How Can I make Instagram Do The Heavy-Lifting For My Brand?

Yep, one of us has a cold here, and it isn’t the guest. We apologize in advance for the ‘nn’s that sound like the ‘dd’s.

Pranoy Thipaiah of Kerehaklu knows something, almost viscerally, that a lot of brand managers, marketing folk, and businesspeople miss- no one hangs out on social media to hear from brands.

We hang out here, instead, to feel connected with the people and things that matter to us. Why, then, do we push so much of the product messaging? Why, then, as Pranoy says, do we “sell the sausage and not the sizzle”?

This episode addresses questions that we all must ask and ponder before turning a social media platform, and one as finicky as Instagram, into a sales channel.

As a creator, Pranoy has spent the last four years on Instagram cataloging and chronicling his own journey with coffee on the family’s estate. And what we get to see is a rich, diverse experience of coffee as it was and as it will be.

If you’re wondering where the business outcomes are, Blue Tokai buys out several lots of Kerehaklu coffee, lets Pranoy take over their Instagram account, and features their coffee lots in their Producer Series.

So let’s just take a step back, look at Instagram for what it is- a means to connect, share, and tell stories- and let the business outcomes be based on engagement. If communities are indeed the future of marketing, there’s no better place to build them today than on social media.