By Instagram—it’s a big deal for both consumers and brands. It’s the fastest growing social media network this year, increasing its active user base by 23% in just six months (Tech Crunch), and exceeding the growth rate of LinkedIn and Pinterest. The mobile photo sharing service now has over 400 million monthly active users (Instagram).
Instagram marketing strategies for businesses
Being the social media guru you are, you understand the importance of building a comprehensive Instagram marketing strategy that involves:
- Creating a corporate Instagram profile
- Posting frequently in the evening
- Sponsoring posts
- Following other Instagrammers
- Replying to comments
- Monitoring mentions of the business’ Instagram profile
But there’s one valuable tool that might slip under your digital agency’s radar: locations (no, not profiles).
Location, location, location
Instagrammers love to share photos of themselves, pets, babies, food and memes. But most importantly, at least for local businesses, Instagrammers enjoy sharing their experiences at brick-and-mortar businesses.
Instagram allows people to geotag their photos to highlight the places they’ve visited. It grabs this location data from the Facebook and Foursquare APIs. In other words, when you create a Facebook Page or Foursquare profile, you’re also creating a location that anybody can geotag on Instagram, Facebook or Foursquare.
From followers to customers (or not)
Anyone that geotags your client’s location can dramatically influence your client’s reputation. For example: Someone takes a photo of a luxurious spa room, gives it a happy caption, and geotags it at the local spa. That photo can intrigue the user’s followers and eventually turn them into new customers. Another example: a restaurant employee takes an inappropriate photo in the kitchen. That photo can potentially upset others and prevent them from ever going to the place again.
So, what can ya do?
Similar to replying to comments and monitoring @mentions, your clients can actively engage any customer that geotags their location. It’s as simple as responding to an @mention. Just follow the business’ Instagram strategy. What are their guidelines for responding? I.e. Should they respond to all geotags or just negative ones? What is the tone they want to convey? Customize every comment to avoid sounding like a robot. Effective engagements will demonstrate that the business cares, which will ultimately help build loyalty.
Instagrammers can click on a location tag to see other photos that were taken at your client’s business. To help establish a positive presence, local businesses can geotag their own photos with their Instagram location as well.
Your client could even get creative and run an Instagram geotagging contest. “Share your experience on Instagram for a chance to win a $50 gift card.” It’s like a Facebook sharing contest, but a wee bit more modern!
Vendasta has recently integrated Instagram into the Reputation Management product, empowering your clients to track the presence of Instagram locations and monitor the photos that are geotagged at their business.