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How to Create Awesome Instagram Posts

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Instagram App on Phone

Depending on who your target audience is, Instagram can be an extremely valuable marketing tool. Thanks to its photo-centric design, it can give brands the opportunity to make a big visual impact without sacrificing content quality (captions can be thousands of characters long, rather than just a couple hundred).

Let’s discuss how you can reach a wider audience, create top-notch posts and drive online engagement rates by leveraging the power of Instagram.

Who Uses Instagram?

Before we start diving into strategy, let’s first find out what kinds of people are actually using Instagram.
According to a 2016 Pew Research study, 32 percent of internet users (or 28 percent of all American adults) use Instagram. Of those, 38 percent are women, 59 percent are 18-29 years old, 37 percent have some college education, 38 percent earn less than $30,000 per year and 39 percent live in an urban environment.

Chart

By taking a closer look at the study’s findings, we can observe that the greatest disparity exists between age groups (a 51-point gap between users aged 18-29 and those aged 65 or older). All other factors remain within 12 percentage points of each other.

Thus, age is by far the most important element to consider when creating your Instagram posts (or deciding whether to use the platform at all). If your audience is between the ages of 18 and 29, then getting on Instagram is a no-brainer.
And, if your audience also happens to be made up of mostly college-educated women who earn $30,000 per year or less and live in big cities, all the better.

To Hashtag or Not to Hashtag

A little over a decade ago, Chris Messina https://twitter.com/chrismessina made a post on Twitter:

With that, the humble hashtag was born. Now, hashtags are an integral part of every major social media platform, including Facebook, LinkedIn and, yes, Instagram. However, hashtags aren’t as simple as they used to be.

Rather than just providing a way for users to join in on topically specific conversations, hashtags have now become a way for companies to reach a wider audience and raise brand awareness.

When it comes to Instagram in particular, more hashtags do not necessarily equal more engagement.

In fact, a study conducted by Locowise found that Instagram posts with no hashtags and those with three hashtags received the highest engagement rates, while those with 10 hashtags and those with 16 to 20 hashtags tied for the lowest engagement rates.

Chart

While no one can tell you exactly which hashtags will drive the most engagement, you’ll likely see positive results if you use between zero and three hashtags and only use hashtags that are relevant to your brand.

Craft Your Caption

Although eye-catching visuals may be the star of the Instagram show, captions are important, too.
Before you begin writing your caption, it’s important to identify your brand’s voice.

To learn how to do this, let’s take a look at a few examples.

On Magnolia’s account, captions are warm, casual and use plenty of family-related words to create a homey feel:

Magnolia Instagram Post

On National Geographic’s account, captions are long, in-depth and are often told from the perspective of the photographer to create an up-close-and-personal feel:

NatGeo Instagram Post

And, on the other end of the spectrum, Denny’s account features captions that are brief, goofy and informal to create a lighthearted feel:

Denny's Instagram Post

Choose the Perfect Picture

Last but certainly not least, it’s important to consider the visual elements of each photo you post. While general guidelines like the rule of thirds are a good place to start, specific factors have been shown to drive engagement.

To discover what types of photos perform best, we’ll turn to research conducted by Curalate, which analyzed more than 8 million Instagram images. Here, I’ll be highlighting the factors that create the biggest difference.

When comparing light images to dark images, it was revealed that light images generate 24 percent more likes:

Lightness in Images

In terms of background, photos with less visible background outperformed photos with more visible background by nearly 30 percent:

Background

As for the dominant color, blue-hued images generate 24 percent more likes than those with a red tint:

Finally, smooth images generated an impressive 79 percent more likes than those with high levels of texture:

Texture

What are your tips for creating great Instagram posts? Which Instagram accounts do you think post the best photos? Let me know below!

3 Ways to Create Sparkling Seasonal Social Media Content

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It’s almost the Fourth of July, and I know I’m not alone in my excitement. There’s nothing that defines summer in America quite like a good Fourth of July celebration.

Since many Americans feel the same way, Independence Day—and other holidays and seasons—are a perfect opportunity to catch readers’ attention with some well-executed content.

As we head into the holiday, here are five examples of brands doing seasonal content right, as well as three tips you can use for your seasonal posts year-round on Twitter and Instagram.

1. Pottery Barn

This photo from Pottery Barn isn’t overly salesy—in fact, without looking at the caption, you’d never know who posted it. This is part of what makes it so appealing: The picture seems to embody Pottery Barn’s elevated country style in a festive and colorful way without using any branding whatsoever.

Further, they go out of their way to call out the person who took the photo, which has the dual purpose of making their brand look good and appealing to fans of the photographer’s account.

The call to action doesn’t hurt, either: Notice how the brand asks readers a question, credits the owner of the photo and then tells readers how their photos can be featured, too. It invites engagement (a key factor for getting exposure on Instagram) without seeming heavy-handed or desperate.

