Marketing Strategies To Transcend YOUR Industry?

The evolution of social media from an entertainment tool to a powerful marketing weapon has rapidly transformed the relationship between industries and their unique consumers over the last few years..

Related Article: Social Media Resolutions For YOUR Success?

With these startling rates of growth, it is more important than ever for brands to understand which social media platforms are most optimal to use within their particular industry.

However, while agencies and marketers hone in on industry-specific social media marketing trends, they should not overlook the overarching strategies that transcend industry.

These should define the foundation of any social media marketing plan: the importance of visibility, virality, authenticity and potent storytelling.

According to entrepreneur, social media personality and renowned music critic, DJ Akademiks who co-stars in Complex's Everyday Struggle, a show that squares off on the biggest current events within hip-hop and pop culture, social media has become just as important for artists within the music industry as it has for brands at large.

Related Article: Social Media Secrets YOU Can Use To Make Millions?

As an expert in the social media terrain (having nearly 700 million views on YouTube alone), DJ Akademiks spoke to me on how the music industry, in particular, has capitalized on the power of social media marketing.

He shared some of his own wisdom on the strategies artists (along with any brand, agency or marketer) should be using to catapult to success.

Related Article: How YOU Become A Social Media Pro?

Social Media Marketing And Virality: Which Platforms To Utilize

For artists and marketers alike, it is important to understand the power social media now has in exposing one’s brand to potential consumers, and thus growing one’s name within their industry. Social media virality has catalyzed the evolution of digital marketing, and, in particular, influencer marketing.

In our technological era, social media can now drastically expedite the process of going from a startup to a household name. A video that goes viral within hours can transform its creator into a celebrity overnight and suddenly provide them with a sizable platform that, in the past, would have taken months, if not years, to establish.

"For any rapper starting out, I’d say start with social media,” Akademiks said. “Especially if you’re a rapper whose music appeals to the social media generation, you’ll get popular and sell 50-60 thousand records week one without the mainstream audience even knowing about you.”

Related Article: Social Media Secrets To Going Viral?

Along with virality, understanding which social media platform can most effectively benefit one’s growth within a specific industry can make or break you.

Akademiks spoke on how important it is for artists and their marketing teams to discern which platforms are the most fruitful within their industry. His advice for musicians in particular: Leave Twitter alone, and focus on Instagram.

“Instagram is the best place for feedback. If you’re a rapper, you’ve got to get some music up on Instagram. Through all the BS comments, you’re bound to find some good stuff. Not only that, though, but you can do so much more in terms of promotion as an artist."

Guest Authored By Jason Goldberg. Jason is President and Founder of Vyrl, a company that creates innovative technology for influencers. Follow Jason on Twitter.

Related Article: Promote YOUR Brand With Social Media Videos?

The evolution of social media from an entertainment tool to a powerful marketing weapon has rapidly transformed the relationship between industries and their unique consumers over the last few years..

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  Authored by:

  Fred Hansen Pied Piper of Social Media Marketing at YourWorldBr@nd.com & CEO of Millennium 7 Publishing Co. in Scottsdale, AZ  where I work deep in the trenches of social media strategy, community management and trends.  My interests include; online business educator, social media marketing, new marketing technology, skiing, hunting, fishing and The Rolling Stones..-Not necessarily in that order ;)

Social Media Influence And Big Dollars?

The internet has given birth to a plethora of online sensations — from the Turkish chef who became a sensation as 'Salt Bae' just by seasoning meat.

To Jeremy Meeks, the felon whose viral mugshot catapulted him into a modeling career..

Related Article: YOUR Social Media Influencer Internship?

For many, social media can be a cruel and harsh place. Yet others, like non-celebrity "influencers" able to ride the wave of viral content to high follower counts and visibility, can easily make big money creating their own brand and promoting others.

According to Influencer marketing agency Mediakix, Instagram's influencer market is worth $1 billion, and shows no signs of slowing down. The firm predicted recently that by 2029, that figure would double.

"The fastest growing influencer marketing platforms are Instagram, Instagram Stories, Facebook, and YouTube," Jeremy Shih, head of marketing at Mediakix, told CNBC recently. For now, there's no comparable market for Twitter and the live video application Periscope.

