We already covered a few reasons why and how you can use WordPress. But let’s have a look at some of the additional and perhaps more uncommon approaches you could take with your site.
1. News Portal
Just providing the news is not enough, you need feeds as well. RSS feeds aren’t dead yet, and are used by many people to integrate with their readers and get a mashup of different feeds. WordPress provides feeds of your posts by default, but you might want to display feeds from various sources. That is when a plugin like the WP RSS Aggregator comes into play. This plugin enables you to select a variety of RSS feeds and display them on your website. A great example of this is WP News Desk.
WP News Desk
2. Real Estate Management System with WordPress
If you’re a company that deals in property and real estate using WordPress, you would probably want a separate plugin to manage your property listings. With the help of some plugins, you could create a website where builders, brokers, and customers come together. You could add a separate search and filter functionality to help your users. Add a payment gateway (which we discuss under e-commerce) and you could manage payments from within your website! A couple popular plugins that can help you do this include Estatik and Easy Property Listings.
Estatik WordPress real estate plugin
And if you’re looking for some more alternatives, check out our review of 8 different WordPress real estate plugins.
3. Knowledgebase/Encyclopedia/Wiki
With WordPress, you can create a robust knowledge base on a niche, an encyclopedia with features like a glossary or even a dictionary. You can associate terms with your glossary, in addition to creating tags and categories. You can create user defined templates for displaying your content and make sure readers can find the answers to everything they need. Many businesses and developers, in fact, utilize knowledgebase plugins such as the Heroic plugin (as seen below) to create docs, which in turn reduce the time needed for support and emails.
Heroic Knowledge Base WordPress plugin
4. eLearning Portal and Courses
Want to create your own Coursera? There are a lot of easy ways to now do this in WordPress with learning management system (LMS) hosting. One of the most popular methods is probably with the LifterLMS plugin. It allows you to create, sell, and protect engaging online courses. The mission of LifterLMS is to democratize education in the digital classroom. Create lessons, build courses, include multimedia lessons, and so much more. In fact, WP101 which we mentioned above utilizes LifterLMS to educate the masses about WordPress.
Creating WordPress courses
5. Appointment Scheduling with WordPress
Be it lawyers, musicians, consultants or doctors; these types of industries all revolve around appointment scheduling and booking patients and or customers in advance. Thankfully, there are a lot of great solutions with WordPress to manage bookings and online appointments right from your site.
Book an appointment in WordPress (Img src: EDD bookings)
Although sites like Nutcache and Freshbooks give you a lot of business tools like time and project management, if you want to do it within your WordPress site, WP-Invoice is a basic, but useful plugin.
WP-Invoice plugin
Create an invoice for your products and services and send them to your clients. You can enable them to pay you directly through your site by integrating a payment gateway like PayPal, Stripe, or Authorize.net. Add any time management plugin, and you can create a system that serves your full business needs.
If you want to convert your WordPress site into a job board, all you need is a plugin. The WP Job Manager lets you add, manage and categorize job listings on your website. It currently has an impressive 100,000+ active installs with a 4 out of 5-star rating. Registered users (or guests) can search, manage and apply for jobs. Employers can manage job listings (fill, edit and delete active listings) too. Here you can read our complete WP Job Manager tutorial.
Job board in WordPress
8. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System
You can integrate a customer relationship management (CRM) module right into your WordPress site. This can save you time and money from having to bounce around between other third-party systems. And due to the fact that there are some many other WordPress integrations, this might in fact even work better than a more closed off or limited solution.
CRM customers
There are a lot of different WordPress CRM plugins to choose from, in fact, we dove into the top 12. But if you’re just starting we recommend checking out the Zero BS WordPress CRM and WP ERP plugins. Both are developed by devoted developers and have excellent support.
9. Events Management Systems
Run a business where you plan multiple events on a year-round basis? No problem. If you want to create events on your WordPress site and integrate them with a calendar, it’s as simple as 123. In this post, we cover the best event management plugins. A lot of them have full syncing with iCal, Google calendar, and more.
10. Business Directory Portal
If you want to create a business directory, we recommend checking out the Business Directory plugin. It currently has over 20,000 active installs with a 4.5 out of 5-star rating. You can create local directories, list business providers and generate a yellow pages like listing. You can keep the listing free, or make it available at payment. As for premium modules, you can add a module to rate businesses and a Google Maps module to add locations to your listings.
WordPress business directory example
11. Project Management System
To manage the progress of a project and its subtasks, you need a project management system. Although standalone options like Trello, Asana, and even Github projects are popular among developers (read: git vs Github), certain people might want options within WordPress for such a system.
Forums might not be as popular as they used to be, but they are still a destination for many users seeking the answers they need. The easiest solution to creating a forum out of your WordPress site is bbPress. It’s a lightweight plugin for WordPress, developed by Automattic, the same company behind WordPress.com. It currently has over 300,000 active installs with a 4 out of 5-star rating. bbPress comes with the ability of plugins and themes, to customize the functionality, look and feel of the core plugin. It best of all, it’s free! For more options please take a look at our post dedicated to the topic: Top 9 WordPress Forum Plugins.
Example of bbPress WordPress forum
13. Crowdsourcing
There is a multitude of plugins out there that allow you to run your own crowdfunding websites in WordPress. You set up a cause, and integrate a payment gateway like PayPal or Stripe to accept payments. In fact, you can enable a feature where people are only charged if you reach your goal! We took a look recently at the top 6 crowdfunding plugins for WordPress.
WordPress crowdfunding example
If you are just starting out we recommend checking out the WP Crowdfunding plugin, and if you’re dealing with donations, the Give plugin is also very popular.
