32 Instagram Tips to Promote Your Blog, Brand and Business

Updated on January 19th, 2017 by Quertime Team in Social Media

Social marketing is not limited to the Famous Facebook and Twitter only. When it comes to posting photo updates online Instagram could be the better choice to market your brands and businesses. The mobile photo and video sharing app has more than 200 million active users including celebrities, top brands and multinational corporations worldwide.

We all know that a picture speaks thousands of words. If you happen to post some really awesome and exclusive photos and videos on this rising social platform, chances are you could get instant overnight viral success. To help you achieve that below we’ve gathered 32 proven tips for you to better engage with and attract more Instagram followers.

Setting up Your Instagram Account

1. Create an Instagram account for your business
Follow this simple guide to get started on Instagram and take full advantage of the platform.

2. Choose an easily recognized username to represent your brand
You are encouraged to use your brand name as a username of Instagram.

3. Create a complete Instagram profile
Create your Instagram profile by adding your profile photo, short but impressive biography as well as a link to your blog or website.

4. Connect Instagram with other social networks
Link your Instagram account to Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites which you have an account (go to Account Settings > Share Settings). It helps your Instagram to reach your friends, fans and followers from your existing social networks.

5. Add an Instagram tab on Facebook page
Once the tab is created, you can right away share your Instagram images to your Facebook page.

6. Focus on your brand-specific content
Connect your business with the relevant communities on Instagram and consistently post content (both photos and videos) that is highly beneficial to them.

Using Hashtags # for Marketing

7. Always include hashtags in your status updates
Hashtags play a very important role in your marketing efforts. It enables users from around the world reach your Instagram through their mobile searches with ease. So always include hashtags in your posts to stay connected.

Here are 3 types of hashtags # you should include:-

Brand-Specific Hashtags
Include hashtag by using your blog name, brand name or business name in your posts can create a positive impact on your overall marketing strategy. If you are running a contest or campaign of some sorts, why not create a unique but easy-to-remember hashtag to promote the activity and help your participants to connect with each other.

General Hashtags
If your brand-specific hashtag is unpopular, you may include some general hashtags in your posts. For example, if you are running a web design business, you may include hashtags like #webdesign, #webdevelopment or #webdesigner in your posts.

Trending Hashtags
Explore and identify any trending hashtags that are highly relevant to your brand then include them in your posts. It can possibly help your post to be seen by thousands of interested Instagram users in a matter of minutes.

8. Engage with relevant hashtag users
Get connected with other Instagram users who are using the relevant hashtags to your brand. You can either ‘like’ their posts or drop your comments as part of your social marketing effort.

9. Respond to customers who connect you via hashtags
Just like how you respond to your customer’s inquiries and comments on Facebook Page and Twitter Mentions, you should always respond promptly to those Instagram users who connect with you via hashtags.

Engaging with Your Customers

10. Share your follower’s photo on Social Networks
One of the best ways to appreciate your followers is to acknowledge their photos and share them on your Instagram and other social networks. Before doing that, of course you must ask for permission to use the photo. Below is a good example of how Starbucks share their follower’s Instagram photo on Facebook to make him famous.

11. Embed follower’s photo on your website or blog
Apart from sharing your Instagram followers’ photos on social networks, you can also embed and showcase their images on your blog or website. This helps to make your followers feel appreciated. Again, always ask for permission first.

12. Like and comment your follower’s photos
Engage with your followers by ‘liking’ their photos to give them acknowledgement and give some constructive comments to show that you do care about them.

13. Respond to your customers promptly
Be it a question, compliment or complaint from your followers about your post, you should take it seriously and respond to them promptly.

14. Mention @ followers in your post
Mentioning @ your follower’s name is another great way to show your appreciation for them. Here’s a good example of how Coca Cola mentions @ the photo contest winner’s name in their post.

Posting Highly Shareable Photos and Videos

15 Post impressive photos
Before posting a photo on Instagram make sure it’s something awesome that most of the people will like it and share with others. You may use some photo editors, filters and photography tricks to enhance the quality and uniqueness of the photo.

16. Post short videos
Besides posting photos, you can also share some cool short videos on your Instagram feed.

17. Showcase your products authentically
It will be convincing if you can show some photos and videos of your products as they are being used in real life.

18. Tell some stories about your brand
People like story no matter kids or adults, so you can share some self-explanatory photos and videos to show your company’s core values and cultures.

19. Feature yourself in the photos and videos
Instead of showing your products why not share some fun and authentic photos / videos that feature you and your employee? This makes the post more likeable and shareable.

20. Post photos on Instagram prior other social networks
When it comes to photos, you may post them on Instagram first before you share them on Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites. This makes your followers feel exclusive.

21 Show how you launch a new product live on Instagram
If you are launching a new product, take this opportunity to post photos and videos live on how you and your employee prepare for the launch, how the actual event goes with your excited customers, and why not some post-launch scenes.

22 Collaborate with business partners on Instagram
I’m sure your other business partners are on Instagram too. If so why not request them to post your product photos on their Instagram feed? Or perhaps you may request them to exchange product photos of each other for posting? It’s a win-win marketing strategy.

Using Customer Engagement Tricks

23. Ask followers to comment
Make it a habit that every time you post a photo update on Instagram leave a question to your followers. This helps to open up conversation encouraging more interactions between you and your followers and more discussions among themselves.

24. Use ‘fill in the blank’ post tactic
When you post a photo update with some text you may leave some keywords blank (e.g. product name, brand name or people name that most of the people familiar with). You’ll be surprise it make people talking about it.

25. Ask followers to caption your photo
Asking your followers to caption your photo post is another effective way to get social engagement on your Instagram. You can even do it through a photo caption contest and entice your follower’s participations by using some lovely prizes.

Running Photo Contests

26. Run photo contests with cool prizes
Running Instagram photo contest is one of the best ways to collect user-generated content and to crowdsource great ideas. In this case, it also encourages followers’ engagement with your brand. Make sure you’ll give away attractive prizes for the winners so that more followers will be joining the contest.

27. Run photo contests with voting
Your Instagram photo contest can be run through voting. This will get the contestants vying as many votes as they can which could make your contest go viral.

Using Mobile Marketing Strategies

28. Use geotagging posts
Instagram has a cool feature called Photo Map which you can use to target your local customers telling them the location of the posted photo.

29. Get in-store traffic to Instagram through QR codes
QR codes make it easy for mobile users to engage with you on Instagram instantly.

Other Must-Follow Tips

30. Post frequently and consistently
Regardless of the number of followers you have, you should always post great visual content frequently and consistently to make your brand updates to be seen by your followers regularly. Not only does it help to keep your existing Instagram followers it also attracts more people to join.

31. Use analytic tools to monitor your Instagram and improve the results
You can make use of some analytic tools to keep track of your followers’ behaviours, type of hashtags being used, and type of posts get most likes and comments. Analyze the results then keep on improving the way you post your status updates on Instagram.

32. Determine the best posting time
To find out the best posting time for your Instagram you should monitor when your photos getting most likes, shares and comments. Also find out what time your hashtags are most frequently used. Once the active times being identified always post your contents during these certain hours.