Tag : instagram how to

Instagram Stories: Snapchat Clone Or Effective Marketing Tool?

7Aug

They say imitation is the sheerest form of flattery, right? Well, Snapchat, prepare to get flattered. Instagram released a new feature to its popular mobile app called Instagram Stories. If that name sounds familiar to you, it’s because Snapchat released a feature called Stories not too long ago. Both of these tools do almost precisely the same thing. They allow users to see a series of photos or videos, equipped with all sorts of fun, customizable options, for the time period of 24 hours. After the day is gone, so is your chance to see the content.

This is in the wake of Snapchat’s rise in popularity and it’s projected only to grow in popularity. If Snapchat poses a threat to any platform, it’s Instagram. Yet just because Snapchat thought of this intuitive design first, does that mean Instagram Stories is just a rip-off? It’s actually a slight improvement over the original thanks to a more convenient infrastructure. You can easily access stories on your home page along with a handy “Add” button on the top left. Though it is taking notes from the Snapchat’s original philosophy, and only allowing camera access, as opposed to your photo album. Content needs to happen NOW for it to qualify for Instagram Stories.

This is even further proof of video’s rise in social media. It’s increasingly vital to a successful social media campaign that its marketers incorporate video in some way. Additionally, because we are beginning to see more “time sensitive” features, this leaves a few things to consider.

First, platforms are utilizing the concept of “live” more and more. Because of this transition, each post needs to count and grab your audience’s attention right away. Second, the importance of having a strategy is more crucial than ever. Systems like the two Stories are beneficial tools, however. You could use these glimpses into your brand’s world by offering flash sales as well as content relevant only to the moment.

Social media gurus and marketers need to learn to adapt to these types of upgrades. Already, we are seeing major brands utilizing Instagram’s new feature and promoting their story through other avenues such as their traditional Instagram posts, Twitter, even Snapchat itself. Change and adaptability are cornerstone elements of social media marketing, and the best in the business knows how to make it work in their favor.

What do you think of Instagram Stories? Comment below!

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5 Ways to be an Insta-Pro on Instagram

By Christopher Tompkins

How-To-Be-An-Insta-Pro-on-Instagram-200x300

10Jul

Advertising, Facebook, Instagram, Local Marketing, Social Media, Social networking, Uncategorized

In 2010, one of today’s most popular social media platforms, Instagram, debuted and in no time, it began to catch speed. Now, in 2016, there are over 400 million users. That’s an insane amount of users! While it doesn’t compete with its parent company, Facebook’s 1.6 billion users, the powerful picture-centric platform is becoming a time-tested tool for online marketers.

Throughout it’s run, we have seen a few changes in its infrastructure. For one thing, its algorithm now follows similar rules to Facebook and Twitter, which presents posts not in a time-linear fashion, but rather in an order the website thinks you will like. As we posted on our blog yesterday, there are many ways marketers can use algorithms to their advantage. Another major change was an aesthetic shift earlier in the year. Their iconic logo changed to something well, less iconic. Yet their layout did become more sleek and in theory, more user-friendly. Yet regardless of the changes, there have always been some constants to Instagram and helpful tactics in which users can promote their content effectively. Here are the top 5 ways we have found to be the most useful:

Share videos- Yes, Instagram started off as a photo-exclusive website but they have recently become aware of the effectivity of video. Between Vine, Snapchat, Facebook Live, and Periscope, video is starting to rock the house. So, Instagram allows users to create and share 15-second videos. For those unfamiliar with social media video trends, 15 seconds is actually a substantial amount of time. Every second counts in these short quips and you should dazzle them up with apps like Ripl and Pic Play Post.
Picture moderation- Those sepia and black and white filters are very cute, but don’t overuse them. Moderation is key when trying to make them snazzy, but you should also be aware of your subject matter’s balance. Like all social media marketing, there should an even flow of interesting posts and sales-oriented content.
Connect with Facebook- Instagram wasn’t always owned by social media giant Facebook. However, marketers can use their partnership to their advantage by syncing your contacts so all those Facebook followers of yours can see your Instagram content when they follow you!
Optimization- Don’t forget to fill out your profile information! We can’t tell you how many profiles we see that are lacking essential elements such as website addresses and other contact information. When uploading external documents, you will want to ensure they are the right size and the essential elements do not get cropped out when published.
It’s recommended to post a max of 3 times a day. Quality, and high-engaging posts are the most important for Instagram, especially after their new algorithm has been implemented. You will want to be sure your followers “turn on notifications” for your profile and comment on a few things as well. That way you will stay at the forefront of your account.