14. Social Network
If you want a mini Facebook within your website, BuddyPress is what you should look for. It allows you to create a social network for your company or organization. It allows users to set up profiles, post messages, connect with each other and create communities. BuddyPress has its own set of plugins for further functionalities. In general, BuddyPress provides a simple, yet good user experience if you want to create a minimal social network within your website.
BuddyPress
So, Why Use WordPress? Because It Rocks
WordPress has a strong following all over the world. Some developers would rather use other platforms, but that often has to do with learning certain coding languages and throwing themselves in less user-friendly environments. As for bloggers, business owners, developers with clients, and ecommerce professionals, WordPress is the right choice. Not only do you maintain complete control over your site, but you receive great advantages like plugins, themes, free tools, and full media support.
Hopefully, we’ve answered your question, “Why Use WordPress?” And if someone asks you the question, just send them over here. If you still have some thoughts or concerns, let us know in the comments below.
Why Use WordPress? A Deep Dive Into 10 Good Reasons
If you find yourself wondering, “Why use WordPress?” you’ve come to the right place. Pondering this question means you’ve at least researched WordPress a bit or heard about it from a friend or colleague. But that doesn’t mean you’ve completely weighed any pros and cons or checked out the features in-depth.
Therefore, we’d like to break down the benefits of using WordPress for you, giving a clear view as to why it’s the most popular content management system and website building software in the world. WordPress can really do just about anything!
The Website Dilemma – Why Use WordPress?
For average business owners, names like WordPress, Joomla, Shopify, Magento, Wix, and Weebly might sound like alien names. The process of building a website brings these names into your life, since they’re all platforms used to build websites. Each has its own benefits, while many are used more often for niche websites with specific purposes. For instance, Shopify only makes sense if you’re running an online store. It’s not a platform you would start a blog with then turn into an eCommerce shop (check out Shopify alternatives to compare solutions). Magento is in the same boat. Other website builders and platforms have more flexibility, and those are typically the ones that are most popular.
Everything from Squarespace to Wix has wonderful tools for certain skill levels, but we’re going to explain why you should use WordPress over all of them.
Using WordPress is a no-brainer. There’s a reason 34% of the web uses it. 😉
1. The Software is Free and Open-Source
Both WordPress.com and WordPress.org are completely free to use. You can learn about the difference between the two here, but in short, WordPress.org is a self-hosted version where you control more of your site and take advantage of advanced plugins. WordPress.com works great for complete beginners, but it’s not exactly the best for a business that plans on making money so moving away from WordPress.com makes sense. It does have higher paid plans, but we recommend it for personal and hobby blogs.
But moving on, WordPress is free for anyone to download. It’s an open-source project that’s been around since 2003. This means that WordPress is developed by a collection of contributors. Open-source projects are typically free, with large communities. The users often take part in this community as beta testers or simple brand advocates, but there’s really no requirement for any participation if that’s not your style.
Warning: Although the WordPress software is free, you will most likely end up spending a bit of money. WordPress is self-hosted, so hosting is required. This can start at around $3 per month, for the really cheap shared servers, and go all the way to up to a few hundred per month for those needing ultimate speed and performance (Like with Kinsta).
You can typically find themes and plugins for free, but the premium (paid) ones often provide better features and quality support. Finally, many WordPress users end up paying for additional services, whether it be from freelancers or agencies. For instance, you might pay a freelancer to design a logo for you or adjust some of the CSS code on your site. Other WordPress users are keen on keeping graphic designers or maintenance experts on call. It all depends on your experience and the scale of your website.
But overall, you can absolutely keep your WordPress costs to a minimum. Many webmasters end up only paying for hosting.
See it in Action:
When you navigate to the WordPress.org website, it explains the basics about the platform, but the only button (besides the regular menu) is a link to “Get WordPress.”
WordPress.org
This brings you to a free download page, which is updated frequently depending on the newest release (currently WordPress 5.2+). This provides an instant taste of how the WordPress software is presented to users. You’re not bombarded by banner ads or prompted to complete a survey before downloading the free software. You see a basic page with some descriptions, beta releases, requirements, source code, archives, and a download counter. It delivers multiple download options (like .zip and .tar.gz files,) along with the proper instructions to install the WordPress software on your own.
Download latest version of WordPress
The Easy Installation Method
If you’re looking for an even easier installation method, we recommend looking towards your hosting company. The most reputable hosts have one-click installation buttons for getting WordPress running within minutes. At Kinsta, installing WordPress is as easy as clicking on “Add Site.”
Install WordPress
That way there’s no need to manage files and upload them through an FTP. Managed WordPress hosting companies take it a step further by handling the entire installation, maintenance, security, and backups down the road.
As for updates, you don’t have to go back to the download page every time a new WordPress version is released. Instead, WordPress lets you know about the update in the dashboard, where you can usually complete the process in less than one minute.
2. It Adapts So You Can Make Any Type of Website
One of the common misconceptions about WordPress is that it’s mainly for building blogs. At one point in time that was, in fact, the case. WordPress was developed as a blogging platform, but that has changed drastically with the various new releases over the years.
In fact, WordPress is at an advantage due to its blogging roots. It’s by far one of the cleanest, fastest ways to write and publish blog posts, and that’s all included right from the start. Some website building tools think about design and apps first, then the blogging interface comes in as an afterthought.
That’s not the case with WordPress, so you can create a beautiful ecommerce site and know that the blog is an integral part of the development process.
