Instagram has become one of the most influential social media sites on the web today. So much so that there are people that have been able to make a very successful living purely by promoting other company’s brands through their Instagram profile, a demonstration of just how much this site has grown in the last few years. For businesses Instagram can really help to boost your profile and bring your brand to a whole new audience. If you are just starting out on Instagram and wondering how you can grow your business’s profile, here are a few helpful tips.
1. Engage your followers
It’s easy to tell when a business is on Instagram is purely to post adverts day and night. If you want to encourage your followers to interact with your brand and really engage with your content then it’s always good to show them know that you read and acknowledge their comments on your posts as well. Not only does this create a more personable face for your business it also increases the likelihood of your post being seen, as the more engagement a post has, the more people will see it in their feed. Competitions are also a great way to engage your followers and
2. Find out the best times to post
Businesses can always post great content but if you are posting at the wrong time of day for your audience, then chances are they probably won’t see the amazing posts you’ve been working so hard on. This is where customer research comes in. It’s really important to find out when your audience is logging on and posting on their Instagram as this will help determine the best times of day/week to post for maximum exposure. For example, if you are a brand targeting young teens then it’s best not to post when they are at school or college but wait till lunchtime or late afternoon when they are more likely to be at home.
3. Be passionate about your brand
This one may seem obvious, but it is really important to show followers on Instagram that you are passionate about your brand. By this I mean spending the time to create good quality content that will entertain and engage fans rather than simply posting generic content once a day. It’s actually really easy for followers to tell when businesses are posting on social media because they feel that they have to or because they have seen other businesses posting on there. Be sure to make your posts stand out and are unique to you rather than just recreating what competitors are posting.
4. Post regularly
With so many people posting every day, it is easy for your brands posts to get lost among the huge amounts of content being published. Like with other social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, it is really important to post regularly if you want to get the most exposure from Instagram. It’s recommended that businesses post at least once a day and even two or three times if they have enough quality content. A great for companies posting on Instagram is to use social media schedulers such as buffer so that you can schedule your posts to go out automatically at a specified time each day if you’re not able to physically post it yourself.
5. Create your own video’s
People tend to get bored with seeing the same posts over and over again, so it’s often a good idea to mix things up and utilize as many different types of content as possible. Videos and live streams are a great way to grab people’s attention and encourage them to engage with your brand. Research has shown the average engagement for videos is growing faster than the average engagement for images on Instagram and they are a really great way to show off another side of your brand and why customers might be interested in what you have to sell. Live streams are also a great way to demonstrate a human side to the company and show followers that your brand isn’t just another faceless corporation.