How to Market NFTs Using Instagram - the Tools!
This week’s newsletter not only will get you started using Instagram to market your NFT collections, but also share how to do it!
Prefer to watch/listen? Here's the video/podcast!
“A Rising Floor” is a free newsletter & Discord mastermind created to bring NFT collection owners and founders together to grow, learn… and raise the floor! Join here: https://arisingfloor.com
- What’s In a Name
- Picture This
- Hey mom! I’m Engaged!
- Reel me In
- Stories Sell
Last week I wrote a thumbnail guide for NFT artists or founders to use on YouTube, Twitch, or anywhere else you need a thumbnail. If you missed it, read it by clicking here!
What’s In Your Instagram Toolbox?
We already have an article about the why’s and what’s of YouTube and why it’s so important to have videos about your NFT collection and community… so let’s move on this week to another SMS: Instagram!
So why Instagram? While the best overall social media marketing strategy for promoting NFT includes multiple sites, Instagram is a good platform for marketing NFT projects.
Instagram has both a large user base and is graphics-first site. In other words, the image is what captures the eye of the browser, which is very similar to attracting fans to your NFT collection.
Instagram, or “Insta” is a popular hangout for NFT fans, artists, NFT collectors, and other “NFT folk” as well. I used the term “fish where the fish are” in a past article, and that’s exactly what we’re doing when we toss our line into the Instagram Pond!
As I’ve said before, rather than go miles deep into a topic and risk making it sound almost too hard to even get started on, I prefer to give you what I feel are the most important initial steps and let you grow from there. Since I lub you all, I’ll be doing the same here.
We’ll start with the “Instagram marketing basics”:
- How to optimize your Instagram profile for NFTs
- Why the artwork is more important than the text
- Instagram community engagement
- Use Instagram Reels to create a relationship
- Using Instagram highlights and hashtags
What’s in a name?
Since your Instagram profile is going to more or less be your Instagram “homepage”, this is really important piece of real estate when you are learning how to market an NFT collection on Instagram.
So first, let’s start at the beginning, with your biology! Er… I mean your biography… no, I DO mean your biology… AKA: Your name!
You can’t use spaces when creating your Instagram “handle”, so keep that in consideration when you start. I’d suggest you resist the temptation to be too fancy or cute and use your collection name. The reason is if someone googles your project, you want the best chance of showing up.
The other option might be to add “nft” afterwards… so maybe instead of using “yourprojectname”, use “yourprojectname.nft”, or even “yourprojectname.com” if it makes sense or is your actual domain name.
You will have your NFT collection’s name without the spaces in the profile as well, you can see this in the Bored Apes Yacht Club example in the image above.
Back to the bio…your biography!
You get 150 characters to use at the top of your profile page. You should try here to answer the most important questions that the community would want answered about your NFT collection.
You’ll want to do your best to use whatever keywords you feel are important, but probably more critical is you include a CTA, or “call to action”. (I think I’ve mentioned a CTA in 90% of the newsletters I’ve written lol!) It’s where you give an instruction to your reader.
If you look at the Bored Ape bio above, they are not real direct, but it’s basically saying “if you want a Bored Ape, go to our website”. Get into the habit of using CTA’s whenever you write… or at least whenever it makes sense.
Include a “GPS” to your important links
Instagram limits you quite a bit in regard to where they allow you to post links, and only allow one clickable link in the Bio. This is to keep people from stuffing the bio with links but it is a bit frustrating. I guess better put, is you can include them, but only one link is actually clickable.
Enter LinkTree!
The solution, and you’ll see it used all over Instagram, is to use a free service called LinkTree, found at https://linktr.ee/. You get one link to a page like in the image below, and then that one link takes you to your LinkTree profile… where you can put a link to your Discord, website, blog, OpenSea and a wherever else you want. The best part is it’s customizable, & free!
Picture This!
Like I mentioned at the start, one of the reasons Instagram is so good for NFT collection marketing, is success on both NFTs and Insta is dependent on your graphics… so the same people attracted to your NFTs should be attracted to your Instagram. (and visa-versa)
Both are visual platforms, so it’s important to use the best eye-catching images you can afford, to promote your NFTs on Instagram. You can share the actual NFT artwork, variations of the images, or possibly even shots of the images during the creation process so they see wireframes and pre-launch images of your collection art.
