5 Reasons to Market on Instagram

By Ivan Serrano

Since launching in 2010, Instagram has rapidly evolved into the most popular photo sharing network.

With more than 300 million active users, Instagram is an excellent platform sharing a visual story about your business. Through high quality photos and six-second videos, Instagram is a great way to interact with customers and build an online community for your brand.

Marketers are also starting to realize how powerful images can be for a marketing strategy. In 2015, 42 percent of marketers plan to increase their budgets for Instagram marketing. Clearly, Instagram will be a platform businesses will want to use if they want to compete with other businesses in 2015.

If you’re thinking about integrating Instagram into your marketing strategy for 2015, here are five tips you should follow:

1. Use Instagram to boost engagement.

Want to boost engagement with your customers in 2015? Then Instagram is your best option seeing as it creates 58 times more engagement than Facebook!

There are a number of ways to use Instagram to boost engagement. In addition to sharing high quality photos, it’s important to include engaging captions with each photo. It’s also important to use relevant hashtags to your industry and interact with your followers.

2. Take advantage of social video.

Think YouTube and Vine are the only options for social video? You might want to think again. Instagram is changing the way brands create video content and interact with their customers.

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Instagram is a great way to share videos of new products, quick interviews with employees, or short tutorials. By using Instagram videos, you’ll be able to tell a visual story about your business and create more relationships with your customers.

3. Create a community for your customers.

Instagram is a powerful tool for creating an online community. When using Instagram to cultivate a following, make sure to spark conversations with your followers and build relationships with your customers.

There are a number of ways to build a community through Instagram. For example, share your followers’ photos or embed their photos on your company blog. It’s also important to respond to your followers’ comments and like their photos. Finally, make sure you mention your customers whenever you respond to a comment. This is an important way to show appreciation for your customers.

4. Highlight your products.

Creative photos and videos are the best way to reach your customers on Instagram. Make sure to share high quality images and use external video editing apps to make amazing photos that tell a story about your business.

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It’s also a good idea to share photos of your products in action. For example, share photos of your customers or employees using your products. You can also share behind the scenes images of your products to tell a story about your business.

5. Develop consistent messaging.

Although Instagram is driven by photos and videos, brand messaging is key to the success for Instagram marketing. The messaging you use for photo captions, hashtags, and interaction with customers should align with the overall brand. For example, Nike uses #justdoit with every photo and only talks about inspiration for athletes. By creating consistent messaging, businesses are able to create a stronger visual brand through Instagram.

Instagram is a very popular platform for consumers. As visuals continue to reign as the top marketing tactic in 2015, Instagram will be the king of visual content. By following these tips when developing your Instagram strategy, you’ll be able to build more awareness of your business and create a strong following of customers.

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