What actually is ChatGPT?

Launched in November 2022 by OpenAI, ChatGPT stands for Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer. To you and me, this basically means it’s a bot that has been fed mountains and mountains of data. It then uses this data to provide answers to… well, pretty much anything. It can answer questions, summarise information, generate copy, write code, and so much more – and will attempt to do as authentically as possible, mimicking a human conversation.

ChatGPT can be a lot of fun. But while asking it to cook up nursery rhymes about WWE fighters might be an amusing way to pass the time (probably for a minority that one!), is ChatGPT equally worth using to create highly effective, targeted content for your business? Let’s discuss.

What are the key benefits of using ChatGPT?

• It’s quick and easy to use – this can make your work much more efficient. For instance, rather than spending hours putting together a blog, ChatGPT will create you one in seconds (we did write this one though!).
• If you have an internet connection, ChatGPT is accessible to all.
• It can help with idea generation when you’re battling creator’s block.

Sounds incredible, right? Not so fast…

The danger of cutting corners

The thing is, just because you can use something, doesn’t always mean you should, or at least not all the time. Sure, you can use ChatGPT to write your new landing page copy, or to quickly whip up an email you need to send out within the next 10 minutes, but what’s the cost? Quality: that’s the cost. And if the quality drops? So could your traffic, sales, revenue, reputation… and so on…

That might sound terribly pessimistic, but let’s dig deeper into this.

You’re one the greatest assets your business has (if not the greatest asset). You understand your brand, its values, and its mission better than any bot ever could. And by getting ChatGPT to create your content, you are at risk of losing the very things that make your brand stand out. You may well start to sound just a bit more like everyone else does.

Let’s say you’re a holiday cottage based in the South West and you want to write a social media post about the best nearby beaches. ChatGPT will sort that out for you. But it will sort it out for anyone else too. And so, if we’re all using the same bot to cook up the same fun, snappy content, you’re going to lose your brand’s tone of voice.

While you can train ChatGPT to learn more and more about your brand and the writing style you’re after, this does take time and a lot of steering. And let’s be honest, regardless of the tone of voice you’re after, ChatGPT always leans towards relatively cheesy, sales-heavy copy. That might not be what you’re after.

No original content

Let’s reflect again on how ChatGPT works. In simple terms, it’s fed masses and masses of information and learns how to imitate this information as best as possible. In other words, it’s regurgitating existing content. No new ideas. No fresh opinions. Just copy and paste in a thousand different ways. So, if you’re looking to create original content with original ideas, you can’t leave it all to ChatGPT.

Will Google penalise content created by ChatGPT?

Google hasn’t stated that it’s outright against ChatGPT. In fact, their opinions concerning AI have been fairly inconsistent over the past years. On the one hand, Google’s Managing Director Sundar Pichai has described AI as the key ingredient to making people “more productive than we have ever imagined.” Google even has its own rival to ChatGPT called Bard. On the other hand, Google claims it will penalise content generated by AI.

While there are certainly ways that Google can detect whether content has been AI-generated, they haven’t officially confirmed whether they are actively tracking this.

But one thing we do know is that Google is against content that doesn’t make sense or add value. Any content that Google considers spammy will certainly be ranked lower.

In Google’s guidelines, they talk about “Spammy automatically-generated content” which they define as: “content that’s been generated programmatically without producing anything original or adding sufficient value; instead, it’s been generated for the primary purpose of manipulating search rankings and not helping users.” They give examples such as text translated by an automated tool without human review, or text generated through automated processes without regard for quality or user experience.

The thing is that ChatGPT is notorious for producing this type of content – blogs stuffed with keywords but that don’t actually provide any substance. And so, you cannot rely solely on ChatGPT to help you climb the ranks of Google. Instead, you should be focussing on creating valuable content that your target audience will genuinely engage with.

Thinking practically

ChatGPT is good, but it’s not perfect. Sometimes it slips up and creates copy that simply doesn’t make sense, or is full of false information, or is just repeating the same sentences again and again. That means you have to go through your work with a fine-tooth comb and edit it. And that’s fine – to an extent. If you’re spending too much time cutting and snipping away at your ChatGPT-generated content, all it’s doing is giving you a false sense of efficiency.

So, is ChatGPT not worth it?

