6 Tips for Using Instagram for your Business

If you’re new to Instagram, it can definitely seem a little daunting and at first, and it may not be clear how much it can really help your business thrive initially.

Firstly, 32% of ALL internet users are on Instagram, with 51% of its users saying that they log into and access the platform every day – that’s roughly around 400-500 million active users every day. Regardless of your industry, can you afford to miss out on an audience that big?

Research has shown that 5% of users will take action after being inspired by a post, either by searching, shopping, sharing to a friend or visiting a website. Furthermore, 60% of users have said they have learned about a product or a service on Instagram that they would then go on to use.

But how can I use Instagram for my business? And where do I even start? Not to worry, here to help are some key pointers on how to make your Instagram account as effective and productive as possible.

First impressions

According to researchers at the Missouri University of Science and Technology, apparently it only takes two-tenths of a second for someone to form an opinion of your brand online. This means that it is incredibly important to make a great first impression with all of your social media, including your Instagram profile and bio.

Studies have found that some of the most effective profiles have a set colour palette, for example, all pictures featured on the page all share the same colour background. This makes the images easy on the eye and makes your profile clean and professional.

Make the most of your bio

It is the first thing anyone will see when they visit your profile. Make it your own and try and keep it as informative but concise as possible to keep your visitors engaged.

Your bio is the only place within Instagram where you can share a clickable link so if you have something recent that you need to share its a good idea to take advantage of this – many brands simply use this as a link to their main homepage while others update their link regularly to their latest content.

Increasing your engagement

Studies have shown that posts with a location tag receive 79% more engagement – this is helpful as anyone searching for a specific location will be taken to your post!

It has also been proven that posts with at least one hashtag receive an average of 12.6% more engagement when compared with posts with no hashtags.

Hashtags – When and how to use them.

Instagram offers a potential of 30 hashtags per post, however research suggests the optimum number of hashtags is 11. Here at Damteq, we aim for around 6. There is no rule with this and it is up to you how many hashtags you wish to use! Hashtags work the same way as location tagging, if someone searches for a specific word or term and it is something you have hashtagged your post will show up in their search! This is a fantastic way of targeting a specific audience or a specific search term related to your post, product or service.

I have gone to the trouble of finding the most popular hashtags for marketing as of 2017-2018;

#social #branding #socialmedia #succcess #sales #marketing #tech #business #smallbiz.

Again, there is no real rule with this but try to keep your hashtags relevant to what you’re posting so that it reaches the desired audience.

80/20 rule

The 80/20 rule is; 80% of your content should be focused on educating, enlightening and engaging your audience and only 20% should be self-promotional. Instagram is a great platform to promote your business/product but it has been proven to be far more successful to post engaging content more regularly than sales posts.

When is the best time to post on Instagram?

This part is up to you, it has been shown that the best time to posts is around 5pm on a Wednesday and that the effectiveness of posts is significantly higher throughout weekdays as opposed to weekends.  Ultimately, you can post whenever you like – a lot of brands post 1-2 posts per day to keep their posts relevant without spamming. Really this depends on the audience that you want to target and their social media usage habits. For example, a younger demographic are more likely to be looking at their social media more often than someone from an older demographic. Find the optimal times for your target demographic and your good to go!

If you do find you need help with a marketing strategy or just getting the hang of social media posting then we are here to help give us a call or simply click the live chat button!