With Instagram being the most important social network according to American teenagers, taking the “king of social engagement” seriously can open up a world of opportunities for brands.
Compared to Facebook and Twitter with sad averages of 0.07% and 0.03% user interactions, Instagram leaves all its competitors behind, creating 4.21% of user interactions with brand’s posts. Instagram also delivers 120 times more engagement per percent than Twitter, making it no longer just a platform to see what celebrities wear and follow your favorite restaurants. Instagram has become a remarkable tool for companies to make use of in order to engage their audience and market their brand!
And here are 7 tips on how this can be done:
#1 Post Content That Attracts Followers
Instagram does a great job at directing traffic and turning sales if your posts are attention-grabbing and unique! 48 percent of Instagram users in 2015reported that they follow brands on the social network to be entertained by humorous lighthearted images and posts, so try to inspire potential customers by posting creative content that people are interested in following. Additionally,Instagrammers were found to oftentimes follow brands for the perks and giveaways, so offering promotions can be a great way to attract new customers!
#2 Interact With Followers
Thank followers for leaving comments to increase engagement and create loyal customers! You can also create tags to reach a larger audience and attract new followers using comments such as “Tag someone who this makes you think of”. This way, you engage your existing customer base and make new people who were tagged in the picture become aware of the brand.
#3 Post Frequently
In order to generate the highest customer engagement and keep followers interested, frequent posts are key! Scheduling Instagram posts enables businesses to pre-plan and execute posts more effortlessly. With Instagram being such a fast moving network, posting two or more times per day would be ideal! So in this case, quantity is just as important as quality… To create enough content for followers, repurposing content from other relevant Instagram accounts is a great solution – Just do not forget to credit the original source!
#4 Avoid Being Overly Promotional
When posting Instagram content as a brand, it is of essence to be inspirational and not too commercial. Keeping posts interesting and entertaining can boost follower counts by making potential customers smirk or even laugh through charismatic images and captions. Hence, avoid being overly promotional when creating Instagram content.
#5 Convert Followers Into Subscribers
Including a link in the bio of your Instagram profile will help boost traffic to your website and convert Instagrammers to visitors. This memorable call-to-action URL is a very simple trick for companies to convert their Instagram followers to real customers! This important driver turns 15,000-30,000 followers into Foundr subscribers each month, which can work just as well for other companies.
#6 Make The Most Of Hashtags
Brand campaign specific hashtags are great for marketing your business! Create interactive hashtags that customers can use to tag photos of them with the product they recently purchased. So every time someone posts a picture using this hashtag, all their followers will be exposed to your company… There really is no cheaper and easier way to advertise your products!
#7 Work With Social Media Influencers
There are many benefits of using influencer marketing, especially when aiming at promoting your brand. Working with popular Instagrammers can be extremely powerful in raising brand awareness, boost sales and track results. Especially for new product launches, using influencers can be a more effective way to promote new products compared to traditional ads, and a less expensive option to promote events compared to PR.