Building a Brand on Instagram: 10 Tips For Social Media Startups

Intro

With over 2 billion active monthly users, Instagram has become one of the most powerful marketing tools when it comes to brand image and engagement. In fact, adults in the US spend an average of 33 minutes per day on the platform, so it is the perfect chance to reach your target audience when they are enjoying some downtime.

Being such an invaluable tool for your business, starting a new Instagram account is a great strategy when trying to get your brand name out there. In this article, we share ten of our top Instagram tips that can help you maximize your online presence and build up a loyal follower base, providing some examples of well-known brands who have led the way.

Align With Your Brand Identity

Your Instagram page is a place to show off your brand personality and connect with your audience. Aligning your social media presence with your brand image will create a cohesive online experience that helps build up that all-important brand recognition.

Sticking with a color palette and photography style that represents your brand and aligns with the aesthetics of your website will help cement your image so customers can instantly recognize your posts when scrolling through their feeds.

Your tone of voice is also important as your reputation as a brand is on the line. Although social media is a great opportunity to show a more fun and human side of your business, maintaining a constant tone of voice will help maintain professionalism.

Add a CTA To Your Bio

When a user arrives on your profile, your bio is the first thing they will see. A short and snappy statement can have a powerful effect and is a great chance to show off your brand and its offerings.

Underneath your bio, you have an opportunity to include a link to your website. Whether you are linking to your website home page, promoting your newest product launch, building your portfolio, or guiding traffic to a landing page for your latest promotion, the opportunities are endless.

To help maximize engagement and encourage people to click on your link, adding a catchy CTA (call to action) will help draw attention.

(Image source: Five Guys)

Maintain Regular Posting

Consistency is key when it comes to social media strategy, keeping your brand at the forefront of your followers’ minds and providing a continuous stream of content for them to enjoy. Experts at Hootsuite recommend posting a minimum of three times a week), boosting your chances of showing up in the ‘Explore’ feed so you can widen your reach.

Although there is no one-size-fits-all approach, it is important to find the sweet spot for your business. If you know that you are going to struggle to find time for multiple posts a week or simply don’t have the resources to produce enough imagery, find a schedule that is realistic to maintain.

To help stay on top of your content, preparing a content calendar in advance and using scheduling software, such as Hootsuite, will mean you can get ahead of yourself and don’t have to worry about thinking of new content every morning.

Encourage User-Generated Content

There’s no better way to build up engagement than to get your followers involved in your Instagram content. People love to see their photos on the social media pages of their favorite brands, so resharing user-generated content can be a great way to encourage interaction.

Whether you promote a branded hashtag or host a social media campaign, there are several ways to prompt users to send in photos of themselves which can then be shared through your Instagram account.

As well as maximizing engagement among your loyal customers, this is a great way to build up reputability and trust. For potential new customers, seeing that regular consumers are loving your product or service can help them make a decision.

(Image source: Apple)

Make The Most Of Stories

Instagram stories are a powerful tool that can be used to keep your audience engaged on a daily basis. In fact, smaller brands with under 10K followers saw a 35% increase in Story reach rate last year.

Since they disappear after 24 hours, they are great for sharing more casual insights into a brand, giving a real personable feel that can help followers feel like they are getting to know you as a business. Whether you share behind-the-scenes content, give exclusive teasers about upcoming launches, or use interactive polls to get users’ opinions, the options are endless.

Engage With Your Community

Building up relationships with your followers shows that your brand genuinely cares about its audience and will help create a sense of community.

Some good ways to boost engagement are to respond to post comments, reply to direct messages, and instigate conversation through Instagram stories or posts. Users who are seeing your business engage with others are more likely to want to get involved and leave a comment of their own, boosting your overall engagement.

Another powerful way to start a conversation and get your name out there is to comment on the posts of other businesses in the local area or within the industry, building up relations and improving brand reach at the same time.

(Image source: Glossier)

Collaborate With Other Brands

On the topic of building up relationships with other brands, why not take this one step further and suggest collaborations? Joining forces with brands that share a similar target market will be a mutually beneficial agreement that can help you get seen among their audience.

Some common collaboration ideas include co-hosting events, running a joint giveaway, or even creating a product collab. These strategies are bound to get people talking and can help create a surge of engagement as you expand your reach and switch up your usual social media strategy.

Run Instagram Competitions

Instagram accounts that host giveaways are proven to grow 70% faster than those that do not. People love the chance to win a freebie or have their say about your next product launch, so using your Instagram platform to host competitions is bound to generate some excitement.

Many businesses require users to undertake actions such as following their account, liking the post, tagging a friend, or sharing the post on their story in order to enter the competition. This is a great way to spread the word and build up your following.

(Image source: Applebees)

Consider Sponsored Content

Now that we’ve discussed some strategies for building up your Instagram account organically, it’s time to decide if you want to accelerate the growth by trialling sponsored ads.

Instagram has its own advertising platform which allows you to get your ad displayed to your ideal audience. You can target specific demographics, interests, or behaviors, even being able to choose ‘lookalike’ audiences. By being able to reach those who are most likely to show interest in your brand, you can maximize engagement and thus the return on your investment.

Monitor Instagram Insights

Keeping an eye on the performance of your Instagram activity will help you continue to develop and improve your strategy.

Instagram Insights offers valuable data that shows you key metrics such as follower demographics, impressions, and engagement rate. These will show you what is working and what is not, helping you tweak your upcoming content calendars to give your audience what they want.

Making changes that deliver the type of content that provides the best engagement and posting during any key times of the day that have shown to generate the most impressions will ensure you are on the right track.

The Route To Your Instagram Success

Nailing your social media strategy is not something that happens overnight, but with these simple strategies, you can be well on your way to creating an established Instagram platform that your followers love to keep up to date with.

At the end of the day, your Instagram account is a place to show off your brand personality and connect with some of your most loyal customers. By sharing insightful content and engaging with your online community, your account will naturally continue to grow and build up a memorable reputation that helps your online presence thrive.