Instagram has recently reported that it will be beginning to test the removal of the “Like” numbers as soon as this week. With Australia being one of the countries to have already undergone this test, it seems like the IG update is testing well.

Why is not seeing the number of likes on posts of other people such an important differentiator? Well, lets explore:

CONS:

1. Many influencers use their number of likes to showcase their market value to sponsors and potential business partners.

2. “Like” counts are a form of social proofing. If a post has more likes, it is more likely to compound into even more attention, simply because it is human nature to look for the approval of others when deciding whether or not we like something. It’s essentially mini testimonials.

3. Those who worked hard to build their IG community based on likes will have to find new forms of analytics to showcase in order to prove their value.

PROS:

1. Although you will not be able to see the amount of likes on other peoples posts, you will still be able to see your own in the analytics menu. This, of course, is a relief to many online creators, since they will still be able to screenshot this and send it to potential sponsors or brand partners.

2. You will also still see the names of the people you follow under each post if they too have liked that image/video. This still allows for some social proof, even if there isn’t a number attached.

3. Forcing users to decided on what to like simply based on the quality of the post sets all users back at a level playing field for growth. If your post is good, it will get traction.

How does this relate to food equipment?

Since this industry has been on Instagram for under two years, it is difficult to gain rapid growth. With this change, the chances are raised simply because the content is now being judged by individual users strictly based on value or quality. As long as we prioritize making good content, we should see an uptick in our IG numbers.

However, this doesn’t mean we should post less..On the contrary, for us to separate ourselves from the noise of social media, we will have to create twice as much. We will have to carve out our own corner of the internet.

That in a nutshell is what we are aiming to do with the FEDD group. We are aiming to heighten awareness and usefulness of the internet in hopes to make the relationships between channel partners stronger and more efficient. Thus, making us all more money!

As we enter our second week of The Rich and Angel show, we are hoping that this series/segment on YouTube will become an entertaining place for you to listen to or hear about industry news. The more of our industry gets online, the more relevant this show will be to what is actually happening inside the Food Equipment world.

You might be thinking: “How are these two gonna know about everything in the industry?” Fair question. We are looking to you as industry leaders and long time experienced people to help tell us what’s important to you.

Next week we will be going LIVE on YouTube with this show in hopes that we can have you call in and talk about all things commercial kitchen!

We hope that you are as excited about this as we are, since this is really a new level of content that we are aiming to reach!

If you have any recommendation on what we should cover, or would like to be a call-in guest on the show, just shoot us a message! We love hearing from you!

2019 has been a big year for instagram updates. From new algorithm changes to new rules being implemented, theres a lot to cover. However, let’s just discuss some of the key features that will help you better connect with your audience. Here goes.

LIVESTREAM Q & A

1. Open up your instagram camera.

2. Slide over to “Live”.

3. Announce that you will be doing a Q&A

4. Let your audience send you questions!

Shop Tags

If you have a product to sell (Ideally reps/dealers/manufacturers) then the instagram shop tag feature is perfect for you.

Link your instagram to your store page and when you “tag” your picture, you will be able to tag any products in the image with a clickable link that will take people to your website.

COUNTDOWN STICKER

Use the countdown sticker found in your story to keep your audience engaged with important milestones your business will hit.

I hope these three features are helpful! Use the best possible feature for your kind of business and be unique and creative with it.

After our return from the CFESA national convention, which was delightful and incredibly productive, Rich and I thought it would be a great idea to further clarify our vision for the Food Equipment Digital Disruptors.

Coming from the world of Digital Marketing, it has become clear that there could be some confusion about where the FEDD would fall into place as an entity. Rich and I don’t envision another additional Association. We envision a business that hosts events which help any of the 5 families learn and implement the digital tools to build an online presence. This may take many different forms depending on what your business does. For example:

It may not be the best idea to create a vlog if you are a massive manufacturer, however if you are a service company with 1-50 employees, then a vlog may be right up your alley. The raw and honest nature of the vlogging tool may be the best way to portray the message you want to your potential customers, accounts and even future employees.

If you are a larger business with a precision marketing budget then a video podcast might be more your speed. Start by interviewing influential people within your network and offering your audience some entertainment value. Interview series are great because you can edit for content and time, while keeping a professional image that may not happen with vlogs. You are also empowering the narrative of your own company by making sure the right message is associated with you.