See it in Action:
The list is endless, but here’s a taste of the types of websites you can make with WordPress:
Blogs
Business websites
Portfolios
Forums
ECommerce sites
Ratings websites
Membership sites
eLearning modules
Chatrooms
Galleries
Personal websites for self-promotion
Job boards
Business directories
Q&A websites like Quora
Non-profit websites for collecting donations
Wikis and knowledgebases
Media-centric sites like YouTube
Auction and coupon sites
Clearly, the list goes on and on. The good news with WordPress is that the functionality for things like forums and ecommerce websites is achieved with simple plugins and themes. So, for instance, if I wanted to make an online portfolio for my web design business, I could go with the theme below. All it would require is a small one-time fee, an upload of some demo data, and whatever changes I wanted to make myself.
WordPress portfolio site
The screenshot below is a rather popular ecommerce theme that pairs with the WooCommerce plugin. WooCommerce is one of the primary ways you turn your regular WordPress website into a functioning online store, with payment processing, a shopping cart, and product galleries. Check out this in-depth tutorial on how to install WooCommerce.
The final example below shows a forum. This website was constructed using a theme, but you might also consider looking around the internet for some forum plugins. Several are available if you already have a cool theme picked out but it doesn’t have forum functionality. And that’s exactly how to accomplish different types of websites with WordPress. Write down the feature you need, then go to Google and see if there are any plugins or themes to fit your needs. I’ll bet you’ll always find good results.
In my own experience, I’ve never had WordPress tell me that a file is not supported. You can expect to upload common files like .jpg, .png, .gif .pdf, .doc, .pptx, .mp3, .m4a, .mp4, .mov, .wmv, and .avi. Along with that, you won’t have any problems with more obscure file types like .odt, .key, .ogg, and .3gp.
And while the are some file formats, such as SVGs, that aren’t allowed, there are good solutions to get around this. Check out this tutorial on how to safely upload SVGs in WordPress. In short, if you’d like to put a photo, gif, video or document on your website, it’s usually fair game with WordPress. It’s even common to host documents and presentations on a website without publishing them on a specific page.
A Word of Warning
Yes, WordPress supports pretty much any type of media. However, you should follow the rules and only legally use media that’s either owned by you, open for free downloads, or usable when credit is given.
Here are some places to find legal media such as photos and video:
As an excellent example of WordPress media support, the Sony Music website promotes both music tracks and videos. Therefore, you can often find several forms of video and audio clips on the website. Furthermore, it’s a picture-heavy website, as you can see with the large Kenny Chesney picture in the header. Although some website builders are getting better at media support, it seems like you’ll almost always find something that isn’t allowed.
Sony – WordPress media example
The Variety website also uses WordPress, and its homepage is littered with items like background images, short video clips, movie trailers, animations, music tracks, and galleries from film shoots and TV shows. It’s tough to find a better example than Variety, since every single article written for the entertainment magazine has something to do with media.
Variety – WordPress media example 2
4. It’s Easy to Learn and Has a Huge Community
As an open-source software, WordPress can be used by anyone. The userbase isn’t limited by pricing, premium customer support, or even skill level. Sure, there are plenty of things to learn about WordPress, but any person could play around with the dashboard for ten minutes and start to absorb how the interface works.
And since there aren’t many roadblocks to gaining access to the software, users have made blogs, forums, online courses, seminars, webinars, and books, all outlining different aspects of the WordPress platform. Then there’s the more official customer support from WordPress. You can either pay extra money for dedicated support or work through the WordPress forums.
It’s truly incredible how many resources there are for learning about WordPress or having quick development questions answered. For instance, you might follow a blog like this to receive a consistent flow of WordPress tips in your email inbox. On the other hand, you can also search Google to locate immediate solutions (WPBeginner is known for quick fixes).
See it in Action:
We see the WordPress community as assisting with two parts of the learning process:
Organized training for long-term knowledge.
Quick solutions to your WordPress problems.
WordPress training can be found for free or for a charge, but one thing’s certain: The best courses online are well-organized, affordable, and packed with information you can use yourself, give to clients, or share with your employees. For example, the WP101 website is a well-known training spot with flawless video course on the following topics:
WordPress 101
WooCommerce 101
The Yoast SEO plugin
Learn WordPress tutorials
Once you learn about WordPress through a training course, you’re going to end up working with your very own websites. Since traditional dedicated support isn’t provided through WordPress, you’ll need to turn to blogs, forums, Google, and other communities online. The primary WordPress support forum should do the trick for most of your development situations. In the screenshot below it shows topics for fixing WordPress, networking with WordPress, localhost installs, regular installations, and more. I’m personally more of a “Google it and see what comes up” type of researcher, but both forums and blogs are crucial to resolving problems in a timely manner.
As for premium plugins and themes, those developers typically provide their own dedicated support through knowledge bases, forums, ticketing systems, and email.
WordPress support forums
5. You Can Scale Up and Expand Your Website with Themes and Plugins
We’ve already discussed how the WordPress themes and plugins make it easy for you to construct a website, but these elements are also essential for scaling up. For a standard blog, you’ll install a theme, adjust the design, then start blogging. The same goes for a business website or portfolio.
It’s common for the themes to serve as the site’s foundation. After that, the design work is minimal besides some color changes, logo additions, and of course, the new pages and blog posts.
But every once in awhile you realize that something new needs to be added to your website. Maybe your customers are clamoring for a membership section of your site, or maybe you realized that a monthly quiz is a great way to get customers to interact with your brand. In both of these situations, a plugin rectifies the issue.
For instance, there are plenty of excellent membership plugins that convert part of your site into a community. Some of them are free, while others you have to pay for. The same goes for quiz plugins. We have a list of the best quiz plugins on the market, and that’s only a taste of the selection.
