InstaGram "Feature" Accounts Is A New Form Of JV & Pimp Marketing And It Ruins Brand Purity

A question came up in my Gold coaching program yesterday about using InstaGram "Feature" accounts. When I gave the answer I knew I had to share this with all of you.

What is an InstaGram "Feature" account? Quite simply, it's an account created on InstaGram where you feature other people, products, and services along with your own. The goal of the "Feature" account is to have as many people on it featured in an effort to attract a lot of people.

To a beginning small business owner this might seem appealing. They hear, "Get a lot of followers fast! Grow your brand fast!" and want to jump in with two feet! But let's look beyond the exictement to what is actually happening with this form of marketing.

A feature account might attract a lot of people but it's a big risk to brand loyalty, purity and consistency. Sadly, it's usually marketed to people who are eager for more more more rather than simple, effecitve direct response marketing techniques that work.

A feature account uses methods that draw a lot of people, but it also includes a lot of brands coming together which in turn creates dilution. You might look popular having all these brands on your page, but when one brand is doing this and the other brand is doing that and the first brand IS the one to follow and the SECOND brand is now the flavor of the week, the brand begins to get diluted and confusion sets in.  Popularity is great for a brand, but customer confusion is not. Having a lot of followers is awesome and even endorsing and recommending someone else can be ok. But pitching someone new as the BEST LATEST GREATEST SUPER SPECIAL ONE TO FOLLOW every week ends up working against you, not in your favor.

Camping World and The Good Sam Club are two multi-billion dollar brands owned by Marcus Lemonis, the star of the TV show, "The Profit". They are also personal clients of A Real Change Media. It is my honor to be working with them on all of their social media platforms.

Let me say this very clearly- they will NEVER be creating a "Feature account" on InstaGram to grow their brand. Neither should you. They are NOT interested in seeing if they can get every supplier and business in the RV and camping industry to post a ton of pictures and features on their account so that they can grow their reach. They are a multi- BILLION dollar brand and take their brand very seriously. In one of the meetings I had with Marcus recently, the discussion of brand consistency and purity came up. We both agreed that there is a big problem online with companies not staying consistent to their brand and keeping it pure. Pollution abounds! He has no intention of polluting his billion dollar brand in magazines, through direct mail or in his more than 100+ store front locations, WHY would he want to pollute, dilute and be inconsistent on social media? He doesn't.

Here's the BIG problem- When you market your products around a ton of other people pitching their products, not only do I get disoriented as the customer in not knowing WHO I should pay attention to, but you begin to discredit yourself and make your brand look devalued. It's not good for business.

The goal is relationship. The consistency of your brand and the purity of your message must stay in tack to work effectively on social media.

As I begin to role out Camping World's InstaGram and Pinterest plans with them this month, which will include video, group posts, customers pictures and more, it will be even more critical to keep brand consistency and purity on track!

We've added more than 21,300 NEW clients to their one Facebook page and 14,000 + to their other page, in under 30 days.  We also merged their 83+ locations together into one corporate brand page AT the same time as growing their brand, so you can see with all of this hard work, I'm not interested in polluting or diluting their brand. I will NOT be creating a Feature account for them. Nor will I be building a Feature account for myself.  As soon as InstaGram ads are available I'll be using some very specific and strategic methods to increase their followers. We'll also be using some of the effective #hashtag and ideal client focus methods, with good content, that I used to create my own very succesful InstaGram page.

Relationship is the key!

Keep your brand pure, consistent and build it right. It is predicted that 5.6 BILLION new smartphones will be in existence by 2019. Get ready with the right platform!

With love,

Sandi Krakowski

PS. If you want to know why I don't recommend JV Marketing as a way to build your business and refer to it as one of the biggest prostitution rings in marketing today, you can see a past TV episode I did on this topic. http://arealchange.tv/2012/06/episode-11-the-jv-partner-prostitution-ring-why-you-need-to-avoid-it/