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Do you know how to use Instagramto market your business? Do you get enough
interaction with your brand? Do you know
how to get more followers on Instagram
?
Instagram is cool way to connect with your socially engaged consumers. There are 1 30
million active userson Instagram every month, and every day 1 billion photos are liked.
Use Instagram for businesspurposes in the right way, and you could have an instant viral
marketing success. Use it wrong, and your efforts on this young site could be a big empty
fail.
Do you use Instagram to tell a visual story about your brand, instantly engage with your
followers wherever they are, and even get very real user-generated content through
photo contestson the app?
Whether you’re new to the platform, you want to find out how to get more Instagram
followers
, or just want a few more pointers, I’ve put together 52 tips to market your brand
more authentically on Instagram.
What you’ll learn from this post:
(Click to tweet)
● How to use hashtags on Instagram
● Why @mentioning your followers on Instagram is cool
● How to add videos to your Instagram marketing
● How offline and online marketing merge on Instagram
A few tweetable takeaways:
(click to tweet)
● Use hashtags 3 ways
● Make your followers famous
● Show your products authentically
● Use Instagram photo contests to boost your engagement
Setup Your Instagram Account
1. Create your Instagram for Business account - It’s easy to make a b
usiness
account on Instagram .
2. Make a business usernam e - Use your business name as your username. If it
is taken, choose a username that is instantly recognized with your brand.
3. Complete your profile - Include a cool, branded photo, a short informative
bio, and a link to your website.
4. Connect your account to Facebook - Instagram is owned by Facebook.
Connect these two very powerful social media sites to boost your marketing
efforts.
5. Make an Instagram tab on your Facebook page - this enables you to instantly
share your Instagram photos to your Facebook Fans.
Companies like
Mercedes Benz
are brilliant at integrating their Instagram content on
Facebook:
6. Create a brand specific strategy- Keep your Instagram content strategy
focused on your brand’s unique way of seeing the world. Instagram is a photo
(and now video) sharing site. Connect your business with your ‘tribe’ on
Instagram in a consistent and particular visual way.
Use Hashtags
7. Use hashtags (#’s) in your updates - Hashtags are a major part of Instagram.
It’s a big way of how users can find you through their mobile Instagram
searches. Unlike on other sites (such as Twitter), you’re not limited by character
count. Include a few tags (but not too many - or you’ll look desperate) in your
posts to get connected.
8. Use brand specific hashtagss -Include your business name in some of your
post hashtags. Also, use unique tags for particular marketing campaigns you run.
For example, if you’re hosting a p
hoto contest on Instagram, make a unique tag
just for that campaign. This tactic both promotes your contest, and it gives your
consumers a distinct tag to connect with others participants (so they can see
their competition!).
Here’s how
Dry Sodauses a brand specific hashtag, #fridayDRYday to engage
their community, and show off fan photos of the week.
9. Use general hashtags’s - Include general tags on your posts, to be found for
your products or lifestyle posts. For example, if your business is a coffee shop,
and you post an image of your scrumptious latte, include tags like #latte or even
#coffee.
11. Run an
Instagram Hashtag Contest - A hashtag contest allows your fans and
followers to upload photos under a certain hashtag. All submissions are then
displayed in a voting gallery on you Facebook Page, website, etc.
12. Monitor your brand hashtags - Your consumers are using your tags to
connect with you. Be sure to keep checking your Instagram hashtags’s, just like
you would your Facebook Page and Twitter mentions. Respond to comments
and concerns quickly, and you’ll build happy customer relationships.
Focus on Your Customers
13. Make your followers famous - Share followers photos on your social sites.
Show your customers you appreciate them by acknowledging their cool photos,
and share them with your Facebook fan or Twitter followers. NOTE: be sure to
ask permission to use their photo first!
14. Embed followers’ photos -Instagram now enables you to embed Instagram
photos on your website and other sites. Use this, like Starbucks, to show cool
images of your brand and product from your Instagram followers by embedding
the entire post. Make sure you tell them you’re showcasing their image, to make
them feel appreciated, and to get their permission to use it.
19. @mention celebrities and other related industry leaders - If your images
are about celebs - let them know. They may just appreciate it enough to share it
with their followers!
20. Focus on engaging your customer -Post images with your customer in mind.
Post about more than your product. Make your business Instagram about
lifestyle, and authentically connecting with your customers.
