some new information that you've been learning to your everyday work week or your future marketing planning. Have you come across anything new that's been working well for your social media growth? We love celebrating these moments with you too, so feel free to let us know and share this with you! Also, if you ever have any questions or comments, always reach out! We love hearing from you. We love growing together with our readers, feel free to comment below or reach out!

Today we are going to talk about advertising on social media. While not everyone or every company uses it, or believes that they should, we truly believe there is merit, power, and belief to using ads on social media. There are a few different types of ads available to you, and depending on which ones you choose, you can get several different reactions in return. Some ads will drive more visits to your website, more clicks on the ad itself, more visits to your social media platforms, and more. However, it's very important to remember that social media does not mean you're going to get sales. Your marketing platforms are not sales, that is a different department of your company. While it is a huge help in getting the word out about your products and services, and to keep your audience up to date, social media and its ads don't mean you'll get guaranteed phone calls, visitors in your brick and mortar location, or a guaranteed number of sales. It will however help keep you in front of your target audience's memory and attention, keep you in competition with your competitors, keep a healthy and active relationship with your customers, and it will create a healthy and active online thumbprint for your company. The more you have of this, the more likely you will get more customers and sales, but it is not a set-in-stone guarantee. We've experienced issues with the actual names of ads being misleading, and we want to clear up some confusion on what you will be paying for and what you should expect.

Facebook is one of the leading tech giants when it comes to digital marketing, and depending on how much you want to invest and who you want to attract, this will choose what ad you want to create. You have three main options of ads; brand awareness and attracting new customers, lead generation and website traffic, and qualified leads with higher conversion rates. Brand awareness ads that grab new client attention are where many companies begin. This level of marketing usually costs about $150 to $300 a month. Lead generation and website traffic is your middle-tier marketing option and will cost between $300 and $750 a month. Finally, qualified leads with a higher conversion rate is your top tier of online Facebook marketing starting at $750 a month and up. Think these prices are a bit high? Do your research. Think about all the companies you see consistently on Facebook. Gyms, food delivery services, and audiobooks. They aren't getting that space for free. According to webfx.com, companies are spending between $200 and $800 a month on average on Facebook ads every month. Imagine if you're spending nothing while your competitors are spending within that average range for their ads. These companies already have a huge leg up on you!

• You might be wondering if spending this money on ads isn't directly getting you sales, what is it getting you? Lead Generation ads have been on our radar quite a bit, so we wanted to focus on that and what you will be paying for with a lead generation ad on Facebook. By Facebook's definition, lead generation is "the process of building interest in a business's product or services. On Facebook, you can create campaigns using a lead generation object that allows consumers to fill out a form called an 'instant form' with their contact information. You can also track lead conversion events on your own website using the Facebook pixel." These ads are getting your customers excited about your products, educating them about your products, and allowing you to collect information about them.
• This information is only as powerful as you're using it. Are you sending out an email blast with the emails being shared with you? Are you calling and reaching out? This type of ad is giving you information, not necessarily giving you or making you a sale. You can't set the ad and forget it, you have to follow through with it. These ads do, however, open the door for you to your customer. Receiving emails or phone calls from a company that a consumer has shared their private information with is much more welcomed than any unsolicited emails or phone calls. Remember, these ads are giving you leads that you have to follow through with. This type of ad isn't giving you automatic customers or sales. You've made the first big step and you've made a good impression on your target audience that responded to your ad. Now it's time to take the next step!
• These next steps could turn into a new client, a returning client, or just your next biggest fan. This is an ad process that allows you to nurture your target audience, both new and returning until they are ready to buy. Please remember that this is not an overnight process. It will take time for you to learn and adjust to this process, and it will take time for your social media algorithms to process, especially if this is the first ad you've run on Facebook or any other social media platform. You will need to invest money, patience, and time into this ad and let it grow. You will need to nurture the ad process, just like it's nurturing your clients and future purchases!
• What else do you need to know about lead generation ads? First off know that this type of advertisement can be an incredibly useful tool for any type and any size company. It will help increase your brand's awareness, help you find qualified leads, build relationships, and help to close deals. Investing in this type of ad allows you to find those direct qualified leads, the people who will click "buy" instead of letting something just sit in their cart. As we are sure you've experienced, it is very hard to find that perfect audience, but that is exactly what lead generation helps with. Lead generation cuts through so much white noise and helps get you right in front of your target audience. It does help grow your sales, your relationships with your customers, and helps your overall credibility grow. However, it won't do it on its own. As we've mentioned before, the ad won't do all the work on its own, you still have to follow through and put all the correct moving pieces of your marketing strategy into place, or it won't pay out as it should.
• Lead generation has been around for a long time, and it has grown and changed just like the consumer market has. It has changed along with the new trends of how consumers are now looking for their products and buying their products.  Is your lead generation up to date? Are you giving your ad enough time to generate the correct leads? If you are just investing in ads once in a whole and aren't consistent about it, then it won't work for you and will end up being a waste of money. For this type of very important and beneficial type of ad to work, you have to be consistent and you have to give it time!

