Content

• Design Thinking: The reason why you can't beat Rapha
• How to grow your Instagram following organically
• Manage your Facebook page like a boss
• Social media & business
• Tips & Tricks for Instagram & FB ads 

Bart Becks

CEO Belgacom Skynet

VP Media & Innovation ProSiebenSat.1

Founder & CEO Angel.me

Chairman Euractiv

Co-Founders Lago

(Not so) Professional cyclist

Jens Ivens

@beautyofcycling moderator

Doing all things digital Angel.me

Into entrepreneurship & innovation

WEAREIMD alumni

Co-founder LAGO

(Not so) Professional cyclist

Design Thinking with AirBnb

Design-specific cognitive activities that designers apply during the process of designing 

— Wikipedia

Design Thinking?

WTF?

Design is simply crafting the optimal logic

to solve a problem

Design Thinking?

Airbnb is like crowdsourced hotels

Let's focus on how they enriched the experience of travelling

How did they start?

Industrial Design Conference '08 - SF

All the hotel rooms were booked.

How did they start?

Industrial Design Conference '08 - SF

"Why don't we rent out our own apartment?"

How did they start?

Industrial Design Conference '08 - SF

They placed 3 airbeds on the floor

How did they start?

Industrial Design Conference '08 - SF

This isn't very exiting...

Being designers, they then thought about their guests ,

they became the ‘patient’.

How did they start?

Industrial Design Conference '08 - SF

They provided city maps and t-shirts for their guests

They even gave coins to their guests to give to the homeless on the streets outside their apartment

WTF?

That's genius!

Where exactly is

“Outside the box”?

Look at the overall problem statement and find out answers.

Take the most blatant answer and eliminate it. Now, tackle the problem.

Suppose you wanna start an amazingly popular cycling brand.

What’s most important for a clothing brand to do?

Sell clothes. Duh..

Okay. Then we don't sell clothes!

Again, WTF?

You now look at things like ambiance, design, user experiences, customer service, themes, connecting online to offline,…

Well, you get the point, right?

Oh, and don't forget to sell clothes as well...

Design clothes and sell it online?

Nah. Too mainstream.

What about our own exclusive cycling club,

local clubhouses, offline events, cycling trips to Japan and the Dolomites, challenges for our customers,...?

Done!

Now, let's sell clothes

Now, think about what Rapha can do for customers who just finished an amazing cycling trip...

Maybe a blog to share their experiences?

The possibilities are endless...

The most important lesson of today:

Don’t worry about scale or data!

"Don’t worry about scalability,  especially when it comes to designing for human beings."

- Paul Graham - YCombinator

No comprendo? Well, another great outcome of Airbnb’s design process shall explain thusly.

The founders realized that one of the problems that discouraged people from using the service was the poor quality of photos uploaded by the hosts

What can they do?

Go to every host’s place and take quality pics for them? And maybe stay over there and talk to them and get valuable personal feedback.

Hell no, that's impossible

Uhm, yes. They did.

Guess what, they doubled their profit within a week!

Paying attention to small things like these can make a huge difference at the end.

You can’t be a slave to scalability when it comes to design for human beings

Btw, You still can book a professional photographer and the site will send you one for free.

Stars vs Hearts

“If you find something glimmering, throw a dynamite on it and blow it out of proportions.”

- Joe Gebbia - Chief Product Officer @ AirBnb

Even a small, near trivial change, like the star-to-heart thing, could make a big difference at the end and add more meaning than you can imagine.

DESIGN THINKING

The essential ability to combine empathy, creativity and rationality to meet user needs and drive business success!

Must read:

 

http://www.cio.com/article/3053937/business-analytics/why-design-thinking-is-becoming-a-game-changer-for-many-enterprises.html

 

https://medium.com/@arasuarun/how-i-learnt-design-thinking-the-right-way-the-story-of-airbnb-119945932a0

 

Key factors of the Instagram algorythm

Engagement

How popular your post is

When a person or brand publishes a post, IG's algorithm would typically show the post to a sample audience and see how they react to it. If they react positively to the post right away, the algorithm would show the post to more people. This goes on and on...

