2.12.20

How to Get the Most From Instagram for Your Brand

 Fearing to be left behind in the social media race, the vast majority of brands have ventured into social media space with little strategic thought or understanding of how to get the most out of their platforms. Many brands are using their pages as avenues to run short-term behaviour and reward activities which may harm brand value in the long term by teaching already loyal consumers to become sensitive to sales promotions (Kotler & Lee, 2008; Schultz & Block, 2012; Gambetti & Graffigna, 2010; Nelson-Field et al., 2012; Romaniuk, 2011).

How Brands Can Portray Authenticity on Instagram

1. Use ‘authentic’ cues

2. Personify the brand

3. Telling a lifestyle story

4. Using consumer-generated content

Summary: How to get the most from Instagram for your brand

5 Powerful Instagram Lessons

Virtual influencers are a growing trend now. Miquela and her creators are doing a fantastic job when it comes to developing storytelling and connecting to the audience. Marketers, influencers, and businesses have much to learn from her. From creating an excellent bio to selling a product, Miquela knows how to use her social media.
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Create a Good Bio

The bio is the first thing we see when we find a profile on Instagram. It is like the introduction of a text — it needs to make the user curious enough to scroll down and keep consuming your content. It’s the only opportunity to make an excellent first impression.

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  • What to write on the bio: She uses the bio to reinforce her values through the #BlackLivesMatter movement and to communicate that she supports @plus1org and @musicares.
  • The power of links: Miquela announces that her single, “Hard Feelings,” is out. She has a compelling call-to-action, followed by a link at the end that directs followers to platforms in which they can listen to the music.
  • Personality: “Change-seeking robot” demonstrates her uniqueness. She is a robot, and this makes her authentic. Miquela uses it to build her storytelling. She’s not a regular robot: she’s a robot on social media. At the same time, she’s not a typical influencer either, because she’s not human.

How to Sell

Miquela is not only a virtual influencer, but she is also a singer. Her account on Spotify has almost one million monthly listeners.

Repetition

The most substantial aspect of Miquela’s promotion is repetition.

  • Multiple posts: Since July 25, every single post on her feed references her song, “Hard Feelings.” That’s so far 22 pictures and videos, only on her feed.

Using multiple features

By promoting the song in different features, it’s simple to use the repetition strategy.

  • She uses multiple videos and pictures on the feed.
  • Her strategy includes both stories and story highlights.

Storytelling

Whenever Miquela releases a new single, she develops a story behind it.

Story Highlights

Let’s analyze Miquela’s story highlights:

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  • Titles: The titles of the highlights are in caps lock, which makes it easier to read. Besides, they are short — each of them in only one word since there’s little space there.
  • Music: All highlights refer to Miquela’s music. She heavily uses this feature to promote her work.
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  • Music: Miquela added her song to the “music” feature that’s available.
  • Icons: At the bottom, there’s the “swipe up” icon. This feature is a part of Miquela’s informal language, and this one is a clear call-to-action.

Adjust the Language to the Audience

This advice is as old as social media, but still overlooked by content producers: speak the audience’s language.

Captions

Miquela writes captions to every single post. She uses them to promote her sings — as seen before — and to connect with the audience.

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  • Emojis: She uses emojis at the end of the text.
  • Extended words: “Byyeeeee.”

Comments

The comments section is also essential for Miquela’s interaction with the audience. The picture below is a video in which she provides a sneak peek of her latest song, “Hard Feelings”:

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Miquela’s post on Instagram. Screenshot courtesy of the author.
  • Language: The style of the comment is remarkably similar to the caption. She maintains the same form of communication.
  • Emojis and abbreviations: Both elements present in the comment that make it informal.

Videos

Instead of long IGTV videos, Miquela focuses on short videos on her feed.

  • By making short videos, she gets the message across more directly.
  • Short videos are more engaging because they are faster to watch.
  • It keeps communication informal.

Other Features

Instagram is a platform with multiple features. Besides the ones mentioned previously, here’s how Miquela uses IGTV, location, and stories.

IGTV

IGTV is the least used feature in Miquela’s strategy.

  • Focus: Miquela uses most of Instagram features. The fact that she doesn’t use IGTV too much doesn’t matter, because she has plenty of good content for the other features, such as highlights and the feed.

Location

Miquela always uses exciting locations for the posts on her feed.

Stories

Stories are another Instagram feature that Miquela uses well. For the everyday stories, not the highlights, here are the different uses:

  • Reposting: Miquela often shares pictures from fans listening to her music.
  • Mixed content: both videos and pictures.

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