How To Use Instagram For Marketing?

How To Use Instagram For Marketing?

How To Use Instagram For Marketing ?

How To Use Instagram For Marketing ?

1. Download the App - Unlike other social networks, Instagram is strongly app-based. So pull out your smartphone, find Instagram in your app store and download. 

 

2. Create an Account Using an E-mail Address - While it might make sense at first to just log in with your Facebook account… PLEASE DON’T DO THAT! That will immediately create an account based on your personal Facebook page. Since this is for your business, go ahead and use your business e-mail address.

Pro Tip 1 : Use your personal work e-mail address. Your friends might have your e-mail address saved in their phones or have their email connected to their address books. Either way, when one of your contacts uses Instagram’s “Find Friends” feature, you want to show up on that list. Thus, your direct work e-mail address will get you the most hits.

Pro Tip 2 : Make a business username - Use your business name as your username. If it is taken, choose a username that is instantly recognized with your brand (e.g., brandofficial, thisisbrand, realbrand, brandhere, etc).

 

3. Complete your profile - Include a branded photo, a short informative bio, and a link to your website.

Pro Tip : Simple is best. We recommend using your brand's logo or a graphic symbol. Keep in mind it will be cropped into a circle and appear as a 150 x 150 pixel image (that's pretty small) on most phones.

 

4. Connect your account to Facebook - Instagram is owned by Facebook. Connect these two very powerful social media sites to boost your marketing efforts.

 

5. Make an Instagram tab on your Facebook page - this enables you to instantly share your Instagram photos to your Facebook Fans.

 

6. Use hashtags (#’s) in your updates - Hashtags are a major part of Instagram. It’s a big way of how users can find you through their mobile Instagram searches. Unlike on other sites (such as Twitter), you’re not limited by character count. Include a few tags (but not too many - or you’ll look desperate) in your posts to get connected.

Pro Tip 1 : Use brand specific hashtags’s if possible. Include your business name in some of your post's hashtags. Also, use unique tags for particular marketing campaigns you run. For example, if you’re hosting a contest on Instagram, please make a unique tag just for that campaign. This tactic both promotes your contest, and it gives your consumers a distinct tag to connect with others participants (so they can see their competition!).

Pro Tip 2 : Use general hashtags. You may also include general tags on your posts to be found for your products or lifestyle posts. For example, if your business is a coffee shop, and you post an image of your scrumptious latte, include tags like #latte or even #coffee.

Pro Tip 3 : Use trending hashtags every now and then. Trends on Instagram can happen at lightning speed and they are often even quicker to go. If you spot a trend, and it fits with your brand, use it. Your post could literally be seen by thousands of interested consumers in a matter a minutes. Example of trends include Father's Day hasthags like #fathersday #happyfathersday et cetera.

 

7. Monitor your brand's hashtags - Your consumers are using your tags to connect with you. Be sure to keep checking on your Instagram's hashtags, just like you would your Facebook Page and Twitter mentions. Respond to comments and concerns quickly, and you’ll build happy customer relationships.

 

8. Engage with your followers

Pro Tip 1 : Fame up your followers - Share your followers' photos on your social sites. Appreciate your customers by acknowledging their cool photos and share them with your Facebook fan or Twitter followers.

Pro Tip 2 :  Embed followers’ photos - Instagram now enables you to embed Instagram photos on your website and other sites. You may use this to show interesting images of your brand and product from your Instagram followers by embedding the entire post.

Pro Tip 3 : Like your followers' photos - Acknowledge your customers’ awesomeness by liking their photos - particularly if they include your product or if they emulate your brand.

Pro Tip 4 : Comment on followers’ photos - Engage with your consumers by commenting on photos that they post.

Pro Tip 5 : Respond to comments on all your posts - If someone comments on your posts, kindly, please respond to them promptly. This is particularly true when the comment is a question, feedback, or even something negative about your brand such as a complaint.

Pro Tip 6 : @mention your customers - @mentioning is another huge part of Instagram. @mention your followers, your customers, and any other user with interesting and relevant photos of your products. You show appreciation for them plus you get to engage with your market.

Pro Tip 7 : @mention celebrities, influences, and other related industry leaders - If your images are about celebritiess - do let them know. They may just appreciate it enough to share it with their followers!

Pro Tip 8 : Focus on engaging with your customers - Post images with your customers in mind.

 

9. Be creative with your photos - Use filters to enhance your photos. Use cool angles, lighting, and other photography tricks. You may use Adobe Photoshop, Diptic, or Photoshake to edit your pictures or combine a number of photos into one.

