Instagram & Your Brand

Instagram is an amazing way to get your brand out to your customers and potential customers. While there are dozens of components that make up your brand, Instagram hones in on two of the biggest over-arching aspects: visuals and messaging. Instagram boils down to the picture/graphic/video and the caption you create for it. It is a distilled and simple way to get your business branding out in short and easy bursts. 

Because of the small chunks that are Instagram posts, they tend to be short lived, which means the best practice for Instagram is to post 5-7 days a week. This ensures that you are being seen by your audience — That’s a lot of posts! And that doesn’t include the time you spend engaging with other Instagram users. Remember it’s social media and you’re meant to be interacting with others. 

With Instagram posts being so short lived, how do you drive traffic to where you really want your customers going? Do you want them to check out your website, online store, or blog? It’s important to remember that on Instagram, images are more important than words. People scroll through their feeds and stories at a rapid pace and there needs to be something to grab them and entice them to read your call to action. 

There are some best practices to follow to help get people stopping on your Instagram. 

First, posts with people get far more engagement than posts that don’t. And not just any people — you, your clients, your community. Stock photos are a great filler and are totally necessary sometimes, but they don’t get the same engagement as photos of you and your crew. If you are using stock photography, think of ways you can make it uniquely yours so that you don’t see the EXACT same image pop up on a competitors feed a few days later.

Second, create variety in your grid. What product are you selling and how can you mix it up? Check out the Coca-Cola Instagram @cocacola They do a fabulous job with their grid creating a cohesive on-brand look but tons of variety. There are very few pictures that are a can or bottle of Coke. They use graphics, typography and quotes to create show-stopping imagery that gets their values out to their customers. How many times can people look your product over and over again before you lose engagement? I often think of lash bars as an example where social media grids are just filled with eyeballs. What could be shifted or changed to create a more engaging Instagram grid?

Is your Instagram authentic? Is it on-brand? Social media is a really interesting space for businesses because customers are looking to connect with real people behind the company. It’s important to be authentic to create genuine interest and buy-in. A phenomenal example is Wendy’s @wendys They’ve become known for their savage social media replies, especially on Twitter, but Instagram too. People engage with the Wendy’s brand because they’re curious the response. That being said, Wendy’s has consciously chosen this direction and sticks with it. Does this approach make sense for every brand? Definitely not. Figure out what you’re willing to share personally on your business account if you’re an entrepreneur or think about keeping business and personal separate. There is no one-size-fits-all for the work/personal balance on Instagram. Take some time to think about who your target audience is and what they’re looking for from social media.

Instagram continuous grids are another way to create engagement and are one of the best ways to drive traffic to your profile page. Once people are on your profile page it’s easier to drive them wherever it is you want them to go (website, online store, blog, etc). Because the grid is like a puzzle and posts connect with their neighbours, it leaves your followers wondering “what’s next?” or even “what did I miss?” and has them going to your profile to scroll through the whole thing. This doesn’t happen with one-off posts. When you curate your Instagram grid it shows your customers that you care about the message and visuals you are putting out, which reflects positively on your product or service. It gives your profile one solid message and point of view so your audience can understand you at a glance. And honestly? It’s really cool to look at. Think about having a tapestry that people scroll through and look at all the details, engaging with your content on an even deeper level.

Your business needs to be on Instagram. 500 million people use Instagram a day across all ages. Millenials are engaged on it, Gen-Z is on Instagram (Gen-Z has basically abandoned Facebook) and 29% of users are over the age of 35 - a healthy amount of Gen-X and older. Posts receive more engagement on Instagram than on Facebook, and while there’s still an algorithm to figure out, Facebook is almost entirely pay-to-play. Make 2020 the year you put your business out there and start connecting with fabulous clients and other entrepreneurs. 

What are your favourite Instagram strategies? Where are you finding the most success?