Social Media: Get Noticed

Even if you’re only a casual user of social media, you’ve seen some influencers who have stockpiled hundreds of thousands of followers and are living the good life thanks to sponsorships. So now you want to know: How can I use social media to boost business and increase bookings?

Let me be clear: successfully leveraging various social-media platforms is more than just posting a photo from time to time. Truth be told, it’s a part-time job at the very least. From my end, as a senior account manager in the PR, Social, and Insights Department at Idea Ranch, I’ve spent a lot of time working with social media for nearly four years. I’ve managed and co-managed major outdoor accounts such as Under Armour Hunt, Under Armour Fish, Barnes Bullets, Meat! Your Maker, and Hodgdon Powder Company among others. Depending on the account, my responsibilities include everything from copywriting to community management to content creation. And because we are a full-service agency, insights play a major role in guiding our creative output.

Every social platform has site-specific community guidelines regarding hunting and fishing, but after looking under the hood on these outdoor accounts for years, I can tell you, based on analytics, there is a lot these platforms do not tell you. Here, I am going on to focus only on Instagram, as I firmly believe it’s the most advantageous in terms of garnering a large audience in the least amount of time. With Facebook, an organic post might see 10 percent of your overall audience, while with Instagram, that exact same post can see anywhere from 10 to 50 and even to 200 percent of your audience base.

There is one rule that dominates any content that you should share: be tasteful. Instagram used to have a community-standards entry regarding the difference between animal abuse and hunting, but only the following language remains:

Instagram works with wildlife groups to identify and take action on photos or videos that violate our community guidelines, such as posts depicting animal abuse, poaching, or the sale of endangered animals and their parts.

Facebook, owner of Instagram, classifies animal abuse (a violation of their community standards) as the following:

Acts of physical harm against animals committed by you or your associates except in cases of hunting, fishing, religious sacrifice, food preparation or processing, pest or vermin, self defense, or redemption.

IG’s Explore page

In December 2019, Instagram stopped sharing pictures of guns and grip-and-grin hunting snapshot on their Explore page (the magnifying glass section of the app), which is meant to function as a location where you might discover other content and accounts based on your interests. For example, prior to December 2019, if you had demonstrated you enjoy hunting content by following hunting accounts and liking hunting photos, among your Explore page photos you might have seen a hunter with his gun and a trophy whitetail. Now, as a fan of hunting, if you go to that Explore page, you’ll likely see only wildlife photography.

How does this happen? All these platforms have the technology to immediately recognize the content the people share. This technology will recognize a gun, a dead animal, etc., and their algorithm will sort it accordingly.

“But hey,” you say, “that hunting photo falls within their community guidelines and isn’t breaking any rules.” You’re absolutely correct, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to promote it or extend the reach of that photo’s audience. It can exist on an account’s page but will rarely if ever reach the Explore page where thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of other accounts who do not follow the original account could see it. Only followers of that account will see it or those with whom followers share the photo.

Instagram makes money by allowing account owners to pay to promote their images, but if the photos involve dead animals or hunters with guns, the companies are not even allowed to pay to promote such content. That doesn’t mean hunting accounts cannot pay to promote. For example, at Idea Ranch we have a hunting-apparel account that can pay to promote its content. To make sure we can continue to do so, however, we never push the boundaries of community guidelines and follow the number one rule: Keep it tasteful.

That means zero grip-and-grin shots, and it is very rare on this account that we post a photo with a firearm.

Wannabe Influencers

For now, if you’re just getting started or consider yourself a social-media novice, focus on Instagram. You can simultaneously share the same content to your Facebook page (and you should have a Facebook page), but your content creation should be optimized for Instagram. I could write a short novel on social media and the outdoor industry. Because this is just one article, here are some tips, hot and fast, for you below: Wildlife photography does incredibly well for any hunting-related account. If you have some stellar shots taken while guiding, show those off. Wildlife content is prioritized for hunting fans and can reach 200 percent or more of your base audience, meaning that with a 25,000- follower account, a stellar wildlife shot could reach 50,000 eyeballs.

Though Instagram started as a still photography platform, and basically still is, they want to push their video capabilities. If you have cool footage (taken on your phone even) of salmon swimming upstream or a herd of elk moving across a ridgeline, share that, but remember, all videos on Instagram must be under a minute long.

