Instagram has multiple platform strategies for breweries to take advantage of, including posting to your feed, sharing in stories, creating video content for Instagram Live, IGTV, or now Reels.
Brand Strategist Phil Pallen shared at the Beer Now Virtual Conference hosted by Zephyr that all breweries have access to the same profile features and posting capabilities here are the ones that matter the most.
”If your strategy on Instagram isn’t winning, I would say that one reason is because you’re not maximizing your real estate,” Pallen said. He shared five ways to maximize that space.
Name
Pallen said to consider adding context or keywords to your name field.
”Maybe you’ve got your business name typed [there],” he said. ”I want you to think about using the up-to-30 characters.”
Adding keywords can be important in your name is key because this field is highly searchable on Instagram.
”If you include a keyword that people are typing in to find relevant profiles, then it increases the likelihood that you’re going to be discovered,” Pallen said. ”Even if it’s not discoverability, based in search, it’s people seeing that keyword and associating that topic with you. You’ve got up to 30 characters. So if you’ve got a long business name, you’re going to be limited on what else you can include there.
”But I want you to get smart, and I want you to get savvy. Your social media handle already tells us your name. Think about shortening it and getting creative in this name field. It also reminds people what you do, this is an opportunity to get creative.”
Bio
You need to be able to write a winning bio in just one to two sentences or three bullet points.
“Tell me who you are, and why people should care,” Pallen said. ”What are you? How can you help me? Why should I believe you?”
Your bio is a very valuable digital real estate that exists for one purpose, to convince someone you are someone that they want more of.
”The longer your bio is, the more it pushes your photos down,” Pallen added. ”And if your photos are great, we want people to see those. So just one or two sentences or I would say three bullet points.”
Calls to Action
Pallen also recommends adding a call to action in your bio.
“What is it you want people to do? Why should I click the link that is directly below the bio?” he asked, adding he changes the text almost every day based on what the link is that day.
Your brewery’s IG link-in bio is the one opportunity you have to take someone off Instagram.
”Use it wisely. Don’t just link to the homepage of your website. No one really cares about your website,” Pallen said. “My recommendation is to take them somewhere you can ask them to do something.”
Pallen uses a page on his website that is optimized for mobile, so it could be your ”domain.com/Instagram.”
“I make it easy for people to sign up to my email list,” he explained. ”You could create a landing page on whatever you use for email marketing. Don’t forget to change this content as well on the page periodically so you get return visitors who are excited by what you’re doing. It gives people a reason to keep going back and clicking and engaging.”
Vertical Shots
In talking about maximizing real estate, if you can post vertical photos on your feed, you are more likely to get noticed. Instagram’s default is 1080×1080 pixels.
“If you can make it 1350 tall, that’d be 1080×1350, it means more people are going to like it, comment, engage, and share,” Pallen said. “Hopefully you’re posting good content, but it takes up more physical screen real estate as they’re scrolling through their feed, and your posts are going to perform better.”
Pallen said to think about using a tool like Canva or Photoshop to crop photos.
Ask a Question
Pallen said starting your captions with a question will engage people with your content as opposed to them just liking your post and moving on.
”A lot of times people are busy, and they’re stressed, especially right now. So if you actually take the time to ask them a question and very overtly ask for an engagement, they’re more likely to do it,” Pallen said. ”The craziest things will get people interacting. Changing your profile photo on social media. I did this and asked: Should I change it to this one, this one, this one, or this one. Rather than making that decision myself, I posted it on Instagram as a post with multiple photos. That got over 100 comments in one day.
”So think about what people are interested in engaging and talking about. And sometimes it’s the simplest stuff, really.”
1 Trackback / Pingback