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Whether you’re a business that’s just starting out or a well-established brand releasing a new product, having an active social media presence is vital for today’s market. Recognizing the importance of social media and having an executable social media plan is necessary in order to have a successful social media campaign/presence. Simply having an account that’s there but is idle most of the time is not enough. Here are seven ways your brand or product can effectively use Instagram.

Determine whether or not your type of business is visual: Instagram is all about visuals and telling a story through images. If you think your brand or product is not at all associated with images, keep brainstorming and get creative. We once saw a car wash company like every image that had the hashtag #haboob during one of Arizona’s severe dust storms last summer (by the way,  A haboob (Arabic: هَبوب‎ “blasting/drafting”) is a type of intense dust storm carried on an atmospheric gravity current. Haboobs occur regularly in arid regions throughout the world. Wikipedia). They also posted before and after pictures of dust-covered cars coming out squeaky clean after the wash. Although, sometimes you must come to terms with the fact that your business is not (or should not) be visual and that Instagram may not be the right outlet. For example, if you own a funeral home, it would be fairly inappropriate to have an Instagram account to promote your services.

#Hashtag: Using relevant hashtags in the caption of your photo helps to spread your message even further. It enables your product to become visible to a much larger audience beyond just your followers. We have to note that the keyword there is ‘relevant.’ Viewers/Followers will know you’re spamming them if you use too many hashtags and irrelevant hashtags. It would be in poor taste to post a photo of your restaurant’s new dish (yes, pun intended) using hashtags about a recent tragic event. Make sure they are targeted to your specific audience.

Photo Contests: Creating a photo contest on Instagram is the perfect way to engage your followers and potential customers. Make sure the prize is relevant and will entice your audience. Create a hashtag specific to your brand’s contest, for example #’X’companyPhotoContest, and remember to engage with your followers who entered the contest. A good way to do this is to post their image on your brand’s Instagram account and mention them in the caption. You can also comment on their photo thanking them for the entry and wishing them good luck. People love contests and they love to be rewarded – it’s important to show your customers you love them!

Follow me, Follow you: The title of this is fairly self-defining. When you get a follower, follow him/her back. Be cautious, however. Don’t bother following back the spam accounts that promise you thousands of followers within minutes. Similar to our previous post about effectively gaining followers on Twitter, you want quality followers who will be genuinely interested in your story and your product or brand.

Track image analytics: There are tools available for you to track likes, comments, followers, etc. on your Instagram account. Try BlitzMetrics or Curalate.

Be creative and fun: Instagram is a great tool for a business’ marketing campaign, but for the public, it’s a fun outlet used during downtime. If you appear too serious and dull, you won’t engage your followers. You can post fun photos of your employees at a company function (just make sure they’re sober and you have their consent, of course) or of a typical day in the office. This gives your business personality and makes the customers see that there’s real people and real life behind the scenes.

Sneak-peeks: If you’re designing a new product, take a short video or a photo associated with the product and post it as a teaser for your customers. If your Spring 2014 Fashion Line includes pieces that all incorporate a specific fabric, give your audience of hint of what’s to come by uploading a photo of that fabric.

Stay tuned for next Tuesday when we cover how to get the most out of Pinterest for your brand or business.

• Gaining feedback on service, events and menu items.
• Promoting and showing off menu items.
• Sharing specials.
• Recruiting.
• Monitoring reputation.

To find out how PR agencies (like us) can help with your restaurant’s social media strategy and execution, please send us an email, we’d love to hear from you!

Check out the full list below, along with a handy guide on which social networks to use for each tactic

Earlier in the year, we wrote a blog post outlining how to better your restaurant’s publicity: you can find that piece by clicking here.

first direct (a UK-based financial institution) recently released a study that identified some of the social personalities that are prevalent in today’s online world. You have “The Ultras”, those who check social streams dozens of times per day; “The Deniers”, who insist that social doesn’t rule their lives – but would lose their cool without it; “The Dippers”, who go in and out of their social profiles irregularly; “The Lurkers”, pretty self explanatory; among many others.

