According to Unmetric, Reebok has expanded its presence on Instagram by nearly 170% in the past year, surpassing Nike, Asics, and New Balance.
I recently read an article from clickz.com on how athletics brand Reebok is targeting its female audience on Instagram differently from that of Nike, perhaps its largest competitor.
Reebok Women’s unique targeting approach centered around motivation, engagement, and an “every woman” attitude, acknowledging that while fitness is tough, so are girls. By successfully establishing its voice and a clear indication of where the brand is headed, Reebok has also inspired a few of these tips for implementing and maintaining your brand via Instagram:
1) Learn your audience.
What kind of people are interested in your product? Carefully study your target demographic in order to create a voice for an audience that will be drawn to you, and continue to study outside trends within your audience. For example, if yoga was the hot fitness activity a year ago and now it’s Crossfit, you’ll want to post content parallel to the lifestyle of your target market.
2) Come up with your own hashtags and stick to them.
It’s a no-brainer to be creative and stay consistent within the social media marketing realm. What is most important, perhaps, is to be authentic. What kind of hashtag can you cook up that is not only original, but has viral appeal? Imagine the combinations of words and phrases that can be put together to act as a bookmark or indicator of your brand. #GetItGirl
3) Engage with your audience.
Reebok was successful in their engagement tactics on Instagram, often times reposting pictures previously ‘grammed by their followers. This type of strategy shows a personal side to a worldwide name by taking a keen interest in individuals who are loyal to Reebok and reciprocating that loyalty in a manner that will be seen by that follower and other followers, creating a kind of ripple effect. It is crucial to build a relationship with your audience in a macro sense, but engaging on a micro level gives you as the brand a personable vibe that followers will appreciate time and time again.
4) Focus on quality.
Everyone has access to technology to make posting to social media multiple times a day quick and simple. But quantity is not synonymous with quality. Yes, building a presence does require more than one tweet or Instagram post, but do not fall victim to sacrificing the quality of your photos for the sake of posting just to see your picture on the news feed. Be sure to establish consistency within the quality of your photos as well. For example, while @nikewomen posts more “lifestyle” pictures of happy women in the latest Nike Pro tights and Flex Runs, @reebokwomen showed women on the workout grind, pouring sweat, truly humanizing the hashtags #BeMoreHuman and #ToughIsBeautiful. You are more than your sports bra.
5) Always think like a user.
Setting this mentality will help to manifest insight into your brand and produce (hopefully!) successful results. Think about what types of accounts you follow or what you like about your favorite brand accounts that others do not seem to do. If you maintain this mindset, you will be better able to identify strategies that work and which ones don’t. Your brand is unique, and your followers are just as unique if not more; remember to keep in mind not only what is popular but what is right for your target audience.
Any business can take these five tips and start using today. Will you?
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