TopNine.co, an app that helps Instagram users identify their top 9 posts on their feed for the year, is coming in hot as influencers and daily users-alike flock to the app for marketing guidance.
As a Marketer, this app deeply interested me, so I took a few moments to download it and found that the results are not only impressive, they’re also pretty accurate. Top Nine explains their algorithm in detail on their website, stating “The algorithm selects your Top Nine Instagram photos based on a number of factors: number of likes, the content of the comments, among others.”
Using a company I work with as an example (@Exactmats/ ExactMats.com, which provides perfect-fitting, clear and black surface protection for vehicles, as well as clear protection for offices, and homes), Top Nine selected these images as the best images to leverage in the company’s marketing campaigns.
That said, while the platform gives you exactly what they think you should be using, it doesn’t really help you do the marketing. So how should you use your Top Nine images? Let’s discover those opportunities together!
Use The Data To Your Advantage
At ExactMats, we often repost photos from other like-minded accounts, making sure to give credit to those who created the content.
Looking at the examples above, all of ExactMats’ current Top Nine images are reposts, which may give us info about what the company’s followers want to see. For instance, by cross-referencing top images from the app with our own analytics on Instagram (make sure to convert your account into a business account to see Instagram’s “Insights”) we can verify that the app chose well.
You may have noticed that we have a couple trends happening with our reposts. First, we have a couple letter board posts. Initially, we shared a letter board post as a test, to see how our followers and passersby responded. What we didn’t expect was that these types of posts would be some of the most popular we’ve shared, so we took a deeper dive into Instagram’s analytics and found that these types of posts had some of the most likes, comments, and shares. Because of this, we have continued to add letter board posts into our Instagram planners.
The second trend we noticed was in relation to color profile – rainbows. Rainbows are a huge hit within our niche. We first started reposting rainbows consistently this year and since then, noticed a large uptick in engagement. We probably could have proven how well these types of posts were doing without Top Nine, but having an app that furthers our understanding of how well certain types of posts are doing is super helpful to any Marketer.
In short, it’s important to use apps like Top Nine and Instagram’s analytics to take as deep a look as possible into how your Instagram account is preforming.
Share Your Top Nine To Leverage Relationships
If you are like us, and you use reposted images, one thing you can certainly do to leverage Top Nine is posting all of your top images for the year. You can do this by purchasing the Top Nine images from their app for $2.99, which removes the watermark. You can also opt to download it for free with the watermark.
To get the most out of your Top Nine results, which is downloaded as a single image and shares your total amount of post likes for the year, you can simply post the image as a story or a post, tagging all of the original content creators.
Again, we originally published these reposted images because our followers tend to like this type of content, but we also repost based on strategy. For instance, we work with many Professional Organizers and organizational companies – some of which we’d like to promote and others which we’d like to work with in the future – so reposting their content only makes sense. It grabs their attention and shows them that you’re as interested in their content as they may be in yours.
In our case, we’d tag all 9 creators. This would give us another great post and would allow us to remind the creators that we’ve previously tagged them, as well as call attention to our existence in the space. Our biggest tip here is to make sure you thank them for their images again, as you’re essentially reposting their image once more. You can also take this as an opportunity to personally message (DM) these Instagram accounts, thanking them for their amazing content. Depending on the size of the company, not only will you make them feel great, but you’ll also actively be beginning to network with them. If the account is one that you’d like to work with, you may consider using this as a time to talk with them about partnerships.
Be Sneaky, But Not Too Sneaky…
One more thing you can do with Top Nine’s images is hold a contest prompting followers to share their own top images. The prize and rules of the contest are completely up to you, but from our experience, you’d want to choose rules that make things easiest on you and the entrants. For instance, so you can keep track of all of the entries, you may want to have entrants tag your account and include a campaign-specific hashtag on their post to be considered “entered”.
What this may end up doing for you is two fold. First, you may end up learning quite a bit about your followers. If any companies are following you and they decide to join in (this will mostly be smaller to medium-sized businesses who focus on engagement), you’ll essentially have access to their Top Nine images, which can give you further insight into their market/niche.
Awareness is an uphill battle for new companies, especially for those like ExactMats, which works primarily with custom products and has essentially created a brand new product category within a few markets. That said, the second benefit, depending on your rules, might be as simple as getting brand attention and awareness for your company. By holding a fun and unique contest with an exciting prize (I can’t emphasize enough how important the prize is in getting attention and more entrants), where those who enter must tag you, you’re inviting people to spread the word about your company.
Get Out There And Start Posting
There’s a lot more that can be done with Top Nine’s photo collage in the ways of marketing, but the app is also looking to enhance it’s platform by adding new features and tools for its users. For example, their iOS app (sorry Android users – the app isn’t available quite yet for you guys), which is free, has an update allowing you to turn your top images into a video for Instagram Stories. This opens up even more marketing possibilities for Instagram users.
And finally, for those of you who are worried about Instagram’s newest vendetta against post likes, you needn’t worry. Top Nine has assured users that it’s algorithm is intelligent enough to identify your best posts without the need to see post likes.
So what are you waiting for? Get out there and start leveraging tools like Top Nine today to gain more awareness and to obtain new business partners and revenue.