Is this to say that ChatGPT is worth ignoring? Not necessarily. Firstly, ChatGPT isn’t going to be the end of AI – not even close. And as systems evolve, they are going to offer a lot more potential. So, knowing what’s out there will only help you and your business to remain agile.

And yes, we know we said ChatGPT isn’t the best place for creating original content, but nevertheless, it’s still a useful tool for idea generation. If you can’t think of any new blog ideas, for instance, ChatGPT will happily give you some inspiration. By all means take it, but be prepared to bring your own ideas to the table too.

The key with ChatGPT is that the more specific you can be, the better. If you ask it to create an entire marketing strategy for you, it’ll be generic and relatively useless. If you ask if to recommend 5 free tools for social media content creation, however, you’ll get a much more defined answer.

The more you use ChatGPT, the more you’ll understand its strengths and weaknesses. And the better you’ll become at delegating tasks to it.

If you would like more digital marketing advice, get in touch with the MiHi team on 01566 232323 or email us at hello@mihidigital.co.uk.

The post Should you be using ChatGPT for your business and how should you be using it? appeared first on MiHiDigital.

Threads amassed 5 million users within its first 4 hours of launch. The app went live at 7pm EDT in the US and midnight in the UK. However, regulatory concerns mean it is not available in the EU at this time.

What actually is Threads?

Threads is a free text-based conversation app made by the brains behind Instagram and Facebook.

Meta describes Threads as: “where communities come together to discuss everything from the topics you care about today to what’ll be trending tomorrow. Whatever it is you’re interested in, you can follow and connect directly with your favourite creators and others who love the same things – or build a loyal following of your own to share your ideas, opinions and creativity with the world.”

In other words, it’s a place to talk about the things you love with other people. How original.

How does it work?

After downloading Threads myself and taking it for a spin, I can confirm that it’s reassuringly simple to use. It features one main news feed and the classic like, share and comment functions we’re all familiar with. Meta aren’t trying to reinvent the wheel here. The app looks very clean, minimalistic and unsurprisingly, exactly like Twitter. You can publish text posts, reshare (the same as a retweet on Twitter) and quote share (like quote tweeting). You can also create a series of text posts, much like Twitter threads, which does beg the question: what will threads be called on Threads? Threads squared? A spool? Yarn? Who knows…

Despite Threads being text-centric, this isn’t to say you can’t post images and videos here too – in fact, you can post videos up to 5 minutes long. However, much like Twitter, the main focus of the app is to connect with others through snappy, insightful conversation. Having said that, Thread’s character limit for text posts is 500, which is nearly double Twitter’s.

The interesting thing about Threads is that it’s directly linked to your Instagram account. In order to set up a profile on Threads, you have to log in using your existing Instagram username. So, in a way, Threads is quite literally an extension of your Instagram presence.

This could be relevant to brands if, for example, you wanted to post visually striking content across the image-orientated Instagram, and then use Threads for starting conversations with your customers, gaining feedback and engaging further within your niche.

Another interesting thing: at the tap of a button, you can connect with all your Instagram followers on Threads. There’s no need to manually find and follow all your friends. This means most people won’t be starting from scratch on the platform and, if you’re a business, you can easily connect with any of your existing, loyal followers from Instagram.

Should Twitter be worried?

Twitter currently has around 400 million active users, whereas Instagram has an eyewatering 2.35 billion. Granted, not all of these users are going to transfer over to Threads. But there’s a lot of potential here, nonetheless.

While lots of marketers have been hyping up the release of Threads, we don’t truly know if it’s going to be a success or a flop. Not yet. With apps like Clubhouse riding fast then dying hard within just a couple of years, versus TikTok giving Google a run for their money, there is a lot of potential for Threads to take the social media world by storm. But equally, it could quickly run out of steam. It’s a waiting game for now, and that makes it hard to know whether it’s worth investing into this app, or if it’s going to be a waste of your time and energy.

However, one thing that will work in Thread’s favour is the growing number of people dumping Twitter because, to be blunt, they’re fed up of Elon Musk. From bringing back controversial banned accounts, to laying off masses of Twitter staff members, to recently limiting the number of posts accounts can read in a day, Elon has made some drastic changes to Twitter since taking over the platform last year. It’s been a bumpy ride and, in all honesty, he’s rubbed a lot of people up the wrong way.

