Still not using Instagram for your business? Here are some tips

While there are any number of ways you can use Instagram to dramatically overhaul your marketing and advertising messages, the fact of the matter is that there are specific unwritten rules and guidelines – fundamentals really – that will help you stay on the good side of your marketplace while also having truly tremendous influence over all of the people who see your Instagram photos.

These insider secrets are going to help you to really unlock all that Instagram has to offer, maybe the most powerful visual medium as far as social media networks go. This has the potential to help you boost your business in ways that you can’t even imagine right now, but only if you master the essentials below.

Always – always – look to create interaction with each and every one of your Instagram uploads

Even though social media networks like Instagram were specifically designed to facilitate conversation between users and content creators, most people still use them as a depository or display of all of the things going on in their life or business. Understanding that Instagram is a fluid environment that easily facilitates conversation and still ignoring it and posting things in a static fashion can have truly devastating impacts on the effectiveness of your Instagram account, wiping out all the goodwill that you’ve been looking to establish.

Try to create real interactions with each and every one of the Instagram uploads that you produce, effectively boosting the participation that your marketplace has with your business as often as possible. This can be as simple as asking questions in the photo comments section or as intricate as designing full- blown contests where your marketplace can win real rewards. It’s up to you how far you decide to take this when implementing, but you’ll want to try to make it as much of a two-way street as possible.
Cut all of the postproduction before you get to Instagram

One of the reasons that Instagram was able to explode in popularity as quickly as it was is the simple fact that it provided a handful of powerful photo filters that gave our camera phone pictures a bit of a retro look, one that up the quality while at the same time retaining the amateur look and feel of the actual subject matter.
And though Instagram has certainly added to their range of filters, more and more people are posting professional grade photographs to their Instagram account in hopes that folks just won’t notice.
Bad news. They do.

This truly cheapens the interaction, as it makes you seem more plastic and phony then you’re probably looking to be associated with. Instagram was established as the perfect vehicle to quickly share your favorite snapshots, and there’s just something about the amateurish look that camera phones are able to deliver that really creates an instant relationship with the marketplace.
They feel like they are looking at photographs shared from a close friend, rather than production stills produced by a business looking to sell them things they probably don’t need. By all means integrate any of the Instagram filters when you upload to the service, but don’t try to overproduce or professionalize the shots that you’re uploading ahead of time. Labels: Instagram, Social Media