How to use Instagram as your business advantage
Paper cutout of hashtag symbol on a yellow speech bubble on yellow background. Concept of social media and digital marketing.
With over a billion monthly active users globally and a highly engaged audience, Instagram is no doubt one of the most popular social media networks that businesses can use to their advantage. From selling products to gathering insights, Instagram keeps providing businesses with the tools to succeed on this photo-sharing social platform.
That, and numerous third-party tools and services like Kicksta.co offers exceptional opportunities for businesses to grow, reach and engage with their targeted markets.
Read on to learn more about how your business can leverage this visual wonderland for your business growth.
Increase followers with hashtags
Instagram’s search feature is driven by hashtags. Thus, tagging all your content with relevant hashtags can help you ride the wave of trending topics and increase your reach and grow your business.
Since users can both search for and click on hashtags they see in posts, relevant hashtags can help you get noticed. Just make sure that you’re using the right hashtags for your brand.
Ditch the generic hashtags such as #love, #selfie, or #tbt. These hashtags are popular and have millions of posts, so they won’t work on getting visibility for your brand. Instead, use branded hashtags.
Also, while Instagram allows you to use up to 30 hashtags in a single post, you don’t want to reach the maximum. Too many hashtags can hurt your engagement rates since your post will come off looking like spam.
You’ll get more traction from trending hashtags. But do avoid throwing in trendy topics that are not relevant to your content. On the other hand, you can also search for the best Instagram growth service that uses specific methods to get more organic followers and engagement with your brand.
Hype with Instagram Stories
Stories are Instagram’s most popular feature. Photos and videos posted on Stories are only available for 24 hours and will disappear after that.
Small businesses should use Instagram Stories to market their services and products. It can help send their messages to their followers who otherwise might not see them in their feed due to the current Instagram algorithm. It also gives you the chance to post several updates about your business without spamming your followers on their main news feed.
You can take advantage of Stories to bolster your marketing efforts, from product promotions to interactive content such as Q&As, polls, and feedback.
Highlights showcase
Instagram Stories disappear after 24 hours, but you have the option to save them to your Highlights, offering you the chance to share more about your online business.
Highlights allow you to showcase your promotions on your Instagram Stories and feature them on your profile after they disappear. This can help you organize those Stories into an easy and neat source of evergreen content.
Displayed above the grid, you can create a collection of Highlighted Stories in these general categories:
- About your business
- Locations of your business (if you have more than one)
- Products or services with features
- Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
- Customer posts or reviews
Take advantage of Instagram Live
The use of Live features has skyrocketed in popularity in the past years. This happened when business owners and marketing managers started working from home but still wanted to connect with their customers on a personal level.
You can provide your customers with a live look behind the scenes of various aspects of your business, answer live questions, and showcase products. Once the video ends, it goes to your Instagram Stories for 24 hours. If you want it on your feed, you can simply upload the video or shoot one directly through the Instagram app for immediate posting.
One advantage of Instagram Live is that your followers will receive a notification when you go Live. This instant communication is critical when you’re trying to stand out from the competition.
Leverage Instagram Shop
After Instagram added the Shop feature, it allowed users to find and purchase products from businesses directly through the app.
You only need to provide your name, billing info, email address, and shipping address. Users can pay via Mastercard, Visa, PayPal, Discover, and American Express. Facebook, which is the parent company of Instagram, saves the data for future transactions.
Small businesses can also leverage Shoppable posts to sell their products via Instagram. You can simply create a product catalog connected to your account. Then, you simply tag the product, like how you tag a user in a post.
Take away
And there you have it!
Instagram is a visual marketing utopia for brands. Hence, providing you with the opportunity to attract more customers, and showcase the best of what you’ve got to offer.
We hope that this article provided you with a great place to start with Instagram marketing and growth tactics to help your business improve its presence online.
