One of the most frequently asked questions over the last few years is, “is Instagram a viable way to drive business?” The short answer is yes, and that can be seen from the fact that there is an actual store on Instagram, where users can buy many different products from various accounts.
Aside from this, Instagram is the perfect platform for any business to reach new audiences and expand their reach. The app has an average of 500 million active daily users, and around 1 billion active users every month, spending an average of 27 minutes a day browsing through content.
If you feel like the growth of your business is slow, then joining the 25 million businesses that use Instagram can be a great way to boost it. The question now is “how do you use Instagram to drive business?”, and admittedly, it can be difficult to get going if you have a new account, so continue reading to find out how.
Post consistently
In the current social media landscape, especially with Instagram, it will be impossible to gain new followers and expand reach by posting irregularly or inconsistently. Consider that there are about 25 million other businesses that are using Instagram, and even if 1%, which is 250,000, of them are posting regularly and are in the same niche as you, then you should get an idea just how important posting consistently is.
Not only does posting consistently ensure that none of your posts are missed, or buried in the 950,000 posts of your competitors, it also ensures that you stay in the memory of your followers. The phrase “absence makes the heart grow fonder” doesn’t apply on Instagram, and absence will mean a sharp decline in reach, engagement and follower count.
This means that creating a posting schedule is of vital importance, not only for the growth of your account, but for the efficiency of workflow if you are working with a group, or a few groups. In addition, this also ensures that there is consistency in terms of the themes, filters or color schemes that each post uses.
Don’t underestimate the power of hashtags
One aspect of Instagram that is commonly misused is Instagram. Many users, including brands and businesses, use irrelevant and incorrect hashtags when posting. Not only does using the incorrect or an irrelevant hashtag reduce engagement, which is important to reach the recommended accounts to follow suggestion list, it also looks very spammy, which will not help to gain followers.
The right hashtag however, will increase engagement, and make sure that your post reaches the audience you are trying to attract. But it isn’t easy to choose correct and relevant hashtags that’s why there are now tools on the market like Task Ant. Task Ant will provide you with a list of suggestions of the most popular and engagement generating hashtags, as well as allow you to save several sets for future use, and the ability to easily copy-paste the next time you are posting.
The ideal goal is to create your own hashtag, something that your followers can proudly post or reference when sharing content, which not only helps tremendously with brand awareness, it also helps with reach. As a result, their followers will see your hashtag and potentially check your account out, which might lead to even more followers that post your unique, creative and engaging hashtag.
Aim to trend with creativity
The truth is that most people use Instagram when they are bored, or wanting to kill time. That is why simply posting an image of your product with a long description is not going to grab the attention of anyone who sees it, and it won’t promote conversion rates. Instead, using creativity to advertise your product is much more entertaining, and will help in the long run with attracting followers, and with engagement.
One great way to do this is perhaps showing the process of how a product is created, which also lets your followers in behind the scenes, and increases the quality of the relationship you share. Another thing to consider is that videos and IGTV (Instagram television), greatly increases the levels of engagement a post receives.
Another great idea is to ask your followers to send you content which you can periodically use in the form of stories. Not only is this an easy way to create engagement, but it definitely helps with content creation, as well as making your followers feel special and valued.
Use Instagram ads
There is one resource that is always available to you to be used at any time, if you are still struggling, even with the abovementioned tips, and is often overlooked; Instagram ads.
This is essentially a service that Instagram provides in order to promote a user’s Instagram feed, and looks just like an ordinary post, except it says “sponsored” in the top left corner. This type of advertising is far more effective than the traditional methods, such as banner ads, or simply continually posting about your products or services, which is actually a big reason why people unfollow accounts.
Using Instagram ads is effective because all of them use a call-to-action button, such as apply now, contact us, download, listen now, shop now or send a message to name a few. These advertisements are non-intrusive and essentially provide people with an incentive to see your products, rather than a command to buy something.
You can use these ads for various purposes, such as external website traffic, store traffic, brand awareness, app installations or conversions. Using these ads will expand your reach to almost every daily Instagram user, provided that they actually see it, and also provides an organic means of advertising that won’t interrupt the experience of your potential follower or customer.
Starting a new Instagram account might be difficult, or helping an existing one to grow can be a challenge, but the key is consistent, high-quality content that creates engagement. Always strive to entertain, and you will reap the benefits.
