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Automation of Instagram Activity Without Getting Restricted/Banned

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The world of automation has grown immensely with social media automation being extremely prevalent in the present. Automation of activity online with apps, cloud services, and even bots can improve engagement on posts from followers. A huge benefit is increasing the number of followers even though these tactics are against Instagram’s terms of service. Instagram would rather engagement come from their ads rather than other services.

Instagram changes over the years with updates that are made to restrict automated services. The summer of 2019 saw an update that dwarfed other updates. The updated reduced automated activity by more than 50 percent and certain actions were now considered spam. A service like Combin Growth follows safety rules but it is still important to research the list of best practices when utilizing automation with Instagram.

The importance of following the recommendation doesn’t provide a guarantee of not being banned. Instagram has best practices but doesn’t go into specifics and limitations of users. The list of actions that result in a ban are not explicitly listed by the social media giant. Combin has collected data over time and studied it to create the best automation tool possible. 

Fill Out Your Profile

There are so many fake account that filling out your profile information is paramount. You should pick a profile picture, put a description in, and put up a few photos. Real photos will be more authentic than putting in a stock photo as a placeholder. Automation on accounts without information are huge targets to get banned. 

Confirmation of Email and Phone Number 

Confirming your email and phone number is a way to indicate to Instagram that you are not a bot. Accounts are far larger targets if linked to an email but no phone number. 

Don’t Automate Too Quickly 

If you have created a new account you should not immediately start automating it. You also want to avoid comment spam on account in an attempt to get followers quickly. A slow ramp up in activity will look far more natural than immediately engaging with every post known to man. Your first two months should be approached with care and have the goal of building a reasonable following with a combination of likes and comments. 

Content Matters

Creation of content is the best way to attract followers on any social media platform. You need to make sure that you are hashtagging your photos appropriately so they can be searched. You don’t have to take a photo daily as you can schedule out Instagram posts over the course of time. Your captions can attract a number of likes along with the hashtags you list. The Combin Scheduler can make this as seamless as possible. 

Proxies are Essential When Automating Multiple Accounts

Proxies are going to be essential when automating Instagram accounts. Before 2019, you could run around 5 accounts from one IP which has recently been reduced to 2. You can invest in a virtual private network or VPN in order to change your IP with just a few clicks. Changing this IP regularly can help a user avoid Instagram moderators that look as suspicious logins. 

Combin Growth in addition to other automation tools offers the ability to connect from different IP addresses using an in-app proxy. This tool allows all account associated with you to have IP addresses changed. Finding a proxy to protect your Instagram accounts can be done through Combin Growth or other companies offering similar services.  

Educate Yourself on Activity Limits

Being active as a massive level is the best way to grow your Instagram audience. Counting your activity on a regular day is important as you want your activity that is automated to look natural. You do not want to suddenly spike your activity levels as this is a recipe for disaster. 

Large Amounts of Comments Should be Done with Care

Commenting can lead to a ban quite quickly if it is done on a mass level. Custom comments should be posted even and avoid any generic comments. Even an authentic generic comment can be flagged so keep a variation in your comments. Combin has gathered data over time on safe Instagram mass-commenting which lists best practices for this tactic. 

Do Not Do Anything You Consider Spammy

There are a number of reasons that your Instagram account can be banned. Content being offensive is a common reason if you have already been warned in the past. Hard work can be wasted due to actions that are outside the realm of the automated service. Comments that are considered spam that are distributed across hundreds of profiles can lead to a ban. Make sure that you create a list of actions that can lead to a potential ban and avoid them. You want your account to look as natural as possible so view it in the eyes of an Instagram.

The post Automation of Instagram Activity Without Getting Restricted/Banned appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

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September 30, 2020 at 01:03PM

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4 Proven Ways to Know You’re a Technology Leader

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A leader is someone who not only leads a group of people but also someone who understands them. They not only set goals for their team but they provide the emotional intelligence to support their accomplishment.

Whilst leadership is needed in every business, however large or small, effective leadership is clearly missing from most organisations with research suggesting that 77% of corporations experienced leadership gaps during 2019. This is a significant problem.

But what of the leadership role that in recent years has gained ever greater significance within organisations who need to be tech led? What of the effectiveness of tech leaders?

One of the challenges for tech leaders of today and tomorrow, is that the duties are not always natural to those involved. Some don’t aspire to managerial positions, those ICs or Individual Contributors, but how do you know and what do you need to know to make an impact in a senior role? 