Don't give up on your lead generation ads, and don't fall into the trap of "we've always done it this way!". Marketing and every moving part of it will take time to be successful and you have to let your whole marketing strategy grow with the consumer to be productive. Until next time, stay safe and caffeinated Summerville!

You've been working hard on your social media platforms; you have a great marketing plan, you're investing in SEO, and you have a few ads running. However, you just can't seem to gain more followers! You've hit a follower plateau, so what do you do now? 

Hello, Summerville! Hello, readers! Welcome to the Creative Consulting Blog! Today we are going to be talking about the number of followers your business account has and what happens when you've hit that follower plateau. You've worked hard to have as many followers as you do today, why does it seem like the followers have just stopped? Don't worry! While Facebook and Instagram like to constantly change their algorithms on how and why people see your accounts, there is no need to worry just yet. You just need to follow a few steps and look into a few things to get those numbers up and rolling again.

While followers aren't everything, especially if your target audience demographic doesn't use social medial all that much. However, there are certainly plus sides for gaining and maintaining a healthy growth of followers. It's an easy way to market and share news and information with more people very quickly, you can engage and create more relationships with your customers, and more eyes on your products and services means more sales. Also, there are those special features that come with receiving certain followers like reaching the 10k follower mark on Instagram. Hitting that 10k mark allows you to (on your business page) add the swipe up feature to your stories that will take users directly to a desired website, you can go LIVE on TikTok once you reach 1000 followers, and you can start making money on your YouTube once you have at least 1000 subscribers. Many social media platforms have these types of follower incentives when you hit certain milestones. What happens when you've hit a bump in your followers across the board and you can't quite get out of that plateau? 

• One of the first places to start is to look at where your current content campaign is. Have you been using the same one for a while now? Remember that social media is constantly changing and trends are very important to pay attention to. Maybe it's time to revamp your content and your overall approach to social media. Are there new tools or trends you haven't tried yet? Have you ventured into using video in your content routine? What about stories, LIVE, Reels, IGTV, and even TikTok? Are you using all the social media platforms available to you that make sense to your brand? It might not be a matter of what you're putting out there, but how it's reaching your target audience. When giving your content a refresh, you're not necessarily rebranding, but giving it a spring cleaning. You still need to be consistent with your brand, but it's just time to try something new! 

 

• Has your target audience changed or evolved and you didn't even realize it? While we've all be home and on our smart devices so much this past year, new products and services had the very real opportunity to introduce themselves to new audiences across all social media platforms. Every target audience, depending on their age, will respond differently to your goods and services. You might be sharing the same information you have been looking at for years, you just need to find a new way to share it with your new followers! This is one of the many reasons why it is so important to keep track of who is following you. This is free information and an insight into how you need to start marketing if you've hit a plateau. 

 

• Pay attention to what time you're posting! If you're posting when your target audience is generally not online, it's very easy for your posts to get lost in the shuffle and they might not even be seen. This information can be found within your platforms, online, and you can even do some experimenting yourself and see when your audience responds the most. Make sure that your posting times make sense. If you're a breakfast-only restaurant, for example, posting the night before can remind your patrons to make plans the next day to come visit you. If you post at breakfast time, you've missed out on your audience as your patrons have already made plans and are already eating breakfast.  

 

• Remember how the state of the world is affecting your followers. According to SproutSocial.com, consumer behavior has drastically changed during traumatic events like 9/11 and the recession that happened in 2008. The pandemic has caused a very similar reaction. Think about how this has affected your audience, and how your content can reach out and touch them during these hard times. They don't want to hear about your sales and specials all the time, sometimes they just want human connection, and that can be a lifesaver for a brand. The pandemic has hit you, your employees, and your company too. Share that with your followers, and help them feel a little less alone! 

