Monday, April 3, 2017

Most Liked Digital Artists on Instagram

Instagram is among the most popular and well known social networks. It is a platform for sharing photos especially for artists who are using it to market their works and also enable followers get to choose the best artists to follow as per their art. Instagram is becoming more of art dealer as allows artists to show their artwork. Below is a list of the top ten artists as per number of followers in Instagram.

1.) JR. – JR is a photographer. For the previous two months, he has been selected twice as the best wall artist in the week. His popularity originates from his behavior of posting any work he has whenever in progress. This has made him productive constantly hence the top position in top ten list of artists in Instagram. JR is just more than a perfect photographer who gives you the opportunity to enjoy many interesting life moments captured by the artistic keen eye he has. He currently has 992 thousand followers.

2.) KAWS – Popularly known as the artist with no borders. KAWS produces fine art through interactions with customer products and the collaborations with products with global brands. This makes it to occupy the complex known global market. KAWS posts in Instagram show his believe in that there is no difference between producing art and showcasing it in a wider culture. Current followers are 704 thousand followers.

3.) Daniel Arsham. – Daniel is an American artist who is coming up faster into the world of art. His designs are sculptural, architectural cutting-edge and incredible. He is just like a crafty magician whose work put on drawing, sculpture and performance is excellent. Daniel is being followed by 259 thousand followers.

4.) David Choe. – David is a Korean whose life is as colorful and interesting as his own artwork. David’s post in Instagram’s majors on videos of himself working on murals as preferred to pictures of such work. His works are delicate and kaleidoscopic. His pictures posts on Instagram are of his family and friends. Choe has 184 thousand followers currently.

5.) Pixel Pancho. – Pixel is a street artist from Italy. He is specialized in designing large murals for walls in addition to robotic imagery which are distinctive. In his design, Pixel uses various mediums which include wall painting, tiles, poster or sticker art. Instagram page provides a collection of the robotic creatures created by Pancho. He has 116 thousand followers.

6.) Monsieur A. – Monsieur is a graffiti artist, a creative director of L’Officiel Hommes and an international entrepreneur of nightlife. This is a fashionable man from France who is devoted to give best to his hotspot club especially for his followers. His current followers are 88 thousand.

7.) Cyrcle – Cyrcle is an artist group made of two men who work with the motto, never die and are known for their expertise in street art. This artist is stylish, different and dynamic. Their art work blurs urban world lines through design, street campaigns, collaborations, fine art and murals. The art work of cyrcle rotates in the questions of duality, human condition and life through many metaphors. His artwork has attracted 41.1 thousand followers and averages 200+ Likes per post.

8.) DALeast. – DALeast is defined as master of illusion. He is among the well-known prolific artists. He achieves his illusions by combining with skills layering and lines which leaves followers breathless. His images appear like they are walking out of canvas or walls as he uses dark bases concurrently with fragments highlighted with brighter lines. He currently has 40.1 thousand followers.

9.) Evoca 1. – Evoca 1 is not only an artist but also a designer and a figurative painter. He is such a daring man who is so humanitarian hence merges humanity and art together. His nickname has made his art grow as it means to evoke hence he works towards expressing his activism in improving public awareness on the difficulties that come along with impoverished. Individuals like his art work as it is a real definition of the believe that social commitment and artwork work hand in hand. Evoca 1 is been followed by 23.8 thousand followers.

10.) Sickboy. – Sickboy has emerged from infamous Bristol’s scene. He had been a street art painter since 1995. He paints also on canvas and exhibits well in galleries of art. He is the first known British artist to use for a tag, pictorial logo. Sickboy is currently followed by 9,339 followers.

The post Most Liked Digital Artists on Instagram appeared first on SocialProof.

Thursday, March 30, 2017

The most liked Video pages on Instagram

intagram-liked-photographJust as surely as day follows dark, you had to foresee videos being posted to Instagram. Remember that Instagram was created for still photography, but since photography itself has taken so many directions over the past few years, it only follows that videos have given new life to the social media. And with the number of so many creative videographers out there, it only seems natural that Instagram would bloom with video pages. In an effort to cut down on the work you do to find the very best, this post will show you the most liked video pages on Instagram.

