Business owners are continually striving to create more effective marketing, and mobile businesses are no exception. Many people assume that Instagram is an online service solely for individuals to share pictures for personal reasons, but Instagram offers a new world of possibilities for small and large companies to promote their brands, showcase their products and services, and grow their target audiences. Instagram is a great way to drive traffic to a blog or website, and increase sales.
How does Instagram work?
To learn how to use Instagram to promote your mobile business, you need to understand how this social media channel works. Using the site is very simple. For personal use, you take a picture of something you like, apply a filter to it, and share it. The process for using Instagram for a mobile business is slightly more complex. To effectively market on the network, you need to post creative visuals associated with your products and brand, optimize captions for searches, share the content, and network within the community.
Tips to set your mobile business apart from the crowd
- Define your brand.
Before you start to market your products on any social network, create a definition of your brand. What keywords do you want people to associate with your mobile business? - Create and/or seek out creative images.
Instagram is a great way to give your customers insight into what your mobile company is all about. Even if you do not have a retail outlet or office that people visit in person, you can still share photos of things that happen behind the scenes, such as the product assembly process. Give your customers a backstage pass to view upcoming contests, new products, and events. Don’t forget to be consistent with your branding message. - Make use of the caption option for searches.
While high-quality content goes a long way on Instagram, proper use of captions can increase the distribution of those images. Write short, descriptive captions that include hashtags with a # before each word. Hashtags can be used for relevant keywords (#cookingfor2), locations (#Chicago), and special events (#ComicCon2013). Be careful not to overstuff descriptions with hashtags. Instead, choose just two or three tags for each photo. You can also share images with specific Instagram users by putting the @ sign before a user name. Additionally, you can include shortened links in captions to direct followers to relevant blog posts and website pages. - Spread the word.
When you post photos on Instagram, you can also share them on Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks. Simply select sharing options before you publish a new picture. The more places you place your content online, the more likely you are to get views and clicks. - Make a name for yourself within the Instagram community.
As with any social network, interaction is a high priority. Follow current and potential customers on Instagram, and leave detailed, relevant comments about their content. Consider creating a hashtag for your mobile business. This will encourage customer participation and allow you to monitor conversations about your company. Social interaction goes a long way toward personifying a brand. - Post in moderation.
Because Instagram posts are relatively quick to put together, it can be very easy to go overboard. Resist the temptation to create Instagram posts for your mobile business multiple times each day. When users over-saturate a feed, their photos become less interesting and meaningful, and people start to ignore them. Instead of posting multiple, mediocre pictures every day, select a single stellar image to post once a day or every other day. - Keep it relevant.
Regardless of your mobile company’s niche, keep your Instagram posts on topic. People should be able to make an immediate connection between your photos and your brand. For example, if you run a website where people can sell their vintage items, your photos should relate to this theme. It would not be appropriate to share photos of brand new furniture or information about current clothing trends in this instance.
About the author:
Kristen Gramigna is Chief Marketing Officer for BluePay, a credit card processing firm, and also serves on its Board of Directors. She has more than 15 years experience in the bankcard industry in direct sales, sales management and marketing.
