Many companies harness the power of Instagram to expand awareness of their brands through active engagement with customers. The benefit of this fast-paced Instagram platform lies in its ability to connect your business directly with customers in real-time conversations, creating the perfect environment for better brand engagement. The brands that aren’t engaging on Instagram are missing the real power and benefit that the social platform offers to the business world.
What is Brand Engagement?
Brand engagement is defined in many ways, but what it boils down to is using platforms such as Instagram to get people excited about your brand. Creating a positive experience that echoes the messages that appear in your advertising and corporate branding materials delivers the consistency that customers want. Most of all, brand engagement keeps your company connected to your customer base so you never lose touch of who they are and what they want.
Benefits of Engaging Consumers with Instagram
Excited customers are like cheerleaders. They talk up your brand without being asked and share content with their friends to increase awareness across a wider audience. Getting huge followers is easy these days, you can buy followers to enhance your exposure. As you interact with your Instagram followers, you’re allowing consumers to see the real people behind your logo and tagline. This generates an atmosphere of trust leading to deeper relationships that go beyond the conversations occurring on Instagram. Engaged customers see you as the source for the products and services they need. The interactions you have on Instagram draw people to your website and your brick-and-mortar store because you’ve made them feel.
Using Instagram to Engage Customers
By now you can see that simply having an Instagram account isn’t enough; you have to take an active interest in the people who follow your business. This starts with following back and consistently engaging in conversations to create connections.
Take a look at companies such as Whole Foods and Staples. Instead of using Instagram solely as a platform to sell products, they offer value by sharing relevant content, hosting informative Instagram chats and always asking for feedback. These techniques put the focus on the customer rather than the business and create an open atmosphere that makes people feel comfortable. NuSkin is another company that stays highly active on Instagram. By asking questions, posting links, hosting giveaways and polling followers for opinions, they display a solid understanding of what it means to keep customers in the loop.
How can you use your Instagram account to build the same kinds of connections with your customers?
- Keep posts simple and sharable, including photo and video content when appropriate
- Link up with others in your industry to create relevant, attention-grabbing content that interests your target audience
- Use Instagram as an opportunity to build relationships by inspiring discussions and answering questions.
Don’t be afraid to show a little personality when interacting with your target audience on Instagram. Human connection is a big part of brand engagement, and the more accessible you make your company, the more people are going to want to interact with you and the more fruitful your Instagram efforts will be.