Best Way to Leverage Instagram to Your Advantage
In recent times, there has been a lot of hype and buzz surrounding the use of Instagram, which is understandable.
With up to 800 million users monthly, it is challenging to ignore the advantage it brings to your businesses.
Apart from helping you connect easily with your target audience, it helps scale your business.
With all these, the most important thing to understand is how you can leverage Instagram to your advantage.
Here is a comprehensive way of how you can leverage on Instagram to your advantage, whether for business or others:
1. Create an Instagram business account
These days, seven out of ten people have personal Instagram accounts with some followers and personality.
You need to define what advantage you want to leverage Instagram to get, which is typically business. You might want to change your personal account to a business account.
How to Switch to a Business Page. Photo taken from Later
This will enable you to access all the business features advantages and start building a robust online presence.
You can also decide to create a new Instagram business account, which is suitable if you don't have an existing personal account before or does not portray what you want thoroughly.
2. Optimizing Your Instagram Business Profile
The next thing is to ensure your Instagram profile is totally updated. This implies:
A Business Page Instagram Bio with a Link on the Website. Screenshot taken on November 24, 2019
· Writing a compelling bio. You have 150 characters to explain what you or your business is about.
· Use a clear profile image. Try to use a clear picture, and a logo is good if it a business account.
· Select a good profile link. On Instagram, links are only permitted on profiles and not on posts). You can either use your brand's landing page or a part of the content you want to boost its awareness.
3. Create a winning Instagram strategy
If you are looking to leverage Instagram to build an advantage, the first thing to take care of is identifying your target audience.
You need to define those who you want to see your content.
According to research, the majority of people who use Instagram are under 35 years of age with close competition between both genders.
The majority of those who use Instagram are from the United States, followed by Indians, Brazilians, and Indonesians.
This is enough piece of information to guide you on how to identify your target audience, but you need to use your discretion to determine those you can leverage on to get this advantage for your brand.
4. Set achievable goals and objectives
Identifying and understanding the advantage you want to achieve from Instagram is the first point in putting down a productive Instagram account. It will enable you to have a clear head and focus on what is essential.
You can follow the SMART goals framework to set practical goals.
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Relevant,
- Timely
As you continue to build your Instagram presence, it's fine to have goals that are based on vanity measures such as likes, follows, and comments. But ensure you also set goals that relate with your interest and business objectives.
5. Focus on the ideal performance measures
The precise metrics to analyze and monitor performance will be different for every intention and business. But, generally, you should focus on parameters associated with your goals and target audience.
This implies that your goals should be associated with one of the four cardinal stages in the customer journey:
· Awareness: such as likes, brand awareness, follower growth, and post engagements.
· Engagement: Includes metrics such as engagement rate (depends on likes) and reach rate (based on shares).
· Conversion: In addition to the conversion rate, it includes metrics such as click-through rate and bounce rate. If you're planning to use paid ads for your business, conversion metrics like cost per click and CPM are included.
· Customer: These metrics depend on actions customers take, such as buying, following posts, or giving reviews and testimonials.
6. Aligning Instagram Metrics with your Business Goals and Objectives
Developing an Instagram following and getting loads of engagement on your posts is impressive.
Instagram Metrics. Photo taken from Later
But, if your goals are related to real business situations, then they don't mean a lot.
So, when you want to set your goals, understand how you're trying to improve your brand anytime you post. To do this, choose metrics to monitor and drive your business objectives.
7. Follow a consistent posting routine
Once you start building a loyal following on Instagram, your followers would love to see your content regularly.
@color_place_interior two-day posting interval
You want to keep them updated about your brand and engage them with your content without bugging them till they run away or unfollow you.
There's no identified best period to post daily. If you have a business, you should conduct thorough research to discover the time that works for you best.
Besides measuring your account against other big brands in your industry, you need to do some trial and error to ascertain the period that is good to post for your business.
The major factor is to know when your audience comes online. Have it mind that they might have different zones, and there are some periods they will be too exhausted to follow up.
8. Have a Basic Instagram Content Strategy
Before you go on your Instagram account to be posting, you should know why you are there creating content in the first place, which is to take advantage of the numerous opportunities Instagram offers.
Everything you post should have a goal, support, or purpose.
Mapping out a simple but compelling content strategy can help achieve these aims.
9. Write your story first
The final process in defining your strategy to leverage on Instagram is to think on how you can link your story with your audience
What inspired you to join the community? What do you want to offer people? What are the things that interest you?
Conclusion
The best way to leverage Instagram to your advantage is to understand what you want, set achievable goals around it and work towards achieving those goals through compelling content. When you build trust and engagement with your followers, you can leverage this to build great advantages for yourself or your business.
Date: November 27, 2019 / Categories: Tips, / Author: Disturbinsilence
