Uncover the secrets to why every professional needs a strong Instagram presence!
Uncover the secrets to why every professional needs a strong Instagram presence! Or Why in the world do morticians need to post on Instagram?
Let’s begin our journey to understanding why you need to have a strong Instagram business presence with an understanding of the Instagram’s own personality.
The Instagram space
By its very nature, Instagram’s format is firstly an image/graphic-centric smartphone-based environment, with hashtags secondary and written content tertiary. From a business prospective this format fosters a different and in many cases, less formal, less word-based marketing style. If your business is in the creative and design-based arena - such as web designers, graphic designers and everyone in the social media marketing space – Instagram is a must for you and THE place for you to shine. Long-form content, carousel posts and How To videos are perfect for you and this medium!
Dead serious professions and Instagram
The question that really begs asking is: What about serious professions? Such as lawyers, doctors, psychiatrists and even morticians? The answer is a resounding YES!
The way to understand the Instagram conundrum of image-based content and serious business is to understand the psychology behind Instagram. But before we go there, let’s take a quick romp around our popular social media channels.
What do social media channels offer us?
Facebook has become the catch all for a kind of online voyeurism – both for businesses and personal use. It’s a crazy-quilt world that moves at the speed of the flick of a finger and is mostly populated by over-35 year olds.
LinkedIn is more of an incestuous world where like-minded/similar-career people, businesses and organizations congregate, communicate and try to pick up some business. There are also plenty of headhunters there, but that's a different story!
Twitter is an interesting mixed-bag of professional and private posts that have a less-than-cohesive or community-connected look and feel.
So what is Instagram?
Instagram, in many ways - is a hybrid of them all - it’s a catch-all of personal and business, an insular and at the same time open-to-the-world with a disjointed series of posts on any topic you may find interesting. What is nice about Instagram is that it does not have a never-ending newsfeed.
One of the nicest features of Instagram is the You’re All Caught Up message. Trust me you will never find that on Facebook – because – they never want you to catch up!!!! There is a beginning and an end to an Instagram session and the folks at Instagram want you to know that – which is strange since Instagram is part of the Facebook family, but who am I to complain?
The psychology behind Instagram
So without getting involved in Instagram Posts, Stories, hashtags and bios - what is the psychology behind Instagram that makes it a very important marketing tool for even the most serious of businesses?
Once upon a time, we imagined doctors as GODS never to be questioned. And pictured many other professionals as ‘THE PROFESSIONAL’ – so we didn’t need to question them, their motives or how and why they did what they did to and for us.
Today, along with a need to know the professional background of ‘our’ professionals, we also want to and in many cases, feel we need to know about them personally. It can be something as simple as looking up their friends/mutual friends on social media, to taking a more active look into their lives.
Social media has enabled professionals to show both their professional expertise and skills, as well as their human side and with that humanity also can come a deeper level of trust, as well as a kind of virtual intimacy, that can build respect and confidence in them as service providers. It’s a powerful combination for nearly every business owner, but especially for business owners in serious professions.
The Instagram fit
Where does Instagram fit into this brave new world of the public face of serious professionals? Right in the thick of things!
Instagram provides a space where professionals can show both their serious, expert side to other professionals, as well as to laymen. Going back to morticians, as a great example: Instagram posts contain images and specifics on embalming equipment, as well as images of flower arrangements and even simple thank you notes to grieving families for choosing a particular funeral home.
Instagram gives serious professionals a place to:
Shine professionally
Provide expert and layman information
Build engagement
And here’s the important one - the game changer!
Show a personal side of your life; displaying personality traits and characteristics.
In today’s world, this side view doesn’t diminish your professionalism, it helps you present a sense of your personality and helps you create a virtual bond and a link with people you may not know. This is a future-business building step. The idea is that when someone will need your services and begin the investigative process, you – who have been on their radar for all of the above reasons – will have created a virtual bond with them and be on the top of their list of potential service providers.
You can ask: how would someone know, in advance, they need a service – say a divorce lawyer, before they begin to look for one. The answer is very basic – so many times we know something by intuition before our minds really grasp that knowledge. We nearly always begin to search before we know we are searching.
This can also be a great recruitment tool - especially for young up and upcoming talent.
The bottom line is that Instagram makes business relatable on a personal level.
So should Instagram be a social media tool in your tool box – you bet your brighter future it should be. Everyone - realtors, coaches, veterinarians, doctors, mental health professionals, lawyers, dentist and yes, even morticians and every other profession on the planet should stake out a piece in the Instagram world. This is your future – welcome to it!
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