How Customers Can Help Build Your Brand on Instagram

Keeping up with Instagram can be a struggle! I know because I started my business account only 2 weeks ago. Even though I scheduled a lot of the content ahead, I still feel the anxiety of getting posts out on time, making sure my pattern is maintained, editing last minute pictures, etc.

If you’ve ever felt the same way, I have some great news for you: you DON’T have to do all the work yourself!

No, I’m not about to pitch some sketchy scheme to you. I’m going to show you a technique used by some major brands that is also a completely legitimate marketing technique.

User Generated Content (UGC)

Allow me to introduce UGC. Okay, I know it sounds like an illegal substance but I swear it’s all above board here. UGC stands for user generated content and it is the not-so-secret sauce to lightening your load.

This is how UGC works. You have a great product or service. Your customers love your product because it helps them solve a problem, educates, inspires or entertains them. They love using your product or service so much that they tell their friends and sometimes even post about it on social media. But how does that help you?

Custom Hashtag

Enter, the custom hashtag. Not sure what hashtags are or what business purpose they really serve? That’s okay, I have a video explaining all you need to know about understanding hashtags and using hashtags to grow your audience.

For those of you who know all about hashtags (or those extra credit students who just brushed up on their hashtag knowledge from the video), you’ll know a custom hashtag is a unique word, string of words or acronym your business uses to identify and track content about its brand, company and/or products. For instance, Coca Cola uses #ShareACoke. Searching #ShareACoke on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook will bring up all of their fans’ content featuring Coke, as long as that person used the hashtag.

I know what you’re thinking. That’s great for Coke but I’m just a tiny shop without the big budget and marketing team of Coca Cola. I have even more great news: custom hashtags are free! All you have to do is choose one, search it on a couple of social networks to make sure it’s not already being widely used for something else, and inform your customers. You can include it in your advertising, in your email templates, on your social media, on your product’s packaging or on your newsletter. Have a sign in your store and place it on your marketing materials. Encourage your customers to tag you and use the hashtag in pictures or video of themselves using your product or service or even better, of their results. Let them know, you’ll repost the best ones on your own social media. Then, watch and wait. Search social networks and set up Google Alerts to notify you of any use of your custom hashtag. Once you see some of your fans, using your product, repost those photos on your own social media accounts and tag your customer to show some love back.

This practice accomplishes two things: 1) you are reinforcing a bond with an already happy customer and 2) you are multiplying your social proof – your customer’s friends will see that their friend loves your product so much they posted about it and your own followers will see that your other customers love your product or service and that you appreciate your customers so much you feature them on your profiles.

One brand setting a great example with a mix of produced photos and UGC is the vintage-inspired women’s clothing brand, Modcloth. On Instagram, @ModCloth has claimed the custom hashtag #MarriedInModcloth to feature some of their customers on one of the most important days of their lives – their wedding day. Customers who wear Modcloth clothing and accessories on their big day, can use the hashtag #MarriedInModcloth and the brand reposts some of these within their own content. Use of the images routinely scores the brand a higher than average number of hearts and the brand is able to use these photos (as well as other non-wedding-related user photos) on the company website to show what the clothing items look like on ‘real’ people.

Hashtags are free to create and use! So go research some possible hashtags for your business. And if you found this post helpful, share it on Facebook using the hashtag #TheBritFactor.