We published a blog about starting a Facebook page for business and we promised you an Instagram version! Make no mistake, Instagram is NOT just for the young and restless! It’s an amazing platform to be on as an optometrist, ophthalmologist, or optician. To easily engage with your customers for sure, but for lots of businesses, having an active Instagram would be very (very) wise, moneywise!
Why? Because 60% of people say they discover new businesses and products on Instagram! And, because 200+ MILLION Instagrammers visits at least one business profile daily. That is a lot of views! And, especially during these crazy times, did you know that there’s an 80% increase in time spent watching videos on Instagram? And that 1 out of 3 of the most-watched videos is from businesses?!
Okay, so what is Instagram all about?
First of all, if you want to get started, there’s lots of helpful information to be found on business.instagram.com. From how to get started, to how to get recognized as a business. Why it matters? Well, like with Facebook, it pays off to have a business account, instead of a personal account. You’ll get real-time metrics on how your stories and posts perform throughout the day, you’ll get insights into your followers and how to interact with your posts and stories. You can make your life easier and add company information to your profile, like business hours, location, and phone number for example.
Assuming you’ve gone through those steps, now what? What can you do with Instagram? Well, Instagram is a highly visual experience where you share captivating photos, videos, and captions. On Instagram, your visuals are displayed in a ‘grid’, three visuals displayed, next to each other. Instagram is about beauty, it’s about esthetic, and about looks. Hence the term ‘Insta-worthy’. You don’t just post any random pic on Insta, looks matter. And, the optical business is perfect when it comes to Insta-worthy shots! Imagine seeing all the beautiful frames and brands on your profile. Showing off your store, your employees, your brand… Yes, Instagram is DEF a good way to go for opticians, optometrists, and ophthalmologists!
Videos are especially important and HOT right now. This video hotness kind of started with the introduction of Instagram’s highly successful 15-second ‘Stories’. We’ll get back to Stories, which are the absolute bomb. Besides being fun and creative, Stories are one of the best ways to grow engagement, build awareness of your brand, and possibly even drive up your sales.
Remember our blog about why brands with a purpose do better? Stories are an excellent way to have a more authentic connection with your customers. They get to see behind-the-scenes, take a look inside, and because these Stories are only around for 24 hours before they disappear, you tend to ‘let go’ of the Insta-worthy expectations. It’s just a little more real! We’ll make an extra blog, just to cover Stories from our perspective, because honestly, they deserve a blog of their own. Too much to tell! If you want to get started already though, there’s lots and LOTS of information out there, and later.com’s guide, for example, is a great way to get going.
Back to your profile. When you post a photo or video on Instagram, it will be displayed on your profile and grid. Users that follow you will see your posts in their own feed. Likewise, you'll see posts from other users whom you choose to follow. Or at least, that’s how it used to be. Instagram has been making this a little harder… (grumble) by introducing the Instagram algorithm. Say what? Okay, a little detailed, but in short: comments, likes, shares, and views, impact ‘feed ranking’. Basically, the more your followers like what you post, the higher you pop up on followers’ feeds (their ‘timelines’, if you compare to Facebook). Basically, it’s just very smart machine learning. Too much detail, for now, we get it. We can get back to that another time.
First things first. Instagram is like a simplified version of Facebook, with an emphasis on mobile use and visual sharing. You can do this! Let’s get you started…
4 easy marketing strategies
Before you start, think about the following four things. Investing in them upfront buys you time once it’s up and running. Think about why you would add Instagram to your platforms, what you’d like to achieve, who you’d like to reach (as the Instagram-user is a different target group than the Facebook-user), and with what content, at what times. If you think and plan ahead, you’ll be more likely to grow your follower base!
Set goals and determine your Instagram audience
Like you probably did when you started your business Facebook page, ask yourself WHY. Why are you on Instagram? If it’s ‘because everyone else is’, then you’re not going to reach your full Insta-potential. Set a purpose, like creating brand awareness, selling your products, creating customer engagement through user-generated content (like your people in your store), or showing off your skills or ambitions. Oh and, you can choose to have multiple too! Maybe you’d like to use it to show off your brands (branded content), and also use it to share your own content (you, your team, your store), building relations and trust with your customers. Giving them that peek behind the curtain!
Then set goals for yourself so you’ll be able to invest in Instagram and justify that investment. Once you’ve determined what you’d like to reach, then decide WHO you’d like to reach. Then you’ll know what to post and which content would be best for that target audience. Once you know your exact audience (age, location, gender, income, interests, motivations, what they’re looking for), it could become interesting to add paid marketing too. But, again… first things first.
Conduct competitive analysis and build your brand
Take the time to see what other local entrepreneurs in your area are doing on Instagram. See what content works for them and try to research why it’s working. Look at direct competitors, but make sure to look broader than that. Instagram is a very inspiring place and so versatile. For inspiration, be sure to check your own brands! How are they Instagramming? Be sure to check our own inspiration-Insta account, @embrosa.pics.optical too! So many beautiful brands with amazing Insta-content.
A wise quote: “Design is the silent ambassador of your brand” (Paul Rand). See what works for others and translate to your store, your story. How will you design your Instagram grid? How can you showcase your purpose, core values, and personality on Instagram? Of course, you can always start and then adjust later. Just start, would always be our advice. Don’t let ‘not having a design ready’ stop you. You can alter as you go. We started with single pics, and now have our grid organized differently. Lots of brands adjust as they go, so the look-and-feel always matches their latest collections.
