This is a guest post from Jonathan Chan of Foundr Magazine.
You are probably here because you are a proud blog owner.
Your content is consistently fresh and up-to-date, your mission statement is on point, you’ve managed to create a brand from scratch and everything is going swimmingly. But you’re still not using Instagram to promote your ground-breaking content.
If that sounds like you, we’ve got great news. 700 million monthly users are waiting for you to reach out to them.
In one of their articles, Forbes compared promoting content on Facebook with Instagram. The results showed that a promoted post on Instagram gets 4x more likes than the average Facebook ad. The interesting thing is that the number of impressions isn’t drastically different between the two, but Instagram users engage with content much more than those on Facebook.
This means it’s time to make the leap and look at Instagram as a full-fledged content platform; not an afterthought.
To help you do that, we’re sharing 3 highly effective ways that are guaranteed to turn your already engaging blog posts into even more captivating Instagram content.
#1 Pull Quotes
The brain reacts to visual stimuli in as little as 13 milliseconds. This means you have a fraction of a second to grab a viewer’s attention – and pull quotes, i.e. visual representations of key points – are the perfect way to do just that.
In order to create an engaging pull quote, pick an image you think will grab a person’s attention and add to it an engaging quote from your blog post. The best way to make these posts interesting is to keep them short and sweet, like so:
The extended version of that same quote, or a short paragraph explaining the quote, should go in the description section below the image. Note that you have 2200 characters to get the user to click on the shortened link you’re attaching with the image; plan ahead to make sure you don’t run out of space!
Chances are, you’ve seen plenty of pull quote posts on Instagram. This makes sense: according to Yotpo, Instagram drives the most engaged traffic compared to other social media platforms (including Youtube and Pinterest). This means that text, which may scare less engaged users away, works extremely well on Instagram. This is huge for your marketing – and here’s the reason.
People are likely to remember 10% of the information they hear and read several days later. But if you pair the same information with an image, you are likely to remember 65% of it.
Yes, folks, vision is the sense to exploit in content marketing – and pull quotes are an easy way to turn text into visual content.
Next on our list, let’s take a look at…
#2 Infographics, data visualizations, and beyond
According to eye-tracking studies reported by Nielsen Norman group, internet users prefer looking at images that carry information. The same study found that infographics and data visualizations get 3x more shares than other images on social media.
In other words, infographics and data visualizations aren’t just a powerful way to convey all the information you want to show your followers in one image. They’re also a highly engaging form of content on their own!
The catch is that you don’t want to make infographics too complicated or have them give out too much information. The best thing to do it is give the users a little snippet that has them wanting to know more. The idea is to “wow” them, drive them to your core piece of blog content – and hopefully convert them into subscribers or followers!
Alternatively, you can place an entire infographic on Instagram using their slideshow feature, like so:
Now, to the fun part. Here are 3 tools you can use to make infographics, data visualizations and other data + text images for free:
- Canva is a great app for creating engaging graphics tailored to the social media platform you want to share it on. Whether you’re creating an Instagram post or want to include the graphics on your blog, Canva is easy to use and has great design options.
- Piktochart → According to Facebook Marketing Strategist Amy Porterfield, Piktochart is an easy tool for people who want to create viral infographics.
- Many content creators like WordSwag: an app that lets you add text to any image within seconds. It also features a massive library of 290,000 free images you can use for your pull quotes and more!
Last but not least, let’s cover…
#3 Videos
We pretty much saved the best for last. Why is it the best, you ask?
Because 4x as many consumers would rather watch a video about a product than have to read about it. Yes, we have become a community of skimmers and slackers. This is why video content, like this post from Sir Richard Branson, works so well:
Having understood the effectiveness and potential of video content, Instagram now allows its users to use the 1-minute per video option. If you’re wondering how to get more Instagram followers, you should be actively using the video feature. Here are some key tips to doing this well:
- Avoid being too commercial and keep it personal. Videos are the best way to really connect with your followers, and posting too many ads and salesy content could ruin that feeling for your followers. Show a snippet of what is coming and get them excited!
- Use hashtags! This is the most effective way to entice users that are outside of your follower base. Experiment with popular hashtags that describe your content in a nutshell.
- Use the “swipe option”!! Posting a link through Instagram stories gets publishers 15-20% more clicks. It’s never been more simple, guys, Instagram is helping you out. Create personal posts through stories and make sure to include a “swipe” option that transfers the user to the blog post itself.
This is a great time to jump on the video marketing bandwagon and use the video content tools brought to you by Instagram. KPCB reports that 74% of internet traffic will be video content this year!
Let’s wrap it up
We probably lost you at “700 million monthly users”. Here’s what you really need to remember:
- Pull quotes are a great way to grab the attention of your followers quickly. Select a good photo, add a short but powerful quote to it, and attach a description with a short link in the comment section.
- Infographics and data visualizations are powerful. Keep them simple, but make the reader want to know more.
- Videos, videos, and more videos. Whether you are posting Instagram stories (regularly, no less) or videos on your page, make them personal and make sure to attach links to your blog posts.
If there’s a 65% chance you’ll remember these last points, our job here is done. Good luck!
Jonathan is the Content Crafter and Marketer for Foundr – place dedicated to empowering each and every entrepreneur out there with the best knowledge, tactics and actionable advice on the planet. Whether it’s finding out the latest productivity hacks, or figuring out the best startup business models, Jonathan is all about making sure that anyone that calls themselves an entrepreneur has a chance to continuously improve. You can check out more of his writing, and more about Foundr itself at: foundrmag.com