Is it possible to use instagram for business? I don’t care how many ridiculously hilarious Instagram memes come out or how much people chide me for Instagraming my lunch every time, I absolutely heart Instagram.
And if you do too while you have a business to run but marniethedog pictures are way too distracting, then there’s good news for you.
With close to 300 million active users Instagram is the newest social media platform that you should leverage to build your brand. Instagram brand marketing is a visual advertising technique with a broader mass appeal.
How to Use Instagram for Business
Get more followers
Bots don’t count as followers so those ‘click here for 1000 followers instantly’ don’t work. Instead you will have to nurture your follower’s list by doing some proactive work.
Source them from Facebook and Twitter
Using Instagram for business gets easier if you already have good following on Facebook and Twitter. That way you can direct targeted followers to your Instagram account.
Use the power of Hashtags
Did you know a couple of years back a mother named her newborn ‘Hashtag’. Yep, that’s her name.
Anyway, similar to Twitter, Instagram too works on hashtags. Using popular hashtags give your picture visibility. Go to Webstagram to lookup the most used and searched for hashtags.
A click on their Hot tab shows a list of popular hashtags. With love topping the list with 896886030 posts, someone tell The Black Eyed Peach we finally found where love is.
But what if none of the tags are relatable to your business?
Firstly, look up keywords relevant to your business. So if you retail hair extensions, use Google’s Keyword Planner tool to come up with keywords and then go to Iconosquare.com (formerly statigram) and on the upper right hand side of the screen search for these keywords.
Now suppose in our example of hair extensions, we take hair extensions as the first keyword. Key in hair extensions in the search bar, and you will get a list of people and a number of posts tagged with that hashtag. It means that there is a big market for hair extensions and those are the relevant keywords for Instagram branding. Do this for the rest of the keywords to see if those make for good Instagram keywords.
Add a fun element to your promotions
Of course you want to showcase your products but for Instagram a fun element is important. Take a leaf out of Michael Kors’s handbook. They always add something more than their products.
If yours isn’t a product oriented business with not a lot of product pictures to show or those who sell services, Instagram marketing can still work wonders for you.
If you can’t show the procedure, show the result. A mantra most fitness trainers on Instagram have perfected, like trainer Josef Rakich who has a sweet 571k followers.
Create Spectacular Content
People are really stringent when it comes to following someone on Instagram. Maybe they are trying to balance their followers and following beam with the following being way lower than the followers number.
It makes them look cool. At least that’s what the majority thinks.
So it is a little difficult to get people to follow new brands unless you are offering them something in return- and that something is great content.
Whether it is funny vines, great quotes, discount vouchers or tutorials, you need to specifically create content that is Instagram ready.
Or you can curate them. There’s the repost app that you can use to repost a picture from someone else’s account. But make sure you aren’t reposting from you competitor’s Instagram because you are driving traffic there, duh!
Enhance photos and photo sharing experience
Besides using filters to create visually attractive pictures, you can also make the entire process of photo sharing easier.
Like if you are working on your desktop and need to view/share a picture on Instagram, you need not have to switch over to your mobile device. Use Instagrille, the desktop app that runs directly from the computer and is similar in functionality to the mobile app.
The day and time of your posting matters too
Depending upon where your targeted audience is based, make sure your posts go up when your audience hub is active on Instagram.
Send goodies to Instagram celebrities
It’s funny how people you knew nothing about are suddenly all over your Instagram feed. Look for people with interest in your industry and send them goodies. You’d often see makeup gurus promoting makeup samples sent by so and so company. Or fitness gurus raving about some detox tea.
This is one of the sure-shot and easiest social media branding tactics and instantly puts your product in the limelight. Not to mention you can expect a few hundred new followers too. It might take some time but Instagram marketing is rewarding when done right.
