I know what you’re thinking already. Another social media site I want you to look into. Between Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, your blog and all the other sites out there, how are you supposed to incorporate Instagram into your social media strategy? And, more importantly, why should you bother? You’re doing just fine without it, right…
Here’s why you should consider using Instagram for business – it’s the future of social media marketing.
Instagram isn’t going anywhere.
In just three years, they have grown to 150 million users. This is a faster growth trajectory than Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. And with 60% of users outside of the US, the global reach of Instagram is growing.
Beyond just the popularity and rapid expansion of Instagram, there are a number of reasons why it is beneficial to use this platform as a part of your social media strategy.
Visual Marketing
Instagram, and other visual content sites like Pinterest, are gaining popularity for a reason. We’ve heard the phrase “a picture is worth a thousand words” countless times since we were children. As marketers and content creators, why wouldn’t you want to take advantage of images as part of your content marketing strategy? Just think how much less typing you’d have to do!
“Visual marketing” is one of the latest buzz words, and for good reason. Consumers want images and content marketers need to provide them. Think about your Facebook feed, do you read every post? Likely not. What about photos? You may not stop on every one, but you stop and look at a good majority of them. And what about Pinterest? Think about how much more content you consume when each post is a well crafted image.
Instagram is just the same. It’s an entire feed of visual stimulation encouraging interaction at its highest levels. If you’re seeing any success with visual marketing on the other platforms you use, imagine the capabilities you have on a site dedicated solely to visual marketing.
High Levels of Engagement
While I don’t have scientific studies from Pew or Mashable to substantiate this claim, I have read other blogs and I ran my own studies that validate Instagram engagement is typically higher than any other site. The ratio and number of likes and comments on Instagram posts significantly surpasses the ratio and number of likes and comments on any other social media site.
High Visibility of Posts
One of the reasons Instagram posts receive such high levels of engagement is that posts are highly visible. There’s no Edgerank or other algorithm that selectively showcases your posts. Every single one of your posts will appear in the feeds of every single one of your followers!
Strategic use of hashtags can also significantly boost the exposure of your posts to new users who will like and comment on your posts and who may even follow you as a result.
Your posts also live on forever. They don’t disappear or get archived like old tweets. And they don’t get buried so far down your stream, like Facebook, that they get lost. A quick scroll through your profile showcases every single post you have ever shared. This is a great way for new followers to connect with your brand!
Connect With a Targeted Audience
I promise that your audience is using Instagram. With 150 million users and growing, your customers are on there. There may be a smaller number of your customers and it may take a while to grow your community to significant levels. But take advantage of the smaller community now to cultivate real brand advocates and loyal customers. Instagram users are passionate and active – they want to interact with you and get to know you.
Emotional Connection
Photos immediately convey emotional responses. You can easily use your posts to evoke powerful emotions in your audience in order to produce the reactions you desire. If you want people to donate to your non-profit, use images that elicit the desire to participate and donate. If you want to celebrate a milestone or achievement with your audience, use posts that stimulate those emotions. Using the right emotional connection through your posts will drastically increase your engagement and help you reach your goals.
Drive Traffic to your Site
One of the most important things we all want is more traffic to our websites. And, yes, you can drive traffic from Instagram! Make sure you post a link to your site in your bio – this is the only place you can put an active hyperlink on Instagram. Mentioning your website or using calls to action (CTA’s) in your post comments are great ways to generate traffic to your site. I also recommend using a specific landing page from your website as the link in your bio in order to capitalize on visitors coming from Instagram.
It’s fun!
One of the best things about Instagram is that it’s just plain fun! The posts make you laugh, you get to stage awesome photo shoots, and you see the beauty in the simplest things. Instagram will change the way you think of content marketing – because when you’re having fun creating your content, it really isn’t all that much “work”!