Yet Periscope was a saving grace for Amanda Oleander, an artist based in California. In 2015, Oleander shot to fame on the platform by live streaming herself — eventually parlaying that into a six-figure income.

Related Article: Steps To Becoming A Social Media Star?

"At age 25, I [wanted] to be my own boss," Oleander told CNBC in a recent interview. When she first signed up for Periscope, she had recently been laid off and never considered being an internet entrepreneur.

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After one week of being on Periscope, she became the most followed woman on the entire app.

"It kind of happened overnight," she said..

Live streaming herself painting exposed Oleander to a new class of clientele, with many viewers purchasing the illustrator's work, which costs an average of $5,000. Some of her clients include T-Mobile CEO John Legere, who owns two of her paintings — both of which he bought while tuned into one of Oleander's live painting sessions.

The artist told CNBC that her audience feels connected to the pieces she creates live, which encourages them to purchase the art. For example, Legere waited two years for Oleander to complete a $20,000 painting.

"I think people are attracted to that [rawness]," Oleander told CNBC. "A lot of the people who buy my pieces, they see the process," she said.

Related Article: 7 Top Social Media Influencers Killing It?

How To Elevate Your Influencer Game

Anna Rosenblatt, vice president of cultural strategy at advertising agency sparks & honey, recently told CNBC that to build a following, "live streaming works especially well for activities such as painting, gaming, and things people want to feel like they're there with you."

Otherwise, "Instagram is a top platform for micro-influencers, people who may not have millions of followers, but tens of thousands," Rosenblatt said.

As a result, micro-influencers are flourishing as brands increasingly unplug from people with far larger social media followings.

In recent years, some influencers have been able to purchase followers, enhancing the appeal of accounts with smaller followings but more targeted (and real) audiences. Rosenblatt explained that not only do micro-influencers tend to have a greater engagement with their niche, but are a cheaper deal: On average, most charge less than $500 per post.

Related Article: The $7 Million Social Media Marketing Affiliate?

Still, experts said the most successful micro-influencers are those who specialize in a small niche — such as art — versus a larger market like fashion. To encourage engagement with her fans, Oleander has meetups, giveaways, creates affordable prints for her viewers and even has a curated "peri-fam birthdays" list on her website.

If you are an individual and you want to get an influencer deal, you have to build an engaged and large following in a specific topic," said Matt Britton, CEO of Crowdtap, a marketing tech platform that aligns influencers and brands.

Britton told CNBC that the key between being an influencer and actually profiting from the industry is signing on to an influencer network, since "brands are not going to work with individuals directly," he said.

There's a definite hierarchy, Shih at Mediakix explained, as large influencers — defined as accounts with more than 100,000 Instagram followers and/or at least 300,000 subscribers on YouTube — usually get explicit overtures from brands.

Related Article: Influencing The Social Media Influencers?

"Influencer marketing companies and agencies, as well as networks, also work closely with brands to identify the right influencers for a given initiative/campaign," he said.

Meanwhile, smaller fish in the social media pool can use marketing platforms, which allow influencers to apply for specific campaigns, to get their own deals.

More importantly, once influencers get a deal, according to Rosenblatt, it's imperative that the brand deals align with their values, and that taste arbiters continue to stay true to themselves and exercise transparency.

That way, the audience does not feel like the influencer sold out.

"Credibility is key," Rosenblatt said. "We live in an era of trust over truth."

Guest Authored By Denise Garcia. Denise is a Freelance Photographer and Journalist. Follow Denise on X.

Related Article: An Eight Figure Instagram Influencer?

If you are an individual and you want to get an influencer deal, you have to build an engaged and large following in a specific topic..

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  Authoredby:Fred Hansen Pied Piper of Social Media Marketing at YourWorldBrand.com & CEO of Millennium 7 Publishing Co. in Loveland, Colorado. I work deep in the trenches of social media strategy, community management and trends.  My interests include; online business educator, social media marketing, new marketing technology, skiing, hunting, fishing and The Rolling Stones..-Not necessarily in that order ;)

Social Media Luxury Menswear Marketing?