Site Expansion Isn’t Only Done with Plugins
Yes, plugins typically run the show when it comes to adding functionality to your site. Most of the time you only need one theme at site launch.
But as your site grows, you’ll start to notice different needs for your own site, along with changes in the industry. A great example of this was when Google started rewarding mobile responsive websites. Within a year it seemed like all WordPress theme developers began selling mobile-friendly designs. Therefore, lots of website owners needed to go out and get new themes.
It’s also common for growing websites to get new themes for the following reasons:
A fresh look is needed.
It’s required to switch from a free theme to a more powerful premium one.
The website owner wants better customer support from the theme developer.
There has been a shift in what the business offers online.
The site owner needs different tools that plugins can’t deliver.
See it in Action:
Looking for a WordPress theme is as simple as completing a Google search. You can find an onslaught of lists covering the different categories of WordPress themes. Try searching “real estate WordPress themes” or “flat WordPress themes,” and you’ll see plenty of choices. However, your best bet is to pick from a trusted WordPress theme shop and or developer. This ensures you get quality support, fast and well optimized code, and updates for the long haul.
WordPress theme shop
Here’s a list of some reputable and well-known theme hotspots:
There are also online theme marketplaces. However, be careful with these as sometimes developers will drop off the face of the planet, leaving you with an unsupported theme. But they also have a large variety, and high-quality themes do exist, you just have to look a little harder:
Plugins are similar to themes in that you can find both free and premium versions. The only difference is that free plugins are far more commonly used by actual business websites. Free themes are nice for personal and beginner blogs, but the pros usually spend the $50-$100 to get a much nicer premium theme. Read our in-depth post on WordPress free vs paid themes for a little more insight into which might be better for you.
That’s not always the case with plugins though, since many of the best plugins have always been free. You can search for new plugins through your WordPress dashboard or go to the WordPress plugin library. This library has over 50,000 plugins, most of which are free (or in some form of a freemium business model). The library has everything from caching to forum plugins, and spam to social media plugins. Installing a plugin takes no more than a few minutes, and each of the plugin pages include screenshots, feature lists, and even some demos.
WordPress plugin repository
Many premium plugins are sold throughout the internet as well. The main difference between a free and premium plugin is that you often get better customer support with a paid plugin. Here are some great places to search for premium plugins:
Website development companies often sell pricey packages where they ask for an upfront downpayment and recurring monthly payment for maintenance. The only problem is that WordPress isn’t all that difficult to manage if you learn the ropes and go through the proper training. Website management typically involves a few things:
You don’t personally check on the server, so it’s more about you getting a good host and seeing if the site is running at all times. Security and backups are either handled with plugins or through a managed WordPress hosting plan. Everything else on the list only needs to be done on occasion. For example, here at Kinsta backups are automatically taken every day, stored for 14 days, and can be restored with a click of a button.
One of the only manual maintenance tasks is updating plugins, themes, and WordPress itself. The good news is that WordPress notifies you when updates are released. Therefore, you make the updates whenever you see the warnings. It usually takes less than a minute for any updates, then you can get back to work.
Update WordPress plugins
Everything else (like SEO, backups, speed, security, broken links, and spam) can be managed using plugins. For instance, the WP Time Capsule plugin is a wonderful tool for setting both incremental file and database backups. The plugin runs in the background. If a file gets corrupted, or your site crashes, the restore function is there to solve the problem.
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WordPress is known for having SEO built into the platform. In fact, WordPress automatically generates title tags and meta descriptions for all of your pages and posts. This lets search engines know about your content, and it will get you indexed and potentially moved up in the rankings. As with everything in WordPress, there are also more advanced features offered by plugins and online tools. Here are some SEO favorites to consider:
The Yoast SEO plugin is also a must-have for any WordPress site. The default SEO tools in WordPress are great, but Yoast takes it to the next level.
Below is one section of Yoast that asks you for a focus keyword. This could be for either a page or blog post. Upon targeting that focus keyword, Yoast analyses the current post or page and shares how effective you are at targeting the keyword. You’ll see the keyword density, thoughts on the keyword locations, SEO title mentions, page title suggestions, and more. It’s basically a giant checklist for you to make your SEO the best it can be on every page.
A Google search for “website builders” or “website platforms” will reveal all sorts of results. WordPress will most likely be on all website building lists, along with competition like WIX, Squarespace, Joomla, Magento, Shopify, Weebly, and Jimdo. All of these are perfectly fine for making websites, but the non-open source ones, like Squarespace, Shopify, and WIX, limit your control to whatever features are offered in the premium packages.
That leaves you with some limitations like the following:
The ecommerce functionality is usually built-in, so there’s not much you can do about expanding with plugins.
You’re typically stuck with whatever hosting is provided. You don’t have the freedom to test hosts and go with the best value or highest performing.
Adjusting code is limited to what the companies share with you. Even worse, you get stuck with a completely unique coding language, like with Shopify (It uses a language called Liquid). In short, it almost guarantees that you have to hire a specialized developer for changes you can’t handle yourself through the editor.
You don’t technically have full ownership of your site and content. You’re renting the website from these companies. So when you stop paying, all of those files and pages are either lost or held by the company. With WordPress, you own the files, and no one can prevent you from moving them to other hosts.
See it in Action:
The Appearance tab is the control center for all customizations in WordPress. It’s where you have free rein over themes, fonts, colors, widgets, menus, logos, and code. Just about anything you can think of can be adjusted in this area. It’s great for beginners, intermediates, and advanced users, since it limits the amount of code you touch, while also speeding up the development process.
