As we saw in the previous article, social networks help us reach audiences and achieve business goals. Now let’s look at the most visual and engaging social networks on the Internet. So let’s check the specifics on the social media strategy on Instagram.
No social media marketing strategy is complete without Instagram. It’s become a top platform for brands and consumers. This social media platform has 800 million monthly active users. More than 60 million photos are posted each day with 1.6 billion daily “likes”. And 70% of Instagram hashtags are branded.
If you’re not on Instagram, chances are that your competitors are. But for those brands who already have an account, even though they are on the right track; just having an Instagram profile doesn’t necessarily translate to sales. If you want to drive customers and make money from this social media platform, you need a strategy. So what we need to know about the social media strategy on Instagram?
Optimizing your Profile for Engagement
Before you stress over making content for Instagram, ensure you’ve done the following:
- Convert to a Business Profile: First off, ensure that you’ve changed your profile to an Instagram business profile. Doing so permits you to feature extra data, for example, your industry, area, telephone number and email address as a major aspect of your Instagram bio. Furthermore, Instagram business profiles have access to analytics to assist you with perceiving how followers are interfacing with your profile and content.
- Settle on your Image Creatives: In particular, your hashtags and bio. The way toward making a hashtag doesn’t need to be overwhelming. For instance, most hashtags are either a brand name or slight minor departure from a brand name: #Topshop #MyAnthropologie #SkechersStyle The reason for having a hashtag is to urge followers to tag your Brand in their images and enables you to do likewise. Hashtags fill in as a kind of call-to-action to encourage client photographs and stories.
- Art a Convincing Instagram Bio: This is your brand’s early introduction and first impression with clients and likely followers. It speaks to a chance to feature what your business is about and urge followers to take action.
Figure 2.18. Instagram Marketing Strategy
Source: BGH with Instagram information.
- Choose an Instagram Worthy Profile Picture: Your Instagram profile picture is limited to 110×110 pixels. Smooth, moderate and high-res is the best approach.
Defining Your Instagram Marketing Goals and Reasons to be There
You should be able to answer precisely why you need to be on Instagram: Are you keen on creating leads? Building a network? Brand mindfulness?
Defining social media objectives isn’t lighten. These objectives will decide everything from your content strategy to how much time you spend on the platform. There is no “right” or single objective you need to focus on, either. All things considered, your ROI from Instagram truly comes down to your objectives.
For instance: Retail brands Instagram strategy is centered around selling. Their whole feed is based on flaunting items and urging followers to check them out. In the interim, beauty brands are as a rule concentrated on featuring items while creating a network by continually going to and fro with followers.
Local, physical businesses frequently center around keeping clients savvy on their most recent promotions while building connections. What’s more, a few brands just use Instagram as a way to flaunt their talent team and go off camera of their business. B2B brands figure out how to use this platform to flaunt the brand’s human side.
The excellence of Instagram is the sheer measure of innovative opportunity accessible to your business. In any case, your Instagram strategy begins with your objectives. We suggest that you invest some energy burrowing through Instagram yourself to help motivate your business’ strategy. Follow your preferred brands and a few contenders, as well. Encountering the platform as a client is the most ideal approach to see how organizations and buyers cooperate with one another.
Creating Content that Your Clients will Love
We’ve featured some particular Instagram marketing tips that grandstand the kinds of content that works the best based on best practices. In spite of the fact that these aren’t the main kinds of content you can publish, consider these post types to be foundations of your Instagram marketing strategy.
- Eye-catching Images and Stylish Photos: That is actually what made Instagram famous. Photographs including a type of striking innovative trademark, regardless of whether it be a staggering setting or brilliant color scheme, are the kinds of posts that reel in the preferences, “likes” and comments. Fortunately, most current cell phones have highlights heated into them to take convincing photographs of pretty much anything.
- People-centric Shots: Social media is social. That implies basing your content strategy on individuals. In particular, featuring the people who bolster your business. Remember about showing your team. Going off camera and commending your partners is a straightforward yet viable approach to refine your brand.
- Videos: Video content is among the most famous and shared around the web, Instagram included. In case you’re not an expert videographer, don’t worry. Numerous brands share short promos in lieu of huge creations. Furthermore, truly, you can make video that sells with minimal more than a cell phone.
- Instagram Stories: Brands are using Stories in their Instagram strategies more than ever. Since Stories help you to “avoid the line” in your followers’ feeds by putting your profile at the front of their Story line. Besides, time-sensitive content takes advantage of your clients’ feeling of FOMO (fear of missing out). Extraordinary for deal, promos, organization updates or downright fun loving content. Stories are something you ought to endeavor to make every day.
- Instagram Marketing Tools: Regardless of which kinds of content you decide to make, it’s critical to follow the performance of your posts after some time. This permits you to see which content is really bringing about significant engagement.
Publishing Content to Maximize Engagement
Essentially posting aimlessly won’t benefit you in any way. As a major aspect of your marketing strategy for Instagram, you need to observe the following before you publish your next post.
- Creating Captions: Each post you publish ought to have a one of a kind caption (description). Indeed, even the apparently littlest subtleties of those captions can affect your engagement rate and whether your post is discoverable. With 2,000+ characters to work with, you unquestionably have imaginative opportunity. In any case, you’ll notice that numerous brands take a “less is more” way to deal with their Instagram captions.
Figure 2.19. Instagram Strategy for Captions
Source: BGH with Instagram information
- Timing and Frequency: At the point when you publish your content, it regularly matters with regards to engagement. Most brands publish day by day or on a close regular schedule. Obviously, you would prefer not to forfeit quality for quantity. Likewise, the planning of your posts impacts how likely your supporters are to see them.
- Cross-posting from other Social Networks: For some brands, it bodes well to cross-post Instagram content across media, for example, Twitter, Facebook or Pinterest. Doing so spares you some genuine time and shields you from ricocheting from social media to social media. But you should also keep in mind that you can have the same followers on all platforms and many times what they are looking for is fresh and original content. So try to say the same message or promote the same product on all your platforms but in a different way: different photos from the same collection, different fragments of the same video, etc.
Promoting Instagram Long-term
Regardless of what Instagram techniques you’re trying, such a large amount of your engagement relies upon how you promote your Instagram.
Followers and clients don’t appear coincidentally. Accordingly, you have to put your Instagram up front over your other promoting channels. For instance, make a point to noticeably include your Instagram on location. Regardless of whether it’s social buttons or a feed of your followers’ photographs, clients should realize that you’re active and your Instagram account is alive. Moreover, promoting your Instagram by email is a savvy move.
Figure 2.20. Instagram Strategy for the Long Term
Source: BGH with Instagram information
If you need help with your digital strategy and social networks, at BGH we can help you. Contact us for more information about the best practices of the social media strategy on Instagram.