Tag: marketing

Closeup of caregiver holding elderly woman's hand

Crisis Management for Long-Term Care Communities during COVID-19

If you’re like us, you’re likely hunkered down at home, doing your best social distancing to help flatten the curve of COVID-19. As the coronavirus has spread across the globe over the first few months of 2020, we’ve unfortunately learned that those most at risk for contracting are immunocompromised and the elderly. 

And even though a lot of the world has shifted from in-person work to working from home, many important, essential employees, like those who work in long-term care communities, caring for the more geriatric population, aren’t able to. This has led to more requests for crisis management services at these communities due to negative media coverage and a discussion of HIPAA transparency from these communities.  

Here’s how Critical Point Communications, a subsidiary of ON Advertising, is tackling crisis management recommendations and insight on dealing with the media amidst the pandemic, and how we can help you if you’re a long-term care provider in need.

A Rise in Need for Crisis Management at Long-Term Care Communities

Since the outbreak of COVID-19 there’s been a definite rise in requests for crisis management at long-term care communities. The communities are filled mainly by elderly patients, many of whom deal with already pre-existing conditions or poor health, and are more at risk against contracting the virus, according to the CDC. Calls to manage crisis situations have doubled over the past two month which speaks to the magnitude of the situation these communities currently find themselves in. Due to this increase, we’ve provided crisis management services to more than 50 long-term care communities across the country since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak. 

Because of the nature of the virus, this type of management is different from the typical crisis management situation we usually deal with. Typically, we handle problems like citations received during a recent inspection, an employee theft of resident property, a missing resident, and other situations of a similar nature. During this crisis, long-term care communities have faced extreme negative media coverage since the spread began. Since there has never been a pandemic of this kind before, care communities are having difficulty knowing how to manage. From determining the timing of actions, such as limiting or prohibiting visitors, stopping social activities, confining residents, and what exactly to do in the event a resident or employee contracts the virus – there is a lot to consider. 

So far, we have dealt with a number of different issues regarding COVID-19 in long-term care communities, like a resident contracting COVID-19 in the community, an employee contracting COVID-19 in the community, and a media barrage on a community regarding transparency. We also dealt with long-term care media communications, employee and resident communications regarding virus in the building, COVID-19 visitation restrictions, and resident and employee quarantine timing and response during the crisis.

Dealing With Crisis Management Issues During COVID-19

To a community in need of assistance, crisis management can deal with the specific crisis occurring at that moment, and provide immediate communication requirements both inside and outside the community to control information regarding the crisis. And in terms of the COVID-19 crisis we’re currently facing, we provide specific directions to communicate to residents, family members, and media outlets regarding the proactive approach the community is doing to limit or eliminate the spread of the virus. 
But what steps do we take to do so? 
We provide verbal and written recommendations to both owners and senior management, stay in direct communication with media outlets, and write media statements regarding specific crisis issues that arise. Internally within the community, we provide communications to residents and family members. And in such unusual times, we cannot stress enough the need for all long-term care communities to have a crisis management plan in place. 

Putting a Crisis Management Plan In Place at Long-Term Care communities

According to an article by Healthline, experts say that Americans may have to get used to social distancing over the next 1 to 2 years. In the event that COVID-19 makes a return this Fall, it would be beneficial for all long-term care communities to be ready with internal and external communication protocols.
Crisis Communication plans include:

  • An employee policy regarding a crisis situation (written for employee manuals). 
  • Knowing what issues constitute a crisis, and knowledge of who to contact first in the event of a crisis. 
  • Direction on how to communicate to employees and residents during a crisis and knowing when to seek outside assistance for crisis management.
  • How to handle incoming media calls and what to do if the media shows up at your door. 

It is important that long-term care communities do not give on the spot interviews to any media outlet, and that information is carefully articulated both inside and outside of the community. If a facility is not sure what to do, seek outside professional crisis help immediately.

Working With Critical Point Communications

Knowing that it’s not a matter of “if”, but rather of “when” when it comes to a crisis occurring can help your company be better prepared. To better avoid significant damage being done to your valuable reputation within your community, it’s essential that any crisis is either resolved or contained within 4 hours or less. And that’s where Critical Point Communications can help you navigate.
The COVID-19 outbreak has brought forth new, unique challenges being faced by long-term care communities. And because these communities are at the epicenter of the pandemic and taking a brunt of the discourse, we want you to know, we’re here to help. 
If you are a long-term care community needing crisis management assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic, contact us today to speak to our expert team.

A graphic of Mikaela doing some strategic planning

Service Spotlight: Strategic Planning

At ON Advertising, our main goal is to help make you successful. Whether that means we’ve created a video that perfectly tells your story, or developed a website that transforms your eCommerce business, developing your brand is in our DNA. And it involves strategic planning.

But before we reach project’s end – in fact, before we even begin in-depth research, we develop a strategic approach. One that aligns sales and marketing objectives. This allows us to learn what unique business goals and challenges your business has; and that’s what drives everything else that we do! 

Our focus is on providing our clients with a tailored marketing plan that aligns with their business approach. And what’s the most important aspect of making it all come together? Strategic planning by our expert team members.

Strategic Planning

When examining our clients, and what ultimately drives their success, one common denominator stands out: the strategy behind each service we provide. Why is this important? In the end, the goal is to create long-term marketing objectives for your marketing team. And the sales team gets the ongoing short-term support they need to close more deals. Don’t worry if you aren’t selling anything physical and instead provide a service. Our strategic planning extends to social media campaigns and beyond. Whatever you need, we can plan for it.

To fully understand your business’s needs, we start by analyzing the current state of your brand; and focus on what will resonate with new customers. We create your marketing strategy by identifying what differentiates you from all your competitors; and what builds an affinity with prospective customers. To do this, we focus on a number of strategic planning services.

Brand Messaging and Positioning:
We aim to unlock the potential of your brand. By performing brand positioning, we define how you want your audience to view your service. That, paired with brand messaging to further solidify you’re targeting this desired positioning, leaves you with a cohesive voice.

Customer Research and Insights:
To become top of mind for customers, you’ve got to be able to dive deeper into theirs’. Not only is it vital to research your competitors, but to evaluate your customer’s habits, both current and prospective. With this, we can better define the direction your messaging takes. We can also utilize any past analytics, in combination with new insights as we begin our partnership; and we can adjust strategies as we go. Adaptability is key, after all!

Strategic Planning and Sales Plan:
When considering a strategy for any marketing and sales tactics, evaluating a company’s current environment is often where we start. For example, many of our clients have fluctuating “busy seasons”. This can ultimately guide things like how much marketing money is spent, where, and at what time of year. This is also where we can get granular in our target markets and create feasible, attainable goals for our clients about who they’re spending their dollars on. 

SWOT Analysis:
You’ve likely heard of a SWOT analysis, which is the evaluation of a company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This could include anything from direct competition in your market to a strong internal culture that makes for happy employees! By analyzing the good, the bad, the ugly, and everything in between, we’re better equipped to help you make the strategic decisions that will shape your business’s future.

Target Market Analysis:
You’ve got a good or service and someone out there has the need for it! But how do you find them in such saturated industries? We perform a target market analysis to determine whether or not you’re reaching your ideal audience. From there we can refine, retarget, and create a truly dialed in customer base/audience – and grow it as you do! 

Value Proposition:
At its core, a value proposition describes why a customer would want to purchase your product over another. Or, why they’d rather work with you over another company! And articulating this message, succinctly and successfully, can take a lot more strategic planning than you might think. This message is often one that is seen before anything else concerning your brand. So, we work to make it all-encompassing and expertly crafted.

ON Advertising

We understand that there is a tangible business goal that you want to achieve. And aligning our communication strategies with business objectives of our clients is how we create well-conceived strategies to meet them. When our analytical approach meets big, creative ideas, magic happens! Contact us to tell us all about your business or project; and get matched with the experts ready to take your business to the next level with quality strategic planning.

ON Advertising Acquires Evans Communications

ON Advertising, a prominent Phoenix-based full-service advertising firm, has acquired Evans Communications, a leading Valley public relations, marketing and event planning firm.

