Instagram is one of the most popular social media networks worldwide - particularly amongst young adults. According to The Statistics Portal, Instagram has over 800 million monthly active users. The UK is amongst the top 10 leading countries based on the number of Instagram users as of January 2018, with 21 million Instagram users.
This gives businesses a prime opportunity to offer their goods to a younger target audience. As of January 2018, Instagram’s API has changed to allow users to publish photos to an Instagram Business Profile using a third-party platform such as Hootsuite, making it even easier for brands to take advantage of what Instagram has to offer.
Here are our 5 tips to boost your Business Instagram Profile:
Be Active & Creative
Rule number one for a successful Instagram profile is to not let your followers get bored! It is highly important to always engage with your followers; through bright and eye catching photos, creative content, entertaining emoji’s, witty responses and more. With Business Profile Insights you can easily evaluate when your followers are the most active and schedule your posts to go live during these times via third-party platforms.
Instagram Stories has become an increasingly popular tool to promote your latest Instagram post, product launches or blog updates. Similar to Snapchat, Instagram stories are visible for 24 hours and allow the addition of hashtags, location stickers and the ability to add active links direct to your website. Instagram Stories make it easy to experiment with different types of content such as; photos, short videos, Boomerangs (GIF-like image) and much more! Similar to Snapchat, Instagram Stories have fun additions such as face filters, stickers and text allowing you to quickly edit images on-the-go. So, use your creativity to get the most from your Instagram stories and posts.
Promote your Business on Instagram
You can build your business on Instagram by using Instagram ads features:
- Photo Ads
- Video Ads
- Carousel Ads
- Stories Ads
By using these Ads, you can drive awareness of your business, product, app or service. Allowing your target audience to learn more about your products or services and increase product sales, mobile app downloads and visitors to your store.
Collaborate & Mention Others
Instagram is one of the most grounded online networking channels for collaborations and sharing customer success stories. Affiliate Marketing is incredibly popular on the platform, with brands paying a considerable sum for influencers (profiles with a high follower count) to promote their product or service. Affiliate Marketing is seen as a far more trustworthy form of advertisement in the eyes of the consumer. They feel they have a connection with who they’re following and are therefore more likely to make a purchase based on their recommendation. Collaboration on Instagram works both ways, users will often tag brands or using popular hashtags in the hope that their favourite profiles will re-post their image, tagging an account is normally a superior decision to get noticed and increase your accounts exposure.
Use Instagram Live
People are curious, they want to know not only your brand’s public image but the values, goals and “behind the scenes” of your business. Let them become part of your team by scheduling Live Office Tours, online webinars or simply communicate directly with your customers with a live Q&A session all on Instagram Live.
Analyse Your Success and Build on It
One of the most important aspects of a marketers’ role is to test and measure results of each campaign - don’t play a guessing game. Take a step back to analyse your campaigns, posts, stories and live video sessions. Get your statistics in order to evaluate your clicks, comments, follower count and activity. Social media management tools can help with this. Measure your success and track your performance!
So, there you have it! Our 5 top tips to boost your Business Instagram profile. If you would like more help and advice regarding Instagram or any social platform, get in touch with our talented digital marketing team at mtc.