Instagram came from nowhere to become the world’s second largest social network, after Facebook. It’s popular because it allows users to simply browse photos and find attractive visuals that they love.
For businesses, it is a major opportunity. The platform offers just about every tool and feature that you could possibly want to promote your brand and improve your marketing.
Here’s how to leverage the platform:
Build An Account That Appeals To Users
The first step to gaining traction on Instagram is to build an account that appeals to users. You want something that encourages them to follow you and share your content.
The trick here is to deliver highly engaging material in the form of photos, stories and videos. The more that you can showcase your products, the more success that you will have.
You can also post contests. Here, you offer your followers a chance to win something (usually your product), in exchange for sharing or “regramming” your content.
Be More Engaging
The next step is to take actions that make you more engaging. Just getting likes is important, but it is not enough to make your account successful. You also need to generate comments, since these are the ultimate marker of engagement (and require more effort on the part of users).
To do this, you might want to get the ball rolling with an external agency. You pay these folks to generate authentic-looking comments that then spark a conversation about your post. They also link to other successful accounts, so that your posts appear on more users’ feeds.
Use Influencers
Don’t forget, you don’t have to do everything on Instagram via your business account. You can also generate exposure for your brand via influencers.
To find one in your niche, browse an influencer marketplace. These collect influencers together into a single place. Look for somebody who serves an audience similar to yours and then suggest that you work together. Many will request either a fee or free products in return. Some will also tell you that they will retain their independence, even if you pay them.
Create Campaigns
When operating on Instagram, you need to be clear with yourself what your goals and objectives are for using the platform. Write down precisely what you’d like to achieve and then measure whether you’re getting there as you go along.
If you don’t create well-specified campaigns, you won’t know whether what you’re doing is working. You might think that you’re having success, but until you crunch the numbers, you don’t know for sure.
Tag Locations And Events
Lastly, you’ll want to tag your videos and images with their location and then share this with your followers. Doing this seems to increase the chances that users will see your content on their feeds.
Tagging events is also a good strategy. These allow followers to see precisely who was in attendance and whether anyone was sponsoring it. Suppose attending an Indian event you may tag the Indian followers to ensure who has attended the event. You can also get people who went to the event to tag their favorite moments, increasing shareability even more