Instagram is a major player in the social media landscape. Already the site has over 25 million businesses from around the world that are harnessing its reach. Not surprisingly, there are more than 200 million visits to business profiles each day.
Why Make a Business Instagram Account
Instagram has proven to be the choice for businesses who want to get their brand out in front of their audience. Engagement with users tends to be high with matching brand loyalty as well. This means that your business goals are more achievable.
Here’s how to take full advantage of Instagram’s power and reach:
Identify your audience
First, figure out who already purchases your products. Research the analytics on your business’s other social media presences so you can understand who is following you on them.
Check your competitors thoroughly. Make note of what they’re doing that you like and that applies to your own business. Similarly, pinpoint what doesn’t seem to mesh with your brand or what you would change if it were your business.
Using the information you’ve gleaned, pen your brand’s value statement. Try to make it concise without being abrupt and avoid excluding any important aspects.
Be SMART with goals
In order to really harness the power of Instagram, you need to develop goals that guide your strategy. An effective way of doing so is to make sure each one follows the SMART guidelines. Are your goals:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Relevant
- Timely
You’ll probably have a mix of goals that focus on metrics like follows, conversions and likes. These will be complemented by goals that help you meet your brand’s own unique business objectives.
Determine the right performance metrics for your brand
While the metrics you focus on will depend specifically on your business, they should align with one of the following customer journey stages:
- awareness which also includes the growth rate of your followers and the reach of your posts.
- engagement includes metrics that are based on actions like shares and likes.
- conversion involves metrics related to bounce rates and click-through rates.
- customer metrics include testimonials and similar customer-centric actions.
Engage fans regularly
When your Instagram following starts to increase, you’ll want to make sure that you’re engaging your fans regularly — but not so much that they are overwhelmed or that they tune you out completely. Make sure you benchmark the progress of your brand’s account against your competition.
You’ll also want to experiment to determine the time frame that elicits the most engagement. Likewise, you’ll need to pay close attention to what types of engagement are most embraced by your audience.
Instagram offers your brand the potential to increase its reach. With most of the platform’s users under the age of 35 and almost evenly split between females and males, Instagram presents numerous possibilities.
