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Instagram is a rapidly evolving powerhouse for content creators. We look at how to make the most of the platform in our latest infographic & trends report. With more than 700 million active monthly users, Instagram has emerged as a platform that publishers and brands alike can’t ignore. New reports suggest that the sought-after Generation Z is flocking to the platform, some of them even skipping Facebook entirely. To stay ahead of the need-to-know trends on Instagram, we rolled up our newest research and insights into our “What You Need to Know for Instagram” report. Read the report for: - The top publishers on Instagram and their strategies - How Instagram stacks up against Facebook for brands - Why influencer posts are making a big difference for brands - How top creators are using photo vs. video posts. The growth of Instagram video and the perfect video length And for a quick look at what’s winning the day on Instagram, check out our handy infographic below...
Influencer marketing has become the hot topic on many marketer’s lips, and when you think about the potential, it’s not hard to understand why. With its community of over 400 million active users, including many incredible content creators, Instagram has become a top visual marketing platform for all kinds of businesses—start-ups and huge global brands alike. The latest algorithm update by Instagram (posts are now shown based on engagement rather than in chronological order) means that paid advertising and influencer marketing have just become more important than ever before....
Instagram has seen incredible growth since it was acquired by Facebook in 2012 -- in fact it’s grown by 400 percent! That's why for marketers, it can be an extremely helpful tool. Why Instagram? First, Instagram is easy to use, which is a big plus. Also, it’s not (yet) as ad-driven as Facebook, making it a friendlier option for those who prefer to spend marketing funds elsewhere. Since Instagram is visual, capturing someone’s attention on Instagram is much easier than on Facebook. Plus, the meaty part of this, is that it drives 58 times more engagement per follower than Facebook, and 120 times more than Twitter. That’s significant to anyone who likes numbers! Creative Instagram strategies By its very nature, Instagram leaves lots of room for creativity. But, if you’re planning to use the network as a marketing channel, it’s best to put some strategy in place before leaping into the fray. Beyond the obvious items like having a solid bio with your URL, a great profile photo and connecting your account to Facebook, I’ve pulled together several ideas worth considering....
But, as with any social network, the brands that are getting the most out of Instagram are the ones who are smart about what they post, when they post, how often they post, and whom they're targeting.
But how do they know what's "smart"?
That's where the data comes in. There's a whole lot of research out there about Instagram -- everything from the demographics of its users and how often brands are posting, to how caption length affects engagement and what the most popular emoji is on Instagram. (See #32.)
For example, did you know that a brand would need about 2,325 Instagram followers to get 100 Likes & comments on a post? Or that brands posted an average of 4.9 times per week on Instagram in 2015? Read on to uncover more Instagram stats that'll help you get ideas and improve your own Instagram posting strategy....
Meet Frank, the cheeky Instagram persona of the Australian skincare startup Frank Body.
Frank likes to casually call you "babe," jokes about wanting to get in the shower with you, talks about your buns, and doesn't go more than five hours without popping up on your feed. If you were to meet him in a bar, you might find him a bit of a sleaze. But as a social media personality? Frank is hilarious.
According to cofounder Erika Geraerts, Frank's been crucial in helping Frank Body, which is known for its coffee-based scrubs, build brand awareness around the world. "We were essentially dealing with a product that looked like dirt in a bag," Geraerts says. "We wanted to cut through the beauty industry jargon—be it scientific, flowery, or hippy—and speak to our customer in an honest, direct, and frank way. From here our lovable character of Frank was born."
Frank Body has used Instagram as its primary marketing tool. "It allowed us to take risks and to connect with our customers directly without the costs of traditional advertising," Geraerts says. In three years, the account has garnered 682,000 followers, and Geraerts says this has been crucial to driving sales. The company has managed to sell over 1.5 million products across 149 countries since its launch. It is now so popular in the United Arab Emirates and Russia that the company is planning to set up local operations in those countries. "It took time, consistency, and dirty work," she says....
It’s a pivotal time in the fashion calendar: New York Fashion Week (Fall/Winter 2016). Amidst the snow and glacial temperatures, the great and powerful of the style world descended on New York City last week for seven days of shows, events, and previews. The last week also included Valentine’s Day and the 58th Grammys, leading to a corresponding flurry of activity on social. We decided to use these events to get a feel for how fashion publications are using social – in this case, Instagram.
The uniquely visual nature of fashion coverage makes it well-suited to Instagram, with photos from fashion shows, red carpets, backstage and photo shoots all proving popular. These are often combined with links to galleries or features on the publications’ websites, helping to spur referrals.
(Note: we looked at content on the publications’ flagship – generally US-based – accounts. This analysis takes in engagement on content published between 11th and 16th Feb 2016 only.)Here’s how the names we looked at stack up...
In just 12 months, we used Instagram to gain 400,000 followers for Foundr -- which translated to over 70,000 email subscribers. At the end of that period, we were averaging 30,000 call-to-action clicks per month from Instagram, and converting 30% of the users who landed on our website from our Instagram page into email subscribers.
