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A General Guide to Instagram for your Business

It’s undeniable that Social Media is now the virtual equivalent of ancient Roman Colosseum. Live streaming has made it possible to send out a message to thousands, participate in community discussions and even engage in less-bloody battles within the virtual arena a.k.a the comments section. Millions of users are now active on various platforms and the number is growing.

It’s no longer an option but a necessity to have active social media platforms for businesses looking to market their products to target customers. Instagram is one such platform that can’t be ignored. With a pool of 700 million active users it would be preposterous not to have an Instagram presence as a firm. Warm a cup of coffee and stick around for our simple guide on starting out on Instagram for your brand.

Craft an impressive profile

Get started by downloading the Instagram app on your phone from Google Play store or the IOS app store. Once you’re done choosing a master email and a secure password, it’s time to set-up your profile.

Your profile is your digital billboard, therefore you definitely want to ensure you put out information that represents your brand. Reveller254 would be an appropriate username if you were an outgoing party animal, but you’re trying to send out a message that embodies your brand. Your username should be consistent with your brand and easily recognizable by your audience from other platforms. Your company logo will make a great profile picture and solidify brand uniformity.

With a limit of up to 150 characters to write out your bio, make sure it’s brief and attention-grabbing. Give a concise description of what your company offers. Include a branded hashtag and a couple of emojis that represent your industry or products.

Go a step further and switch to a business account within your app settings. This enables you to include your business operating hours, physical address and telephone contacts. Real-time metrics on how your promoted posts and stories are performing are also available for analysis, as well as insights on your followers and their post interaction behavior.

Make your account more discoverable by cross-promoting it on your other social media platforms.

Create compelling content

Great content is crucial for your brand’s growth on Instagram. Put together a clear strategy with the key goals you aim to achieve. It could be brand awareness, driving traffic to your website or increasing product sales. A clear approach will direct your plan of action accordingly.

High quality visuals…this can’t be stressed enough. A blurry poorly lit picture won’t get as much engagement as a bright high resolution photograph. Not a professional photographer? No sweat! You can still take ‘double tap worthy’ photos by investing in a decent camera and gaining basic photography skills (Yay to free online tutorials!). To achieve a cohesive look on your feed, define your style – minimalist, colorful or corporate, and stick with it.

Impressive visuals also need to be accompanied by equally captivating captions. Determine your brand voice, are you playful or conservative? Engage your audience by asking questions, or posting a funny caption. Don’t be shy with using emojis, besides it’s 2017.

Using relevant hashtags exposes your account to an audience interested in your content. Research on what hashtags are fitting for your content and constantly use your branded hashtag whenever posting. We’re loving Java House Africa’s hashtag #javalove that connects with the brand’s audience and is specific to the firm.

Keep things interesting by rotating through different content themes. Highlight your firm’s latest products, feature artistic illustrations marking the holiday season or groupfies of your firm’s team. Instagram stories, live videos and carousel posts give your account an entertaining and creative edge.

For maximum interaction, post consistently (post at least once daily for best results) to keep your audience anticipating your upcoming content. Test posts at different time intervals and review your results to determine the optimum time to upload content.

Analyze your post insights by tracking which posts have the best performance and tweak your content accordingly to cater to your audience’s interests and expectations.

Proficiently manage your account

To keep your brand thriving, it’s key to follow through with exceptional management of your account.

Speedy responses to comments and direct messages establishes a reputation of responsiveness for your firm. Comment on posts with your branded hashtags and re-post content you have been tagged in. A simple ‘thanks’ or smiley face can garner loyalty from your followers and customers.

We believe you’ll be well on your way to “Insta-success” armed with the information above. Look forward to more in-depth posts on this topic. Now get snapping and posting, and don’t forget to follow us at @triodigital (on instagram) so we can give your pics some love.

Finding it a bit of an uphill task to run day-to-day operations as well as manage your account on ‘The Gram’? Take a deep breath and chat with us for professional social media marketing services.

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10 Key Elements for Social Media Marketing

Leveraging the power of content and Social Media Marketing can help you grow your audience and customer base in a dramatic way. But getting started without any previous experience or insight could be quite the daunting challenge.

It’s important that you understand social media marketing fundamentals. From maximizing quality to increasing your online entry points, incorporating these 10 elements will help build a foundation that will serve your customers, your brand and — perhaps most importantly – grow your bottom line.

