5 Best Strategies and Tips to Grow your Brand on Instagram

Posted in Marketing | 13 comments

Have you created an Instagram account for your business? Well, that’s good! Instagram is a powerful social platform that allows you to engage with your community through visuals. It’s like Twitter and Facebook without as much noise.

Instagram is great, as it allows you to build and grow your brand. It’s an opportunity for small businesses to gain significant exposure without a big time investment.

Some small business owners and marketers are challenged by the idea of building their community on Instagram and growing their followers on Instagram. They’ve realized that posting high quality visuals and content are simply not enough. The important key is to build a community of followers who are interested in your content.

Here are some tips and practices to guide you on how to grow your brand and build your community on Instagram:

1.Leverage actionable and target-specific hashtags
Add your own hashtags to your post. The great thing about this strategy is getting your community to engage with your brand. You can even leverage these hashtags across your other social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter. Using hashtags increases the visibility of your content. Your Instagram account will then get more exposure, followers, and likes.

Tip: Start by using popular hashtags that are always trending on Instagram (ex. #instagood, #photooftheday, #food, #love, #business)

Also, know the hashtags that your competitors and other industry influencers are using. Monitor this so that you can find out what works best for your followers.

2.Interact with other Instagrammers and influencers
Engaging with your followers is vital in order for your brand to grow and reach more followers. If you’re already posting interesting content, then reply to those comments. Afterwards, start liking, commenting and following other people too. If you find interesting content, #regram the image and give credit to the original poster.

Tip: Be active in increasing your Instagram account’s visibility to other followers.

Also, check your competitors’ followers and find out whom you can turn into engaged customers.

3.Showcase the beauty of your brand
Some B2B companies think that Instagram in an unusable platform. Because of this, they rule out Instagram in their marketing strategy. They think that Instagram is only for businesses with tangible products such as food, cars, clothing, etc. or for those businesses that provide services such as restaurants, gas stations, etc.

But then, Instagram offers several ways to build your brand. In fact, you can build your brand without directly showcasing images or videos of your products.

For example, you can take great photos of your work environment, your company’s anniversary party, or your employees’ bonding moments. Through this, your followers can see a sneak peak of your company’s interesting culture. Together with a popular hashtag, create unique hashtags that your team can use when they share on Instagram to create a real buzz around your brand.

Tip: Think beyond your brand by giving it a human element.

You can also highlight how other people interact with your business.

4.Use high quality photos
Sharing high quality images is vital on Instagram. Be particular about the quality of your photos; it’s the best way to start a conversation and attract customers. Make sure that each image is visually or emotionally engaging for your followers. Your images create that strong Instagram presence and enable your brand to build a visual conversation with your followers. Lame or unclear images won’t bring any good to your business.

Tip: Make the most of Instagram filters of photo editing sites (ex. PicMonkey) or apps (ex. AfterLight) in order to enhance your images.

Also, don’t upload too many photos. Sharing three to five photos each week is enough.

5.Promote your Instagram account everywhere
Leverage your social media platforms to build your follower base. You can start by connecting your Instagram account to your Facebook page. You can repost Instagram images on your Twitter account as well. In addition, don’t forget to include the Instagram icon on your business website.

Tip: The possibilities are endless. Explore all the opportunities to create a buzz about your Instagram account.

Also, when creating Instagram marketing campaigns, make it known across all your social media platforms. By doing this, your followers, business team, brand influencers and partners will use your unique business hashtags.

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