If you are using Instagram for the first time, you might feel like sharing a snap or writing a nice message is enough to garner attention. However, you’ll quickly find that your account is not growing at the level you were expecting. There are more effective ways to promote your business on the social media platform. Here’s a few of them.
Getting a business account and connecting it to Facebook are the two most important steps to marketing your brand on Instagram. A business account lets you see all the analytics that help to get a better insight of how your posts are performing and how people are getting engaged with you. Through it, you can also see who is following you and how many impressions a particular post has gained. There’s also the potential to add customized buttons that can lead a user directly to your site.
Your profile carries the image of your brand. Therefore, giving it a nice look is important in attracting customers towards your products or services. Start by selecting a high-quality profile picture. Brands typically use their logo as a profile picture. But if you are an individual or the face of your business, you can set a nice image of yourself instead. Always remember that a human touch to your online presence increases your trust value.
Selecting your username is another important element. If you want your brand to be established from the very beginning, choose your business name as the username. And if you want to attract your targeted audience quickly, choose a username based on the type business you’re in. For example, if you provide web design services and want to attract customers in Toronto, you can select “web design guru in Toronto”.
Linking your website and other social channels is also crucial. It not only gives you a chance to get more engagement but also increases your authenticity. Last but not the least, you should add an impressive bio to your profile. Most users leave the space blank or they just write irrelevant content. But this box has an impact on users. It lets them know who you are, why you are here and why they should follow you. Therefore, create a bio, follow some people relevant to your business and see how many followers you get back.
Understanding what type of content your users like and how often you should post you is the key to Instagram marketing. Schedule your posts with a tool like Later in advance so that your feed looks consistent. Plan how much content you need to deliver in a month to get more followers and engage them with your business.
While the image you share on Instagram is important, the caption you add also matters. Try to create a caption that’s easy to read and understand. It’s better not to use too many hashtags as frivolous hashtags could be considered spam. Add call to actions like “double tap if you like the post” or “can you relate to it?” etc.
Getting followers requires more than just posting a lot of images. There are two things you need to consider. Firstly, if someone follows you, he/she might not like seeing your posts all the time on his/her feed. And secondly, if you focus too much on posting images, you take away time from promoting them. Therefore, try to limit posting images to once a day.
You need to be aware of what your competitors are doing. To do that, you need to keep an eye on the activities of the companies or individuals related to your business. You should also check and follow the followers of industry giants related to your field. They might just be interested in your brand if they find something useful in your feed. You can also follow the people who are linking and commenting on the posts of your competitors since you have the same type of content. If you have a new account, try not to follow more than 350 accounts in a day and 100 in an hour because you might get blocked and won’t be able to use the full functions of the platform for some time.
With the help of various online tools and services, you can buy likes, but you can’t buy comments or likes+comments. To get it, you need to like and place genuine comments to posts like yours. To do this effectively, make some time before you publish a post. Search with the Hashtags you plan to use in your post. Like and comment on the recent results you have found. Then post your image and check the results after 10 minutes.
Instagram now comes with a shop now button that allows businesses to include a link to their products or shop pages. It makes eCommerce easier as you get the opportunity to attract your targeted audience with a lot of high-quality images and redirect them to your website.
Remember, its easier for users to learn about your location if you share it. They won’t need to scroll down the comments or do a Google search.
Everything changes fast in the digital world. That means if you want to compete, you need to stay updated. Always search for the latest blogs and tips on Instagram marketing. Keep your app updated so that you don’t miss the latest features the platform has to offer.
With more new features like Insta Maps, visual search and 360 Insta, Instagram is all set to add new dimensions to digital marketing and more effective ways to get users engaged. Just keep up with your research and best practices.