Tips on how to make Instagram work for you…
Back in June 2018, we, h2o Creative communications, set up an Instagram account.
It needed a little bit of TLC as we only posted every other week and in some cases, not for 3 months!
I joined h2o in January 2019 and decided to take the Instagram account under my wing. Within 3 months we gained 130+ followers. This may not seem a lot, but for a business who had a few followers to then receiving this amount in 3 months was a big thing for us! So, ‘how did you do this?’ I hear you ask?
Let’s start with…Why h2o Needs Instagram (your business may follow a similar strategy)
- We want to increase brand awareness. It’s hard to win new business if nobody knows who you are. It also seems daft to not utilise every available medium to raise awareness about ourselves.
- Potential quality sales lead. I’m not saying set up Instagram and watch the new business come flying in. Most of our new business comes from referrals, but we do get queries from social media and our email (info@h2o-creative.com). Having a link to our website on our biography and building an audience using great content can definitely help.
- Create a community — i.e sharing agency life, parties, company meetings/events and what’s going on in the company. This can help with recruiting, many candidates check out a prospective new employer on social media. Showing office life can both encourage more applications and save both sides a lot of time in the long-run.
- Understanding the industry — i.e. what’s working for our competitors, what are the best social media experts in the industry doing (apart from us of course…) and how we can replicate and improve upon their success.
From January 2019, I posted daily using a few hashtags that were relevant to the post. I was posting things like; ‘#TeamMonday’ on a Monday (funnily enough) or Happy Friyay on, you guessed it, a Friday!
The images I was posting were to boost engagement. I have always made sure there is a happy medium by uploading motivational quotes and office-life antics as well as marketing facts.
I recommend creating content that fits your brand’s identity and content you are passionate about.
I found that posting every day made the content wear thin and I ended up struggling what to write as there wasn’t much trending/not much happening in the office.
I decided in May 2019 that we needed to post a little less and post more marketing-related info.
Most recent posts on our Instagram page👇
I have taken advantage of Instagram stories and split these videos and images into categories shown here 👇
Here’s a list of the main objectives I am aiming to cover over the next couple of years for h2o’s Instagram account:
- Demonstrate company culture
- Showcase our team and recruit new talent
- Drive people to our website
- Showcase our services
- Share company or industry news to always keep our audience up to date — either share blogs we have written through Instagram stories or posting images with a descriptive caption to show industry knowledge.
- Build a more engaged community
These are the hashtags I use for each post. I write a relevant caption and then add a comment with them in beneath:
#digitalmarketing #marketing #socialmediamarketing #seo #socialmedia #business #branding #entrepreneur #onlinemarketing #marketingdigital #contentmarketing #startup #marketingtips #advertising #webdesign #marketingstrategy #smallbusiness #b #ppc #instagram #sem #entrepreneurship #google #digitalmarketingagency #digital #graphicdesign #smm #website #digitalagency #bhfyp
You want more? Okay!
Make sure to always post the correct image sizes on Instagram so that it looks brilliant. If it’s not fun, attractive, or engaging no one will be interested in following you. Here are a few content ideas for your company:
- Share real customer testimonials (if they give you permission)
- Behind-the-scenes pictures at your office
- Introduce employees — whether they’re new to the team or been there a while.
- Share your latest agency work (video, campaign, image etc.)
- Start a debate on a trending industry topic (this can be on Facebook, Twitter etc. too)
- Share any impressive PR or awards your company has received.
- Ask your followers questions or run an informal poll through Instagram stories. We’ve trialled polls recently and it was a success with lots of people answering.
- Post infographics, videos, and other visually appealing content.
- Share posts from your own blog or articles from your own website. Unless you reach the hallowed 10k followers, you won’t be able to use the ‘swipe up’ link. As a result, you will need to get people to click through to your site from your Instagram profile. This takes 3 clicks and so is obviously a massive effort for people. We recommend using an engaging image, video or GIF to pique people’s interest and encourage them to do all of that exhausting clicking.
- Take advantage of Instagram’s story feature.
- Livestream your office and what’s happening there
- Post interviews with employees or “meet the staff” introductory videos. We’ve all heard the phrase people buy people. Show off your people!
- Create how-to videos, tutorials, hints and tips, and other informative content.
Consistency is what matters. Post at regular intervals. 4 to 7 times a week is a good goal to set so your page stays up-to-date and is relevant for all of your followers.
It’s easy to see a stagnant Instagram account that has no new content or if they are posting once in a blue moon. If you don’t care about your account. Why should anybody else?
Your followers are worth zero if you don’t interact with them and if you don’t connect on a personal level. Start paying attention to the community you’re building.
A lot of brands make the mistake of ignoring their comments or questions and leave their followers with no information or reason to interact again in the future. Don’t just say “thanks” when someone leaves you a comment.
Remember, do what works for you. You don’t have to do all of this but by utilising what Instagram offers, you may as well trial and test different mediums to see what best suits your business.