2. Halo Top

Everyone’s favorite low-calorie ice cream brand has some of the most charming social media content around. This post is no exception: While it may not explicitly mention the Fourth (or any holiday), those red and white stripes just scream Americana (and summer in general).

Unlike Pottery Barn’s post, this one does feature a photo of the brand’s offerings, but the caption doesn’t even have so much as a hashtag. This makes the post feel exceptionally relaxed and unaggressive. However, keep in mind that tweets with hashtags get double the engagement of those without, according to research from Buddy Media.

So, you probably shouldn’t stop using them entirely — instead, limit yourself to one or two Twitter hashtags, since tweets with more than two hashtags show a drop in engagement.

3. Casper


With a colorful photo, a laid-back caption and a quick tidbit of info about a new product, this post from Casper nails the casual vibe of summer, and probably piqued interest for those mattress-shaped pool floaties, too.

Take note of the caption’s sparse use of hashtags, as well: This creates a much cleaner look than dumping 30 different tags into a caption that’s 10 words long. Next time you’re posting an Instagram photo, clean it up by putting the hashtags in the comments, or just using one or two key hashtags in the caption relevant to your brand or topic.

Whether you choose to put your hashtags in the caption or comments depends on what type of engagement you’re after — a small study from Agorapulse found that posts with hashtags in the caption get more reach.

On the other hand, posts with hashtags in the comments section get more comments.

4. Blue Apron

I’m sure that sometime, say, 100 years ago, someone speculated that people in the future wouldn’t even have to go shopping for food—it would just be delivered to their door in temperature-controlled boxes. And look where we are now.

Blue Apron keeps it nice and concise in this summer-y post with a beautiful, well-lit photo of some fresh food, a cheerful caption and a link to the recipe on their site. I’d like to focus on this post’s photo: Every detail pops out, the colors are vibrant and the background looks homey rather than staged. Plus, who doesn’t like the sound of tzatziki in the summer?

5. Wayfair

Yet another example of subtle branding: In this post from Wayfair, the caption doesn’t encourage readers to buy, buy and buy some more, but the video lets readers know they can expect to find some great Fourth of July-themed products at Wayfair.

Plus, the caption is conversational and engaging, which never hurts. They simply ask a question and give a quick decorating tip. Short and sweet.

How to Create Seasonal Content of Your Own

Learning from the examples above, here are some tips you can use to post compelling seasonal or holiday-themed content:

1. Don’t Be Aggressive

Most holidays are time for relaxation and quality time with family, so you don’t want to sound like you view your company as being more important than those things. That’s why so many of the above examples don’t read like a mattress store blowout—instead, they read like casual, upbeat posts that let the photos and videos do the talking. The brand becomes part of the things its audience loves.

To accomplish this, use hashtags strategically, not haphazardly.

On Twitter, this means choosing your hashtags carefully: As I mentioned earlier, tweets with one or two hashtags receive the highest levels of engagement, which is backed up by data from TrackMaven.

On Instagram, this means using nine hashtags, and no more than a dozen.

2. Rely On Visuals

Since many holidays are about visual excitement, you don’t have to do a whole lot of writing to celebrate it with your readers. For Fourth of July, for example, take a video of a local fireworks display, snap a photo of some red, white and blue food or insert your product into a summery scene, like a pool or picnic. Don’t forget to edit your photo so it appears bright, light and breezy, and check out my previous post to find out how to create awesome Instagram posts.

Just remember to keep the aesthetic consistent with the rest of your feed as well as your brand’s overall look (check out my previous post to find out how to create awesome Instagram posts).

3. Share Holiday Plans

Almost everyone has some sort of plan for what they’re going to do on big holidays, so why not get them engaged by asking them to share it? After all, Instagram’s algorithm heavily rewards engagement, so engaging users is one of the best ways to boost your brand’s visibility. Bonus points if you share your own plans or reference a local event. For example, you could ask who’s planning to attend a local barbeque or fireworks display for Fourth of July.

Incorporate these tips into your seasonal social media posts and you’re sure to nab the attention of some revelers. For more social media advice, take a look at my post on how to upgrade your social media posts.

What are your plans for the Fourth of July? Comment down below!

The Top 5 Free Content Creation Tools

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Let me ask you a quick question: How should you go about creating a video to post on social media? If your answer is something along the lines of “upload a clip straight from my phone,” then it may be time for you to explore some of the many content creation tools available.

In this post, I’ll go over the top five content creation tools (they’re all free!) and explain how you can use each one.

1. Headline Analyzer

The Headline Analyzer from CoSchedule couldn’t be easier to use: Simply plug in the headline you plan to use, enter some basic information (email address, company name and the like) and be presented with several handy charts that analyze just how effectively your headline will generate engagement.

