There are currently over 800 million users on Instagram across the world. More than 500 million of these users are on Instagram every day to interact with friends and followers. Given its usage increase over the years, its no big surprise that a massive 70% of Instagram users have spent time looking up a brand and finding out more about their products and services.

Keeping those statistics in mind, you can see how there is a huge opportunity to utilise a free platform to your business’ advantage.

If you’re unsure how to start, we’ve got you covered:

Get an Instagram Business Account

Instagram was designed for mobile-only use. You can use Instagram on a desktop, to an extent as desktop usage does not include all the functionality of its mobile app. This includes such features as uploading content and posting using the stories feature. If you are setting up an Instagram account on behalf of your business, set it up with a business account so that you have access to analytics and calls to action on your home page such as shop, call, email etc.

To set up an Instagram business account, we suggest signing up with your company email. You will also need a Facebook business page to merge your Instagram account with.

Ensure your Bio tells people as much as it should

Your bio is the first thing that users will read about you when visiting your Instagram profile, so its important to explain who you are, what you do and where you are based (especially if you are a local business). You can also include a link within your bio, usually this is used for a website address but you can also utilise this feature to get your audience to visit your Blog or a page where you might be displaying content relevant to a series of recent posts. Remember that Instagram bio’s allow for up to 150 characters, so make the most of that by telling people as much as you can about your business and its products and/or services.

Post Engaging Content Frequently

Its important to post regularly so that you keep your audience engaged. Instagram, like Google, has its own algorithms and these respond better to accounts that frequently upload content. You might have noticed on your dashboard, a magnifying glass within the navigation bar. This is the discovery page. When your audience engages consistently with your content, your images will start to appear on this page which will encourage users with similar interests to you to interact with you.

Hashtags

Where Instagram is concerned, Hashtags are basically free advertising. Use relevant hashtags when you post content. You can also find tools such as the hashtagger app (available in iOS and Andriod) to find popular and trending hashtags relevant to your posts. You can add up to 30 hashtags in a post, however keep in mind that your objective should be to use relevant hashtags in order to reach the right people rather than cramming a load of hashtags into your posts just to get a few likes.

Make use of Instagram Stories

Instagram Stories are a great way to interact with your audience regularly. These stories appear in your followers feed but will disappear after 24 hours. With Instagram Stories, you can take photos or videos, add captions in different fonts and colours and even create polls or ask questions. You also have the ability to include hashtags in your stories and these will then appear for users searching for that hashtag. Stories may disappear after 24 hours but you also have the ability to include your stories on your profile page for anyone that visits your page to view.

Use a Scheduling Tool if you’re short on time

If you have a busy schedule, it can be hard to make time to post on social media. Help is at hand however, as there are a number of free tools that help you schedule your posts so that they appear frequently on your profile. Free tools that allow you to schedule content include Hootsuite, Buffer and Later.

To use these tools, you simply have to create an account and link your social media channels, then you can start scheduling your posts.

When using a new business account on social media, you may be unfamiliar with insights into your audience. You can visit the Insights tab on your Instagram profile to access valuable data and analytics such as demographics, popular times of day that people view your posts and also location details.

By using these analytics you can then tailor your content to match up with your analytics and serve your audience the content they are interested in at the right times.

How can Cybera Digital help?

We can work with your business to form and implement effective and refined marketing strategies. If you’d like to find out more, get in touch with us today!

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