Meaning & Advantages of Blue Hook

A verified account has many advantages.

Visibility

It increases the Creator’s visibility by recognizing him as authentic on his profile and allows him to reach more followers. Therefore, it is extremely important for every Creator to get the blue tick.

Functions

In addition, the Creator can use various features that are not available to other users, such as invitations to exclusive events or collaborations with brand partners.

Placements

In addition, verified creators receive preferential treatment from TikTok, which translates into higher rankings in search listings and ads on the homepage. This means a wider reach and more attention for their content, and thus more follower gain.

So, the blue checkmark is a symbol of authenticity and legitimacy of an account on TikTok, which allows the Creator to discover new opportunities and expand his reach. It is therefore essential to obtain this symbol!

• Increase the visibility of the Creator
• Followers generation
• Use of other functions
• Preferred treatment of TikTok
• High range
• Symbol of authenticity

Blue Hook – When does an account get it?

If you want to get a blue checkmark on TikTok, you first have to meet certain criteria.

Full account

First of all, you must have an account with your full name, date of birth and at least one profile picture.

Community guidelines

In addition, you must adhere to TikTok’s community guidelines. This means that content must not violate the guidelines and must not contain inappropriate content. To make sure that your account is ready to receive the blue tick, you should regularly check if it still complies with the community guidelines.

Account verification

Once these basics have been met, one can apply for the blue hook. To do so, one must have their account verified and provide various information. Once confirmed, one can usually expect the blue tick within one to two weeks.

The blue checkmark is a great way for influencers and marketers to increase their reach and draw more attention to their content. With the right content and engagement, marketers can benefit from earning the blue checkmark to generate more followers and strengthen their brand.

• Full account with all profile data
• Compliance with the Community Guidelines
• Content should not violate any guidelines
• Application for the blue hooks
• Account verification

The TikTok Creative Center

Besides the blue hook, there is also the TikTok Creative Center. What is it actually and what advantages does it offer?

• TikTok Creative Center

The first, real Social Shopping Network

As a social network, Instagram has over 1 billion active users every month. This makes Instagram the most engaged network, even ahead of Facebook itself. Approximately 70% of Instagram users are under 35 years old. This is an extremely strong target group, also with a view to the future and the strategic development of their own brand. Products have been linked to Instagram for about two years. That’s why the function has long been an insider tip from our e-commerce agency.

Until now you have to create a Facebook Shop for it. Accordingly, the effort was too high for many people. After all, the own store had to be connected to Facebook to mark products on Instagram. Now everything is much easier, much more present.

Create Instagram Shop in the app, done. Now you can create products and link them in your photos and videos

That is why we wanted to tell you about it directly! Today we will take a first, basic look at the feature together. Most of the time we get very basic questions about Insta Shopping. This article answers all questions step by step.

• What is Instagram Shopping?
• Is Instagram Shopping worth it?
• How does Instagram Shopping work?
• How can you sell stuff on Instagram?
• How much does Instagram Shopping cost?

What is Instagram Shopping?

When you start the app, 5 icons appear in the main menu. One of them is new, the Instagram Shopping function.

The icon is not only present at the start of the app, but also in all subpages. It doesn’t matter if it’s a news stream, your own profile or the search for content and channels. Instagram tries something completely new with it, it becomes a social shopping network. If you open the shopping area, you will find the start page for the area here. From here you can search or navigate by topics. There you will find products, stores and other inspiration marked by users (or brands).

For example, here you can mark Influencer your products (or yourself).

Tip! Product videos instead of photos

As you have already learned in the article Instagram Video Algorithm, Instagram focuses more and more on video content. TikTok is already competing with 800 million users. Dior, for example, uses video to make your products more vivid.

This is Instagram Shopping for users. Now let’s move on to the business area that is important for you as a marketing channel. Under the respective product or store you will of course find further articles from the store.

Key figures: Is Instagram Shopping worthwhile?

The question: “Is Instagram Shopping worthwhile?” we want to look at in a little more detail. Also in relation to social commerce in general, or its potential for the future. First of all, let’s take a look at the question: “Is Instagram worthwhile?

Instagram or… what do companies use?

As described in the introduction, Instagram has over 1 billion active users per month. This makes Instagram the most engaged network, even ahead of Facebook itself. Reach and interaction, you can find both on Instagram. But are companies taking advantage of the Instagram opportunity? 76% of companies worldwide use Instagram. Here you can see the exact percentage of companies using social media platforms worldwide in January 2020.

