Social media today has the power to transform your business and take it to new heights. We’ve seen several examples over recent years of how brands with strong followings have turned that audience into a built-in customer base, particularly with direct-to-consumer retail brands such as Kylie Cosmetics and Glossier. Both of those brands took their followers and turned them into brand evangelists.
Although Glossier was an offshoot of the popular beauty blog, Into the Gloss, the principle still applies here. Both brands are now multi-million (or billion) dollar companies that don’t show any signs of slowing down. With examples like these, it’s hard to deny the power of Instagram and other social platforms when harnessed effectively. In this two-part series, we will show you how you can grow your brand’s Instagram following so that you, too, may turn your brand’s followers into customers and ultimately loyal evangelists.
In this first part, we will address how to polish up your account so that it is ripe for growth. In the second, we will discuss techniques for growing your platform. If you’re interested in improving your account, follow these tips for creating a great first impression.
Have a Branded Handle
Before populating your feed and posting to Instagram Stories, you want to ensure that your Instagram username is on-brand and consistent with your other social media handles. If your company’s Facebook handle is @kwsmteam, then @kwsmteam should be your Instagram username as well.
Craft a Solid Bio
Your bio is where potential followers will get the first glimpse of your brand’s personality and voice. It’s also where you can clearly outline the type of business you are, where you are based or operate, and it’s also where you can drop a link to drive traffic to your company’s site. Be sure to have a fully fleshed out bio with a link to an appropriate landing page, such as your home page or your site’s most popular content. You should also include any other pertinent, yet concise, info in your bio that would be useful for anyone who visits your page.
Optimize Instagram Stories
When growing your Instagram following, you need to be using Instagram Stories. More and more users are interacting with Instagram Stories, and we’ve seen higher engagement levels on Stories for our clients. Thus, you want to make sure your Stories content is also branded. Consider using a set of on-brand templates from Canva or a similar design app. You also want to make good use of the robust creative features Stories has to offer, notably the interactive stickers such as the poll, questions, quiz, or slider functions. Utilizing these features will help boost engagement with your account and cause the algorithm to feature your brand’s content more prominently to your following.
Create Informative Highlights
Be sure to leverage Instagram Stories Highlights, those curated collections of content that live permanently on your profile just underneath your brand’s bio. When used correctly, Story Highlights can offer more creative and resourceful information to your customers and first-time visitors. Consider creating an About Us Highlight giving a more in-depth look into what your company does or sells and be sure to mention your brand’s unique selling point. Some other Highlights ideas you can feature include an FAQ reel, a roundup of your company’s best-selling products or most popular services, a behind the scenes look at your company culture, or even client testimonials.
Have a Cohesive, On-brand Feed
Potential new followers will form an opinion about your brand within seconds of landing on your brand’s Instagram profile and scrolling briefly through your feed. Hence, you have a short window of time to wow and impress new visitors with the appearance of your grid. Your grid should be on-brand, cohesive, and feel like a natural extension of your company’s website, but with more personality. There are many grid styles to consider, and using the same filter on your images or a specific Lightroom preset is key in maintaining a consistent feel throughout your feed. Additionally, be sure to sprinkle your brand’s signature colors and typefaces throughout the feed to help tie everything together. If bright and bold is part of your company’s personality and brand, be sure to use vibrant pops of color, or perhaps style your grid in a rainbow format, to help translate your company’s fun personality. If your brand is more conservative and professional, be sure to stick to only the brand’s colors and use a more formal tone in conversations. Lastly, be sure to hide any old posts that are no longer relevant or posts that do not align with the brand’s aesthetic.
And that concludes part one. These are our top tips for creating a beautiful, polished brand account, and they are the first steps you must take when looking to grow your Instagram following. Be sure to check back next week for part two in this series, how to grow your Instagram following.
Approximately 80% of all Instagram users follow a business on Instagram.
Is your brand on Instagram? Do you want to start marketing your company on social media, but aren’t sure how to get started? Or maybe you’ve been posting content, but can’t seem to get the results you want.
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