This week on #bufferchat our community discussed how to be successful with Instagram marketing, chatting about everything from stories to the new algorithm. Read on to discover all of the awesome insights shared during the chat!
Catch our weekly Twitter chat, #bufferchat, at TWO times every Wednesday for valuable industry insights and to meet hundreds of other smart marketers and social media enthusiasts. Same topic, same place, just at different times – feel free to join whichever chat time works best for you!
4 pm AEDT (Sydney time)
9 am PT (San Francisco time)
This week’s stats:
Bufferchat #1 (4 pm AEDT): 16 participants; reach of 960,377
Bufferchat #2 (9 am PT): 62 participants; reach of 1,183,588
Q1: How (or when) can Instagram be a great addition to your marketing strategy?
From the community:
A1. Instagram is where you can bring your brand to life – after all, your pictures tell your story! Show off your fun company culture, create awareness of your brand, showcase products and advertise – either using influencers or sponsored campaigns. #bufferchat
— Ben Hollom FCIM (@benhollom) February 21, 2018
A1 @Instagram is a great channel for niche topics and communities.
?Insta Stories: Use GIFs, make videos, and link to your content/deals
?Make use of story highlights (products, valuable info)
?Leverage Facebook’s ad targeting for IG marketing#bufferchat pic.twitter.com/3mbq1l0mB5
— Nancy Casanova (@nancycasanova) February 21, 2018
A1: The visual nature of Instagram makes it great for storytelling – regardless of industry. Even the dullest of industries can create compelling visual content. I’ve seen dentists, manufacturing plants, + more kick butt on Instagram by investing in visual content. #bufferchat pic.twitter.com/butFc9Gh53
— Anne Mercer (@Anne_E_Mercer) February 21, 2018
A1: If your audience matches the demographic of that of Instagram’s most frequent users, get on there! It’s a great platform to showcase what your customers AND your staff are up to in a more personal way. #BufferChat pic.twitter.com/wFe1CODbja
— Lisa Boyles ??? #SOCIALWOLFPACK ? (@lisaboylesmedia) February 21, 2018
See all the great answers to question 1 here!
Q2: What are some creative ways to bring more awareness or followers to your Instagram account?
From the community:
A2 for the account I manage; I’ve started posting less. And I spend time searching relevant hashtags, so that I can like and comment on others’ content. I don’t use any bots for this, and try to make each comment personable. People can sniff out the nonsense! #BufferChat
— Matt Quanstrom (@MattQuanstrom) February 21, 2018
A2: 2-part posts. Post the 1st image with strong hashtags to get eyes on it. Let them know image 2 is coming the next day to get them hooked & make them follow you so they don’t miss it! #bufferchat
— Jennifer Wright (@jenfwright) February 21, 2018
A2: for more awareness or followers start adding:
1. quotes and inspirations
2. run contests
3. you can also consider Instagram advertising
4. cross-promote your Instagram account on other social media channels
5. using relevant hashtags according to your niche#bufferchat
— Ashok Sharma (@Ashok83) February 21, 2018
A2:
• Look into themes or tactics your competitors are using.
• Always take advantage of relevant hashtags.
• Engage with your audience! Ask them if you can use images they tag your account in to create curated content.
• Use stories to highlight important events. #bufferchat
— Kaitlin Kelly (@KaitlinAnnKelly) February 21, 2018
See all the great answers to question 2 here!
Q3: Is there a particular type of post that gets the best engagement for you on Instagram? Or a particular time?
From the community:
A3: Videos generally do well. Pictures of myself/team or really just putting a face to the account do well. Also when tagging location and using a hashtag on IG stories, I found that to be helpful to get on the location/hashtag story as well. #bufferchat
— Ambriss (@ambriss_) February 21, 2018
@buffer A3 – People seem to love it when I show the pretty awesome city I live in! From my biz account, they love anything behind the scenes, my days are varied, which lends nicely to that! #bufferchat pic.twitter.com/QfVDcjGiXe
— Mike McGrail (@mike_mcgrail) February 21, 2018
A3: Saturday’s are our biggest days by far, followed by Tuesdays. I know the more consistent I am with our posting, the more engagement we see. Sunsets are hands down our most popular posts, followed by wine pics (for our wine fest) #bufferchat
— juliestuckey (@JulieStuckey) February 21, 2018
A3: photos of community events showcasing our employees get a lot of engagement as well as #contestalert posts, 9 am and 9 pm are when our followers are most active #bufferchat
— Loewe Chan (@sincerelyloewe) February 21, 2018
See all the great answers to question 3 here!