1)  Know thy plan of action

As a technology leader, you have to maintain oversight over the entire project, take decisions, and also empower all the technologists in your team. The plan of action covers everything, including the choice of design, the choice of software, product development, and the final expected outcome.

Moreover, sometimes, your entire team might not be aware of all types of tech work required, but they will look up to you for help. So, ensure that you know the steps inside-out and also be able to communicate it to your team.

2)  Know when to correct

With a role like a Lead Architect or a Tech Lead, you have to keep an eye on the glitches, system errors, or coding issues in the products under development.

As a leader, you should be able to politely handle the problem, ask the stakeholders to fix it, or at least consult your authority before making the final decision.ṣ

Sometimes, you might even have to combine multiple technologies across the business and a few other times, you might not be in favor of it. As a tech leader, you must take a stand and voice your concerns, but also be open to discussion.

To learn, to grow, and to sustain, that should be the ultimate aim!

3)  Know how to work with your community

As a technology leader, you will probably have to work with multiple other teams and departments, across the entire company, sometimes even across multiple locations.

Hence, it is important for you to understand hierarchy, where you work with both vertically and horizontally integrated teams.

In each segment of the community, aim to be a positive influence, appreciate co-workers, and be open-minded. A technology leader has to encourage community talent while also grooming oneself in the journey. So, keep building your skill set and using your knowledge to achieve greater heights with the team.

4)  Know the value of conversations

When it comes to domain knowledge or gaining specific information, technology leaders have to be on their toes.

Transfer of knowledge via conversations, workshops, and networking events are the best solution to achieve not just a social connection but also professional insight. It can be just a 10-min coffee break when you can discuss your product, find a new idea to incorporate new features, learn about a new trend in the industry, or help someone make a breakthrough.

Infact, sometimes you might be following a traditional approach, thinking it is the only option but you meet a co-lead and realize that they have a software which is a new-age design and can reduce your workload.

So, voila! Exchange of ideas, increased productivity, and a good chat, win-win situation for everyone.

Over to you…

Opportunities are limitless, you just need to be able to seize them at the right moment and right place.

Your team looks up to you for training, for hope, for mentoring, and for action. If you think you can’t do it alone, you can also consider professional technology teams training courses to help upskill your team. However, always stay grounded and be willing to build up a model from scratch because that is the only way perfection can be achieved.

A technology leader is known to be the backbone of the entire management team, so start the trip and succeed in it!

The post 4 Proven Ways to Know You’re a Technology Leader appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

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September 30, 2020 at 09:07AM

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After breach, Twitter hires a new cybersecurity chief

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Following a high-profile breach in July, Twitter has hired Rinki Sethi as its new chief information security officer.

Sethi most recently served as chief information security officer at cloud data management Rubrik, and previously worked in cybersecurity roles at IBM, Palo Alto Networks, and Intuit.

In the new role at Twitter overseeing the company’s information security practices and policies, Sethi will report to platform lead, Nick Tornow, according to her tweet announcing the job move.

Sethi also serves as an advisor to several startups, including LevelOps and Authomize, and cybersecurity organizations, including Women in Cybersecurity.

Twitter had left the role of chief information security officer vacant since the departure of its previous security chief, Mike Convertino, who left in December to join cyber resilience firm Arceo.

In July, the company was hit by a very public cyberattack on the company’s internal “admin” tools that played out on the social media platform in real time, as hackers hijacked high profile Twitter accounts to spread a cryptocurrency scam. The hackers used voice phishing, a social engineering technique that involves tricking someone on the phone to hand over passwords or access to internal systems.

Earlier this month, the company said it bolstered its security following the attack, including rolling out security keys, which makes the kind of attack that targeted Twitter far more difficult.

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September 30, 2020 at 07:39AM

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9 Ways to Improve Your Marketing on LinkedIn

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Wondering how to get more out of LinkedIn? Are you using LinkedIn effectively? In this article, you’ll discover nine LinkedIn ideas to improve your networking and marketing. #1: Maintain Top-of-Mind Awareness With 1st-Level LinkedIn Connections Every update you see in the LinkedIn feed is an opportunity to understand what the people and businesses you follow […]

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September 30, 2020 at 05:06AM

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Why you Should Leave Social Media Marketing to the Experts

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We all know the undeniable power of social media, with mega companies like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, all with billions of users, and if you want to tap the unlimited potential of social media marketing, this is a very complex field. For the average small business owner, the many variables are too much, and in order to get the most out of SM marketing, you need the help of an industry professional.

