Instagram provides you with another set of image, GIF and video sharing tools, enabling you to create and edit great footage and images to share on your other social media sites, as well as on Instagram. It’s even become a Snapchat competitor thanks to Instagram Stories and Instagram Live. Add in its ‘save’ feature and it takes on Pinterest too.
Quick facts on Instagram
Here are some interesting Instagram facts:
It has an even split of male and female users.
There are over 600 million monthly active users.
There are 400 million daily users.
Instagram was bought by Facebook in 2012.
What is Instagram?
Instagram is the best image-sharing app on your device, enabling you to add creative filters to both photos and video. For example, when you have taken a photo, you can choose one of the clever filter options or editing tools to make the image black and white, sepia, old fashioned, brighter and much more — whatever takes your fancy. These images can then be shared with your friends via both Facebook and Twitter. You can also post via email so you can either send a copy to someone or post it to yourself for filing elsewhere.
Although Instagram does not directly offer the option to repost other people’s videos and photos to your account, there are many apps available that will link to Instagram and make reposting possible. One of the best and most popular repost apps currently available is Repost for Instagram.
People can comment on your posts and you can also add a link to your website in the description just to encourage click-throughs to your brand. It’s worth mentioning that hashtags rule on Instagram, probably even more so than on Twitter. Many people simply use the hashtags as the description, which seems to be quite acceptable. While you can use up to 30 (yes, 30!) hashtags, I think that’s overkill — but you decide.
Many social media channels, and Facebook in particular, are using more and more images, so creating your own with easy filters means you can really post something far superior than a random stock image. It is much more personal and creative. It also has an ad platform that is accessible via Facebook, as Instagram is owned by Facebook, so once your ads are set there, they filter through if you’ve asked for them to.
Using Instagram in your business
Brands are now encouraging their customers to take Instagram pictures of themselves in the brand’s clothes or with the brand’s product in some way, usually by way of a competition. Take a look at Nasty Gal’s Instagram site (www.instagram.com/nastygal) to see some of these. By asking the consumer to use the hashtag #nastygal, they are able to find them all and collate them for their own marketing purposes. Generally, part of the terms and conditions of the competition is that by using the designated hashtag, people are giving the brand permission to use the images. As most people who enter would love to see their name or their works of art in lights, it’s not usually a problem and so everyone wins. Nasty Gal also uses Olapic (www.olapic.com) as a way of accessing these images.
If you want to feed your business Facebook page directly from Instagram when you share initially, be sure to set up a business profile; otherwise it will post to your personal profile page by default.
Instagram tools
Instagram has various tools available for different types of posts. Stories, Zoom and Live have come about from other platforms and been incorporated into Instagram because they have proven popular.
Instagram Stories
It was Snapchat that started the ‘in-the-moment’ idea and Instagram has taken it a step further. You now don’t need to worry about over-posting because you can add all your daily activity, photos and videos into a file — essentially a story but in a slideshow format. These stories from people you follow are displayed in the bar along the top of your screen, and disappear after 24 hours. You can tap them to send as private messages, but with stories there is no public liking or comments. Depending on the privacy setting of your account, your stories will be public or private. They don’t need to be professionally shot because they vanish, and it’s a great way for brands to experiment and see what works before investing money in the idea. As stories are always displayed at the top of the feed screen, it means they are much more visible to the viewer, so it’s a great tool to make the most of. There are no in-depth analytics for stories. One big brand that’s doing well is Jamie Oliver’s Instagram page, ‘Jamie’s food tube’. Have a look at www.instagram.com/jamiesfoodtube, follow it and keep an eye on how it uses Instagram Stories.
Instagram Zoom
This tool allows users to zoom in on photos and videos, so if your product has plenty of detail, such as a fine detail on a garment or artwork, this is the way to display it. Likewise, it works well for great food pictures or if you have a post with lots of text.
Instagram Live
Instagram Live is featured first in the stories line-up so it is extremely prominent. If you don’t have the budget to spend on ads, use Live as a way to get in front, though you need to do it often because once the broadcast is over, it disappears from the app (however, you could save a copy to your device just for safe-keeping). This is different from Facebook Live, which keeps a recording intact with comments and likes attached. If you use Live, decide whether you want comments or not because you can turn them off. To start an Instagram Live broadcast, tap on the Your Story profile photo (with the + sign next to it) at the top of your Instagram newsfeed and click ‘live’. You can use it to launch a new product, make an announcement, do a live Q&A session or for other impromptu events.
Instagram videos
Instagram videos can use the same filter system as photos, making your 60-second videos look hip and quite different from something you shot with your video camera on your phone. Another advantage of using the Instagram video app is that it does also populate your Instagram page on your desktop, so you can see the videos all in one handy place that is bigger than your mobile screen. Many brands that run competitions where you enter by submitting a video ask that you use Instagram as opposed to any other camera or software program because the entrant is then limited to 60 seconds, so everyone starts on a level playing field. These can be emailed to the competition email address for you to see and decide on a winner. There are also plenty of apps available to make it easy to download, upload and do all sorts of other things with videos, and new apps seem to pop up every week, so see what suits your needs. Find one for what you need via Google.
Getting followers on Instagram
As for all platforms, you want followers, likes and comments wherever possible and Instagram is no exception. Even though content can’t be shared, you still want to know your efforts are worthwhile and doing the job you intended — building a relationship. So what are the best ways to get more followers?
Have a theme. This goes back to your content strategy at the beginning of the book and it should be a given, but you can break themes down a little. Say your subject for February is ‘heart health month’. Your theme within that could be healthy fruit and vegetables, which easily lend themselves to great image creation and messages.
Keep it visual. Take the best shots, add the best filters and create something special.
Add a description that’s worth it. This is your space to talk about the image so tell a story and add some hashtags.
Include hashtags. Use a few of each, branded ones and unbranded ones.
Post consistently. Do it daily where you can, but whatever schedule you choose, stick to it.
Instagram ads
While you can’t create an ad campaign on Instagram, you can create one through Facebook. Just be sure to choose ‘Instagram’ when you decide where you want the ad to be placed. Do remember you can’t upload a video longer than 60 seconds as an ad because Instagram can’t run them. You can identify an ad because it will have ‘sponsored’ at the top of the post.
What’s popular on Instagram?
So just what are the best posts — ever?
Beyoncé’s pregnancy picture of 2017 has over 10 million likes.
Selena Gomez and a Coke bottle with her lyrics on it has 6 million likes.
Taylor Swift has various pictures running in the millions.
Celebrities will always take centre stage on the platforms as besotted fans lap up their every move, but there is plenty of room for all of us so don’t worry if you don’t have Selena Gomez in your corner holding your product. In a conversation with a client, she told me she hardly spent any time at all on Facebook, preferring instead to scroll through Instagram because she felt it is a more positive experience. You rarely see people ranting and raving on Instagram like you do on Facebook so maybe she’s onto something.
Instagram success stories
I asked a designer and bag manufacturer how they use Instagram so successfully. This is what they said.
What Cora + Spink have done is extremely visually appealing as well as incredibly simple. It proves you don’t need a pro photographer — just have an imagination and a decent camera on your smartphone.
Here’s another story worth sharing. This is how Julie went from zero to 16 000 Instagram followers in just 18 months!
Conclusion of chapter 6
Instagram is a winner and will be around for a long while to come because it’s so simple and users love it. If users are using it, brands find ways to catch and engage with them — which is just what you and your business need to do. There is plenty of space to stand out wherever your prospective customers hang out online; you just have to capture their attention.
It has an even split of male and female users.