 

• Don't forget that you aren't just looking for a vast number of random followers, you want to have the right followers. Bots are out there in force, creating fake pages and following people to make their pages look impressive. These followers don't do anything for your company, they aren't buying anything from you. Focus on gaining the right followers and continue cultivating them as time goes on. 

 

• Remember that social media is a social world. You can't just spit out your social media content and just expect your followers to do all the engagement, you need to follow through with that as well and engage them back. You need to show the humans side of your social profiles! Liking, commenting, and sharing needs to come from your page as well. Be apart of your company's world and industry on social media, and be apart of your local community too. Being engaging will lead to others engaging back. Your engagement sets an example for your followers about how you would like to be engaged in return.  

 

• Are you showing the human side of your company on social media? Are you showing the behind-the-scenes of your business? People love secrets and they love to know what's going on! Let them be nosey with permission! 

 

• Paying attention to what has worked consistently, what is the bread and butter of your social content? You might be getting tired of it, but your followers aren't! Find a way to invest yourself in it so you are just as excited as your audience is again! If you're feeling stale, it will come off in your posts! 

 

• While social media is a fantastic free advertising platform, there is something to be said for paid advertisements, especially if you've never used them before. You might not want to use them all the time, but they can help you relaunch your social media and get it in front of the right audience much faster than just letting it sit out there hoping someone will see it. 

 

• Remember to stay positive and not to give up when you've hit these plateaus. They're growing pains. Remember to celebrate what got you to where you are, and celebrate the fact that you have the chance to keep learning. These plateaus don't mean you've failed, it's just time to learn a little more and try again. What can you learn from this experience? Also, a month-to-month comparison doesn't tell your full success story. Remember that trends come and go, what won't leave is is a strong and functional team that works well together. Fad posts and stories are funny for a moment, but they won't define your business if you keep working, improving, and growing. Don't let your frustration get in the way of this!  

Also remember reader, that everyone reaches a plateau or creative dry spell at some point or another. You are not alone and you cannot beat yourself up when you do hit that point. Moments of creative dry spells don't mean you aren't good at what you do. It means you just need to take a moment and learn a little more. It might mean you need to take a walk, enjoy a break, go and find things that inspire you, or it might mean you need a nap! The point is that you and your company are going to be okay, you just need to invest the time in the growing pains. Continue to grow and nurture your social media and you will see those numbers growing again soon! Until next time, stay safe and caffeinated Summerville!

It is an app that has been the center of global speculation, brought comfort to so many people, helped many find a place to be creative, helped many find a support system they've never had, and it has now taken the world by storm. Its newest venture? It's helping small businesses sell more products and help many go viral! Today, we are going to be talking about the future of TikTok and business! 

Hello readers and welcome to the Creative Consulting blog! Some of you might be very new to our blog and our company due to the topic and content of this blog. For those who are regular readers, we do urge you to suspend any disbelief at the moment and give this blog a chance, you might be very surprised at what you might learn! Today we are going to be taking a step in a new direction for Creative Consulting and talking about one of the biggest app phenomenons, TikTok. Before you leave the page please know this app has evolved, almost overnight, from an app for dancing tweens to users of all ages (Yes, all ages! We've personally seen some amazing videos created by individuals in their late 70's and 80's!), on all topics from cute animals, to incredible how-to's, recipes, artists, performers, and teachers. Musicals have been produced because of these creatives, important information has gone viral in a matter of hours, and it has given its users a sense of community when it was needed most. 

Thanks to the pandemic we were all at home, many unable to see their families or friends for months, some still unable to do so. Many creatives lost their platforms to perform, share their art, or tell their stories. TikTok changed all of that. Many downloaded the app for the very first time once quarantine went into effect for entertainment, but they found a place to connect, share what they know, and not feel so alone. While the app has spent its fair share in the hot seat thanks to the previous administration, it looks like it is here to say. Not only is it here to stay, but to help all kinds of businesses become relevant in this new day and age and help their sales improve. How? This is what we are going to be talking about today! What's the buzz? It's a short-form video platform by the name of TikTok, where users can upload 60-second videos of their creation. As of last August, the app had been downloaded over two billion times and has quickly become a staple for internet culture for almost every age group. While it has become a global phenomenon, its rise to glory in the US has been a much different story, receiving a lot of fire in 2020. 

