Instagram has over 500 million monthly active users, less competition and a more engaged audience than other social media giants like Facebook or Twitter. This presents businesses with an opportunity to market their products to a more targeted and interested audience without spending an enormous amount of money on paid advertising.
Whether your Instagram strategy needs an update or you’re a newcomer to this social media network, you’ll find these tips on how to use Instagram for business useful.
1. Show what you do in a creative way
Focus on the solution you provide, not the products you sell. On Instagram, it’s essential to add value to your customers and look pretty while you do it. Never underestimate the fact that your most important asset (and downfall) on this social media network is visual content.
If your business is service-oriented, focus on showcasing the process behind providing the service. Show your company culture, share your mission with the world, or simply share some tips and how-to’s.
It’s possible to upload photos, short videos (similar to gifs) and videos up to one minute in length. The newest addition, Instagram Stories, is a video collage that consists of images and videos that can be edited with text, colour and the sort. Instagram stories are available exclusively on mobile and are live only for 24-hours (though this can be refreshed, if you choose to keep them for longer.
2. Create a winning profile
As a company, you probably do a whole lot of things and offer even more solutions. Don’t get too caught up in fitting all of that in 150 characters. Focus on your most important USP or your next big thing - be it an event, promotion or product launch.
Since the only clickable link is in your Bio section (right under your name), make a habit of updating it frequently. It’s a shame that most brands use it only to link to their website, but it could do so much more. Think, driving event registrations, app downloads or even purchases.
3. Take them behind-the-scenes
Customers have a natural curiosity about where their products come from, and you can use Instagram to show them their whole lifecycle. This is especially relevant for companies that sell environmentally friendly or FairTrade products. Source images to demonstrate how products are made - from the base material, production and distribution.
If nothing comes right to your mind, you can share something that everyone has - sketches, notes and filled white boards or blackboards. Every business has gone through generation ideas, it’s up to you to take a pretty picture and upload it to Instagram.
4. Expand your reach with #hashtags
Use hashtags to expand your reach. These can be campaign specific or general - all that’s important is that they are relevant. Make sure to also set up your main company hashtag (#yourbrandname), and use it sparingly across Instagram (Twitter is good too). This makes it easier for people to find content related to you as well as your main account.
It’s recommended to use between five to ten hashtags, despite the fact that the maximum you can add is 30 per Instagram post. Use your own, campaign specific hashtags as well as the more popular hashtags to increase the discoverability of your content. For example, try adding hashtags like #instagood (used is 300 million posts), or #tbt (Throwback Thursday), and don’t forget about industry specific ones. If you are in IT, the hashtag #IT or #tech will do just fine.
5. Collaborate and @mention others
Instagram is one of the strongest social media channels for highlighting collaborators and influencer marketing. Even if you don't officially partner with a non-profit organisation, you can give to charity or fundraise a couple of times a year. It's all good as long as the cause aligns with your brand values and mission.
Another thing you can do is to use 'shout-outs'. An unpaid shout-out is when you partner with another brand that has roughly the same number of followers as you, to promote each other to your audiences and benefit from increased exposure.
The paid shout-out is for those with a bigger budget. This involved paying a brand (or influencer) with a much larger following to promote your product or service. This is a great way to gain a large number of new followers quickly, granted you create a strong call to action.
6. Build anticipation
Keeping your customers interested is an essential part of any effective marketing campaign. Reward your loyal followers with exclusive content. Let them be the first to know about new products, services or events. Create teaser photos that satisfy curiosity, but build anticipation for your new releases, office openings or stores. These kind of previews make your Instagram followers feel special and keep them coming back for more insider information.
7. Analyse success and build
Without taking a step back and analysing what worked and didn’t, marketing becomes a guessing game. The truth is, you can read all the articles in the world about the best practises and publishing times, but you will only find out what works for your business through testing and measuring results.
Social media management tools can help, though. You can use them not only to schedule your campaigns in advance, but also use social media analytics to measure their success. Make sure to regularly, measure your follower count, engagement and clicks, all to refine and improve your Instagram strategy.
8. Set up a business profile
To keep up with other social networks, Instagram recently launched their new business tools. Besides paid advertising, it also launched Instagram Business profiles. These allow brands to display additional information next to their profile, like their their phone number and give access to extensive analytics data. This feature is currently only available in USA, New Zealand and Australia - the rest of just have to wait.
These tips will not only improve your channel, but hopefully attract new customers as well. Let us know what Instagram tips you have found most useful, maybe something worked for your business that we didn’t mention?
By Gavin Hammar, founder of Sendible
PrivSec Conferences will bring together leading speakers and experts from privacy and security to deliver compelling content via solo presentations, panel discussions, debates, roundtables and workshops.
For more information on upcoming events, visit the website.
comments powered by Disqus