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How To Get Instagram To Work The Best For Your Business

Social Media Marketing

Instagram is one of those Social Media platforms that many business owners are still trying to get their head around. Are you one of them? Here is a quick “How-To” and “What-To” for using Instagram in your business.

3 reasons Instagram works for business marketing:

  1. Instagram is owned by Facebook so now the two work together easily and effectively. When sharing photos or videos on Instagram it is super easy to share to your Facebook business page as well.
  2. Advertising on Facebook integrates with Instagram as well. If you are opting to advertise on Instagram while setting up your Facebook Ad Campaigns then it makes sense to have a presence on the platform as well.
  3. Smart Instagram marketers make use of hashtags which increases the post’s reach beyond your circle of followers. Users can click on the hashtag to see other photos posted with the same tag. This can present your posts to a wider audience who otherwise wouldn’t know you.

3 must dos when using Instagram in your business marketing:

  1. Identify your #hashtags upfront and use them when relevant to the post content. For example, some of our hashtags are #artifexmarketingstudio #logodesign #graphicdesign #productpackagingdesign #marketingideas. Be thoughtful and intentional, choosing words that relate to your business, service or product. Personally, I think single word hashtags like #fun #smile are a bit pointless.
  2. Know what your main message is and use that as the foundation for all your posts. Make it motivational, positive or inspirational… leave the negative slants on Facebook. You can have interesting takes on the same message but keep the underlying theme consistent.
  3. Instagram is VISUAL. First time visitors to your profile are glancing through your imagery, not your comment content, so make the image quality excellent! Most leading Instagram accounts continue the consistent messaging through to the style of photos, quote format, filters, fonts and colours used… appearance really does matter on Instagram.

3 ways you can use Instagram for business marketing:

  1. Instagram works as a lead generation tool especially through your #hashtags. As mentioned above, use your hashtags with intent.
  2. Instagram is about motivating and inspiring your followers, making it an ideal tool for connecting with others who share your way of thinking.
  3. The highly photographic nature of Instagram makes it a strong platform for visual competitions and giveaways. Think of the huge reach potential your little business could have when you encourage your customers/followers to post photos of themselves using your product with your hashtag.

Many business owners we speak to, have stayed away from Instagram because they don’t have the means for creating graphics to share. Don’t let that stop you! There are a range of online tools that help you design gorgeous graphics and they are so simple for even the novice computer user to handle.

5 favourite graphic creator tools:

  1. Canva: Design awesome social media graphics with Canva. Use on your desktop or with their IPad App. Choose from the millions of photos in their stock collection and their selection of predesigned layouts for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+.
  2. PicMonkey: Edit your social media graphics like a boss, with the too-easy-to-use PicMonkey. With so many backgrounds, overlays and fonts to choose from there really is no reason why you can’t create and share the sexiest graphics across all your social media platforms.
  3. Recite: Turn your quote into a masterpiece with this free web tool, and post it direct to your social media account. And, if you are stuck for a quote then choose from their library across a range of subjects.
  4. Fotor: If you need help creating the cover photos your Facebook and Twitter accounts then Fotor is the tool you are looking for – available in desktop and phone apps.
  5. Infogram: It’s not always about photos and quotes – charts and infographics have their place in telling your story as well. Infogram is a popular tool for quickly and easily creating and publishing interactive, responsive charts, graphs, and other data visualizations.

If you haven’t tapped into Instagram as a marketing platform in your business, then I would highly encourage you to make a start. It is continually growing in popularity and, as you know, the number one rule in marketing is to go where your customers are…

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