By current estimations, the average age of an Instagram user is between 25 and 34. More than 60% of them are under 35, which is significant to anyone engaged in marketing a product on the internet.
But what does that mean for cryptocurrency and blockchain firms?
Simply put, these statistics highlight an opportunity for financial services firms to market crypto products to the next generation of investors.
Today, we will look at a couple of valuable hacks and tips for marketing crypto on Instagram. These are actionable items you can put into play immediately to improve your Instagram strategy and amplify your message to a highly targeted, crypto-curious audience.
Instagram for Crypto Marketers
There are still some questions swirling about what you’re allowed to advertise on Instagram in the crypto realm. After all, it is owned by Facebook and adopts similar ad policies.
Luckily, the space has shifted in recent months, and though you still can’t advertise initial coin offerings or binary options, approved advertisers can go ahead and promote their crypto products, wallets, and crypto-related content.
As an advertiser, you’ll need to submit an application and go through the approval process before you move forward. But overall, it’s good news.
Today, however, our focus is less about advertising and more about general Instagram posting tips to help you expand your reach organically.
Two Critical Tips to Help You Reach the New Generation of Crypto Investors on Instagram
We’re going to look at a couple of key IG marketing concepts—which are, coincidentally, much the same for just about any type of business, not just cryptocurrency.
Keep in mind, the ultimate goal here is to increase post engagement, as that’s what’s going to push your posts to the top of feeds and get them in front of the right people.
Today, we’re going in-depth with two key IG strategies: hashtags and video.
Hashtags
Hashtags make it easy for users to find you based on commonly searched words and phrases. By putting a # in front of your keyword, you instantly turn your post into a clickable topic.
Users can follow hashtags too, which means every time you use that hashtag, your post will appear, along with all public posts that also use that hashtag. The best part is that you can get in front of users that don’t necessarily follow your account, so it’s a great way to expand your reach.
In general, there are six types of hashtags:
- Branded. All brands should have their own unique hashtag. It could be your company name or a snappy tagline, or both. List your branded hashtag directly on your profile.
- Contests, giveaways, submissions. As a crypto marketer, you might not use these, but who knows. You might use them if you’re looking for some user-generated content (UGC) for other purposes.
- Entertaining hashtags help you highlight your brand personality and sense of humor, if indeed you have one — #everybodylovestosmile.
- Seasonal/Timely hashtags are useful if you have something related to a holiday, season, or limited time offer. Who wouldn’t love a #cryptostockingstuffer, right?
- Niche-specific hashtags use keywords and phrases common to your industry, like #crypto, #cryptocurrency, #blockchain, #money, #investing, #wealth, etc.
- General hashtags are popular terms that appeal to a broader audience and can help you amplify your reach.
Hashtag popularity
Keep in mind, the more popular a hashtag, the more diluted your post will be in that category. If you’re using a general hashtag like #money, for example, you’ll want to add some niche-specific ones to narrow the scope. Hashtags with volumes greater than 500K won’t get much visibility as the competition is high, and you’ll quickly get pushed down in the chronology. Using hashtags with volumes between 10K-500K will get more traction.
How many hashtags?
The number of hashtags you use matters too. Instagram’s limit is 30, but the average is about 11. Quality matters more than quantity, but if you test out a few, you’ll know what works and find your sweet spot.
Recycling your hashtags
And while you might have some tags that work well for you, you shouldn’t use the same tags in every post, or you might get flagged as spam. Make your hashtags relevant to each post and aim for a unique mix every time, even if the posts are similar. In other words – you can use the same hashtags but don’t use them in the same order every time.
Instagram Videos
There are several ways you can use videos on Instagram. How you choose to deliver them will depend on your content, goals, and the audience segment you’re trying to reach.
- Reels were created as IGs answer to TikTok, and since they’re putting a big push on that right now, it’s a good idea to at least test it out. You have up to 30 seconds of video to entertain and inform. You can even grab other trending reels and add your own content or text over top. Use reels to deliver valuable information, and be sure to share it to your story to amplify its reach.
- Stories are a fantastic way to share a variety of content—including videos. Since they are only visible for a short time, the format lends itself well to limited-time offers or anything time-sensitive. If you save the story video to a highlight, it’ll stick around longer, but generally, your stories will only be visible for 24 hours. Use them to promote events or product launches, answer questions, or generate a poll—anything that promotes engagement. Because stories appear in chronological order, it’ll get more traction if you post at strategic times when you know your followers tend to be online.
- Live video is a way to connect with your followers in the moment. You can also pull up to three other accounts into your stream, which is a great way to extend your reach. Live video is great for interactive Q&A, product launches, podcasts, interviews with industry experts, or live streaming at an event. As soon as you go live, your followers will receive a notification so they can tune in. You can also promote your live IG video ahead of time to put your people on alert. You can do up to four hours with a live stream, but that’s probably not the best use of your time. When you’re finished, be sure to save it to IGTV so people can find it after the fact.
- In-feed videos are less than 60 seconds and are suitable for short animations, GIFs, or anything that’s quick and succinct. Since feed videos perform similarly to regular posts, you can handle them in much the same way. Add hashtags to make them shareable.
- IGTV is IGs version of YouTube. It allows you to save between 60 seconds and 60 minutes of video content, which is great for webinars, video series, or sharing content from an event. Be sure to share it to your feed as well.
These are just a couple of strategies that will help you succeed on Instagram. Without a doubt, there is plenty more to talk about. Given enough time and space, we could get really granular.
If you’re already on Instagram, you know how effective and engaging it can be. Applying these tools and tips will undoubtedly boost your results and widen the playing field in remarkable ways. And while you’re at it, be sure to follow Gate 39 Media on Instagram!
Of course, if you still need help with this or have any questions about how to market your crypto products and services with Instagram, we’re always here to help. Book a call today, and let’s talk about it.
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About the Author: Sarah McNabb
Sarah McNabb is Chief Marketing Officer at Gate 39 Media, a full-featured marketing agency and technology consulting firm serving the financial, technology, and agricultural industries.
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