Your Enterprise & Instagram: Four Fantastic Fixes!

Instagram is a social media platform that has found astonishing success since it was founded six years ago, as it currently has over 500 million monthly active users, 90% of which are under 35 years old. It is thus clear that is you want to be relevant as a young entrepreneur, Instagram is the place to be.

While most people just know Instagram as a place to post selfies and see great photography, it is actually also a fantastic place to promote your business! If you follow these four fixes, there is no doubt that you will reap the benefits of all Instagram has to offer!

1. Set up an Instagram Business profile

Many entrepreneurs don’t know this, but on Instagram you can change the general profile to a ‘Business Profile’ that gives you more options for analysing your followers, and will make it easier once you want to advertise. The following video from Instagram give you a step-by-step guide of how to make the switch

2. Link your instagram account to Facebook

With so many different forms of social media, many businesses get confused about where to post what, and whether they should double-post images. When it comes to Facebook and Instagram, it can be useful to link both, as the two platforms are similar in their use of images. By linking your profiles, you will be able to streamline your posts and connect them. This has become increasingly easier since Facebook bought Instagram in 2012, and will most probably get you more likes on both platforms.

This key tip is mentioned in Social Media Examiner’s article on Instagram.

3. Make your activity regular, #RELEVANT and engaging

The make-or-break when it comes to Instagram is really how you use it. As much as you want to pay for advertising, only with the following will you actually gauge a sustainable group of followers and likers:

• Post regularly: Make sure you post about a photo or video a day, to avoid spamming your followers, while also ensuring you remain relevant. Striking this magical balance is a key to the success of your Instagram account

• Make your content unique and captivating: People will easily get bored if you just re-post images of inspirational quotes, or you only snap sunsets. Make your photos relevant to what your business about, and use the visual element to showcase your product in a unique way, and give your business a face.

• Use the #Hashtag: Much like Twitter, Instagram uses Hashtags to help users find images that they’re interested in. Adding hashtags that are relevant to the image of your business will help you reach more followers (for example, hashtagging #technology will make your image visible to any other tech-heads that search for that word). Furthermore, participating in popular Insta-trends like #ThrowbackThursday will give you even more coverage.

• Engage with the community: Posting repeatedly alone won’t help you to keep followers. One of the most powerful things you can do is engage with the Instagram community by following others back, liking their photos and commenting on what may be relevant to your business. Your current followers will be more willing to reciprocate, and you may also reach new customers!

4. Use Instagram Insights, and adapt

Analytics are extremely useful to the success of a business profile on Instagram. Many entrepreneurs do not know about Instagram Insights, and this is such a pity because it makes such a difference to your social media strategy! As this video from Instagram explains, Insights allows you to view how many people your posts reach, what your most popular posts are, and what the demographics of your followers are. This will help you adapt your posts to suit your audience: pick up what makes your most popular posts unique, and try to replicate that. If something isn’t working in your strategy - let it go!