Instagram is a powerful tool, especially if your business has some form of visual quality to it. We do not mean it is exclusive to artists, but rather any business that can demonstrate their work in a picture and a caption. That’s pretty much most businesses isn’t it?

What are your thoughts on Instagram? Comment below!

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Instagram’s New Ways to Reach Out

By Christopher Tompkins

27Jun

Instagram, Social Media

Instagram has been in the news quite a bit lately. First, they revealed a controversial facelift with a new logo and layout. Whether you love or hate it, you have to admit that it is quite different. Yet after the dust settled from the new logo fiasco, there was another change for the popular social media platform. This update, however, may help businesses reach out to their intended audience better.

With just a dash of Big Brother tactics, Instagram’s new “dynamic ads” deliver advertisements based on what users have already searched for on their smartphone. If a potential customer visited a company’s website earlier in the day, Instagram will remind you of what you saw with ads based around similar products. It also has the ability to show off the same product in different styles. This is a good tactic for businesses to be able to deliver their message to the right audience through a high-traffic avenue.

We’ve seen this kind of advertising before through Google, Facebook, and other websites. Now, Instagram is customizing their experience so you don’t mind those advertisements so much and might actually buy something. It’s all good, as long as you don’t mind them watching what you search for.

Instagram is a powerful tool for the creative and business-minded alike. It offers many tools to jazz up your photographs such as filters, and its reach is growing everyday. When it was first created back in 2010, we wondered how exactly we were supposed to take it seriously. After all, a picture can only do so much, right? Turns out, that Instagram is now becoming one of the more powerful and popular of the platforms, and that is only going to grow as their engineers continue to modify it. Younger internet surfers are attracted to its layout and versatility, and its ability to translate the world around them into something they can share.

For more information about this update, check out PR Daily’s article here: http://ow.ly/mr7k3008OvG

What do you think about dynamic advertising as a consumer? What about as a businessperson?

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Nine Reasons Why Your Brand Should Be on Instagram…Like Now!

By Christopher Tompkins

12Jan

Instagram, Uncategorized

If your company is not active on Instagram, then today is the day that you need to reconsider your decision!

Current Instagram users can experience a plethora of positive outcomes for their business – many of which you may be surprised to hear about.

To start off, let me tell you just a little bit about Instagram as a company and platform. Instagram is an online social network focused on sharing photos and videos as well as networking. While you can access it on a desktop/laptop computer, this is utilized best as a mobile platform. The network was launched in 2010 and, due to exponential growth and popularity, was purchased by Facebook in 2012. Currently you can access the Instagram application on iOS and Android only (about a 50/50 split). Lastly, it is always somewhere in the top 10 of popular smart phone application downloads.

Now, why should you be using it? Try these 9 reasons on for size:

1. Telling Your Visual Story: Visuals on social media (generated as images or videos) are proven to be more engaging then straight text posts. About 65% more in fact. Using visuals to acquaint your audience with your company and brand is a slam dunk when it comes to engagement.

2. Your Competition is Using Instagram: Don’t believe me? Let’s check the numbers. 93% of prestige brands use Instagram. 25% of the Fortune 500 use Instagram. Add to this the fact that brands post on Instagram an average of 6 times per week (so they are engaging on a consistent basis with the site). Plus – all of these numbers are growing!

3. It’s Growing Fast! Currently at the time of writing this, there are 300 million active users and 57% of these users visit the site everyday. In fact, there are 60 million photos per day, 1.6 billion likes per day, and the average user spends 257 minutes per month on the site. And all of these numbers are growing as well!

4. Outstanding Engagement: Did you know that Instagram posts get 15 times more engagement than Facebook Page posts? Need I say more?

5. Multiplatform Access: Instagram promotes you sharing your pictures and videos on other sites, and makes it easy to do so! This makes it easy to create useful, engaging content across the platforms that you use!

6. A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words: Emotionally connecting with your audience using a visual is priceless. In fact, it is much easier to emotionally connect with a visual than a well-worded post with the same sentiment. Don’t believe me? Try it for yourself and check out the results!

7. Build Trust: By showing more about your company, products, services, and connecting with your audience in a visual way you are able to build that all needed trust with your audience. Having a tough time in the court of public opinion? Instagram is a great way to rehab a poor public image.

8. Free Traffic: With such a high level of engagement, add your customer links to your pictures, videos and profile – then watch your website traffic soar!

9. Build Visibility: Is your Instagram content getting lots of views and engagement? Then guess what? You are building your visibility! Oh yea….for free!

So what are you waiting for? Create your Instagram account today and get started! There is no time like the present and don’t feel like it is too late to get started. The time is now.

Also – don’t forget to check out our Instagram webinar available on-demand in our video classroom.

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