3 ways to get more out of Instagram

In my last post about Instagram, we looked at a few case studies of exceptional Instagram use:

• Oracle uses Instagram to build community behind their brand. They showcase events they attend, volunteer opportunities and more to give their business a personal voice.
• General Electric posts about their research to pique interest in the company.
• Oreo posts mostly about their brand and products (which is not a best practice) but keeps a strong following by incorporating tips and recipes.

Today, we’re going to dig into these companies’ strategies even more - to discover the real reasons for their phenomenal Instagram success. Then, we’ll discuss how you can employ their common strategies to get the most brand interaction on Instagram.

What do Oracle, GE and Oreo have in common?

At first glance, it seems like these Instagram pages don’t have all that much in common. Oracle features mostly images of the the company’s events, GE’s entire feed is about their research and innovation, Oreo shares product photos and recipes. At first glance, even I was looking at these pages thinking, “huh?”

But there are a few commonalities that make these pages some of the more successful business uses of Instagram:

1. They use hashtags. Yes - this one is kind of a no-brainer. But the key on Instagram isn’t just to slap a few hashtags on your post, it’s to use the right kind and the right number of hashtags.

Kind: The best way I can think to describe the kind of hashtags to use is K.I.S.S. Keep it super simple (or, keep it simple, stupid, if you prefer that version). Tag your photos with either branded hashtags that are coined by your business (ex: #GEInstaWalk), or terms that others are searching for (ex: #GivingTuesday).

Number: If you look around the page, you’ll notice that most of their posts use 3-5 hashtags to categorize the post. This is totally appropriate for Instagram. I beg you: please, please, please do not tag your photo 15 times. There’s truly no better way to lose your audience than to overwhelm them with hashtags.

2. They’re engaging. No, they’re really engaging. I was recently reading about the “Facebook test.” Basically, this means that people want to be viewed as cool, witty, or clever on their personal Facebook pages, so they only post photos, links or statuses that portray them in that light. Use the Facebook test on Instagram. Is your content witty or informative? Does it make people say, “cool!” or “aww” or something of the like? If not, don’t post.

3. They offer followers deeper brand insight. This theme shines through on all three of the pages we’re examining today. Your followers should feel like they’re part of a secret, VIP club, where you let them peek behind the curtain. GE posts behind-the-scenes research photos that followers would otherwise never see - so take a page from their book. Are your products handmade? Post a photo of you making them. Humanize your brand through photos that are more personal than what you post on, say, LinkedIn.

Have you found success marketing your brand on Instagram? I’d love to hear more. Leave a comment or shoot me a note on www.jackiesteinmetz.com.

LinkedIn Advanced Techniques

In my last post about LinkedIn, we discussed how to build your company page and touched on content scheduling and LinkedIn ads - and the last two items definitely deserve a deeper look. For companies that sell B2B, posting content and advertising on LinkedIn is the perfect way to reach executives and other decision makers. Raising awareness of your business on LinkedIn can be cost effective, and it shortens your sales cycle by delivering warmer leads.

3 ways to make your content count

Posting the right content on LinkedIn can have a powerful impact; this social media platform has an audience of 65 million business professionals - and nearly 50% of them have decision-making authority at their companies. There’s no better way to get in front of the right audience, especially if you sell products or services to other businesses. Here’s how to make your content count:

1. Don’t just think about your strategy. Write it down. Just like your business plan, your marketing strategy, your new years resolutions and really any other goal, it’s important to outline what you’d like to accomplish and document it. How would you like to portray your business on LinkedIn? Because it’s more professional than other social networking sites, it’s important to keep your content professional, too. Be sure to add your opinion to spice up the content a little bit.

2. Employ some tools to feed you content. Just like on every other social media site, the easiest way to find content is to make it come to you. Set up a feedly account and search for relevant blogs and news sources with content you like. Repost content from LinkedIn News. Connect with industry experts and other content curators that you like and share their content. Chances are, they’ll interact with your content as well - a win-win for both of you.

3. Sick of curating? Create content, too. I know, I know - it’s easier said than done. However, most marketers today are curating content. Not all of them are creating original content themselves. Start slow - set up a blog and vow to write every week or two. It doesn’t have to be often to be extremely powerful. Not sure where to start? This article on A Beautiful Mess is a fantastic place to start.

Advertising on LinkedIn

Just like Facebook ads, advertising on LinkedIn is both precise and flexible. Rather than using mined information to target an audience, LinkedIn takes advantage of user-provided data, making the tool that much more powerful. Here are a few quick tips to get started:

- Decide who to target. Are you looking for C-level executives or someone else? LinkedIn allows advertisers to target by job title and function, industry and company size, and seniority.

- Choose whether you want to pay per click or impression. There are strong arguments for both; it may make the most sense to test both to see which is most budget-friendly for you.

- Figure out how you’d like to advertise. Of course, this will depend on your resources - but ads with photos are often more effective. LinkedIn allows advertising with a combination of text and images, text only and even videos.

Read all the details on LinkedIn advertising in this Social Media Examiner article.

Do you feel ready to get amp up your LinkedIn marketing presence? Are there any other advanced techniques you’d like to share? If so, feel free to comment below or reach out to me via email at jackie@jackiesteinmetz.com.

4 advanced Facebook Fan Page techniques

In my last post about Facebook Fan pages, we covered how to build a consistent Facebook presence, invite people to like your page and start curating content. However, there’s so much more to know to be successful on Facebook if it’s one of your target social media platforms. Read on to find out how to use Facebook to build your brand and gain loyal fans.

How to stay relevant on Facebook

Facebook’s algorithm has recently changed, resulting in even less engagement in most Fan Page updates. Though this mostly affects text statuses, it’s important to know how to keep eyeballs on your business even when Facebook shakes things up. Use these techniques to cultivate a powerful fan base:

The most important Facebook Fan Page techniques

1. Don’t just use stock photos. You already know that Facebook posts with images typically get more engagement. However, the kind of image you post matters, so don’t just choose a stock image and stick it up with your content. This may seem like a no-brainer, but if you post more specific images, they will get more engagement. See the below example from Buffer:

2. Don’t misuse hashtags. Hashtags can be a really powerful tool if used correctly. However, so many businesses make common hashtag mistakes - such as:

• Using hashtags that are too long. Make sure the tags you use are actually something that people are filtering by. When you hashtag random phrases, it may be funny, but it’s definitely not going to #boostinterestinyourpost.
• Placing punctuation in a hashtag. Punctuation breaks a hashtag - so many sure you don’t include it. For example: #content/marketing (wrong), #contentmarketing (right).
• Writing posts with too many hashtags. There are platforms where it’s okay to use multiple hashtags, and some where it’s not. On Facebook, I typically try to only incorporate one hashtag (if at all). On Twitter, my max is two. On Instagram, however, you can include more.

Instead, use hashtags to categorize your posts. Companies typically attach hashtags to their campaigns to help them go viral. For example, the City of New York used the #LoveNYC hashtag to raise sentiment for the city at the end of 2013. If you’d like to make the best use of hashtags in your posts, check out Social Media Today’s how-to guide.

3. Do your ad campaigns right. Facebook advertising campaigns are a powerful way to reach a very specific subset of Facebook users. Unlike other online advertising services that mine for data, Facebook incorporates user-provided information - so it’s much more accurate.

How do you do your ad campaigns right? The highlights include choosing a small audience segment to minimize the amount you spend on impressions, testing and monitoring performance. Read more about how to optimize your campaigns in the Wishpond blog.

Are you using any specific Facebook strategies that work? I’d love to hear more about them. If you have any questions, please feel free to comment below or email me at jackie@jackiesteinmetz.com.