SEO & Instagram: What You Need to Know

If you work in marketing, you will have heard of SEO, but if you haven’t here is a brief explanation: Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the process of improving the quality and quantity of website traffic to a website or a web page from search engines.

Organic traffic is traffic that comes to your site naturally. If someone searches for something online and they go to your website to find what they’re looking for, that’s an organic lead. You didn’t have to pay to have them come to your website.

Statistics show that organic search on Google is responsible for more than 59% of the world’s web traffic and 75% of people who search online never click past the first page of results. This shows the importance of a strong SEO strategy.

Website SEO is when you optimise your website for search engines to find and rank, this includes using keywords, meta descriptions and alt text – to name a few.

SEO for luxury brands is a must in order to thrive in the digital world. However what many people aren’t aware of is the importance of SEO on social media.

A strong Instagram SEO strategy is one of the best ways to increase your reach on the platform. SEO on Instagram is all about tailoring your content so that it appears in as many places as possible — from search results to suggested content feeds.

It’s an essential tactic for improving your discoverability – much like web SEO, the more people who discover your content, the greater chance you have at growing your following and building a strong Instagram community.

But how does Instagram SEO work?

Instagram’s algorithm processes every piece of content on the app, gathering information it can use to determine what the post is about — and by proxy, who might find it interesting.

With over one billion monthly active users on Instagram, SEO plays a significant role in both reach and discovery on the platform.

As part of the Explore page, Instagram search is the directory to every Instagram account on the app. Much like you would search a term into Google, you can use the search bar on the top of the Explore page to find and discover accounts, hashtags, and locations.

SEO also plays a major role in what populates on users’ suggested posts (now shown within a users home feed) — a space dedicated to displaying a collection of posts from accounts you don’t follow. And according to Instagram, these suggestions are, “based on posts from accounts like the ones you follow and posts similar to the ones you like or save.”

With a strong Instagram SEO strategy, you can ensure your posts are surfaced in relevant search results on the Explore page and in suggested content feeds.

Until recently you could only search in Instagram Explore via hashtags, location tags, usernames, and profile names, however, you can now search using keywords. That means writing relevant, descriptive captions using choice keywords can seriously impact your content’s discoverability.

Instagram Profile

Your Instagram profile (AKA your Instagram bio) is the best place to include relevant keywords and search terms.

Instagram bio SEO starts with Instagram name SEO. Choose a handle and profile name that’s relevant to your content. If you’re well known by your brand name, then that’s the best place to start. If there’s room for a keyword in your handle or name, include that too.

Captions

Long-form captions are becoming increasingly popular on Instagram, a study by Later and Fohr on influencer’s captions found that the more you share, the better your engagement rate. However, ensuring to utilise key words and a CTA will also enhance your reach.

Instagram Alt Text

Instagram alt text is a feature that allows you to write custom alternative text for a richer description of your photos. And while the feature was mainly designed to improve accessibility on the platform, it can also be used for SEO purposes. At the moment, Instagram automatically generates alt text so people can hear descriptions of content through a screen reader.

Hashtags

While it’s long been considered an insider trick to hide hashtags in comments – and with many scheduling platforms providing the option to automatically post a comment with hashtags – Instagram has now revealed that keywords and hashtags should appear directly in the caption to impact the search results. They have equally provided a few tips for maximising your reach and searchability through hashtags:

• Use only relevant hashtags
• Use a combination of well-known, niche, and specific (think branded or campaign-based) hashtags
• Limit hashtags to 3 to 5 per post
• Don’t use irrelevant or overly generic hashtags like #explorepage

[Sources: Instagram, Hootsuite, Later, Media Boom]

Get in touch with our brand communications team to talk about your SEO and social media strategy by emailing hello@luxurymarketinghouse.com.

