How to Use Instagram for Business
Tips and Best Practices for How to Use Instagram for Business
Social media has completely changed the way businesses market their products and services. In an incredibly short time, social platforms have risen up to show themselves to be ideal for various advertising functions.
This may be leaving you wondering how to use Instagram for business. Whereas Facebook is a great way to share content with family and friends, in many ways, Instagram has become the ideal place for brands.
Brand Loyalty
Engagement tends to be very high on Instagram. Followers use the platform to show their loyalty to brands.
The value of loyalty built on platforms like Instagram is clear, when you consider that 36.5% of shoppers spend more on products from brands they are loyal to and 59.3% of shoppers refer family and friends to the brands they're loyal to.
How to Set Up an Instagram for Business Account
- Download the Instagram app
- Click "sign up"
- Use your business email or login with your business Facebook page
- In the settings, go to "Switch to Business Account" then add in your business information
- Click "Done"
Which Businesses Are Most Likely to Excel on Instagram?
One of the most essential questions about how to use Instagram for business is which businesses do well. You may be wondering whether your business is the type that will excel on Instagram. After all, not all businesses are set up in such a way as to do great on Instagram.
Some businesses will find filling their Instagram account to be very easy, while others may struggle with content. Here's how to tell whether your business will do well on Instagram.
Visual Content
Any business that has lots of opportunities for visual content can do extremely well on Instagram. If you're not sure where to derive visual content from in your business, it's worth looking for opportunities.
People remember more of what they see, on average, than what they hear or read, so finding opportunities for visual marketing is valuable. Instagram depends on visual content, so if you can't find a way to generate this kind of content for your business, Instagram may not be the best choice.
Stories
Instagram is great for delivering short stories in pictures or videos. Transformation stories, how things are made, and video messages from company representatives are all good examples of how Instagram can work well. This is a great way to repurpose other content that you already have for Instagram.
Comsumer Content
What if you could increase customer engagement, generate excellent media that makes an emotional connection with your consumers, and increase in organic shares, all without increasing your company's labor load?
Instagram users seem to love taking pictures of the products and brands that they're loyal to. Encouraging your customers to share their own pictures and then resharing those pictures on their Instagram feed with hashtags can accomplish all of these goals with minimal effort from your company.
Examples of How to Use Instagram for Business
All kinds of businesses take advantage of Instagram for business, some of them in ways you may not have thought of. Here are a few ways that businesses use Instagram to inspire you.
- Leisure products. If you make anything that people enjoy using, use media of them enjoying using it on your Instagram feed. Make a backpack? Show a hiker having a great time wearing it at the top of the mountain. Make luxury shampoo? Show a close-up of the shampoo lather in beautiful hair.
- Improvement services. Do you have a landscaping company? Show Instagram posts of before and after your projects. Do you have an interior design company? Show a space before and after your efforts.
- Restaurants, bars, and cafes. Instagram is a great way to increase local traffic to your establishment. Encourage your guests to take pictures and share, both by verbally asking them to do so and by creating rewards.
- Clothing. Any kind of clothing has a great opportunity using Instagram, not only to show off customers wearing their clothes, but to further brand messages around causes and missions.
- Pet services. The pet industry is huge and only getting bigger. No matter what your service or product in this industry, showing happy pets enjoying it is a guaranteed Instagram win.
An astounding number of businesses offer sufficient visual media to their Instagram feed. Single images with perhaps a few little bit of promotional content is easy to produce on the fly.
It is also easy to collect this kind of media to send to a professional SEO company to produce a great Instagram marketing campaign for your needs.
How to use Instagram for Business if Your Business Doesn't have Obvious Content for Instagram
Instagram is a great way to reach customers in an oversaturated market, so you don’t want to miss out. If you'd like to be on Instagram, but you're not seeing opportunities for content, don't lose hope.
If you're in a field that tends not to generate a lot of media, you may be missing out on other marketing opportunities besides Instagram. Here are a few ways that your business can generate media if opportunities aren't obvious.
Dig Deeper for Media
If you're in an industry that does not seem warm and fuzzy, like commercial building, factory production, or intellectual property, it may be difficult to imagine how you could find media to incorporate into an Instagram campaign.
However, you may be surprised by how many people are interested in pictures of the inner working of a factory. You may be able to use interesting visualization photos to communicate something about your intellectual property. Stretch your mind to find ways to use media in your marketing campaign.
Begin a Cause Campaign
No matter what your business does, you can get behind a cause that generates lots of great media. Marketing the cause is great for the nonprofit of your choosing, but it also helps to propel your marketing forward on Instagram.
Start a Contest
A contest is a great way to gather lots of great media of your employees or customers enjoying themselves and having fun, regardless of what business you have. Whether you want to start a raffle, host a small carnival, or create some other kind of contest, this is a great opportunity to collect media and build credit for your brand.
How Do You Find Your Instagram Audience?
Most Instagram users tend to be young, under the age of 35. Men and women are equally likely to use it. If you have any other social media channels, you can check those analytics to find out who is already using your products or services.
Competitor research can be very effective on Instagram. However, it can be very time-consuming to scroll through the feeds of all of your various competitors and see exactly what kind of photos and videos they're posting. It can also be a bit challenging to determine exactly what about their feed is successful.
However, by looking at the competitor's demographics, which posts are most successful and which seem to be missing the mark, etc, you can learn a lot of important information to help you develop your own Instagram campaign.
Instagram for Business Best Practices
Who Should Handle Your Instagram Account?
For many businesses, especially smaller companies, it can be challenging to determine exactly where the responsibility for social media marketing like Instagram should fall. The truth is, a number of skills that are often incongruent must work together to create a successful Instagram marketing campaign.
Here are a few things that whoever is handling your Instagram account needs to be able to do:
- Edit photos. It's not really important for photos to be very high quality for Instagram, but they should be edited, filtered, and have text put over them to accomplish your marketing goals and match your business's brand image.
- Market research. Whoever is responsible for your Instagram account needs to be continuously up to date on your market so that they know what is pertinent and important to include and which topics they should stay away from.
- Consistently update. One of the problems with putting any individual in charge of your Instagram account is that if they are sick, on vacation, or overloaded with other responsibilities, it can be hard for them to consistently update the account. In order for your Instagram account to maintain followers and be successful, it needs to be regularly updated.
- Come up with new ideas. One of the hardest parts of maintaining an Instagram account is varying that account and coming up with new ideas for content. Even if your business has the kind of content that tends to do well in Instagram, turning business into a great Instagram feed can be challenging, especially as time goes by and the best ideas get used up.
Do it Yourself or Hire a Professional?
Many business owners can have a hard time getting their minds around devoting money, time, and resources when learning how to use Instagram for business. This advertising technique has sprung up so quickly, changes so regularly, and has rapidly become so important, that it is one of the most frustrating advertising challenges for many business owners.
Business owners who undervalue the importance of social media marketing may be tempted to hand it off to someone in their company, but unless you have a marketing department that is already handling other aspects of SEO and advertising, this may be a mistake.
An unprofessional or immature social media account reflects poorly on your business. Furthermore, without paying attention to market research, keywords, and analytics, you may miss out on opportunities to benefit from your Instagram account.
Choose Perfectly Optimized for Your Instagram Account
Perfectly Optimized has the experience necessary to create engaging Instagram accounts for a wide range of different businesses. Even if you are not sure where media will come from for business Instagram account, talk to Perfectly Optimized about your options. We may have ideas for marketing your business on Instagram that you have never thought about.