Instagram has more than 500 million users, the social media platform that provides a great marketing tool for you to reach potential customers for your business.
In order to improve your Instagram marketing, you need to increase your following on a steady and consistent basis. After all, the more people that come in contact with your brand and follow you on Instagram, the larger your audience is that you can potentially reach every time you post.
Here are seven easy to implement Instagram marketing tips that will help you grow your brand.
Cross promote Instagram posts.
Want to easily add new Instagram followers that already love your brand? Post across all over your other social media profiles Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. and invite them to follow your Instagram profile. They are already following you on social media, so they are obviously interested in what you offer, so give them another way to socially connect to your brand.
Don’t assume that your posts will reach everyone that’s connected to your brand on social media. Many people move away from certain social media platforms and some aren’t as active on some than they are on other networks. You want your followers to be connected to as many of your social profiles as possible to increase your reach per post.
Create an interactive hashtag.
Creating an interactive hashtag is a great way to create instant engagement -- just make sure you are using hashtags the correct way. A very simple strategy I have used for some of the larger brands I consult for is creating a hashtag that customers use to tag photos of them with the product that they just purchased.
For example, creating a hashtag that your company can search for to re-post the pictures of your customers with your product will accomplish two things:
It will cause more of your followers to use the hashtag and post images of them with your product because they will want to be featured on your page
Every time someone posts using your hashtag they are exposing all of their followers to your company and products.
Focus on the solution you provide, not the products you sell. On Instagram, it’s essential to add value to your customers and look pretty while you do it. Never underestimate the fact that your most important asset (and downfall) on this social media network is visual content.
If your business is service-oriented, focus on showcasing the process behind providing the service. Show your company culture, share your mission with the world, or simply share some tips and how-tos. It’s possible to upload photos, short videos and story lines.
Try Instagram Stories
Instagram Stories have a slideshow format and are only live for 24-hours (though they can be saved to your device to be re-used later). This new feature is a direct competitor to Snapchat’s Stories and is now being heavily developed by Instagram. These are some of the benefits of using Instagram Stories for brands:
Stories are prominently displayed at the top of follower timelines just under the Instagram logo.
Can be used to capture behind-the-scenes content that doesn’t have to be as high in quality as regular posts.
Makes it easy to experiment with different content types: photo, short video, Boomerang (GIF-like image), video filmed backwards (Rewind) and live video.
Tagging other accounts, e.g. @instagram in Stories is ideal for collaborators and influencer marketing.
Fun additions like face filters, text and stickers help you edit images on-the-go.
Story search for hashtags and locations make them more discoverable.
All photos and videos you add will play in the sequence they were added and you can add as many as you like. Instagram Stories adverts became available to all businesses globally in March 2017.
You can use these to target new audiences and add CTAs to your collages which can be especially useful for promotions. Check out Single Grain’s ultimate guide to running Instagram Stories Ads for a full step-by-step guide to creating your first one.
Note that Stories are only available on the mobile app and it’s possible to send Instagram Stories as a direct message (DM). We’re yet to see widespread use of sending Stories privately for businesses, unless you’ re planning to send tailored short videos to prospects.
Instagram is one of the strongest social media channels for highlighting collaborators and sharing customer success stories. Even if you don’t officially partner with a non-profit organization, you can give to charity or do a fundraiser a couple of times a year.
It’s all good as long as the cause aligns with your brand values and mission. Take into account that not everyone is monitoring hashtags on social media, so tagging an account is usually a better choice if you want to get noticed.
Another technique involves the use of ‘shout-outs’. An unpaid shout-out is when you partner with another brand that has roughly the same number of followers as you to promote each other to your audiences and you both benefit from increased exposure.
The paid shout-out is for those with a bigger budget as it’s essentially an influencer campaign. This usually involves paying a brand (or influencer) with a much larger following to promote your product or service. It’s a great way to gain a large number of new followers quickly, providing that you create a strong call to action and the influencer’s audience is genuine.
