Our Instagram objective is simple; embody our company motto "For Gamers. By Gamers." We are a brand with an incredibly passionate community of gamers and we use our Instagram to highlight that culture. We do not outsource our social to a 3rd party as we believe that just as one uses social to express and highlight their passions as an individual, we too leverage our channels to shed light on lifestyle we love, the products we obsess over, and the community we do it all for. We highlight user generated content, give behind the scenes candid looks into the company via stories, and showcase our design philosophy through product shots all done in house. Our "models" are employees, our content is our own. In essence, our Instagram is a way for us to show, not tell, about our brand's lifestyle with a focus on authenticity and edification, rather than solicitation. Organically grown and locally sourced content, just like mama used to make.
Our Instagram strategy differs from our other social channels in that it is solely built on organic growth and focused solely on engagement. This reflects in our Instagram engagement where we have the highest engagement rate (3.74%) in the electronics brand category.
Authenticity is at the center of our social strategy and is seen throughout our Instagram content. We highlight the By Gamers portion of our For Gamers. By Gamers. motto by using employees instead of models and shooting product photography within our office space. This is to showcase who we are as a brand and create the content we ourselves as gamers would want to see on Instagram. This is why it's critical that our social media is created in house and not outsourced.
Another core strategy is creating a strong sense of aspiration within our community by highlighting high quality fan photos and setups. This showcases our products in their environment and shows our community what they can hope to get their setup to look like one day. The content has a high engagement rating because it leaves a lot of room for discussion in how the setup is personalized, what they like or don't, and how they want their setup to look one day.
Lastly, we utilize hashtags and Stories to reach new relevant audiences. By selecting few hashtags that are relevant to our demo, we're able to zero in and ensure we have a top presence in the conversations. Stories has been a great tool to engage with our community in a more casual format through behind the scenes shoots and event coverage in a way that doesn't affect our placement in the new Instagram algorithm by posting too much content in a certain window.
2016 was our strongest year yet with over 815,000 new followers (organic). Despite Instagram changing their feed to an algorithm based feed, our post engagement has continued to trend upwards with our growth. Posts towards the end of 2016 saw 40,000 to 50,000 likes or more, depending on the content.
*Comments:* 112,224 (+43.80%)
*Likes:* 12,581,796 (+54.70%)
*Followers:* 818,158 (+56.60%)
*Media Posted:* 419 (+32.66%)
*Stories* 120,000+ views
