The world’s most popular social networking platforms certainly have changed over the years, and they will undoubtedly continue to change as time moves forward. Old social networks will die, and popular ones will be forced to evolve as fresh new options appear with innovative technology. We have moved on from the days of MySpace to a social media era now dominated by all sorts of social mobile apps.
As we continue our look at each of the top 5 Social Media Channels and the advantages each has to offer, none demonstrates the quickly changing landscape of social media as much as the next platform in our discussion.
Facebook purchased an upstart photo sharing mobile app, back in 2012 called Instagram. At first it looked like this purchase was solely for the technology for Facebook to improve its mobile applications, which back then it desperately needed. For the next couple of years there was little change to the Instagram app as Facebook used the technology to improve their own mobile presence. That all changed by the beginning of 2014 as Facebook began leveraging its dominance in the world of social media to begin further development of the Instagram app.
By September 2015, Instagram reached 400 million active monthly users, leaving LinkedIn and Twitter in the dust and is now second only to its parent company Facebook. In October 2015, Facebook opened Paid Ads on Instagram to all businesses that have a Facebook Business Page making Instagram an instant major player in business advertising.
Photo and Video Dominant
Instagram is a platform for users to upload pictures and videos they take on their smartphones. As such, pictures and videos used in your Ads should focus on people using your products rather than straight product shots. Instead of plain pictures of an engagement ring, show in your Ads a series of different ways men propose to their bride to be.
An Ad with a picture of a man on his knee with a ring in his hand is far more interesting than just a picture of a ring by itself and will produce better results on any social media platform. With Instagram this is even more important. Don’t show the product – show the results of the product!
- Show the surprised look on the young lady’s face
- Show the wedding picture that the perfect ring made magical
- Show how beautiful she is with your ring glistening on her finger
Short videos create powerful ads. During the past year or so social media has seen an explosion in user generated videos, and Instagram is no different. While users on Instagram are limited to 15 second videos, businesses can use up to 30 seconds in their video ads. This gives a distinct advantage to businesses who use paid ads rather than just posting to their Instagram account.
Age Matters
The overwhelming majority of Instagram users are between the ages of 18 and 35. Because of this Instagram is not the place to advertise large diamonds for anniversary gifts to upgrade her engagement ring with pictures of couples in their 50s. Instead advertise engagement rings and wedding bands to couples in their 20s.
There is no bigger holiday to a first time mother than Mother’s Day. Instagram is the ideal platform (in addition to Facebook) to advertise Mother’s Day and target everyone with one child less than a year old. In addition, run general Mother’s Day advertisement targeting young parents persuading fathers to purchase jewelry for the one who gave him his greatest gift – his children.
What You Need to Know
Paid Ads on Instagram are created through the Facebook Ad Manager. While it is not necessary to have a business presence on Instagram as you can connect your ads to your Facebook Page, it is recommended to have one. You can easily set-up an Instagram page for your store directly in Ad Manager if you do not already have one, or connect your existing Instagram account to your Facebook account.
While not all Ad Objectives on Facebook are available for Instagram Ads yet, they are continually updating Ad Manager and soon any type of ad that you can run on Facebook will be available on Instagram.
Initially, Facebook and Instagram used different sized photos in their Ads and you were required to use different photos or crop your photos to fit the format. However, Facebook has been working on this so that you can use the standard size photos for Facebook Ads in your Instagram Ads. All the rules for images in Facebook Ads, such as the 20% text rule, apply to your Instagram Ads as well.
Because Instagram uses the Facebook Ad Manager to create Ads, all the targeting tools used for Facebook Ads are available for Instagram Ads. This includes all the consumer demographic and psychographic information as well as Custom and Lookalike Audiences.
Next month we will continue our look at the top 5 Social Media Networks with a look at the 3rd largest social media platform, LinkedIn. For more information on Instagram and Paid Social Media Advertising Campaigns, Step-By-Step Directions, and Templates for your Ads visit FeetThruTheDoorMarketing.com.
Brad Simon is co-owner of Internet 4 Jewelers and Feet Thru The Door Marketing. They provide affordable full-service social media management and social ad campaign management exclusively for retail jewelry stores as well as online educational programs for local retail stores. For more information contact Brad at 864-680-4416 or Brad@Internet4Jewelers.com.
