With Instagram announcing in June that its online community now has 500 million active monthly users, 60% of whom use the app every single day, it’s high time that your business started speaking ‘insta’ in order to drive sales, gather leads and increase your brand exposure.
Instagram for Business
You might already be using Instagram to share pretty pictures of your product, service, or the people that work within your business. Throw in a selfie here and a hashtag there, and you’re on your way to Insta domination, right? Wrong! #epicfail
Think: Understand Your Objectives
When building a business presence in the land of social media, it’s important to remember that aimless use of any social network is a complete waste of time and resources if not managed correctly—and Instagram is no exception. Every strategy is only as effective as the goals it was designed to achieve. So, with social media, you need to know what you’re aiming for.
You may be setting out to:
– increase brand awareness;
– drive sales;
– showcase your range of products or services;
– drive customer engagement;
– generate business leads, or
– direct traffic to your website or Facebook page.
It’s important to know the ‘why’, before you launch into the ‘how’ and ‘when’. Having a clear understanding of your business goals and objectives, as well as who your target audience is, will ensure you’re able to develop a meaningful content plan and start kicking some serious #instagoals!
Plan: Develop a Solid Content Strategy
Content is a crucial part of your Instagram strategy. The type of images, videos and accompanying words you post, should be largely influenced by your business goals and objectives. Everything that your share on Instagram must compliment your business plan – this is how you attract the right followers, and by ‘right followers’, we mean people who are likely to have an interest in your brand, be motivated to engage with you online, and ultimately spend their money with you.
Create clear guidelines in your content plan regarding the style, flow, and publishing of your posts. This is important in order to ensure consistency and proper ongoing management, not just a post for the sake of posting.
Your content plan should include:
– the themes/sub-themes you want to cover;
– who the target audience is you want to reach;
– the type of post and whether it will be a new static image, regram or video;
– scheduling (date, time and frequency);
– keywords and hashtags to use to help amplify your message;
– design considerations, such as which filters, effects and overlays will be applied; and
– who the post is assigned to, if not yourself. Who will be responsible for monitoring and responding to comments.
Deliver: Provide Ongoing Value
It can be daunting coming up with new posts and engaging content time and time again. A content plan definitely helps, but there is no denying that ongoing time and effort is needed to support your business presence on social media.
This is where many businesses can start to fall down. Missing a post here or there, or perhaps regramming other people’s images, more than curating their own original content. #alarmbells. Your goal should be to continually nurture your online community. This is so that it will grow, becoming more educated, inspired, motivated, entertained, and ultimately deliver back to you what you need it to.
If you are not a savvy social media user, up-skill today or delegate your social media account to someone in your team who knows what they’re doing. Someone who can deliver on your goals and objectives. It may even be time for you to outsource your social media marketing. Choose a business that has some ‘insta credentials’, like Puzzle Media.
The #instawrap
Don’t let your message be just another post that’s flicked past while your target audience is scrolling down their Instagram feed. Your content needs to demand attention and interrupt the ‘flick fest’ for the right reasons! Let your community into your word, and stay away from the ‘big sell’ where possible. It’s all about taking your community on a journey, to trust you, like you, follow you, engage with you and ultimately be a customer and ambassador for life! #winning
