Instagram strategy for Brands

PEOPLE ARE GETTING BORED OF FACEBOOK.
@BrandMentalist
Your posts don’t get seen anymore unless you pay it get them promoted.
Your close friends don’t even go on it anymore.
You guys used to talk on all the time.
Now it’s lurking on familiar strangers’ travel photos and rants.
Where have all the people gone you say?
What new toy are they on?

I BELIEVE PEOPLE HAVE GONE ONTO INSTAGRAM.
@BrandMentalist
Vine didn’t make the cut here in Australia because we are not that quick
of an early adopter.
And we have shit internet that caps our data,
so that limits what we view on our phone.

INSTAGRAM IS STILL QUITE RELATIVELY NEW FOR
BRANDS IN AUSTRALIA TO GET ON BOARD.
@BrandMentalist
And it’s a great testament for your social media skill because you can’t really
promote your posts (well, you can. But not directly to Instagram like you could on Facebook or Twitter).
You can’t really geo-target through advertising
(well, you kind of can, but hold off and I’ll tell you how).
You have to utilize your best social skill, not just on “content play" but also on your
understanding of how humans behave.

SO YOU SEE… INSTAGRAM IS ALL ABOUT PHOTOS.
@BrandMentalist
The videos look nice but they are not as popular because;
1. It needs 5 secs to load and people are impatient.
2. People use Instagram videos differently from Vine. You see on Vine,
people creatively use the looping function. People post funny stuff,
entertainment, parody acting, silly talks and jokes. Instagram is way
too classy for that. We are all about beautiful nature and scenery.

@BrandMentalist
So how do you get your brands’ pages to be
popular, have more followers, and make sure you
target the right geo-demographics?

@BrandMentalist
FIRST, YOU NEED TO DECIDE
WHAT YOUR INSTAGRAM IS ALL ABOUT…

IS IT ABOUT BEHIND-THE-SCENES CONTENT?
@BrandMentalist
A lot of magazines, production, PR, and tech companies are utilizing this really
well…brands like Margaret Zhang (fashion blogger), Vogue, Victoria’s Secret, Colette,
Mashable, Cannes Lions, Leo Burnett, Fashion Week, etc.

IS IT ABOUT A PLAYFUL PLAY WITH YOUR BRANDS?
CREATIVE PHOTOS? MEMES? FUNNY QUOTES?
@BrandMentalist
A lot of young brands targeting teenagers are doing this well….brands like Playstation, Diet
Coke, Oreo Twist, etc.

IS IT ABOUT ENHANCING AND SHARING THE LOVE
FOR AN ICON? ICONS ALSO INCLUDE YOUR PRODUCTS IF YOU ARE A FASHION BRAND.
@BrandMentalist
Sports brands that do this well are NFL, Nike, AFL, and Aus Cricket. The icons are the
athletes. Fashion brands that do well are Michael Kors, Marc Jacobs, Highsnobiety,
etc.Burnett, Fashion Week, etc.

IS IT ABOUT REFLECTING AND IGNITING YOUR
BRAND’S CULTURE THROUGH PHOTOS?
@BrandMentalist
Powerful brands are doing this well….brands like Vans, Red Bull, National Geographic, and
Canon.

@BrandMentalist
So now decide what your Instagram page
is going to stand for.
Decide first, before flicking through to the next page.

JUST LIKE A MARKETING STRATEGY,
THERE ARE 5CS YOU HAVE TO TAKE INTO ACCOUNTS;
- CUSTOMERS
- COMPETITORS
- CONTEXT
- COMPANY
- COLLABORATORS
@BrandMentalist

WHO ARE YOUR CUSTOMERS?
State it in a short paragraph. Just a rough profile of who they are.
"My customers are 13-19 year old girls who are fashion-forward and tech-savy,
live in the inner city, and come from middle-class to upper-class families. They
love street-styled fashion that are of good quality and look cool, yet affordable in
price. They are likely to read Dolly, Girlfriend, and Cosmo. They shop at Westfield
and in CBD."
or
"My customers are 18-30 year old men who are into fitness and sports, live in the
city, love to hang out with friends. They take good care of their looks and health.
They watch Fox Sports, ESPN, and go on Youtube to watch sports videos. They
love participating in all fitness competitions."
.
@BrandMentalist

WHO ARE YOUR COMPETITORS?
Both direct and indirect.
Direct competitors are those selling the similar or the same products as you.
Indirect competitors are those selling products that could be used by your
customers as alternative to yours.
For example, if you sell Brand C Coconut Water, your direct competitors are
Brand A, B, C of Coconut Water and other juice brands. Your indirect
competitors are soda, coffee, tea, sports drinks, water, etc.
@BrandMentalist

WHAT’S THE CONTEXT THAT THE CUSTOMERS
USE YOUR PRODUCTS?
How, where, and when do they use your products?
What are their usage occasions? What’s the purchase frequency? What’s the
product life cycle? Taste, flavour, or material preference for your products? Any
emotional connection with the brand?
@BrandMentalist

WHAT DOES YOUR COMPANY/BRAND STAND FOR?
Brand personality
Brand positioning
Brand insights
@BrandMentalist

WHO ARE YOUR COLLABORATORS?
Are you in partnership with anyone?
Are you working in collaboration with any bloggers, celebrities,
ambassadors, brand advocates, or any other brands?
Is there any potential or an opportunity for such thing?
@BrandMentalist