The growth and expansion that we’re seeing on Instagram is only the beginning for this powerful site. Instagram is the latest site to grow into a permanent position within the big social media giants. As this site gains more traction and more users, the more powerful it will become for businesses and marketers. The solutions and long term benefits that are provided by Instagram for business are inescapable. Be prepared – if you’re not on Instagram now, you will be in the near future.
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We think of Pinterest as a lifestyle social network, chock full of party ideas, crafts, home decor inspiration, recipes, and fitness routines. But Pinterest is so much more than that. It’s become an asset to marketers who want to show off their visual content and drive traffic to their sites.
And here’s a notable benefit of Pinterest marketing. According to this infographic, the half-life of a Pin is a whopping 3.5 months. That’s 1,680 times longer than the half-life of a Facebook post. And don’t even get me started on the 24-minute half-life of a Tweet. Which means that the effort you put into your Pinterest presence will pay dividends for a long time.
And the value of Pinterest marketing isn’t limited to B2C businesses. Pinterest can supply fresh traffic and leads to B2B businesses as well. In this post, I’ll share 10 tips for B2B Marketing on Pinterest.
1. Pin a Variety of Visual Content
Pinterest is for visual content. That’s why so many B2B businesses often think Pinterest isn’t for them. They feel like they don’t have enough—or in fact any—visual content to share.
So, first of all, if you don’t have any visual content, it’s time to get cracking. Content marketing is the future of marketing, and the sexiness of visual content is undeniable.
But don’t wait until you have a fresh bank of visual assets before you dip your feet into the Pinterest pool. Trust me, you have more visual content than you realize. Here are some ideas to get you started:
- Product images. Post your product images and link back to your site’s product pages.
- Quotes. Create graphic quotes that would inspire your target audience. Canva makes the job quick and easy.
- Blog posts. Pin your blog posts to drive people back to your site.
- Events. Pin photos of company and industry events.
- Employees. Show off photos of team members. Let your unique company culture shine through pinned photos of your inter-company social events.
- Marketing materials. Pin the covers of your e-books, white papers, and brochures—with links to where the materials can be downloaded.
- Presentations. Put your decks to work for you. Create a board for each presentation and pin key slides to the board.
- Industry-related topics. Share infographics and other pieces that are relevant to your industry.
- Tips and recommendations. Be helpful to your prospects and clients. Curate tips and recommendations to make their lives easier. Create boards on books you recommend, great blogs for them to follow, podcasts, and apps.
- Targeted boards. Create specific boards that cater to the needs and interests of individual industries and your different personas.
2. Balance Quality and Personality
When you create a new board, aim to make it the best board on that topic, and include a wide variety of quality pins. But while you target quality, don’t be afraid to show your personality. Quirkiness and humour can be very effective at making you stand out on Pinterest.
3. Use Pinterest to Find Great Content
Don’t limit your Pinterest presence to your own content. Round out your boards with content that your audience will enjoy, from other sources.
Don’t have time to scour the Web for that content? Follow relevant Pinners to fill your feed with quality Pins that you can conveniently re-Pin to your boards.
4. Use Great Images
Attention-grabbing imagery is key on Pinterest. Make sure you’re using the optimal image size for your Pins, board images, and profile images.
Use stunning photography, beautiful fonts and place subtle branding in the corners of your images. And make it easy for your site visitors to pin your content right from your site. Make sure that all your posts and pages contain at least one Pinnable image.
5. Write Quality Copy
Of course, great imagery that your Pinterest audience wants to click is key. But don’t forget to make your copy work for you too. Think of your descriptions as ad copy. Make them engaging enough to earn a click. And add compelling calls to action to help convert visitors to your site.
6. SEO Your Boards and Pins
Pinterest can be an asset in your SEO efforts. The more people re-pin your site content, the more backlinks your site earns. And social signals can improve your rankings.
To help people find your Pins on both Pinterest and Google, optimize your profile, boards, and pins. Search Engine Watch offers up some great advice here on how to do that.
