Anyone with an internet connection knows about Instagram. The photo-sharing app has dominated over the other social networking giants. With over 1.386 billion (billion with a ‘B’!) active users, everyone and their nan are sharing pics and scrolling through their feed. You might think that only B2C businesses have a place on Instagram. After all, why would people turn to Insta to find a professional service firm? Well, you’d be surprised! Instagram for professional service firms is a lucrative and worthwhile strategy for gaining and nurturing leads.
Plenty of large professional service firms utilise Instagram to increase their brand awareness, create a sense of community around their brand, and attract new clients to their firm. It’s not just a place for large firms with budgets coming out of their ears though! Smaller professional service firms can not only create fantastic Instagram content but also thrive on the platform.
So, if you’re a smaller firm looking to brush up on your Instagram content, we’ll be walking you through a couple of key ideas to get you started.
1. Authentic candid content
Nothing puts people to sleep faster than a sterile corporate asset. People don’t connect with faceless corporations. There’s nothing relatable or humanising about it. People connect with other people! (Shocker.) A stock photo of models laughing around a board room, in perfect quality with the best lighting, won’t perform as well as a slightly blurry, terribly lit candid of your actual employees laughing together. (We’d advise you try and keep it as in focus and well-lit as you can, but needs must!) Authentic content provides a window into your company culture and values.
In the age of streaming, nothing says candid and transparent like a live stream. It’s the kind of unscripted, authentic content that your audience loves to see. It allows for a kind of spontaneity that can’t be portrayed through static posts. Don’t be afraid to lean into the casual or silly nature of a live stream. Your audience will appreciate and relate to the real authenticity.
2. See what sticks
The great thing about Instagram for professional service firms is that it’s incredibly easy to upload posts and the site moves quickly. There’s nothing stopping you from opening up the app, hitting that ‘add’ button in the top right corner and firing off a couple of posts. It really is that easy! Avoid over-complicating your content. Sometimes, the posts that have taken the least amount of time are the ones that perform the best. Social media performance is incredibly unpredictable. Take risks! See what works! Throwing things to the wall and seeing what sticks is a great way to find out what your audience responds to.
By uploading a variety of content, you can spend less time planning and creating carefully corporate images and more time figuring out what works. A bit of personality on your feed will definitely help you stand out from the other professional service firms that are too stuffy and serious to break away from their corporate image.
3. Find your niche and join in
How many times can you look at the same thing before you get bored? Once? Twice? Your target audience is the same. Nobody wants to see the same content over and over again. Instagram for professional service firms is a unique place for innovation and creativity that your firm probably doesn’t have anywhere else! By finding your niche within the platform, you’ll be outperforming your competitors in no time.
Creating a community around your niche does wonder for your engagement. Don’t just post your content up and call it a day. If someone comments on your post, reply to them! If someone follows you, follow them back! Get involved in the wider conversation around your posts. Like other people’s content and comment on theirs. A social networking platform is meant to be social! When you take the time to engage with other people, they’re much more likely to engage back.
4. Storytelling with Stories
Every single post on your feed is telling a story. Even if the poster is unaware and it’s completely unintentional. The more interesting stories net the most followers. If you’re looking to attract a new audience to your professional service firm, visual storytelling is a fantastic way to get them to invest in your brand – financially and emotionally!
There are plenty of tools at your disposal to help with your visual storytelling. You don’t have to limit yourself to just static images or videos. Instagram Stories are a fantastic way to craft a narrative in quick succession. Your Stories can be as long or short as you want. Can be static or video. It’s completely up to you! When viewed in quick succession, these Stories are a great way to share with your audience.
5. ‘Link in bio’
You may be thinking ‘this is all well and good, but how is any of this going to help with conversions?’ Instagram doesn’t allow you to link to any site in the captions of your posts and doesn’t allow you to link things in Stories anymore either. There is one place you’re allowed to put a link though. Your bio! Your account’s bio is a great place to showcase your website or any other important location that you want to promote.
Want to link to more than one place? You need to get yourself a Linktree! This handy landing page lets you direct your audience to multiple locations. The best part is that it’s completely free for you to get started!
Instagram for professional service firms can be especially hard to crack. If your social media hasn’t launched the way you anticipated, or maybe there just aren’t enough hours in the day to even open the app, then contact us today for a free consultation! We’re experts in all things social media and content marketing.