From word balance and length to keywords and sentiment, this tool provides you with everything you need to know in order to attract readers.

Check out my blog post on creating clickable titles to learn more about what makes a title great.

2. Infogram

Aesthetically pleasing graphs, infographics and charts can be extremely appealing to a broad range of readers. Why? Because visual information is easy to understand and communicates important points quickly and compellingly.

If you don’t have an in-house graphic design team to create your visuals for you, you’ll probably want to check out Infogram, a free tool for creating infographics, charts, maps, reports and more.

Although there are paid versions, the free version of Infogram includes more than 37 types of interactive charts, 13 types of maps, online publishing capability, the ability to import data and maximum capacity of 10 three-page projects.

Since we’re big fans of Canva for blog cover photos at bizbuzz, I’ll also mention Canva’s free graphic templates. This tool lets you quickly create personalized infographics for blogs, websites, reports and more.

3. Lumen5

The next time you’re looking for an intriguing visual element to add to your article or blog post, you might want to consider using a video instead of an image. Don’t worry, it’s not nearly as intimidating as it sounds.

With Lumen5, an A.I. powered video creation tool, you can simply enter the text of your content and watch it come to life. After Lumen5 generates a video, you can choose your favorite stock images to include, add branding elements and select appropriate music.

The free version of Lumen5 allows you to create unlimited videos in 480p, utilize text-to-video technology and intelligent media matching, access more than 10 million free media files and upload your own logos, photos and videos.

4. Hemingway App

Long before minimalism became trendy amongst the Instagram crowd, Ernest Hemingway was a strong proponent of the “less is more” mentality. That’s the idea behind the Hemingway App, which uses user-friendly color coding to show you how your content can be made more simple and easy to read.

With the help of this app, you’ll be able to quickly see areas of your content where you’ve used too many adverbs, overly-lengthy words, complicated sentences and a passive voice.

For more on this subject, take a look at my post on how to write clear and organized content.

5. Google Docs Explore

If you’ve ever found yourself overwhelmed by a ridiculous amount of tabs whilst trying to research for an article, you should give the Google Docs Explore tool a try.

Handily located in and integrated with Google Docs, the Explore tool lets you conduct a web search for any topic without ever opening another tab. Plus, it automatically suggests related images you might want to add to your content (just be sure they’re properly licensed before publishing).

With these tools at your disposal, you’ll soon be able to create better, more engaging content. If you’d like additional help creating top-of-the-line content, check out bizbuzzcontent’s content creation services.

Do you use any of these tools? Are there any tools you love that weren’t included in this list? Let’s talk about it in the comments!

How to Make the Most of Influencer Marketing

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These days, the power of influencer marketing is accepted as fact. I see proof of this every day on my Instagram feed and, as I scroll past pictures of beautiful girls clutching bags of (allegedly) fat-burning tea and hair-strengthening vitamins, I find myself wondering if there’s a better way.

Turns out, there is—and it doesn’t involve spending a small fortune to get a Kardashian to endorse your product.

Let’s explore the reality of influencer marketing, and find out how you can keep it more convincing than cheesy.

The State of Influencer Marketing

To get a better sense of influencer marketing in its current state, we’ll be looking to Linqia’s report, The State of Influencer Marketing 2017.

According to the report, a whopping 86 percent of marketers use influencer marketing, with 89 percent viewing the creation of authentic content as the primary benefit of doing so.

The prevalence of influencer marketing isn’t likely to wane, either, with 48 percent of survey respondents saying that their influencer marketing budget will increase in 2017.

Despite marketers’ willingness to invest in influencer marketing, 78 percent aren’t sure how to determine the return on investment (ROI) of their programs.

And, rather than measure their influencer marketing program’s success by dollars and cents, most marketers analyze engagement, traffic and reach to determine what’s working and what’s not.

Last but not least, it’s important to note which social media platforms marketers are using for influencer marketing.

The key takeaway from this report is that influencer marketing, while nearly ubiquitous, is still not understood nearly as well as it could be. Knowing this, it’s important to enter the world of influencer marketing with clear objectives and a measured approach.

Is Influencer Marketing Effective?

At this point, it’s easy to see that marketers view influencer marketing as a worthy investment. However, that still doesn’t tell us if influencer marketing is effective enough to deliver real, measurable changes.

Since influencer marketing is a relatively new concept, there isn’t a wealth of resources on its efficacy. However, a few key reports do provide us with valuable insights.

In a 2017 report, Collective Bias found that audiences exposed to influencer content spent 5.4 percent more than audiences who had not been exposed to influencer content.

Keep in mind, though, that not all influencers can leverage the same positive changes to your sales. In fact, data published by Markerly revealed that Instagram influencers with a follower base of approximately 1,000 received significantly higher engagement rates than did those with smaller or larger followings.