Furthermore, several themes have their own customization modules, or you could install a drag-and-drop editor to almost remove the need for coding.
Customize WordPress appearance
As for the advanced edits, all website files are accessible through the WordPress dashboard, your hosting account, or through a local environment. Whether you’re trying to insert a snippet of code for Google Analytics, or you’re attempting a complete overhaul of the landing page’s CSS, WordPress has you covered.
WordPress appearance editor
9. The Blogging is Hands Down the Best in the Business
WordPress was born as a blogging platform. It’s had its competitors, but nothing currently compares to the power, elegance, and advanced tools you find in the WordPress blogging engine. Options like Tumblr, Medium, Ghost, and Blogger are all perfectly fine for hobbyists, but the pros go for WordPress. An incredible set of tools is located inside the WordPress blog editor.
You can run a simple, one-author blog by taking advantage of the formatting and media tools. There’s also the option to build a full online magazine by scheduling posts far in advanced and setting multiple user types for contributors and editors. Along with options for previewing, editing everything in the post, and keeping code completely out of the equation, you really can’t beat WordPress.
See it in Action:
One advantage of the WordPress blogging platform is the permissions or user roles. Let’s say you run the site as an administrator. This means you have access to the files, all plugins, SEO, and security tools. You hire an editor and three writers to create content for the blog. The only problem is that you don’t want them messing with anything besides the blog posts.
Therefore, you can set the one person as an Editor role and the others as Contributors. The Editor can now edit and publish posts, while the Contributors can create posts but not publish them.
WordPress roles and permissions
We can also look at the blogging interface to see how powerful and well-organized it is. You can add media and change formatting with the click of a button. It lets you change the title and permalink at the top, and there are options for categories, tags, and readability. Revisions are displayed for going back and recovering past versions, and the Preview and Publish buttons are waiting for you until the very end.
WordPress editor
The Visual view renders the HTML, similar to what the end users are going to see. You can also switch to the Text view, which reveals all your post content in HTML format.
WordPress HTML text view
10. Everyone is Doing It
So jump off the bridge with them! Okay, just because every else is doing something isn’t always the greatest reason to follow along. But WordPress has proven itself time and again, so the word has gotten out about its performance, expandability, and ease-of-use. There’s a reason why over 29.3% of all websites on the internet use WordPress.
Struggling with downtime and WordPress problems? Kinsta is the hosting solution designed to save you time! Check out our features
Patrick Coombe, a well-known SEO, asked a question for website owners and marketers on inbound.org: “If you could start your website over, what would you change?” Here’s what Larry Kim, the founder of WordStream, had to say:
WordPress vs Drupal
You can read more about the two platforms here: WordPress vs Drupal – Which One is Better? (Pros and Cons)
Clearly, WordPress is doing something right. You also don’t have to sacrifice much to test it out. As mentioned, the WordPress software is free, and most hosting companies have some sort of money back guarantee.
Most experienced WordPress users will praise the developers on their constant updates and improvements. What’s cool is that whenever an update is released there’s an informational page that outlines how the update will improve the WordPress experience.
See it in Action:
62% of the top 100 fastest growing companies in the US (Inc. 5000) use WordPress. – Nelio Software
WordPress has a full showcase of brands using WordPress, which includes everything from the Houston Zoo, the Obama Foundation, and even Toyota. Some other notables include The Tribune Media Group, jQuery, Plesk, The Chicago Sun-Times, Dyn, Nginx, TechCrunch, and many more. Check out this list of the top 130+ sites using WordPress.
YouTube is experimenting with different layout options for their channel profile section across mobile devices, this is to effectively convey to users what your channel is all about.
YouTube is experimenting with a few features over the next four weeks and with the aim to convey what a channel is all about and increase the number of subscribers on a channel more effectively, YouTube will be experimenting with different metadata layout options for the channel profile section on Android devices.
Upload of channel banner on mobile: YouTube will soon roll out this feature on iOS and Android that enables the creator to change or update their channel banner on mobile. Until now, one can only do this on a studio desktop. The creator can set the channel banner by either selecting a photo from the phone gallery or by simply taking a photo at the moment and setting it directly as a channel banner.
About Tab layout: YouTube will be rolling out improvements in the layout of “About Tab” for all channels in mobile to make it easier for users to get channel details. These changes will include three things: A new layout for clearer presentation, showing the custom URL of the channel while linking it back to the channel share function, and showing icons for channel links.
The banning of Chinese app TikTok in India left a huge void in the digital advertising space for both brands and influencers. The micro-video sharing platform had 178 million monthly active users in India with an average time of 36 minutes per day spent on the app.
When asked if they want to make a full-time career out in influencer marketing, 68.8% of influencers surveyed responded with a yes.
Influencer.in’s top-up survey done post the ban of TikTok reveals that more and more content creators are now working to create or ramp up their presence on Instagram. Tiktokers were asked which platform they will move to in absence of TikTok. Influencer marketing statistics show that 55% of respondents will now be active on Instagram followed by 20% on YouTube.
“But this shift will increase the cost of building brands on social media as well as make creating content expensive,” points out Vikas Chawla, Co-Founder, Social Beat. He explains the cost of doing influencercampaigns on Instagram is higher than TikTok so brands will have to shell out more to promote their content. Also, content on Instagram pays more attention to the quality of audio and lights whereas TikTok was more about capturing the moment live.
