Social Media Strategy for Instagram: 7 Actionable Tips

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Why Instagram Marketing Matters NOW Entering June 2014, Instagram remains one of the hottest tools for implementing a social media strategy. According to the company’s press page, Instagram has: * 200 million active users * 65%+ people outside the U.S. * 20 billion photos shared * 1.6 billion likes daily * 60 million average photos per day Other impressive statistics (from Digital Marketing Ramblings) include: * 23% of teens call Instagram their favorite social network. * 42% of teens surveyed say they use Instagram on a mobile device. * 34% of 14-34 year olds in the U.S. use Instagram. In other words, Instagram marketing is more important now than it has ever been. 7 Tips for Your Instagram Social Media Strategy Related Resources from B2C » Free Webcast: Build Better Products by Identifying and Validating Your Riskiest Assumptions The best way to learn how to use Instagram for marketing is to use the platform yourself. For starters, follow John Rampton’s list of 25 of the Most Engaged Brands on Instagram to get an idea of what works and what doesn’t on this platform. * Let your audience know you’re on Instagram. Incentivize Facebook fans, Twitter followers, and email list recipients to follow you on Instagram by doing giveaways as you reach milestones in your number of followers. * Once you have an audience, give the people what they want. Only feature high-quality photos on Instagram. Don’t post anything that couldn’t stand on its own. * Keep Instagram non-salesy. The occasional coupon code or discount offer is fine. However, don’t use Instagram as your own personal product-hawking platform. You will lose followers and waste time. * Take advantage of Instagram’s embed feature. This feature allows you to embed Instagram videos in your blog or website, which can help increase your Instagram handle’s exposure. * Use popular (but relevant!) hashtags to engage with a broader community of Instagram users. Hashtags provide a great opportunity to reach certain niches that would have no other way of finding your content. * Optimize your profile. See Gerry Morgan’s illustrated guide. Keep in mind – most users are only going to experience individual photos. If heavy branding is a priority for your company, make sure your photos contain the brand. Don’t rely on the text in your profile description. * Post no more than once or twice a day. More is not better with Instagram. Quality is what counts here! Is Instagram a part of your social media strategy? In your experience, what works and what doesn’t work on Instagram? Have you found Instagram to be a valuable platform for your brand? Content Source -