While those statistics may seem counterintuitive, it comes as less of a surprise that, according to a report by Yes Lifecycle Marketing, members of the Millennial and Centennial generations are most likely to be influenced by social media networks (namely Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter) when shopping.

The Takeaways

Now that we’ve established the popularity and efficacy of influencer marketing, it’s time to talk about what you can do to make influencer marketing work for you.

Be Authentic

We’ve talked about authenticity before, but it’s more important than ever in the realm of influencer marketing. Customers respond favorably to authentic content and, as we learned in the previous section, they engage with small influencers at far higher rates than they do with major celebrities.

So, when you’re planning your influencer marketing strategy, be sure to:

  • Work with small influencers who have an engaged audience.
  • Allow your influencers to inject their personality into branded posts.
  • Highlight your product’s utility.
  • Be honest—don’t ask your influencers to make any wild claims.

Don’t Forget to Measure

Before you start hiring influencers left and right, figure out how you’re going to measure each influencer’s impact. After all, the last thing you want is to get caught in a cycle of paying influencers and blindly hoping for results.

To measure the success of your influencer marketing programs, consider factors such as:

  • Engagement
  • Traffic
  • Reach
  • Sales

Choose the Right Platform

In the last chart of the previous section, we looked at the social media platforms that each generation is most influenced by. This is important because, while Facebook appears to be a great all-around choice, implementing influencer marketing campaigns on other platforms require a bit more thought.

To choose the right platform, you’ll need to start by analyzing your audience.

If your audience is mostly comprised of Centennials, give priority to:

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube

If your audience is mostly comprised of Millennials, give priority to:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

If your audience is mostly comprised of Gen Xers, give priority to:

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube/Pinterest

And, if your audience is mostly comprised of Baby Boomers, give priority to:

  • Facebook
  • YouTube/Pinterest
  • Twitter

With a thoughtful approach, a plan of action and an authentic voice, influencer marketing can be a great boon to your company. Just remember to know your audience, measure results and choose your influencers wisely (sorry, Kylie Jenner, maybe next time).

Does your company use influencer marketing? Have you found it to be useful? Let’s talk about it below!

How to Take Your Social Media Posts to the Next Level

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By now, it’s a well-established fact that social media is one of the best ways to raise awareness about your brand and build a loyal audience. What isn’t as clear is just how you should go about crafting your social media posts.

Here, I’ll give you the rundown on which social networks you can explore, how to write your updates and which words you should use.

Take Your Pick

Sure, Facebook and Twitter are obvious (and safe) choices when you’re trying to choose which platform to post your updates on. However, it’s worth digging a little deeper to discover which platforms you might be missing out on.

A 2016 report by TrackMaven examined social media metrics for companies across a wide array of industries. Interestingly, audience size and engagement don’t necessarily go hand in hand.

When it comes to audience size, most companies have the largest audience on LinkedIn.

On the other hand, the majority of companies see the highest level of engagement on Instagram, regardless of industry (there are two exceptions: the financial industry sees the most engagement on Pinterest, while the biotech industry sees the most engagement on Facebook).

So, while Facebook might be the largest social media network in the world, it won’t necessarily give you the most results. Don’t get me wrong, you don’t want to neglect your company’s Facebook page—but you don’t want to give other social media platforms the cold shoulder, either.

Keep It Simple

I follow quite a few brands on social media, so I can confirm that convoluted and bloated captions can be a major turn-off.

Sure, I want to get a sense of what’s new, perhaps with the addition of a few emojis to spice things up, but I don’t want to spend two minutes reading an update that’s struggling to find its own purpose.

To ensure that your posts are descriptive rather than long-winded, try to focus on simplicity rather than length. After all, length isn’t really the problem—some types of posts, such as those related to contests, giveaways, major news announcements and the like can’t help but be at least a few paragraphs long. What does matter is clarity.

I’d recommend writing at least one rough draft before you click “publish,” even if you just do some minor editing after letting it sit for ten minutes. While editing your post, keep an eye out for unnecessary words or confusing phrases.

Or, to truly guarantee that your posts are easily readable, have one or two other people take a look at them beforehand. What seems like a witty joke to you might be utterly meaningless to everyone else—you’ll never know until you ask.

Mind Your Words

It’s safe to say that every content writer out there, myself included, is a firm believer in the power of word choice. As Sophocles wrote, “To speak much is one thing; to speak to the point in another.”

We don’t need to rely solely on the words of ancients to know this—recent statistics have proven it to be true.

After analyzing hundreds of thousands of tweets, Dan Zarrella found that certain words generate more clicks than others. For example, tweets with more adverbs and verbs received much higher clicks than those with more nouns and adjectives.

The same principle can be applied to almost any social media site—Zarrella found similar results in his research on Instagram engagement.

How do you approach your social media posts? Have you noticed a difference and engagement from platform to platform, or from word to word? Let me know!

Wordsmith LLC