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Tag: Instagram

Filter In New Clients – The SEO Benefits of Instagram

As a business, it’s important to connect with potential customers in as many ways as possible. You maintain your website, attend networking events, and post regularly on Facebook, but could you be doing more? Enter: Instagram.

As of December 2014, there are 300 million monthly active users on Instagram and over 75 million daily users, which offers great potential to broaden your brand’s reach. You’re probably familiar with some of the benefits for adding your businesses on Instagram: it’s a visual medium, there’s potential for marketing contests, it has interesting filters, and the list goes on. But did you know there are also SEO benefits

Increased Social Activity

The debate rages on over the correlation between social presence and higher search engine rankings. Search engines deny a relationship, but the data overwhelmingly suggests that increased social activity for specific webpages means higher rankings. No matter which side you believe, I think we can all agree that positive branding and increased online presence isn’t a bad thing.

Optimized Profiles

On Instagram, you can create an optimized profile for your business with a clickable link back to your site, which contributes to your overall link profile. Additionally, Instagram is both searchable and indexed by search engines, contributing to your business’s overall real estate for a branded search.

Although images aren’t indexed directly through Instagram, there are third-party sites that utilize their API and make the images indexable by search engines, which furthers your business’s potential to appear in image searches. Some popular web viewers are Websta, Gramfeed, and Followgram.

Keeping Posts Relevant

Regardless of whether your potential customers are viewing your Instagram photos through a computer or mobile device, it’s very important to align your business with the interests of your target demographic. A basic guideline to follow is the rule of threes: ⅓ promotional posts, ⅓ informational posts, and ⅓ engagement posts.

What might that look like on Instagram?

Let’s say you are a fitness company. Your promotional post might be a photo of your company’s new running shorts right out of the box as they’re hitting the shelves. An informational post could be a photo of a healthy lunch that encourages your followers to eat well. You might also post a scenic landscape of a morning run with a fantastic filter to engage with your followers.

Using #hashtags

All posts should include #hashtags to increase the likelihood of your content being liked and shared. You can also enable sharing permissions that automatically post to other social media platforms, like Facebook and Twitter, whenever you share on Instagram. By seeding your content to additional social networks, it has the potential to be picked up and shared by even more people in the social space.

Mobile Benefits

Since many users access Instagram on a mobile device, there are additional SEO benefits that are more unique to the platform.

Even though Instagram doesn’t currently offer clickable links on individual posts, you’re still encouraging followers to interact with your business through mobile devices. Since Instagram users are often looking at your posts on a mobile device, they’re more likely to visit your business’s website on their mobile device as well.

Websites that are optimized for mobile perform better in search engine results because Google looks at a website’s mobile capabilities as part of their algorithm. By encouraging users to visit your mobile site by interacting with them on Instagram, you’re helping your overall SEO efforts.

As you can see, there are more reasons for your business to be on Instagram than the awesome filters. This platform enables you to boost your SEO efforts while also connecting with your target demographic and increasing your brand’s reach.

Sources:

http://www.litony.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Instagram-for-Business.jpg

http://blog.instagram.com/post/104847837897/141210-300million

http://www.theverge.com/2013/12/12/5203578/instagram-now-has-150-million-active-monthly-users

https://instagram.com/starbucks/

https://help.instagram.com/147542625391305

https://instagram.com/nikerunning/

https://help.instagram.com/365696916849749

http://m.disney.com/

March 12, 2015
Behind the Scenes: How Social Media Is Being Used in the Local Film Industry

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past ten years or so (and not just any rock, but one without TV or Netflix), chances are you have watched a movie that was filmed here in New Orleans. The city – and the state as a whole – has seen an explosion of film and television productions over the past several years, earning the region the title of “Hollywood South.”

From comedies like 21 Jump Street to Oscar-winners like 12 Years a Slave, Louisiana has even surpassed film production stalwarts like Los Angeles and New York City to become the country’s production capital – all thanks to the highly lucrative tax credits introduced in 2002.

