How To Use Instagram For Business The Best Guide - CoSchedule

How To Use Instagram For Business The Best Guide Theres a lot of hype around Instagram, and how important it is for businesses of all sizes? But, should you actually believe it? The answer is a resounding yes. With 800 million active users per month, its impossible to ignore if you want to get your brand in front of your target audience. The next question you probably have is, How exactly do I use Instagram to build my business? Theres a lot to know, and your success will rely on a mix of smart strategy and creative execution. Fortunately, youre in the right place. In this post, well cover everything you need to know to start growing your brand on this important social network. Youre about to learn: All the basics, from setting up a business account to setting ambitious yet achievable goals. How to shoot awesome photos and create great visual content thats perfect for the platform. The best ways to analyze your content and measure your results to prove your work makes a difference. Plus, youll know everything you need about different post formats, how to leverage Instagram Stories, and more. + Instagram = Success: Did you know you can schedule Instagram posts on one integrated marketing calendar platform with ? See how it works. Then, start your free trial or schedule a demo. How to Use Instagram for Business: The Most Complete Guide via @ Table Of Contents: Building the Business Case for Using Instagram Setting Up Your Business Profile Optimizing Your Instagram Business Profile Find Influencers In Your Niche to Follow Set Instagram Marketing Goals Plan a Basic Instagram Content Strategy Building Your Visual Style And Brand Aesthetic On Instagram Growing Your Audience and Engagement Instagram Best Practices Schedule Instagram Posts With Make Creating Instagram Posts Easy with these 100+ free stock images. Use these as the basis for your own creative content to help you get started fast. Then, follow the tips in this post to take your Instagram marketing to the next level. Building the Business Case for Using Instagram You might be here because you're curious if Instagram has any actual business value. To make that decision, it's helpful to have hard data. Check out these stats: How to Get Started: Setting Up a Business Account The very first thing to do in order to start marketing on Instagram is to set up a business account. This video from Alex Fleck will help show you the steps: Take some time and use Instagram yourself before using it too heavily for your business (if you're not someone who uses it personally). Optimizing Your Instagram Business Profile Next, make sure your profile is completely optimized. This means: Writing a compelling bio. You have 150 characters to summarize what your business is about. Use a recognizable profile image. Your logo is typically a sound choice. Choose a good profile link. On Instagram, links are only allowed on profiles (and not on posts). Two options are your brand's website homepage  or a link to a new page or piece of content you're promoting.Find Influencers In Your Niche to Follow When you're first starting out, you'll need to choose accounts to follow. Here are some types of accounts to think about starting with: Your partner brands. Companies you work with are a great place to start. Influencers in your niche. These are people and brands that your audience follows. Start by searching a few keywords for accounts related to your brand or product. Brands you're inspired by. This will help you get ideas for your own posts and campaigns. Your competitors. Nothing wrong with keeping tabs on what they're up to. While doing so, note what type of  content  works for them, and find out what your competitors  are doing. Ask yourself these questions: What draws you to their Instagram posts? How often are they posting? What do you dislike about their posts? What type of information do they include in their profile? Is there a consistent theme? Keep what you learn in mind for later. Set Your Instagram Marketing Business Goals Once you have some research and inspiration stored away, it's time to think about your business! What are your goals as a company? Here are some Instagram goals you might want to focus on: Increasing  your follower count Growing your brand awareness Greater engagement Whatever your goal might be, make sure it's clear and concise so that you can always refer to it throughout your Instagram process. When it comes to your goals, you’ll also want to make sure to use SMART goals. Is your goal specific,  measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based? Use the SMART goals to purify your goal to its most  simple, effective form. For example, a great goal would be: "We want to increase our following by 20% over the course of the next month." This goal is specific in what metric to track, states the desired outcome, and has a clear deadline for that outcome. Recommended Reading:  How To Use Social Media Analytics To Create The Best Content Aligning Instagram Metrics With Business Objectives Growing an Instagram following and getting tons of engagement on your posts is great. But, if your goals are connected to actual business outcomes, then they don't matter much. So, when you're setting goals, know how you're aiming to improve your brand each time you post. To do this, select metrics to track that help drive certain business objectives. Follow this chart to help you select business goals and pair them