Evans Communications will be merged into the ON Advertising structure, and its principal Tom Evans will join the ON Advertising team as Partner-Public Relations and Event Strategies. Evans’ three other employees will join the ON Advertising team as well. The dollar value of the transaction is to be determined based upon revenues over the next few years.

The move significantly expands ON’s public relations and event planning capabilities while providing Evans Communications’ clients with ON’s full spectrum of advertising, creative, digital, social media and marketing services. Evans Communications’ clients include some of the Valley’s most prominent organizations, including Plaza Companies, Valley of the Sun United Way, SkySong, The ASU Scottsdale Innovation Center, The Phoenix Symphony and many more.

ON Advertising’s client base includes a broad range of public and private sector organizations, including Hines, Chompie’s Restaurants, Pioneer Packaging, Cici’s Pizza, Aria Energy, Maricopa County and the State of Arizona.

“We’re proud of what we’ve accomplished over the years on our clients’ behalf, and have been fortunate and privileged to work with some of the finest leaders in Arizona and some of the most dynamic organizations in the Southwest and beyond,” Tom Evans said. “But we were very impressed with what ON Advertising’s partners John Hernandez, Ron Meritt, and Eric Garcia are building, and we’re thrilled to be a part of it. They have been incredibly gracious and welcoming, and we look forward to what we’re able to achieve for our clients together.”

Andrea Tyler Evans, co-owner of Evans Communications, will continue to serve as Publisher of the Evans’ other company, Frontdoors Media, which is not involved in the transaction.

John Hernandez, Partner and Co-Owner of ON Advertising, said that the acquisition was an opportunity for the agency to continue its growth while expanding its capabilities and adding a well-known name in the community to the company’s roster.

“Evans Communications has an excellent reputation in the Valley,” said John Hernandez. “Tom and our partners had great conversations to make this deal happen, and we knew that not only would our services be complementary, but he and his team would fit into our culture, which made this a no-brainer,” he added.

The transition will officially take effect on April 1, with the Evans team transitioning into the ON Advertising offices in downtown Phoenix.

Founded in 1993, ON Advertising is a full-service advertising, marketing, public relations, graphic design, web design and video production agency with innovation and big creative ideas at its core. For all clients, we take a business-based approach which means we look at bottom-line growth for every client. We start and execute every assignment with the understanding there are tangible business goals to achieve and the communication strategies must align with the business objectives of each client.

Snapchat logo on phone

Ephemeral Content

Have you heard of ephemeral content? You may not know it by its official name, but you sure have seen it in applications like Snapchat and Instagram Stories. And according to Strike Social, ephemeral content is here to stay. 

We already utilize ephemeral content in our everyday content here at ON Advertising, both for ourselves and our clients! But as the content grows in popularity, we’re following how it may impact our marketing and advertising tactics overall. We looked at how ephemeral content is evolving, what it could mean for our strategies, and how it may affect yours.

What is Ephemeral Content?

Ephemeral, by definition, means “lasting for a very short time”. And this is a concept we’ve seen rapidly take off in the world of social media over the last few years. Interestingly enough, we have the social media platform Snapchat to thank for this popular content style. They were the first to entertain the idea back in 2011, according to Rebrandly. What was the reason behind this new concept? The platform was looking for a way to break up the monotonous, overly planned aspect of social media. Unsurprisingly, internet users were behind this new way of utilizing their accounts; and from there, a beloved social media medium was born. 

Since then, we’ve seen ephemeral content abilities, of various approaches, pop up in a number of platforms. Instagram, Facebook, and, most recently, Twitter with their introduction of fleets – just to name a few. Each platform’s idea is slightly personal, but with a common main concept. It’s content that, once posted, typically lasts a maximum of 24 hours before it disappears for good. At least from an outside viewer’s vantage point.

Ephemeral Content and ON Advertising

We’re no stranger to the inclusion of ephemeral content at ON Advertising. That goes for both our employee’s personal content, our own company posts, and client activity as well! With all that said: we see a huge value in the strategic use of the idea. With where our industry currently is, as well as where it’s headed, being able to convey a sense of authenticity is more important than ever. This goes for personal social accounts belonging to an everyday user, to the much larger, unapproachable platforms that celebrities and public entities hold. And for us, this also applies to our own clients and their businesses. 

