The world of social media can be a true headache especially for some of us that did not grow up with cell phones. It can be a very beneficial tool for your business and it’s worth learning how to navigate through it and how to take advantage of some special features that it offers.
With statistics as high as 800 million monthly active users as of September of 2017, this is definitely a platform to be in if you are an entrepreneur who wants to grow and build a brand. With 800 million active users how do you stand out? How can you truly use it for business?
To start you have to write a killer bio, it takes two-teths of a second for someone to make an opinion on your brand so you have to be super intentional. Remember that your content and your bio are your introduction and help people make a split second decision on following you or not. You can do multiple things with your bio but a great one will:
-Explain a little about you, your brand and what you do. Appeal to your target audience, no shotgun approach on Instagram.
-Be consistent with the brand tone and voice. This will help you connect with your audience and build that sense of community.
-Include a link in your bio. This is super valuable because it is what gives your community different access points to your brand. You can use this to link to your homepage, campaign-specific landing pages, or drive traffic to your latest content.
Create an Instagram Business profile. There are now a lot of tools to help companies better understand followers and grow their business. When you convert to a Business profile you have the opportunity to include additional information such as, your phone number, email address and your business’ physical address.
Use a recognizable profile image. When it comes to selecting a profile image, it’s important for people to instantly recognize it when they visit your Instagram profile. For most businesses this means: logo, logo mark (logo without words), or a mascot if you have one. You can’t go wrong with this, just make sure you are consistent and recognizable.
Make some goals happen. It is important to set goals to have something to work towards. If you’re investing your time into this platform you might as well know why you’re doing it and how will you do it. Some common goals for business are to showcase products or services, build your community, increase brand awareness, showcase your company culture and values, advertise to potential clients, share news and updates.
Do colors and font matter? Yes, some of the most successful Instagram accounts tend to use a specific color palette and stick with it. It makes it a consistent and distinct style. Try to think of your brand colors as you start setting up your “themes” and stay consistent. The aesthetic feel is very important in business pages. As text overlays on photos and videos become increasingly more popular and important on Instagram it is crucial that you use a font that is legible and consistent. If text plays a major role in your Instagram content make sure you are also thinking and are aware of the font in your website or marketing materials.
Make your captions POP! They are your opportunity to enhance your content and there are plenty of ways for you as a brand to use them. Some people “micro-blog” while others add a short, snappy headline to each post. You can ask questions and inquire responses (always reply). Know that you have 2,200 characters, and after three lines of text they get truncated with an ellipsis.
Be consistent, analyze your most successful posts, try creating a brand specific hashtag, mix it up and keep it fresh, experiment with Instagram Ads, run contests or giveaways, use stories, repost content from other accounts, try using Boomerang, take your followers behind the scenes, be creative when showcasing your products.
