Showing posts with label Instagram. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Instagram. Show all posts

4.2.21

10 INSTAGRAM GROWTH STRATEGIES

Instagram is a great place for your brand to be. Why? Because you can easily develop your brand and spread your reach. It can be scary not knowing how to make your page great and attract more followers. But the truth is, using Instagram in an effective way is pretty easy. Check out these ten Instagram growth strategies to up your Instagram game.

1. OPTIMIZE YOUR PROFILE.

Optimizing your profile involves more than just having a fun profile picture. Your profile is the place people go to to get a feel for your brand, so it needs to strongly represent you! First things first, your profile picture should have your logo in it and your account name should be your brand. Next, make sure that your description includes a link to your website. If people are interested, they will want to see your website so make it easy for them. Lastly, put your slogan in your bio or write some fun sentences about your company that will draw people in. Remember, Instagram isn’t Linkedin, it’s more of a laid back, social app.

2. POST CONSISTENTLY

Let’s say people go to your profile and like what they see so they follow you, and you don’t post for the next two weeks. By the time you post again they will have lost interest. Let’s say instead you post four times in the two weeks prior to when they follow you and then don’t post for a month. Once again you will lose their interest and lose them as a follower. So, post consistently. Try to post two or three times a week. There is such a thing as overdoing it. If you post too often, people will get annoyed because they only see you in their feed and will stop liking your posts and eventually unfollow you.Find a balance and stick to it.

3. MAKE WEEKLY POST CATEGORIES

Every Wednesday at Colibri we post a Wednesday #WomanPower post on Instagram about a woman who inspires us. Posts like these keep followers looking forward to next week’s post and therefore they stick around. Here are some ideas to inspire a weekly post for you: If you are an influencer who focuses on clothing, you could do #ThriftyThursday where you post your favorite thrift store and thrift finds or upcycling tips on Thursday. Are you an interior design brand? On Fridays post your favorite #CoffeeTableRead.

4. ENGAGE WITH YOUR AUDIENCE

Engagement from your followers is super important. It helps build a following and means you have loyal customers. But how do you get engagement? Start engaging! Ask your followers to comment about something in the comments of a post, or to tag someone who inspires them on a Wednesday #WomanPower post. Shout out your followers in posts, respond to their DMs and comments or repost or comment on their posts about your brand. That way, your followers will want to engage with you because they know you will respond.

5. POST PERSONAL AND CLEAR IMAGES

If you always post stock photos, you won’t get likes. Your followers won’t trust you and will eventually unfollow you. People want to see into your brand so you need to post personal and real photos. Try to post clear and aesthetically pleasing images as well. Keeping to a certain color scheme and style that matches your brand is a good way to make your feed appealing while staying on brand.

6. MAKE FUN STORIES AND USE THEM CONSISTENTLY

Stories help keep your followers engaged and are a fun way to connect. Try making stories where you do polls or show the behind the scenes at work. Stories are not only fun to look at, but they are also fun to make. Get creative with it! Don’t be afraid to use filters and stickers. Use your stories to promote new posts or new blogs on your website.

7. DON’T BE AFRAID OF INSTAGRAM TV

Instagram TV can seem scary because it is live. Here are a few tips to make it easier:

  • The first few times you use Instagram TV, record your video first. The videos don’t actually have to be live!
  • Do an interview and ask your followers for questions. This way you can engage with your followers and won’t run out of questions.
  • If you own a warehouse or studio, show a behind the scenes of your space. You can also engage with you followers by asking them to guess what certain machines are, see if anyone has used them, etc.

8. MAKE YOUR CAPTIONS INTERESTING

Writing captions is the hardest part of Instagram for me. After writing and deleting tons of captions, I usually go with what I first wrote, so my advice is to trust your gut and don’t be afraid to make some jokes! If people are intrigued by your photo they will read your caption. You want your caption to satisfy their interest and encourage them to comment so make sure your captions are compelling.

9. TAKEOVERS

Takeovers are when brands partner with influencers or other brands and post in each other stories for a day. This is a great way to give your followers fresh new content while also being introduced to new potential followers. In your takeovers you can show behind the scenes from your office, what a day in your life looks like, etc. Have fun and get creative with takeovers.

10. USE HASHTAGS

Although hashtags may seem old school, they do so much for your brand on Instagram, so use them! They help people find you and introduce you to new followers. Make sure you use a consistent set of hashtags to describe your brand as well as more detailed ones to match the theme of your post. This way people will find you through a variety of searches. You are allowed to use up to 30 hashtags but using between 5–11 is best. A lot of people put their hashtags a few lines below their caption so that it’s easier to understand. To do this they put a period in every line to create space and then put their hashtags.

