- Snapchat For Business Sa Primer For Beginners For Beginners
- Snapchat For Business Sa Primer For Beginners Language
- Snapchat For Business Sa Primer For Beginners Pdf
- Snapchat For Business Sa Primer For Beginners Step By Step
If there is one universal truth to making money online it’s that you have to have some sort of influence. Sure, we can tell you over and over again what we find works for most people, but everyone is going to have different visions for their online businesses and different places where they want to focus.
I’ve touted the perks of an email list to you a million times, but if you're interested in focusing your energy somewhere else, that’s great, too.
I’ve seen people build entire empires on a single social media site, and host massive launches without sending a single email.
Reddit is a website with two reputations. For Redditors (as its users are called), it's a good way to keep your finger on the pulse of the internet, participate in open discussions around shared interests, get answers from highly engaged niche communities, and, of course, perpetuate memes. Here's the order you should actually be applying your makeup products in, from primer to setting spray. As you do your makeup, you could be making some mistakes without even realizing it. But, there's a proper order to apply your makeup in for the most long-lasting, flawless results. Just like Snapchat, you can swipe left for a series of filters that can be applied to your image or video. 6.Swipe Up CTA’s: You can add a ‘swipe up CTA' to your story and give your link under it. Instagram has launched this feature only for a few businesses. However, it is going to be released all over soon. Our beginner's guide tells you what to expect. By Adam Child 05 April 2013. 13:20 pm. Yamaha Factory Racing's Jorge Lorenzo takes a curve during a Moto GP race in November 2012 Credit. The Snapchat app is a photo and video messaging system for your Android or iOS device. After an image is snapped or uploaded to Snapchat, you can edit the photo with captions, quotes, weather info, time, color filters. When you are done tinkering with your photo or video, it then can be sent to other Snapchat users.
While it’s unconventional, it can be done. And if you fall in the boat of people who like to do things a bit differently, consider growing your audience on Instagram.
As far as I’m concerned, Instagram is the most interesting social media site at the moment. With the options to post to your feed or story, and even go live there are a lot of different ways you can reach your audience.
Why Instagram is such a big deal
When people are trying to grow their influence online, more often than not you find that they’ve got a huge focus on Instagram. Let’s take a look at why that is:
- There are 500 million Instagram accounts that are active every day
- Over 80% of accounts on Instagram follow at least one business
- 100 million people use Instagram stories every day
What does that all mean, though?
Well, people are on Instagram and they’re active. More importantly, they’re actively following and engaging with their favorite brands on Instagram. On some social media sites *ahem, Facebook* people get more annoyed with promotional materials and will scroll past ignoring your marketing efforts. But if a business can do Instagram right, their audience is likely to follow and engage.
And with thousands of new accounts joining Instagram every single day, chances are if your audience isn’t on Instagram already, they will be.
What is Instagram?
OK, the millennial in me might be showing as I automatically assume that everyone knows all about Instagram.
At its core, Instagram is a social media site that champions sharing images. People see your content if they follow you or if you add a hashtag or geotag to your image. (But more on that later…)
During Instagram’s early days, you could only post pictures or videos and captions. With that said, a lot of people choose to only share images ignoring the option to add a caption entirely.
Now, though, there is also the Instagram Story option. Instagram stories are more “in the moment” and live for only 24 hours. Think Snapchat, because that’s exactly where Instagram got the concept.
Through Instagram stories, you can give your followers a less curated look into your life and business, and share pictures, videos, or text updates with what you’re up to.
The three primary goals that people have on Instagram are: get followers, get likes, and get comments.
The three of those combined equals influence and with influence you can begin to sell your products or make money in other ways.
Setting up your Instagram account
Instagram is easiest to use on your phone, in fact, it’s impossible to even post from your computer. To get started, download the Instagram app and create your account.
When you’re choosing your account name, make sure it’s memorable and related to you or your business.
If you don’t want to use your full name, you can use the name of your business and vice versa. Try to limit the amount of numbers and extra characters in your username, though, so you can easily relay to your audience where they can find you.
When you first make your account, you’re main focus should be getting content live and getting followers in your target audience.
Begin by following some of your favorite influencers in your niche and sharing a link to your Instagram account on your website or any social media sites that you already have.
Creating content for Instagram
The most difficult part about Instagram is the need to constantly have new content to share. Top Instagram influencers often will share new posts several times a day, but that cadence can be overkill when you’re just starting out.
If you can post even just three times a week while you’re getting into your Instagram groove, that’s a win.
Creating images for Instagram
While you can post videos or boomerangs on Instagram, the most popular types of posts are images.
