Clueless about Instagram? I need you to read this.

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NEVER SAY I DON'T NEED INSTAGRAM FOR YOUR BUSINESS.

I don’t need Instagram for my business, my audience is not hanging around on Instagram. Heard that before?

When I meet people at networking events and they tell me they have no Instagram account, it shocks me.

So, this blog post is really for people who keep giving me this statement and I’m running out of steam sitting with everyone one on one and explaining why it is such a mistake ignoring or neglecting Instagram.

Because having and growing an Instagram account for your business is crucial in today’s digital landscape for a number of reasons. Here are a few key reasons why:

Reach: With over 1 billion active monthly users, Instagram offers a massive audience for businesses to tap into. By having a presence on the platform and growing your following, you can reach a large number of potential customers and build brand awareness.

Engagement: Instagram is a highly visual platform, which means it’s great for showcasing your products or services in a visually compelling way. By regularly posting engaging content and interacting with your followers, you can build a loyal following and drive engagement with your brand.

Brand Building: Instagram is an excellent platform for building your brand and establishing your business’s identity. By developing a consistent aesthetic and voice on the platform, you can create a strong brand presence that resonates with your target audience.

Sales: Instagram also offers a number of tools for businesses to drive sales, such as shoppable posts and Instagram Ads. By growing your following and building engagement with your audience, you can drive more traffic to your website and increase sales for your business.

Here are some steps that could be helpful to grow engagement on Instagram:

Consistent Posting: Regularly posting content (photos, videos, or stories) is one of the most effective ways to stay relevant on Instagram and keep your followers engaged. You could aim to post at least once a day or several times a week, depending on your audience and niche.

Use Instagram Stories: Instagram Stories are a great way to engage with your followers and keep them updated about your brand. You could use them to share behind-the-scenes glimpses of your life, showcase your products, or host Q&A sessions.

Engage with Your Followers: Responding to comments and direct messages from your followers can help you build a stronger relationship with them. Additionally, you could like and comment on posts from other accounts in your niche to expand your reach and gain new followers.

Use Hashtags: Hashtags can help your posts get discovered by people who are interested in your niche. You could use a mix of popular and niche-specific hashtags to increase your post’s visibility.

Collaborate with Other Accounts: Collaborating with other Instagram accounts in your niche can help you reach a new audience and grow your following. You could collaborate on a giveaway, host a joint event, or simply cross-promote each other’s content. Collaborating with other Instagram accounts can be a great way to grow your following and reach new audiences on the platform. Here are some of the best ways to collaborate with other accounts on Instagram:

Giveaways: Hosting a giveaway with another account can be a great way to get your brand in front of a new audience. You could offer a prize that appeals to your target audience, and require entrants to follow both your account and your collaborator’s account to enter.

Guest Posting: Collaborating with another account on a guest post can be a great way to showcase your content to a new audience. You could agree to create a post for the other account’s feed, and have them do the same for you. Be sure to tag each other in the posts to drive traffic to both accounts.

Sponsored Posts: You could collaborate with another account on a sponsored post that promotes your product or service. This could involve paying the other account to post about your brand, or offering them a free product or service in exchange for the post.

Affiliate Marketing: Collaborating with other accounts on affiliate marketing can be a great way to earn commissions on sales generated through your Instagram account. You could agree to promote each other’s products or services, and earn a percentage of sales that result from your promotion.

Cross-promotion: Collaborating with another account on cross-promotion can be as simple as mentioning each other in your Instagram Stories or tagging each other in your posts. This can help drive traffic to both accounts and increase your overall visibility on the platform.

A point worth noting here, when collaborating with other accounts on Instagram, it’s important to choose accounts that are relevant to your niche and target audience. This will help ensure that your collaborations are effective in reaching the right audience and growing your following on the platform

Analyze Your Metrics: Analyzing your Instagram metrics, such as post engagement, follower growth, and reach, can help you understand what content resonates with your audience and adjust your strategy accordingly. Instagram analytics can provide valuable insights into how your content is performing and how your followers are interacting with your account. Here are a few basic guidelines to watching analytics and using them to grow your Instagram account:

Switch to a Business Account: To access Instagram analytics, you’ll need to switch to a business account. This can be done by going to your profile settings and selecting “Switch to Business Account.”

Understand the Metrics: Instagram analytics provide several metrics that you can use to track your account’s performance. These include:

Impressions: the number of times your posts have been seen

Reach: the number of unique accounts that have seen your posts

Engagement: the number of likes, comments, and shares your posts have received

Follower Growth: the number of new followers your account has gained over time

Analyze Your Content: Use Instagram analytics to understand which types of content are performing well with your audience. Look for trends in the content that is receiving the most engagement and adjust your content strategy accordingly.

Experiment with Posting Times: Use Instagram analytics to identify the times when your followers are most active on the platform. Try posting at different times of the day and track your engagement. Now check to see if you can improve your reach and engagement.

Monitor Your Competitors: Use Instagram analytics to monitor your competitors’ accounts and track their performance over time. Look for trends in the content they are posting and the strategies they are using to grow their following. You might come up with a few creative ideas on your own.

Using Instagram analytics can help you better understand your audience, track  performance, and adjust your content strategy to drive engagement and grow your following. Regularly monitor your analytics and experiment with different strategies to find what works best for your account.

Building a large following and engagement on Instagram takes time and effort, and there is no single formula that guarantees success. Stay true to your brand’s voice and values and keep experimenting with different ways to find what works best for you.

Restaurant owners and small businesses ask me, “What do you do on Instagram for your clients on a daily basis?”

As a restaurant and small business marketer, my daily routine on the platform is crucial to maintaining engagement and growing our audience. Here are the activities I prioritize on a daily basis:

Engage with followers: I start by checking out our latest posts and responding to any comments or direct messages from followers. This shows that we value their engagement and helps build a relationship with our audience.

Monitor our brand mentions: I also monitor any mentions of our restaurant on Instagram by searching for our restaurant name, location or branded hashtags. This allows me to keep track of any user-generated content that we can repost, and also to respond to any questions or feedback from customers.

Post content: Next, I plan and create new content to post on our Instagram page. This could be a new dish, a special promotion or an event we’re hosting. I aim to post consistently, keeping in mind the best times to post for our audience, and using relevant hashtags to increase visibility.

Engage with the wider community: I also engage with the wider Instagram community by liking and commenting on posts from other restaurants, food bloggers, and foodies. This helps us to build relationships with other businesses and individuals in our industry, and can also attract new followers to our page.

Analyze our performance: Finally, I analyze our Instagram metrics to understand our performance on the platform. This includes tracking our follower growth, engagement rates, and post performance. This helps us to make data-driven decisions to improve our Instagram strategy and drive business results.

My daily routine on Instagram as a restaurant and small business marketer is focused on engaging with followers, building relationships with the wider community, and creating and analyzing content to drive business results.

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One Response to “Clueless about Instagram? I need you to read this.

  • Hi Diya, that’s what it is all about on social media -engagement. It’s no more posting and running offline. You have to engage there a few days a day. Once you do that and make it a habit it becomes routine and you can gain traction on Instagram. I use a tool to schedule mine that provides analytics of when my audience is online there. It really helps define it more.