5 Ways to Build a Brand Strategy Around Instagram

Featured Image Caption: Photo Credit: Michael Koehler

Brand building is no mean task. It takes persistence, hard work and mostly a well-crafted strategy to build a powerful brand campaign.

Instagram a popular photo sharing App has become a major tool for marketers and webmasters. It has more than 550 million users (out of which 300 million are daily active users) who together share more than 100 million photos a day. Those are huge numbers making Instagram hard to ignore from a marketing standpoint.

In 2010, Mike Krieger and Kevin Systrom founded Instagram as a social network and mobile-based photo sharing application. Facebook paid $1 Billion to buy Instagram in 2012.

Five ways to maximize brand value through Instagram –

1. Understand filters –

A major attraction of Instagram is its filters. It has a host of inbuilt filters which users can use to make their photos better and give them that pro look. For your brand, you must realize the advantage of filters and use them accordingly.

I have also often observed that some users think it is mandatory to use filters. Even though no filter is required, they still go ahead and use filters which have a negative impact on the image. Filters not mandatory and should only be used if a positive enhancement is expected. X-Pro, Valencia, and Lo-Fi remain the most popular filters for business owners.

2. Correct Hash Tags –

Engagement is the key to success for any brand campaign. Posting the right pictures alone might not help if proper engagement is not established. Hashtagging makes sure that the people looking for a specific term can locate your images. Apart from that, brands can create their own hashtags as per their campaigns. Several leading brand marketers and managers have quite well used this strategy. Often brand slogans or tag lines are used as hashtags.

The hashtags used at Instagram are often like the ones used on Twitter or Facebook. But what works at Twitter might not work here. Also, brands can make lists of commonly used or related tags to update their images.

Instagram also has several other engagement features with hashtags like day based tags. Be it, Motivation Monday, Throw Back Thursday or Selfie Sunday, day based tags are extremely popular. Brands can model their images per these tags and ride on their popularity.

3. Analytics and Tracking –

Instagram allow businesses to use analytics for tracking the reach of posts. It is a vital tool to test the success and shortcomings of brand campaigns. It keeps you updated on user demographics and impressions.

Also, keep a track of growth of followers. You don’t get thousands of followers overnight. It is a slow process. But it can be made steady by effective engagement and tracking.

4. Timing is Essential –

Like in everything else in management and life, timing is of the essence for Instagram posts as well. Randomly posting images at any time of day or evening does not make sense. You should have a clear idea of how many images you want to post per week and at what interval. Unnecessary spamming of images should be avoided at all costs. Consistency is a best practice for Instagram posts. One can also use online scheduling programs which help schedule social media posts.

5. The Right Bio –

It is surprising that business and web owners often ignore such a small and simple thing. Email and web address should always accompany a crisp and well-written introduction. As a rule of social media, the profile picture should be as perfect as possible with clear resolution and size.

Instagram if used effectively can be well targeted visual marketing outlet for your brand. Studies are already pointing out that it can provide more engagement than other social media platforms. Your brand should have a well thought off strategy to include Instagram in your digital marketing plans.

By Tushar Mangl
who is a storyteller and content strategist. He has authored several books including The Ultimate Guide to Content Writing. He has been blogging since 2006. His upcoming novel, Ye Honey Bunch will be released on 5th February 2017.

Member since August, 2017
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