Instagram Strategy: 4 Tips on Instagram Marketing

Boasting over 500 million active users, Instagram is buzzing with prospective and existing customers, ready to engage with your brand. With more consumers seeking to follow and connect with businesses online, Instagram is a perfect channel to reach out to your audience. In fact, a third of millenials state that social media is indeed their preferred channel for communicating with businesses (Source: Business2Community). With that said, improving your brand’s Instagram strategy is worthwhile.

Since Instagram is a solid network to build awareness, cultivate relationships with potential clients, and progress your social media marketing goals, it’s important to hone your Instagram strategy to achieve optimal results from your efforts. Here are four proven ways to help you better your social presence on Instagram while fostering engagement and improving productivity.

#1 Use Tools to Your Advantage

There are so many Instagram tools at your disposal to better your time-management, accelerate your goals, and bolster your brand image. Apps range from providing analytics, finding influencers, gauging follower activity, to perfecting your images through filter options. The key is to choose 1-2 that aligns with your business goals and objectives for Instagram.

Here are a few tools that are popular amongst marketers to consider:

• Crowdfire – This must-have app shows a list of new followers, those who’ve unfollowed you, gives suggestions of other users that may be interested in your brand, and offers the best times to schedule your content

• Schedugram – Be efficient with your time and effective in your marketing by scheduling your posts in advance. You’ll be able to maintain an active presence while fulfilling other duties in your business
• Repost – Repost others images giving them credit
• SnapWidget – Embed your IG feed onto your website or blog
• Social Insight – A top analytics tool to monitor engagement, follower growth, interactions, and overall progress to measure your IG marketing success 

#2 Hashtags Work on Instagram!

Including hashtags with your content is extremely important part of your Instagram strategy because it’s how others are able to locate you if they’ve never heard of your brand before. It is how you increase your company’s exposure on Instagram and gain new followers. Each of your posts should include appropriate hashtags to reach your intended audience.

Resources like Top-Hashtags.com and Hashtagify.me shows you what’s trending in your niche.  It also gives you the highest rated hashtags and how many posts currently have that hashtag. Finally, you can click on the hashtag to see examples of how marketers are using it.

Or, just see which hashtags your influencer’s and competitors are using to build their engagement. Test them in your posts and see what works best for your unique audience.

#3 Discover the Best Times to Post

According to Hootsuite, the best times to post on Instagram is between 12pm-1pm, Monday-Friday. However, discovering the best times to post for your audience will create better engagement for you. Knowing this information is golden because you’ll position your content to create massive engagement simply by posting when your followers are most responsive. Tools like Crowdfire, Buffer, and CoSchedule include optimal time posting features to help you achieve this goal.

#4 Leverage Influencers

One tactic to certainly implement in your Instagram strategy in 2017 is connecting and engaging with influencer’s in your niche to advance your goals. Influencer marketing is all the rave because you can leverage their audience while still promoting them to your network. It’s a win-win relationship because you’re edifying their content (thus giving them more exposure) and gaining their attention which separates you from the pack.

The key to influencer marketing is nurturing the relationship. Like and comment on their visuals, repost their content, and highlight them in your content via a quote or by sharing their blog articles. Be consistent and strategic…you never know what this connection could lead to for future partnerships.

Conclusion

A concluding tip to mention is leveraging more live-streaming videos in your social media marketing by using Instagram Stories. Research shows that people spend 3 times longer watching live videos versus one that has been prerecorded. Use this tool to report breaking news, delve deeper into blog content, or take them backstage at an event or office meeting.

Instagram is a solid platform to bring more exposure to your brand and better your social presence. Simply add 2-3 of the tactics outlined into your Instagram strategy, test your efforts, and ramp up from there.

Much success.

Ready to bolster your social media marketing success in 2017? Reach out to us here and let’s chat!