There are lots of Instagram profiles. Few stand out.
Welcome back to the third installment of our Social Spotlight Series! We’ve decided to start highlighting accounts that stand out in our feeds so we can share insights about what makes them successful. Our Social Spotlights focus on Instagram pages that have valuable lessons for marketers, entrepreneurs, influencers, and anyone else who wants to optimize their Instagram.
Today we are featuring @wizardpins, a specialized manufacturer of premium custom enamel pins. WizardPins’ products are all custom designs submitted by their users, meaning these customers are the providers of the content we see on WizardPins’ Instagram profile. Scrolling through, we see a wide variety of beautifully executed pin designs with captions that contextualize the pins and give them more character. But are they doing everything they can to maximize the benefits of their profile? Continue reading for a granular breakdown of what they do right and wrong, and see if you can gain any insights for yourself. ?
Featured Profile Overview
WizardPins has a fantastic looking, very shoppable profile. They have a straightforward intro to who they are, and right off the bat we can see that they’ve attracted a healthy following: 78,000 and growing. Overall, the profile is set up well to sell their product. Along with appealing content that builds confidence in their product, they offer a Bit.ly link that lets visitors access their site quickly while allowing WizardPins to track those click-throughs.
WizardPins also has solid brand cohesion. When you click through to their website from their Instagram profile, you immediately know you’re in the right place. Everything on their website telegraphs the magical theme of the brand, from the wizard face logo that demonstrates all the products offered to the crystal ball inviting you to fill up your cart.
What’s interesting about how WizardPins has set up their Instagram is that they’ve built their own creative universe highlighting their product style and aesthetic – and other companies are trying to replicate it. Click on the hashtags in individual posts, and you’ll discover that other users have bought into this creative universe and are even mimicking it. The creativity of WizardPins’ customers is on full display in their feed, and both establish them as a leader in their industry
and inspires community participation.
What We Think Is Working
Because WizardPins is a custom pin manufacturer, almost every single Instagram post is essentially a testimonial from a satisfied customer. Tagging their customers and involving them in the post makes those customers feel special. This practice, along with their beautifully curated content, is optimized for a healthy community. WizardPins has articulated their artistic universe through its content, giving creatives a way to market and brand themselves through this larger company universe. This is social selling done right!
What We Like (And What Could Be Done Better)
We love how WizardPins promotes customer designs through their posts. The site looks great, and overall they have a very cohesive brand. Not only are their posts high-quality, most of the posts they are tagged in showcase their products in a way WizardPins can be proud of, demonstrating their sound social proof. Their creative aesthetics have grown and improved over the years, too, evolving from plain white backgrounds to customized ones (like matching fabric or the custom pin backing cards WizardPins makes) to contextualize their product and offer a more visually appealing experience.
That said, even with all the characters in WizardPins’ profile, it lacks soul. We know all about the customers who use WizardPins because they are featured in the profile, but we don’t know anything about WizardPins as a company. Who founded them? Who works there? They’re a very successful company – they have nearly 80,000 Instagram followers and boast clients like Tesla and Amazon – but shoppers want to see the outcomes of that success in WizardPins’ community and company culture. Focusing on their creatives is excellent and makes the creatives feel great, but nothing in this profile is original to WizardPins. Based on what we see in this profile and on the website, we trust WizardPins’ product, but we are left wondering who they really are. Customers find that increasingly important: they want to be part of something bigger than themselves, and they want to connect their purchase to a real person, not just a company.
This ties into another aspect we found lacking in their profile: there isn’t much engagement despite their heavy focus on their community. They don’t seem to be building any engagement strategy with that community. Visitors might be more confident spending their money with WizardPins if they could see more conversation and engagement in this profile.
WizardPins posts beautiful, on-brand art almost every day, but only a handful of their posts feature giveaways, questions for the community, or “tag a friend”-type action steps. It would also be nice to feature the people at WizardPins: how they give back to the community, what they enjoy in their free time, and what causes they care about most. More of these kinds of posts would help generate community interaction, grow trust with their profile visitors, and reveal a bit of who’s behind this awesome-looking company.
Analytics / Insights
WizardPins posts consistently and at an excellent frequency, but their overall engagement is surprisingly low. With how optimized their profile is for click-throughs, they almost certainly have many visitors moving through to visit their website and shop their product.
Somewhat uniquely for e-commerce accounts, WizardPins sees the highest engagement between 10 pm and midnight EST every day of the week except Saturday. This might have something to do with their location, or maybe they have lots of international buyers, but either way, it’s something WizardPins should consider as they shape their engagement strategy.
Key Takeaways
- WizardPins has lots of likes on their posts, but that’s pretty much where engagement ends. Doing more giveaways or contests will help them improve engagement and strengthen the community.
- They have powerful brand cohesion. Their strategy of featuring their customers’ creative work is on the right track.
- Everything is optimized for conversion, and visitors have high product confidence.
- They lack soul. The profile would benefit from letting visitors learn more about the company.
Tune in next week to see our fourth installment of the Social Spotlight Series. Join our mailing list to get Goodwin knowledge and insights like this delivered straight to your inbox!