But how about the Pins that are created directly from your site? You can’t always count on Pinners to enter a keyword-rich description on those pins. Many won’t enter a description at all. Give Pinners a hand by enabling Rich Pins, which automatically pull some of the post content into the description.
7. Get the Data
To help you decide what new content to create and post to Pinterest, you need to understand how your current content is performing. And for that, you’re going to need to get the data. Here are three great sources of analytics data for Pinterest.
To start with, access the analytics data for your Pinterest business page here. You’ll find a variety of engagement insights about your pins.
Next, remember that not everyone pins from Pinterest. Find out what content people are pinning directly from your site by visiting pinterest.com/source/example.com. (Substitute example.com for your domain.)
Finally, use Google Analytics to monitor engagement and conversion metrics for your Pinterest traffic.
8. Research Your Ideal Client
Are you trying to get a better understand of who your ideal client is as a person? Pinterest can provide a wealth of data. Just check out the boards of your clients and people who have repinned your pins. What else are they pinning? What insights can you glean from their boards?
9. Research Content Ideas
If content creation is a priority for you, you’ll hit occasional droughts in content ideas. (It happens to the best of us, believe me.) Pinterest’s guided search is effective for unearthing content ideas and curation opportunities around a topic.
10. Get Inspired by the Greats
Why reinvent the wheel when you can follow the lead of other great brands? Check out these great Pinterest business pages to see how it’s done:
11. Bonus tip: Collaborate with Clients and Partners
Ok so this isn’t really a marketing, so consider it a bonus. Pinterest is a fantastic tool for collaborating with clients.
I use it whenever I build a visual asset for a new client – whether it’s a video, presentation, infographic or Website. So that I don’t waste time building a piece my client won’t like, I strive to get into my client’s head before I begin. I try to get a sense of the design styles that resonate with them.
Sure, I could have them fill out a client brief. But that exercise feels too esoteric to some of my clients. What’s worked brilliantly for me instead is to create a secret board on Pinterest, and add my client as a contributor. My client then spends time Pinning images, photos, colour palettes, fonts, and websites they love. Before long, I know exactly what they’re after and can deliver on their vision.
Over To You
Have you been using Pinterest in your B2B marketing? If not, why? If so, have I missed any key points? I’d love to hear from you. Please share in the comments.
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Visual content has become one of the most powerful tools out there.
With 500 million daily active users, Instagram has revolutionized the way we share content, by utilizing imagery alone!
The visual trend has already grown exponentially from the days of simply posting static images.
Social media is now dominated by eye-catching graphics, breathtaking pictures and gut-busting memes.
Most recently, incorporating GIFs, 360 photos, and live video.
Businesses rarely ask whether visual content is an effective part of their strategy.
In fact 65 percent of senior marketing executives believe that visual assets like photos, video, illustrations and infographics are important when it comes to sharing their brand story.
However, not everyone knows how to effectively leverage the power of graphics, images and videos.
Here, we will share 5 tips to improve your visual strategy and promote your business using the most effective types of visual content!
1. Publish striking images
Our first tip is to simply share images!
BuzzSumo found that updates with images have 2.3x more engagement on social media in comparison to posts without.
Clearly, that means that you should be publishing content featuring images in order to properly build your following!
However, it is crucial to always use high quality, eye-catching, brand flattering images for your website, blog, or social media efforts, in order to portray a professional feel.
Whether you use royalty free images featured on photo-sharing websites, take pictures yourself or hire a designer to create custom graphics and photos – the source is entirely up to you.
Strategies with a limited budget benefit from free images – like the one above – but if you run a company that highly values brand nurturing the best idea is to contract a designer who will help create fully branded,
original images.Whatever your budget, always be sure the images are:
- Crisp & clear – Avoid dark, pixelated or blurry images
- High quality – Be sure the images are optimized for today’s visual technology
- Relevant to your niche or brand (We’ll get into this more later!)
