Many businesses have spotted the huge potential of Instagram to help grow their business and generate sales, however, for many, this social media channel is still a mystery. Creating a brand profile on this popular image-led social networking site is more-than-likely a lot easier than you imagine and should ultimately enable you to market your business to a whole new audience.
However, using Instagram effectively for business is about much more than ‘uploading a great photo.’ To have a real impact in the world of Instagram, you need to make sure that your posts are carefully crafted, and shared with purpose & intent.
As experts in social media management Sheffield, we’ve compiled a list of 5 handy tips to help capitalise on your Instagram business presence.
Create a Healthy Following using Engagement and ‘Hashtags’
There are several ways that you can effectively increase your followers on Instagram, and all of them are relatively simple. Firstly, make an effort to engage with other users by following them, liking their photos and leaving comments on them.
Use hashtags for every image that you post. A quick spell of hashtag research will drum up plenty of ideas, and give you an insight into which hashtags are relevant and popular. If your brand uses their own hashtags on other social networking sites such as Twitter , use them on Instagram too – it will help to expand your following and unify the appearance of your brand across the channels in use.
Focus on Quality
For a social media platform that is image lead, it’s fairly obvious that you need to make sure that your photos are good. A filter won’t hide everything, so getting the basics in place for a great photo is an absolute must. When you’re taking a photo for Instagram, avoid using the camera in the actual app to take the shot. Use your phone camera, which can zoom and crop your frame into a square as you take it. Then import the picture into Instagram when you open the app. Finally, remember you are working in a square, keep the camera steady, and maximise the clarity of the image by adjusting the focus.
Follow Your Followers
Making the most of Instagram for business is all about creating strategic relationships. Who you follow is really important to the overall appearance of your brand on Instagram. Seek out accounts that you can learn from and enjoy in your followers, and follow them back. Following other brands on Instagram is not only good practice, it’s also smart. Find, follow, and research your competitors!
Showcase Your Employees
Posting images of your staff at work gives the customer a highly valued behind-the-scenes look at your business. Not only does it serve the purpose of celebrating your staff and showing them how much they are valued, it also strengthens the ethos of your brand with a sneak-peek look at what makes your business tick.
Create a Posting Schedule
Instagram is a very relaxed, laid back social media platform. Unlike Facebook and Twitter, you may not need to post every day, or you’ll risk saturating your followers’ news feeds with your content. Think ahead and decide what’s ready to post, then create a schedule. Leave gaps for impromptu posting too, part of the beauty of Instagram is the raw immediacy of the imagery, so it’s important that your posting schedule is flexible.
Use an Expert Social Media Agency
We can help – for more info and advice from experts in a variety of social media channels including Instagram, why not give Socialised.me a call? Our social media training and social media management services can help your business to capitalise on social media for your business.
Call us today on 0114 383 0711 today or send us a message through our contact form for more information about how we can help you.
