How to get started with Instagram for businesses

If you want to start growing your follower list and turn your Instagram fans into loyal customers you are in the right place!

Instagram is a great tool to promote your business. With over 700 million monthly active users is relatively easy to use and allows you to optimize your photos automatically in other platforms such as Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr.

You should always experiment different ways to make Instagram work for you by uploading different pictures and content. And if they don’t work you can always delete them and start again!

1. TELL YOUR OWN STORY AND STOP SELLING ON INSTAGRAM

First and most importantly, you need to focus on your community and the people you want to reach. This is very important if you are using Instagram as a business tool since you want to ensure that you attract the right people. People who care about what you do and that are willing to follow you on your business adventure.

Secondly, you need to be genuine. Use Instagram to tell your story rather than placing an ad. You should tell real stories through pictures and content, experiences using your services or products and how you reach milestones and goals so you become trustworthy. There’s not a lot of tolerance for marketing content and images and people tend to be fed up quickly when they realise that you are just another one trying to sell something.

2. CREATE YOUR PERFECT VISUAL STORYTELLING

Share good and relevant content that engages. Ask other people what are their thoughts on different subjects or simply just wish them a good and successful day!

You could share stories about your office, clients you are working currently with or workshops. Showing work in progress or inspiration quotes are also very attractive since they show that behind your brand there’s real people!

As we said before, you should think about what your ideal persona would appreciate and how could you engage with them on a daily basis and solve their problems. Do not post for the sake of posting and make sure every picture or video you upload is there for a reason!

3. USE THE RIGHT HASHTAGS

People tend to use as many hashtags as they can, thinking that it will give them more likes or attract more followers but they forget that people get to see that you are trying too hard to be liked.

Just use the hashtags that are necessary, and think what would your kind of client be looking for. Once you have the keywords that you think might work best for your business go for it and stop thinking about filling the 30-hashtag limit allowance.

Stop looking like a spammer with so many different types of hashtags that are not even relevant to what you do and set yourself a limit of 10 good hashtags that will attract the right people.

4. FACILITATE CONVERSATION

Instagram enables your brand to have one to one conversations with your followers and potential customers. Try to facilitate conversation within your community by asking for feedback, fears or experiences and start talking about what’s interesting and what’s trending.