Instagram news last week centered on influencers. One story was the FTC's 90 letters to brands and influencers about proper disclosure. The other story involved an unglamorous brand, the anti-nausea drug Diclegis. A pregnant Kim Kardashian endorsed it on Instagram in 2015. That post, though, lacked a clear, FDA-approved listing of the drug’s side effects. The FDA slapped Duchesnay, the drug’s maker. Last week, there were multiple problems when Kim endorsed the drug again on Instagram. Some prickly Instagrammers complained the new post’s side effects language was too extensive; others whacked Kardashian for being inauthentic: they said she’s merely a paid shill for big pharma, especially since she’s no longer pregnant and suffering from nausea.

This hubbub led us to think about unglamorous brands and whether or not their stories can be told visually on Instagram, but without glamorous influencers like Kim Kardashian. It also led us to think about how so-called unglamorous brands can engage followers on a visual Instagram.

Like people, every brand has unique characteristics as well as challenges. The brand ForRent.com has a challenge in that people rent apartments or homes sporadically, perhaps once every few years. At its essence, the brand “really is just a giant search engine…[and] we’re not tangible, we’re a service,” says Erica Campbell Byrum, its assistant VP of social media. How then does ForRent.com keep people engaged for lengthy periods, in between the times they’re either signing a rental agreement or thinking about moving?

For Byrum, that challenge—which is the brand’s “biggest,” she says—has become an opportunity, although she admits the brand, which is a B2B and a B2C business, “struggled” early to find its footing and lacked consistency.

Part of the solution, the brand found—in addition to consistency in tone of language and photo style (Byrum recommends using bright photos, as she explains in the sidebar on page 3)—was humanizing itself via Instagram. During holidays you might find a photo of the ForRent.com office staff enjoying St. Patrick’s Day activities, for example. More substantially, it decided to provide followers with information not just about renting an apartment or home, but about home life generally, including decorating tips and tricks, recipes fitness and health.

To augment its lifestyle effort, ForRent.com has a blog. More than that it has a blogger ambassadors program where it invites bloggers in specialty areas, such as food and home decor, to write for it. Besides providing its usual base of users with useful content about food, the bloggers bring their own followers to ForRent.com, raising awareness of the brand, Byrum says. A recent wrinkle for the blog is an emphasis on specific cities and neighborhoods. “We’re going 100% geo[location],” she says.

Tapping the Public for Content

And while ForRent.com has photographers on staff—that’s clear when you look at the quality photos it posts on its Instagram account—many of its photos come from followers through what we’d call strategic contests. For example, Byrum tells us that when she knows she’ll need material about a particular subject for the blog, she might begin a contest asking followers to submit pictures of various aspects of life in that community. “Whatever content we need…we weave into” a contest, she tells us. Last August, for example, the contest asked followers to shoot something else. “Day one was home, day two was sunset, day three was pet, day four was in your closet…day 14 was a drink, day 27 was my town.” At the end of the contest ForRent.com “curated more than 2500 photos that we now own the rights to and can repurpose in our future” campaigns, on its blog or Instagram account. “This is a unique way to use the power of the crowd when you might not have the most attractive brand or a lot of assets to work with,” she says.

Mini Case Study: Since our topic is finding an Instagram campaign for brands that some might think lack visual appeal, we throw a curveball at Byrum. We search for a really unglamorous product and see if she can come up with a way to tell its story on Instagram. “At the end of the day, every brand has a story, regardless whether you’re B2B, B2C, government or nonprofit,” she says. OK, so we ask how can a company that makes the cardboard boxes that business envelopes come in develop a visual campaign for Instagram?

Her answer comes quickly. “Take stylized photos of the boxes…put the box of envelopes in a really nice office setting, instead of the usual office background. And make sure there’s a lot of white space and light coming in.” To prove her case that brands with what might be considered unglamorous product lines and nonprofits can mount successful efforts on Instagram, she points to MailChimp, HubSpot, HP, San Diego Zooand San Francisco SPCA. “You can barely tell if it’s a fashion diary or if it’s a global technology brand…[their photos] look high end and editorial…they’re doing a great job.” She also lists J.Crew, Loft (from Ann Taylor), Cabin Folk and IvoryonSunset as brands that are “killing it” on Instagram.

Editorial Calendar: ForRent.com uses an editorial calendar to coordinate its Instagram account and blog content. For posting on Instagram, the team eschews a scheduling tool, preferring to post by hand, although “we still use [the tool] CoSchedule to take a look at what the content is in advance.” A color-coordinated Google calendar is used to show future content.

At the beginning of each quarter the team, which is lean (three social media employees and access to two or three search agencies) meets to consider upcoming events and milestones that could lead to content. “We’re typically working one quarter ahead,” although there’s flexibility for last-minute additions, she says.

Measurement: “We know Instagram is not going to generate leads for us the way Facebook will. It’s more a brand awareness play for us…and something that lets us tell our story in a more creative way that’s a little less intrusive than some of the other social platforms.” Although she says “some of the new advances Instagram is making with Stories and the capability to have more links link out to your web site are game changers, and we may start to see traffic increase from Instagram.” Today, though, ForRent.com is looking chiefly at engagement, such as likes and comments, “and we want to see our networks grow.” The brand also makes use of reach, impressions and exits with Stories, “so you can see exactly where people are exiting on your stories.”

Note: This content appeared originally in PR News Pro, April, 24, 2017. For subscription information, please visit: https://www.prnewsonline.com/about/info

CONTACT: [email protected]

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5 Tips for Building Community on Instagram

1. The brighter, the better: Byrum’s talking photos here. “You’ll notice a lot of our photos have bright light coming in through the windows. Those tend to outperform some of the darker, heavier photos. “For us, modern furniture, interesting prints, lots of color, kitchens and living rooms [do really well]…but people really like culture shots too.” Those are the humanizing, behind-the-scenes photos of ForRent.com staff. “You’ll notice a lot of bloggers [and Instagram accounts] shoot from above and shoot on very bright surfaces, like marble, and use white cardboard as a background because it reflects a lot of light.”

2. Be Consistent: Stick to “a specific style or theme” with your Instagram content (as mentioned in the article above). In addition, be consistent with your posting. “We post several times a day and we make sure that’s happening every day.”

3. Plan: “Spacing out your content is important, as is knowing when the peak times of the day are for your audiences.”

4. Use Hashtags: “If you don’t, it’s like putting a billboard in the middle of the woods.”

5. Style Points: “Taking time to style your photos and using natural lighting is really important.”