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March 5, 2016
Insta-Branding

We have recently created a CDG Instagram account, we believe this is a great opportunity to engage with our wider audience on a more personal level (which we have always been an advocate of), giving a real insight into life at CDG. You can expect to see our office culture, our thought/branding processes, motivational quotes, and some images of our team (if they will agree). we fully advocate the idea of transparency in business, how will clients trust you and do business with you when there is no connection or relationship there? It is becoming more of a requirement than a choice to demonstrate your internal culture, feature your team members, and provide insights into your brand.

Instagram
Instagram has grown considerably in the past 5-6 years, completely leap-frogging the alternative image sharing platform (Pinterest). Instagram has a monthly 300 million active users, which is 230 million more users than Pinterest. We know that people use Instagram to follow celebrities, and people within an industry. It feels like more of a behind the scenes platform, most celebrities provide us with an insight into their daily lives. It consists of mostly selfies and more casually captured images (users want genuine real life photographs, definitely not paid product placement). Celebrities such as Beyonce have been heavily criticized for uploading professionally photographed images with un-natural poses. Users have no interest in perfectly styled hair being blown by a ‘wind machine’. Users want to see what you’re eating for lunch, what sneakers you are wearing, what breed of dogs you have.

Users want an insight into the celebrities lives, what they get up to day to day, allowing them to realize that they are just humans like us. We found that many professionals are quite passionate about their job, and have a genuine interest in their industry. These professionals will enjoy reading up on their industry, they will search for insights, news stories and inspiration. These are the people we want to reach out to, engage with, learn from and influence.

Benefits Of Using Instagram
For me, working in the marketing department of CDG, I need to be clued into social media and all things digital. It just makes sense to have a presence on Instagram, demonstrating our expertise as a brand and web agency. I believe people will connect with our brand on a more personal and emotional level if they can see the internal culture of the company. The aim of the CDG Instagram is to establish a community where creatives can share images, make connections, engage, and share industry insights. ‘Brands are using Instagram for employee engagement, relationship building, and product introduction’.

Users log on to see ‘behind the scene’ images, giving them a glimpse into your brand/company. Before setting up an account, you must consider who your audience is, what would be of interest to them? Ensure you do not flood your account promoting yourself, users want the inside scoop on your company, your account should be an even mix of motivational quotes, office life, team building activities, basically what goes on behind the scenes of your brand?

Social media has allowed brands to “Create, deepen and engage in two-way relationships to an extent that was never possible previously’
‘Instagram is first and foremost an opportunity to share a visual
‘. Many firms are unaware that Instagram provides a great space for engagement, it is useful for story-telling, for sharing insights, and reinforcing your brand message through visual elements. Although Instagram will not directly generate revenue, I believe it is a valuable brand building activity. Instagram was developed by photographers and creatives, its aim is to share and inspire. It connects brands and customers on a more personal and engaging level, showing customers the people and personalities who work behind the scenes. It is easier to do business with a face/personality – rather than a strangers voice on the phone.

Instagram Content Guidelines
When creating your Instagram account, you must consider who you want to engage with, and what would be of interest to them? What is your objective in using this platform? To promote your products, or to demonstrate the brand identity? Your Instagram account should be used to engage with your community, and as I always say it is imperative to post consistently, and reply/engage with user comments. Linking social media accounts can also be beneficial to increase reach, Buffer conducted a study which found Tweets with images received 150% more re-Tweets and 89% more favorites’.

· Companies could also use their Instagram account to communicate their CSR efforts – photos of team members participating in a
skydive or even holding a bake sale for a charity. This demonstrates the ‘team player’ culture of the brand, whilst also donating to a
worthy  cause. I also believe, commending staff for their charitable efforts will be a great boost for employee morale.

· Show followers what your office looks like, the faces behind the company. People are inquisitive and would love to see the face
behind the voice/name for example.

· You cannot go wrong with a motivational quote, most likely your followers will relate and interact if you post a quote, as they will
possibly have the same experience or feelings.

· Happy employees with a small bio, just some information on how long they are working for the company, what they love about their
job, favourite movie – whatever will engage with followers.

· Pictures of staff at team building events/activities.

· Media presence/articles featuring the brand, awards you have won, or competitions.

· Insights into the processes used, for example our logo design process (lighthouse sketches below).

· Branding on Instagram is used to give followers an insight that they would not see in traditional media.

· Basically anything that is considered the lifeblood/personality/culture of the brand.

Conclusion

It is becoming more of a precondition to have a personal approach in business, by giving insights into your brand culture/identity, you are creating brand awareness. I have forecast this obsession with photographs for many years. Users want more – the popularity of photos and images has increased, and is now evolving into video. Instagram is a great visual medium for engaging with social media savvy users and creatives, this can be done by demonstrating our thought processes and the internal culture of CDG.

I uploaded this photo (below) to the CDG Instagram 5 days ago (when I first set up the account). Although we had just 2 followers at the time, the image received 13 ‘likes’, this was due to the use of hashtags. Professionals within the marketing and branding sectors are more socially tuned in, they are motivated and passionate about their career/industry. Therefore, they will search trending hashtags to gain industry insights, news and announcements. These are the people you want to engage and connect with.
So if you want the inside scoop on #LifeAtCDGBrand – Follow us here

 

May 19, 2016

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September 3, 2018

Irish Content Media Awards 2018 – Photography Rich Media Nomination

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