And while the big-budget movies are driving the local industry (check out NOLA-shot blockbusters Jurassic World and Terminator: Genisys in theaters this year), this influx has also helped inject momentum into the independent film industry – more specifically, the micro-budget indie film scene. These are projects made by passionate local filmmakers looking to find a foothold in the industry at large.

These are not films the average moviegoer is typically going to be able to see or even hear about. So how do these filmmakers get the word out? How do they raise the funds to even get it made? And how do people find out where they can see these smaller films?

The best and easiest way is through social media, an umbrella term that can be divided into several different platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.). The most effective social media strategies take a multi-faceted approach into account and are tailored to suit each medium’s strengths to maximize effectiveness.

I talked to a few local filmmakers about the importance of social media and other Internet marketing strategies. I found that first and foremost on these filmmakers’ minds is exposure, whether for fundraising or promotional purposes.

Fundraising and Promotion

“Facebook is a useful platform that enabled a community to form around the project. It is very useful in promoting fundraisers and screenings,” explains Sam Bass, who has helped with the social media campaigns for two films, How to Disappear Completely and Give Light: Stories from Indigenous Midwives. “Twitter is better for engaging with people outside of your immediate community with the potential to lead to significant opportunities and connections.”

“We began our social media campaign to draw attention to our Kickstarter,” says Hunter Burke of Construct Films, who is using social media to raise funds for and promote the film Atchafalaya. “It was the quickest and most effective way to get our message out.”

Greg Tilton, director-producer of reddit doc, had a similar mindset, but he wanted to lay the groundwork for their project before asking for fundraising help. “Social media was key because I did not want our IndieGoGo campaign to be the first time someone had heard of the project,” he states. “It’s been successful because people who don’t know me or my immediate network are following and engaging the project.”

Mac Alsfeld, the writer-director-star of Father-Like Son, found social media to be most effective after the film was made. “We heavily relied on Twitter to build a relationship with festivals,” he explains. “I think it is important to show festivals that you are the type of filmmaker that will market yourself and that festival to potential filmgoers.”

Getting Help

For these filmmakers and others, this was a very important part of the behind-the-scenes process. For the most part, they were navigating the tricky waters of social media without any substantial professional Internet marketing experience – though some had help.

Burke turned to a friend who had social media marketing and crowdfunding experience. “I really owe a lot to him for educating me on what is standard, what has worked in the past, and also coming up with some wonderful ideas. Without him, I would have been totally lost.”

Lucky enough to be dating someone in the tourism and marketing industry, Tilton found it helpful to have someone more experienced to bounce ideas off of. “As I experimented, talked to her, and read a lot of articles online, I slowly built up my knowledge. She was a great sounding board for ideas.”

Thoughts on Social Media

Even without much prior experience, these filmmakers now have some very astute thoughts about the medium overall gained from their newfound experience.

“I do believe that it is VERY important to have a presence within the social media community,” declares Kenna J. Moore of Ghost of Elysian Films, who was awarded the Emerging Vision Award for a Louisiana Filmmaker at the 2013 New Orleans Film Festival and the Louisiana Shorts Jury Award in 2014. “It is crucial that our image and what is being put out there is closely monitored. I like to have a presence but stay away from all of the ‘look-at-me’ syndrome that one can easily fall victim to in most social media settings.”

“The thing about social media is that it is, at its core, incredibly voyeuristic,” says Tilton. “Many people do follow the musings of their interests, so there is a large audience to be engaged and many want to be a part of something big. You can find that audience.”

Tips for Fellow Filmmakers

As for fellow indie filmmakers feeling overwhelmed by social media, all the filmmakers have useful tips to share:

Bass: “Have a social media strategy. Know how to work it. And don’t panic when nothing happens for a week. The most important things are follow-through and relationship building.”

Alsfeld: “Show people that you have passion. Use your social media to blast information. And even more importantly, have fun. Don’t be boring.”

