How to Use Instagram to Promote

Instagram has long ceased to be just a feed with photos of cats, children, and food. It is now a powerful communications platform, brand development platform, and sales tool.

Collected a checklist of 8 points to help lead your account to success!

1. Profile header design
2. Engaging subscribers
3. Creation of creative content
4. Join collaborations
5. Add action buttons
6. Create a consistent style
7. Use hashtags
8. Upload Videos to IGTV

1.How to design a profile header

The profile header on Instagram is the first thing that users who visit your page see. Therefore, it is important to use this space wisely, as it is after reading this part they decide whether to stay or leave.

Name

Do not confuse account name and nickname. The name is the bold line in the profile header. Instagram works with organic search, so enter keywords in this line by which customers can search for you or your business. They also determine the main theme of the profile. Important: the name string is 30 characters long.

Here are examples of names on Instagram:

FLOWER DELIVERY MOSCOW – good

Pottery school “Clay” St. Petersburg – good

Everyone can draw – it’s bad.

What’s wrong with the last example? The fact that the functionality of the search bar is not involved here, by which potential customers and future subscribers can find you. Nobody will search for drawing courses for the phrase “Everyone can draw.” Most likely, future artists will use the version “School of Drawing in Vologda.”

You only write your own first and last name in a line when you are a famous person, or you have a strong personal brand, and people are looking for you that way.

Description

The profile header is 150 characters long and supports active links with # and profile links with @.

Tell us about yourself or your business here – add the most important information that the user needs to know when working with you. Specify delivery times, hours of operation, payment methods. Or describe the areas in which you are working and your advantages.

Let’s continue with the example of the pottery school – this may be its description:

• Create your pottery
• Masterclasses, courses, children’s parties
• Gift certificates
• Online booking of lessons 24/7 on the website

We used 132 signs and shared everything a potential client needs about our pottery school.

Writing each phrase on a new line for visual harmony and better perception is better. The main thing is not to knock everything together. If you indent on Instagram itself, the text will stick together. To divide the text into paragraphs, you need a secret space.

Copy this space for Instagram here:

⠀ – space is at the beginning of this line, before a dash.

Highlight, copy and paste into your text.

Contact details

Indicate your contacts – the audience should immediately understand how to contact you. Add a direct link to the website, phone, and mail.

If you have an offline business, for example, a beauty salon, then write the address – it will be clickable, and customers can quickly find you on the map.

2.How to Engage Followers on Instagram

Let’s start with the theory, namely how the Instagram algorithms work and how the user’s feed is formed. Six factors affect the order in which content is served:

1. User interest in the content

2. User relationship with the content creator

3. Relevance

4. The frequency of opening the application by the user

5. Number of user subscriptions

6. User activity on the platform

The Instagram feed does not just give out random account posts to which the user is subscribed. It considers their interests – the more the algorithm is confident that they will like the proposed post, the more likely it will show it to the user.

The more the photo is commented on and liked, the more people will see the post. The higher the engagement, the higher the likelihood that the next post will attract more attention. More coverage means more potential customers. We have collected 5 Instagram engagement techniques that will help bring your profile to the feed of all subscribers.

Questions. We recommend starting with simple questions that involve short answers. So you get to know your subscribers better and understand whether it is possible and necessary to move on to difficult questions for deep reasoning and discussions. An example of a post with a question from our pottery school: We are preparing a master class, where we will make plates ourselves and paint them. The next meeting in Paris is the place of power of our teacher Masha. What is your favorite city?

1. Advice. But don’t give advice, ask for it! After all, people love to share experiences, and commenting on posts is one of the best places to do this. We came with a guest lesson to St. Petersburg. Share your favorite places, locations, bars, and museums in the comments; we will be very happy for recommendations!
2. Games. Offer subscribers an easy-to-login game directly or indirectly related to your profile. For example, a post on a bookstore account. Have compiled a list of the top 100 books for 2021! Let’s play and find out who will read what exactly next year? Write in the comments a number from 1 to 100, and we will write the title of the first line of it.
3. Marathons. Yes, on the one hand, they are already bored, but on the other, this is an effective mechanic that should not be neglected. This is a common mechanic for personal accounts, but businesses can use it successfully too.
4. Contests. They cause less excitement than a year and a half ago, but they still work and attract interested participants. The terms of the competition must be clear and simple.

3.How to create creative content

Instagram is a platform where creative content is particularly well received. It is a place of inspiration created not only by marketers but also by talented users.

Use quality images. Users are already accustomed to seeing beautiful photographs created by professional photographers. Follow trends and fit them into your account style.

