With 1 billion monthly active users, Instagram has become the platform of choice for many of the world’s biggest brands. But Instagram isn’t just a handy business tool for the likes of Nike and Apple; when used effectively it can be the key to great online branding for SMEs. So how do you make the most of your branding on Instagram? Well here are 10 examples of SMEs who are doing an amazing job of creating a consistent and effective brand presence through Instagram.
1. Social Buzz Mag
Social Buzz Magazine is an independent magazine that covers all things culture in the Liverpool city region. bright vibrant colours are used to attract a younger audience with an active interest in bands and music events.
In the post below we can see that Social Buzz has created a social media template (if you would like to learn more about social media templates then please read my previous post on Quick online branding wins for SMEs). Social media templates are used to create consistent visual branding for your content. They can be used for text or laid over images, and can be created easily on sites like Canva. Once you’ve created your templates, they are a quick and effective way of repeatedly branding your content and giving your Instagram page a stronger identity.
As well as using templates, Social Buzz Mag has also made the most of Instagram’s grid layout by creating posts that once uploaded form a larger grid image on their page like the example below.
Creating a grid like this is a great way of showing off your skills, and works best when there is enough going on in the image to have something interesting in each square.
2. Snooker19
Last year at Matchstick Creative Agency, we were fortunate enough to work with Ripstone Games on the launch of the World Snooker official video game, ‘Snooker19’. The work we did included managing the Snooker19 Instagram page during the official launch. This involved engaging with their audience and creating content and social media templates like the ones you can see below.
Notice that the logo and the URL are in the same place for both images, and the main text is laid over pink and black text boxes, again in the same position. This is a great example of using social media templates to create consistency in your online branding. Once these templates have been made, they allow the user to create high quality branded content with a quick turn around.
3. Wedge Collective
Wedge Collective is a creative agency that delivers workshops, events, consultancy and design services. It is no surprise then that they are bossing Instagram; branded social media templates with bright colours and a bold font are used with text to make their posts visually consistent and easily recognisable.
View this post on InstagramLife is hard for two reasons, which one will it be? ???? #WEDGECOLLECTIVE
Wedge Collective also make the most of their branding by going the extra mile laying their logo over photos of their founders. This is a great way of turning simple photos into pieces of branded content, ensuring the brand is front and centre for as many of their posts as possible.
4. Red WigWam
Red Wigwam is a recruitment agency that focuses on getting job seekers into temporary positions. Creating engaging content for an audience as broad as ‘temporary workers’ can be a real challenge; fortunately for Red Wigwam, someone on their team has done a great job of creating a variety of branded content.
One thing Red Wigwam do really well on Instagram is mixing it up with their content going beyond templates to create branded testimonials, short animated videos and infographics. Creating all these different types of branded content prevents any particular template or piece of content from becoming stale.
5. The Funding Crowd
The Funding Crowd is a company that helps those with innovative ideas by supporting them throughout the crowdfunding process. The Funding Crowd’s Instagram page is used to champion businesses who have become crowdfunding successes through the organisation.
The page is also used to provide helpful information and statistics through branded social media templates such as the one below.
Citing quotes from Funding Crowd founder Hannah Forbes academic papers, and laying them over brand colours with their logo at the bottom, is a really effective way of honing in on what their audience cares about, and positioning themselves as the experts on crowdfunding.
6. Innovate Her
Innovate Her is a value-led education and coaching social enterprise in the Northwest, that have made it their mission to get more girls into technology-based career paths. As well as training the next generation of tech trailblazers, Innovate her have found the time to create and curate a ton of branded content for their Instagram page.
It’s clear from looking at their Instagram page that Innovate Her have made a real effort to make their branding front and centre of their content. They’ve created a variety of social media templates with their brand colours, and have gone out of their way to create branded one-off illustrations for announcements.
Innovate Her also do a great job of maintaining a tone of voice that is fun, encouraging and celebratory to reflect the function of their business, as well as their brand values.
7. Ciivsoft
Ciivsoft is a developer of recruitment automation technology and applications. As they’re a tech-based B2B service, the challenge they have is creating engaging content that is in keeping with their professional, no-frills brand identity. This is reflected by their Instagram page which is packed full of slick stylish images, with little to none bright colours.
Sticking with a basic colour palette has helped to give their page a clean and consistent look.
Although Ciivsoft doesn’t use social media templates, they have made sure that the way their logo is presented with text over an image is done so in a consistent manner in terms of the position the logo appears, and the fonts that are used alongside it.
8. Oya Goods
Oya Goods produce eco-friendly clothes for babies and children. Although their products are made for babies, their content is aimed at environmentally conscious mothers. Oya does a great job creating brand presence through Instagram by shooting photos in a particular style, and only posting those that fit in with their brand colours. Choosing an autumnal colour pallet for their Instagram helps to reinforce the idea that they place the natural world and environmental responsibility at the core of their value proposition.
9. The Nakery
As well as being an award-winning vegan-friendly bakery, The Nakery are also Instagram pros. When it comes to Instagram branding, consistency is vital to making your posts and your brand more recognisable in the sea of content that is your users Instagram feed. This is something The Nakery excel at; their page is stacked full of colourful close-ups of various vegan treats, making their posts really stand-out on the timeline.
10. Girls Who Grind Coffee
Girls Who Grind Coffee is a small-batch coffee roastery based in South West England. Girls Who Grind Coffee have done a great job of creating a niche position for themselves in the market by focusing on the core of their brand around, female empowerment, and beautifully designed packaging. These themes couldn’t be more apparent from their Instagram feed which features close-ups of their different products, and motivational messages for girls.
- Consistency is key – Remember that from the outside looking in, your brand is who you are as a business. If your branding is inconsistent then your denying your audience a chance to get to know you. Consistency in brand colours, tone of voice, typefaces, graphics and icons are essential for building brand trust.
- Introduce yourself – Your Instagram page and other social channels can often be the first time that some of your audience interacts with your brand; you should bear this in mind and use your page to make a great first impression with your audience.
- Aesthetics aren’t just superficial – When it comes to Instagram, you should never underestimate the value of high-quality visuals and aesthetics. Again, remember that your Instagram page can be your introduction to potential customers. Using low-quality images and graphics may lead people to conclude that your brand must also be of low quality.
Want to learn more about branding?
Feel like you’d like to learn more about all this online branding business? Well luckily for you we love writing about this stuff at Matchstick Creative, and you can find plenty more resources on the Matchstick Creative blog, including my previous post on quick wins for online branding.
And if you feel this still isn’t enough and you’d like to speak to me personally about branding or any of our services, you can connect with me on LinkedIn.