Homegrown apps like Roposo and Trell have also joined the race and are offering content creators free organic reach and the promise of promotion of their content. These platforms claim to have grown manifolds in the last few months. Roposo claims to have grown in India from 4 million before the TikTok ban to 64 million users now. Trell too claims to have crossed 45-million downloads with 22 million monthly active users and six million daily active users. From these upcoming platforms, 18% influencers who did the social media influencer marketing survey said they have created a profile on Roposo, followed by 5% on Sharechat.
Picsart, Canva, Inshot, Filmora, Lightroom, Snapspeed are some of the most preferred tools used by influencers to create content
From new ad formats to Instagram Shop upgrades, and user-experience tweaks Keep up with the latest Instagram updates and more.
Stay ahead of Instagram trends and give your marketing that extra edge. Here are the new Instagram updates for April 2021.
April 2021 Instagram updates
These are the top Instagram updates marketers should know about this month.
Instagram introduces Remix Reels inspired by TikTok Duets
At the beginning of April, Instagram added a “remix” option to Reels that allows creators to react to an existing public Reel. Similar features — Duets and Stitch — have been popular on TikTok for some time, inspiring Snapchat to test a remix option as well.
#Snapchat is working on the possibility of remixing friends' Stories 👀
Remix is enabled by default on Reels published from public accounts, but users have access to a disable option. When someone remixes a Reel, the original creator receives a notification.
Story drafts may soon come to Instagram
You asked and we're delivering… story drafts coming soon 📣
In late March, Instagram’s top boss Adam Mosseri and the app’s official comms Twitter account teased the release of a story drafts feature. “You asked and we’re delivering… story drafts coming soon,” said Mosseri.
Most content, including Instagram Guides, can be saved o as a draft in the creation stage, except for Reels and Stories. According to screenshots leaked by mobile developer Alessandro Paluzzi, before exiting story creation mode, people will be given the option to save an in-progress Story to a drafts folder. Right now, users can “save” Stories by downloading them.
A save option could make it easier for people to add posts or pictures to Stories as backgrounds, which is currently something creators use hacks to do.
Instagram Lite now available on Android in more than 170 countries
As of March, a lite version of the Instagram app is now available for Android users in more than 170 countries, including the United States.
Designed to use minimal data and perform in areas with limited connectivity, the lite app does not include AR filters, Instagram shopping, ads, or the option to create Reels. It does still allow people to view Reels, which remain popular among lite users in India, where TikTok is banned.
IGTV ads land in Australia and UK
Instagram began testing IGTV ads last year in the United States and will now expand tests to select creators in Australia and the United Kingdom.
These mobile-first, 15-second video ads use a revenue share model much like on YouTube, with 55% of earnings given to creators. Instagram expects the format to be made available to more creators in new regions over the coming year.
The social media influencer marketing survey found that most of the digital creators hail from top metro cities – the largest percentage coming from Delhi and Mumbai, with 24.9% and 21.2% respectively, while Bangalore and Kolkata contribute to 7.9% and 6.3% respectively. These influencer marketing statistics reflect a huge potential in these cities for brands who are looking to leverage influencer marketing.
In terms of age, the social media influencer marketing report uncovered that most respondents fall in the 18-30 age bracket, with 50% of respondents being between 18-24 years old. It would be safe to say then that the youth of today is not just influencing but inspiring and even changing minds.
We also see a healthy distribution in gender with almost 50% of the influencers who took the survey being females.
Almost 60% of the influencers in our country who have taken the survey get a chance to work with less than 3 brands in a month. This shows that most of them are still in the initial stage of their influencer journey.
The influencer market is currently dominated by lifestyle and fashion influencers, followed by beauty and fitness influencers. Categories like cooking, mental health, and gaming have also seen significant growth in the influencer market during the pandemic and the ensuing lockdown.
However, the lockdown has also caused a few challenges to influencers. The study says that there has been a decline in influencer marketing during COVID-19 as the number of collaborations has reduced in the last few months, especially for travel and fashion influencers. Delayed payments and undervaluation of work continue to be a pressing concern during this period.
The social media influencer marketing study further reports that consumer goods brands leverage influencer marketing the most extensively, with the category contributing to a whopping 70% of all industry categories.
In terms of sectors, e-commerce dominates with 50%, followed by mobile apps with around 42% and retail at about 38%. Healthcare, edu-tech, BFSI, and B2B companies follow closely as well.
Typically, Instagram Stories that appear at the start of your feed are from accounts that you engage with the most, whether that’s through likes, comments, story views, reactions, or DMs.
The Instagram Stories algorithm also puts a lot of focus on timeliness, as it wants to make sure it’s always showing you the latest stories from your favorite accounts.
If you regularly engage with an account, their new stories will be bumped to the front of your feed every time they post — even if you’ve watched all their stories from the previous day.
So with this in mind, it’s a good idea to consistently post to Instagram Stories.
By posting to Instagram Stories more often, you have a better chance of reaching viewers as they browse their daily stories — and the more views you gain, the better your ranking will be.
Fortunately, regularly posting to stories just got a whole lot easier.
How the Instagram Algorithm Works on the Explore Page
Overall, the Explore page and the feed algorithm are quite similar — they both deliver content that Instagram thinks you’ll be most interested in, based on your prior interactions.
However, your Instagram feed will be made up of content from accounts you already follow, whereas the Explore feed will consist almost entirely of content from new accounts.
The Explore page is constantly evolving, with new topic categories and advanced search functionalities being introduced all the time.
For example, you can now search by keywords,as well as hashtags, to discover feeds of relevant content:
This suggests that the Explore page algorithm takes into account way more than just the tags on your posts, such as the actual visual content and words in your caption.
Fortunately, getting your posts onto the Instagram Explore page isn’t as hard as you might think.