There are plenty of creative ways to express yourself on Instagram. Whatever style you choose, remember to match your overall tone of voice to all your communication activities, like your website for example. The quality of your content has to be good, or even great. Instagram IS content. It is all about beautiful pics, so having quality is more important than quantity, for sure. As an optometrist/optician/ophthalmologist, you can ask your suppliers for branded content, or you could make time to search their websites to find great content for your social media. Want life to be easier, then just download the app Embrosa. This is an app, specifically for the optical world, full of branded amazing content, for your social media. Made for this very purpose…
Plan ahead with your own editorial calendar
Okay, so don’t be startled by this, but: on average, brands post about six visuals per week on Instagram! Let us do the math for you, that is around 300+ posts per year. And, that’s just Instagram posts on your grid. That’s not even Stories yet! Let alone, for example, Facebook or writing an occasional blog post! It can be quite a challenge to keep up the pace and to remember what’s been posted, and what still needs to be posted. Creating an overview helps! Because as always, consistency is key… if you post once per week, you can be sure that the Instagram algorithm is not going to be friendly. If you post 6x per week one week, and then 1x per week the following, or you forget a week, your followers won’t stick around.
Creating an editorial calendar can save time and manage your consistent Instagram presence. Fill the days of the week, making sure to post a minimum of 3x per week, and plan your pics, videos, and captions, and the days you would like them to post. Avoiding happy pics on a sad National Day, for example. And, keep it simple. You could plan your content on a simple Excel-file, like this one!
Once you know WHAT to post, and WHEN, then you’d be smart to use a planning tool for the actual planning, to make sure the consistency of posts is high. There are lots of different planning tools out there, from basic to awesome, but there’s only one that has both planning options, PLUS branded optical content (as in, the very brands that you sell!), AND general (optical and non-optical) content, all-in-one. Made for local entrepreneurs, specifically the optical world, and made so easy that is actually becomes fun!
Grow your Instagram follower base
Things to think about on Instagram: the number of followers matters. For example, the bigger you become, the easier it is to do business on Instagram (e.g. when you grow to 10.000+ followers, you can use links in your Stories, which are amazing for creating traffic to your store!). But the big question is, how? How in the world of Instagram, how do you grow your follower base?
One big thing to know: yes, having lots of followers is great, BUT, that is only if it’s real good qualitative followers. No (ro)bots. No fake profiles. And most certainly, no bought followers… And there are loads of all of those around. What matters, are real connections, real followers that follow you for your brand.
Make sure, first of all, that your username is recognizable and easy to find, use your store’s name. Your username can only be 30 characters. Another important thing: fill out your bio. And, that sounds easy, but it can be quite tricky. Your Instagram bio is the small area with text underneath your username. The Instagram bio character limit is set to 150 characters. You’ve only got a very small space, so make the words count! It’s usually a small brief of yourself or your brand, has some contact information. It should teach a potential follower exactly what you are, and why he/she should follow you!
Then, preferably, post a few pics. If you were to add 9 pics, you’ve already made a grid that is ready for followers to come, there’s something to see! By then, your Insta account is ready to take off. Start by following accounts that are of interest to you. Local entrepreneurs in your area. Customers that you know, and that you can find. Brands that you sell! As you start to follow accounts, Instagram will help you by suggesting related accounts that are likely to be good to follow. Interact with these accounts, like their content. Making yourself seen. And, of course, encourage others to share your content! And, if you have an active Facebook page, be sure to make it known there, that you’re active on Insta too!
One last thing: hashtags
In our blog ‘How can I improve my optical business through social media?’ we touched the topic but didn’t really get into it. You’ve heard of hashtags and you’ve probably seen them. More often than not, unfortunately, they’re broken hashtags, like #lotsofhashtags#followingeachother#makingitimpossibletoread. UGH. #horrible A shame, because it’s not hard, but it’s good to read up on them. What are they, and how can they help you, and also... how NOT to use them. Allow Jimmy Fallon & Justin Timberlake to explain that…
A post with Instagram hashtag averages 12.6% more engagement than posts without a hashtag. So, it really is worth creating a hashtag strategy for your profile. In short, a hashtag is introduced by the number sign, or hash symbol, #. It works like a ‘tag’ and categorizes topics when you are searching. For example, last week I was searching for optometry students in the US. When I entered the hashtag in Insta: #optometrystudent it gave me lots and lots of students in the optical world, that I could then follow, or actively engage with. Easy as that. And you could try that with any search… #optometry #optician #ophtamologist #optical #socialmediamarketing #embrosapowered
Again, do a little reading up on the usage of hashtags. A broken hashtag doesn't work. For example, they do not support spaces. So if you're using two words, skip the space. The right hashtag for tagging optometry students would be #optometrystudents, not #optometry students. And, use only letters and numbers. You may use an occasional underscore but do this sparingly for aesthetic reasons. Hyphens and dashes will not work.
Important to know, do not spam your posts with lots of them, but choose wisely. Hashtag-use was getting a little out of hand, and so Instagram has placed a limit on them, you can have a maximum of 30! Use them all as you want but make them count. Don’t use a standard (e.g. #eyewear) under every post, if every post does not include eyewear.
Usually, you’d post hashtags either organically in our caption, or you’d place them under your caption. Avoid using too many hashtags in a caption, making them hard to read. And, if they don’t blend in naturally in your caption, place them in the first comment (yes, comment on your own post!). They’ll still work the same and make your post pop up when a search on your hashtag is done.
Well. That’s Instagram for ya! Have fun Instagramming. We can’t wait to see all your grids, so be sure to follow us, and we will follow you right back to see what your up to! Questions? Or want us to fill your grid for you? We'd love to, and for the optical world, it's our specialty! We've got the brands, the content, and the app to do it all. We provide you with personalized (brands that you sell) monthly plannings for both Instagram (and Facebook), all you have to do is approve, and post. Play the marketing game with Embrosa! We roll the dice, you seal the deal!