SEO Hosting Blog

Recently, I discussed some of the reasons your business should be on Instagram and some of the different ways you can use Instagram to market your business. Hopefully, you’ve at least started to give some serious thought to using Instagram for your business. Today, I want to further help you get the most out of this opportunity by highlighting some of the major mistakes you should avoid on Instagram.

The most common Instagram mistakes businesses make are as follows:

1. Rapidly uploading tons of photos at once—There’s nothing wrong with taking a few photos and uploading them to Instagram the same day. However, you have to be careful that you don’t clog your follower’s feeds by suddenly uploading 20 pictures in the span of 5 minutes. Instagram isn’t like Twitter where the conversation is moving at a quick pace. It’s better to space out your updates a little bit. (more…)

Still trying to figure out if Instagram could be useful for your business? Consider these statistics:

• More than 80 million people use Instagram
• Over 4 billion photos have been uploaded
• 5 million+ photos are uploaded each day
• 575 likes per second
• 81 comments per second

Needless to say, this unique photo sharing social media platform has built quite the following, and savvy marketers understand that Instagram represents yet another way to connect with customers and build meaningful relationships with them.

But how exactly can a company use Instagram? Here are just a few ways you can get started using Instagram to market your business.

• Show your products in action—Rather than just taking bland, boring photos of your products that look like a blatant advertisement, get photos of your products in action. Let’s say you run a burger restaurant. You could upload photos of families in your restaurant enjoying some burgers. Or maybe take a picture of the burger being made on the grill. In other words, you want to take pictures that tell a story.
• Take followers behind the scenes—Give your followers a glimpse behind the curtain at your company. Maybe you’re in the middle of filming a commercial for your company; take a picture on the set of the shoot. Or maybe you’re getting a new line of products packaged up and ready to be sent to the stores; shoot a photo of it.
• Show people what you can do—This is especially effective for service-based businesses. Let’s say you’re a landscaper. You could shoot before and after photos of your jobs to show how incredible your work is. This side-by-side comparison tells a story, wows your followers, and can actually help you make sales.
• Highlight your employees—Give your team some love and add a face/personality to your company by getting some photos of your employees in action. You want to take photos that capture what it’s like to work at your company. This allows you to show off your unique company culture and brand personality.

Of course, these are just a few of the different ways you can use Instagram for your business. The possibilities are truly endless. Be creative, have fun, and never stop looking for new ways to engage your customers.

A Few Final Tips for Success

No matter what kind of photos you decide to take with Instagram, there are a few things you should always keep in mind when using Instagram to market your business:

• Don’t treat Instagram like a traditional advertising medium. Blatant ads don’t work. Tell stories.
• Pay attention to the types of photos your fan base uploads and likes.
• Don’t update too often. A few times each day is more than enough.
• Use hashtags to help your photos get discovered.
• Share your photos out to Facebook and Twitter.

Do you use Instagram for your business? Tell us about it by commenting below.