Luxury menswear has historically played second fiddle to womenswear, but the industry is showing vast gains that point to cultural shifts in the way men dress and experiment with style..

Related Article: YOUR Marketing As Good As YOUR Content?

Menswear is forecasted to grow at a faster rate than womenswear over the next three years, with net gains of 2.3 percent and 2.2 percent respectively, according to data from retail analytics company Edited. Additionally, the menswear market is estimated to be valued at $33 billion by 2026, an increase of 14 percent from 2022.

The expansion of the market can largely be attributed to social media’s role in building visibility around men’s style, said Tammy Smulders, global managing director of LuxHub, a division of Havas Media Group. As an increasing number of men’s fashion influencers crop up in social feeds, fashion has become a growing interest for male consumers. At the same time, designers who previously only made women's clothing have started trying their hand at men's collections — including Stella McCartney, who debuted her first men's styles in November 2016.

“Digital media and a constant stream of imagery of stylish iconic men - from successful entrepreneurs to funny YouTube personalities - have encouraged the socialization of men's fashion,” Smulders said. “Social media and being "always on" has made it so that everyday men have become more focused on their look.”

Alexa Tonner, co-founder of influencer network Collectively, said that while fashion magazines tailored for men have long been hailed as arbiters of style, social platforms have allowed male shoppers to discover luxury apparel in new, innovative ways. Apps like Instagram present a more diverse array of perspectives than are accessible in major fashion publications, she said.

“Men who would have never bought an issue of GQ or Esquire are much more comfortable following style influencers on Instagram,” Tonner said. “Fashion magazines present a pretty rigid perspective on men's style, and you've got a lot more variety on social media. Even in the luxury space, you've got bespoke tailoring and vintage timepieces, plus you've got limited-edition streetwear.”

While the market is undoubtedly expanding, growth is mostly in the casual wear sector, a reflection of the toned-down (versus business formal) ensembles of professionals, according to Jonathan Feinberg, chief men’s merchant at Givenchy. To meet increasing demand, price points across most apparel items have risen significantly in the last five years, but particularly among products like bomber jackets and sneakers. (The average price of a luxury menswear item is $232.29 across all categories, an uptick of 64 percent over the past five years, Edited data shows.)

Related Article: 7 Top Social Media Influencers Killing It?

“While the market is opening up, it’s opening up to the casual side,” Feinberg said at an event last week.

“The way men are actually dressing - especially if they’re spending time in tech startups or professional environments outside of New York City — is sneakers, backpacks, T-shirts and sweatshirts.”

Tonner said social media has also helped perpetuate a culture of urgency, which has helped pave the way for luxury casual wear. Whereas suits and evening wear require an often lengthy and expensive tailoring process, high-end casual apparel is easier to obtain quickly without jumping through hoops.

“Social media rewards visual impact and immediacy which serves the world of higher-end streetwear really well,” Tonner said. “Traditional luxury is more understated and also requires patience: You've got to go to the tailor and then you've got to wait for that bespoke suit.”

Related Article: Social Media Fast Fashion?

Looking to the future, Smulders said examining the progression of the menswear industry in recent years shows the industry will continue to grow.

As demand increases, so will investment in advertising and influencer marketing, leading to even greater visibility.

“Once the market for men's really started to take off, men's brands started to invest more in advertising and department stores increased their square footage in menswear departments, increasing the visibility of menswear brands,” she said. "Men, in turn, have responded by purchasing more fashionable clothing, and brands have further increased investment in the category.”

Guest Authored By Bethany Biron. Bethany is a Retail and Fashion at Glossy, part of Digiday Media, based in New York. She's an "analog girl living in a digital world with a deep affinity with the for the em dash and a frought relationship with the Oxford comma." Follow Bethany on Twitter.

Related Article: Selling Fashion Through Social Media?

“Social media rewards visual impact and immediacy which serves the world of higher-end streetwear really well,” Tonner said.

“Traditional luxury is more understated and also requires patience: You've got to go to the tailor and then you've got to wait for that bespoke suit..”