It’s up to you whether you want to post custom imagery, images of yourself, stock images, graphics, or a combination.
Custom imagery
If you’ve got a product based business, consider taking custom imagery. For example, one of my favorite Instagram accounts is loomshakalaka, and they share their custom woven art pieces.
It wouldn’t make sense for them to use stock imagery or even graphics to promote their business, because it’d be hard to build trust if you’re not sharing images of the products you’re creating.
Images of yourself
A lot of people use Instagram to build a brand around themselves. As unnatural as it might feel to get in front of the camera and put yourself out there, there’s a universal truth: people are nosy.
They want to know the face behind their favorite businesses, and they want someone they can relate to. Sharing pieces of who you and and pictures of yourself is a great way to help your audience connect to you.
Even with nearly 100 employees, we always try to show you the different smiling faces that make Teachable great!
You can DIY your self portraits, or hire a photographer. Whatever you’re comfortable with and your photography skills allow.
Stock images
Stock images are great for conceptional businesses. For example, if you’re an online coach teaching people how to have a positive money mindset, there really aren’t any clear images that you have to be responsible for taking.
While you might want to consider posting images of yourself, you can also add stock images to your feed. I create Teachable’s Instagram feed, and I often pull images from Unsplash when we don’t have time to take pictures in the office. (We like to keep busy improving our product, afterall.)
Graphics
I’m going to be honest, I love accounts that share cool graphics. Whether they’re quotes or doodles made in Photoshop or inDesign, I’m a sucker for a good design. If you’ve got a digital art business or are just handy with a tablet, consider creating creative graphics for your feed.
One account that does a great job with this is Shop Bando if you’re in need of some inspiration.
A combination
Realistically, I feel like a combination of a few of the options above are your best bet. Giving your audience a variety of content and keeping things fresh is a great way to keep people interested.
Creating captions for Instagram
Like I mentioned earlier, a lot of trendy Instagram accounts leave their captions blank altogether. Me? I tend to be long winded and will take every opportunity to share my thoughts and opinions and therefore fill out my captions religiously.
And if you’re looking to grow your business and brand I recommend you do the same. If you’re given a platform, you may as well use it.
Depending on your niche and your goals, you can do a lot of different things with your caption.
Microblogging
I’ve seen a lot of online influencers and business owners ditch their blogs and opt to “microblog” through Instagram, instead.
The idea of microblogging is that you’re able to accomplish what a blog post would in less words and in this case, on Instagram.
You can devote entire captions to teaching your audience how to do something to help establish authority, or use your captions to promote a product or build hype around an upcoming launch.
Microblogs tend to be 10+ sentences and have a strong focus.
Lauryn of The Skinny Confidential always has great microblogs within her Instagram captions.
Engaging your audience
Snapchat For Business Sa Primer For Beginners For Beginners
On the Teachable Instagram, I’m always super nosy. I like to ask our followers questions like what their go to coffee order is when they’re working from a coffeehouse. In exchange for their comment (and appeasing my nosy tendencies) I’ll follow them on Instagram.
Getting people used to engaging with your and commenting on your images does two things:
- Builds community - the more people comment and you respond (important!) the more connected they’ll feel to you
- Hacks Instagram’s algorithm - if people comment on one of your images, they’ll be more likely to see future images that you post
Sometimes I ask really targeted course related questions, and other times they’re more fun and random. The main goal is to get people to engage.
Building hype around your launch
This is my favorite thing to see on Instagram: A beautifully done image with a caption that just makes you want to buy whatever it is the poster is selling.
Great copywriting is hard to do on Instagram because you really have to focus on hooking people in right away. Afterall, people tend to scroll through Instagram quickly and don’t have a ton of focus.
If you can make people want to continue reading in your first sentence and get them excited about your product in the next two or three, you’re in a good place.
Sharing a bit behind the scenes
Remember when I said that people on Instagram are super nosy? Well they love getting a look into people’s lives that they might not otherwise get.
If you’re a super busy entrepreneur, consider sharing an image of you at your messy desk and sharing some “real talk” in the caption.
Letting people know that sometimes you’re having a case of the Monday's actually helps people relate to you more.
Making your content discoverable
Instagram just recently rolled out a new feature where you can see pictures in your feed from people who you don’t follow. This is supposed help expose people to more accounts that they might be interested in. But it’s been ill received and rolled out very slowly, so in the meantime, here are more strategies to make your content discoverable.
Use hashtags
Hashtags on Instagram are so important. Unlike other platforms like Twitter and Facebook, people on Instagram actually utilize hashtags to find content they might be interested in.