Burke: “We performed the best when we released media. Posting a picture, an interview with the filmmaker, or a sample of the score really got our audience interested. People really responded to something they could interact with. Make it a fun experience. Keep it simple. Leave them wanting more.”

Moore: “I’ve learned that social media has pros and cons. Some people gain opportunity and references from it. Some social media activity allows for negativity and distraction. I would encourage people to stay focused.”

Tilton: “If you have nothing to say, don’t say anything. So many people are retweeting and posting haphazardly. It’s just a jumble of buzzwords and hashtags. Just make sure it’s always quality and you will find that pays off bigger.”

Additional Resources
Here are some more tips directed specifically at indie filmmakers on making the most out of social media:

7 Tips for Promoting Your Indie Film on Social Media via Premium Beat

6 Tips on Using Social Media for Your Indie Film via Media-Match

Image Sources:

3, 2, 1 Film Image

Social not-working Image

The End Image

January 14, 2015
HashTag, You’re It: Tagboard Allows Businesses To Display Hashtags In One Place
Do you use a certain hashtag to promote your business on social media? Do your customers have a popular hashtag they use when posting about your business?

If you answered yes, then it’s time to get excited because TagBoard makes it a whole lot easier to keep track of popular hashtags from your fans across multiple social media platforms.

What is Tagboard?

Tagboard is a tool that lets you see all similar hastags across multiple social media platforms. The platforms that Tagboard searches are:
- Twitter
- Facebook
- Instagram
- Google+
- Vine
- Alpha
How can your business benefit from Tagboard?

Tagboard uses an easy way to search for specific hashtags! All you have to do is search any hashtag to see a feed of all related hashtags and updates from the various social networks Tagboard scans.

Take Search Influence as an example. When searching for #SearchInfluence, multiple posts populate the board. If you want to use this hashtag as your own and custom brand it, you simply click on “Create #Hashtag Tagboard.” This is beneficial to getting your hashtag out there once created and seeing the interaction once the hashtag goes viral across multiple platforms.

Once “Create #Hastag Tagboard” is selected it prompts you to complete a short form to fill out and customize to your brand and business.

After filling out the form, your tagboard is complete and ready to be shared. Simply click on the “Share Tagboard” button and copy and paste the link into anywhere you want to promote or share you Tagboard.

You can make multiple custom Tagboards for multiple hashtags. The possibilities are endless.

Bonus SEO Benefits!

As a bonus, Tagboard.com is an authoritative website in itself! Moz’s Open Site Explorer reports Tagboard has a domain authority of 68/100. When you go through the steps above to create your own hashtag Tagboard, the resulting page provides a followed link back to your website and other social media networks.

Using Tagboard to claim your hashtags is a great way to further your website’s SEO and online reputation.

What hashtag do you use to promote your business? Comment below to share your successes in using hashtags.
September 17, 2014
5 For Friday – War Of The Week’s 5 Kings: Apple, BTC, Google, Pinterest, & IG

1. It’s Gold, It’s Gold Baby: The New iPad Air, That Is – Business Insider

Apple is releasing a gold version of the iPad Air with the new launch. With the iPhone 6 being launched next week, the next Apple event in line will be in October. According to MacRumors, the new iPad Air 2 is suspected to include some features similar to the iPhone 5s: fingerprint recognition and an 8MP rear camera.

Fingers crossed everyone can get gold iPads that match their gold iPhones just in time for the holidays!

2. KnCMiner Throws A Lasso Around The Moon For Bitcoin – TechCrunch

Since last December, KnCMiner has made some hard core ASIC systems to move BTC markets shortly after deployment. Now they’ve announced “a $14 million Series A to help build out new mining chips along with hosted mining services.” This ASIC chip upgrade is expected to come on-stream next year.

