If you are a regular internet user, you
must have come across or at least heard about the popular photo tool known as
Instagram. It is a smartphone app that makes it possible for users to
incorporate visual effects to their photographs, before sharing them with their
friends and followers on the various social media websites. In recent times,
Instagram has proven to be an effective tool for engaging and conducting
business. This is because it has an incredible digital PR potential, which
helps in giving your business the much needed exposure. The following are five
of the most significant ways brands and other businesses in general can utilize
the Instagram app to boost their engagements:
Photo Contests
One of the ways in which brands can make the best use of Instagram is by setting
up photo contests, and encouraging users to participate in them. Since the app
is very simple to use and millions of people across the globe have access to
it, there is always a great chance that a good number of people will show
interest in participating in your photo contest. To heighten their interest
further, promise to offer attractive rewards for the winning contestants. Such
competitions greatly assist in giving your brand better coverage, especially if
you are able to attract a huge number of participants to the competition and
they share their photos on various social media pages.
Brand Marketing
Business enterprises can also make use of Instagram photographs for the
purposes of marketing their brands. For instance, apart from seeking the
services of a SEO (Search Engine Optimization) organization to make certain
that your brand can be seen and ranks as high as possible in search engine
results such as Google, a business enterprise could also spice up their
marketing campaigns by posting and sharing attractive Instagram photographs of
the products they are trying to promote. This vital form of social media
strategy enhances engagement because using it guarantees that a larger number
of audiences will get to see your brand and the range of products that you
specialize in.
Event Promotion
Another practicable method of enhancing engagement via the use of Instagram, is
by exploiting people's influence surrounding forthcoming events. By attaching
pre-labeled and branded hashtags to their posts on Instagram, business
enterprises can encourage other users to upload their own photographs of the
particular event, with the related hashtags attached to them. By doing this,
you will be able to generate a number of interesting topics which relate to
your brand for your target audiences to share and discuss amongst themselves.
User Photographs
In the beginning of the year 2012, Instagram was reported to have 15 million
users. These numbers are growing each and everyday, and the current figure is
reported to be 50 million users. This rapid increase in users over such a short
period of time, coupled with the fact that most social media enthusiasts love
to post and share their photos online, makes Instagram one of the most well
known forms of social media that internet users subscribe to.
On a similar
wavelength, business enterprises can popularize their brands by posting and
sharing eye-catching Instagram photographs on social sites such as Facebook and
Twitter. This way, they not only get to engage and interact with new people,
but they get the opportunity to show them that they value their cooperation as
well. For example, in addition to setting up the more conventional photograph
contests as outlined above, you could invite people to send you their own cool
and favorite photographs on agreement that you only will share the most
exciting ones. Publicizing your followers' photographs goes a long way in
selling your brand because in most cases, they will return the favor and share
your content with others too.
Behind-the-Scenes-Information
Lastly, some brands are now making use of Instagram to share the
behind-the-scenes photographs of their workplaces; to inform prospective
clients what they deal in, and to help promote a more personalized
representation of their brand.
More and more social media agencies are now actively using Instagram to
promote their brands. This upsurge in prominence makes it a business tool
worth trying out - for you to experience first hand the potential benefits it
will bring to your business organization.