You can use up to 30 hashtags, and you should use a combination of hashtags that are specific and relevant to your image, and broader ones. For example, if you’re targeting women in tech, even if you’re posting a picture of your latte, your target audience is still women in tech so you could use the hashtags: #womenintech #latteart #coffeemorning #jobsintech. People feel like they have to post only hashtags relevant to their images, but I think it’s more beneficial to use hashtags to define your audience.
Use geotags
Geotags are great if you want to be found locally. You have the option to turn on your location and tag the shop, business, or even just city or state that you’re posting from.
Geotagging helps people who are around you find you. I use geotags to find other creatives in my area, and have cold reached out to people to buy them coffee and talk about their businesses.
It might feel weird to put your exact location when you’re somewhere, but you can also #latergram, or take a picture and not post it until after you’ve left the cafe you’re going to geotag.
You can also choose to not geotag at all if you’re worried about your location being public or your business isn’t necessarily relevant to your local audience.
Using Instagram stories
Instagram stories are a relatively new feature on Instagram and they’re super fun. I’ve talked to a lot of other bloggers who’ve confessed that they rarely even scroll through their Instagram feed anymore, they usually just look at stories.
Stories are interesting because after 24 hours they disappear completely, so there’s that drive to stay updated with your favorite accounts and check back so you don’t miss anything.
With Instagram stories you can share images, video, or text.
Snapchat For Business Sa Primer For Beginners Language
I like to think of Instagram stories as a form of storytelling. Ask yourself what you want to convey through your Instagram stories and create a series of pictures and videos that takes you through the story. Act like you’re producing your own mini reality show starring you and your business.
For example, one “story” or “episode” could be all about how you got started. Post a screenshot of your logo or a picture of yourself and add text saying, “For those of you asking how I started my online business…”
The next additions to your story could be a series of videos explaining how you got started and how you grew. Try to limit this to no more than five videos, I’ve found that otherwise people get bored and swipe.
The final addition can be inviting people to DM you and ask you questions.
Using Instagram live
Instagram live is probably the most intimidating part of Instagram. By no means do you ever have to go live, but if you feel comfortable with it, it’s a great way to help your audience get to know you and really connect.
Instagram live is a feature where you can stream a live video.
People use this feature to do Q&A’s, share live updates about their business, and invite their followers to join a part of their day in real time.
I’ve even seen people host casual webinars on Instagram live, and while they weren’t able to get email subscribers through this strategy, they did get Instagram followers and if that’s your goal in the first place there’s no great loss of not adding to your email list.
Selling with Instagram
Once you’ve built authority on Instagram and people are beginning to follow and engage with you, Instagram can be a great platform for selling your online products.
Instagram doesn’t allow links in your caption, so instead you will add your most relevant link to your Instagram bio. The best workaround to this is to sign up for Link Tree so you can add multiple links.
If you’re utilizing Link Tree, order your links in the importance of clicks. You’ll want to have your paid products above your website’s homepage.
Instead of trying to drive traffic through putting links in your picture captions (they aren’t clickable,) using the phrase “link in bio” is a common way to signal to your followers that they should go to your profile and click through.
It adds an extra step to getting your audience where you want them to go, but it’s less tedious for them than it would be to type out the URL.
Through trial and error, I’ve realized that beautiful images with a convincing caption convert infinitely better than a big “FLASH SALE” graphic and a call to action to click through to your bio.
Don’t compromise the quality of your images just to be flashy. People go to Instagram to consume beautiful content, and are likely to scroll right past big text graphics.
You can also drive traffic with your Instagram stories. If you have less than 10,000 followers, you’ll still have to use the phrase “link in bio,” but if you’ve passed the 10k threshold, you’re allowed to add links directly to your story with the “swipe up” feature.
The power of the swipe up feature is that it’s as easy and instant as having a link within your story, and your audience doesn’t have to take any additional steps to get to your link.
More of our Instagram resources
- How to Hack Your Hashtags on Instagram to Increase Exposure
Any questions on getting strarted with Instagram? Let me know in the comments!
Why should you make Instagram Stories?
Right after the launch of Instagram stories, Snapchat engagement levels fell by 15-40%. Even influencers saw 3-5x better engagement levels in Instagram stories than Snapchat stories.
And it just gets better for businesses:
After releasing ‘stories’, Instagram has continually been adding new features. It has evolved into a business friendly platform with versatile ad features backed by analytics. Moreover, new features like full screen ads, mentions, swipe up CTA’s, links, boomerang, targeting and retargeting options, Instagram TV etc further add to the business advantage.
