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Tips to Avoid Wasting your Content Curation Efforts

Nothing has improved promotion and customer relationships as much as content marketing.

Businesses everywhere use content (blogs, social media posts, and other formats) to educate their customers, and improve their products.

But while we are talking about content, which generates 3 times as many leads as traditional marketing, we’re often forgetting one key category: content curation.

Marketing teams can’t handle producing all content on their own, and aggregating and sharing third-party content results in significant boosts to customer satisfaction.

Content curation also helps with:

• Building authority
• Improving brand awareness
• Fostering B2C communication
• Innovation

Just because you’re “borrowing” content doesn’t mean it can’t help you increase your ROI.

Here’s what you can do to personalize your content curation efforts:

1) Add personal notes instead of only sharing links

Link sharing is the number one way to curate content.

However, if you really want to improve your content curation, add a few personal notes.

While you can quote a sentence or briefly describe what the article is about, your real goal should be to provide perspective on why it matters.

There’s a lot of content being published every day, and it’s becoming impossible for users and potential customers to keep track of everything.

If you really want to establish your business as the industry authority, explain why the content you’ve selected matters to your customers.

2) Monitor trends and curate content accordingly

Evergreen content always works, but trends are just as important.

79% of marketers use social media to find content for their strategy exactly because they want to stay on top of trends.

And if your potential customers see news from you first, they’ll develop loyalty faster.

It also gives you the opportunity to establish yourself as a credible resource they can rely on when they want to get the latest information on the state of industry.

3) Ask

If you want to personalize your content curation efforts, start posing questions.

This can be as simple as offering commentary on a topic your audience is interested in, and asking for their opinion.

Not only will this give you an additional item in your content calendar, but it will also show your customers that you value their input. Today, when customers decide which brands they’ll be loyal to, they pay attention to personalization and the business’ image.

Image source: freemansocialmedia.com

Moving forward you can even use the feedback your followers gave you for your content curation efforts, and let it shape your strategy.

4) Connect the curated content to your business

The best content strategy mixes combine directly promotional content with content curation.

However, there’s no reason your curated content can’t be promotional, as well.

Connect the borrowed content you’re sharing to your business.

For example, if you have a customer relationship management software, you may share statistics such as: “87% of businesses use cloud-based CRM systems.”

In order to personalize it, you can connect it to your business by showing how you make cloud-based systems easy for everyone involved.

If you’re sharing an article on industry innovation that you’ve been implementing, why not mention that?

Even though the point of content marketing is to educate your customers before turning them into buyers (increasing the retention rate in the process), there’s no reason not to give credit where credit is due.

5) Include your users (user-generated content)

Users love collaborating with businesses they trust.

Even though the usual content curation procedure includes sourcing articles and re-sharing them on social media, one of the best ways to personalize your content curation strategy is by including your users.

It can also help you acquire more new users, as 76% of people trust content made by individuals more than by brands.

For example, IBM often uses user-generated content as a part of their content curation strategy.

Source: IBM’s Instagram profile

This works especially well because IBM isn’t a photogenic business, so they’re focusing on showing the people behind the work.

And users appreciate being a part of the business’ strategy.

6) Contrast & compare

If you’re focusing on trends, don’t forget to look back every once in a while.

News travels fast, and we consume it faster today than ever, so retrospective and comparison can be a good way to capture attention – even if you’re using borrowed content.

You can:

• Analyze different points of view
• Juxtapose developments in your industry 10 years ago with the current developments
• Share your personal observations

 This all gives you more authority in customers’ eyes, as you show that you’re not just staying informed about new developments – you are also noticing how the industry has changed, and using that insight to innovate it even more.

Image source: http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2015/01/13/infographic-templates

Infographics work especially well, and they get 650% higher engagement than text-only posts.

7) Curate according to audience segments and channels

Some users love LinkedIn, while others swear by Facebook.

You should know how to use both, especially if significant portions of your (potential) audience are using them.

However, that doesn’t mean that you can use same content and simply re-share it to different channels.