Top Instagram Vid Users to Follow:

  1. fun_bestvids – 6.7M followers, Here’s another one that’s likely to keep you in stitches with the hilariously funny videos from all over. There is very little staged here. Instead, everything that is posted here is just people being people, and being atrociously funny doing it.
  2. houseofhighlightshouseofhighlights – 5.2M followers and averages half a million views per post, If you like sports and you would love the opportunity to show your friends that impossible shot that was made last night in the game, houseofhighlights will be just the resource you needs. This entire page has nothing but the best of game highlights going back an indefinite period of time. For some reason, it’s got an overabundance of basketball clips, but regardless, they are wonderful to watch. If you like basketball, you will find yourself blocking out lots of time for this one.
  3. bestvinesnow – 4.8 Million Followers, This is a great collection of the funniest Vine videos. The page is dedicated to Vine clips that have been posted to Instagram. You’ll find a wide assortment of Funny, Hilarious and some painful vids. Some of the posts can exceed over 500,000 Likes, this shows you how popular the page is.
  4. videos_cake – 551K followers, Do you need a sugar fix? Got a sweet tooth? Videos_cake is full of cool videos that show nothing but cakes and how they are made with each post automatically getting viewed by thousands. This goes for not only the cake, but the techniques used to decorate them as well. Prepare to be transfixed by what you find here.
  5. cutecouples.videos – 369K followers, If there’s anything cuter than a video of puppies, it’s a video of puppy love, and this video page has plenty of them. This one is literally loaded with all sorts of videos of people in love expressing their love in the most darling of ways.

It’s probably not news, but there is so much on Instagram in the way of videos that it is almost impossible to find everything. Fortunately through the use of Hashtag Search and various blog posts you can find the Top Videos on Instagram with a little effort.

The post The most liked Video pages on Instagram appeared first on SocialProof.

Wednesday, March 29, 2017

10 Social Media Marketing Trends of 2017

marketing trends

The debate surrounding the influence of social media and its marketing trends is over.

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and more are here to stay.

They’re also more powerful than ever.

Social media channels will reach approximately 2.51 billion users in 2017, or one-third the world’s population.

Whether they’re children in Atlanta or seniors citizens in Norway, one out of every three is logging in to update their status right at this very moment.

That. Is. Huge.

What’s more is that social media, particularly “social signals,” such as “likes” and “retweets,” are now affecting search engine optimization results. The more you have, the higher you will appear in Google search results, and we all know what that means—more money.

The potential social media marketing trends have to shape your brand is boundless, but only if you use them the right way.

But it takes almost as much work to stay ahead of these marketing trends as it does to leverage them for your benefit. That’s why we’ve done the work for you, assembling a list of the top 10 social media marketing trends that will define 2017.

Keep reading to learn how you can be current — and trending — now.

Marketing automation

Remember those social media platforms mentioned above?

Don’t forget, we also have LinkedIn, Reddit, Snapchat, and Pinterest.

We could keep going, but you get the idea.

Managing your messaging across all these channels is a daunting and time-consuming task. That’s where marketing automation comes in.

Marketing automation refers to software and web-based services that can help you schedule and streamline your social efforts.

As an added advantage, you can easily categorize customers based on their social media profiles, behaviors, and interests. This means you can deploy messages tailored to specific audiences at the times that they’re most active.

That means more clicks, more likes, more shares. Can you say #winning?

Still not convinced marketing automation is the way to go? Consider this: 92 percent of companies are losing revenue because they’ve chosen to forgo automation.

Live Video Marketing Trends

Social media marketing trends in a nutshell: If you’re not live, you’re dead. Facebook Live and Twitter’s Periscope—they are the future.

How big are they? Facebook users comment 10 times more on live videos than on regular ones. As of mid-2016, Periscope had more than 1.9 million active users.

People love live video. They will watch it and they will interact with it.

Adopt live video for your brand by posting live “how-to” videos, exclusive interviews with executives, or sneak peeks of new products.

Microinfluencers

Being big on social media in 2017 may very well mean thinking small.

Micro-influencers are social media users with a few thousand followers. We’re not talking POTUS here, but maybe presidents of colleges, presidents of fan clubs, or union presidents.

Marketers are increasingly identifying and recruiting micro-influencers among their target audiences.

