A Beginners Guide to Instagram, for Small Businesses
Instagram is a photo-sharing platform that has seen massive growth over the last few years with over 800 million accounts now active. It’s having a massive impact on small businesses that have embraced the platform and those getting creative with their content. Done correctly, it can connect you and your brand to customers from all around the world.
Get familiar before diving straight in
Instagram is designed to be mobile-only so the first thing to do is install the app on your phone. Once you’ve done that, and created an account, you’re ready to go. However, before diving straight in, do some research to help you identify what to post. The easiest way to do this is to see what other people are posting. Find and follow friends, colleagues, people in your industry, competitors and things relating to your hobbies and interests. Take note of what content you like and you find engaging. It’s likely that your potential audience will like the same sort of things.
When you’re doing this research, look at the number of likes and comments each post has received. Instagram has a fast-moving news feed. Once a post has been around for a day or so, it’s probably had most of the likes and comments it’s going to get. The more likes and comments a post has, the more engaging that post is, so it’s worth considering posting similar content.
Using the search to do your research
You can search for people and hashtags using the search bar in the Instagram App. To search, tap the search magnifying glass at the bottom which takes you to the “Discover” page. Then tap the search bar at the top to get the option to specify People, Tags, or Places. Now enter what your looking for.
You can search for people and businesses by name or username. The search results are based on a variety of factors, including the people you already follow, who you’re connected to and what photos and videos you like on Instagram.
Instagram Hashtags
You can use hashtags on your Instagram posts to help you attract new followers and allow people searching, to find your content. Think of a hashtag as a keyword that tells Instagram what your post is about. For example, as a web design company, we use the hashtag #webdesign on a lot of the content we post. This means that anyone doing an Instagram search for #webdesign, will have a good chance of seeing our post for a few hours after we’ve posted it. Using more targeted hashtags, #webdesigncompany for example, may not get as many followers, but it’s going to reach a more specific audience – which is a good thing.
We also use the hashtags #staffordshire or #stafford when our content is relevant locally. This helps us build our followers in this area.
Keeping in the loop with your customers
Have a look to see if your customers are on Instagram. If they are, follow them. This allows you to stay in the loop so you know what’s happening in their business. This is particularly useful if you’re a service business as you could potentially spot additional ways in which you could help or add value to them.
Instagram Stories
Instagram Stories are relatively new and allow you to use multiple pictures or videos to create a “story” that disappears after 24 hours – a concept that originated on Snapchat. This can be a great place to build your confidence on Instagram because if it doesn’t work out and you don’t get any engagement, it’s gone the following day. You can then have another stab at it and try something different.
Here are a few ideas on what you could post:
- Office photos
- Team action pics
- Networking events
- Customer visits
- Special offers
- Product photos
- Industry related tip of the day
And here’s a few ideas for building followers
- Post regularly – at least once a day
- Put together a bank of images so that you can easily post regularly
- Follow others and share their images. The majority of people will follow you back
- Research the most popular and relevant hashtags for your business and use them in your posts
- Tag other relevant businesses/users to get their attention. To tag someone, just use @ in front of their username – eg @redboxstafford
There you go, a very quick guide to Instagram for anyone not currently using it. As well as being very useful for building your brand/product/service awareness, it’s also fun and a great way to keep in touch with your customers and contacts. Have a go and don’t forget to follow us: @redboxstafford