 

 

The types of engagement include: likes, comments, video views, shares (via direct message), saves, story views, and live video views.

Oplage Bahamontes + Grinta!: 13.000 + 24.000

Relevancy

The genres of content you are interested in and have interacted with

The order of photos and videos in your feed will be based on the likelihood you’ll be interested in the content, your relationship with the person posting and the timeliness of the post.

 

With the level of photo recognition technologies available now, I believe it’s possible for the algorithm to categorize posts into simple genres such as travel, food, fashion, and more — and possibly even more sophisticated genres. The algorithm could also look at the hashtags used

Relationships

The accounts you regularly interact with

Just like Facebook, Instagram doesn’t want you to miss important posts from your friends and family, such as a post about your friend’s engagement. This implies that content from your “best friends” likely ranks higher on your feed.

 

I believe that the Instagram algorithm studies your past interactions to determine your “best friends”.

People whose content you like + People you direct message

+ People you search for +People you know in real life + ...

Timeliness

How recent the posts are

Something from last week might not interest you as much as something from an hour ago, so Instagram will likely show you more recent posts rather than posts from a few days or weeks ago — even if the older post had received a lot of engagement.

 

This implies that recent posts likely rank higher and that the timing of your post is still relevant.

 

That's why you never get likes on older posts.

Profile searches

The accounts you check out often

An Instagram spokesperson said that profile searches are a signal Instagram looks at when ranking posts in your feed. When you search (regularly) for certain profiles, it likely indicates that you are interested in the account’s posts and might not have seen them on your feed.

 

Instagram might then rank their posts higher on your feed so that you don’t have to search for their profiles to see their posts, improving your Instagram experience.

Direct shares

Whose posts are you sharing

Instagram has made it really easy to share a post you see with your friends.

Sharing a post shows that you are interested in the posts by that account. The Instagram algorithm would then consider this when ranking posts on your feed.

It sounds like Instagram would also consider the people you have shared the post with. Going back to factor two, relationships, the act of sharing a post with another person informs Instagram that you care about the person so Instagram might rank her posts higher on your feed.

You're curious why Instagram is sooooooo important?

Instagram magic to beat it's algorithm

Make your profile outstanding

In short:

Write a killer bio

Include a link

Create an Instagram Business profile

Use a recognizable profile image

Name

Function

Description

Call-to-action

Link

Button

Bodhi Cycling

 Bodhi is a premium brand of custom cycling wear. We connect Belgian knowhow and Italian fabrics with attractive design, comfort and personal service.

bodhicycling.com/nl/vacature

Bodhi Cycling

 We're #bodhicycling! Connecting Belgian knowhow and Italian fabrics to create premium and attractive cycling apparel. And we're hiring!

bit.ly/BodhiHires

Pay attention to your color palette

No one's life is as perfect as their Instagram feed

Don't think about your next post, think about your next 5 posts

Outstanding Instagram profile? Check!

Fine, but how can we create awesome posts?

You can't win the social war with shitty content

Edit pictures like a pro

User generated content can save your ass

UGC can come in many forms such as pictures, videos, and tweets. And it’s extremely powerful — according to research Millennials and other generations trust UGC 50% more than other types of media. (Influencers for the win!)

 

Where possible, try to encourage your community to share memorable moments and experiences they have with your brand across Instagram and ask permission to repost some of the best content to your own channels.

 

Example: Buffer tried this strategy and it helped to grow their Instagram audience by over 60%.

Bonus tip:

Include faces in your posts to boost engagement

 

Pictures with faces get:

• 38% more likes
• 32% more comments

#bodhicycling

1,595 posts

#beautyofcycling

34,710 posts

Hashtags have become a uniform way to categorize content on many social media platforms. Hashtags allow Instagrammers to discover content and accounts to follow.

