FROM INSTAGRAM TO INSTABANG FOR MARKETERS

Mike Kevan, marketing executive, Marketing Association

Just like the mould that is on the cheese in your fridge, Instagram continues to grow. Now those crazy kids are boomeranging, hyperlapsing and making fancy layouts, these aren’t the latest dance moves at the discotheque – this is the current generation of Instagram posting. After Facebook bought out Instagram, a simple photo sharing app, its popularity exploded. It has become a real and valuable marketing channel that is worth getting on board with. A recent article stated that a single post on Selena Gomez’s feed is worth approximately $550k USD. We can all admit, that’s ludicrous.

The key to Instagram's success is its ease of use and proliferation amongst the millennials and post-millennials. Trading likes is an actual thing that people (read young people) engage in. Like all social media efforts, the goal is to amass an engaged and loyal audience. But what are you going to get out of this? Relevancy. For your brand awareness and loyalty, you need frequency. People are bombarded with advertisements and information more than ever before, so if you can have your audience actively engaged with your brand then you’re half way there.

So how’s it done?

Like everything else in marketing at the moment, it’s content, content, content. But what makes Instagram different from Snapchat? It’s about the aesthetics.

You need to generate content that is relevant, aesthetically pleasing and if you can, original. There are millions of people out there generating content constantly on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Periscope and Snapchat. People are

being bombarded with an incredible amount of choice so make sure that what you’re creating, only you can create. Instagram is a highly competitive and aesthetically driven media channel and the competition is fierce.

1. Get to know your peeps:

Start by knowing your audience, follow some of your followers, check out their likes. This is all public domain information unless they switch off. Get a feel for the kind of things your target audience actually want to see in their feed. Also, make sure you keep an eye on your competitors, both local and worldwide, you never know what inspiration you can steal borrow.

2. Get creative:

Most phones have pretty solid cameras on them now, but lighting will always give your photography or videography a boost. So it may be worth investing in some lighting gear. Don’t shy away from video, if you have the means to create funny, interesting or inspiring video that can encapsulate a message in 30 seconds, go for it. Don’t let yourself be stymied by brand guidelines or corporate interests. Be ballsy, make statements, turn some heads, make mistakes, then own them. If you’re in the social space people are expecting something worthy of their time, not press releases.

3. Tell a story:

If the aesthetic is weak, embrace the narrative, take your followers on a journey, get them invested in something. They can follow the journey of your product, a new staff member, maybe show them your endoscopy, who knows. People love stories and it’s something that is underutilised in Instagram and can give you an edge.

4. Use your new stuff:

Look at all the pretty content you’ve created from running an Instagram account. Now you have beautiful fodder for emails, Facebook ads, google remarketing etc. Make the most of it. Tweet that sh*t, make a nice Facebook album. Revel in the rewards you’ve reaped.

5. Selena Gomez:

As I mentioned at the beginning of the blog, Selena is a heavy hitting influencer in the States, so is it worth associating your brand with a Kiwi celebrity? Have a look at their follower demographics, if they fall in line with your target audience and the budget makes sense, it may just be worth it. Build a campaign around them, from beginning to end, to make sure you get the most bang out of your buck.

At the end of the day, it’s garbage in garbage out. If you want the most out of Instagram you need to figure out ahead of time whether you can invest in what it takes to have a worthwhile Instagram account. But if you want a shortcut, you can just get Max Key to take a pic of him advertising your product like @hismileteeth did.

Who knows? Try it out, social media is a fickle mistress.