Foodies are a large percentage of the Instagram user-base, so it’s no surprise that it’s a good fit for farmers and local food advocates too. With these Instagram tips for farm marketing, your Instagram will be a big dill!
When it comes to farm marketing, Instagram has huge potential. With 1.1 billion users, Facebook reigns supreme as a social media platform, but with 800 million users Instagram is also a great tool not to be ignored. The farm scenery, and picture perfect recipes, is enough to make any Instagramer drool.
What is Instagram Used for?
Instagram is a free, online photo-sharing application and social network platform that was acquired by Facebook in 2012. Instagram allows users to edit and upload photos and short videos through a mobile app.
Businesses use Instagram, a visual platform, to form a more personal connection with customers. With the beautiful farm scenery, picture perfect recipes, mouthwatering produce, farmers have drool worthy content perfect for Instagram. You can share pictures and videos of your team, fresh produce, recipes and happy customers to engage your audience. A visual feed can reflect your brand’s uniqueness and differentiate your farm.
Why Instagram for Farm Marketing?
In visual industries, such as the food industry, your marketing dollars will go further. Studies show engagement with businesses on Instagram is 10 times higher than Facebook. The average engagement per post has grown by 416 percent, compared to two years ago. There is also lot less competition for small businesses on Instagram vs. Facebook.
Instagram is better for direct marketing: engaging with customers, spreading awareness, showcasing new products/services, comparison shopping, and influencer marketing. Furthermore, Instagram is a powerhouse for the under 30 demographic, especially teens. This might not be important now, but as this generation gets older, they will be making more buying decisions. Capturing them while they’re young and while there’s not much competition can make the difference to your farm in a few years.
The only disadvantage of Instagram vs. Facebook, is Facebook is a better gateway to external sites or online stores because you can post links to anywhere. However, with the proper farm marketing Instagram strategy, there is still much to be gained.
Instagram Tips for Farm Marketing
As we discussed in our Facebook strategy for farmers, algorithms play a big part in the success of a brand marketing on social media. These social media channels use algorithms to give you a more fulfilling experience, where you see more posts you actually like, and less of the irrelevant ones. This will usually mean you spend more time on their app, which is the ultimate goal. This also gives them more control on advertisement placement. Some brands pay big bucks to get their name out there. Algorithms make sure they get it in front of people most likely to buy that product.
Each social medium has a different approach to their algorithms. It’s important to learn the difference for the most effective marketing strategy. The factors below will help determine your success.
- Engagement
The more hearts or comments on the post will determine how success that post is long term. - Relevancy
Each user has their own footprint path in that social medium. They’re more likely to interact with some content over others. The algorithm shows the most relevant content to that user first. - Relationships
Posts from accounts that the user interacts with more frequently are ranked higher for any particular user - Timeliness
Most recent posts are ranked higher. - Profile searches
Posts from accounts that users search for regularly are ranked higher, this is linked back to relevancy. - Direct shares
Posts from accounts the user directly shares with others are ranked higher, and the person who receives the shared posts gets a rank boost on their own posts. - Time spent on post
The time spent actually looking at a post (not scrolling).
The biggest advantage farmers have with Instagram’s algorithm is Facebook’s algorithm prioritizes posts from friends and families. More and more, they’re requiring dollars spent on ads in order to get your content in front of potential customers. Instagram doesn’t have that barrier right now.
Create Instagram Business Account
Setting up a Instagram business account gives you insight into how your potential customers are interacting with your account.
Follow this guide for a step by step manual of setting up an Instagram business account.
Best Way to Market on Instagram
Once you have your Instagram account set up, then what? Well that’s when the fun begins.
Fill your Feed with Instagram Content
Start filling your feed with customer photos, memes, bite-sized videos. To start, you can post one to three times a day. During this time, experiment with different times of days to see when you get the most interaction. Check our business insights on the app for the best indications. You can also skip the line” and appear front-and-center in people’s feeds through Instagram Stories.
Don’t abandon Facebook
With its reach and emphasis on sharing, Facebook is still relevant for farm marketing. Facebook is a great place to post curated content, share news and business related information for customers. But when it comes down to building a brand reputation and relationships with customers, Instagram is better.
Stick with Visuals
While visuals outperform text on both channels, on Instagram it’s downright necessary. Facebook may be more forgiving of text-based posts like blog articles or novella-length status updates, but with Instagram, if has to look great to perform great.
Use Original, People Centric Content
Instagram is about creating your brand, so it’s less about sharing content and more about creating your own. And though Instagram is a place to score sales, it is still first and foremost a place to share experiences and build relationships. This is why customer photos, and user-generated content is impactful. Not only do folks love it when brands shout them out, but customer photos represent marketing firepower that proves that people dig your products.
Work with consistent themes
Niche targeting is big on Instagram (another reason hashtags are important), so pick a dedicated theme and stick to it. As farmers or local food businesses, we have plenty of choices including fresh produce, recipes, farm landscapes, etc. The more you specialize, the better (as long as there’s enough interest), so as soon as you find your niche, dive deep. As you get more dedicated, you can specialize even more with consistent coloring, layouts, etc.
Optimize your bio and description
As the only places to talk about yourself, your Instagram bio and description are vital. In addition to your site URL, you should include a slogan and brief elevator pitch, as well as your most relevant hashtags. Don’t shy away from using your logo as your profile photo, either.
How to Promote Your Instagram
If you continue to provide great content, your following will grown organically. However, these Instagram tips for farm marketing can also provide food for thought.
Cross-Promote
We know how long it takes to get the Instagram perfect feature, so this Instagram tips for farm marketing allows you to make sure that effort doesn’t go to waste. When you link your Instagram account to your Facebook business page, you can share it directly from one platform to the other. Keep in mind that each social platform has its own best practices. For example, Instagram tends to go heavier on the hashtags while you might want to craft a slightly different description for images posted to Facebook.
Go heavy on the hashtags
One of the best Instagram tips for farm marketing because you can’t directly target user groups on Instagram, use hashtags as the next best thing. List all the relevant hashtags to help your post get seen by the right people. Up to 30 hashtags fit in the description, but you can always add more in a comment on your own post. In addition, you can also make up your own brand identifying hashtag to feature on your profile and all the content you post. This rule is unique to Instagram, but you can learn more about how to use hashtags effectively across all social mediums.
Create contests
Social media contests are always great for engagement spikes, so take advantage with an Instagram photo contest. Having users promote your brand in their pictures is free advertising, just don’t forget to create an original hashtag for the campaign. You also have the opportunity to participate in other universal trends, like the #CCPhotoADay challenge.
Tag brands, followers and locations whenever you can
You can tag other farms and farm stores in hopes of a shout-out yourself. Given that notifications ping anyone who receives them, relevant tags are a subtle way to encourage promotion. Likewise, it’s both courtesy and within Instagram’s best practices to tag anyone you might be regramming. Chances are they’ll be thrilled to be featured in your feed and will share the news with their own followers. You can also tag locations for events or location-specific posts.
Publish Instagram Content on your Website
When it comes to ads, what better billboards than your own customers?
Featuring Instagram content on-site is a brilliant Instagram strategy to increase conversions. When people see purchased products in real-world settings, they know that the brand in question has satisfied customers. Consumers can better visualize and understand a product for themselves.
In Conclusion
Follow these Instagram Tips for Farm Marketing and you’ll have a profile that you’ll customers will drool over! These tips will help you find new ways to engage with existing and potential customers.
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