1. Keep a Consistent Post Schedule 

Viewers like to hang around a certain platform at a certain time. Ideally it would be great to post the exact moment your audience in on the Instagram app. Research the most likely times your target audience is on the platform. These are more likely to be ranges, rather than exact times. Publish posts 2-3 times daily based on those time ranges. For example, you are a selling backpack for students at the age of 10-12. You target audience is their parent. Good times to post would be 10 am – 12 pm for stay-at-home parents and 5 pm – 7 pm for parents off work. Post somewhere during these two post ranges to capture the attention of these potential customers. You can either use automatic posting software or you can hire a digital marketing agency to help keep up with schedules if you are struggling to post consistently. 

2. Create a Variety of Graphicly Appealing Posts 

Images, carousals, and short-form videos are all different types of post you can create for Instagram to keep your feed interesting. Create posts that entertain, educate, motivates, and sells your product or service. Make sure the design of your post follows these design principles:

• Contrast 
• Balance 
• Emphasis 
• Proportion 
• Hierarchy 
• Repetition 
• Rhythm 
• Pattern 
• Space 
• Movement 
• Variety & Unity 

Canva is a great resource for templated designs but beware by using templates you risk not standing out from competitors. You may need professional designers from a digital marketing agency or a social media marketing agency to help create uniquely branded content. 

3. Foster a Community-Based Relationship

To build a community around your business you need to be tagging influencers or complementary business, commenting on other Instagram accounts, replying to your followers, keeping track of your analytics, and incorporating the correct hashtags in your posts. This means setting aside time for research on various Instagram feeds for what are the most popular hashtags, post types with the most engagement, and more. If you are an entrepreneur or a small business, you may be able to set a side 1 full day dedicated to this. However, if you are a growing company or a large enterprise you need a full team managing your social media accounts. You can either build an internal team or look for a digital marketing agency that offers social media management services. 

Need help managing you Instagram account? Call 248.528.3600

The post Quick Growth Strategy for Instagram appeared first on Miller Media, Digital Marketing Agency, PPC, Industrial Web Design, WordPress.

1. Your Profile is Private and Not a Business Account

The default Instagram account is a personal account, but with a personal account there is far less people able to see your products and services. If your account is private no one other than people who follow you are seeing your posts. Most people think there is nothing to see, or it is a spam account when a business account is private. Avoid creating distrust by going into your privacy settings and turning off “private account”. Then go to the account settings and the option to switch to business account should appear. Select a category that best describes your business then fill out your business info. Now you have tools and insights that help you analyze your posts, IGTV, Instagram Stories, Reels, Videos, and Carousals.  

2. Monotonous and Repetitive Content 

Only posting the same type of content is boring. It also causes you to lose user retention and loose client interest in your brand. You want a healthy mix of photos, videos, stories, and carousals on a variety of topics related to your industry. Here are a few types of posts you can fill your account with to keep it looking interesting:

• How-to-use video
• Client testimonial
• Event post
• Benefit of your product/service post
• New product/service post
• Industry tips carousal 

3. Lack of Post Regularity  

Ideally it would be great to post daily, but this can lead to burnout. Not posting consistently leads to decrease visibility and a decrease in lead generation. Have a post schedule. You want to post on days and times your audience is most active. For example, you are selling backpacks to teens. The estimated best time to post would be between 11am-1pm and 3pm -4pm when they are lunch and after school are when they are most likely to have their full attention on the platform. If you are struggling to create post designs and post it on pre-scheduled time, you may consider hiring a digital marketing firm that provides social media marketing services, even if it is just 1 post a month to lighten the load. 

4. You Avoid Collaboration      

Some businesses avoid collaboration because they think it takes away attention from people solely focusing on them, but they are wrong. Instagram influencer marketing leads to expanding your audience and lead generation, thus increasing your sales. Businesses also make the mistake that influencers are just high-end celebrities. Small town Instagram influencers are just as affective, if not more due to their ability to keep a close relationship with their audience. Some examples on type of small-town influencers are:

• A local teacher
• Small mom-and-pop shops
• Food trucks 
• A local state official 
• A travel blogger
• Hair/Makeup artist 
• Entrepreneurs 
• Podcasters 

5. Skipping Calls-to-Action and Using the Wrong Hashtags 

If you want users to buy now, then include “buy now” in the graphic or text. If you want them to call include your phone #. It is not enough to have pretty images. You must tell your audience on how to reach your business. Most Instagram users are scanning images, so you want to make your call-to-action stands out, especially if other companies are selling something similar. Also include the correct hashtags. Do keyword research and think about what your audience would search for to find a product or service like yours.  