Grip-and-grins for fishing will still make the Explore page on Instagram, and fishing accounts can pay to promote. Images are denied from Explore only when the fish is bleeding and the photo is “gory.” Yes, you can use your phone to capture video and stills. By default, Instagram lowers the resolution of your videos, so don’t worry if they’re not shot in 4K.

Right now, Reels (short vertical videos very similar to TikTok) are big on Instagram. If you have sweet vertical video, turn it into a Reel (this may require a Google search to learn how). Post frequently, at least five days a week. Instagram wants you continually engaged on their platform. Keep the content flowing if you want to reach or continue to reach a large audience. Some insider info: A lack of consistent posting negatively impacts reach.

Post when your audience is most active. You can gather that information by visiting the Insights tab of your profile (found after tapping the three horizontal lines on your homepage). Find out what days your page sees the most people, then review what hours during those days are the busiest. That is when you post.

The first hour is key. Whether your audience engages with your content within the first hour tells the social-media algorithm if the content is quality. So, again, post when your audience is most active. Engage with your community. If someone posts a comment, take the time to respond. Again, the more time you spend on the platform and the more time you keep other people on the platform, the more you’ll be rewarded.

Create engaging content. Ask a question pertinent to your audience, etc. All social-media platforms like to serve up quality content for their audiences, so when the algorithm recognizes a certain audience appreciates a piece of content, the social platform will disseminate it to a wider audience via more people on the home feed, or in the case of Instagram, on the Explore page. What this means: When your audience likes, shares, comments, watches a video, clicks on a photo—all that engagement tells the algorithm, “Hey, people like this, so spread it around to more people.”

Use pertinent but not overplayed hashtags. Hashtags allow anyone on that social-media platform to search that content. Example: #DeerHunting. If someone types “#DeerHunting” in Instagram’s search feed, they’ll be able to browse 2.2 million different posts. So the hashtag is relevant but overplayed, which means your post will likely get lost in the mass of other posts. Narrow it down but keep it pertinent: #WhitetailHunting (322k posts with that one), or even #KansasDeerHunting (just a little over 1,000 there). You can insert up to 30 hashtags on Instagram but, generally speaking, 12 to 15 is the sweet spot.

Make sure your website and contact info are listed in your bio. People want to be able to tap to quickly view your website or send you a message.

Build Your IG Audience

Start with a recognizable handle pertinent to your business. Avoid abbreviations and underscores, if possible, and certainly double underscores. People should be able to remember it and tag you without having to look you up. Example: @WildGameJack. “Wild Game Jack,” I can tell people. “One word.” If the name of your lodge or guiding service is taken, get creative: @BigBuckLodgeKansas (versus just @BigBuckLodge).

Make sure both your Instagram and Facebook handle are identical. Example: @MadeWithMeat is the handle for both Meat! Your Maker’s Instagram and Facebook. Meat! also went a step further and bought the domain: MadeWithMeat.com. Again, this facilitates finding your account (and potentially your website). And as mentioned above, you can simultaneously post to both platforms when posting from Instagram, so keep the Facebook running for folks who don’t have an Instagram.

Ask clients to tag you in shots of their trophies. Ask clients to follow you. Perhaps you offer an incentive: “Follow us for a free T-shirt” or “5% off your next trip with us.”

Follow hashtags pertinent to your business and comment on other users’ posts. For example, find a photo of a trophy elk through #ElkHunting, then comment with “congrats” and perhaps relay a story about a client taking a similar bull through you. Get your business’s name out there, among the outdoor community.

Consider working with major influencers who know their stuff. Key phrase: “know their stuff.” There are several “hunting” influencers, for example, with large audiences but have only dropped one deer in their lifetime. Look up influencers with some serious credibility, perhaps offer them a free trip “as long as you tag us and post to your social feed while here and for all photos afterward.” From working with major influencers, I can tell you some get paid a lot for several posts, but I would suggest a $5,000- to $10,000 hunting or fishing trip is definitely worth their time to share a bunch of content and tag your business.

I hope some of this helps. Reach out to me on Instagram (@WildGameJack) with any questions or comments.

Jack Hennessy is a senior account manager in the Social, PR, and Insights department Idea Ranch, which is based in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

From the Fall 2021 issue of Guidefitter Journal.