With 800+ million active users Instagram is leaving Twitter in the dust and catching up to Facebook. Sheer numbers (active users) should be enough to convince you to take your Instagram Marketing seriously, but even more importantly, it’s proving to be a great organic marketing channel. If you already have an Instagram account, here are 7 Tips to improve your Instagram Marketing:
- Have a Plan – ‘everyone else is doing it’ is not a plan. What are your goals? Are you looking to increase your brand awareness? Drive more leads to your website? Improve your customer experience? Who is your target audience? What is your content strategy?
- Use a Business Profile – if you are using your personal Instagram account, you should convert it to a Business profile – to get access to analytics and insight on users
- Don’t Buy Followers (grow them organically) – reaching a certain number of followers should never be your primary goal, hence why you should never buy followers. These types of followers will never buy your product or advocate for your brand. Don’t cut corners, grow your followers organically.
- All Followers Are Not Created Equal – we often see brands with modest followers (e.g 1,000) generate more leads and sales then brands with 100,000+ followers. Loyal followers are extremely valuable because they spend more and they also advocate for your brand.
- Engage – having an open line of communication with your followers is very important, so reply to comments and be helpful. Also, use likes and hashtags. Finally, take advantage of trending hashtags.
- Don’t Spam – focus on quality and not quantity. For example, posting quality content once a day typically produces better results then spamming your followers multiple times a day with irrelevant or poor content.
- Post Quality Photos – everything that touches your brand should feel high quality and Instagram is no different. If you are taking all your photos with your phone, then invest in a phone with a great camera. Also, optimize and crop images; it can make a big difference.
As is the case with most social media platforms, building a notable footprint is challenging, and it takes time. Instagram is no different. However, when things start clicking into place your business will experience some amazing benefits. For more information see How businesses benefit from Social Media