Instead, consider making two separate strategies and measuring and tracking user engagement.

The key factors to look at are:

• Popular types of consumed content
• Audience interests
• Channel purpose

In our Facebook and LinkedIn example, you would be looking at:

1) Types of content:

Facebook – Posts, images and videos

LinkedIn – Status updates and blog posts

2) Audience interests:

Facebook – Heartwarming content that builds relationships, and doesn’t drive immediate sales

LinkedIn – Professional development

3) Channel purpose:

Facebook – Relationship-building

LinkedIn – Immediate sales (as a means of obtaining competitive advantage)

Certain audience segments will naturally gravitate towards one channel or the other, so it’s important to understand which channel they use – and how they use it.

8) Empower partners and customers

Most customers want brands to sound like people, not businesses. And while that can seem tricky while keeping your revenue in mind, it’s important to show the human side (just like IBM does).

Image Source: Marketing Week

One of the best ways to personalize content curation is by empowering your partners and your customers.

For example, if your business partners recently launched a new feature, or offer a feature complimentary to your business, you can share it. It not only creates very positive brand image, but it also provides your customers with additional value.

You can use the same tactic to empower your customers, as well.

User-generated content is one way of using it for content curation, but you can also include your customers in surveys and case studies.

Tools for personalizing content curation

Monitoring trends in order to personalize content curation can take a lot of time. A lot of marketers use a combination of RSS feeds, Twitter lists, and a plethora of other sources.

However, marketers who want to save their time use DrumUp.

DrumUp does your content source research for you. There’s no need to spend hours finding information your customers will appreciate. Our algorithms recommend the best stories.

You can also cut your content curation management time to a bare minimum after setting up a workflow and periodically reviewing it.

And while personalizing content curation is a great way to improve your overall content strategy, it’s important to use the right tools.

With them, you can focus on what matters: your customers, and content that brings results.

“Theory by Simon Sinek” | Image by themarketingsage.com

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What Should You Post on Social Media for Your Startup?

The best news about starting-up in today’s digital landscape is that you grow at practically no cost. All you need is the right idea, at the right time and to be at the right place at the right time. Today’s army of social media bloggers and micro-bloggers are constantly looking for exciting things to post, and you can be the subject of their social media conversations. But the first things you should think about are employing a social media management tool and building a smart social media marketing strategy. While building a social media strategy, here are the kinds of questions that you should ask yourself.
Who are you trying to reach?
What are the characteristics of these people? What drives them? What concerns them?
Where do they live?
What gender, economic level, education level do they belong to?
Are they homeowners or renters? Students or working professionals?
Do they play football? Are they bikers? Do they attend music concerts regularly?
Once you know exactly who you’re targeting, you will know exactly what to post. Here are 12 types of content that you should post on social media for your startup.

1. Humorous content

Funny always works. If you can make your audience laugh, they’ll want to know who you are and what you do. It’s natural to be curious about someone who surprises or entertains you. So make your audience laugh. You get extra brownie points for sharing humorous content that’s directly related to your brand, so your audience will both be entertained and made to think about your brand. Here’s an example of that strategy in play on Tinder’s vintage #Tinder post.

The reference to your brand could also be more subtle and playful, like how Birddogs does it. Look at how they’ve showcased their product (men’s shorts) in your face in such a bold yet charming manner.

Another alternative is one where you simply post a “joke of the day” or “meme of the day” by curating content from other sources. Remember to always provide necessary attribution when curating/sharing content.

2. Your product/service updates

What are the latest features on your product? What services have you restructured or added to your business? Both your customers and social media fans eagerly await new and exciting offerings that can make a difference to their lives. And that’s how you must portray your latest updates – as novel solutions to real problems. Your feature/service update in itself could be a powerful social media marketing strategy when designed and timed right. Consider, for instance, Slack’s latest emoji tweaks in the spirit of the FIFA World Cup.

