Instagram can boost a company’s sales. The platform provides a commercial version with important information for those who want to dedicate themselves to business. Knowing the characteristics of the public, knowing the best times for publication and interacting with users are some of the options of the social network. For that, it is necessary to improve the account and understand its resources. Below are basic tips to get started using Instagram professionally.
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1. Switch to business profile
To make the change, you need to link the Instagram profile with a Facebook fanpage. Then, to make your company’s page look professional, it is important to change it from a common profile to “Business profile”. This format is equivalent to Facebook Pages. With the company profile, it is possible to include detailed information about your business, such as telephone and physical address, present a sales format and expose products in a more organized way.
Instagram commercial profile – Photo: Reproduction / Rodrigo Fernandes
The Instagram commercial profile allows you to analyze all data accessing the profile through the business tool. There, you can find small reports with useful information for managing the page. The resource provides data such as: the number of people who saw the posts and the profile of the audience that follows the page, with age, gender and location, in addition to details on likes and comments of each post. It is valuable information to understand the behavior of followers and create strategies to invest in the types of content that appeal most.
With business tools you can see information about followers – Photo: Camila Peres / dnetc
3. Post quality photos and videos
Instagram is a visual social network, so photos and videos must be produced with the highest quality possible. Avoid posting poorly framed photos, made with low-resolution cell phones or showing videos with noise in the image and / or sound. The content can be edited from the platform’s mechanism, with insertion of filters and changes in the light effects, or in external editors, with exclusive effects or organization of the photos in the feed.
4. Enjoy peak times
To ensure a greater number of views and engagement with the post, the best days and times to publish must be observed. During this period, more interested people can be reached, which can bring a satisfactory return. This information is in the profile business tool. It is worth remembering that each type of business seeks a group with different habits. In this way, always publish photos, videos and Stories at times of activity of this target audience on the social network.
Hashtags work as filters to find posts on a given subject. If you want to advertise your products more widely, use hashtags in the captions and always be aware of the most famous tags in the segment. Some apps show the best hashtags to use on Instagram according to the theme you choose.
Hashtags on Instagram posts – Photo: Melissa Cruz / dnetc
6. Interact with the audience
You need to create a bond with Instagram users. Nothing more unpleasant than asking a question and not being answered, so talk to your followers. For this, it is essential to be attentive in comments and direct messages, in order to answer each question quickly and more precisely.
Interacting doesn’t just mean responding to comments. Create polls, ask questions in photo captions, encourage people to be engaged and find out what they like, to feel special.
Stories are a powerful tool for contacting the public. The stories make it possible to talk directly with followers, expose the company’s proposals quickly and leave the brand present in the minds of consumers. In this way, it is possible to create a bond of proximity with those who assist.
Be creative in Stories to win over the audience – Photo: Disclosure / Instagram
To do this, be creative. Make videos of the company’s day-to-day life, show the backstage of production or offer exclusive items so that users are always waiting for new stories. Don’t forget to include texts, stickers and filters to enhance your posts.
To optimize time, an interesting feature is scheduling posts. Recently, the social network released the programming of posts through third party services. Just choose the photo or video, insert the caption, set the desired date and time and the program automatically publishes to the account. The mechanism can be used in the feed and Stories.
Sponsoring a post on Instagram increases the reach of the content. An advertising fee is paid and the publication is shown to people who do not yet follow the page. The ad will be flagged as «Sponsored» in the feed and allows you to create links to your own profile, to a specific product or service or to the company’s website.
It is important to define what type of public you want to reach so that the money invested has a return. So be careful and only post relevant content.
10. Know the competition
As in any business, it is important to know the actions of the competition to understand the market. Visit pages of companies in the same segment, see what is successful and be inspired to create original strategies that have the same effect on consumers. You can even like and comment on the profiles of other brands and thus encourage a healthy competitive environment.