As more and more accounts are leaving Twitter, presumably, these people will be looking for somewhere more refreshing to hang out. Could Threads become their new haven? It makes sense, but we will have to wait and see…

There has also been recent talk about the relentlessness of social media – the never-ending doom-scrolling that platforms like Twitter and TikTok encourage. With this in mind, I thought it was a nice touch that Threads has a ‘take a break’ function, which will remind you to leave the app after 10, 20 or 30 minutes.

Additionally, Threads has the option to completely hide any replies on your posts. This function isn’t available on Twitter and has been praised by many marketers, journalists and entrepreneurs already. For example, marketing tycoon Steven Bartlett described this as “the most overlooked feature in [Thread’s] pursuit of creating healthy / friendly conversation” and explained that “if someone abuses, scams or trolls in your replies, you can remove it from view completely”.

Should my business be using Threads?

This is a tough question. Why? Because it all comes down to context.

If Twitter is already a significant part of your business’s social media strategy, and you’re making great progress there, you could assume that you’ll do pretty well on Threads too. Particularly if you’re seeing a lot of your followers leaving Twitter amid the Elon Musk fiasco, Threads could be a great opportunity for you to connect with them elsewhere.

However, it can be dangerous to assume that something that works well on Twitter will work well on Threads too because, currently speaking, we don’t know what kind of culture is going to develop on this new platform. You could end up catering to a whole different crowd.

Equally, if you have a substantial following on Instagram, many of these users will transfer over to Threads and you could continue to craft a relationship with them here. However, you need to bear in mind that your strategy on Instagram, where reels and images take front seat, will look very different to your strategy on Threads. You can’t simply copy and paste your content from one platform to the other – and frankly, that would be pointless to do anyway.

But possibly, threads could offer a place for you to nurture relationships and focus more on gaining feedback from customers. For example, if you run a hotel, you could ask your followers ‘what are the key qualities you look for when choosing somewhere to stay?’ or ‘we’re revamping our website – does anyone have any requests?’ or ‘what are your favourite family days out in the area?’ But this is only really worth doing if you have enough followers on Threads to conduct a decent-sized survey.

The truth is, if you’re already performing well on a social media platform, you might be better focussing on that rather than trying to branch out to Threads. This is especially relevant if you’re already overworked, burnt out, and trying to balance multiple tasks as a business owner.

But on the other hand, if you have room to experiment, why not give it a go? It might be all for nothing if Threads crashes and burns within 6 months. Or, it might be the best social media decision you ever make. Where are your bets lying?

But be warned: once you’ve made a Threads account you can’t delete it without also deleting your Instagram. So, if you give Threads a go and then decide to back out of the platform, you can deactivate your account but please don’t delete it! This would wipe all of your following across Instagram too – and building that back up would be a monumental task.

If you use social media to create a lot of paid ads, Threads probably won’t be much use to you. Not for now, anyway. According to The Guardian, “Meta will not be accepting ads on Threads for this year at least.”

Final thoughts

All in all, this is an exciting time and the Mihi team will certainly be keeping a close eye on this new app. Happy threading (or not)!

Need some help growing your business via social media? Or need a hand identifying which social platforms will work best for you? Get in touch with us today.

Call us on 01566 232323 or email hello@mihidigital.co.uk.

The post What we know about Threads, Meta’s new rival to Twitter appeared first on MiHiDigital.

If you’re here, it’s likely that thought is going through your mind! Writing content that enthrals potential customers and appeases search engines can seem like an overwhelming task. Fortunately, we’ve created a step-by-step guide and broken it down into three easy parts to help you produce thoughtful and targeted content, that will deliver traffic right to your digital doorstep.

So, grab a cup of tea or coffee and a biscuit (or two!) and let’s get started with part one!

What is website copy?

In short, website copy is the term used to describe the main body of text on your website. Its purpose is to tell visitors about your brand, advertise your services or product, guide visitors around your site and direct them to what action you want them to take.

Before you start writing your content, there are a few things you need to keep in mind.

1. Purpose

Before you begin writing it is essential you understand its purpose. Knowing what you want your website copy to achieve will help you craft the perfect content to support your goals. Ask yourself questions like:

• Are you trying to sell a product or service?
• Is your main goal to attract new clients and generate more leads?
• Do you want to create a community?
• Are you trying to improve customer satisfaction?