1.LISTEN

Success with social media and content marketing requires more listening and less talking. Read your target audience’s online content and join discussions to learn what’s important to them. Only then can you create content and spark conversations that add value rather than clutter to their lives.

2.FOCUS

It’s better to specialize in one or a few elements than to be a jack-of-all-trades. A highly-focused social media and content marketing strategy intended to build a strong brand has a better chance for success than a broad strategy that attempts to be all things to all people.

3.QUALITY

Quality trumps quantity any day. It’s better to have 1,000 online followers who read, share and talk about your content with their own audiences than 10,000 connections who disappear after connecting with you the first time.

4.PATIENCE

Social media and content marketing success doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a slow deliberate process. While it’s possible to catch lightning in a bottle, it’s far more likely that you’ll need to commit to the long haul to achieve results and see real gains.

5.COMPOUNDING

If you publish great, quality content and work to build your online audience of quality followers, they’ll share it with their own audiences on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram their own blogs and more. This sharing and discussing of your content opens new entry points for search engines like Google to find it in keyword searches. Those entry points could grow to hundreds or thousands of more potential ways for people to find and engage with you online.

6.INFLUENCE

Spend time finding and identifying the online influencers in your market who have quality audiences and are likely to be interested in your products, services and business. Connect with those people and work to build relationships with them. If you get on their radar as an authoritative, interesting source of useful information, they might share your content with their own followers, which could put you and your business in front of a huge new audience.

7.VALUE

If you spend all your time on social media directly promoting your products and services, people will stop listening. You must add value to the conversation. Focus less on conversions and more on creating great and amazing content and developing relationships with online influencers. In time, those people will become a powerful catalyst for word-of-mouth marketing for your business.

8.ACKNOWLEDGMENT

You wouldn’t ignore someone who reaches out to you in person so don’t ignore them online. Building relationships is one of the most important parts of social media marketing success, so always acknowledge and engage with every person who reaches out to you.

9.ACCESSIBILITY

Don’t publish your content and then disappear and go quiet. Be available to your audience. That means you need to consistently publish content and participate in conversations. Followers online can be fickle and they won’t hesitate to replace you if you disappear for weeks or months.

10.RECIPROCITY

You can’t expect others to share your content and talk about you if you don’t do the same for them. It’s a two way street. So, a portion of the time you spend on social media should be focused on sharing and talking about content published by others.

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All hail the new Marketing King

If you’ve been reading current news about social media over the last few years, you might have come across this famous four words ‘The Next Big Thing’. Well, I have too, but the truth is, social media is no longer the ‘Next Big Thing’. It’s actually happening

Social media when used strategically over time, is the most powerful form of marketing and market research the world has ever seen. The art is mastering your audience and choosing the best content as per the audience. I won’t lie, it’s not magic that will happen overnight and lead to instant results, but for sure if the strategy is right, the results will be magical!

You might also have come across the: Social media marketing vs Traditional marketing debate. Which is more effective? Which has a better ROI rate? Which one gives you more value for your money? All these, among others are questions that come up when you compare the two forms of marketing. Traditional methods of marketing typically involve advertising through Print, radio, television, direct mail and telephone. I can proudly say that Social media/Digital is winning and not only winning but winning big. It’s just a matter of time before social media slays the former king of marketing (Traditional Marketing)

Traditional Marketing is Dying

Remember billboards?

I do!

This among others were kings of the past when it comes to marketing and brands are slowly acknowledging this point. Do me a favour, the next time you drive or your being driven, take a peek at the rest of the people in the car.

Just for a second!

Even now, chances are they’ll be looking at their phone. Even in our lifestyle and houses, times have changed. During family dinners or watching news as a family, you will or may have already noticed that many people are usually on their phones or laptops (Social Media Strongholds). The rule of thumb when it comes to marketing is to place your content or advertisement where most of the ‘eye balls’ are. Well, in this generation, we all know where that is

All hail the New King

It’s probably obvious by now that Social media is a great tool to show your audience/customers that you can be trusted and that you know your stuff. The biggest factor that kills most conversations is the lack of trust. Social media gives you an awesomely efficient, cheap and effective way to build that trust. In the end of the day, we don’t have a choice on whether we do social media, the question is how well we do it.

