Guest blog by: Maliha Bukhari
Social media has played an important role in the growth of businesses in recent years. Effective social media marketing helps businesses attract customers, establish a brand image, increase market reach and build customer loyalty. Instagram is one of the top social media platforms that help businesses increase awareness and revenue by building customer networks and advertising. Instagram currently has a little over 1 billion active users. In 2023, this figure is projected to reach nearly 1.2 billion users per Statista.
Instagram can be challenging to start and grow a business. To optimize Instagram for your business, follow the tips listed below.
1. Be Consistent With Your Branding
Instagram is heavily visual and your visuals are usually your brand’s first impression to the audience. It is important to curate Instagram content that is consistent with your branding. When Instagram users scroll through your account, they should see graphics in your posts, highlights, stories, and reels that are on-brand to your business. To stay consistent with your branding and feed, try using similar filters, colors, fonts, and taglines across all content. Also, integrate the brand logo in some graphics to increase brand awareness.
2. Choose the Best Time to Post For Your Audience
Instagram engagement is increased when you post at a time your audience is most active. Instagram has a wide range of audiences and your Instagram account’s followers could be in different time zones. To determine the best time to post for your Instagram account, use the Instagram Insights feature provided to all business accounts. Look for the Audience section in your Instagram Insights to see the days and hours when your followers are most active. Use this to determine the best times to post based on your Instagram audience. Be mindful that the times may vary as your Instagram account grows. We recommend checking the Insights every two weeks to stay updated.
3. Engage with your Audience
It is really important for your followers to feel seen and valued. When followers are interacting with your posts, stories, or direct messages, be sure to like or respond to their comments. By engaging with your audience, you show them that you value their feedback and you are increasing the post’s chance of being seen by others. This also encourages the audience to engage again in the future. By doing this, you are creating lasting relationships with your followers. This helps with increasing brand awareness and brand loyalty.
4. Create Shareable and Saveable Content
Instagram’s Algorithm is designed to show more of your content when it encourages engagement. The share and save features on Instagram also measure engagement. This means that the more your content is saved or shared by users, the more likely it is shown to other users. To take advantage of this, post valuable content that users will want to share with their network or revisit. This can be achieved through digestible infographics that educate the audience. You can create a step-by-step process of how to do something, providing relevant facts or inspiring quotes. Be sure to not make the posts super wordy as Instagram is highly visual and it can discourage the users from reading further.
5. Diversify Your Content
Pictures are great on Instagram but Instagram offers great ways to share videos as well. Instagram’s Reels are an excellent way to increase engagement with Instagram users. Reels are 15-second, multi-clip videos that can be edited to have sounds, backgrounds, words, and effects added to them. Reels provides businesses with a way to create fun and engaging short videos that help the users learn more about the business. Some Reel ideas to start with for your business are:
- Behind the Scenes
- Meet the Team
- Before and After
- A Typical Day at the Office
Along with Reels, you can also post IGTV videos for your business and go live to chat with your followers. Videos can be very helpful to demonstrate your business’s products or services in action. By diversifying your Instagram content, you are showing your audience that your social media is current, and it increases the chances of the content reaching more users.
If you are looking for support with your business’s social media pages, schedule a 30 minute consultation to speak with an expert and learn more about how sasse can help your business.
