Learn How to Use Instagram for Your Business

Instagram seems to have taken the world by storm, and its recent acquisition by Facebook only confirms its entry and position in the big leagues. Even though it is every bit the social network that Facebook and Twitter are, there are a couple of differences in marketing with Instagram that you need to understand if you intend to try marketing there.

The chief difference is the demographic of the site. There’s no avoiding the fact that Instagram is realm of the younger set, and if you’ve got a product or service that you market to the 15-28 crowd, you might have a winner here. If the majority of your target audience is 30 or older, you may find it more difficult. Another important factor to note is whether or not there are images on Instagram related to your product. Sometimes the imagery just isn’t a good fit, and if that’s the case, you may not have a lot of success here.

5 Tips for effectively marketing on Instagram

1. Use Video On Instagram – This new feature in Instagram is much like Vine, but their videos are a monstrous 15 seconds as opposed to 6. Significantly more canvas to paint on.
2. Use lots of hashtags – While engagement drops significantly on Twitter if you use more than 2 hashtags, the opposite seems to be the norm for Instagram. Load them up!
3. Don’t post incessantly – Unlike many other social networks less may be more here. You don’t want to fill up your follower’s feeds and be less special. Shoot for a few times a week and post great content.
4. Optimize your Instagram Profile – Like other social networks, you’ll want to make sure your business profile is complete and utterly devoted to finding you and doing business with you.
5. Follow other brands on Instagram – Finding and following related brands on Instagram is very important. Thankfully there are some good tools that help with this.

Instagram can be a beast for your marketing if you are fortunate enough to be in their audience demographic and can effectively market to them. Give it a try today!