• 

  Authored by:

  Fred Hansen Pied Piper of Social Media Marketing at YourWorldBrand.com & CEO of Millennium 7 Publishing Co. in Loveland, Colorado. I work deep in the trenches of social media strategy, community management and trends.  My interests include; online business educator, social media marketing, new marketing technology, skiing, hunting, fishing and The Rolling Stones..-Not necessarily in that order ;)

Using Social Media To Market Yourself?

One of the most common questions I get asked is how business owners can use social media to market themselves..

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There seems to be a lot of information out there, in terms of how to use social media to market yourself.

With new tools being made available all the time, and older tools acquiring new features (I’m looking at you Instagram!), it’s enough to make anyone’s head spin.

Related Article: Instagram For YOUR Small Business?

The good news is, you can use social media in small ways to market yourself. At the end of the day, it’s a whole lot of little actions that can add up over time in a big way. Keep that in mind, as you implement social media using these simple, small tactics:

1. Show Behind-the-Scenes

Do you want to know what audiences on social media love? Behind-the-scenes content! I’m serious—they eat it up!

I’m going to go out on a limb here, and assume that the reason why behind-the-scenes content is so popular is because we crave to see public figures and businesses that are willing to pull back the curtain and show us their real lives. In the intangible yet constantly connected digital world, we ironically crave to make real connections.

Related Article: Social Media Personal Brand Building?

One of the ways you can do this is by using the Stories feature on Instagram or Snapchat (if you’re still into it). For example, I make short videos, where I explain marketing concepts as I’m working on them. This gives a behind-the-scenes look into my business as well as provides value for social media followers. It doesn’t take a whole lot to do this either; the videos are literally 10 seconds long. It’s simply a matter of remembering to do it.

2. Live-stream While You're Working

A few days ago, I was interviewing the founder of a local meetup group for freelancers for my podcast. I posted about it on Instagram, and I instantly received requests to live-stream the interview. Since the people asked for it, we gave it to them.

It ended up being an excellent idea. Not only did I show viewers how I set up for a podcast interview (that’s the behind-the-scenes stuff I was talking about above), we also took live questions from the audience while I was recording. This was a hit—and all we had to do was fire-up Instagram and start recording a live video of something we were already doing anyway!

Related Article: YOUR Social Media Podcast Traffic?

So, rather than trying to invent new content all the time, you can use social media to show people what you’re already up to.

3. Share Wins

Another small way you can use social media is to share wins with your audience, as they happen in real-time. Did you get featured in the press? Snap a picture of the article and post it on social. Did you hit a new milestone? Post about it on Facebook. Did a client text you an amazing testimonial? Ask them for permission to use it, take a screenshot of it, and put it on Instagram.

Guest Authored By Amanda Abella. Amanda is a full-time writer who specializes in online business and finance. She's also an online business coach and the Amazon best-selling author of Make Money Your Honey. Follow Amanda on Twitter.

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The Bottom Line

It’s not difficult to use social media to market yourself, if you remember that it’s all about small actions adding up over time.

Using social media in some of the aforementioned ways can help you take things one step at a time and eliminate any potential for becoming overwhelmed..

• 

  Authored by:

  Fred Hansen Pied Piper of Social Media Marketing at GetMoreHere.com & CEO of Millennium 7 Publishing Co. in Loveland, Colorado. I work deep in the trenches of social media strategy, community management and trends.  My interests include; online business educator, social media marketing, new marketing technology, skiing, hunting, fishing and The Rolling Stones..-Not necessarily in that order ;)

Instagram Tips For YOUR Small Business?

27 Instagram marketing tips for business..

Gone are the days when Instagram was just another social platform for sharing photos.

Today Instagram is one of the fastest-growing social media apps for brand building and marketing. Instagram is an important part of our lives, especially for online businesses. In this article, we uncover 27 awesome Instagram tips for your marketing needs.

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Instagram has already reached over a billion users. Every day over 95 million photos are shared on this app.