Typically, the main feed of a company’s social account is fairly premeditated. Whether it’s an in-house social team managing the page or an outside agency running it for them, posts are often planned. It allows for consistency and a sense of cohesiveness that can help solidify brand recognition. But with this also comes a lack of spontaneity; and in a sense, relatability. After all, if everything is perfectly in place all the time, where’s the sense of fun? This goes without saying, but a perfectly balanced mix of both planned and impromptu posting is the ideal strategy. 

How We Use Ephemeral Content

So, how do we utilize ephemeral content in our work? By doing a little planning, funnily enough. When thinking about how best to utilize ephemeral posts in our content strategies, we had to think about what goes best, and where. For example, for a business, a planned feed is likely to house things like product updates, strong photos of their work, and anything else they want eyes to consistently be on. Ephemeral content, on the other hand, may be where things such as casual behind the scenes photos, timely event updates, and more personal posts may go. 

By evaluating our client’s needs, and the needs of our own company, we have implemented approaches that mirror this! And beyond the ability to communicate with followers on a more intimate level through the content you know won’t last, it’s a great way to keep your feed uncluttered in general. With brand recognition in mind, it is important to have a sense of eye-catching branding. And a feed is the perfect place for that kind of content to live. By allowing more unedited, raw videos and photos to stay within the ephemeral bubble, you can really enjoy the best of both worlds for your accounts.

Along with everything else, ephemeral content analytics are extremely helpful when it comes to meeting the needs of our clients. For example, though posted stories on Instagram only last 24 hours max for another user, it still lives on in an archive. If you have a business account, that is. By regularly tracking this data, we can see what’s working, what isn’t performing, and come up with new ideas based on those numbers. 

Where Do We Think It’s Headed

In reality, the capabilities of ephemeral content, as well as its impact on analytics, are at the beginning stages. Like any other aspect of social media, we’re bound to go through millions of changes over the coming years. So far, we’ve found that it’s a great way to engage with our various audiences in a more personal, timely way. And we’re truly excited to see what new ways we can implement ephemeral content, whether it be the introduction of a whole new platform or just an update to the capabilities we know and love.

Partner With ON Advertising

We know it’s important to connect your brand values with your company goals, and we’re here to help. We use customized social media strategies and campaigns to make sure you’re reaching the right people, in the right places, at the right time. And if you’re looking for help with ephemeral content, our highly-skilled social media experts can provide you with the solutions that work. Contact us today to partner with our team.

A book of ON Ad's tools Chompie's Restaurants

Client Spotlight: Chompie’s Restaurants

In 1979, the Borenstein family brought their timeless family recipes from Queens, New York all the way to Phoenix, Arizona, and Chompie’s Restaurants were born. While we’re grateful for the opportunity to enjoy classic, authentic New York deli foods right here at home, we’re also grateful for the partnership we’ve created with the Chompie’s family! ON Advertising has been working with Chompie’s for over 2 years and we can’t wait to see what comes next. But before we begin the next chapter, take a look at what we’ve worked on so far!

What We’ve Been Up To

Although our union with Chompie’s Restaurants is relatively new, we’ve gotten to work on some pretty amazing things with their team thus far. And our custom, thorough strategy for Chompie’s may have something to do with it!

Our extensive scope of services for Chompie’s Restaurants includes: 

  • Social Media Content & Management
  • Menus, Promotional & Packaging Designs
  • Email Marketing
  • Website Maintenance
  • eCommerce Website Development
  • Media Relations
  • Paid Media Management
  • Google My Business Management
  • Still Photography
  • Video Production
  • Service Evaluation Reports

But, how exactly did our partnership begin? Chompie’s Restaurants reached out to ON Advertising to help with increasing their brand awareness. And in a state with ever-changing demographics, an increasingly competitive restaurant community, and five locations across the Valley, the task at hand seemed big, but we were confident our team was up to the challenge!