The Explore page algorithm is essentially trying to serve people the best, relevant content. So by continually sharing great content with strong captions and niche hashtags, you’re already contributing towards your Explore page ranking.
For hashtag search results, Instagram prioritizes top performing posts:
These posts are curated by the algorithm based on an individual’s historical interactions.
On the “Recent” tab, hashtag search results are the same for every user — it’s a chronological list of posts that contain your searched hashtag.
TIP: If you’re a brand looking to get on the Instagram Explore page, it’s more important than ever to focus on your niche topics and use hashtags to help categorize your posts.
The algorithm prioritises content from the accounts you interact with the most, as well as the type of posts you typically engage with For IGTV videos and Instagram Reels.
Instagram serves suggested IGTV videos and Reels in relevant Explore pages, beyond the home feed, including the new Reels tab.
Based on a machine learning model, this is based on what Instagram thinks you will like.
Give your IGTV videos and Reels the best chance of being seen by new (and existing) audiences –
For IGTV videos, you can share a 1-minute preview to your Instagram feed, increasing initial exposure and providing a positive signal to the algorithm.
For Reels, always share them to your main Instagram feed, and include several hashtags to boost their discoverability.
Whatever tactic you choose to focus on to improve your algorithm ranking in 2021, the most important thing is to keep engaging with your audience at the heart of your strategy.
Building a genuine relationship with your followers is the most powerful way to “hack” the algorithm and, most importantly, it will work wonders for your brand too.
Let’s take a look at some ideas to help you build a solid Facebook strategy to make the most of your Page.
1. Define your audience
To engage your audience effectively, you’ve got to understand who you’re talking to first. Get to know who your target audience is by asking yourself the following questions:
How old are your target followers?
Where do they live?
What kind of jobs do they have?
What are their challenges?
How and when do they use Facebook?
Of course, it’s also important to understand the general demographics of Facebook users. Then, once you’ve got a sense of who actually is using the platform and how that connects to your target customer, you can take a look at Facebook Audience Insights.
Facebook’s free, built-in Audience Insights tool will help you drill down into the nitty-gritty details about potential customers. You can use it to find information on things like:
Age
Gender
Education
Relationship status
Location
Language
Facebook usage
Past purchasing activity
After all, if you don’t have an idea of who you’re trying to reach, you’re unlikely to ever reach them.
2. Set goals
What does success look like for your brand? Sure, it can be tempting to look at Likes as the ultimate measure of achievement, but if they’re not part of a broader marketing plan, those likes aren’t much of anything. Sometimes they’re even called a vanity metric.
A strong goal that’s tied to your business objectives is essential for creating an effective Facebook marketing strategy. Every business will have different goals, but each should focus on actions that impact their bottom line.
This may include:
Generating leads
Increasing conversions on your website
Improving customer service
Once you’ve decided what you want to achieve, we recommend mapping out specific, measurable ways to get there. We recommend using a recognized goal-setting framework like SMART goals or the OKR goal framework. Check out our post on social media goal-setting for more details and some inspiring examples.
Every post, every comment, every ad you create on Facebook should ultimately be in service of your goals. To keep yourself on track, it’s a good idea to create a Facebook mission statement for your brand, as well as a Facebook style guide that can inform a consistent look, feel and voice for all of your content.
(Sorry to give you so much homework, but successful marketing takes a little sweat sometimes. Work it!)
3. Plan your content mix
You’ve got your target audience. You know your goals. Now it’s time to craft those posts.
Determining the right mix of content takes trial and error, but a good rule of thumb is to use the “80-20 Rule”: that means using 80% of your posts to inform, educate and entertain, and the other 20% to promote your brand.
That’s right: not every post should be about how great your company is. That gets old fast, like a friend’s new boyfriend talking about Bitcoin through your entire birthday dinner.
Instead, aim to provide value and build relationships with your followers. Give them content that they’ll enjoy regularly, and they’ll be more open-minded to hearing about your products and services when you do bring them up 20% of the time.
Another option to help guide your content mix is the social media rule of thirds. Under this school of thought, one-third of your content should share ideas and stories, one-third of your content should involve personal interactions with your followers and the rest of your content can promote your business.
Whatever specific numerical mix you wind up with, the goal is to balance promotional material with value.
Hot tip: Facebook punishes brands that push sales too hard. The algorithm is not a fan of self-promotion, as it turns out. The platform wants to prioritize meaningful, engaging content… not just coupons.
Once you’ve decided what to post, deciding when to post it is your next step.
You can glean some insight on engagement from Page Insights, but our research shows that the best time to post on Facebook is at 6:15 AM and 12:15 PM PST on weekdays.
Whatever your schedule, keep in mind that it’s important to post consistently.
Create a content calendar to help balance your mix of content types, and keep your frequency organized. This free content calendar template is one way to stay organized; the Hootsuite Planner is another great resource.
For more strategic planning ideas, check out our post on how to create a social media marketing plan.
4. Optimize your Page for engagement
Whatever your Facebook marketing goal may be, it’ll be tough to achieve it if no one knows your Facebook Page exists.
That’s why it’s important to a) get people to your Page in the first place and b) compel them to interact once they get there.
This video shares some great ways to fully optimize your Facebook Business Page for success:
Expert tip: give a little extra love to your Facebook Page cover image. This is the first thing people will see when they visit your Page, so it better look good!
One easy way to help people find your Facebook Business Page is through cross-promotion. Help people who are already interacting with you on other platforms find you on Facebook by linking to your Page in your email signature and newsletter, and incorporating Facebook Like and share buttons on your website or blog.
