Stephanie TrembathHow quickly you develop an Instagram community is influenced by your Instagram profile and how well your content is targeted to your audience. When creating your Instagram brand profile, it’s important to consider how to write an Instagram bio, how to partner with influencers, and how to repost user-generated content. Uniting these elements is how your company uses visual media to share its core values and create a visual narrative for its community.
To fully appreciate your Instagram content, create a strategy that considers your entire Instagram profile. Your Instagram profile is the feed of content that people see when they click on your Instagram handle. Your profile page may be the defining factor in turning someone who likes your photos into a follower. This relationship is powerful as followers see more of your content and are more likely to transition into potential customers.
We’ve outlined five steps to brand your Instagram content based on examples from one of Instagram’s fastest growing brands, Nike. There are several brands killing it on Instagram, but Nike stands out for gaining 1.4 million new followers in just one month.
How To Create A Brand Strategy For Your Instagram
Decide on the purpose for your content
Create a strategy for your content so your overall feed is consistent in sharing your brand identity and values. This will help you target users who fall into your niche community.
Ask yourself:
- What do I want my brand to reflect?
- Who do I want to follow me?
- How do I want to convey my brand to my community?
- Where is my content created?
- Why am I posting this photo?
- When do I want to share my content?
Once you’ve defined the purpose of your Instagram account and decided where and when you’re managing photos, it will be much easier to produce content for your target audience.
Nike posts one Instagram photo per week, which is quite low for a brand. However, you can tell that a lot of preparation and planning went into each photo by the quality of the photo and how each post delivers the brand values to their community.
Create engaging content
Nike’s dynamic photography engages their community and keeps their 23 million followers double-tapping. Nike is the ideal example of a brand that excels at visual storytelling. Nike also includes location tags on all their photos to make sure that the content is searchable when users browse by location.
Use similar composition for each photo
The composition of your photo, which relates to the lighting, style, texture, symmetry, and depth of your photography is what draws users in and attracts the eye. Maintaining a similar composition from photo-to-photo is important for the overall look and feel of your Instagram feed.
Nike’s photos are typically athletic-based shots that include:
- White space
- Bright, bold colors
- Texture
- Depth of field
- Dynamic setting
According to research, lighter photos are more popular than darker photos by 24% and textured photos got more attention than flatter snaps by almost 80%. Yahoo’s case study, “Why We Filter Our Photos and How It Impacts Engagement” shows that photos with bolder and brighter colour tones have a greater impact on how individuals engage with visual media.
Nike doesn’t overtly market the products, they advocate the spirit of the company. Their iconic slogan “Just Do It” is obvious in every post with captions that motivate, inspire, and encourage followers to Just.Do.IT.
Nike includes a call-to-action on each post with a hashtag, a mention to include other users, or pose a question to engage with followers.
With anywhere from 1k – 3k comments per photo, the success of Nike’s captions speak for themselves!
Always post with your audience in mind
Nike managed to address their global audience by understanding their community and creating media that connects to each unique persona. The company consistently finds ways to thank their community through milestone moments they share on Instagram and by using hashtag campaigns and giveaways.
Another unique community shaping event Nike hosts on their Instagram is connecting their fans to each other. They do this by sharing user-generated content and with shout-outs to Instagram users who share inspiring content.
Nike is one of the fastest growing brands on Instagram and amassed over 1.4 million followers in May 2015.
Key Takeaways
- Define your Instagram account’s purpose
- Create engaging content
- Be consistent in how you edit your photos
- Include a caption that engages followers
- Post for your audience
Original article posted on the Latergramme Blog.
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