Are you interested in the latest tips and tools for Instagram?Instagram is a fast-growing platform and businesses are eager to establish a presence and encourage engagement on the network.We asked social media experts to share their hottest Instagram tips. marketing on social media Your Instagram feed is only as good as your photographs, so starting with high-quality photos makes your Instagram marketing more effective.One of the best ways to save time and compose better photos for Instagram is to shoot square photos. Many digital cameras and smartphones have this in their settings so it’s really easy to do. This lets you save time on cropping and ensures that the essential elements in the photo won’t be cropped out later. Because shooting photos inside the Instagram app can be limiting, I like to use Camera Awesome by the SmugMug team on my iPhone (also available for Android users). Using this app, you can take fantastic photos using the grid to follow the rule of thirds. Another way to add pizzazz to your Instagram photos is to put a text overlay on your image. Whether you’re sharing tips, promoting a sale or just branding a pic, this ensures people won’t miss your message.Use a desktop tool like Photoshop or PowerPoint or a website like Canva or PicMonkey to create text overlays on your images before you upload them to Instagram.
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. social media marketing campaign It’s designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.In this episode I interview Peg Fitzpatrick, the co-author of The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users, which she wrote with Guy Kawasaki. She is also a social media strategist and an expert in visual marketing. Her clients include Motorola, Audi, Google, Virgin and others.Peg will explore Instagram marketing ideas that are easy to put to use right away.A good Instagram post is not as simple as just snapping a photo, applying a filter and posting it to your news feed. To have a real impact, your posts need to be carefully crafted and shared with purpose and intent.In this article you’ll discover how to create Instagram posts that increase engagement and drive sales.You’ll discover tools to use for your Instagram images. Use the text overlay to list the price or options for a product, advertise a sale or limited-time offer or promote an event—whatever way you need to convey a clear message about your brand or service.
Use the post caption to enhance your post and convey a clear message to your audience.The post caption, which is the first comment immediately underneath each Instagram post, is the comment you include during the upload process. social media marketing los angeles No matter how many subsequent comments are added, the original caption will always remain complete and visible beneath the post. This valuable Instagram real estate should never be left blank and it should be as descriptive as necessary to complete the message. Remember, you don’t want to repeat what the picture says, just enhance it. While you’re allowed up to 2,200 characters in your Instagram caption, 200 to 300 characters is usually ideal.Include a clear call to action in your post caption so it will drive traffic and results. If you want people to visit your website, ask them to “Click on the link in the bio” or write some other message requesting they navigate to your profile to access the direct link. If you want people to call, email or visit your store, make that request clear in the message.Also, engage your audience with incentives in your post caption call to action. For example, Nordstrom did a “Like it to lower the price” campaign. For every 10,000 likes they’d lower the price 10%, up to 30% off.
To make the best use of your post captions and comments, include relevant hashtags on your Instagram posts. social media marketing resume This will help increase your reach, engagement and overall visibility.Add hashtags that are related to your business, your post and your target audience. (Avoid popular hashtags or completely unrelated descriptions in an attempt to get on a popular search; these will not help your brand.)Try to use 10 to 15 hashtags per post. If your post only warrants 8 hashtags, that’s okay. If you can justify 17, that’s fine too. You can use up to 30 hashtags per post, but there’s rarely a situation where that many are needed.In every post, incorporate a mix of highly popular hashtags (those with hundreds of thousands or more images), moderately popular hashtags (those with thousands of images), less popular (those with fewer than 1,000 images) and your own custom hashtags. Although Instagram now supports non-square photos, the square shape still performs best. When you use the tool InstaSize (available for iOS and Android), you can choose a photo and scale it exactly how you want within the square shape. The app adds a white or colored border around the edges of your photo so that it keeps its original shape in the square box.
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. social media marketing campaign It’s designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.In this episode I interview Peg Fitzpatrick, the co-author of The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users, which she wrote with Guy Kawasaki. She is also a social media strategist and an expert in visual marketing. Her clients include Motorola, Audi, Google, Virgin and others.Peg will explore Instagram marketing ideas that are easy to put to use right away.A good Instagram post is not as simple as just snapping a photo, applying a filter and posting it to your news feed. To have a real impact, your posts need to be carefully crafted and shared with purpose and intent.In this article you’ll discover how to create Instagram posts that increase engagement and drive sales.You’ll discover tools to use for your Instagram images. Use the text overlay to list the price or options for a product, advertise a sale or limited-time offer or promote an event—whatever way you need to convey a clear message about your brand or service.