Show Your Stuff
21. Be creative with your photos -Use filters to enhance your photos. Use cool
angles, lighting and other photography tricks - whether you hire a
photographer, or learn a few tricks on your own. Use p hotoshop ,
Diptic
, or
photoshake to edit your pics, or combine a number of photos into one.
Here’s an example of three photos in one from the Instagram blog :
22. Make videos- Instagram now has short video capabilities. Use this to make
15 second videoson your Instagram feed.
28. Post fun, authentic videos of your CEO- make your top executives look
personable. Make short, quirky videos of them to post on Instagram. For
example, get them show one thing they like to do when not working, or doing
something fun at the office.
29. Share exclusive content - Use your Instagram feed to show photos you
haven’t shared on your Facebook, Twitter or blog (and vice versa). This makes
your followers feel special.
32. Show your post-launch staff party (or clean up) -Dare to show you and
your employees authentically, by posting a short video of you after a product
launch.
33. Partner with other Brands on Instagram - Whether you’re a small one shop
business, or a large multinational, you have relationships with other businesses.
If they’re on Instagram too, partner up, and get them to post your products on
their Instagram feed.
For example, this year’s Wimbledon created partnerships with brands such as
Nike.
Add More Tactics
34. Ask for comments on your photos and videos - If you want more
engagement on your posts, ask for it. Questions open up conversations. Ask
your followers what they think of a new post you made, and more.
35. Ask questions about your business or products -Use questions to get your
people talking about your business. For example, ask your Followers if they
have used your product today. Add a unique hashtag and give your consumers a
hub to share photos of how they used your goods with each other.
37. Use “fill in the blank” posts - Make updates with a sentence followers can
complete. For example, if you sell groceries, create a post with an image of
breakfast cereals. Include a “fill in the blank” post such as “I love starting my day
with a bowl of ______”.
This gets people talking about products related to what you sell.
38. Use photo caption posts - Another great way to get engagement on your
Instagram posts is through photo caption questions
. Take a cool image of your
products, or something related to your brand lifestyle. Ask your followers to
have fun by captioning it. Tip: You can even make a
photo caption contest , to
entice engagement in your followers through a cool prize.
39. Crowdsource photos - Ask followers to submit photos of how they use your
product. This could help your business gain customer insight, and future product
development research. It’s pretty easy to do, but you may need to up the ante.
Run Instagram Contests
40. Run Instagram hashtag contests - Hashtag contests are the newest and
most fun way to gain user-generated content and engage your followers.
Followers simply upload a photo with your hashtag and submissions are placed
into a gallery on Facebook and your website where they are voted on to choose
a winner.
42. Run Instagram photo contests with voting - Include a voting element in
your Instagram photo contest
. This will get your contestants vying for the most
votes. They will spread the word about your contest to their friends, and friends
of friends.
Make Use of Mobile
43. Geotag your posts
- Target your local consumers by using Photo Map to tag
where you are.
44. Bring offline online
- use QR codes to entice your in-store traffic to engage
with you instantly on Instagram. Entice them with group offers and coupon
codes.
45. Bring offline events online -Are you hosting a live event? Promote a
hashtag for attendees to use to share their photos of it.
Improve Your ROI
47. Post consistently
- Regardless of your follower count, post consistently. This
gets your brand seen regularly by your followers. They will be more apt to
become more regular customers this way too.
48. Determine post frequency - You might need to post 2-3 times a day, or 2-3
times a week. Monitor your account to determine your post frequency.
49. Find your perfect Instagram posting time - Not all brands have the same
best time to post on Instagram. Not all products do either. Use analytic tools to
monitor when your photos are getting liked and commented on. Find out when
your hashtags are being used. Then post your fresh content at these most active
times.
50. Monitor your Instagram results- use third party analytics, or track your
followers, your hashtag post numbers, your post likes and comments.
51. Continuously improve - Based on your content results, keep improving your
photo and video posts. If a particular type of image drives tons of engagement,
keep using those types of posts. If using general hashtags get your posts
interacted with a lot, keep searching for and using general hashtags.
52. Keep on top of Instagram trends- Instagram is constantly developing new
and innovative ways to engage on this application. Keep learning to stay
knowledgeable about the coolest ways to connect.
Conclusion
So there you have it, 52 tips to find out h
ow to use Instagram
and get you better
connected to your market. Try them out, and see how authentically successful
your visual mobile marketing can be.
Do you use Instagram for your business? I would love to hear any tips you have
to share below!