Instagram

1. Instagram Coming June 2017 By: Erica Statly and Meghan Cook

2. Why does Farm Bureau need an Instagram? • It is the second most widely used social network platform after Facebook. • People are 58 times more likely to interact with posts (like, comment, share) on Instagram over Facebook. • It has the fourth highest conversion rate. • For every 100 visitors, 1 will make a purchase. • There are 300+ million daily active users. • 90% of Interbrand 100 Companies have Instagram accounts. • Visuals are processed by the brain 60,000 times faster than words. • People remember 80% of what they see, compared to remembering 20% of what they read.

3. Which one would you rather purchase from, based on their Instagram profiles? Starbucks Dominos

4. Optimizing Our Brand Profile • Choose a cohesive feel/look for all the pictures that we post. • Similar lighting and filter options for all posts (alter pictures through editing software). • Engage with followers constantly. • Acknowledge their comments, comment on their posts • Run contests and giveaways for our followers • Use SEO-rich hashtags • Put in comment, not necessarily original caption • “The 80-20 Rule” • 80% of content is “fun” or featured follower content • 20% Promotional Content

5. Competitive Analysis We looked at seven different insurance companies and evaluated their: • Quality of content • Number of followers • Number of likes and comments per post • Things they did well • Things they could improve on • How often they posted • Anything that might differentiate their brand and gives them a competitive advantage

6. Competitive Analysis: Allstate • 10.7K Followers • 102 likes on average per post • Technically-focused content • A unified look and feel to their content • Feature a lot of people, including celebrities

7. Competitive Analysis: State Farm • 32.4K Followers • 189 likes on average per post • Feature a lot of everyday people • Include a lot of video content • Posted excerpts from their commercials • Showcases philanthropic work

8. Competitive Analysis: Aflac • 7,022 Followers • 74 likes on average per post • The entire account is told from the duck’s perspective (the face of the brand) • Intended to be humorous content • They post a lot of videos • They included quotes from the duck

9. Competitive Analysis: Farmers Insurance • 2,933 Followers • 92 Likes on average per post • They have a good bio • They post videos • They focus a lot on everyday people, especially teachers

10. Competitive Analysis: Geico • 6,434 Followers • 34 Likes on average per post • Boring bio • They used creative hashtags • Content seems to be randomand not related

11. Competitive Analysis: Auto Owners • 1,659 Followers • 90 Likes on average per post • Cohesive look and feel • Creative content • They use unoriginal hashtags that are too common • They post a lot of videos • Focus a lot on everyday people

12. Competitive Analysis: Progressive • 27.2K Followers • 239 Likes on average per post • High-quality content • They have one hashtags that they use consistently (#LifeAtProgressive) • They post a lot of videos • They use a lot of animated graphics.

13. Building Our Profile: Choosing a profile picture

14. Building Our Profile: Creating a Bio • “Protecting the people of Michigan from the risks of everyday life” • By using our mission statement, it shows our followers what we stand for and what our brand is all about. • Lansing, MI • Including our location on the profile helps get our brand in front of our demographic audience. • Include phone number and e-mail under the “contact” button so that communication is more efficient for consumers. • Include link to website to direct followers to our products and services.

15. Building Our Profile: What Gets Posted? • Content posted 3-5 times per week • “Meet the Employees” • Awards that we have received • Seasonal tips • “Welcome Wednesday”, “Motivation Monday”, “Scenic Saturday” • Contests/Giveaways • Our partners (specifically the Pistons, Lions, etc.) • Highlights of Lansing • Events/Philanthropic Work • Graphics • A day-in-the-life of Farm Bureau employees

16. Building Our Profile: What to Avoid • Low-quality photos • Bad lighting in photos that are posted (too dark, etc.) • Not engaging with followers • Not using hashtags properly • Only posting promotional content • Under or Over-posting • Being inconsistent • Posting at bad times during the day • Captions are too wordy • Expecting followers to just come to you • Lack of cohesiveness makes brand unrecognizable

17. Building Our Profile: Solutions • For low-quality photos, make sure it is focused and if you are using a camera phone, make sure your hand is steady and the shot is clear. • For bad lighting, take the shot from several different angles so that you have different lighting options. Going with the brighter picture is usually the safer bet. • When using hashtags, make sure they are relevant and not too broad (avoid using things like #insurance, instead use #insurancetips or #insuranceagency). Do not use too many or too little, 5-8 is ideal. • To make sure you are not posting too much promotional content, take advantage of the 80-20 rule that we described earlier in the presentation. • To avoid under or over-posting, set a schedule that you follow each week and try to post anywhere between 3-5 times per week. • To avoid captions being too wordy, keep it straight to the point and avoid being repetitive. Try to keep it between 1-3 sentences. • To gain followers, actively seek out target audience and interact with them on a regular basis. • To maintain a cohesive look, use similar filters and lighting for every post, try to keep all posts within a certain color scheme.

18. When Do We Post? • On weekdays, business profiles receive the most traffic at: • 11 a.m.-1 p.m. • 7 p.m.-9 p.m. • The reason behind this is because this is when most people have free time where they are able to scroll through social media. • On the weekdays, try to avoid posting at: • 3-4 p.m. • The reason behind this is because this is generally when people tend to be busy at work and have less free time.

19. Building Our Profile: #Hashtags • #Michigan’sInsuranceCompany • #InsuranceAgents • #InsuranceAgency • #InsuranceCompanies • #InsuranceTips • #PureMichigan • Others can be added and adjusted based on the content of the post.

20. Creating a Mock-Up • Throughout the next couple of slides, you will see a mock-up of an Instagram account. This will give you an idea of the kinds of things that we would post and captions to go along with them.

21. This is what the profile would look like as a whole.

22. We wanted our very first post to be simple. This picture of the outside of the home office is a nice way of introducing ourselves to our followers.

23. We would like to post photos from every event that we hold as a way to showcase to our followers how we are getting involved with the community.

24. This is a video of Annmarie stating her name, how long she has been with Farm Bureau, and what she likes most about the company. This is a segment that we would like to continue, asking others around the office so that our followers can “meet the employees”.

25. We felt that this is a witty post that will really appeal to the Instagram demographic.

26. We wanted to include a post about the internship program and redirect any interested individuals to our website, where they can find more information about the program.

27. When doing research, we found that a lot of other insurance companies included graphics as a way to add some variety to their posts. We thought that this would be a fun and unique way to post quotes for #WisdomWednesday or #MotivationMonday.

28. The caption speaks for itself. We want people to know that we take pride in being involved in our community, and being able to do so while giving our followers a “sneak peak” into our home office is very unique.

29. We plan on reaching a more broad demographic by frequently posting about our well-known partners and what they are up to.

30. You cannot tell from the screenshot, but this is actually a “boomerang” of one of the water fall signs located in the home office. Research found that too much self-promoting on Instagram accounts are ineffective and come off as insincere. Therefore, instead of bombarding our Instagram with ads we plan on casually throwing out various benefits of becoming a member in our posts such as the one you see here.

31. References https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/279539 https://socialpilot.co/blog/9-instagram-business-marketing-mistakes-avoid/ https://later.com/blog/best-time-to-post-on-instagram/