Instagram has been a big platform for many brands and businesses to engage with their audience and deliver specific content to the Instagram community. To get the success of big named brands on the picture sharing platform, you will have to check out how bigger brands are running their feeds, posts, stories, and profiles. When Instagram first came on the scene it was easy to build a following with photos and hashtags. However, the game has changed and the platform now has more than 800 million users. The landscape is more competitive and you need to implement more tactics to get discovered by your audience. Here are five tactics to consider when amplifying your Instagram appearance and impact.
Buyer Personas Are Key
The thing that separates good and bad social media strategies is if you are really hitting your target audience and if you are delivering content best suited for your audience. Brands that conquer social media are essentially their audience’s virtual best friend. As in, they know their favorite interests, they know about their likes, hates, and the times they are on Instagram. Smart brands are giving each persona something they crave at the hours they need it. Researching different groups of buyer personas is the first step in optimizing for any social network, especially Instagram. This results in the difference between you having to find your audience and your audience finding you.
Keep The Name Professional
This one seems self explanatory, but the temptations of making a hip and quirky name for your Instagram account can be present. When it comes to a business you want to be sure anything associated with the brand has the same names and does not confuse your audience. In addition, your Instagram username is one of the few search items on the platform so make sure that audiences re searching for your brand.
Profile Images
Just like with your Instagram username, you want to have a profile picture that is professional and represents your brand. The best bet is to go with your business logo for your profile image. Just be sure that the quality of the image does not suffer as the logo needs to fit into a 110 x 110 round image.
Instagram Stories
Last year, Instagram added a new feature called Stories to rival Snapchat’s story function. Since its inception, over 250 million users use the feature. Instagram Stories is a great way to give your brand more visibility by adding a hashtag and location to each Story. By adding these two items to your Story, you allow your Story to be visible at the top of the Explore deed. Your audience will also be able to see Stories taking place near a physical location by hashtag.
If your account is public then your Story can appear in the Search & Explore section of Instagram as well as appearing on hashtag or location pages.
Links
When it comes to Instagram, the amount of links you can have or promote is limited. You can either put them in your bio section or you can add them a part of your Story. However, you can only add it to your Story if you have over 10,000 followers. A great way to have a successful link with your account is if it is a link that offers something of value to your audience. Value links will have a higher click rate as it serves as a reward to your audience for coming to your page.