How to leverage social media as a marketing tool.
By Abigail Thorpe
Instagram launched in 2010, and just 10 years later it has one billion active monthly users, with 60 percent of adults who are online using the platform. Many users check the app at least once a day—if not more—and it’s become more than just a tool to post photos. It’s a way people connect, explore, and—most importantly for our purposes—find and engage with new products and businesses.
Eighty percent of users follow at least one business, and 72 percent say they’ve purchased a product they saw on the platform, which means Instagram is a great way to grow your brand, reach new customers, recruit good talent, showcase your products or services, and humanize your content. But you’ve got to do it right to reap the benefits.
Instagram doesn’t just have a wide wide audience, it has an engaged audience. Which means if you strategize a good marketing campaign for the platform, you can grow your business through customers who are actively engaged in identifying with and representing your brand.
The key is to go into it with a plan. Set your goals and purpose for being on the platform: is it to share products, to provide inspiration, to educate your audience? Next, determine your audience. This is key—you can’t be all things to everyone, but you want to be the thing to your target audience. A competitive analysis is key for finding out what competitors are doing, and how you can learn from them and do better.
Keep your posts on brand, make sure you’re using a professional account, and leverage influencer posts, reposts from employees and customers, and creative content that inspires and stands out from the rest. Utilize the tools Instagram provides to monitor interaction with your content and find your sweet spot when it comes to content that performs. And always continue to grow and stay active on the platform.
This is where Rocket Fish digital comes in. We know the competitive landscape, because we do this every day. When it comes to growing content through posts, videos, live streams and Instagram stories, we’ve got you covered.