It’s Christmas; time to refocus your Instagram marketing efforts. Over the course of the year Instagram has grown rapidly as a desired go-to network for brand marketing. It’s no wonder when you consider the network’s style of visual communication. Photos and visual media can make quality, attention-grabbing content that doesn’t go unnoticed – and at Christmas you really want to stand out…
In 2015, Instagram had over 400 million users worldwide leaving them ranked as the seventh most used networking site. In a blog post, the network raved about how it had gone global as they reported that over 75% of users were now from outside the US, stating that “among the last 100 million to join, more than half live in Europe and Asia…” However, in 2019, according to Statista, Instagram now has over one billion users.
Social media marketers can no longer overlook Instagram marketing. Evidence suggests that it now has an audience for almost all industries and recent reports highlight just how substantial the network’s engagement potential is. As the festive season rears its tinsel-adorned head, it’s more important than ever to get into the world’s primary photo-sharing network. It’s time to get serious about Instagram marketing
According to SimplyMeasured, 90% of the top brands in the world are using the network. With that in mind, here are our top tips to help boost your Instagram this Christmas:
Take better photos
The heart of Instagram marketing is creating better content. For example, adding a festive filter to a flapjack does not make a Christmas cake. The heart of Instagram is photography and good quality content. Although those creative filters can come in useful, nothing beats working on the composition of your photos.
Emojis are Emotion
It might seem strange as they have been around for years, but recent reports have shown that using an emoji in a definition can have a huge positive impact on how that picture is received. Often it’s the most emotive emojis that evoke the best responses, such as the humble heart. But as it’s the season holiday emojis like a Christmas tree or Santa will help cement your festive message.
Use text & hashtags in your images
If you cleverly edit your images to feature text you can triple the chance of your text content being read. If you have important information that you want to convey to your audience, it can be a good idea to add your text to the photos themselves. If you are using a festive hashtag across your social channels, it can also be a good idea to strap these to your images. However, make sure you’re not promoting images with more than 20% text as Facebook won’t let it get very far.
Ask questions with your content
Use your images and text to promote a response from your audience and double your chance of engagement. For example, you could canvas together two products and ask Instagram users which is the perfect gift – image A or image B.
Promote user-generated content
Use your products to run campaigns that promote user-generated content. This can be really beneficial to building your fan base in the real world as well as the social world. Competitions are the best ways to get people sharing images of them engaging with your brand. Making use of a specific hashtag helps to expand your reach, choose a winner and collate your results. Then, you also have a lot of content to post too.
Use your images to promote your discounts and offers
Make use of your content to promote awareness of offers and discounts. You can do this within your images and in definitions. This can be a great way to create inbound hits to your website from Instagram – although it’s not always easy to monitor their success…
The scope for marketing on Instagram is phenomenal – don’t let it slip this winter! Have a very, merry Christmas from everyone at Giraffe Social Media.
Edited by Olivia Newman – 20/12/2019.
