When Instagram was first being explored, Marketers thought it was a millennial fad that might just fade away. With Instagram’s 700 million monthly users, it’s clear that this app isn’t just a fad for people to post food pics and selfies. The Marketing industry has become a world of visual content and is a very crucial part of any company’s digital marketing strategy. Your business needs to be on Instagram, like yesterday because of these four BIG reasons: it’s a way to visually represent your brand and company, your users can help generate your content, it’s a real-time marketing strategy, and lastly it’s overall a trendy way to market to customers!
Visual Platform
This social media platforms main focus is photography. Unlike Facebook and Twitter you can’t post content unless a photo accompanies your writing. Visual content marketing is a great way for your company to take a creative approach to advertising. With all of the content on the internet, many users face content overload. A simple photo can get the point across quickly and effectively! Most brands have about 10 seconds to clearly communicate their message and keep their users attention before they scroll down to the next photo. Another great feature that Instagram has for businesses is, the paid advertisements look almost identical to free posts!
GoPro does a great job of using photos to capture their user’s attention! Their entire page is beautiful photos of their customers traveling around the world. This is a very effective way to market their product versus just taking photos of the GoPro itself.
User Generated Content
This is a huge trend on Instagram, and is something that all businesses should be utilizing! User generate content is any content that comes directly from your customers. The great part about it is, it’s FREE! Your customers will tag your product while they are using it and then you simply re-post their photos. It not only helps to gain your customer’s trust because they see a fellow peer using and promoting the product, but it also rewards your customers at the same time!
Frame Bridge is a fairly new company, most of their photos come primarily from their customers, which creates a beautiful Instagram feed and helps them and their clients out!
Real-Time Marketing
Real-time marketing is a great tool to utilize because it engages your users and can be used for many different reasons. It allows you to reach your audience at the right moment, during certain live events or media announcements. Instagram allows businesses to do this in two different ways, you can either post a photo that relates to a certain hot topic, or post on Instagram stories. Instagram stories are great for events and help your audience feel as if they are there too.
Coca Cola did a good job posting this photo about Star Wars when the new movie was just coming out. This makes their audience relate to them and feel like they are more than just a brand, they support certain things like we do!
Trendy
Let’s face it, marketers have to go with the flow of what’s trendy. They have to advertise in the places that their customers are spending most of their time and learn how to market to them effectively. Instagram is a trendy app that has rapidly grown and continues to grow! It hit 150 million active users faster than any other social media platform! WOW!
Starbucks does a great job of staying trendy, I mean just look at how beautiful and delicious they make these drinks look!? This makes their audience feel like the brand is with the times, companies that don’t utilize a popular social media platform may come off as an out of date company or even untrustworthy!
So now you know some of the BIG reasons that your company needs to start utilizing Instagram as soon as possible! If you aren’t on it, create your presence today. If you don’t have time or are feeling overwhelmed, we can help! Contact our Marketing department today!
