Social media holds a lot of power for businesses, and it is continuing to grow. Previously, Facebook and Twitter acted as the primary online platforms, but the growing popularity of Instagram provides the perfect opportunity for businesses to promote their brand and products.
There are more than 1.9 billion daily users worldwide on the platform – more than 200 million of those are businesses. So, if you’re yet to join Instagram, then it’s time to start taking this one seriously.
Having rivalled the likes of Snapchat since launching ‘stories’, taking on YouTube by launching ‘IGTV’, and now rivalling TikTok by introducing ‘reels’. They continue to grow and adapt the platform regularly.
This ever-changing app can benefit your company, so that’s why we’ve compiled our top five Instagram tips for businesses, so you can get the most out of the platform.
Keep it unique
Posting organic, un-staged photos tend to achieve the best engagement. We’ve all heard the clichés that Instagram is full of pictures of people’s food and holidays, so don’t follow the crowd.
Try showing the personality of your brand in your photos. Post interesting, well-composed and creative photos or videos to make sure you stand out, and you’ll see the likes and follows adding up.
Take photos of your latest project, your favourite product, your business meetings, or even some happy customers. For everyday snaps you can just use your smartphone, but make sure these are quality images as they will remain on your page for future visitors to see. For project photos to use across all marketing, it’s worth considering a professional photographer.
Get conversational
Tone is everything on Instagram. Through engaging with your followers, other similar businesses, and the community, you will come across as more approachable and people will appreciate the effort you’re making.
Like and comment exactly as you would do with Facebook and Twitter or share other businesses posts to your story and people will be more willing to do the same for you. Your reach will be improved, and more people will be seeing your name pop up. Why not share your Instagram posts to other sites, so your followers on Twitter can follow you on there too.
Make yourself known and show you’ve got time to talk. Also make sure you’re asking your followers questions or replying to comments they’ve made; it will encourage them and others to engage with you.
Let your audience in
Instagram is fundamentally a creative platform, and it pays to be imaginative. Keep it fun! Share your life behind the scenes. Why not try uploading photos or videos to show your audience what your team get up to in the office or a great event you attended recently. Your audience want to know they’re talking to a person and not receiving an automated response, so why not try creating a ‘meet the team’ post so they know who they’re conversing with.
Let them see what’s behind the branding and show them you’re human with a real passion for what you do.
Clever captions
Captions and hashtags help push out your posts to your future customers. Make the most of the caption space and think through what you’re going to say. Captions are hidden after 123 characters so start with something that will catch the eye of your audience. Use anecdotes, trending and relevant hashtags, tag in any people or places mentioned or related to the subject and ask your audience questions to further prompt comments and discussions. The more interesting and engaging your post the better.
Story time
Instagram stories allow your audience to get a snapshot into your day-to-day life or running of the business. If you’re heading to an event soon, doing an Instagram takeover, or working from your office, why not let your followers see.
Don’t forget to use locations, mentions, and hashtags just as you would on normal feed posts too. Have a play around with the different type faces, filters, boomerangs and videos to boost your engagement further. Making use of the ‘Polls’ and ‘Ask a Question’ feature has proven to be a great tool for engagement and getting feedback. Try asking your followers which colour or design they like best or schedule certain times that followers can send in all the questions they’d like answering as a ‘Q&A’ session.
Instagram has a ‘highlights’ function that lets you add your stories onto your profile. If you did a Q&A that had information you want to be available permanently, why not create a highlight for them? Equally, share some of your products or completed projects to your stories and then group them into highlights, so they are always accessible.
Accounts with 10,000+ followers can take advantage of Instagram’s ‘swipe up’ feature, which allows followers to swipe the screen to take them to a particular webpage. For example, ‘Swipe up to see our social media tips for businesses!’. Before you reach these follower figures, you can make use of the website section in your profile to add in website links to drive traffic to instead.
We can help.
As Instagram and social media continue to develop and introduce new features, it pays to work with a social media expert who can help keep your content ahead of the curve.
If you’d like to find out how we can help you manage your Instagram, as well as Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter profiles, don’t hesitate to get in touch.
