#Regram. Your business's guide to reposting on Instagram

Image courtesy of PetaPixel

So when you want to share other people’s content with your own business’s followers on Facebook and Google Plus you share, on Twitter you retweet, but what do you do on Instagram?

Let me introduce you to regramming (or reposting).  Hootsuite defines a regram as: “when an Instagram user posts a photo from someone else’s account to their own”. As well as being able to share fantastic content with your followers there are numerous other benefits to your business if you use regramming correctly; it has the potential to supply an endless amount of fresh content for your page, it can increase your brand awareness, encourage more engagement with your brand and improve your social proof.

In this article I will tell you exactly how to regram as well as show you how to unlock all of these benefits and more for your business.

How to regram

There are several different ways you can share other people’s content on your Instagram page. We will look at two in particular; manually posting the content and using one of the numerous apps that offer the service. The former option is a little stone age however it is a useful technique to know and will enable you to post content without having the app’s brand name overlaid on top of your images.

Manual regramming

Manually reposting content on Instagram is easy, however it is worth bearing in mind that this only works on photographs and will not work for video. Simply follow the steps below: 

1. Open Instagram on a mobile device
2. Navigate to the post you would like to regram
3. Take a screenshot or save the image to your device
4. Press the + button in the centre of the bottom navigation row on Instagram
5. Select the screenshot you have just taken
6. Crop the image so that only the picture you want to repost is in the frame (if required you can edit the image with your devices native editing suite)
7. Proceed to the caption page and write your caption, remember to give credit to the original owner of the image (more on this later)
8. Hit share

Easy, however for better quality reposting and the ability to repost videos the next option is the one you want.

Regramming tools

There are a whole host of tools and applications out there designed for specifically regramming content. Head over to your device’s application service and search for “repost Instagram”, choose an app that has good reviews and for-fills your requirements. A great tool that I have had success with in the past is Repost for Instagram from the guys over at Red Cactus.

Although the process differs a little from app to app the basics are the same:

1. Install your choice of application
2. Open Instagram on a mobile device
3. Navigate to the post you would like to regram
4. Tap the three dots on the top right of the post
5. Press “Copy Share URL”
6. Open your regramming application
7. Edit the post as required
8. Share the post

Boom, 2 minutes of work and you have some fantastic content to share with your followers.

Regram like a professional

Get noticed

So earlier I said that regramming content can be a great way to increase your brand awareness, here is a great trick to get potential customers noticing your brand.

When you are looking for content to regram, focus on people that have a use for your product or service. If you regram someone’s content and notify them like I will outline below, I guarantee they will take an interest in your brand and head over to your business’s Instagram page.This is fantastic free way to get your business noticed by, and give value to new potential customers. If you have chosen correctly, (someone that resonates with your brand and requires your product or service) this potential customer will likely become an actual customer later down the line.

#Hashtag

Another simple, but great hack is to make sure you use the hashtag “#regram” when you repost someone else’s content. Using this hashtag shows people that your business is both ethical and genuine, showing that you are more than happy to highlight that this post uses someone else’s content.

Secondly, when posting one of your happy customer’s posts about your product, using this hashtag shows that someone loved your product/service so much that they posted about it. Let your customers show people why they should buy your product, social proof beats your own advertising every day of the week.

Responsible regramming

If I were cynical, I would perhaps think that some of you would read this blog and go about reposting other people’s content without asking permission and claiming it as your own. However, let me highlight a few important things here. Not only would that be showing a complete lack of respect for the person who created the great shareable content, but you would also be shooting yourself in the foot, here is why:

Asking before you use

Asking permission to use someone else’s content before regramming is a must. Simply drop the user a message and ask if you can use their post on your page, 9 times out of 10 they will say yes. The best way we have found of doing this is by simply commenting on the user’s post with a kind message or remark about the photo or video followed by the request for permission to use the post.

Do not just go ahead and use the image or video once you have requested permission, wait for the user to reply and say it is ok before regramming their content. This is not only a nice thing to do but it also has a lot of benefits for your business. For example, the content creator will likely be thrilled that a business thinks their image or video is good enough for them to re-use it and as a result is likely to think of your brand more favourably in the future.

Crediting the creator

In addition to asking permission to use people images and videos it is imperative that you give credit where credit is due. This is easy; simply include the users name in your caption prefixed with something like; Photo by (@username), Image Credit (@username) or Captured by (@username). What comment you use is not as important as making sure you make it clear who provided the original image or video, so feel free to get creative.

By tagging the content creator in your post you ensure that your regram will show up in the news feeds of all of their followers. So not only is this good practise, you will instantly increase your post’s reach!

If the above benefits are still not enough to stop you ripping off other people’s content, remember that if the original content creator finds out and wishes to do so they can justifiably report you to Instagram and your account will be suspended or removed. It is also worth noting that in this situation Instagram will not see it as sufficient if you have just tagged the user in the image, make sure you mention them in the caption.

So there you have it, regramming can be exactly what your business needs to take it to the next level on Instagram. Follow all of the best practises I have outlined above and you will be well on your way to Instagram success. I would love to know how you currently, or plan to use regramming as part of your Instagram strategy, let me know in the comments!