Social Media Marketing: Advertising expenditure until 2022

The next important question, how are companies’ investments in social marketing developing? After all, this is an indicator of whether companies and brands trust in social media marketing campaigns or rather rely on alternative advertising formats. Here you can see the investments in social media advertising worldwide from 2007 to 2018 and forecast 2022 (in millions of US dollars).

Facebook share: parent company in focus

Instagram has been part of the Facebook Group since the acquisition of Mark Zuckerberg. Looking at the company’s share price, the changed marketing world is reflected. The value of the company increases and increases. Here is a review of the past year (charts from Ariva.de):

In the context of the annual review of the Facebook share, here is a review of the share price development of the last years. Yes, an investment would have been worthwhile!

Direct sales instead of indirect advertising

A look at the advertising investments of companies shows that social media marketing continues to increase in its relevance. The marketing mix will therefore continue to diversify, and in addition to new networks such as TikTok as Instagram competition, there will also be expanded functions, such as the Insta Shopping function.

How does Instagram Shopping work?

To the question: How can you sell things on Instagram? Until now, influencer marketing has been the big topic on Instagram when it comes to marketing products. Now, products can be created directly and marketed in an adorable way. Users no longer have to leave Instagram to browse their own product catalog.

The golden 20’s bring with them completely new marketing opportunities for companies and brands. In social media marketing, this new, extremely present version of Instagram Shopping is of course also worth its weight in gold. But not only for established companies, also new and young brands can present themselves more elegantly. With one click on the icon you are in the world of Instagram Shopping

Over 80% mobile traffic

Proportion of Instagram.com desktop traffic by country of origin in September 2020

Setting up an Instagram Shopping Channel is free of charge. All you have to do is create your own Instagram Channel.

Create Instagram account

1. Download the Instagram app, either for Android or iOS
2. Tip on “Register”
3. Log in with your existing Facebook account, email or phone number and tap “Next”
4. Type in your full name
5. Select a password
6. Enter your date of birth and then tap “Next”

Voila! You have created an Instagram account. With this account you can now set up the shopping function.

TikTok vs Instagram

Currently there are many changes on the Instagram App. The extremely prominent Instagram Shopping feature, as well as a new aspect that we noticed today while recording the Marketing Podcast. The competitive pressure of TikTok is forcing Instagram to change. You should consider this in your social media marketing plan. More about the current competition between TikTok and Instagram, is available here as an update in the article.

Instagram Check: New from Combin

Combin’s new Instagram account check for your Instagram channel. Especially the channel information is important for companies but also for private individuals (e.g. if they want to become an influencer). In the later InstaCheck reporting example, we show you the profile of a videographer who wants to present his work on Instagram in order to gain new customers and orders.

Check out more about the Combin InstaCheck here.

• InstaCheck (external on Combin.de)

What makes the Insta profile so important?

The profile contains the central information, but also web links and of course the own profile photo.

The profile photo determines whether your channel is clicked frequently or not. Your description ensures that potential customers become aware of your product or service. The website link then leads to conversion (newsletter subscription, online shop sale, etc).

Is your Instagram channel set up optimally?

Increase reach through attractive packaging

That Instagram plays an important role for businesses is no longer a secret. The advantages that you can draw with the app for yourself and the reach that is achievable on Instagram, was previously unthinkable. Despite this, many businesses, as well as private individuals, find it difficult to grow their account. Combin has developed a new tool that provides tips about content creation and engagement through personalized analytics tailored to the individual account. Today, we’re taking a look together at exactly what InstaCheck can do and how it will improve your Instagram account.

Analysis summarized:

• Entire Instagram Profile Review
• Analysis of content creation + content ideas
• Caption analysis
• Hashtag analysis
• Analysis of customer engagement

Report

The finished report is in English, we have translated the results of an example check for you here. The example is about a videographer who wants to present his work on Instagram in order to attract new customers and orders.

This is how your report looks exemplary:

Username

Your account’s username is clear, short, it has the subscore between your actual first and last name – all of which helps people remember you and find you more easily.

Don’Don’t forget to have the same username on all your other social media networks.

Profile photo

The overall impression is good. But, since you’re a professional photographer and videographer, I recommend you replace that picture with a higher quality picture + not selfie. Your profile photo is the first photo people judge you by, so I advise you to replace it with a higher quality photo.

