Instagram has come a long way over the past several years. Now, users can not only post photos and videos about their personal lives, but also utilize the platform as a valuable business tool. Ready to start Instagrammin’ your way to increased brand awareness? Let’s get into it.
What is Instagram?
Instagram is a social media platform that allows users to share photos and videos to their followers. Created by Facebook in 2010, the platform has grown to over 1 billion active users every month, with 500 million active on a daily basis. More recently, Instagram created Stories and IGTV as new ways for brands and individuals to reach their audiences. Stories allow brands to interact more directly with their audience as well as share clips of the behind-the-scenes activities in the business; IGTV provides a platform to share long-format videos, which have recently been gaining popularity.
They also launched new tools which allow companies and individuals to utilize their platform to increase their business’s reach. Companies can now create business profiles which give them access to analytics and audience insights; these allow the social media team to target posts toward the most prevalent demographics within the audience.
Why is Instagram important?
With so many active users on a daily basis, Instagram is a great way to expand the number of people who know about your business. No matter what you’re advertising, there is an audience for you on Instagram. There are over 25 million business accounts worldwide, but Instagram boasts that 60% of people say they’ve discovered new products on their app. Why not add your business to the mix and start reaching new clients every day?
How can you grow your brand on Instagram?
When you’re trying to grow your brand on Instagram, there are 3 steps you should follow:
- Appeal to your audience.
On every social media platform, posts which align with the views and interests of your audience perform the best and yield the highest engagement. By studying your audience analytics, you can direct your posts to a specific type of person. Whether that’s a specific gender, age category, or location is up to you – just make sure you’re posting towards your market. - Utilize the business tools.
Instagram created their business tools for a reason – use them! They have a blog that will show you some of the ins and outs of their platform, and they’ve created it to work for you. If you’re not using what they’ve provided for you, you’re seriously missing out. - Create good quality content.
We know. We’re a broken record. But seriously, quality is key! Your audience will prefer high-quality, sharp, visually-pleasing photos over grainy, dim photos any day. Give the people what they want. If you’re not totally confident in your content photos, we have a great blog about how to make them stand out among the rest.
Social media can be challenging; even though it seems simple, there’s just so much you can do. Want a partner as you navigate the wild world of social media? Blackwood Creative is here to walk with you – contact us today. We’d love to help you grow your business.
