#Winning at Instagram, or How to Learn to Stop Worrying and Love the Algorithm

# W I N N I N G AT I N S TA G R A M , O R H O W T O L E A R N T O S T O P W O R R Y I N G A N D L O V E T H E A L G O R I T H M

D I G I TA L M A R K E T I N G F O R FA S H I O N B R A N D S : M E A S U R A B L E I M PA C T O N I N S TA G R A M A N D B E Y O N D / C O N T E N T A N D U S E R E X P E R I E N C E P R E S E N T E D B Y: K A T E O ’ N E I L L I N PA R T N E R S H I P W I T H T H E N A S H V I L L E FA S H I O N A L L I A N C E M A Y 9 , 2 0 1 6

W H AT C H A N G E D ?

W H Y N O T J U S T H AT E T H E A L G O R I T H M ?

• Algorithmically-driven platforms want the user to have as relevant and sticky an experience as possible, because advertising

• In the end, isn’t that a good thing for users?

B U T N O W M O R E T H A N E V E R , I F Y O U W A N T A W I N N I N G A C C O U N T, D O N ’ T U S E I N S TA G R A M J U S T T O P O S T W H AT E V E R P I C T U R E S Y O U F E E L L I K E TA K I N G . I T ’ S T I M E T O D E V E L O P A S T R AT E G Y .

S O W H AT I S T H E B E S T W AY T O T H R I V E I N T H I S E N V I R O N M E N T ?

F O C U S O N U S E R E X P E R I E N C E .

U X : U S E R E X P E R I E N C E

W H AT D O E S “ U S E R E X P E R I E N C E ” R E A L LY M E A N ?

• empathy, alignment in language, interactions, and design with their motivations, needs, and context

• in other words, make it about them, not you

• remove roadblocks

S O W H AT D O E S T H E U S E R P R O B A B LY W A N T F R O M T H E I R I N S TA G R A M E X P E R I E N C E ?

T O E N J O Y A N A S P I R AT I O N A L V I S I O N O R A V I C A R I O U S E X P E R I E N C E

( T I M E S S Q U A R E P R O F I L E )

( F I V E D A U G H T E R S B A K E R Y P R O F I L E )

T O R E L AT E T O B R A N D P E R S O N A L I T Y

( N I S O L O P R O F I L E )

W H AT O T H E R A S P E C T S O F U S E R E X P E R I E N C E F O R I N S TA G R A M ?

D O N ’ T

• Expect users to follow your every post through push notifications.

• Turn your whole feed into a campaign.

( K AT E S PA D E S AT U R D AY E X A M P L E )

B R A N D S A R E A B O U T C O N V E Y I N G M E A N I N G .

– P E T E R D R U C K E R , S U P E R H E R O

Imag

e so

urce

: blin

kist

.com

“The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well

the product or service fits him and sells itself.”

M E A N I N G F U L M A R K E T I N G I S A B O U T L E A R N I N G . I T ’ S A B O U T M A K I N G E F F O RT S T O K N O W T H E C U S T O M E R / A U D I E N C E / C O M M U N I T Y A N D TA K I N G M E A N I N G F U L A C T I O N B A S E D O N T H AT K N O W L E D G E .

H O W W O U L D Y O U D E S C R I B E T H E S E S U C C E S S F U L FA S H I O N A N D A P PA R E L B R A N D S ?

E X E R C I S E : B R A N D P E R S O N A L I T Y / C H A R A C T E R I S T I C S L I S T

• Make a list of 3-5 adjectives that describe your brand as if you’re describing a person

• Share your list with the person next to you

W H Y I N S TA G R A M A N D V I S U A L M A R K E T I N G ?• Past images become a visual lexicon of relevant brand ideas

and orientation for new customers

• Blend online and offline experiences through shared photo capture of common places, items, and events

• Hugely reshareable

• Hugely repurposeable

• Huge for fan images and content

• Lends itself to visible goods

U S I N G I N S TA G R A M F O R I N S I G H T S

E M B E D T E X T I N I M A G E , E I T H E R A C A L L T O A C T I O N , C A M PA I G N H A S H TA G , O R B R A N D U S E R N A M E

Easy:

U P D AT E P R O F I L E U R L W I T H C A M PA I G N - S P E C I F I C L I N K

Medium-Easy:

U R L PA R A M E T E R S F O R L I N K T R A C K I N G

HTTP://WWW.WARBYPARKER.COM/MEN/OPTICAL/LINWOOD-

REVOLVER-BLACK-M?UTM_SOURCE=TELLAPART&UTM_

MEDIUM=RETARGETING&UTM_CAMPAIGN=PRODUCT_FEED_RETARGET

TING

GOOGLE URL BUILDER

R U N A N A D T O T E S T A N I D E A , E V E N I F I T ’ S J U S T A S M A L L C A M PA I G N , PA R T LY J U S T T O S E E H O W I T W O R K S .