How you present products and features matters. Getting presentation right requires a certain seamless coordination between your product development and social media marketing teams. Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, has stressed the importance of interdepartmental collaboration in his book “Hit Refresh”, supporting the suggestion with his own examples and experiments. In 2015, Satya Nadella was spotted using an iPhone at Salesforce’s Dreamforce conference, where he introduced his audience to the iPhone Pro – an iPhone that supports all Microsoft applications. This partnership was unexpected by welcome by the press and customers, making Nadella’s bold presentation an instant hit. Try and plan all your business activities with marketing in mind. You’ll see that it will pay off, big time.
No update is too small to share. Even design changes can make for great social media posts if you design them to be so.

3. Success stories

Just landed a well-known client? Get them onboard with your marketing. Request their permission to construct a case-study or success story using their experience with you. More often than not, clients are excited about such an opportunity considering it free press, but they usually have concerns about the safety of their confidential information. Address their worries by disclosing your marketing plan in detail, leaving no room for ambiguity. When designing your client success stories, try and get creative. Do a video case-study or success story. Conduct an interview. Keep in mind what your social media audience would want to see.

Even if you’re not B2B, you can have customer success stories of sorts. Look at clothing retailer ModCloth’s #MarriedinModCloth social media initiative. It features a brilliant collection of photographs of customers who picked ModCloth for their wedding boutique. Few strategies work as well as social proof does on social media. Enable social media fans to envision working with you or using your products.
Success stories could also entail your company’s success stories. Just got featured on a predominant publication? Share your pride and happiness with your social media audience. Just employed new interns? Introduce them to your social media audience. People love seeing the faces and minds behind any brand.

4. Customers’ opinions

People are more likely to trust the words of other people, much like themselves. And trust is an important factor for startups, especially those that are new in the market or selling novel concepts or products. For instance, Tesla, despite the overwhelmingly positive press, has always faced issues in actually selling their vehicles. This amusing review that they retweeted could be influential in convincing other potential buyers.

Sharing the opinions of happy clients emphasizes on the fact that you’re capable of taking care of clients and fulfil their needs. But it’s also equally important to find and respond to negative experiences from clients. Every negative comment that you leave unattended is a sign of your brand’s indifference to customer feedback. The great news is that negative feedback can be an opportunity to build trust with your existing and future customers.

Observe how SizzorS salon has responded to one of their customers. It’s important to be respectful while addressing your customer’s queries in the most detailed and specific way possible.

5. Tips & news for your industry

People generally appreciate updates related to their industry, because they want to stay up to date. By providing them with such news, you can become the go-to source for news and tips in the industry. Many startups invest a lot of money in having content marketers create high-quality industry related content so it can help them get search engine and social media traffic. Instead of creating 100% of your content, you can curate top-class content that has already been created. For instance MYXYTY, an internet security solutions company, often shares news and updates related to internet security in a way that appeals to their social media followers.

If you can’t spend enough time manually curating this type of content, you could curate it using a content curation app such as DrumUp. Curate relevant content on DrumUp by setting-up keywords and RSS feeds of your favorite content sources. The content you share can be anything – useful tips, major discoveries, changes in an important law – you know your industry best. Share whatever your audience would like to follow.
When sharing, if you are the first to share and attribute the source using @mentions and #tags, you are likely to benefit from the resulting exposure. DrumUp helps you execute all of this.

6. Data & insights

Data and insights are another great form of social media content to consider sharing. Data and insights are particularly nice when shared in a visual format – as graphs or infographics. They’re not very hard to create either. With the graphics editing apps available in the market today, you can easily turn research and surveys into graphical offerings for your social media audience. Even if you don’t turn it into a graph, you could use the stat to create a compelling headliner connected to your brand.

Check out, for instance, this post that Uber shared in May this year. It gives Uber users in those cities a powerful reason to consider using the service permanently instead of buying a car. Uber’s popular for sharing really interesting stats collected vis Uber rides with their social media fans.
Explore different areas in which you collect data and can turn them into interesting and engaging social media posts. Then, use them wisely.
Alternatively, you could conduct research on areas that interest your target audience and create graphs and insights that can assist them.