From the beginning, we were tasked with revamping the restaurant’s menu, driving sales through paid advertising and media relations, and enhancing customer retention through strategic email communication. In addition, we did marketing for the restaurant’s 40th anniversary in 2019 and continually handle their social media. Before we began, we first needed to interview patrons of each of the various locations. This was to find out exactly what it was about Chompie’s that resonated with them so much. 

Oftentimes our own assumptions, and the assumptions of our clients, were right. Other times what we uncovered was a surprise! The reality is that people in different places, even within a span of a few miles, have different motivators for behaviors. Our data ultimately pointed to a broad consensus point transcending generations of Chompie’s fans: nostalgia!

Memories of coming to Chompie’s Restaurants for years shined through. Stories of East Coast natives who moved to Arizona and miss New York deli’s, to parents of younger individuals taking them to Chompie’s were just some of the memories we were honored to hear. And once we understood the audience at hand, our team of diverse, skilled experts got straight to work. 

What Happened

As a result of our efforts, sales increased substantially at three of the five Chompie’s Restaurant locations all within just six months. The two other locations had sales equal to the previous year and remained steady. We even helped Chompie’s eliminate items from the menu that were not selling in high volumes. Meaning we helped them cut internal costs by curating a menu that customers truly enjoy. 

Another vital aspect of Chompie’s Restaurants success is its cohesive social media strategy! And during our time with Chompie’s Restaurants, we’ve implemented some stellar tactics within our partnership. We can attribute much of our Instagram success to a rapidly growing industry: keto influencers. Because Chompie’s offers unique, low-carb products, working with influencers can reach a farther, larger niche audience. Coupled with giveaways, the keto community is proving to be a powerful, driving force for Chompie’s Restaurants.

But beyond social media partnerships, an internal shift of Chompie’s Restaurants messaging has gone a long way. By using a cohesive photoshoot style and photo editing style, their platforms have a consistent look across the board. Pair this with short, witty, straight to the point captions and Chompie’s has a strategy that’s working.

In our industry, it all comes back to ROI for the client. And in June of 2019, we launched a new online shopping experience! We continue to maintain and update the shopping page for performance and functionality. The results of this update were further ease in ordering products and reduced shipping costs! Plus, a dramatic increase in website orders has shown ever since we launched the new online shopping cart – and sales are only increasing.

We are proud to say we gave this 40-year-old brand a positive return on their investment in us – what we strive for in every one of our partnerships.

In fact, here’s what Chompie’s VP of Operations, Frank Lara, had to say about working with us: “We couldn’t be more pleased about our partnership with ON Advertising! They’ve delivered measurable ROI, helping us to increase sales at our restaurant locations. They’ve streamlined our menu, and their creative team redesigned our bagel boxes. They are creative, responsive and thoughtful…ON Advertising is the best!”

What We’re Planning for Chompie’s Restaurants

A new year means a whole new set of goals! In 2020, we are aiming to greatly enhance the overall awareness of Chompie’s brand and further expand its customer base. This means aiding them in sharing their Jewish culture and DELIcious food with the melting pot that is Phoenix! And because Phoenix is the fifth-largest city in the United States, the future’s looking bright. 

Ultimately, we hope to continue helping to share authentic New York deli recipes with new customers that share a love for comfort food. Additionally, we will work to strengthen and expand their current digital advertising impact, both locally and nationally!

ON Advertising

At ON Advertising, our goal is to unlock the potential of your brand. And by partnering with our team of experts, in various fields, we can help you enhance your brand – just like Chompie’s! Contact us to get started on your project. 

Man with his credit card in hand is getting ready to purchase items off eBay.

The Pros and Cons of Holiday Marketing

Ho, ho, ho, the holiday season is upon us! It’s once again the time of year where our email inbox is flooded with specials, text message deals come flying in, and all over ads are making use of the festive season to target you. While sales tend to skyrocket during this time of year, the marketing efforts that go behind them can be “snow” joke. Whether you have a large budget or are relying on small marketing efforts, holiday marketing can be the thing that helps you “sleigh” the competition. Here at ON Advertising, we’ve compiled a few of the pros and cons of holiday marketing to keep in mind.

