The Ultimate Content Marketing Guide to Instagram Success

Instagram is kind of a big deal.

A recent surge in visual content is sweeping across every network from Twitter to Facebook. As the leader in image sharing apps, Instagram has become a household name in recent months with more than 40 million photos being uploaded daily to their platform. Users are racking up a total of 1,000 comments and more than 8,000 likes on Instagram every second. Additionally, 28 percent of U.S. Internet users between the ages of 18 and 29 are using Instagram and that number continues to grow.

As marketers, these numbers show that while instagram has yet to become a staple in the marketing toolkit, it’s definitely something to analyze and consider. Additional thought should be considered if you’re looking to connect with Generation Y using content marketing as they are using instagram more than ever before. The question becomes, how do you use it effectively?

Getting Started: Account Set Up

The first step in establishing your Instagram presence is creating your brand or organizations profile. There are only a few areas that require information and assets which makes set up a pretty simple and easy process. Let’s look at the key parts of an instagram profile that you really cant miss:

Add a Profile Picture

For brands, the profile picture is typically something that is iconic and representative of your organization. In most cases, the profile pictures for a brand is that organizations logo as seen above in the Starbucks example. The reason brands use iconic visuals is because overtime, people start to remember your profile picture when scanning through their newsfeed and you want them to remember something that is used in other mediums.

Write a Bio

When you’re not as well known as a Starbucks, your bio is definitely the most important step in your account set up. You have under 200 characters to tell the world (1) why your instagram page is worth following and (2) what you offer as a service or product. Additionally, you have a chance to take an approach similar to Starbucks and encourage users to share content relevant to your brand using a specific hashtag.

Connect a Website

Adding a URL to your instagram page isn’t rocket science. It’s important that you drive your users down the path to purchase as much as possible and your website should be an avenue in which that can take place. Additionally, you should ensure that your URL directs users to a mobile friendly site as most traffic to instagram happens through a mobile device.

Marketing Effectively on Instagram

Once you’ve created your profile on Instagram, there are some simple things you can do get the most out of the network for increased brand exposure, consumer engagement, and even online sales.

What Type of Images Should You Share

Before you jump on instagram you need to know what type of photos will help you find success. To do that, you need to understand the interest of your target audience and think about the story your brand is trying to tell. Once you’ve done that and have a clear understanding of your audiences interests and how that lines up with your product, you’re half way there. The next step is to think about how this lines up visually.

Instagram is built on the backbone of quality images. Yes, there are lots of images on instagram that are of poor quality but those that go viral and generate significant engagement tend to be those that have high quality. In a world where 91% of US citizens have their mobile phone within reach 24/7, there has been a surge in images taken from camera phones and uploaded to instagram.

As a brand, it’s important to care about quality photography. That’s the medium in which Instagram operates, so you need to cut through the high quantity of poor photos and provide high quality images that spark emotion, engagement and brand awareness. Here are a few types of posts you should share:

Brand Centric Content

Images have always been an easy way for brands to connect with an audience. The saying “A photo can speak 1000 words” is cliche but it’s cliche for a reason. The underlying fact is that as humans, we’re hard-coded to make judgements and develop emotions as soon as we see something. As such, the power of using a visual in marketing makes for a very effective approach to communicating a compelling and complex message to consumers.

Brands who use instagram understand the importance of brand storytelling. Whether it’s through photos of their products or photos of the results of their product, businesses using instagram effectively recognize the importance of showcasing what they have to offer. Not showing your product or the benefits using instagram is a missed opportunity.

In the Lays & LuLuLemon instagram examples above you can clearly see how these brands are telling their story in different ways. Lays is focused on using a heavy branding approach with images and visuals covered with their logo and color pallete. On the flipside, LuLuLemon is focusing less on showing their product and brand logo and more around the ideas and feeling associated with the brand.

Reactive Storytelling

Reactive storytelling is the combination of a top of mind idea and a compelling marketing message. When a business uses Reactive Storytelling they are able to leverage a human truth, timely event or unique insight to generate immediate feedback from their target audience. Some of the most popular brands like Oreo, LEGO and Telus have used Reactive Storytelling to create viral sensations that have generated press and the hearts of fans.

Brands who use reactive storytelling tend to use reference that are either meme based or pop culture based. The third type of reactive storytelling is brand based but it’s rare to find these situations as they require something involving the brand worth responding to. An example of reactive storytelling from a brand based situation is a light hearted exchange between Oreo and AMC theatres about sneaking snacks in a theatre.

Meme Based: Reactive Storytelling

For instagram, Meme Based and Pop Culture based storytelling is the king. Both approaches are an easy way to generate buzz and ultimately spark conversation about your brand when done correctly.

Meme based reactive storytelling is when brands leverage a popular meme and use it to communicate a brand relevant message. Whether it’s using the Dos Equis guy or the now famous “Hey Girl” meme, even the most boring brands can succeed using meme based reactive storytelling to stand out. Here’s an example of two meme based instagram posts from Telus and LEGO that are a tribute to the infamous Grumpy Cat meme:

Pop Culture Based: Reactive Storytelling

Our society has always been captivated by pop culture. Whether it’s a new hit series on Television like Game of Thrones or a new album from Justin Bieber, pop culture is a driving force for media and consumers attention. Our obsession for pop culture is the reason why businesses like TMZ and BuzzFeed are generating millions of visits on a regular basis.

Leveraging pop culture presents a great opportunity for brands using instagram. It’s an easy way to connect with your audience using something top of mind and that they are either passionate about or able to relate to. When I wrote a blog post about business lessons we can learn from Don Draper, I was doing it because I knew other Mad Men fans would enjoy my perspective.