Q4: Have you found inventive ways to retain engagement after algorithm change from chronological to algorithmic?
From the community:
A4: Use Stories every day! This helps your visibility tremendously. Post one photo a day, but never sacrifice quality. If you don’t have something great to post, skip a day and curate great content for the next few days. Consistency is key! #bufferchat
— Erin Sanchez (@candidlyerin) February 21, 2018
A4.
Consistent, valuable content always wins.
Ask loyal followers (via Stories) to get notifications when you post something new.
And do a “tease” for your new post on Stories too!#bufferchat pic.twitter.com/M7lWgOdUSj
— Tori Dunlap | FOR HIRE: Marketer & Blogger (@victori_media) February 21, 2018
A4. Engaging with relevant account & with bespoke comments is more important than ever to bring people back to your account. Event and time based content may no longer be seen prior to your event so you’ve got to be purposeful in getting people to find your posts ?. #BufferChat pic.twitter.com/0WbAO9bTmp
— Miss Sophie (@letsdostuffs) February 21, 2018
A4: Having “content themes” that span multiple days works well with this Instagram Algorithm… The more meta-information in the post, the more likely it will be shown to the same people over the course of a 2-3 day period #Bufferchat
— Walid Flavor-Doctor (@WalidTerrell) February 21, 2018
See all the great answers to question 4 here!
Q5: Are Instagram Stories a part of your strategy? If so, how do you use them?
From the community:
A5: Ironically it’s us building more marketing assets like Help Center docs, showing off sneak peaks of new products, and just general office shenanigans. #bufferchat pic.twitter.com/LgNU4V9pD4
— Ben Campbell ❄ ☃ (@Ben_Soup) February 21, 2018
A5: IG stories is a major part of my strategy. An effective way of using Instagram stories is to tag places, people/companies relevant to the content, and popular but relevant hashtags. This has improved my social reach dramatically since I started Instagram. #bufferchat
— Wayne Jones (@wayneoflife) February 21, 2018
A5: Stories is so unique especially now that they have installed gifs and continue to improve the “feature”, allows for more creativity! Polls is my favorite part because it gives you a small insight into what your followers like! #BufferChat
— LostenTorres (@LostenTorres) February 21, 2018
A5: Instagram stories are at the TOP of my strategy. It allows me to connect with people and ask them questions and opinions with polls. PLUS, I love letting people see the “real” side of me – it’s like a little vlog! ? #BufferChat
— Jessie (@JessieDeschane) February 21, 2018
See all the great answers to question 5 here!
Q6: What people or brands are using Instagram really well?
From the community:
A6: I enjoy @NPR, @VANS_66 and @NASA‘s Insta game. Very engaging content, always fresh. #bufferchat
— Pippa ? (@PippaRogers82) February 21, 2018
A6 undoubtedly Fashion , Food, photographers, Online retail, travel industry, small & budding artists, are doing it the best, #Bufferchat we like – @tinydoorsatl , @theconomist @thekithcentrail , @natgeotravel
— CuriousmindConsulting (@cmcpros) February 21, 2018
A6: Great question. Among brands, I think @GoPro @theknot and @SeePuertoRico are using IG really well. Among people, @OmarZRobles is knocking it outta the ball park all day! #bufferchat
— Chris Santiago (@Chris_Santiago_) February 21, 2018
A6: I love @Bodenclothing‘s use of Stories and video. @superlativelyLJ is queen of Stories too – and @wishwishwish does beautifully curated mini-movie-like updates. #bufferchat
— Sara Tasker (@meandorla) February 21, 2018
See all the great answers to question 6 here!
Thank you so much to our awesome community for sharing such great insights in this chat!
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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