It's no doubt, Instagram is one of the "places to be" on social media. For businesses and companies, it's an opportunity to enhance your brand experience and to continue keeping your brand in the forefront of your consumers. But before you leap into the 'gramming world, here are some Instagram best practices to keep in mind when posting to help keep your users engaged and to best enhance their experience.
1. Get Involved
Connect & engage with your followers and local companies you follow by liking and commenting as your business on other pages, even if it has nothing to do with your brand. Other people are encouraged to interact with your content if you interact with theirs.
2. Build Your Community
In order to get followers, you need to keep following people. Since Instagram doesn’t have ads yet, the best way to get in front of people to get them to follow your business is to follow them. This could be people who have taken photos there, tagged you, mentioned you, local companies, employees, your personal friends, influential people in the community, etc.
3. Showcase the little things & get creative!
Your fans want to see the behind the scenes things, teasers, or the timely exclusives that they would only experience if they were there in person or connected with you on social media. Instagram is all about showing the world your world. This can be as simple as taking a picture of the sunrise in the morning behind your business, weather throughout the day, or even employees solving problems. Do a walk around and take at least one picture you think is interesting and post if. If you find it interesting, your fans will. If you think it’s boring, your fans will think it’s boring.
4. Share
Download this app called Repost & Regram for Instagram in your app store, there’s a free version. You can share photos and videos from other people onto your account. Search for people using certain hashtags that are associated with your business or industry. If they have a halfway decent photo, regram it and give them a shout out. You’ll notice more people starting to take photos if they can be “featured” on your Instagram.
5. Brand Champions
Make sure you tag appropriate people so they get a notification to interact with that post. You can even use Direct Messages to send someone a special message to create “brand champions” that will constantly share your messages.
6. Always Learn More
The easiest thing about social media is that it’s really easy to learn best practices because you literally see what posts do well and what doesn’t. Follow some of the world’s top brands and see what they’re doing to set the bar. It’s usually along the lines of quality over quantity. See if you can “mimic” a cool shot or take an idea from someone else and do it on your business’s account. There is nothing wrong with doing the same thing, that’s what social is all about: finding what people like and giving it to them.
If you're questioning whether Instagram is for you and your business, ask yourself these two questions: Are my consumers on it? Are my competitors successful with it? If the answer is yes to either one of these questions, then you should give Instagram a try. Make sure you do some planning, testing, and tracking. Keep that passion alive of engaging your customers...just in a different way now.
Have any questions about social? Let's get in touch!
