In this day and age, having a business, whether it be online or brick-and-mortar, requires that you have some social media presence. Instagram is one of the big social media platforms, and if utilised well, can be a big way to draw more customers to your (figurative) door.
Instagram’s API allows users to publish photos and videos instantaneously or allows them to be scheduled for later. It also allows for images/videos to be posted via a third-party platform.
Keep reading to find out how to create an Instagram business profile, and how best to use it to boost your online presence.
SETTING UP AN INSTAGRAM BUSINESS PROFILE
To create a business profile, you first need a personal account. If you already have a personal account, it’s easy to convert to a business account.
CREATING A NEW INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT:
1. Download the Instagram mobile app for your smart phone (while it can be accessed by a web browser, it’s capabilities are limited).
2. Sign up.
3. Enter your business email (or email account for your business’s social media accounts). You can also log in via Facebook if you have a business account established there.
4. Choose a username (ideally your business name)and password.
5. This is your new personal account.
CONVERTING A PERSONAL ACCOUNT TO A BUSINESS ACCOUNT
1. Open Instagram and tap your profile picture(bottom right).
2. Menu (three lines) on the top right.
3. Settings.
4. Account.
5. Scroll down and tap Switch to Professional Account → Continue.
6. Choose the business category that accurately represents your business → Done.
7. Business → Next (or Creator if you’re a content producer or influencer).
8. Review your public business contact information and make any necessary edits, then click next.
9. Optionally, Login to Facebook and follow the prompts. It’s recommended that you connect your Facebook Business Page to take advantage of the business tools (boosting your posts, connecting your website to allow for shopping).
10. Tap Done to finish creating your professional profile.
Optimise your account to give the best first impression to those that visit your profile.
Profile picture: most businesses will use their logo. The preferred size to upload is 320x320 pixels, but it will be cropped into a circle.
Bio: this should describe your brand and can include a link to your website.
Contact information: you probably added this during your account creation, but if you didn’t, you can add any information by editing your profile.
Action buttons: depending on your business, you can add an action button that allows visitors to book appointments, order food or schedule a call. You will need to create an account with one of Instagram’s partners in order to access this feature. (hyperlink this webpage - https://www.facebook.com/help/instagram/313280685976255)
Story highlights: save your stories to your profile to provide more information about your products and brands.
CREATING HIGH-QUALITY VISUAL CONTENT (got info from here too: https://blog.hootsuite.com/epic-guide-creating-social-media-visuals/)
The best way to attract followers, is to have appealing content, whether that be images or videos. It’s important that the content that you present be cohesive. Feel free to explore third-party applications (such as, Canva,CapCut, Visme) to further develop your content, editing photos, editing videos or created branded graphics. There are numerous ways to present your content on Instagram, stories, images, graphics, videos, reels, carousel posts and more. While it is important that you establish your brand aesthetic in your content, play around with how you present the content to see what drives more engagement from your followers.
If you’re struggling with creating visual content, check out the tips below:
· Establish a colour palette - By having all your content meet a certain colour palette, vibe or filter, your content will appear much more cohesive, and your posts will become recognisable to your followers.
· Choose eye-catching thumbnails for your videos - Usually, the thumbnail of uploaded videos is the first frame of the video, but that may not be the most aesthetically pleasing image, so scroll through the video to find a frame that fits with your brand.
· Incorporate text… but not too much - Add text to your images to further communicate your purpose, but don’t add so much that it overwhelms the viewers. Less is more.
· Use high-quality content - Show the quality of your brand by using high-quality content. Blurry or out-of-focus images are not ideal… unless that’s your aesthetic of course.
USING HASHTAGS
Hashtags are a well-known and effective way to connect with Instagram users. Because they can search for, click on and follow hashtags, relevant hashtags are a highly effective method of getting noticed. Hashtags can only include letters and numbers, so the tag #rockandroll would work, but #rock&roll would not.
