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Social media is a key way to grow your customer base, attract positive press, and make more money. Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest are among the most common social media sites leveraged by businesses, but more and more companies are recognizing the value of Instagram to grow your business every day. Instagram exists almost solely on mobile and has only visual posts, which makes it perfect for the social media trends of 2017 that we’re seeing.
In short, Instagram is growing, Instagram is bigger and better than its closest competitor Snapchat.
While some businesses are rockstars on Instagram, many others struggle. This is especially true when it comes to new Instagram users.
The strategies proven to work well on other social media channels don’t always have the same impact on Instagram, which means that if you don’t know what you’re doing, you can easily waste the many opportunities that Instagram would usually offer.
Should Instagram be a part of your social media marketing strategy? Absolutely! At the very least, you should be testing and analyzing. Instagram may not work for your business, but you’ll never know if you don’t try. If you’re new to Instagram marketing, no worries, we have you covered.
Here’s 6 proven strategies that will help you better understand how to use Instagram to grow your business.
1. Post regularly. With Instagram, volume is key. The more you share, the wider reach your posts will have. That’s why it can help to prepare and schedule multiple posts every day at the beginning of each week and to add content relevant to the day’s trends as you go along.
2. Leverage relevant #hashtags. Hashtags act as a magnet for traffic. When people search for content, you want the right hashtags bringing people to your posts. Find out which hashtags are popular for your market or customer niche, and include them often. You don’t have to be limited by the character count, either. Fill your first comment with all the hashtags you want, and it will work much the same way. Just be careful not to overload the comment in a spammy way, as you can actually dilute the impact of the most relevant hashtags.
3. Connect with your followers and even other businesses. Social media is meant to be, well, social. That means that you can’t just post in a vacuum. Respond to your followers comments and maintain an active presence on your feeds. You can even cultivate SFS (share for share) relationships with bloggers and other companies. Your posts will have a brand new audience, and you will show that you are connecting more deeply with other users.
4. Avoid the hard sell. Images and videos already are hardwired to sell, which makes Instagram particularly powerful for retail businesses. Your products can be featured heavily in your posts, but if you focus only on “buy this awesome product”-type posts, you may turn people off. Instead, the goal should be curating content that appeals to your customers. Showcase creative ways to use your products or provide insight into company values and workers. People will be more likely to share your posts, and the sales will come more organically.
5. Connect your Instagram account to other social media sites. Images and videos are the posts that do best on Facebook, too, so when you link accounts, your content has an even greater reach. Don’t worry that you tend to post more on Instagram than you would typically post on Facebook. So long as the quality is high, more images and videos are never a bad thing.
6. Always include a clear, snappy call-to-action. Too often, companies forget a call-to-action or a link to a landing page. This means that interested customers will be less likely to buy because they don’t know what to do next. Instead, always make the next step available in a brief, witty call-to-action that will direct motivated customers forward in your funnel.
If you do all these things, your Instagram account will quickly become a major source of influence and growth. Instagram has over 300 million active monthly users. Even reaching just a small fraction of those users can have a huge impact on your bottom line. When used right, Instagram has the potential to transform your market share and dramatically grow your business.
Having a hard time getting started? That’s ok. It can feel challenging to know what to post to attract followers in your target market when you’re first getting started. Optimizing your Instagram to grow your company can be easier with the support of an expert who instinctively knows which posts will appeal to you ideal customer– and who can help you those same tricks.
Let the Provaro team teach you better how to use Instagram to grow your company today.