As a company that doesn’t actively look for funding, their miners generally sell out immediately at the commence of pre-order periods. In the past, this has allowed them to fund the entire venture independently, but they plan to look for $70 million in funding for future upgrades to a Series B to grow in capacity along with the appreciation of Bitcoin’s price.

3. Google Crushing and How to Survive Q4 With Intense Competition – Search Engine Watch

No, this isn’t about our awesome Google+ Crush infographic (although it should be). Mary Weinstein of Search Engine Watch posted 4 things that you can do to improve your e-commerce strategy.

1. Improve Brand Perception using Google Special Offers, Seller Ratings, and Product Ratings.

2. Make Feed Changes to optimize your AdWords campaigns.

3. Optimize Big Data by using Google data for Google Shopping campaigns.

4. Leverage Search Trends, such as the growth of the mobile e-commerce segment to do location targeting.

4. Pinterest Becomes The Ultimate Creeper – Marketing Land

This past week, social bookmarking network, Pinterest, sent emails to some of its users congratulating them on upcoming weddings, even some who aren’t actually planning a wedding at the moment. Talk about poor targeting.

The nature of a site like this is that a lot of people create “dream” and “inspiration” boards without the intention of following through with their pinned desires. So naturally, there are a lot of “dream wedding” boards out there for people who aren’t even remotely close to a wedding day. Luckily, the improperly emailed users mostly found it amusing and took no offense.

Amusingly enough, Pinterest came out with a funny statement to New York Magazine’s Daily Intelligencer saying that they email these category-specific boards to users every week. This one was meant for those simply interested in wedding content and not just those getting married. They ended the statement with, “We’re sorry we came off like an overbearing mother who is always asking when you’ll find a nice boy or girl.” In my opinion, that’s a great way to turn it around.

5. Spring 2015 Fashion Week Is Upon Us, You NEED To Follow Some Designer Instagrams – Huffington Post

You might not be cool enough to intern for a designer or be backstage for all of Fashion Week’s best shows, but you are totally cool enough to know where to look to find your fashion fix.

Thanks to Huffington Post’s 60 designers to follow, there’s an easy way to keep up with the fashion world. Some of my faves from the list are @zac_posen (designer), @stellabugbee (editorial director of The Cut), and @chloenorgaard (model). One of my personal favorites who didn’t make the list is the fashion photographer Jamie Beck @annstreetstudio.

Image Sources:

Bitcoin On The Moon

Instagram Fashion Week

September 5, 2014
Is Anti-Social Media On the Rise?

This year will make a decade since Facebook was launched and social media usage has skyrocketed, but is social media turning us anti-social? Parents who were unhappy about their children’s texting habits in the early 2000’s would be appalled by today’s society of Instagraming, Tweeting, FourSquaring and Pinteresting fiends across all age ranges. However, the pendulum may have swung too far, and it seems that parents aren’t the only group fed up with obsessive social media behavior.

There are many signs that we are entering an age of ANTI-social media.

Many corporations and industry leaders have voiced their advocacy for more human interaction through traditional media. Coca-Cola invented the Social Media Guard in the sarcastic commercial pictured above, which blocks people from the ability to see their phones.

Dentyne used print and commercials to encourage more “face time” by comparing human interaction with social media actions in an ad.

Professionals working within the social media industry may even capitalize off of the anti-social tendencies of those who are active online. Here are a couple of examples of how.

Cloak

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and FourSquare aid this new mobile application in locating where you are. Cloak asks you to login to one of your social media accounts, which pinpoints where you are on a map, along with the locations of other friends who are also logged into Cloak.

The app is advertised as a way to avoid people that you do not want to run into. You can set alerts that warn you when certain users come into a selected radius of you. Couldn’t this also be used as a way to stalk people? Guess that wasn’t a catchy advertising pitch…

Self Control

This app allows you to choose time periods when you do not want the ability to access specified apps or programs at all. This could be used to stop yourself from checking your email, playing games, checking Facebook, etc. A screenshot of the app is below, followed by their honest answer on how to stop the app when it is activated. The interest in this app shows that people want to be detached from their online world every once in a while but might need a little help to disconnect.

