As Instagram continues to gain in popularity, many haven’t started to leverage the opportunities that Instagram provides businesses. This platform is purely visual, has lots of people engaging casually, and it has brought a sense authenticity back to social. Today, I introduce my own story of the why and how I am transitioning to use Instagram as a more integral part of my social media marketing – and why you should as well.
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In This Episode:
- It’s never too late for social media, and as we know, the big trend of 2014 is the rise of visual: Instagram, Pinterest, Slideshare
- Engagement is higher on Instagram than on Facebook, even for me, and I have 4,000 followers on Instagram and 11,000 on Facebook
- There are brands that are doing really well using Instagram as their main marketing channel: it’s great for retail industries, hospitality industries
- But what if you’re not a brick and mortar, and you’re not in retail – how do you use Instagram?
- Everyone has eyes, and they’re drawn to Instagram no matter what, it grabs people’s attention
- It’s important to note that there are no clickable links in the actual posts on Instagram, only in your bio or profile
- People are starting to use Instagram in ways it was never intended: some are putting up just quotes or memes, even though the platform is really meant for photos
- There’s something about the authenticity of this purely visual platform; it’s relevant to you, it’s relevant to your brand
- Curating content is always one kind of strategy, but Instagram is kind of the final frontier in terms of personal content
- Why can’t my social media dashboards handle Instagram? Why can’t I schedule out content for daily interaction on Instagram?
- There are a couple of tools that allow you to strategize that content a little more:
- There’s an app that required iOS, it sends you a notification and you have to go through the notification to trigger the upload, it seems a little complicated
- The other tool, Schedugr.am, is a great system: you upload the photo on your PC, you can edit the photo, create a caption, and it will seamlessly post to Instagram
- Once you have a tool and you can be more strategic, you want to maintain a daily engagement, both commenting and liking, but also posting more often
- Try uploading one photo a day!
- How do you take it past brand awareness and tie it into the services you offer?
- I’ve been taking photos when I’m at speaking engagements, which indirectly promotes my business
- For brand awareness, Instagram is extremely important right now, and now we have some tools to take it to the next level
- The most important thing on Instagram is to maintain authenticity: it allows you to have a deeper connection with people, and at the end of the day be more effective with your social media marketing
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Neal Schaffer is a leading authority on helping businesses through their digital transformation of sales and marketing through consulting, training, and helping enterprises large and small develop and execute on social media marketing strategy, influencer marketing, and social selling initiatives. President of the social media agency PDCA Social, Neal also teaches digital media to executives at Rutgers University, the Irish Management Institute (Ireland), and the University of Jyvaskyla (Finland). Fluent in Japanese and Mandarin Chinese, Neal is a popular keynote speaker and has been invited to speak about digital media on four continents in a dozen countries. He is also the author of 3 books on social media, including Maximize Your Social (Wiley), and in late 2019 will publish his 4th book, The Business of Influence (HarperCollins), on educating the market on the why and how every business should leverage the potential of influencer marketing. Neal resides in Irvine, California but also frequently travels to Japan.
@nealschaffer
Social Media Author, @RBSExecEd & @IMI_Ireland Educator, Keynote Speaker. Speaking at #cmc19. Next book on Influencer Marketing. Next Trip: Boston. 日本語話せます。
LinkedIn Reactions: Should Social Media Managers Care About Them? https://t.co/gmK42JGFvA #linkedin #socialselling https://t.co/PpWfoxpJsz - 1 hour ago
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