Instagram for Business – Tips and Tricks: A #BufferChat Recap
This week on #bufferchat our community discussed ways to be successful using Instagram for your business or brand. Read on to discover all of the awesome insights shared during the chat!
Catch our weekly Twitter chat, #bufferchat, at TWO times every Wednesday for valuable industry insights and to meet hundreds of other smart marketers and social media enthusiasts. Same topic, same place, just at different times – feel free to join whichever chat time works best for you!
4 pm AEDT (Sydney time)
9 am PT (San Francisco time)
This week’s stats:
Bufferchat #1 (4 pm AEDT): 16 participants; reach of 965,718
Bufferchat #2 (9 am PT): 64 participants; reach of 1,141,765
Q1: What are some ways you can optimize your Instagram profile?
From the community:
A1: Make sure you always have a relevant link in your bio, set up the business profile with useful buttons, use a recognizable image for your profile picture, set up your stories archive. #bufferchat
— Cass (@cassipolzin) March 21, 2018
A1: Think of your profile as a store front. Make it easy for prospects to understand what you’re about with what limited online real estate you have. #bufferchat
— Lana Park (@lanaparkart) March 21, 2018
A1: You can optimize your #Instagram profile in the following ways
– New profile photo
– Update your IG Bio
– Regularly update your Instagram Bio Link
– Update branded hashtag in bio description
– Create and update your Instagram highlight stories to re-engage #bufferchat
— Ravi Shukle (@ravishukle) March 21, 2018
A1: First I would suggest switching to a business profile to see all the analytics of where your users are coming from and measurements of engagement. Second, posting consistently is key to keeping your audience engaged. And lastly, come up with a creative theme. #bufferchat
— Wayne Jones (@wayneoflife) March 21, 2018
See all the great answers to question 1 here!
Q2: Do you have specific goals or KPIs for your Instagram presence? If so, what are they?
From the community:
A2: We look primarily for engagement in the form of likes and comments. We love when our followers increase, but we know that followers doesn’t always mean a captive audience. #bufferchat
— Jules Kim (@julesykim) March 21, 2018
a2: increasing followers is most important to me. Anyone can scroll the explore page + hit like. But followers will see you again and again, not by random! #bufferchat but it’s tough in a world full of amazing content creators – what’s your favorite way to stand out?
— Bre | Mountain Town Boutique (@bre_mtb) March 21, 2018
A2: We primarily use Instagram as a growth channel to build community #bufferchat. We’ve gathered patient stories and celebrated with our community. #socialmedia
— Martha Brown (@marthabrown321) March 21, 2018
A2: For organic content on Instagram, I look at engagement. For paid, I use a lead form in the platform and track form fills/leads #bufferchat
— Madeline Gregory (@madelineg_sea) March 21, 2018
See all the great answers to question 2 here!
Q3: How do you make the most of your captions?
From the community:
A3: Ask questions or make requests! Captions with “Tag a friend” or “What do you think” almost double the engagement of other posts, plus gives your audience something to comment #bufferchat pic.twitter.com/P83IMRBNoZ
— Siena Domaradzki-Kim (@sienatdk) March 21, 2018
A3: I’ve been experimenting with long captions as of late. To be honest, I rarely read a full caption unless you pull me in with the first few words ? but my followers seem to love it. I’m also very open w/ them and ask a question at the end for them to answer. #BufferChat
— Jessie (@JessieDeschane) March 21, 2018
A3: Captions need to be well thought out—just as much as the imagery. What’s the voice, the tone, the purpose? You’ve got a small amount of space to entice them to read the full caption, use them wisely. #bufferchat
— Cassandra Schwartz ⭐ (@cssndrlnn) March 21, 2018
A3: Few ways would be
– Keep it simple and casual yet maintain your brand voice
– Use emoticons in your caption ???
– Use relevant hashtags at the end of the caption #bufferchat
— Typito (@TypitoHQ) March 21, 2018
See all the great answers to question 3 here!
Q4: Have you used ads as part of your Instagram strategy?
From the community:
A4: absolutely. Swipe ups are some of the highest performing traffic drivers among my previous clients. #BufferChat
— Jack Appleby (@JuiceboxCA) March 21, 2018
A4) Not on the company account, but yes for clients via Facebook. Engagement on Instagram ads often outperforms FB. #bufferchat
— Ben Hollom FCIM (@benhollom) March 21, 2018
A4 I used it for a former client (old job) and it did have some good results. Haven’t used it lately but I will say combining paid+ organic can be massively impactful. #BufferChat https://t.co/wAaVXCoZjB
— Musolé Kambinda ? (@Musolek) March 21, 2018
A4: We have FB ads that have run on Instagram. I think paid promotions on Insta work well when you have shoppable items. As a service based business, it’s not quite in our strategy yet. #bufferchat
— Hugh F. Miller Insurance (@hughmillerins) March 21, 2018
See all the great answers to question 4 here!
Q5: Do you sell products through Instagram? How do you showcase them creatively? If you don’t, have you seen brands that do it well?
From the community:
A5: In the UK we are only starting to see brands roll out the shopping feature. Brands have been showcasing amazingly on IG even without shopping feature. Especially brands like @glossier who have created a great aesthetic and also used influencer marketing. #bufferchat
— Little Tzu Marketing (@wearelittletzu) March 21, 2018
A5: Yes – we are always looking for more creative ways to sell products on IG. There’s IG stories, carousel posts/ads, story highlights. #bufferchat
— the DRIVE (@theDRIVEblog) March 21, 2018
A5: I haven’t sold any products through Instagram but I am loving the option to. As a consumer I really love how @bioreus uses Instagram to promote and sell their products, especially the new Charcoal and Baking Soda lines. Fun to follow and engage with! #bufferchat
— Paige Peabody (@Paige_Peabody) March 21, 2018
A5: Selling products through Instagram is only getting easier. There’s an idea that audiences don’t buy through Instagram—it’s a lie. Brands that do this best balance between product and people, and create content that engages at every step. #bufferchat
— Rival IQ (@RivalIQ) March 21, 2018
See all the great answers to question 5 here!
Q6: With the current Instagram algorithm, has the type of content or your posting strategy changed?
From the community:
A6: Not too much, we still use the same strategy of testing and learning with our content. Out most engaging content lately have contained clear CTA’s and giveaway partnerships with other brands! #bufferchat
— Lizzie LaCour (@dizzzylizzzie27) March 21, 2018
A6 : I would say make sure you post content your target wants to read rather than posting what you want to market. Build your target personas and cater to them #bufferchat
— Navya Manoj (@tapedspectacles) March 21, 2018
A6: I’ve thought more about the message.
When you go to take photos/video for Instagram think of the message you will post with them. This is ? to have in your head beforehand and will help with creating higher engagement. ?
Think about how to start conversations!#bufferchat
— influencerTONY ? 90 Vids/90 Days (@InfluencerTony) March 21, 2018
A6: We’re all about following hashtags and using a location in our Stories. We still have some testing to do, but we’ve seen more engagement on our profile posts after we’ve been included in a city story, etc. #bufferchat https://t.co/7q8LBsMpCy
— Social Coasting (@SocialCoasting) March 21, 2018
See all the great answers to question 6 here!
Thank you so much to our awesome community for sharing such great insights in this chat!
Do you have any comments or answers to these questions? Leave your thoughts in the comments! We’d love to hear from you!
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