Let’s face it. With 8.5 million users in the Philippines, Instagram has got HUGE potential here.
It’s not a shiny new toy anymore; it’s the ‘it’ platform where you can share your stories with a very active young community. In fact, Instagram Stories, which lets you post highlights of your life through photo and video slideshows that disappear by 24 hours, is now more popular than Snapchat.
It’s a shame for any brand to miss out, according to three Instagram-savvy entrepreneurs: Miggy Azurin, Huskee Digital’s CEO, Shaira Habon, a blogger and stylist, and Kaity Chua-Jayme, marketing head of The Wild Poppy, a hip and booming restaurant in Poblacion with a mouth-watering Instagram-feed. Who better to share this insight than they?
They also share that it’s not enough to be on Instagram, it’s also important for your feed to shine through the noise. They shared some tips at an Instagram marketing event hosted by Huskey Digital to help startups and SMEs in maximizing the potential of their Instagram accounts. I listed down my five takeaways to share with you.
5 Tips to Make Your Instagram Feed Shine through the Noise
5. Give your brand a personality.
For entrepreneurs and businesses, Instagram can be a great platform to portray who you are as a person and who the people are behind your brand. To accomplish this, set up the basics first. Decide on the story you wish to share. Two questions you should ask yourself: What is my company culture? What makes me special. Create your logo, plan the photos or content for your feed, and decide on the palette or filters (or no filter) that will determine the look of your profile. You can use photo editing tools like Lightroom, VSCO, and Snapseed to enhance your photos.
4. Develop your brand voice.
It’s better to be authentic. Use your own photos and not stock photos. Know and find out how to communicate with your audience by listening to them and engaging with them in a language or tone of voice that will resonate with them. Then be consistent to build trust and loyalty. Shaira, for example, transitions from one photo to the next based on colors. A series of photos that are predominantly red may transition to another color based on one other color in the last photo, creating a stylish palette on her Instagram feed.
3. Use hashtags.
Get noticed and build a following. Like and comment on photos related to your niche. Mention other users as you engage in conversations with others in your niche. To mention, use the symbol ‘@’ before a username, like @thewildpoppy. Use a hashtag that will help get your photos discovered. You do this by adding the symbol ‘#’ before a word. Research common ones and develop your own hashtags, but make sure they are relevant and can be easily connected with the image you are posting. Check the feed of #thewildpoppy, which uses hashtags commonly used by users to search #yummy #foodph.
2. Post regularly but not too much.
Consistency is key. Post daily if possible so your followers can look forward to something from you daily.
1. Connect with micro-influencers.
Looking at the trends, micro-influencers, who oftentimes are our social media-active friends, seem set to take over the scene in Instagram. So if you are a brand that is looking for help, you might consider tapping these micro-influencers with smaller followings (less than 1,000 to 10,000) but who frequently share content about their interests. Although their following is small, they boast hyper-engaged followers. Miggy says micro-influencers are more authentic. As they are real people with real interests, their rapport with other consumers is also real.
What do you think of these Instagram tips? Do you have other tips to share? Post them in the comments below!