up with the best Instagram metrics: Know How You'll Measure Your Instagram Marketing Efforts It can't be stressed enough how important this one is. Whether you're starting out or revamping your current Instagram, it's time to start recording your data! Remember that one aspect of SMART goals? Measurable. If you can't track your efforts, you'll never be able to see if your strategy is working. Use Google Sheets or Excel to track the analytics behind your posts. Make sure to record these 5 elements of every Instagram post from here on out: Date Total Followers Type of Post (i.e. Culture, Product, Inspiration, etc.) Time Engagement after x amount of time Once you have this data from all of your posts, you'll be able to make smart, strategic decisions every time you post. Find what works, take out what doesn't, and watch it grow your Instagram account. Create a simple spreadsheet like this (click File Make a Copy, or recreate something similar for yourself): Then, track your performance for each post over time. Do This With : Want even more analytics? Try out 's social sharing and analytics functionality for Instagram (and all your other social networks). It's the easiest way to schedule and measure every post alongside all your marketing projects and campaigns, all in one marketing management platform. Plan a Basic Instagram Content Strategy Now, before you go posting just anything on Instagram, understand why you're creating that content in the first place. Everything you post should have a purpose, support your goals, and strengthen your brand. Outlining a simple content strategy can help achieve these aims. Start With Your Story The final step  in defining your strategy is to brainstorm how you can connect the story of your product to your audience.  What was the original idea that made your business idea come to life? Take that and run with it. For example, Lululemon was founded on the  idea that working out together could also cultivate  community. According to their website, "Our vision for our store was to create more than a place where people could get gear to sweat in, we wanted to create a community hub where people could learn and discuss the physical aspects of healthy living, mindfulness and living a life of possibility." The idea was simple: Health and community to live a fuller life. That is their story. On their Instagram account, that same narrative continues to tells the story among all of their posts: It's almost instantly evident what they're about, and it's consistent across their entire page. In order to find your own narrative, ask yourself these three questions: What is the core idea behind your product? What do people love about your product? What would your audience miss about your business if you stopped tomorrow? These three questions will help shape your story. Combine your narrative with your goal, and now you have a strategy. To find success on Instagram, you need to find your narrative. Understand Which Post Types Work Best Now that you have an awesome strategy in place, it's time to decide what types of posts you want to share with your audience. Every audience is different, so trying out different types of posts to see what works will be very beneficial for both audience building and increased engagement. Inspiration: Inspirational posts are really great for motivating your audience. Who doesn't need a good morning pick-me-up? Inspirational posts often come in the form of quotes, so find some key people who believe in your narrative and/or goal, and use that as a starting point. Company Culture: Culture posts are ones that truly align with the heart and core values of your business. It could be for fun and play, or something you personally support. Either or, culture posts are great for being transparent and honest with your audience. Show them who you really are! Let them share in your funny, office shenanigans behind the scenes. Product Posts:   While maybe the most obvious, product posts are one of the most essential Instagram types to use.  After all,  the ever-present goal is always to grow your business, right? Instagram is a great platform to show off how your products work, promote new stuff, and get people interested in what you have to offer. Event Photos: Attending a conference? Hosting an event? Snap some shots for Instagram. Interesting Stats: Everyone loves a fact or figure that sounds almost impossible to believe, but is totally accurate. Stats that help businesses make decisions are great, too. Designed Images: Event flyers, ads, and other such items would fall under this category. See Some Instagram Post Examples It'll be helpful to see some examples of what good Instagram posts look like. Here's a handful to check out: Inspiration from Gary Vaynerchuk: . Winners love the hate - #garyvee - Tag a winner A post shared by Gary Vay-Ner-Chuk (@garyvee) on Apr 18, 2018 at 2:30pm PDT Culture from : 2017 might have been our best year yet. We opened a brand new office, hired a bunch of great people and added a boatload of new features to help marketers get even more organized. Thank you for a great year, rs! #thankyou #marketingteams #getorganized #nye2017 #marketing #marketingprojects #contentmarketing #contenthacking #projectmanagement A post shared by (@) on Dec 31, 2017 at 8:33am PST Product from Nike: Live from London, the next chapter of @nikefootball has arrived. Introducing the #Mercurial Superfly 360, built for the fastest players in the game. â  â‚¬Ã¢  â‚¬ â  â‚¬ Check out our Mercurial Instagram Story to see more from the launch event. #BornMercurial A post shared by nike (@nike) on Feb 7, 2018 at 11:40am PST Event Video Post from Red Bull: No perfect performance, no problem.   #redbull1976games #oldschool #skiing #winter #snow #fun A post shared by Red Bull (@redbull) on Mar 20, 2018 at 2:11am PDT Interesting Stat from ESPN: Jaylen Brown is doing things in the playoffs that haven't been done in 8 years 💠ª A post shared by NBA on ESPN (@nbaonespn) on Apr 22, 2018 at 2:15pm PDT Designed Image from Mod Cloth: It’s World Art Day! Who’s your fave female artist? #WorldArtDay A post shared by ModCloth (@modcloth) on Apr 15, 2018 at 9:02am PDT Recommended Reading:The 6 Types Of Social Media Content That Will Give You The Greatest Value Building Your Visual Style And Brand Aesthetic On Instagram One of the  unique qualities about Instagram among all the other social platforms is that it's primarily visual with its ongoing feed of imagery. This allows business to visually show off their product, rather than just  tell; however, this also presents a challenge. How can you make your  business narrative seen through a consistent, visually appealing brand? Here are five key factors that will ensure your Instagram feed looks great and tells your story well. Build your brand on #Instagram the right way.The Bare Essentials While top-notch, expensive camera gear surely  has its benefits, it's definitely not required to have a great visual presence on Instagram. What you do need is a smartphone with a camera, and some good natural  light. Whether you're taking photos of people experiencing the benefits of your product outside, or you're taking photos of physical  products indoors, these two are essential  to get going. To watch how to post to Instagram on your iPhone check this video from Jana Williams. Natural Lighting Quality lighting for your photos can take them to the next level! The best lighting source is found outside, but there are also ways to capture this gorgeous light indoors. If you want to take your photo outside, the best time of day for lighting is called golden hour. This is the hour after sunrise or before sunset when the skies turn golden and make everything seem magical. Depending on where you live, taking photos at those times of day may not be ideal, so if you need to take photos in the middle of the day here are a couple of tips: 1.  Avoid direct, high-noon sun outside. In the middle of the day, the sun is directly above which can cast harsh shadows on your subject. Instead, we want evenly lit light to highlight your subject so to avoid the bright sun, find some shade. In the shade, your image will have even light, making for a wonderful photo. 2. Avoid dark, indoor spaces. While its common to have offices and buildings with  tiled, white fluorescent lighting in the ceiling, this is not ideal for your images because it will make them appear yellow. Instead, try finding a nearby window that has some room for your photo. This way, you'll capture the great natural lighting while still being inside. 3.   Use a reflector. If you can't go outside and you don't have any windows nearby, you can purchase a $20 reflector to help you bounce the available light. I personally use this for my photography, and it always comes in handy. Simply choose to either add more light with the silver or gold sides or take away light with the white, diffuser side. Tilt the reflector side-to-side as well as up-and-down until you see the desired light, and you're all set! Rule of Thirds When it comes to visuals, the layout of your subjects can also be optimized to create visual interest. Using the rule of thirds, you can ensure your image is balanced, natural, and professional.  The rule of thirds creates a 9-part grid providing four lines where your subject can  be placed. Recommended Reading: How To Create A Marketing Strategy That Will Skyrocket Your Results By 9,360% Choosing Your Filter One you've taken your image with great lighting, positioned with the rule of thirds, and have taken your image, its time to edit it! The first thing you'll want to do,is choose your filter. Filters are several different styles and editing presets that are ready to use. There are an extremely high number of filter options out there today from a variety of apps, including Instagram's 21 default filter options so be careful when you choose your filter. Ask yourself this: Does this filter reflect the mood of my business narrative? Does this filter draw attention to itself or does it enhance my subject in the photo? Is this filter consistent with my other imagery? Once you've chosen a filter or two that works best for your business, make sure to stick with that filter. While it's okay to experiment right away, too many different filters at once can disrupt the mood and emotion of your Instagram feed as a whole. When your audience goes to your account and sees nine images together, consistency needs to be evident in telling your story well. Find a couple of filters and stick to it. Brands on Instagram: use consistent filters to create a consistent look.Some Popular Instagram Tools From start to finish, there are apps and tools out there to help you get the best photo possible. Here's a grand list of some of my favorite photo tools from creation to hitting publish: VSCO: Use their camera grid to apply the rule of thirds, and utilize their hand-crafted filters for great color. Snapseed: Once you've taken your image, open it in