We can’t ignore these facts. Marketers need to use Instagram as a prime place to effectively reach the right audience and establish a positive brand reputation. But you know what? Everyone knows how to create an Instagram account. But the question is: can your business become successful on Instagram? And how? Keep in mind that only having a well-thought-out marketing strategy and a strong brand identity can get real-world results. Let’s unwrap these 27 awesome Instagram tips for your marketing needs.

1. Build A Killer Instagram Profile

If you want to use Instagram as a marketing tool, you need to create a great presence on Instagram; this is especially important for small brands. You need to give a clear idea of who you or your brand is to new followers.

Related Article: Photogenic Social Media Marketing For Businesses?

A good bio is your elevator pitch. Try to include the essentials about you and what you do. Use target keywords and action verbs to help people find you. The SE Ranking keyword research tool can help you find the top-performing keywords and phrases. For example, Nathan Chan, the founder of Foundr Magazine, focused on the topic of success, brand and posting informative content for young startup founders and business owners on a regular basis.

In your bio, include the link into of a landing page that will help increase conversions, promote your e-commerce site, etc. If you want to add any hashtags “#” or profile usernames “@” to your bio, they will become clickable. For example, you can use a personal profile to promote your business profile on Instagram, or just let others know where you work by sharing your company’s username.

Make it simple for new visitors to capture your contact information or find your location. Add key contact details to your Instagram bio such email, address, phone number, etc. Include the best collections of your Instagram Stories Highlights. This is a great way to tell much more about your brand with new followers than you could do in your Instagram bio. For example, Firas Kittaneh uses Instagram Stories Highlights to share his daily activities, workout routines, and his best travel trips. They help you showcase the best content you want users to see immediately on your page.

Related Article: Kevin Hart Social Media Branding?

The profile picture matters a lot. It’s the first thing new visitors will see before reading your bio or checking out your posts. The profile picture helps define you as a person and your reputation, and evokes emotion. Having the right profile picture that is in-focus and of high quality is a must.

2. Keep Up With The Different Types Of Content

Good content is the key to your Instagram marketing success. Keep an eye on engagement-based content instead of promotional. Experiment with different types of content. You can use a mixture of videos, photos and text, a Carousel feature, a before-and-after sequence in one slideshow post or showcase your most popular products in different pictures. I really love the idea of “Spot the Difference” posts. It is a unique and fun way to focus on your brand without sounding self-promotional and can help to improve your engagement. Here is a good example from Paula Norris that demonstrates a “spot the difference” post. She shows how decreasing or increasing the portion of your food can influence your overall calorie intake.

Using different content types will maximize your organic reach and stimulate more engagement with your brand on Instagram.

Related Article: YOUR Video Content Is King?

3. Create Mind Blowing Videos

As we know, Instagram is a great visual medium, but sharing a video can attract 3 times more inbound links than written posts. You can’t miss the chance to generate traffic, increase the number of followers and grow your Instagram presence. Moreover, Instagram has super-easy video editing features to create fun and shareable videos.

You can create different types of videos. Share a pack of images together with a short video, add how-to videos where you can answer a question or just teach how to do something, make funny videos or just create videos around key events and holidays. Here is a good example from Amerisleep that shows an exclusive Variable Pressure Foaming manufacturing process that produces zero emissions.

4. Take Advantage Of Instagram Stories

Instagram Stories are a great tool to tell your story and spark interest in your brand. The advantage is to tell more than you can do through written posts. It looks like a first-class ticket that sits at the top of the feed, so followers can easily notice them. Update your stories once per day if you want to keep your followers engaged with your brand.

Related Article: Everything YOU Need To Know About IGTV?

Users are increasingly watching Instagram Stories. Instagram Stories offer a wide range of great features like polls, interactive live broadcasts, etc. You can run ad campaigns, teach how to use your product, give discounts and special offers, create contests and giveaways, highlight new and featured products. That doesn’t take much time and preparation to record your story. You can use a mixture of photos and videos, give a link to certain blog posts, websites or profiles. Just make sure that the URL is short so followers can remember it and visit later on. Make sure that stories are temporary and disappear after 24 hours.