7. Brand mentions in media, articles etc.

“Trust is a key enabler for economic value creation,” says Philipp Kristian Diekhoner, a German entrepreneur from Singapore. And to build trust, you need to carefully design social media content that can support those goals. Brand mentions in trusted media and publications are an excellent way to build trust with the cross-section of your target audience and readers of that publication. You may also share interviews that your company’s executives participate in to establish the knowledge and expertise of your leadership and management.

It pays to mention the publication and author when they mention you, just to build relationships with journalists and publications in your industry. When creating your own blog and social media posts, you could feature these journalists and their work in turn. You could also make room for top industry websites, magazines and news agencies in your content to catch their attention.
Finally, you could design and promote PR stunts to get covered by various publications. However, ensure that it’s genuine and in tune with your brand. To celebrate Pride month, Tinder turned their office multicolored to support the Pride movement.

8. Behind the scenes content

With people as the face of your brand, your target audience is likely to connect with you more. Your target groups are also more likely to trust you when you transparently share the process or functioning of your business with them. That’s why it’s important for you to share behind the scenes content with your social media fans. So, what qualifies as behind the scenes content? A photo of you or your team at work, preparation for an event, preprocessing of your product, a photograph of your company at an offsite event are all great examples of behind the scenes content.

Here’s a particularly cute photograph of a company’s latest recruit, Piki, the so called VP of motivation. The best part about behind the scenes content is that it allows you room to share yours and your brand’s personality. So you can share whatever’s on your mind, unless it’s offensive to someone’s sentiments.
The more transparent and free-flowing your content is, the more likely your audience is to connect with it.
Note: This post will be updated to include more types of social media content for you to post for your startup. Please watch this space for more.

Feature image via Freepik.com 



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6 Easy Ways to Grow Website Traffic From Instagram

WITH its stunning visuals and easy-to-use platform, it’s no wonder why Instagram is the fastest growing social media app with over 300 million users. When it comes to generating website traffic, Instagram is the perfect solution.

Want to start using Instagram for your business or blog, but aren’t really sure how to go about it? Check out these 6 easy ways to use Instagram to increase your website traffic:

1. Brand consistently across all social media accounts

Brand consistency is essential when it comes to building your business and its website. Why? Because it adds strength to your brand if people are able to recognize it right away. Use the same photo (such as your logo) as your profile picture on all of your social media accounts.

If you have a personal brand, rather than a company brand, consider using an image that is clear and consistent with the message you wish to convey. Headshots, a picture you have taken, an example of your work, or a behind-the-scenes photo – the possibilities go on and on.

2. Pick a username that matches your business name

It’s great to get creative with your branding, but it’s important to use a username similar to your business name to make it easy for people to find you in search results. You may certainly like “WemakethebestcoffeeEVER”, but that really won’t do much for your business. It would be confusing to some people, and it would not stand out in search results as being YOUR business.

Your username should match the username associated with your other social media profiles and branded website. Use the company name (or your name, if you are your own personal brand) for the name. Make sure to include the URL to your website, along with a 150-character bio. You want to get your message across, but not seem too stiff and serious. If you have branded hashtags, this is a great place to include them.

3. Get creative with captions

The captions for your uploaded content should tell a story that engages your audience, and compels them to find out more by clicking through to your website. Get creative with your captions, since they allow you to really give some insight into your image, make it relevant to your followers, and (hopefully) make your followers smile or become interested in what you have to offer. Plus, it’s the best way to tie things back to your business, since you can always include a URL at the end. Learn how to incorporate emjois for added emphasis and to give your captions a more personal touch.

4. Connect with other users

Just like blogging builds a business’ customer-brand relationships, so does engaging with followers on social media.  Since consumers are far more likely to go with a brand they know and trust, you want to engage with other users as much as possible.

