Viewer engagement is higher on Instagram than any other platform with 500 million daily active users waiting for your interesting, entertaining, follow-worthy content. With over 1 billion active monthly users, it is a valuable tool to grow your customer base and build brand awareness. By using Instagram, small businesses can connect with their target audience, showcase their products and services, and interact with their customers in real-time.
One of the primary benefits of using Instagram for business is its visual nature. The platform is designed to showcase images and videos, which makes it an ideal place for businesses to showcase their products, services, and overall brand image. By sharing high-quality, visually appealing content, small businesses can engage their followers and create a positive image of their brand.
In the social media marketing world, your goal is for your ideal clients to know, like, and trust you, and Instagram provides the optimum platform to achieve that goal. You can easily chat with your followers, use polls, and follow metrics and insights for market research to increase engagement and grow your business. Customers can even purchase directly from your Instagram shop. From your bio, you can provide a link to your website or landing page or follow any action for your campaign strategy objectives.
In addition to building relationships with customers, Instagram also provides small businesses with valuable insights into their audience and the performance of their marketing efforts. By using Instagram’s built-in analytics tools, businesses can track the success of their posts, understand the demographics of their audience, and identify what type of content resonates best with their followers. This information can then be used to inform future marketing strategies and optimize the impact of their efforts.
Instagram also provides small businesses with the opportunity to run targeted ad campaigns. By using Instagram’s advertising platform, businesses can reach a highly targeted audience with specific interests, behaviors, and demographics. This can help businesses to maximize the impact of their advertising dollars and reach their ideal customers with a highly relevant message.
From a marketing perspective, Instagram can take your ideal clients through each phase of the marketing funnel:
Awareness – Grab your client’s attention through posts, stories, reels and highlights.
Interest – As followers enjoy your content, their interest and engagement grows.
Desire – Now your client trusts you and desires to purchase your product.
Action – Your client is compelled to take action thanks to the relationship you have fostered.
Advocacy – Client advocacy is where your client now advocates for you and becomes your brand ambassador.
Instagram has the ability to reach a large, targeted audience. With over 1 billion active users, businesses can use hashtags, location tags, and influencer partnerships to reach their ideal audience. This can help businesses expand their reach, build brand awareness, and increase their customer base.
Instagram also provides small businesses with the opportunity to interact with their customers in real-time. By responding to comments and messages, businesses can build relationships with their customers, address any concerns they may have, and provide personalized support. This can help to increase customer loyalty, create brand advocates, and drive customer engagement.
From a heart felt person-to-person business perspective, Instagram fosters community within a tribe that is uniquely your own. With a targeted Instagram marketing strategy, you can also attract your ideal client and increase your business.
In conclusion, Instagram is a valuable tool for small businesses looking to grow their customer base and build brand awareness. With its visual nature, large audience, ability to interact with customers, powerful insights and advertising capabilities, Instagram provides small businesses with a cost-effective way to reach their target audience and drive growth. Whether your business is looking to increase its brand visibility, build customer relationships, or drive sales, Instagram is a platform that should not be overlooked.
You can follow along with these screen shots of my phone as I create a post. Or, you can skip to the bottom of this page for a numbered list of directions.
Open the Instagram app
Click on the + on the top right corner of your phone
You will get a drop down called Create New that gives you options
Choose: Feed Post
Choose your photo from your phone’s photo Gallery
Edit your photo,
straighten the horizon and choose a filter, if you want.
Click on the Blue arrow at the top right corner of your phone to get to the page where you write your message
Type over Write a caption….
Write a comment that add values and invites engagement
Add hashtags
Tag People
Click on your photo and start typing your Instagram name to tag yourself or anyone in the photo
Tap the blue check mark at the top right of the page
Add location
Click on your photo and start typing your location to tag yourself or anyone in the photo
Share to Facebook
When your post is live answer people’s comments
First Steps to Make an Instagram Post
Load the Instagram app on your phone.
Open the Instagram app
Click on the + on the top right corner of your phone inside the Instagram App
You will get a drop down that gives you options.
Choose Create New
Choose: Create post
Choose your photo from your phone’s photo Gallery
– Edit your photo,
– straighten the horizon, choose a filter, add text and stickers if you want
Click on the Blue arrow at the top right corner of your phone to get to the page where you write your message
Type over Write a caption….
– Describe your photo with a comment that add values and invites engagement.
Add hashtags
Tag People
– Tap on your photo and start typing your Instagram name to tag yourself or anyone in the photo
Add location
– Click on your photo and start typing your location
Share to Facebook if you want to
Tap the blue check mark at the top right of the page to load your post
TaDa!! Good for you!! You did it! Have fun!!
