Instagram, how to use it for marketing!
By: Brendan Fitzpatrick
I’m fairly new to Instagram, been using it for 3 months now and I’m slowly figuring out how to take advantage of it as a top social media network. The follow may be obvious to some but for most people it may open your eyes to how to take advantage of it from a marketing perspective!
I won’t go into all the details which you’ll find on many other sites but I’ll summarize them here and then dig into the good details:
- Always make sure your pictures are good quality. At the time of this article pics should be 1080 x 1080 pixels.
- Make sure your pics are interesting and have a Theme. This will draw interest and a niche following.
- Make sure you are not posting Ads. If you are not offering information or creative Pics then who would you expect to follow you?
- Always use effective #hashtags. Do your research!
There are a few dozen other key areas to focus on for maximizing your experience on Instagram but here is one area that you won’t find much information on the internet:
Find your proper Audience! I know this sounds like common sense but is it really? Here’s an example, if you are selling T-shirts then think to yourself how you would hashtag you posts. Most people would think the following list is highly targeted:
#tshirts #tshirt #tee #tees #customtees #vinyltees #sportswear #apparel #fashion #design
These tags will likely get you some ‘Likes’ and possibly some followers BUT do you think this audience will buy many T-shirts from you? Considering that Instagram now limits the number of hashtags (30 at the time of this writing) you should research before you hashtag your posts.
For example, if you are selling a T-shirt with a skull on the back up of how many people that are searching for the hashtags mentioned above do you think will buy one of your shirts – if any? If you were to tag your post with the following then your post would likely perform 5x or more than with the above hashtags:
#Sturgis #Sturgis2015 #motorcycleclub #rebel #tough #skull
Think about what your buyers are searching for on Instagram and not who is posting similar content. In fact, you likely want to star as far away as possible as people selling the same content because they will be the first to steal your ideas!