Be specific with your aims. The more you can define exactly what information you want visitors to your website to know and what action you want them to take, the more successful your website copy will be and the easier it will be for you to write!

2. Research

Research topics will vary depending on the nature of your website, however, the most basic yet vital research you should undertake is to understand your audience and know your competitors.

Audience:

The more you know about your target audience, the easier it will be to convert them into customers. Try to get into their mindset and ask yourself, who are the people coming to your website, what do they want or need and what terms are they searching? By writing copy that speaks to them in a way they can relate to or solves problems you know they have, you can create a foundation of trust that will generate loyal customers.

Competitors:

It is almost certain that visitors to your site will be looking at competitors’ websites to determine their best option. To convince visitors to choose you instead, it is key you know what your competitors are offering. Find out what they are doing, what audience they target and what type of content they are producing. This will allow you to make strategic decisions about your own website as well as spot trends you can use to get ahead of the rest.

3. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

SEO can seem like a bit of a scary exhausting obstacle. See what we did there? Yeah, sorry about that. Whilst it may seem daunting at first, writing with SEO in mind is important for helping your website to rank higher for relevant searches.

• Keywords: From researching your audience, you should know what words they are searching for. These are your keywords. Whilst you should avoid keyword stuffing, adding keywords to your titles, subheadings and body text will help increase traffic to your website.
• Metadata: Keeping it to one or two sentences, write clear and enticing descriptions of your web pages to encourage click-throughs.
• URLs: Ensure your URL is descriptive yet as concise as possible.
• Interlinking: Interlinks are links that direct your visitors from one page to another within your website. Including interlinks points users towards other valuable information, (potentially preventing them from leaving your website and looking at a competitors), as well as showing search engines that you have other relevant information.

These are the absolute basics of SEO, but they are a great first step in climbing the search engine ranks and reaping the rewards of more website traffic.

Preparing to write your content may seem like a tedious task, however, taking the time to really understand who you’re speaking to and what your content needs to do will help you get some top-notch content right from the get-go.

Don’t forget to check out part two and part three of our ‘How to Write Content for Your Website’ guide, where we focus on what you need to think about whilst writing and what to do when you’ve finished writing!

If you’re wrestling with your writing and need help, give us a call on 01566 232323 or email us at hello@mihidigital.co.uk

The post How to Write Content for Your Website: Part 1 appeared first on MiHiDigital.

But if that isn’t enough, here are a few more reasons why you should be taking full advantage of social media for small businesses…

·      It gives you the potential to reach and attract new customers.

·      You get to know your customers.

·      You get a better understanding of your competitors.

·      You will build your brands awareness.

·      You can connect with your customers and build trustworthy relationships.

That being said, it’s a huge task if you’re not that way inclined, so we’ve pulled together a few top tips to get you started:

Top tip number one: Plan ahead!

We often hear that business owners and employees just don’t have time to be posting on social media every day, which let’s face it is completely understandable. Or they say it’s easier to spend a little bit of time every day, making something up on the spot and posting for the sake of posting. But trust us when we say that’s not doing you or your business any favours, and often ends up being more time-consuming and stressful in the long run.

Having a calendar gives you the time to find out what your customers really want from your social media, and what’s valuable to them. Just test out some different messaging in your calendar, this is called A/B testing and shows what messages work best with your particular audience, find what works and build from that! 

So, avoid the last-minute scrambling and plan ahead with a social media calendar. We’ve written a whole blog about why and how to start your own social media calendar here – Top Tips for Creating Your Social Media Calendar

Top tip number two: Schedule your posts!

Now that you’ve got your plans in your calendar, get ahead of the game and get scheduling. Not only does this free up your time by scheduling a block of social media content all at once but it also means that you can focus on the other important tasks in your week, without having to worry about what picture to post later.

There are lots of free and paid scheduling tools online to help you, including our personal favourite, the Mata Planner for Instagram and Facebook. Most of these tools make your life easier and show you when to post when your followers are online too! But if you use a tool without this feature, it’s always a good start to aim for 7pm in the evening when everyone has settled down into their socials, or 7am in the morning when people are having a morning scroll. But remember to keep an eye out when planning ahead, things change quickly in the world of business and you need to make sure your content is still relevant.

Top tip number three: Keep track of what’s working!