Use a Customized Link Shortener to Track Traffic
One of the most important things marketers need to know is how well their Instagram account is driving traffic and leads back to their website. social media marketing degree Unfortunately, Google Analytics can’t accurately track this traffic when users visit your website from your mobile Instagram account.To monitor accurate click rates, I recommend businesses use a customized bit.ly link (or a link from another shortener) exclusively for the URL in their Instagram bio.Then you can check your bit.ly data to document how many clicks your Instagram account is actually sending to your website.Create a different bit.ly link each time you change the link for a new landing page, campaign or default page to continuously track successful traffic leads. This ensures you’ll reach popular searches, while staying relevant for more than a few minutes in searches for the less-popular hashtags. And, when you incorporate your own custom hashtags, you create a virtual gallery of all of your content. Then when someone searches that hashtag, they’ll find all of your Instagram posts.Save a list of your most commonly used hashtags on your computer, so they’re on hand to copy, paste and add to posts at all times.Use the post caption to enhance your post and convey a clear message to your audience.The post caption, which is the first comment immediately underneath each Instagram post, is the comment you include during the upload process. social media marketing los angeles No matter how many subsequent comments are added, the original caption will always remain complete and visible beneath the post. This valuable Instagram real estate should never be left blank and it should be as descriptive as necessary to complete the message. Remember, you don’t want to repeat what the picture says, just enhance it. While you’re allowed up to 2,200 characters in your Instagram caption, 200 to 300 characters is usually ideal.Include a clear call to action in your post caption so it will drive traffic and results. If you want people to visit your website, ask them to “Click on the link in the bio” or write some other message requesting they navigate to your profile to access the direct link. If you want people to call, email or visit your store, make that request clear in the message.Also, engage your audience with incentives in your post caption call to action. For example, Nordstrom did a “Like it to lower the price” campaign. For every 10,000 likes they’d lower the price 10%, up to 30% off.
Be Strategic With Your Bio Link
For personal use, Instagram is fun and spontaneous. social media marketing strategy template But if you want to use it as a marketing tool, you have to be a little more calculating with it.I suspect the businesses that are really killing it on Instagram (like Nordstrom, Starbucks, Nike and others) plan their posts well in advance.If you’re a smaller brand or a one-man show, you can still develop a great presence on Instagram. Use the link in your bio to connect to a landing page that holds the same posts you put on Instagram, and allows you to collect leads, promote your ecommerce site, gain subscribers to your blog, collect entries for a giveaway, etc. On your Instagram account, post the kinds of photos that your audience is already sharing and liking. For example, take a picture that shows the inside of your office, the team heading out to lunch or you holding up your favorite afternoon snack.MaybellineAU took a cue from the fashion bloggers dominating Instagram with their facial close-ups and instructional pictures. In this post the brand shows one aspect of a woman’s makeup routine: defining the eyebrows. You’ll get the most out of every photo you share if they are the best they can be. Here are some quick and easy ways to improve even the most basic photo.To make the best use of your post captions and comments, include relevant hashtags on your Instagram posts. social media marketing resume This will help increase your reach, engagement and overall visibility.Add hashtags that are related to your business, your post and your target audience. (Avoid popular hashtags or completely unrelated descriptions in an attempt to get on a popular search; these will not help your brand.)Try to use 10 to 15 hashtags per post. If your post only warrants 8 hashtags, that’s okay. If you can justify 17, that’s fine too. You can use up to 30 hashtags per post, but there’s rarely a situation where that many are needed.In every post, incorporate a mix of highly popular hashtags (those with hundreds of thousands or more images), moderately popular hashtags (those with thousands of images), less popular (those with fewer than 1,000 images) and your own custom hashtags. Although Instagram now supports non-square photos, the square shape still performs best. When you use the tool InstaSize (available for iOS and Android), you can choose a photo and scale it exactly how you want within the square shape. The app adds a white or colored border around the edges of your photo so that it keeps its original shape in the square box.
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