The use of Instagram content by various organizations and their brands has skyrocketed in the past few years. This is thanks to the millions of users on this platform who make Instagram an important marketing arsenal.
In the beginning, it didn’t seem to be of great value for the marketing world. Today, however, Instagram is the perfect platform for businesses to reach out to their audiences, existing and new, in a way their audience is willing to be marketed. With short messages unraveling the exquisite visuals, it is absolutely imperative to use it in your marketing strategy.
Why use Instagram for visuals over other platforms?
With Instagram putting visual content before anything, it becomes a powerful tool to deliver your visual messages to a wider audience. To give you more clarity, let’s take Facebook for example. It sure does give you a room to play with your images but the moment you are to describe it, the text goes first followed by the image. It is at that point in time that the viewer will be considering the text over the picture before they like it. The picture seems more like a supporting tool to the text.
Twitter is an amazing platform for getting your brand noticed by various users all around the world, within a matter of seconds. However, it will give you a tough time when it comes to uploading the picture. Firstly, it will raid on your character limit, which is already very limited before the picture becomes a part of it. Secondly, it will automatically resize the image if the dimensions or ratios are not seemingly fitting.
Visual assets are a real catch for communicating with your followers. Their rightful placement and how they are reaching to the audience is of utmost importance. This is where a no-hassle, easy-to-use Instagram comes in. Instagram is quite simple to use in this manner because it is all about the visuals. Its main aim is to create a pull-factor for the user with the help of visuals. This is the reason why it creates no hassle for you when it comes to uploading the image or limiting you to any proportion.
It does not mean that you are to ignore the rest of the channels as they have their own commanding role to play in your marketing strategy. With visuals becoming a part of top-notch marketing strategy for exciting brands, Instagram simply wins over then in this regard.
Generating the Content that Matters
Now that you know the importance of Instagram content, the next step is to ensure the content that you generate is loved by your audience and it makes them feel connected and enthusiastic about your content. Here are few magic tricks to get amazing results with Instagram.
#1. Partnering with a good Cause
Brands today are jumping over limits in inventive ways to make their followers love them. Sometimes they plan an entire campaign or a community with the use of hashtags in supporting a cause that matters to their followers and in line with the brand’s values. Over 90% of Americans trust brands that support a social cause. The concept is called ‘Cause Marketing’. Since a picture can speak a thousand words, show your support by backing a cause. A bonus tip here is to be on the lookout for the causes that are trending. Their hashtags will allow you to get new followers as well.
#2. Empathizing with the followers
It is a great idea to get into the heads of your followers and think exactly like they do to find out what you can do better for them. So figure out why they are there and then get to work. Say you’re a sports brand and there’s a 10-mile marathon going on. So what you start posting pictures and news as collected from the history of the marathon? Sounds like a good idea but is it relevant? Think about it. What you can really do is put up a catchy tagline with the runners’ picture at the event and how he can go an extra mile with your sports gear. Don’t make them think like you are sending updates for the event. Sell your brand smartly.
#3. Flaunting the beauty in your brand
Regardless of what your brand is like, it is necessary to let people know your product/service offerings have a value for your customers. How do you go about that? Say you are a company that sells software for a living. You can post about the hardships your team faced while they are at work, what your work environment is like. All of this may sound irrelevant as of now but think about it, when you tag it up with an inventive headline, people will love how you let them explore the human factor in you. For all that goes around behind the scenes, it is to ensure a perfect product/service reaches the customers. Start using a good camera to capture those perfect moments and get your marketing team working.
All of this may sound irrelevant as of now but think about it, when you tag it up with an inventive headline, people will love how you let them explore the human factor in you. For all that goes around behind the scenes, it is to ensure a perfect product/service reaches the customers. Start using a good camera to capture those perfect moments and get your marketing team working.
#4. Building a Community
As hashtags have taken over the world by a storm, they are being utilized in the most effective manners. To begin with, they create a strong sense of togetherness amongst people from various backgrounds. They tend to have some shared interest and passion that are tapped rapidly by marketers. Start a selfie competition for your new product, entitle it with an actionable hashtag and voila! You have just involved your fans and influencers in a fun activity telling them that they matter to you. Nike is really killing it with the community building tactics. Make them your inspiration.
#5. Developing a unique voice to distinguish your brand
While there may be a lot of things that other brands inspire you, just remember that your brand has a unique voice that is original and genuine. Don’t let this uniqueness die no matter what the case for this is what sets you apart. Figure out what you have to offer that no one else has or can. Your product or service may have many competitors and is a routine business for many organizations, sure, but there has to be something that makes you stand out. Tailor your visual style and the unique voice around those factors.
If you haven’t really been successful with Instagram, these tricks might help you in the future as they have helped many big-shot brands achieve degrees of success. So get to work, start snapping photos and don’t miss any opportunity from now onwards because this is what Instagram is all about. Don’t be like those who underutilized it and didn’t see the magic it holds. So start creating powerful stories on Instagram to encourage increased engagement and make the most out of your marketing strategy.
Images: ” Ostersund, Sweden – Feb 5, 2015: Close up of instagram website on a computer screen. Instagram is an online mobile photo-sharing, video-sharing and social networking service. /Shutterstock.com“
____________________________________________________________________________
Tweak Your Biz is a thought leader global publication and online business community. Today, it is part of the Small Biz Trends stable of websites and receives over 300,000 unique views per month. Would you like to write for us?
An outstanding title can increase tweets, Facebook Likes, and visitor traffic by 50% or more. Generate great titles for your articles and blog posts with the Tweak Your Biz Title Generator.
