If you have a shop local event or contest occurring, here’s an idea to drive interest — use Instagram. Instagram had 200 million active users in 2014 and it ranks in the 10 most popular smartphone apps.
How to Use Instagram for Shop Local
Share Your Treasures
Invite shoppers to use an ordained hashtag to share the treasures they’ve found at the local stores. Share the best of these shots on other social media profiles for even more attention.
Eat Local
Photographing food is a popular thing to do. Encourage local shoppers to post their favorite dishes with a call out to that restaurant. Compile the pictures and offer them up in a central location like on a blog with a fitting title like “Hungry? Eating on Main Street.”
Encourage the Selfie
Hold a contest or just encourage posting a selfie in the shopper’s favorite new outfit from a local store or create a before and after campaign featuring makeovers from a local salon or spa.
Tips for Using Instagram in Shop Local Campaigns
Now that you have some ideas on how to incorporate Instagram into your shop local campaign, use the following tips to make your campaign more successful.
- Always use hashtags. There are way too many photos on Instagram to think people will find you otherwise. Instagram does limit you to 30 but most people use around 5.
- The standard size of an image on Instagram is 612 pixels by 612 pixels but any size under 2048 pixels can be resized to fit.
- Iconosquare can help you measure your success on the site and best of all it’s free.
- Post during downtimes. Instagram is hot and many people escape into it during work hours but the best time to post is after hours, so if you’re not around set your account to do this for you.
- If your accounts are linked you can automatically post to Facebook and Twitter from your Instagram account.
Try something new with your shop local campaign and encourage people to post the treasures they’ve found. It generates buzz and interest when others see their pics.
Image via morgueFile