There are numerous ways to interact with other Instagram users. Options include everything from tagging other accounts, to sending private messages. Interacting with others will build your brand, increase your audience reach and, boost your website traffic:

Tag others:

Instagram allows you to add tags before you share your content. You just tap the Tag People option, tap on the photo to add a tag, and then type in the user’s name. Once you have tagged other accounts in your content, other users are then able to tap on that photo or video to see who was tagged. This increases audience reach and builds brand-to-brand relationships with others in your industry and/or niche.

Mention others:

This is similar to mentioning on Twitter, and is a great way to generate website traffic and increase your brand’s reach. Type in the @ symbol, followed by the first letter of the user’s  name. This will bring up a list of people to choose from, but you can also just type in the name on your own. You can do this to give a “shoutout” to another company, customer, or brand, or to reply to someone’s comment.

Like the content of others:

Liking other users’ content is a super simple way to connect with other businesses and consumers. Just double-tap the image, or tap the heart button under the post. The user will get a notification that you have done this, and they are likely to check out your profile and return the favor. If you have listed the URL to your website on your profile, this will generate more traffic to your site.

Leave comments:

Leaving a comment is also a great way to connect with others. Just type in a comment hit Send, and you’re good to go! Leave something thoughtful, helpful, or long, and this will ensure your comment and username stands out among the rest.

Share across social media:

One of the best ways to increase your audience reach, while still connecting with others on Instagram, is to connect your profile to your other social media accounts. For example, if you share an Instagram post on Twitter, you can add tags and hashtags to increase your reach and connect with other brands. Not only does this build relationship, but it makes your brand seem more approachable and “in touch” with the popular technology being used by today’s consumers. This is especially important to do if your demographic is in the 18-year-old to 34-year-old range.

5. Develop a unique aesthetic for your brand

Your Instagram is basically a visual portfolio for your brand. How would you describe your business? Before you post a picture, think about whether or not that photo is consistent with your branding. It’s even better if you are able to upload pictures that contain your brand’s colors on a regular basis.

Take a look at the Instagram profiles for large companies, like Starbucks. The branding is consistent, their logo is prominently displayed, and they keep up with the fun-loving, carefree attitude that really sells their product. Whether you have a day full of paperwork, or one that just revolves around Netflix and relaxation, their brand gives the impression that buying one of their delicious drinks will perk up your mood.

Instagram is a visual-based platform so you will need to plan out a consistent, recognizable brand aesthetic. Choose the best filter (or several filters) to use for the majority of your photos. By going with the same look each time, you will establish a recognizable visual identity that will stand out to your followers. The more your brand stands out, the more traffic will be driven to your website.

You will also need to figure out what type of content you want your photos to focus on. A fashion retailer would obviously want to upload pictures of clothes, a café would upload pictures of their coffee or food, and a tattoo shop would upload pictures of their artists’ work. But, what happens if your content is not so obvious?

Think about what you have to offer your customers and/or clients, and find a way to incorporate that into your branding and visual aesthetic. Come up with consistent posting schedules, but stick to only posting 1 to 3 times per day. Be sure to include the name of your business or URL in all of your photos and captions!

6. Use hashtags

It may seem like hashtags are only used by beauty bloggers or twenty-something-year-olds trying to get more “likes” on their selfie. However, if you’re trying to use your Instagram for your business, then using hashtags is an absolute must.

Hashtags originated on Twitter, and have spread to every other social media channel. The hashtag density on Instagram is actually far greater than that of Twitter, because the success of marketing on Instagram depends heavily on effective use of hashtags.

These hashtags organize and catalog the content that is being shared, which furthers the process of people finding content and contributors. For example, a coffee company may post an image of a fancy latte in San Diego, and then use the hashtags “#latte” and “#SanDiego” when they upload the image to Instagram.

By doing this, that image is then cataloged to allow it to be found by users searching for images of lattes and San Diego. This is how users discover new content, new contributors, and new websites – like yours. Once they find this image, they may decide to share it on their own Instagram or other social media platform, and may add some other tags to it. This would further expand the audience reach of that post and, ultimately, increase your website traffic.