Check out this entertaining and perhaps revealing look at what’s becoming a bit of a dirty little habit for some in our connected society.

Now more than ever: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ (among others) are the dominant place for consumers and advocates alike to engage with your brand. It’s so important that these destinations fully reflect your company in a seamless way, and maintain the consistency of your current web and offline materials.

Lucky for us, tentsocial has put together a blueprint that outlines almost all of the specs you’ll need when designing creative for your social-sphere. Have a look below, and be sure to bookmark this post – you never know when you’ll need this helpful infographic again!

The title really says it all. After Facebook’s big announcement (which we’re not going to repeat because it seems like it’s EVERYWHERE!), Justin took to Instagram to share this message with his followers – and the rest of the world.

Will you be using Instagram’s video option, or will you stick to services like Keek or Vine?

There One Minute, Gone the Next

So what is exactly is SnapChat, and why does it have hipsters abandoning their collection of fun filters? Simply put, SnapChat is a way to share photos with your favourite people (on iPhone and Android) that will get to them 10x faster than a regular MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service). Besides being faster, the ‘gimmick’ to Snap Chat is that the photos, or ‘snaps,’ are on a timer so you can control how long receiver of the photo actually has access to it before it disappears from their device. Perfect if you’re trying to organize a surprise for someone who has access to your phone! Of course the app does offer a save option on their preview screen or you can take a screenshot if you’re quick but the sender of the Snap will be notified!

Every App Has Its Dark Side

So you’ve downloaded this app to your phone where you can take ‘impermanent’ photos that will not (supposedly) be finding their way onto the greater World Wide Web, what’s the good in that? It seems the overwhelming answer is the ‘indecent exposure’ kind; which can be corroborated with a quick Google search. With a user demographic between the ages of 13-25 this news is more than a little shocking. SnapChat was recently featured on Good Morning America  with the warning that yes the app may say that the photo is gone after the viewing time is up, but there are other ways to save the photo. The reporter on GMA cautioned parents to monitor what their children were doing on their phones considering sexting is becoming a larger scale issue with teens and young adults. Additionally, the SnapChat developers have stated they cannot 100% guarantee the instantaneous deletion of photos off their servers.

So yes, SnapChat can be fun when people want to send those obnoxious self portraits to their friends: but remember, nothing is fool-proof!

On that note, have you ever had a mishap where a photo found its way onto the Internet when you didn’t want it to?

Founded in October 2010, Instagram was exclusively available for Apple products (iPhones, iPads & iPods) until April 2012 when it was made available for Android platforms as well. April 2012 also marked the month that Facebook made a $1 Billion bid for the 13-person company. Approved in September 2012, Instagram is now an independently run department under the Facebook umbrella.  Before the expansion onto the Android platform, Instagram already had 30 million registered accounts but in the 6 months that followed that number more than tripled to 100 million active users by September 2012.

Instagram has come under fire recently because of their proposed changes to their terms of service but the terms were revoked almost as quickly as they were announced in favour of a re-write. Nevertheless,

Yesterday (December 26^th) the Instagram Community Team released their “Year in Review.” The team as compiled some of this past year’s most publicized and photographed about events throughout the world for everyone to look at. Click through some of the links below to marvel in what can be captured on your phone’s camera.

-       Pamploma, Spain’s Running of the Bulls

-       Olympic Opening Ceremonies, London

-       Space Shuttle Endeavor, From Texas to California

And if you just can’t get enough, go check out the Instagram Blog.

Ever since Facebook bought Instagram back in April, it seems is though everyone and their mother is uploading filter friendly photos to the popular social network. I recently found a great INFOGRAPHIC (below) that details some of the impressive stats that Instagram has been able to achieve.

Some of the highlights are:

• Instagram gains one new user every second
• One billion photos have been taken with the app
• There are roughly 58 photos uploaded each second