Instagram is one of the top social media platforms that people interact online with today. It has over 200 million daily active users (techcrunch.com, 2017) and approximately 80 billion photos shared per day.

As a business on Instagram trying to achieve a certain level of recognition, it can be hard, especially if you’re a start up company.

 

1.Unlike Facebook, there are “wrong” things to post. By “wrong” I mean, things that won’t attract your preferred or relevant target audience.

How do you know if you’re posting the wrong thing?

• If your followers are not clearly increasing
• If you post pictures that are not relevant or have no relation to your company
• If your pictures and captions have no relation to each other whatsoever.

How do you know if you’re posting the right thing?

• Everything opposing the above
• If the number of likes increasing significantly
• If you receive business inquiries or opportunities in the direct message section
• If people are beginning to comment (hence feedback)

Additionally;

• On Instagram there are rarely any negative comments or feedback given to small firms. The only time a chaotic outbreak of angry Instagramers will attack, is probably over a meme (will will come back to this now)
• Not all messages you receive via direct message are legitimate, some might be spam or even scams, so always stay alert and never give your personal information to someone online that can easily be hacked into

 

2. Use the force. Use the power of the Hashtag. The Hashtag is the most powerful thing known to the social media heads, it allows to track a trend, posts that follow the trend; it allows people to express themselves in the most calming and cooling of ways… #InstaLovin’

Things you should tag;

• Your company’s name, things related to your company’s industry, things that are in the picture, feelings about the picture and reference to occasions if applicable.
• If you want to go the extra mile, you can hashtag the following which will increase likes and possibly followers but won’t likely attract a loyal or genuine customer base, its all about the numbers on Insta for these guys: #instalove #instagood (basically anything with the word insta before it), #l4l (meaning like for like, a trade of numbers), #f4f (follow for follow), hashtag things relating to summer, love and beauty. Additionally hash tagging current trends or celebrities brings in a lot of numbers.

Things you shouldn’t tag;

• Long sentences unless they refer to something humorous.
• Short sentences unless they describe something your audience will understand (maybe relating to the company or occasion in the picture).
• And NEVER EVER EVER hashtag things that are negative, that just brings the ambiance down, and the people who follow such hashtags along with it.

Additionally;

• When you hashtag never go into too much detail or describe things your normal customer wouldn’t comprehend or show interest in

 

3. Follow people who you think will be interested in your business

How do you distinguish/find those who will be interested in your business?

• They will have similar posts to what your company posts
• They will most likely have a caption stating briefly what they are interested in, and if you think that related to your company, that is up to your judgement.
• You can find them by searching the trend of a hashtag that closely related to your company, they may have posted pictures with such hashtags, but the followers you should attend too are ultimately those who liked that specific content. (I know what you’re thinking, its going deep, but it’s all up to how much you want to succeed in the Instagram World of Marketing)
• You can track the likes of those who you follow and click on those pictures to find users who interacted with the content. (like, comment or posted)

What if you follow too many inactive or unresponsive users?

• There is an App available on the appstore and on android, called Followers, which allows you to see for free, your increase of followers and post rate, as well as your average of likes a post. You can also see who you have followed, who did not follow you back and your ghost followers (people who are inactive with your account but still follow you).

4. (This is optional of course, but very much present on the marketing scene) Nudity is not advised, but it is encouraged in the most subtle of ways. Not only in a dirty way, but it subconsciously allows the viewer to feel a little spark of summer, providing a warm comfort they won’t fully comprehend. This is probably why most marketing and advertising campaigns involve some kind of nudity.

Define nudity;

• It is alright to post a picture of girls and guys in a casual atmosphere wearing shorts or a tight shirt.
• It must not be provocative at all, not even the slightest.
• It’s alright to show a little skin as long as it is tasteful.

How do you know when the nudity is too much nudity?

• Its too much when you don’t need to use your imagination anymore.
• It is too much when the individual(s) make you feel uncomfortable (or uncomfortably comfortable)

Additionally;

• Don’t try to push the limits because nobody wants to see something they shouldn’t be seeing.
• #FreeTheNipple supporters are a different story.

5. Make sure your photo content is original, no one admires a copy cat.

6. Conclusion and Further Reading

In conclusion, I hope these 4 ways will help increase your grasp and reach on your wanted tareget audience. Here are a few references as well as additional reading, and a link to find the app Followers:

Followers App : https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/followers-for-instagram-follower-analytics/id566223681?mt=8

Instagram Statistics: https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/26/instagram-700-million-users/

Instagram Wants You Naked: https://www.attn.com/stories/6182/get-your-ass-nature-instagram

Psychology of the Naked Selfie: https://techcrunch.com/2014/11/29/the-psychology-of-the-naked-selfie/

Find Your Popular Hashtags Here: http://www.tagsforlikes.com/