I would love to know if this was helpful for you and what other questions you have. Please drop me a line or message me through Instagram.
Instagram is a social sharing network mobile app, that you load onto your smart phone for sharing photos and tidbits about your day. It started in 2010, was bought by Facebook in 2012, and has more users than Facebook and Twitter. Insta (instant) Gram (telegram) is an easy way to share photos that you can enhance with built-in filters and simple edits. You can share photos and video real time and add fun stickers with details like location, temperature, time, day and mood. You follow friends and people who align with your interests. People can follow you back and make comments about your photos. They find you with hash tags #.
Even if you don’t understand or wish to use Instagram at least set up an account with your branding name to reserve the name for when you decide to join the fun. My company name is EileenDreams and I missed out on Twitter and got EileenDreamsD – pretty lame. While you are at it, do the same for SnapChat etc if you plan to expand with Social Media….
The easiest way to use Instagram is to use it how it was originally meant to be used:
Take a photo,
Post it,
Add a relevant comment and a couple hashtags.
To Get Started:
Download the Instagram app on your smartphone and sign up for an Instagram account.
Add your profile photo and information. If you are better with a keyboard than a smart phone you can fill in your bio, profile, links, and upload your profile photo on your computer at Instagram.com
Link your new Instagram account to Facebook, Twitter and all your social media platforms and invite your friends to follow you.
There are enough features to edit photos within Instagram itself. There are photo editing tools, filters, tools to level out your horizons, and there is even a rule of thirds grid. Instagram is known for their filters so have fun experimenting with them.
Insanely Simple Photo Editing Sites To Create Memes if you don’t like making your own graphics and are just starting out. (Only use this if you really have to because it screams newbie.)
http://www.canva.com/
http://www.picmonkey.com/
I only ever use my own photos and I find great pleasure in taking my own photos. (To each his own.)
If you need photos, try these free sites:
https://unsplash.com/
http://deathtothestockphoto.com/
https://picjumbo.com/
https://www.morguefile.com/
My 2 favourite graphics sites for images and fonts are:
www.Creativemarket.com
www.inkydeals.com/
Take it up a Notch
First, decide what your goal for this Instagram account is and then have a vision of what you want it to look like. Always remember your own personality, voice, and look. While you should stay true to the look and feel of your brand, some Instagram accounts stay so rigid to their brand that they have become boring. When I started I just wanted to learn how to do it and jumped right in. If you post photos that are not in line with your branding image you can always delete them later while you are still learning. Authenticity is key so don’t worry if it’s not perfect.
If you want to get fancy with your photo, add text and filters, I use an app that I downloaded to my smartphone called “TextGram”. I have tried others but I prefer TextGram because it is simple and it doesn’t load a bunch of advertising crap onto my phone. With TextGram you can add text, frames, filters, fancy effects and it is fast on done on the fly.
Have Fun 🙂
Turn on your phone’s location. Look at other people’s posts and start interacting with them. It is good etiquette to always reply to comments. Manners count just like IRL (in real life).
“Is it t-shirt worthy?” Sometimes it is just relevant or newsworthy but it helps keep the quality of my posts.
Speak to your Uncle (or ideal customer, or friend). Instagram is all about connecting with real people.
Keep your posts positive. You have to be authentic but people turn to Instagram for an instant feel good feeling and appreciate a little smile. When desperate for an idea; Cat photos always work. This is a proven fact. Seriously.
Try https://ifttt.com/ to save time if you wish to cross post to your other social media platforms.
Ideas To Increase Engagement
Using the search option is a great way to find like-minded connections. If you view someone’s profile and honestly like their photos, they might also enjoy your photos or content and start looking at your posts and may even become a follower. Take advantage of your profile section with a photo of you, what you do, and the link you want to share. My IG account is a business account but you can set yours up as a personal account and easily change it later if you want to. When I started I participated in a weekend hashtag project hosted by Instagram. These are fun and always provide an unexpected perspective. Use #hashtags. (a way to define searches.) Occasionally there are rumours about Instagram changing the way it feeds. People get in a big panic and post all sorts of things to get to be at the front of a feed. Honestly, unless you have gazillion followers it really doesn’t matter unless maybe you are in high school.
