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Instagram as Content Marketing

I write about strategies to turn fans into customers and customers into fans. I also share ways to use real-time strategies to spread ideas, influence minds, and build business.

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Frequently people tell me they can’t create content for marketing purposes because they “are not good a writer”.

There are many social networks that don’t rely on text! You can create a YouTube channel, an infographic, an Instagram feed, or a SlideShare. So get out there and market yourself.

One of my favorite non-text social networks is Instagram. Original photos shared on Instagram are a powerful way to showcase you and your offerings. And when you integrate your images into your online and offline marketing, you set yourself apart from the pack.

Last week I traveled to Grain Surfboards, makers of locally grown, hand crafted wooden surfboards in York, Maine, to pick up the 6’2” Wherry fish that I made this Fall. Grain Surfboards has a wonderful Instagram feed where they showcase their products and the surfing lifestyle.

Regular readers may recall that I wrote about Grain Surfboards back in October in these two posts:

How to Turn your Products into Experiences

Grain Surfboards Builds Success by Following the Grateful Dead

How Instagram works as inbound marketing

Grain_SurfboardsGrain Surfboards has a terrific Instagram feed @GrainSurfboards with, as I write this, 27,000 followers. Their posts get hundreds of likes and shares. The team regularly shares images of the boards they are building, of customer created boards like mine, and of course some surfing.  

I love that Instagram makes it so easy to create and share content like this. One of the first things people push back on in my conversations with marketers and entrepreneurs is how much time it takes to create content and publish it on the web. Many say they just can’t manage to create daily content.

But Instagram is so easy! It just takes a minute or two to shoot a photo, manipulate it with the filters, and share it with your network. With Instagram, you do almost no writing, so even word-challenged people can create awesome content.

There are many organizations that would do great with an Instagram feed. Most any industry has potential for interesting images:

Landscaping

Food

Art

Clothing

Jewelry

Sport

Automotive

Travel

Education

Charities

Retail stores

Real estate

Well, most anything! 

There’s no excuse. It’s so easy to create a content marketing strategy using Instagram!