We've seen it work ... now it's time for you to get in on the action. Here are four ways to use Instagram to build your business and brand....
While it is undeniable Instagram has become an indispensable social network for brands, few of them are able to benefit from their digital communication strategy!
Whether through lack of content, ideas or time (or all that at a time), many brands on the social network decide to give up or abandon it in favor of more platforms generating benefits, such as may be a Facebook or Twitter.
But the app, which now has 300 million active users worldwide can prove to be a showcase of the DNA of a brand, allowing it to sublimate its products / services and create its own visual identity so instant and creative, to the delight of its customers and / or clients!
When we know more than 46% of its users follow brands, we can understand the interest and the need to read the following 20 tips. So here we go!...
With 400 million monthly active users, Instagram offers attractive opportunities to businesses looking to promote their products and services. According to an Econsultancy.com study, users spend more than 20 minutes on Instagram daily. This means brands have a whale of time to grab their target audience’s attention and engage with them on the photo sharing platform.
However, there are many other users, companies and marketers already vying for users’ attention on Instagram, so it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that driving engagement there is easier said than done. Remember, the rule of this game is simple: You’ve got to get—and hold—the attention of your target audience, and keep it until they’ve paid for your product or service or, at the very least, subscribed to your email database.
So, how will you win the battle for attention on Instagram? Here, I present to you five tips for marketing on Instagram....
In its own way, it's been as defining a restriction as Twitter's 140-character limit. Instagram photos (and videos) come in one format: square. It forces the service's photographers into choosing thoughtful compositions, and provides an aesthetic link to the square snapshots that folks once took with Instamatics and Polaroids.
Except . . . Instagram users have stubbornly ignored this limitation. Actually, 20% of the photos people see on the service are portrait or landscape images that have been padded with white or black borders to fill out unused space, especially images that involve buildings, large groups of people, and other subjects that tend to be tall or wide. There are whole apps and tutorials designed to make this easy.
So maybe it's not that huge a deal that Instagram is taking this workaround that its users have embraced and turning it into a standard featurse. Henceforth, the service's iOS and Android apps will allow folks to share images and videos in a variety of aspect ratios....
Right off the bat, Instagram makes itself more difficult than other social media networks. Instead of posting anything you please, you’re forced to use a picture or video with every post – and that picture or video is the main focus of your post.
That means you’re constantly creating new visual content – if you’re not, others who are creating new eye-catching Instagram content will pull right ahead. Especially in the jewelry and fashion industries, Instagram has fierce competition for viewers’ attention.
The best way to get ahead is to do something truly unique and creative that your competitors aren’t doing. But everyone needs to start somewhere.
We’ll go over three general Instagram marketing strategies and give you real examples of brands using each one so you have the resources to get started right away....
Lately we’ve been sharing, liking and commenting more onBuffer’s Instagram account, and it’s been so much fun. Since Instagram is still relatively new to us, we thought it would be fun to research some ways to grow a following there.
Read on to find out the 10 best tactics (with tools and examples!) we uncovered that could help you grow a bigger, relevant audience on Instagram....
Bud Light is transforming another town into Whatever, USA, and this year, the beer giant is choosing the next set of random beer drinkers to inhabit its party town like many millennials choose their next date—on Tinder.
Users of the dating app who are 21 and older can match with Bud Light for a chance to win a weekend trip to the next Whatever, USA.
"There's a lot of synergies between the Tinder audience and the audience we're looking for," said Hugh Cullman, director of marketing for Bud Light.
Last year, following the success of its Super Bowl XLIX spot, Bud Light created Whatever, USA in Crested Butte, Colo., where 1,000 of the brand's fans got to party with celebrities in the sleepy mountain town—much to the chagrin of the town's residents....
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With Instagram analytics, you can obtain a ton of valuable data and information to understand how your brand is performing on Instagram and how you can improve your results. In this guide, we’ll go through everything about Instagram analytics — from what metrics and insights are available to how to get all them for free to what you can do with them to boost your Instagram marketing....
With over 600 million active users, Instagram is now a key consideration - not only is the platform buzzing with your target audience, it’s an ideal option for executing your visual strategy. Top brands are successfully using Instagram to boost their brand image, foster follower relationships, and increase revenue. Including Instagram in your digital marketing strategy can accelerate real growth in your business. There are many options for using visuals in your marketing. A good idea is to establish a plan that aligns with your overall business goals and can be integrated in your overall marketing plan. Once you get to this point, here are a six tools to help bolster your digital marketing efforts with Instagram....
Jasmine shares one of her favorite quotes from author Simon Sinek, “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” In her opinion, there’s no better platform than Instagram to showcase why you do something. She believes Instagram’s powerful storytelling components give you the ability to make customers loyal before a purchase has been made. If you can tell a powerful story in fewer than 87 characters (the caption limit), along with a photo that matches and elevates the storytelling component, you’ll win at Instagram....
