Description
Oh, social networks... what would we do without them? Many people consider them a waste of time, however, they also consume them. Today, social networks are our way of existing and communicating with others even if we do not know each other personally.
Precisely for this reason, they are a very useful tool for brands since users can get to know us through them and they will help us reach more people. Would you like to know how you can use Instagram to grow your business? And do it without spending a single euro? So, stay and read this post.
How to grow on Instagram?
According to the study carried out by We Are Social in 2020, Instagram has more than 1,000 million users globally, thus becoming the fourth most used social network in the world. In addition, it is the social network that gained the newest users between March and April 2020 in Spain due to the Covid-19 quarantine: 49% more users.
However, growing up on Instagram doesn't happen overnight. Sometimes you have to buy app store ratings to grow there. One day you don't create a profile on Instagram and the next day you have 10,000 followers in an organic and natural way. It is a process in which you have to work, get involved and dedicate time so that our brand is gradually positioning itself more strongly on social networks.
It is clear that you can grow on Instagram quickly: by buying followers. But it is not advisable since at the end of the day, it will not help us at all. The main intention of social networks is that the followers we have on them end up becoming clients of our brand. Therefore, it will not do us any good to buy 5,000 followers so that people see that we are relevant if none of them is going to become a future client.
The main moral of this is that it is preferable to have 100 followers on Instagram who can become clients or that the vast majority of them are then to have 10,000 false followers that will not help generate benefits for our brand and, therefore, not they will grow our business.
The process we can follow to achieve a profitable audience on Instagram is none other than applying the basic principles of inbound marketing to social networks. Didn't you think these concepts could be related? Well, you were wrong.
When we create an inbound marketing strategy, the three main pillars will be: attract, interact, and delight. And this is precisely what we are going to do on social networks:
- Attract new users and convert them into followers of our brand's profile.
- Interact with our audience so that followers become clients.
- Delight our new customers so that they feel satisfied and end up advising our brand (and therefore our profile on social networks) to new users.
Now that you know how you should do to gain a profitable audience for your brand, it is time to learn some tips that will help you gain users and interact with them.
Tips to grow on Instagram
- Take care of the quality of your content: Instagram is a social network that focuses mainly on the dissemination of photos and videos through stories or feeds. For this reason, it is important that we take care of the quality of the images that we publish since they will mostly be images of our products and must be attractive to our followers. In addition, it is important to know the size in which we are going to publish and adapt our images to it so that when publishing we do not have to cut a part of them.
- Focus on your theme: It is important that our social network is known for being related to the field to which we dedicate ourselves or the service we provide. Publications must be consistent with our brand, the products we sell, the services we offer, and any information related to it. If we start to publish content of all kinds, the user will find it difficult to know what we do and will not start following us.
- Create stories with value: The stories of Instagram have been gaining strength to acquire more prominence than the feed itself. That is why it is important to know how to take advantage of it since they are also a channel that allows us a lot of interaction with our followers. You have to know how to choose the content you publish well and do it creatively. In addition, although they only last 24 hours in our profile, we can save them in the highlights section so that they are preserved forever and the followers can continue to see them.
- Use hashtags (#): Lately, they are used less but it does not mean that they are not as useful especially when we have a public and company profile. By using hashtags related to our brand, you will help your followers to find us every time they search for content related to those searches. For example, if we have a make-up brand free of animal testing, using #maquillajenatural #maquillavegano can help users who are looking for something with these characteristics to find us.
- Interact with others: Don't just focus your strategy on your own profile. You can comment on other users' posts, like them, or share them on your profile. In this way, your followers will see that you are there and you are up to date with the latest trends.
- Create a good description: Just as it is important to put hashtags in your publications, it is also important to put a good description: something short, with a touch of humor (allow yourself to use emojis) and that is close to users.
- Respond to the comments of your followers: Both in stories and in publications, followers will want to interact with you and they will do so through comments or responses. You have to answer! If we do not do it, the user will feel that he is not interested in us, and therefore, he will also lose interest in our brand.
- Create giveaways: Oh, the famous Instagram giveaways: let those who have not participated in any throw the first stone. If you have done it as a user, now you should know the benefits of creating them as a company. When raffling a product, you can put as conditions to participate that people comment by tagging a friend or share the publication in stories in addition to having to follow your profile. This will help a lot to make followers who mention other users feel an interest in your brand.
- Change your public profile to your company profile: If you haven't done so yet, now is the time to take the plunge. This will be a very useful tool for you since it helps you to know what your audience is like (ages, gender), at what time your followers connect the most and you can publish content, insert the call button to your company from your own profile, etc.
The importance of positioning yourself on social networks
You already know the tips that will help you reach the audience, you know how you can do to gain followers ... Now you just have to get down to work. Positioning yourself on social networks is important since many studies indicate that 50% of Instagram users follow brand accounts or company profiles. That is half of the people who use Instagram follow their favorite brands or those that are interesting to them to know the content they publish and keep up to date with all their news.
Therefore, you have to know how to keep up to date with the latest trends and help users to get to know you and know how to communicate with them since: what is not communicated does not exist. Go for it!