As a rule of thumb, include a caption with every bit of content you upload to Instagram, and include hashtags. While Instagram allows you to include up to 30, it’s best to stick to somewhere between five and twelve. In fact, statistics show Instagram posts with 11 or more hashtags have a higher rate of interaction than those with fewer hashtags.

Putting It All Together

Instagram is an incredibly important social network for business owners and bloggers alike. Not only is this visual app great for retailers, restaurants, and agencies, but it’s also great for individuals building a reputation and personal brand. It fits in well with every type of business, and proves to be a great way to generate more website traffic.

In fact, since Instagram is so popular these days, brands without an Instagram presence risk being ignored, thought of as irrelevant or considered outdated. This is especially true among the younger generation of consumers, a demographic that shouldn’t be ignored.

With so many people using Instagram, it’s important to go through the above list of tips for building an Instagram account that will give you the website traffic generation you’re looking for. Implement these tips, and watch your business boost!
What are YOUR favorite Instagram tips? Have you tried anything in particular that has really stood out as a great way to generate more website traffic? Let us know in the comments below!

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Instagram Dominates Twitter! How to Use Instagram for Business

 If you're tackling the social media arena as a part of your business strategy, you've probably set out on Facebook and Twitter, and possibly either Google+ or Pinterest. Sound familiar? It's just the way it's been done across the board thus far. 

I'm going to cut right to the chase, and make some hefty claims. Instagram has surpassed Twitter, and the way it's growing, it looks to have its eye on global social media domination. It's getting to the point where you almost have to feel foolish if you aren't using it for your business. 

Hashtags are social megaphones, great for extending exposure. But everyone knows that spamming them on Twitter just leads to less engagement, which is what you should really be after. I'm going to show you how Instagram allows for more exposure without having to sacrifice engagement.

This will be important for all marketers, but if your niche values a younger audience in any way, this is especially important for you!

Part One: WHY Should I Use Instagram for Business?

I'm going to run you through some of the top reasons for why you'd want to Instagram for business. Then, in part two of this post, I'll cover the how of tackling this social arena. 

1. Instagram Surpasses Twitter in User Count

Instagram claims 300 million users while Twitter sits on 288 million. The extreme growth rate of Instagram can't be ignored! 

First things first: The basic user numbers. If you look at the stats that the social networks themselves put out, Instagram has reached 300 million users, while Twitter claims 288 million. 

Monthly users is one thing, but social media moves so much faster than that. So what about users who are active daily? Gregory Ferenstein of VentureBeat has shown in a recent study that Instagram has indeed surpassed Twitter with the percentage of American users that are active daily. 

In fact, only Facebook beats out Instagram for daily users:

I know that 10 percent of Americans using Instagram daily might not seem like a high percentage, and Twitter's 7 percent might not seem like much of a difference, but when you consider how many hundreds of millions of people live in America, these are some weighty numbers to consider! And that's just America, think of all the other Instagram users worldwide. 

In a nutshell? There's a lot of people on Instagram, just waiting for you. Every. Single. Day.

2. It's Not Just User Count: Engagement is Higher Too

On Twitter, any more than 1-2 hashtags per tweet means a drop in engagement. On Instagram, more hashtags usually mean more engagement.

Hashtags are more than just a (somewhat silly sounding) trending phrase, "Hashtag OMG!" They're a way of reaching a much larger audience with a topical post. You don't have to be friends with thousands of people in order for them to see your updates. You just have to add a popular hashtag.

Here's the thought process I went through when considering hashtags...

1. Hashtags show all the people interested in that topic what you've posted.
2. What a great way to spread reach for my posts! I'll use ALL THE HASHTAGS ON TWITTER!
3. People on Twitter don't respond to posts that are spammed with hashtags. I can only use 1-2 per Tweet.
4. My reach feels so limited. If only there was a way I could use lots of hashtags AND increase engagement. 
5. Instagram comes along, and is all: "You can do that here, you know..."
6. #MindBlown

Want some proof? A graph in a post on Buffer by Kevan Lee really shows that "the more the merrier" attitude towards hashtags on Instagram will indeed get you further.

