Instagram for Business: Friend or Foe?

person holding phone with instagram account data on

So you’ve started your business! You’ve done all the background bits and even created a Facebook page! Amazing… but it still doesn’t feel like enough, you want to be seen and heard more! Could Instagram be right for you?

Most people will associate Instagram with just posting pictures of what they eat or what they are doing and don’t really take notice of ‘business’ type accounts. While that may be true for some people, there are plenty (and we mean plenty) of people who turn to Instagram for business before looking at their website.

How can Instagram help business?

Simple layout

As Instagram is very visual, when you go on your own page all you see are images. This is perfect for businesses who have a product or service that they can capture and entice people with. This simple layout helps people to clearly see what you have to offer. The use of images, especially these days, is very important as more and more people are turning to social platforms like Instagram to find inspiration for things they’d like and they want to be visually pleased in order to look at your page.

#Hashtags

A ‘hashtag’ is social media’s version of SEO. It allows you to pick out keywords that will help to narrow down your business so that people have a better chance of finding it. This doesn’t mean that you should hashtag anything.

For example, if your Instagram page is about a bakery when you post an image you should post relevant things about that image. So, if it is an image of a brownie you could use #brownie #homemadebrownie #bakery. You need to have a balance between very broad hashtags and very niche hashtags.

Stories

Stories are short 30 seconds videos that give the viewer a little snippet into what you get up to in a day. This feature is extremely helpful for businesses as it allows you to keep your followers engaged with what your doing without bombarding them with posts. Stories allows you to share a preview of a latest product or anything new that you are producing or to show what you do on a day to day basis.

Instagram can be wonderful for very visually based businesses. It may look scary at first but don’t take it too seriously, don’t worry too much about the followers, don’t feel like you need to post every single day. Just make sure you post what is relevant to your business and that you enjoy yourself. You never know what might come from it!

If you like anymore information please contact us, or if you would like some advice for your business take a look at our drop in sessions

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