We can help improve your business’s Instagram account. Call 248.528.3600.

The post 5 Common Instagram Marketing Mistakes to Avoid appeared first on Miller Media, Digital Marketing Agency, PPC, Industrial Web Design, WordPress.

1. Team Up with Another Brand

Your competition isn’t always your enemy. Sometimes they are the complementary brand or company you could partner up with. If you have a committed base of followers that regularly engage with your posts, a company may reach out to you to include one of their products or services post. The reverse is also true. If the company has an engaged audience reach out to them to see if they would be interested guest posting. Make sure the content benefits both parties. This can come in form of sharing industry news, swapping similar products, creating a fun game with each product or service, and more fun ideas. 

2. Instagram Live Badges

Audiences can use badges to show their support for creators during a live stream. Think of them like a tip jar for creators. Enable badges within your creator Instagram account, and the option will be presented to viewers within the comments section of a live stream. Remember to remind views occasionally to draw attention if they want to give their support. If they donate show videos of how their donation improved the product or service. This will make your audience feel like they are part of the creation process and indicate that your business listens, cares, and learns from their audience. 

3. Enable Subscriptions

While still in the trial phase, the ability for creators to allow subscribers access to unique content is available. Unlock a ‘subscribe’ button on your profile that lets you create custom, access-only content for Stories and Lives behind a paywall. This is a great way to engage more deeply with your audience. Content could be a sneak peak of a new product, a backstage look of what it takes to prepare for a product or service, or in-depth detail about your brands story that may interest your audience. 

4. Affiliate Marketing 

Instagram Affiliate brings a more direct recommendation service to Instagram. Are there any tools or services you want to recommend to your audience? Potential clients go to creators they admire for recommendations on products and brands to support. Once enabled, you can simply share a link to a product or service you want them to view. If your audience purchases something through the link, you gain a commission. Make sure whatever you recommend does not conflict with your product or service and does not conflict with why you audience follows you. For example, your business sells home-made soaps. A good affiliate product would be a soap dish by a different company. It is natural for someone shopping for soap to need something to place it in and would not be put off by that product being sold to them as well. Use Instagram Stories to showcase products and click through to other sites. 

5. Merchandising

If you are business that sells products you are already doing this, but if you sell services, it might interest you to sell products. If you have a group of committed followers with an authentic brand that they absolutely love, consider setting up your own shop. Branded merchandise like mugs, t-shirts, and books requires a bit of an initial investment, but the rewards can be significant. It can act as a bonus for your customer, and you may gain free marketing if they share it organically. Look at Starbucks for example. They sell coffee, but they also sell mugs and tumblers, and more. Make sure to choose what feels right for your brand and audience. If it feels like monetization for the sake of it, you may end up losing followers, so make sure it something they would enjoy having. 

Create an Instagram marketing plan today! Call 248.528.360

The post 5 Ways Brands Can Make Money on Instagram  appeared first on Miller Media, Digital Marketing Agency, PPC, Industrial Web Design, WordPress.

1. Host a Twitter Chat

2. Ask for Customer Feedback

3. How-to Videos

4. Product Reviews

5. Moving Images or Videos of Your Product

6. Twitter Q&A Sessions

7. Music Playlists

8. User-Generated Content

9. Your Company History

10. Company News Announcements

11. Create a Regular Series

12. Repurpose Blog Graphics

13. Share Other How-to Videos (not made by you)

14. Share Your Company’s Financial Earnings

15. Share a Case Study on One of Your Customers

16. Share a Survey

17. Promote a New Product or Event

18. Share a Fill-in-the-Blank Post

19. Share a Statistic

20. Reshare Your Top Performing Posts

21. Promote Your Partners

22. Share Some Interesting Industry Research

23. Share News Roundups

24. Preview a New Product or Event (like a sneak peek) 

25. Get Creative with Emojis

26. Give Away Something Free

Having trouble with your social media strategy? Call 248.528.360 

The post 26 Unique Social Media Post Ideas for Your Marketing Strategy appeared first on Miller Media, Digital Marketing Agency, PPC, Industrial Web Design, WordPress.

1. Create a Consistent Brand Look

To make your brand stand out, you need to keep creating and designing a consistent brand look and feel throughout all your social media accounts, so they all look similar enough for users to know they are from the same company. The main thing to consider is creating a color palette. This can usually be 2 to 3 main colors and hues. There are special exceptions having more colors, but keep in mind that too many colors sloppily done can look amateurish and will turn most potential clients away. Maintaining your brand color look will capture the attention of followers and build credibility. 

