Aug 19, 2021
Don’t Stay Hidden: 5 Keys to a Strong Instagram Presence
Your social media marketing strategy has the power to take your food brand far. Instagram is the 21st century key to food brand marketing success. Many respected food brands have taken to Instagram to build a stronger fan base and increase sales. Using Instagram for your business helps to seamlessly integrate your brand messaging into the public’s everyday feed. Having a presence on this app can help take your food brand and introduce it to new audiences and build a strong reputation. How does this happen? Well to start off, here are some statistics explaining the power behind the app:
Instagram has roughly one billion active users on the app. That’s roughly 13% of the Earth’s population scrolling through this app and seeing what you post.
So how do you take a platform with such an active user-base and transform your food brand’s image? Here are 5 keys, and a look at how America’s favorite Ranch Dressing company pulls it off:
KEY#1 – Have Uniform Branding
Your food brand’s branding is what makes it unique! Is your signature color a bright yellow? Do you focus on farm-fresh food? Keep in mind what your brand is and capture or look for photos and content that fits it. This gives your profile a clean look where everything is uniform and ties together. Instagram users and followers will easily be able to recognize and identify your content if it is consistent with your branding. Creating templates or featuring your logo, feature color, or product in each post helps keep branding uniform and followers intrigued.
photo from @hidden.valley on Instagram
Hidden Valley uses consistent branding throughout their Instagram feed to form uniform branding that customers will recognize. Notice the use of a green background and details (Hidden Valley’s accent color) and logo featured on this post?
KEY #2 – Post a Variety of Content
Spice up your feed and keep followers on their toes with different types of content. When it comes to running a food brand Instagram page, posting a variety of content helps keep followers interested and showcases your brand or product in various ways. Creating a social media posting schedule can keep make sure you have a variety of posts. As a food brand, how about implementing a #recipeWednesday? Posting a GIF here and there? Including posts that rely heavily on texts and posts with up-close images of your delectable product? Having a variety of content keeps followers from getting bored and clicking the unfollow button and creates a beautiful visual.
Looking again at Hidden Valley’s Instagram page (who DOESN’T love ranch), a variety of content is included on their feed. I spy video elements, text-heavy posts, product shots, and consistent branding throughout!
KEY #3 – Keep Engagement High
Keep the likes, comments, and shares coming to form a successful presence on Instagram! This keeps old followers coming back to your page and buying your product, and new followers into the loop as well. How to keep that engagement soaring? Here are some tips:
- Use hashtags
- I love Hidden Valley’s consistent use of #HVRlove on their posts.
- Post sharable content
- Instagram makes it easier than ever to share posts with others, so create content people will want to share! Whether that’s a killer recipe, a giveaway friends won’t want to miss, or something to make you smile, post content that followers will want to share.
- Utilize Instagram stories
- Instagram stories make it easy for users to share and interact with your content. You can include polls, Q&A boxes, and more interactive elements in your stories.
KEY #4 – Invite Influencers
Invite influencers to be a part of your page
KEY #5 – Have a Voice
If your food brand has a voice on social media, people can more easily recognize you.
If you have any questions about your social media strategy, please reach out to the NewPoint team. Also, if you are interested in more food brand marketing topics, please visit our Food for Thought page or check out NewPoint’s Patrick Nycz’s book: Moving Your Brand Up the Food Chain.
