How Instagram Can Increase Brand Awareness

Posted by: admin on Oct 17, 2012 | No Comments

Less reading, more visual. Instagram has incredible potential to increase your brand awareness. Here’s what you need to know!

So what is Instagram?

Instagram- the mobile-only app that visually enhances the way we view things. Instagram allows users to take a photo, apply a digital filter to it and share it with other Instagram users they are connected to on the network as well as other social networking sites.

Growth in numbers?

According to Forbes, Instagram has seen remarkable growth in the first seven months of 2012; over 80 million users in the month of July.

What can Instagram do for you?

Build your brand- when people feel personally connected to a brand, they’re more likely to “follow” your business on Twitter and Instagram as well as “like” you on Facebook. Starbucks is an example of a big brand that does this well. Sure their photos show lots of Starbucks cups, but their photos also tell a story—the focus is always on what the person is doing while enjoying their coffee—on the beach, reading a book, etc.

Share Your Expertise- a simple way of advertising, visually showing followers what your business or brand is all about.

Example-

#BestBuy: 13,361 photos
#Sharpie: 69,402 photos
#Skittles: 68,924 photos
#Samsung: 113,723 photos
#Jeep: 127,464 photos

Blatant self-promotion is ineffective on Instagram. In fact, Instagram actively discourages it. This doesn’t mean you can’t show pictures of your brand or product, just make them interesting so they can work for you

Aggregate Your Content- hashtags are really unique on Instagram. It corrals search results into relevant categories and conversations, which makes your brand easy to find.

Example- Tiffany & Co. chose to put aggregate Instagram photos on a website. Since Tiffany is about love (packaged in a really, really expensive blue box), they asked their followers to post a picture about love, calling the campaign “True Love in Pictures.” Followers used the hashtag #TrueLovePictures and took photos inspired by the phrase, “It was true love when _________.” Easy and effective

If you want to learn more about how Instagram and other social platforms can become part of your engaging social media strategy, learn more about our programs.