Instagram Provides a Huge Marketing Opportunity!
Instagram is one of the fastest growing social media networks with over 150 million users, and currently gaining a new user every second!
There's been over 16 billion photos shared with 1 billion likes happening daily!
Instagram can help re-enforce your brand image and you can even put a link to your website on your instagram page. We live in visual world, and connecting visually with your audience is a great way to market your business. Images appeal and resonate with consumers because of the emotion that it is associated with, not to mention the ability to speak across cultures — There's no language barrier here!
So How Should You Go About Deciding What Photos To Post?
It's safe to say that if all you upload are team member pictures or people working, things could get pretty repetitive and no one's going to really care about your photos, so you need to get a little creative with what you post.
For instance, If you're a vacation rentals company in Miami, FL. (Let's call this company, "Miami Getaways"), you'll want to post pictures of all there is to do around there. If the weather's nice out, go snap some sweet beach photos.
Go even farther and post pictures of any events going on around there — Concerts, festivals, surf contests, ect. If the weather is looking bright and sunny for the upcoming weekend, post a picture of the weather forecast.
Your goal here isn't to directly promote your business in your audiences' eyes. What you're trying to do is get them convinced that the NEED to come visit Miami.
However, it would be smart to throw in some pictures of your rental options from time to time. Show them pictures of your rentals, both inside and out. Take a picture from the balcony and let them see the view they're missing out on.
Don't forget to post some "ad pictures" as well that list current deals or upcoming specials. Make sure you still keep these "eye-catching" as well. You don't want just plain text. Make sure it's pretty to look at, after all, that's why they get on Instagram.
Once you've "talked them into coming to visit Miami", they'll be more likely to remember Miami Getaways as cool place to stay when they come visit.
Reaching a Wider Audience
Hashtags
Instagram is one of those platforms that utilizes "Hashtags". You've probably seen tons of these popping up on your social news feeds lately. Hashtags allow you to tag words or phrases to your posts, or in this case photos.
These tags are searchable and can be seen by anyone whether they are following you or not.
So in the instance of our "Miami Getaways" company, If spring break is coming up or your posting photos of current spring break shenanigans, you'd want to add a #springbreak hashtag. That's definitely going to be one of the trending hashtags during the weeks leading up to and during spring break. People are going to be looking at photos with that #springbreak hashtag, so it has potential to lead to many more followers and likes.
Contests
Instagram is a great way to promote deals and contests.
In our "Miami Getaways" example, you could hold contests before or during those busy seasons.
A few examples:
-Write a caption for this photo in the comments. The best caption wins a free night stay.
-Upload a photo with the hashtag #MiamiGetaways2014. The photo that receives the most likes will get upgraded to our pent suite.
The main thing to remember here to to get creative with what and how you post. Show your audience who you are as a company and actively engage with your followers.
Need some help creating some eye-catching ads or help developing your social strategy? Contact us to get your instagram feed on a roll!