How well do you know your Instagram customers?
Instagram is visually stunning and allows the user to have a lot of fun with their business or story. It's your opportunity to create a digital storyboard for your brand.
Great filters and a good hashtag search engine, allow businesses to really capitalise on the promotion of their wares by using their own images, images from their buyers and by joining forces with appropriately selected relatable and reputable business accounts to feature and work alongside.
Just announced.....Instagram is picking up their business game!
To start with, they’ve added the option of having up to three ‘Contact’ options of call, text or email at the touch of a button. Similar to Facebook, you will be able to promote well performing posts and personalise your audience preferences.
You'll also have access to a range of ‘insights’ to give you better insights on your audience.
Don’t rush to update your app though.
It’s only starting to be rolled out over the next few months and should be worldwide by the end of the year.
We'll keep you updated as we know more as we can’t wait and think it will be a valuable tool for many kiwi businesses.
Are you LinkedIn?
Have you heard about LinkedIn but not really sure what it’s all about?
Not only is it a good place to keep your digital CV and build your industry connections, but is an excellent place to keep up to date with what’s happening in the global agricultural sector.
LinkedIn is a great way to network and make connections with people it would otherwise be difficult to meet or stay in touch with regularly.
NZ has around 1.5million LinkedIn members and a number of rural companies are active users.To name a few - Beef + Lamb, Synlait, Fonterra, WorkSafe, Ravensdown and more. Each sharing insightful articles useful to both the agricultural professional and the hands on farmer.
If you haven't met someone but want to connect with them on LinkedIn one of the best ways to add them to your network is by personalising a quick note, rather than using LinkedIn's generic message, along with a simple request saying ‘Hi.’
Make sure to introduce yourself and drop them a line about what you do and let them know you are available should they need anything. A compliment will never go astray either.
Call us a sucker for a nice message but this is a personal favourite of ours, which Chanelle received earlier in the year. It was from a rural company and following it a conversation started. Very cool!
#Knowyourhashtags
# # # Hashtags! # # #
What are they all about and how can you use them in your business?
Whether it be quite generic, relevant to your image or incorporating the latest trending hashtags into your posts (providing they're relevant) there's no limits to hashtags aside from your imagination.
The TopHashtags account on twitter will give you some insight into country specific trending hashtags. The website hashtagifyme.com will give you popular hashtags related to the word you type in. If you want to track the popularity of a hashtag you can always try a platform such as TagBoard - a social search and display platform.
Be careful you aren’t just randomly using hashtags and that they've some relevance to what you're posting.
Feel free to create your own for your business or conference too #grassrootsmedia #junekellogg2016 #jafwphotochallenge for example.
Use these to link photo competitions, event coverage or to get people to tag your business into photos so you can retweet in Twitter or repost in Instagram. A great way to engage your audience with your brand.
Always search the hashtag you wish to use before including it in any content. This way you can ensure it's not associated with....well....unsavoury content! There's nothing worse than unintentionally referring to something a little risque and off brand.
However, be creative and have fun with them!
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