Content plays a leading role on the Internet and this trend will definitely be still noticeable in 2018. All visual materials – graphics, photos and videos – are becoming more and more significant. Now, the simplest and most popular platform for this type of communication is Instagram. Do you know how to make sure your brand profile looks professional? Take note of our advice…..
Why should your brand be represented on Instagram? First of all, it is much easier to achieve appropriate organic reach. You can gain 100% of organic activity on Instagram, while on Facebook… it’s 3%. Communication is also more natural as social media users love graphics and interact more willingly if your company shares its graphic content. What is more, by using specific hashtags, you have the opportunity to reach a defined group of recipients – for free.
We start to build communication:
- Apart from the profile name on Instagram the most important elements are bio and a link to your website. It is a good idea to create a personalised link, which you can do with Bitly.com. Hits in the application are not automatically counted and thanks to your own link you can monitor activity from Instagram.
- Switch the application to business account. Just find the right option in your settings and connect your profile with Facebook fanpage, and you will then have access to all the statistics you will need later on.
- Trace your competition profiles. Check what works, what time others publish their content, what hashtags they publish. Be inspired, but do not copy! Such a check is the simplest way to understand how to communicate with a target group.
- Create a list of your own key hashtags – this is the best way to reach your target group. Instagram enables the addition of 30 hashtags for each post and it does not matter if you publish them in the post or in the first comment. If you do not have any ideas for hashtags, use one of many tools presenting tags popular in a specific period. We use TagsForLikes.com and Hashtagify.me. You can also write # in Instagram browser to see how many times a specific phrase has already been used.
Ready, steady….
- Plan and prepare a content calendar – you can do this once a week and save time with the use of Buffer.com or Later.com. Instagram is an ideal place to present your graphics, quotations and thoughts, all of which you can prepare in one of the online tools – fast, smoothly, creatively and ingeniously. We wrote about tools used for graphics creation in our previous post – here.
- You must know that there is only one active link on Instagram. The one that you insert in a post will not be “clickable” and if a person uses a phone application – it won’t be possible to copy a link. If you want to insert a link (because, for example, you run an online shop profile) use paid application Lettly.com.
Go!
- Don’t be stingy. You are among people – represent your brand appropriately, but leave your pedestal. If there is something amazing going on in your company, just take a photo or record a video and put it on Instagram. It doesn’t have to be an ideal one, but it should be authentic. Such content will always trigger more interaction than some product post from the content calendar. Remember also that your post may have many forms – photos, videos, Instagram Stories, Instagram live and galleries. The only barrier is your imagination (all right… and the time that you may devote to this application ?).
- Use Call To Action in your posts. This will catch recipients’ attention and encourage them to interact. Content doesn’t have to be sophisticated; be natural. CTA should also be used in the case of various competitions and distribution events. Be precise, people should get a clear message of what you expect from them.
- Be active – interaction, interaction, interaction! Remember that it is a SOCIAL media site. Talk to people, not to yourself. Only in this way can you get more followers. Observe people and interact with those who use hashtags related to your industry or competition. Remember: Approximately 15% of people will start to look at your brand’s profile. However, many people will follow it just out of pure curiosity and then looking at your profile will be not enough. If you are not active, the fans that you have accumulated will not follow your profile. If you want it to be effective (for example generate hits from Instagram conversions), you should start following about 50 accounts every day.
- Comment on Instagram, using emoji. Instagram comments are very simple, e.g.: “extra, amazing, beautiful” etc. The owners of commented content will also visit your profile.
- Look for new clients incessantly – check fans of your competition, choose the most appropriate hashtags. Interaction! Comment, like, observe – just in this order. It has been proved that this brings the best results.
- Be patient and systematic. It’s worth it!
Agata Elandt