5. Use Raw Photos

Instagram was initially built for artists and photographers to share their unique photos. If you want to increase your reach, use raw photos without overlays and Photoshop. As you know, now Facebook owns Instagram and uses special algorithms to review your content. If it looks like spam, your reach will be low. To increase your engagement, you can add relevant hashtags and appealing titles to help new visitors find your content.

You can periodically post your product images where you can mention the price, some key points, and provide the link so people can purchase the product. It can be a good idea to show your product images in action, e.g. you can show how someone is using your product and how he or she is doing that. This helps your customers visualize using the product which can help influence a buying decision.

Related Article: 7 Gary Vaynerchuk Social Media Tips?

6. Nail Instagram Contests

Whether you want to sell more products, increase engagement, or gain new followers, running different contests or giveaways is a simple way to have it all. People love different contests, and they work well on Instagram. You can run photo contests, “like” contests, comment contests, sweepstakes and giveaways. To incentivize engagement with your brand, you need to create a unique hashtag contest. It is a great way to get user-generated content and connect your contest to trending topics.

For example, Starbucks launched a contest that encouraged customers to create Starbucks cup art, take a photo of it and share it through social media using the unique hashtag #WhiteCupContest.

The results were fantastic; the contest sparked a lot of buzz around Starbucks, generated a ton of blog posts and 3,500 submissions on Instagram alone, and received positive reaction by coffee drinkers. The winner received a Starbucks gift card worth $300.

Related Article: Marketing To YOUR Social Media Consumers?

7. Share Customer Testimonials

It’s one thing when you recommend your products to your followers because they are awesome - and it’s totally another thing when your customers recommend your products. Just collect as many testimonials, reviews, stories, videos as you can about your products, and post them on Instagram. Customer testimonials show off how others benefited from your products, and serve as a powerful tool to establish your brand authenticity and make potential customers take action.

8. Use The Right Hashtags

As you know, hashtags play an important role in your Instagram success. To reach the target market and increase engagement on your posts, you need to use the right hashtags. There are a few types of hashtags you need to use for your brand: local-related hashtags (#losangeles #brentwood #moscow) and brand-related hashtags. The use of brand hashtags helps you to effectively promote your brand on Instagram. They should be simple, unique and eye-catching. For example, Citywide Law Group uses the hashtag #citiwide in practically every post on Instagram. Brand-name hashtags help customers easily find your brand, gain recognition and build rapport for the brand and its users.

Related Article: Social Media Trends To Keep YOUR Eyes On?

If you find it difficult, you can check out local hashtags from other local businesses on Instagram, and your competitors with their brand-related hashtags. To make your content more popular, you can use content hashtags. They always look simple and help people find your content. Using the right hashtags will help you to make a lasting impression on a wide Instagram audience.

9. Collaborate With Influencers

Influencer marketing on Instagram still earns the most engagement for businesses. Before collaborating with influencers, decide how you want to expose your brand (a product review, a giveaway, a special event or give some tips) and reach new followers. Choose influencers whose values are similar to yours and that have a good connection with their followers. Note that you also need to have a certain budget for this, or offer the influencer the ability to try your products for free in case you cannot afford to pay for a sponsored post that highlights your brand and directs followers to your site.

Related Article: Why Social Media Influencers Prefer Instagram?

For example, BECCA Cosmetics worked with Chrissy Teigen to develop a new beauty highlighter palette. The video received 5 million views, over 140,000 likes and a lot of comments. This collaboration not only helped increase the relationship between the influencer and the brand, but it gained a lot of social media engagement.

The most important part of such a collaboration is to estimate the ROI from a campaign. The practice shows that the ROI is very much determined by the brand’s intention. Many marketers are so focused on creating great content that they overlook what matters most - understanding the purpose of the collaboration, the objectives, and how to measure the ROI.

10. Post Creative Teaser Campaigns

Building hype before launching your product can stimulate curiosity within your target audience and make your Instagram marketing campaign more effective. Offer exclusive content to your loyal followers. Post teaser photos, product teaser videos or use Instagram Stories to push your teasers. Reward your followers and let them know the launch date of your new products, events or services. Take a look at this teaser video below. It was posted before the launch of Coldplay’s CD. This kind of preview makes your followers feel inspired and stay tuned to find out more.

