9 Tips For Using Instagram To Grow Your Business

Using Instagram to promote your business is a powerful (and affordable) way to grow your company.

With Instagram, you can reach new customers, stay connected to your existing ones, and even make sales right from the app, which makes it the perfect platform for marketing your business.

So, how best to maximise the exposure your business is getting on Instagram?

Instagram’s main purpose is to share photos and videos, but you need not let its main function limit what you can do on the platform to potentially increase your followers and exposure. Instagram offers various features that are extremely easy to use but can lead to huge increases in your followers. Here are our tips for how to take advantage of these features:

1) Make Use of Hashtags (#)

Tagging your posts with hashtags enables them to be seen by followers of those hashtags, thereby providing you with greater exposure and potentially more followers. We suggest that you do not just stick to the conventional, one-word, obvious hashtags. They tend to be trending worldwide so it is likely the sheer volume of posts that contain those hashtags will drown yours out. Instead, use amusing and/or iconic hashtags that will arouse people’s attention, specific to your business sector. Doing research into relevant hashtags that apply to your business will go a long way in increasing your follower count also.

2) Create Captivating Captions

What you put in your post caption defines how you would like to portray your business. Work on finding your brand’s very own ‘Instagram voice’ or ‘Facebook appeal’ to generate engagement. Then be consistent with that.

3) Pay Attention To Visual Appeal

Instagram is very much about pictures and videos and the visual quality of your posts is key in grabbing the attention of your audience. It is important to use strong visuals, paying attention to simple things like definition and resolution, and more advanced features like the colour scheme, background and saturation. It is essential that you plan how photos are taken, including the lighting and background, and how edits are made to the photos. If budget allows, use a professional photographer to help you maximise the quality of your posts. But many businesses have found success in taking their own photos and using free editing software to edit them.

4) Work On Your Profile

The very first thing most people will see when they click on your profile is your company information and also a ‘collage’ of your most recent posts. This ‘collage’ or feed is integral in setting the ‘voice’ of your brand. There needs to be a theme and common design. You have a multitude of options to choose from when it comes to deciding you feed’s style. Having your business name as your profile name makes you absolutely identifiable

5) Tag Photos

A large number of tagged photos indicate that your business is experiencing volume. You can use your customers’ photos to build relationships with them by recycling their photos. A simple “thank you for visiting” message goes a long way in establishing that personal touch. Moreover, some of your customers could potentially be experts at taking and editing photos, so why not use them as a source. Drop them a message asking whether you could repost their photo onto your page. However, you still must be careful to remove any undesirable/unwanted tagged photos from your profile. Some photos, though posted with good intention, may not do your business wonders when it comes to marketing it. On Instagram, you can either manually remove the tags from such photos or go to ‘Settings’ to enable the ‘Approve Photo Tags’ option.

6) Know When to Post

It is important to know when and how frequently to post. Too frequent posts may lead to any relevant posts being considered as spam. In addition, posting multiple times in a day can limit the number of followers who actually view your posts. Instagram peak periods are between 7pm to 9pm, when people are on their way back home from office/school or are simply resting at home after a long day’s work.

7) Tell A Story

Try making a literal story on Instagram. Such stories can be behind the scenes updates on what’s new, or simply updates on offers/promotions. They can be used as a means to redirect followers by a link to a specific website page.

8) Collaborate With Influencers and Bloggers

Although this may not be applicable to all company owners due to the costs of retaining such influencers’ services, businesses that have the means to do so should definitely explore this option. Having a respected and well-known expert to post a specifically dedicated blog for your business will help in capturing their audiences’ attention.

9) Offer Promotions

By simply providing discounted rates for a certain product or service in return for posting a picture with the required hashtag can be a great way to promote your business. Then advertise the promotion via posts and stories, thereby maximising exposure.

Contact FinTech today if you need help with implementing any of the above advice.