Seeking Insta-Greatness with ThinkArgus
On Tuesday, March 27, April Gardner, Chief Creative & Strategy Officer at ThinkArgus presented to 50 artists and arts marketers from 40 different organizations on how to best utilize Instagram for their business. Taking questions from the audience and sharing her own stories, April walked participants through image art direction, statistics on the app’s user base, and newer Instagram features, like 24-hour exclusive “stories” that live at the top of all user feeds.
Takeaways included:
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Instagram is quickly becoming the most beloved social media site and is currently growing faster than it’s parent company, Facebook.
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Over 25 million businesses have Instagram accounts.
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Over 95 million photos are uploaded to the app every day.
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Instagram’s membership skews female — 68% of users identify as female to be exact.
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Though 80% of Instagram’s users come from the U.S., a whopping 77.6 million users call the United States home.
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The human brain processes an image 60,000 times faster than text, which makes Instagram’s streamlined photo feed ideal for telling a story quickly.
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You want to pack a punch with your posts—successful Instagram posts elicit strong emotion from its viewers.
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It’s important to consistently build your brand personality and overall aesthetic on your account. When someone scrolls past a post from your organization, you want them to be able to know it came from you without reading the caption.
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Light, bright images with bluish tones get the most likes.
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Lowering your saturation and keeping a proper contrast when editing your photos on the app can keep them looking realistic, yet enticing.
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Images that give the full picture (vs. zoomed in shots) perform better on the platform.
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Photos taken in portrait mode instead of landscape mode tend to display better on Instagram, as the format is designed for smart perusal over desktop computer engagement.
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Mobile only live stories are only available for 24 hours, making the feature a great space to experiment with content and tell stories with short timelines in a separate space on the app.
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75% of Instagram users take action after seeing an ad post.
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Behind-the-scenes (or #bts) content can offer your following an intimate look at your organization, and let them feel like they’re getting a special look at your work because of their social media loyalty.
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Instagram is full of influencers in every field, so you can invite one to take over your Instagram for a day or a weekend to bring in a new fan base, as well as jazz up your account’s content.
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Instagram has capabilities for video live stream, which you can tease to in your Insta story and link to your Facebook account.
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Invite your users to your website by including a link in your Instagram bio. Since your bio can only include one link, if you have a strong following, you can also post temporary links in your Instagram story.
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Use your Instagram to show how your engage with your community either by posting photos of your work and events, liking and commenting on other community members’ posts, or by participating in national trending hashtags.
If you weren’t able to make the presentation and want to learn more, please feel free to access April’s presenation below:
Download PDF of Insta-greatness Presentation
And please follow our presenter (@girlgoesdowntown) and ArtsBoston (@artsboston) on Instagram!
Questions? Please contact ArtsBoston’s Membership & Capacity Building Manager, Audrey Seraphin, at audreys@artsboston.org.
