The #Instagram strategy is one of the fundamental aspects for gaining notoriety and new customers , even for small and medium-sized businesses.
In the corporate universe, social networks play an increasingly important role today, for the simple reason that they allow companies, small or large, to communicate directly with their actual and potential customers. Instagram, from this point of view, represents a fundamental tool in reference to the construction of a successful brand, regardless of the sector in which the company operates.
The Evolution of Instagram as a Successful Business Tool
Instagram's primary purpose, until recently, was to allow content sharing from a mobile device. At the time, it was just an app. Then, a lot of water has passed under the bridge, to the point that Facebook decided to acquire it.
And it is no coincidence that Instagram has transformed into a community in all respects , where each user has the opportunity to view photographs of the products, news, history, values and experience of the company and to be able to express an opinion. Instagram has evolved to the point that if entrepreneurial entities do not distinguish themselves with a strong presence on this social network, they seriously run the risk of not being able to intercept a significant portion of potential customers, represented primarily by the younger generations.
To be successful on Instagram and therefore to build an easily recognizable brand and to expand the target audience, companies must use this platform in an extremely professional manner. Only in this way, in fact, becomes possible to make the most of a myriad of opportunities.
How to develop a successful business strategy, relying on Instagram? How to see the Instagram business account take off? What are the best techniques and best practices to use Instagram in an excellent way? To this and other questions, we will try to give an answer as exhaustive as possible.
Developing a Winning Instagram Strategy for Your Business
From a business perspective, the first step for a successful strategy on Instagram revolves around preliminary research. It is almost always a good idea to start with a personal account to understand a whole series of aspects relating to the operating logic , the countless potential, and the interaction dynamics of this social network. The next step focuses on studying the best companies that use Instagram. Do a thematic search and discover how the social media managers of the most renowned multinationals work. You have everything to gain, because this preliminary study will allow you to grasp many of the secrets of marketing and communication plans of the most established companies on the international scene.
Taking a specific look at your business sector and therefore what your competition is doing on Instagram can provide you with an infinite number of interesting ideas. Only when you have a certain familiarity with Instagram and when you have a general overview of how this social network is used in the sector in which your business operates, then you will be ready to develop a successful strategy. Conditio sine qua non is that the Instagram strategy is perfectly aligned with the social media marketing plan of your company.
What goals do you want to pursue for your business through Instagram?
Defining concrete objectives is essential for your business when you decide to focus heavily on social networks. And in this sense, Instagram is no exception. It is up to you to decide whether to focus on online sales or whether to focus heavily on increasing followers, whether to increase the level of awareness of your brand or whether to obtain more traffic on your website. The common denominator of all these concrete objectives is the fact that they are quantifiable and, in fact, easily measurable, temporalizable and decisive for your business.
How to implement a business strategy through Instagram?
Once you have defined in black and white the objectives that your company intends to pursue, focusing heavily on Instagram, it is time to implement a valid content strategy. The timing in this specific situation plays a very important role, given that it is urgent to ask yourself how often it is worth publishing. Should you opt for regular publication or, alternatively, for a less constant one?
This depends on the type of business your company operates in. However, it is essential not to overdo it, because you would run the risk of inundating your followers with posts . There is no precise rule on the frequency of publication . Therefore, we limit ourselves to observing that most companies that use Instagram successfully do not go beyond 3 posts published per day.
The same goes for the best time slot to post content on Instagram. There is no single answer to this question either. However, it is a matter of choice .
It is wise to proceed with simple tests , trying to publish at different times of the day. Only then, after checking the results, will you discover what is best to do in relation to your business. For multinationals, for example, the answer is strictly connected to where their followers live and their time zone. For a local business reality that has a large part of its target within the national borders, things are totally different.
Analysis tools, such as Google Analytics or Hootsuite, can give you a significant help in profiling your audience. In relation to content planning, drawing up the editorial calendar in an Excel file is very useful, because it allows you to keep track of all the posts published and about to be published. By doing so, you can optimize your time and, for example, by using Hootsuite, you will have a greater chance of creating a community of aficionados around your brand and significantly increasing engagement.
How to build a successful brand through Instagram?
Much of a brand's success on Instagram is due to the content published. It must be original, creative and interesting. Only in this way will it be possible to capture the attention of community members and visitors. In the face of a strong visual impact of what is published on Instagram, generally corresponds to a greater recognition of the company brand: effective content, impeccable photos (also with the help of filters or the use of photo editing apps) are nowadays essential to obtain noteworthy results on this social network. In this sense, a company profile must necessarily also correspond to the published images , colors and all the visual elements, so that the brand can be immediately identifiable.
Many brands have found the path to success by clearly focusing on uniqueness and at the same time on recognizability of style. Even scenes relating to the daily life of the company, if published on Instagram through well-made photos, have a notable visual impact. In short, these are aspects that make the difference. For a successful Instagram strategy, it can also be very useful to explore the accounts of those who follow you and monitor their tastes: what preferences do your followers have? What do they prefer to share in terms of content? From this point, it becomes feasible to better identify the basic trends and then take them up in the content you will publish. In this regard, posts aimed at selling must never be direct, otherwise you would run the risk of appearing too invasive.
The Role of Hashtags on Instagram
The use of hashtags on Instagram is nowadays a constant in the corporate world. Using them together with photos related to the brand, products and company news has an important advantage: your brand benefits in visibility , especially if the hashtag becomes trending, because your company, when Instagram users start sharing photos, can be easily searched with a click. If you do e-commerce, the possibilities of increasing your numbers, from sales to turnover, grow exponentially.
Instagram Account Setup
To be successful on Instagram, your business definitely needs to open a business profile . The ideal photo is that of the company logo, preferably identical to the one used on all social networks. For start-up companies, it is always preferable to explain in the 150 characters of the biography what the core business is, so that they can arouse the interest of as many contacts as possible.
Enabling notifications
Activating push notifications is also vitally important for your business, because it allows you to be updated on new followers and their activities (including comments and likes). For each of their questions, thanking them is useful to increase your brand's engagement.
Influencers
Following influencers who are key players in your business sector and asking (for a fee) for sponsorship can be a winning move for your business. If influencers speak well of your products, their followers will be interested.
Stories
Instagram stories are very useful nowadays, because they allow your brand to get the right visibility. The video does not need to be particularly sophisticated. What is very important, however, is that the video is of high quality, so that it affects not only the rational state, but also the emotional state of those who see it. And this translates into a possible increase in sales.
Conclusions
Genuinely seeing your business volume grow on Instagram is anything but a remote option. This explains why companies are increasingly looking for professionals specialized in the world of social networks, Instagram first and foremost. Finally, always keep in mind that like all social platforms, Instagram is constantly being updated. The potential for your company to do business with Instagram is truly innumerable. Knowing how to exploit it is crucial.
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