INSTAGRAM: A “HOW TO” FOR BUSINESSES
…and a great way to connect with that important female market.
Guest post by Samantha Wardman, CornerPost Consulting
If your business is not on Instagram, you’re already behind as it’s one of the most influential trends. As of April this year, Instagram’s monthly users in Australia reached 5 million and worldwide users are up to 300 million, which is a huge customer base you could potentially be reaching! That’s no mean feat for a relatively new contender to the long serving channels, Facebook and Twitter. It is now one of the highest growth social media channels in Australia, overtaking Tumblr and Twitter with ease.
Often viewed as a female dominant social media channel, recent statistics from Hoop Media report in April 2015 commissioned by Instagram, 60% of Instagram users are female, and with females being such an important target market for the club industry, this could be a great way to connect.
Some other interesting trends on Aussie Instagram users:
- 18-34 years old are most active users
- 70% are daily users
- 46% use hashtags and 24% use video
- The core interests for users are: Fridays, photography, travel, food, fashion, music, fitness, health, retail, sport, artists, home (so a lot of those core interests are closely connected to our industry)
- On average users share only 7 posts a month.
So how do you kick start your business on Instagram?
Harness creativity and inspiration
Instagram is packed full of #dailyinspo (it’s an Instagram thing ;-)). It’s about creatively contributing and inspiring followers with your brand. So before you embark on being the next big thing, make sure you identify your core brand values to communicate, map it out, and plan your approach.
Be authentic
Telling your story honestly is the best way to be on Instagram. Be trusting and always authentic. And make sure you credit others in the process, especially if you are re-gramming a post, nothing upsets the Insty community more than not crediting users for their content.
Drive action
It’s a driver of action, primed for discovery driven by beautiful visuals. Don’t be afraid to use video or photos to drive action through to your website or through a call to action. There are multimillion dollar businesses in Australia who have single handily built their empires from only using Instagram to build and promote their brand, products and services. So it has stickiness!
Quality over quantity
Instagram is 100% about quality posts. Align your posts with your target customers and post photos and images that are relative to your brand. Unlike other channels where chatter is a must, Intsy is all about quality over quantity. So post when you feel it will add value to your followers and where it makes sense from a call to action, if that’s what you’re hoping for. According to Datafication’s research, the best time to post on weekdays is 8pm and on the weekends is 5pm.
Remember it’s a community
So be sure to follow your followers back. Engage with them and use their hashtags if suitable to your message. Follow similar brands too, it’s a very collaborative and supportive community… you’ll see.
Article sources:
April 2015 Instagram Report by Hoop Media
Datafication’s Instagram research results
