Instagram offers a great way for businesses to promote their products or services. Here are 9 tips to do just this.
1) Make Sure you’re Using A Business Account
To properly turn Instagram into a marketing tool for your business, you need to make sure your profile is switched to a business account. You’ll find the relevant link to do this on your settings. Note that one basic requirement to switch to a business account is to have a working Facebook page linked to your Instagram page. A business account comes with a host of handy extra features. The easiest one to see on the surface is that it allows you to share more useful contact info on your profile. Ever seen a brand on Instagram that has a telephone number, a street address, and a “contact us” button on its profile? That’s because that brand is operating as a business account. There are some useful under-the-hood features, too, like Instagram adverts and analytics, that we’ll cover in more depth later on.
2) See What You Can Do With Stories And Live Video
It’s worth spending a little of your time getting to know Instagram’s alternate modes for presenting content. These include live video, Instagram stories, and now, Instagram TV. This sort of video content may not be suitable for every business, but you’ll never know until you try, right? Live video is a great tool for taking followers “behind the scenes” in your business, or for sharing important news like the launch of a new product. Stories give you that ability to share a 15-second presentation with followers. This could be video, it could be a slideshow – whatever you want. Stories are more useful than ever because of Instagram’s new “highlight” feature. This allows you to pin Stories to the top of your profile for longer than their usual “live” period of 24 hours. This is particularly handy when you have a lot of news to share and you’ve already built good Stories to do it. Instagram TV is your opportunity to use the platform to share longer videos. Instagram TV is still so new that brands are mainly “testing the waters” to see what works and what doesn’t. Give these alternate formats a shot and see if they work for your business. You should try to buy instagram views for all your video posts. If you’re looking for something distinctive to give yourself a leg up on your competitors, this just might be it.
3) Always Post The Best Possible Photos
There’s no quicker way to poison your Instagram account than to post a stream of dull, poor-quality pictures. This is particularly dangerous when you’re trying to use your account to promote your business; bad photos have a negative impact on your credibility. Make sure every image you post is the highest possible quality you can provide and aids your reputation. That goes for content as well as file size: Don’t be afraid to push outside of your comfort zone in order to capture something unique and fascinating.
4) Use Your Hashtags Wisely
Tons of individuals and businesses use hashtags when they post to Instagram. Some people get terrific mileage out of wisely-chosen tags; others drown out their pictures with a giant block of hashtags that ends up being counterproductive. Instagram actually has a hard limit on hashtags; you can’t attach more than 30 to one post. And there are very few situations in which you’d want to get even close to that number. Keep your hashtags under control; the ideal balance most marketers agree on is using between five and 10 hashtags per post. Make sure that these are clearly relevant both to your brand and to your specific post. This is another place where you have to safeguard your credibility; you don’t want your posts to look like spam. That’s exactly what’ll happen if you go crazy with your hashtags.
5) Make Your Data Useful
As noted above, switching your Instagram profile to a business account unlocks some pretty handy tools. Some of the best of them are the more powerful, in-depth analytics you can get on your posts. The data will show you which posts garner the most attention, tracking useful metrics like impressions and engagement and letting you track the ebb and flow of your viewers across times of day and days of the week. Studying the data can teach you a lot about what your audience really responds to. Use the insights gained from your analytics to fine-tune both the content you put into your posts and the way you schedule them. A little effort invested in studying the data can make the rest of the work you do on Instagram much more effective.
6) Tag Other Accounts When It Makes Sense
This is where you get the most out of the “social” part of “social media.” If you’re collaborating with someone else who’s also on Instagram, get full use out of the connection. If you’ve just written a guest post on someone else’s blog, for instance, announce that with an Instagram post and make sure you tag the site owner. Tagging others’ accounts – when there’s a clear, relevant connection to your post – can get you tons of extra attention. People you tag can help out by commenting on your post, liking it, and engaging in all sorts of ways. Tagging other accounts has an additional benefit: It puts your posts onto their profile. Account tags don’t show up directly, but when you look at someone else’s Instagram profile and hit the far-right tab, you can access all of the other posts that have been tagged to the profile.
7) Make Instagram A Vehicle For Behind-The-Scenes Content
Almost every business can benefit from putting a human face on their work, and yours is probably no exception. Instagram can be an ideal platform for doing this. Be willing to share the inner workings of your business with the people who follow you on Instagram. “Behind the scenes” photos can tell people plenty. This is also an excellent area to try using Instagram’s video features (see above). Not every post has to be laser-focused on the business of your business; let your followers get to know the people who do the work, too.
8) Take Advantage Of E-Commerce Features
If you’re a retail business, especially an e-commerce business, you need to take full advantage of the e-commerce features Instagram has to offer. Originally, Instagram had a pretty significant limitation that hampered its effectiveness as a product marketing tool. There was no way to attach links to individual posts; your only option was a single profile-wide link on your bio. The platform is a lot friendlier to e-commerce brands today! Now the platform offers “shoppable posts” that you can use for both ordinary posts and Instagram Stories. It gives you the much-sought-after ability to add a direct link that allows followers to purchase your products. Essentially, you can tag your products the same way you would tag other Instagram users. This new ability does come with one big caveat: Your business needs to have a Facebook catalog set up for the products you tag on Instagram. This is the only purchase link you can use – for now – on Instagram posts and Stories. As long as you have a Facebook catalog, though, shoppable posts work great. They put your followers just a few clicks away from buying your products when you feature them on your feed.
9) Give Your Followers Consistency
Obviously, your Instagram posts are going to do better the higher their quality. But the quality of individual posts can only do so much if you’re making them at random. If you post three great videos, take a couple of weeks off, and then post a smattering of pictures, you’re not going to pick up a lot of faithful followers. Setting a consistent schedule for your Instagram posts will do wonders for your appeal. If your followers grasp your schedule, that encourages them to check up with you more frequently. More frequent visits mean more engagement, and that, in turn, signals to Instagram that your posts are worth promoting. Your posts will put on more users’ timelines if there’s a consistent pattern of engagement between their accounts and yours. Stick to a consistent schedule to maximize your reach on Instagram.
