The Power Of Instagram

The power of Instagram – Advice from a social media agency in Dorset

Since launching in 2010, Instagram has become one of the biggest tools for companies to promote their products and services, and rightly so. With over 1 billion active users it’s the 3rd biggest social media platform in the world (following Facebook and YouTube). With this in mind, and more of our clients turning to Instagram, we thought we would give you some of our top tips and marketing advice to get your page booming! 

Let’s start with some stats…

  • 130 million users tap on Instagram shopping posts each month – that’s a lot of shopping that’s done through Instagram 
  • 51% of users are female and 49% are male, so it’s a pretty even split 
  • 500 million people use stories each day 
  • The average Instagram business posts once a day – in our opinion the more the better, but don’t let this scare you off

Stats from https://blog.hootsuite.com/instagram-statistics/ 

Setting up your page 

The first step to a successful Instagram page is the setup. Depending on how you are going to use it, you need to think about whether you want to set up a business or personal account. If you are happy to be the ‘face’ of the page and be more interactive on it, there could be an argument to go personal. But if you will use it more as a sales platform, go business. If in doubt, opt for a business account as this will give you more insight options (a form of analytics). 

You then need to pick a username / @handle, remember these 3 things: 

  • It needs to be easy to remember 
  • Must be unique (if possible) 
  • Keep it relevant 

Keep your bio short and to the point. You will want to include your location, business name, any links or website information.

Building your following 

Follower numbers are not everything, but you do need to make sure you’re building a following that is engaged with your content and relevant to your business. To achieve this, here are some tips: 

  • Post high-quality imagery – this doesn’t always mean you need a fancy camera, your phone will do, but keep it uncluttered 
  • Keep post imagery relevant to the captions 
  • Don’t follow a strict schedule and avoid pre-scheduling if possible
  • Don’t be too salesy
  • Tag your location 
  • Engage, engage, engage – the most important one – you can’t just be logging in once a week after posting something on your feed. You need to be interacting with customers, and other businesses and using suitable hashtags. 

Using your insights properly 

Insights can give you a huge amount of information about your customers and target audience. They also tell you whether what you are posting is actually doing what you want it to. 

On your Insights, you will find information such as: 

  • Geographical demographics
  • Age demographic 
  • Gender demographic 
  • Most active times for your followers – allowing you to work out when is the best time to post 
  • Accounts reached 
  • Interactions (comments / likes etc.) 

Getting further support 

We haven’t even covered half of it, we would need far more time for that… Advertising on Instagram is a massive part of growing your business effectively too. 

Like any kind of marketing, it takes time. And honestly, if you don’t have the time, knowledge or the drive to put into your Instagram page, it will fail (sorry to be blunt). But if you would like a bit of a helping hand, there are various solutions we can offer: 

Training sessions

Whether it’s virtual or face-to-face we can provide training sessions to you or multiple people within your business. This will be personalised to your needs, whether it’s a basic setup session, optimising your account and best practices, or more in-depth information about advertising. 

“Thanks for the presentation, I have already had positive feedback about how useful the session was, feeling more confident to use Instagram and thank you to you for presenting.” – Review from Neals Yard following a virtual session. 

One-off support 

Just want some help getting your ducks in a row? We can offer one-off support for your Instagram page. This could include setting up the page or completing an advertising campaign for a new product or service. 

Retained Instagram support 

Really want your Instagram page to pick up? A marketing retainer will ensure goals are in place to get your page growing. From increasing your follower count to improving engagement and referrals to your website, we can be as involved as you need us to be and our social media marketing packages are fully bespoke. 

Ready to start working with a social media agency in Dorset?

Hopefully, we have given you just a small insight into how Instagram could help your business. If you’re not active on this platform, you really could be missing a trick! Our social media agency in Dorset has a specialist social media manager and we work with many local businesses and companies further afield with their social media too.

Get in touch with our team by emailing us at info@cwmarketing.co.uk or call us on 01202 888200.