Grow a Business Using Instagram

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There are loads of platforms out there that are surprisingly useful when it comes to marketing for your business! We’ve already taken a look at Pinterest as a marketing tool in the past. But now it’s time to look at a platform that’s even bigger: Instagram.

Anyone business owner with an awareness of social media is aware of Instagram, but they may not think it would help with their business very much. This is actually quite understandable; after all, it’s just images and captions for those images, right? Surely it’s not really a place for business the same way that Twitter can be, right?

Well, Instagram and Twitter aren’t actually that different. Yes, Instagram is more focused on images. But the text you can write to accompany them can exceed Twitter’s paltry 140 character limit! And looking at someone’s Instagram gallery can be a really engaging experience, much more so that browsing through someone’s Twitter post history.

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There are a lot of business owners out there who know that Instagram must surely have some potential when it comes to marketing. But actually finding success on that platform eludes many. It’s not quite as “obvious” as other social media platforms. (Not that getting big on other social media platforms is a walk in the park themselves!)

If you want to give your business a boost using Instagram, then here are a few tips to keep in mind!

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Upload videos. Instagram is a great place to upload videos that are less than a minute long, and they fit pretty snugly among your images. If you keep your videos short and sweet consistently, then followers will be much more willing to view that content whenever it appears. Vine was once the place to go for this sort of content, but that service is being discontinued!

Connect it to your other social media accounts. Instagram is actually owned by Facebook, so the interactions between the two are incredibly easy. Seeing as Facebook is the biggest social media site out there (it’s not even close), this is extremely useful. But hooking Instagram content up with other platforms such as Twitter is also a breeze. Make sure you highlight your Instagram account on your website along with the links to your Facebook and Twitter pages.

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Make the content shareable. People can share Instagram content on their own accounts - and on other social media platforms - with relative ease. Making something that people will want to share is crucial. One way of really making your images pop is using graphics. This helps turn your images into a more specific message that can easily be shared. You could look into learning how to create a custom Instagram graphic for your account to increase the engagement your followers experience.

Look at the examples of the successes. Red Bull, Burberry, Starbucks, and, erm, Playboy are just some of the big names who have made a splash on Instagram by really taking advantage of the medium of photography. One in particular that should be highlighted is the Sharpie Instagram account, which promotes their pens and engages users by sharing submitted ‘Sharpie art.’