Top 5 Instagram tips for businesses in 2017 [Bonus Inside ]

     Presenting top 5 Instagram tips for your business in 2017. Get more conversions through engagement with these simple yet successful tips and tricks. Who got Instagram? Oops, I should rather ask - "Who doesn't have a Instagram these days?" We take pictures of our family and friends, scenery, especially our food, pets and don’t forget all the selfies! (Personally I feel like selfies don't rule most of the niche placed in Instagram. While documenting our lives is a great way to store memories, it’s also a solid way to gain new followers and likes on everyone’s favourite photo sharing app, Instagram(IG). So what's in for business with IG? I will break it down with some statistics of why it's more than friendly to use Instagram for you business. More over I will list out 5 tips to improvise your brand business on Instagram in 2017. And there are 5 extra tips that I will add on just because you decided to have faith in us. So a total of 10 tricks? Wait, why not surprise you even further....pssst...we got another extra 5 hidden secrets for you ;) read on!

Many companies focus mainly with marketing their products to teens and college students since they immediately fast forward your commercials and delete your emails. Not only that,  Instagram is reaching a demographic that is generally very hard to market to. Since launch till date Instagram has gained over 600 million users. Following demographics of those users are:

• 24.6% of fortune 500 companies have an account
• 50% of users use an iPhone and 50% use Android
• 60 million photos are uploaded per day
• 68% of users are female and 32% are male
• 90% of the 200 million users are under the age of 35
• 1.6 billion likes occur every day

So, if your company already has an Instagram account and if it doesn't then I highly recommend you to make one, keep in mind while sharing your content. Here are

The top 5 tips for businesses

1. Timing is everything matters:
Even with 200 million+ users, there are still popular times that more users are engaged with their account. Unfortunately, there is not a magical time to post, but many studies have shown that posting a picture between 9am and 9pm EST is likely to get the best results. I have analysed these results personally since 2011 and I have seen great... great results. The most users are typically engaging with their Instagram account from
3-4 EST. Doesn't matter which part of the world you are from. The timing should depend on your niche and targeted audience i.e. the country in this case.
Let's say I want to pitch a sports product to players in south Africa so it's bit obvious that I will build my brand around it but I will make sure that I post in peak times of south African timing standards. Same goes with India, United states and so on. Because it goes without saying that you don't expect people to be awake at 3AM waiting for your post just because your time zone is different and you post at your convenience. It's like either you caught their eye or you did not.



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2. Share variety of content:
While your ultimate goal is to sell your product, don’t just post sales information. Users want to relate to you on their level, so use Instagram as a chance to give them a glimpse of what exactly your
company is, put a face to the people behind the brand. Interact with them. If you can't personally revert back then hire someone. Don't stop yourself from showcasing what exactly your brand is about. Just dive! Check out my post below, that's one variation that I added out recently-

3. Hashtags!!:
What's IG without hashtags LOL. While it might seem strange, hashtags actually have a significant impact on the success of the content you post. Instagram is a tool to search and engage with new content that is interesting. Utilizing the hashtag allows you to connect with unconnected users. But #Don't #Do #This #Because #Its #Useful #Only #On #certain #Tags # Like : "#Picoftheday" so choose your hashtags wisely.

4. Post videos
The Instagram video function has become more popular than the video posting app, Vine. Not only are videos fun to post but they engage users. Not a fan of videos? well let me tell you that people engage more on videos than on photos. It doesn't have to be a epic production. It can be something like
- Give a tour of the office, snippets of an event you’re attending or a quick how-to. Oddly enough.

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Hey, come say hi to me on Instagram. Let's talk about growing your business 

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5. Use Filters:
One of Instagram’s best features is that users can instantly turn a simple iPhone photo into a high quality piece of art with the handy editing tools, but choosing the right filter can increase or decrease the number of likes you receive. But don't hesitate use the best finish that you find.  People are drawn to photos with blue tints, over red or orange images and light photos are generally more popular than dark photos. The top 3 most effective filters are Normal or No Filter, Mayfair and Inkwell. But don't be afraid to post a no filter picture one a while. Sometimes simplicity is the key. Oh, make sure to add #NoFilter hashtag when you do ;) That's one of my no filter share...