Why?

Because micro-influencers wouldn’t be influential if their followers didn’t trust them. Get a micro-influencer to back your product or service, and you’ve got an instant “in” with their audience.

Toms of Maine used such an approach a couple years back. For every 1,000 micro-influencers the company activated, it received 6,496 “likes” in return.

That’s a lot of likes. And they could be yours, too.

Employee advocacy

This one is related to micro-influencers, but a bit easier to adapt.

For all you start-ups out there, it’s way less expensive too.

It’s called employee advocacy and it means having your employees share your brand’s messaging with their friends and family members via social media.

You’ll be the beneficiary of the trust that comes with having Uncle Bob vouch for your product.

As an added bonus, employee advocacy can also create excitement and buy-in in the office.

Co-created and user-generated content

Want more engaged social followers?

Put them to work.

User-generated content is an inexpensive way to create brand buzz. It can be as simple as asking followers to post pictures with your new hashtag.

Done correctly, your bang on user-generated content is almost certain to be greater than your buck.

Need inspiration? Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke” campaign, which represents user-generated content at its finest, boosted sales for the brand for the first time in a decade.

Give users an experience

Remember the PokemonGo craze of 2016? When the app topped 100 million installs in a single weekend? That was crazy, right?

It also showed that social media users are clamoring for an experience. They don’t want to just read, view and respond. They want to do.

Giving them what they want doesn’t have to mean creating a viral game.

Think about other immersive experiences that could be of use to your audience. For example, webinars are great because they engage your audience and allow you to position yourself as an expert on a topic.

Mobile, mobile, mobile

This one probably won’t catch anyone by surprise, but mobile is where it’s at. That’s not changing.

About one in five minutes spent online is spent on social media, and about 80 percent of all social media time is passed on a mobile device, be it a smartphone or tablet.

We want our memes and selfies when—and most importantly—where we want them.

Messaging apps

Sure we could text, but why would we when we can take a selfie and add a flowered headband or dog’s snout?

Snapchat and What’s App are gaining traction, with 300 million and 900 million users respectively as of January.

How do you make this relevant to your brand?

Why not customer service applications?

Remember, we live in a real-time world, and customers increasingly expect 24-7 access. Messaging apps could be the way to deliver that.

Chatbots

Need help responding to customers in real-time?

A chatbot could be the way, as plenty of brands have already discovered.

Chatbots are computer programs that simulate conversations with real people. They’re an effective way to triage customer-service issues, or in many cases, outright resolve them!

Data visualization

This is exactly what it sounds like—gathering all your social media analytics and presenting them in a way that makes them easy to understand.

For decision makers, it helps them identify what’s working and what’s not.

Use it. It could change everything. And likely will.

Adapting these trends for your brand, and using them in conjunction with a killer website, standout blog, and social proofing, are sure to garner you more thumbs-up and retweets.

And in this day and age, that could mean money in your pocket.

The post 10 Social Media Marketing Trends of 2017 appeared first on SocialProof.

Monday, March 20, 2017

Youtube Marketing: Statistics and Lessons to Use YouTube for Marketing

YouTube, the biggest video platform on the planet, has over 1 billion user traffic and 300 hours of video uploaded every minute of every day. That’s 5 hours of video content every second.

YouTube is huge, and every digital marketer should be on it. YouTube video marketing accounts for a huge chunk of the success of major brands and personalities. In this article, we will show you some of 2017 YouTube marketing statistics as proof of how important YouTube is. We will also provide examples of successful companies that use YouTube for marketing and what you can learn from them.

YouTube Marketing Tips and Tricks

YouTube Marketing Statistics

*180.1 million people in the US alone use YouTube.
*YouTube users watch an average amount of content. The users veiws amounting to 46,000 years worth of content.
*YouTube surpasses all cable networks in the US reaching 18-49 year-old adults.
*Users spend 40 minutes on average in every session.

These YouTube video marketing statistics just seal the deal. If you own a business and you want to expand your consumer reach, you need to start marketing on YouTube.

Companies that use YouTube for marketing enjoy a low-cost venue for reaching out to subscribers and providing enjoyable and relevant video content that will keep their audience engaged. Their cases serve as a learning experience for us and show us what works for YouTube marketing.

