Tag : instagram

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.

8 Instagram Marketing Ideas to Get the Ball Rollin’

By Christopher Tompkins

12Jan

Instagram, Uncategorized

If you have already been marketing your company on Instagram, I’m sure that by now you have seen the powerful engagement that your posts can get. In many cases (or, let’s be honest, most cases) your engagement is probably way higher than that of your Facebook Page posts.

But…maybe you are missing a couple of tricks.

As everyone wants to be getting the optimum result out of their marketing efforts, I want to share with you 8 Instagram marketing ideas that you can easily work into your campaigns to enhance your engagement and success rate.

Without further ado – let’s jump in!

*Reward Your Followers: Reach out to the people that follow you and engage with your content. Offer them special discounts or even just a thank you. Kind words and outreach like this from a brand can make all the difference in how your new followers will engage with you!

*Showcase Your Products and Services: Instagram is visual, so don’t forget to show your most important asset: your products and services. Show them being used, show their packaging, post how to use videos, answer questions. This is your time – show off! Just make it fun and interesting.

*Highlight Your Creation Process: Do you manufacture your product in a special way? Do you deliver your service in a unique way? Tell the visual story – your audience is interested!

*Show Multiple Uses for Your Product/Service: Illustrate how your product or service can be used in different situations by different users. This will enhance your opportunities of engagement with your audience.

*Let Your Location Be Accessible: What I mean by this is showcase your bricks and mortar store or your offices. Show your staff at work, answering customer calls, packing orders, having clients meetings, at the watercooler. All of this humanizes your brand and sets your audience’s expectations on what your brand really looks like.

*Use Hashtags…The Right Way: Hashtags are very important when it comes to Instagram, just use the right amount. I usually suggest using 4-6 tops, but just make sure that you keep them relevant and use keywords which your target audience will use to locate information similar to what you are posting. Hashtags are a great tool to building your relevant network on Instagram.

*Don’t Forget Video: So many new, and old, Instagram users forget all about the opportunity to post a 15 second video. Don’t forget this! This is a powerful engagement tool and allows you to have the opportunity to speak directly to your audience. Use it wisely and have fun!

*Consistency Holds the Key to Success: I can’t leave this off the list. Make sure that you have a plan in place of how many times that you would like to post per week, when you want to post – and stick to it. Posting ten pictures in a day, then nothing for two months does not a successful campaign make.

These 8 tips are easy for you to integrate into your Instagram approach and will bring you lots of attention in a little amount of time. Remember: have fun and think outside of the box. While this is an extension of traditional marketing, make sure that the content that you are sharing is relevant to the target audience that you are trying to reach!

What’s Right and Wrong? Instagram Do’s and Dont’s

By Christopher Tompkins

12Jan

Instagram, Uncategorized

There is nothing worse than using a new marketing tool to reach more members of your target audience with your message…and then suddenly finding out that you have been barking up the wrong tree the whole time.

As so many of us are new to the game of Instagram for business marketing, there definitely is a learning curve. But add to this the fact that many of us are ALSO new to the game of visual storytelling – and you will see the learning curve get MUCH steeper.

In the interest of helping all of us make better marketing decisions on Instagram, I want to kick off by sharing a quick list of things that you should avoid at all costs on Instagram.

So here we go!

DON’T upload pictures of others (without their permission or tagging)
DON’T randomly like endless pictures of others to try to get visibility
DON’T have massive gaps in your posting times (days, weeks, months)
DON’T forget to respond to those who have commented or sent you a message
DON’T excessively use hashtags
DON’T be negative
DON’T get off message, and post random images that don’t make sense in your feed
DON’T only sell, or promote yourself, your company, and/or your products/services
DON’T use only photos, use videos too

So now that we know what to avoid…bring on what we SHOULD be doing!

DO share your tips, insights and knowledge with others
DO show off new products and services
DO show people using your products and services
DO communicate benefits of your product/service clearly
DO use Instagram advertising to reach a larger audience
DO create and execute contests to increase engagement
DO use the design tools Instagram provides to enhance your visuals

And this list could go on! We’ll stop there for now. Now grab your phone, tap on your Instagram application and get started!

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