Facebook is becoming a river of pollution day by day with more than enough things we don’t need to read about. On Twitter, we can only express ourselves in 140 characters. Linked-In, you can’t express anything at all, except business negotiations and plans.
That said, pictures are easier to read than words, right? So, start appealing to the many different emotions with Instagram. Sometimes text just doesn’t cut it. For example, when I text or chat with my friends they totally get the wrong impression of me. They think I am upset, off my rocker, or something else, when I am not. Or, they think everything is okay when it isn’t.
However, if I put up a picture on Instagram with a huge smile, they would know right away, what text could never convey. Text doesn’t appeal to the emotion, nor does it allow one to express themselves. Why not use Instagram to create a message that will help you appeal to the masses and engage with your own customers. This is why businesses and marketers need Instagram. So lets get into it!
Picture Curation:
I want you to think about your target audience for a moment here and tell me, what kinds of things do they like? Will the pictures you put up on the account get them talking about you? I have noticed that Instagram has become most popular within Android users. Remember, you want your fans to engage with your company in a positive manner. What is your brand? What is your message? Now start gathering photos and determine how you are going to get your message out there.
Owning Your Photos
That is right, now it is time to start taking photos and earning your way up to the point where people can’t stand a day without looking at your Instagram. When I was a child, I always wanted to be invited to the latest events, but I wasn’t old enough. I use to think, “why is it that only the older crowd is able to go to these types of events, and not me?” They were so exclusive that I wanted to go to them even more.
When you make something exclusive, people will want it (more). For example, I worked with a social network company that wanted to put their “company secrets” on their Instagram account. It worked out great! This is how we were able to build up their fan base and get people to “Love” all their photos.
Then there was a company I worked with who had many different personalities there. So what did they do? They shared every personality on Instagram! This is how the fans of the company were able to get up close and personal with the people that worked there. When you take pictures for Instagram, make sure they are not blurry. Be sure your camera has the tendency to take pictures that are clear, and not blurry.
Getting More Followers on Instagram
Now, getting more followers has always been a challenge on every social network. When I am creating an account for a client, I gather more followers by utilizing a hashtag for every unique keyword I have. People search each other through hashtags, and that is how you find people on this fun picture network.
Imagine adding at least two or three keywords with hashtags on every picture. Now every time you click “explore” and people search for a keyword, you will pop up!
Every time you add a hashtag, your brand will be seen as a leader within your niche. Isn’t that what you would like for your brand? Instagram doesn’t have a “share” or “retweet” button yet, but this is great way to utilize commenting. When you comment on other photos related to your niche you are able to get your own brand out there by helping others receive more comments.
How Do You Engage On Instagram?
All the companies I have ever worked with, had set up really great events to get their company message out there. After the events they would post all the pictures up on Instagram to show others what they missed. This was a great way to engage with people who missed the events as well as attended the events. We were able to use the tag feature to include all the people that attended through Instagram.
In every photo, we used the geolocation tool to show everyone where we were at. Our location would then be placed on the “Photo Map”, and everyone had a blast engaging with us, and traveling with us to the different events. It felt like we took all our Instagram followers with us on the plane ride!
While they were having such a blast we were able to think of other ideas that would keep them engaged. What did this include? We had the viewers caption our photos for us by commenting. Then we asked the viewers to upload their own photo of what they felt about our brand. After they uploaded the picture, we asked them to add our keyword hashtag to it, so we knew it belonged to our giveaway.
There were other times where we just put a picture up, and asked them what was missing in the picture, or to find something in the picture. Those games are always fun! What does your brand represent?
Depending on what your brand represents you can come up with your own ways of engaging. Please send me a message if you are having trouble.
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