Companies That Use YouTube for Marketing Successfully

The Best YouTube Marketing Strategy1. Moz

Moz is a company dedicated to teaching digital marketing techniques. The way they use YouTube video marketing tells us they know what they’re doing. Moz regularly uploads informative videos on any topic related to digital marketing. Their “Moz Whiteboard Fridays” offers insightful tips and educates their community about digital marketing. Their communities are well engaged and highly responsive to their videos.

YouTube marketing lesson: Use YouTube marketing to educate your audience about topics related to your niche. This will establish you as a thought leader in your industry and also keep you relevant to your audience.

2. Blendtec

Blendtec, a manufacturer of high-quality blenders, posted their first ever YouTube video in 2006. Since then, they have gained hundreds of thousands of subscribers. Their channel, “Will It Blend” showcases almost a hundred videos where the founder, Tom Dickson, blends everyday things like books and even iPhones.

YouTube marketing lesson: Do something out of the ordinary to showcase the features of your products or services. Think out of the box and come up with original content that your target users will love.

3. Ramit Sethi

Although Ramit Sethi is not a company, he is a blogger and author specializing in the personal finance and the entrepreneurship niche. What makes his YouTube video marketing incredible is how he organizes content into various categories to avoid overwhelming his subscribers. In the homepage of his channel, you will see categories of his topics neatly arranged like “Salary Negotiation” and “Ask Ramit.”

Lesson: If you’re planning to upload videos on different topics, organize them neatly to make it easier for your viewers to find what they need.

4. Home Depot

Home Depot, one of the biggest home improvement companies in the U.S., has an active YouTube channel wherein they regularly upload videos showing viewers how to do various home repairs. What sets this brand apart from other home improvement channels also doing YouTube video marketing is they offer expert tips and advice to viewers without being overly promotional about their own products. They give the sense that they care about improving the lives of their audience more than they care about driving sales. Whether this is true or not, it certainly is working in their favor.

Lesson: Give your audience expert tips and advice without going over-the-top with promoting your brand and services. This will make you look more genuine in wanting to help them out.Amazing YouTube Marketing Hacks

5. Six Pack Shortcuts & Abs After 40

This YouTube channel stands out among the endless list of channels on fitness and workout routines because of two things. The first is it has a very specific niche (six pack shortcuts). The second is it targets a well-defined audience (those who are 40 and above). Their unique approach to YouTube marketing landed them the second spot on Google’s Top 10 YouTube brands in 2014.

Lesson: YouTube video marketing takes careful planning of who your target audience is. So target a well-defined audience and hone in on a particular niche to make your videos more relatable to your target audience. The specific niche will also give focus to your videos and avoid the tendency of content creators to create content without a unified theme.

These companies that use YouTube marketing are made into such a huge success by enjoying regular daily and monthly views on their videos. These cases show that if done right, YouTube marketing can be responsible for much of your audience engagement. This is especially true for content that is best viewed in videos such as workout routines, home improvement hacks, cooking, and others.

Here Are Even More YouTube Video Marketing Tips

1. Understand Your Audience’s Buying Stage

Understand that most of the people who will find your videos on YouTube are often in the information-seeking stage and not ready yet to commit to purchasing. So you need to use keywords and terms that will resonate with and audience at this stage. For example, if you have a cooking channel, you can use terms like “how to cook spaghetti” instead of “buy our cookbook for cooking spaghetti”. To have a more concrete basis of what to use for keywords for YouTube Marketing, you can use AdWords tools to research keywords and terms for your video descriptions.

Secrets to Marketing Your Business on Youtube2. Don’t Give out Everything You’ve Got in Your Videos

YouTube video marketing is all about making your viewers want more. Make videos that will give readers valuable tips but will leave them hanging for more. Then you can gently prod them to buy your digital or physical products to get “more”.

3. Have a Regular Posting Schedule

All successful companies that use YouTube for marketing have a regular posting schedule. Don’t post sporadically or your viewers may forget about you or feel that you don’t care enough about the channel to have a functional posting schedule in place.

