Our top tips when using Instagram for business
Ellie Wilbraham - 20 January 2017
With over 500 million users, Instagram is one of the most powerful social media tools around today. It offers the opportunity to engage and interact with people in a very different way to Facebook or Twitter, and allows you to give your followers an insight into your business in a creative way. Here, we discuss our top tips when using Instagram for business, in order to create maximum impact.
Content
On the whole, it’s the content that you post on your business Instagram account that will have the biggest impact on how successful the social media tool is for you. Before your first post, it is a good idea to think about the following:
- What do you want to achieve from your Instagram account? It’s important to understand that Instagram probably won’t be where potential customers go to search for a service or product they need. They are more likely to find you through hashtags and other users, and often turn to Instagram after discovering you elsewhere, in order to get a feel for your business.
- Rather than focusing solely on showcasing your products or services, using Instagram for your business can be a great way to show a ‘behind the scenes’ view of your company – be it showing the production process of a product, or simply showing what you get up to in the office as a team. It can also help to demonstrate your brand and brand values in a practical sense.
- You really need to keep in mind your target audience; their gender; age group; what they’re interested/not interested in.
Engagement and who to follow
If you’re on Instagram as a small business, it’s a great idea to follow and interact with other local businesses in your area. This increases the likelihood of their customers, potential customers and followers seeing your page and engaging with you, and generally being more aware of your products and services. Another tip is to check who your competitors are following, as well as what hashtags they are using.
Be sure to follow back any new followers if they are relevant to you. But take care – don’t just follow back anyone who follows you. Check out their posts, their location, their audience and their brand. It is best to go for followers that have value, as depth is more important than volume. Loyal followers will be more active on your account and are more likely to publicise your page.
When you come to engaging with others, we would recommend not liking pictures with over 1000 likes already, but would suggest you make a comment instead, as the owner of that account is much more likely to see and notice your comment rather than a like.
Hashtags
Hashtags are one of the best tools on Instagram for businesses, in order to get your content seen and increase your reach. Here are a few handy things you should know about, to make sure you get the most out of using hashtags:
- In theory, you can use up to 30 hashtags per post, but you need to make sure they are all relevant.
- Rather than adding your hashtags in the description of the picture, post them in the comments as soon as you’ve posted the picture. This way, they are more hidden and can only be seen if the user clicks on ‘view comment’. It simply makes the post look a bit more attractive!
- Industry-related hashtags will help you increase your reach to a more specific audience. If you are an attending an event, make sure you find out if they are using a hashtag, so others who attend the event can find your pictures.
- There are a number of commonly-used weekly hashtags, which can be relevant to almost anyone. For example, #MotivationalMonday and #ThrowbackThursday or #PicOfTheDay,. These are almost guaranteed to attract interaction, whether it be a simple like, a comment, or ultimately a follow.
Plan you posts around calendar events
Planning your posts around a special day in the calendar and using the relevant hashtag is likely to be popular for interaction. For example, a #Christmas hashtag will allow others who are enjoying the festivities to see your post. Other examples could be more specific to your business, for example a technology company may post about an Apple keynote event, with a #keynote tag. Alternatively, other national/international hashtags such as #WorldVeganDay, #PancakeDay, or even hashtags like #NationalDonutDay are a fun way to share content.
Review what has worked
Ultimately, it will take you a short while to work out what works best for your business. Taking a step back to look at what time of day your posts get the most engagement or what hashtags work is sure to be beneficial to you.
So there you have it – WagadaHQ’s top tips when using Instagram for business that will help you get the most out of your snaps.
