Every single day, over 1 billion active users utilise Instagram to share photos, videos, and stories. You can even share the post on other social media channels like Facebook and Twitter. Certainly, it has become the go-to place of people to gather inspiration and creativity.
With this, Instagram has grown steadily over the years. This left many marketers and business owners with one question – how to maximise Instagram for business? Instagram is a good tool to build your brand. Your aim here is to reach many audiences and stand out. To help you get started, here are some things you can do to grow your Instagram audience and stand out:
Fine-tune your profile
The first thing that you have to do is to fine-tune your profile. Sometimes it is tiring to complete your profile but you have to know that you cannot do much until you properly fill out your profile. While there is no “right” way to fine-tune your profile, you can consider the following best practices:
- Post profile picture: it is advisable to put profile picture – preferably your company
logo. This is the easiest way for people to identify your brand.
- Pick a relevant account name: when it comes to the account name, you should make it your business name – matching other social profiles of your brand.
- Choose a relevant username: the username should also be your business name. Remember that your username cannot have any spaces.
- Utilise your website: keep in mind that the website will be the only clickable URL on your page. Most businesses and marketers either link their latest promotional page or use their website.
- Write bio well: you must know that it only takes a few seconds for someone to form an opinion of your brand online. This means that it is exceptionally important to make a great first impression through your bio. In your bio, you can describe what your business does or simply put your brand’s slogan.
You have enough room to get creative when it comes to fine-tuning your profile. If you are a beginner, you can start by ensuring that the small details of your profile are in order.
Build your own tribe
Standing out in Instagram is like an uphill battle. It is important that you start small and establish relationships. You should focus on building followings and tapping niche communities. You can consider the following in building your own tribe:
- Find niche hashtags: hashtags serve as a search function for Instagram to find
relevant brands and followers. If you want to tap into your target audience, it is important that you get specific and you can do this with niche hashtags. You should avoid crowded hashtags, instead consider smaller niche hashtags to stand out.
- Incentivising followers: if you have plenty of fans and followers on Instagram, you should use them as your billboard. This means that you need to incentivise followers every time they tag you in their photos.
- Buying views: many marketers and businesses buy instagram views. This proved to be the quickest way to increase brand strength.
Spoiler alert: No claims or promises, Information-based Articles only.
Share relevant content
Instagram is more than random snapshots and selfies. It is a platform for connecting to people, products, and brands that you care about. Although Instagram is a visual platform, you can still make the most out of it when by sharing content. You can start by putting a caption in every image or video.
You have to remember that viewers can only see the first three to four lines. The rest is concealed behind a cut. With this, it is important that you place your most important or interesting information at the beginning. Contents that you can post include:
- Photos: Instagram popularised square mobile photography. Through this, it is possible to include landscape images. However, they will be cropped to a square when your profile is shown as a grid.
- Videos: videos must be three seconds long. It can also max out at one minute.
- Instagram Stories: Instagram Stories are short and temporary videos that are not documented in your profile. These stories are available for 24 hours. You can use this to engage people by generating a sense of urgency since it is only available for 24 hours.
- Instagram Live: live streaming is popular these days. Instagram lets you capture and share real-time video with your audiences. The viewers can respond immediately. However, there is no long-term replay feature. This means that once you stop recording, the feed will be sent to your Stories briefly before being discarded for good.
