Dream & Do

#10 Instagram Hacks - what’s your Instagram saying about your brand?

Tara SheltonComment

Here is a statistic that is going to blow your mind - Instagram has over 600 million users worldwide, 600 MILLION! That is an incredible opportunity to connect with your customers and promote your service or product. The problem with those 600 million users though, your competition. Those 600 million are not just potential customers, but also the business’ directly competing with what you’re offering and unfortunately, they’ve got all the same tricks and tools trying to outsmart your approach and steal away your sales.

Something a lot of people don’t realise is Instagram can make or break their brand and your competitors are there waiting in the wings to nab your customers. You can sink money into your logo, website design, packaging and product, but all that work will go to waste if you don’t have a consistent brand feel on social media. Instagram can act as the initial gateway for a customer discovering your brand and if your feed is off, you’ve lost your customer, as your competition is only a post away.

We’ve been in strategising and designing Instagram accounts for our clients for years now, so we put together some Instagram hacks to help you stand out.

HACK #1: Post original content of your brand, product or marketing collateral. It’s important to show your audience something they haven’t seen before. Regramming content is great, but it has to be strategic and sporadic, if your feed is just a collection of images already seen, you’ll lose your following to your competition.

HACK #2: Research your hashtags. People make the mistake of hashtagging everything and anything they can think of. Multiple and many hashtags are great, but take your time to do the research into which hashtags work for your industry, it’s about being smart and targeted.

HACK #3: Follow your competition and keep a close eye on who is engaging with them. If you’re always seeing the same accounts engage with your competition, why not start engaging with them. Give them a like, follow their account. It’s likely if they’re interested in your competitor, they’ll at least click on over to give your bio a read.

HACK #4: Have a clear Instagram account name that is as close to your brand or business as possible. Don’t try and get creative, it only confuses users and dilutes your brand identity. Remember to always make your profile picture your logo, it’s important to have a clear and strong brand presence.

HACK #5: Post consistently and frequently. We post 1-2 a day depending on the account were managing. Work out the behaviours and habits of your audience and respond to the way they’re engaging with your posts. Experimental initially with timings and caption lengths and create a schedule you know they’ll respond to.

HACK #6: Start tapping! It’s important that you are consistently engaging with your audience. Like their posts, comment on their comments! This goes as well for responding to DM’s and DM Requests. Don’t forget that Instagram is another platform for customer service.

HACK #7: Cross promote your Instagram on your other social media platforms. This not only gives different users the opportunity to engage with your brands across all platforms, but allows you to keep an eagle eye view on your social media as a collective, rather than separate channels.

HACK #8: Tell a story. Don’t think of your feed as separate tiles but as an opportunity to tell your brand's story. Does each post flow on from the next? Do the colours and overall look and feel of the feed reflect the brands identity? If the answer is no then you need to rethink your posting.

HACK #9: Make your analytics your best friend. Instagram’s inbuilt analytics is a great way to see how your account is progressing. You can look at impressions, engagement, follower growth and more. Use this vital information to connect with your audience.

HACK #10: And last but certainly not least, know your tone of voice. So many brands fall into the trap of thinking a brand’s identity is only visual, we can tell you right now it’s not. Work out not only what you’re message is but how it’s going to be communicated? Is your tone of voice funny? Inspirational? Serious? Sarcastic? It’s vital you’re consistent with your audience.

 

Feeling overwhelmed? That’s why we’ve created the Instagram Starter Bundle. The easy, fuss-free way to work out the purpose of your feed, who you’re trying to connect with and how you actually do that to help you connect with your audience and your product or services.

Find out more..