2. Choose a Great Font 

A strong brand voice is created when you have a great font. With Instagram Stories, you get a lot of choices, but be sure to pick one wisely as it makes a big impact to stick to one for all your posts, reels, and stories. The idea is that once your content is seen, it will automatically be associated with your company brand without even noticing your username. A unique font creates immense brand recognition and prevents copy-cat scammers from stealing your brand identity. 3 main elements to make sure the font is compatible with are your logo, company colors, and stylistic font on-brand. Don’t forget to keep your brand personality and character in mind when designing with your font.

3. Use Stunning Images

It is important to mix it up and us high-quality images to grab attention. One of the best options available to you are stock photo websites, such as Motion Array, Pexels, or Unsplash, just to name a few. You can start off with this great selection of free photos. When downloading your favorite stock photos, planning for your upcoming posts, create libraries of images that you can easily update and manage. Ideally to be great for authenticity, if you have the budget to hire a professional photographer to capture your product or services, but it your industry needs certain levels of confidentiality, such as the medical field, then stick to stock photos. 

4. Use Backgrounds and Overlays

One great way to highlight your new updates and add more dimension to your Instagram stories is adding brand or design colors to your background. You could also use your colors for product photos with an overlay. Use solid colors to pop what is in the foreground or use it as an overlay to cover your photo and use the eraser tool to reveal a part of the image. This might be an exciting thing to surprise your followers with if your business is offering free giveaways or new product reveals. You can also add animated backgrounds that better represent your brand image visually. There are endless options available when you look for photos or videos with light leaks, glitter, bokeh, and glitch overlay effects. 

5. Engage Your Audience

One of the reasons TikTok is so successful right now over Instagram Stories is its ability to keep their audience engaged. To compete, start by sharing content from your own followers and friends. This will act like word-of-mouth personal endorsements. Add in fun tools such as questions and polls that invite anyone to share their likes and dislikes about your brand. This is great way to see what areas of your business the most successful and what areas is need improvement. Special discounts for the first 50 followers or offering giveaways to your products can get your audience to engage with your brand because who doesn’t like free stuff? Be cautious with this technique, you still need to make a profit and if you offer free stuff too often then add a price tag you may lose trust.  

6. Tell a Story

Stories disappear within 24 hours, so consider practical designs to easily tell your brand story, such as adding easy-to-read titles. Part of sharing a story on Instagram is you must consider posting in sets of 3 (beginning, middle, and end) to better showcase your message. Breaking your messages into sections allows for a better call to action. This will provide depth and better ways of engagement from your social media account to your website. Not everyone knows what your brand is all about, so always try to incorporate details into your video for a new audience. Promote a long-form announcement with story posts around the key tips or points that entice viewers to check it out. Focus on key points of the product or tutorial you want your audience to remember. Remember that as 

7. Take Boomerangs

Instead of just adding effects to your videos and photos, make loop videos or have a professional make one for you. These types of videos are called Boomerangs. They are quick clips about 1-2 seconds long that loop and add a lot of fun to your Stories. You can easily turn your live photos into boomerangs and Instagram offers 4 effects: Classic, Slo-mo, Echo, and Duo. You can either take your live photo first and create several takes or directly shoot it live for your Instagram stories. 

8. Link to More Content

Use swipe ups and Instagram link in bio to encourage user interaction. It has become such a vital source when posting your story that there is a set of actual stickers for it with these terms. You can add the chosen link to your bio under the Website field when creating or editing your profile. Easily change it and use link bio tools to create mobile-friendly landing pages, like Linktree. 

9. Create & Use Highlights

Stories link to your Highlights, extending the life of your important ideas and topics. This is a strategic place for your audience to see what your brand’s main selling points. It is also important to note that only 5 will show on your feed, so choose your highlight topics wisely. To see more, your followers will need to scroll right. Once you are ready to create your highlights, make sure to create custom covers for them that match your brand color and style. The correct dimensions are 1080 pixels by 1920 pixels, or a 9:16 aspect ratio. Make sure your icon is in the center position. 

10. Use Instagram Story Design Templates

You do not need to reinvent the wheel and spend extra for custom designs, when online marketplaces, such as Motion Array or Canva, have a huge selection of professionally designed templates. You only need to drag and drop your photos or clips, adjust them to your brand colors and logo, and export them directly to your Instagram Stories. If you are still having trouble doing this, look for an agency that provides social media marketing and they will make sure your post is correct. 