Related Article: Keeping YOUR Social Media Fresh?

11. Partner With Other Brands

The number of collaborations between brands are growing every day. Partnering with other brands can help you reach your target audience, get more followers and build strong relationships with other brands. Just find relevant businesses in your industry and create joint marketing campaigns. You can run a contest, giveaway, or create a promotional offer together to generate sales from your partnership.

12. Cross Promote Instagram Posts

Cross promotion is one of the most effective ways to increase your following. Promote your Instagram posts on other social media networks (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.), and invite your fans to follow you on Instagram. You can use different ways to cross-promote. For example, you can post your video content on Facebook or LinkedIn and drive more traffic to the intended network, share your Instagram contests on relevant social networks or schedule your posts on other social accounts with special tools.

Related Article: Should YOUR Business Advertise On Instagram?

13. Include A Clear Call-To-Action

Adding calls-to-action (CTA) to your post makes your followers take a specific action (contact you, lead to your site or buy a product). It is essential to keep them short, actionable and clear. If you want to increase the number of sales and generate more traffic, get your followers to visit your website. Always follow up on your promises and CTAs. For example, Zaful created a sense of urgency by using the attention-grabbing CTA like “Only 72 hours” in order to make their followers buy right away. Adding urgency to your CTAs makes consumers feel a fear of missing out.

14. Give GIFs A Chance

People tend to watch videos to the end that are 15 seconds or less. In this case, GIFs are more attractive than images, and they are shared more than JPEG or PNG formats. So, creating and posting eye-catching GIFs becomes mandatory. Instagram offers a great library of GIF stickers. Adding GIFs on Instagram Stories will help you mark key elements in your story and attract your followers’ attention.

Related Article: Social Media Marketing Steps To Success?

15. Post User-Generated Content

Reposting user-generated content periodically is a great way to build your Instagram presence. It looks real and genuine. That rewards and recognizes your fans, and you may see big results in engagement and follower growth. Unfortunately, it is not so simple to repost users’ content. You should use third-party apps to do this. For example, every day Airbnb shares user-generated posts on Instagram. The team features the stories of their guests and those that provide local experiences or that share photos of any sort of Airbnb properties. Before sharing great photos and videos, they always ask for permission to share users’ content.

16. Offer Discount Codes And Coupons

If you want to increase sales on Instagram, your followers should engage with your content and become active users instead of passive scrollers. People love to buy something at a discounted rate. Give them a coupon code or any discount by including your product photo and text to explain more about what's happening. Holidays and special occasions can be a great opportunity to promote your offerings and prevent your products from cheapening in the eyes of your target customers. Just ask users to follow your Instagram account, and give them 10% off.

Related Article: Conquer Social Media With Instagram?

17. Build Strong Relationships With Customers

For business owners who want to scale follower growth, it is important to build a strong Instagram community. If a user finds some time to read and comment on your post, take a few minutes to respond and thank them. Try to spend at least one hour on commenting, liking and following people. Ask questions or offer advice to your followers that will add a simple personal touch. If you actively engage with your audience, you can reach out to influencers and ask them to mention you. Making lunch meetings with influencers can also help you get more exposure. Introducing your Instagram profile through a friend will meet less resistance and result in getting new followers.

18. Develop Smart Instagram Ads

Beyond all doubt, social media advertising is important. Instagram has over a billion users, which gives a good reason to consider advertising on it. You can promote your ads to anyone with your target audience. People who don’t follow you can see your ads and probably find interest in your message. Try to post product photos with calls-to-action in the caption. To increase your sales, you can add limited-time offers or discounts to your ads. Compared to other social channels, it doesn’t cost a lot to advertise on Instagram. Make use of this paid advertisement option, and get more potential customers.

Related Article: YOUR Social Media Customer Service Strategy?

19. Add Locations To Your Posts

Putting the location tagging has a lot of benefits you should definitely try out. First of all, it helps improve your SEO and geo-targeting. In other words, people can view more relevant posts from a particular location. Secondly, you can increase engagement on your posts which will result in getting more followers. Finally, it lets your friends and family know your location. Once you add a geo-tag to your photos or videos, you can always edit your posts on Instagram. For instance, HelpCrunch promoted their geotag and encouraged users to share content to their location.

