When people take a great photo and upload it to Instagram, they wait for the likes and comments to roll into their feed. It's a nice pay-off sort of feeling when your photo or video does well on Instagram. The thing is, many businesses want that feeling to be consistent.
However, getting your audience to engage with you isn't as easy as uploading a decent photo and calling it day. Instead, you have to learn how to promote your Instagram to get the more than 400 million users out there to look at your content. The good thing is there are ways to boost your audience through the right channels.
Why You Need to Promote Your Instagram
Instagram is quickly turning into the must-have social media network for marketers. A survey from the Global Web Index found 53% of consumers preferred to follow brands on Instagram, which was the highest rated social media platform in the study. Additionally, 44% of consumers said they prefer to use Instagram for brand research, which was also the highest among all other platforms.
Instagram is easily one of the largest social media networks in the world and currently ranks only behind Facebook and YouTube for the top spot. Visual content simply engages others like no other platform with its lengthy single-scroll system where the content takes up the majority of your smartphone or tablet screen.
Think about how much more engaged you'd be if you had to scroll through each Tweet one at a time-you would likely give more attention to each post. In fact, a report from Forrester discovered Instagram posts drive more engagement by up to 120 times that of a Tweet.
If you're a business wanting to promote your Instagram, this is the perfect network to boost audience engagement. It doesn't take a PR expert to make you successful on Instagram. Skip the pay-per-follower sites and use the methods below to organically grow and promote your Instagram.
Separate Business from Personal
If you truly want to promote your Instagram for your brand, the first thing you need to do is make a clear distinction between your business and personal accounts. For starters, you want to optimize your Instagram account so you're focusing on the audience and not just the product.
This means you should keep the selfies, friend groups and travel photos out of your business's Instagram account. This might seem completely obvious, but you'd be surprised how much personal content can make its way onto business accounts. Simply put, think of what your audience wants to see–not your friends.
John Deere does a wonderful job at promoting the beauty of its machines without seeming too sales-driven or personal. The brand has struck a good balance between business and personal and have seen success on Instagram.
Keep Your Username Analogous & Simple
The majority of your customers know they can probably find you by doing a quick search on the Instagram platform. Don't make it harder for customers by having different usernames across all your platforms. Try to keep all of your social media handles consistent and simple. Make sure your Instagram username follows these best practices:
- Simple and easy to spell
- Same across social networks
- Will last forever
- True to your brand and company values
- No underscores, special characters or numbers
For example, National Geographic's longer name is shortened to the more familiar NatGeo on Instagram. The shortened username makes it easier for users to find the organization and more importantly, get to content faster.
Don't Forget Your Bio & Link
In the same vein as your username, your bio should be just as simple while matching true to your brand. Keep Instagram bios to a minimum, but at the same time, make sure you mention who you are and what you do.
Most importantly, you should always have a link in your bio to your website. If your site name is on the long side, try using a URL shortener like Bit.ly to keep your bio looking clean. When you're promoting your Instagram, you definitely want a link to send customers to in your bio. Instagram only allows a link in your bio and you should consistently keep this link up to date depending on your current promotions, sales, news or updates.
Instagram Hashtags Are Your Best Friend
As a rule of thumb, hashtags are a great source of discovery on Instagram. Whether you want to increase your visibility or find exactly what you're looking for, hashtags for Instagram are the best way to do so.
Always make sure you're looking for the newest and latest hashtags that relate to your industry. The hashtag doesn't have to exactly correlate with your brand, but it should still be relevant. Hashtags help you get that extra reach outside of your own follower base so you can increase your audience and be seen.
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