This discussion will continue on for years, but has social media gone too far? Check out the signs.

May 8, 2014
Social Media, Your Personal Red Carpet

Coined ‘Fashion’s Latest Muse’ by the New York Times in September of 2013, it’s no secret that Instagram has been the leading source of social media in the fashion industry for quite some time. Naturally, marketers and retailers alike have picked up on this trend, using Instagram as the latest and greatest promotional tool. But what makes the difference between a chic social media campaign and a total tragedy? Let the experts guide you with five basic rules to live by:

What Are You Doing?

Although social media is all about promoting your products, there is something more important to promote….your brand. No one wants to follow an Instagram that solely pushes this season’s must haves. Yes, it’s all about fashion. But people want to know what makes you tick. Where do you hang out? Where do you dine? It’s no coincidence that Rag & Bone, True Religion, Hudson, J Brand, Free People, Joie, Stuart Weitzman, Jimmy Choo, Harpers Bazaar, Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, We Wore What, and Lookbook were all at the major music festival #Coachella this weekend. And what instapost got the most attention? With 41,872 likes, Free People takes the lead with this shot of Australian fashion blogger Natascha Elisa, who by the way, isn’t sporting a look by Free People. Helping other like-designers get press to support the Free People way of life: How’s that for lifestyle branding? #Genius.

We Can Still See the Background…

One question: Where are you taking your Instagram photos? Wherever it is, please remember that your audience can still see what’s going in the background of your post. Your Instagram can only look as professional as it’s location, so if you’re guilty of taking all of your pictures in a dressing room, it’s time to change your ways! Taking the extra few minutes to find a scenic location will go a long way, I promise. And it doesn’t have to be a runway – go to the street, or into a room with great decor. Fashion blogger Danielle Burnstein, known for her blog We Wore What, is a perfect example of taking great street shots. Here she is pictured on a city street, in front of a wall with only a few posters and some graffiti behind her. But with the few pops of color and great lighting, it makes for an amazing background. This is probably why she is followed by major designers like Alice + Olivia, Tibi, J Brand, Theory, Jimmy Choo, Stuart Weitzman, and Kurt Geiger.

Let Me Take a Selfie

While the infamous ‘selfie’ is sometimes a must in order to properly display an outfit (sans the duck face), remember that the focus is on the product…not the person modeling them. There is a reason that professional models are very thin. Models are meant to be background, they are there to display the clothing or product, and not to distract from them. That being said, models are a critical element to any campaign. Clothing never looks the same on a hanger as it does on a person. The viewer needs to see the fit of the garment, as well as know how to style it. There is an entire Instagram account that puts this rule to the test called Up Close and Stylish. The stylist (and model) posts ‘selfies’ daily, however she chooses to remain entirely anonymous. She has never shown her face to the public, only her outfits. And how many followers does this mystery fashion lover have? As of right now, she has the attention of 898,000 viewers, with the majority of her posts getting well over 20,000 likes.

All Things Beautiful

The fashion industry strives to create beauty in the form of wearable art. And as art lovers know, there is inspiration everywhere. Do you see something absolutely gorgeous that makes you smile? Share it! Whether it’s a garden in full bloom, a picturesque park, or an amazing presentation of food – we appreciate the post.Take it from the Instagram guru’s at Alice + Olivia, who are known for their unbelievably colorful and whimsical pictures. They recently posted this bouquet of flowers, which caught the attention of 5,761 viewers, so it’s safe to say the public responded.

Use Your Tools…Wisely

There are some great tools on Instagram for fashion designers, bloggers, and retailers alike. The video tool is great for behind the scenes clips of photo shoots, or taking your favorite outfits and turning them into a montage. Of course it’s always popular to do a video recap of all of the looks you’ve put together at the end of the year…but personally, I prefer the sneak peeks. It’s also easy to credit someone within Instagram (designer, stylist, brand) whether it’s via tag or hashtag. But please – easy on the hash tags. No one likes an over enthusiast blowing up their Instagram with #unnecessary #borderlinespam #hashtags. Let the creativity of your post speak for itself. Yvan Rodic (of Face Hunter) spotted model Ash Walker making a statement on subject….

