Instagram Marketing
Increase our followers on Instagram
Let’s have a quick look at the facts for Instagram;
500 Million daily users
100 Million photos uploaded daily
400 Million stories posted daily
50 Billion shares
Those are some impressive numbers and very daunting for a new user or business to consider being active on. Like other platforms Google, Facebook etc it is worth it if you’re looking to promote yourself and your business.
Instagram offers ecommerce and advertising opportunities. Instagram is owned by Facebook so you can tap into it from the Facebook dashboard.
The first thing you need is a Bio aka Profile
So put together a clear, concise and interesting profile. Link it to your main website and provide contact details.
Important tip: when linking to your website make sure it is mobile optimised almost all Instagram users are mobile!
When putting content on remember it revolves around the # hashtag. Hashtags are how users find content. Like SEO these are the keywords for your business, products, services and the story you are telling.
Now put up some content with good #tags and remember timing is important, if you want customers to your business post at a time that make sense for them to see it so they can plan to visit.
For keywords and timings Instagram provides some Analytics for business account so make use of it.
You can be sneaky on Instagram by following and interacting with competitors followers, yes follow there users, like and comment on posts and photos. You can stand to gain them to your business.
Pay to sponsor a post or find an influencer for product reviews. If you look for an influencer, you need to have some criteria like hiring someone for a job. Do they have the skills, attitude, ethics that match your business and brand, do they have a large following established?
Important tip: be very suspicious of sites selling followers and likes, most of these will be bots and totally useless and cost you time and money.
Sponsoring a post is a great way to create brand awareness.
Influencers a great for generating interest, creditability and advocates for your business.
Where appropriate use the geotags to be found connecting locations generate more stories and brings in more followers.
Use Instagram stories to show what’s happening in your business, exciting news, events, sponsorships all are great ways to generate new followers. Remember what are your followers going to be interested in seeing? Your stories could teach with helpful tips, or provide quick support to common problems, your new product launched show the event. Share other followers stories that you were also involved, a charity event or sponsorship, etc.
Instagram has a highlight feature, make use of it to promote your stories and posts. Great for retargeting those that may have missed the original post.
Watch the news, Watch people follow trends, some will be short while others longer, take advantage to align a post to the trend. Join the trend but keep it respectful. It’s your brand on the line.
Another option for gaining followers is to run a contest or giveaway, and encourage followers to share to increase your reach.
One important thing to consider at this point is FOCUS keep all the above focused on your brand and themes your followers are here because they see similar things to like and talk about, if you stray away from the established theme you lose followers. Think of it like TV shows that after a few seasons lose their direction and the audience disappears the show gets cancelled! Don’t get cancelled.
If you see followers dip, then analyse the traffic and posts see where and why and make changes.
There are many tools available to monitor engagement.
Instagram Ads
Like most online platforms you have a lot of control on the Ads, how they appear, who sees them and when. You also have plenty of ad types to use;
Photo ads
Video ads
Carousel ads
Slideshow ads
Story ads
Just some controls and benefits to business include:
Scalable Pricing
Self Serve or Instant
Reporting
Refined Audience Targeting
Instagram Ads will showcase your products, services or brands.
So like all adverts they need to be visually attractive and eye-catching.
Use simple natural images by which I mean not photoshopped or gimmicky.
Keep the text positive, friendly and short.
Ensure the caption matches and connects with the target audience.
Use the #hashtag to target and also organically spread.
Instagram provides some really cool tools as well.
Use them to plan your posts, track the analytics, schedule and auto publish and more.
Instagram is about engagement.
Engage with your users, followers, and do this with original content or respectful comments build positivity make people smile. As followers grow ask for their interaction, pay attention to them, get them to post related stories you can share.
People connect with positive happy people.
All the content you post should be unique and original to you, your business and brand. Avoid stock, borrowed images or copied content. Keep it short concise and informational enough to gain traction for users to click follow.
Link your Instagram across all your digital and social platforms.