Efficient Instagram Marketing Tips for Small Business

Would you like to grow your Instagram community?

Wonder how to implement Instagram marketing tips to get results?

Probably you posted your pictures, used hashtags, tagged people, but the growth of the Instagram community is almost minimal.

You tried Instagram marketing tips, which you read about on the Internet or someone shared with you, but there are no significant changes.

And that’s true.

Sometimes you do things, and it seems they don’t work, as you don’t see any results.

Starting from the beginning there is a question:

Why do you need the Instagram account?

How do you want to use Instagram marketing to grow your small business?

• Do you want to show your work?
• Do you want to find friends and fans, which interact with your brand socially and create a community of followers of your business or personal brand?
• Do you want to have more interest in your service?
• Do you want to form public opinion about your service? People’s point of view is still one of the powerful marketing tools.
• Do you want to build a personal brand and influence your industry (either in your city, state, country, etc.)

You can have your own objective. Here is no right answer. Some of you on Instagram not even for money, but to show your work.

Once I’ve heard:

All I want is more people to view my art (and hopefully it’ll put a smile on their faces).

Creating something you express yourself this way and you want people to use the products you produce, experience the service you provide, see the art you made.

Note, I didn’t write, “Sell my stuff via Instagram.” You need to understand that like all social media Instagram is the marketing tool. It will help you to sell, but first, you need to build some connection with people.

Set a goal for Instagram marketing

Pick one goal from above, or write your own. Till you define why you need it, it will be hard to put a strategy on it.

When you set your objective, start working on it.

Let’s make it clear: hashtags, likes and the number of followers don’t give you money.

• Hashtags help your pictures to get discovered by more people.
• Likes are the form of engagement. It shows you people’s reaction on photos and may help to analyze what pictures perform better and why: Did you post the stunning picture? Did you share a story? Did you add specific hashtags?
• The number of followers… The more people see your work; the more people will know about you. It’s your opportunity to get connected to the crowd, also to show who you are.

However, I do not recommend buying followers. You no need the fake crowd, but those who may be interesting or connect to those who are interested in your work.

They can be your potential clients or not. You need to start from somewhere and grow up.

After defining your objectives, starting to implement other Instagram marketing tips will bring more results.

Instagram marketing tips

Instagram marketing is not just one thing to do whether it’s adding the hashtag, writing the comment, leaving an emoji on someone’s account, etc. It’s a complex of action, which if you put together will give you the results.

People found you by the hashtag or somehow, then what? They liked your picture, looked at your account and leave.

Why? Well, what’s the reason for them to stay there?

Start communicating with your followers to show your personality and be social, so people know more about the person behind the account.

You want people to comment on your photos, but you even didn’t give them a reason to talk.

Ask them the question below of your post, but… don’t expect that someone will reply ☺

It sound’s weird. However, it needs time before people will get used to reacting to your posts.

Give first before you get

• Do you want likes? Like another account where can be your audience.
• Do you want comments? Start commenting.

Don’t wait till clients come to you. Look for other accounts, where people can be interested in your service and start communicating. Leave a thoughtful comment, ask open-ended questions, start a conversation first.

Another thing is being consistent in your posting. Post at least one picture EVERY DAY.

I’ve done another experiment: posted every day for about 1,5-2 months and took a break. Before the account was growing, during the break time it was just frozen. There was no growth. If you post once a month, what do you expect from it?

Conclusion

When I asked creative entrepreneurs, how they built their followers, one of the replies I’ve got:

A great way to build community is to reach out and ask for the opinion of your audience. People want to be heard, and want to feel their opinions are valued.

It takes time and effort to find the right approach to Instagram.

Summarizing everything, the question:

What is your goal for Instagram? What other Instagram marketing tips can you recommend?

By Marina Barayeva on September 12, 2016   /   Blog, Social Media Marketing   /   2 Comments