Instead of Sending Artfully Arranged Flower Bouquets an Entrepreneur
In this series, Instagram Icon, Entrepreneur speaks with the individuals backside popular Instagram accounts to observe out the secrets of their success.
Lana Elie had a problem.
The former personal banana and digital project managing director was born in France and has lived in Bali, Australia, the U.S. and the U.1000., so she has a lot of friends in a multitude of timezones and they all had birthdays and milestones she wanted to celebrate. Just when she wanted to exercise something every bit uncomplicated as transport flowers, she found herself constantly hitting the same wall.
"I would ever [have] to wait until weird times to send flowers," Elie told Entrepreneur. "And and so over the phone I'1000 giving this random person my credit bill of fare details. And so I'm ordering something for like $lxx that I've never seen earlier."
So she came up with a solution and started Floom, a London-based online marketplace dedicated to connecting customers from all over the U.Chiliad. who desire unique and seasonal arrangements with local, contained florists who can provide both a bespoke work of fine art and aforementioned-day delivery.
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As floristry is an inherently visual medium, it is perchance unsurprising that the company has gained quite the following on Instagram, gaining more than 29,500 followers since Floom'southward launch in 2015.
But Elie says that without Instagram, she's not sure that she would have the visitor she does today, thanks to the fans she gained with the platform while tinkering with the idea.
"[Information technology's] what helped me get my funding in the first, because and then I had an Instagram account to prove user appointment," she says. "I had vi,000 followers before I launched and those followers were pushing through to an electronic mail base. It was a real test of the content were making."
Entrepreneur spoke with Elie nigh Instagram and how it helped her abound her brand.
How did you go your beginning with Instagram?
When I started Floom, it was actually how we started the concern. Half dozen months before we had a name or annihilation, information technology was an Instagram account and information technology was just a test of what people reacted to and what users were interested in. [It was] the way to push to a landing page even though we didn't know yet what the business organisation was. It started out with lifestyle and inspirational images and and so information technology moved into this seasonality aspect. I ended up taking my ain pictures of a flower a 24-hour interval.
I showcased that flower in item considering information technology was in flavor, and the whole concept was always bringing attention to the seasonality of flowers and non just buying roses or lilies all twelvemonth round. It was a picture I took in my living room, dropped an Instagram filter on it and so talked virtually how it was named or what it represents or unlike apply cases for it. And that's what really picked upwards. Instagram and the seasonality and heritage of flowers is in our core identity [as a business].
What other platforms do you lot employ and what percentage of the time do you spend on them vs. Instagram?
Nosotros use our magazine and blogging elements, nosotros utilise Facebook, we use Twitter. I use LinkedIn a niggling bit. I think eighty per centum of the fourth dimension spent on social media goes into Instagram. The bulk of what we produce is for Instagram. It's what we put the most curation into and it always starts in that location. It used to exist that you would make a blog post and then it would disseminate into the dissimilar social platforms. Now it seems like we make an Instagram post and so that disseminates to different social platforms.
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What makes Instagram a better platform than other social media?
The Instagram customs is what helped me build this brand. The whole business organisation is built around the difficulty of finding a good independent florist considering they can't compete when information technology comes to expert websites or good photography or SEO. Then you do a Google search and you get all of the paid ads vs. actually finding actually amazing florists within a given expanse.
When I was searching for who I wanted on the site, I went through the same event. I was like, how tin can I detect these people? What I was able to practise through Instagram was I really built a list of my favorite florists from finding somebody, post-obit them on Instagram, and so yous see that fiddling drib down that allows the algorithm to tell you users that are similar. And so someone on the squad actually had to go through Instagram and all the people I'd followed and really reach out to them.
How much of your time practice yous devote to it?
I would say that I devote more time than I should, just because in that location's a business to run. But I talk about it every solar day, the terminal Instagram post or the copy that was affiliated with it or what we can practice better in terms of storytelling on it. I don't know how to really put it into a percentage. I retrieve if I fifty-fifty said similar l percentage of my fourth dimension, everybody would gyre their optics at me. It's definitely more than that. Simply I also don't want my investors to think that I don't run my concern.
How exercise you promote your account? What's your number one way to gain followers?
Nosotros do a lot of competition partnerships with other accounts that nosotros think have unique offerings and work well with us. Users can follow us to win something. We also brand sure all our content is produced in-house. A lot of the time with our flower of the week it becomes quite educational and quite fun to appoint with.
With Instagram stories we'll open it up and make it kind of playful, talk about how it was named, things like that. I think that shareability allows other people to promote us. And too the simplicity of our images. Nosotros also make our avails for our florists. Similar, if you desire to share our Instagram account, you tin can employ this video.
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How practise you appoint with others on the platform?
We try to open up a lot of chat. We always ask people if they know what a flower is. Nosotros're very question-based. I probably exercise a lot less than I used to, simply it'due south also when florists that nosotros desire don't reply to emails, we just go direct to Instagram because nosotros know that's what they're going to be checking. A lot of our outreach to new florists is through Instagram messages.
How often do you postal service?
Three to four times a mean solar day. Then we probably do a story or two a 24-hour interval as well. An average of three or four stories a week.
