Welcome to Part I of Edition No. 22 of my weekly newsletter, providing practical analysis in the world of digital content strategy.
Highlights from Friday’s updates:
Say Goodbye to Instagram ‘Videos’
GA4 Filters Explained
Twitter Updates ‘Notes’ Feature
Contents
I. Tip: 3 Easy Ways To Boost Instagram Engagement
II. Analysis: ‘Replace’ Bounce Rate in Google Analytics 4
Tip: 3 Easy Ways To Boost Instagram Engagement
Here are three ways you can use Instagram Story stickers to boost engagement on your account:
1. Questions
What is it? Users can interact by asking you a question.
They’ll get a notification when you answer them. This will bring them back to your story a second time.
The ideal sequence is:
User sees the question in your story
User answers question
You respond to their question
User gets notified and returns to your story
User is more likely to see and interact with your future Stories
💡 Why does it work? People love giving their opinions and/or advice. Furthermore, this is a great chance to draw them back for a second interaction as outlined above.
2. Reaction Emojis
What is it? This is a fairly new sticker. All you do is tap the sticker, and the Story author gets notified.
If there’s a particular emoji that represents what’s in your Story, use that.
e.g. If you’re at a baseball game, use a baseball-related emoji. You can even say something like, “Tap the baseball if you wish you were here.”
💡 Why does it work? It’s easy. There’s no thinking involved for the user, and they can validate your story with a single tap.
3. Quizzes
What is it? A multiple-choice quiz tool to test your followers’ knowledge.
Keep this pretty simple, too. Unless you’re an account for nuclear physicists, people probably aren’t looking for mind-bending exams.
If you post multiple questions, make the first one or two easy so they build confidence and want to keep going.
💡 Why does it work? People love testing their knowledge. Even if it’s something silly like “Can you guess what color socks I’m wearing?” Gamification is effective.
What’s the benefit of these tactics? They’re low-barrier ways for users to interact with your account.
What happens when users interact with your account? The Instagram algorithm is trained to create a stronger connection between your profile and the other user’s.
This stronger connection makes your Stories more likely to show up on the left side of their Story bar.
It also makes it more likely that you’ll show up higher in their regular Feed.
Mix these three easy-to-interact-with tactics into your Stories and see what works best with your audience.
Did you find this tip useful? Share it to help spread the word.
Analysis: How To ‘Replace’ Bounce Rate in Google Analytics 4
Bounce rate was a popular metric in Universal Analytics. It helped answer two important questions:
Which referral sources are the most/least likely to keep a user on the site?
Which landing pages are doing a good/poor job keeping users on the site?
Unfortunately, bounce rate – the percentage of sessions in which a user views one page and leaves without taking any other action – is not available in Google Analytics 4.
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