Storytelling through Instagram feed
Why is your brand on the market?
What is the reason you set up your company in the first place?
This is what storytelling in marketing is about: using digital means to tell your brand’s story and emotionally connect with your audience.
But how can you do storytelling on your Instagram’s feed?
Here is our list of recommendations to get you inspired and get you started:
Quotes
Whether it’s Dwayne The Rock Johnson or Richard Branson, Maya Angelou or Oprah Winfrey, everyone can find a quote that rings true to them!
Quotes encapsulate a person’s wisdom and are tiny vehicles of our collective knowledge. Quotes and sayings are expressions of insight put into memorable wording.
People come to Instagram to look for inspiration and motivation so quotes can be a powerful tool you can use to tell your story.
LinkedIn is a great example of using quotes.
Video
A picture tells a thousand words, but video tells a story.
Instagram started as an image based social media channel, but later it allowed its users to load and post videos.
If you are just starting out, you don’t need to invest money in expensive video equipments to record video, you only need your smartphone’s camera and good lighting. It’s easier than writing a blog post or editing an image: just push the record button on your camera, point it at yourself or your product and tell your story.
Watch how seblester uses video on his Instagram account:
One theme+one filter
To catch everyone’s attention you need to invest in your account’s aesthetics. After all, Instagram is the most visually pleasing social media platform by excellence! It’s about what you say but also how you say it.
Think about your story and choose one theme that best illustrates it and one filter that helps your theme stand out.
Some accounts are colourful (erinsummer_), others turn to the dark side, using brown, grey or black tones (maria_solovey), while others love the many shades of white (she.turns.pages). Browse Preview app to find your theme.
Write the story of the image
Instagram is all about visuals, but it also offers its users 2200 characters to write the caption of the image or video.
It is a great opportunity to have a double impact on your visitor: a great image and a great text.
National Geographic is an excellent example of storytelling using the photo and text combo:
User-generated content
Apple’s Instagram strategy relies exclusively on user-generated content: Apple posts photographs taken by Apple users.
Instead of saying “look how great we are”, Apple is showcasing their users’ photographing skills and creativity, creating a culture built around customer values and aspirations.
Branded hashtag
User-generated content strategy cannot be accomplished without branded hashtag. The branded hashtag can illustrate brand’s core values, goals or story.
It is also a tool to find the content generated by its users.
Here are 3 examples of branded hashtags:
#ShotonIphone (Apple),
#LiveinLevis (Levi’s),
#justdoit (Nike)
Show your work
Ultimately, Instagram is a place to show your expertise, your talents or abilities, your brand’s values, your customers’ goals and aspirations.
Use various photo editing apps to make your images stand out and attract followers to your Instagram account, such as Instagrid, Snapseed or Prisma.
Here are 3 examples of Instagram accounts that can inspire you: christianwtsn, subwaydoodle, lingvistov.
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