Five Ways To Build Influence on Instagram

It’s nearly impossible to build brand recognition or any kind of rapport with customers under the age of 40 these days if you don’t have active social media accounts. Of all social media, Instagram is the fastest growing platform for small businesses, and a great way to connect is to become a social media influencer.

Millenials, and indeed anyone who grew up in the age of the internet, are skeptical of big marketing tactics. It isn’t enough to have a slick image. Customers now want to know all about a business’s purpose. They buy from companies they feel a connection with.

Using Instagram is a great way to attract your target customers and build a unique relationship with them. It’s the new “go where everybody knows your name” principle and a way to break through the anonymity of the internet.

If you’re confused about how to use Instagram for business, don’t worry. Here are five tips you can start using today to build influence and connect with your customers on Instagram.

1. Have a clear vision and consistent messaging

Instagram for business requires planning. You can’t just throw up pictures randomly and hope for the best. Your photos are a quick visual tool that tells your customer that you’re the perfect company for them because you understand them. Take some time and think about what your business represents and how you can get that across through a square photo.

There’s no guarantee that anyone will click through to the caption, so make sure that your photo is high quality and consistently represents your brand’s identity on its own. Customers will be curious or engaged in some way, and that leads them to the caption and ultimately your whole feed.

After that, research hashtags that pertain to your business and take note to see if the majority of pictures under that hashtag match the image you are going for.

It helps to have a comprehensive style guide for your photos, subject material, captions, and hashtags. This gives your feed a consistent, predictable feel and attracts the perfect type of customer for what you do.

2. Optimize your profile. 

You have a limited amount of space. Make sure that your profile tells your customer precisely who you are and how they can find you outside of Instagram. You can also include a brand hashtag in the profile if that’s part of your marketing strategy. Be sure it’s creative but concise.

Your profile picture should be striking as well. Most Instagrammers are working on their phones, and your profile picture is too tiny to see much detail. If it can’t be a clear picture of a person, make it recognizable and uncluttered.

Unlike other social media platforms, Instagram doesn’t allow you to insert links directly into posts. The only active link you have is the one in your profile. You can decide how to use this resource best. We recommend having the link go to your site where a person can sign up to be on your e-mail list or elsewhere off of Instagram to view your content. It can also be a static link to your website, or it can be a dynamic link as you create content on other platforms such as a blog or sales page.

3. Use Instagram Stories

When Instagram rolled out the stories feature, many brands rejoiced. Now customers can get a behind the scenes look at things that don’t mesh with your picture grid.

Don’t be haphazard though. Make sure that what you post is still consistent with your brand and offers exclusive, behind the scenes looks at business operations, sales, or any other content that humanizes your business and drums up interest.

You can find an Instagram video app or use the one located in the Stories function to do this.

Instagram stories image in the top left corner will let you create your own.

4. Do your research

At first, you should experiment, but start to collect data on engagement as quickly as you can. This will tell you the best times to post, or when your users are on the platform, and how many times per day to post.

The Instagram algorithm prioritizes engagement, so you want to be posting when your users are likely to be on the platform already and can quickly interact with a post. The more interaction, the broader your reach to other users.

You can also research the types of posts that your customers tend to like. As you curate your feed, the idea is to have more of those types of posts in your style guide.

Instagram for businesses offers its own analytics tool so you can track your engagement across posts, and you can also download other apps like Iconosquare to follow engagement more closely. Whatever you choose, be sure to follow something consistently so that your users aren’t left wondering what’s going on.

5. Make use of user-generated content

As you begin to make a name for yourself, using (with permission) other users content as it pertains to your business is a great way to build further trust. You can elicit content through a post of your own, or just check relevant hashtags. Make sure you tag the original user. Both of you get exposure, and you build organic trust. You can even work with another social media influencer relevant to your brand for organic trust.

This gives an extra depth to your content as other customers see your product or service in action with a real, regular person. You begin to build word of mouth, organic traffic and others connect with like-minded customers. It’s a great way to take the pressure off having to create content consistently and gives your business a chance to have fresh content.

Mastering Instagram for influence doesn’t have to be hard. The key is to be consistent with your message and to know your ideal customer inside and out. Once you have those two factors down, your content should come easily enough. Make good use of the Instagram video app and keep your photos consistent.

Have you set up an Instagram account yet? No better time than today to make that happen!