If you are a social media buff and if we ask you which social media do you feel has less noise, then we are sure your answer would be “Instagram”. One of the very new social networking service active since 2010 is already loved by billions of users. The social media giant Facebook already recognized Instagram’s potential of penetrating in the social media network, and hence, acquired the company in the year 2012.
Today, approximately there are 1 billion active users monthly and 500 million active users daily, just next to Facebook and YouTube. There is nothing silly on this platform. Most likes (approximately 53 million) received by an image till date is of an EGG which was posted with a hashtag that went as this “#LikeTheEgg”.
You must have got some idea of how your brand could play on this platform.
Now let’s discuss why we feel Instagram can be a very useful tool to improve your brand’s presence or reputation digitally.
- Wide range of audience – Instagram is a social media platform where almost all demographical audience can be found. As per SocialSprout, 2 out of every 3 users belongs to age-group of 18-29 Years, whereas 61% of the user population is aged between 30-64 who are more likely to get converted into customers.
(Photo Courtesy: SproutSocial)
- More Business Accounts than Individual – Nearly 80% of accounts on Instagram belongs to business holders who keep engaging with their prospects and customers. Nearly 2 million advertisers are active on this platform with a target to reach out their prospects through paid and organic posts.
- Easy Tagging for More Visibility – Used first in 2007, Hashtags (#) are very trendy metadata tags which increase visibility of a post and also help people to relate to the original posts.
So what should you do to improve brand awareness and brand reputation on Instagram?
- High definition images and videos: Show-off your brand story and updates on business activities through HD images and videos. Low-quality images do not get much attention of the audience on Instagram. You can use in-built filters for better image quality or there are many free image editing software and tools available online which can be used to edit images, as well as videos.
- Behind-the-Scenes: Use videos or images to inform your audience how your brand or product is getting created from scratch. Behind-the-scenes help to increase trust among the prospects and a well-informed prospect is most likely to get converted to a customer.
- Create Stories: Do not forget to use the “Your Story” option on the platform to keep updating your customers about offers or to post behind-the-scenes. Be original, unique, consistent and relevant. Remember one-third of stories published are for businesses and approximately 50% of businesses update stories at least once a month. Use engaging pictures to get more attention.
- Use more videos, than images: Although Instagram is known for maximum picture uploads, however nearly 38% uploaded videos get more engagement than the pictures.
- Do not forget Hashtags: Use creative and trending hashtags that highlight your brand story. Do not use any other brand’s hashtags or else you might lose originality and can hit you back as well. Use Hashtag generators such as tagsforlikes.com, displaypurposes.com, ritetag.com, ingramer.com, or Leetags app available on Google Play Store.
These are a few steps that you can follow to rule the Instagram world and to create a better image on your target audience. Regular posts to highlight how dedicated you are towards updating your customers on progress of product creation, upcoming events, or behind the scenes of your company culture could help to build a brand reputation. But do not forget to use brand monitoring tools such as SEMrush, Social Mention, HootSuite, BuzzSumo, etc. to keep a track of how your audience is reacting or engaging with your posts and how they are mentioning your brand, company or your products on Instagram.
