With a community of over 300 million active monthly users, Instagram is one of the fastest growing social media platforms with high engagements, and yet is still a very untapped territory for most businesses. Instagram reports that on average there are 70 million photos shared and 2.5 billion likes per day. But like approaching any social media platform it is important to create a strategy before jumping right in.
The infographic below from TechWyse breaks down ten steps for every business to follow when deciding to integrate Instagram into their marketing strategy. In addition to the ten tips below, make sure to check out the official Instagram Business blog for more tips and examples of how other brands are using the platform for inspiration. For example, there are several things that popular brands on Instagram have in common:
- Laid Back Posting: Unlike Facebook and especially Twitter, you do not need to post on Instagram multiple times a day and sometimes not even every day, depending on your audience. You do not want to aggravate your followers by saturating their feed with only pictures from your brand, which may cause them to unfollow you.
- Real pictures: When taking pictures, they make sure that the pictures that they share are of real things and look like they are taken by real people. For Instagram users it is more important for your picture to look real than professional.
- Adding context to their pictures: If you are trying to sell a product, take a picture of it being used in a real life situation. For example, instead of sharing a picture of a dress on a mannequin, take a picture of a girl wearing the dress while out having coffee with friends.
- Hashtag Heaven: Instagram is all about the hashtag! Find hashtags to piggyback on that fit well with your strategy. Such as, a bridal shop would want to jump in on the #WeddingWednesday or #Instabride hashtags to increase their exposure and following.
[ Source TechWyse Internet Marketing ]
Reblogged this on Social Media Advisor. HR Communications Specialist. and commented:
In addition to the ten tips below, make sure to check out the official Instagram Business blog for more tips and examples of how other brands are using the platform for inspiration.
Reblogged this on Social Media Advisor. HR Communications Specialist. and commented:
In addition to the ten tips below, make sure to check out the official Instagram Business blog for more tips and examples of how other brands are using the platform for inspiration.
Hi Brianna- Saw your reblog of this on Social Media Today and had a question. The first item on this list mentions creating a business Instagram account instead of a personal Instagram account. To my knowledge, when businesses sign up for Instagram they’re not given the option to create a business-only account, like they have on Facebook, for example. Is that a new feature? If so, what are the advantages/benefits of creating a business account on Instagram over the way businesses create and brand personal Instagram accounts now? And could you provide more information on how to create a business account for Instagram? I’m very interested in the possibility of this, since I had never heard of a business-only Instagram account option, so any information you can provide would be helpful. Thanks!
Hi Betsey!
Sorry, how the infographic words it can be confusing. What they mean but a business vs. personal account is that when you create your Instagram account make sure you set it up 100% for your business not any personal accounts. Sometimes people tie in their personal email addresses or use a personal account for business purposes, the infographic is more reminding users that their business and personal accounts should be separate. In addition, people sometimes register for Instagram like they would for Facebook, where they have a personal account and then create a Facebook Page for their business. Since there are no “sub-accounts” or official pages on Instagram sometimes people create a personal account when they meant to make a business account.
Hope that clears it up! So sorry for any confusion!
Oh, I did hear that they are rolling out ads for all businesses soon though 🙂
Brianna
Hi Brianna-
Thanks for the quick response! I appreciate it. I was wondering if that’s why they meant by business vs. personal account, but I figured it’d check on the off chance that Instagram had rolled out this amazing new feature for businesses that I didn’t know about! So thanks very much for clarifying!
Cheers,
Betsey
Hi Brianna- Saw your reblog of this on Social Media Today and had a question. The first item on this list mentions creating a business Instagram account instead of a personal Instagram account. To my knowledge, when businesses sign up for Instagram they’re not given the option to create a business-only account, like they have on Facebook, for example. Is that a new feature? If so, what are the advantages/benefits of creating a business account on Instagram over the way businesses create and brand personal Instagram accounts now? And could you provide more information on how to create a business account for Instagram? I’m very interested in the possibility of this, since I had never heard of a business-only Instagram account option, so any information you can provide would be helpful. Thanks!
Hi Betsey!
Sorry, how the infographic words it can be confusing. What they mean but a business vs. personal account is that when you create your Instagram account make sure you set it up 100% for your business not any personal accounts. Sometimes people tie in their personal email addresses or use a personal account for business purposes, the infographic is more reminding users that their business and personal accounts should be separate. In addition, people sometimes register for Instagram like they would for Facebook, where they have a personal account and then create a Facebook Page for their business. Since there are no “sub-accounts” or official pages on Instagram sometimes people create a personal account when they meant to make a business account.
Hope that clears it up! So sorry for any confusion!
Oh, I did hear that they are rolling out ads for all businesses soon though 🙂
Brianna
Hi Brianna-
Thanks for the quick response! I appreciate it. I was wondering if that’s why they meant by business vs. personal account, but I figured it’d check on the off chance that Instagram had rolled out this amazing new feature for businesses that I didn’t know about! So thanks very much for clarifying!
Cheers,
Betsey
300 M users makes Instagram bigger than Twitter now.. plus your content gets seen more readily than on Facebook these days. Those facts make Instagram an awesome tool for businesses in 2015. Hopefully ads won’t change that like it has made it harder on Facebook to play without paying.
300 M users makes Instagram bigger than Twitter now.. plus your content gets seen more readily than on Facebook these days. Those facts make Instagram an awesome tool for businesses in 2015. Hopefully ads won’t change that like it has made it harder on Facebook to play without paying.
Amazing infographic..
Very useful information.
Thanks for sharing.