One of the first questions I get when meeting with any potential client is always the same from all of them: Sure, I know social media is important but how can it help our business out?
The answer is pretty simple actually.
In addition to helping your business save money by steering you away from traditional forms of advertising, social media can also help get you more eyes on your brand than ANY traditional forms of advertising can.
But where do you start?
Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter; there are so many to choose from?
The general rule of thumb I’ve found which works best for my clients is to be on all of this, but only actively engage on some of them. What this means is while you should at the very least have a profile set up on all the major social media sites, only focus on a few of them, especially if you’re a small business. The reason being is it helps from spreading yourself to thin.
After you’re able to get a profile set up on the major social media channels, you’ll quickly begin to learn which ones are the most effective for you. Remember, every business is different. Thus, setting up an online strategy for each is going to definitely require a level of basic creativity.
Today, we’re going to talk about one of the more popular social media marketing services which many businesses are still not yet utilizing – Instagram.
What is Instagram?
For those who aren’t familiar with it, Instagram is a photo-sharing social media app which allows users to do exactly that, take photos, run them through filters and share them with their followers. The app is free to download and has gained quite a bit of popularity over the past few years.
8-Bit Apparel
One company who’s found success with their social media presence using a very unique method is 8-Bit Apparel out of Columbus, Ohio. The company specializes in delivering unique, custom-branded tees and other apparel which utilizes the old-school 8-bit style of graphics. What’s really cool about the team at 8-Bit is they’re using Instagram to great success. As of now they have a huge following thanks to posting updates regularly and taking advantage of key hashtags within each post. They sitting at right around 22,000 followers, an impressive number for a local apparel company.
Even more, 8-Bit Apparel is posting photos not of their products necessarily, but a wide range of pop culture-esque images and more. Check out one of their recent posts below and then look at how many “Likes” it received. Keep in mind, this is just a random photo the brand felt their given niche would enjoy seeing. Again, this is one of the advantages business have when it comes to using social media – a combination of creativity of diversity.
Every Business is Different
It’s important to remember 8-Bit’s social media strategy won’t work for everyone. The reason their brand has been successful is because they’ve been diligent about providing their target audience with content which is not only relevant to them, but specific to their demographic.
Some example of businesses which can do very well on Instagram range from clothing stores to restaurants and more. The more niche your product is, the better your odds are for getting your business seen will be.