Instagram from Scratch!

As you may have probably noticed, Instagram is rapidly growing, helping a raft of small businesses to skyrocket. This can be your success story too! At first, it may sound complicated to some and even impossible to a few, but…did you know that the platform can be used in a smart way to boost your sales and visibility faster than you think?

The social network has already reached 1 billion active users and is still expanding. Wow, right? However, it´s not too late to start your business account if you haven´t used it before, no matter if you´re a new mompreneur or an experienced businessperson.

There’s way much more than sharing selfies; Instagram is no doubt a marvelous business tool. It changes all the time and even though there’s no success framework decoded to follow, the analytics available on business profiles can immensely help you to refine your strategy each time. And that´s what mainly distinguishes personal accounts from business accounts.

But… what are analytics? It’s a tool that tells you how many people saw or liked a post, and how they got to see your content.

As the platform is not designed for a specific target market or niche, there´s plenty of room for author shoes, self-published books, customized mugs, vegan meals, tattoo studios, photography courses, business coaching, e-commerce, and the sky is the limit!

Products are just as valid as services on Instagram, and that’s certainly good news. But, what do you need to get started?

To begin this social media marketing adventure with the right foot, first set up an Instagram Business Account (not a personal one) and think about a basic strategy. Of course, this includes thinking in detail about your audience, the most important element. If you have no clue about audiences and engagement, 50 Pound Social can take care of your digital marketing strategy.

How to start?

3 easy tips for newbies:

1. Get a killer profile pic to help users quickly identify your awesome brand — A logo would be ideal! Take your time to get a professional design. Remember that on this network, beautiful images are highly important.

2. A catchy bio with external links can bring you a lot of revenue. The most usual link in bio is your business website. Some companies use extensive bio descriptions, some others keep them short and sweet. That´s up to you! You can do some research on your competition to feel motivated about your bio crafting.

3. #Hashtags: You can search the hottest trends on pages likes best-hashtags.com because this platform is nothing without hashtags and not just any hashtag. You’ll have to find the time to research the right combination of suitable phrases that will drive followers to your account. Remember not to use more than thirty hashtags per post.

A solid option, to begin with, is using a combination of specific hashtags that are relevant to your niche (never make them too general) plus daily trends, such as #throwbackthursday

1. High-Quality Curated Content

Unless your content is both outstanding and frequent these days, you’re not going to get the results you´re looking for. Do you have any writing skills? If not, seriously consider hiring a content writer who can instagram like a pro.

What is considered frequent on Instagram? Daily yes, twice a day no. We don´t want the Instagram algorithm to think you´re bothersome, right?
Another key point here is the strategy. The content, apart from being high quality, has to engage the audience you´re intending to reach. And that´s impossible without having a marketing plan beforehand. Great content without a suitable plan is pointless.

Hot Trend #1:

Quality is gaining over quantity when it comes to content marketing, and Google has the capacity of ranking on top those pages that include high-quality yet natural writing style.

2. Appealing Images

Audiences are getting more and more critical every day when it comes to pics. Take your proper time to test different filters that can convey your visual message accurately. Soon you´ll discover that you have most and least favorite filters. Embrace Canva, Textgram and other image editors. Pixabay and Pexels provide an interesting variety of splendid creative commons that you can edit and tailor to your convenience, that is, images which can be used freely for commercial purposes.

Hot Trend #2:

Canva is offering more and more specific social media free templates each day! There are awesome paid graphics but the cost is totally affordable for small businesses.

3. Trigger Emotions!

Your audience is all about feelings, so share content that makes users feel something. Cheesy as it may sound, it totally works. (Never underestimate the power of emotions in digital marketing.)

Hot Trend #3:

Ethics and other social issues are on demand in 2018 since more than 55% of young consumers think that companies should bring awareness about these types of problems through advertising campaigns. Take this stats into account and think how ethics could be applied to your brand message. For example, if millennials are within your target audience, you can try to place yourself in their shoes and talk about topics they care about, such as making a positive impact in the world or saving time for pursuing personal interests.

4. Schedule All Your Posts

Social media scheduling tools are paramount to keep consistent content running! If you haven´t heard about them before, you´d better catch up and set up your accounts ASAP. These can not only help you with Instagram but with other social networks.

Hot Trend #4:

These content organization tools can save you more than 40% of the overall instatime than non-scheduled posting. Forget about uploading content rushing on the subway, plan content beforehand and schedule posts as much as you can. Also, you can find out about peak times of engagement in your local area. This way, you´ll make sure you´re not online 24/7 and at the same time, you´ll maintain your online presence active when most people are connected.