Instagram stories is a trend here to stay!
After reading this Guide, you will be fully equipped to create Instagram Stories that’ll make your brand Insta-famous!
Here’s what’s in store for you:
1. Media:
Instagram stories have 5 different media options- Live, Normal, Boomerang, Hands-free and Rewind. While Live and Normal were already there, the other three are relatively new!
(i) Hands-free recording:
With hands free recording, you can create neat stories without holding the phone in your hand. It works like the regular camera mode in phones. Instead of holding the button all along, you can just tap once to start recording and tap again to end it.
This helps if you are trying to create a story where you’ll need to use both hands - a crazy dance move maybe?
(ii) Boomerang:
Most of us mistake Boomerang to be a form of Gif. But, it’s not so! Boomerang lets you create short videos in which a video is played back and forth quickly in a loop making it look like a flipbook. It’s a cool and unique feature loved by many!
Here is how few brands are using this feature creatively. See how Refinery got creative with the boomerang effect:
Snapchat For Business Sa Primer For Beginners Pdf
A post shared by Refinery29 (@refinery29) on
(iii) Rewind:
Another hip media format is Rewind. This video says it all.
A post shared by Μ Ξ Я Ι Ŀ Ξ Ξ (@merileeloo) on
How can brands use it?
'Media' is one place where Instagram stories has outperformed Snapchat stories. With tools like Boomerang and Reverse, you can add a new perspective to your story.
For example, you can do a unique reveal of your product using boomerang effect and ask them to check more about it in their blog. It is an excellent way to generate excitement around an update!
Red Bull took things one step further to show off a split second action sequence. They used it to build curiosity and send people back to their website!
The magic of the Boomerang effect is in it's ability to make a moment look magical! With a little bit of creativity, you can really capture the attention of your audience!
The Reverse tool is yet another unique tool.It can be used to show a process from end to the beginning. It can be used to build curiosity on how something was achieved. For example, cosmetic brands can use it to show how the reverse process of how people look before and after using their product!
Or, you can just pick up a fun work moment, use the reverse tool to make it cool and show off your company culture!
2. Stickers:
When emoticons came up, it took the world by storm and enriched communicating. It was able to bring in that dimension of emotion which made things a lot more fun. Similarly stickers bring in that element of fun in Stories that can makes it 10x more engaging!
Snapchat For Business Sa Primer For Beginners Step By Step
Instagram has gone a level ahead with stickers by releasing it in 4 different types. The best part is, you can shrink or expand the sticker anyway to fit in the story.
(i) Geotags and Time:
With Geotag stickers, you can tell location based stories easily. They are customizable by style and text.
When users tap the sticker button in Stories, they will notice location-specific options at the top of the menu. These new geo stickers will take viewers to the map of that spot so they can see photos and videos from other users.
(ii) Selfie stickers:
Instagram lets you convert your selfie into stickers. To create a selfie sticker, Tap on ‘Stickers.
You will find a camera icon in the right corner of the stickers screen. Tap at it, Take a selfie and drag it where you want it to be.
(iii) Hashtag stickers:
Thanks to Instagram stories' Hashtag feature, your story can now be part of someone else’s explore page.
To use Hashtag stickers, tap the stickers icon and choose the hashtag sticker. Tap it, rename it and post your hashtag on your story. Once they're posted, people can simply tap and visit the hashtag page to explore related posts.
A Hashtag sticker plays the same role of a hashtag. You can use this feature to increase discoverability. It gives you scope to be a part of a trending subject.
How can brands use it?
Sky's the limit! You can tell almost anything with stickers. Play around with stickers to tell amazing stories.
3. Text box
This feature lets you add textual content to your story. Instagram stories have added an interesting extension to text box. It's called Mentions.
Mentions:
'Mentions' transforms texts to links. To add a mention, add text to your story, type “@” followed by the username of the profile you’d like to mention. It will appear underlined in your story. When someone taps on it while watching your story, a pop-up will appear that takes them to the Instagram profile you mentioned.
How can brands use it?
Nat Geo have used Mentions cleverly. They have created a series of most visited park’s images into a story and added a mention of the park’s Instagram handle so that National Geographic’s followers could check out more on each one. This way, they are extending the scope for people to discover more content with the instagram handle.
4.Doodles
Once you take a photo, you’ll see three icons in the corner: A text box, a brush and a marker. If you tap the text box, you can add text, and if you tap the marker, you can draw.
You’ll have a choice of three drawing tools: A pen, A brush and a highlighter. There are three brushes: regular, highlighter and glow.