Cost of Christmastime Marketing

According to an article by WordStream, bid prices can increase by 140% over their yearly average during the holidays. Con? This means that your marketing budget has to match your efforts. Pro? Your ROI could increase as well. In a piece by emarketer, they revealed that in 2018, holiday retail sales finally crossed the $1 trillion mark, making it more crucial than ever to secure your spot in a saturated sales snowstorm. An article by Vivial using a report by Ignite showed that companies spent almost $27 billion on social media marketing in 2018 alone and allocated 25% of their annual budgets to social media marketing over the holidays. Essentially, sticking with the same budget is no longer viable and it may be time to up yours. CNBC states that holiday spending is expected to rise 5% this year, so it can be extremely beneficial to revisit your numbers and budget from the previous year to find your baseline. Make sure your budget is substantial, your strategy is flushed out, and that you know your goals. You’ll be feelin’ “pine”. 

Digital vs. In-Store Shopping

Do you like to do your holiday shopping online, or do you prefer to head to the store to snag your deals? If you like to purchase on the web, you aren’t alone. CNBC also states that according to Tim Cadogan, chairman, and chief executive officer for OpenX, 53% of all holiday shopping is expected to be done digitally. A press release from Adobe Analytics showed that during Cyber Monday, direct website traffic ranked highest for driving revenue at 25.3 percent share of sales (down 1.2 percent YoY), followed by paid search at 25.1 percent (up 7.4 percent YoY), natural search at 18.8 percent (down 2.8 percent), and email at 24.2 percent (up 0.5 percent). They noted that social media had a 1.1 percent share, impacting online sales very minimally. WordStream’s findings also revealed that 8 in 10-holiday shoppers are influenced by the internet before making a purchase. Con? You may not see the largest crowds in your brick and mortar store. Pro? If your holiday marketing efforts are eye-catching and a substantial enough deal, you’ll have your “elf” a merry little Christmas when it comes to sales. 

Coupons and Deals

It’s no secret that most people are happy to find a deal or a discount when shopping, including us! In a 2019 report, emarketer showed that internet users “always” or “very often” use coupons when shopping online. Con? You may need to include some stellar deals in your marketplace to lock in the sale. Pro? As reported by Google, one of the most influential factors in buying decisions was sales, discounts, or promos. That’s directly in line with WordStream’s finding that one-third of shoppers reporting that their holiday weekend purchases were driven by promotions. So while Santa doesn’t need discounts to come out on top this season, you do! 

ON Advertising hopes that you have a profitable, successful, and strategic holiday marketing season! If you want help with harnessing consumer spending habits and setting your brand up for success both during the holidays and all year long, contact us.

Glowing sign that reads "Facebook"

“Facebook’s “Private” Feature and its SMM Implications”

As of this year’s third quarter, Facebook has reached 2.41 Billion active monthly users, making it the most used social media platform worldwide. Facebook has been the leader in social networks, as they were the first social platform to have monthly users surpass the billions by the second quarter of 2012. With the constant growth, popularity, and innovative features, such as Messenger and Facebook Groups, it’s easy to see how the conglomerate has become the choice social media platform. 

It’s no secret that there have been privacy issues with the site in the past. In early 2018, it was revealed that Cambridge Analytica harvested the personal data of millions of peoples’ Facebook profiles without their consent and used it for political advertising purposes. After the loss of trust amongst its users, and millions of dollars in fines later, Facebook’s Founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, is “committed to getting it right,” he said as he opened at the F8 Developers Conference earlier this year. With four simple words projected on the screen behind him: “The future is private,” Zuckerberg explained Facebook’s decision to undergo a ground-up redesign. This redesign aims to place private community groups at the center of its experience and revamp its apps to work with one another. Why? To help people securely reach their core communities. This has been touted as the biggest change the social platform has seen in over five years. 

This all begs the question: What is Facebook’s “Private” feature?

For starters, the “Private” feature that Facebook is introducing essentially allows the user to control and see data that websites and applications share between the platforms. It’s being introduced as “Off-Facebook Activity” and gives users the ability to keep track of the information that third-party applications access and what they are using it for. Along with the “Off-Facebook Activity,” they’re also updating their ad library and giving users an option to control what they see from their groups, pages, and friends with a “Why am I seeing this ad” option. 