Companies that use YouTube for marketing and having a grand success in it show us that YouTube video marketing takes four things. These are planning, careful research, a little creativity, and consistency. YouTube can reap your company benefits if you’re willing to invest time and effort in it. YouTube video marketing can be the break your business needs. So keep learning YouTube marketing statistics and tips to stay on top of the latest trends and best practices.

The post Youtube Marketing: Statistics and Lessons to Use YouTube for Marketing appeared first on SocialProof.

Here’s Why and How to Start SoundCloud Marketing

SoundCloud is often considered the top social sound promotion platform for independent artists. It disrupted the music industry by transferring the power to create and promote astounding music from big recording studios to small, independent and crazily talented independent music artists.

If you’re a music artist who wants to let your song be heard across the globe, SoundCloud is the right place to start a great SoundCloud marketing campaign as your guide.

Amazing Tips to the Best SoundCloud Marketing Techniques

Just to set the stage, here are some SoundCloud statistics to show you why you should be starting on your SoundCloud marketing campaign:

*SoundCloud has more than 175 million monthly listeners.
*There are about 10 million music creators on SoundCloud.
*Every minute, roughly 12 hours of music is being uploaded on the site.

SoundCloud is big, and it’s where music creators and consumers are.

However, making it on SoundCloud takes more than just uploading your music along with their artwork and quietly wait for listeners to flock. Success on SoundCloud involves equal parts of creating amazing content and having an effective SoundCloud marketing campaign.

How to Plan and Execute a SoundCloud Marketing Campaign

1. Define Your Goals

Your goals will give you a sense of direction for the entire SoundCloud marketing campaign. SoundCloud Marketing Tips to Increase Your FollowersIt will help you avoid the same mistakes of music creators who randomly promoted their music on their Facebook profiles and other social media platforms with little thought on what they’re really trying to achieve.

Your goals for SoundCloud marketing should be specific. Establish short-term, medium-term, and long-term goals. Short-term goals can be achieved within a month, medium-term can be in half a year, and long-term goals can be after a year. It depends on how you want to pace your SoundCloud marketing campaign.

2. Understand Your Audience

The success of your SoundCloud promotion depends on your fans – if they will like your work or not. Although, before they can like your work, they need to find you first. You also need to make it easy for them to find. This is why understanding your audience is crucial in SoundCloud promotion.

You need to understand your target audience’s behaviors to be able to market your music to them effectively. Your audience largely depends on your genre. If you create hard rock music, you can make a few assumptions of your fan base. Assumptions such as how often they frequent rock concerts, hard rock music stores, often watch rock YouTube videos, hang out in Facebook rock music groups, and more.

Understanding who your target audience is for your SoundCloud marketing is critical in knowing where to look for them and how to reach out to them. Where does your audience hang out online and offline? How do they consume music? What music channels do they regularly visit? These are just some of the things you need to know about your audience for a successful SoundCloud marketing campaign.

3. Write Three Focus Areas for Your SoundCloud Marketing Campaign

When you have a thorough understanding of your audience, you can make an informed decision of how best to go about your SoundCloud promotion. You need to select three areas where you will focus much of your marketing efforts. For example, some music creators concentrate on promoting their SoundCloud profiles on all of their social media channels. Some choose to focus on other music websites where their audience might be hanging out.

What three areas would you like to focus your SoundCloud promotion on? Write them down and frequently refer to them to keep yourself grounded on your plan.

The Best SoundCloud Marketing Tips for Your Music

SoundCloud Promotion Tips to Increase SoundCloud Plays

To make it big on this social sound platform, you need to make active promotion to increase SoundCloud plays. Here are five practical SoundCloud promotion tips for your SoundCloud marketing campaign:

1. Tag Your Music

Tagging your music makes it easier for search engines to identify your genre. For best results, search for tracks that are just based off genres or even specific sub-genres. Use those specific genres to tag your track to make it easier for people to find them.

2. Try a Remix or Rendition at Least Once

A clever SoundCloud promotion trick is to do a remix or rendition of popular songs in your genre. A remix or rendition gives you the opportunity to take advantage of a music personality’s fan base. Fans of the original artist are always scouring for great remixes or renditions of their favorite songs. So when you post a remix or rendition, it’s important always to mention the original artist’s name. This is not only the ethical thing to do, but it will also increase the chances of users clicking on your music.

