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Digital Communications Lead - Middle East & Africa, Talkwalker
Nowadays, it’s hard to come by a brand that doesn’t want to be ahead of the game on Instagram. Why wouldn’t they? The platform is growing in size, popularity, and offerings. Not only that, but also 80% of Instagram accounts have been reported to be following at least one business. Surely, you’d want yours to be one of them.
According to Talkwalker Quick Search, Instagram marketing has been mentioned online over 131.8k times in the last 30 days alone. So, how can brands and marketers leverage this powerful platform and build their online community?
1. Identify the type of posts that attract the highest engagement
Using a social analytics tool, marketers can easily identify the type of posts that result in the highest engagement levels. This doesn’t just mean whether they are photos, videos, or carousels. Marketers should dig deeper to analyze the posts and determine if there is a theme that ties together the most engaging posts.
For instance, emotion-driven marketing can work very well for certain audiences, while other audiences may engage better with profiles that highlight aesthetics, or have a minimalistic approach (think short captions, or none at all!) It’s important to remember that there’s no one-size-fits-all solution; instead, marketers should prioritize understanding their own audience, and that of their industry in general.
2. Build a strong network of true influencers
While influencer marketing is increasingly being questioned for its value and actual return on investment, there remains no doubt that engaging with the right influencers can add significant value. Effective influencer marketing campaigns can deliver 11x higher ROI than traditional digital marketing.
Finding the right influencer isn’t just about their number of followers. Marketers should be deeply tuned into digital conversations around their brand and their industry as a whole to be able to identify genuine influencers who share the same interests and values as their brand, and who also have a powerful and relevant network to be leveraged.
3. Select the scope
Brands that are homegrown and cater specifically to a local audience should have a different Instagram strategy to those that are global with offices and audiences around the world. Increasingly, we also see brands that are adopting a glocal approach; catering to their widespread audience while maintaining a strong local flavor of their roots. A brand’s Instagram schedule of posts should be in line with their scope- taking into account regional peak timings, time zones, weekends, and even the choices of celebrities for endorsements.
4. Define the hashtags
Creative and recognizable hashtags can do wonders for an Instagram strategy. Brands should seek to constantly optimize their hashtags, making sure they have general ones that are used year-round, and campaign-specific ones that engage a targeted audience for a certain duration of time. The key thing here is for brands to ensure they are tracking, analyzing, and optimizing hashtags using a hashtag tracking tool.
5. Listen, analyze, optimize
The social media industry is always evolving and new updates and features are constantly being tested and introduced. A successful Instagram marketing strategy should be constantly evolving too. Instagram analytics tools offer a variety of insights that can be used to boost brand impact, analyze competition, and optimize performance on an ongoing basis.
Need more detail on how to put together a foolproof Instagram marketing strategy? Download Talkwalker’s Ultimate Instagram Marketing checklist here.