Exploring Instagram for business

Exploring Instagram for business

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Whether your business is landscape gardening, a bakery or florist. You may even run an accountancy firm or provide an event co-ordination service. What do these, and all small businesses, have in common? You want to be seen. And, with the 2018 digital marketing trends indicating that being visual is vital, isn’t it time you explored Instagram for business?

Why you should use Instagram?

People tend to remember what they see than what they read or hear, and with a picture being worth more than a thousand words, it seems to make sense to have an Instagram profile for your business. Since September 2017, it has noted that the social media platform has around ‘800 million monthly active users*’– a huge audience you really don’t want to miss out on. A popular inbound marketing tool, Instagram allows customers to interact with content that is already tailored towards them.

How to use Instagram and maximise your social media page

I’m sure the question you’re asking is how can my small business get noticed in a sea of millions of users. Don’t worry, there are a few tricks that can help boost your posts and get your Instagram page off the ground.

#HASHTAG! This means you can reach out to more people on the platform. Furthermore, users can now follow specific hashtags they are interested in. What might you hashtag? For a smaller business, ideas for hashtags can include where your business is located or who you want to target. You’re also going to want to hashtag the focus point of your business. You can use up to 30 hashtags so don’t be shy.Here’s an example that Smart Cow might use on a post: #purley #southlondon #marketing #SEO #PPC #websitedevelopment #emailmarketing.

FOLLOW RELATED ACCOUNTS! Keep your account formal and professional and refrain from following everyone you come across. Make sure you follow similar companies/pages, and both current and potential clients. You can create another account for personal use!

PLAN! Make sure you come up with creative captions and useful hashtags. Also think about a theme or layout out for your page so that it looks aesthetically appealing. Perhaps a colour scheme, or a pattern of posts. Most importantly make sure you post frequently and keep it up to date.

USE A BUSINESS ACCOUNT! Instagram has recently introduced business accounts. It allows you to create photo and video ads with links to your website. You’ll be able to; tailor ads to reach the audience you want, have easy contact information for client’s, and access to analytics.

A few other things to do are:
• Use Insta stories
• Live videos
• Direct Message

Who are the top Instagram users?

Believe it or not but amongst all those A-List celebrities with millions of follows there are also Dogs reigning the world of Instagram. Marnie the Dog, has a huge following of 2.1 million and is also verified on Instagram, or there’s Doug The Pug verified with 3.3 million and is raking in money from his own line of merchandise!

Social media agency Croydon

If you want to keep up with the pets who rule Instagram, contact Smart Cow, we specialise in digital marketing including social media management. We can help elevate your platform to a high standard and give you a kick start.

Source: *www.statista.com

Social media eggstravaganza

Social media eggstravaganza

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A great interactive campaign this Easter was from Cadbury’s utilising Facebook 360-degree. Players were invited to search for Easter Eggs in a virtual world. On finding one, players were asked to comment where it was and the first one to comment was a winner.

The campaign is a bit of fun and engaged with a large number of Australians during a one-hour period with over 70,000 comments posted.

We know Facebook works for business and it’s a great way of keeping in touch with current and potential customers but with research indicating that the use of social media such as Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp can make children feel unhappy*, did this campaign utilise the right channel?

On one hand it has taken the traditional Easter Egg hunt to the next level allowing parents to enjoy the Easter egg hunt with their children and for Cadbury’s to reach a much wider audience. But on the other-hand, we remember the fun of running around hunting for eggs in the garden or popping to a local fair with our families to enjoy the fun with family and friends. There’s certainly a place for both, and putting a time limit on the campaign was a good call to help create a campaign frenzy but curb ongoing use.

But, as a campaign running in Australia, perhaps that’s the real reason for utilising social media, to overcome the challenges of an Easter Egg hunt in a hot country!

Social media Croydon

Incorporating social media into your marketing strategy can raise brand awareness and online presence. Visit our blog for tips on how you can improve social media presence.

If you feel you need support in getting your business noticed on social media, then get in touch with Smart Cow Marketing to discuss your needs further.

Source: *www.theguardian.com

Instagram goes shopping

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Well, Instagram doesn’t literally go shopping, but it is trialling a new shopping function.

So, if you’re a business to consumer (B2C) brand and your target audience is on Instagram then this could, at some point in the not so distance future, be an interesting avenue to explore.

Currently Instagram has the ability for businesses to place shopping-enabled adverts, as already seen on Facebook. These appear like a catalogue of images but allow the customer to buy without leaving the site.

This is in its early days with only a couple of big fashion and beauty brands utilising it, but is already an indicator of how the channel may evolve. But, the difference with this new shopping function, currently being trialled in the US, is that it allows you to tag products in a post and each of these tags carries more product detail. This is great for a retail brand giving potential buyers loads more information and quickly. While these new functions are in their early stages, why not review your channel to get it up to speed and ready for these new options.

Review your hashtags

Reach out to more potential customers and followers by reviewing the hashtags you’re using. Look at which hashtags your competitors are using. Are there any key influencers in your industry that you should be following? If so, what do they use? When you use the search function to look at hashtags don’t forget to look at those ‘related’ to your search as they could lead you to other popular hashtags.

Branding and content

Make sure your branding is consistent across all your social media channels. Your customers want to feel happy moving from one platform to the next. People like familiarity. Not only is it important to have stunning, eye-catching imagery, it is also vital to have engaging content. Getting likes and comments is good, but creating interesting comment that entices people to comment on your posts also mean that the Instagram algorithm will favour you more.

Future shopping

So, if you start to make headway now and get your Instagram channel into tip top shape, you’ll be in a great position as and when the new shopping function is available.

Social media Croydon

Incorporating social media into your marketing strategy can raise brand awareness and online presence. Visit our blog for tips on how you can improve social media presence.

If you feel you need support in getting your business noticed on social media, then get in touch with Smart Cow Marketing to discuss your needs further.

Using video for social media for business

Tips for using video for social media for business

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As you may have read from our digital marketing trend reviews, it is all about getting visual this year. With 82% of Twitter users watching video on the channel*, not only is it important for your business to join the social media conversation and set up accounts, it is key to get to grips with the visual side of social media too.

Research indicates that consumers watching a branded video are 28% more likely to buy**, therefore video content will really enhance your sales strategy.

A simple way to record a video is through the Twitter app and then you can share from that.

Or, to make sure you can utilise the video across other social media channels or on your website, you can record on your phone.

As long as you’re not making a version of War & Peace, you’ll find recording on your phone easy for short soundbites offering your target audience tips and advice. Or create lovely footage of new products you’ve just launched. But don’t forget a clear call to action and think about using a specific hashtag to help promote new products or services.

You can also live-stream via Twitter and other channels such as Facebook and Instagram, which have a story function for live feeds.

Check out this informative article by Hootsuite for in-depth details on video specs and requirements when embarking on video for Twitter.

Content marketing agency

Talk to us about your content marketing needs and we’ll advise of the best combination of channels and tactics to utilise to make you stand out from the crowd. A reliable digital marketing agency in Croydon, Smart Cow will be glad to answer any further questions.

Sources: *Wordstream **Hootsuite

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