What makes Instagram so good for business is the fact that it will take changes in standard marketing practices in order to market to the Instagram community. The Instagram world is geared toward personalization and simplicity. By not having an obvious marketing angle, it allows brands to reach a deeper emotional level with their followers. To achieve this level of emotion will require effort on the brand’s part.
Marketing
While on Facebook or Twitter, marketers might be able to place a call to action right in front of their viewers, there is no place for any call to action on Instagram. The entire principle behind building a following on Instagram is to build relationships with followers so that they can’t stop thinking about your brand. By taking enticing and well thought out images and posting them with well-crafted descriptions, brands can invoke different emotions from their followers which might compel them to take action indirectly. This slow and steady pace is the new face of marketing.
Types of images
Because the game is different on Instagram, brands need to up their game. Images need to be well thought out. They need to be genuine images of your business at work, or a new product that is taken in an artistic way, or any image that conveys the message you are trying to share. Since the images on Instagram are not high resolution, you can achieve awesome images with nothing more than a smartphone camera. However, it is the composition of the image that you will need to become skilled at conveying. You need to learn to tell a story with just one image.
Build the loyalty
Because Instagram isn’t like Facebook or Twitter, it will take sharing the right images in order to help build loyalty with followers. Instagram followers want to follow brands that they love and trust, now you just have to become that brand. Because there are no links to your website, or direct selling involved, you need to slowly build a trusting and loyal relationship with your followers so that they remember your name. By showing imaginative and artfully done images of the products that you offer, you can get people to follow your brand. When followers have developed a love for your brand they are going to seek it out wherever it is. Making sure that you’re ready for them when they come will be crucial.
Better images
Learning to take better images will come with time. If your brand offers products that are creative on their own it might not be so difficult to take great pictures of the products. However, if you offer a service, you can try to take images of the lifestyle of the person who might use the service. You might also share images of the results of the service. For instance, if your service is that of a health coach you might share images of healthy people in workout gear. Alternately, if you are a blogger or online personality, you may be able to get away with posting images of yourself and things you are doing.
Results
With every image that you post, you are looking to make a connection with your followers. You will know when you are on the right track because the comments will start to follow the images more frequently. Ultimately, you will see results over time. You may not notice extra visitors to your blog right away, but with time, the better your efforts are, the more followers you will acquire.
