Instagram usage by businesses is exploding. If you’re not on this platform, you should take some time to explore it and see if your target audience is using it. There’s a good chance they are!
Instagram was purchased in 2012 by Facebook for $1 billion. Then, there were only 30 million users. Today, Instagram has more than a billion unique monthly users worldwide and is valued at more than $100 billion. It is the second most engaged network after Facebook.
Building your brand on Instagram is easy with many tools available to help you look your best – polished and professional!
Creating beautiful images
Instagram is all about the pictures. Here are some of my favorite tools for creating great, sharable photos.
Snapseed is a photo editing tool by Google. It comes with great filters, cropping tools, and even allows you to apply changes to specific areas of your image.
Canva is a tool that allows you to edit your photos, add text, and more. You can choose from many different fonts, icons, frames and more to keep your content fresh! You can even set your brand color and fonts for future use so you have consistent branding every time you post.
Hashtags are required!
Using relevant hashtags in your posts is one of the best ways to get discovered by new audiences. Hashtags allow Instagram users to tap on a hashtag to see a page that shows all the photos and video people have uploaded with that hashtag. You should use 9 to 11 hashtags in your posts. Your hashtag limit on Instagram is 30.
Two tools I recommend if you’re struggling to find the right hashtags for your posts are Autohash and Hashtagify. Both will help you apply popular, related hashtags for your photos.
Schedule those posts
Scheduling posts allows you to write a week or a month in advance. Your posts will appear on your social media platforms when you’re out networking or with a client. It’s one and done!
I use Hootsuite for my social media scheduling. I can even schedule videos using this tool. Buffer is also a popular Instagram scheduler. Both have free versions.
Are you ready to build your brand on Instagram?