Ready to Jump on the Instagram Bandwagon? Expert Tips to Help You Succeed

If you are marketing for a visual-heavy industry, like travel, food and beverage, or the arts, or any brand that targets millennials, you can’t afford to ignore the latest force to join the social media leviathan line-up. While relatively new when compared to Facebook (which purchased Instagram in 2012), Twitter, and Pinterest, Instagram has risen to prominence rapidly – and I mean Bugatti Chiron 261+ mph-type fast.

From its inception in 2010, the network today captivates one-third of all internet users. And, its 2017 forecasted global mobile ad revenue? $2.81 billion!

It is also, right now, a gold mine for brands that target millennials. 90% of users are under 35.

BrightEdge CEO and digital marketing expert Jim Yu describes Instagram as a perfect complement to Facebook, specifically for mobile engagement. This is because it is so well integrated to Facebook and has, in many ways, become Facebook’s creative little sister. Cultivating a strong presence for your brand through the biggest social media site’s cooler younger sibling may not be a bad idea. With its premium Zuckerberg ownership, we can count on Facebook channeling its penchant for efficient innovation through this highly popular medium.

Ready to start creating your fantastic Instagram marketing campaigns? Here are the expert tips that you can use to inspire your strategies.

Use Instagram to Compel

President of Ignite Social Media, Jim Tobin, explains that one of the best ways to use Instagram is to motivate others to want to use a client’s product by seeing it being used in a compelling way. When people can see how amazing/thrilling/soothing/fun a product can be in a stunning Instagram image, they are able to envision themselves using the product and having a good time. They can visualize the value they will derive from the product.

Tentsile, a company that sells tree tents coined as ‘portable treehouses,’ is an excellent example of the power of compelling visuals. See for yourself – who wouldn’t want to ponder the universe perched above the ground in their very own tent treehouse?

Use Hashtags to Define Your Brand on Instagram

Instagram marketing expert, Jenn Herman, uses this site to build the we’re-all-human bridge between brands and consumers. It’s a place to ‘connect more intimately’. In order to do that, you need to define your brand’s personality on the network, which can be done eloquently and effectively with the hashtag. Doing this will help your audience identify what you’re all about and show that your brand shares their interests.

Instagram hashtags aren’t just about keywords. It’s about expressing commonality with your audience. This does take some research, tracking what your buyers are talking about on social media, researching trending hashtags at the moment, and evaluating what works, what doesn’t, and why.

Herman has shared her secret Instagram hashtag formula to get the most brand building traction:

• Use a total of 15-20 hashtags in a post
• 4-5 should be popular, generic terms like #digitalmarketing, #startup, #videos
• 5-7 should be moderately targeted to your brand or industry
• 2-5 should be niche specific, these are the target keywords your audience is searching for
• 1-2 are specific to your brand

Tell a Story with Your Images

Bianca Cheah, Founder and Managing Director of Sporteluxe, a popular lifestyle blog, advocates using Instagram to tell your brand’s story in order to relate to potential buyers. “I always tell a story through my images and make the image as relatable to the viewer as possible. There’s a fine line between being too inspirational, where it becomes out of reach, and then being on a level where viewers feel like you’re one of them.”

There are lots of ways to launch powerful visual storytelling on Instagram.

• Use your audience to tell your brand’s story by encouraging user-generated content. This is perfect for travel and tourism and fashion and beauty brands.
• Post images of your team at work to give your audience a glimpse into the inner workings of your agency. This works well for B2B marketing.
• For nonprofits, posting visuals that tell the story of the difference their organization makes is really effective. CharityWater does this well, showing images of the people who are directly helped or of their volunteers and staff in action.

Be Consistent

To be effective and digestible to your audience, be consistent in terms of style and timing. The best way to help your buyers recognize your brand is to create a cohesive presence that they can come to expect, like their morning cup of coffee with caramel syrup and a splash of coconut milk.

Make sure your images fit seamlessly with your brand. If you are clean and minimalistic on your website, use the same style on your Instagram account. Is your brand lighthearted and colorful? Then be quirky and eye-catching on Instagram. Have you been posting pictures using a particular filter that makes your brand really shine out? Keep using it.

Second, stick to a consistent posting schedule. This doesn’t mean over posting. In fact, posting too much is one of the biggest Instagram mistakes you can make. Two to three posts a day is a standard that many brands use for successful social media marketing, but be flexible and use what works for your brand.

These expert tips can guide you as your create your brilliant marketing campaigns on Instagram. This social media site is an effective tool that you can use to build your brand, and is essential if you are marketing to a younger audience. Instagram is growing faster than social media networks in general and is expected to continue getting bigger, especially as sites like Twitter and Facebook begin to feel more ‘aged’ to our very trend-driven digital world.

Right now, Instagram is still young, which means it has a lot of room to grow. Jump on the Instagram bandwagon now so you can take advantage of the power of visual marketing and serious social media engagement for your brand.

Image Credit: pixabay