Grow your brand using Instagram

Not so hard to believe that what used to be a youthful and immature sibling of Facebook which businesses never thought to a adopt as a main revenue generating tool today possesses more than 1 million advertisers an over 8 million business profiles.

It all started with when people posting pictures through lens of filters of delicacies became trending, to where people didn’t feel ashamed of admitting opening Instagram right after swiping through the alarm. It was pleasing to scroll through the feed to start the day for many double tapping feeling invigorating right at day break.

While advertising privileges were slowly released on this social media, now a days as long as you have a business profile you can run an advertisement on Instagram, and in fact the native looking ads tend to perform the best on this platform-

Advertisers now have 4 ad options including:

• Photo ads – your standard Instagram post format.
• Video ads – the same as above, but with a video in place of a photo.
• Carousel ads – a slideshow ad, which allows for multiple images.
• Stories ads – these are Instagram’s version of Snapchat ads seen at the top of the feed.

Must dos to run a business profile on Instagram

• Just like scrolling social media is now an everything to stay updated with the world, it’s important to be consistent to remind people of yourself.
•  Go nuts with #, all thanks to Gary Vaynerchuk.
• Never forget to show minor developments or in other words behind the scenes of the business.
• Have call to actions.
• Show personality.
• Follow back and engage.
• Tag customers and share celebrations.
• Comment on other business pages and use hashtags in comments.
• Show happy images of customers and enter customer testimonials in the image caption box.
• Post quotes that align with the business or the brand, don’t forget to tag the one who coined the quote or use # along.
• Show DIY (do it yourself) videos.
• Do weekly contest to keep the customers engaging.

Tools to use along with Instagram

1.     Statigram

Free for anyone who uses Instagram and awesome desktop app tool which analyses your account and produces statistics of engaging, creating content, follow/unfollow and much more.

2.     Instaframe

Easiest way to make photo collages with a ton of templates to choose from, easy dun and free.

3.     Photo wonder

Great number of tools to play with and create amazing effects.

4.     Animoto

Make awesome videos with your pictures.

Establishing an engaging Instagram page

• Get to know your customers who regularly leave comments or direct message to you and ask them what they thing of the brand.
• It is important to be out and about in this community looking for your ideal customers and finding those who maybe searching for you, so like a lot of photos.
• Connect with people or businesses who can probably end up benefiting you beyond social media promotion (I’ll promote you on my account, you promote me on your account.)
• Train your audience to response, post anything without the fear of getting no response, ask questions be it one word or two or what they feel about your new product.
• Responding to comments is a great way to understand the customers and have one to one interaction and increasing the response rate on your posts.
• Post genuine content, don’t cliché often.

Influencer marketing on Instagram.

Influencer marketing is a paid tool/ recommendation of a brand or product by a person within a specific community who is trusted to have a large audience.

You should focus on the following aspects-

1.Target audience

A. Where are the located ?

B. What are their interests ?

C. How do the interact with social media?

2. Set objectives

A. Do you want to build brand awareness?

B. Do you want your customers to visit your website?

C. Do you want to sell your product?

3. Find the right influencers

A. Where do conversations take place in your community?

B. What kind of content is popular/trending?

C. Which influencers are involved in all of it?

4. Connect with the influencer

A. Naturally and regularly interact with the influencer to create an authentic opportunity to connect.

B. Use an influencer marketing platform to bid or influencer recommendations.

5. Create a content plan

A. Organize which content will be released and on what dates.

B. Coordinate with boosted posts, paid ads, blog posts topics and scheduled newsletters to maximize the campaign.

After all

The more people that come in contact with your brand and follow you on Instagram, the larger your audience is that you can potentially reach every time you post.

Choose a photo to share every week or every month that aligns with your brand’s message.

Post at the right times and avoid over-posting. Post one to two times every day and check out when your followers are most active. Schedule posts to go live during those days and times.

Finally, be sure that you track the right parameters to see how your Instagram marketing efforts are paying off. Keep an eye on follower growth rate and what Instagram marketing techniques work best for you and your brand?