At the bottom of the screen you can adjust brush size and choose from an assortment of colors.
With Doodles, you can do almost anything- Draw borders, fake scenery, masks etc.
Let's see how to place a canvas over your screen. To create a canvas with the doodle tool, tap the highlighter and hold it down for 3 seconds.
If you want an opaque canvas over your screen, tap the marker or the pen tool and repeat the process. The trick is to then use the eraser brush to reveal parts of your story!
Glow pen is an option from the doodle tool. It makes your doodles glow like neon lights. This is an exclusive feature which makes it better than Snapchat! Here is a simple example.
How brands can use it?
Doodles can do a lot of magic. It brings in a human element as each doodle will be unique!
See how Etsy has used a combination of text and doodle to create an interesting how-to tutorial.
5. Face filters and screen filters:
Both Snapchat and Instagram have been taking augmented reality a step ahead using face filters. At present, Instagram stories has rolled out 8 face filters.
You can use the face filters using the front camera as well as the rear camera. You will find them in the right corner of the instagram stories screen.
Just like Snapchat, you can swipe left for a series of filters that can be applied to your image or video.
6.Swipe Up CTA’s:
You can add a ‘swipe up CTA' to your story and give your link under it. Instagram has launched this feature only for a few businesses. However, it is going to be released all over soon.
Instagram stories have tested on this feature with a few brands. It was seen that these brands have a 15–25% increase in swipe-through rates with a reasonable ROI.
Here's an example. How brands can use it?Since Swipe up CTA's are customizable, you can add anything according to the target you want to achieve. For example, You can add a ‘learn more’ swipe up CTA to drive more traffic to a blog article or a “Shop now”/”Explore” to drive traffic to your ecommerce site.
7. Pinning:
This is a new feature in Instagram stories. With this feature, you can pin a sticker to a moving object in a video.
Here is how you can use the pinning tool.
- Shoot a video in ‘Normal’ mode.
- After you shoot the video, swipe up to access a collection of stickers.
- Tap on the sticker and hold it for sometime to pin it.
- You will notice a slider at the end of the screen. This slider is used to select a particular moment of your story.
- Place the sticker wherever you want.
- Tap next and it’s done!
Many don't know that Instagram stories lets you zoom in and out while creating a story. If done well, it can make your story more interesting!
To zoom in, hold and pinch the screen outward as you do for regular zoom. Similarly, you can zoom out by pinching the screen inward.
You should aim to post at least one post story per day. But running out of ideas? Nothing to worry, there is always a way:
(1) Repurpose blog posts:
For marketers struggling to drive traffic to your blog, this can be a quick way to get some traction.
Summarize the blog article into a short Story and mention the link of your blog article just like what Red Bull did. Moreover, the link back feature is in testing phase and it will be released soon.
(2) Create suspense:
Use an Instagram Story to create suspense about your product. By doing this, you increase the buzz around your product. It indirectly drives traffic to your site and even drives sales!
For example, if you have a product launch or a product update, you can create a suspense around it by revealing a small hint. You can then start a countdown and post a story around the update every day.
(3) Use Animated Stories:
Now, Imagine you are checking out your Instagram Stories feed. You swipe right the boring ones and suddenly an animated story pops up!
The best way to garner the attention of your customers is to do exactly this. Surprise them! Do something which no one is doing! Animated stories is an unexplored hack very few people are using. Moreover, who doesn’t love animations!
So what type of animated stories will engage your customers? We’ve devoted a whole blog regarding the type of animated stories that can make your customers go wow!
In a couple of years, or even months - animated stories will be a norm. By doing it before everyone else, you will be riding on a trend instead of following one!
(4) Teasers of your Facebook live event:
Instagram story teasers about your live show can build up excitement! Try to tell some interesting details about your live event and how it will help viewers.
(5)Coupons:
You can Post a “coupon” as an Instagram story and announce that the offer expires at the end of the 24-hour story period.
The coupon can direct users to the link in your Instagram bio, which will take them to a landing page where they can learn how to grab your special offer.
Flipkart uses a similar approach.
At present, Instagram stories has the clear advantage over Snapchat stories. This is because it’s connected to a larger Facebook ecosystem which contributes to greater public discoverability.
Moreover, the instagram algorithm and ads targeting options of Instagram stories puts them on greater priority than Snapchat.
If you have not made Instagram stories a part of your marketing strategy yet, it’s time that you include it as a priority.
Have you used Instagram stories before? Do you have any other innovative ways of using Instagram stories to add here? If you do, let us know in the comments section.