Instagram is currently the fastest growing social network, having gone from 600 million to 800 million active users in the past 12 months – and that’s before you consider the rising use of Instagram Stories (now up to 300 million daily active users).
But with increased attention comes equivalent interest from brands, which means that while there are now more people to reach on the platform and more ways to do so, you’re also going to be competing with other brands for space, and attention within Instagram feed. Below are basic Instagram tips for you:
Know Your Audience on Instagram
If you don’t know your core audience, you will end up making expensive mistakes no matter what marketing techniques you apply. So before you start working on creating and sharing amazing content on your Instagram account, you need to first find out what can deliver to your audience.
There are two steps to identifying your target audience before you apply other Instagram tips for your business:
- Spend time learning more about your existing audience and what kind of content they are already liking on Instagram.
- Think about who else would fit the bracket or who may not seem like potential customers at first, but they may have an interest in what you’re promoting.
When you’re researching your audience and understanding them, you need to keep an eye on your goals. You should focus on finding an audience that meets the criteria so that you create the right content for them.
Your Instagram Account Should Be Business Account
On Instagram, it’s about getting more exposure and building a stronger brand. And the first and the most obvious Instagram tip to do this is to make your Instagram account a business profile. Even if your account was initially used for your personal activities, it’s different when you start using it for business.
Given that you’ve decided to use it to market your products and services, it only makes sense to go public with a business account because a private Instagram account just won’t cut it. It’ll not only set a wrong impression on people visiting your profile but will also hinder your reach.
Being a business, you want your content to be seen when people conduct location searches or look up related hashtags. One of the reasons businesses use hashtags is to get more exposure and increase engagement.
If you are not sure about the status of your account, tap the “Switch to Business Profile” option in your account settings to turn your account into a public business account rather than a personal account. You will need to do this if you want to advertise on Instagram as well.
Create The Right Instagram Business Profile
When it comes to leveraging the right Instagram tips for your business, you cannot ignore the importance of creating the right profile. Your business profile is the heart of your Instagram marketing activity, and it should help your brand reach your goals.
- Your Instagram bio should be captivating so when people come across your brand on Instagram, they should get a wow impression/experience.
- When your target audience comes across your profile on Instagram, they will notice your bio before looking at your content. If they don’t find the bio relevant and appealing in nature, they may skip over to another profile or simply scroll down. You want them to not only show interest in your content but also may click and visit your website. Your Instagram bio has to:
— Tell people more about your business and what makes it unique
— Make sure it is relevant to the interests of your core audience
— Use your brand voice and tone to create a stronger connection - Include a Relevant Link
You won’t find many spammers on Instagram who post hundreds of random links mainly because Instagram doesn’t allow you to have clickable links in your posts. But you can have one in your bio. This means you can drive back laser-targeted traffic to your website’s home page or campaign landing page right from your bio. - Use a Professional Profile Picture
If the profile picture on your Instagram account is bad you won’t get the desired attention you need because Instagram is a visual platform, and the last thing you want is to use a profile image that doesn’t connect with your brand.
Keep in mind that your audience should get an instant understanding of who you are when they visit your profile. Being a business, you can choose to have anyone following as your profile picture:
– Company Logo
– Company Logomark (logo with no words)
– Company Mascot
Be Creative
One of the most important Instagram tips for businesses is that you should keep in mind is to focus on providing value and staying creative at the same time. In other words, don’t make your Instagram account look salesy.
Think outside the box and try to represent your brand in the most creative ways possible. The visual content you post can showcase many different things that give your customers and prospects a closer look at your business.
For example, if you are running a graphic design service, you can take people behind the scenes and show them how your company gets design work done. You can also showcase your company culture or informative content that keeps users updated.
Clarify Your Goals
The reason why you need clarity about your goals is that they are directly tied with the kind of content you publish. Brands in the past have failed to make the most of Instagram when their content strategy didn’t take goals into consideration. Instagram tips such as clarity in your goals can go a long way for your business.
Have an Instagram Content Strategy in Place
Having a strong content strategy is very important in getting the desired result. That’s the only way you would be able to create a strong following and build a connection with your audience.
There are three important ways to generate a good content strategy that generates results, let us take a look at these Instagram tips:
- Schedule Your Content
No matter what niche you are in, you can give your followers great visual content that they can share with others. However, this needs to be done carefully as you don’t want to overwhelm your followers with too much content. You need to create a custom posting schedule that works for you and then stick to it. Or hire a social media marketing company that could create, schedule, and do the posting for you. - Content Themes
Out of the many Instagram for Business tips out there, this one can do wonders when it comes to engaging your followers. Why? Because the content themes you choose can make your account interesting rather than boring. - Your Content Style
Having a distinct content style can help your brand stand out from the crowd and consistently deliver value to your audience. You and your team should be clear on how your brand’s personality should shine through your content.
Related: 5 Steps To Boost Productivity on Social Media
Use Relevant Hashtags
Unlike other major social networks like Facebook, hashtags play a huge role on Instagram when it comes to categorizing and organizing visual content. This allows users to find the right content at the right time. These simple yet effective tags make your content discoverable in more than one way.
Hashtags are of various kinds. Some of them are generic in nature such as #marketing, while others can get highly specific such as #contentmarketing101. Hashtags have their own life on Instagram, which has made them extremely important for a successful Instagram campaign. Without hashtags, you won’t see the kind of engagement you want to see.
Given below are some Instagram tips to help you make the most of hashtags and get more exposure to your content:
- Limit the number of hashtags you use because you don’t want people to see you as unprofessional. So instead of overdoing it with 20-30 hashtags, stick to around 10 hashtags that accurately represent your brand & target audience and cycle them through your content.
- Just the way you shouldn’t target very broad and competitive keywords in SEO, you shouldn’t use overused hashtags that are way too broad. Get specific and take a more targeted approach.
- Don’t use a hashtag just because it is popular. It also has to be relevant to the visual you are posting. Or else it defeats the whole purpose of using hashtags.
- When you’re using general hashtags, try to look for niche hashtags related to your marketing/industry rather than going for anything and everything. This not only boosts the chance of getting found by your target audience, it also increases the engagement rate of your content.
- If you’re using branded hashtags (which are specific tags that go with your brand), then see to it that you choose the right ones. Everything from the name of your brand to the name of your product or even an event can become a branded hashtag. Once you’ve created your branded hashtag, keep track of it to see who’s using it and why.
Let us know if any of these Instagram tips have helped you on your journey on Instagram.