 

Research found that posts with over 11 hashtags tend to get more engagement.

 

You cannot post more than 30 hashtags per post. In my opinion, if you're using this many, you're using too many!​ 

#cycling (13M posts)

#cyclinglife (1,7M posts)

#cyclingshots (765K posts)

#cyclingpics (352K posts)

#roadcycling (741K posts)

#bike (22M posts)

#bicycle (6M posts)

#bikestagram (1,3M posts)

General cycling hashtags

#rideyourbike (195K posts)

#ilovemybike (138K posts)

#cyclists (121K posts)

#lovecycling (102K posts)

#instacycle (51K posts)

#cyclinglove (34K posts)

#instabicycle (28K posts)

#cyclistlife (27K posts)

#wymtm (460K posts)

#outsideisfree (1,8M posts)

#beautyofcycling (35K posts)

#roadslikethese (304K posts)

#fromwhereiride (725K posts)

#insearchofup (22K posts)

#kitwatch (38K posts)

#kitfit (45K posts)

Highly recommended hashtags

#lightbro (148K posts)

#stravacycling (728K posts)

#bikeporn (2,3M posts)

#foreverbuttphotos (50K posts)

#ciclismo (1,8M posts)

#ロードバイク (525K posts)

#kitdoping (50K posts)

#vscocycling (40K posts)

More cycling hashtags:

http://www.scarletfire.co.uk/instagram-cycling-hashtags/

Captions

Captions are a chance to enhance your content further and there are plenty of ways brands use them.

 

Some choose to treat captions as a place for sharing stories and micro-blogging.

Others use them to add a short, snappy headline to a post.

Still others use captions to ask questions and encourage replies. The possibilities are endless.

 

What’s important is to ensure the copy is aligned with your brand.

Timing

What's the perfect timing?

At 9AM when everyone is at work, school, busy doing stuff? Or at 8PM when people are free and have time?

It's quite obvious to post pictures when (or just before) people have spare time...

Europe

US

Australia

9AM

2AM

4PM

1PM

6AM

8PM

8PM

1PM

6AM

We now have a great picture, catchy caption, killer hashtags and we know when to post.

POST!

Engage, engage, engage!

Like, comment, respond, interact, ...

Active participation on Instagram  is the best way to say ‘look at me!’ without saying ‘look at me!

Listening and responding to your audience can be a great way to encourage positive word of mouth and create new brand advocates, as highlighted by a study conducted by the Internet Advertising Bureau found that 90% of consumers would recommend a brand to others after interacting with them on social media.

Post consistently

A study by Union Metrics found that most brands post to Instagram daily. In fact, the average was 1.5 posts per day.

 

The study also found — and this was really interesting — that there was no correlation between increased frequency and lower engagement, meaning brands that posted more than twice per day didn’t see any ill effects.

 

On the other side, engagement dropped dramatically when brands post less than once a day.

July 7

March 14

January 4

October 14

November 16

September 19

0 - 10.000 followers

10.000 - 20.000 followers

20.000 - ... followers

1 post/day

2 posts/day

3 posts/day

Instagram basics summarized

Performance enhacing Instagram drugs

DM's for the win!

Ever thought about DMing someone on his birthday with a one day coupon code?

Ever thought about using DM as customer service?

Ever thought about sending customers updates on their order? "Hey Duncan, thanks for your order" -- Send them a Story about the packaging process - "You're package is on it's way mate, let me know when you receive it!" 

 

Social media is all about creating a personal connection with your followers/customers/strangers. Make them fall in love with you(r brand)

Repost Instagram content to Facebook

Run contests and giveaways

Contests are a great way to increase engagement and build evangelism among your audience on Instagram. Contests can have many benefits for brands:

• Increased awareness
• Build a stronger community and create brand evangelists
• Incentivize following / engagement

 

Three simple contests you can run on Instagram:

• Photo sharing contest

• Comments contest

• Likes contest

January 4

Use Stories

Instagram Stories are empowering us to tell better and deeper stories about our brands.