Do you know how to use Instagram to market your business? Do you get enough interaction with your brand? Do you know how to get more followers on Instagram Instagram is a cool way to connect with your socially engaged consumers. There are more than 400 million active users on Instagram every month, and every day 3.5 billion photos are liked. Use Instagram for business purposes in the right way, and you could have an instant viral marketing success. Use it wrong, and your efforts on the site could be a big empty fail. Do you use Instagram to tell a visual story about your brand, instantly engage with your followers wherever they are, and even get very real user-generated content through photo contests on the app Whether you are new, you want to find out how to get more Instagram followers or just want a few more pointers, we’ve put together 52 tips to market your brand more authentically on Instagram....
Instagram is the social platform for visual content. For brands, Instagram can be a place to show off products, celebrate your culture, feature your community, and even make some sales.
Here is a list of brands on Instagram. Some of the brands post their own content, while others feature images and videos from followers and contributors. Several of the brands offer feeds to purchase items from images....
B2B Instagram accounts tend to have a bad reputation. They usually feature a lot of employee group shots, maybe some at industry conferences, or even office images if they’re lucky enough to have a sleek design. Unfortunately, many of these accounts are not very exciting. The surprising thing is, however, that many of these brands have great content marketing hubs.
So why the disconnect? Perhaps the reason for this has to do with the fact that they may be using the channel for a different business case, something like recruiting. In reality, any social channel, whether it be Instagram, Twitter, Facebook or Pinterest, should be viewed as an extension of and a distribution channel for your content marketing program.
Some of the content may be created specifically for that channel, but the tone, messaging, and overall look and feel should remain consistent. Here are my favorite examples of B2B brands who get it right when it comes to using Instagram as an extension of their content marketing....
Who could have predicted when Instagram first came on the scene five years ago that it would have experienced such skyrocketing popularity? The platform, which has gained over 300 million monthly active users in such a short time, clearly made some correct assumptions about the future of social media usage.
Whether due to the increasingly visual nature of social media or users’ growing displeasure with the bombardment of sponsored content, political opinions, and negativity on some other platforms, Instagram is truly in the right place at the right time with its photo and video-focussed offering.
In fact, according to content marketing company TrackMaven, Instagram has a much higher engagement ratio over time relative to all other major social networks. Their findings echo those of Forrester research, which noted that Instagram’s ratio of interactions to followers was 140 times greater than Twitter’s....
Instagram is by far the sexiest social platform on the mainstream market. Its entire design behind its existence is to expose content in its purest form with simplicity and consistency. Until just recently was it virtually free of sponsored ads, but even now that the floodgates have opened for brands to promote, the experience hasn't been rattled.
Sure, it has its bumps and bruises. Some seemingly intentional, others just plain frustrating (come on multiple account login and multiple hashtag search). But overall, Instagram has totally proven to be the purest social platform, especially for us visual learners.
As we've learned with being successful on social media, with great product comes great demand. And with great demand comes high competition. As the platform grows, the harder it is to be heard on it. And even if you do generate tons of followers, if you're a brand, the next question is, how do I convert and actually get a return on the time I'm investing in building this account? So, instead of giving up hope, thinking you'll never have an Instavoice, here are 7 steps to producing a stunning Instagram account that actually converts....
If you're in the business of selling food products -- or drink products, for that matter -- then it's incredibly important to know how to take appetizing pictures. Today's consumers expect you to use visual platforms such as Instagram and Facebook to promote your products, offer recipe ideas, announce events and promotions, and show off the human side of your community and culture.
But what does a great food brand Instagram account look like? To give you a little inspiration, we've found 15 food and drink brands that are getting noticed on Instagram. Check them out for examples of how to use the visual platform to and gain fans, followers, and loyal customers....
Lately it seems like more and more social media managers are enthusiastic about Instagram and the opportunities there to engage with fans and share great photos and videos.
And the opportunities are big! With more than 300 million active users, Instagram is giving brands some great results. A Forrester study found that top brands’ Instagram posts generated a per-follower engagement rate of 4.21%—58 times more engagement than Facebook and 120 times more than Twitter!...
As the fastest-growing social network, Instagram is a must for brands looking to boost their social presence. At her recent webinar, social media consultant Jenn Herman discussed the best strategies and tactics to effectively engage your audience, promote your brand and create effective content on Instagram.
Before the webinar, Jenn took the time to answer a few of our questions on using Instagram effectively. Now, Jenn, along with Cision’s social media manager Shirien Elamawy, look at some of our webinar attendees’ questions, which weren’t answered during the time frame of the webinar....
Brands love Instagram, and now, Instagram is showing a little love back.
The popular photo-sharing app is making it easier for brands to experiment with visual storytelling with Layout, its first complimentary app for photo editing. Instagrammers have already been using third-party apps like Pic Stitch, InstaFrame, and PhotoGrid to edit and collage their photos for years. In fact, Instagram found that 20 percent of its monthly users were using other companies’ apps to compose shareable images. Now, Instagram hopes to blow the competition out of the water by providing users with the tools to be even more creative with their ‘grams. (As the kids call it....
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Newswhip report on Instagram is worth reading.