by constructaquote - 9 May 2017
Instagram can be a valuable social media platform you can utilise to increase awareness of your brand and promote your company’s services. As Instagram is primarily a visual network, it’s essential you’re sharing high quality content of value to your audience. Here’s how you can boost your Instagram following and use the popular app to promote your small business…
Every aspect of your digital marketing strategy should be implemented by following a detailed plan. Your Instagram feed is no exception. Before you start to share your carefully crafted content, take the time to consider what you’re aiming to achieve from the platform. Are you hoping to increase your Instagram following to boost the sales figures of your products or services? Perhaps, you’re aiming to promote brand awareness or generate a high click-through rate to your company’s website. Whatever your Instagram goals, decide on the focus of your content and how you can link that with boosting your business. You should decide how many times a day you’re planning to post photo and video content and what time you’ll be posting. Most brands post content from one to three times per day to stay relevant in their follower’s feeds.
You should try to create a central theme for your Instagram feed by posting images of a similar style or using your brand’s colour palette in your content. This will ensure your profile is attractive and relevant to your brand and should encourage Instagram users to follow your account. It’s a great idea to check your competitors’ Instagram profiles to help you compose content ideas and understand which image styles are most popular with your audience.
If your content isn’t high quality, it’s irrelevant how perfectly crafted your Instagram profile is or which hashtags you’re using. First and foremost, Instagram is a visual platform and to gain a following, your photo and video content needs to be creative and consistent. However, sharing attractive images can be a difficult task if your specific business doesn’t lend itself to particularly photogenic moments. To remedy this, think outside the box with your content. Share photographic snippets of your company’s culture and attractive behind the scenes images of your workday or business travels to keep your followers engaged.
Creative video content and humorous and relatable memes for those interested in your business area can also perform well. You could additionally compose useful tips relating to your industry to add value to your followers’ feeds. Use online tools like Canva to ensure your tips are displayed in an attractive and shareable way to encourage more potential clients to hit that follow button.
You should always take advantage of Instagram captions to explain the context behind your images and videos and their relevance to your brand. Captions provide the ideal opportunity to connect with your followers and potential clients. Whether your caption simply tells the story behind your image, or provides quick tips of value to your followers, it can be a powerful tool.
Engage your audience by using your caption to ask them a simple question or encourage them to tag a friend who could relate to the image. This promotes interaction between your business and your current and prospective clients and helps to nurture your company’s customer relations. Asking Instagram users to tag a friend is also likely to increase your follower count by exposing a new audience to your content. This promotes awareness of your company’s services and could result in future customers. You can similarly use a call to action in your caption to prompt your audience to like your post or read your latest company blog post. Great captions combined with bright and attractive images connected with your company’s services can really boost your Instagram following.
Research the most popular and relevant hashtags for your industry to ensure you give your great content the exposure it deserves. Hashtags act as keywords to allow Instagram users to search for specific content and are a great way to reach and gain new followers too.
To reach different audiences, combine more general and regularly used hashtags with those applicable to your specific business niche. You should also place your hashtags as a comment under your Instagram post rather than within your post’s caption to keep your feed looking neat.
You should additionally consider creating your own hashtag to use every time you share an image on Instagram. Encourage your clients to use your hashtag if they’re posting about your services on Instagram and repost their content to foster customer loyalty. A brand hashtag is a great tool to gain Instagram followers. Not only does it increase brand awareness for those coming across your content, it makes searching for your company’s posts straightforward. Feature your company’s hashtag in your Instagram bio so it’s easily recognisable to your followers.
Hopefully you’re now feeling inspired to try our top tips and grow your company’s Instagram following. But, you should also consider how you can promote your services through other social platforms.
Read our guide to why a social media presence is necessary for every small business to discover how to take full advantage of the social networks at your disposal.
by Charlotte Houghton - 7 October 2020
by constructaquote - 6 October 2020
by Charlotte Houghton - 29 September 2020
by Charlotte Houghton - 24 September 2020
