Content marketing on Instagram

Instagram is a free, online platform for sharing images and videos and social networking. Instagram has over 300 million monthly active users and there is more than 70 million published image per day. Instagram has founded five years ago and it’s been growing very fast, it has become one of the most valuable social media platforms. Many companies have realized that this kind of visual storytelling grows their following, engage customers, and boost their brands. In last few years, Instagram has grown into an effective platform for marketers.

A few examples of companies that have succeed in Instagram and managed to take advantage of content marketing in Instagram. One of the most succeed companies in Instagram are Nike, GoPro, Levi’s and Ben and Jerry’s. They have used visual storytelling to building their brands.

                                                                           

I found two interesting articles about “How to use Instagram for content marketing”

(http://www.onlinemarketinginstitute.org/blog/2013/09/how-to-use-instagram-for-content-marketing/ and http://www.scribblelive.com/blog/2015/06/22/use-instagram-content-marketing/ )

Best tips from the articles:

      1. Use Instagram to Tell Your Brand’s Story

Storytelling is one of the most important thing on Instagram marketing. Storytelling evokes people's emotions and creates engagement. 

      2. Practice Good Instagram Habits

Practice the good habits that will improve your marketing efforts. One of the most important is writing captions. Even if a picture is worth of thousand words, the good caption improves communication. Captions helps to understand the meanings of the picture.

      3. Use hashtags. 

Users can find your company more easily by using the right hashtags. Using a relevant hashtag will help expand your reach beyond your current followers and increase your chances of engagement.

      4. Post the best pictures you can. 

      Don’t use only Instagram own photo-editing tools. Use the apps which helps you to make your pictures look even better. There is a wide range of applications that helps you to take your pictures to the next level. Images need to be high quality and interesting.

     




5. Post often

Posting often is a prerequisite for getting new followers. Regular posts will hold consumers intrests. It’s good to set targets and make a timetable for posting.

       

      6. Creating engagement 

This is the most important target. The better you build a network on Instagram, the more opportunities you create to promote your products and brand—and with an audience receptive to what you have to say. 

      7. Involve your brand community

      Building a successful Instagram campaign does not end with the content you post. It is equally important to involve yourself and your followers in the community your brand is trying to build. This can be done easily by responding to follower comments, following relevant influencers and mentioning them in posts.


      
      And last.. Watch this short video about doing business on Instagram! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYmEdUrH8YY

-Petra Forsius-

How to create engaging social media content?

Every company in social media wants to create engaging content and that could be challenge. For the the first you have to know your own company well and for the second you have to know your audience well.

So first define what are the major demographic groups that are engaged in each platform. In every platform - Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube - you probably have different audience or in other words people search different kind of posts from different platforms. 

For second you take under consider posting type and time. Timing really matters in this also. Do a research on the times that your audience is most likely to interact. For in general Thursday and Friday are best posting days for Facebook and Monday to Thursday best for Twitter. And the best posting type for Facebook are something visual and interactive. In Twitter question and answer type content works best. Look the best timing from the nest picture. 

http://marinemarketingtools.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/best-days-times-social-media-chart.jpg

Third thing to do is to be current. Follow current trends and news and relate your post to them. And always be a few steps ahead that you are not so predictable. 

For the Fourth try to make your audience feel comfortable and familiar with your brand. This might lead to interaction and it usually leads. This makes it easier for your audience to relate. Also be consistent!

Fifth, encourage your employees to interact with current and potential customers. Just them to be present and engaged. 

(sorce used: http://www.webseoanalytics.com/blog/5-tips-for-creating-engaging-content-on-social-media-platforms/)

Some tips and examples for engaging:

For fist the most important thing is to use quality pictures and videos and so on when ever it is possible. But also art and science works almost always for engaging posts. 

Other good things you can use are funny or inspirational images, product photos and for deeper you can have photos of how the product is done. 

You can also use photos or videos that have nothing to do with your product to break you're offering for example, it can be thought provoking. 

Also day in life -posts are good for creating transparency. You let people know how things are done in your company and thus increase interest from your audience. 

To interact your audience you can also ask questions and hold a contest in your social media site. Or many people always participate when there are product give away. 

Good things to share are videos that inspires you and your company, industry news and company news. 

For the one of the most captivating thing is to share stories because people really love stories. Especially in Facebook stories are a hit. For example Facebook site - Humans of New York, has almost 16 million likes of the pages and the only thing is that they share people stories. Check the site from this link!

(sorce used: http://www.business2community.com/social-media/35-engaging-social-media-post-ideas-for-businesses-01319116#MYSPIKhq8HZ9yAwA.97)

-Mira Niemi-

Five steps of target market analysis

Why should companies write a target market analysis? The most important thing is that is can help you use your marketing funds more effectively. You can identify the most important characteristics about them. Then it is easier to promote your product or service directly to them. This can really increase sales. 

STEP 1: Identify your target market

Identifying your target market will help you use your resources more wisely when you market to a specific group of people. 

• List all potential customers. Individual buyers, other businesses and middlemen who re-sell your product
• Segment your audience and then split them up into different groups of customers

Determine who will benefit from your product the most. This is your company's target audience. Focus your campaign on this group.

