Instagram is one of the world's most popular social media platforms. With a focus on photos, it is ideal for showcasing a business' products or services to a wide audience. Using Instagram for business marketing can be incredibly effective because:
In this article, we're going to explain more about what Instagram is and how to use it effectively as a tool to drive traffic to your business website.
Since its introduction in 2010, Instagram has quickly grown to one of the world's favourite social media platforms. Building influence on Instagram (by getting followers, getting likes and then getting comments) results in an increase in visibility and customer loyalty.
As a business, you can use Instagram to:
It's free to set up and use Instagram for business. Just remember that as Instagram is a photo based platform, most of your posting will be done via a smartphone. Rather than have us walk you through setting up an account, we'll leave that to Instagram itself: their instructions can be seen on their website.
You'll next need to set up a business profile. It's important that you choose a business profile and not a personal profile. This is because it offers you business owner tools, plus the ability to link it to your business' Facebook page. Instagram has a handy video to watch demonstrating how to set up this profile.
Once your profile is up and running, then comes the fun part of creating content to share. As a visual platform, your content needs to be attractive, follow your branding rules, be creative and be unique.
Like with other social media platforms, one of the hardest things is the creation of regular content to share with followers. Videos, graphics and photos are easily uploaded to a business account. The issue is though, what they should contain! You have a few types to consider:
Then once you've decided on an image strategy, it's time to start snapping photos with your phone. The Huffington Post asked a group of Instagram pros for their tips on taking great photos, and here are a few of them we felt would be useful to share with you:
As to what your graphics, videos and photo subjects should be, here's a few ideas to get your creative juices flowing:
How often you post on Instagram is up to you. Once a day, three times a week: whatever works for your business and target market is your best option.
There's one more thing which a beginner to using Instagram for business must know, and that's hashtags. Hashtags (or #hashtags) help make your content easily discoverable by people you are not even targeting. They are a way of organising photos and images into similar groups. Used by Instagrammers to find and share content of a similar topic, an effective hashtag strategy is a must to get your posts out in front of new followers. Your business profile will let you analyse the effectiveness of the hashtags you have used, including details of the number of impressions, reach and how people found you.
There are three kinds of hashtags you can use:
Hashtags are usually added at the bottom of any text you have included in your post. Some people choose to hashtag in their comments, rather than include it in the post. One thing to be aware of is that seeing multiple hashtags is can be off putting and distract from your message. Being particular in the hashtags you use is a better idea. Instagram has a limit of 30.
When it comes to choosing hashtags, you could:
In conclusion, remember that the aim of Instagram is to direct people to your website. So, you want to make sure you have a great website for them to arrive at! We offer a free website trial using our DIY website builder - start your free trial today!
Posted: Thursday 22 November 2018