Last Updated on September 1, 2023 by David
Guest Post by Rodney Laws
On average 95 million posts are shared on Instagram every day. Now, that’s a lot of traffic. When dealing with such colossal figures, it’s all too easy to get lost in the fold. Whether you’re a business or a social influencer, the question begs to be asked: How can you stand out and cultivate an audience of your very own?
Understand it is not a race to see how many followers you can accumulate. Quantity is good, but engagement is better. User behavior is what makes Instagram so unique to other social media platforms. As I scroll down my following tab, I see waves of businesses and verified ticks. To put it simply, people are more receptive to brands. Find the right groove and people will follow, engage, and even buy what you’re selling.
Persuading people to stick around is the tricky bit. As with most marketing goals, brand loyalty is the ultimate destination. And developing strong customer relationships is the key. The foundations of any business venture are built off the back of quality, support, and consistency.
Here are four brilliant tips to improve customer relations using Instagram.
Strike the right tone with the right people
When it comes to marketing, increasing brand awareness on Instagram is an astute move for you to make. But taking the time to understand your demographic is vital to hit their needs. And Instagram is home to a fairly diverse bunch of characters. There are tons of pages around — From dancing grans to personal biographies — the opportunity to be completely unique is rare. So optimizing your profile for the benefit of your audience is a good first step.
Make your page welcoming and open. Users can be flighty, especially if you don’t look like the real deal. Consider your overall aesthetic and tone, as well as profile picture, bio, and external links. When making these decisions think about your goals: What do you want to get across to the audience?
Additionally, you need to make sure your page reaches the intended audience. The golden hour for Instagram is generally 17:00 pm, but that’s not the whole picture. Perform some extra research using analytic tools like SocialBakers to get to know your customers better. The more knowledge you possess about customer habits, the more useful you can be throughout your efforts.
Be responsive
As the digital world develops rapidly, one tactic for maintaining good customer relationships is quick response times. And Instagram is an effective platform for distributing cohesive advice both publicly and privately.
If a common question keeps coming up, think about using the story feature to broadcast the answer. That way you can respond to multiple queries at once. Also, use the opportunity to showcase your professionalism; be caring and compassionate. Do not argue over such a public channel, its a performance of honesty.
However, in certain circumstances, an issue will have to be dealt with privately. Perhaps you will need to take down personal details or handle delicate information. In such a case, simply move over to direct messages over Instagram. There is no need to switch platforms, keep the process simple and the customer will appreciate it.
Hold Q&A sessions
The short 24-hour lifespan of Instagram stories matches up perfectly with the fast-paced nature of marketing. You can promote posts, share ideas, and support content. But most importantly you can engage with your followers on a more intimate level.
Some of the platform’s most influential pages host question and answer sessions, offering snippets of real-life beyond the mask of a filtered photo. These sessions produce great content for customer relations. For one, it adds to the account’s entertainment value. And two, it strengthens ideas of community and belonging. A lot can be gained from hosting a question and answer session; whether you’re an influencer who befriends their audience like Emily Ratajkowski, or business that looks to inform like The Sole Supplier.
Better yet Instagram openly encourages interaction with free tools like Instagram stickers. Found when posting a story, the sticker functionality offers up a great interactive layer to your post. Adding a Question sticker to your Instagram story means you can receive inquiries through the tag all day long. Essentially it’s the marketing equivalent of a friend messaging: hey I’m bored, let’s hang out. It doesn’t feel official or pre-planned, it’s as organic as a digital connection can get.
Produce strong content
As we know, images are the heart of Instagram. Producing consistent quality is the key to good content. But you can’t just stick a fancy filter on and think that will cut it anymore. Audiences respond to innovation and effort.
Developing your own aesthetic and style is vital. Take Oreo, for example, the cookie company always put the product center stage, complementing it with humorous copy and pastel colors. Having such a strong social media plan projects professionalism and trustworthiness to customers.
However to improve customer relations on a more proactive level try tapping into user-generated content. Whether you share their posts or get them to create for you,
getting customers involved promotes authenticity and trust. Creating your own Instagram hashtag is a great way to categorize UGC. And it opens up a goldmine for customer insight. You learn about follower interests and adapt to meet their needs.
Customer relationships are tricky to manage, but they always pay off in the long run. And with Instagram opening up so many possibilities to expand your reach in 2020, the process is beneficial for both parties.
About Re:amaze
Re:amaze is a modern helpdesk and customer messaging platform designed to help eCommerce businesses boost customer happiness and revenue. Re:amaze allows all customer-oriented teams to work together in a shared inbox through email, social, SMS, voice, and live chat. Re:amaze also comes packaged with automated messaging and chatbots so eCommerce brands can succeed at the front lines of conversational commerce.
About Rodney Laws
Rodney is the owner of ecommerceplatforms.io. He spends most of his time at his desk writing useful, informative articles for solopreneurs and businesses to help them achieve success online.