Building brand awareness through Instagram - strategies you can follow

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Instagram has increased its influence on the social media scene today, and chances are high that you have an account on the site. Over the last couple of years, the site has seen an explosion of users, and businesses are taking notice - mostly due to social media ‘influencers’ that dictate public trends largely. More companies are hiring social media teams and expanding their reach on the site to reach a younger audience, and it is paying off.

Perhaps you may be among the people that owns a brand and wants to expand your reach on the site. It is not an easy hill to climb, as gaining the ear of the target audience is difficult enough. However, when you want to market your brand on social media, you need to understand the opportunities you have when interacting with the target market regardless of the platform involved.

What is the potential audience?

Instagram is a large platform, even larger than you may think. It is also standing out as a visual-based solution for your audience, unlike Facebook and Twitter that are better for posting updates on your brand.

The Instagram platform has over 700 million users in 2017 according to Social Media Today, and once you tap into this audience it can have many benefits for your brand reputation and awareness. The more you concentrate your effort into your Instagram following, the larger the sales chances will become.

What are the tips that can help?

There are tools for businesses on the site

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You may not be aware, but the site has specialized tools that will assist business users. In fact, many of these tools are on par (or surpass) the tools available on Facebook. They even have options for call-to-action choices, allowing for visitors on your site to email or call your business.

In addition, all business profiles contain analytics tools. These assist you to keep track of insights for the business, as well as impression data. The information is invaluable when considering a marketing strategy, even when making choices on all future campaigns.

Find a personality for your business, and stick to it

Popular accounts on the platform have one thing in common - they have specific personalities that people associate with them. It does not matter if they are business or personal accounts, the rule applies.

It can be very tempting to post anything that looks interesting on your site, whether it is a personal or business account. However, you need to note one rule - consistency is the key to attracting more instagram followers and being successful on the platform, whether people realize this or not.

Realize that your brand has a personality that will encourage people to see you as an equal - that means that showing people your human side will keep them around for longer. Take each picture as a storyteller, and this will even prompt you to choose certain filters, colors or images to make a distinct atmosphere that makes you stand out.

Use hash tags well

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If there is one thing that hashtags do well, is promoting you to a wider audience that does not follow you. At the same time, it is easy to abuse hashtags, mostly through too much reliance on them to make a statement.

The general rule that may help is the STRICT rule: Specific, Targeted, Relevant, Innovative, Concise and Thoughtful. Avoid the behavior of using random hashtags in a post - use them wisely.

Cross-promotion

Chances are high that you have followers on other social media platforms. If you want them to know your brand, it is a good idea to use cross-promotion on these platforms.

You can tell your followers on other platforms that you have alternative sites where they can find you, and encourage them to check out those options. You will have an easier time convincing them, since they already have some investment in your brand identity.

Another principle that may work - the principle of popularity. People tend to follow brands that they see others are following, so take advantage of this and even share the most popular posts that are on your other sites. This way, followers can see how popular your brand is, and they will follow it too.

Consider Facebook as well - cross-posts from Instagram to Facebook tend to do very well, since Facebook owns Instagram.

Find a loyal fan base and community

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The moment you have an established following on Instagram, you can widen your reach through promoting on communities that already have established fan bases. As long as you look for them, you will definitely find them - there is all the communities on Instagram that you can think of, from travelers to photographers to artists, and everything in between.

When you find out communities that have relevance to your brand, you stand a better chance of reaching diverse communities with your posts. There are specific things you can also pay attention to, so that you can improve your brand awareness. These are common hashtags within the community, the top influencers in the community, popular photo styles from the popular accounts, as well as engagement tactics that the community uses regularly.

Do not overwhelm people with posts

Social media in general, does not like imbalance, but Instagram marketing is even more so. There are rules you should follow to maximize your opportunities.

Post at a consistent pacing, one that gives your followers relevant and fresh content. However, do not post so often that you end up clogging their feed. Testing different posting timelines can assist you to know what is best for your business, and this will require adaptation for any changing preferences from your audience.

Engage your audience

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This is the most important aspect - ensure you engage with your audience. People enjoy knowing that humans operate the brand, and behind the scenes photos are some of the best ways of achieving this human element.

Ask your audience questions, host contests, join existing topics - all these will go a long way to reaching them.

Final thoughts

Promoting your brand on Instagram is not an impossible task, and you can achieve great things when you pay attention to social media for your business. Using these tips can assist you to reach your goals and gain more followers.