Posts from the 'Instagram' Category

Published on Friday, December 12th, 2014 under Instagram, Marketing

How to schedule your Instagram updates

Looking to schedule Instagram photos?

If so, your options are very limited (because Instagram tightly controls this part of their software)

But the good news is that there are a couple of options available.

Here are two Instagram scheduling options I’ve explored

  1. Latergramme
  2. ScheduGram

1. Latergramme

Latergramme LogoLatergramme let’s you plan and schedule your Instagram posts, but there’s a catch.

The catch is that Latergramme still requires you to ‘approve’ the post at the time you’ve scheduled it for.

So if you’re looking to set and forget, this option isn’t for you.

2. ScheduGram

Schedugram logoScheduGram goes one step further than Latergramme.

Read More

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Published on Friday, October 17th, 2014 under Facebook, Instagram, Marketing, Pinterest, Snapchat, Twitter

How to safely abandon your in-active social media account

Staying active on social media is a tough ask.

Especially when every social media expert tells you to be on Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, Google+ and Snapchat (phew!)

Does this sound like you?

  • You can’t remember the last time you logged into Pinterest
  • You’ve got a Twitter icon on your website, but your last tweet was in June 2011
  • You’re on Instagram, but you’ve never even made a post!

Yes, it’s hard to keep up – but abandoning ship can be a bad look, so here’s what to do instead.

Tell the truth.

That’s right. Tell your friends, fans, followers and fellow-pinners that you’re not active anymore. The bio section of your social media account is a great place to do this.

Declaring your social media ‘in-activity’ is great because:

  • It explains why you haven’t posted anything recently
  • It lets people know not to an immediate reply from you on this platform
  • It’s an opportunity to direct people somewhere more active (eg, your website or blog)

Looking for an example?

Here’s how I phrase my bio on Twitter and Pinterest.

 

Twitter BioPinterest BioHopefully these examples will help you to create a bio that better describes your social media presence, so you can focus on one or two social media channels and do them well.

Cheers! Dan

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Published on Friday, September 19th, 2014 under Facebook, Instagram, Marketing, Twitter

What on earth is a #hashtag?

Hashtags are everywhere nowadays.

If you’ve been wondering what the # symbol means (and how it works) then this article is for you.

But first, where did hashtags come from?

  • Hashtags originated on Twitter as a way to group tweets on similar topics and mark trends.
  • More recently, hashtags have spread to other social media sites like Instagram and Facebook.

What exactly are hashtags?

What on earth is a hashtag?A hashtag is a pound symbol (#) followed by a keyword (or phrase) – and its use links similar social media content together.

Long story short, hashtags allow social media users to search for posts that belong to a certain theme or topic (for example, the hashtag #RWC2011 links all the Rugby World Cup 2011 related posts together)

Think of hashtags as a way categorising information on the internet, with the best part being that popular/trending hashtags are like flashing signs pointing other social media users in your direction.

Still not sure how hashtags work?

Open Instagram or Twitter, sign-in (or create an account) and click the first hashtag you find.

Three popular hashtags:

  • #Selfie (self-portrait photograph)
  • #NoFilter (meaning no instagram filter applied)
  • #FoodPorn (work that one out yourself!)

So how do I create hashtag?

  1. Open Instagram, Facebook or Twitter and create a new post/update
  2. At the end of your post, type the pound (#) symbol, followed by a word or run-together phrase
  3. Post your update to see the hashtag become clickable a link (that’s it!)

Example: Here’s how your caption might look if accompanied with a photo: “How good does this banana split look!? #FoodPorn #BananaSplit

As you can see, you can use more than one hashtag per post (Nb: apparently best practice on Instagram is less than 10 hashtags per post)

ps – looking for a laugh? Check out this 2-minute hashtag video featuring Justin Timberlake

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Published on Friday, July 25th, 2014 under Instagram, Marketing

4 Tips For Instagram Marketing Success

New to Instagram? Read my introduction to Instagram article first.

On my hand: 4 Instagram marketing tips

For this article I interviewed Shaye Woolford from On My Hand in Tauranga. Shaye has over 1700 followers on Instagram – below are her top 4 tips for Instagram marketing success.

1. Produce art.

Take beautiful photos that don’t need a filter to look good.

It annoys me when colours aren’t true because of a filter being applied, especially for food and floral photography when colours are super important.

2. Be yourself.

Have fun. Be creative. Be real. Be interesting.

If your Instagram posts aren’t any of the above then they risk being boring. [article continues below…]

On My Hand Instagram

3. Don’t go overboard with hashtags.

I’ve read a lot about how the explore page of Instagram works, and how you can give yourself the best chance of being featured.

Long story short, the experts I follow all suggest that using more than 10 hashtags significantly decreases your chance of getting profiled on this page.

Rather than going crazy with hashtags, I like to use my hashtags as a way of categorising my different services, check out #onmyhandflora and #onmyhandstyling to see what I mean.

4. Focus on timing.

Think about who you want to reach and what they’ll be doing during the day/night.

For my followers I find early evening works well for generating a response, but every audience is different, so experiment to find what works best.

—–

A special thanks to Shaye for giving up her time to provide the tips above. Follow @onmyhand on Instagram.

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Published on Friday, May 9th, 2014 under Instagram, Marketing · 2 Comments

Insta-what? How to reach your 15 to 30 year old customers using Instagram

What exactly is Instagram?

  • Instagram is a photo-sharing app that lets users take photos and apply digital filters to them
  • It’s been around since 2010, and was bought by Facebook in 2012 for approx US$1 billion
  • Instagram has 314,860 users in NZ (roughly the population of Wellington!)

