At first glance, Instagram seems to be just another social network to use as a form of fun and personal entertainment, right?
Through it, you can follow closely what your friends, acquaintances, and people you admire are doing and publishing on social networks.
However, much more than just keeping up with what other people are doing, Instagram is a great way to do marketing for companies.
It allows brands to greatly strengthen their image before their audience.
But, to be able to take advantage of these benefits, it is necessary to strive and choose the best marketing tactics to execute on the social network.
To help you better understand how these actions and strategies on Instagram should be done, we have prepared this guide that will put you on the right track of the best marketing practices to use in the app.
Come on?
First, some data about Instagram
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Instagram already has about 800 million users worldwide. Brazilians occupy the third position of users of the network.
A report by Fast Company showed that people’s engagement on Instagram is 15 times higher than on Facebook, showing how investing in this social network can be very effective in the goal of creating a community around your brand.
Recently, the brand revealed that it has more than 400 million active users who belong to different groups, which makes the app even more interesting since it is possible to find users from different countries, communities, styles, and preferences both personally and the professional side.
Have you ever wondered how many of these people could be potential customers for your business?
As we always say here, to be remembered, you need to be seen, and therefore, failing to be present on this social network can be a real loss for your company. So don’t be left behind!
Instagram for business
It was thinking about the great space that companies managed to conquer on Instagram and also all the advantages they have when using the network, that Instagram for companies was launched, a feature that promises to further facilitate the experience of users who want to promote their brand. in the app.
The novelty arrived in Brazil and is already indispensable for those who have a corporate profile.
If in the past it was possible to measure audience engagement just by likes and comments on posts, now the tool has metrics that help the account administrator to track key data to assess their performance on Instagram.
Also, it is possible to provide means of contact directly in your biographies, such as a hyperlink, which connects your followers directly with you via email or phone.
In-app ads have also been included and can be used in the form of CTAs that invite users to interact with your publications.
Want to learn more about the new features of Instagram for business? We have separated this article for you that explains everything!
Start your account
Now that you understand the importance of being present in this network, let’s show you how to create your account to be successful in your marketing strategy!
The first step is to create an Instagram account from an email or your (or company) Facebook account. An advantage of creating the account from Facebook is that it is already integrated with the website and this makes it possible to post the same content on both social networks.
It is important to define your username. It can be simply the name of your brand, or the mascot or character that represents the company, for example.
If you are going to use a compound name, use the authorized symbols to differentiate between words. For example, Rock Content’s Instagram profile is rock content. Enjoy and follow us there too 😉
The most important tip here is to make people associate your brand with the company profile, without any major difficulties.
Don’t forget to add a brief description of your business in the biography and a point of contact with your company! Your website’s URL should also be included.
Use Instagram tools
Much more than just sharing photos with your followers, Instagram also allows you to share short videos of a maximum of 1 minute, and also the famous Boomerang, an application that allows the user to create a small video that resembles a lot with a GIF.
Also, the platform allows quick and direct integration with social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr. This is a great way to expand your brand by spreading your profile on Instagram and your posts with people who already follow you on other social networks.
So, in addition to attracting more followers, you build your brand’s identity and strength.
Another tool that Instagram offers and that almost nobody knows how to use most appropriately is that of direct messages, or “ direct messages ”, in its original term.
This is an effective way to create a bigger and closer connection with your followers, generating new opportunities to better know some fans and possible contacts for the company.
Direct messages (or directs, as they are known) are a conversation flow in which photos, videos, or simply text messages can be sent. Who has access to the content of these messages are only those listed in the flow, that is: who sent and who received.
If the message is sent to more than one person, all recipients will know which other profiles they also received, so be careful when creating messages that will be sent by directs.
To make the most of the private messaging tool, it is interesting to analyze the followers of your profile, finding out if there is any pattern of interactions in any specific type of post.
For example, posting motivational or funny images can generate more likes and comments, and can be a good way to invest in this style of content.
Connecting with influential people in your industry is also a great possibility through directions.
Making professional connections is much more practical and good business opportunities can be traced from this direct contact.
Good Marketing Practices on Instagram
As we have seen so far, Instagram can bring many benefits for the visibility and strengthening of your brand and also for your business.
