There are many blogs, articles, and informative sources on the Internet that tell you how to generate leads for your business or how to increase your sales by using Instagram.
However, none of these articles provide you with the basics, which are actually the most important things to start with as they are often taken for granted even by the most advanced users.
Here are 6 Top Tips that can help you with a solid foundation for your Instagram Business Promotion Plan.
1. The Nature of Instagram
- Instagram is a free visual media sharing app. You can share images or videos with your audience.
- On Instagram, you can easily add other things to your photos and videos: captions, text, GIFs, stickers, and so on.
- You can post a series of related photos or videos as a slideshow of your story. Instagram stories are extremely powerful ways to connect your ideas with others.
- You can remain anonymous while using Instagram on your phone. No one will know that it’s you, or what you’re doing on Instagram.
- Others can view, comment, and like your posts. They can follow and unfollow you. You can do the same with their posts.
- Instagram content gets more engaged traffic than visual social content from YouTube or Pinterest.
- Instagram helps you engage others on other social platforms so there is more chance that you can bring customers back for repeat purchases.
2. The Limitations of Instagram
- Others can take your videos and photos and reuse them without your permission.
- Instagram allows advertising in your feed. Many find this annoying, but that’s how the company makes money.
- Instagram does not have a proper desktop version. It is only available as an app on your phone.
- Instagram only works with Android, Apple iOS, and Windows. When you use Instagram to promote your business, you cannot reach consumers on Linux, Windows Mobile, or BlackBerry.
- To attract more buyers, sellers can resize images and enhance their photos and videos with X-Pro II or Early Bird filters with only 18 effects in all. Each new option has to be installed or requires a fee.
- Instagram lacks privacy settings. You can’t share some posts with everyone and some posts with a few people. You have only two options: go public or go private. This is why many Instagram users have two accounts.
- Instagram users can only follow 7,500. They have to unfollow older accounts if they want to follow new Instagrammers who follow them.
- Instagram is free to use. However, to advertise on Instagram, you will have to pay from 20 cents to $2 per click (CPC). If you advertise on a cost per mille (CPM) basis, expect to pay an average of $5 per 1,000 visitors.
3. The Nature of Hashtags
- A hashtag is a word or phrase that begins with a pound or hash sign (#). This is used to identify the topic of messages on Twitter and other social media websites and applications.
- If you search a hashtag, search results will include all social media content with that same hashtag including posts on social media such as Facebook, Pinterest, Snapchat, Google Plus, Tumblr, LinkedIn, Vimeo, Periscope, and Twitter.
- Very specific hashtags are actually keywords that indicate content details. They help people find topics, events, or trends they are interested in.
- Although one post can only accommodate up to 30 tags, that’s actually too much. You don’t have to use 30 hashtags every time you post something.
- Universally trending hashtags can get you more followers. For example, hashtags such as #photooftheday, #fun, or #instagood can also get lots of readers.
- To create your own hashtag, make sure that it is short and contains your main topic, product, or service.
- Before you use a hashtag that you think is original, always check if the hashtag has already been used by someone else. If so, try variations of your original hashtag till you find an unused set of keywords.
- Promote your hashtag by writing about it on different social media.
- Whenever people tag you hashtag, reach out and interact with them. Find out how they tag your hashtag and use what you learn to benefit your business.
4. The Nature of Influencers
- An influencer is someone with an Instagram account that has an established audience and can persuade others because they are highly credible, authentic, and trustworthy.
- Your brand, product, service, or business can also have influencers, the Instagram users who use your brand hashtag that is seen by their huge number of followers.
- A successful influencer is very active in social media and frequently posts content that gets the reaction of their many followers.
- Age does not matter. One young Instagram influencer is Pratham Singh, a 17-year-old boy from Delhi who has more than 15k Instagram followers. Tatum and Oakley Fisher are pre-school twins with 2.6 million Instagram followers. Parker George was 8 months old when his mother Diane set up his profile. He now has more than 16,000 followers.
- The most-followed Instagrammers are Cristiano Ronaldo (216 million followers), Ariana Grande (183 million followers), Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson (182 million followers), Selena Gomez (175 million), Kylie Jenner (173 million), Kim Kardashian (168 million), and Lionel Messi (145 million).
- A successful influencer can promote your brand or business to their followers.
- For example, an Instagram influencer who has one million followers may charge you $100 for one post while another influencer with 10,000 followers may also charge you the same amount for the same post on their feed.
- Instagram influencers work with businesses to promote products or brand campaigns. Some brands pay only in free swag. Others pay from $5 to $10 per 1,000 followers, while others offer $100 per 100 followers.
- Some influencers who earn big money off their Instagram account are Cristiano Ronaldo ($975,000/post or $47.8 million/year), Lionel Messi ($648,000/post or $23.3 million/year), and David Beckham ($357,000/post or $10.7 million/year).
5. The Nature of Instagram Users
- Most Instagram users are millennials who are easily bored. You have to upload new content fast enough and catchy enough to keep them interested in you, your brand, or your business.
- There are at least 116 million users in the USA, India has at least 73 million Instagrammers, and Brazil has at least 72 million.
- A 2020 Pew Research report shows that in the USA, 43% of Instagram users are female and 31% are male. Around the world, 52% are female and 48% are male.
- Around the world, 75% of people between 18 and 24 years of age use Instagram. At least 57% of those who are 25 to 30 years old are Instagram users.
- Among those who are between 30 and 49 years old, only 47% use Instagram while among the older generation (between 50 and 64 years old), only 23% use Instagram.
6. Earning as an Instagram Influencer
- If you are an Instagram user with about 10,000 followers, businesses can pay you anything from free products up to $150.
- When your Instagram account has 10,000 to 100,000 followers, you can charge an average of $200 per post.
- When your Instagram account has between 100,000 to 1 million followers, you can expect payments from $670 up to $15,000 per post. Some companies may even offer your equity in the business.
Takeaways
You can start an Instagram account without paying anything.
When your account has at least 1,000 followers, a lot of earning opportunities begin to open up for you.
As long as you know the nature of Instagram and what makes it tick, you can engage many Instagrammers by creating quality content and, at the same time, you will begin to making money on Instagram
ONE Instagram tip that will get you more clients TODAY
