Mar 16, 2019
Blogging has become quite a profitable business during the past several years. In fact, anyone who has a determination and passion toward this job can start a blog even not having money to invest or any technical experience in the field. Additionally, having some really useful recommendations by professionals, you can step into the blogging world with no fear or hesitation. Ready? If yes, then let InstaBF, a leading Instagram and IGTV provider give you some advice tips to succeed in your starting blogging experience.
Find Your Passions
For starting a blog, you should realize well why you are doing that. For this, write down your passions, your interests, as well as what you are good at. This way you will get a precise image what your social media blog will be about. Besides, you can define your tone. The latter can be witty, inspirational, educative, etc. Just make sure you adhere to your main theme and style, so that not to disappoint your followers later.
Discover Your Target Audience
Shares, traffic, likes, increased engagement… All these are impossible to get if you don’t target to the right audience. You can call them your tribe, faithful people on the other side of the technology who are impatiently waiting to see your next post. They are eager to share, comment and interact with you both as an Instagram blogger and a personality. How can you find the right people? Conduct some surveys among your competitors, those who share your interests and who already have an “army” of loyal followers. Making some smart and on-the-spot comments and getting into a conversation with them right under your competitors’ posts, most probably you will soon see them complete the range of your followers.
Scheme a Memorable Brand
Do you want to stand out with your blog and then link it to your Instagram account? Then you need a memorable brand. A brand is much more than simply a name or even the URL. It must accurately transfer the essence of your blog and personally you. To find something catchy, remarkable, but at the same time congruent to your brand, follow these several steps:
- Brainstorm several variants
- Test them with your target audience
- Get your domain name
- Get your logo designed
- Create respective content including images and videos with special applications like Canva
- Use the new branding element in all social media accounts with Instagram in particular
Get a Web Host
If you choose to get a self-hosted solution instead of using WordPress, you will do the right step. Just think yourself, once you have your traffic grown, you will have to deal with a frustrating site migration. To avoid this, InstaBF recommends going for a self-hosted website. Additionally, today it’s far not so expensive as it used to be. You will also need to create a hosting account.
Create Compelling Content
Suppose you have already got your niche, created a host account and picked the right blogging platform (WordPress, Tumblr, Blogger, etc.). What’s next? Start creating compelling content and promoting it on Instagram. The latter is the ideal platform for attracting the right audience and forwarding them directly to your blog. You can use such a great feature as Instagram Stories to hint about your newly published blog post.
Anyway, before that, have a glance at our checklist of what makes a blog post compelling:
- It features a headline which induces a link;
- It tells a naturally flowing story;
- It’s filled with visual cues and diverse media;
- It includes a smart formatting throughout for an easy reading;
- It focuses only on one key point and the whole post supports it;
- It encourages readers to take an action (share it on Instagram, comment, sign up for your mailing list, etc.).
Only if you support all these points, your Instagram followers will acknowledge the value of your blog and drive more traffic to not only your Instagram account but also your website.
Mar 13, 2019
In Summer 2018, Instagram announced about hitting the so desired one-billion-user mark! Besides, this summer was a notable one with the introduction of a new feature – IGTV. InstaBF, one of the most dependable Instagram and IGTV providers has already spoken about this new long-form video sharing platform in one of its previous posts. And now we are going to reveal why this feature is important for businesses and how you can use it in your Instagram business campaigns in the upcoming year.
The Importance of IGTV in the Business World
A strong presence on the social media platform is highly crucial for every business nowadays and engaging IGTV in your business marketing campaign will only help you appear ahead of your multiple competitors. And as all Instagram users can access to IGTV with their own accounts, your video ads have a potential to reach up to one billion users, too. Additionally, once a Gram user follows your channel, all the videos you post will play automatically whenever they launch the application. You see, IGTV appears to be a perfect means of reaching millions of users with no penny invested in advertising.
How IGTV Can Boost Your Business
Even though IGTV is still in its early stages of development, there are already various means of using it to boost your brand awareness, attract new clients, improve your reputation. Here are the main ideas to use when incorporating IGTV into your marketing campaign:
Broadcasting Live Videos
If Instagram live was the only means of broadcasting live videos to your Instagram followers only a couple of months ago, today this can be done even better through IGTV. Additionally, videos posted on your Instagram TV channel won’t ever vanish on their own. They will remain indefinitely until you delete them yourself. Use IGTV to transmit live events, Q’n’A sessions, place videos to Facebook Watch (the content becomes available on both platforms).
Repurposing Your Content
IGTV is a great means to use your old videos, edit them to a vertical format and post as new ones. For instance, in case you’ve been running a podcast, you can post complete episodes to your IGTV channel, accompany them with captivating visuals instead of sharing teasers and asking followers to listen to the latest episode. This way your target audience will be able to listen to your podcasts not leaving the app.
Making Instructional Videos
Instructional videos are timeless popular and actual. And IGTV allows taking your how-to videos to a totally new level, as your followers get the chance to replicate whatever you are doing in the video in real time. No matter what the purpose of your instructional video is (DIY, makeup, cooking, fitness, etc.), the 60-minute format is absolutely convenient for the task.
Giving Breath to Your Best Stories
Most probably there have been multiple Instagram Stories you have invested much time and efforts in. And in case you would like to give them a second chance for “existence”, IGTV can come to help. Compile all the succeded stories you have made up till now into a couple of short videos to broadcast on your IGTV channel.
Creating Your Unique IGTV Series
Instagram TV is actually created as a TV, hence why shouldn’t you use it for that purpose? Record video podcasts and share them only on your IGTV channel as a series. Just the same way, you may shoot a weekly show and introduce your services or products, answer your fans’ questions, chat with guests, organize online quizzes with rewards, etc.
So you see that despite the fact that IGTV doesn’t allow any advertising yet, there are many other effective ways of using it to your brand’s benefit.
Jun 29, 2018
Earlier on we have discussed the opportunities of IGTV for beauty bloggers and influencers. In this article, we are going to highlight a few examples of how one can use the brand-new functionality for business promotion, so this article will probably be useful to SMM professionals.
It is not a secret that video content nowadays is getting more and more popular (as we have mentioned in one of our previous article, it will take 78% of the world’s Internet traffic by 2021), and surely the advertisement potential of the existing platforms cannot be overrated. There are a few conventional “genres” of promotional videos existing on the web right now. It is highly possible that IGTV bloggers will introduce more of them, but we are sure that the well-tested techniques currently used by SMM professionals will find the proper place in the toolkit of an IGTV promoter.
Probable IGTV Use Cases for Business
Product Reviews
If you are promoting a physical product (clothes/gadgets) or anything allowing a flamboyant demonstration in action, it will be a crime not to show it in the video. For example, one of the minor clothing brands made a beautiful video compilation of the photos from their account. Surely, it’s not extremely creative and, in fact, it’s using re-purposed content, but it may be a good idea of how can one handle the task in a quick and pragmatic way to get some views immediately.
Tutorials and Instructional Videos
The latest marketing trends are closely connected with providing not only the product demonstration and informing the customer of the strong points of your brand. Nowadays the marketing should be as interactive as possible: one should demonstrate as many use cases as possible; instant client support is becoming a part of SMM. That’s why it is a very good idea to post some videos with explanations, share some knowledge in your field and answer some negative comments to make the work of your sales department easier. In other words, it is a new way to show how you care about your clients, no one will argue about the importance of this objective. Keeping it in mind will bring you tons of likes and the business reputation one can only dream of.
Communication with your clients
Actually, this type of videos is an organic extension of the previous one. And IGTV seems to be ideal for that type of content. You can record some season greetings, announce contests, answer some questions and interview the company’s management or employees (for example, one of the brands producing eyewear posted an interview with a graphic design professional utilizing their glasses for her artistic purposes). This will certainly create a positive image and help you to establish your company as a trustworthy brand. And do not forget to comment on the followers’ replies.
Re-use the content from other sources
It’s always a good idea to use some videos from expos and other events you take part in. For example, major fashion companies make use of the footage from their latest shows. It’s always a wise idea to keep your followers informed and let them know that the company is constantly developing. Keeping the number of views growing is one of the primary tasks for an SMM pro.
These are only a few ideas on how to use the standard types of videos for your brand promotion. One should also pay attention to more deep sides of the customers’ psychology and one of the central notions, in this case, is the virality of the video.
Viral Marketing and Other Ways of Getting Likes
Grotesque, weird and bizarre videos have turned into an integral element of the media sphere since the Internet became capable of video streaming. Like an earworm song, these videos generate hype waves and the most difficult thing is to understand how to make them work for your business.
The first component of success is the opportunities for fast video sharing provided by the platform. And in this sense, IGTV is a huge step forward. Now your video may go viral really fast.
For example, one of the digital video content distributors published a 1-hour video featuring a famous actor just eating a burger. Sounds strange, doesn’t it? But the video got about 700,000 views!
To make your video viral, you need to draw inspiration from somewhere. We advice reading some 20th-century books (such as “Ulysses”) or taking a look at the pieces of avant-garde art.
And, surely, it will be a good idea to simulate and stimulate the activity of your followers. In this case, InstaBF is always a good choice. Buy IGTV Likes, IGTV Views and IGTV Comments to use them as a secret weapon!
May 10, 2018
Are you running a blog and searching a way to promote it efficiently? Why not use such a powerful tool as Instagram?! This is the current most influential visual content-based social media used by more than 70% of USA businesses. And even though you might be already using other social platforms including Facebook, Linkedin, YouTube, etc., none can boost your blog’s popularity better than Instagram does. In fact, Instagram, with its 500 million active daily users, will take your content promotion and engagement with your audience to a whole new level!
And so, InstaBF, the leading service providing Insta likes, comments, and followers on a profitable basis, is going to reveal the main steps that can help you to promote your blog on Instagram.
Step 1: Introducing Yourself
The first step implies introducing yourself as a blogger. For this, it’s crucial to complete your profile bio. Do never leave it blank! The bio should be short and accurate, content brief information about who you are, what’s your passion and what interesting you can offer to Instagram users. A CTA (call-to-action) should be included here, too. The latter is to be catchy and contain a link to your blog. It’s your best chance to give a direct way for your followers to your blog’s content.
Step 2: Posting Relevant and Quality Content
Before you make any post, take such criteria into great consideration as the quality and relevancy of the content. For this, first scheme a list of all types of Insta posts associated to your blog that you can create. The stuff you are going to post should, by all means, be high-quality, i.e. include captivating images with cool filters and light effects, text overlays, entertaining captions, etc.
Step 3: Capturing Screens of Your Blog’s Posts
To drive traffic to your actual blog, screen-capture the current post you have made on your blog and post it on your Instagram page. Make some additions, if you find it more expedient. This may include a short description of the post, proper hashtags, CTA to lead your followers immediately to your blog.
Step 4: Follow Other Bloggers on Instagram
If you are an ambitious blogger, it means you should also follow other bloggers on Instagram. Don’t be scrupulous to like, follow and comment those bloggers’ posts. Remember that those bloggers’ posts should be similar to your own blog. This way you will not only get actual and authentic information that will really interest you but also get more followers to both your Insta profile and blog.
Step 5: Sharing Stuff Behind the Scenes
Are you eager to build a genuine trust among bloggers? If yes, then be transparent. Share some stuff that represents your work behind the scene. This may be the process of your typing the new post, your search for content in a library (preferably beautiful and impressive), the process of interviewing your guest, etc.
Step 6: Teasing About What’s Coming
Have you recently been working on something truly cool and grandiose? Why not tease your audience through the Instagram page and create a hype and excitement around it? Just take a picture what you are currently working on without revealing much. Scheme a custom banner poster that includes some captivating text or a short video, and post it via an Instagram story. Be certain, your followers will expect your new blog posts passionately.
May 5, 2018
A branded hashtag can become a powerful tool if used wisely. Surely, the primary purpose of a branded hashtag is promoting the business’s products and services. Yet, a series of other grandiose ways exist and each of them is sure to enhance your marketing efforts on Instagram. Right now, InstaBF is going to reveal them one by one. So, stay tuned!
Branded Hashtags Gather UGC
If you are interested in Instagram marketing, you must have heard about the power of Instagram user-generated content and the contests structured around it. These are very entertaining and, of course, all the vogue! And particularly this sphere is where your correctly picked up branded hashtag can make wonders! To benefit from such a UGC campaign, make up an ongoing contest based on the participants contributing something and expecting a reward in return. For instance, if your business is based on selling modern T-shirts, give a start to an online contest and encourage your followers to post their photos with your T-shirts on. And don’t forget about rewards for the most successful photos. This entire contest is to be tagged. Particularly here you will need a good brand hashtag.
Inspire Your Community with a Branded Hashtag
Storytelling on Instagram has an incredible influence on the social network’s users. Through images, people get the opportunity to tell about their experiences and inspire others. It will be quite a good idea to use a branded hashtag for inspiring your Instagram community and attracting new followers. For this, use an appropriate content and let people post their content with it just like Lulemon did. Their #thesweatlife hashtag got immensely popular on Instagram and motivated people lead a healthy lifestyle. As many as four hundred thousand posts were made with this brand hashtag!
Spread Behind-the-Scenes Branded Hashtags
Be sure, your faithful customers would like to know how the products they obtain are designed and created. Why not let them peek into this part of your business by the means of a branded hashtag?! They can get acquainted (well, at least through your brand tagged posts) with the people working on the production.
You can also use it to keep your customers aware of all the new products lines and company news.
Brand Tag an Upcoming Event
Are you going to host an event and seek a means to encourage your followers spread the content about it? A brand hashtag can be your solution. The latter will not only drive a huge engagement but also organize all the posts made with your brand hashtag on one page.
What you should be careful with, is creating a really catching brand hashtag to announce a special event. It needs to be so attractive that Instagram users want to retweet and repost it.
Brand Hashtags Promoting New Product Lines
And at the last, use branded hashtags for promoting your new product lines. Once your company releases new products, hurry to reach new people interested in them. To make this efficiently, use those brand hashtags that best describe particularly the new products.
These were the five ways of using branded hashtags for your business suggested by InstaBF. However, besides this, we would also like to present to your attention several packages of Instagram likes, comments, and followers. Order any package you need, and be certain, it will be implemented in a timely manner!
