4 Easy Ways to Use Instagram for Business and Explosive Growth

Have you checked out Instagram for business marketing purposes yet?

If not, you should know that Instagram is one of the fastest growing social media sites with more than 150 million active users.

That being said, there is a very good chance that your audience is regularly using Instagram to share their own images and engage with their favorite brands.

Whether you’re just getting started with Instagram for business or have been using the social media site for quite some time now, here are 4 easy ways for your business to realize explosive growth using Instagram:

1. Focus on building a base of Instagram followers

You can be very strategic in growing your base of Instagram followers by embracing the following 3 proven tactics:

First, be sure to connect your Facebook and other social media accounts to Instagram.

Since most businesses already have an established following on Facebook, this is a great way to give those fans a choice to follow you on Instagram as well, which can help to dramatically grow your base of Instagram followers. As you post on Instagram, share them on Facebook and your other social media accounts to let you fans and followers know they can connect with you there too.

Next, you’ll want to be sure to take advantage of popular hashtags when you can.

If you want to know what’s trending, there are a number of websites that are dedicated to sharing what the top trending hashtags on Instagram currently are.

Using these trending hashtags can help people find your brand on Instagram.

And, if your Instagram content is engaging enough, they may choose to follow you.

Lastly, engage with others that may not yet be following you and like their photos.

By doing this, these users will likely be curious about who you are and may choose to follow your brand.

2. Take advantage Videos on Instagram

We already know that video is a highly engaging source of content, and Instagram allows users to create a brief, filter-enabled video up to 15 seconds to share.

This is a powerful Instagram for business tool as the video can also be easily pushed through to other marketing channels such as Facebook, Twitter, your blog, and email.

If you are going to introduce a new product or have some exciting news to share, Instagram video is an effective way to create some buzz about this.

3. Offer inspiration to potential customers

Instagram images offer an artsy feel, which seems to go hand-in-hand with creativity and inspiration.

Take the time to create Instagram images that share a compelling and inspirational story with your audience that is relevant to your brand.

InstaQuote is a fantastic free app that allows users to artfully add an inspirational quote over their Instagram images.

Not only is this a great way to earn some likes, but it’s also a powerful tactic for getting some shares of your content as well.

4. Host an Instagram Photo Contest

If you’re using Instagram for business marketing purposes, hosting a photo contest on the social media site is a must.

This is a very effective way to not only drive engagement, but also to get your business in front of an audience that may not be familiar with your brand yet.

Be sure to use your other social media channels as a resource for promoting your Instagram photo contest as well.

For more helpful tactics for using Instagram for business, be sure to download our free social media strategy e-book, which shares our highly effective strategies for helping our clients to grow their brands online.