Five Marketing Tips Courtesy of Instagram
Since its conception almost five years ago, Instagram has single-handedly changed the way individuals and companies represent themselves and interact with clients. Knowing this, and apparently feeling generous, they recently put together five tips for more successful marketing on Instagram that photographers might do well to take note of — after all, build a solid enough following and you might make $15,000 overnight selling prints…
Companies like GE and Warby Parker have managed to turn a rather standard social media account into an extremely vital player in their marketing campaigns. The five tips below, shared by Instagram on their business blog, help point out what these companies do best and how you can improve your own Instagram account to better grab the attention of the masses:
1. Be true to your brand: Ensure that your imagery expresses a clearly defined personality and voice. Photos from eyeglass retailer @warbyparker, featured in the handbook, never feel overly staged or serious, but instead draw from trends in the Instagram community to reflect the company’s quirky creativity.
2. Share experiences: Offer a view into the world or lifestyle that your brand makes possible through the eyes of the people who use your products and services. The customer images and videos shared by @gopro prompt viewers to wonder what moments they could capture with a GoPro.
3. Find beauty everywhere: Show how your company sees the world and make it meaningful to people. @generalelectric showcases the beauty of their technology by transporting people to giant jet engine factories and remote wind farms, capturing the machines with elegant symmetry and imparting the grand scale of these man-made wonders.
4. Inspire action: Start a movement around your brand, whether that means inspiring people to capture photos while running like the #runfree campaign from @nikerunning, or to celebrate a delicious yogurt concoction, as @chobani has done with their #creationaday hashtag.
5. Know your audience: Learn what people love about your brand, and explore how you can capture the imagination of new customers. @missionbicycle takes the beautiful simplicity that customers love about its bicycles and uses imagery on Instagram to turn these everyday objects into works of art.
The pieces of information shared by Instagram may seem like common knowledge to some of us. But even if these are all marketing tips you’re aware of, they serve as a great refresher and the examples offered show the tips executed exceptionally well.
Of course, these five aren’t the be all end all, and there are probably tips not on this list that apply specifically to photographers. So if you have other ideas for how to better market yourself on Instagram, drop them in the comments and help your fellow photogs grow their audience!
(via Instagram Blog via SLR Lounge)
