September 30, 2016

Top Tips For Marketing Brands On Instagram

Solberg Audunsson, co-founder of Takumi, a platform for connecting influential Instagram users with brands, shares his best Instagram tips.

1. Start one or more brand profiles where appropriate

A brand should always have a “home” for their brand but if there are sub-brands for their products or services it makes sense to have specific accounts on Instagram for those too. Whilst having one account for all strands might appear be the fastest way to build a following, this isn’t a long term strategy. Giving each brand an independent platform/ and voice is the best way to develop a strategically targeted audience which helps ensure other future investments into the channel reap the best rewards. This should be looked at on a case by case basis depend on the brand.

2. Do influencer marketing through high engagement smaller influencers

By tapping into hyper-engaged existing networks you can earn valuable advocacy and build a genuine, interested audience at an accelerated rate. This method is the modern day equivalent to using traditional celebrities in an ambassador role. Established stars with six figure followings can charge a hefty price tag to post on behalf of a brand and savvy audiences are familiar to these deals so the value behind these posts is severely limited.  Context is just as, if not more important than the content for building trust with audiences. It’s far more authentic and effective to partner with the smaller scale ‘micro-influencers’ (users with between 1,000-30,000 followers) that have a genuine passion about the brand or campaign idea as this leads the highest engagement. Micro-influencer campaigns can be run though tools such as Takumi which are more affordable than navigating agents or individual artists and this helps make the micro-influencer Instagram’s secret weapon that every business should be using to promote their brands.

3. Brands should allocate real time interacting with followers and key individuals on Instagram

It’s essential to be part of the community and interaction is a direct time-reward exercise for brands. Reposting content from individuals relevant to your brand is a great way to increase the activity on your profile and build an affinity with your audience, but always make sure to attribute posts to the original creator.