There’s only one way to tell if you’re getting results and that’s by checking your analytics. Even for small businesses, knowing what works and what doesn’t will be super valuable for when you’re working on your next set of content.

All social media will show some form of analytics, so take the time to understand it and try to replicate the content they’re loving! – repurpose it for other platforms e.g.

Top tip number four: Pay attention to trends!

Trends are trends for reason, so give the people what they want and get involved with a few if they are appropriate for your brand.

Although be wary, don’t just jump on every bandwagon you see on Tik Tok, if you’re a serious health brand your customers probably won’t want to see you risking damage doing the Kylie Jenner lip challenge, for example.

Top tip number five: Be social!

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, social media is meant to be social! So, once you’re done planning your content, make sure you’re spending time replying to comments as timely as possible, reacting, commenting, and sharing other relevant posts. Take half an hour out of your day every day and you’ll see the extra engagement for your accounts too, it’s a great way to get to know your customers, plus you can have a quick nosey at your competitors to see what they’re up to – Win, win!

And one last extra tip! Be consistent! The more you drop in and out, the fewer people will see your posts, so take the time to get ahead with your scheduling and watch your reach boom! 

If you want to know more about how MiHi Digital can help your business grow on social media, then get in touch with the team!

Call us on 01566 232323 or email hello@mihidigital.co.uk.

The post 5 Tips to Successfully Use Social Media for Small Businesses appeared first on MiHiDigital.

If you’re creating content sporadically, not only is this taking your time, but you’re probably seeing a few more typos than you’d like and maybe even a change in tone across your platforms which ultimately isn’t the best look for your business. So, planning ahead and creating a social media calendar would be a much better use of your time as well as giving you the opportunity to proof your posts before those blasted keyboard warriors pick up on every typo or inaccuracy in the book.

What the heck is a social media calendar?

By creating a social media calendar, you’ll be able to plan your posts, manage whole campaigns and give yourself some sort of structure for creating content that week, or that month if you’re feeling brave! It’s also a good place to find any gaps in your media library that might need filling.

Depending on what floats your boat you could be setting up your calendar in a spreadsheet or in Google Calendar or some sort of over-expensive social media management tool. But our favourite is the Meta Planner because it gets the job done and even better, it’s free!

So, where to start when creating your social media calendar?

A good place is to take a proper look through your current social media profiles. See what kind of content worked before (and what didn’t) then have a good nosey at some of your competitors to see what they’re up to because odds are, you can use their ideas for some inspiration.

Next, you need to think about what social media platforms you want to focus on, do you have a photogenic, hands-on business that would work perfectly on Instagram and Facebook? Or are you more of a B2B organisation that would have value in Twitter and LinkedIn? Remember, you can start small and build up to more as you learn more about your audience and customers.

What should you be including in your calendar?

Well, this totally depends on what your business needs for example a small business might need a few details and a picture whereas a big organisation may need full tracking links budgets and management approval. but let’s not get ahead of ourselves, it’s likely that you’ll just need the basics like:

·      The platform you’re posting to

·      The date and time you’re posting

·      Your caption

·      Any media – images or videos (or a link to where they’re stored)

·      Or just a link to an already published post or webpage.

If you wanted to go into more detail, you could label what your posts are, remembering the social media rule of thirds:

·      1/3 of your content should be relevant news and tips that are beneficial for your followers.

·      1/3 of your content should be promoting your product or service.

·      1/3 of your content should be interacting with others and be personal.

Now fill that calendar with some crackin’ ideas!

Start with noting your ideas for each day and build those into captions, then plan how you’re going to create the media for your posts.

Take note, it’s always a good idea to proof your calendar with another member of your team too, just remember to schedule your posts in when they’re ready!

And that’s it, we make it sound so simple right? As with everything social media, the more you do, the more you learn about your audience and the easier it will be to get that spot-on content in your calendar!

If you want to know more about how MiHi Digital can help your business grow on social media, then get in touch with the team!

Call us on 01566 232323 or email hello@mihidigital.co.uk.

The post Top Tips for Creating Your Social Media Calendar appeared first on MiHiDigital.

Instagram and YouTube have a more varied audience
For most businesses, Instagram and YouTube provide a better target market. TikTok has been dominated by Gen Z since its launch and that is showing no signs of changing. This is great news if your business is targeted at Gen Z but bad news if it isn’t. The limited audience range makes it difficult to promote your business, whilst in comparison, Instagram and YouTube have a varied user base so no matter how niche your business is, you’ll be able to find an audience for what you offer.

Instagram and YouTube are more business friendly
TikTok is widely known for its informal and light hearted content with trends and dances becoming particularly popular. This means there is less scope for selling products and services effectively, particularly when you compare it to Instagram and YouTube which actively make it easier to sell your products/services through features like clickable links. Whilst you can of course use trending audios and take part in challenges, the chances are that very few of these are going to be suitable for your business.

Instagram offers more format options
Chances are when it comes to your products or services, you need to get a certain amount of information across. This is where Instagram and YouTube can reign supreme over TikTok. Both these platforms allow you to post longer format videos, letting you get all the information across whereas TikTok is more geared to short, snappy content. Instagram also gives you more options on how you’d like to present your content, including images, stories, longer captions, reels and videos. This makes it easier to create varied content that will appeal to a wider audience, as some people will prefer image content over video.

Instagram and YouTube deliver better results
Whilst it can be tempting to focus all your energy on TikTok videos because of its popularity, the goal of any business’s social media is to increase brand awareness and revenue. For most businesses, lead generation on TikTok is going to be significantly smaller because the target market is not going to be as wide as Instagram or YouTube. That’s why we recommend focusing social media marketing efforts on Instagram or YouTube, ahead of TikTok.

Whilst there are pros to using TikTok and it does have a large user base, the core issue with it is that for most businesses, their target audience is not going to be on it. You may get video views but if they’re not engaging with your business, endless views aren’t going to help you.

Struggling with social media and need help with your digital marketing strategy? Give us a call on 01566 232323 or email us at hello@mihidigital.co.uk

The post TikTok for businesses: Are Instagram and YouTube still relevant? appeared first on MiHiDigital.

Mark said “Cornwall has the complete recipe for tourism; stunning coastlines, amazing attractions, gorgeous beaches and of course, great people that welcome people to the duchy every year. I look forward to supporting the board and Visit Cornwall team over the coming years”.

For more information on how we work with and support tourism businesses, please visit mihidigital.co.uk/tourism

The post Mark Worden joins the board of Visit Cornwall appeared first on MiHiDigital.

What is the Instagram Explore Page?

Before you can get your content on the Instagram Explore page, it is important to understand exactly what it is. If you’re already familiar with the Explore page, you can skip this bit and head straight to the how to get your content on the Explore page section below!

The explore page brings together content that Instagram feels a user will be interested in based on their activity. For example, if a user likes a picture of a cat, the algorithm will take note of this and show a user more cat related content. As it is so individual, no two Explore pages are alike, meaning you’ll largely be competing within your own industry for a target audience that is likely to already be interested in seeing content like yours. The explore page includes photos, videos, reels and even stories. More than 200 million accounts visit the Instagram Explore page daily, that is 50% of the platform user base! This is a huge audience to tap into and a great place to generate more leads.

How to get your content on the Instagram Explore page

Understand Your Audience
Understanding what your audience is interested in is the key to generating content that delivers results. As your audience informs so much of what you do, it’s best to make sure you’re clear on who is following you and what they like first. If you’re not entirely sure who your audience is, take some time to analyse your current followers. Go to Instagram Insights and take note of information like age, gender and location. This will help you to craft the most appealing content for your audience. You can also look at which of your current posts are the most popular and create content that is similar in style.

Post at the best time
For the algorithm, what time the content is posted is vital. Recent posts that are getting immediate engagement are more likely to appear on the Explore page as Instagram will perceive them as high value content that others will also enjoy. To establish the best time to post, again look at your Instagram Insights and see when your current audience is the most active. You can also Google the most popular days/times to post in your location and base your posting times on that.

Encourage engagement
Whilst you’re hopefully posting interesting content your users want to engage with anyway, you can use a call to action (CTA) in your caption to help encourage this. For example, ask your users to leave a comment, visit your website or watch your story. There are also story options like polls and questions where you can encourage your audience to interact with your content. This can also be a great way to gauge what content your audience wants to see more of! Don’t forget to engage back with your audience by liking and responding to comments.

