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It should come as no surprise that Instagram is one of the most popular social media networks to date and continually growing with each passing day. With such great popularity, comes an incredible opportunity for businesses to make a huge impact with very little investment. Did you know that Instagram has over 400 million members worldwide? If you’re on Instagram, but you don’t have many followers it’s time to start branching out with some strategies to maximise this platform. And if you’re not on Instagram yet, it’s time to jump on the bandwagon.

1. You don’t expect to be the president of a company after one week on the job, right? Right. Instagram is a bit like that; you need to start at the beginning by creating a really strong profile.  Your profile should showcase your business, your style and yes, your brand. Begin with a recognisable name like @chilligroup (shameless plug, we know!) but really, make it simple so your clients, customers, and greater community can easily find you. Then develop a short and sweet bio that will appeal to your followers, better yet, make your followers laugh and they’ll love you forever or at least enough to actively participate with your profile, which is exactly what you want.
2. Designate someone to be in charge of your Instagram, a content curator if you will. The less people involved in your Instagram, the more consistent your posts will be. Ideally when you’re posting on Instagram you only use a handful of filters, your comments are of similar personality, your message is strong and it appeals to your target market. By incorporating Instagram into someone’s job responsibility you’re able to ensure it’s being updated regularly and consistently.
3. Start posting! We always like to recommend to our clients that they post at least 5-10 posts prior to taking their Instagram to market. This will ensure they look like an active participant on the social media network and hopefully the posts will be beautiful and engaging enough to make people interested and keep them coming back. Speaking of beautiful posts, if you don’t fancy yourself a decent smartphone photographer take some time to practice—it’s essential that you take a great photo because it’s all about the visual on Instagram!
4. Engage with funny, catchy or interesting comments.  It can be as simple as saying ‘it’s brainstorming time in the office, tag your favourite creative collaborator!” This not only relates to people in the professional/creative industry (if that’s your target market) but it also engages with them. The more people tagged into the post, the more people will follow your page.
5. Interact with users. Who couldn’t use a five minute break at the office to scroll their Instagram feed? When you have a few minutes, take the time to look through photos of pages you follow (of course, they should be relevant to you i.e. clients, suppliers, industry experts etc.) and interact with those posts! Like them, comment on them, repost them if necessary, this simple form of interaction will help you grow your follower base.
6. Take advantage of hashtags. Hashtags are the easiest way to get more eyes on your posts. If used correctly they can really help your page or post go viral. Get started by researching what hashtags are being used—try the explore option in Instagram aka the magnifying glass in the corner. Type in something you think is relevant and then note the other options that come up as well. Try using some of these hashtags in the comment section the next time you post. Another idea is to piggyback off of frequently used hashtags such as #motivationmonday or #throwbackthursday. Anytime someone searches for this popular hashtag, your image will come up and hopefully, they will like it enough to click through to your page and become a follower.
7. Once you’ve started really building your profile, go ahead and make it easy for people to follow you. Add the Instagram logo and link it to your profile on all of your digital collateral. You may even want to consider adding an Instagram-feed into your website.   Lastly, ensure you mention your new Instagram page on your other social media pages like Facebook or LinkedIn. If someone is following you on one social media site, it won’t be a hard sell to get them to follow you on another.

Still feeling a bit intimidated about your Instagram? We can help! Give us a call today to find out about our Social Media Starter Package or download our eBook, Social Media for Beginners here to learn a little more.