Instagram is now a must-have marketing tool for brands.
The snap-happy platform has fast become an essential part of every marketing strategy, edging out Facebook and Twitter as the most effective and engaging social media platform.
However, with every brand and their dog now on Instagram (literally), finessing your feed and cultivating the perfect profile for your brand or business is paramount. Micro-influencers are the best way to own your Instagram and one-up your competition, by generating authentic content from your own customers.
The power of Instagram as a tool
With 80 million photos now being uploaded to the platform daily, as well as the addition of swipe up and affiliate link features on Stories, Instagram is the most effective online marketing platform. It's pairing of online virality and beautiful visual content creates the perfect environment for exponential reach, engagement and growth - the perfect recipe for a successful marketing campaign.
In a study by Linqia, a whopping 92% of marketers chose Instagram as the most important social platform for online marketing, with 93% of influencer marketing campaigns now using Instagram.
In a recent marketing campaign run by Burberry, the brand shared a photo on their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts.
The use of Instagram Stories in marketing campaigns also grew 60% over the last quarter, while the use of Facebook and Twitter declined by 20% and 10%, respectively.
In a recent marketing campaign run by Burberry, the brand shared a photo on their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts.
Facebook collected 8409 likes, 105 comments and 520 shares out of 17 million fans.
Twitter received 92 retweets, 363 favourites and got 3 replies from 5.04 million people.
And Instagram got 60,000 likes and 549 comments from 5 million followers.
Long story short – when posted on Instagram, the same image generated 7 times more likes and 5 times more interactions than when posted on Facebook — despite Burberry’s Facebook page having over 3 times the amount of followers. This just further proves that the effectiveness of online marketing is quality of engagement not just quantity of eyeballs.
How to have a better Instagram than your competitors
With smartphone cameras and editing apps continually improving, it’s no secret that digital content is more creative and high-quality than ever.
When looking to capture new customers on Instagram, it’s important to ensure that your content is up to scratch. Now with over 1 billion users, there is constant competition between brands in customers’ Instagram feeds, making it crucial to stand out from the pack.
Effective ways to assess what kind of content is connecting with your target audience include analysing competitor content within your niche, and checking what content appears under top hashtags for your category (e.g. food, fashion, beauty).
Every brand’s feed should be designed to spark joy in their target customer and push them through the funnel by selling not just a product, but a lifestyle.
Why micro-influencers are the answer
Micro-influencers are proven to generate 60% more engagement than the average celebrity influencer – 22 times more average weekly conversations on every post. This comes down to one simple fact – consumers love hearing from other consumers.
Micro-influencers are proven to receive higher engagement on their posts. Research shows that a micro-influencer with 3 - 10k followers generates around 4% engagement, compared to someone with 100k followers, who will generate around a 2% engagement on average.
Simply everyday people who love creating content, micro-influencers can generate volumes of high-quality content for your brand at scale, giving you access to a constant pipeline of beautiful branded content to keep your Instagram at the top of your customers’ feeds and on top of your competition.
One of the most valuable things about micro-influencers is being able to tap into their pre-built communities and reach your ideal customer. Because micro influencers build their followings around a particular niche, you’re able to target highly engaged audiences with a specific interest in your category.
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