3. Use Eye-Catching Artwork

SoundCloud is all about visuals. If your artwork is drab, users will tend to assume that your music is uninteresting as well. We won’t suggest that you fork out a fortune for this, but if you can ask a friend to make you a great artwork to represent your music for a lower price, that would be beneficial.

4. Use SoundCloud Promotion Services

How to Market Your Music on SoundCloudSoundCloud promotion services are abound, but you have to choose the right company. Don’t fall into the trap of buying fake fans for an incredibly low price. Those fake fans are often nothing but bots. It’s always better to hire a company that offers SoundCloud promotion services using legitimate means. This will ensure that your fan engagement will remain through the years.

5. Use SoundCloud Promotion Channels

SoundCloud promotion channels are huge channels, often with millions of users, where you can promote your music. Some promo channels may post your music for free, but some will charge a fee. The cost will differ according to the size and reach of the SoundCloud promotion channel. If there is a charge, you will have to buy a repost of your track on the promo channel where it can be exposed to thousands of users around the world.

SoundCloud promotion is vital to your success as a music creator on SoundCloud. The success of your promotion will largely depend on the effectiveness and consistency of your SoundCloud marketing campaign. Stick to your goals and consistently work towards them. Make active decisions on a regular basis on what changes you will make in your strategy or what you should add. Be proactive and patient, and give users great music to listen to. Soon you will see a growth in your fan base.

The post Here’s Why and How to Start SoundCloud Marketing appeared first on SocialProof.

Why Creative Instagram Marketing Works: Tips on How to Make It Work!

Creative Instagram marketing is taking online marketing by storm. As of June 2016, there was around 500 million users connecting every month. This number alone should convince you to use this hugely popular mobile app for your marketing efforts.

Almost every top brand and even celebrity personalities are on Instagram for business marketing. National Geographic posts stunning, magazine-quality visual content everyone has come to love. AirBnB gives us a daily dose of some of the best lodging places in the world. Adobe features 100% user-generated content that appeals to creatives. These brands have acknowledged the power of Instagram in cultivating a following and building solid relationships with consumers.

The Most Creative Tips on Instagram Marketing

So why does Instagram for business marketing work? What makes this award-winning app stand out from the crowd of social media platforms? In this article, we will discuss what makes this app work for marketing and how you too can start a creative Instagram marketing campaign for your business.

Why Instagram for Business Marketing Works

Instagram is a hot spot for engaged and interested consumers that interact with brands that post creative content consistently. Here are five good reasons why Instagram for business marketing would reap major benefits for your company:

1. Visuals Are an Effective Marketing Element

Creative Instagram Marketing for BusinessesThe primary reason why creative Instagram marketing works is the visual orientation of the app. Many marketing studies have shown that people generally retain information presented visually rather than pure text. Studies also suggest that visual data is being processed by the human brain 60 thousand times faster than text. About 65% of your audience are visual learners and will respond better to visual posts than plain text posts.

More Visual Content Statistics:

*90% of information processed by the human brain is visual.
*93% of human communication is actually nonverbal. So we don’t often rely on spoken words; we are geared to observe visual elements in any communication setting.

2. Wicked Algorithms Won’t Hide Your Content

Facebook marketers are often perplexed by the ever-changing algorithms used to deciding which posts will be shown to specific users, making it a “volatile” social media marketing platform for many. Instagram won’t do that to your posts. If someone follows your account, your posts have the same chance of being seen by that follower as any post of other accounts being followed by the user. This makes Instagram for business marketing ideal if you want to expand your reach and maximize your exposure.

3. Instagram Is King of Mobile Social Media

Instagram was born as a mobile media app, making it very popular among mobile users. Most, if not all, Instagram users are on mobile because you can’t post anything on their desktop version of their website. More and more consumers are going mobile. In fact, recent studies show that mobile online time in the US is now at 51%. This is considerably higher than desktop online time which is 42%. If you put in the effort to penetrate this mobile market, you’ll definitely see a growth in your business. Instagram offers you a way to do that.

