Adapting to the Meta Exodus: What Small Business Owners Need to Know

The political landscape often impacts our daily lives, and social media is no exception. With the recent election of a new president, a growing trend has emerged: many users are nervous about potential policy changes or data privacy concerns and are deleting their Meta profiles, including Facebook and Instagram. As a small business owner, this shift may feel like a threat to your marketing strategy. But fear not—there are steps you can take to adapt.  

Why Are Users Leaving?  

Changes in leadership can create uncertainty about how tech platforms might be regulated or how personal data could be used. Some individuals are choosing to leave Meta-owned platforms altogether, either to protect their privacy or as a form of protest. Regardless of the reason, this shift could result in a smaller pool of potential customers on these platforms.  

What Does This Mean for Your Business?  

If Meta platforms are a significant part of your social media strategy, fewer active users may mean lower reach and engagement. However, this doesn’t mean abandoning social media altogether—it’s about diversifying your presence and engaging where your audience feels most comfortable.  

Alternatives and Advice for Small Business Owners  

1. Expand to Other Platforms

Explore platforms like LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok (for now), or X, formerly known as Twitter. Each offers unique opportunities to connect with your audience. For example, LinkedIn is ideal for B2B connections, while TikTok appeals to younger audiences.  

Beyond the more well known social media platforms (LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok, and Twitter), consider exploring emerging platforms with untapped potential. Mastodon, for instance, is ideal for niche communities, while BeReal focuses on real-time, authentic engagement. Nextdoor connects you directly with local audiences, and Reddit’s subreddits are perfect for targeted outreach. Hive Social and similar platforms combine popular features from major networks but appeal to fresh audiences.

Diversifying to these smaller platforms allows you to build meaningful connections with engaged audiences before they become mainstream.

2. Leverage Email Marketing

Social media is valuable, but it’s no substitute for owning your audience. Build and nurture an email list to maintain direct communication, even if users leave social platforms.  

3. Focus on Community Engagement

Use your website or blog to create engaging content that drives traffic. Consider starting a newsletter or private forum to foster a loyal customer base outside of social media.

4. Double Down on SEO

If social platforms become less predictable, strong SEO ensures your business is discoverable on search engines. Update your website regularly with fresh, optimized content.  

5. Communicate Transparently

Reassure your audience that their privacy and trust matter. If your business relies on Meta advertising, explain how you protect their data. Transparency builds loyalty.  

While political shifts can create uncertainty, they also present an opportunity to revisit your strategy. By diversifying your marketing efforts, you can stay ahead of the curve and ensure your business continues to thrive in any environment.

Don’t let shifting social media landscapes derail your business strategy. At Take Flight, we specialize in helping small businesses adapt and thrive, no matter the platform changes. From diversifying your presence to creating a robust content strategy, we’re here to guide you every step of the way.

Ready to future-proof your social media efforts? Let’s chat! Contact us today and take the first step toward a stronger, more resilient online presence.

The Power of Visuals: Creating Stunning Graphics for Social Media

People don’t just glance at visuals, they experience them.

– Anonymous

When it comes to soical media, grabbing attention is everything! For small business owners, compelling visuals can be the key to standing out in a crowded digital space. The good news? You don’t need to be a professional designer to create eye-catching graphics that captivate your audience. With a few simple tools and techniques, you can produce stunning visuals that elevate your brand and increase engagement.

Here’s a quick guide to get you started:

1. Choose the Right Tools

There are many easy-to-use design tools available, even for those with little to no experience. Here are some favorites:

• Canva: Known for its user-friendly interface, Canva offers pre-made templates and a drag-and-drop editor, making it perfect for beginners. You can customize colors, fonts, and images to suit your brand.

• Adobe Spark: This tool is great for creating visuals and videos alike. It has a variety of templates for social media posts, stories, and ads, and it integrates seamlessly with Adobe’s Creative Cloud.

• PicMonkey: This tool offers advanced editing options and allows for collaboration, which is great if you have a small team.

2. Focus on Consistency

Consistency in your visuals is key to building brand recognition. Choose a color palette and stick with it. Use the same fonts and logo placement across all posts to create a cohesive look. Canva and other tools allow you to save your brand kit, making it easy to apply the same styles to every post.

3. Incorporate High-Quality Images

High-quality images instantly make your content look more professional. You can find free, high-resolution stock images on websites like Unsplash, Pexels, and Pixabay. For product photos, consider investing in a decent camera or hiring a photographer to capture your brand in the best light.

