Instagram was a lot more than merely a place where friends could post photos of their trips. Over the past decade, it has profoundly influenced social commerce, the creator economy, and brand engagement strategies. Discover essential Instagram Business Tips and Tricks to harness the platform’s full potential for your brand’s growth and success.
Marketing on Instagram is using platforms to grow user reach, offer leads, and boost revenue for brands. With a predominant user base aged 18-34, Instagram stands as a potent marketing tool for brands, entrepreneurs, and content creators alike.
Instagram business strategies encompass a variety of approaches:
Organic Content:
- Utilize diverse formats such as photos, videos, carousel posts, Reels, and Stories to engage audiences organically.
Paid Content:
- Employ Instagram ads, including Stories ads, Shopping ads, and other promotional formats to amplify reach and visibility.
Influencer Marketing:
- Collaborate with influencers to leverage their reach and credibility in niche communities.
Shopping Tools:
- Harness Instagram’s robust shopping features like the Shop tab, Product tags and catalogs, Live shopping events, Instagram Checkout, and Shopping ads to facilitate seamless shopping experiences for customers.
Your social strategy with your business goals
Before diving into social media activity, it’s crucial to align your social strategy with your overarching business objectives. Take inspiration from companies like Warby Parker, who incorporate diverse content, like memes about soup, to humanize their brand and foster approachability.
For instance, if your goal is to enhance brand awareness, structure your social plan around maximizing exposure and expanding reach. Conversely, if your focus is on generating leads and growing your database, tailor your social strategy to drive traffic into your sales funnel. Every aspect of your social media efforts should be purposeful and aligned with advancing your business goals.
Incorporate these Instagram Business Tips and Tricks to ensure your social media strategy effectively supports your business objectives.
Helpful Instagram marketing tools come in both free and paid options:
Ads Manager:
- A comprehensive platform for creating and managing advertisements across Facebook and Instagram. It leverages Facebook’s robust targeting capabilities and allows for real-time campaign adjustments and performance monitoring.
Hashtag Generator:
- Elevate your feed posts, Reels, and Stories with optimized hashtags using this tool. It simplifies the process of finding relevant and trending hashtags, enhancing your content’s discoverability.
Instagram Username Generator:
- Quickly generate a list of appealing Instagram handles tailored for businesses or individuals. Ideal for those starting out or rebranding on Instagram, it provides creative suggestions based on user preferences.
Instagram Bio Generator:
- Craft compelling Instagram bios that succinctly convey your brand’s essence. This tool helps optimize your profile’s messaging within the character limit, catering to both business and personal accounts.
Canva:
- Simplify visual content creation with Canva, a user-friendly design tool. It offers templates specifically designed for social media, including Instagram, enabling users to create engaging images and streamline their content creation process.
These tools collectively enhance your Instagram marketing efforts by optimizing content creation, audience engagement, and campaign management.
Instagram Trick #1:
- Inspiration: If your content sparks action or inspires new perspectives, that’s valuable!
- Entertainment: Given that many scroll Instagram to unwind, if your posts evoke laughter or smiles, that’s valuable!
- Education: Sharing insights that enlighten your followers with new knowledge qualifies as valuable!
Every Story, Reel, or Carousel you publish should strive to offer something meaningful. In a sea of superficial content, substance stands out. If there’s a “magic bullet” for social media growth in 2024, it’s consistently providing value to your audience.
Instagram Trick#2: Collaborations & Engagement
Connecting with influencers who share a similar audience (but aren’t direct competitors), engaging with your ideal customers or clients, and actively participating in your community are all pivotal in boosting engagement on social media.
Now, for the introverts out there, collaborations don’t always mean extensive face-to-face interactions. Simply staying connected with key accounts and responding to comments can make a significant impact.
Instagram Trick #3: Stories & DM Automation
Direct Messages (DMs) are increasingly recognized as a powerhouse for building deeper connections with your ideal customers on Instagram. Adam Mosseri highlights their significance, noting that more content is shared via DMs than posts themselves.
However, the challenge lies in maintaining timely responses—none of us can be online 24/7. When potential customers message your account, delays in response are inevitable. Moreover, repetitive typing can consume valuable time.
This is where automation tools like ManyChat come into play. During my maternity leave, these automated DMs were instrumental in sustaining monthly revenues of ₹60-80k. They serve as effective openers for initiating sales, nurturing relationships, and boosting engagement.
Beyond convenience, Instagram’s algorithm favors DM interactions over likes, viewing them as more personal engagements. This prioritization can enhance visibility and engagement with your content in followers’ feeds.
Successful implementations of DM automation aren’t exclusive to me—many businesses have benefited similarly. Explore these Instagram Business Tips and Tricks to leverage DM automation for enhanced customer engagement and business growth.
Instagram Trick #4:Use popular Hashtag
Utilizing hashtags is an excellent means to get popular on Instagram.. Identifying top pages that consistently use trending hashtags can rapidly boost your follower count overnight. Tagging influential accounts like Myntra, FabIndia, and others relevant to your product can also accelerate your path to fame.
For instance, popular fashion hashtags in India include #ethnicwear, #sarees, and others, while fitness enthusiasts often use #fitindia, #healthyliving, and #fitnessgoals.
Keep in mind, that the optimal number of hashtags per post is around 5-6, although Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags for maximum reach and visibility.
Also Read: Enhance Your SEO Game with These Must-Have Tools
Instagram Trick #5:Posting regularly
Posting content consistently is crucial for building a follower base and gaining popularity on Instagram. If you’re aiming to become Instagram famous in India, prioritize regular posting of high-quality content.
Once you reach your desired follower count, you can adjust your posting frequency. However, during the growth phase, frequent and impactful posts generate more engagement. This can potentially land your content on the top lists associated with your chosen hashtags, thereby expanding your follower base.
Instagram Trick#6:Interact with influencer
When identifying influencers in your niche in India, consider turning on post notifications for their profiles. This way, you’ll be instantly notified whenever they share new content. Engage actively with these influencers by joining conversations and showcasing your brand or personal identity.
Additionally, prioritize interacting with your followers. In today’s digital landscape, emotional connections matter greatly. Besides creating a sense of community, talking to your audience offers helpful feedback on how to make what you write greater. By nurturing relationships with influencers and engaging authentically with followers, you can cultivate a strong and loyal community around your brand or personal profile on Instagram.
Instagram Trick #7:Publish your account on viral websites
Do you have unique content that has the potential to go viral beyond Instagram? Sites like Reddit India, ScoopWhoop, and MissMalini frequently publish Instagram content that can go viral quickly. So, create funny and attention-grabbing content within your niche, search for the author covering your niche in the blogs that go viral, use hashtags around that piece of news, and consistently try to engage with them to get featured on these viral websites. Content on a grand Indian wedding is one such example. Incorporate these Instagram Business Tips and Tricks to maximize your reach and engagement across platforms.
Instagram Trick #8:Your own style
You wouldn’t want your content style and theme to mirror those of other Indian bloggers, travel enthusiasts, or food lovers, would you? To stand out in the Indian context, it’s important to adhere to a specific color palette, font, or image style that is uniquely yours. Avoid copying others; instead, develop a distinctive style that sets you apart.
Instagram Trick #9: Set a small goal first
Sometimes, the idea of becoming famous instantly can be daunting. It’s more practical to set small, achievable goals first. For example, aim to gain your first 1,000 followers, which is a reasonable target. Or, start by collaborating with an Indian brand. This approach helps you understand what steps to take next, allowing you to grow your presence gradually and effectively.