The Do's & Don'ts of LinkedIn

Introducing the unofficial guide to LinkedIn by The Circle for those who want to be more confident using LinkedIn for themselves to build a digital professional network:

The Do’s

✓ Refine and populate your profile
✓ Have a professional portrait image
✓ Add a banner that reflects your profession
✓ Build a digital network organically
✓ Be informative, a thought leader in your industry
✓ Use bullet points and icons in your post
✓ Take a strategic B2B approach
✓ Tag and link contacts
✓ Use hashtags (no more than 5)
✓ Post regularly, frequency is key

The Don’ts

✖ Have a profile with no image
✖ Have an unprofessional portraits image
✖ Be forceful or take a hard sell approach
✖ Copy what you post on other channels
✖ Pay for advertising, it’s expensive and lacks ROI.
✖ Post video or share posts
✖ Make the copy too long
✖ Be afraid to have an opinion
✖ Post with poor grammar and typos
✖ Post less than 3 times a week

To learn more about finessing your digital profile and the important of owning the digital space in your industry, enquire into membership of The Circle – our luxury business networking club aimed to blend together both physical and digital working.

Find out more

Luxury Insider: NFTs & Luxury

Luxury NFTs could become a $56bn a year marketplace by 2030, according to investment bank and financial services leader, Morgan Stanley.

As the production of NFTs continues to create new forms of fashion consumption, more and more premium brands are jumping on this fast-moving train, investing in their new digital collectibles businesses. As more aspects of people’s lives are moving online, the demand for digital fashion and goods will increase significantly in the coming years.

But what are NFTs?

NFTs are a digital record of the ownership of an asset whether digital or physical. The record itself is held on the blockchain.

It’s essentially proof of authenticity, like having an item autographed.

The type of asset whose ownership is most commonly recorded with the purchase of an NFT is currently art (music, video, imagery, text, and so on).

But the concept of “ownership” in the world of NFTs means something different to the widely understood legal definition of “ownership”.

The owner of an NFT does not necessarily have legal title to the copyright in the intellectual property contained within the asset associated with their NFT unless it is specifically transferred in the sale and purchase agreement.

As original NFT creator, Anil Dash wrote in The Atlantic, “when someone buys an NFT, they’re not buying the actual digital artwork; they’re buying a link to it.”

It’s clear that the value of NFTs cannot be measured using conventional economics.

So why is there such excitement around NFTs and what have luxury brands seen in NFTs that had made them interested in moving into this growing sector?

NFTs and Luxury

In the past 10 years, there has been a shift away from scarcity and craftsmanship as the defining characteristics of what many consider as “luxury”.

Wealthier millennials and Gen Zers seemed to place a high value on hard-to-replicate memories and authentic experiences that could be shared with others via social media.

But, in the next two years, we see NFTs as bringing back to luxury the exclusivity that once defined it.

Gucci, Burberry, and Louis Vuitton are some of the first luxury brands to enter the NFT and Metaverse spaces with exclusive digital clothing, gaming skins, digital artwork, and online avatars. 

Given the demand for NFTs and the prices they command, owners of NFTs may be justified in seeing these tokens as outward displays of their wealth and status.

As an immersive experience, the personal avatars that users utilise will wear clothing and use items as manifestations of individualization and personal expression, much like they would in the physical world — this opens up a really exciting opportunity for premium brands.

Owners will be able to showcase their collection of NFT-associated assets to others within the gaming and interactive platforms they frequent. As described by Bloomberg, your digital avatar could “wear Burberry “skins” and carry Gucci handbags that are not leather totes but non-fungible tokens”.

Luxury watch manufacturer Patek Philip revealed an NFT based on its famed and discontinued timepiece “Nautilus” in November 2021 – ideal for the Metaverse.

Some luxury NFTs come with real-world manifestations of the product being represented digitally. For example, you get a real coat at the same time as you get a virtual coat. If you buy a luxury watch NFT, you now might get both a physical watch and a digital file which acts as a certificate of authenticity.

You could use the digital wallet app on your phone to show off your collection of NFTs to others.

Proof of NFT ownership might become a passport allowing access to exclusive events online and offline. Each event you attend will generate an NFT of its own to offer proof of attendance.

You may not even need a digital wallet. Soon, you’ll be able to link the NFTs in your digital wallet back to your social media profile.

You can choose which NFT you want as your display picture. On Twitter, the NFT you choose will be displayed within a hexagon and not the usual roundel. It’s not hard to see how the hexagonal display pictures could become the new must-have sign of status just like the blue tick verified user status used to be if interest in NFTs continues to grow.

This is, of course, all speculation.

No-one is sure how this is going to turn out. The success of NFTs is, in large part, determined by the success or otherwise of the metaverse. There have been plenty of attempts to create digital worlds in the past and, although the tech is now much better, there is no compelling evidence that we will live in a Ready Player One type of virtual reality world any time soon.