Hashtags can take a little #trialanderror to get it right, so check out the best practices for hashtags below:
· Relevance: there are thousands… probably millions of popular hashtags on Instagram, but they may not work for your business. If you’re not sure what the best hashtags to apply to your Instagram account, look at your competition or other established brands within your industry for examples of relevant hashtags to use.
· Keep It Simple: Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags in a post or comment (or 10 in a story). Using this many hashtags is often considered excessive. Using popular hashtags may earn you likes, but it’s unlikely to increase your followers. Fewer hashtags with quality responses from those interested in your brand are what you should be aiming towards.
· Experiment: once you’ve got your hashtags game going, don’t get stuck in that rut. Continue to explore new hashtags and see if you can find new hashtags that can work for your brand.
· Create: decide on a custom hashtag for your business, or for any events that you may hold. This way followers can keep in touch with your events from all perspectives.
As alluded to above, relevant hashtags are vital to your Instagram success. They help your content to be more easily found, assists in driving traffic to your content and can increase interactions with your followers. Likewise, with targeted hashtags, they reach those who are the target market of your products.
ENGAGING WITH FOLLOWERS
Social media is a such an effective way of communicating with your market, and there’s nothing better when they also choose to communicate with you. Whether that’s by sharing or commenting on your posts, or directly messaging you through the app.
Like any relationship, to keep it going, back-and-forth is necessary. That means responding to any comments or messages within a reasonable time frame. When responding, keep it professional, as you are replying as a business, not as an individual. Remember that comments can be seen by all.
When promptly replying to your followers, your interactions show that you’re paying attention to the feedback that you’re being given, and that you care about the opinions of your followers. Engagement with your followers increases the likelihood that they will continue following, and interacting with you over Instagram.
UTILISING INSTAGRAM FEATURES
Stories are short clips that will disappear after 24 hours of posting; they turn up at the top of your follower’s home page. You can also save these stories as highlights to appear on your business page anytime. Stories are a great way to interact with your followers. For example, you can create polls, answer frequently asked questions or any of the many other features available. Stories are also an opportunity to share any posts that people tag you in.
Reels are short (less than a minute) videos that bring your brand to life. You can add effects, transitions, music and so much more. Whether it’s an in-depth look at some of your products, or a showcase of a range, a behind the scenes look at your process… really whatever you can come up with! To get started, tap Create (the plus sign) from your Home and select Reel.
CONSISTENCY AND AUTHENTICITY
Why is consistency important in your content creation? It helps you build trust and strengthen your relationships with your followers. Consistency also gives you an identifiable voice that your followers will recognise. Unsure about how to maintain consistency in your content creation… try the following tips:
· Outline brand guidelines - Create standards for your content, think about all the details. Tone and voice, colour palette, fonts, copy. There are other details that you can consider if necessary.
· Organise your assets - Once you figure out your brand guidelines, have a centralised place where all this information is located so that anyone needing to create content for you will be able to create within your guidelines.
· Establish a schedule - Figure out a time and post consistently at that time. Your followers will expect new content from you at that time and look forward to seeing what you bring out each day.
TRACKING AND MEASURING SUCCESS
Benefits of the Instagram Business account are that you have a whole arsenal of tools available to you. With built-in insights to your data and analytics, you’ll be able to see how your marketing strategies are performing. You can see what your top posts are, the engagement levels from your followers, and much more.
Use the available analytics to compare campaigns that you run. Compare what worked in one campaign but didn’t in the other. Have your followers dropped off, engagement reduced? Check your analytics to see why. Unfortunately, the analytics won’t provide you with clear answers, such as, don’t post between the hours of 9:00am and 10:13am. But they will give you an indication as to what changes you can explore making.
CONCLUSION
Using Instagram for your business needs can be an effective tool to drive more customers to your door. Creating quality visual content is a fantastic way of marketing to, and engaging with your followers. Don’t forget to check out the insights that Instagram offers, they may just be able to help you out.