TAKEAWAY

Instagram is an app that you can really get creative and have fun with, so don’t be afraid of it. If you follow these Instagram growth strategies and adapt them to your brand, your Instagram presence and following will improve. The most important part is that you keep up all these new practices. Make a plan that is sustainable for your brand and stick with it. Now go and have some fun growing your Instagram

2.12.20

How to Get the Most From Instagram for Your Brand

 Fearing to be left behind in the social media race, the vast majority of brands have ventured into social media space with little strategic thought or understanding of how to get the most out of their platforms. Many brands are using their pages as avenues to run short-term behaviour and reward activities which may harm brand value in the long term by teaching already loyal consumers to become sensitive to sales promotions (Kotler & Lee, 2008; Schultz & Block, 2012; Gambetti & Graffigna, 2010; Nelson-Field et al., 2012; Romaniuk, 2011).

How Brands Can Portray Authenticity on Instagram

1. Use ‘authentic’ cues

2. Personify the brand

3. Telling a lifestyle story

4. Using consumer-generated content

Summary: How to get the most from Instagram for your brand

5 Powerful Instagram Lessons

Virtual influencers are a growing trend now. Miquela and her creators are doing a fantastic job when it comes to developing storytelling and connecting to the audience. Marketers, influencers, and businesses have much to learn from her. From creating an excellent bio to selling a product, Miquela knows how to use her social media.
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Create a Good Bio

The bio is the first thing we see when we find a profile on Instagram. It is like the introduction of a text — it needs to make the user curious enough to scroll down and keep consuming your content. It’s the only opportunity to make an excellent first impression.

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  • What to write on the bio: She uses the bio to reinforce her values through the #BlackLivesMatter movement and to communicate that she supports @plus1org and @musicares.
  • The power of links: Miquela announces that her single, “Hard Feelings,” is out. She has a compelling call-to-action, followed by a link at the end that directs followers to platforms in which they can listen to the music.
  • Personality: “Change-seeking robot” demonstrates her uniqueness. She is a robot, and this makes her authentic. Miquela uses it to build her storytelling. She’s not a regular robot: she’s a robot on social media. At the same time, she’s not a typical influencer either, because she’s not human.

How to Sell

Miquela is not only a virtual influencer, but she is also a singer. Her account on Spotify has almost one million monthly listeners.

Repetition

The most substantial aspect of Miquela’s promotion is repetition.

  • Multiple posts: Since July 25, every single post on her feed references her song, “Hard Feelings.” That’s so far 22 pictures and videos, only on her feed.

Using multiple features

By promoting the song in different features, it’s simple to use the repetition strategy.

  • She uses multiple videos and pictures on the feed.
  • Her strategy includes both stories and story highlights.

Storytelling

Whenever Miquela releases a new single, she develops a story behind it.

Story Highlights

Let’s analyze Miquela’s story highlights:

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  • Titles: The titles of the highlights are in caps lock, which makes it easier to read. Besides, they are short — each of them in only one word since there’s little space there.
  • Music: All highlights refer to Miquela’s music. She heavily uses this feature to promote her work.
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  • Music: Miquela added her song to the “music” feature that’s available.
  • Icons: At the bottom, there’s the “swipe up” icon. This feature is a part of Miquela’s informal language, and this one is a clear call-to-action.

Adjust the Language to the Audience

This advice is as old as social media, but still overlooked by content producers: speak the audience’s language.

Captions

Miquela writes captions to every single post. She uses them to promote her sings — as seen before — and to connect with the audience.

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  • Emojis: She uses emojis at the end of the text.
  • Extended words: “Byyeeeee.”

Comments

The comments section is also essential for Miquela’s interaction with the audience. The picture below is a video in which she provides a sneak peek of her latest song, “Hard Feelings”:

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Miquela’s post on Instagram. Screenshot courtesy of the author.
  • Language: The style of the comment is remarkably similar to the caption. She maintains the same form of communication.
  • Emojis and abbreviations: Both elements present in the comment that make it informal.

Videos

Instead of long IGTV videos, Miquela focuses on short videos on her feed.

  • By making short videos, she gets the message across more directly.
  • Short videos are more engaging because they are faster to watch.
  • It keeps communication informal.

Other Features

Instagram is a platform with multiple features. Besides the ones mentioned previously, here’s how Miquela uses IGTV, location, and stories.

IGTV

IGTV is the least used feature in Miquela’s strategy.

  • Focus: Miquela uses most of Instagram features. The fact that she doesn’t use IGTV too much doesn’t matter, because she has plenty of good content for the other features, such as highlights and the feed.

Location

Miquela always uses exciting locations for the posts on her feed.

Stories

Stories are another Instagram feature that Miquela uses well. For the everyday stories, not the highlights, here are the different uses:

  • Reposting: Miquela often shares pictures from fans listening to her music.
  • Mixed content: both videos and pictures.

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