Instagram is currently the sixth largest social media site in the world, and one of the most impactful of all. Forbes stated that people engage with brands 10x more on Instagram than they do on Facebook, and 54x more than they do on Twitter. It’s important for brands to take their Instagram account seriously, as it can be a handy marketing tool to drive engagement and brand presence.
One strategy that brands have adapted is to use Instagram as your brand’s portfolio. Post what you do on there exclusively. Try not to post anything unrelated because it will throw the focus of your feed off. Your customers or potential customers should be able to see your brands vision from scrolling through your feed. If your portfolio isn’t extensive, you could investigate showing your brands culture. Post things about your employees, and the activities you get up to.
There’s nothing more annoying than someone spamming your feed with hundreds of posts, as you end up wondering if you can unfollow them without looking rude. It’s the same with brands, but people probably won’t feel so bad about unfollowing a brand. Quality is much better than quantity when it comes to Instagram, as people will engage more with one brilliant post rather than five average ones.
Try and get involved in a conversation with other players in your market by starting debates, voicing your opinion on things or just engaging in current affairs by liking photos. The more you get involved in, the more your page will be noticed and seen, generating more engagement for you. Another way you can do this is by engaging with the people that already follow you. Brands can always improve on engagement with their audience, and you’d probably be surprised at the number of your competitors who lack communication skills.
Posting at the correct times of day will increase your chances to get noticed. This can take some studying but is well worth it when it’s simply easier to get a good response out of your pictures. Once you’ve spotted a trend (you can do this through external apps or just observe what times seem to be the best) you can alter your posting schedule around it.
Don’t buy your Instagram followers! This is essentially cheating and the only person you’ll be fooling is yourself. Your genuine, engaged followers will probably notice and it will end up giving you a reputation as someone that needs to fake it because you can’t achieve it organically. It’s better to have 30 real, engaged followers than 15,000 fakes.
Instagram Ads
Posting on Instagram has become a very popular way of advertising over the last few years. You can advertise on Instagram in five ways: photos, videos, carousels, canvas story ads and story ads. They can be effective as it is possible to target your ads very specifically through personalising your audience, so your ads get seen by the correct people. The best advertising on Instagram doesn’t look like a stereotypical advert, so it blends into a persons feed more and they view it as they would if they’d followed the page from the beginning.
Instagram has many features you can use when advertising. You aren’t just limited to one picture anymore! Carousel ads are an effective way of enticing your audience to interact directly with your advert. You can experiment with this as much as you like; a lot of brands use a storytelling approach. Storytelling helps an audience create an emotional relationship with a brand, so every photo you post will depict a story that consequently boosts your brand image.
Hashtags can be useful when trying to boost your Instagram reach. Using these in moderation can introduce a wider audience to your account, as people will search relevant hashtags to them and interact with pages that use them. However, if overdone, the opposite effect will probably occur. Massive strings of hashtags on your Instagram adverts are annoying, and it becomes obvious that you’re blasting stupid amounts of hashtags just to get new followers. They make your posts look messy and just aren’t necessary! Do some research into what hashtags your audience engage with most and use them selectively in your posts – your audience will enjoy simple posts far more.
To conclude, Instagram is an easy, simple way to interact and engage with your audience effectively. It is cost-effective compared to other routes you could go down, especially if your audience is digitally aware. Here at Brandshare, we specialise in social media, and will always guarantee the results we promise. You can read more about the work we do here or give us a call on 01276 858 880.
