Doug's Rant #3: IG Story Links, Overrated Data, LinkedIn & more
So yes, it’s time for another RANT! I’ve got a few quick topics to cover and feel free to add your comments at the end, share it out, argue with me, whatever you like hehe…
Instagram Story Links (that have been a bust for me…)
I’ll start with an observation about Instagram. I’ve criticized Instagram plenty (including in the last rant) about how they don’t lead, they just chase, copy and steal. And one of my gripes was that there was nowhere to add links in any posts including stories for a long time. Then they allowed links in stories first with a clumsy “swipe up” option for accounts with only 10,000 followers and then eventually opening it for all users.
I was excited for this! I was looking forward to potentially driving some additional traffic to my websites.
But that hasn’t happened. I RARELY get clicks on the links I include in my stories. I’ve tried plenty of different ways to get them. Teasing the content with written calls to action, big flashing ovals around the link button with “Click Here” buttons and pulsing arrows. I’ve made it impossible to miss the links.
Now one theory for the lack of results could be that my content just sucks. Believe me I’ve considered that lol… But I’m pretty sure that’s not the case. I’m EXTREMELY WITTY, TALENTED, and KNOWLEDGABLE so that theory really isn’t possible.
Right?
Don’t answer.
But in all seriousness unless I’m just missing something I think getting people to disrupt their flow as they tap through stories to stop on one long enough to tap on a link and leave Instagram to read a blog post is an uphill battle. It’s just not representative of the culture of Instagram and the behavior of the users there. My greed for traffic temporarily blurred the reality (which I should know better) that Instagram is always at it’s best when it’s being…..more Instagrammy? Granted IG stories was originally a Snapchat theft but it’s one that stuck and there is a flow to consuming content on stories that links to other content isn’t really a part of. That’s my theory. Are you getting tons of clicks? What’s your secret? You can DM me - c’mon it’s ME!
Social Media Data is OVERRATED!!!
Next up, another topic I’ve written about before in various forms and that’s the idea that social media data/analytics can be overrated (here’s an old one that I still love - some of the profiles referenced are long gone like Periscope but the point is solid). Here’s a screenshot of a conversation I had with a content marketer on Twitter - nice dude named Jeremy Linaburg:
Here are a couple of examples of what I mean.
When I was in charge of the Five Guys Burgers and Fries Facebook page for Michigan so often I would post a mouth watering picture of a Five Guys burger and there would be likes, comments, GIFs, and I could certainly measure the reach, the actions taken - slice and dice the analytics up and down. But if one of the comments said specifically “Holy crap I have to have that for dinner” and then that person confirms that they did get that for dinner, how do you measure that with data analytics? Unless they tell us specifically we may not know if they brought their whole family of 6 and spent $100 and/or if they told a friend on the phone that night and the friend went with their family of 4 the next night and spent $80, and so on and so on. In this example these aren’t measurable conversions that people are clicking through to an online ordering platform that we can trace and measure. And you know what? My client wasn’t concerned about it. They loved these types of interactions - I knew what captions to write and content to share to illicit that type of engagement, I was plugged in and monitoring it and we knew it was working. Even without being able to completely measure it we still KNEW it - we could just tell. Just like in the examples I used in my old article I referenced earlier to use a football analogy offensive linemen don’t have a lot of official stats. Yet we know Larry Allen was one of the most dominant offensive linemen in history just like we know Tom Brady was the best QB. With TB12 we’ve got a million statistics to point to. With Larry Allen we don’t. We don’t need them - we watched Larry out there destroying people - we knew the nature of his interactions on the field just like we knew the nature of that interaction on Facebook about getting that burger which very likely led to other burger purchases offline that we didn’t hear about other than the fact that the overall sales were really good.
Can LinkedIn “Replace” Twitter…?
Topic number 3… I fell for a clickbaity title and made a judgement about an article that was A) pretty good and B) actually explained the title. The title was “I Found the Perfect Replacement for Twitter. It’s LinkedIn” My first thought was HUH? Now I wouldn’t mind leaving Twitter at the moment if say, Post took off for example - Twitter is still a bit of a dumpster fire. But if you think you’re going to just leave Twitter and “do Twitter” on LinkedIn replicating the mini migration of marketers leaving Snapchat to just do that on Insta when Insta first added stories you’re nuts - this is not the same scenario. But that wasn’t the author Morgan Meaker’s point. Her article was exploring more of the changing and evolving demographics and culture that is indeed happening on LinkedIn and how it might be evidence of the fragmentation of the social media industry. She says “LinkedIn…feels like the last vestige of the centralized internet of the 2010s.” and it’s an interesting take. I use LinkedIn and I will say I’ve noticed that it seems to be settling into a groove and maturity of its own after an awkward adolescent stage of trying to add stories of its own (a flop) and other nonsense. It’s a good article and worth a read.
Honored By The Illustrious KING of Livestreaming - Ross Brand!
Last but not least I want to give another plug (I’ve already shared it all over) to Ross Brand and his new book that yours truly appears in! 100 Livestreaming & Digital Media Predictions, Volume 3: Top Content Creators Help You Succeed in an Era of Rapid Change is available on Amazon in Kindle and Paperback editions! It’s a real honor to be included alongside so many thought leaders in the digital marketing space!
Okay so maybe this rant wasn’t completely RANTY but let me know your thoughts below! Thanks for reading.
M10 Social is owned by Doug Cohen in West Bloomfield, MI and provides social media training and digital marketing services from the Frameable Faces Photography studio Doug owns with his wife Ally. He can be reached there at tel:248-790-7317, by mobile at tel:248-346-4121 or via email at mailto:doug@frameablefaces.com. You can also connect with Doug on Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram, and/or M10 Social on Twitter or Facebook, and check out his other biz www.VirtualPetcations.com while you’re at it!
******************************************************************************************
Tune in to the 📷Doug&Ally📷Morning Show T-F between 10AM & 11AM EST UTC-4 by following them on Heckle or Twitter at @frameablefaces!
Don’t forget to check out the Doug & Ally Morning Show PODCAST available on most platforms where you get podcasts including Anchor.fm, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts & I Heart Radio!