Instagram ads?

Does anybody have experience paying for advertising on Instagram? I’m not opposed to paying for ads; Facebook does spend billions of dollars keeping Instagram running. But I’d rather not throw a thousand dollars at Instagram if nobody who sees the ads buys type.

Comments

  • since our customers are mostly businesses and since instagram is owned by facebook and everyone hates them (with good reason) I was thinking of doing linkedin adds.
  • I've been doing pretty well just posting on IG. I've heard that people's accounts have tanked after they promoted a post. (They want you to keep throwing money at it, surprise, surprise).

    So if Instagram is dying, what's the next big thing I should be chasing? I don't really need to be where the cool kids are, because they generally don't have two bits to rub together :D
  • Vasil StanevVasil Stanev Posts: 759
    edited October 2021

    So if Instagram is dying, what's the next big thing I should be chasing? 
    TikTok perhaps.

  • John HudsonJohn Hudson Posts: 2,955
    Linkedin is weird. It started as a platform primarily for individuals and focused on the job market: a way for people who actually knew each other, mostly through work, to recommend each other to potential new employers. And the whole concept of ‘following’ or establishing contacts through Linkedin has remained different from that in a typical social media platform like Twitter or Instagram. In all the years I have been on Linkedin, I have never invited anyone to be a contact, and I have mostly, until recently, only accepted invitations from people whom I actually know. From conversations with other people who have been on the platform for a long time, I think quite a lot of people have treated it the same way. I suspect newer members may be more likely to use it like the social media platform it is clearly now trying to be.
  • @John Hudson that was how I treated it at first too.  But maybe about six years ago I realised it was starting to function as a yellow pages.  If someone sent me an email inquiry and didn't give their job title I could usually find it on Linkedin, and I noticed other people looking me up the same way.  

    That was when i started to take it more seriously because I wanted to look proffessional.  Though, I remember at the time that when people noticed my activity they would ask if I was job hunting.  In the last couple years I've seen more use of it by people who are trying to be thought leaders in their own industry, posting articles or faqs or whatever.  

    But yeah, I think it's starting to pivot to being more traditional social media, but still work focused.  That makes a lot of sense to me in a pandemic era.  

    The idea of using it to promote Darden Studio started as a joke.  I was talking to James Edmondson about how our clients are businesses and not the cool kids and he literally said "you should be on linkedin".  He was just taking the piss, but over time Quinn and I started to think it might actually be possible to do it in a fun way.  I've been slowed down by fonts not being a product category, but we shall see.
  •  I've been slowed down by fonts not being a product category, but we shall see.
    Have you written to their staff about it? They might just decide to create a category :)

  • A couple of years back TypeNetwork decided that LinkedIn was the platform for them, and have focussed almost completely on it. I like what they've done there.
    https://www.linkedin.com/company/type-network/posts/
  • @Vasil Stanev yes.  I did 
  • @Miles Newlyn are you sure?  TN has 216 followers on Linkedin.  I've been doing this about a week and Darden Studio already has 64 followers.  I'm not saying it's easy to get followers but I'd expect a company of their size, if they were putting all their social media energy there for 2+ years, to have way more followers than that.  Especially given that Linkedin only recently tightened the rules about how many invitations to follow you can send in a month.
  • yeah.
    On IG I have 2,905 followers after 71 posts. TN have 3,763 followers after 729 posts. The excellent Sharp Type Co have 24.8k followers after 401 posts.
    What do these numbers really mean? I don't know Joyce. 

  • JoyceKettererJoyceKetterer Posts: 792
    edited November 2021
    Who knows.  But I wasn't talking about Instagram.  I'm simply speculating that if a company of TN'S size is putting any energy at all into any platform for more than a few years 216 followers is very low.  So, I was questioning your information 


    So far I've barely posted.  All I'm doing is one to one outreach.  Using my own mailing list to send invitations to follow, which is the obvious first step 
  • I'm saying that TN hasn't done well on IG, and this also looks to be true on LinkedIn. It's a pity, perhaps wrong strategies on both platforms. So, despite effort and time (size is irrelevant) you can still loose. What is important is strategy.
  • I believe that IG is the wrong audience but with regards to linkedin this number is so small as to suggest no effort.  Any effort at all should be better than 216.
  • PS- size tends to lead to a bigger contact list, which is what one uses at first to establish yourself on any social media
  • Great insights above.

    As a user/buyer of type I often get inspiration from IG, but I try to disregard the ads even if FB tries to disguise them as much as possible. I have made a few purchases of fonts that were directly influenced by IG but I’m pretty sure those were regular posts rather than ads. And, mostly, motivated by compelling images of well designed materials using the typefaces.

    With all this, combined with the general aversion to the parent company, I would advise to treat IG as a way to showcase your work/company rather than to drive sales -- if you are inclined to buy ads, treat them as a way to increase your presence rather than to pitch product.
  • Any effort at all should be better than 216.
    TN has over 50 posts all with well designed visuals - considerable effort. What do you mean by 'Any effort at all should be better than 216'? Do you mean that LinkedIn isn't working as it should, or what?
  • I am a big fan of social media, but I have to be honest: I don’t want to “follow” a company’s profile on social media platforms. Surely I often do, especially when I work for an entity that has such profiles, but when it comes to places like LinkedIn and Facebook, I try my best to only follow people – as in, specific individuals – rather than companies/organizations/clubs etc. I don’t think there is a lot behind the argument that social media is great for society, the world, etc., but I started using it when it started, and that was to connect with specific people (friends, colleagues, etc.). Like most social media users, I don’t click on ads and I don’t like to feel that I’m being marketed to.
  • I quite agree. That's why I'm injecting a good amount of personal stuff in my IG posts. Yes, I want to get the word out, but I also want people to know there's a person behind it all. So follow me, and, in addition to my work, you'll learn about the joys of boarding dogs, metal detecting, strange books, New England, and more 😄 @the.walden.font.co

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