#business #selfie #socialmylife
I love pictures! Guess it makes sense why they say a picture is worth a thousand words.
Pictures can do so much more with so much less. It tells stories, evoke emotion, and give information. All in a little space of 1080 x 1080 pixels.
Almost everybody in today’s time has at least two social media accounts. We live in a very visual era of selfies and instant gratification. No wonder that Instagram grew in popularity.
It started in 2011 and when Facebook bought it in 2012, it had a mere 50 million users. By the end of 2020 it is estimate to grow to over 854.5 million users!
Not a bad pie to get a piece from don’t you think?
My point is, if you don’t use Instagram for your business, you might be losing out big time!
Like most social media platforms, when you start your business, it can be somewhat overwhelming. On your personal account it feels easy enough to post a selfie of your (and or your friends) on your journey through life.
Business however, is a whole lot different. For some people it can seem like a daunting task. Especially when you read that they say you should be posting between one and three times a day.
So today I want to share with you ten basic tip to show that Instagram is not so overwhelming as you think
Keeping to a couple of principles make Instagram easy for you
Having a business Instagram account can help your business grow! It becomes an extension of your business. So taking care of your Instagram brand is vitally important!
So let’s get cracking on those ten Instagram brand tips!
BE CONSISITANT
What if I told you that you don’t have to post 1-3 times a day? Yes, there are certain advantages if you can. But if you are a one man (or woman) show, you might not have the time to post that often. The next best thing is to show up consistently. If three times a week is something you can do. Go for it. But show up in regular intervals and stick to it. Be there every Monday, Wednesday and Friday (or whatever days you choose). If people like your content, they will come looking for it on those days!
USE YOUR BIO TO THE MAX
On Instagram you have 150 characters for your bio. Not a lot of characters if you want to say what you do. But what about showing instead. With emoji’s flying around on social media, it is so much easier to show instead of tell. Remember to make use of line breaks in between. That makes it easier for people to see and read what you (or your business) is about.
WHAT TO POST
Although people love to post selfies in their personal account, you should keep it to a minimal in your business account. I don’t say you should never post them. They are perfect when posting behind the scenes of your business. It also helps potential customers to see the person behind the business and give your business more credibility.
Your posts should add value to your customers (but only if you want to get their attention!) So remember when you post that you must always link back to the specific problem you are solving to your potential customers.
You can read more about the different types of social media posts here.
LOOK AND FEEL OF YOUR INSTAGRAM BRAND
Yes, you absolutely have to think about your Instagram feeds look and feel. The reason for this is to ensure that you have a consistent look. Just as you would use a mood board when starting to brand your business, you should have a mood board before you start your Instagram account. Your Instagram brand should flow from the rest of your brand.
How convenient that I have some handy mood board templates for you for absolutely FREE! You can grab them here:
You might for example use pastel colors when you sell baby products, or bright colors when you do parties. A wedding photographer might use more white and natural colors or a female entrepreneurial coach might choose to accentuate femininity by using pink and gold.
HASHTAGS
Knowing your hashtags is equally important to the look and feel of you photographs. First of all, do a search on Instagram for relevant hashtags that is generally associated with your business. That is a good indication to the typical searched people do for items in your field of business. Another good tip is to create one or two unique hashtags that can be used for user generated content. When you have a business account (and you definitely should) you can track the success of your hashtags via the insight on you posts.
CALL TO ACTION
Posting on Instagram should never be just for the sake of posting. You want people to take action and ultimately buy from you! So do this by adding a call to action in your post description. Along with this, you can add a link as part of your bio. This doesn’t have to be your web address. It can be to a landing page where you have your offerings or your shop. This link can also be changed to link to whatever you feel is appropriate for the special or competition or course you are selling.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Part of adding a call to action, you should also include a way people can get in touch with you. If you are a local business, add your phone number, email, web, or any other contact info you feel is essential to you.
HOURS OF OPERATION
This one is super important if you have a brick and mortar business, or if you do business internationally. Why? Your shop is obviously not open 24/7 and time zones can upset people if you take a bit longer to respond. Knowing that you fall in a specific time zone serves as a very subtle, but clear reminder that what is business hours where they are might be the middle of the night where you are.
REMEMBER YOUR USP’s
Your unique selling propositions are those things that differentiate your business from the others in you industry. That is what makes people rather buy from you or make use of your services, than from the person down the road. When putting together your Instagram posts keep them in mind and make sure that you can link every post back to one of them.
USE VIDEO TO TELL A STORY
Yes, I know you aren’t a videographer or even own any of the fancy video editing software available, but what if I can tell you can do it for free? Yes, you’ve heard it right! Legend – Animated Text in Video & GIF is an awesome app that allows you to do simple photo and text animation on your phone. Becoming a basic animator has never been so easy! This will help to draw attention when people are scrolling through Instagram and let’s be honest. Who doesn’t love a bit of interactive viewing? So go on, give it a try!
Although there are tons more you can learn from business and Instagram, these ten tips should be a good solid start for you to get your business going on Instagram and claim your piece of the pie!
Until next time!
