Is Instagram Good for Small Businesses

Instagram has more than 800 million users worldwide, making it one of the most popular social networking site. Hence, big brands like Coca Cola, Nike, Adidas and Starbucks utilize it to its full potential.  But what makes Instagram popular among small business owners?

You don’t have to be an enterprise-sized company to get value from Instagram. In fact, the mobile app allows small businesses to compete with the “big daddies.”

How can you use Instagram for small business?

Set up your Business Account

Connecting your company’s social accounts will always help. In case you have a good social media following, you would be able to push your followers form Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr to Instagram. Instagram allows you to link other profiles

Don’t forget to add your website and write a bio for your profile that explains what your company is all about 

Understand the #Hashtag Concept

If you want your posts to be shown on top of the app’s search, you need to start understanding and using suitable hashtags. Instagram’s search feature looks for hashtags instead of keywords. Hashtags allow you to increase your visibility and reach. But, make use you are using the right hastags and not any random words. This will definitely not increase your followers.

In a case study from Max Woolf, over 120,000 Instagram photos were analyzed and he found that photos with the maximum allowable hashtags (30) received three times the amount of likes as photos with just a few hashtags.

Insta Stories is the way

Start using Instagram Stories. Small Businesses have yet not explored the insta story concept. But there is a lot of potential that needs to be exploited to reap the benefits. Start experimenting and get creative insta stories for your brand. The more the engagement, the more is the benefit. With time, You will find people following your brand for more content.

Keep Tracking

Keep monitoring on your Instagram posts engagement. Try and find out which hashtags perfom the best for your brand. Use Google Analytics to track your brand performance. This will help you understand more on the type of content your audience is looking out for. This will help in creation of future posts.

Engaging Videos

Allthough photos generate engagements, but the use of videos for small business is also important. Get started right now before everyone else to capitalize on this less explored area of Instagram. You do not require a lot of videos, just a few creative videos taken from your phone would do the job.

Run an Insta Contest

People just love contests aka the free stuff. Engage with your audience through contests and make them happy. There are a few pointers to keep in mind before you start with an Instagram contest

• Create a custom hashtag for your contest
• Ask people to tag a friend and comment with the hashtag
• Promotion should ideally start atleast a week prior to the contest. This will help creating buzz and attracting more followers
• Collaborate with other influencers and companies

Influencer Marketing

One of the quickest way of gaining relevant instagram followers is Influencer Marketing.  This helps you connect with people with substantial amount of followers who are laso your target audience. Celebs as well as Non celebs can be your influencers. Just keep a check on their engagements. Just having followers wont work, it is also important that there is substantial amount of engagement found in their posts. Be smart in selecting the influencer that resonates with your brand.

Capitalize on Instagram ads

Instagram Ads present a great opportunity for small businesses because it’s extremely affordable. You can start immediately if you already have a facebook business account because the same platform works for instagram as well.

Collaboration

One of the quickest ways to get a surge of new followers is to get a shout out or mention from someone that already has a large following. When these people give a brand a shout out, their followers instantly go to check out the account and will more than likely give you a follow. 

The two most common ways to get mentioned by established accounts are:

• Pay for a sponsored post
• Establish a relationship or partner up with them

Keep an eye on competitors followers

If you find a user interested in your competitor then it is obvious that he follows your niche. Win over them and make them follow your brand and keep them engaged with your content. List out your competitors and start following their followers on Instagram. Like and comment on their posts to engage further. This will help to spread word about your brand.

If you’re not using Instagram for small business yet, you’re missing out on a potential gold mine of opportunities. It’s high time you get started. For more help on Instagram Marketing you can connect with, us (Tranzdigi – A Digital Marketing Agency in Mumbai)