These simple Facebook and Instagram tips are proving to be effective right now and can be implemented into your marketing strategy today:

Create a Collaboration Pod for Instagram

Brands using Instagram are gaming the social platform's algorithm to boost visibility in the Explore tab. How? Users are joining up in "Pods" with up to 30 others—the maximum number of Instagram users allowed in a pod—and comment on each other's posts at least daily to increase engagement analytics for each pod member and cause the platform's algorithm to favor them and display their content to more users. Some accounts go from receiving about 2 comments a day to 40-100 after joining a pod and can gain hundreds or thousands of followers a day with the added visibility.

Ready to Try? Think about the influencers surrounding your retail store and those you interact with on a regular basis: your manufacturers, other store owners, users, franchisers, and so on. Create a pod (see below) and work together to comment, like, and share each other's posts to increase visibility across the board.

2 Ways to Create an Instagram Pod

1. Add everyone that you want in your pod to a group message on Instagram and have everyone post in the group message whenever they post an image. Then, everyone else can go comment and 'like' that image.
2. Add everyone that you want to be in your pod to a group message on Instagram and have them turn on post notifications for everyone. Then whenever someone in your pod posts a picture, everyone will be notified and they can go leave it some love!

Share Snackable Videos on Facebook

In a recent earnings call, Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg emphasized that producing "short-form snackable content is a big opportunity" for businesses on mobile. Just what is short-form snackable content? While there's no precise length requirement, it's an ad that's just a few seconds long (6 seconds, for Tropicana, which in turn saw a 16-point lift in brand awareness).

Ready to Try? Select a new arrival from your store (like a top seller running shoe in this year's model) each week for 5 weeks and create funny, <10 second videos highlighting the products. Rather than just posting organically, try promoting the post (even $25 to start!) to reach a larger audience, and make sure to take note of the results, customer comments, and brand awareness lift that you see over the 5-week period.

Technology as Your Secret Weapon

For more resources to help retailers use technology to their advantage, minimize price erosion from markdown inventory, and gain immediate cash flow to invest in new merchandise, check out these additional resources or sign-up to start selling or buying today.

Tools:

Inventory Reinvestment Calculator

Blogs:

How to Turn Clearance Inventory Into Net Profit

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