In light of the recent Facebook changes that will affect brand and business content, with the reconfiguration of their newsfeeds, marketing experts believe that Instagram is an important place for you to also have a presence. (See our articles, “Facebook changing newsfeed priorities and will likely affect business brands” and “With Facebook’s recent newsfeed changes, Instagram may emerge as a crucial marketing venue.”)
As we discussed before, Instagram is a social media app made specifically for sharing photos and videos from a smartphone. It’s a social media platform where places, products, services and experiences are shared.
It is extremely brand-friendly, with 80% of its users voluntarily connecting with a brand on Instagram and people engaging with brands 10 times more than on Facebook, 54 times more than Pinterest, and 84 times more than Twitter. On the flip side, 71% of brands have accounts on Instagram, because when people follow a brand 75% are more likely to take action. (References: Adweek, BrandWatch, Instagram).
How to make Instagram work for your personal injury law firm
As with other social media platforms, you have to have a strong and consistent presence to build brand awareness, lasting relationships and trust. This in turn evolves into long-term growth and lead generation.
To succeed with Instagram, you have to make your personal injury law firm stand out from all of the rest. By following the tips below, you can build a robust account on this up-and-coming platform.
- You must have a brand strategy. By having a strong brand strategy, people will know who you are, what you do, what you stand for, and how you present your business to the world. To do this successfully, you must explore your competition to see how you can differentiate yourself from them. Finally, it’s very important that you conduct consumer research to see what people want and expect from your business and what motivates them to use you. Once you have established your message, target audience and goals, you will have the basis for your strategy. The most important question to ask yourself is, “Why should someone want to follow my personal injury law firm on Instagram?”
- Set the tone and voice of your campaign. Once you have established and defined your brand’s strategy, you have to set the tone and voice of your campaign. The tone and voice define your business’s personality. On Instagram, in addition to the visuals, you can express yourself through content and captions. You need to determine if you want to seem friendly, provocative, compassionate, informative, innovative, etc.
- Establish the look and feel of your visuals. Once you determine the tone and voice of your campaign, you must investigate and strategize different visual approaches. Do you want to use photography, video, and/or illustrations? You have to determine what will resonate with your target audience and pair it with your narrative. Once you have established the look and feel of your visuals, stay with them. This will help keep you connected to your viewers.
- Develop your content. Develop what you want to say about the visuals. You want to tell a story with a message that evokes an emotional response and makes people want to work with you. You want to be very careful not to be dry, but to be skillful in delivering your message in an artful way. Research shows that people respond very favorably to the authenticity of this approach.
- Be consistent. Make sure you remain consistent with your posts so that people will remember you and come to trust you.
- Be creative. Don’t be afraid to be creative and have a little fun. Even though the subject of personal injury is a serious matter, it doesn’t mean you have to be dour. Celebrate what you do and with optimism and promise.
Check out the images created by personal injury lawyers, Bergener and Mirejovsky. It will help you understand through images how you can come to define yourself and bring home your message in Instagram.
As always, we are here to help you with whatever you may need to create your special brand on Instagram and make it thrive.
Group Matrix Blog – February 12, 2018 – by Sharon Bowles