Identify your Target Groups

Prior to running any SM marketing campaign, you first need to identify your target groups, as Facebook has many variables that decide who actually sees your ads, and if you get this wrong, your ads will not reach as many potential customers as it could. Rather than click and hope, if you enlist the help of a social media marketing specialist, you can be sure that your ads will be seen by those who are genuinely interested in your products or services.

Building a Following

While you do want to focus your energy on creating ads, we must never forget to build a following, which will generate sales and enquiries, and the SM specialist would take control of your social media accounts, posting professionally written blogs and articles on every aspect of the industry. While we try to focus on digital marketing, we must ensure that our IT hardware is up to scratch, and if you need an upgrade, check out https://www.jib.co.th/web/, your IT hardware solution with trade prices and express delivery. The SM specialist would monitor comments and interact with users, always looking to strengthen your reputation, offering assistance where possible, and that’s what generates followers.

Creating the Right Ads

This is a critical component of a successful campaign, your social media team would be able to create slick ads, aimed at the target groups, and all approved by you, the client. You could put together a short video that introduces you and your team, to personalise things and build a relationship with customers, plus some ‘how to’ videos, which are always useful for customers. Aminations are a great way to get your message out, and an experienced SM team would use state of the art software to create inspiring ads, and your original content would become a symbol of your company. Here is a well-written blog showing how short videos can benefit your business, which is an informative read.

Understanding the Variables

When you create a Facebook marketing campaign, there are many variables, such as geographic location, age, language, gender, and by fine-tuning these, your ads will appear on the right feeds. Social media marketing is a performance-based sector, and when looking at agencies, check out their client list and if you see well-known names, this is a strong indication they are top-notch and deliver results. Here is some UK government information about advertising standards, which you should browse.

It is all about ROI, and with a professional social media marketing agency in your corner, you can expect to see a very healthy return on your investment, and with ongoing services, you can make the most out of social media.

The post Why you Should Leave Social Media Marketing to the Experts appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

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September 29, 2020 at 10:20PM

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TikTok launches a US elections guide in its app

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Though TikTok is in the middle of fighting off the Trump administration’s attempt to ban its app in the U.S. over data privacy concerns, the company today is launching a new feature focused on the 2020 U.S. elections. TikTok announced this morning it’s introducing an in-app guide to the elections, which offers its 100 million U.S. users information about the candidates, details about how to vote and educational videos about misinformation, media literacy, the elections process and more.

The company, however, is not producing this content itself. It’s leaving that up to partner organizations, including the National Association of Secretaries of State, BallotReady, SignVote and several others.

BallotReady, for example, will power the elections guide with detailed information about the candidates at the federal, state and local levels, in both English and Spanish. Details about how to vote in every state are offered by National Association of Secretaries of State. MediaWise will provide the educational videos about spotting misinformation and the elections process, as well as how to vote.

The effort will also include resources for voters in different circumstances, TikTok says. This includes information about voting as a person with disabilities, from SignVote; as someone overseas, through the Federal Voting Assistance Program; as a student, with help from Campus Vote Project; and as a person with past convictions, with help from Restore Your Vote.

TikTok will feature this elections guide starting today in the U.S., where it will be accessible both on the TikTok Discover page and on election-related search results. It also will feature the guide at the bottom of videos relating to the elections and on videos posted by verified political candidates, it says.

The company preemptively explains it only verifies accounts to indicate the authenticity of the account ownership, but the verified badge does not indicate TikTok’s endorsement. (The issue around what it means to be verified on a social network is a problem Twitter has faced for years, as it doled out its coveted verified badges to controversial figures, like white nationalists.)

Though TikTok is working with established partners to put its elections guide together, the mere act of involving itself in any way in American politics right now is a fairly bold choice on the company’s part. As users interact with the new elections guide, they could be sharing additional signals about their political leanings.

In theory, these signals could be used to tweak their personalized recommendations, like those shown on TikTok’s For You page, for example. But TikTok could also store this signal data with the user’s TikTok account for future use. That’s not all that different from how Facebook is able to identify your leanings by parsing your profile information or the Pages you’ve “liked.”

TikTok, though, says it won’t be collecting any users’ personal information with the launch of the guide, nor will it use the signals to customize your experience.