What Does This Mean for the Social Media Advertising World? 

Facebook warns that its new privacy tool may impact targeting on paid ads. Whether this is the truth or not, advertisers are preparing for the change. Here at ON Advertising, we believe it will definitely be limited as more and more users will choose not to see content like paid ads. Will some of those users be ones we try to target with our client’s paid ads? Of course. That’s where adjusting the perimeters and revisiting our goals will ensure the users we want and need to see the content, will see the content. As Facebook continues to change, it’s important to get creative with marketing plans to safeguard the effectiveness of the campaigns being launched. It’s also recommended that everyone in the advertising and marketing industry should have plans in place for when the time comes to change their tactics and work to set specific goals that they set in place. After all, we like to stay ahead of the game when it comes to playing it.

How Can ON Advertising Help?

With big changes coming to Facebook and the possibility of more advancements in the future, it’s vital that a plan is implemented to produce campaigns.. Having a hard time wrapping your head around it all? ON Advertising’s digital strategy services can help you stay ahead of the ever-changing social media industry. We can assist in creating innovative and creative ways to remain on top of the competition, while still staying aligned with your goals. Contact us to see how we can help your business grow and learn more about the services we have to offer.

A woman scrolls through the Instagram app on her phone

How Instagram’s Elimination of Likes & Following Tab May Change SMM

Did you notice anything different when you recently opened up Instagram? You’re not the only one. The platform has finally decided to do away with its Following tab, a feature that has caused quite the controversy among users for its expository nature. The newly deleted tab had once allowed users to see what their friends were liking, commenting on, and who they were following in real-time. 

Instagram likes are also currently the subject of a deletion rumor, and if the plan is carried out, it would mean the removal of the most popular, sought after feature of Instagram as a whole.

Why are these changes a big deal? Because it means your behavior and activities on Instagram are once again private. What does this mean for social media marketing? We’ll explain everything you need to know.

How Marketing Companies Made Use of the Following Tab

Though the feature was mostly frequented by typical Instagram users to spy on their friends, coworkers, exes, and significant others (and sometimes even their enemies), it didn’t go unutilized in the social media marketing world. In fact, according to Harper’s Bazaar, the original intention of the Following tab was to allow users to find new accounts and interests through who their connections were interacting with. This, in turn, made it much simpler for companies to actively gain information on targeting specific audiences, find competitors, and keep up-to-date with what content of their own was working well. Essentially, the feature was an extra layer of analysis and insight that businesses can no longer use as a reference.

What Now?

If you’re a company that made particular use of the Following tab as a way to collect data, you may be wondering what tool you can now use to retrieve the same kinds of information regarding users’ patterns. That’s where the Explore page will come in handy. It may not display activity as granularly as the eliminated tab, but the Explore page will help supplement information about what is trending, popular pages, and just a general idea of what’s being liked by the people you are following. Keeping close tabs on this page, along with Instagram’s general insights, will give you an edge when it comes to content targeting and following customer behavior.

What Life Might Look Like Without Likes

According to Instagram, the idea behind getting rid of likes is to remove pressure from users to receive likes, to alleviate the need for validation, and to make an effort to help with self-esteem and mental health. While the withdrawal of the Following tab has already occurred, this change has not yet hit the entire app as quickly. Instagram tested the idea in markets like Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Japan, and several other countries, leaving users in the United States to watch its trial run from afar. Although the move may not affect the average everyday user’s experience with the social media platform, influencers, brands, and companies may be greatly impacted. With likes comes revenue, and now active users looking to grow will only have their follower numbers to increase and rely on. 

How ON Advertising Can Help

With massive Instagram changes being implemented and the possibility of even greater alterations on the horizon, the way analytics and user data is gathered may be experiencing a huge shift in the coming months and years. Need some assistance making sense of it all? ON Advertising can help with that. Our agency offers Digital Strategy Services to ensure that your marketing efforts are aligned with your goals because a formal strategy puts you steps ahead of your competition. Contact us to see how we can help your business navigate these changes and continue to grow. 

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