1-2 hashtags? Try 30.

Kevan Lee: "His finding is quite interesting: The more hashtags you use, the more likes your photo will get."

3. Instagram is the Best Network for Reaching a Younger Audience

If any part of your target market is within the 18-29 age group, then Instagram is the best social media choice for you. An interesting post by 19-year-old Andrew Watts, "A Teenager’s View on Social Media, Written by an actual teen" really depicts the social climate for a younger audience:

This point is reinforced by a study done by Business Insider. In this chart, you can see the incredible downward slope of Facebook with US teens, the half-hearted rise and fall of Twitter, and the epic popularity growth of Instagram.

Going forward into the future of social media marketing, this is your audience. The up-and-coming generation is set on Instagram. 

I'd just like to say, this doesn't mean that there aren't people older than 29 on Instagram. It's just that you're most likely to find a solid audience in that age group.

Part Two: HOW to Use Instagram for Business

As with any content or social media guide, your audience is the focus at all times. If you can't give them what they're looking for, they won't look for you.

1. Assess Whether Instagram is Best for Your Brand

When you think about the target market for your brand and the general audience of Instagram, is there any crossover?

You need to think about the compatibility between your website and the user base of Instagram. It could be helpful to ask yourself these questions...

• What do I know about my average site visitor?
• Are they generally older than 30? Or do I have at least some success with people in their 20's or even teens?
• What products do I promote? Are there many images on Instagram based on that type of topic?
• Do my competitors use Instagram? (More on this in the next section!)

If your audience is distinctively over 30, then Instagram might not be worth targeting. You can save time and effort with that tidbit alone. Go to another social network instead.

If, however, you have any audience in their 20s or even teens, then this social environment could very well be important to your brand. Age isn't everything, though! As this is a home of visual media (as opposed to text updates) there are certain niches that thrive more than others. 

A good example of this can be seen in the statistics on Brandwatch. It seems that Instagram is great for fitness sites with a male-majority audience, and also for cosmetics with a female-majority audience.

Once again, that's not to say that these are the only niches that it's good for. You'll have to think about your website audience specifically to figure out whether Instagram is the best for you.

2. Study What Your Competitors are Doing

If your competitors are on Instagram, what do their posts look like? This could be a good place to start planning your own social content.

Studying your competitors on Instagram will give you a fairly good indication of the type of content that's trending in your niche. When I asked freelance writer and social media expert Kristi Hines about the most important element for anyone wanting to use Instagram for business, this point was the focus. 

"The best thing to do when starting out on an Instagram marketing campaign is to see what your competitors are doing first.

After visiting a few of your competitors' profiles, you'll get a good sense for the types of images and videos that get the best response from your target audience.

You'll also see if they use branded hashtags, contests, and other strategies to engage their audience.

I'd also highly recommend a tool called Rival IQ.

It will allow you to quickly research the best your competitors have to offer on Instagram (and other social platforms)."

- Kristi Hines, Freelance Writer

So that's definitely worth looking into. See what your competitors are posting, figure out how effective that reach would be for you, and think about how difficult it would be to create similar media. If it seems worth it, why not give it a go?

3. Try Posting. Measure Success. Adjust Tactics. Rinse and Repeat.

Yep, trial and error. Once you've got an idea of what you're competitors are doing, it's the only way to set out with your own content.

Start small, and try one or two things. Build a list of trending hashtags in your niche (ones your competitors commonly use or similar that have a large following), and then create a couple of images or an easy-to-make short video that target those hashtags. Put them out there, see how it goes. 

There are a lot of tools you can use to track the success of your Instagram campaign, such as Iconosquare. 

Try one that appeals to you, and use it to figure out what works well, and what you could ditch without loss.

I'd love to know: Do you use Instagram for business? Have you found it useful in your niche? Comment below if you do, or if you would like to know if anyone else in your niche has found it to be successful.

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