How should I use Instagram for my business?
Instagram was purchased by Facebook in 2012 (for a mere $1 billion) and it has fast become an important social channel for businesses looking to market their products to a younger, more tech savvy audience. Like any social media platform used well it can be a great driver for your business, but use it poorly and it will be a waste of time.
Instagram is a free app, and thanks to Facebook’s ownership it is really easy to set up your Instagram account and link it to your Facebook business page. This allows you to run campaigns through the Facebook advertising platform targeted to Instagram and like Facebook you can run image ads, video ads or carousel ads.
The important thing to remember about Instagram is that it is primarily a mobile app, and although it can be viewed on a desktop, users are using their mobiles the vast majority of the time. With Instagram, it is all about visual content. Images and videos are the name of the game with Instagram and it’s important to be producing or have access to this kind of content, or else your Instagram following isn’t going to be very engaged.
B2C businesses with strong visual content are getting high numbers of followers with a very high level of engagement e.g. bars, restaurants, pet groomers, car dealers, travel companies, gyms are all types of businesses performing really strongly on this platform by using innovative content with a clear strategy. B2B businesses with good visual content can also perform well – think graphic designers, photographers, wed designers etc.
Your content will be a mixture of images, videos, and Instagram Stories (a collection of images or videos, like a Snapchat story) and hashtags can be used similarly to Twitter as a way for other users to find and view your content. Instagram allows 30 hashtags in a post or comment, but we wouldn’t recommend using this many as it looks spammy. Quality hashtagging is what you’re looking for.
Your Instagram should include a range of topics e.g.
Show off your products or services
Show your customers (with permission!)
Get your employees involved
Go behind the scenes at your shop/location
Post exclusive deals
Keep up outreach with your Instagram account and engage with users and other brands. Make sure to respond to user’s comments.
Instagram is not for every business type, but because of its highly engaged audience it can be an absolute gold mine of sales and leads for some. As always, get in touch with us if you have any queries! :)
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