First, what’s good about your avatar:

• It is rich in contrast
• He is bright
• It highlights your account in a search tab (compared to other users’ avatars)
• The background does not go well with your face
• No details and small objects

Tweaks you should make:

• No sunglasses, so face recognition is lost, this is important as new content is often only viewed for 2-3 seconds
• Minimize free space at the top, so more of the face is visible
• Higher image quality

Organic: The first look

What’s good about your bio:

• Your name in two languages
• Hashtags that match your profession and occupation
• Short clear phrases that tell people more info about you (also in two languages – that’s great!)
• Link to your website
• Contact options: direct, e-mail, telephone number

What’s missing:

• Location tag (you mentioned it here ‘Travel vlogger from Sweden’, a location tag looks elegant and more precise + helps people find you + frees up extra space in your bio for more info or hashtag)
• Call to action (CTA like “Watch more videos here”).
• The name of your company/business (only for people who associate you with your business), in addition to your real name.

Branding and channel aesthetics

Branding and aesthetics are real must-haves these days, especially on Instagram, it’s all about “looking good” here.

Why. Take a typical consumer, he or she is going through Instagram and upon “discovering” it, briefly lingers on your photo. The picture is great, or hilarious, or instantly intriguing for some other reason and the caption complements it perfectly. They tap on the username and check out your profile.

Optimize User Journey

No matter what your brand’s reason for being on Instagram, this is a pivotal moment. Every goal you can think of hinges on those few critical seconds when a user views your Instagram profile. A few quick decisions are made in that moment:

• Will they read your biography?
• Click on the link?
• Will they follow you?

All these steps depend on how your profile is designed.

Channel Information and Profile Feed

When Instagram users land on your profile, the grid of thumbnails takes up most of the screen.

Whether it is appealing to the eye or unappealing will influence the decision to access further content about you (website link) or follow your channel.

It is therefore essential to
That you schedule your Instagram feed.

To tell you the truth, I don’t have a unique
Style found in your Instagram feed. The feed consists of a lot of bright colors that do not create a harmonious picture.

But isn’t that just your trademark (landmark) as a videographer? You should…

InstaCheck

Check out more about the Combin InstaCheck here.

• InstaCheck (external on Combin.de)

Difference between friend and subscription

Anyone who makes friends on Facebook or adds another person as a friend makes a closer connection than with a subscription. In our Facebook profile settings, under Privacy, we can specify what information is publicly available, for friends only, or actually for friends only. This shows that the status of a friend is the highest option to access data.

Anyone who subscribes to another channel on Facebook only wants to receive information. For example, with people in public life or simply with the secret flame from the neighbourhood.

The word friend refers explicitly to the social network Facebook. In other social networks, such as Snapchat, TicToc, Instagram, or YouTube, this link is called Follow or Subscribe. If you want to solve a friendship, you can entfreunden.

One then sees all his connected relationships in the friendship page. You can have a maximum of 5,000 friends on Facebook. After 5,000 friends no further adding is possible. Therefore, many people convert their private Facebook page into a Facebook fan page afterwards. On this Facebook fanpage people can subscribe to our channel, which means they don’t become friends. Each subscription will then receive our information. Our followers can still write us private messages if we enable this function.

Friend vs Subscription

• On Facebook you make friends with other users, this requires a connection from both sides
• A friendship is a closer bond than a subscription
• Who only wants to receive information of a user but also has the function to subscribe to this user
• “Make friends” is only a term on Facebook, in other networks one subscribes or follows another person

Private Facebook groups and planned groups

Facebook groups are also used for marketing purposes for targeted advertising. A group with the most beautiful cheerleaders in the world will probably quickly attract a large male target group. If this group has risen to 100,000 or 200,000 people, the content can of course be placed here excellently.

If you want, influencer marketing. Only that the individual person is the supervisor of a group. As an administrator you can of course freely access the content and place it here. That’s exactly what makes Facebook a great marketing tool for many online marketers. Especially for older target groups over 30 years, Facebook is a good place to place content. Because most people use the Facebook universe for their communication. Facebook is, of course, more than just Facebook, Facebook now also includes large portals such as Instagram and WhatsApp. Even if you refuse Facebook and only use WhatsApp, you are part of the machinery.

How to create a Facebook group?

