Many businesses and brands are under the impression that they need to be connected to every social media platform that exists to spread their reach as far as possible.
While it might be true that it wouldn’t hurt doing that, it would require a lot of time and effort that many people simply don’t have.
The truth is, Instagram, with its 1 billion active monthly users, is a great place to start, and perhaps the only marketing tool you need. If you have been struggling to grow your brand or expand your business, you might want to give Instagram a try, and with these tips, you are more likely to be successful.
Use captions wisely
It’s completely understandable if you can’t say enough about your product or service, and that enthusiasm is fantastic to have, but unfortunately there is a limit on the number of characters that a caption can have. More importantly though, users are only able to see the first 3 to 4 lines of whatever it is you have written as a caption.
This means that you have to be extremely selective about what you say, while still making it intriguing enough for users to click the “more” button to continue reading. Knowing your audience will help with this since you will know if using emojis is appropriate, or if they would understand a reference you have made.
Don’t forget the hashtags
No matter how big your brand is getting, using hashtags will always be important. This is because when a user searches for a certain hashtag, they might see your post if you have used the same one as they’ve searched. Selective hashtags that are relevant to your brand or post can help your brand to reach new audiences, gain new followers and increase exposure.
Granted, it is quite difficult, and can take a lot of time to research which hashtags would work best with your quote, which is why you could consider trying out Task Ant. Task Ant is a tool that will help you to find the most relevant, trending and far-reaching hashtags related to what you want to post, as well as giving you the ability to easily copy-paste them after creating sets, whenever you are going to post again.
Indirectly advertise
If there is one thing that people don’t like, it’s advertisements that are constantly in their face, and as a result, they generally tend to scroll directly past them. In addition to this, many people will unfollow if a brand is constantly talking or posting about themselves. A great way to avoid this is by indirectly advertising.
This means that you could use a lifestyle post to showcase your product, and simply leave a link to your app or website so that the user can peruse your other products. This way, you are not trying to convince them to buy a product, instead you are saying “if you like this, you might like our other stuff, so take a look if you want”.
Interact as much as you can
Even if you have amazing content, and you are using hashtags that are directly targeted at your audience, you should not forget to engage. Engaging with followers and those you follow could mean replying to direct messages, replying to comments or liking and following other accounts that are recommended.
Engagement also increases the memorability, credibility, visibility and likability of your brand, and as a result your followers are more likely to recommend you to friends, or share your posts with them. This is great for exposure and reach, and will definitely help in growing your brand or business.
Know your audience
Knowing your audience is perhaps one of the most important things that you could do. Make it a point to study the analytics that provide with information such as when they are most active, where they are from, how old they are, the time they spend most on which posts and which posts are interacted with the most.
Information like this will help you to determine things like; when and how often you should be posting, the kind of content they might be interested in, and what content you’ve previously posted that you should focus on posting more of. This will make each of your posts a tailored made experience for your followers and help infinitely in growing your brand.
