How to use Instagram for BusinessPlus: Instagram for business checklists
1. What time of the day do you recommend posting and sharing on Instagram these days?
As we all know, Instagram can be a bit tricky these days with the algorithms. In my experience, there’s no PERFECT time of day to post. At first, this might frustrate you, but allow it to give you a little peace. There isn’t that ONE time you have to post and if you missed it, you’re doomed!
When it comes to figuring out a good time to post, a few things I like to think about are:
What is the rest of the world doing right now? Is it mid-day on Saturday? Most people are going to be out and about enjoying their day. Think about holidays and big games that might be on television. Avoid posting during those times because A LOT of people are preoccupied. For example: on holidays, your engagement will naturally be lower.
What are my common times to use social media? For me, my social media use is a bit heavier in the early mornings and later evenings, with a few check-ins mid-day. And I like to think that most people are the same way. We work and have kids and activities all day long, so we won’t be using social media as much in the middle of the say.
Time zones: For me, 2pm PST (my time zone) is a good time because I catch the West Coasters in the afternoon slump and the East Coasters who are just ending their work day. Same thing goes for 6am PST. Think about the rhythms of the day and how you can catch people in different time zones at the same time.
So, take all of those things into consideration and do some tests on your own audience. Maybe you aren’t even in the United States, but you are working with ideal clients in different time zones. Consider THEM and how they use social media.
2. When it comes to understanding the Instagram Algorithms, what advice do you have for someone trying to grow their impact on this platform?
I would say there are a few important things to keep in mind if you’re wanting to grow your impact on Instagram:
- Content: you must have content that is engaging and relevant and thoughtful. You have to take this seriously. If you want to make an impact and have results from Instagram, you have to take it seriously and be strategic about the content you put out. This means that you need to think about your audience and their perspective first. You need to think about using this app as an act of service. You need to view every post, comment, like, and DM as a way to connect with and influence your audience. It takes work. But it’s worth it. Your content should connect with your audience and serve them in some way.
- Consistency: show up every single day for your audience. As business owners, we think that people must be thinking about our business every single day. But the truth is, people don’t think about us all that often. We are ALL consumed with our own lives and we rarely look outside ourselves long enough to focus on something else. It’s sad, but also comforting in a way. People typically aren’t paying as much attention to you as you think they are. So, what does this mean? This means that it’s your job and responsibility to be consistent and teach your audience what they should expect from you. If you aren’t showing up consistently and reminding them who you are, what you do, and why it matters...they will forget about you. If you want to make an impact on Instagram and grow your business with this app, you must be consistent.
- Compact & Concise: stay within certain content boundaries! Hopefully by this point I’ve convinced you that you need to be consistent with your content, but you also need to have boundaries for your content. If one day you’re talking about the service you provide, the next day you’re talking about your family, and then talking about the Superbowl, your audience might get confused and lost. What I suggest doing is picking a few different “themes” for your social media and rotating between those themes. For me, these themes include product marketing, encouragement, mother- hood, vulnerability, and gratitude. These things all fit within the mission of my business as well. This helps me teach my audience to know what to expect from me and engage with me. Over time, I have trained them to know who I am and what’s important to me. Because of that, they have stuck around and support me. They know me. And that’s because I talk about the same things over and over in different ways. This repitition builds a strong following.
3. As a small business owner, what advice can you share to help encourage others who are hopeful to grow their business through Instagram?!
I honestly believe that the power of your influence, impact, and engagement heavily lies in your Insta- gram story use. From my own polls and the research of others, people are spending most of their time watching stories instead of scrolling. You want to meet your audience where they are spending their time, and if you aren’t using stories, you are missing out on a huge opportunity! I put a heavy amount of emphasis on my Instagram story and how it connects with my audience. My business is primarily an on- line product shop and I sell lifestyle products. Because of that, showcasing a lifestyle that my products live within is incredibly important and strategic. My daily Instagram stories showcase snippets of my life and business and I am daily showing my customers how my products fit into my lifestyle. One of my main goals for using social media is to build a relationship with my audience while also actually creating a daily story for them to be a part of. I create content that is relatable. I post pictures of my products every single day as an effort to remind my audience of what I am selling. I am not blatantly asking for the sale in every photo, video, or boomerang, but I want my products to be seen in my life every single day. If you are selling more of a service, the option for you is to showcase the behind the scenes of your day, when you’re interacting with clients, what it’s like to work with you, what your customers have said about you, and scenes from your real life. This builds a story for your audience to be a part of, and when they are in need of the type of service you provide, you’ll be the first person to come to their mind.
4. What do you find works best for finding the most effective hashtags to use?
My not-so-sexy strategy for finding new hashtags is finding Instagram accounts like mine with a similar target audience and good engagement, and then studying the hashtags they use. I take time to look through the hashtags, look through the accounts that use them, and see if it would be a good fit. Hashtags are basically categories, so you want to be using hashtags that your audience would be using. You want to think of them as keywords, so what about your post would be a keyword? What would be searchable? You can also use hashtags as a way to engage your audience and get them involved in your business. Essentially, you would create a hashtag and encourage your audience to use that hashtag in their posts. It could be a strategy you use to host a contest or something like that! It might not make sense for the type of business you have, but consider it!
There are also apps you can use to help discover hashtags to use. You simply upload your picture and caption and it helps you find hashtags that would be effective! For me, this is a simple and quick tool to use if I am in a bind! Tagomatic is one of the apps you can look into! Above all, try to think about hashtags as keywords and what others might search for. In addition, there are hashtags that are commonly used that aren’t a keyword. But these hashtags get lots of use and traction. The Hashtag Generator Hashtagged app will help you discover all different types of hashtags to get your post seen!
How to use Instagram for Business Checklist:
1. Switch to a business account: you have more access to information about your audience, which makes you an informed business owner.
2. Use Instagram Stories with strategy: use your stories as one more touch point with your audience and connect with them on a personal level.
3. Polls: Use polls in Instagram Stories to learn about your audience. It might be the gateway to your next best-seller.
4. Giveaways: Use giveaways to connect with a larger audience.
5. Show your face: Your audience wants to connect with a PERSON. Show ‘em who you are!
6. Clear Bio Description with CTA: tell your audience who you are, what you do, and why you do it. And encourage them to take some sort of action after viewing your profile.
7. Mission statement: write a mission statement for your Instagram use. What’s the purpose behind your social media use? To get sales? To get more blog readers? Book more clients?
8. Content themes: Pick 3-5 themes you will use on your Instagram feed. Try to stick to those themes so your audience knows what to expect from you!
9. Pretty Images: humans are drawn to pretty images. Enough said. How to use Instagram for Business
10. Good Link: Make sure you have a good link in your Instagram bio that gives your audience some direction for where to go next. If you use something like Linktree, you want to make sure you don’t give too many options!
11. Posting schedule: In order to not feel like you are always scrambling for a picture to post or trying to think up a creative caption, create a plan. Write down a couple captions on Sunday night. Take a handful of pictures in one day. And then pick what day and time you will post them. Easy peasy, and less stress, too.
12. Best time of day to post: over time, pay attention to what time of day you get more engagement on your posts. You want to have your post seen by the most amount of people, so pay attention to the optimal time of day to post!