4. Branding Your Business Through Visual Storytelling

A picture tells a thousand words. Cliché but this is still very true. Instagram makes it easy for you to establish your brand with just a photo that tells a relevant and interesting story. Your followers would love to see a human side or a glimpse into how things are done in businesses that have traditionally been inaccessible to consumers. They would also love to see the culture of your company, the things your employees do for fun, how it’s like working for you, the struggles you encounter, and more. These stories reflect what your business is all about, and that’s top notch branding for you.

Tips on How to Start a Creative Instagram Marketing

Use Creative Instagram Marketing to Increase Your ROICreative Instagram marketing doesn’t just happen. You need to come up with fresh ideas that work. Let us help you begin with these tips on starting the best creative Instagram marketing campaign:

1. Use Hashtags Effectively

According to Simply Measured, posts with at least one #hashtag have a higher average of engagement (12.6%) than those without. The keys to using hashtags effectively are using the right number of specific hashtags. For example, if your post is about Italian cuisine, use specific hashtags like the name of the food, or who cooked it.

To look for effective hashtags, see what your competitors are using and use Instagram’s search function. In the search bar, type in a search term related to your brand and then select the “Tags” tab. There you will see a list of relevant hashtags for that topic. What about the right amount? Studies have shown that posts with four or five hashtags had an average of 22 interactions while those without hashtags had at most 14 interactions. Posts with 11 hashtags performed poorly as well.

2. Host Competitions with Irresistible Rewards

Photo contests will draw engagement from users. That is if you promise a reward they can’t resist. A great example of a successful photo contest is a selfie contest held by Om Nom Nom Cookies, a vegan cookie company. They asked participants to post a selfie with an omnomnom cookie and submit it with an @mention to the company. The winner(s) receive a branded t-shirt. This is also a great way to drive sales AND promote engagement. Two birds with one stone!

3. Keep It Relevant to Users

Use These Tips on Creative Instagram MarketingRelevant content means content that speaks the language of your audience. If the majority of your followers are middle-aged men interested in sports fishing, it’s not a good idea to use a language and tone commonly heard around teenage girl cliques. It’s all about understanding your audience because no matter how creative your contests are or how many hashtags you use, if the content is not relevant, it will flop.

4. Use Different Kinds of Posts

Another thing that makes Instagram for business marketing perfect is its versatility. You can experiment with various types of posts other than photos. For example, stop motion videos are quirky, cute, and amusing. These are always a hit with Instagram users. Use a stop motion video of your employees at work or other business processes that you think might be enjoyable to your followers. Live videos are also a huge hit! There’s just something so interesting about a live broadcast. Be sure to keep the posts aligned to your brand though!

Creative Instagram marketing, when done right, offers tons of benefits to any brands. Instagram for business marketing is an innovative and cost-effective solution to a companies need to build a relationship with customers. So remember that it’s never too late to start a creative Instagram marketing campaign. Just read up on a lot of resources to get more ideas on how you can nail this thing down, and don’t hesitate to go on Instagram for business marketing purposes because it will surely pay off.

The post Why Creative Instagram Marketing Works: Tips on How to Make It Work! appeared first on SocialProof.

Instagram Marketing for Business: Statistics and Tips

Instagram has grown exponentially since its launch in 2010, along with thousands of brands that rode with it’s popularity. They took advantage of the now mammoth photo and video sharing platform. Instagram marketing has never been more crucial for big and small businesses alike. Brands that developed a consistent and effective Instagram marketing strategy have seen incredible growth both in consumer relations and revenue.

Marketing on Instagram is bound to grow more, so here we will share Instagram statistics for business, and how to create a business Instagram account. We will even go over Instagram marketing tips for business to give you that push you need to start Instagram marketing. So let’s dive in!How to Best Market Your Business on Instagram

Instagram Statistics for Business

Statistics have a way of driving home important marketing trends. Here are some Instagram statistics for business to convince you why you need to start promoting your business on Instagram:

1. Instagram has over 500 million monthly users. There are also over 300 million users who connect on their platform daily.

2. Almost 30% of the American population is active on Instagram.

3. About 48.8% of brands are marketing on Instagram, and this is expected to reach 70.7% by the end of 2017.

4. Top brands post roughly five times a week on Instagram.

5. 75% of Instagram users knowingly interact with intended marketing actions like clicking a link or visiting a website after seeing an advertising post.