The app is owned by ByteDance, a huge Chinese tech company. What was brought into question by the US government and the previous administration was how much information the Chinese company was receiving about the US and its citizens through TikTok, and if this leak of data could be a threat to its protection. It also questioned how much access the Chinese government had to TikTok's user data and if ByteDance was doing an appropriate job of moderating its content. To help with this, TikTok brought in a little Disney Magic and hired Kevin Mayer, an American who was Disney steaming executive. However, due to the political environment and atmosphere that the last administration was pulling TikTok into, Mayer quickly resigned. The last administration demanded that it sell to an American company or it would be banned in the US. While it has now outlasted three deadlines of being sold, the first in September of 2020, the second in November of 2020, and a third that just passed on February 18th, the mega-corporation reports that it is continuing to work out the details. During the first few weeks of the current administration, it hasn't been touched on a lot yet. The future of the app is still very much up in the air. Despite everything and the potential ban the app could be facing, ByteDance doubled its profit to $35 billion last year, according to Bloomberg.com

Before it became such a phenomenon with so much drama attached to it in the US, TikTok had its very own Cinderella story. The app first began as Musical.ly which launched in Shanghai in 2014 and had a strong following in the US. ByteDance followed in 2016 with a very similar app in China called Douyin. The app became so popular that ByteDance knew they could go somewhere with it. They rebranded Douyin to TikTok, bought Musical.ly in 2018, and TikTok was officially born. The question still lingers, how could an app designed for fun and entertainment help your business? Is this really becoming a reality? 

According to HootSuite, TikTok had 800 million active users as of October 2019 and was predicted to continue with strong growth spurts. HootSuite went on to report that the app on average is opened 8 times a day by its users. With that many eyes on an app, why wouldn't you want to use that to your advantage? Just like any other social media platform, it can be an excellent source of free marketing, that if stuck to properly can help increase your sales. You don't have to make ridiculous videos or anything out of your comfort zone, you just need to make a 60-second video full of interesting marketing that is on-brand for your company. Many companies, Forbes says, are ignoring the app thinking it's just a fad or just for children. With that being said, we might have to remind you that Facebook and Instagram were also considered fads once, and look at them now! They're almost imperative to a company's success! Quite honestly, we might be standing at the doorway of a very important and untapped market. This is an opportunity to introduce your company to a younger generation, one who could introduce your products to their parents or want them for themselves. TikTok could also see the trend that Instagram and Facebook did, that as time went on more and more adults joined. Don't forget that this is a global app, and it could widen your market beyond what you could imagine. Your products could go global! 

We've talked about this before in our previous blogs, but tools like Instagram and Facebook videos, Instagram TV, reels, and going live have become such a popular tool for getting your customer's attention and introducing yourselves to them in a fun and personable way. According to wyzowl.com the amount of time consumers spend watching videos online has gone up 52% from 2018 and is going to keep growing. TikTok is another platform to help you show off these videos you're already making for Facebook and Instagram, you don't even need to make different content, you can be consistent across all of your platforms. This can help you reach many different audiences with just one video across multiple platforms. 

TikTok is a powerful tool to use for generating brand awareness and to help with your engagement. The videos you are creating cost nothing to make, but thanks to its algorithms you can see results almost right away when you do post. However, you can't just slap a video together to magically get the results you want and need. Just like Instagram and Facebook, you'll need to create something attention-grabbing, fun, to the point, uses all aspects of the app (Adding music and text), and you need to pay attention to what's trending to find this success. You can also take advantage of TikTok's ad platform on top of making your own videos to help spread awareness. This awareness can increase traffic to your website, other social media pages, and even drive up sales, especially if you can create a buzz on the app with other users talking about your products. This idea is very similar to the partnerships and influencer phenomenon that Instagram has been seeing over the years. Instead of a picture or story, TikTok gets its users talking about products, literally! It's very important to remember that you need to create content that's not just commercials or forcing sales down your audience's throat. You need to connect and communicate with your audience and have fun with them, just as you do with every platform of social media. TikTok has, as of last year, officially launched TikTok for Business with the specific goal of helping businesses grow and expand on its platform! 