What'due south your content strategy?
We partner with so many unique florists that everything we do is talking about their identity and why nosotros showcase them and why they became florists. Yous know, why they use only British-grown flowers or why they use specific varieties instead of maybe using more pop varieties. Every fourth dimension nosotros sign someone up, we get given quite a lot of content and because I come from a content background, it's always been content starting time.
Our florists have their own page where nosotros photograph them and we tin can talk about their favorite flowers. Information technology's such a beautiful art that that our strategy was most made for us before we fifty-fifty started. We tin can't keep up with the corporeality of beautiful visual content that we really have to showcase.
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How has your content strategy evolved as Instagram has added features?
We've go a little less precious nearly what we post. We're slowly opening up and realizing, you know what, [with Stories] this is but upwards there for 24 hours. Information technology's such a great opportunity for united states of america to hand over the account to one of our florists and then yous can get a feel of what information technology's similar to exist in their life for a twenty-four hour period. It really gives united states the opportunity to talk more than about them and their stories and let them get with it without having it bear on the visual identity of the make when yous await at the account. Just as well the business and analytics tools for u.s. accept completely changed the understanding of the kind of content that we make across the board.
What's your best storytelling fox?
I recollect ours is putting a bunch of stories together and then that you can kind of continue tapping information technology and things appear. Nosotros practice that with flower of the week -- it kind of unravels into this longer story with a piffling animative things [popping up] and going through a bunch of still images. If we accept the ability to link to something, nosotros'll put [an image] and lay some text over it and say swipe up to link. Being able to tell one story but through several unlike images is what we're really good at.
How practice you prepare yourself autonomously from others on the platform?
Ordinarily flowers accept been in a flake of an archaic space. Information technology'due south just quite recently that they've been considered more than of a lifestyle article. Plants are something that you want to surround yourself with all the time, whereas before, everything was shot similar on a hamper in your grandmother's sleeping room. Other brands are doing it at present as well which is corking, but information technology's the exploration into the uniqueness and the architecture of the flower itself, and looking at the details and trying to bring these details into our blueprint.
I think our visual identity is a niggling more techie and a little more than playful. It's definitely catered to a different audience than flowers accept been catered to earlier. There's a generation gap where people really cared about flowers and all of a sudden nobody did. And now nosotros accept the tools to brand the content to bring that kind of love for flowers dorsum. We have florists that have stories to tell. And so instead of just united states of america needing to tell our story, we have almost threescore florists who all have their own incredible stories. Then having that really sets united states of america autonomously.
Related: This Marketer Transformed His Instagram Into 2 Profitable Businesses
How do you lot leverage your Instagram and to what extent do you monetize information technology?
Nosotros have a platform where florists can upload their own products to the back-end and and so they only evangelize to specific postcodes. They're constantly changing. Whereas in other platforms information technology'southward kind of like this is the boutonniere that'south going to be here all year. Nosotros testify a lot of production on Instagram. And that'south because it'southward and then seasonal, to remind people that every time they come back there'south always something new. If we had an ugly product information technology would probably exist a different conversation, but it's a beautiful bouquet on with these incredible flowers that nosotros can tell stories about. [But our production] is our best content luckily.
What advice do you have for other Instagram influencers or people who want to build brands on the platform?
Use it as a testing base earlier building as well much of anything else. That's what helped me get my funding in the beginning, because and so I had an Instagram account to prove user engagement. I had 6,000 followers before I launched and those followers were pushing through to an email base of operations. Information technology was a real test of the content we were making. We could post something and it could be completely flawed or we would regram something and it would merely go absolutely mental. Then we were like, "Oh, maybe we should produce our own ice cubes with flower petals in information technology."
I would say don't be afraid to start out and not exist so precious about it. When yous're building a make you want everything to be perfect. But most of the stuff that I built in the beginning has nothing to practise with the brand now.
What's a misconception many people have well-nigh Instagram?
It doesn't have to be perfect. [The missteps] helped the states understand what our brand needed to be and who our users were and how they engaged with u.s., and what they liked and what they didn't. And so I think the misconception is that people need to go in in that location and know exactly what they're doing already.
Floom | Instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/BVACHpIhbYp/
"This one is an example of our core identity. Stripping everything back and allowing all the attending to fall on the detail and uniqueness of this oriental poppy that most competitor bouquets don't apply, so is frequently not seen by many people."
Floom | Instagram https://world wide web.instagram.com/p/BWkt47qhecA/
"1 of the creations of a new florist that has merely joined Floom. She trades out of London in S Warwickshire, only using British grown flowers, in a style that's truly unique to her and oft not seen in normal bouquets you find online."
Floom | Instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/BWlMXn1hhvo/
"An almost fluorescent Dahlia, and some history about it. A overnice way to acquire about flowers you might non have seen before."
Floom | Instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/BT54Fgshy9C/
"Always a corking way to go people to engage is asking them to aid united states of america name some of the unique flowers that our florists incorporate in their bouquets that we have never come across before."
Floom | Instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/BWpEIEHh1E-/
"The description on this toad lily was pretty great."
Source: https://www.entrepreneur.com/slideshow/298111
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