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8 Powerful Ways to Use Instagram for Your Business

Image by raphaelsilva from Pixabay 

Whether yours is a new business or an older one, you’re wise to try broadening your social media portfolio. And either way, you’ve likely been told Instagram is where it’s at.

Today’s businesses swear by Instagram’s effectiveness in marketing to and connecting with their target audience. In short, Instagram will help you grow your brand, increase revenue, and become a top player in your industry.

Once you’ve set up your profile for Instagram, there are many simple yet powerful ways to use Instagram for your business.

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1. Beef up Your Instagram Bio

It’s great to set a high-reaching goal for your Instagram use. However, you still must start at the beginning. So start with your Instagram bio.

Your Instagram bio is where consumers will land when they’re ready to follow you or visit your website. It contains your profile photo and your past Instagram posts. This is where visitors will find your Instagram Stories highlights, a brief description of your business, and a single link to your website.

A solid bio is essential for both increasing your following and drawing more customers to your website. Fill it out completely using a striking profile photo that embodies your brand in some way. Then write a compelling description that gets people to click your link.

2. Grow Your Following

If you want any measure of success on your Instagram account, it all starts with a decent following. Consumers use your follower count as a form of social proof. This tells them whether or not your business is worth their time. In fact, low numbers might send potential customers into a competitor’s arms.

Growing your following can be challenging at first. Therefore, you can use a “buy Instagram followers app” to kickstart your growth. This will instantly increase your following and give you the social proof you need to attract customers. After that, it’s up to you to keep the engagement growing and maintain customer relationships. If you want a shortcut, you can just buy an Instagram account. There are several out there with thousands of followers. You can just buy one relevant to your niche, rebrand it, and use it to reach your audience quickly.

3. Become Searchable with Hashtags

Instagram has a unique search bar that uses hashtags instead of keywords to help consumers find what they’re looking for. Your use of hashtags will put your business on the map if you know how to use them correctly.

Instagram lets you use up to 30 hashtags per post. However, don’t use just any combination of words preceded by the pound sign. Every hashtag should be performing work for your account based on your industry research.

Start by searching trending hashtags in your industry. Then use these hashtags on related posts to increase traffic from searchers.

Next, add branded hashtags to help consumers recognize and associate your brand with your content. They can also use these branded hashtags when posting content related to your brand.

For example, a follower using your product might use a branded hashtag to show their satisfaction of the product. That’s excellent marketing for you!

4. Relate with Consumers Through Stories on Instagram

Instagram Stories is a relatively new feature that’s similar to Snapchat Stories. Account owners can upload videos and photos to their Stories reel, and they’re available for 24 hours. After that, they’re gone forever unless the owner decides to save them to their Highlight reel.

Instagram Stories is one of the most engaging features on the platform, and you’re not using Instagram right if you’re skipping out on Stories. For one thing, more than 500 million monthly users engage with Stories from their favorite brands and accounts.

So post to Stories daily, showcasing products, giving behind-the-scenes glimpses, asking questions, holding polls, counting down to a product reveal, and otherwise promoting your services. Also, provide tips and other valuable content to establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry.

5. Stream Live Videos

Instagram Stories can feature live recordings as well. These also disappear after 24 hours, so it’s like a combination of Snapchat’s Stories feature and Facebook Live.

Live videos are powerful on any platform, as it gives consumers a raw, unfiltered view of your business. So many things on social media show only the very best of things, making viewers feel inferior. These unedited videos show a more vulnerable side that makes consumers feel more at ease when visiting your business profile.

6. Network with Other Business Profiles

Instagram is all about connection, so naturally, you should be making connections with other business profiles. There are multiple benefits in doing this. However, the two most important benefits are learning from others’ Instagram strategies and connecting with influencers.

Influencer marketing is one of the most effective ways to share your brand and products with the world. With influencer marketing, you hire someone with a decent number of followers, usually 10,000 or more. They’ll try your product and give an endorsement for it. Since their followers are hugely loyal, this will mean amazing return on your investment.

7. Showcase Your Originality

Although you’ve spent a fair amount of time Googling the best strategies for marketing your brand on Instagram, you don’t want to appear that way to your followers. Using the same tired hacks and types of posts as your competitors will not hold the interest of your target consumers.

So determine what sets your value proposition apart from that of your competitors and play up that strength. Your own personality can also make the difference. For example, you might be an amateur comedian, and your clever, non-demeaning jokes can liven up your feed significantly. Or you might be super creative, giving new life to the products or services you’re always posting about.

8. Capture Attention with Contests

Contests are effective at any stage in the game, but they’re especially powerful when you’re first starting out. At the beginning of your business, the chances of a single consumer winning are high, and people love good odds. They’re likely to share their experience with others as a result.

Your Instagram contest can take many forms, but typically it will involve asking consumers to post an image, to like a page, or tag friends in order to enter. You’ll then pick a winner from the lot, either based on their merits or at random.

This is highly effective because every time a person enters, you can ask them to tag other people or post about your business on their profiles. This exposes you to a wide audience of potential followers and builds up social proof.

Turn to Instagram to Vault Your Business Toward Success

Give these suggestions a try. They are only a few of many powerful ways that Instagram can vault your business toward success.