Unafraid of Greatness: New Ways to Market with Social Media
By: Sam Chan
Marketers have learned how much social media matters in a marketing campaign, and companies are starting to learn too. We all know the most popular and trusted platforms to be on: Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, and Linkedin. But other platforms pop up like weeds all the time. Which ones have staying power? Which ones should we, as marketers, jump on? The answers to these questions may not be as difficult as you think. Jumping on every platform at once is not a good idea. But neither is ignoring everything new that comes by.
The answer is a balancing act. It’s important to find the right platforms for your outcome goals. Getting involved with every platform out there is costly and usually ineffective. But using the right platforms at the right time for the right reasons and committing to a consistent schedule of authentic, organic or cultivated content will lead to a community built on trust with the consumer. Each thoughtfully chosen platform will grow your community, brand awareness, and brand trust.
One platform with some very interesting beginnings is Instagram. As a visual platform, they had much to contend with by the way of content, but they flourished and Facebook bought them up.
An Entirely Visual Platform
Engagement
One of the greatest things about Instagram is that the engagement rate is extremely high, 58 times higher than facebook, and 120 times higher than twitter. This is extremely useful for building brand recognition and providing brand loyals with stimulating content. Likes and follows exist in abundance on Instagram.
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How to Instagram
Just as you would approach marketing on other platforms, use Instagram the way people already use it. It’s like foreign languages; you want to speak the way the locals do. Embrace the hashtag. Love emojis. And, considering that visuals are everything here, make an eye-catching feed.
Instagram Success Stories
Staples creates fun and quirky posts using their products, and adds captions with relatable hashtags and ideas. They’re appealing to a DIY audience and it’s working very well for them.
Ikea is a natural fit for Instagram. The brand simply uses its own products to create beautiful home settings to make a huge splash with interior design fans.
The one thing all of these distinct brands have in common is the knowledge of their audiences and the understanding that content is everything on Instagram.