Guide: Getting your business setup on Instagram

To setup your business on Instagram you first need to choose a name which is called your Instagram “handle”.

Here are the names (handles) chosen by 3 local businesses

Two things to note:

  1. Unlike on Facebook and Linkedin, on Instagram there is no difference between personal and business accounts
  2. Instagram is built for mobile, so don’t bother trying to use it on your desktop or laptop

Finding your way around Instagram

Once you’ve setup your Instagram account on your phone, you’ll land on the timeline view of your homepage, this is a long stream showing all of the photos from those you have chosen to ‘follow’ on Instagram, with the newest updates at the top.

How can I use Instagram?

Instagram is mainly used for posting photos, where each photo can

  • Have a filter applied (even the worst pics can look great with an effect!)
  • Have comments added (or made by others)
  • Tag other users
  • Use hashtags

Note: All photos are square (like polaroid pictures)

How to measure your success on Instagram

  • Followers: The number of people who follow your Instagram account
  • Likes: The number of people who like a specific Instagram post
  • Comments: The number of people who comment on a specific Instagram post

Ready to step things up?

Get up to speed with these Instagram terms:

Regram

  • The act of reposting on instagram. It involves screen-shotting someones else’s original post, and then reposting it using the hashtag #regram and acknowledging the source of the original instagram posting.

Mention

  • Mentioning another user in your post by including the @ sign followed directly by their username (handle) is called a “mention”. This provides a link to the profile of the user that’s been mentioned.

Instagram Direct

  • Like a private message on Facebook, Instagram Direct lets you send a photo or video to a select group of people. Posts won’t appear in feed, search or your profile.

Like help with Instagram?

Call us on 0800 555 044 if you’d like a hand.

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Published on Friday, May 9th, 2014 under Instagram, Marketing

3 Tauranga Businesses To Follow On Instagram

Should your business be using Instagram?

Ask yourself these 4 questions to find out:

  1. Do you sell direct to customers? (rather than to other businesses)
  2. Are a large chunk of your customers under 30 years of age?
  3. Is your product/service something that people get passionate or excited about?
  4. Can your product/service be communicated well visually? (eg, art, food, fashion, design)

If you answered yes to all of the above questions, you might like to get started by following these 3 Tauranga businesses on Instagram.

1. Love Rosie Bakery (Cafe)

Love Rosie Bakery on Instagram

Love Rosie are smashing it on Instagram.

In particular, they do a great job of responding to and thanking any customers who comment on their posts. Nice work.

Follow Love Rosie Bakery on Instagram: http://instagram.com/loverosiebakery

2. Paper Plane Store (Retail)

Paper Plane on Instagram

I haven’t noticed any retailers in Tauranga using Instagram better than Paper Plane.

They do a great job of featuring products, and tagging the businesses who supply them to increase their potential exposure.

Follow Paper Plane on Instagram: http://instagram.com/paperplanestore

3. Wildwood (Photography)

Wildwood on Instagram

Ok, so these guys have an unfair advantage being photographers.

But aside from their beautiful posts, they do a great job of sharing what’s happening behind the scenes for them, whether it be pics from their holiday or shots of their home or pets.

What do these Instagram updates all have in common?

They all look like they’ve been made by someone who know’s how to take a good photo.

So if you’re not comfortable taking photos yourself then find someone who is (because it will be the make or break of your Instagram marketing effort!)

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Published on Wednesday, January 8th, 2014 under Instagram, Marketing, Twitter

Instagram 36 Times More Popular Than Twitter For ZM’s Latest Hashtag Campaign

Hashtag marketing is hitting the mainstream.

ZM Summer Hashtag Campaign

If you listen to ZM on the radio, then you’ll know they’re giving away $1000 to someone who uses the hashtag ‘#zmsummer’ on Instagram or Twitter.

When I first heard about the competition, I jumped onto Twitter and Instagram to see what all the fuss was about – and what I discovered surprised me (I’ll share it with you in a moment).

But first, what’s a hashtag?

A hashtag is a word or phrase preceded by a hash symbol (#), used on social media sites to identify messages on a specific topic.

For example, a cricket tournament between NZ and the West Indies has the hashtag #nzvwi

If you were interested in this tournament, you could go online and see what people are saying about the event in real time (all you’d need to do is search for “#nzvwi” on Twitter or Instagram).

Instagram vs Twitter

Now for the interesting part, in terms of ZM’s promotion, the use of the #zmsummer hashtag on Instagram has completely dominated compared to it’s use on Twitter (even though Twitter has more NZ users than Instagram).

Number of people who have used the #zmsummer hashtag

  • Twitter 137 tweets
  • Instagram 5003 posts

*This data collected on Wednesday 8th January 2014. For more info about the competition, see http://www.zmonline.com/zmsummer/

What does all this mean?

According to the station, the typical ZM listener is

  • 18-39 years old
  • Brand conscious
  • Socially active, living life to the fullest
  • Young professionals, singles & young families

Demographics sourced from: http://www.radionetwork.co.nz/brands/zm/

So what?

If you’re running a social media photo sharing competition, be sure to instagram as an option.

And if you have customers in the demographic above, get onto instagram and connect with them!

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Published on Wednesday, September 25th, 2013 under Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Marketing, Pinterest, Twitter

Social Media Statistics: The Number Of Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Instagram & Pinterest Users In New Zealand

How big is social media in NZ?

How do the major social media platforms compare?

Find out how many people are on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Instagram & Pinterest in NZ below:

1. Facebook users in NZ

2. Linkedin users in NZ

Read More

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