TikTok's goal with this new step is to "empower small and mid-sized businesses to tap into the power of TikTok for Business to grow their brand" according to the app. They are very aware of the power their app has generated and the marketing options available, and want small businesses to take part in that! TikTok wants its users to reach new audiences, optimize all the hard work users put into their marketing campaigns, and they have designed an easy platform for anyone to be able to enjoy this! While Facebook and Instagram have consistently grown in power for helping small businesses, many small business owners might agree that both platforms with their constant upgrades and changes make it hard and frustrating for its users to continue being successful on their platforms. We also might go as far as to say that TikTok wants to give small businesses the opportunity to use their platform along with all the tools they need to be successful, all while supporting them in every way they can. You will still need to spend money on their ads, they are still a business, but using ads on TikTok could offer more views and clicks than their social media peers due to the sheer volume of users. While the future of TikTok is still up in the air for the US, if it does stick around, it might change the face of marketing, just like Facebook and Instagram once did! 

What do you think about TikTok? Have you started using it for your small business or are you still just scrolling through looking for cute animals and recipes? We do encourage you to do your own research about the app and do a little experimenting yourself. While it might not be for everyone, there is something for everyone on the app! We are very excited to see where the app will take the world of marketing and what might happen next. Keep your eyes peeled, we have a feeling this isn't the last you'll hear about TikTok! Until next time, stay safe and caffeinated Summerville!

To learn more and do your own research, follow the link below! 
https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/tiktok-for-business-launches-new-smb-solutions

Are you a blog writer for your business, or looking to write more content for your own? It's important to understand what goes into writing a blog, outside of just picking a topic at random and pouring all of your research into one giant brain dump for your readers to enjoy.

Blogs have become very important due to the drive of search engine optimization and Google ranking, driving up their word count. If they need to be wordy, you still want them to be attention-grabbing and worth your reader's time.

I loved stumbling across this link in my research. The opening line of this blog, "Your job is so easy! Anyone can do that!", really hit home, and just like the author, we realize that it isn't the truth. This job requires being open to constantly learning new things and implementing them. If you're a blog writer, keep learning and keep writing, and don't let anyone get you down about your job! Here are a few ideas, tips, and suggestions I have learned and use as a guideline when researching and writing my blogs:

• Each blog must have its own voice and persona that resonates with the company and the company's target audience that you're writing for, along with appropriate blog topics for that target audience. 
• You need to understand your readers so you can help solve problems, educate your audience, introduce new ideas and questions to that audience, and keep them entertained. 
• It's very easy to pick a very broad topic for your blog, which can lead to a very wordy and meandering blog. Staying as specific as possible is the goal and a key tool in keeping your readers engaged. 
• Your blog will need a structure as you're creating it. You don't want to pour all of your research into a giant piece of copy. When editing, add structure with pictures, section headers, and know what kind of blog it's going to be. Will it be a list? A curated collection of paragraphs? Creating a clean, crisp, and consistent look will keep your audience's attention when reading.  
• Make sure your blog topic is offering your audience something that they can learn and apply to their life right now. Actionable content is what will make the biggest difference in your reader's lives.

We love the whole process! There are just so many options and ideas that can come from any industry! When it comes to branding design, it's important to keep in mind that your target audience may want to see different, engaging, interactive, unique, and compelling designs- and every audience is different!
Our lovely graphic designer, Jen, did some research and put together some advice for branding design trends that are coming about so far this year. We made sure to put in some of our favorites too, just to keep you in the Creative loop! Take a look below, we cover trends in website design ,trends in graphic design for social media, and even trends for logo design. If you have any questions at all though, please don't hesitate to reach out. We'd love to work with you on your new branding project! 

​An animated string of words will often be structured as a particular shape,
contrary to the standard horizontal, left-to-right sentence format. Ultimately, the
element’s role will always be for decorative purposes and not solely as a text to be
read. Designers will typically use this technique to convey a branding or
marketing objective, creating a desired vibe or visual theme.

We’ve been seeing high-quality 3D visuals weaved seamlessly into web designs.  Instead of being garish distractions, they’re adding to the overall user experience. 

Spot Illustrations
Illustrations that stand on their own without the limits of a background  scene – In web design they can be used to highlight featured areas  typically on home pages/landing pages. In recent trends, these  illustrations are animated and triggered by scrolling or by interacting  with the user. 

