Insta Connect on Instagram

Insta What??

Instagram is a mobile app used to share photos and short videos. The social network is owned by Facebook and allows users to upload and edit photos and videos for others to see. The network also incorporates the use of #hashtags that are searchable for people to tag their photos and add descriptions. The site/app has over 400 million active monthly users that share an average of 80 million posts per day. That's a lot of pictures! So, what kinds of pictures are people and businesses sharing? You can pretty much find a picture of anything on Instagram. Looking for celebrity posts and news, got it. Looking for food pictures and recipes, got it. Looking for new fashion trends, got it. With 80 million posts each day, there is bound to be something to spark everyone's interests. 

So how do businesses get started?

Signing up is pretty simple, all you need to do is download the app and enter an email address or Facebook account to connect to. If you connect to a Facebook account all of your information will be populated for you. You then have the option to choose your username and profile picture, add a website, and a short bio about your company. That's it! Then you are ready to start following other people and businesses and you can start posting your own images.

But, what should you be posting?

Well, that depends on your goals. Are you trying to:

• Increase sales
• Increase traffic to your website
• Increase brand awareness
• Increase branded hashtag mentions

According to Evan LePage, each of these goals will lead you to a different Instagram strategy. Along with goals, businesses also need to decide how often to post, what time of day, who will control the account, what content will be shared, and what content themes will be used. Most well known brands post anywhere from 1 to 10 per day. The number of posts and time of posting vary by business. It all comes down to knowing when your target audience is on the site.

Content is King

Deciding what content to post is easy for some industries and difficult for others. Restaurants, chefs, fashion companies, car dealers. These are all industries that make it easy to identify what will be posted on their Instagram accounts. But what about companies that sell household goods or even companies that don't sell any goods, only services? How do they connect with their followers? One way is through lifestyle content. Showing how ordinary people use your products. Instead of just snapping a picture of their latest style of bag, fashion brand Vera Bradley uses lifestyle content to show how real people use their products. This allows followers to connect to your brand and in this case picture themselves actually at the beach using your products.

Another way that companies can connect to followers is through user-generated content. So a follower shares a picture of your product, you can then Regram their photo for all of your followers to see. One brand that is consistently doing this is Starbucks. Below are two recent posts from Starbucks' Instagram account. The first is their own original content, the second is a Regram from one of their followers. As you can see, both of these images highlight the product, showcasing the beauty of the coffee and also the surrounds in which it is going to be enjoyed. Whether it is Starbucks content or a Regram, the images posted always give you the same feeling and that is key.

Both of these examples show how to increase brand awareness, increase hashtags, and drive consumers to your website, but what about directly impacting sales?

 How to sell on Instagram?
There are a few different ways that companies can increase sales by using Instagram. An obvious choice would be to captures people's attention with your posts and in the description of the post point them to your website for more information about the product. The Vera Bradley post above is a good example of that. But what about consumers who don't want to leave Instagram? A new trend is emerging with online shops and boutiques to cater to these consumers. More and more shops are allowing their followers to simply comment on a post with their email address to receive a link to purchase the item(s) pictured. To the left is an example from justlexboutique. Followers have the option to visit her boutique site from the link on her main Instagram page or they can simply comment on her posts to receive a link to buy the product. What could be easier?!

Instagram is becoming increasingly popular because it allows brands to showcase their products/services in a way that allows followers to really get to know the brand. Instagram allows businesses to show their personality and how they impact consumers. The trick is making your Instagram posts stand out from the crowd, so that consumers slow down and look at your content. Using the same set of filters in all of your posts and consistent hashtags is one way to build up your brand identity on Instagram and allow consumers to easily recognize your posts. Brands should also engage with consumers. Respond to comments on your posts and post comments on other brands/individuals that you follow. Don't just blindly post and not keep track of what people are saying about your brand.