4. Use Simple, Clean Designs

When it comes to designing graphics for social media, less is often more. Avoid overcrowding your images with too much text or too many elements. Focus on clean lines, clear messaging, and visual hierarchy to guide your audience’s eye to the most important part of your post.

5. Experiment with Video and Animation

Static images are great, but video and animations are even better at grabbing attention. Tools like Canva and Adobe Spark make it easy to add simple animations or turn your static posts into engaging videos with just a few clicks.

With these tips and tools, you can create stunning graphics that showcase your brand, engage your audience, and boost your social media presence.

Need help getting started or taking your visuals to the next level? Reach out to Take Flight for assistance! Whether you need design support, custom graphics created with tools like the ones mentioned above, advice on royalty-free image websites, or professional photos, we’ve got you covered. Did you know we create visuals and take photos for many of our clients, too? Let’s work together to create content that soars above the rest!

CLIENTS ASK: What’s the difference between Stories, Reels, and IGTV?

Instagram is a savvy app with an ever-changing algorithm, but it’s the social platform with the highest engagement, so it’s crucial to take advantage of the many features. If you aren’t making content on Instagram, you might as well throw your engagement metrics out the window.

Visually based, this app relies on well made, creative content to keep consumers attention and businesses to utilize their best Call To Actions (CTA) for each feature. Between Stories, Reels, and IGTV, how do you know which one would be most beneficial for you and your social media marketing?

Well, that’s what Take Flight is here for, to help you meet your goals and understand what makes the most sense for your business. Instagram’s metrics are the most important to understand your true engagement to conversion rates, so we created a quick guide to each individual feature.

Why Use Instagram Stories?

Instagram launched Instagram Stories in 2016 after their initial app launch in 2010. The short form content is all about brief, attention-grabbing minimal advertisements, whether that means dynamic images or animated videos. They last for a total of 5 seconds, so you can always do multiple slides on a story, but the kick is that the story will only last for a limited time—24 hours. So, it’s important to use stories as a brand to showcase specific products, services, or to promote brand awareness.

While you can’t give consumers an in depth look into your company, you can highlight the faces of your brand, specific employees, or pieces of your brand personality. The benefits of Stories lie in the fact that they are straight to the point, you only have a short period of time to catch consumer’s eyes to prevent them from just swiping past to the next ad or story. You’re not just looking for viewers, but overall impressions between likes, comments, link clicks, etc.

Instagram is a visually based app, but stories heighten that effect with the length of time you have.  These opportunities are best used for making a sale with the consumer, wherever they are in the buyer’s journey. Using a CTA is essential with this Instagram feature, turning this opportunity into great conversions for your business.

Why Use INSTAGRAM Reels?

The Instagram Reels feature was launched in 2020, but with TikTok and other short form videos blowing up the Internet again, Reels have gained a massive boost in popularity. The Explore tab in the Instagram app is one of your best options for growing your organic reach and getting to new consumers, driving up your impressions. However, Instagram’s algorithm is smart and will only boost content that is well made, so videos that have grainy audio or visuals or that are overall subpar will only hurt your branding. If you post anything that has average or below content, Instagram’s algorithms will take that into account for all of your future content.

While you can use paid ads for Stories once you get to 10k followers, Reels are not in the game for paid advertising; here it is all about organic and original content. You do have the benefit of posting your Reels on your regular posting feed and within your Stories, which is a plus when promoting to your followers. Having your well-crafted Reels show up on the Explore tab and improve your organic reach will do more for your brand than hashtags ever will.

Reels are best used for short-form content like Stories, but you have more than five seconds to catch their attention. This feature is all about creativity, branding awareness, and personality. Remember to still have some sort of CTA is important, but knowing who you are targeting is the main point to absorb.

Why Use IGTV?

IGTV (Instagram TV) is highly comparable to YouTube as this feature can have much longer videos, but they must be high quality. IGTV thrives on high quality, edited videos that are similar to YouTube’s how-to’s, educational videos, or informational videos.

Many news sources have taken to IGTV to improve their metrics and reach potential new viewers. Whether you use short clips that last one to two minutes or a video that is longer than 5-10 minutes, these are the opportunities you need to show your audience who you are as a brand, what your products are, and what problem you solve.

The major difference between IGTV and YouTube videos is IGTV is vertical in size, like how you would hold your phone to take a selfie. It is a mirror of TikTok and makes it a mix of both YouTube, which is horizontal in size, and TikTok, which has shorter videos, like the Reels feature.

Confused yet? There’s a lot to digest when it comes to the dynamic video features Instagram offers, so don’t hesitate to reach out to the Take Flight team to get a better handle on how your small business can utilize these (and more) to help drive your social media goals.