“…A user must visit the website for a state or a non-profit for anything that involves sharing their information, including registering to vote,” the company stated, in an announcement. “Interactions with this guide in our app have no bearing on future TikTok experiences, such as recommendations or ads.”

Despite the controversies surrounding TikTok’s ownership, TikTok is joining many social networks that are offering voter guides or running “get out the vote” campaigns in their apps.

Facebook rolled out voting resources to U.S. users this August, and Twitter debuted its Elections hub earlier this month. Snapchat said it helped 400,000 people get registered to vote. YouTube, meanwhile, recently began adding vetted information about mail-in voting to counter misinformation, along with a few features that encourage users to register to vote.

Even Tinder is running a promotion in the U.S. to drive voter registration through the use of in-app cards that direct users to online resources.

However, TikTok’s voter registration efforts could be impactful because of its younger, Gen Z user base. For decades, youth voters have failed to show up at the polls. And every election year, reports wonder if this year will be any different.

But TikTok users, in particular, have been politically motivated in recent months. Some helped to prank the Trump campaign by registering for tickets to Trump’s Tulsa rally, which they didn’t intend to use. They also trolled the official Trump campaign app to the point that it finally had to reset its App Store ratings. And many went on the app to troll their parents’ political choices.

To what extent TikTok’s young users will transition from being armchair activists to real-world voters — if they’re even of age — remains to be seen. And though news coverage has focused on left-leaning TikToker’s, the app can easily direct you to the pro-Trump bubble where you’ll find plenty of MAGA hat-sporting teens.

Like the rest of the U.S., teens on TikTok have their own political divides. That means even if TikTok is successful in boosting youth voter turnout, there’s no reason to believe it will necessarily help sway the vote one way or the other.

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September 29, 2020 at 04:24PM

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How to Analyze Facebook Live Video: A Marketing Tutorial

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Wondering if your Facebook Live videos are working? Need a deeper understanding of your live video metrics? In this article, you’ll find a deep dive into Facebook Live video Insights in the Creator Studio dashboard. Discover which metrics actually help you improve your Facebook lives and find out why most marketers get their data and […]

The post How to Analyze Facebook Live Video: A Marketing Tutorial appeared first on Social Media Examiner | Social Media Marketing.

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September 29, 2020 at 05:03AM

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Internet marketing trends worth taking note of

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Internet marketing trends are changing as fast as technology is adapting and evolving to customers needs. We venture to name some of the most noteworthy trends that reflect the advances that have been made in technology today. 

Faster Web Hosting

Web hosting of some kind is required for your website. Web hosting is simply a folder on a server that stores your website files. Having a webhost that can provide fast load time is imperative to have a highly effective website that can offer users an optimal experience and minimise bounce rate. 

These website platforms are hosting your site for you. The quality of your web hosting is important especially if you have a lot of traffic going to your website. When choosing a suitable web host you should take into consideration the bandwidth, RAM and hard drive your site will need, especially if it’s a high traffic site you will need more of these resources. 

Your webhost will offer performance enhancements that will ultimately increase the loading speed of your website. Such enhancements are a CDN (Content Delivery Network) that should be properly configured – this feature basically minimizes the distance between the server and the user and thus minimizes delays in page loading time. 

Google prefers pages that load faster so making sure that your web pages are loading fast enough is key to ranking higher in the search results.Overall faster web hosting offers users a better experience increasing their engagement and taking your business one step closer to making that coveted sale.  

Facebook Shops

Facebook and Instagram shopping platforms are quickly transforming the way we buy things online. Keeping users on the social media platforms that take up the majority of their time on the Internet thus creating a seamless transition from browsing with a sense of apathy to taking action and actually buying what is already present in their feeds. 

Facebook Shops is integrated onto the facebook platform and is a new e-commerce platform in collaboration with Shopify. Your shopify business can be automatically integrated with facebook and you can sell directly onto the facebook platform. This new platform is customizable, and customers can shop on the platform without being redirected anywhere else. You can create a store directly from facebook basically.

There are also some extra features available if you have a clothing store such as Augmented Reality where you can try on whatever item of clothing or jewellery or other accessories you are looking to buy, you can also send messages and ask for support. The platform also allows you to track deliveries through whatsapp, fb messenger or instagram direct messaging (if you are using the respective Instagram shop) and all of this is available through native integration meaning you don’t need to buy any additional plugins. 

