The most efficient way to reach soon to wed couples is still bridal fairs. But, for a starting business like ours, it can be expensive especially if you are still working to generate sales. The next option for wedding professionals is to promote on social media. Although not entirely free, it generates popularity and convenient.
My first year in building the online directory for www.brideguide.ph gave me the opportunity to study my online presence as well expose myself with the accounts of wedding suppliers.
This experience allowed me to gain best practises on posting and shortcuts on gaining followers and engagement on my posts.
Weddings are very visual, and Instagram allows you to showcase products for free.
Tips On Using Instagram
1. Create a Business Account
Compared to a standard Instagram account, the business format has an added functionality wherein contact numbers, email, and locations are indicated. It is best to complete this information, because the more you can be reached, the more secured your followers feel.
2. Link your Facebook account on settings.
This allows your IG posts to appear on your Facebook timeline instantly. It saves you time on uploading photos and composing post description. Its important to note however that tagging on Instagram is different on Facebook. What I do, is edit the FB post immediately after, for proper tagging.
The text box for Instagram is also shorter, and only two lines appear on the mobile browser. Make the first sentence of the description short and as attention grabbing as the photo.
3. Web Links does not function on IG.
Web links that takes your users directly to a website section does not function automatically on IG posts. Instead, include that they visit your bio for the website link.
4. Group your photos through hashtags
Unlike Facebook, Instagram does not have the functionality to create albums to group your photos. This can be done by creating a unique hashtag, which you can type on the search box to generate the photos you tagged for future reference. Something unique ensures that posts from other users will not be included.
5. Use hashtags wisely!
I personally use a generic hashtag to describe the photo and narrow it down to the specific description. This allows a wider audience at the same time capture those that are looking for specific
items.
6. Check your profile page.
Apart from your posts, your profile page is also your branding. I would normally post in sets of 3. You can group them in terms of colours or content. This make your page look curated.
7. Use a variety of posts.
Compelling photo gets the most reach. I defined compelling as something that appeals to the emotion. Ask yourself how the photo makes you feel. Cute and Funny photos are guaranteed to generate likes. For variety, use videos and quotes. You can convert photos to videos with an app called ImgPlay, and Quotes Creator includes a collection of quotes, background and styles you can
use.
In taking photos, especially of a product, make sure to capture its essence if you have access to it. They to consider its background and lighting.
Snapseed is a good photo editing tool. Its also best to provide a scale reference, like a popular item so your followers can grasp its size. I have encountered photos with watermarks blocking the item. This would be ok if your highlighting your brand, but generally, its the product that needs to stand out.
If you ran out of original material, try reposting. Purchase the app called Repost for Instagram so you can take out the watermark, but still include the original caption in the description to acknowledge the source. Don't get material from the same account. Your users will just migrate to your source than follow you. Instead, I follow hashtags and bookmark photos that appeal to me the most. I try to alternate original with a sourced material. Instead of choosing the most popular, I would opt for the most recent. The most popular gets bookmarked more often than the recent ones.
8. Use less text.
As much as possible, use short text on the photos and add more to the description. If you are challenged to compress the thought, use smaller fonts. Posts with less text gets noticed more.
9. Use IG Stories
Although, its only available for only 24 hours, It allows for more engagement through the use of questions, polls, rating, gifs, mentions and tagging. Followers can also reach you through messaging.
You can now archive your stories through the use of highlight. Use icons as your archive cover for a better appearance.
10. Study your insights.
Insights provide valuable information on your performance and the behaviour of your audience. You can check the time when you get the most engagement and whether your reaching your target market. If you have a physical product being sold on an online store, you can reach more audience by promoting a specific post. Promotions allows you to reach people who are not following you, therefore gaining followers as well.
If your budget allows, try to spend on advertising. There was a time when all this functionality is available for free, and with the improvement of technology, developers will just figure out a way to monetise every opportunity. Spend on it right now, because it will just get more expensive with time.