Bonus: 5 Extra Tips

1. Host a contest/giveaway: 

Hosting a contest is often the most effective way to boost engagement and get new followers quickly  not only on Instagram but on any social network. Since Instagram has grown in popularity even though it has disabled links in description of the photo/video, it makes it one of the best social platforms to run a contest or giveaway. I personally feel like giveaways are the most recommended if you have a good organic followers base. You can ask your follower to complete a task or simply ask them why should they win it. It's a great way to know your fans and how important your product is to them. You can add on a simply trick to tag 2 others so that your post will reach out more.

2. Use your photo captions:

One of the best ways to get more likes on your Instagram photos is to use your photo’s caption to ask a question. We all have seen it and 'noticed' it, didn't we? Because this is a great way to drive not only photo likes, but comments, too. Does that mean you caption all posts from now on? Not really, it would be of fair terms if you use captions on candid clicks mostly. If it’s a goal to get on Instagram’s most popular “Explore” page, and you have enough followers to do so, don’t be afraid to ask in the photo caption section of your next uploaded photo. Ask and often you shall receive! So what happens if you get into explore page? That's a good silver mine for attracting new followers and likes.

Explore page is tailored for everyone single user but divided into niches so a sports person won't see some art post unless he has previously browsed for art work on IG.

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3. Use those apps: 

Look there are some dedicated apps just to make Instagram more graceful so use it! Use photo-editing apps to enhance your photos before you post them on IG. As I mentioned before, not all of the pics have to be filtered or edited. Sometimes the best one is the natural one. Just do the necessary adjustments. Two of them are integrated Boomerang and Photo grid Below are a few of the best, along with a short description of what they do:

• Instaframe: Instaframe is a free app that allows you to create really awesome photo collages. There are lots of photo collage apps available, so see what fits you best. Check out my post below where I made this graphic literally using just my phone and different apps (Not listed in here)

• Squaready — Instagram Layouter: When you upload a photo to Instagram from your phone’s photo library, Instagram will make you crop it into the shape of a square. If you want to feature an entire photo without cropping it, Squaready allows you to do this. Plus it’s free!

• Camera+: Camera+ ($1.99 on itunes for iphone users only) one of the most popular photo-editing apps available. Use Camera+ to adjust the lighting, brightness, contrast and clarity of your photos. It’s also a really handy app for shooting, as it allows you to zoom more tightly and improve your lighting on the spot!

• Picfx: If you want to really pump up the look of your photo with filters, Picfx ($1.99) is your go-to app. It has 100+ effects, textures and frames to choose from, and will automatically format your photo into a square for easy Instagram uploading. But I don't recommend it as there are several free apps but if you wanna go for it then why not?

4. Share teasers: 

For product-based businesses, upload photos to Instagram that feature teasers of a soon-to-be-released product or an exciting event that’s around the corner. That's like an all in one post which will indicate that you are working on your product but also as an update. Teaser photos are great for catching users’ interest and for driving photo likes!

6. Share candid shots: 

Think of your brand’s Instagram account as your followers’ backstage pass, or a behind-the-scenes look, at the inner workings of your company. People don’t want to see the same highly polished images your brand uses for adverts, they want to see images that are more relate-able and less edited. That's when you remember that I told you, keep it natural unless and until required. Don't over do either of them because if you just post casual pics it will come out as you are not focusing on quality content but if it is all polished then there will be a rise of doubt if the product is fake or what.
Your Instagram account should strive to highlight your employees and the work they do. Even if your business employs hundreds of people, featuring even just a few faces from behind your brand allows your brand to appear much more transparent with your followers.

Note: The content you post on Instagram doesn’t always have to be marketing driven, it can be just for fun! That's the key point from tip no.1 (Variation). After all, these kind of photos often get the best engagement. Stop thinking so much about how to get you’re going to get your branding message across and focus on the essence of the platform, which is a human-centric and playful.

5 Hidden tricks as promised

Click here for 5 Hidden tricks to increase your fan base

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Now that you have levelled up into the world of Instagram, go take some photos, Instagram users are waiting to see what your company has to share! Don't keep it one way. Don't expect customers to fall into you unless you are Nike. Reach out, team up, collaborate and reinvent! Before you go I got 2 questions for you, be brutally honest:

1) How often do you use filters?
2) Do you think FB Ad's bring in more conversions than IG?

If you got any more tips feel free to comment them below, I will add them in my next tutorial.