Content Marketing

Content marketing is probably the most prominent digital marketing tool to help your website or blog rank organically on search engines. Content marketing is used by very well known companies and can effectively generate and nurture leads, increase engagement and increase customer loyalty.  

What sets it apart from traditional marketing? Well content marketing focuses on a well defined target audience and in offering what that customer base deems as valuable. 

Traditional marketing tends to talk a lot about the company and what they are selling instead of looking at what actual value a company can create for the customer. 

When you focus on the customer, it pays off in the long run. The customer doesn’t want to hear more about what you do and how good you are at this or that. The customer wants to know what you can offer them, content marketing focuses on what the customer wants. The best marketing doesn’t sound like marketing. You need to offer solutions to your customer base and offer them helpful insight bringing them value at the end of the day.  Sitetrail press releases is one of the latest examples of how content marketing can be taken to the next level.

Chatbots and the Snatchbot Bot Store

Chatbots are basically artificial intelligence software which is designed to simulate conversations in real time between your clients and your business. They are particularly great for busy companies as they help manage replies to customers quickly and efficiently leaving you with more free time to focus on other important aspects of running a business. 

Chatbots are also taking over email marketing, as chatbots have higher engagement and conversion rate compared to email marketing strategies. They are also more secure and easy to manage and you can have a more direct connection with your clients. 

You can use the SnatchBot bot store to create a custom made chatbot for your business. You can customize your bot to say whatever you want and in your preferred language. The platform offers an easy and seamless solution so you can create a 24/7 personal assistant that can help enhance your business’s productivity and response rate to customer needs. 

On the SnatchBot store you can build sophisticated chatbots for free that have some impressive characteristics such as 2-way conversations, human-like dialogues, omnipresence, searchable living records and contextual and intelligent interactions. This bot building platform can help users design, create and test their own bots making it more accessible to users without the need to develop their own infrastructure.  

Overall these internet marketing trends seem to be offering users the best possible experience offering fast and valuable content that can provide solutions and not just try to sell random stuff. At the same time users have access to some of the most technologically advanced resources from AI chatbots to an integrated e-commerce platform via facebook and instagram making sales and support more direct and fast than ever before. 

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September 29, 2020 at 12:41AM

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What’s Social’s True Value to Business? We Asked 2,162 Marketers.

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Social has earned a well-established seat at the marketing table. However, executives often underestimate social’s broader value to business. As organizations look to rebuild in a post-pandemic world, it’s essential to tap into social media’s growing economic and cultural power.

In our Social Transformation Report , we partnered with Altimeter Group to survey 2,162 marketers and conduct in-depth interviews with leading brands to uncover the value organizations find when they invest in social. We got to the heart of three critical areas, which we’ll share in this post.

3 unique ways social creates value for organizations

We found that sophisticated organizations use social media to deepen relationships, increase value and efficiency, and become a catalyst for culture shifts.

1. Social media’s relationship-building power extends beyond customers

In 2020, we’ve seen how crucial it is for brands to use social media as a way to protect and strengthen relationships. Social now plays an integral role in developing relationships not just with customers, but also employees, partners, and other stakeholders.

Our study shows that ‘mature organizations’—those with robust social media strategies according to Hootsuite’s Social Maturity Assessment—are using social to build relationships beyond customers.

While 75% of businesses focus on customers as a key audience on social, mature organizations have expanded their strategy. They’re nearly twice as likely to also connect with communities, employees, and partners.

By investing in a more diverse relationship-building model, mature organizations experience a direct impact on sales and employee alignment. Nearly 70% see significant overall success by focusing on relationships across the business.

For leading service operations brands like Sodexo, building relationships both inside and outside the business is an essential part of their social media strategy. “We take a 360-degree approach to our communications,” explained Kim Beddard-Fontaine, SVP of digital and employee communications at Sodexo. “There isn’t a wall between internal and external.”

Key actions to expand relationships:

• Focus on sustained engagement. Relationships develop with sustained engagements that lead to conversations across multiple channels. In our guide for marketers, we discuss key steps you should take to increase engagement and boost your impact.
• Make social listening part of your strategy. Through social listening you can get real-time insights into shifting trends, consumer sentiment, competitive intelligence, and risks to brand reputation. Make sure that you monitor across all your core audience segments (incl. customers, employees, partners, investors, and the community).
• Integrate cross-channel data. Create profiles or personas for your core audience segments based on data from various marketing channels. Once you understand how, where, and when to engage, you can help your audience achieve their goals through strong value propositions and clearly defined actions.