To get those views, Likes and Follows rolling in is a little less scientific: you’ve got to create highly shareable content. Posts that are valuable and entertaining will (hopefully!) inspire followers to share with their friends.
To build engagement, it’s important to remember that you get out of Facebook what you put into it. You need to be engaged, too, if you expect your followers to be.
Responsiveness is a highly valued attribute of brands, so get chatty. Reply to every message and comment, answer questions, and keep content up-to-date. (In fact, you should be scheduling a regular audit of your Facebook Page to check for and remove any outdated content. Your About section should always be accurate, up-to-date, and on-brand.)
5. Consider using other Facebook tools
Once you’ve gotten comfortable with running a Facebook Business Page, there are plenty of additional ways that brands can find opportunities for engagement beyond posts and comments.
Facebook Business Manager
To take your Facebook Page to the next level, it’s helpful to set up Facebook Business Manager, too. Facebook calls it “a one-stop-shop to manage business tools, business assets and employee access to these assets.” How can you resist?!
In simpler terms, Business Manager is a tool that allows you to manage your organic and paid Facebook posts. It also allows you to work effectively with team members and outside contractors and agencies.
We’ll walk you step by step through the set-up process in our guide to using Facebook Business Manager.
Facebook Groups
Groups are another great “extra credit” tool you can use to drive engagement. In a way, Groups are like the online equivalent of your favorite coffee shop or community center. They are digital spaces for people to share information and ideas… and hopefully, a passion for your brand. With more than 1.4 billion people using Facebook Groups every month, it’s an audience too large to ignore.
You can also use Facebook Groups to showcase your expertise and provide added value to your fans, with bonus content or special deals that are just for “members.” This is a great way to build trust and ongoing loyalty.
We’ve got instructions for how to set up your own Facebook Group right here if you’re ready to add this tool to your Facebook Business Page toolkit.
But if people are passionate about your brand, you may not even need to create a special space for them to gather: sometimes fans will create their own Facebook Group with a focus on your brand. If you do discover such Groups out there in the world, it’s a good idea to join so you can keep an eye on the conversation, and make sure any misconceptions or negativity are nipped in the bud.
In general, though, fan-made Facebook Groups are an amazing sign that you’re doing something right. Lucky you!
Facebook chatbot (a.k.a. Facebook Messenger bot)
Facebook users exchange 20 billion messages with businesses every month. Twenty billion! If you’re not available for conversation with your customers through this platform, you may be missing out on an opportunity to connect.
It’s not just about simply having Facebook Messenger set up, however. It’s about being supremely responsive to customer messages. Facebook’s research shows users expect a business to respond almost immediately. One surveyed Facebook user said he would only wait 10 minutes for a response before moving on to another brand.
The solution to these expectations? Chatbots: automated response tools that are always on to help an interested customer, like this one from Booking.com.
6. Incorporate Facebook ads and the Facebook pixel
So you crafted the perfect post: the wording is just right, the imagery is outstanding and the question is super engaging. Here’s hoping your followers actually see it.
That’s right: not everything you post on your Facebook Page will reach your followers on their news feeds. You might be surprised by the percentage of followers your organic posts will likely reach:
For Pages with fewer than 10,000 followers: 8.18% organic reach
For Pages with more than 10,000 followers: 2.59% organic reach
For better or for worse, the Facebook algorithm prioritizes posts from users’ friends and family. This means that businesses and brands sometimes just can’t stand out from the crowd.
Sometimes, your great content just needs a little boost. Fortunately, you can extend your reach without breaking the bank using Facebook Ads.
Like traditional advertising, a Facebook ad is content you pay to share with a specific, targeted audience. The goal is to get your brand in front of the right eyeballs, whether your goal is to build brand awareness, engagement or traffic.
A Facebook pixel is a simple piece of code that you place on your website to:
track conversions from Facebook
remarket to people who have already visited your website
build targeted custom audiences for future ads
As soon as you place it on your website, the pixel will start collecting data. That way, whenever you are ready to advertise, you’ll have powerful information at your fingertips for retargeting campaigns.
How to measure the success of your strategy with Facebook analytics
Successful Facebook marketing requires maintenance: this is not a set-it-and-forget-it situation.
Tracking and measuring are essential, so you can understand what worked and what didn’t. That way, you can learn, and tweak, and try again so your strategy is constantly improving.
You can track audience engagement directly through Facebook Insights, which measures metrics such as…
likes
reach (how many people saw your posts)
engagement (how many people liked, clicked, shared, or commented on your content)
which of your posts result in people unliking your Page
Additionally, Facebook Insights will help you determine which types of posts work best for your Page, so you’ll know if your current content mix is working.
Outside of Facebook — actions like purchases or other website conversions — need to be tracked with external tools like Google Analytics, Hootsuite Impact, UTM parameters, and Hootsuite Insights.
All that being said… don’t be overwhelmed! We’ve created a detailed guide that walks you through the process of tracking the return on investment of your Facebook marketing.
Tracking your progress isn’t just about counting your wins and celebrating successes. It’s about clocking what’s not working, too, so that you can make adjustments when necessary. Data will show you what you should keep doing, and which tactics you need to tweak. And through a continuous loop of goal-setting, measuring results and tweaking your strategy, you can improve your performance over time.
Whew!
We know, we know: there’s a lot to learn when it comes to Facebook marketing. But the good news is you can get started without investing a dime.
So get in there, get your hands dirty and learn as you go. More complex strategies and campaigns will be there whenever you’re ready to take things to the next level… and our dozens and dozens of resources and guides will be here waiting to help you, every step of the way.