More committed:

U S I N G I N S TA G R A M F O R M E A N I N G F U L M A R K E T I N G• Make your content both on-brand and share-worthy (or at a minimum

like-worthy)

• Captions can add a lot to the brand voice of an image

• Experiment with relevant opportunities to use video: making-of, behind-the-scenes, close-up, etc.

• Don’t spam hashtags; it can get your content throttled

• Do like others’ content; they’ll tend to like yours

• Do look over your image grid for consistency and weed out past images that don’t stack up

C O N T E N T S T R AT E G Y

R O U N D U P T H E U S U A L Q U E S T I O N S

• WHY are you communicating?

• WHO is your intended audience?

• WHAT might you say?

• WHERE might you reach them?

• HOW do they want to interact with you?

• HOW WELL are your efforts paying off?

O V E R V I E W O F A U D I E N C E S E G M E N TAT I O N

T H E A U D I E N C E M O T I VAT I O N S M AT R I X

E X E R C I S E : A U D I E N C E / C U S T O M E R S E G M E N TAT I O N L I S T

• Make a list of 3-5 distinct kinds of customers that either interact with you now or ideally will in the future

• For each kind of customer, identify what you think motivates them

• Share your list with the person next to you

A U D I E N C E M O T I VAT I O N S M AT R I X

H T T P : / / K I N S T S . C O M / A U D S H E E T S

D O W N L O A D T H E S E W O R K S H E E T S

W H E N E V E R P O S S I B L E , Y O U W A N T I D E N T I F I A B L E C U S T O M E R S E G M E N T S .

“ H O W W E L L ” = E F F E C T I V E N E S S

Leading Indicators

Lagging Indicators

Success Event

Clicks through to website from social profile

Purchases / event registrations / sales inquiries

Social as “where did you hear about us” on surveys

B R E A K

A N A LY T I C S A N D M E A S U R E M E N T

T H AT M O M E N T W H E N Y O U H AV E N ’ T B E E N PAY I N G AT T E N T I O N T O S T U F F T H AT M AT T E R S .

photo by flickr user a4gpa

A N A LY T I C S A R E P E O P L E .

A N A LY T I C S P R O C E S S

• Determine KPIs • What factors will determine success? • What’s actionable?

• Establish a baseline • Where are the pain points? • What’s the range?

• Prioritize • What’s most critical? • What’s easiest?

• Validate • Form a hypothesis • Test

• Analyze • Compare with baseline • Extrapolate to ROI

source: Omniture SiteCatalyst Basic User Training Workbook

W H AT ’ S M E A S U R A B L E ?

• Traffic

• Sources (finding methods)

• Composition (visitor profile)

• Engagement

• Navigation

• Content

• Conversion "Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts

can be counted." - Albert Einstein

W H AT ’ S M E A N I N G F U L ?

• “Where in the site are visitors most often deciding to leave?”

• “Where do visitors most often go after using the internal search?”

• “Do visitors who come in on blog posts actually visit the rest of the site?”

• “What search terms are used by the people who are most likely to purchase?”

In other words:

start with a good question.

P L A N N I N G I S K E Y T O M E A N I N G F U L A N A LY S I S

Anticipate

Implement

Modify

Data collection begins!

Incremental data only

W H AT I S M E A N I N G F U L H E R E ?

C O N V E R S I O N M E T R I C S

• Conversion Rate (Orders or Leads per Visit)

• Orders

• Revenue

• Leads Completed

W R A P - U P / C L O S I N G ( 1 0 M I N U T E S )

• Thank you

• Final questions

• Feedback form

B E PAT I E N T A N D P E R S I S T E N T.

T H A N K Y O U !

Facebook: /kateoneillpage

LinkedIn: /kateoneill

Twitter: @kateo

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Image credit: Robbie Quinn (http://robbiequinnphotography.com/)