We choose to focus on Instagram because it is where the cannabis industry as a community has the largest online presence. Being the 6th largest social platform with 1 Billion active monthly users, there is A LOT of attention to get ahold of. People feel they connect more with a company that has an active online presence because we spend so much time online, it’s like a second world at this point.
The platform has moved well past the days of posting with a handful of hashtags and receiving the appropriate amount of exposure. While targeted hashtags are important, content is now king.
Content quality, utilizing hashtags, and engaging within the platform will cultivate the ideal targeted exposure. Engagement from other accounts will boost the exposure to your post with the chance of it hitting the explore page for a larger percentage of users.
Aside from these key aspects, there are other features that I feel the ‘algorithm’ rewards when they are utilized effectively. These are the other features Instagram offers such as Story Posts, Story Highlights, Instagram Live, and IGTV.
I think of the Newsfeed Post as a highlight reel of your company, quality photos and videos of what you have going on. The Story Posts are only up for 24 hours and are what I think of as behind the scenes content or auxiliary content. They continue to add value to your audience and allow them to get to know your company in a more personal way.
Story Post Highlights are a way to organize and keep Story Post content displayed on your account for a longer duration.
Instagram Lives are great because they are, live! There is nothing except yourself and the audience which is a little strange at first but know what you are there for and it gets better every time. Instagram Live can be saved for IGTV later or posted directly to the story once it has ended.
IGTV is very similar to Instagram Live but it can be produced & edited before posting. Producing and editing content is nice but can easily seem ‘overproduced’ and be unattractive to your audience.
Content that I have seen perform well is capturing the moments the consumer will never see. There is something very intriguing about the production perspective when it looks to be caught naturally.
I hope you took something away from reading this post - Keep in mind the platform is always changing but this should give you a good idea of what goes into running an active account.
If you are interested in our Instagram consulting or professional management program, feel free to reach out by DM or MinkLoafs@Gmail.com. I will be glad to see how we can complement what you have going on.
We are also working on a list of topics for sponsored IGTV videos such as CRC tech & many topics around production. If you want to sponsor a video or a native Newsfeed Feature I can send you over our numbers.