20. Take Full Advantage Of Free Instagram Tools

Those who use business profiles can easily access analytics and the connect option. You can easily connect your profile to your Facebook account, and better understand how users engage with your content, which posts get more exposure and earn responses. It’s imperative that you focus on this information to improve your engagement. Check out these 5 free Instagram tools every marketer needs.

Related Article: YOUR Social Media Content Planning Tools?

21. Don’t Abuse The Direct Message Feature

Use the Direct Message (DM) feature effectively without being “spammy”. Once people learn about this feature, don’t instantly start sending direct messages like “Hi, you have a great profile! Would you love to buy something?” Surely, it will make you get blocked. If you want to use the DM strategy, create some value in your DMs and send it out to people that really want your product or service. When you build a great connection, say thank you in your message and ask to tag them in your thank you post. Stay real, sincere and grateful. Create more customer value.

22. Monitor The Right Metrics

If you want to get online activity success on Instagram, you should track the right metrics (follower growth, likes, comments, top posts, the number of clicks to your URL, posts, etc.). Based on your measurable results, you can figure out what works best for you and what doesn’t work so well, and have more clarity about what you should improve. It is also a good idea to monitor your competitors and adopt new methods. There are a lot of online tools that help get statistics and analytics on Instagram.

Related Article: Social Media Listening For YOUR Business?

23. Post On Instagram At The Right Time

Each business has a different audience. Therefore, the activity of your audience can be different on Instagram. Analyze your posts and choose the best time of day when your audience is most active. Keep in mind the target audience’s location and don’t stick to the posting schedule rules from other bloggers.

24. Find The Frequency Of Your Posts

Unfortunately, I won’t give you a magic posting formula here. To find your ideal posting frequency, you should test and check out your business’ goals and how much time you want to dedicate to your Instagram marketing efforts. So, find your ideal post frequency, and don’t overwhelm your audience with too much information.

25. Use Instagram Filters And Third-Party Apps

Instagram offers a wide range of different filter options to make your images and videos compelling. The WebDam social media report revealed that 60% of the top brands use the same filters every time they post on Instagram. Maybe, some filters can be a catch for your business. To make your Instagram posts truly sing, you can use multiple third-party apps that help you edit your photos and create collages by mixing your photos (PicStitch), make appealing captions for your posts (Captiona), and shoot time-lapse videos (Hyperlapse).

Related Article: Best Time Of Day For Social Media Posting?

26. Use A Content Calendar

A content calendar is a great way to organize your Instagram posts and manage your overall content strategy. The calendar helps you track performance and plan for future posts. Define a timeline of activities you want to post on Instagram, and improve efficiency. You can use tools like Google Calendar or Trello.

27. Schedule Posts

If you don’t want to spend chunks of time publishing your posts every day, you should certainly use scheduling tools which can help you schedule and preview Instagram posts in advance. They are really big time savers for bloggers. Such preparation will give you the possibility to focus on other important tasks.

Guest Authored By Irina Weber. Irina is an active blogger, content marketing enthusiast and brand manager at SE Ranking whose contributions regularly appear in publications related to online marketing, social media, conversion optimization, and business development. Follow Irina on Twitter.

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The Bottom Line

You know what? Your Instagram journey is never over. If you create an Instagram profile for your business, you will never stop growing and evolving.

By using these 27 awesome Instagram tips, you can maximize your earning potential and find success on Instagram.

It can be tricky, but I am sure that these tactics can help you kickstart your Instagram marketing in no time..

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  Post Crafted By:

  Fred Hansen Pied Piper of Social Media Marketing at YourWorldBrand.com & CEO of Millennium 7 Publishing Co. in Loveland, CO. where I work deep in the trenches of social media strategy, community management and trends.  My interests include; online business educator, social media marketing, new marketing technology, skiing, hunting, fishing and The Rolling Stones..-Not necessarily in that order ;)