Small Business
marketing using Instagram
Instagram is an online mobile application that is used for
sharing photos and videos. Instagram is following in the footsteps of Facebook
and Twitter and has fast become a very popular social media tool.
Instagram was
originally developed so that people could apply different filters to
photographs that they had taken on their mobile phones and would allow them to
easily upload and share these photos with friends (or account followers) using
the Instagram application.
More recently video was introduced to Instagram it
can now be uploaded, but Instagram video clips are limited to between 3 to 15
seconds long.
Why are businesses
turning to Instagram?
· There are more than
300 million Instagram users worldwide.
· Approximately 70
million photos are uploaded per day.
· The account is 'free'
to set up so there are low barriers to entry.
· It is a medium that
allows for easy sharing of content 24 hours a day.
What sort of success
have businesses achieved using Instagram?
· Businesses such as
Levis, L'oreal and hundreds of others have been able to use the tool to:
· To increase awareness
of their products and services.
· To increase brand
recognition.
· To showcase their
community and pro bono work to inspire and attract prospective customers to
engage with their product, service or brand.
· Run successful
promotions, competitions and giveaways.
Small Business
marketing success with Instagram
Instagram appears to be particularly popular with product based
businesses due to its visual nature.
Many businesses that are product based
such as clothing, jewellery, make up or even food based business have achieved
success using Instagram.
This is because the application allows for photos to
be posted and shared of people either wearing or using these products.
For
instance, a food manufacturer might post photos of someone cooking with,
sharing a meal, or entertaining friends using their food products.
This success
is not exclusive to big brands as many small businesses have been able to
leverage the power of Instagram to engage their clients.
For instance,
Melbourne based café The Kettle Black had over 45,800 followers in March 2016
they have achieved this through the use of attractive photographs of their food
and images of cafe meals that Instagram users would be attracted to, as well as
using hashtags that foodies, food bloggers and other Instagram users would be
interested in or search for.
Influencer marketing
Bloggers, social media stars and media personalities have
amassed a loyal following online with hundreds and sometimes thousands of
people following their Instagram accounts.
This 'influencer' group means that
there are several eyeballs there ready to see your product or service. The
audience has already been built for you.
The engagement has already been formed
and tapping into this by getting your product uploaded onto their Instagram
feed or featured by a blogger or popular Instagram account holder will help you
to grow your audience more quickly.
Therefore taking the time to identify key
'influencers' in your industry and how you can tap into this is important.
Hashtags - What are
they?
How can they be used to
increase business exposure?
I suggest that if you are interested in getting onto Instagram
you spend some time up front doing your Hashtag research.
Hashtags are tags
that you can add in a caption of a photo that you upload.
To create a hashtag
you need to use the # symbol at the front of the tag and then add a keyword or
several keywords without spaces after the hash symbol.
For example, you might
post a product image of pair of jeans.
Your hashtags could be: #fashion #style
#jeans #lovethatstyle.
You may already be familiar with hashtags as they are
also popular on Twitter but if you are not take a look online to see some
examples of how they are being used.
The purpose of the hashtag is to tag your
photo to a subject or topic category that is 'searchable' or 'popular' on
Instagram.
by: Effie Cinanni
Source http://EzineArticles.com/9361356
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