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With over 80% of Instagram users following at least one business, it’s vital that your hotel business has a presence on the platform. Instagram provides the perfect place to engage with customers, share experiences and build a community that keeps coming back for more.
Here are the top 6 Instagram trends your hotel should be adopting:
1. Craft Personalised Content Experiences
Instagram tailors an individual’s feed using data from other posts they have liked and interacted with. This gives users a very personalised experience, but brands can get creative and craft a personalised experience for every user outside of the Instagram algorithm. By creating a personalised experience, your brand can expect so see an average increase of 20% in sales.
2. Use Instagram Story Ads
Every day there are 400 million people tuning in to watch Instagram Stories. At the same time, Facebook advertising is increasing in cost, meaning that more and more brands are using the Instagram Stories Advertising feature. Brands who have adopted Stories Advertising have already experienced significant positive results, while this is expected to be a huge Instagram trend in 2020.
The Instagram Stories feature originally only offered 15-second-long videos, but now the app allows you to upload videos of a longer length, which are automatically sliced up into 15-second segments that follow on seamlessly from one to the next. This allows you to focus on creating quality content that is geared specifically towards your audience.
3. Create User-Generated Content
Content generated by your customers should feature within your marketing plan. Research found that posts featuring user-generated content have a 4.5% higher conversion rate on Instagram than those that do not. This kind of content is authentic, honest and trustworthy, and can include images of your products, services or facilities, as well as review. This is a fantastic way to gain quick access to plenty of content, but is also a great approach for encouraging potential future customers.
Photo by Manuel Barros from Pexels
4. Create Niche Content
With consumers inundated with content from so many different avenues, many marketers are creating niche content to help them stand out amongst the competition. Use Instagram to appeal to a very specific segment of your overall audience, rather than targeting everyone who might like your brand.
5. Nano-Influencer Marketing
Brands are increasingly choosing to work with smaller users (‘nano-influencers’), rather than influencers with millions of followers. This is because recommendations from individuals with a much smaller following (including as little as 1000) are regarded as more trustworthy than recommendations from people with millions of followers, who are often paid hefty sums to endorse products or services.
In the coming months (and beyond) we can expect to see many more brands working with nano-influencers. To find nano-influencers you need to look out for individuals with high engagement levels, rather than follower count. Once things evolve, you can also work with them to create campaign ideas.
6. Instagram Destinations
Since Instagram is primarily about the visual, we are witnessing an increase in “Instagram-friendly” venues across the globe. For instance, there is a growing trend of Instagrammable restaurants, cafes, hotels and even museums. Many of these venues are placing a heavier emphasis on presentation, or painting feature walls. These places are heavily committed to the number of Instagram shares they can achieve.
Within your own establishment, you could consider creating a place that’s visually enticing, where users can snap Instagram-friendly photos. Encourage guests to share their photos of your designated location, then share those uploads by reposting them on your page and within your Stories.
With more content being published than ever before, it’s time to get creative and stand out from a very crowded market. It’s safe to say that 2019 and beyond will be an exciting time for this extremely popular platform.
As you can see, we’ve written extensively about Instagram marketing:
The Ultimate Guide to Instagram Listening
Why Hotels should Create an Instagram Business Profile
If you’re interested to learn more about how you can help your business to excel, please contact the 8 Ways Media team of specialists.
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