Instagram, with over 700 million users and daily post activity of 95 million, is one of the world’s largest social media.
10 Instagram marketing strategies that every brand needs to know
Making good use of social media will greatly improve your search engine rankings and ultimately improve your online presence.
In this article, I’ll show you top 10 techniques that will help you build a solid brand presence on Instagram.
10. Hashtags are a must-use
Hashtags (#) are very important not just for Instagram, but for almost every networking app.
With hashtags, you can reach people who are interested in your niche or a particular trend without them even following you.
Hook onto trending common Hashtags in your field e.g #DigitalMarketing or you can make use of a more specific Hashtag like #SEO or even narrow it down more for better click-throughs e.g #Anchortexts.
Each way you choose be sure to monitor the outcomes and either keep doing that if it works, or choose another method if it does not.
Below are some key findings on Hashtags that will convince you about the power of Hashtags.
Key findings:
- 88% of brand posts include at least one hashtag.
- 91% of posts by top brands have seven or fewer hashtags.
- Posts with at least one hashtag average 12.6% more engagement.
9. Optimize your entire profile
There is a very popular quote: “You are addressed the way you dress”.
Well, this is also the case in the world of social media. The way your profile looks attributes to the way people take your brand.
Consider this:
If you’re branding yourself as an expert in your niche, upload a very professional photo, a chest level length image is perfect, not a full shot. Or a very crisp logo of your company.
Always include a link back to your website.
You may want to create a landing page specifically for Instagram visitors or change up the link destination to promote your current campaign or content.
This is good ffor SEO. Checout SEO tips for 2018.
- Use your company logo somewhere in your profile so users know it’s the official profile for your company.
- Consider adding one brand-specific hashtag to your profile so users know it ‘belongs’ to you.
- Include your physical location if you have a local business.
- Make sure your images and other content are consistent with your other social media properties.
8. Follow people
You might be tempted to avoid following people back in an attempt to have more followers than those you are following.
Well, sorry to burst your bubbles, unless you’re a well-known brand, you can’t get away with this. Always follow your followers and also actively look for influencers in your field and follow them.
A tool like Keyhole will allow you to search users and posts by Hashtag and sort the results based on the number of likes they have received.
Follow users who follow influencers in your niche, this will help you build a community around them.
7. Post engaging photos and videos
Spice up the content you publish.
Avoid monotony. People can easily get bored of the content a brand pushes if it’s always the same.
Instead, you can utilize user submitted articles, teaser images of new products. e.t.c
Photos can perform better than videos. With images, everyone can see the content without necessarily clicking on it as they scroll down their news feed.
This is not always the same with videos.
6. Offer value to people
One way to get the attention of people as a brand is by offering irresistible value to them.
Give out freebies occasionally, give coupons, offer free tutorials on how to fix stuff.
If your practice this you’d get the attention of not just your clients, but to investors too.
5. Use Instagram ads to further expand your reach
With Instagram ads, you can target users who are interested in your niche and get them to follow you or to visit your website.
This is well worth the cost.
Every big brand invests heavily in advertisements.
4. Make use of the right tools to help streamline your efforts
There are tools that will help you streamline your efforts on Instagram.
One of Forbes premium writer’s favourite multi-purpose tools is Iconosquare (formerly Statigr.am).
It allows you to access your account via your web browser, find out which of your photos and videos are getting the most engagement, and track who is following and unfollowing you.
Other tools worth mentioning are Schedugram (for scheduling your posts), INK361 (a full-service tool for viewing, scheduling and managing your posts) and Piqora (for helping you find engaging posts to share with your audience).
3. Be consistent
Create content and post on Instagram consistently.
Don’t abandon the platform for a week or a month and then pick it up again.
If you’re very busy with the affairs of running the brand, you can hire a professional to manage your social media accounts.
2. Make sure your Images truly reflect your brand
Be careful to assure that your Images always reflect your brand.
If you are all about Digital Marketing be sure to only post images that are related to that. Don’t post images or videos of a very fast car you believe is fancy.
Protect your brand Image.
1. Be part of the Instagram community
Use Instagram to build a genuine relationship with people.
There are many ways to build and/or be part of a community on Instagram.
Using hashtags allows you to connect with users you may never otherwise have met.
Liking and commenting on other people’s photos gets you engaged with the greater community (and often helps you grow your own followers as people reciprocate).
Participating in Instagram campaigns intended to further a worthy cause can help you contribute to a greater good (#movember is a great example of a cause perfectly suited for a visual-centric platform like Instagram).
Sharing images and videos from events can help your followers feel like they’re in on the action, and are a real part of your community.
Is there any important strategy I’ve missed? Which of these worked for you. Let me know in the comments below.
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