Why sell yourself when others could do it for you?

Wondering why everyone talks about Instagram marketing lately? Consider this: Instagram's organic marketing reach is up 115%. Let's face it, beating large brands with high budgets for a spot on Google to raise your brand awareness is pretty unlikely. Social media is your most powerful ally for generating brand awareness. Why? Because, as Seth Godin once noted,

“Selling to people who actually want to hear from you is more effective than interrupting strangers who don’t.”

Just a few years ago Instagram was a younger, immature sister of Facebook. Today it has over 2 million advertisers and 25 million business profiles. There are 1 billion monthly users on Instagram - use this platform wisely and you will build a global audience for your brand in no time.

In this article, I will walk you through nine ways you can use Instagram to generate brand awareness.

Make Full Use of Instagram Marketing With A Business Account

There is a lot of tools available for you to get better engagement if you set your business account. All of them are designed to give you a better understanding of your audience and to make your direct engagement easier.

There are several key advantages that come with your business account: insights into your followers and how they interact with your posts and stories real time metrics on how your stories and promoted posts perform throughout the day information about your company like business hours, location and phone number your customers can call, text, or email your business directly

A business account will provide you with the information you need to make informed decisions about your Instagram marketing. The more you know about how your users interact with your social content the more precise your engagement efforts will be.

Always Stick to Your Brand Personality and Theme

People are more comfortable with your brand if they recognize it.

When you first start building your Instagram presence, it might be tempting to post any picture or content that seems interesting to you. Don’t do it!

If you want to see real results - you have to have a strategy to build a consistent voice and personality. Since Instagram is a primarily visual platform, you must be consistent and careful with the images you chose. Decide what look and feel you want your brand to have and plan your posts strategically to meet that goal.

For example, the pictures that you post might tell a story, or the type of imagery, colors, and filters you use might have a distinct atmosphere. For example, you can see how Airbnb puts adventure and experience in the center of their experiences.

Tap Into User Generated Content

As you grow your audience, you can start to share pictures from your fans on your profile. Everyone likes to feel appreciated and noticed and if you share your follower’s content and pictures, you will encourage your audience to share more branded content.

To engage followers - create your own hashtag and encourage them to use it.

Every time you feature your follower or their content you build a community for your brand. This will also strengthen our human element and make your business more relatable

Check out how GoPro does it - about 80% of their content is user generated and it radiates with the spirit of adventure.

Use Your Brand’s Values to Build a Community

According to a report by Nielsen Global, as many as 55% of consumers are willing to pay more for products from brands that demonstrate a commitment to social value. If you can align your company’s values with your consumers, this is golden.

People are driven by emotions and a sense of purpose. If your brand has a mission that resonates with people, then you will be followed by all those who support the same mission.

There are many influencers who are creating their own good causes campaigns for this reason. Standing by your own strong mission will allow you to create a community of supporters, not just followers.

For example, TOMS, with their “one-for-one” business model, promise to deliver a pair of free, new shoes to a child in need for every sale they make. In 2015 they invited followers to post a photo of their bare feet to Instagram with the hashtag #withoutshoes. In return, they said they would donate a pair of shoes to someone in need. This was engaging and fun, it made people feel good about participation, and incidentally, increased TOMS brand awareness in the process!

Give People Behind the Scenes - Use Stories

People love to get a peek at how their favorite brands are created and run. For example, the company behind the TV show Fixer Upper, Magnolia uses Instagram to show behind the scenes clips. They share highlights from events they’re hosting, design inspiration from homes featured on the show, prep for the shootings, etc. For all this, they take advantage of Stories.

Instagram Stories are a great way to add a human element and to capture and share the brand’s story or journey with your followers. Here’s how you can use them:

Show your product/service in action: Capture and share the experiences of your customers using your products or services.

Get interactive: Use Stories features like polls and questions.

Use a call to action: Don’t rely on the small “swipe up” Instagram overlays for outside links. Use text to tell followers why they should swipe.

Be consistent: Like your Instagram feed, your Stories should align with your brand voice and aesthetic.

Partner With an Influencer to Create Brand Authenticity

Social media influencers are viewed by their followers as trustworthy and reliable. Nearly as many people trust recommendations from influencers (49%) as they do their own friends (56%). The right influencer can reach your target audience, build trust, and drive engagement.

There are more than 500,000 active influencers on Instagram alone.

That means you have many potential opportunities for influencer collaboration. The most important thing is to find an influencer whose mission aligns perfectly with your own.

How to find an influencer? Here are some ideas:

A direct message is a great place to start. If you can find an email address, try that too. But don’t send a mass email or generic DM.

There are several platforms to help brands find and connect directly with influencers. Some of the best include AspireIQ, Upfluence, and Famebit.

The good old networking ways - get off the couch, get out of the house and get to major events related to your niche.

Keep in mind that your influencer does not have to be a big, famous celebrity.

Tapinfluence found that engagement rates are often higher for “micro-influencers.”

Micro-influencers have 5,000 to 25,000 followers. A very smart and cost-effective move is to make influencers your brand ambassador.

Get Others Talking - Be Creative With CTA

You can use your own hashtag to bring more awareness to your brand. Be strategic about what you chose, and make it actionable. There are a lot of campaigns that you can use for inspiration to do this.

For example, Always put together a campaign that showed women and girls who did things that do not fit the norm and were something that women “don’t do.” They also encouraged followers to share with them by using the hashtag #likeagirl. The hashtag launched a movement for women’s empowerment and made many followers and customers into brand ambassadors.

Another way to engage others is to tag them with @mentions. This is a great strategy to amplify your brand awareness. Similarly - if you can share someone else’s content (other businesses in your niche) or give someone a shoutout - go for it! This is also your social proof. Be creative with comments. Invite your followers to comment, tag others, and re-share your content.

Repurpose Your Content

Do you have all your social media icons on your website and email signature?

Your Instagram icon and link should be on all your online platforms.

Make sure to encourage the followers you have on Twitter, Facebook, and even LinkedIn to check out your Instagram account and follow you. As you start working on your brand awareness - the followers you have on other platforms will be a good pool to grab from to increase your following on Instagram. This will give you a critical initial injection of social proof you need to attract new followers.

You should not copy-paste your Instagram posts on other platforms because each one has its own specific rules. However, you can cross-post every once in a while to draw attention. Let your followers on other platforms know about special campaigns and actions you run on Instagram. Showing a lot of diverse activities on each platform will increase curiosity around your brand.

Use Your Time Wisely

The most important thing about using Instagram to generate brand awareness is that you do so strategically and consistently. Develop a clear goal and strategy, and plan out your posts according to that. Each post should have a purpose and drive the next one forward.

Careful planning will also allow you to save time! There are many tools available that will allow you to boost your success without spending too much time on Instagram. You can use some of Instagram’s tools for social media management and content creation such as: Later, Tailwind, Buffer, or Sked Social.

These tools will also allow you to measure our engagement and determine what content performs well with your audience. Determine when is the best time to post, how often you should post and - schedule away!

Summary

Instagram is the best social media platform to give an inside peek into what your business is all about. In order to use its full potential, you have to approach it strategically. Building community engaging influencers in your niche, recruiting brand ambassadors, and involving your followers directly in the promotion of your business are some of the best ways to build strong brand awareness.