Instagram is undeniably growing faster compared to other social media platforms. It continues to shine brightly in this world where social media plays a big role. This being said, this social media platform is the one that’s best used if you want to make your business more popular. With the increasing number of users on a daily basis, it is proof that this platform is highly valuable to individuals and businesses. So if you are someone who is starting to build a profile to help you with your brand, we have 9 ways for you to know how to start and what to do help your business grow:
- Create a strong relationship with Instagram for Business:
The very first thing to do is to download the Instagram app on your Smartphone. Once you have it and created an account, the next thing to do is to do some research on how to make it work — what strategies are you going to do, what are your goals and plan on how to achieve them.
There is this page from Instagram that you can explore and learn from Instagram for Business. By exploring on this page, you will see blogs wherein you will get more knowledge and tips on how to implement strategies that will work. Learn how the platform works, how to use an effective filter for photos, how to appropriately use the hashtags and mentions, and explore Instagram as a whole.
Learning is a never-ending process, and it helps us a lot if we put efforts on doing research on how we can achieve our goals. Once you are able to come up with the ideas on how to make your business goals happen using Instagram, it’s time for you to start collating great contents that is convincing to your audiences.
- Create your best Instagram Profile
The goal here is to get the attention of the many and to achieve it, you need to have a winning profile. Below are some tips on how to create one:
– Think of an Instagram handle that ties in with the product/service you offer.
– Since this is a business profile you’re creating, it’s best to use your company logo as the display picture.
– It’s great if you add your business web address in the URL portion and note that if the URL is shortened, Instagram may block it.
– Make a profile description that’s short and simple yet original and concise.
– Put an ultra-fine watermarking to your logo, this is a good practice and it also helps you boost your brand profile.
- Resonate your business profile by using extremely High-Quality Images
Instagram users are expected to love quality photos. Be a great admin of your business profile. Be responsive to inquiries, and post high-definition photos that are filled with emotion, and be genuine in managing your account. Think about something you want to see if you are the customer and apply those on your profile.
If you have an upcoming product, let your customers take a peek of the behind-the-scenes of those products, how was it made, and who made it.
When trying to figure out what are the best pictures to post, don’t just focus on your business perspectives, however, understand what’s in it for your customers, why should they purchase it. Post something that is inspiring so it won’t look like it’s just purely about business but also about being able to provide inspiration to your customers. Post only those pictures that are convincing to customers and not too many posts and bear in mind that quality is always the priority over quantity.
- Take advantage of using Hashtags
It is recommended to use links on Twitter or Facebook, however, on Instagram, it’s different. You are not advised to link up URL’s in comments and descriptions field. Instead, Instagram is encouraging the usage of proper hashtags and this plays a great role with your brand’s main marketing strategy in terms of connecting with your followers. Do you want to know are you going to get more followers with this technique?
You can start by tapping into those hashtags that are commonly used, i.e (#FollowFriday, #ThrowBackThursdays). In each photo, you can add up to 30 hashtags and you can choose those that are establishing an absolutely important connection between consumers and your brand.
Using hashtags on your Instagram posts will help boost your following, most especially if you include those that are in trend because it will make your posting favorably consistent. Most of the users are interested to tap on these hashtags so they can see photos of the ones who are into it.
- Look for your target audiences, engage with them, and follow back
Though we can easily use a smartphone to access the Instagram app, the profiles feature also allows you to get in touch with those that are using laptop and desktop computers. Try to add these users to your group of followers and let them hear your story by providing them with the image filled with emotions so they can see clearly what you are into.
Giving out rewards and promotional discounts to your audiences work if you are in a retail business. This will help you effectively in gaining more people to be interested in your offers and the good thing here is that it’s not just on your Instagram account that they want to be a part of, but if helps your brand generally. Run a strategy on how to increase your sales by having your customer’s post your products regularly and offer some discount codes to those who do. Engage with your customers/followers, let them feel that you are not only focusing on the sales you’ll get, but also with the satisfaction of your clients from the products and service you offer.
Another way is to run a contest and let them know you’ll be choosing a winner who will get a price. The contest done commonly is a photo contest wherein you will ask your audiences to creative in their photography/editing skills, let them post their work with a hashtag, and then you pick winners. According to Social Tradia, there are some influencers around the world with the interest of selling their Instagram page. Hence some small businesses take advantage of those established pages by buying them and posting related content on those pages.
Make your customer feel you value them. Share your customer’s photos with their experiences from purchasing/using your product or service. Let them know that this business you are doing is not just about it, but you’re building something that will last, friendship.
- Plan about promoting Photo/video Contests on other platforms like Facebook and Twitter
Ome best feature that Instagram has is its allowing users to edit photos using its frames and filters. While organizing Photo/video Contests on Instagram, let your audiences know that they can also share those photos on Facebook and Twitter. Promote photo contests and let them use your chosen hashtags to easily find their entries.
- Upload your Brand Videos on your Website, Blogs, Guest Post, etc.
Knowing that it is not possible to determine who are those users viewing your shares on a social sharing platform, the best way is to embed your Instagram brand videos in your website or blog and it can substantially extend the reach of your identity and content.
- Learn what other brands are doing
Analyze what other brands do. Follow brands in your industry, may it be personal or a company. The goal here is for you to be able to get ideas on what they do with their profile aside from showing your support to their business. Understand how they engage with their followers and pick up as many strategies as you can and apply it to your profile.
- Share what’s going on with your Business
With Instagram, you will be able to let your current and prospective customers see what your company does on a daily basis. You can also let them take a peek of your achievements. With this, your customers will see your business’ transparency, which is good when it comes to long-term business goals.
You can post who are working with you and post what are your daily on-goings which will give your customers the idea of the culture of your business. Even sharing an employee’s birthday coming up or sharing who among the employees you see has the potential of bringing up something brilliant business ideas, your employees achievements, these things will build a great trust from your clients because they see how you give importance to your business and to the people you’re working with. Basically, when you value the people around you, they will stay with you long-term.