Looking for places to integrate visuals alongside usual content? How about:
- Featuring an image for your blog posts
- Share an image with a quote on social media
- Promote an eBook cover when advertising a digital product
- Show inspirational images in your email newsletter
2. Share knowledge using an infographic!
Infographics are a visual way to present data or explain an otherwise complex concept.
This makes them extremely effective when it comes to your overall content marketing strategy.
In fact, some reports state that infographics are liked and shared 3X more than any other type of content on social media.
Infographics are suitable for presenting research results, sharing a workflow, showing the passage of time or even teaching a step-by-step process.
This type of content is most appropriate for bloggers who want to enhance their writing with graphics that better help explain complicated concepts.
Readers will appreciate the clarity and love learning new things in a unique way!
The layout should be clear, with various different shapes and colors that allow you to highlight different aspects of the presented data:
An inspiring design helps even the most mundane statistics and percentages seem interesting and engaging.
Also, as they share their own view of the topic, your users will actively be promoting your infographic as well, thus helping you expand your audience.
3. Evaluate your use of memes
Memes are commonly known as images that are accompanied by humorous, unpredictable captions.
They even have their own way of being relevant in the world of online marketing!
Some of the most influential blogs in the industry use memes as a funny way to present a certain point, along with entertaining the readers at the same time.
With memes, it’s almost as if you are creating an inside joke specifically for your industry and tailoring it to the topic you’re addressing.
The best memes are targeted correctly and appropriate for your audience, so be sure you take those factors into consideration before posting.
Not only will you engage your readers by utilizing humor and using creativity, but if utilized properly, you will also get likes, shares, comments and even more engaged followers!
4. Create relevant presentations
While on one side we have memes and humorous content, on the other we have presentations, which are an equally important tool when it comes to your visual content marketing strategy.
The recommended approach for presentations is similar to that of infographics – visual elements, shapes and colors are used to create an attractive design and gain the attention of your readers.
Presentations are typically best for promoting short texts, quotes, definitions, etc. and unlike infographics, can be a bit more lengthy, which allows you to present more information and data.
Utilizing online platforms for sharing presentations, such as SlideShare, you can provide a presentation that is accessible to a significant number of online users, enabling them to easily share the presentation on their own blogs or social media.
5. Consider vlogging or filming videos
Vlogs and live videos are increasingly popular on social media, as they allow direct interaction with your social followers.
Videos are particularly useful for creating dynamic presentations especially with accompanying music or a voice over message.
Filming vlogs or doing a live video event is a perfect way to create a more intimate bond with your social followers.
You could film a part of your speech at a conference, share the atmosphere from an event or simply do an online Q and A.
Online platforms and advanced functions on smartphones allow you to create video content quite easily, without requiring any special technical skills.
Before you get started, find a great vlog to subscribe to and take notes!
Need a recommendation?
Click through to check out our vlog on YouTube!
Wrapping it Up
All types of visual content allow for the possibility of boosting engagement.As a result, you’ll get to see a ton of benefits such as a gain in followers, an increase in traffic and even more leads.Define your strategy in such a way that you take full advantage of visual content.Use formats that are suitable for the topics you want to address,
and make sure that visual content is relevant to your overall business strategy and intended audience.Whether you use memes, infographics or presentations, you want the style to fully match the overall message you’re trying to convey.You’ll see the best results when the strategy is aligned with – and reflective of – your business goals.Think about using visual content as a way of showcasing the essence of your brand while engaging viewers at the same time!As always, we’d love to hear from you next:What type of visual content do you find to be the most appealing to you?When it comes to your business, which type of visual content do you use the most and why?Still trying to get the hang of this visual content thing and looking to learn more before posting your next image?Click to read our tips for small businesses on Instagram!Learn from your own experience and monitor which content helps you boost your business. Once you’ve had some practice, come back and let us know.We can’t wait to hear from you!
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