2. Social’s triple threat (easy, efficient, effective) impacts more than marketing

Social media’s ability to reach wide audiences with content in real-time—combined with its ability to quickly laser-target segmented audiences—make it an incredibly effective media channel.

In our study, 72% of respondents reported that social media’s efficiency was so beneficial to their business that it even helped them improve the efficiency of their other media programs. For example, Mapfre, a global insurance company, uses social analytics to better understand what customers are thinking about. This allows Mapfre to target and personalize their marketing campaigns across all their digital channels. In some countries, the only media Mapfre buys is on social media because it’s so inexpensive for its targeting capabilities.

And while social media’s role in customer engagement is more established, mature organizations are now also using social media to achieve broad cross-organizational benefits. Programs like employee advocacy create greater value in brand health and internal engagement, along with efficiency in areas ranging from strategy to sales.

The benefits of employee programs have become even more apparent during COVID-19. Ochsner Health System’s advocacy program—which includes 300 ambassadors—became an essential part of their communications strategy at the outset of the pandemic. They recently promoted a “COVID Hero Diaries” series along with a video featuring the CEO announcing free childcare for health care providers. “These are stories that they’re proud of,” says Alexandra Gaudin, senior digital content specialist at Ochsner Health. “The stories resonate with our brand ambassadors, who are proud to work for a company that is doing that initiative.”

Key steps to drive operational efficiency and value:

• Integrate your efforts with other channels. An integrated customer engagement approach between social media and other digital channels leads to a higher level of confidence in social ROI. Work together with established teams such as paid media, email marketing, and website optimization to build out more sophisticated digital programs.
• Measure success in context. Social measurement can’t happen in a silo. Attributing sales outcomes requires sophisticated tracking techniques and understanding where social media adds the most value in the sales funnel. It’s essential to collaborate cross-departmentally to understand social’s far-reaching impact on customer buying decisions.
• Plan for the unknowns to mitigate disruption. The COVID-19 pandemic was a wake-up call for many organizations, particularly those less invested and mature in social media practices. To reduce risk, develop a game plan for disruption that includes social media response as part of your broader business continuity planning.

3. Social shifts culture, and culture transforms business

Sophisticated organizations understand that social media can help build the cultural foundation that is necessary for digital transformation within the business.

Not surprisingly, organizations with mature social programs are much more likely to have broad social adoption across the organization.

Broad adoption of social media prepares organizations for the multifaceted approach needed for digital transformation. Companies should leverage steering committees, working groups, and employee engagement programs already in place to better support internal changes within the organization. Around 66% of respondents agree that their social programs have helped transform the business.

In order to truly see transformational change, organizations need to invest in broad social adoption at every level of the organization—and get buy-in from executives. Executive support can have a major impact on a company’s ability to integrate social across the business.

Several interviewees shared that executives saw the power of social media once they began participating in it themselves. For example, Georgia State University’s social team got early buy-in from the president and deans by setting them up with social accounts and showing them how to increase engagement among their peers. Once director-level employees understood the importance of social influence, they started bringing the social team into more strategic meetings. Terry Coniglio, director of strategy at Georgia State University, recalled, “The intangible thing that you can’t measure is the trust that has been built with our department.”

Key actions to shift digital culture:

• Work from the inside-out. Effective employee advocacy programs help employees feel more connected to their company’s mission. Training is key to build confidence and support employees as their engagement and use of advocacy mature.
• Make social accessible. Scaling digital transformation requires broad adoption, so making social media accessible to everyone from salespeople to executives will increase their participation and create an internal culture shift. It’s important to find a social management platform that is easy to use for any level of employee.
• Invest in social experts. Social media teams that have successfully launched social media programs understand the skill sets needed to educate employees. By investing in resources that allow internal experts to empower your organization on social, you’ll see a return on your social investment faster. Utilize educational resources to keep up training on a regular basis.

Read the full report and learn how Hootsuite can become your trusted partner in digital transformation.

The post What’s Social’s True Value to Business? We Asked 2,162 Marketers. appeared first on Social Media Marketing & Management Dashboard.