Snapseed for several advanced editing tools and filters. Filterstorm Neue: While only available for iPhone,  the app has a diverse collection of customizable editing options. TouchRetouch: Need to edit out something? This app is perfect for detailed retouching! ProCamera: If you'd like more control of your iPhone camera, this app allows you the full functionality. While there are several more tools out there, these are the ones that have worked best for me and . Explore the different options, and see what works best for you. Every workflow is unique, so choose an app that matches your photo process best. Growing Your Audience And Engagement First of all, congrats! You've thoroughly developed your Instagram strategy, created some awesome Instagram posts, recorded your data, and now its time to optimize everything for the next level of audience engagement! At this point, you know what works well and you're ready to fine-tune everything to achieve your goals faster and better. There are eight  easy steps to optimizing your entire Instagram account from the descriptions and imagery, to tagging others and building a community. Here's how to grow your following on #Instagram: Write Perfect Post Captions Instagram is all about striking visuals. But, having the perfect caption can help give your images better context and make them more engaging. Follow these guidelines every time you write post copy: Using Hashtags Hashtags are really important to your Instagram posts because they allow others to find you that may not have heard of your product before. They let you reach a broader audience, and who doesn't want that? An easy way to find what hashtags are currently trending is to use Top-Hashtags.com.  They provide a nice, clear list with the highest rated hashtags and how many posts currently have that hashtag. It also lets you click on the hashtag to see examples of how others are using it! How many hashtags should you use? That's a great question. Instagram allows you to use up to 30 hashtags for each post, but its best practice to use 5-10 hashtags. While more hashtags often is better, is always important to remember to avoid being  spammy. You can find the perfect amount of hashtags to use by doing two things: Look at what other hashtags the influencers in your industry are using and how many. Test your own Instagram posts with a variety of hashtag amounts, and see what works best. Tag Industry Influencers In order to grow your community, look to the big influencers and see how you can involve them in your Instagram strategy. Not only can you learn from them, but you can easily share their quotes, products, and other resources within your own posts that align with your business' narrative. For example, we're big fans of Seth Godin and his mantras so we've  read a bunch  of his content. He has so many great takeaways, and we want to share that with our own audience, too.What's that one thing constantly on your mind that you've always wanted to do but just haven't taken the leap? Maybe it's time to just go for it! #vscocam #vsco #bismarck #photography #content #contentmarketing #socialmedia #team #culture #calendar #quote #inspiration #office #mantra #motivation #justdoit #sethgodin A photo posted by (@) on Sep 15, 2016 at 8:12am PDTWhen you share content  from others, make sure your posts are still original. Take your own images, design your own quote graphics, and still create something that matches your own business, but remember to give them credit. Tag them in your posts so that they see it, their audience might see it, and then watch your audience grow. Recommended Reading:How To Get Insanely Loyal Followers On Social Media Adding A Location Every Instagram post has the option to add a location to it. This is yet another way Instagram users can search to find people to follow. If your business is known especially in a specific region, this is even more valuable! You can either search for your location and find it using maps, or you can create your own custom location.  Custom locations can be especially helpful for business events as you can add a personal touch. Using Instagram locations are a simple extra way to allow your potential audience  to find you. Add a location to your Instagram posts to target local audiences.Optimize Your Link In Your Profile Instagram has a very minimal profile space to personalize the information to your business and its goals, so businesses must take advantage of what they're given. One of the best ways to do so, is by updating and modifying your link  for each Instagram post. While a best practice is to have your business or product website link there  on a long-term basis, feel free to customize that link with posts that direct your  audience to something more specific. Do you have a feature launch coming up? Was your business just featured on a reputable news source? Use those opportunities to post about it on Instagram, and directly link to it in your profile. Don't forget you can drive Instagram traffic with profile links.This allows your audience to avoid mis-typinganything, and gives instant access to precisely what you want them to see. Just remember to add "link in profile" to your Instagram post description, and then they'll know to hit the link in your profile. For example, recently announced our new podcast series, Actionable Content Marketing, and used Instagram to direct our audience to that specific page for easy accessibility: Create An  Instagram Engagement Pod InstaRevealed  