Twice Blessed founders Marissa and Rebecca Karagiorgos reveal their top tips for brands on Instagram.
What content generates the most engagement?
In our experience, the types of content that generates the most engagement is content that relates the most to the brand's target audience.
There is no formula for 'great' engagement if you do not know your target audience and how to speak to them effectively.
A brand who's main audience are 12 - 18 year olds are going to respond to content in a different way to those who are 35+.
For example, we know that (with Twice Blessed) our followers are between the age of 25-35 year old, and they want to be spoken to like the intelligent and savvy women that they are. Our content reinforces that by how we style our clothes, shoot our content and engage with our audience.
Another KEY to generating content that is highly engaging and (in our experience) coverts, is the *Marketing Sweet-spot*. Ie - content that is Aspirational, but Attainable. Everyone can aspire to the lifestyle/etc you're portraying, but can also achieve it easily.
What format gets the most traction?
For us, IGTV, posted in feed has been a game changer in terms of growth, visibility and total reach.
In the month of March, we grew 11,000 followers by filming 2 'How to Style' IGTV video's. Both of these video's went viral (with over 100,000 views each) and we were exposed to such a larger audience of people than we ever had been before.
Luckily for us, Fashion Styling videos are currently going viral and being pushed out by the Algorithm, so we just jumped onto the wave and reaped the benefits of it!
What other social media platforms are successful for you and/or the brands you work with?
For us and our clients, Facebook is a great 'hub' to come back to for advertising and streamlining all other content through.
However, with the trend of 'inspiration' sourcing and re-sharing, Pinterest is a great platform to use.
What advice would you have for brands in working with influencers to secure maximum value?
1) Establish your Objective
Commissioning an influencer should be based on the below objectives/outcomes you're after:
1) CONTENT
2) ALIGNMENT
3) FOLLOWERS/SALES
Any of the three can be combined and shared around, but sometimes you want to work with an influencer who absolutely doesn't align with your brand aesthetics, but makes you lots of sales.
It doesn't mean you have to promote their content, but you can still benefit from their promotion of your brand.
Similarly, you may have an influencer who gets you no sales, but their content and alignment is exactly where you want to be placed in the market.
Sometimes your ROI doesn't have to be monetary, because building a great brand and alignment is just as important as making sales.
2) Write a thorough brief for your Influencers
Which considers your campaign objectives, any key metrics needed for the influencer to use and any reference images (from the influencer themselves) that you love and would like them to use as inspiration for your collaboration.
The brief should also equally take into consideration the influencers branding/aesthetic as well as your own. It's good to remember that you're collaborating with someone who already has a strong branding and you're commissioning them to create work based on what they can offer you.
3) 'Boost' and promote their post after they post the image.
That way you can generate more traction of their images + audience straight away.