Social media engagement is one of the most important metrics for small business owners to analyze when developing a social media marketing strategy. According to Epic, “Engagement with brands is 10 times higher than Facebook, 54 times higher than Pinterest, and 84 times higher than Twitter.” This makes Instagram one of the top platforms for small business owners to grow their brand and show off their personality. The question is, what is the best way for business owners to use Instagram?
Setup
Your company profile should contain several essential pieces of information, including website links, mission statement and contact information. You also want to ensure you connect your other social accounts to your Instagram profile so you can automatically share your posts to those platforms as well.
Comments
The comment section on your posts and even the posts of your competitors can give great insights on pain points your customers may be experiencing, allowing you to sculpt your content to target them specifically.
Hashtags
Hashtags allow potential customers outside of your network to search and view your posts. Relevant hashtags significantly increase the reach of your content and can also help build your following.
Influencers
Influencers with a large following on Instagram can bring validity and additional reach to your content. Building relationships and establishing contacts that will help share your posts is essential on all social media platforms and Instagram is no different. Finding influencers that market a different product line to a similar target audience make great partners for sharing content.
Stories
Utilizing the Instagram Stories feature allows you to post a string of content that will disappear after 24 hours. This feature can be used in a number of ways including product releases, user generated content and humor. Showcasing the personality of your brand is one of the biggest benefits of Instagram and the Stories feature will help you do just that.
Videos
Video has become an integral part of social media marketing and its success on Instagram highlights the need for its inclusion in small business marketing initiatives. Even short videos that contain a static image with text running over it can drive engagement.
Images
Images are of course the foundation of the Instagram platform. Using high quality, original images will always bring about greater success than generic stock photos. Investing in a quality camera and editing software will allow you to customize your content and make your Instagram account stand out.
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