Create a winning Instagram Story Strategy! Call 248.528.360 to get started. 

The post Top 10 Instagram Story Design Tips & Tricks  appeared first on Miller Media, Digital Marketing Agency, PPC, Industrial Web Design, WordPress.

1. Curate Your Profile

Plan out your feed according to your niche. Have a consistent aesthetic that supports your brand. Look at your feed as a whole. Do the post fit together? What impression do they give? 

2. Instagram Reels 

Short-term looping videos are the most effective way to gain audience attention right now. Create high interest content based on popular trends or behind-the-scenes content. Use keywords and hashtags in Reel Captions to describe your video content. Spice up your video up by including trending sounds and add on-screen text for viewers without sound. Avoid TikTok watermark, this will drive viewers off Instagram. 

3. Optimize Your Post Caption for Search 

According to The Verge spokesperson, Instagram’s team considers “type of content, captions, when it was posted,” and more for surface relevant results. Use keywords in your caption with this in mind or write them in advance to save on time. 

4. Develop a Hashtag Strategy 

Reach rate increases 11% as the number of hashtags grows from 1 to 30. Use hashtags related to your product or service. Also think about hashtags based on the type of potential client you want. For example, use #businesshelp to if your service is useful in b2b spaces. 

5. Host an Instagram Giveaway 

This tactic helps you grow fast and gain potential new followers. Have clear entry requirements that support your growth goals. For example, you can suggest tagging a friend in the comments, sharing on Instagram Stories, or following your account. It is even more beneficial to partner up with a creator or complementary brand that shares a target audience. 

6. Partner with Influencers & Brands

Find like-minded individuals or brands to partner up with. Make sure the partnership will be mutually beneficial by combining complementary target audiences. Don’t forget to consider Nano or Micro influencers. They usually have higher engagement rates and a stronger relationship with their audience. 

7. Create Highly Shareable Content 

Grow organically, by including inspirational quotes, informative carousel posts, and on-trend memes. Memes have a high chance of going viral due to their funny and clever nature. This will create a positive association with your brand and your community with be more likely to share a laugh. Balance trending visuals and the sentiment of your target audience to bring attention to your niche. 

8. Have a Clear Value Position 

Your content doesn’t have to be the same, but if someone follows your profile, they must know what product or service you are selling. For example, if you are selling shampoo, one post can focus directing on sales and another can be hair styling tip using the shampoo. Think about the value your product or service will give your audience. 

9. Cross Promote Your Account on Different Channels 

TikTok is big right now. You can use the short video form to preview your Instagram profile and encourage viewers to follow you on Instagram as well. You can also do this with your website, email newsletter, podcast, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, and any other platform included in your marketing strategy. 

10. Create an Instagram Challenge 

Think about an activity that people would enjoy and find a way to incorporate your product or service into it. Make participation as easy as possible. Create a branded hashtag and tie the challenge back to your brand. 

11. Encourage User-generated Content with Branded Hashtag 

Raise brand awareness by sharing user-generated content with a branded hashtag or tag. These can act as testimonials. For example, if you were a wedding dress company, a satisfied client might share a photo of the dress they bought and include your branded hashtag. Share it and make sure to add the handle of the original creator. 

12. Make Content Accessible to All Audiences

Over 430 million people are deaf or hard of hearing and 2.2 billion people have vision impairment. Add subtitles or text overlays to video content on Instagram videos, Stories, and Reels. Manually write descriptive alt text for Instagram posts. Verbalize visual details during stories or videos. Capitalize each word in hashtags for screen readers. 

13. Post Consistently 

Post on consistent days or times. It helps to preplan what days, times, and how frequently you want to post on Instagram. Think about when your target audience is most likely will be on Instagram. 

14. Add Keywords to Your Bio’s Name Field

You want your company to be searchable. Think about what industry or niche you are in, who you want to target, and what solution you offer. Check the term in Instagram’s search bar to see what appears if you are stuck. An example of this in if you brand sell custom artwork, your Name Field might include the term “Art” or “Artwork”.

15. Collaborate on Feed Posts

Instagram has an Instagram Collabs feature that allows Instagram feed posts and Reels to have co-authors. When you partner up with another brand or influencer you can share views, likes, and comments. This is big if you want to combine communities to grow your audience. Keep in mind that the content has to work on both accounts. 

Need help growing on Instagram? Call 248.528.3600. 

The post 15 New Ways to Get More Instagram Followers in 2022 appeared first on Miller Media, Digital Marketing Agency, PPC, Industrial Web Design, WordPress.