Why should you be on Instagram?
Some Instagram stats:
Best Practices of Instagram:
Post consistently
Don’t go days or weeks without posting, keep up the excitement for your audience! They want to see new images each day and will start to expect your brand and visual identity as you post consistently.
Use those hashtags
Across the social media channel, 70% of the most used hashtags on Instagram are branded. You don’t have to be a Fortune 500 company to get leverage out of a company hashtag. Check out Academic Program International’s campaign #ispyapi for an example.
Run a contest
Get users excited about their own photos and engaged with your university or organization by running a contest on Instagram. You can create a specific hashtag for the contest or you can just ask people to tag you in their photos. Be sure to clearly define the length of the contest and to request that people follow you in order to be eligible!
Use a repost app
One of the challenges of posting regularly on Instagram is the need for high-quality photos that fit with the image of your brand. With a repost app, you can reuse photos where your university or organization has been tagged or where your company hashtag has been used. It’s easy to use and gives you inspiring content without the work of finding the images!
Take advantage of Instagram stories
Instagram has recently rolled out stories, which are very similar to Snapchat stories (see our resource). If you’re already on Snapchat, you can kill two birds with one stone by posting the same short video in both places. Create stories as a regular part of your postings and make your audience even more connected with your brand.
- Most of your target market only uses social media platforms on their phone
- You can share Instagram content via Twitter and Facebook to help with engagement on these networks
- Visual content - including videos and photos - is the best way to communicate with students
Some Instagram stats:
- Over 60% of Instagram users log in daily
- 90% of users are under 35
- Engagement with brands on Instagram is 10 times higher than Facebook, 54 times higher than Pinterest, and 84 times higher than Twitter
- 50% of Instagrammers follow brands
Best Practices of Instagram:
Post consistently
Don’t go days or weeks without posting, keep up the excitement for your audience! They want to see new images each day and will start to expect your brand and visual identity as you post consistently.
Use those hashtags
Across the social media channel, 70% of the most used hashtags on Instagram are branded. You don’t have to be a Fortune 500 company to get leverage out of a company hashtag. Check out Academic Program International’s campaign #ispyapi for an example.
Run a contest
Get users excited about their own photos and engaged with your university or organization by running a contest on Instagram. You can create a specific hashtag for the contest or you can just ask people to tag you in their photos. Be sure to clearly define the length of the contest and to request that people follow you in order to be eligible!
Use a repost app
One of the challenges of posting regularly on Instagram is the need for high-quality photos that fit with the image of your brand. With a repost app, you can reuse photos where your university or organization has been tagged or where your company hashtag has been used. It’s easy to use and gives you inspiring content without the work of finding the images!
Take advantage of Instagram stories
Instagram has recently rolled out stories, which are very similar to Snapchat stories (see our resource). If you’re already on Snapchat, you can kill two birds with one stone by posting the same short video in both places. Create stories as a regular part of your postings and make your audience even more connected with your brand.