Another idea, is to create memes with your NFT artwork, and post them on all of your social media outlets.
If you can, have the same artist who created your NFTs do your Instagram artwork for a little extra zing. In the picture below, we see the Instagram for the “Azuki” NFT collection. Can you see how the art on Insta could so easily push someone towards minting or buying the NFTs?
We won’t all have the luxury of being able to do what Azuki does below, but with some creativity, we can get similar results. Always use the best quality and collection-appropriate artwork for Instagram that you can.
Mom! I’m Engaged!
In past newsletters I’ve stressed how important it is to engage and communicate with your community. In fact, the worse the NFT market is, the more you need to chat. Rumors fly, and as soon as a week goes by (that’s about when i start to worry) without the founder posting an announcement or update, and “is this rug?” posts start to pop up.
On the flip side, if your community is growing, active, and chatty, the rest of the industry can be dead, and you’ll still have a winner! Building a community around your NFTs is critical to their success, so respond to comments, like their posts, and share their content. This helps create a sense of community and keeps your followers engaged and interested in your NFTs.
I harp on this one all the time, but personal attention can make or break your project… and it seems to be more times forgotten than not.
Your people don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.
Go out of your way to make sure they know you do!
Reel Me in!
Reels are a great way to get your audience to know you and better yet, your personality. More specifically, Reels are a super opportunity and tool grow a huge Instagram following.
They give you a unique chance to get your NFTs and your brand in front of a new audience that isn’t following you yet. The more engaging your Reels are, the higher the chance that the algorithm will show it to a bigger group of NFT lovers either in their Instagram feed or even the explore/search page.
Instagram Reels are videos up to 15 minutes long and can be created with your cell phone. Yes, you might be nervous at first, but like anything else, you’ll get better with time. And I guarantee no matter how bad you think you are on camera; I PROMISE… lots of people are worse. (just go watch some! lol)
Most importantly, they are fast, easy, and engaging. When your people feel that they KNOW YOU, you have an advantage ove EVERY other program where they don’t.
Insta can sell you on making these a lot better than I can… so go to this link and see just how simple it can be: Instagram Reels: Create and discover short videos on Instagram | Instagram for Business.
Stories Sell
Instagram’s Stories feature is a great way to share more about your NFTs and give your followers a behind-the-scenes look at the creation process.
Imagine interviewing/talking to or about your artist, or what the team did before NFTs, or, or, or, or… you’re only limited by your creativity.
You can also use Stories to announce contests, events, showcase your NFTs, give your followers a sneak peek of what’s to come in the future, or so much more. It’s one more tool in the Instagram Toolbox!
There’s more, but again… you don’t need to be an Instagram GURU to succeed with Instagram:
-Start with a compelling profile that links to your important websites.
-Use great images and include keywords and call to actions in your text.
-Create Reels and stories regularly, even scheduled… and over time, watch your numbers grow.
When you have this down, THEN start looking deeper into the smaller nuances Insta has to offer… or buy a full-blown “how to market using Instagram” course…
Remember, what I teach is to try and help the shoestring NFT startup, or founder with 1–2 people working together to make something happen. You don’t need to know “everything”… just enough!
If you have $100k sitting somewhere, don’t bother with this tutorial, and just hire a digital marketing agency… but for most of us, that’s not yet in the cards.
In the future I’ll hit on how to use Instagram paid advertising as well… but until then:
If you need help ask for it, and if you don’t, prove it!
Deacon Nick
PS- As a final thought, don’t forget to add hashtags to your posts. They are a great way to help people discover your NFT collection on Instagram. Use relevant hashtags like #NFT, #cryptoart, #nftcollection, #nftgiveaway, or #digitalcollectibles to help your content get in front of the right people.
A Rising Floor is a weekly newsletter and Discord Mastermind created for NFT and ordinal collection owners, staff, and founders, as well as NFT industry gig workers and anyone who wants to promote their NFTs. It’s a free source of news, NFT marketing help, and a place to communicate with peers for the advancement of the industry.
Follow Nick on Twitter: https://twitter.com/nickcifonie
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