When you scroll through your Facebook or Instagram feed, you probably feel like most people on these platforms over-share certain information or experiences. Social networks have indeed facilitated this sensation of "over-sharing", or information saturation.
Businesses need to have a presence on social media, but how can they avoid over-sharing while still making their brand intimate and relatable to customers?
Instagram for Business
Instagram is one of the most popular social networks for Millennials and younger generations, and at the company level, it's one of the social networks that can generate most engagement with users. Discover the most used social media channels of last year.
For example, one idea you can use to humanize your brand on Instagram is uploading photos and videos of your employees or your internal culture. This will help your clients and prospects get an idea of what your company is really like.
Continue reading to discover 8 important steps to optimize your Instagram business strategy and get the most out of your social media strategy:
1. Ask yourself: why Instagram?
The very first thing you must do when considering using Instagram will be to ask yourself, why Instagram? What are you going to use the platform for and what do you want to achieve from it that you can't get from other social networks?
You also have to set social media KPIs for that are attainable for your brand. What KPIs are important to you? Number of followers? Getting customer's personal information? Selling your product or service directly on Instagram? These are questions that you have to ask yourself as a starting point for your strategy.
2. Optimize your Instagram business profile
The next thing you have to do is create a good profile for your business. To do this, you have to consider several things:
- Username: Choose a good username for your followers to associate with your brand. You can use underscores or periods to divide your username more creatively or
- Profile Picture:Choose a profile picture; it can be your logo, but remember that Instagram will cut it in a circle.
- Biography:Your biography is the small space where you'll explain what you do and why. Here you can use emojis, hashtags and mention other accounts. Don't forget to include a link to your website in this section.
Instagram has the option of converting your profile into a business account, which will allow you to get statistics on your posts and followers; this will help you monitor and improve your strategy. It will also let you choose your sector, and add info such as telephone and email.
3. Investigate your Buyer Personas and your competition
If you finally decide to use an Instagram business strategy, you should know what kind of audience you're going to target on this channel. Having various Buyer Personas is key. It will facilitate the creation of the content for your specific customers on Instagram. Another great idea is to investigate what your competition does on this social network; this will help you discover how they are using content, so you can avoid their mistakes and build on their successes.
3. Create visual content
Instagram is a network where you have to transmit your business or brand visually. You have to formulate content that represents your products or services, and at the same time, interests your followers. You can educate them, entertain them, help them solve a problem or need, as well as motivate and inspire them. Photos, images, GIFs, and short videos are the way to do this.
The texts or captions that accompany your posts are also very important. They must be descriptive, ask for questions or comments, and even include a Call-to-Action. All of this favors interaction and engagement from your followers.
And above all, don't forget Instagram Stories; this transient content is what is trending most on Instagram these days.
5. Use #hashtags on Instagram
Hashtags aren't just for Twitter. They will help your business gain greater visibility, and many Instagram users follow certain hashtags or themes. As a business, you should also create your own unique hashtag that is relevant to your brand, products, or services; this way, all posts with that hashtag will be in their own group when users are searching.
6. Prepare a content calendar
Having a content calendar is essential for staying organized and knowing what content you'll publish every day. This post explains how to go from a content audit to creating a content calendar all the way to what to do after publication.
Your Instagram calendar should take metrics into account. These come by default with every Instagram business account. Therefore, find out the days and times when you receive most activity, and study the posts that tend to perform best. Software like Hootsuite or HubSpot can help you schedule and analyze your social media posts.
7. Consider Instagram advertising
Instagram has an advertising scheme just for companies; here you'll be able to invest in advertising and achieve greater reach in your publications, based on user parameters that you define. This works especially well for companies focused on e-commerce.
8. Be consistent in your Instagram business strategy
Finally, you have to be consistent in posting on Instagram. The Instagram algorithm is based on how people consume your content, and you'll be more visible if people spend more time interacting with your posts. This means you have to post frequently, ask questions in the caption of your posts, and answer the comments they write to you.
Instagram is just one part of the social media strategy for your business. Don't forget to be creative and surprise your followers, experiment, and check if your strategy is working. If you need a Marketing partner along the way, discover mbudo.
And don't forget to follow us on Instagram: @mbudo_you
Kenia Pinela
Kenia is a designer in and out of the office, she simply can't stop being creative! She is passionate about Inbound Marketing philosophy and how to apply it to content creation. Kenia grew up around her grandpa's printing press, so you could say this career through her veins.