Daily, over 500 million active Instagram users publish more than 95 million posts. For practically any business, therefore, it is safe to say that your audience is present and active on Instagram. What’s more, the user engagement rate is greater on Instagram than on Twitter and Facebook by far; 58 times more than Facebook and 120 times more than Twitter. By extension, this implies that there is a high likelihood of more people viewing, commenting, liking, and sharing your content on Instagram than on Facebook, Twitter, or any other social network.

It is no secret that marketers have flooded Facebook; 93% of them are on Facebook. Compare that to the 36% who use Instagram. This creates a unique opportunity and increases the chances that you will achieve success on Instagram as you provide content to the underserved audience. This information should be even more exciting for you if your brand has a young target audience. Available statistics show that in the US over 60% of users on Instagram are aged between 18 and 29, and only 25% of users are aged 30 to 49. The percentages drop even further as you go up the age spectrum.

Are you now ready to take advantage of the unique business opportunities that Instagram affords? The following are 9 essential tips on making the most of Instagram for business.

Fill Out Your Bio Strategically

Begin by creating an Instagram account and designing the profile to project the kind of image you wish your target audience to see. Include a good bio, it is essential to attracting traffic to your profile. Instagram allows users to insert a clickable link into their bio, allowing them to direct some of the traffic to their website. Consider directing this traffic to an opt-in form where the website visitors can download a free eBook or sign up for your newsletter.

Given that visitors will first take notice of your bio when they visit your profile, it is crucial to ensure that you have a bio that immediately captures their attention, so be creative with your description. To attract an audience, make a bio description that is extremely clear about what you do and the products and/or services you offer. The Instagram bio section allows 150 words only, therefore, use a straightforward message that connects to your customers’ needs. To make the bio even more effective in brand promotion, consider the following:

  • Using your brand voice to reveal your personality
  • Spacing and having line breaks for a more readable bio
  • Making the most of emojis that relate to or represent your products/ services.
  • Leveraging hashtag(s) to make it easy to search for a product

Consider this CocaCola Instagram bio. It is extremely simple and short, yet immediately captures your attention.

Find, Follow, and Interact With Your Ideal Customers

It is a known fact that Instagram helps new or established brands generate more engagement. It is a platform that has frequently proven that the right content and high levels of engagement are indeed possible and achievable. Although it is not easy to measure engagement as a metric, businesses have had better results and more success on Instagram. This is because of its strong ability to help in connecting with their ideal audience by finding, following, and interacting with them.

A survey by Adweek involving over 2500 micro-influencers showed that 60% found Instagram as the most valuable social network to generate positive engagement. The use of Instagram for business is on the rise. Marketers have realized the significance of building an engaged and strong community through social media.

Therefore, instead of simply waiting for your target audience to find you, initiate the relationship by finding them an Instagram, following and interacting with them. Tools like Growr now make it easy for any brand to identify people on Instagram that are most likely to engage with their brands and follow and interact with them.

Think About Your Product

It is essential to think about what you want to sell and what you will use to sell your services or products. Even without being too promotional, Instagram allows businesses to gain followers who engage with their products. Instagram is about everyday individuals taking pictures and videos every day. It is the perfect platform for businesses to promote and sell their products. Resist the temptation of wasting the opportunity to engage with the target audience by publishing content that has no clear connection to your product offering.

Expand Your Reach With #hashtags

Hashtags are an essential part of Instagram. They allow users to search for a specific topic with ease. The essential tip for a hashtag is to keep it at the least character count as well as ensure that it is relevant to your post. A business can use hashtags effectively by including some popular ones like #follow, #photooftheday, #tbt, and #instagood.

Another essential tip is coming up with a unique hashtag for your brand and using it regularly on Instagram and all other social networks. The hashtag makes the process of searching and connecting with your brand effortless. For example, WeWork used #dogsofwework to show all their employees and clientele adorable dogs. People visiting the venue take photos with the dogs and tag them with ease.

Build Anticipation and Offer Exclusivity

Ensuring your customers remain interested is an integral part of any successful marketing campaign. Use exclusive content to reward your loyal followers. Make sure that they are the first to know about your services, products, or events. Make teasing pictures or videos to build eagerness and satisfy interest for new stores, releases, or office openings. Such previews make your followers feel special and make them come back for more insider information.

The Secret Label, for instance, loves to create flash sales where its Instagram followers get a chance to buy its products at highly discounted prices in short 24-hour windows.

Think Strategically About Your Posts

An important part of Instagram is thinking about what you post about. Even though Instagram is a series of visuals, it is essential to think strategically about your post. A vital tip for thinking strategically is to know what you need to post and when to post. To be effective, have a strategy that is favorable to Instagram’s inner structure. The strategy may be used to achieve brand awareness, showcase brand culture, employee achievements, visually appealing content, and presenting ideas.

Coordinate With Social Media Campaigns

As a social media platform, socializing is an important part of online advancement. You can get contacts on Instagram by following people as well as following back people who have followed you. Although larger brands and most multinational companies do not adopt this method, it does not mean that you should not. Reply to comments when needed, and like and comment on things that interest you and are related to your business. You can also share posts on other social networks such as Twitter and Facebook to get more engagement.

Announce New Hires, Promote Your Culture

Instagram is the perfect platform for businesses to announce new hires as well as promote your business. It is also an excellent place for a business to promote the organizational culture as a fun and trendy place of work for all employees.

Nikola Motor Company loves to showcase its new hires on Instagram and uses the platform to promote its organizational culture as well as show potential customers the people behind its brand.

Showcase Your Customers and Service

In addition to showcasing your products and services, you can use the Instagram platform to showcase your customers. This way, you give potential customers a sense of what it is like to be your customer, clearly demonstrating that you value them and are grateful that they’ve chosen your business. For example, Virgin Atlantic carefully molds a good perception of the company by its followers by showcasing how they make a customer’s experience more enjoyable on their flights. They publish posts that show the fun things enjoyed by passengers on a Virgin Atlantic flight.

Businesses are always in an unending loop as they try to meet their customers’ expectations. This is no easy feat. To make Instagram marketing successful, marketers must employ tips that work for their brand. Try to mix and match until you get what is most suitable for you. Consider the idea of experimenting on everything that is out there and collecting the data, until you become confident that you know exactly what your customers want from you.