Isometric Illustrations

Isometric designs give you more perspectives on a subject without  having to have converging lines that clutter a design. Being able to see the side and top of a design makes people want to know more about it.  Especially for businesses who give their customers more options, or  whose product or service looks great in 3D. Having the ability to show a  space in 3D opens up nooks and crannies previously unavailable.

Text Destruction
For clients who request a logo focused more on typography and not on icon design. Text deconstruction in design is done by removing part of the word or image in order to make a logo stand out instead of simple adjustments to a standard typeface. Using negative space to balance out a design can create both a very professional and playful design that will make your target audience take another look!

​This trend is expected to grow stronger than years prior. Using negative space is a clever  way to add depth to a logo without cluttering it with more elements! 

In-feed color blocking can make your Instagram grid look more professional and  cohesive. Color blocking can be achieved by using harmonious tones alongside one another, or by having a strict color scheme that ties all your posts together. You can even go a step  further with this trend and find visual ways to connect your grid posts together vertically  - as the same posts will always sit above and below one another once published.

Do you have procreate or another drawing software handy? Do you like creating fun designs that could match your branding more effectively? We recommend creating stickers for your brand to use on Instagram Stories! If you create an account with giphy, and upload stagnant designs or gifs, you can search for your designs through Instagram's sticker database and use them for your own brand's stories! Who knows, maybe your designs will become popular with others as well and get featured!

Dealing with spam comments on any platform of your online presence is sadly a very common thing that almost everyone deals with. In part three of this blog, we are going to be talking about how to deal with spam comments on your social media pages! 
​
Hello readers and hello to our fellow Summerville businesses, residents, and friends! Welcome back to the Creative Consulting blog! We hope business is going well for you, and that you're working towards reaching your end of the year goals one day at a time! If you're not quite there yet, ask yourself what might be going on or getting in the way. One of the most overlooked things that can turn your business around is your social media presence. First of all, do you have any? Is your website skillfully designed and easy to navigate? Do you regularly post to your social media pages, do you respond to comments, emails, and direct messages promptly? Do you actually work on your SEO and Google ranking? If you answered no to any of those questions it might be time to reach out to us at Creative Consulting to help give your website a little TLC and truly give you the power that social media can provide. It's what we do, and what we are passionate about. We are also constantly dedicated to learning more about the social media industry to be up to date as much as possible to help our clients stay above and beyond their competitors! 

In part one of this blog series, we began talking about the impact spammers and hackers have on your social media and internet presence and focused on how to deal with them in blog comments. Today, we are going to be discussing how to deal with spam comments and potential hackers on your social media platforms. While so many think that spammer comments and posts on your social media can just be ignored and buried by other comments, it is not a situation to be ignored or a time to hope that they won't be seen. These comments, posts, and the presence of spam comments can be very dangerous and damaging to your company and your brand. Remember, social media can be an incredibly powerful tool for your company; it can help build it up or spammers can help tear it down in an instant. They come in the form of fake accounts, spamming comments filled with hashtags, links, and one too many emojis, and direct messages that are not welcome. It takes time to deal with all of this, but it is well worth it to avoid any malicious intent or harm to your accounts or your actual trusted followers. 

• Fake Accounts

No matter if you've been on social media for a few years or a few months, you'll begin seeing and recognizing fake accounts popping up constantly in your inboxes and asking for friend requests. This is something almost every user of social media has to deal with. While accepting fake friend requests seems harmless, they can actually hurt your account, your credibility, and lead to an overwhelming amount of unwanted direct messages. These fake accounts can also lead you to some very nasty malware and viruses. One way you can deal with this is to not follow back every account or person that follows you on social media. While following accounts and others back is a way to grow your account, that doesn't mean you have to use this tool. AgoraPulse recommends avoiding doing anything automatically, as automated actions are against many social media platform's rules. Doing repetitive or automated actions can pause or freeze your account, flagging you as the issue. This can prevent you from commenting, supporting, and even posting on your accounts. Also, block those fake accounts. While it is very tempting to reach a certain number of followers (like the prized 10k followers on Instagram), these fake accounts aren't doing anything for you in return. Spam accounts, if liked and followed, can lead to a mass amount of spam comments and direct messages. They can bury important comments and messages from actual important customers and followers, aggravating them and losing their trust when they're not responded to. You will also have to deal with constantly emptying your inbox, deleting spam comments, and dealing with the repercussions of your follows seeing them. Just like fake reviews, companies are out there that are paid to create these fake accounts to post these spamming (and sometimes malicious) comments and send fake direct messages. From a customer's point of view, this is not a professional look you want to go for! 