6. Brands with over 100k Instagram followers have grown by 163% in the last two years. This percentage is also continually increasing.

7. A 2014 study found that user engagement rates on Instagram are 20 times higher than Twitter and 15 times higher than Facebook. This means that for users like you, there are higher chances of getting a comment or like on Instagram than on Facebook or Twitter.

These are just seven Instagram statistics for businesses. This is just the tip of Instagram’s potential and power for business marketing. Already sold on using this social site? Read on for an easy 4-step guide on how to create a business Instagram account.

How to Create a Business Instagram Account

Instagram Marketing Tips and TricksStep #1: The first thing you want to do when starting Instagram marketing is to download the app and create a personal account. This won’t cost you a penny. You can sign up with your Facebook account, but you’ll still need to create a username and password.

Step #2: Then you need to convert the account to a “business account” to get access to Instagram analytics and insights. To do this, connect your account to your business Facebook page by going to the “Settings” and choosing “Switch to Business Profile”.

Step #3: Once that’s done, go to your Profile tab and tap the “Edit Your Profile” icon where you can change your name, profile picture, username, and add a website with a short description.

Step #4: Then publish your first post!

These four steps on how to create a business Instagram account are incredibly easy, but effective Instagram marketing takes a lot more than that. Instagram marketing tips for businesses are abound, and you need to make use of these to ensure that you’re doing the right things.

Instagram Marketing Tips for Business

1. Tell Stories and Be Visually Tantalizing

Instagram users love stunning visuals that tell a story. Take them behind the scenes of your business. If you’re a restaurant, Instagram users would love to see photos of your kitchen crew in action. These kinds of photos will make them feel closer and more acquainted with your business, encouraging them to try your services. Also, Instagram is all about visuals. Nail down how to create stunning imagery and your followers will surely appreciate seeing you on their feed. Make sure the visuals are clear, high definition, and gives off a particular mood that aligns with your brand.

2. Add Value to Your Users

This is an all-important goal for any social media marketing efforts. Marketing on Instagram will be successful if you know how to add value to your readers. Publish posts that will help improve their lives, provide solutions to their problems, or inspire them in many ways. These kinds of posts are a welcome treat for online users who are constantly bombarded with advertisements that don’t seem to offer anything of real value to them.The Best Instagram Marketing Techniques

3. Don’t Flood Your Followers

Perhaps one of the best things you can do concerning customer relations is to avoid flooding and overwhelming your users with new posts every hour. You want to stay relevant without being annoying. So what you can do is to follow the general practice of the top brands who post about 5 times a week. Then experiment with the frequency of your posts until you find what works for you.

4. Stay Updated on New Instagram Statistics for Business

The importance of staying on top of trends is probably not new to you. Keeping track of Instagram statistics for business and thinking about how you can use these to your advantage. This is crucial for marketing in a fast-changing marketing channel. Instagram statistics for business will give you ideas on better strategies, new techniques to apply, and new opportunities for marketing.

5. Re-Purpose or Curate Content from Other Popular Accounts

Successful marketing on Instagram needs consistent posts, and it’s understandable that our creative juices will run out from time to time. That’s where re-purposing or curating content come in handy. As long as you tag or mention the original poster, this is a completely ethical marketing practice. Just make sure that the posts you’re re-purposing or curating are relevant to your followers.

6. Use Free Instagram Tools to Analyze Your Success

Use Instagram Marketing to Increase Your Online BrandOne of the best Instagram marketing tips for business that we can give you is to consistently measure your success. Instagram’s free analytics tools will give you real data about your users – their demographics, behaviors, and other data pertinent to your success. Keep track of your engagement rates, number and growth of followers. It is also important to keep track of which posts performed well and which posts did not. Measuring your results will show you what works for your business so you can tweak some of these Instagram marketing tips for business to fit your needs.

Final Thoughts

Instagram statistics for business show us that Instagram Marketing is not optional anymore. Instagram’s has an expanding user base that any business can take advantage of. Instagram marketing is also a cost-effective way of getting your name out there. It provides you a unique platform where you can directly engage with users by providing useful and well-designed posts. Effective marketing on Instagram will grow your brand in ways you’ve never imagined before, so with these Instagram marketing tips for business, start conquering this platform now.

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