recently launched the new idea of comment or pods so that users could connect more with their industry niche, while also growing each other's engagement. Once you sign up, you're placed into a 5-10 person direct message where you can send the heart icon every time you post. The heart alerts the group to check it out, like and comment, and boost your engagement. If you'd like to do this for your business, you can sign up on their website. Maybe you'd like an engagement comment pod, but with people and brands you know! Well, that's possible too. Make a list of the 5-10 key people you'd like to include in your group. Contact them, tell them what it's about, and let them accept your invitation. Then, simply create a direct message, and add your biggest fans, industry influencers, or  anyone else on your list. The next time you share an Instagram post, go to that direct message and choose the heart icon. Your engagement group will know exactly what to do, and suddenly you'll have great engagement and interaction on all of your posts. Of course, this engagement group is for their posts as well. Make sure to reciprocate the Instagram love by commenting and engaging with their content. By simply choosing to work as a supportive community, you'll also interact with all of their audience's. It's a win-win for everyone involved. Have you tried building an Instagram engagement pod?Post at the Best Times for Instagram Instagram is a mobile-focused app. And, since users are frequently on their phones, this means almost any time is a great time to share on the platform. But, are some times shown to be better than others? This graphic shows our findings: Now, your best times may vary from what research shows. Remember that data that you started collecting? This is where it comes into play. Analyze all of the times recorded in your note, as well as the engagement levels for that post to find the best time to post for your business. To do this, follow these three steps: First, in order to simplify your times, categorize them by hour. (i.e. All posts published within 9am, 10am, etc.) Then, tally how many posts you had within each hour. Now let's take a look at your engagement. Under the same hour categories, write down all of the engagement scores associated with that hour. Once that's complete,  add up the total engagement score for that hour. Next, divide it by amount of posts in that hour. You've now found your average engagement for posts published during that hour. You'll want to repeat this process for each of your hours, and then it will be loud and clear what time(s) work best for you! Recommended Reading:The Best Times to Post on Social Media (According to 23 Studies) Know How Often To Post Along with the best time, frequency is a major factor when publishing to Instagram. On one hand, you don't want to post so often that it looks spammy and turns away your followers, but on the other you want enough posts that continually build up for your Instagram community. According to Buffer, the top brands post about 1.5 times per day. So what does that mean for you? Let's test it. For each week that you recorded, count how many Instagram posts you've published. Then,  take your first day of the week's follower count and your last day of the week's follower count, and find the difference. Do this same process for every week that you've published content. What do you notice? Are there some weeks that have a lot of posts, but lower follower growth? Or did posting a lot triple your follower count? did this same process, and we found that posting 3 times a week compared to 5 times increased our follower count by 64%! For us, less is more. But what's most important is that you use your own data to find your best frequency. Your business is unique, and so will your data. Take the time to analyze and reflect, and you'll be amazed at the results. Recommended Reading:  This Is The Social Media Posting Schedule That Will Boost Your Traffic By 192% Advertise With Instagram Instagram ads are 2.8x higher than other forms of online advertising. Once you know what type of Instagram post works, its time to make it an ad and let it work for you! Instagram ads are integrated with Facebook ads and can be in the form of image, video, or carousel  style, where multiple  images are in a scroll for your audience to tap through. Using what you already know, you can simply promote your posts to go just a bit further, making a big difference. Instagram advertising is great for businesses because it's yet another thing you can measure to reach your goals. Not only that, but it adds a direct call to action in your ads that you can lead  your audience directly to your product. When  over a third  of Instagram users have used their mobile to purchase a product online, your Instagram is an easy way to reach into that moment of purchase. Using Facebook's Ads Manager to create an ad for Instagram, you can choose a custom audience, define the region you'd like to reach, age, gender, language, as well as demographic interests or behaviors. There you have it! Eight  ways to optimize your Instagram account from head to toe. Start with one or two, and perfect them before going into the next. Slowly but surely, you'll notice not only great engagement but an increased ROI on your product. Instagram Best Practices: Brand. Craft. Community. That might seem to be a lot to remember, so let's go over the best practices. If you must take away one thing, or maybe three, these would be it.