There is so much that you can gain from observing and identifying what the prosperous in the society are doing. You could implement their strategies where possible to grow and develop. In this article, I want to concentrate on a few the top brands in the world that are doing big on Instagram and to help you learn the very important lessons that you can put into practice to grow your business and brand.
Instagram is a platform that has really grown since its introduction some time back. And some of the world’s biggest brands are using this social platform to share videos and products to many users of this platform. Basing on SEO Services Chicago, I would say that this is a nice strategy for these businesses because when the number of channels increase, it is good to focus on the most relevant channel that is used by many people. This is important in diversifying your marketing.
Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are for a fact the mainstays of social media but marketers have begun appreciating the massive advantages of Instagram as well. With about 400 million active users according to a research done by the Pew Research center, the power that comes with using Instagram is massive. This is enough to explain that it is not just a social media platform per se, sine you can tell your visual story more effectively.
Some of the biggest brands in the world that are capitalizing on these benefits are Nike, Starbucks, Footlocker, Disney and Publix according to a report published by a marketing analytics platform – TrackMaven. According to the report, Nike recorded the highest number of followers, which is five times more than that of Starbucks but the latter had an upper hand when statistics of the engagement ratio was tabled – defined it as ‘average number of interactions per post per 1000 followers’ in the report.
The other three brands, Publix, Foot Locker and Disney also posted remarkable results: Publix was acknowledged for impressive followers’ growth, recording an addition of 30000 followers, Walt Disney Co. tops the list of video interactions with over 7 million of the same, and Foot Locker was recognized for posting more often – over 1200 photos and 300 videos.
These brands are achieving high scale results because their products are well advertised in photos and videos and they embraced the various features of Instagram that it is unique, in the sense that pictures are worth more than 1000 words and they very well tell the story since they are very engaging, it is user friendly because recently, Instagram provided for advertisement of brands, among other reasons.
From the report by TrackMaven, we can learn a couple of lessons on marketing on Instagram by looking at the performance of the world’s biggest brands. The insights from the report are well elaborated below.
1. Likes imply Engagement
According to the marketing analytics platform, Instagram is not considered a reactive channel but rather an engagement community platform. This explains the relevance of likes on any given post. Most users tend to engage by liking posts compared to commenting since slightly less than 99% of all brand interactions were in the form of likes with the remaining small percentage accounting for comments posted by consumers.
Therefore, if you want to get more likes for your product on Instagram, the catch is simple, you will need a very compelling posts that adequately tell the relevant visual story. You will be disappointed if you depend on comments for interaction.
2. Consider using Filters
Still referring to TrackMarven’s analysis, a great percentages of the brad did not use filters in their posts. However, the analysis recognizes that much could have been achieved if filters had been used. Filters are said to increase engagement. The most effective filters recommended include Mayfair, Hefe, and Ludwig. The lesson here is straight forward that you should try using these filters and check if there will be an increase in the number of engagements.
3. Use Hashtags and Questions
The advantage with the hashtag is its effectiveness on the search engine. Once you type any specific hashtag, you will end up with the result of posts related to the topic. Consequently, this increases the number of engagement you get. Another method is increasing engagement is by asking questions at the end of your post. However, these engagement account for a verysmall percentage of the whole engagement simply because, as stated earlier, they depend on comments of the consumers.
On the other hand, the use of exclamation mark is highly discouraged because according to the analysis, the posts that used exclamation marks ended up with almost zero relevant engagement. The lesson to be learnt here is also very precise.
4. Effective days to post on Instagram
From the analysis by the analytic platform, it was worth noting that the Fortune 500 brands posts are frequently posted between Mondays through Friday, but the most popular days of all are towards the end of the week, these are, Thursday and Friday. In these two days, engagements tend to increase in number. For the time of the day when engagement tends to be higher are between 1100 hours and 1400 hours. This time is supposedly to be during lunch breaks.
The time for increased engagement did not however limit the posting of new stuff to the three hours since the brands prefer to post between 0900 hours and 2100 hours. To break down the concept of the best day to post, the analysis did a great job by noting that Sunday had an added advantage in terms of engagements, despite the fact that Thursdays and Fridays are the most popular days of the week. This could be attributed to the fact that on Sundays there are less competitions.
Here, the lesson to be learned will entire depend on the type of business you run and the goals you are aiming at achieving. Generally, you should consider posting frequently and daily. Should any specific time have minimal engagement rates, reduce the number of posts and concentrate more on the times of the day where engagement is higher.