April 21, 2014
Social Media And Viral Content: Tips From Matt Siltala
If you haven’t heard of Matt Siltala, get your butt to Google right now and start searching. As an online search industry leader and president of Avalaunch Media, Matt came to New Orleans this week to present at Pubcon, a social media and optimization conference and expo featuring multiple days of multiple-track sessions, leading-edge keynotes, and an all-day intensive Pubcon Masters Group training program.

Prior to wowing the crowds at Pubcon, Matt was kind enough to visit Search Influence and give us the skinny on social media, content, and how to make things go viral. His presentation was amazing, informative, humorous, and vastly helpful in terms of SEO. So, I’ve put together some key takeaways businesses can and should focus on in order to promote their brands and make a name for themselves online.

Find Your Target Market By Talking To The Right People

When you’re trying to reach a target market, knowing who to talk to in order to get results within that market is most important. When you talk to someone with power, authority, and a willingness to help, there is a higher probability of getting your brand noticed and increasing awareness among your target market.

Pro Tip: If you know who you want to target, use Followerwonk to compare, analyze, track, and group users. That way, you know exactly who you’re reaching, and what to say in order to entice them.

What Makes Good Content?

Oddly enough, controversy increases viewers and makes for some great content. Think about it. When do people get the most involved in content? During a debate! Any topic people disagree on will get more viewers. This is a theory that withstands the test of time. For example: Republican vs. Democrat, Mac vs. PC, Coke vs. Pepsi, and Matt’s popular Evolution of the Electric Guitar infographic, which includes a Guitar Hero controller, featured below.

Build Up Your Instagram Following With Deals

With millions of users posting pictures every day, Instagram has exploded in terms of social media marketing and brand promotion. Boutiques, restaurants, and more post photos of products, specials, daily deals, and location information daily, giving viewers a reason to follow them and stay consistently engaged in the brand. By monitoring hashtags and paying attention to channels, businesses will learn whom to target and how to peak people’s interests and gain followers.

Pro Tip: Show products in context to help viewers visualize a final product. Whether that is a meal, an outfit, or a piece of furniture, demonstrating what the product will look like in conjunction with other products peaks interest and makes things easier to relate to.

Processes On Pinterest

More frequently, businesses are turning to Pinterest to gain a customer base. In fact, the “Pin It” action has gained more popularity than the Facebook “Like” and Twitter’s “Retweet.” Checklists, how-tos, recipes, and detailed processes are hugely popular on Pinterest because they get people thinking and and keep their interest longer than a simple image.

Pro Tip: In terms of repinning vs creating new pins, employ 4:1 ratio. Remember that it’s not just about repinning for content, you repin to network. And make sure you get yourself noticed by commenting regularly.

Focus On Visuals On Facebook And Twitter

As with all other forms of social media, building a following and growing your popularity is key to brand success on both Facebook and Twitter. So, what is the key to getting lots of retweets, likes, shares, and comments? Images! Think about it, what is the most retweeted post of all time? Ellen Degeneres’ Oscar Tweet! Only three days after the Oscars the tweet had a record 3.2 million retweets. Now that’s a powerful image.

Pro Tip: Identify influencers relevant to your industry and interact with them as much as possible on social media to grow your online presence and brand popularity.

