Why Should You Use It
Instagram itself is a social networking app that uses pictures and short video clips to tell stories. When you follow a business or an individual you see their posts and are able to comment and ‘like’ the photos, videos and stories they post.
Corporate firms using Instagram as a means of reaching clients have an opportunity to personalize themselves, and engage with potential clients in a slightly more casual setting. Engagement of course, is how relationships are built which as we know if fundamental in client relationships.
It’s important to have clear goals when using Instagram, as this is not an appropriate medium for a law firm to be giving accounting advice or answer case related questions online — the use is to promote yourself to an audience that is best engaged through real time images. Consider what your goals are for using this site:
- Do you want to promote your staff and give potential clients an idea of their life outside of their career?
- Do you want to reach new recruits and employees?
- Are you looking to gain referrals? And if so, are these referrals the client base you want?
As with all advertising, ads can be skipped through and overlooked, however it is recommended to start with paid ads to build up your follower base and then move to posts on your site that engage with those followers.
According to Instagram:
- There are already over 15 million business profiles worldwide
- Over a million of these businesses are using paid advertising on Instagram on a monthly basis
- 60% of people say they discover new products on Instagram and 75% of them take action after being inspired by a post
Other Instagram highlights:
- 68% of Instagram users are Females
- 32% of all Internet users are on Instagram
- 59% of internet users between the ages of 18 and 29use Instagram and 33% of internet users between the ages of 30 and 49 use Instagram
- 17% of teens say Instagram is the most important social media site (up from 12% in 2012)
Instagram considerations:
- Outside of advertising new posts only stay in a persons feed for a few hours, so Instagram is something that needs to be updated regularly to keep you top of mind with clients.
- Instagram IS social media — which means being social. This involves a commitment to being active and replying to comments, and liking and posting on other appropriate images and videos
- A hashtag (#YVRLaw, #LAW #personalinjurylaw #familylaw) is the social media equivalent to a ‘key word’ search option. When posting an image of video it is recommended that you use 3-4 hashtags in the image description that relate to the image and the firm.
Audiences:
- Geographically: target as narrowly as cities
- Demographics: including age, gender and languages
- Interests: target based on the apps they use, ads they click and accounts they follow
- Behaviours: target based on activities on and off of Instagram ad Facebook
- Custom audiences: similar to Snapchat, you can run ads to customers you already know based on their email address or phone number
- Lookalike audiences: find people similar to your customer audiences
- Automated targeting: Quickly create an audience who might be interested in your business using a variety of signals including location, demographics and interests.
Creating content on Instagram:
Figuring out what stories you want to tell. With such a diverse audience that is responsive to visuals it’s important that creative reflects that.
- Photo ads: Quality photos using a carousel to ad multiple photos or videos, or a blend of shots
- Video ads: can be up to 60 seconds long
- Carousel ads: are an album of images that the user can swipe through and are an interesting new way for advertisers to tell their stories.
- Stories ads: are snippets of video places together to create a story
