If you’re a creative person/business and good at telling a story through a picture, Instagram is most likely the social media platform for you. If your brand is beautiful and has plenty of interesting visual content it will probably benefit from being on Instagram.
What is Instagram?
Instagram is a photo and video sharing app for smart phones that lets you post photos, videos and commentary, follow other people’s photos, have people follow yours, and tag people and locations to photos. The app lets you ‘Like’ a photo and leave a comment on a photo. You can only post via your smart phone and you can’t post anything but a photo or video.
Why should I join Instagram?
Instagram is BIG! Not all that long ago Instagram gained 30 million users and was purchased by Facebook for USD $1 billion. It currently has more than 150 million active users posting around 60 million photos per day. It is the top performing photo sharing app on mobile devices globally. Something so big is definitely worth being part of, especially if your business and products are visually appealing. Instagram engages users through the a constant stream of beautiful images, just like Pinterest. Once you have built your feed of friends and businesses on Instagram, scrolling through Instagram images can feel like your personally curated, real-time mini magazine. There is so much beautiful content, it can be slightly addictive.
Where do I start?
If you’re not sure you where to start with your business on Instagram, it’s best to create a personal account first and experiment with posting photos and videos. Start following other people and brands to get a feel for the how Instagram works. Then when you’re ready, create an Instagram account for your business.
- Start by downloading the Instagram app on your smart phone.
- Open the app and follow the prompts and create an account with a username (pick something as close to your brand as possible)
- Add information to your account including an profile photo (maybe your logo?), a keyword dense description about your business and a link to your website
- Connect your account to business accounts on Facebook, Twitter and your other platforms. This will allow you to cross post your Instagram posts to other social media platforms. It helps friends to easily find your brand and follow you on multiple platforms.
- Start taking photos and experiment with cropping, filters and commentary for your photos. You can use #hashtags as well.
- Once you have decent amount of posts and you feel comfortable with posting, start telling your social media followers on other platforms that you are now on Instagram (post your Instagram username on Facebook, Twitter and write about it on your blog and email newsletters, and include it on our email signatures and any printed material)
- Commit to posting regularly and engage in other people’s content
- Balance your content and don’t talk about you/your business 24/7 (check back here to read more)
- Most importantly, have fun!