I could go on and on about the wealth of knowledge Matt dispelled on the Search Influence family, but rather than rambling I’ll leave you with a few of his final tips and tricks:
1. Pay attention to Linkedin groups. If you get in contact with the owner of a relevant group to your industry they can help you tremendously. Not only can they contact a large group of people easily via email, the group they’re contacting will be the exact target market you need for shares and online visibility.
2. Sign up for alerts from Help A Reporter Out. You can find experts, get free publicity, and gain tons of helpful contacts.
3. The gift category in Pinterest is wildly popular. By using a dollar sign ($) in your post description, your post will automatically show up there.
4. Find a way to repurpose everything. Much like Matt’s wildly successful Social Meowdia Explained infographic (featured below), post, images, content, and more can be repurposed to gain popularity in a variety of forms. For example: an infographic can be turned into a blog, memes, content, etc.
1. Remember that everything you do contributes to authorship. Every post you write, share, retweet, favorite, etc has your brand name attached to it. Everything you do online grows your authorship, so take advantage of that and be creative in what you post.
For more information on Matt Siltala, check him out at Pubcon or visit his website! And for any questions on the information above, feel free to ask in the comments!
March 18, 2014
Instagram is “Ad” it Again!

Does it seem like, eventually, everything turns into a platform for advertising? For social media, that seems to be the trend when comparing networks over the years. Everything from Facebook, Google, Twitter, Pinterest, and Pandora have all followed the same trend. Using a great business plan (and a lot of foresight), they open their online “doors,” create a massive following, and after a few years succumb to the massive potential profit that is advertising.

Instagram Ads

Even though it took some time, it is clear that the mega success of our beloved Instagram has followed suit. After Facebook bought the ultra popular image sharing platform for a cool $1 billion, they didn’t waste time reaping a return on their investment. In late 2013, Instagram announced that they would start releasing “sponsored” posts that would look and feel like the other images users were already sharing. The Beta version of these sponsored posts were designed to “underwhelm” users so that they might not even know they were looking at an advertisement.

Who Sponsors Posts?

These sponsored posts were only given to a select number of brands like Ben & Jerry’s, Macy’s, Michael Kors, Lexus, and Levis, in order to test out consumer reactions. However, recent studies show that these advertisements were highly successful due to the limited number of competitors on the site, the quality of the advertisement, and the fact that it is an image instead of text. Many advertisers understand that images are far more powerful than words, which is why Instagram, along with its huge user base, is an ideal platform for marketing.

Personalized Ads

But how will Instagram know what brands you like or images you’re drawn to? The beauty and genius of the merger is that Facebook already knows everything about you! Between the information Facebook has already collected about you (likes, interests, hobbies, etc.) and the images that you like and follow on Instagram, advertisers are able to put more customized and targeted ads in front of you. The hope is that these ads will be so successful that companies will eventually pay more to advertise. So watch out, you might actually start seeing ads that you enjoy!

Have you seen an ad on Instagram that grabbed your attention? Let us know in the comments!

March 12, 2014
Gram it up! 5 Tips to Expand Your Brand on Instagram

If you‘re like me, Instagram is the place to be. I find myself spending a lot less time on Facebook and Twitter and a whole lot more on Instagram, or as I like to call it “Insta.”

I tend to follow many businesses I enjoy and liking almost everything they post. I started thinking more about how businesses use Instagram to promote their brand and products. I did some digging and came across a video that Instagram for Business blog put together recently.

What It’s All About

The video was a short sample of pictures and short video clips. I mean duh, I should have known since that’s what Instagram is about. The video featured some of the best brands on Instagram, according to them. Nike (@nikerunning), Ben and Jerry’s (@benandjerrys), and General Electric (@generalelectric). It was a one minute and thirteen second reminder that pictures and videos can captivate anyone if displayed correctly. It also displays how the community can play a role in promoting your business by hash-tagging and tagging things related to your brand.

Instagram has recently announced their book, The Instagram Handbook for Brands. But don’t get too excited just yet, the book is not currently out to the public. You can however expect to see some of its content on their blog soon. The book showcases eleven of the top brands on Instagram and their posts that captivate audiences, along with popular/successful hashtags.

Even though the book isn’t available for the “human eye” just yet, they listed a few tips for brands modeled after the eleven top brands of Instagram.

