Instagram's Emotional Branding appeal in 2016

Instagram is not just a network for digital natives, in 2015 it become mainstream for brands to reach Millennials and create more salient emotional connections with customers, consumers and the public. 

Companies and startups are realizing it's also useful for employee engagement and even recruitment. Did you notice her hair shaped in hearts? See below. 

Instagram users have shared over 30 billion photos to date, and now share an average of 70 million photos per day - Sept, 2015. 

In 2016, it's all been done before in 2015 on Instagram for younger Millennials and iGen. However, in case you are not native to Instagram, I'm going to talk about in this article ways in which you can use Instagram better. 

I've written about Instagram before, in my Guide to Using Instagram for Brands, and 24 Instagram Hacking Tips. 

1- Hashtags# in Comments

Add hashtags # to your comment section to make your article searchable by those, such as location targeting and trending related memes to your topic or image. While the max is 30, try keeping it to 4-7 hashtags in your actual message, and add more to the comment section if needed. 

According to Instagram, users now share an average of 70 million photos per day. This is a high engagement channel, with likely in February 2016, over 430 Million users. 

2- Tag your Brand as a Location 

Who are you with? Brand your image with your website, this is a social mention that will make it obvious who you are. 

 According to eMarketer, by 2019 the Instagram audience will reach 111.6 million Americans, representing 55.8 percent of social networkers, more than one-third of the population and over four in 10 internet users.

3- Embed your Best of IG

Embed your best Instagram posts elsewhere on your blog, LinkedIn Pulse or in the creation of UGC contest Emails. 

Go to Instagram on the web and find the picture you want to share, click on the menu button, select View Photo Page, and then click on the menu button and choose the Embed option. You can copy and paste the code anywhere on the Web to show off the photo you took.

Instagram is considered the most important social network by more American teens (at 32 percent) than any other network

•  If your brand's audience is people under 25, you HAVE to do Instagram right. This is also if your audience is Millennials or will be in the next few years, (under 35 now in 2016). 

4- Profile Link - the best CTA 

Your Instagram profile link is more important than your Twitter profile link, it's a CTA that you have to be tremendous attention to. Now on twitter brands will link directly to their blog, consider how you will use your Instagram one carefully and how you will track it. 

Instagram will bring in $595 million in mobile ad revenues worldwide this year (2015), and $2.81 billion by 2017

5- Share your Best Work 

Integrate other social media channels with your Instagram. Here's how. Tap the button with three dots at the bottom of the photo. Select Share from the menu and choose which site you want to share it to. 

In early 2016, 20% of the Internet uses Instagram, with 75 Million daily users, 30% of accounts are active, 90% of users are under 35 (Millennials) with 40% of users between the ages of 16 and 24. 

*2015 saw the emergence of User generated content and influencer marketing, like never before. Guess which network spearheaded this? You got it, Instagram. 

6- Create a Company Back-Stage Pass

Feature employees and group photos of your company to portray the authenticity and social perks of your working at your company to attract your people. A good example of this is Unbounce. Tag your employees who have a personal Instagram account. Instagram is not just about creating emotional connections with your customers, but with your employees and prospective employees. 

Instagram adoption is at 85 percent among top brands

7- Get Creative

There are so many visual and creative ideas you can implement on Instagram, it's a bit ridiculous. 

• Timelapse 
• Slow motion 
• Micro Video
• Get clever with words embedded in images. 
• Mixed Media. 
• Create patterns of 9 images in your feed. 

Top brands on Instagram are seeing a per-follower engagement rate of 4.21 percent

• Instagram is your brand's opportunity to differentiate itself, to create emotional storytelling opportunities. 
• It's your brand's micro-thesis of color & "coolness" in the competitive attention economy. 
• If you can choose to do one social channel well, then choose Instagram. It makes Facebook, Twitter nearly irrelevant for B2C flashy content on your culture, products and process. 

Instagram is certainly one of the most visually creative social networks in history, think of it as your canvas, not just for selfies or the same kind of posts, but for experimentation, for daily frequent posts that stimulate your followers. If your brand does 4 posts on Twitter per day, do 4 posts on Instagram per day, you won't regret it. Deleting the worst performing 20% of your posts will ensure your Instagram is the a history of your best days.