Instagram Marketing Advice: A Bufferchat Recap

Sep 4, 2015 4 min readBufferchat
Photo of Nicole Miller
Nicole Miller

Director of People @ Buffer

Rachel Daley from MadeFreshly joined #bufferchat to chat about Instagram marketing!

Catch our weekly Twitter chat, #bufferchat, every week on Wednesdays, 9 am PT/Noon ET/4 pm GMT, for valuable industry insights and networking with nearly 400 other smart marketers and community managers.

bufferchat promo 9.2.15 edited2

When did you discover the power of Instagram for business?

From MadeFreshly:

  • We were trying to grow our other platforms and it was SO HARD. But we got more engagement on IG, so we focused there.
  • It’s all about knowing your audience. You have to find the platform where they are most active and engaged.

From the community:

  • “Instagram made so much sense for me when I started blogging about travel/food, to provide a snippet of what my blog offers.” @Di_Mulan
  • “In the non-profit world, pictures and testimonies tell our story. Instagram worked.” @fmbrewington
  • “When I realized that I had started following businesses on @instagram — not just my friends!” @danielleirogers

Check out all of the amazing answers to Question 1 here!

Where does Instagram fit in your social media strategy?

From MadeFreshly:

  • We use it to inspire creative biz owners and direct followers to our blog by sharing really valuable content.

From the community:

  • “Instagram is our key outlet for sharing the diff. personalities @ BrightHaus, it’s one of the best ways we humanize our brand” @BrightHausGroup
  • “From a personal branding standpoint, @instagram is where you will build a strong, loyal following” @courtrails
  • “It fits with our requirement of speed, easy engagement with our target audience, and the authenticity of the content.” @basecreative

Check out all the amazing answers to Question 2 here!

How do you grow your Instagram audience?

From MadeFreshly:

  • 1. Content – Post what ur audience likes 2. Engagement – Actively reach out to audience 3. Exposure – Collab w/ others
  • Use Iconosquare to track your most liked/commented on posts. THAT’s exactly what you should post more of. No more guesswork!
  • Engagement – Don’t wait for your audience to come to you. Search hashtags they use and like/comment on their photos.
  • Exposure – Team up with accounts with similar audiences for contests and shout outs to get seen by more targeted eyeballs.

From the community:

  • “Use great photos, post 2-3/day, use hashtags, engage with followers, follow relevant accounts, provide info in bio.” @bangner
  • “IG is the one place you can load up the hashtags (8 to 11)…But important to keep them relevant.” @uxcelsior
  • “The more you engage, the bigger the following you will build. Instagram users love a little shoutout here and there” @wakefly

Check out all the amazing answers to Question 3 here!

How do you best direct action and get results from an Instagram post?

From MadeFreshly:

  • Make it as simple as possible and give followers the next step to take for the result you want. EX “Click the link in bio”
  • CTA’s (call-to-actions) are crucial. Don’t just assume. TELL people to “click the link in bio” or “tag a friend”

From our community:

  • “Post images that your audience can relate to, makes them want to interact” @sales_prodigy
  • “Always evolving. We research our audience then create content for them, ask questions, makes statements that engage” @idealwild
  • “I use @Iconosquare to know when to post according to my history. # are a must as this how users find pics to like!” @cecile_rainon

Check out all the amazing answers to Question 4 here!

How do you measure success or engagement on Instagram?

From MadeFreshly:

  • What’s a successful post? Depends what u want out of each. Don’t try to do too much. Have 1 goal for each (likes, follows, etc)
  • But literally, @iconosquare keeps track of your most liked/commented on posts, best times to post, etc. All the juicy stuff.
  • Some people were asking about apps to help manage multiple accounts – this should help http://qub.me/x431p2

From the community:

  • “Interactions, types of responses, COMMENTS are king though! Use @iconosquare peeps!” @WWMLD
  • “If you track trends, see what’s working best, & do it right, you’ll know notice you’re being liked (& re-rgrammed!).” @ExpWriters
  • “Depends on your goal. If you want people to click on a link use a custom bitly link so you can track” @kaychatz

Check out all the amazing answers to Question 5 here!

What brands or individuals are great to follow for inspiration?

From MadeFreshly:

From the community:

Check out all the amazing answers to Question 6 here!

What do you see as the future of Instagram?

From MadeFreshly:

  • Using geo-locations to show events or places to eat where u are, w/out being annoying could be really engaging and targeted.

From the Community

  • “I hope to see a variety of mediums and layouts – allowing wide/tall images was a great start!” @hecpara
  • “I can’t wait until IG creates a desktop version & allows ppl to pre-schedule posts, so that we can use @Buffer on it :)” @theawoods
  • “high engagement + no more limits on sizing + growing influence + avenues for creativity = powerful storytelling 4/ ANY brand!” @stephe_lee

Check out all the amazing answers to Question 7 here!

Thank you so much for everyone who joined in on this great chat!

Catch #bufferchat each Wednesday at 9 am Pacific/noon Eastern and join our Google+ community for the latest news. We also have launched a brand-new Slack community to continue these awesome conversations all week long! Join 400+ people there!

Do you have any comments or answers to these questions? Leave your thoughts in the comments! We’d love to hear from you!

Image sources: UnSplash

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