1. Be accurate to your brand

Ensure that your imagery expresses a clearly defined personality and voice.

2. Allocate your experience

Offer a view into the world or lifestyle that your brand makes possible through the eyes of the people who use your products and services.

3. Discover beauty in every nook and cranny

Show how your company sees the world and make it meaningful to people.

4. Encourage action

Start a movement around your brand.

5. Be aware of your viewers

Learn what people love about your brand, and explore how you can capture the imagination of new customers.

Search Influence (@searchinfluence) has recently joined the awesome world of Instagram! Follow us for a peek at what it’s like to work at this fast-paced and fun place!

Is your business on Insta? Let us know what works for you in the comments section below.

March 5, 2014
5 Ways to Use Instagram for Business and Build Your Social Media Presence

Many businesses, small and large, have started using Instagram as a way to build their brands and online presence. Not only is Instagram an effective and useful way for businesses to promote themselves, but it is also a way to create connections with customers through engaging content. Also, photo sharing through Instagram allows a business to reach customers without an overload of clutter and superfluous content.

1. Employ Hashtags to Increase Discoverability

According to the press page on Instagram, they currently have 130 million active users. In order to captivate this large audience, the use of keywords is essential. It’s been said by many Instagram gurus that using less than three hashtags in a post drastically limits your discoverability. Sites like top-hashtags.com tell you what hashtags are trending and most used at the time, but anything relevant to your content is good to use. For example, a local non-profit organization for music can often use the hashtags #NOLAmusic #NOLAevents #NOLAnonprofits. If you’re a local business in a city with a well known abbreviation, you should always attach this abbreviation to keywords in hashtags in order to target your ideal audience. It is important for all businesses to understand what audience they are targeting on a social media platform like Instagram.

2. Sponsor Contests

Many businesses use Instagram for contests and giveaways. A great example of this is the cruelty-free, handmade cosmetics brand Lush and their giveaway using the hashtag #LUSHtravels. They encouraged users to post a picture of their favorite products for traveling using the hashtag. The contestants with the best photos would win a new set of their favorite products. This not only promoted participation with the brand but also created free publicity and positive reviews for their products.

3. Create Hype for New Products

Another way businesses can use Instagram to their advantage is to excite their audience about upcoming products. A company that does this effectively at the moment is the vegan cosmetics brand, Lime Crime. They are constantly creating new products for their customers, and the last set of new lipsticks they released were so anticipated that their site was crashed by too many orders on the release date. Lately they’ve been posting sneak peeks of a new lipstick color and locations of cosmetics expos where you can try it out before anyone else. Product promotion and sneak peeks are a great way to keep people feeling like they’re in the loop and not missing out on anything.

4. Utilize Cross-Promotion with Facebook

According to Ragan’s PR Daily, 60 percent of major brands, including Starbucks and Nike, are using Instagram. Many of these brands also share their pictures from Instagram on other social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Although Instagram dropped Twitter support in December, they have gracefully regained popularity since then. ZOG Digital provided a chart that shows the effectiveness of cross-promotional engagement with other social media platforms. See above.

5. Humanize Your Brand via Engaging Content

Instagram is a great way for businesses to create a personality for their brand. It allows a business to mold the way it is perceived by their customers. A great way to create positive brand recognition is through engaging content like behind the scenes photos and interactive and unique hashtag involvement. The online eyeglasses brand Warby Parker has effectively done the former by showing pictures of their employees enjoying a recent “Field Day” where they show a philanthropic side to the company with relay races for charity. Also, Instagram itself has an exciting hashtag event called Weekend Hashtag Project where every weekend a theme is chosen and the best user photos taken over that weekend are posted the following Monday on the company’s blog. This kind of content makes users feel connected and shows how the product itself can be used to its fullest.

Whether you choose to engage customers or simply promote your content, Instagram is an effective tool to improve your brand and is quickly becoming a necessity for any well known brand.

July 15, 2013