How Instagram’s Massive Audience Can Help Increase Brand Opportunities

You already know businesses can use Instagram photos to engage customers. How do you measure if this engagement connects to e-commerce sales? Instagram currently has over 300 million active users and is known to have the most engaged audience across all social media platforms. With over 40 million photos being snapped per day it is no surprise businesses want to have a slice of this popular phenomenon. Brands are photographing and discussing their platforms every day. For instance,

Nike has 12.7 million photos

Starbucks has 2.6 million photos, and

Chanel has 2.4 million photos

Brands are slowly becoming aware of the large marketing opportunities to present to massive audiences on social media networks. However, some brands still remain skeptical and hesitant to take on such a task. And measuring e-commerce sales is not always easy on social media. Marketers feel they cannot accurately predict or forecast ROI. This may be true to an extent. However, with new tools and services emerging everyday this gap can be bridged between social media marketing and the revenue earned through its networks.

If you want to know how to increase sales and at the same time accurately measure it, here is an overall strategy.

Launch a contest or campaign, curate, display photos and engage customers

If you are not a world-trending brand it is unlikely your photos are already on the network. You can launch a photo contest or similar campaign to get your audience excited about relevant photos of your brand. If you are a clothing store, for instance, why not launch a contest around summer time or even during a special season or holiday and ask your customers to send in photos wearing the clothes from your store. Offer them a shopping spree, gift card or something similar that will get them jazzed up.

Use a good campaign hashtag

Choose a hashtag that is unique and simple at the same time. Do not mix too many words into a single hashtag, it will only confuse the audience. Make it straightforward, brandable and memorable.

What’s the theme?

Give your audience a specific theme. The theme should not be too broad, because it will have a lot of unrelated photos. If it is too narrow people will feel discouraged and not participate. Keep the theme simple, yet fun and entertaining that will make it easy for followers to capture photos.

Instagram marketing is not a niche social platform. As more and more brands jump on-board there are new ways to connect to your audience and make use of the marketing potential. Everyone can establish a presence on Instagram, but how you use the platform to power your e-commerce sales is the real thing.