When it comes to marketing, I believe in the jab jab jab right hook philosophy: you give give give before you can get. Before you can ask anyone for anything, whether it's business or a sale or whatever, you need to provide something first: you need to bring value.
Social media is an amazing place to do this because it provides so many opportunities for one on one interactions, and it is an essential tool in getting your value out there, whatever form it takes. Video Q&As, articles, how-to's, you name it, social media has a way to make sure people see it.
Instagram, however, is an interesting case. With the way Instagram works, you might think that it is entirely a "jabbing" platform. What I mean by that is this: you post photos, and then from there you can tag a location or add a caption. The options don't go much farther beyond that. Compared to Facebook with dark posts and Twitter with retweeting and replying, it can feel like Instagram is a bit of a dead end. Who am I talking to? Who is seeing this? They only recently rolled out a public ad platform and it's entry barrier is pretty high.
So, maybe Instagram is that place where you only jab. This could be the case if you know a lot of your fans also follow you on Facebook, or Twitter, where right hooks are a bit easier to throw. If you sell sneakers, you could use Instagram to put up those sweet pics of your sneaks.
But, there is a way to right hook on Instagram that many people don't think about enough. The link in your profile. So many people use this space as a place to merely post their website address. But, what if you put up a post saying "New sneakers for sale, link in profile". Now this is getting interesting. Now you have a way to directly link to a point of purchase. And if that photo of the sneakers is a super sweet photo, that could be enough to get someone to click.
This is the only way to drive people out of Instagram. Links are not allowed in captions and the only place a link can live is in that space under your bio.
I've used this tactic for the #AskGaryVee Show. I put up a 15 second clip from the most recent episode, and as the caption write "Link to new episode in bio!". And it works. People click, my friend.
But of course, you have to evaluate what works best for your right hook. Like I said before, maybe Instagram is your jabbing platform. Maybe it's selective right hooks. Maybe you create a deal for Instagram followers only. Test and learn. See what works. You never know what you might find out.
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