Social media is not just an activity; it is an investment of valuable time and resources – Invest WISELY!

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Getting to know the Big Bad SEO Monster

Search Engine Optimization (or SEO for short) isn’t what the blogosphere would have you believe. It is not some unstoppable big bad monster lurking in the shadows trying to destroy your company and everything you hold dear. At its core, SEO is simply the process of making sure that the people that need to find you can find you. As long as you focus on these two key components of any search, you and your beloved will be just fine (no pitchforks and torches necessary).

The Human Aspect

Each search is done by a person looking to achieve a certain goal. This goal could be to find your business, to find out about the products and services you offer, or even just to get directions to your doorstep. As a brand, your goal is to make sure you are easier to find than your competition while making sure all the information potential clients would require is available to them.

The most important step to doing this is to view your company from the perspective of a customer to figure out what it is your clients look for when they look for you. One you have channeled the inner client within you write down a list of words that people would use to find you (hold on to these). These “keywords” form an essential basis to for your website. Sprinkling them in a frequent manner on your website makes sure that when people look for you, they find what they are looking for.

The Cogs in the Machine

Working on SEO without understanding how search engines work is like going monster hunting with a quiver full of arrows and no bow. You may get lucky and prevail in the end but it is ill advised, so please sit back and allow me to string your bow.

Search engines are software systems that scour the world wide web for information which they display in Search Engine Result Pages, or SERPs for short (we digital marketers are obsessed with abbreviations). Basically, search engines find the stuff they think you are looking for. To do so, they crawl through your website and find as much information as they can about it from each page. The search engines scrutinize every aspect of each page from the visible content to the media. Like a mother-in-law, search engines are very judgmental, looking at every tiny aspect of code behind your webpages.

Search engines are however text based systems making text based content your best friend in SEO. For these, the best policy is to regularly sparingly add the keywords in the text where they make sense; search engines penalize web pages that just stuff keywords in illogical places especially in page descriptions that are just keywords with no context. When it comes to non-text elements such as images and video content, search engines rely on the descriptions of them in the website code. To optimize non-text content, you should use the relevant keywords to name your files as well as use keywords to describe them in them in the meta-tag (it’s like a description that only the search engines see).

The monster hunting world of SEO is vast with many tools and methods to achieve your goals. The process is long, arduous and recurring but it is very effective and with the rewards being more than worth it. We hope this at least helped you get to know the monster a little better.

Now go forth and HAPPY HUNTING!!

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The Digital Express

The growth and evolution of technology has been of monumental proportions in the past century. From mechanical typewriters to face detection software that lets you select your favorite Snap Chat filter (‘flower crown’ anyone?), it is undisputable that humankind deserves more than a pat on the back.  The World Wide Web, one of the pinnacles of technological development, revolutionized the digital age and opened doors that vastly transformed our lifestyle from entertainment, education and business.

Kenya has shown promising prospects of growing internet penetration with a penetration rate of 45% as of 1st July 2017 (Source: http://bit.ly/2ljiY3w). That’s a pool of over 21 million users online! Any business that’s hungry to acquire more customers will realize that this is a profitable opportunity to pounce on. Digital marketing is the new ‘black’, and if you haven’t wholly embraced it yet, you may need to rethink your firm’s marketing approach.

Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Marketing and Email Marketing are just some of the techniques that can increase awareness of a firm’s product offering, enhance consumer interaction and boost a company’s brand visibility. Interactive tweets, informative e-newsletters or crisp pictures accompanying your Instagram captions; are attractive to potential customers and will certainly garner a memorable impression.

The digital marketing cosmos is ever-changing with innovative applications and software updates being released thick and fast, a flexible strategy is necessary to ensure your firm is abreast with the latest online marketing tactics.  The ability to generate accurate results of marketing campaigns and to measure customer engagement are just some of the perks of online marketing. Plus, it’s economical for firms; as digital marketing typically costs less than traditional forms of advertising. It is possible to reach a wider audience and not have to burst your firm’s marketing budget on advertising. That means more dinero at your disposal for sprucing up your office or buying extra workplace supplies (or even just throwing epic office parties).

Don’t get left behind. Disembark from the old-fashioned advertising steam engine and board the shiny speed train of digital marketing.