After listing all of these down, now you can start
implementing your Instagram strategy.
@BrandMentalist

(1) FIND OUT WHAT KIND OF CONTENT IN YOUR CATEGORY
PEOPLE LOVE THE MOST.
Use website like to look at photos. Search for the relevant
keywords and see what kind of photos people like or comment on the most.
Look at popular accounts/influential accounts on the category i.e.
@Margaret__Zhang or @SydneyFashionBlogger accounts and see what kind of
photos get the most likes and comments.
This is to determine how you can best provide content that engage or is favoured
by your followers.
@BrandMentalist

Use Google Trends to see what kind of content people are looking for. You can
even compare the popularity between different things.
@BrandMentalist
Here you can see that for ‘Food’,
people search for images of
cake, chocolate, chicken, fruit,
cupcakes, and coffee the most.

Use Google Trends to see what kind of content people are looking for. You can
even compare the popularity between different things.
@BrandMentalist
Here you can see what kind of ‘quotes’
images people look for.
People also look for a lot of funny images.
And if you click on the motivation you’ll see
people search for Fitness Motivation
images.

(2) DO YOU HAVE ANY OWNED MEDIA? CURRENT DATABASE AND
ASSETS THAT YOU CAN LEVERAGE OFF?
If you do, start by announcing on your existing Facebook page, Twitter,
website, and via eDM that you have launched your Instagram account
and that they should follow for exclusive content, promotions, behind-
the-scenes, sneak peek into collections, office life, etc.
@BrandMentalist

(3) WHO ARE THE INFLUENCERS IN YOUR CATEGORY?
For example, if you are a food or a beverage brand, the influencers can be
famous Chefs in your region, cooking TV shows, food and cooking
magazines, big food retailers (i.e. Wholefoods, Coles, Harris’ Farm), and top
food bloggers.
If you are a technology/electronics/gadget brand, the influencers can be
Google, Inc, Mashable, Wired, Techcrunch, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, etc.
If you are a music brand, the influencers can be other famous artists, big
recording labels, MTV, Channel V, The Voice, etc.
@BrandMentalist

(4) START FOLLOWING THE INFLUENCERS. SO THEY DISCOVER YOU.
Interact with them.
These influencers get a lot of engagement, likes, and comments.
By interacting with the right influencers, you increase the chance your
brand will be discovered by people who follow the influencer.
@BrandMentalist

(5) SEE WHO THE INFLUENCERS ARE FOLLOWING.
Normally, they have 100K + followers and they are only following 200 accounts.
Those 200 said accounts the influencers are following are usually influencers
themselves. For example,
@BrandMentalist
Jamie Oliver has 1.2m followers but he’s
only following 339 accounts. Those he
follows are usually other top chefs, top
restaurants, food magazines, etc.
Nike has 1.9m followers but it’s only
following 63 accounts. Those 63 accounts
are usually of famous athletes and their
ambassadors.
This is how you can identify Who the influencers are. What their instagram accounts
are which then help you identify How you can who and where your customers are by
seeing who’s following the influencers.

(6) WHEN YOU START POSTING PHOTOS, IN ORDER TO GROW YOUR
DATABASE, YOU NEED TO UTILISE #.
Relevant hashtags let people discover you.
Besides hashtagging your brand name, your need to hashtag relevant
keywords.
You can delete and re-hashtag. Every time you re-hashtag, your photos
get refreshed on top (as people search for the # keywords). This can
help your photos and brand get discovered over and over.
What are the keywords to use?
Use again to see what keywords are mainly used.
@BrandMentalist

For example, if you search for ‘fashion’, you’ll find that Fashion, Fashionista, Fashionable,
Fashiondiaries, Fashionblogger, Fashionshow, etc. are mainly tagged.
You can use these keywords to get your photos and brand discovered, get more likes and
followers.
@BrandMentalist
You can also see that these
accounts are the top advocates of
fashion-related photos.
Maybe you can approach them to
advertise your products?
You can look at their accounts
and see how they’ve grown their
databases.
You can also find the influencers
through these accounts, and find
your customers.

(7) GEO-TARGET IT RIGHT
You can find people in your region by finding the influencers in your region.
For example, if you are a fashion brand, you find “Vogue Australia", “Bazaar
Australia", top Australian fashion bloggers, etc, You can then be quite sure that
most of the people who follow these accounts reside in Australia.
@BrandMentalist

(8) BE CLEVER WITH SEGMENTATION
You know what your brand stands for. Almost every brand is different.
You know that girls who love girly dresses and wear heels are not going to follow Vans or
Culture King because that’s not their style.
Think about your customer as a person.
Think about your brand as a person.
Think about who else your customers might like.
Think about your customers’ friends.
Think about your competitors’ customers.
This is the advantage of social media if you know how to use it cleverly.
You can geo-target, taste/preference-target, style-target, etc.
@BrandMentalist

(9) MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL, YOU HAVE TO KNOW THE PACE.
Pace your post.
If you post to many, you annoy people and you get unfollowed. If you
don’t post, people don’t get the interaction and wonder why they are
following you.
Post during peak times so your photo doesn’t get lost.
If you post at 11am but your customers check their Instagram at 9pm,
they might not see your post. Hence, you miss the opportunity to engage
and interact with your customers.
@BrandMentalist

Happy Instagramming!
Mo Seetubtim
Any questions, please feel free to
@Brandmentalist.
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