Description

While Facebook still reigns supreme in the social media world, other sites are proving their worth in the business world. Instagram is one such site.In this video, Eric Spellmann shows you how to tap into the huge customer market that uses Instagram on a daily basis. He gives MANY incredible strategies you can immediately implement to see results! So, what are you waiting for? Click that Play button!

Transcript

Note from Eric: Below, you will find a word-for-word transcript of this video. I provide this as an aid for the hearing-impaired and for those who might just want to read it rather than watch the video. This conversational style is not reflective of how I write. Be nice! Hey I am Eric Spellmann with Spellmann & Associates. And today’s video is gonna be all about Instagram. It’s gonna be all about pictures. In other words, how to use Instagram for business. You know a lot of people are using pictures, a lot of people are moving to Instagram.

While Facebook is still very popular, a lot of the younger generation are actually moving away to Instagram and they’re using it more and more. So if your goal is to reach a younger audience, consider Instagram. Let’s begin.

Basically Instagram, like I said has to do with pictures. It’s an easy way to share your life with other people using pictures. And a lot of times people simply snap a photo with their smartphone and using the Instagram app they upload it.

It is a phone app and that’s what you need to understand. It’s typically not used on a computer. People don’t use a computer to mess with Instagram much. They’re using their phones. And remember, more and more of the younger consumers today are strictly using their phones for social media.

So, let’s start with the strategies. And I’ve got a lot. So get ready. My first strategy as it relates to using Instagram for business is what I call “What it is!” Basically, take one of your products and zoom in really tight in on it to where you really can’t tell what it is. Then, ask viewers to guess what it is.

Remember, the goal of social media is to get interaction. It’s not necessarily to get people to buy the product! It’s to generate interaction. So in this strategy, you zoom in and take a really close up shot, post it on Instagram and then say “Hey guys! What do you all think this is?” Have some fun with it.

And then when it’s all said and done, award a prize! Or not, it’s up to you. But trust me. I’ve had a lot of clients who use this and they generate a lot of fun and a lot of brand identity. And more importantly, a lot of interaction.

Another strategy is what I call show your equipment. And basically in this case, you wanna show em behind the scenes. How you do things in your business? Almost like taking a backstage pass, letting them come behind the curtain and looking and seeing how you build your product.

How you work on it, everything you use. Good example would be to show the equipment you actually use. Like exercise equipment, baking pans, computers etc just give them a tour. Some of you must be wondering your stuff is boring.

Well it’s boring to you because you use it everyday, but you might be having some equipment that other people would think to be cool. Show how it’s made from beginning to end. Take them through the process of how your product is made.

Another strategy is to ask for photos. Ask people to submit photos of them holding your product or if it’s clothing, wearing your product! You might even encourage them to make a funny nuisances video. There’s all sorts of ways to do this.

I’ve had a lot of people who do this and they get such comments from people looking at their friends using their product that it generates a lot of brand identity. So think about your product, think about asking people to take pictures of themselves with it or wearing it.

And if it’s just general people wearing your stuff no one knows em. But if you can convince a celebrity to wear your product, to hold your product, to let you take a picture of them with your product, that can go a long way too. Because that way when you post it basically you’re saying my product is so good that even these famous people use it. And that’s huge. I’m not saying you have to go out and pay for an endorsement.

I’m not even saying it has to be a national celebrity. It can be someone local. It can be your mayor, your local sports hero; it can just be someone that everybody knows. Or, this is kind of a fun game. You could pick someone who may already have passed away or some impossible situation that people realize is not real and make a Photoshop fake of them holding your product.

You don’t want to necessarily do this with a real person or a living person because there might be some legal ramifications. But you could pick a cartoon character, or someone who has passed away or someone who wouldn’t even possibly hold your product and take a picture of it. And you can get a lot of comments on that.

You can even put video on Instagram. A lot of people think Instagram is just for photos. But you can also upload videos. And some of the best uses I found from video on Instagram are doing some sort of tutorial.

If you have some sort of a product which is a little difficult to use, or is a little complicated put a video on there showing how to do something. Or, if your product is one that needs maintenance or needs cleaning, you can put videos on how to do that. Anything that brings value to your product or service, you can make a video of it.

You can also make a video showing other uses. Maybe they haven’t even thought about your product. All that does is increase the features; it increases the value of your product for someone who might be considering buying it.

When they suddenly realize it can do all these things, well it lowers the value in their mind of what they would have to pay and increases the value of the features that it brings.

And, one of my favorite strategies: Add a cat! What I mean by that is animals! Putting animals in a shot with your video or even with your picture is just fun. And people will share animal photos 10 times more than they will share any other kind of photos especially if they are fun. And you don’t have to use a cat obviously. You can use dogs, cats, monkeys, iguanas, camels whatever you want. Think about how an animal might be used.

Even if you take your pet and put your product right next to it and come up with a funny caption, people like that kind of thing. You know what they say. “The internet is full of cats”. And there’s a reason. People love for whatever reason, looking at animals on the internet.

Another fun strategy is what I call the Wheres Waldo strategy. In other words, I want you to take your product and I want you to put it in front of something. Take it with you on a trip; take a picture where something behind you is really famous so that people realize that’s cool! And then you can say where am i.

You can ask a question; you can make it interactive. In this case, the picture I am showing on here is the Little Travel Gnome. They use this technique quite a bit. And you can take your product and say where am i? What is this? Where did it go? Have some fun with it. And like I said, ask people to identify the location. Don’t make it too easy like this one is in Paris obviously, but make it fun.

You can take that even further and take your product to an event. And either wrap it in something that’s themed or put it in front of something that shows the event like Christmas, like July 4th, like Thanksgiving etc.

There’s so many different ways you can take your product and tie it to a holiday, tie it to some current event. And if there aren’t any events coming up, make up one based on your product! Like today is National Love my Widget Day. And have fun with it.

Well as always, if you have any questions just visit my Facebook page or go to ericspellmann.com and I’d be happy to talk to you, answer any questions and help you in any way. So grab that smart phone, start taking pictures and have fun. I am Eric Spellmann; i’ll see you in cyberspace.