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Enhancing your brand's authenticity and relatability can be achieved through Stories and Reels. Sharing glimpses of behind the scenes moments, daily operations or introducing your team members can help trust and a sense of community. Take Glossier for example; this beauty brand often shares stories featuring team meetings and product development, giving their audience an insider perspective that nurtures loyalty and trust.
Instagram Stories comes with features like polls, questions, quizzes and countdowns that can boost engagement while offering valuable insights into your audience's preferences. Starbucks is an example of how to leverage these tools effectively; the coffee giant frequently uses polls to understand customer preferences for seasonal drinks, ensuring they cater directly to what their audience loves.
The ephemeral nature of Stories makes them ideal for sharing updates such as flash sales, event notifications or limited time offers. This immediacy can prompt responses from your audience. Zara has mastered this strategy by showcasing limited time sales through Stories creating a sense of urgency that encourages purchase decisions.
Reel provides a platform for creating educational content like how, for videos, unboxings or product demonstrations.
Creating content is highly shareable and helps establish your brand as an industry authority. A great example of this can be seen with home improvement brands, like B&Q, who excel in sharing engaging DIY project tutorials that showcase their expertise.
Monitoring Profile Visits and Follower Growth; Keeping an eye on the number of visits to your profile and the increase, in followers resulting from Stories or Reels can show how your content impacts the growth of your brand.
This method is based on data that can help shape content plans, ensuring ongoing interaction and expansion.
For example, try out video lengths or styles to determine which ones attract the most interaction.
Utilise Story Highlights by saving Stories in your profile highlights to extend their lifespan and offer new followers insights into your brand’s core messages and values.
Collaborate with micro-influencers who have engaged the following in your niche; their genuine endorsements can significantly enhance engagement.
In a real-life example, a skincare brand collaborated with micro-influencer Sarah James, who had an audience of 30,000 followers. By featuring the product in her skincare routine, they experienced a 25% increase in engagement and a 15% rise in sales over the next month.
Delve deeper into data beyond metrics by exploring audience demographics and behaviours. Understanding the demographics and preferences of viewers helps refine your content strategy, ensuring it aligns with audience expectations and boosts engagement.
To sum it up
Leveraging Instagram Stories and Reels can notably elevate your brand’s visibility and engagement in media. By prioritising authenticity, engagement and top notch content—while keeping an eye on important metrics—your brand can build stronger connections with its audience.
By steering your usual mistakes, consistently honing your approach and embracing your imagination, you can effectively boost your brand’s marketing on Instagram. With these tips and tactics in hand, you're ready to make the most of Instagram Stories and Reels, ensuring that your brand not only shines but flourishes, in the online realm.
Scaling startups need strategic hiring, prioritising critical roles, and crafting a strong company culture. Employer branding, effective recruitment planning, and technology are essential.
Early-stage startups thrive on organic reach, achieved through authenticity, engaging content, video, community building, data insights, localisation, and long-term influencer collaborations.
Maximise social media with limited resources by leveraging user-generated content, micro-influencers, automation tools, data analytics, video content, audience engagement, collaborations, and continuous learning.
Mark Ridgeon
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