But, how to use Digital Marketing on the network to your advantage and efficiently?
Build a community using a hashtag
Developed by Twitter, hashtags are ways to categorize published content according to a resource very similar to keywords.
Each hashtag is transformed into a hyperlink, which will be responsible for directing people who search for those words to their related posted content.
Thus, hashtags become a great way to become a reference in the market, making the public associate the company’s image directly to the segment or its main products and services offered.
A good tip is to create your brand hashtag, highlighting the institutional name or any expression that refers to the company’s culture and values.
Just remember that it must be clear and preferably not too long!
From the creation and constant dissemination of the hashtag, you can start to encourage its use by users, through promotions and prizes.
So, this becomes a great way to get the audience to interact directly with your brand, increasing the chances of doing new business in the future.
Build a relationship with your followers
One of the first things you should keep in mind when starting your marketing strategy is to define your main audience, right?
With Instagram marketing, it couldn’t be different!
By understanding a little better who are the people you want to sell and trade to or what profile of the audience your company would like to relate to, you can target the content posted to reach those people.
If you have an accounting firm, for example, and have realized that the profile of your customers is very fond of buying jewelry, you can make a post with the image of beautiful and striking jewelry, so that the person who already has that interest has greater empathy for its content.
But be careful!
It is not enough to simply post things that your audience is interested in as your company may end up losing its main focus a little.
When posting about jewelry, following the example, it is important to choose a good caption that directs the user to your business, seeing the value of hiring your service.
In this case, an effective caption would be to link jewelry with accounting, showing that people need to have greater control over their finances, so that they can safely invest in their interests, such as jewelry.
Also, remember that interaction with your audience is very important! Answer the main questions and also the comments, whenever possible. Enjoy the posts of some followers and follow them back too!
If any customer posted a photo using any of your products, or if you received any positive feedback from a consumer, post it on your page!
Promote your profile
As with other social networks, Instagram must be well publicized so that people can make the relationship between the brand and the company.
If the institutional website or blog you built for your company has icons for distributing content on social networks, make sure you have one for your Instagram too.
Another interesting tip is to publicize the profile on other social networks.
By registering with the Facebook account, friends will be notified about the creation of the profile and will soon start to follow you, if they are interested in your area of expertise.
Influential people who relate to your brand can be great allies when it comes to disclosing your company profile. Customers with large audiences, employees, fans, or any other supporter of your brand can be a great source of the traffic to your Instagram profile, as users who follow them will have contact with your brand and may be interested in following you too. !
Another tip is to add a link to the company profile in the email signature of directors and employees who deal directly with customers or leads. Thus, even if it is not a direct disclosure, it is possible to guarantee that your profile will have a considerably increased reach.
If you need help, use the Rock Content Email Signature Generator. The tool is 100% free!
Have a posting calendar
It is very important to remember that your profile cannot be abandoned! A profile that is not constantly updated causes followers to lose more and more interest, after all, people are following you because they are interested in your profile and your business, and expect you to post new content.
Having a posting calendar helps you have greater control over what will be posted and contributes to a continuous flow of publications. But don’t be afraid to be flexible with it. Stay on top of current affairs to take advantage of content production opportunities and use spontaneous language with your audience!
Follow other Instagram accounts
Following other profiles of influential brands in your environment and for your audience helps to keep you updated on what these other companies are posting and sharing with their followers.
This is also a great way to come up with new ideas for publications. In addition to being able to observe how other people interact with these profiles, and how companies behave with them.
Find the beauty of your brand
Many brands, especially those that are B2B, are afraid to invest in a social network for sharing photos and videos.
They believe that they do not have a product that is visually attractive, such as cosmetic items or food, for example.
However, a company profile on Instagram need not necessarily show only photos of products and services.
As much as your company develops some type of software, for example, it is possible to make interesting posts on the subject or the brand and that engage with your audience.
Images that show the day-to-day life of the company and employees, for example, can be a great way to humanize the brand, bringing the public closer to it and generating a sense of empathy.
Run contests that promote interaction with the audience
Instagram contests are seen as one of the greatest opportunities to publicize the brand. They are very similar to retail store promotions that are widely advertised to achieve the highest possible membership, generating a large number of sales.
