It’s clear that Instagram isn’t just a social network for posting cool views with filters or the odd selfie anymore. According to SmartInsights.com Instagram now has a whopping 700 million monthly active users and has evolved into a platform that can visually represent a brand.

Tips on How To Succeed on Instagram:

Post interesting images
Post often to keep customers entertained
Try to interact with people via hashtags and tags
Reward your followers with competitions

Watch This Video On Top Five Instagram Tips and Tricks

Asos

This brand currently has a following of 7.7 million followers on Instagram. This entices people to interact with their brand by tagging their favourite looks with the hashtag #AsSeenOnMe. They also share their latest promotions and link their website Asos.com at the top of their page tempting consumers to purchase their products.

They post a few varieties of different products in a trendy, unique fashion via picture and video. They include both male and female models however, majority female as they tend to shop more at Asos.

Pretty Little Thing(PLT)

Pretty Little thing is very popular amongst females from teenagers to 30-year-olds. They currently have a following of 10.5 million and 10,234 posts. They also included numerous stories at the top of their page to allow customers to view new campaigns and new clothes collections easily.

They use bloggers and famous influences such as Kylie Jenner as featured above, to take pictures wearing their clothes line to attract new customers. This is an effective technique to boost sales and customer base. This post received a lot of attention and over 2.5 million likes.

Red Bull

This energy drink is all about getting people involved and entertaining those who consume their product. They have stories including Street Style, Trick Shots, Tom x Drone etc. All of these trying to interact with the consumer and their logo is clearly identified.

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According to Adespresso.com, Red Bull takes a different approach to most brands and instead of posting numerous repetitive images of their product they post fun, exciting images and videos. This is fitting for their brand as they are an energy drink and most of their users are into fitness and extreme sports. These attention capturing videos capture a large audience making their Instagram a success.

Starbucks

This coffee shop brand is very successful on Instagram with a following of 17.3 million. Their caption is featured at the top of the page “Inspiring and nurturing the human spirit- one person, one cup, and one neighbourhood at a time”. Starbucks aims to create an interconnected community and give their customers a sense of belonging throughout the simplicity of coffee.

The images and videos always include the brand logo and the Starbucks name. Their posts are often focused on seasons and events throughout the year suggesting there is always a time and place for their product. The most recent campaign featured on their Instagram page is Christmas. This video featured a snowman holding their product and reviewing their Peppermint Mocha Frappuccino giving it a 10/10 rating. This is an unusual video and caught the attention of customers with 86,647 likes. They also are very responsive liking and getting their customers to interact via the #PeppermintMochaFrappucino.

Watch this video to find out how your brand can dominate Instagram

What is meant by “Digital Tribes”

According to The Guardian.com members of digital tribes are defined by who they hang out with on the web or via their mobile devices; it is about what interests a person has, and what networks they communicate inside of. The development in technology has allowed people to communicate at all times globally. There are 3 basic functions of digital tribes: sharing of knowledge, a place to interact and the creation of collective rules.

Members of a digital tribe normally share a common interest e.g. sport, fashion or a service. However, it has now become more difficult for marketers as people tend to have lots of different interests nowadays. Consumers are not as brand loyal as years ago more selection and competition e.g Inglot vs Benefit.

Peoples interests are shared over many different social media platforms expressing their opinions. This allows members of digital tribes to interact with each other.

Examples of Digital Tribes

Tune Drop on Facebook is a group where people interested in Djs and House music interact, sharing videos and tagging each other in recent posts.

Another example of a digital tribe is Beauty Boxx, where members post questions in relation to beauty and fashion looking for advice and recommendations. Beauty Boxx currently has over 105,000 members and there have been over 3,000 posts in the last 30 days.

Characteristics of a Digital Tribes

1. Tribal loyalty: It is important the members within a digital tribe are loyal to each other and the area of interest. Sports teams such as Liverpool are often recognised for their long-lasting team loyalty. Tribes such as restaurant guides don’t tend as loyal. The more loyal the tribe the more likely to prolong the life span of the business.

2. Tribal competitive landscape: This is based on similar tribe groups which may have many of the same members. It considers the quality of services offered in a competitive nature. The greater the propensity towards a free/advertising revenue model, as it will be difficult to provide a unique value proposition.

3. Tribal wealth: The wealthier the tribe, the greater its ability to support a pay revenue model. This allows for greater opportunities such as attracting new members and expanding the digital tribe.

4. Tribal size: The larger the digital tribe the more likely they will be targeted to sponsor products and receive free items. However, a small tribe will have to pay to target certain markets. Understanding the overall size of the tribe is important in evaluating revenue opportunities.

5. Sharing of functional knowledge: This is a key element of a tribe through helping each other the tribe grows stronger and more knowledgeable. For example, on Beauty Users are seen asking questions and others are offering their advice and opinions.

6. Place of social bonding: This allows members with similar interests to interact and form bonds over common areas of interests. This lets them create a sense of belonging and distinguishes them from others outside the tribe.

7. Creation of collective rules: Tribes create and share a set of collective rules and behaviours, which allows tribe users to distinguish each other from non-tribe members, for example, camping out in front of Apple stores before the launch of a new product.

To find out more on Digital Tribes visit this Ted Talks video by Lynette Young.