Stay on topic
It can be tempting to jump on every social media trend that is gaining traction, but the reality is that not every single one of these trends is going to suit your specific business. To generate engagement and build an audience that you want to convert to customers, consistency is essential. This also relates to the algorithm, for example, if you post about fitness one day, travelling the next and dogs the day after, Instagram won’t know what your account is about and therefore won’t recommend it to an audience. Keep your message consistent and only use trending audios, challenges, etc, that work for your business.

Use all the content formats
We all process information differently and prefer different formats, so it’s important to take advantage of Instagram’s different post formats and post stories, reels and pictures, as well as create opportunities for interaction, for example, story polls. More recently, Instagram has revealed that video content, such as reels or IGTV is highly favoured and is more frequently shown than pictures. With this in mind, it is important to create reel and video content for your brand. If you don’t yet have video content for your brand, you can be sneaky and use still photos in reels instead.

Use tags
Hashtags, geotags and account tags give you the opportunity to expand your posts reach as the Explore page allows users to search for hashtag, location and topic. By adding relevant tags, you can help your audience find you. Statistics show that accounts that use tags receive more engagement on their posts than accounts that don’t. Make sure that you’re only using relevant hashtags. It can be tempting to jump on hashtags that are trending or popular, however, this can have the opposite effect of your post receiving less exposure and engagement as it appears spammy or is showing up in searches where it’s not relevant.

By using a combination of the above, you will be well on your way to featuring on the Instagram Explore page, expanding your audience and bringing in new leads for your business.

Struggling with social media and need help with your digital marketing strategy? Give us a call on 01566 232323 or email us at hello@mihidigital.co.uk

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Increase website traffic
A study by HubSpot Marketing showed that businesses with a blog get up to 55% more website traffic. Blogs are a great way to answer questions, solve problems your customers have, advertise new products/services, and allow your audience to get to know your brand on a more personal level.

Take the time to research what questions your audience is asking/what they’re interested in and try to answer these questions and provide a solution to any pain points. Content that offers value will help to attract potential customers to your website and increase your leads.

Good for SEO
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. Optimising your website is important to ensure that it ranks higher in search engines and is therefore more visible to potential customers.

Some of the factors that go into ranking in search engines include new content, keywords, the number of indexed pages and backlinks. By updating your website with high quality blogs on a regular basis, you can cover all these areas, which will help to improve your search engine rankings and attract more customers.

Creates content for social media
Blog content is great for repurposing as social media content, helping you to fill up spaces in your social media content calendar, as well as encourage users onto your website.

You can simply link to your blog as a whole or turn it into bite sized chunks of information, reels, highlights, infographics, or videos. You can even repurpose it to go out via email as a newsletter. The possibilities are endless!

Establishes authority within your industry
Not only does a blog allow you to connect better with your audience and give them a greater insight into your brand, but it also positions your business as an authority within your field.

Having a blog that is consistently updated, well-written and offering high-value content tells your customers that you are a credible source of information. We all like to purchase from brands that we can trust, and a blog will go a long way in helping to establish this trust with your customer base.

Drives long-term results
The good thing about blogs, particularly those that cover certain topics or answer specific questions, is that they continue to generate traffic. This is why it is so important to make sure you’re providing relevant content that is helpful to your target audience. Many businesses find that a large percentage of their organic traffic arrives on their site via blogs, this means that a blog is still working hard for you weeks, months or even years after you uploaded it.

We hope this has inspired you to get blogging but if you’re wrestling with your writing and need help with your digital marketing strategy, give us a call on 01566 232323 or email us at hello@mihidigital.co.uk

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My Cottage in St Ives take home the Bronze Award

Three Mile Beach take home the Silver Award

And Treworgey Cottages take home the Gold Award

Mark Worden, Director at MiHi said…

“After a couple of years of Zoom awards it was great to see some of the very best tourism businesses in the county back in the Cathedral to receive the praise and recognition that they thoroughly deserve. It’s also fantastic to see our clients taking home another six awards on the night! Well done everyone!”

A huge congratulations to our award winners, you deserve this so much and your hard work has all been worth it! And congratulations to all the other award winners and finalists that joined us and a massive thank you to the team at Cornwall Tourism Awards for organising these awards, without you, we couldn’t shout about all the amazing businesses based in beautiful Cornwall.

Find out more about the winners of this year’s awards on the Cornwall Tourism Awards website.

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