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September 28, 2020 at 12:53PM

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A Quick Guide To IP Warming To Ensure Better Email Deliverability

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IP warming is a prerequisite to sending out bulk emails, and missing on it during the initial days can sabotage your email marketing campaigns. Adding a new IP address to your account should always be followed up by an IP warm-up. In simple words, IP warming or warm-up is the process of systematically increasing the number of emails sent from your new IP address with time and gradually establishing a sender reputation. In this article, we will have a quick look at the need and methods of IP warming along with tips on warming up your IP address for better deliverability. 

The Need Of IP Warming

If you have not sent any mail for 30 consecutive days or adding a new dedicated IP address, you will need to familiarize yourself with the ISPs (Inbox Service Providers) so that you don’t end up in the spam folders. You can also take help of email developers if you are not familiar with these technicalities. ISPs are vigilant when it comes to targeting unknown senders shooting bulk emails as a form of cold calling. To get accepted by ISPs, you need to develop a concrete sender reputation to minimize the deliverability issues. Mailbox providers recognize you based on their previous interactions with you, which happens to be your IP. Healthy email marketing metrics mean that you are trustworthy and inbox providers can trust you with their clients. 

Wait no more, here’s the quick guide on IP warming:

Methods To Warm Up Your IP Address

There are two ways to warm up your dedicated IP address, and you can apply these methods regardless of whether you have a completely new IP address or adding a new one. In this section, we will have a look at both methods. 

Manual IP Warm-Up

Going by the manual method, you will have to send emails in small batches and constantly increase sending frequency over predefined time intervals. While there is no fixed rule, it is advisable to double the number of emails sent with each new batch. This is a tedious method, and it isn’t very popular in the industry. 

API-Based IP Warming Automation 

API-based automation tools use an existing IP address and couple it with the new one to send out scheduled emails. Automation smartly uses the warm and cold IPs for sending out emails. It also manages the batch size with respect to the schedule and redistributes the emails in case of limit expiration. Automated throttling gives you complete control over the hourly limits and builds a predictable pattern for the mailbox providers to familiarise your IP. 

Step By Step Instructions For IP Warming

• Create a hygienic email list that keeps the most engaged recipients at the top priority.
• Set up PTR records in your reverse DNS, register your IP address with DKIM, DMARC, and SPF for authentication. Also, register for complaints with all ISPs.
• Place a “click to unsubscribe” link in all your HTML email templates. 
• Register yourself on the Return Path platform for every new IP address added. 
• Start with 2000-4000 subscribers with the most engaged ones first.
• Double your sending frequency with each passing day or on alternate days. 

According to Get Response,

• Average CTR is 3.43%
• Average open rate is 22.15%
• Average unsubscribe rate lies at 0.20%
• Average spam rate is merely 0.02%

Tips For Conducting IP Warming

• If you are starting afresh, select contacts you know personally to get good open rates.
• Get a dedicated tool to manage and measure your sender reputation.
• In case the engagement rates drop midway, reduce the number of emails sent, and even stop it if necessary.
• To ensure high deliverability, stick to organic email lists and avoid using paid email lists under any conditions.
• Optimize your warm-up schedule with proportionate recipients from each ISP.
• Use A/B Split Testing to understand what works best for your subscribers. It helps in choosing the best email template and content structures for better results.
• Consider stopping whenever you face poor email metrics. Sometimes ISPs deliberately put you in the spam folder to check if people are marking you “not spam.” This can improve your sender reputation by leaps and bounds. On the other hand, it saves you from hitting spam traps. 

It is highly advisable to seek professional help before running an IP warm-up plan. If done improperly, you might end up getting blacklisted by ISPs. One piece of advice for our readers is that they should not waste more time and effort on an IP address that has an existing negative reputation. Restarting the process with a new address is always easier and more affordable. It also saves you from risking your warmed IP addresses. 

Over To You

Despite your best efforts, the initial phases will be made by troubles. We recommend sticking with your plan and set up a bounce processing protocol to identify any major issues. In most of the cases, you will be required to change your strategy from time to time, but following the steps as mentioned above with an organic email list will surely give you good results. We hope that you find this quick guide to IP warming helpful for getting better email deliverability. 

Author Bio

Kevin George is Head of Marketing at Email Uplers, one of the fastest growing PSD to Email coding companies, and specializes in crafting professional email templates, custom Mailchimp email templates design and coding in addition to providing email automation, campaign management, and data integration & migration services. He loves gadgets, bikes, jazz, and eats and breathes email marketing. He enjoys sharing his insights and thoughts on email marketing best practices on his blog.

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September 28, 2020 at 07:33AM