While all businesses are looking to improve what they do, being aware of the practices you are following is especially important for small businesses. If you aren’t already, it is critical to look toward Instagram for promoting your brand, especially since it is more likely that young people will search for and discover your business on that platform rather than older channels like Google or Facebook. Before you start looking at some of the top Instagram tools available, be sure that you are following some of the more basic principles that will get your business noticed.
Instagram generates a great deal of traffic, so it may come as a surprise to know that brand and business-related Instagram accounts often find themselves in the lower 25 percentile for engagement. Often, more traditional marketing and branding strategies we are used to utilizing don’t convert well into the type of content people love on Instagram. Learning to use both social media marketing strategies and strategies that aren’t social media related is critical for developing an attention-worthy campaign. After all, you don’t want to spend a great deal of time and energy on the platform without getting a great deal of return and value for your efforts.
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Have a visually appealing Instagram grid layout to highlight your engaging and differentiated content:
Designing an Instagram profile and bio that people will be interested in matters. Your picture, name, your profile, and bio are your digital billboard that should attract people to your brand. How your account looks at first glance is often the only way potential followers decide whether or not to follow you once they discover you. The better you are at developing an appealing and compelling visual grid, the faster your business is likely to grow. Since you are competing with hundreds of businesses, you should increase your chances of building an engaging audience with an eye-catching profile design and differentiated content.
What do we mean by an Instagram grid layout? We are talking about how your grid looks when consumers go to your Instagram profile page and scroll through your photos without tapping on any. In the first five seconds of coming across your profile, most people will quickly glance at your bio, scroll through your grid layout, and maybe tap on a couple of your photos. If your content is perceived as interesting and valuable, people will likely follow. If not, they will just tap out and move on.
Clearly, designing an Instagram profile and bio that people will be interested in matters.
Create excellent content and post daily, at a minimum.
In Instagram, you create content that will be disseminated within the network by the hashtags you use for it and through the people who engage with it by liking, commenting, or sharing it. Each hashtag you use and the engagement it generates creates new opportunities for people to discover your post, view your profile, and make a decision to like your content enough to follow your page.
Remember that content is anything you express through text, graphics, and video clips. Creating shareable content and utilizing branded content is important, and you can always use some of the best Instagram tools to schedule posts, curate content, and assess the value of the content you are posting. It might be useful to think of your content as an advertisement for your business. It is similar to placing an ad in a magazine or on a website. Every time a person sees that content/ad, you are creating a new opportunity for someone to see your brand and increase awareness of your business. By discovering what you have to say, they may decide they like it enough to follow you and consider buying something from you.
For best results on Instagram, grow a diverse following.
Growing your following will mean finding and using accessibility strategies and tools like MagicSocial.net. You can also utilize technological advances such as alternative text that will allow you to be accessed by the visually impaired or the blind. If you want to reach every potential consumer possible on Instagram, consider targeting a wide demographic. Consumers who use screen readers often do not have the ability to access visual content, but with the text read aloud to them, you are providing important information that was previously unavailable and will help them understand and appreciate what your brand has to offer. Another good tool for growin your following is goread.io
You can measure the effectiveness of these principles and practices by monitoring several metrics, including the number of new followers, the average number of likes and comments per posts, and informing your process using Instagram Business Insights. Just as you evaluate your sales numbers on a regular basis, you can see weekly or monthly Instagram growth and engagement metrics that will help inform you are moving forward.