More than 800 million users came across Instagram’s pages in September of 2017, according to Facebook’s investor’s page. That’s an incredible market and a good incentive to learn some Instagram marketing tips to get your brand noticed.
With just a few Instagram for business tips, you can get started because Instagram’s one of the easiest social media platforms to dominate. Take a look at these Instagram marketing tips, and get started now. You’ll find that with a few prepared images you can get set up in no time.
Tip #1: Create Your Instagram Account
Perhaps the easiest way to create your Instagram account is to install the app on your Apple or Android device. Once installed, just open the app and follow the instructions.
From a computer, you can create your account on the Instagram website: instagram.com . Likewise, once you get started, just follow the instructions on the page.
Tip #2: Define Your Brand as Soon As You Can
Instagram’s a social media platform with a strongly visual orientation, making it the ideal medium to get the visual elements of your brand in front of your audience. For example, it provides a nice sized circle for your profile photo where you can add your professional image or logo. Airbnb takes advantage of this to display its logo.
Likewise, Airbnb, effectively utilizes Instagram’s gallery style profile page to introduce viewers to the best of it’s users’ offerings. The entire feed contains architecturally rich images with a style that appeals to travelers.
Make sure that all images thereafter adhere tightly to your branding guidelines. This helps viewers absorb the information through sensory pathways that connect your brand to their inner feelings and emotions.
Tip #3: Get a Handle on Your Business
When you write your Instagram handle, make sure that it suits your branding identity. Keep it simple and obvious. Here are a few examples of effective brand handles:
- Jcrew – Because it’s already a well-know brand, J crew probably gets plenty of traffic just from its brand name.
- Lego – Again, anyone looking for those colorful little blocks that let you build anything will start with the keyword, “Lego.”
- Tonyhawk – Skateboarder, Tony Hawk, uses his own name. Skateboarding fans know it, love it, and find it.
- Healthmagazine – The editors of the magazine, Health, did some smart SEO work with their Instagram handle. If they had used the word, “health,” alone, keyword competition would have kept their Instagram account buried on those never-viewed search engine results pages of Google.
Tip #4: It’s Hip to be Square
You’ll need a square image for your Instagram profile photo. An image measuring 180px x 180px fits perfectly, but if you have a bigger one, the platform will scale it down for you. If you use a non-square image, make sure that it looks good once it has been cropped to the Instagram profile photo circle.
The online image creation platform, Canva, has a round image for its logo. It’s especially effective with Instagram’s profile image.
Tip #5: Use Your Full Website Address in Your Profile
Some Instagram users report that their shortlink URLs get blocked by Instagram. Go ahead and add the full URL to your Instagram profile. This is one of the more important Instagram marketing tips if you plan to use your Instagram account to drive traffic to your business website.
Tip #6: Keep Your Profile Description Clean and Concise
Instagram gives users 150 characters to describe themselves or their business. Keep your description clean, precise, and front-loaded to get the critical keywords in front of your viewers.
Tesla Motors, for example, has as much to say as any business. Even so, its Instagram description simply says, “Tesla Electric cars, giant batteries and solar.”
Tip #7: Watermark Your Images with Your Business’ Logo
Another of our Instagram marketing tips is very important if you’re a photographer or have unique images created by your business. By adding a watermark to your images, you not only protect them from most pirates, but, if you use your logo as the watermark, you’ll help users identify your business with the images. Watermarking won’t stop illegal image use 100%, but it will discourage most viewers.
You can watermark subtly, or more strongly, depending upon your image and how you feel it looks best. Most image manipulation software will allow you to do this. Istock, for example, goes one up on watermarks by adding its logo to the photos it sells.
Tip #8: Keep Your Instagram Branding Consistent with Your Website Branding
Extremely successful companies, like Lay’s, understand the importance of consistent branding. Very few of their Instagram images lack the Lay’s logo, and even those without the logo use the company’s colors and promotional style.
Looking at how big companies with powerful brands market their products on Instagram can provide you with some excellent Instagram for business tips and give you ideas for your own products. Look for the market giants, and you’ll see how they manage to include logos and company colors in many images.
Tip #9: Think About How Individual Images Will Look in Your Gallery
Reynold’s Kitchen gets a high-five for planning and organization on their Instagram profile page. Take a look at how they have organized separate images so that adjacent photos complement each other. Effective planning and image placement can keep visitors on the page that extra bit of time that may make the difference between a glance in passing and a long, engaging visit to your Instagram image collection.
Tip #10: Learn to Use Hashtags in Instagram
From the first time you search for anything in Instagram, you’ll note the power of hashtags. This is definitely one of the biggest Instagram marketing tips you can use. Its search engine gives preference, in the suggested keywords, to strings beginning with a hashtag. For example, a search for the word, “protein,” will yield a series of hashtag phrases so long that individual profiles do not even show up until one scrolls down.
If you want your brand and products or services to be found on Instagram, learn to use hashtags. You may find that they show up in searches more than your handle. Apps, like RiteTag and Hashtagify.me.
Tip #11: Use Instagram Videos and Live Stream
Instagram offers both live stream and regular video. Live stream, of course, disappears after its moment, but short videos stay online. Marketers who effectively use videos will find Instagram users engage well with them. The Pittsburgh Steelers, for example, take advantage of action-packed videos and teammate character shots to keep a strong following on their Instagram page.
You’ll find this to be one of the Instagram for business tips that really gets your brand noticed, if you know how to produce quality videos for social media content. You can learn more about video marketing on our own blog post, “How Video Content Marketing Converts Browsers Into Buyers.”
Use These Instagram Marketing Tips To Grow Your Brand
These are just a few Instagram marketing tips to get you started on building your brand. You’ll find Instagram very easy to work with and will likely see the value in staying on top of your Instagram social media presence!