George Rudge - Social 365

Everything you need to know about #hashtags on Twitter

In your quest for social media knowledge you may have heard the term "hashtag" mentioned a lot! Hashtags are a tagging tool that is used by many of the top social media networks, however in this article we will be focusing on the use of hashtags for Twitter. The basic premise is that you throw # in front of a keyword for example; #socialmediaagency, this tells Twitter that your post is about social media and as a result will allow users to find your tweet by searching for the hashtag.

Why you should be using hashtags

Hashtags are much more than just an indexing tool used by Twitter. Used creatively they can add humour, more information and substance to your businesses tweets. Hashtags are the fabric of Twitter, each hashtag is a link that will take users to other tweets and content that is related to that particular topic.

If you are posting on Twitter without making use of hashtags you are severely limiting the amount of people that will see your tweet and if you are aiming to increase brand awareness impressions are the name of the game.

Where to start

First thing is first, you will need to establish what hashtags you will be using. You can technically hashtag any word you like, however this is not to say that you should. Some words are more popular than others and your goal is to find the keywords that your target audience are searching for. Here at Social 365, something we do with our clients is establish a list of core hashtag and keywords that we will use through-out their social media. These core words will be featured frequently in posts and specifically tweets to increase awareness of the business in those particular keywords.

Start by thinking of words that best describe your business and search for these hashtags on Twitter, ensure that the hashtags are being used for what you are expecting and businesses similar to yourself are coming up. It is also a good idea to take inspiration from the keywords you use on your website for SEO purposes. Your goal here is to pick hashtags that have high search volume from your target audience as well as high levels of interaction on tweets. Once you decided upon your core list of hashtag you can start using these with your businesses tweets.

How many should you use

There is much debate about how many hashtags you should be use. The key thing to bare in mind when trying to use hashtags, is that your tweets must be easy to read. #Tweets #with #too #many #hashtags #canbeverydifficulttoread. It does not matter how good your tweet or content is, if people cannot read your tweet, you will not get any engagement. There is research that suggests engagement drops significantly (17%) on posts with more than 2 hashtags, therefore we suggest sticking to 1 or 2 hashtags per tweet with the priority being placed on creating an easy to read post with natural hashtag placement.

How to find hashtags that are popular near you

In addition to using your core list of hashtags you should try to get involved with the conversion related to your industry in your local area. A get great way to find out what people are talking about is to look at the topics that are currently trending on Twitter. Trending topics are topics that are getting a high number of tweets over a short period of time. Keep an eye on these topics and make use of the topic hashtag if something comes up that you think your business can have an input on.

How to make your hashtags work for you

We have covered why you should be using hashtags, what things you should be hash-tagging and how many hashtags you should be using but how do you actually apply this to your tweets? Again, the most important thing to keep in mind is that your tweets much be easy to read. If you are tweeting a trending hashtag it is best to keep the hashtag at the beginning of your tweet so that the readers know straight away that your tweet is related to the topic in question. Another method we like to use is to incorporate the #hashtag into the sentence itself, this helps reduce the amount of characters used, an important consideration when posting on Twitter. If the hashtag you wish to use does not fit easily in the main body of the tweet, simply add the hashtag to the end of sentence #likethis.

Practise makes perfect

Now you know exactly what hashtags are and how you can use them to get your Tweets in front of your target audience. With some practise you will be able to get creative with how you are using hashtags, adding personality and important links to your tweets.

George Rudge - Social 365

Top Instagram tips for Businesses

There are over 600 million active Instagram users every month and 400 million active users every day!

With statistics like these, it is clear there is a huge opportunity for businesses to market their products or services to the masses in a different way than from other Social Media platforms. 

You might have a personal Instagram account already, and use it regularly. But being successful on Instagram as businesses is a different kettle of fish! 

These tips below will help you understand how to be an Instagram guru. 

1. Show people what happens behind closed doors

i) Instagram Stories

A new update by Instagram allows their users to upload videos and pictures to stories. Instagram stories are available from your mobile, and are only available for 24 hours (unless you choose to extend).

These stories are a great way for your followers to see what is happening behind the scenes of your company and connect with you on a more personal level. 

ii) Be creative in your posts

Posting short videos (up to one minute long) and colourful, vibrant pictures to your company page helps your followers and potential customers experience your company culture and mission. 

2. Use appropriate #hashtags

i) Company or industry hashtags

Hashtags are the way to expand your reach on Instagram. Post specific, brand specific, industry specific - they are all relevant and all get your business in the limelight.

An easy trick is to create a hashtag for your company (i.e. #company name). This will allow people who are searching for your business to easily find all the content posted by you.

You can use up to 30 hashtags per post. That’s right, 30. But it's best to stick to under 10 at a time. Being specific is better than just using hashtags for the sake of using hashtags. 

ii) Worldwide hashtags

If you have established your posting schedule to include popular weekly events, use these in your posts - #motivational Monday, #wisdomwednesday, #throwbackthursday (#tbt). 

These get millions of searches everyday, so it can't hurt to include them in your post can it?

3. Find collaborators

There are plenty of businesses out there who are trying to grow on social media. Collaborating with some of these businesses could be your ticket to more followers and potentially more sales. 

You could consider using unpaid mentions rather than paying for an influencer marketer. Collaborating with another business, with similar follower size and values as your business, can be beneficial for you both. Both promote to each others’ followers and both get added exposure.  

These tips will not only increase engagement with your followers, but will hopefully help you attract new customers to the business. Please let us know if you found these tips helpful and any other tips you've used to grow your Instagram account. 

Aaron Savage - Social 365