The way to your own Facebook group is very easy, on your own homepage you can find groups on the left side, there you can easily search for groups, join groups or even create your own groups. Have a look around here and use the different settings around the cover picture but also around administrators rights for other users. So you can e.g. determine moderators, as with a classical forum. As a super administrator, you can then manage everything and, at a certain size, allow others to take over the work of moderation. The moderation of a Facebook group consists not only of text content but also of administration. For example, some content may interfere with them, they may be vulgar, abusive or offensive, and such users may block or exclude them. Also the administration of a Facebook group belongs to the quality feature for the users. The better the content, the more regular the postings, the faster the number of users of your Facebook group will increase.

Facebook online course for Social Media Marketing Manager

If you want to learn more about Facebook, fan generation and reach, here is our recommendation for the first Facebook Online course. Clearly arranged in ten chapters, one learns step by step how to set up one’s own fan page in such a way that it functions effectively for one’s own company or brand. The first 1000 fans, the first ad, all that they can learn here in the Facebook online course. Our recommendation for your company:

• Facebook Online Course

How do I create a group on Facebook?

How can I delete a group on Facebook?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0YIqWK4b-I

Facebook group for companies: 27 tips

Avatars in the target group analysis

Pictures say more than a thousand words:

Account definition and description

Each account is created by registration. After the registration in a portal you usually get a confirmation via e-mail, often with a link to the final confirmation, as soon as you have pressed this, your own e-mail address is confirmed and thus also the verification that it really is the person who was contacted. As soon as you have created your own account, you can log in to the internet portal or the app. You can make logging in easier by using different password programs, e.g. free tools like LastPass.

• User account on online platforms
• Information management for users
• Users can add, edit (edit) and delete information
• Front-End is the public view
• Back-end is the non-public view for editing the information

How to use LastPass – The password program

Protect your account with a secure password

Computers and computing power are getting better and better today, so your password should also meet the new challenges. Use a password that at least:

• 10 digits long,
• Large letters,
• Small letters,
• Numbers and
• Contain special characters.

Here’s a little tip, if you’ve protected your social media account with a secure password, don’t keep it in your phone case or directly on your desk, everyone can see your access points at a glance. A lot of people forget that! Especially in the workplace, in large companies, one should pay attention to this.

Short explanation – Account

• An account is a user account on an Internet platform
• Accounts always consist of a front-end and a back-end, whereby the user can enter and edit information in the back-end, which then becomes public in the front-end
• To create an account you have to “register”
• A secure password is important to protect your data, you should pay attention to variations of numbers, special characters as well as large and small letters

Mode and fake Instagram Accounts

Especially in the area of fashion, outfits and styling, Likes have become an important currency and advertising today. Who checks if the follower number of the fashion designer is real? Most people press Like and you have already placed this channel in your algorithm.

Quality assessment based on engagement rate and interaction rate

If you are a social media manager yourself, you should check the Instagram channels of people as well as companies. Many social channels contain a conspicuous number of ghost accounts, but these do not provide any interaction. From this it can be concluded that, as a rule, these are not real persons.

To help you understand how different such interaction rates can look, here is a best practice example from the fashion industry. Model agencies deal with the development of young talents and the placement of jobs. The young models then work for photo shootings, online shops, social media channels or for fashion shows. Of course, you want to look good at first sight, especially when young models visit your own Instagram channel. But how authentic are the followers? Are they real people interacting with the brand or agency consequences and their content, or are they ghost accounts interacting with the channel consequences? With the help of various software for social media analysis, we once started a small market study for you. The numbers will allow you to see the qualitative differences and adopt the methods and techniques for your own work as a social media manager.

How are such ghosts accounts created?

On Instagram anyone can log in to a user account. You don’t need your own unique number, e.g. the mobile phone number, but each user can create as many Instagram accounts as he wants. If someone has programming knowledge, he can quickly build a network by linking proxy servers and various Instagram accounts. In principle, you don’t even need programming skills, you just need a hard-working intern and a smartphone.

Search engine for Instagram

In order to keep as many of these fake and ghost accounts as possible outside our closed Influencer system, our software sets out to exclude many smaller accounts. For this an enormous majority of influencer campaigns do not require small channels, this makes no difference to the majority of agencies. On the contrary, you can exclude many fake accounts and concentrate on the accounts that are worthwhile. In our influencer search engine you will therefore find almost exclusively relevant and larger influencers in a range from 10,000 to 20,000 followers.

Further information about Social Media Software

Further information about our social media software can be found here:

• Social Analytics