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5 Instagram Marketing Tips to Promoting Your Business

Are you interested in promoting your business on Instagram but not sure how to get started?

If not, you should be.

Instagram is a social media heavyweight with over 800 million monthly users. It still enjoys annual double digit active user growth, and in 2013, grew more than Reddit, Pinterest and Twitter combined. Facebook – its parent company since April 2012, actually lost users in 2013.

Why should Instagram be of interest to Internet marketer's?

Simply put, it is a powerful mobile sharing (photos, videos) social networking service that lets users take pictures and short videos (one minute maximum), then share them on other social networking platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and Tumblr. Younger generations are arguably moving away from verbal communication, and the general population also seems enamored with visual media.

There is plenty of room for growth and opportunity for you to reach your target audience right now and convert Instagram users into traffic, subscribers, and sales for your business.

Let's take a look at five Instagram marketing tips you can use to promote your business on Instagram:

1. Customize Content for Your Intended Audience

As a primarily visual medium, Instagram can complement your Facebook marketingand Twitter advertising strategies. In addition to shareability, consider how photographs and stunning graphics can attract visitors and bring them into your sales funnel. Have a look at what the world's most popular brands are doing to optimize their Instagram space.

Don't forget to use filters. Photos 'on the fly' often seem mediocre on first sight. That's why Instagram's filtering technology lets you transform your images into great-looking snapshots that get attention - which is the first step to getting users to take action.

2. Direct People to Your Link Wisely

Instagram does not allow hyperlinking in photo captions (non-clickable) or comments, but you can put a link (150 characters maximum) in your bio section. Most marketers use this feature to link back to their business home page, or the landing page of their current marketing campaign.

You can choose to superimpose a URL across an image, but it's probably better to direct visitors to your bio's clickable link. If you decide to use paid advertising with Instagram, then you can have links that are clickable.

3. Limit Text Descriptions and Messages to the Bare Essentials

Instagram does not impose a character limit your posts like Twitter. However, it's in your interest to let the images do most of the talking. Besides, since shorter Facebook and Twitter messages draw more traffic and interaction, your Instagram audience is not likely to buck that trend.

That being said, meaningful captions can offer supplementary insight and increase your engagement and conversion rate. Keep your captions short and punchy; or at least keep the most important information at the top of the post if you are planning on writing longer form posts.

4. Maximize Engagement Opportunities

Experiment with hashtags. Choosing the right hashtags is not an exact science, so look at what others in your niche are using and consult prolific bloggers who often provide interesting word options.

Accept follow requests and follow people who present attractive photos and teaching points for your own marketing efforts. Don't forget to inform people on your website and newsletters that you are on Instagram! Add Instagram 'Follow' buttons, or periodically send out reminders to subscribers that you offer content there.  

5. Constantly Test and Track

In social media, trends and tendencies can appear and disappear on a dime, so keep your eyes and ears open for Instagram innovations and policy changes. By testing out new options, your performance efficiency can improve and get noticed by more visitors.

As with other mainstream networking sites, Instagram offers analytic tools that assist you with performance tracking. Use the results to make adjustments to the photos and images you post. Factors to be considered include:

The best times to post Instagram photos

The appropriate frequency for your posts

The success rate of different hashtags

The best captions and best action words within captions

Call-to-action (CTA) conversion rates of different campaigns

Conclusion

Instagram is one of the main flag bearers for the modern, mobile, visual Internet. You can download for free from Apple's App Store or get it from Google Play. 'Capture and Share' is bound to become the social media catch phrase of choice. In fact, multiple platform sharing is a fantastic company innovation, thanks in no small part to a fast, efficient uploading experience that turns beginners into experts.

Source : thebalancesmb

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Instagram Best Practices and Tips

Instagram is a mobile app for sharing and finding beautiful visual content. You can take photos and short videos, use filters and effects to further stylize them, and publish directly to Instagram or to other social media sites. You can follow other accounts to see their updates, comment and heart (love) posts, and send private messages. Owned by Facebook, Instagram uses a similar algorithm to show you posts that Instagram thinks are most relevant to you, rather than what was most recently published by those you follow.

Instagram Stories are a series of videos or photos posted by a user that are only available for 24 hours. You can add text, icons, and drawings to them. Visuals posted to an Instagram Story do not appear in the regular Instagram feed nor on a user's profile (sometimes called "the grid").

Do not create an Instagram account if you can not regularly post engaging visuals. This is not a platform for text-heavy posts (generally).

Setting up an Instagram Profile

Please do not create any social media accounts on your own. Submit a Social Media Account Request and we will help you!

Set up as a business account so you can see metrics about your posts and followers.

Account name should begin with "wes" ex: @wescfa @wes_athletics

Use a profile photo designed by University Communications.

Instagram Posting Best Practices

Be active. Post at least once a week.

Quality over quantity. Instagram is about beautiful visuals. Take the time to do it right, or don’t post at all. It’s better to post fewer high-quality visuals than many not-so-great ones.

Be brief. Keep your captions to 125 characters or less to avoid being truncated.

Use #hashtags. Ideally, 5-10 per post.

Don’t use links in captions - they aren’t clickable!

Use emoji when relevant 🏈 ⛹ 🎻 🎨 🎭 🎥 🔭 🔬

Encourage conversation — ask questions, respond to comments.

Tag other profiles in your posts if applicable.

Repost other Instagram users’ content, especially if they tag you in it. Make sure you credit them and ask for permission first.

Have fun! Don’t be afraid to inject humor into your content (if appropriate).

Use a few standards, and vary the rest based on the content of your post.

Don’t delete comments unless they’re profane, obscene, harassing, threatening, or contain personal information.

If it gets too negative/critical, go private or offline.

Instagram Image Size Guidelines

Recommended sizes:

Square Post: 1080 x 1080

Vertical Post: 1080 x 1350

Story: 1080 x 1920

Source : wesleyan

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