Noobs Guide on Instagram for Business

More corporate and government organizations today are joining the bandwagon of Instagram for Business. It is one of the fastest growing social networks with more than a hundred million worldwide subscribers. What’s more, about 54% of the famous brands are now using Instagram as part of their marketing campaign. This makes it all the more important for small business owners to start using this social network for promotion and to expand the brand visibility to a wider audience.

Instagram daily usage tremendously exploded within just a span of 6 months. From about a million back in March 2012, it blasted off to a whopping 7.3 million average daily users in August 2012, finally overtaking Twitter at only 6.9 million combined daily app and web users. It was an awesome feat for Instagram to beat Twitter in average daily use in the United States only.

So if you are in business and you want to promote your products and services online via social media marketing then don’t miss out on this increasingly popular social network with vast potential in exploding your business presence to more prospects.

 

How to Use Instagram for Business

As a business owner there are many ways of taking advantage of the great features of Instagram for business. While the basic principle is quite simple since all you need to do is just get more followers and start uploading photos, you still need to be creative and innovative in your strategies to make it work. Not all photos are warmly received with likes and positive comments, and only those that truly standout will be shared.

Develop a Brand Image through Your Photos

One of the best ways of using Instagram to grow your business is to develop a brand image among the clientele and prospects. Leverage on the power of photos in effectively imparting your marketing messages and in depicting the image of your brand. You can highlight the benefits in your images, as well as the culture that your brand is promoting.

If your company supports green energy, then showcase the measures you have done to minimize the carbon emission to the atmosphere, such as reduction of energy consumption by turning off the lights in unoccupied rooms and minimizing the use of papers by printing both sides for internal office memos. You can upload photos relating to these matters in order to let the people know of your efforts to save the planet Earth from the looming global warming. What is good about this is that those who are loyal to your brand will follow your acts as well.

 

Show All Your Products

If your company is carrying numerous brands, then showcase all your products in Instagram. Among the many brands in your line, obviously one or two of them are more popular over the others. Some brands are not even known to some of your customers.

Instagram provides an excellent venue for you to tell to all your followers about entire the products that your company is carrying. Their awareness can tremendously enhance the performance of non-performing or less popular brands. If your company is well-known for quality and excellent services then all the product will be associated with it as well.

 

Tell Them What’s Going on behind the Scene

Some customers are just curious about how the products were made. Others simply want to know the procedures in order to have a better glimpse of the quality of the products. Go ahead and tell them. Show to the whole world through your photo uploads the salient stages of the manufacturing process, the high quality standards you are observing, as well as the safety measures you are imposing among the workers. By doing so, you will earn better respect and credibility from the audience and enhances your brand image.

 

Tell the World the People behind the Company

By knowing who the people are that runs and manage the business, customers are better assured that they are in good hands. This is particularly important in service businesses as well as in investment firms. If the firm is managed by highly qualified professionals with extreme expertise in their respective fields, more customers will start pouring in.

In investment, investors will obviously not going to risk placing their hard-earned money in a fund managed by an inept financial manager; this is like having a guaranteed ticket to losses. If you are planning to invest, then make sure that the fund that you choose is handled by a qualified and certified financial manager that is capable of gaining profits. That is why it is best to show them the management team, especially those who are quite popular in their fields.

For small businesses with only a handful of workers, you don’t have to limit your employee highlights to the management team, but you can also feature even the ordinary workers with exemplary performances. You can depict their satisfaction in work and in providing services to the customers. Happy and well-satisfied employees mean great services; so if you are offering a range of services then show to the world that your workers are happy serving clients.

 

Highlight Your Office

Your office can greatly influence the impression of the people about your company. If you have a huge headquarter, then most people will also think that you’re doing great in your business. It is sometimes associated with success as well. The same is also true with regards to how the office is organized. Messy offices can also be a sign of disorganized processes, which can lead to a lot of dissatisfaction among the clients when providing the services.

So if your office is well-organized, neat, and tidy, then show them off; it means a lot to your prospects and clients, and this can also have a great impact on your business performance.

 

Show the Happy Clients

Positive customer feedbacks are important, particularly in online shopping. Majority of the online shoppers will not buy products right way without first reading a couple of reviews that provide added assurance. Reviews and feedbacks are greatly helpful in boosting the consumer confidence on the product, as well as in helping them avoid certain brands with bad quality.

Instead of getting feedbacks from customers, you can show off the happy faces of well-satisfied clients. Highlight their smiles, the signs of satisfaction in their faces, and their enjoyment, and you will gain more customers through your shared photos.

 

Highlight the Events

If you have some big events, take some shots of the various programs and activities and show the people having some fun time out. This will attract more attendees in your future programs and further build a good brand image. It will also help in showing to others that your company is not just all about business but it is also keen on establishing constant communication and good rapport with the clients.

These tips are by no means the only strategies to use for Instagram marketing. You can formulate your own programs and unique techniques to explode your business presence and in building a respectable image in different communities that you would like to reach out to.

Regardless of your objectives, what is more important is to use Instagram for business purposes. If you don’t, then you will be easily overshadowed by your competitors that are already implementing different Instagram strategies to grab a bigger slice of the market.