• Be Careful With Your Hashtags

Hashtags are consistently a hot topic for social media users, managers, and marketers. How many should you use? Which ones should you use? How often should you use them? While the use of hashtags and which ones and how many to use will have to be a blog topic for another time, for right now we will say to use them with caution and with dedicated practice. Some resources, like AgoraPulse, recommends that you limit the amount you use, while other studies say to use the maximum amount of 30 hashtags with every post. There is no doubt that hashtags can help bring authentic users and followers to your accounts, they can also attract fake accounts. A lot of fake and spam accounts will use hashtags to target followers to follow them. According to AgoraPulse, 8% of all Instagram accounts are fake. According to Statista.com, there are 909.8 million users on Instagram, making 72,784,000 of those accounts fake! Reducing your number of hashtags to reduce the attention from fake bots and accounts can be a huge help. Be consistent with your hashtag research, and use an appropriate amount to get the appropriate amount of attention. 

• Bulk Messaging 

Automated messaging has become very commonplace on apps like Twitter and TikTok welcoming followers to their page, inviting them to check out their latest deals, introducing themselves to the new followers, and adding an invitation to a website or a landing page. However, these come with a heavy consequence, and it might be time to stop using them and avoiding them if you can. This goes hand in hand with following fake accounts. Many fake accounts will use bulk messages that look legitimate to entice users to click on a site that will lead to a virus or other malicious landing pages. Bulk messages, if sent enough, can help false information to trend or go viral, leading to fake jobs and fake information to spread and overshadow actual and factual information that needs to be shared. On the other hand, if you use this as a tool for your company, it can be very annoying to your real followers and potential customers. They want to follow you, but that doesn't mean they want a bunch of direct messages filling up their inboxes. Bulk messages can prevent you from seeing important messages and opportunities in your inbox, too! 

• Comment Moderation 

Just like we talked about in our first blog of this series, you need to be vigilant in monitoring your comments as best as you can. First off, be very responsive to comments and messages that are not spam, keeping this open communication with your followers is imperative. If you see a spam comment or a comment you believe is spam, go ahead and delete it. For accounts that receive tons of spam comments, this can be a big challenge. If you use posting platforms like Buffer, AgoraPulse, or Hootsuite, you can adjust certain settings to block comments that have certain words, keywords, and phrases to help combat this and help save you a ton of time. You can even go a step ahead and block these spam and bot accounts to cut down on these comments, and always make sure to report them. Platforms like Instagram and Facebook update their systems every year to combat spam comments and accounts, and while they are very efficient, you might still need to put in the extra legwork. You also have the option to turn off comments temporarily. While this is a drastic fix, we don't necessarily recommend it as it can disconnect you from your followers. 

• Reporting Fake Reviews

Genuine reviews are the make or break currency of the internet world. They can make or break a business in a matter of seconds. Like we mentioned above, some companies can be paid to create fake reviews. We've talked about the importance of reviews in the past, and how a few bad reviews and bot comments are ok, but when a business is overrun with fake reviews, that's when the danger sets in. Many review sites, like TripAdvisor, allow you to report these reviews. Staying on top of fake reviews is just as important as fake and spam comments. Remember, just because a review isn't positive doesn't mean that it is spam. Companies can pay for a ton of five-star reviews, and that looks just as suspicious. Fair warning, these reviews can be posted in bulk, so any action you can do to repair and monitor them is very important for the health and wellness of your business. 

Taking responsibility against these spammers and bots is a responsibility that comes with having your business online. These are just a few of the tips available to you to help combat these issues. If you've come to the end of the road with these tactics, there are many others out there. Remember too, having an active social media account and monitoring your pages can help cut down on these malicious and annoying attacks. Active accounts can help you remain creditable and keep you in contact with your customers and target audience. While it might seem tedious, please believe us when we say that these actions are worth it. If you're having these issues or if you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to reach out! Until next time, stay safe and caffeinated Summerville!