Today there are many different social media sites that you can choose for your business/brand in order to be found or get connected by your customers/users. Instagram is among one of the favorite ones that is really trending for the past few years right after Facebook. Because the posts are all visuals, it has helped many brands and businesses to gain more lead or even sales. Let’s go through a quick introduction on why you should be on it, few tips on styling your photos, hashtag, and how to gain your followers.
WHY YOU SHOULD BE ON INSTAGRAM
- It shows your brand’s personality,
- It’s all in the visual
- It builds brand following,
- It drives traffic to you/your site,
- It makes your brand/product easier to search for.
STYLING YOUR PHOTOS
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Natural light makes better photos,
If you have a smartphone or tablets with camera, it’s easy to get a good quality photo with the help of natural light. Try your best to take some shots where you can get natural light. For example, you can take a photo by the window in your living room or office room.
Create a theme or color coordination,
Add something that can make your photo look more appealing for your audience. You can try incorporating few office elements with your latest business card prints to show it off nicely. Or, adding some color to the background of the new jewelry pieces you just finished for your shop.
Be spontaneous and don’t aim for perfection.
It’s ok if you don’t shot a perfect photo. Shooting something spontaneously with a bit of crop on any corner can help create a certain aesthetic to your photo.
Photo filter, to use OR not to use
This depends on you. You have the option to either use the photo filter that Instagram included on their app OR not to use it at all and stick with the photo that you already edit on your smartphone/tablet.
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Photo editor app
Most smartphone usually has their own photo editor that you can use to adjust brightness, contrast, and other different photo element. However, you can also use a specific photo editor app to edit your photos before publishing it to Instagram. Here are a few of my favorites for editing photo on my iPhone:
VSCOcam,
Adobe Photoshop Express,
PicTapGo.
PROPER HASHTAG = EASIER TO BE FOUND
Hashtag has become more popular on multiple social media platform, especially on Instagram. Because the posts on Instagram are visuals, you can increase your chance on getting your brand/businesses/product easier to be found by using relevant keyword hashtags. You can also use industry related hashtag for your post as an alternative. Though keep in mind and try not to “hashtagbomb” your post.
See some hashtag example below.
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SCHEDULING INSTAGRAM POSTS
There are few ways to schedule your instagram posts using third party applications.
Hootsuite OR Latergramme
You will need to schedule the posts on the desktop versions of the application’s website as well as downloading the respective app on your mobile device. The app will give you a notification/reminder to post your scheduled Instagram post with just a few clicks.
GAIN MORE FOLLOWERS
Now that you are ready to get going on Instagram, how do you gain more followers? We all like to have more people following us/our business on Instagram right? Here are some options:
- Create/participate in Instagram loop giveaways. Here’s a great post that explain more about Instagram loop giveaways,
- Use related hashtag,
- Leave a genuine comment on other user’s posts.
LET’S FOLLOW EACH OTHER ON INSTAGRAM
If you’d like to follow us on Instagram where we share a lot of our behind the scene and our project sneak-peek, plus a little bit of our slice of life, come follow us @chykalophia.
Do you have an Instagram account for your brand/business? Share with us on the comment and we’d love to check it out :)