Whereas you may only post one or two images or videos to your Instagram feed per day, stories enable us to go behind the scenes and share more real-time, less-polished content

Engagement groups

Automated services

Buy followers & likes

Data

Case studies

Start 6:11

Building an active Facebook page takes time and will be frustrating!

"An average Facebook user has 800 friends, has liked 200 business pages, follows 20 sports teams and doesn't use an adblocker. It's normal that your last post is only seen 4 times!"

Rapha:

260.000 page likes

442 post likes

4 comments

11 shares

 

Bodhi:

3.500 page likes

6 post likes

0,05 comments

0,15 shares

Update your page!

Add milestones, give Facebook info, make sure everything about your business is on Facebook

Instagram is part of Facebook,

so most of Instagram's advice is relevant

Post often! Even multiple times a day.

Start the day with something motivating, comforting in the afternoon and exciting at night.

Be careful with hashtags!

• Posts with 1 or 2 hashtags averaged 593 interactions

• Posts with 3 to 5 hashtags averaged 416 interactions

• Posts with 6 to 10 hashtags averaged 307 interactions

• Posts with more than 10 hashtags averaged 188 interactions

So going from 2 to 3 hashtags caused a significant drop in engagement!

 

Use 1 or 2 hashtags, and only if they are relevant!

Keep it short!

Facebook posts with 40 characters receive 86% more engagement than those with a higher character count. 

Make it visual!

Facebook posts with images receive 2.3x more engagement than those without photos.

(Oh, and you're picture doesn't have to be Insta-perfect, Facebook-perfect is fine!)

Monitor and respond to comments on your page.

Invite the people who liked your post, to like your page.

Target your posts

Pin your most important post

Sell your products on Facebook

The secret to social media success is to think and act like a member first, and a marketer second.

Remember, the reason people log onto Facebook is to see what their friends and family are up to. Pivot your business’ page accordingly.

Data

Pages to watch

See what your competitors are doing

Twitter is a newsfeed

And thus perfect to share your new Insta picture

or Facebook post

Don't be shy, reply!

You have 140 chars, use them wisely

Hashtags, links, pictures, text,... 

Strava wants runners and cyclists to be bloggers too!

Social Media & Business

"The problem with trying to determine the ROI for Social Media, is you're trying to put numeric quantities around human interactions and conversations, which are not quantifiable."

“For us it doesn’t have to be an exact science. If people are talking about our brand in a favorable way, that’s good enough.”

– Adam Broitman, VP of global digital marketing at Mastercard

“Can you tie your social media efforts directly to sales? Can you tie your customer service efforts directly to sales? No, but these aren’t held to the same standard, perhaps because they’re not the new kid on the block, perhaps because they’re not ‘digital.’ Marketers should define thoughtful metrics and measure the work they do in social, but not necessarily in terms of ROI.”

– Adam Kleinberg, CEO at Traction

Social Media is Relational, Not Transactional

Social Media advertising is Relational

and can be Transactional

Facebook Advertising is now one of the most effective tools out there to grow your business, create loyal customers, and generate leads and sales. There are now over 3 million businesses advertising on Facebook.

“Doing business without advertising on Facebook is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing, but nobody else does”

Why?

• Audience size: Facebook now boasts over 1.13 billion daily active users on – 1.03 billion of which access the social network via mobile devices.
• Attention: The average user spends about 50 minutes just on Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger every day.
• Organic reach decline: Organic reach on Facebook has been in decline for a few years now and has almost hit zero. If you want to break through now, Facebook is all but a pay-to-play network.
• Targeting: The targeting options within Facebook Ads is incredible. Business can target users with by location, demographics, age, gender, interests, behavior, and much more.

