When it comes to modern marketing, we all know that the digital revolution changed the game, but many small businesses have yet to embrace the significant benefits of using social media to engage and communicate with their target markets.
While most small businesses have a website, and some have branched out into Facebook and Twitter, arguably the two most prominent social media platforms, very few are making use of one of the fastest growing social media platforms out there – Instagram.
Christine Watson, Digital Marketing Trainer at Watson and Co Chartered Marketing, advises her clients on the benefits of Instagram daily.
In fact she’s running a 1-day Content Creation Bootcamp for Business Instagrammers on Friday September 8 with her company Training Matchmaker at ESpark, Lombard Street Belfast. During the bootcamp Christine will walk delegates through setting up their own Instagram strategy, objectives, content themes and actual content for the year ahead.
She said: “Businesses and marketers today have an enhanced marketing tool box with a plethora of free and easy to use digital platforms available to push messages to audiences – new and old, however, despite the lack of a ticket price for creating business profiles, time is most certainly not a free commodity. Professionals need to be conscious of the opportunity cost of their time as well as ensuring they have an awareness of their ideal customer and the landscape wherein push marketing is an old norm.
“Engagement with ideal audiences and profitable conversion is achieved through compelling content distributed through the right channels at the right time with business objectives always top of mind. Content creators have a time management challenge on their hands – not only must regularly invest in keeping up to date with the daily changes on each key platform that present both threats and opportunities to communication plans but as well as creating and issuing content, growing audiences, measuring results they need to be actively listening and responding to user generated content.
“We have created the Business instagrammers Bootcamp during Instagram’s global InstaMeet community weekend in order to bring the local community of digital marketers together to not only take the time to research, benchmark, idea generate, create and schedule proactive content to set them up for the months ahead, allowing them to free time for more agile marketing, but to also network with others tasked with similar jobs too.”
So, if you’re thinking of joining the 15 million businesses who already use Instagram to market their products and services, here are Christine’s 6 top tips:
- Create a Business Account
On Instagram you can create a personal account for an individual, or a business account that has the added benefit of giving you insights into how your page is performing (also called “analytics”). A business account also has the added benefit of allowing you to add a link to your website, as well as other contact options such as email, phone number and directions. Over 700 million people worldwide use Instagram every single month and 80% of instagrammers follow a business on Instagram.
- Be Location Specific
This tip is particularly relevant for businesses that provide a local product or service, for example a restaurant or retail location. Instagram posts give you the option to include a location, which will make it easier for Instagram users who are close to you, to find you. Indeed Instagram posts with a location tagged have a 79% higher engagement than posts without.
- Learn How to Use Hashtags
Hashtags (# followed by a keyword) are a very important feature on Instagram. Users will search for keywords using hashtags, so make sure each and every image you post uses relevant ones. Businesses can create their own brand hashtags as well as campaign hashtags, these can also be used to locate user generated content. A lot of businesses make the mistake using a hashtag in front of an incredibly long sentence.
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- Practice Makes Perfect
Instagram can feel intimidating to some because it is so focused on visual representation, but don’t let that put you off. The majority of smart phones on the market have reasonably good cameras, so with a little practice, and some online research, there’s no reason why you can’t take Insta-worthy photos.
- Use Video
When you get comfortable with posting photos on Instagram, you’ll want to progress to video content. This can be with or without sound, and can include using the Instagram Stories and Instagram Live features. Instagram Stories let you string together multiple photos and videos into a “story” that disappears after 24 hours. 250 million+ instagrammers use stories every day. One of the most enticing aspects of Instagram stories is that they appear at the very top of your follower Instagram feeds.
- Collaborate
You may not know about them, but your local area will be full of bloggers, vloggers (video bloggers), YouTubers, and social media influencers, and they can often have large and highly engaged audiences. Working with social media influencers doesn’t need to cost a lot, but can reap significant benefits for your business and brand.
At the Content Creation Bootcamp for Business Instagrammers Christine will be joined by journalist, author and digital content specialist Tina Calder from Excalibur Press who will be challenging delegates to create quick and engaging content relevant to their niche.
“Creating content for social media shouldn’t be a chore, it should be something that interests and excites you. However, more often than not small businesses and social media influencers get lost in procrastinating about what that content should be.
“During the Content Creation Bootcamp I will be giving attendees step by step instructions, templates, links to how to guides, online help zones and some top tips to effectively create, curate, aggregate and develop their content strategies.”
For more tips, tricks, and advice on how to make Instagram marketing work for your small business, sign up to the 1-day Content Creation Bootcamp for Business Instagrammers on Friday September 8 at ESpark, Lombard Street Belfast:www.watsonsmarketing.com/instameet-a-content-creation-bootcamp-for-business-instagrammers
