Instagram is a popular photo social media app that allows users to essentially have a visual product of their day, a moment or a story that they want share with their friends and other users of the app. Below you’ll find a compilation of what content is building connection with followers, and examples from some businesses both large and small. Look to the examples I’ve found for inspiration on how to get more followers on Instagram, meaningfully engage with them and in return, induce them to engage with you.

Why use Instagram? Well the photo based company is company is widely used, and you can see that its consumption has doubled since 2012, and Instagram users are highly engaged on a daily basis- as you can see over 50% of users engaged with the app every day so businesses should get on board and use this to their advantage.

Use Customers-Centric Photos

Just like on your website, your Instagram content should be customer-centric too. When posting to Instagram, think before you hit the ‘Share’ button. What value does this add to my customer’s life? How do they benefit? Why would they be interested? How can I make this relevant to my followers? Always be thinking of your product/service in terms of benefits for your customer.

ASOS lets their customers use the hashtag #AsSeenOnMe for the chance to be featured on their Instagram page. As you can see below this customer is happy showing off her outfit from the store in a natural setting.

The best photos to choose are those that show your product in use, which is free advertising with a helpful co-sign from the follower who posted it. Samsung Camera features their customer’s photos that have been taken by their cameras on their Instagram.

Have a balance of images: Fun and Business

It’s important that businesses use Instagram as an opportunity to do more than promote. They can use Instagram as a medium to tell a story with their images. Anthropologie is an example of a company that has a great balance of fun images along with businesses images as well.

Debut Videos

Instagram Now allows you to embed videos on the app.

Kylie Jenner uploads how-to-style videos on her company’s Kylie Cosmetics Instagram page to showcase different ways to blend and use her lip kits, lipsticks and lip glosses.                                                          

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Connect Instagram content with your Website

Fashion Nova an on-line retailer for trendy women uses their Instagram to show pairings of their different pieces that work together as outfits. They also include the specific name of the item which tells users what to search when they get to their site if they are interested in the product. In addition to this, if a customer sees an item on Instagram and goes to the site, users can use the “Shop-Instagram” tab if they saw something they liked and want to shop the look.

Have Contests

Businesses can host photo contests on Instagram using hashtags to organize submissions and an RSS feed to follow along with new photos as they’re added.

Samsung Camera used the hashtag #LiveInTheMoment to successfully promote their Instagram photo contest.

NYX cosmetics holds photos contest in which customers photos are used on their Instagram to promote what product they are using. In this case, the beauty vlogger is showing of her lip look that she created with their product Lip Lingerie. They also hold competitions such as the FACE awards competition which is displayed on the left.

Use current trends to Market your brand.

Engage in trending hashtags’ like #ThrowBackThursday #WomanCrushWednesday, #OOTD (outfit of the day) and #FlashbackFriday and #SelfieSunday

Instagrammers can use a number of trending hashtags to join in a bigger part of the Instagram community. By finding trending hashtags that are relevant to your company or marketing strategy businesses can participate with images from their brand. Hashtags can assist with reaching out to a larger audience, which can help you gain more followers.

Here is a picture of ShoeDazzle: a monthly subscription shoe website that often uses hashtags in their posts.

 

This company not only regularly features fashion bloggers on their Instagram account but uses several hashtags in their promotional photos works very well on Instagram. Followers who engage with any of the hashtags can like and comment if the picture, the styling, the product, etc. is to their liking. Promotional photos that resonate with the audience will receive instant feedback.

This post was created by Awa Fofana a junior at University of Wisconsin Madison studying Marketing and Management Human Resource.