Instagram is a great way to reach your target audience if you are busy with an event such as a trade show, festival or another multi-day event. Especially if you are a paying exhibitor or exhibitor and you are exactly in your target group, Instagram offers an excellent opportunity to reach new customers. It is a matter of planning. Get more followers on Instagram – meer volgers op Instagram!
Use Instagram to Promote Your Event
Get more out of your exhibition participation or event with Instagram
Instagram is still a fast-growing medium. Not everyone is actively involved, but it is an ideal medium for certain groups. For example, if your brand revolves around:
- Lifestyle and interior
- Design and trends
- Food, gardening, outdoor living, sports
- Events, recreation, and entertainment
- People between the ages of 15-30
You can assume that you can reach the visitors of the trade fair there. And although e-mail is, of course, a great medium, it is precisely for these branches Instagram a wonderful medium to let your target audience get to know your brand.
What do you put on Instagram?
It is important to know about Instagram that everything revolves around the ‘feed’, the posts that users see when they follow you. The photos/videos that people see at the same time as they view your profile and scroll through it with their smartphone are referred to as ‘the grid’. In the ideal situation, those photos or videos together convey a certain atmosphere, idea or theme. Especially the photos that users see first when they visit your profile and then scroll down a little to see what you have to offer.
Building Your Instagram Grid
You want to keep your grid nice and attractive. In essence, it is simple: what you want to achieve is that people who do not know you yet and visit you, become so convinced that they click on the ‘follow’ button!
Taking Instagram-worthy Photos Is Not That Hard
Taking beautiful pictures is not as hard as you think. But you have to think about it. And you have to watch out for light. If you do that, you will go a long way. With lots of new smartphones, you can take great photos and videos and you no longer need a special camera. Just a matter of thinking about nice details, the background, a little focus, and some tricks. Such as ensuring sharpness depth.
With the free app Snapseed, you can quickly edit your photos. I use InstaSquare myself to get a white border around my photos and get some air in my grid.
Do you also want to post other photos that do not match the look you are after? Then use the option to post multiple photos (a ‘photo carousel’). Followers see the first photo and are given the option to swipe to the left to see the rest. Make sure the first photo matches your grid. You get the carousel option after you click on the plus sign to upload a photo and your photo album is open:
You can of course also do other fun things. Instagram also has a number of separate, free apps to try and play with content.
Post Videos On Instagram
You can also post videos on Instagram, even several within a carousel. Good to know: on average, videos do not always receive the response and engagement that photos receive on Instagram. So it’s okay if you skip the video. At the same time, there are companies that score very well, for example, because their brand revolves around the activity. Or because they have found a funny format, such as animations or stop motion. If you do use them, make sure they look nice and match your grid.
Post On Instagram Stories
Since the introduction of Instagram stories, the message series at the top of the app that disappears after 24 hours, your chances of reaching exhibition visitors have increased exponentially.
Strange actually, because every photo you post is an opportunity to tell a story and involve your followers (and potential followers) in your brand. So always put a good description with your photo. And not such a description of 1 sentence with the product name and 3 nonsensical hashtags, please (yuck!). Promotion is fine but you are building something up first, during such a fair. When you meet new people in real life, you shake hands, introduce yourself and exchange stories. Then you will not immediately start screaming about your products. (I hope ?).