New-age Communication: Tips on Professional Instagram Branding

 

With regard to communication, we are living in an ever-changing atmosphere. There is more access to free and easy tools to establish and enhance the presence of your brand than ever been before, but with this accessibility comes the biggest challenge yet: captivating your audience. Because of the surplus of information constantly aiming for the attention of mobile phone users, more than ever, marketers must fight for a spot in consumers’ minds. Marketers must consider how quickly one switches from stimulant to stimulant, so the battle is not only in grabbing consumers’ attentions, but also remaining in the their minds once they scroll onto the next post.

Because many brands choose to market through Instagram, here are a few of my favorite ways to communicate your messages concisely, interestingly, and memorably to encourage users to not only follow you, but even better, never unfollow you:

Be consistent.

When someone is scrolling through their feed at high-speed, determine what will stand out about your post so that when they see it, they recognize that it is your brand. In order to build brand awareness, there must be some sort of congruency amongst your posts. You’ve got your logo, but are you placing it strategically within your photos? If you’re making short videos for your page, are you using the same fonts, formats, filters and color schemes for the same series of content? Try to think of a creative enhancer that people associate with your brand when they see it, and consider incorporating it at your physical work place as well!

For example, when Neutrogena markets products on their Instagram, they make some of them gif style. They place the product in focus with a drop shadow and do a short animation in the background. Many of their gifs opt for soft colors, with pink being a favorite. This way, when they do use a gif, it remains consistent with their brand and style design.

Give more than you receive.

An easy way to convince people to buy-in to your bottom line is to offer them some sort of benefit. A quick search of any Instagram influencer’s account will show this through an abundance of posts that include promo codes, sweepstakes, and other variations of a “give.” Just because someone is already a customer does not mean they are necessarily going to want your posts on their Instagram feed. Thus, your page cannot consist of constant calls-to-action.

Don’t worry, the “give” doesn’t have to be monetary — yours can be something as simple as a quick tip that your target audience would find helpful. For example, a financial services company could do “Financial Tips of the Day!” At the very least, they might stick around to catch the next tip. Eventually, users might ask themselves, “They have shown me the tip; how can they help me achieve that with their services?”

Don’t Be Ignorable.

People tend to learn to tune out certain type of posts on their feed. Many companies gain followers by simply requiring users to follow them on certain platforms for extra benefits within their product offering, but what convinces people to avoid hitting the unfollow button as soon as they get their deal? Or, if they must continue to follow you for their deal, what convinces them to read or engage with your posts?

On a photo/video-only platform like Instagram, it’s best to avoid text-heavy posts that are not visually appealing. Try an eye-catching post with a few buzzwords, and direct those interested to a link in your biography section that takes them to a more detailed version on another platform However, do not make the mistake of posting visually appealing photos or videos that are not at all relevant to your product offering. Your message must be clear and consistent, so while random, funny posts from the Internet might bring traffic to your page, it can soon bring clutter, and your followers won’t associate the correct things with your brand.

If you’re interested in follower retention on Instagram and beyond, try some of these quick tips to enhance your company’s social media presence!


 

nygaele-mcgeathey

Written By: Nygaele McGeathey
12/10/2017

 

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