Instagram has taken the world by storm, and its recent acquisition by Facebook only confirms its entry and place in the big leagues. While it is every bit the social network that Facebook and Twitter are, there are a few differences in marketing with Instagram that you need to understand if you intend to try marketing there.
The chief difference lies in the demographic of the site. There’s no avoiding the fact that Instagram is the darling of the younger set, and if you’ve got a product or service that you market to the 15-28 crowd, you may have a winner here. If most of your target audience is 30 or older, you may find it more difficult. Another important thing to note is whether or not there are images on Instagram related to your product. Sometimes the imagery just isn’t a good fit, and if that’s the case, you may not have a lot of success here.
Ways to effectively market on Instagram
Here are 5 tips for marketing your business on Instagram.
- Use Video On Instagram – This newish feature in Instagram is similar to Vine, but their videos are a whopping 15 seconds as opposed to 6. Way more canvas to paint on.
- Use lots of hashtags – While engagement drops significantly on Twitter if you use more than 2 hashtags, the opposite seems to be the norm for Instagram. Load them up!
- Don’t post incessantly – Unlike many other social networks less can be more here. You don’t want to fill up your follower’s feeds and be less special. Shoot for a few times a week and post great content.
- Optimize your Instagram Profile – Like other social networks, you’ll need to make sure your business profile is complete and utterly devoted to finding you and doing business with you.
- Follow other brands on Instagram – Finding and following related brands on Instagram is a must. Thankfully there are some good tools that help with this, like Statigram.
Instagram is a social media monster with a few specific caveats. Follow these and you may find a ravenous audience eager to do business with you.
