To date, there are over 1 billion active users of Instagram. As a businessman, this presents a huge market for your brand. However, it is not that easy to establish a solid footing especially that there are myriad of competitors out there with the same product or service.
Instagram should be considered one of the best platforms in your content marketing strategy. It has the ability to intensify audience engagement in a unique way. It simply shows another side of your brand – one that is more fun. Without a doubt, it has the potential to reshape your business but it can be baffling if you do not know what you are doing.
Your ultimate goal here is to increase your followings and stand out. The good news is that it is not too late to get started on Instagram if you want to utilise it for business purposes. To help you get started, here are some tips for growing your followings and stand out on Instagram:
Craft your profile appropriately
If you want to make a good first impression, you should invest time crafting your profile appropriately. You want to show that mediocrity is not in your dictionary. While there is no “proper” way to craft your profile, you can consider best practices like:
- Uploading a profile photo: you will be prompted to upload a profile photo. It is
important that you do not skip this step. This is relatively a simple task – you just need to put your company logo. This is to ensure that people can identify you easily.
- Picking an appropriate account name: if you want to appear professional, your account name should be your business name. Just make sure that your account name is identical to your brand in other social profiles.
- Selecting the right username: to appear professional, you should also consider putting your business name as your username.
- Linking your website: in your page, there will only be one clickable URL. You can use your website or you can simply put the link to your latest promotional page.
- Writing your bio: it only takes a few seconds for someone to form an opinion of your brand. Knowing this, you have to ensure that your bio is well put and in order. Keep in mind that your bio is the first thing people see when they click on your profile. Your bio can entice the people to follow you or ignore you.
Create your own “tribe”
To boost followings and stand out, you need to create your own “tribe”. This means that you become an advocate of a group with the same interests, lifestyles, and habits. In Instagram, you need to start small and then establish relationships. Ultimately, you need to engage one-by-one to solidify your footing. The following things should be considered when creating your own “tribe”:
• Discover niche hashtags: hashtags are Instagram’s way of finding relevant followers
and brands. It is important that you tap into your target audience by being specific. When it comes to niche hashtags, you should avoid crowded ones. It is better to utilise location-specific hashtags to zero in on an audience.
- Maximise engagement: to maximise engagement, it is important to like posts, reply to comments and follow relevant users. To increase your brand strength and visibility, you can buy instagram views. This method is relatively new but it is one of the quickest ways to engage your audience.
- Show off satisfied customers: you can show off satisfied customers by incentivising followers to tag you in their photos. This will signal that you are a brand that listens to its customers.
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Focus on content
While Instagram is a visual platform, which means you are limited in the type of content you can share, you can still make the best out of it. Keep in mind that each image or video features a caption. The caption is limited to 2,200 characters only.
The types of content you can post include photos (which can be cropped to square when it is displayed as a grid in your profile), videos (minimum of three seconds and maximum of one minute), Instagram Stories (available for twenty-four hours) and Instagram Live (allows capturing and sharing real-time video with audience).
Do not forget your hashtag as it can help the viewers find your post when they utilise the Instagram search feature. If you do not want your content to look like spam, you need to post your hashtags right after your caption.
