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Instagram isn’t just for the Kardashians, it can be a great tool for your business!
If you’re looking to increase your brand awareness, build a community, showcase what your company is all about with the aim of gaining leads and more sales, get yourself over to Insta!
If you’ve never used Instagram before, or you just need some advice on what to do, this is the blog for you.
1. Set your profile up
We’ll start with the real basics. Create your account, have a recognisable profile picture and in your Bio, you only have 125 characters to explain what you do so use it wisely!
You’ll have the option of turning your profile into a Professional Account under Settings. This gives you the tools to measure your success under your Profile Page.
2. Post Regularly
There is no right or a wrong number of how many times you should be posting to your Instagram account. Many marketing agencies, us included, recommend posting at least 2-3 times a week. You may find that some brands post several times a day – if you have the content and lots to say, do it!
3. Hashtags
Everyone has come across a hashtag in their time on social media and you may be wondering what that is all about! Hashtags are a great way for people to follow specific subjects that they are interested in. For example, ones Function28 follows on Instagram are, #SocialMediaManagement, #GraphicDesign. Putting hashtags in your post is a fantastic way of getting your company in front of more people, increasing engagement, and gaining followers.
There is no limit to how many hashtags you can use but try not to do too many. Anything from 5-11 hashtags will help organically boost your post. And try and keep the hashtags relevant to the post and your company, otherwise, you’ll be seen as a spam account!
Top Tip – put your hashtags are the first comment on your post. That way, it makes your post look a lot less “spammy”!
4. “See Bio”
This will be a phrase that you will see often in a company’s Instagram post and one that I have typed thousands of times! Instagram try and keep people on their platform for longer by not hyperlinking websites (I hate to sound cynical, but this is what it is at the end of the day!). The way around this is to put a relevant link, usually to your website, under your Bio.
If you need to change the link for example, to a blog post, it’s easy enough to keep changing it under your Profile, but you must remember to change it back! Because the character limit is short in this area, check out Bitly which reduces the size of the link, making it all neat and tidy.
5. Engage, engage, engage
It’s so vitally important that you engage with any comments that are left on your post (negative or positive!), people can see that you as a brand care about your customers. Also, a great way of engaging with other brands is to reply or like their posts too.
Creating outbound awareness is a sure-fire way of gaining more followers and engaging more people. This does take time, it’s not something that happens overnight but it really does help build your brand.
6. Follow similar businesses and customers
This does take some time, but it is well worth it.
For example, if you are a florist, follow others and they will more than likely follow you back and engage with the content you’re putting out there.
Searching for relevant hashtags will help you find prospective followers who you can engage with and follow them. Some will follow you back, some won’t – don’t be disheartened if they don’t!
7. Create great content
You know who your target audience is, but you might be a little unsure as to what kind of content will make them engage with you.
Top Tip – there is absolutely nothing wrong with looking at what your competitors are doing and taking some inspiration from them. This is something I recommend to anyone coming to me who needs help with their social media.
The go-to content that so many businesses use are:
– A sneak peek of new products
– Inspirational quotes
– Employee selfies
– Pictures of your products
– Showing off the office dog always gets great engagement!
Give these a go and see what is the most popular.
8. Good quality images
Nothing gets my goat more than seeing bad photos! Instagram is so image reliant, it’s important you get this right. You don’t need to be Rankin to take a good photograph, here are some tips on getting a great photo:
– Use natural light – if you’re taking a photo outside, do it in the late afternoon when the lighting is best. If you’re indoors, make sure your blinds and curtains are open to let natural light into the room.
– Use the back camera – this will give you a higher-resolution photo
– Download photo editing apps – to give your photos the professional edge, download an app to help edit your pictures. For example, check out the free app, BeFunky.
There you have it – some great tips on getting the most out of Instagram for your business! Take a look at our blog from last week on How to… Facebook for business.
If you need help or advice when it comes to your social media pages, please contact Gemma on gemma@function28.co.uk.
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