Image (c) Alex Slobodkin / Getty Images

STEP 2: Describe your target market demographically

Demographic characteristics can be age, gender, maritial status etc.. 

• This kind of information can be often found online 
• For businesses can this kind of information can be where the business is located, their annual revenue, industry and so on

http://combatarms.wikia.com/wiki/File:Globe.svg

STEP 3: Describe your target market psycho-graphically

Psycho graphic information tells you information about you audience's attitudes, beliefs, emotions and values. 

• This kind of information can be found through surveys or focus groups. It would be beneficial to hire a marketing research team to help you
• Businesses' psycho graphic information can include for example company's values or motto

http://induxtree.com/content-marketing/psychographic-segmentation-in-b2b-marketing/

 STEP 4: Describe your target market behavioristically

It helps you to understand why someone purchases something over another. It includes how often target market buy the product, how much or how many they buy and so on.

• Determine how important brand or company loyalty is to your target market
• Ask if your customers prefer face-to-face interaction or an online store
• How do your target market pay for your product?
• Do your audience most heavily value convenience, a good price or quality?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/marketshare/2013/01/07/is-brand-loyalty-dying-a-slow-and-painful-death/

STEP 5: Compile your results 

This is your target market analysis, an in-depth look at the lifestyle and the characteristics of your customers.

• Consider using graphics! It helps your organization visualize different numbers and percentages.

http://www.target-a-market.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/target-markets.jpg

- Tanja Heikkinen

 

Source: http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Target-Market-Analysis

Marketing in Social Media

Nowadays pretty much all companies are somehow linked to social media. And probably the simplest reason for that is visibility and publicity companies acquire through different social media channels. Of course other benefits follow visibility and publicity, and these are only for the good of the company. Sometimes though, marketing can go wrong and news, good and bad travel like a flash through the internet. So there are a lot of opportunities and benefits within social media, but also it can bring bad publicity in some cases. Unlike often said, all publicity isn't necessarily good.

Improved audience insights

- Businesses should understand their customers. Therefore in social media, listening to your customers and finding our their needs is the most important thing. Content is then built on according to the demand.

Improved customer service

- Being there for your customer is extremely important, and a lot of people use social media to find solutions to their problems. Companies should keep customers updated in social media as they would in any other place. Good service all in all keeps the customers satisfied.

Content is easily distributed

- As we all know, internet is a wondrous place and data can be shared easily with just one click of a button. This helps the distribution of various things. This is also a great way for companies to share their content around the Globe in a blink of an eye.

Become an influencer in your industry

- Influence grows together with popularity. This way you gain more visibility. To get more visibility it is essential to be connected to other companies, because it will increase the amount of people seeing your company's name or logo. And that's what companies want. Awareness.

Increased Traffic

- Companies can provide links to, for example their websites and to different products. Through social media this is very efficient and a good way of advertising your products more specifically for those who are interested.

Enhanced SEO rankings

- Social media enables the possibility of having better visibility in search engines. If a company wishes to be found with specific keywords, they should put more emphasis on those topics in their content.

"Businesses sharing their content on social media are sending out a “brand-signal” to search engines that speak of your brands legitimacy, credibility, and trustworthiness." -What are the Benefits of Social Media Marketing? , Lexie Carbone, Feb 1st 2015

Save Money

- Social media tools are free.

Here are some of the benefits social media tools provide, and to read more check this article

References: http://www.business2community.com/social-media/benefits-social-media-marketing-01140985#Zg6yZGZ0QlpKdrzk.97

How customers, clients and other individuals believe in the popularity of your account

What I have personally learned by following and reading different blogs, and following the process is that in the beginning it can be very difficult to get some followers. At that time it is very important to just believe in yourself and not to give up. It will take months, for some it might take even years until it hits. People and individuals with the same kind of interests will find you. Not through a friend in common, but through a business partner à who has a friend à who is following an interesting source à who gives examples on products à which are marketing by à and used by à and who actually comment in an interesting point of view why to choose this product.

See, to find followers and customers you first have to believe in yourself and get those few followers (probably your friends or acquaintances) who will share your opinions and posts to their connections where all the fun starts.

But we live in a world where a lot of us believes in what other people think and say, and to get reliable for individuals they usually want to see the huge amount of other people who likes your opinions and ways to think, the followers. This is why, some very smart companies, has launched a way to get hundreds, thousands or even tens of thousands of followers to like and follow your page.  This will be possible by paying just a small amount of money for the service, and suddenly you will have hundreds of thousands of followers, and individuals who believe in you more. But is this right and fair to do so?

There have been so many different discussions about these topics lately on the Internet and at different sites and apps. There are many opinions saying that you as a blogger, “Instagrammer” or “Twitterer” shouldn’t worry too much about these topics. But is this really reliable and worth it? Will people trust and believe in you in the future?

Please feel free to comment on what you think about how important it is to have the followers and popularity. This time I got my inspiration from another, interesting blogger named Ian Andersson Gray.

How to become a Social Media Guru in 20 Steps