And if there is mass adoption, will NFTs develop into two different classes? One class with an accompanying physical product and one without? 

Where there is no physical product, will luxury consumers be happy to purchase an item of clothing they can only showcase to people in a virtual world but they cannot wear in the actual presence of their friends in their favourite clubs and nightspots?

Last but not least – will NFT prices hold? Will wealth managers and family office managers see NFTs as a stable store of value given their current price volatility? Remember that NFTs must be purchased with cryptocurrency which has its own price volatility issues.

There seems to be something in NFTs but, barely a year into widespread interest in the tokens, it’s difficult to tell the longer-term direction of travel for the sector.

[Sources: Morgan Stanley, VERB, Forbes]

Should my brand be on TikTok?

On 23rd February, we had the pleasure of hosting the LMH Luxury Insider 2022 in partnership with Rosewood London and Walpole.

We were joined by a wonderful panel of specialists at the Rosewood hotel to discuss the important of content-driven marketing within the luxury industry.

Hosted by Charlotte Keesing, Director of Walpole, LMH Founder and MD Jemma Lester & Rosewood Managing Director, Michael Bonsor, we discussed topics including:

The Importance of Content Driven Marketing with Luxury Marketing House Founder & MD, Jemma Lester

Digital sphere & Finessing your Digital Profile – the ABC’s Photography with Purpose with award-winning photographer Matt Porteous

Film Content Styles with Rosewood MD, Michael Bonsor

Content-driven Marketing & Remaining in Conversation with Northacre Head of Brand, Amy Wardell

New Luxury: The Balance between Physical & Digital with luxury specialist Alex Field

Sustainability in Luxury Marketing with model and influencer Brett Staniland

We were joined by a wonderful audience of guests from the luxury industry, including brands such as Rolls Royce, Turnbull & Asser, Saatchi Gallery, Corinthia Hotel, Mandarin Oriental, The Londoner and McLaren. We were also joined virtually by over 100 guests including Rive Gauche London, William Grant & Sons and Smythson.

To watch our pre-event interviews with the panellists visit our Instagram.

Watch the full highlights film on LMH TV.

Sign up to our mailing list to be the first to hear about upcoming LMH events, news and business updates.

The Digital Era: Luxury Business Networking Clubs

Pre-pandemic, the vast majority of business networking was done face to face via industry events, lunches and networking clubs. During the pandemic, the world remained connected via digital channels and events. However, there was a sense that the luxury industry was unprepared for the digital networking world – poor profile photos, weak digital content, and lack of understanding around digital streaming.

There are those who have perfect digital profiles, are productively working from home, networking via zoom and generally have comfortably embraced the new norm.

Then there are others who thrive on human connection and doing business face-to-face over the traditional ‘long lunch’, that were caught short in lockdown, owning underwhelming digital profiles and having little idea on how to successfully market themselves in the blended digital space.

As we enter a new era of remote working, physical meetings, Zoom calls and after-work drinks, we decided we needed a new way to connect, that combined both physical and digital networking.

With such, The Circle is back and has been reinvented to combine these two environments – to create a networking club that brings back face-to-face networking in a small, friendly, boutique manner, whilst also providing tools for our members to finesse their digital profiles, helping them look elegant in the digital space.

We provide entrepreneurs, directors and private clients with access to a group of like-minded, dynamic individuals. Membership is curated with a carefully thought out selection process, led by the founder of LMH, Jemma Lester and luxury industry specialist Alex Field.

Not only do members have the opportunity to attend seasonal lunches, “field trips” and activate co-marketing initiatives, but we provide the tools and expertise to maximise online presence and digital profiles.

It’s time for a new type of networking club, one that works in both the physical and digital worlds.

If you work in the luxury industry, can pop the occasional lunch on expenses, and can make business decisions then we’d like to hear from you as a potential member of The Circle – a business networking club, that will ensure you remain connected and stand out from the crowd, both physically and digitally.

If you are keen for a fun lunch at the very least, please send your LinkedIn profile to thecircle@luxurymarketinghouse.com and we’ll take a look. The club’s not for everyone, we are boutique and semi-selective, but we are open and welcoming and will let you know if you can join the party!