Instagram and Roofing
Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms and last platform we are discussing in our social media blog series. Instagram is the newest of the four social media platforms we have looked at in this series. It’s quite a bit different than Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Here are a couple of ways you can maximize your presence on Instagram:
Virtual Photo Album
We like to think of Instagram as a “Greatest Hits” photo/video album. We created a profile to give our Regional Managers and contractors a quick and easy place to find photos and videos! On Instagram, video posts receive a much higher interaction rate than photos. A study done by the online social media analytics company, Quintly, revealed that “video posts receive up to 49% higher interactions.” An interaction is defined as anytime someone likes and/or comments on your post. A mixture of both pictures and videos is sure to drive up the success of your profile and help put your best projects in front of potential clients!
Stories
Something unique to Instagram and Facebook is the ability to post “stories.” These pictures last 24 hours to the public and appear as a notification across the top of your followers’ home page. These can be the same pictures as your real posts, they can be used to tell people to go look at your most recent post, or maybe pictures of special events around your office. 
You can post anything to your Instagram story that you want to share! Obviously, it should be company-focused, but sometimes showing something funny around the office can have a bigger impact than just showing roofs.
Highlights
A newer extension of Instagram stories is a feature called “highlights.” This is where you can categorize your stories and keep them longer than 24 hours on your profile. For example, you could have a highlight called “Project Videos” where you keep the videos you’ve posted to your stories. They will stay here for as long as you choose. All saved highlights must have been a story at one point. Highlights are another great “quick access” example that Instagram provides. You’ll have instant access to your top projects without having to scroll through your phone’s camera roll.
Business Profile
With a business account on Instagram, it will encourage you to link to your Facebook. This is useful if you want to post uniformly across your social media accounts. Once linked, anything you post on Instagram you will have the option to post on Facebook. Registering your account as a business account will give you access to a tool called “Insights.” With Insights, you can see how many people your post reached, how many people went to your profile from the post, how many people viewed your profile this week, and how many of those people were or were not following you! It’s a free and really useful feature to take advantage of.
Building a Network
Finally, finding people to follow on Instagram is easy! If you are looking at the app on your phone, the second button in the bottom left is a magnifying glass. This is called the “Discover” page and it’s exactly what it sounds like. Like most social media platforms, Instagram has an algorithm in order to provide you with the most relevant content. Pictures will appear on the Discover page that might pertain to your business or something you might find interesting. The more photos and profiles you interact with, the more precise the algorithm operates. Your discover page will be full of suggested posts and profiles to help you build your network.
Thank you for following along as we looked at Social Media in the Roofing Industry. We hope you found this information to be helpful! If you have any additional questions about these blogs, please feel free to reach out to your Regional Manager. Your Regional Manager can help you with certain questions or get you in touch with the PM marketing team with detailed questions. If you would like to find the one-page Social Media in the Roofing Industry sheet we created, click here!
