Using Instagram For Business in 2014

More and more people are now signing up for an Instagram business account. It’s one the newest methodologies to hit the digital marketing arena, and businesses are arriving in their droves to take advantage of what it offers by incorporating it into their online SM strategy.

The Meteoric Rise of Instagram

Photo credit: beta75.se

Instagram is one of the biggest online success stories of recent years. It’s taken the cyber community by storm, first appealing to the social networking side of life, when it launched its first app in October 2010. By December of that same year it had registered over 1 million users, and 6 months later, by June 2010, the number of registered users shot up to 5 million. It’s little wonder that Facebook sat up and took notice, taking Instagram over in April 2012. SM marketing campaigns are one of the last free website promotion techniques to use, so it’s no wonder it’s so popular.

The Organic Growth of Instagram for Business

It’s not Instagram themselves who anticipated this being a promotional platform for businesses. They merely recognised that many of their social users had begun to promote their businesses on their platform, and in response launched the Instagram for business blog, a platform for businesses to interact, post their blogs, and start mixing things up in the business community. It’s fast becoming an integral part efforts on social media for businesses.

Quickly out of the Starting Blocks

The online business community has always been super fast to spot any new opportunities and new ways of marketing their brands. It wasn’t long after the birth of the first major social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, that the corporate world began jumping on the social media band wagon. They were quick to use these new channels for their own promotions, with LinkedIn being the most business orientated.

New Advertising Channel

Photo credit: Faruk Ateş

Getting started with using Instagram for business

At this point in time, Instagram doesn’t differentiate between private social users, and business users. In terms of the sign up procedure, they are one and the same thing. So this means that if you do decide to sign up, you need to be wearing your corporate hat, not your personal one. If your struggling to learn the ropes, there are social media training facilities online that can help you out.

You can of course decide to have both a personal account, and a separate business account, but they are to separate individual entities, and will not therefore permit any interchange between the two. So in terms of your business account, in order to promote brand awareness, you must use your business or brand name. If your planning on setting up an online business, then this is a great place to start; never miss out on a free marketing opportunity!

Creating a Great Business Profile

As with all social media websites, you have the wherewithal to create a profile. All too often (especially with their personal social media websites) people don’t use this facility to the full. But as far as your Instagram business account is concerned, it is crucial that your business profile should be as comprehensive as possible.

To capture your audience’s interest, you must go beyond just facts and figures. Include a little about your business ethics and your company’s mission, and try and link your business to things happening in the outside world.

Link your Instagram Business Account to your Other Websites

The most important thing from a business point of view is to link your Instagram business account to your business’s website. This will allow visitors to view all of the pictures and videos you have downloaded to your instrumental account, simply by clicking on the link shown on your company’s website. You can obtain badges from Instagram that contain this link. It’s also a good idea to put the badge on your company blog too, if you have one.

To further broaden your audience. You can also put this link on any other social media sites you may have, such as Facebook, and Twitter. I don’t think that you can with LinkedIn at the moment, but it would obviously be a useful tool if you could. Why not mention it to LinkedIn? – The more people who ask, the more likely they are to accede.

Uploading Photos and Videos

Whilst you can view photos and videos by simply clicking onto the Instagram website and logging into your account via your computer or laptop, you cannot actually use these devices to upload the photos or videos themselves. This must be done directly from your mobile device.

Choosing the right style photo is key. Don’t forget that it represents your business, so it needs to be relevant. However, if you can mix a little fun in with it as well, that’s all to the good. Statistics show that photos of things like puppies gain far more views than photos of a business meeting in progress, unless of course the business meeting is being chaired by puppy!

Making Best Use of Instagram’s Filters

If you browse a few of the professional business accounts on Instagram, you can’t help but notice the superb quality of the photographs. This is because many people use the advanced filters that Instagram provides. To check out how to use their special effects, simply click through to the help centre on their website.

A Picture is Worth 1000 words…but

As the saying goes, a picture is worth 1000 words. Whilst this is true, (you can depict an image that is almost impossible to describe in words), a few words to elaborate on the message in the picture always works well. It goes a long way towards helping people to engage, and fully appreciate what they are seeing. Instagram provide this facility, so make sure that you use it to best effect.

Engaging with your Audience

As all good marketers know, it is important to engage with your audience. A great way of doing this is by reciprocating the interest that your audience shows in your photos/videos by checking out their photos. By doing this you are showing a genuine interest, which they will appreciate. It will help to increase loyalty.

Monitor your Performance

Someone one said that you can’t manage what you can’t measure, which is why Instagram provide their “Simply Measured” analytics program. It tells you:

• How effectively you are engaging with your audience
• Which photos are being most viewed
• What the latest trends are

The best thing of all – it’s free to use!

Read the Blog

Instagram is still very much the new kid on the block, and despite its enormous success it’s still a work in progress. Things are changing rapidly, (like the launch of the new advertising initiative), and the best way of staying current is to read the Instagram blog regularly.

One thing that is sure, and that is that using Instagram for business is an exciting way of marketing your brand to the world and with a little creativity from you, it can be very successful too.