Creating a strategy for Instagram

Creating a strategy for Instagram


Instagram is no longer a social platform that can be ignored. The platform’s power to reach audiences and engage with customers is proving as a valuable marketing opportunity.

Unlike other social media platforms, Instagram is heavily image-focused – hence requiring a different content strategy.

Here are a few considerations for creating a successful Instagram strategy:

Objectives
Your objectives for Instagram should closely align with your business’ overall marketing goals. Examples of marketing goals include increasing brand awareness, driving traffic to your website, increasing your reach to target audiences, enhancing customer engagement and so forth. For example, if your marketing goal is to drive traffic to your website, your objective for Instagram may be to increase traffic from Instagram to your website by 33 per cent in six months.

Type and frequency of content
With your target audiences in mind, brainstorm ideas for your content strategy which will meet their needs. Gaining insights into your target audience is critical to creating an engaging content strategy. Are your audiences seeking information, entertainment, advice or inspiration? Once you have a better idea of what they are looking for you can create a plan for the types of content you will use and if you’ll use an overarching theme. Creating a schedule for content frequency is also important to stay consistent.

Brand personality
Leveraging Instagram’s features such as the use of captions, geolocations, hashtags and stories are a great way to showcase your brand’s personality. For example, if your business is quirky, you might use a witty caption or post an eccentric video. Utilising hashtags is also key as it allows you to use effective keywords that your target audience might be searching for which effectively can increase your following.

Collaboration
Instagram is fast becoming a popular marketing tool to collaborate with influencers and advertise your partnerships. If you are currently in a partnership with another business or have a sponsorship, use the power of Instagram to share this with your followers. For example, you might share a photo relating to the partnership/sponsorship and tag them in the photo and caption. If you are looking to grow your following and increase your exposure, you might team up with an influencer such as a blogger to start a collaboration.

Community
Like most other social platforms, Instagram is community-based. Developing a community with your followers and others in your industry is critical to creating and maintaining relationships. Some ways to create a good sense of community include replying to comments on your posts from your followers, following and interacting with accounts in your industry, using user-generated content on your feed, i.e., re-sharing a photo.

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