Social media is an important aspect of any PR pro’s life. Building a social media presence can create a voice for your brand, foster relationships with consumers and increase brand awareness. With so many platforms to choose from, it can be hard to know which platforms’ features will best help you achieve your goals. Read on to find out some of the #BIGteam’s favorite features!

Instagram business accounts
Switching your brand’s personal Instagram account to a business account enables you to have a more detailed overview of your followers and post analytics. Once you move over to a business account (which can be done in your account settings), Instagram grants access to Instagram Insights – your own personal analytics tool. Instagram Insights allow users to collect data on their followers, providing information such as age range, location and gender. Business accounts also provide useful information about impressions, reach and website clicks.

Instagram questions stickers, polls and quizzes for Stories
Instagram Stories enable users to put up pictures or videos for 24 hours only, and are much less formal than a traditional post. Over the past couple of years, Instagram added three features to stories to help users interact with their followers: polls (introduced in 2017), questions stickers (introduced in 2018) and quizzes (introduced in 2019). Polls are a quick way to get followers’ opinions on topics, and can be used to gauge what kind of posts they prefer. Question stickers can also be used to assess post preferences. Followers and viewers of your story can submit questions they want you to answer, or answer questions that you pose to them via the sticker. The quizzes feature allows users to create multiple choice quizzes to put on their stories. Creative quizzes are a great way to familiarize followers with your brand and start conversations with your followers. From trivia to thought-provoking questions, these stickers are a fun way to engage with followers!
Facebook Live and Instagram Live
Social media live streams are a great way to put a face to a brand, and form relationships with followers. Facebook and Instagram live streams open directly from the apps. Facebook Live can be done from your app or browser, while Instagram Live can only be done from your app. These live streams happen in real time and feel authentic. Many followers will appreciate the genuineness that a live video offers, as opposed to a pre-recorded and edited one. Live streams are also convenient; they can be started at any time, allowing for spontaneous announcements. BIGclient Iceland Naturally makes use of Facebook Live to involve and engage their audience at events such as Taste of Iceland (check them out here!). While extremely similar, there is one key difference between Facebook Live and Instagram Live: Facebook Live streams automatically save to your profile and can be left up for other users to watch later, while Instagram Live streams expire after 24 hours (but can be reposted from your archives as a highlight).
Canva
Canva is a user-friendly application that makes creating graphics easy. Graphics create a unified brand image, making it recognizable. An eye-catching graphic paired with a simple tweet also draws attention to the content, increasing reach. Canva is available on desktop or your mobile device, so you can access your designs while on the go. The BIGteam uses Canva for our social media and even here on the BIGblog. Canva graphics are easy to make and very customizable. Each one is unique, and can be made to fit your brand’s image. We love Canva so much we named it our September App of the Month!
Check out how we make use of these features on our Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook! Do you know any other helpful features to manage social media? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter.