Drive traffic to your website or blog.
Content distribution: Disseminate useful information about your product.
Lead generation: Collect data for list building and sales prospecting.
Community building: Gather a community of people who love and engage with your brand.
Customer support: Answer questions, field complaints, and accept compliments.
Assembling your Instagram team
Of the seven business reasons for using Instagram, you might have only one or you might have them all! The number of reasons you choose dictates the roles and responsibilities in managing your account. And your budget plays a big role in determining whether you or a team shoulder those responsibilities. Regardless of the number of people, certain functions must be established for your business to be successful on Instagram.
Social media manager
Generally, the social media manager is responsible for the account's big picture. In regards to your business goals, the social media manager plans the strategy of the account and might assist in hiring team members for the other roles (discussed next). The social media manager also creates the account, manages passwords, and sets up the profile page. Details on how to do all these tasks are in Chapters 1 and 2. If you're a one-person team, you'll take on the role of social media manager and all the other roles described in this section.
Content creator
The content creator creates and organizes all content to be shared in the account. It's best if the content creator has experience with photography and graphic design because Instagram is visual and success on the platform requires professional imagery. The content creator may also be responsible for posting, scheduling, and storing posts to be shared later. Details about creating a content calendar are detailed later in this chapter.
Community manager
The community manager is in charge of engagement. This person should be regularly following other accounts, and liking and commenting on posts from other Instagrammers. A community manager should be actively listening to your audience and those in your online community so he or she can anticipate problems or take advantage of opportunities to promote the brand. The community manager is the PR arm of your Instagram account.
Campaign manager
Promotions, contests, and giveaways are used to attract more followers. The campaign manager manages them all. A promotion might include paid advertising or working with other accounts for shared exposure. The campaign manager works closely with the content creator, often providing a storyboard of ideas.
Analytics manager
The analytics manager tracks all data in the account. Followers, post performance, campaign results, hashtag winners, you name it — the analytics manager tracks it. After this data is collected, the analytics manager shares it with the team so they can make informed decisions about what is and isn't working.
Determining your brand voice
Does your brand have a consistent voice? For instance, if someone doesn't see your physical branding (logo, colors, imagery), could he or she recognize that the content was from you simply by the words that were written?
Establishing a consistent brand voice is important, especially if you have several content creators. Here’s how to get started:
Review several samples of your content and pull the pieces that you feel best represent what you (and your team, if you have one) want to convey as your brand. Figure out what they all have in common. Also note which items don’t fit so you'll know what you don’t want your brand voice to sound like.
Choose three words that best describe your brand from the pile of sample content. For instance, a daycare might choose nurturing, diverse, and joyful. Then further break down how these words will be expressed by your brand. For example:Nurturing: Loving, safe, cuddly, warm, kind, patientDiverse: Multiple programs, cultural awareness, inclusiveJoyful: Happy, fun, musical, laughter
If you have a team, ensure that they're on board with the brand voice and the associated words. Show them your favorite pieces of content that embody these words so they have a good understanding about how you want them used.
Review your brand voice at least every six months to make sure it's still working. Look over a large sample of content to see how your brand voice has been carried out, and adjust anything that isn't working. You may even discover a new word that you'd like to incorporate!
Envisioning your look
After you have an understanding of your brand’s voice, it’s time to work on your brand's look. Although most people consider the logo to be the main element of a brand, you need to consider a lot more. In the context of Instagram, your content, not the logo, is usually the focal point of your profile. However, your logo makes a good starting point upon which to base other elements.
A logo is a distinctive symbol that the public can easily identify as part of your brand. Think of some of the brands you see regularly, such as Target, Apple, and Starbucks. One look at their logo and you instantly know which company is represented.
Logos can be designed in a variety of ways:
As an object that's easily associated with the product or service, such as the smoking wine bottle from Smoking Gun Wines (see Figure 3-1, left).
As an abstract symbol that isn’t obviously related with the product or service, such as the symbol that the Marketing Specialist uses with the company name (see Figure 3-1, center).
As a wordmark logo, in which the name of the business is the logo set in a consistent font and color, such as the Jenn's Trends logo (see Figure 3-1, right).
FIGURE 3-1: These logo types illustrate an easily associated product or service (left), an abstract symbol (center), and a wordmark logo (right).
The company's color palette, brand voice, values and, of course, brand name should all be integrated with the logo. A professional graphic designer can work with you to select colors, advise on fonts that enhance your brand voice, and assist in drawing or selecting visual objects to represent your brand. A graphic designer is also familiar with the different file types necessary for print versus online and should provide the logo in several formats for different uses. We recommend that you use a professional for this instead of creating a logo on your own.
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