Instagram is a social media platform that allows sharing photos and videos for personal and business purposes. Over the past decade, it has grown to be one of the powerful tools of social media marketing. Statistics taken in April 2021 states that India has topped the list of active users based on the audience size in Instagram with 150 million numbers.
Even companies like Coco cola, Nike, and Starbucks have invaded much space. But, what about small businesses and start-ups? How to use Instagram effectively for a business? If you are looking to know more about this, then keep reading till the end. For a business to gain traction on Instagram, all it takes is a little effort, but it is worthwhile. A business needs to establish engagement and gather a loyal crowd following them which can, in turn, yield productive leads. Here are the top seven tips which can help you reach your business goals effortlessly by using Instagram effectively.
1. Getting started:
Your Instagram business profile is a small space that can accomplish a lot. It is the place where people look for your brand, your website, and your contact details. Points to be remembered while building your Insta bio.
- In 150 characters or less, you should be able to showcase your brand, who you are, what you provide.
- Before deciding the content for your profile, you need to know who your target audience is, their needs or requirements.
- Crisp to-the-point content will always remain attractive.
- An URL of your website can be there on your bio for people to know more about you.
- You can also have a call-to-action button for people to reserve an appointment with you.
A wise thing to do, to increase your followers is to link all your social media accounts to your Instagram account. It just works especially if you have a loyal crowd following you on other social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
2. Aim to provide high-quality content:
Instagram is pure visual content and you need to make sure you are providing engaging and recognizable visuals. To be in the mind of your target audience, you need to be providing interesting and informative feed consistently so that your brand will be found worth following.
- When posting pictures, it is recommended that you have a particular visual aesthetic for your brand like a colored theme, a combination of colors, so that people will instantly recognize your brand with them.
- Take time to click captivating pictures and also to edit them before posting. Editing tools also enable you to maintain your brand aesthetic, add in frames and logos.
- Don’t miss out on the importance of captions as they tell the story of the visual. Write compelling captions
- Try various Instagram sharing formats like a carousel which is a sequence of photos in a single post. Experiments have found that it created more engagement
- Going live stream on with your audience also helps gain traction.
3. How to use hashtags on Instagram:
Just like keywords, Instagram hashtags make your visual content discoverable. People search for hashtags to see the associated content. If you only provide captions and not hashtags then your posts miss out on the opportunity of appearing when people search for your brand’s relevant content. Providing hashtags is a great way to be known by people who do not follow you yet.
It is recommended that you come up with authentic, brand-specific hashtags for your business. This enables your audience to recognize your posts and share them consecutively if they feel it would help someone. The knowledge on how to use hashtags on Instagram can either make or break your marketing strategy on this platform. You must use the right hashtag. Many businesses do not see a rise in their followers just because they use some random hashtags for their pictures. There will be real value when your pictures will be relevant to the top trending and popular hashtags.
- Hashtag searching software:
Is it possible that our pictures or posts will be relevant to that of the popular hashtags then? Not always! That is why there are some hashtag searching Softwares like Websta which helps you with a huge list of hashtags that may not be trending but are used heavily and easily discoverable. They would suggest some long, generic hashtags names that your non-themed post will fit into.
- Hashtag performance reports:
In a case study, over 1,20,000 Instagram posts, they found out that the posts with the maximum allowable hashtags got three times more engagement than the rest. So this doesn’t mean, you have to increase your hashtags just for the sake of it. You can monitor your hashtag reports by using Sprout to identify which hashtags gained more engagement and performed the best.
- Look for what your competitors use:
Note for common hashtags used in your industry by your competitors. This is a great way to understand the trends relevant to your business.
4. Studying demographics:
To break it down into simpler words, you have to analyze which type of posts engages your audience and which hashtags work well. With Instagram reporting tools we will get access to this information in a jiffy and able to track it over time. It may be a certain type of content, or a filter, or a popular hashtag. Knowing which kind of content resonates with your audience the most can encourage you to create similar content and in turn increase traction.
It also provides information regarding the peak time your audience visits Instagram along with the gender, age information too.
5. Influencer marketing:
Influencer marketing is one interesting way to quickly build an Instagram following, mainly if you are starting from scratch. Through this, we get to connect with influential people who already have huge followers and get exposed to their audience as well. You can start by addressing top influencers of your industry and by working with them, you can promote your business to the next level.
By paying attention to how to use hashtags on Instagram and practicing the above techniques, you will be able to see your business grow through Instagram! Why wait? A whole world of opportunities is waiting for you on Instagram.