Do not create creativity for creativity because the purpose of the business page on Instagram is to attract potential buyers. Before diving into a creative concept, study your followers see how they interact with your posts and stories. Then, determine what business problems you want to solve and start to get creative.

4.Participate in collaborations

Collaborating with brands and bloggers is a great opportunity to grow your audience and attract the attention of potential buyers.

Collaborations are also beneficial because the subscribers of the brand or blogger with whom you cooperate already trust him and will be much more loyal to you.

There are two options for mutual promotion:

• creation of a joint product and its further promotion to increase sales;
• Cross-marketing is when two (or more) parties promote goods or services under their brands from each other.

Imagine the family-run flower shop Flora, which has teamed up with a manufacturer of handmade chocolates. Together they have developed gift sets that promote everyone on their profile and website. This is an example of a joint product.

Now let’s take the example of cross-marketing. Ivan is a photographer who specializes in wedding photography. Lisa is a makeup artist. They advertise each other on their profile since both have an audience with approximately the same characteristics, interests, and values. This was an example of cross-marketing.

Collaboration forms for Instagram promotion:

Mutual PR of brands or people who work in related fields. An excellent option for representatives of creative professions. An effective type of collaboration since the target audiences of the parties coincide.

Collaboration with the brand. For example, artists create illustrations for a well-known brand on a specific topic and mark the company’s profile in publications and stories. In this way, the artist’s audience learns about the company, its products, and opportunities from a trusted person.

Collaboration with a blogger. Continuing the topic of recommendations and trust, one cannot mention influencers’ opinion leaders. Subscribers listen to their recommendations, so brands need to find a blogger with the audience they need and promote their products through them. Marks in publications and photos, polls in stories, and promotional codes are the tools that help a brand acquire new fans.

5.How to customize buttons on Instagram profile

The buttons in the profile header will make the client’s path to the office or salon even shorter – thanks to them, he can immediately call or send an email.

To use the buttons on Instagram, you need to go to a business account or connect an author account. Then you will have access to the platform’s advanced functionality, including buttons.

What buttons can be added to a profile

• Subscribe or Subscribe;
• Write – to send a message to direct;
• Contacts – when you click on it, a panel appears with buttons “How to call,” “Email,” or “Write SMS”;
• Down arrow button – Shows related and recommended accounts.

How to add buttons “How to call,” “Write SMS,” “How to get” in Instagram

After switching to a business profile, you can add or change communication methods in the settings. Click on “Edit Profile” and go to “Communication Methods.”

Enter the data you want to add here.

• Email address – the button “Email” will appear in the profile. The address”.
• Phone number – the button “How to call” or “Write SMS” will be displayed – depending on your choice.
• Address – a button “How to get there” will appear, or the specified address will be displayed at the end of the profile description.

6.How to create a consistent ribbon style

Instagram is a social network for visuals who love their eyes. Therefore, aesthetics and a harmonious publication style are essential to the success of your profile. A unified account style is the details that unite the entire visual component of the profile. Such a detail can be a similar color scheme, corporate fonts, a creative concept, the frames’ location, illustrations, or frames.

Options for the location of photo content in the Instagram feed

Chessboard. It is important to alternate posts according to a previously accepted gradation, such as illustration – photography – collage or black and white image – text – bright image. The gradation can be any and depends on the scope of your business, profile goals, and publications.

Vertical or diagonal rows. To bring this concept to life, you need a photo planner to make your shots look good with each other.

Columns or rows in a line. The approach is the same as in the previous method. Here, all attention is focused on three images that follow each other. A great way to show a product in full size and then in detail.

Framework. A great tool to help you pull your content together. You can experiment with colors and textures, but we recommend sticking to the principle “less is more” because the focus should be still photographs and not their frames.

Puzzles. This is a simple tile design option. Looks great for minimalistic product photography. Cut the picture in a photo editor for 9 or 12 frames, and then upload it to the tape in the correct sequence.

7.How to use hashtags

We have written a detailed article on how hashtags can help you promote yourself on social media, but we will list the main points here anyway:

• use hashtags to make it easier to navigate your profile
• create a branded unique hashtag that you will assign to your posts
• put hashtags, which are keywords, so that users can find you through a hashtag search
• use hashtags when running contests or marathons – this will make it easier to follow participants + this is a point to fame

8.How to use IGTV

First, let’s answer the question: what is IGTV, and why is it needed? This innovative feature appeared in 2018 and immediately became popular with brands and bloggers.

IGTV is an app built to download vertical videos up to 60 minutes long for users with a blue checkmark and 10 minutes for everyone else. Instagram TV emerged as an add-on to Instagram to enable users to post long videos.

Creating a channel on IGTV makes it possible to attract a large audience, interest it and provide interesting and useful information in a convenient and understandable format.

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