Instagram is a phenomenal platform for brand storytelling and customer engagement. There are over 300 million monthly active users, 30 billion photos shared and counting, 2.5 billion likes daily, and 70 million photos posted per day. 67% of the world's biggest brands now use Instagram.
What are you waiting for?
The Wyzowl infographic below is the ultimate guide of Instagram for Business. If you want to do social media the right way, it's important to see what works. Follow these steps and take your brand to the next level on this engaging and photogenic social platform!
First, you'll need to set up your account. Use a strong, memorable username - ideally, it should be the same as your Twitter handle. This makes it easy for people to find you and improves brand consistency. It'll be easier for you to remember, too!
Now, it's time for you to write a compelling biography that sums up who you are and what you do. You only have 150 characters here to sell yourself, so keep it short and sweet.
Finally, you need to set a profile picture - it could be anything from your company logo to a product offering, or a new image that lets customers know who you are.
Use your existing social channels to promote your Instagram account. Many of your followers use more than one social network, so this is a smart social media strategy. Posting a simple "Hey, did you know we're now on Instagram? Give us a follow!" can be a great head-start for building your list of followers.
Instagram is essentially a storytelling platform. It's important to remember this when you decide on which photos to post. If you aren't telling a story with every photo, you're doing it wrong! Constantly posting commercial content just won't cut it.
Make sure to share photos that stimulate customer emotions. There's a nugget of emotional resonance behind every brand. Identify yours and pull at their heartstrings. Whether it's cute, funny or thought-inspiring, post stuff that makes 'em feel!
You can link accounts if you want to share photos across your other social accounts automatically each time you post a picture. Consider using filters and apps to give your photos a more professional, refined look.
Hashtags are, essentially, conversation topics to bring people together. They're your passport to meaningful conversations and engagement. Perhaps more than on any other social network, people use hashtags on Instagram to share and discover interesting content. Roughly 80% of brand posts contain at least one hashtag, and the average brand post has 3.
By adding hashtags to your posts you can hugely boost the reach of your posts, strike up conversations, expose your brand to a new audience and generate potential customers for your business.
Hashtags are a great way to get started here, but there's more to networking than that. You need to follow other brands, including your competitors, so you can analyze their output, see what's working and what's not.
Strike up relationships and engage with others. Remember, you can comment on other people's photos rather than waiting for them to comment on yours. The key is to act like a person rather than a brand.
As well as photos, Instagram lets you share 15-second videos. Since the launch of Instagram video, there has been a 37% increase in Instagram shares on Twitter. This is an easy way to boost your engagement. Of the brands on Instagram, 62% have shared at least one Instagram video. The great thing about videos is they can be edited just like a photo and you can use filters on them too!
Engaged followers are valuable, so make sure to reward them. It's important to show your followers some love - 66% of people follow a brand because they want to be rewarded.
Some good giveaway ideas include photo contests, promo codes, and incentivized comments/follows.
Now that you know how to get started and what to do once you've created an account, it's time to start posting! Remember, it's your brand. Tell the story you want people to see in your photos and videos.