What is an Instagram Takeover?
The process of taking over someone else’s Insta account temporarily and sharing your content
Why are Instagram Takeovers so brilliant for business?
They’re fun!
They’re a great example of an equal partnership / equal exchange of value which means it’s usually win win for both partners!
You get to reach a new target audience
They’re great for building long lasting collaborations
They’re brilliant for cross-promoting content between brands / businesses / infleuencers
How to take over someone’s account and make it count!
Plan your content in advance using a storyboard
Promote on your own channels in the week leading up to it and ask for questions to your own audience in advance so you’re a little more prepared
Keep the audience in mind - what are they used to hearing on the channel and what is useful to them? What problem do you solve? How can you help them?
Be generous with your knowledge - use the questions stories sticker to gather questions and answer them throughout the day or host a live where you answer them in real time!
Make sure you do your hashtag research looking at which hashtags they use on their grid/stories to ensure you’re using similar and reaching as many relevant people as possible - this is a valuable opportunity make the most of it!
Have a clear Call To Action - Be clear about what you want to get out of it - which products/services are relevant to the audience and need promoting? Remember to use the Swipe Up facility to drive web traffic
Have fun! Be creative with all the amazing different tools available to you on Instagram and get your personality across - people buy from people!
Thank your host for having you and signpost their followers to where they can find you on Insta to grow your following!
How to organize your own winning Takeover:
Set goals - what do you want to achieve from this? e.g. brand awareness / engaging your community / promoting an event / product / service
Set metrics to measure success - e.g. if your goal is brand awareness you need to ne checking your Insta Insights for reach, views & follower growth
Decide on who will takeover your account e.g. Influencers, customers, clients, employees or colleagues
Choose the type of takeover - will they have access to the grid or just do a story takeover or maybe they’ll be doing a Live/IGTV video?
Promote the Takeover - this is KEY and so often missed - just as you would do an event, make sure you and your gues promote the takeover - not only on Instagram but also on other channels - often your guest migth need a helping hand so make it as easy as possible for them to promote it for you by providing artwork / caption etc
Choose whether your guest will fully take over your account or partially. There’s no doubt that when a guest has full access, it feel more authentic. However, you have little ocntrol over what they say and promote so make sure you give clear guidelines in advance. If you give your account up fully - make sure you use a secure way of sending your password e.g. one-timesecret
Review the performance of the takeover - check out those metrics and look at which content resonated with that audience.
Thank your guest!
For more on how you can use Instagram to drive tangible business for your brand book a 1 to 1 training session online or in person by emailing me, Vanessa at hello@mrssocial.co.uk