Former Lucky editor-in-chief Eva Chen’s career has evolved in line with the publishing industry’s push for digital. In 2015 she was named head of fashion partnerships for Instagram – an announcement she made via the social media channel – making her advice on traversing the updated Instagram all the more relevant to today’s media.
Chen recently advised brands on how they can best utilise the new Instagram, telling The Business of Fashion there are five key steps. These include:
1. Focus on engagement.
“It’s not a numbers game. But it’s the passion and engagement that people feel for a brand that matters most. That is a key gold star. You can have millions of followers, but [it’s] more important whether people are commenting and tagging their friends.”
2. Create a strong identity for yourself. And keep it consistent.
“Having a strong visual identity and a visual rubric — that’s important. Just as when you pick up a magazine, whether it’s Self Service or Vogue, and you could remove the title from the cover, but you would still know which magazine it was just from the image, the typography, the talent they’re using, the tone of voice — that logic extends to Instagram as well. Feeds that have a very consistent look do well. You want moments of spontaneity and joy, but it’s also about consistency.”
3. Be authentic.
“It’s about authenticity. The accounts I love following most all have the sense that there are real people behind them. People want to feel the ‘Insta’ in Instagram. The campaign images always do well, but it’s the behind the scenes where Karlie Kloss is eating a cookie backstage — those are the images that always get more engagement, because you feel like you’re seeing through someone’s eyes.”
4. Conversation is key.
“The Instagram audience wants to feel like they’re a part of something. The conversation is really important — talking back to your followers, asking questions of them. [For example] when people are in their Rockstuds they’re posting pictures and tagging Valentino and the brand is using a lot of this user generated content, saying to followers, ‘Hey, if you post us, we’ll repost you.’ It’s nice because they’re spotlighting how people dress in Valentino. But when Valentino comments on their followers’ feeds, you can legit see people freak out.”
5. Collaborate with native content
“We’re in a new age where it’s about collaboration. Gucci is a great example. They do something called #GucciGram, where they collaborate with artists on Instagram. These collaborations are closer to artist residencies, where the reciprocity is more about inspiration and access versus ‘I’ll work with you because you have nine trillion followers.’ That’s influencer marketing, which a lot of brands are doing extremely well, but that’s always existed.”
