With over 600 million active users across the globe and one billion photos liked each day, Instagram is quickly becoming a focal point for businesses of all sizes who use social media.
People are engaging with Instagram posts on a level unparalleled by many other social networks. According to Forrester Research, Instagram user interactions with brands and businesses is 400 percent higher than on Facebook and Twitter. These numbers speak for themselves: Instagram is a useful tool for building your brand exposure.
So, how can your brand build a strong Instagram presence? We’ve put together a list of marketing tips that will help maximise your Instagram exposure.
Quality over quantity
Instagram was built on the idea of sharing pictures.
Posting engaging content that is relevant to your audience is always vital for social media marketing. It’s what makes your audience engage with your brand, and keeps them coming back for more. No matter what the brand is, the most engaging content is good photography such as high-quality images and showing your products or services in use.
Include a call to action
Sadly, links in your Instagram posts aren’t clickable, so you’ll need to take advantage of the one place where they are – in the ‘bio’ section. It’s a simple point, but often overlooked. Most brands simply use this area to link to their website, but we know better. You should update this link regularly, especially during promotions and when launching new content. You can prompt your audience to click this link in your posts.
Interaction
No matter what platform you are on, you should be interacting first. If you like and comment on photos, people will check out your account and likely return the favour. Likewise, if someone takes the time to leave a comment on one of your posts, take the time to reply and thank them. That simple engagement can create a loyal customer.
Hashtagging
One of the most interesting things about Instagram is its organic search. As well as being a social media platform, Instagram is also a search engine. But rather than using keywords, like Google, Instagram uses hashtags. If you don’t use relevant hashtags, the chances of your posts reaching a significant audience is very unlikely. Similarly, creating your own unique hashtag is a great way of boosting engagement and keeping track of content related to your brand. But most importantly, it gives your audience the opportunity to be part of a conversation.
An example for successful Instagram hashtags are shown on our client Munchy Seeds, we identified all the trending hashtags associated with the brand such as #FlavourFuelledAdventures #ShakeItUp and #GetMunchy and used them to help build the brand identity.