How to Market Your Business on Instagram

If you know any teenagers, or even anyone under thirty, you know that Instagram has taken over the planet. Not only that, but Facebook recently recognized this as well, and acquired the company. And while this may seem like a ripe opportunity for marketers, (it is) there are a few major differences you need to be aware of before attempting to market on Instagram.

The chief difference is the demographic of the site. There’s no getting around 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 might have a winner here. If the majority of your target audience is 30 or older, you may find it more difficult. Another important factor to note is whether or not there are images on Instagram connected with 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

Check out these 5 tips for marketing your business on Instagram.

  1. Use Video On Instagram – This newish feature in Instagram is similar to Vine, but their videos are a massive 15 seconds as opposed to 6. Significantly more canvas to paint on.
  2. 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!
  3. 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. Focus on a few times a week and post great content.
  4. 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.
  5. Follow other brands on Instagram – Finding and following related brands on Instagram is a must. Fortunately 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 discover a ravenous audience eager to do business with you.