With 1.16 billion users, Instagram is one of the most popular networking sites today, which means using this platform to market your startups is now needed more than ever!This article will highlight how you can harness this whopping audience to the advantage of your venture by using these 10 best Instagram features.
BUILD A BUSINESS PROFILE: Optimizing your ‘Instagram for your business profile is the first step towards an effective Instagram marketing plan. You’ll not only portray a professional outlook but also get access to Insights, a tool to trace your engagement in the app.
Set the logo of your startup as the profile photo, and write a killer bio that should include the following:
- The name of your startup
- A short description that explains what you deal with
- A link to your website
- Your contact info
TRACK YOUR METRICS: While Instagram Insights gives you a fair idea about how your content is doing with your followers, you should also consider some online tools.
Hootsuite, CoSchedule, or Sprout Social can give you great help to schedule your content as per the audience engagement rates, i.e., the days and times at which your target audience is most active. Also, try to do a competitive analysis of your profile with a brand of a similar niche having a greater reach.
DESIGN TEASER POSTS: Ordinary informative posts about your business won’t attract people. Pick beautiful free stock images from sites like Pexels and Unsplash related to your service, edit them well to suit your profile, and give them catchy, relevant captions.
Remember, Instagram is all about glam, so aesthetics matters! Stick to a specific color palette for your posts. An organized feed is way more attractive than random posts.
Read: Social Media Marketing by Beacon Innovation: The Only Guide You’ll Ever Need
USE STORIES TO YOUR ADVANTAGE: Instagram Stories are a leading way to communicate with your viewers and know what they expect from your startup. Create regular polls and question stickers about your product and see how you can improvise your services to generate more sales.
Don’t forget to make a Frequently Asked Questions story highlight on your account. Stories disappear after 24 hours, so you can run your creativity wild here and experiment with different ideas, e.g., behind-the-scenes stories or stickers.
CREATE SPONSORED ADS: Hit the pain points of your viewers with appealing ads to generate organic engagement on your startup profile. Newsjacking can be a great way to create tempting ads that contain limited-time discounts and deals and offer incredible Returns on investment. Include promo codes for people who interact with your posts more frequently to keep them on board.
MAKE USE OF LIVE VIDEOS: Live videos are fantastic features where you can interact with your online community and make a reputed brand name. Live videos do not stay on your profile, and the best part about them is, when you go live, your followers receive a notification about it.
Answer customer queries in real-time, welcome their suggestions and use the live videos to promote your startup by announcing giveaways and promotions in them.
IGTV or Instagram TV: On the other hand, it is for long videos you want to keep on your feed. It is a video-sharing platform within Instagram, and you will need to sign up for IGTV before you can create your first video.
Be creative in making captivating videos about your startup, the services you are providing, how your clients will benefit from them, client reviews and even behind-the-scenes shots!
USE HASHTAGS WISELY: Popular hashtags can increase your reach to a tremendous level. They also give you great content ideas, make a habit to check out the top posts on a popular tag for inspiration.
Plan giveaways and shout-outs with the top performers that match your niche to get their traffic. Add a geotag in your posts to target an audience from a specific location. Also, a personal brand tag is a must-have!
Your followers will use it when they post your products’ reviews to add user-generated content to your tag. Partner with influencers to promote your brand tag; influencer marketing has paramount potential with a global market value of $13.8 billion as of 2021!
GET AUGMENTED REALITY FILTERS: AR filters have been in use for quite a long in Snapchat and Instagram cameras. But now, certain brands can create custom filters for their products!
This was initiated when Facebook, the owner company of Instagram, allowed Kylie Jenner’s brand, Kylie Cosmetics, to create filters so people could literally ‘try on’ their favorite makeup products virtually before buying! This has opened a whole new world of opportunities for businesses to grow their reach to an insane level.
SET UP PHOTO MAPS: Instagram has also released a feature to share your photos on Google maps, so you can feature your startup’s descriptive photos on maps for targeting the public from your nearby geographical location.
Before making it visible on Google Maps, you will review the geotags your photo contains. You can change the pictures or remove them anytime from the Map, and they’ll be kept intact on your profile!
With all these exciting features, and more expected to be added on Instagram, entrepreneurs have, now more than ever, a limitless space to grow their businesses. Now it’s upon you how creatively you use Instagram’s powers to pause your audience from mindless scrolling and investing in what you have in store for them!
