Instagram for business – getting it right
Instagram can build your business online and attract new customers. Here’s how.
The internet can be a busy place, making it hard for your business to stand out from the crowd. But with creative social media platforms like Instagram now offering business accounts, you have the opportunity to share your company story in a fun and engaging way that really showcases your brand.
With a community of more than 1 billion people, 80% of whom follow a business account and 83% of whom say they use it to learn about products and services, you could be connecting with thousands of customers instantly and finding more like-minded souls from around the world.
Using the insights tool, you could also gain a valuable understanding of who your customer is and get direct feedback to your products and services.
Here are six steps to success.
1. Exploring your business’s unique personality
- Instagram is social entertainment, remember – why should people visit your page over a competitor’s? Does it make them laugh, teach them something new?
- A theme, style, purpose or mission can all catch your customer’s attention and help you rise above the noise.
- Figure out what pages your customers follow, where they hang out, who they trust and what’s important to them. Using this insight to plan your page will help you appear on their newsfeed more frequently.
2. Developing the look and feel of your brand
- Be consistent and trust your brand (colour scheme, filters, etc.)
- Be authentic (create interesting content, behind the scenes, bloopers etc. – be human).
- Create photos and videos on a regular basis (creating content in bulk to manage and plan your posts).
3. Build deeper relationships with your customers
- Allocate daily or weekly time to comment and send direct messages to your customers. Even if it’s just a like.
4. Make it easier for people to shop your product/service
- Use the shop feature on Instagram to reach new customers and keep the bio link relevant to your current promotions.
5. Outline your goals when running an advert
- Your goals should be SMART (Smart, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound). When promoting your page, choose posts that have already done well for your adverts.
6. Authenticity is key
- It’s important people trust your page so complete the description in your Instagram profile.
- Use stories to provide a ‘behind the scenes’ look at your business.
- Encourage customers to tag your business in their posts.