It works the same way for instagram, share content that references pop culture and drive engagement. A few months ago, the R&B singer known for being Brandys little brother and making an infamous sex tape with Kim Kardashian, launched a single called “I hit it first” referencing his relationship with Kim. The internet went crazy. In response to the singles cover art that blurred out Kim Kardashian, Brisk Tea reacted with this brilliant execution:

Behind the Scenes Content

Another type of content that is anything that shows the inner workings of your organization. People are looking for transparency and an inside look at how things are built or done within your organization. For years, brands and organizations have built their businesses on the promise of 43 secret herbs and spices instead of giving the inside scoop.

Today, the internet has made secrets a thing of the past. Brands are now looking at how they can be more transparent and more authentic as it’s what consumers are asking for. Victoria secret is one brand that has done this well for the last few years. Instead of simply shooting beautiful models and giving us the end result of these models in their lingerie, they are snapping live shots of the photographer, the make up artists and even the models during outtakes.

Another great way to demonstrate authenticity with your customers is to show the making of your product or the inter workings of how you do business. We live in an age where everyone wants to know everything. Steam Whistle Brewing out of Ontario and TechCrunch both recognize this and use Instagram as a way to show their employees to their customers and build a stronger connection.

Inspirational & Motivational Quotes

Sparking emotions in your customers or target audience is the most effective way to drive shares, likes, comments and any sort of connection to your brand. Studies show that the more powerful the emotion, the more likely the end user will react to the content that sparked the emotional reaction.

Quotes from iconic people are an easy way to drive emotion. One of the most frequently used hashtags on instagram is #Quotes and as such, brands should consider using it to their advantage. Inject quotes into your updates and stir up emotions of inspiration and motivation in your audience. Brands like LuLulemon and Ford have been using this tactic effectively and driving significant results because of it. The key is to recognize what quotes will resonate with your audience and then delivering them in a beautiful way:

How to Take Your Instagram to the Next Level

The tactics and tricks above are easy ways to start creating and sharing better content on instagram. Implementing the items we’ve discussed will allow your brand to develop and strengthen its relationship with its audience. You will see a spike in the levels of engagement as users will be more inclined to like, comment and share your images. But how can you take it to the next level?

Here are a few ways a brand can truly stand out:

User Generated Contests

The hope with your brand developed content is to not only drive users to share but to also encourage users to create their own. When users create content that is associated with a brand, that content combines with the other stories out there to develop the overarching brand story. While marketers have no control over what content customers put out there they can most certainly influence it to ensure that the story is aligned with their messaging.

One of my favourite up and coming brands is Frank&Oak. Self described as an online clothing shop for men who are looking for the extraordinary, it’s a startup that is trying to change the way men shop. They specialize in quality fashion and have an amazing selection of everything from pocket squares to neck-ties.

On Fridays, they often run a contest called #NecktieFridays where they encourage guys from all over the world to upload photos in their neckties for a chance to win a Frank & Oak tie.When the user uploads the photo it is connected to the #NecktieFriday hashtag which is followed by a handful of other users on a regular basis. This is a type of user generated content that is directly influenced by the brand but done so in a unique, compelling way. It drives conversation

Use Hashtags on Instagram

As seen in the Frank and Oak contest above, hashtags provide a great opportunity for keeping track of entries for contests. For those not familiar with the concept of hashtags, a hashtag is a “symbol” that allows web search engines to find and categorize messages, keywords and in the case of Instagram, pictures.For instance, if you type #dog or #dogs in one of your pictures, any user anywhere in the world looking for “dog” or “dogs” will easily find your picture and others user’s pictures using the same #keyword.

Beyond contests, hashtags present a great opportunity to broaden the reach of your images. Many users track multiple hashtags on a regular basis to see what pictures people are sharing within a specific topic or interest. Recognizing this, brands need to think about what hashtags are relevant to the different images they share and how they can leverage existing hashtag trends.

One trend on instagram is the ideas of #ThrowbackThursday which is when millions of users share old photos with their followers. Brands can capitalize on this trend by finding old pictures of their staff, offices, products or anything brand relevant and sharing it on instagram with that hashtag.

Recent studies also support the idea of using hashtags. According to a recent study from the folks at Hubspot, images that are shared on instagram that are accompanied by hashtags, generate more engagement. In this study they also identified the most “liked” hashtags:

Have Call to Actions on Images

This is a trick I’ve only recently started to see but it’s one that I fully support. On Facebook, there’s this concept of brands creating “like-bait” which is when you ask your fans to “like this status update if you love Fridays!” You know these images will drive interaction in some way and as such, they are easy wins for community managers and brands.

On instagram, there is a new type of “like bait” making strides in being an effective approach to sparking engagement. Instead of making the call to action in the text description that is associated with the image, many brands are including the call to action directly in the visual. Another approach for driving interaction is giving users a this or that choice and then asking them to “like” for this or “comment” for that.

Instagram isn’t for everyone but it most certainly can drive results when used appropriately. It’s important to identify and analyze your overarching digital plan and determine whether or not instagram is a good fit for your audience. From there, if you determine that instagram is a good fit and that you can connect with your audience using this channel, it’s time to plan.

These tips and tricks will help you in the planning stage but constantly push yourself to be innovative and think different. Aspire to create content and decline the concept of accepting what others have done as best practice. In reality, best practice is a one way street to mediocrity and accepting the status quo. Instead, strive to create your own path and use instagram to best engage and connect with your audience.

Want more insights on content marketing? I’m writing a book titled Level Up: A Guide to Content Marketing where I’ll be sharing insights like these about emotion and diving deeper into a handful of tips and tricks that will help take your content marketing efforts to the next level. Sign up today for updates regarding launch and other developments.