Instagram is becoming a contender for one of the top places to focus social media marketing efforts. It currently has more than 80 million users and is continuing to grow at an impressive rate, especially since it was purchased by Facebook back in April of 2012. At that time it was redesigned and the rumors are that this currently mobile app will develop a web presence soon. For now, Instagram photos are used to quickly load to your Facebook newsfeed for online engagement with Facebook followers.
Instagram is image driven, so it makes sense to find great images to share with Instagram users. Showing your products is certainly one way to do that. Of course, blatant advertising on this site is just as frowned on as it is on other sites, so you want to make sure when you share your product images that you do it in a fun, sharing way. One way to do this it to take just part of a picture and ask users to guess what it is, you can then share the full image after someone guesses correctly.
Sharing Instagram pictures of how your product is created is another great way to keep users engaged in a way that they don’t feel as if you are only advertising. Images of a tour of your offices or warehouses are another popular way to engage users and allow them to feel as if they are getting an insider’s view of how your business operates. This goes a long way in trust building efforts.
Instagram is a great way to introduce staff members to the rest of the world. If you capture them at entertaining moments, such as funny lunch break pictures or during ice breaking projects, all the better. With this in mind, if you deal with customers face to face, highlighting happy customers can help gain some great social proof. Or, ask customers to upload images of your product in action with a hashtag so you can track their pictures. Featuring them on your homepage or on your Facebook page can create a great deal of engagement.
However you decide to take advantage of Instagram to help promote your business, remember it is a social networking platform and make sure to engage with other’s images. Also, because you can also upload the images to Facebook, you can have another way to keep more of your social media followers engaged in your business. All of these activities will help grow your business by gaining trust, social proof and brand exposure.