When participating in a contest, in addition to competing to win the announced prize or promotion, people, most of the time, need to share the posts, follow the profile of the ad or invite other friends to participate in the contest too, through comments on the contest photo. This is one of the best ways to reach new audiences by sharing and disseminating your followers.
To make a successful contest, the first step is to choose which type will be offered. They can be promotions in which users need to like the photo, who need to comment on the publication, or who have to take a photo related to the theme and post using the brand hashtag, for example.
After that, it is enough to disclose the rules in advance, choose a prize that is valuable to the public, causing it to wish to participate in the contest, and, finally, publicize the contest as much as possible on social networks.
Always keep in mind that the more people who are participating, the more interesting the return will be for your brand, which will be engaging with a growing audience.
Instagram Stories in Digital Marketing
Instagram Stories is here to stay and not just won over ordinary or famous users who want to share with their followers more than just traditional posts.
Companies and small businesses have found that they can also use the new feature in Digital Marketing to get closer to their audience and gain more followers.
The feature, which resembles the Snapchat app, allows you to share photos with others that are available on the network for 24 hours.
With it, you will be able to show the day-to-day of the company, making your audience feel more intimate with your brand and its processes, in some way.
In this post here we show you better how to create Instagram Stories and also delve deeper into the benefits of using them in your marketing strategy!
Track your metrics
The metrics Instagram became great allies for companies using the application.
As it is possible to measure the number of views in the profile and in the photos and videos and the ideal time of posting, it is much easier to understand what type of content is most pleasing to your audience and also how their engagement with your profile is going.
Also, with this new function, it is possible to measure the predominant age group among your audience, your gender percentage (if you have more male or female followers), the main cities where these people meet, and also which publications they make more success among them. This allows you to know which content performs better with your audience, and in this way, further, improves the direction of your posts and interactions!
Never forget that the quality of the content is fundamental to the experience of your followers, and this factor directly influences the metrics of your business as well.
Instagram Ads
As with other social networks, Instagram now also offers the option to run paid ads. These ads are posts that appear to users who are not followers of the profile, to increase the reach of the strategies.
Just like on Facebook, the Instagram Ads feature identifies and targets users who have interests in common with what your brand wants to sell, and from there, show your ads to them.
It is also possible to add hyperlinks in the ads so that people can directly access the website where you buy your product, for example.
With all the features that Instagram ads bring, we need to better understand how it all works. Come on?
How does Instagram decide which ad will appear for each user?
Like Facebook, the parent company of Instagram, there is an algorithm that identifies the main points of intersection between the tastes, opinions, and interests that users express on social networks.
Based on these common interests, Instagram presents an ad that is related to the user’s universe, making the relationship more intimate and creating a greater opportunity to generate business for the advertising company.
How can the user identify the ad?
Next to the name of the user who posted the image, the “Sponsored” tag is displayed, which indicates that the post comes from a paid advertisement.
The posts that are posted in the users’ feed and that do not have this tag come from common posts, which are certainly part of the company’s marketing strategy, but which will only be presented to users who are already followers of the brand profile, or for those who directly access the page.
Is it possible to use a CTA directly on Instagram?
Due to recent updates on the platform, Instagram now allows the presence of hyperlinks in posts, directing the audience directly from the application to the page chosen by the advertiser. This feature allows the page owner to insert Calls To Action so that the user can interact with the ad and take action from it.
This is a very effective way to generate business for those who advertise on Instagram. If your company sells a product or service over the internet, posting on Instagram can be just a click away from making a purchase, or converting visitors into leads, for example.
Conclusion
If you are responsible for marketing a company or if you own your own business and have not yet started investing in quality content for institutional Instagram, have you noticed how much time you are wasting?
Instagram makes it possible for companies to connect with their followers, in addition to enabling the humanization of the brand, generating each time to see more engagement and empathy in its audience.
In addition to the strategies mentioned, the posts that must be made frequently, and the organic growth, it is possible to invest in paid ads, which promise to bring incredible results for those who know how to make the ads correctly and effectively.
So, why haven’t you created your company profile on Instagram yet? Draw a marketing strategy for this social network right now, apply these teachings when managing your profile, and comment with us about your experiences and impressions about the process.
