Social Media Marketing with Instagram

Instagram is one of the top social media sites that boasts billions of daily users. This level of activity is what draws thousands of businesses to promote their products and services on the platform. As one of the most popular social media platforms around the world, marketing with Instagram is a smart way to grow your business and get more people interested in your brand. 

Read on to learn more about effectively marketing on Instagram and some pros and cons that come with the territory.

Key Components of Effective Instagram Marketing

Marketing with Instagram isn’t as simple as posting a photo with a few hashtags. There are many strategies to take advantage of if you want to make the most of your campaigns.

Plan Content Ahead of Time

Whether you’re planning to launch a new product or host an event, making sure you plan your posts ahead of time is crucial to keeping followers engaged and excited about your upcoming launches. Planning teasers and promos and creating them in advance will help achieve a unified look to your campaign. You can also take advantage of Instagram stories to share details with your followers. Since stories only last for 24 hours, this ensures that people will keep checking your page to see if you’ve dropped any more hints. You can also use Instagram Insights to see when your followers are active so you know when is the best time to post.

Take Advantage of Hashtags

Hashtags are an easy way for users to conduct a search for topics related to your business and discover your posts. Instagram users can also follow specific hashtags so they’ll see your content even if they don’t follow your page yet. Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags per post so don’t be afraid to add the terms you want people to associate with your brand. If you’re having trouble coming up with appropriate hashtags, you can search for some terms on Instagram and browse the related suggestions. You can also see how frequently a hashtag is used to make sure you’re choosing some less common words so you stand out.

Use Instagram’s Shopping Tools

Instagram offers several different shopping tools to make it even easier for your followers to quickly make a purchase from your website. With these functions, you can link your catalog of products to your Instagram account so people can shop your products by clicking one button on your profile. You can also link to specific products in your stories and use text and music options to make your posts more dynamic. 

Keep an Eye on the Competition

If you want your business to make a lasting impression, you need to know what your competitors are doing. Follow hashtags related to your business so you can see a range of content. Be sure to make a note of what kind of posts receive the highest levels of engagement while also keeping an eye out for things you might have done differently. The goal isn’t to copy your competition, it’s to identify what you can do even better, in a way that customers will respond positively to. 

Pros and Cons of Marketing with Instagram

As one of the most popular social media platforms in the world, there are some clear advantages to using Instagram to market your business. Instagram makes it easy for users to search by hashtags and location, so it’s fairly easy for potential local customers to find you as long as you’re using the right hashtags. Instagram also allows users to follow hashtags, which means even people who don’t follow you directly will be able to see your posts. Many people enjoy the informal, fun nature of the platform. Businesses use the Stories feature to show their products being made and their employees having a good time. Adding this personal touch helps your business appeal to a wider audience. 

Like any other marketing strategy, Instagram comes with a few disadvantages as well. Since it’s a very visual platform, it can be difficult to market something that doesn’t have any eye-catching appeal. Instagram is great for selling things like fashion, jewelry, and food, but it may not be the ideal platform to market things like software or other tech. Whether Instagram is a good fit for your business also depends on what age your target demographic is since the users on Instagram are primarily Gen Z and Millennials. The platform is also heavy on content, so building a following on Instagram can also be time-consuming; most successful brands post at least one photo every day to stay engaged with their followers. 

Learn about Social Media Marketing with Career Centers

If you’re interested in learning more about marketing with social media channels, there are several social media marketing courses available through Noble Desktop which is a partner program of Career Centers. Noble Desktop students have the flexibility to take classes in person at the school’s campus in Manhattan or remotely from anywhere in the world. Noble Desktop also ensures that its students enjoy small class sizes and instruction from industry experts.

If Instagram is the primary platform you’d like to market with, Noble Desktop has a six-hour Instagram Marketing course that teaches content strategy and discusses best practices for growing your number of followers. For a more extensive understanding of social media marketing on a variety of platforms, the Social Media Marketing Certificate might be of interest to you. This 30-hour program covers marketing strategies for all of today’s most popular social media platforms including Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Facebook. Finally, Noble Desktop has a Digital Marketing Certificate as part of its programming. The curriculum covers all of the social media platforms mentioned above, as well as other marketing tools like Search Engine Optimization and Google Analytics.