Just continue to keep engaged and authentic, and have fun! This is my Instagram feed if you are curious. Hopefully you see a theme here:
Grateful for a walk in the park today. The trees still look on fire. The vibrant Autumn colours against the contrast of the blue skies takes my breath away. 🍂🔥🌞
Grateful for a walk in the park today. The trees still look on fire. The vibrant Autumn colours against the contrast of the blue skies takes my breath away. 🍂🔥🌞
Grateful for the trees. Oh my goodness, it is beautiful walking around the neighbourhood this time of year. The Semiahmoo Trail , along the Nico-Wynd Golf Course, and Elgin Heritage Trail is spectacular anytime of year & especially now with the explosion of colorful leaves against the blue sky. Just wow! 🍂💖
Grateful for the trees. Oh my goodness, it is beautiful walking around the neighbourhood this time of year. The Semiahmoo Trail , along the Nico-Wynd Golf Course, and Elgin Heritage Trail is spectacular anytime of year & especially now with the explosion of colorful leaves against the blue sky. Just wow! 🍂💖
Grateful for the incredible talent and imagination the artists have shared in the P`Quals White Rock Promenade Sculptures Competition.
Each of these sculptures is breathtakingly beautiful and inspiring. I haven`t captured all of them here. You really need to wander along & see them for yourself. My heart goes out to Paul Slipper, the artist of the damaged heron sculpture. 💕
Grateful for the incredible talent and imagination the artists have shared in the P`Quals White Rock Promenade Sculptures Competition.
Each of these sculptures is breathtakingly beautiful and inspiring. I haven`t captured all of them here. You really need to wander along & see them for yourself. My heart goes out to Paul Slipper, the artist of the damaged heron sculpture. 💕
My heart goes out to all of you who lost your home, to all of you worrying about loosing your home, & all of you who had to leave your home because the air you had to breathe was too smokey.
All I can offer is advice from Dory, “Just keep swimming”.
My heart goes out to all of you who lost your home, to all of you worrying about loosing your home, & all of you who had to leave your home because the air you had to breathe was too smokey.
All I can offer is advice from Dory, “Just keep swimming”.
Grateful for our clean air here at the Coast. I don`t take this lightly. My ❤️ goes out to all the people struggling with the fires around our Province.
It felt ironic to catch this clear view of Mt. Baker tonight from the Serpentine Fen, especially while so many are struggling with air quality.
Mount Baker has been in my line of vision for as long as I can remember, but I rarely catch a worthy photo of this timeless symbol of strength. But, now I can`t make up my mind....
Which do you prefer? The first image with the heavy text in the trees? Or, the lighter text in the clouds?
I will add your favourite to my magnetics at the White Rock Museum. And if you DM me, I will send you one.
Grateful for our clean air here at the Coast. I don`t take this lightly. My ❤️ goes out to all the people struggling with the fires around our Province.
It felt ironic to catch this clear view of Mt. Baker tonight from the Serpentine Fen, especially while so many are struggling with air quality.
Mount Baker has been in my line of vision for as long as I can remember, but I rarely catch a worthy photo of this timeless symbol of strength. But, now I can`t make up my mind....
Which do you prefer? The first image with the heavy text in the trees? Or, the lighter text in the clouds?
I will add your favourite to my magnetics at the White Rock Museum. And if you DM me, I will send you one.
I can see the sun light up the sky, in the morning Something that I know just feels so right
It`s coming back around now, its coming back around It`s coming back around now, its coming back around
Every time I close my eyes I go, somewhere else Doesn`t really matter at all
Sunday kind of mornings all I want...for sure Where everything is flowing, right from the start
It`s coming back around now, its coming back around It`s coming back around now, its coming back around It`s coming back around now, its coming back around
It`s coming back around now, its coming back around"
I can see the sun light up the sky, in the morning Something that I know just feels so right
It`s coming back around now, its coming back around It`s coming back around now, its coming back around
Every time I close my eyes I go, somewhere else Doesn`t really matter at all
Sunday kind of mornings all I want...for sure Where everything is flowing, right from the start
It`s coming back around now, its coming back around It`s coming back around now, its coming back around It`s coming back around now, its coming back around
It`s coming back around now, its coming back around"
I don’t know how many times I have committed to writing in my blog more often even though I’d rather scrub a toilet. Well my toilet just can’t get any cleaner so I guess I have to write again but honestly I’d rather be at the beach.
I’ve heard it said many times that social media isn’t “real” and there are valid points for that argument, but for me personally, I have mostly encountered very real and heartfelt connections. I am on Twitter which seems to have a life of its own that is far too fast paced for me to keep up with and for the most part I ignore it. I’m just not a cutting edge type. Although, if you are on Twitter and have any sort of customer service problem, just tweet about it and see how fast your issue is resolved! Plus, in an effort to reach a more targeted audience, many stores (like Safeway) offer super coupon deals to Twitter followers.
Recently I experienced an earthquake. I was alone and it made me feel very vulnerable. To my surprise I immediately started receiving tweets asking if I was ok. At that moment, those tweets felt as real and as connected to the real world as I could possibly be. So yes Virginia, there is a silver lining and yes, social media can be real and used to connect with real people in a real world.
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