If you are a rep/dealer, then there might be some interesting ways of doing direct to camera videos and even incorporating your equipment with creativity. Bring a chef on to use the equipment; something like that.

In essence, our goal as the FEDD is not to compete with or take away from any of the channel partners, it is in fact to empower all of them to deliver their messages in the most effective way possible for a modern era.

Our main goal is to find, curate and translate any digital marketing trends into principles that will directly benefit the food equipment industry.

With this, we hope that you will enjoy the hard work and detailed planning we are putting into this conference to make it something spectacular and beneficial. If you have any questions, please feel free to message Rich or me.

The biggest bank in the U.S. – JPMorgan Chase – took a chance on an artificial intelligence machine called Persado (call me paranoid, but if you say that out loud it sounds similar to persuade-o, as in, “Let me persuade-o you to buy something.”). The bank pitted Persado against human copywriters and Persado won. Even bigger news, in my opinion, is that Persado won using words that humans should be using.

The product is home equity loans. Here’s what a human wrote for an online ad:

“Access cash from the equity in your home.” = an average of 25 clicks per week.

And Persado? Things got a little more personal with Persado:

“It’s true – you can unlock cash from the equity in your home.” = an average of 47 clicks per week, almost twice as many clicks.

I’ve been talking a lot of digital media and how important it is for businesses to jump in. You might think this article is about “beyond digital” and jumping on AI. Nope. This article is about humanizing the way you do business. Because that’s exactly what Persado is doing. It’s a virtual gold miner, digging up word nuggets that make messages more appealing because they are more conversational, more personal, more human.

It took a robot to remind us that our customers are people who want to be treated like people. Not annoyances, not interruptions, not dollar signs. People.

I say it all the time: We’re in the people business. We need people to operate our business and we need people to buy what we’re selling. Somewhere along the line, though, too many of us decided treating people with dignity, respect and care was a personal or business expense that could/should be reduced.

I’m not sure which came first in this scenario, the chicken or the egg. Who started this downward spiral of bad behavior – the customer or the people in business? Trying to live by “the customer is always right” can be challenging. Appreciation for doing it right the first time is rare. Too often my employees get screamed at (not exaggerating) over the phone and even in person for situations out of their control. At the same time, I’ve been on the customer end of a phone call where my concerns are addressed by someone reading a script that resembles a “Who’s on first” routine.

Pointing fingers doesn’t benefit anyone. Being a decent human being first benefits everyone. If a ‘bot can figure out how to woo people into taking the next step in the sales sequence almost twice as much as a human, maybe we need to learn from the ‘bots. That’s exactly how artificial intelligence improves, by learning from humans.

Turning the tables and learning from AI is a game changer. Try connecting with customers on a human level and see if you aren’t naturally smarter than a ‘bot.

One of the biggest issues in getting started with social media is “how often should i post?”

This is a great example of a hurdle that is far less important than we may think. It’s easy to say that you should be posting every day, six times a day…however, I realize that is not feasible for most.

My recommendation is to begin with Linked In.

1. Pick one day of the week to shoot and create a 5-10 minute video. This doesn’t have to be a huge production. Simply shoot 5-10 videos over the course of 3 hours in order to have a “batch” of content.

2. Pick another day during that week to post one of the videos you shot earlier in the week. After editing it, post it directly to Linked In only.

3. If it is a 5-10 minute video as I recommended; clip a small one minute segment from that video and post it to your Facebook or Instagram page. Since your video is at least 5 minutes long, you can repeat this for about a week without having to shoot more videos.

4. Use the InShot app to create some headers in order to put your 1 minute clips into context as rich does on his personal IG constantly.

5. You can repeat this with the other 4 videos you shot for nearly the rest of the month.

Some highlights:

This process allows you to only take one day to shoot, yet still have enough content to post consistently, every day on 3 platforms. A large key to making this work is making your captions incredibly relevant, insightful and useful. Ask questions in your caption, ask for comments, write stories. Make sure to use good hashtags (not too specific but not too broad).

You might be thinking that only posting once to LinkedIn a week may seem underwhelming. Well, here are some ideas of what you can post to linked in and won’t require much.

• A cell phone photo of what your day is like.

• Ask a well thought out question in only text.

• Share creative and interesting posts that you see on other pages.

• Write a LinkedIn article.

If you follow these steps, they will take up less than 5% of your work day and you will see a significant increase in your engagement in 2 months.

Let us know if this helps you out and if you try it, be sure to tag us or share your results with us!