Opinion: Social media and the rise of instabait

Social media can make or break a business, so knowing how to use a public platform is an essential way to ensure you are reaching a particular audience. Colin Gray, MD of Lavender Green Flowers, reveals why designing ‘bait’ for an event can make it pop online.

There is always the social media element to think about for events. As budgets reduce and people want more impact, designing ‘bait’ for social media gives the event longevity and presence on the social platforms. It creates must haves or even reference points when talking about companies and events in the industry. For example, this was evident when Annabel’s covered its front with pink and red hydrangeas at the Chelsea Flower Show this year, and the magnificent floral art installation of the iconic Queen’s head on her 90th birthday.

Instabait is all about creating on-trend and on-brand installations that are both camera and pose friendly. Allowing the guest or member of the public to immediately recognise a photo opportunity that is captivating, unique and impressive, while clearly conveying a message chosen by the host during the design process. This then encourages social posting, sharing and brand awareness.

“Instabait is all about creating on-trend and on-brand installations that are both camera and pose friendly.”

In our store, displays provide us with a great weekly opportunity to drive social media awareness. Working on fresh ‘bait’ worthy material is vital as it gets outdated very quickly. It is important to think about the key dates that give the store and business the best commercial advantage, for example Valentine’s Day and Christmas.

There must be a joined-up approach between marketing initiatives and sales in order to get the best ROI. We involve the whole team and go into greater detail to ensure that we rival the previous year and keep the public guessing what it might be. Profiling the audience we want to captivate is essential.

Our objective in each is to increase brand awareness, grow social following, show diversity in product line, drive footfall and become known for creativity.