Tips to Building your Business Instagram

Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms around at the moment and if you think that it’s just for millennials and retail businesses, we’ve got news for you. Instagram is a fun, creative video and photo sharing app that lets anyone build a visual platform. 

For businesses, your Instagram presence is a visual story of your brand and is an important part of keeping your audience engaged. When you have a page full of quality images and videos you’re bound to stand out and thrive in the social sphere. 

Instagram is a complex world that may not make too much sense to you right now, but through this blog, you’ll start to piece together just how this app works and ways in which you can succeed in your business by using it to your advantage. 
 

1. Building Your Following
   Building your following is really about creating relationships. If you want people to engage in your posts, you need to engage in theirs. If you want people to follow you, you should try to follow them back. 
   
   This is something that must be worked at daily. It’s like growing a plant, you need to take care of it, water and feed it and nurture it. For not only your relationship with your audience but growing your following will need to be given some time and love to truly blossom. 
    
2. Creating Your Content
   “A picture is worth a thousand words” appeals to virtually everyone, and has been made even more accessible through to social media. No matter the channel, captivating photos, and videos speak to the hearts of all people. And while most companies have an online presence, what ultimately helps their product or service stand out are thoughtful visuals brought to life through rich brand storytelling. 
   
   Your content is the key to building your following. Bear in mind, people are quickly scrolling through posts, so you have to stop them from scrolling past yours with something visually stunning. Your image needs to bright, colourful and high quality. 
   
   Instagram is best for showing snippets and sneak peeks of your content to your audience. You want to give them little pieces of your content that are easy to digest without sharing the entire view. This will lead them to dive deeper into blog posts, tutorials, new product releases etc…
   
   Don’t forget to utilise Instagram Stories to see how often your audience would like to see content on your timeline. There are a range of new Instagram Story features; take polls, use the new quiz tool, GIFs, music and more. Think of your Instagram Stories as a direct line to your followers. It’s the best way to reach them quickly, and the easiest way towards communicating with them.
    
3. When to Post
   Creativity and consistency are important in keeping your engagement high. You should be posting regularly and always posting at similar popular times of the day. Instagram also allows you to switch your profile to a business setting when you connect it to a Facebook Business page.
   
   This setting allows you to see when your followers are most active on Instagram, so you know when you should post your content. This function also shows you your engagement from week to week, collectively, as well as each individual post. This feature helps you to establish an idea of what type of content your followers are attracted to. 
   
   You want to post consistently so people continue to see your content, look forward to it and then the algorithms work to your favour.
    
4. Useful Applications
   Snapseed or VCSO: Providing high quality default filters that can take your smartphone photos to a completely new level. With a huge library of filters available, these are your go-to editing apps.
   
   Unfold: A toolkit for storytellers. Create beautiful and engaging Instagram stories from minimal and elegant templates to wow your audience.
   
   Later or Planoly: Both are visual social media planners to help you to organise, schedule and create content that appeals to your audience and flows in your feed.
    
5. Dive in
   Understanding the ins and outs of social media requires you to get in there and experiment. Now is the time to jump in head first and start establishing your social media presence. So- #letsdothis!