To be a force in the social space day in, day out isn't easy - but when we put the appropriate fundamentals in play; paying attention to audience signals - what triggers reaction, and equally what does not, we get closer to growing an active fan base - building on brand strength.

And brand strength, after all, drives financial value.

The following are disciplines to put real effort behind in order to shape (or continue to shape) a more meaningful presence and reputation on Instagram.

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For the past decade, many brands have experienced increased awareness, interest and conversion from the social space. And for other brands - they are still asking the age-old question how to grow followers and/or engagement. It's not as easy as perhaps some perceive ...

Facebook is again tweaking the factors that influence how, when, and where our videos show up in Feed, Facebook Watch and Search. They call these factors "signals." Signals are what help Facebook predict quality content that should have higher distribution vs. not so ...

Stories, as you may know, is a feature initially created by Snapchat - and ultimately "borrowed" by Instagram and Facebook. Stories is fluid content that will disappear in 24 hours if not saved. And it has quickly become one of the most important pieces of social media ...

With the consumption of fluid content exploding - more and more, people are looking for meaningful moments in Feed and Stories. So, studying what triggers reaction, and equally what falls short with the audience, is a critical element in the use of social. It helps ...

The headline is something Instagram revealed in the latest study commissioned by Facebook IQ to understand what interesting content even means. We often hear "create compelling content" or "Content is King," but without an understanding of what consumers say ...

Instagram recently held a private "Live Office Hours" learning session with publishers. And while this was exclusive to the world of publishing, many of the takeaways were useful and universal to all industries. Instagram: The Place To Build Your Next Audience Thought ...

It's a battle for consumer bandwidth. As a follow up to our 2018 version of "What Happens In An Internet Minute" - here is the updated version of what's going on right now. Year to Year Comparison Why This Matters: People are viewing multiple screens and toggling ...

In the social space, especially Instagram and Facebook - we only see about 30% of content intended for us from people and brands we follow. It's simply becoming increasingly harder for the platforms to keep up with all of the content being pushed out. So algorithms ...

Eight years ago this week, Merge was launched. It was 2011 and All Access President/Publisher, Joel Denver, was the one with the foresight to know a column on the emerging social media space would be something of value. And through the support of All Access, as well ...