Co-written by Ashleigh Sherman and Lizzy Markman of Darby Communications
Implementing Instagram strategies that are well-planned and creative is key to clearly communicating your brand’s story, connecting with your followers, and increasing engagement. While navigating Instagram’s ever-changing features can feel overwhelming, it also provides the ability to get creative and connect with audiences in new ways. So how can you stand out from the crowd and create an Instagram strategy that works best for your brand? Today we highlight three Instagram strategies that will help increase engagement and share three changes coming to the Gram this year.
3 Instagram Strategies That Will Increase Engagement
When it comes to sharing our clients’ stories on social media, creativity is key. We’ve highlighted 3 Instagram strategies we implemented in the past year to stop followers mid-scroll and get them to take notice.
Instagram Guides
Why It’s Impactful
Instagram Guides allow a brand to share information-heavy topics in an easy-to-digest, scrollable format. The Guides live on the brand’s page as a resource for the community, so followers can navigate to them whenever they are looking for more information about the brand or to learn more about a specific topic.
The Approach
Our client Appalachian Gear Company has several Guides, ranging from product information to social causes, that share a quick overview of the brand, while also allowing followers to dig into the ethos of who they are. Each of AppGearCo’s Guides is created from six or seven recommended posts, which were originally posted to their feed over a week-long period.
3 Tips for Pulling Together an Effective Guide
- Choose a topic. Consider highlighting brand values or product features. Appalachian Gear Company’s Guides include: The Truth About Natural Fibers, Why Choose Made In The USA, and The Fight Against Microplastics.
- Choose a theme for your series. Each post should stand on its own while also clearly being a part of a series. Each of Appalachian Gear Company’s posts in their “Fight Against Microplastics” Guide has a matching title (Earth Week 2021) and a separate subtitle depending on the topic. You can easily create a theme in Canva.
- Strategize a timeframe for publishing each post of the future Guide to your feed. Appalachian Gear Company originally posted their “Fight Against Microplastics” Guide to their feed around Earth Day.
Instagram Reels
Why It’s Impactful
Reels is a fun, interactive way to build your community and connect with a larger audience! As Instagram’s algorithm prioritizes Reels, you should too. Since introducing Reels to their feed, our client BRANWYN has tripled its reach!
The Approach
BRANWYN posts weekly Reels sourced from Content Creators that highlight their athletic lifestyle, from skiing to thru-hiking. Reels has become a great way to showcase the #BRANWYNInTheWild Community as well as emphasize the many places you can go in your BRANWYN Innerwear!
3 Tips for Creating a Must-Watch Reel
- Trends matter. Using trending audio makes a huge difference in how Instagram prioritizes your content. Remember, audio that is trending this week won’t necessarily be trending next week.
- Don’t overproduce them. You don’t need a professional videographer to create a successful Reel. Many Reels are under 10 seconds and are created on a phone.
- Reels are conversation starters. More than just a way to showcase products, Reels are a great way to engage your Instagram community in meaningful conversation and share stories. BRANWYN’s Reel about Solo Hiking had 37 comments of people sharing their own experiences!
Instagram for Product Launches
Why It’s Impactful
Product launches are equal parts exciting and anxiety-inducing. From giveaways to ad campaigns, introducing a new product to followers is a great way to tap into the influence of your brand’s Instagram channel. For Holiday 2021, we helped launch Poppy Handcrafted Popcorn’s new Popcorn Advent Calendar on social with a creative Instagram advent calendar theme we designed.
The Approach
To launch this new Popcorn Advent Calendar we created a 12-post series that showcased the calendar’s beautiful design. Similar to the real advent calendar, we featured a carousel with a numbered door that encouraged followers to swipe to see what different flavor of popcorn was behind the door every day. This interactive product launch grew Poppy’s reach by 340%, increased overall engagement by 100%, and contributed to 320% more profile actions in a single day!
3 Tips for a Successful Product Launch
Though no two product launches look the same, consider these Instagram strategies when dropping your next product.
- Build buzz around the product before launch day. We recommend using a blend of sneak peek posts and stories to start the conversation a week before the product drops.
- Get creative about how you showcase the product. From carousel posts to Reels to Instagram Lives, make sure followers can learn about the many features of your new product!
- Go big! Consider pairing the launch with a giveaway and newsletter campaign to get the most eyes on your new product.
3 Changes Coming to Instagram This Year That Could Affect Your Brand
Chronological Feed
At the start of this year, Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced some major changes for Instagram feeds. Soon, users will have the option to choose between one of three different feeds: Home, Favorites, and Following. The move comes as social media platforms across the board attempt to keep up with the continued popularity of TikTok. Remember when Instagram announced a pivot toward video? Instagram’s division between their Home and Following feeds is reminiscent of TikTok’s successful division between their For You and Following pages, with one emphasizing discoverability and the other emphasizing control. Here’s what each of the new feeds will look like:
- Home: The Home feed will look similar to how your Home feed looks now, with posts ranked based on interest, rather than listed chronologically. This feed will also continue to be where users see suggested posts, meaning it’s where brands have the highest potential to reach non-followers.
- Favorites: Much as Facebook users currently have the ability to mark certain profiles as Favorites, Instagram users will soon have the option to set certain accounts as Favorites. And they will have a curated feed where they can view only posts from these profiles.
- Following: The return of the chronological feed! The new Following feed will show users posts only from the accounts they follow, listed chronologically. This new order system (or rather, return of an old order system) means that it will be more important than ever for brands to pay attention to the times their followers are online.
Influencer Subscriptions
Instagram continues to prioritize influencer marketing. This year, they’re taking arguably their biggest step toward influencer monetization yet: Subscriptions. This new feature will allow creators to add a “subscribe” button to their profile before setting a monthly price for exclusive content. This new setting will allow influencers to create Instagram Stories and Lives that only their subscribers can see.
Add Reminder Button
Finally, Instagram released a new feature that will help brands promote an upcoming event, product launch, Instagram Live, and more: the “Add Reminder” button. Brands can add this new button to their Feed posts. Users who click the “Add Reminder” button will receive an activity feed notification 24 hours before the event, an activity feed and push notification 15 minutes before the event, and an activity feed and push notification when the event starts.
Want to implement one or more of these Instagram strategies for your brand but aren’t sure where to start or just don’t have the time to do it? Learn how the Darby team can improve your social media marketing strategy, make the most of ever-evolving trends, and organically grow your social media following, by dropping us a line HERE. You can also visit our Case Studies to learn more about our successes in both public relations and digital marketing.