 

10. Videos - Instagram now has short video capabilities. Use this to make a 15 seconds video on your Instagram feed.

Pro Tip 1 : Post photos and short videos of your products - snap and post cool photos of your products to share with Instagram users.

Pro Tip 2 : Show your products authentically - Show photos of your products as they are used in real life.

Pro Tip 3 : Show your products creatively - Be cool and creative to catch the attention of users.

Pro Tip 4 : Showcase your brand's story - post cool photos and videos to show your company’s core values and brand.

Pro Tip 5 : Show your true self - Share fun photos and videos of yourself and/or employees. Give your Instagrammers a behind the scenes look of your company.

Pro Tip 6 : Post fun and authentic videos of your management level employees like CEO, CFO, CTO, CMO, et cetera - make your top executives look cool and hip. Make short, quirky videos of them to post on Instagram. For an example, you may get them to show one thing that they love to do when are off duty or while doing something fun at the office.

 

11. Share exclusive content - Use your Instagram feed to show photos you haven’t shared on your Facebook, Twitter or blog (and vice versa). This makes your followers feel special.

 

12.  Launch a product live on Instagram - If you’re launching a new product, taking your music group on tour, or opening a new store, et cetera - do it live on Instagram. For example, the day you launch your product, make a few 15 seconds videos of you and your staffs behind the scenes preparing for the launch, and the actual launch with excited customers. Post this to Instagram.

Pro Tip 1 : Build pre-launch momentum - If you’re launching a new product through Instagram, be sure to build excitement. Tease your followers with a 15 second video behind-the-scenes looks at how you’re preparing for the new product - without giving away exactly what it is. (remember, those good ol' Steve Jobs' marketing techniques.)

Pro Tip 2 : Show your post-launch staff party (or clean up) - Dare to show you and your employees authentically (probably, all are a little haggard looking), by posting a short video after a product launch.

 

13. Partner with other Brands on Instagram - Whether you’re a small scale one shop business, or a large corporation, you ought to have relationships with other businesses. If they’re on Instagram, partner up and get them to post your products on their Instagram feed. Perhaps, try a little pestering.

 

14. Ask for comments on your photos and videos - If you want more engagement on your posts, ask for it. Ask your followers what they think of a new post you made.

 

15. Ask questions about your business or products - Use questions to get your people talking about your business. For example, ask your Followers if they have used your product today. Add a unique hashtag and give your consumers a hub to share photos of how they used your products with each other. Be daring enough to ask feedback and reviews publicly.

 

16. Ask questions about lifestyles - Ask a question about lifestyles or how to solve common problems. For example, if you’re a fashion store - ask what shoes your followers would wear with a new line of dress that you are selling.

 

17. Use “fill in the blank” posts - Make updates with a sentence where followers can complete. For example, if you sell groceries, create a post with an image of breakfast cereals. Include a “fill in the blank” post such as “I love starting my day with a bowl of ______”.  

Pro Tip : This gets people talking about products related to what you sell and don't forget to include a relevant hashtag for this type of posts.

 

18. Leverage photo caption - Another great way to get engagement on your Instagram posts is through photo caption questions. Snap a cool image of your products or something related to your brand. Ask your followers to have fun by captioning it.

Pro Tip : You can even run a photo caption contest to entice engagement in your followers through a cool prize.

 

19. Crowdsource photos - Ask followers to submit photos of how they use your product. This could help your business gain customers' insights and helps in future product developments. It’s pretty easy to do, but you may need to up the ante. To entice lots of consumers to give you their photos perhaps, try running an Instagram photo contest.

 

20. Geotag your posts - Target your local consumers by using Photo Map to tag where you are.

 

21. Bring offline to online  - Try using QR codes to entice your in-store traffic to engage with you instantly on Instagram. Entice them with discounts, online offers, and coupon codes.

 

22. Bring online to offline  - Host an Instagram meetup or get-togethers to engage in real life with local Instagram enthusiasts who could be potential customers.

 

23. Be consistent - Regardless of the number of followers, keep posting consistently. This gets your brand seen regularly by your followers as well as Instragrammers. 

Pro Tip 1 : Determine your post's frequency - Depending on your product and brand, you might need to post 3 to 4 times a day or 3 to 4 times a week.

 

24. Find your perfect Instagram posting time - Not all brands have the same best time to post on Instagram. Not all products do either. Use analytic tools to monitor when your photos are getting liked and commented on. Find out when your hashtags are being used. Then post your fresh content at the most active times.

 

25. Monitor your Instagram's results - You may use third party analytics or track your followers, your hashtags, number of posts, number of likes, and number of comments.

 

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Times Viewed:
1886
Added By:
VPCart Marketing
Date Created:
6/22/2016
Last Updated:
6/22/2016