Clever Tips to Spread a Business Brand on Instagram
Instagram’s reach is unbelievable, and is spreading wider and wider every other month with hundreds of millions of active users. While this means an almost unlimited potential when it comes to targeting customers, it also means most companies are realizing just how valuable it can be for them, and are increasingly committing to the platform.
While attractive, every Instagram strategy should take into account the fact that it, and almost every other social media site, opens up the business both to customers and competition from across the world. With this in mind, it is important to embrace strategies that set the business apart.
Consistency
The reason why branding images are so important is because people like and appreciate consistency. In the minds of many people, consistency can be equated to trustworthiness.
When people view a brand as trustworthy, the likelihood of them engaging with it and buying increase. Consistency on Instagram requires two things, creating consistent visuals and having a consistent color scheme. The first step to a consistent following should be the audit of competitors. An e-commerce account should be able to strike the balance between competing with and standing apart from the competition.
Check out the images that work for the competition, and find out what about them makes them unique. An audit of the competition should be able to help with the creation of a unique color scheme and uniquely consistent visuals.
The audience
Social media impact is all about engagement and how one involves their audience. Most people love taking photos, but almost everyone will appreciate a good photo.
The best photos work just like art would, by evoking emotion. The whole point of Instagram is to share photos, and the quality of the posts one shares will ultimately affect the standing of the business with the account’s Instagram followers. Sometimes, it might not be enough to take photos on the phone and post. To create maximum impact, one might have to use other tools and devices.
Hashtags
Instagram offers its users the ability to conduct organic searches. It can effectively be classified as a search engine as well as a social media platform. The difference between Google and Instagram is that while Google uses keywords, Instagram’s tool is hashtags.
What this means is that the creative use of hashtags can have one’s posts staying visible in Instagram’s search results for long. Go for those hashtags that are popular enough to get searches, but not too popular that a relatively small business might be pushed out of the results.
Without hashtags, Instagram does not know how to categorize the images the account posts, so it is unlikely that they will appear on search engine results. Research shows that the use of more hashtags results in greater visibility, but this has to be balanced with the user experience.
The more the hashtags, the more spammy the image will seem. Followers might end up being turned off and unfollowing.
Bio
Stephanie Clarke is a writer, blogger and social media marketer. She specializes in social media analytics and giving her readers tips on how to make their Instagram followers work for them.
Category: Business, Social Media
