Once you’ve got your head around Instagram, it isn’t a difficult platform to use and it can actually be enjoyable.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for an extended period of time, you’ll be well aware of how prolific Instagram is. Not just as a social media platform for connecting people, but also as a platform for businesses and marketeers. If you are just starting out on Instagram or want to up your Instagram game to increase follower numbers and business exposure, following our seven pro tips will help you.
Define Your Target Audience
Instagram gives you the ability to hone in on your target audience like never before. Previous mass marketing strategies no longer need to be considered now that you have direct access to the people to whom you want to sell. Consider who your main customers are and who you want to attract. From there, you can begin to analyse what content they regularly engage with, what works, what doesn’t, and look at the hashtags that they have in common with one another.
Additionally, you can use proxies for IG; it will help you get things done safely and securely. Proxies are used commonly with bots and help to ensure you or your client is not banned.
Get Creative
If you are selling a service, the last thing your followers are going to want to see is an image with text overlaid describing what you offer. You need to think outside the box as to how you communicate what solutions you are providing your followers with. A good way to get an understanding of what your content should be is by looking at your competitors, see what works for them, and then add your own spin onto it.
Create a theme
Even though Instagram is a series of pictures, you still want to create a narrative around them that reflect your organisation’s mission and values. Consider what type of theme would reflect this and then gear your content towards this. You want to make your brand message clear to followers and without a theme and a narrative you run the risk of not being understood and then overlooked.
Post regularly
Your audience’s attention span is now lower than ever, you have less than two seconds to make any kind of impact on their lives, especially when it comes to purchasing a product or service. You want to keep your brand and business in the mind of your target audience, so you want to create a posting schedule and keep to it. Assess your target market’s most active time, you can do this by using the in-house analytics Instagram provides you with when you have a creators account. Make sure you are posting at their most active time, there is little to no point in posting when they are all in bed. You also don’t want to come off as being spammy, there is nothing more infuriating than scrolling through your feed only to see posts from one person. Give your audience enough but not too much, this is a trial and error but you’ll get there.
Make Sure Your Profile Is Complete
It sounds ridiculous and simple, but a lot of people don’t bother completing their profiles. Make sure that your bio is heavy hitting from the start. Tell people who you are and how you are going to solve their problems. Put in your contact details, websites, and emails making sure that people have more than one way to contact you.
Engage, Engage and Engage
We all know that Instagram is for people to highlight and showcase their best, let them know that you like their best! Comment on your followers’ photos, don’t make it spammy, make sure it is personalised and reflects the mood of the image. Like photos and share other
people’s stories when they feature your product or service. Little things like this can go a long way. Not only do people get a buzz when companies feature them, it also makes your brand look more human. You don’t want to be a faceless brand or corporation that comes across as robotic.
Hashtags
Hashtags are the life blood of Instagram, without it your content will just get lost in the myriad of other content and won’t be seen by your audience. Take time evaluating hashtags, look at what is trending that particular day and see whether it links to your content or theme. Then assess what type of hashtags your competitors and target market are using. The more time you put into hashtags, the more you will get out of it. You are allowed 30 per post, so use all of them, this way your chances of being seen are greatly increased as well as the chances of you showing on the explore page to potential new customers.
Conclusion
Once you’ve got your head around Instagram, it isn’t a difficult platform to use and it can actually be enjoyable. Make the most of the in-house analytics that Instagram provide you with so you can assess your demographics and market segment and then build your content around them accordingly. Make sure that your brand always shines through with everything you do and remember to follow a narrative. Follow our seven pro tips and your small business will start thriving on Instagram in no time at all.
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