11 different ad types

• Boost your posts
• Promote your Page
• Send people to your website
• Increase conversions on your website
• Get installs of your app
• Increase engagement in your app
• Reach people near your business
• Raise attendance at your event
• Get people to claim your offer
• Get video views
• Collect leads for your business

Pro tip: 

For small budgets, you’re likely to get the most bang for your buck with the awareness ad types (Brand Awareness & Reach). Even €1 per day can make a big difference.

 

Give it a try!

Make it visual

Your image is best with minimal test, ideally 20% or less of the image should be text

More text in your image means less distribution and higher costs.

Test: https://www.facebook.com/ads/tools/text_overlay

Customize your target audience

• Location, starting with a country, state, city, zip code, or address, and refining even further with a km radius
• Age
• Gender
• Languages
• Interests – Facebook looks at a person’s interests, activity, the Pages they like, and closely related topics
• Behaviors – Things like purchase behavior and intent, as well as device usage
• Connections – Choose to show the ad to all people, just those connected to Bodhi, or those not connected to Bodhi

Interests and Behaviour

This is perhaps the most detailed section of options you’ll find anywhere within Facebook ads. You can get really, really granular with the specific type of people you want to target with an ad.

Big Brother is watching you

This is really neat stuff: A "custom audience" is a group of people who have a previous relationship with you, perhaps as customers or contacts. You can build an audience of just these particular people and serve your ads directly to them

Custom audiences help to further refine the pool from which you can segment. For instance, once you select or create a custom audience, you can then go ahead and continue to filter that audience based on location, demographics, interests, and behaviors.

Budget

With the daily budget, the amount you set is the maximum you will spend on any given day.

 

With the lifetime budget, the amount you set is the maximum you will spend on the lifetime of your ad.

Ads Structure

> Campaigns – The very high-level campaign (e.g., “Get more clicks to our website.

 

   >> Ad Sets – A collection of ads that support the main campaign (e.g., “Week 3 ads”)

 

      >>> Ads – The specific ads that you’re running, with media and text and all that

Conversion tracking & Pixels

Facebook has a unique system for tracking actions that occur after someone leaves a Facebook ad and travels to a web page. You can install a Facebook pixel that tracks things like page views, registration, and orders.

Popular strategies and Facebook advertising tips

 

from Karen Jones, How Facebook Advertising Performed vs. Google Ads

In this article Karen goes on to recap some of her top takeaways for successful Facebook ads.

• Keep your information short
• Include an offer or price
• Include keywords
• Include persuasive or interesting imagery/video
• Include your URL above the image/video in the text section
• Use taglines and hooks to draw your potential customers in (i.e., “Make This a Year to Remember”)

Double down on what’s working: don’t wait to increase your spending on a great Adv. Down the line it might not work any more — or just not as well!

Don’t ignore New Features and Ad Types: every new format will over-perform in the first few months before users are familiar with it!

Test every aspect of a campaign: the wrong picture can cost >100% more. But you’ll never guess which one without split testing for it!

Don’t leave campaigns alone: on Facebook you target users based on interests and demographics. They’ll get tired of seeing your ads over and over again!

Andrea Marban, The Dos and Don’ts of Facebook Advertising

Do:

• create Buyer Personas and a specific call to action for each of them
• choose an image that stands out, but also represents your brand
• include Social Proof in your Ad, numbers can work very very well
• use Custom Audiences, it’s one of the most effective tools as of now

Don’t:

• allocate too small of a budget (best is at least $5 per ad, typically)
• use too small or a poorly designed image
• mix different countries in an AdSet (best is to target one country per AdSet)
• have too small of an audience (best is usually at least 500k people)

Make sure the creative imagery and copy is tightly targeted to your audience. Instead of targeting an audience of 2,000,000 people, find a way to break them into smaller, more specific groups, and show them customized copy and graphics that will appeal to them.

 

Regardless of the age or demographics of the audience you’re targeting, don’t assume that they’re scanning through a laptop Facebook feed just because you’re on a laptop all day while editing ads.

 

The vast majority of Facebook users are on mobile apps, and many of your ad sets may never get a click from desktop users.