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.

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Labels: Instagram, Social Media

How Instagram can dramatically impact your business

One of the hottest properties on the web right now – thanks to a $1 billion plus purchase from Facebook – Instagram has become a go to social media network for those looking to increase their profile out on the web. It’s not enough to just have a website or proper search engine optimization efforts trying to drive business, you’re going to need to tap into social media and there might not be a better way to do so than with Instagram.

A picture is still worth 1000 words

Even though niche social media networks are all the rage right now, Instagram is the one that really set the tone. And all visual-based social media network that relies on users posting and editing their favorite smart phone pictures, Instagram has created a dedicated following of people who love nothing more than to jump on the site and just see what others are up to in their day to day lives.
Marketers and business people that really struggle with creating crystal-clear marketing messages and crafting the perfect words to say in all of their marketing pieces or advertisements are going to love Instagram simply because of the visual nature of the platform it you can forget about struggling with copy and trying to craft the perfect phrase, especially since a picture on Instagram can do all of the heavy lifting for you.

Offer an unpolished behind-the-scenes look into what your business is really all about

While it used to be true that people relied on gigantic faceless corporations to provide them with all the goods and services that they could ever hope to buy, the marketplace has completely and totally shifted to one that desires personal relationships with the people that they give their hard-earned money.
And even if you are unable to interact with all of the global customers and clients that you have on a personal basis, giving them a glimpse into the unpolished and unedited version of your business and life can create those same kind of bonds through Instagram.

Even though there are more than a handful of filters you can rely on to edit your pictures and present them in the best light, the more immature and unprofessional you make the pictures look the more visual and relationship impact they’re going to have on Instagram. People will feel like you’re giving them a view through a window that they otherwise wouldn’t have access to, allowing them into the inner circle, if you will, and a peek behind the curtain.

This is maybe one of the most powerful strategies for improving your relationship with each and every one of the people in your marketplace, giving you instant credibility, amazing affinity, and long-term loyalty just by trusting them with these few simple snapshots. We see it happen all the time with celebrities on Instagram, and the same power can be yours if you use similar strategies. It’s not terribly difficult to do – everyone has a camera in their cell phone these days – but can increase your profits dramatically.

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Labels: Instagram, Social Media

Instagram -Is it just people sharing what they had to eat?

Well on its way to becoming a true titan of the social media world even before the groundbreaking merger with Facebook – a sale that netted the creator of the platform a cool $1.2 billion – Instagram has become almost as ubiquitous on modern devices as Facebook itself.

Originally conceived of as a cool way to better utilize the pictures you take with a smart phone, Instagram has become so much more – a burgeoning social media network that now has incredibly tight integration with Facebook. This has changed the very landscape of social media, and even though the Instagram user base it doesn't have quite the same shock value as far as numbers go when you’re comparing it to its parent Facebook, the people who use this app each and every single day are dedicated to the platform and have incredible loyalty and affinity built right in.

Ever since the company was purchased by Facebook, user accounts and activity has shot through the
roof

By last count, there were close to 90 million active users logging into their Instagram accounts each and every single month – numbers that dwarfed the last count before it was purchased by Facebook. And though the app has been around for two years, it’s really started to hit its stride thanks to the management and executive team working closely with the people that molded Facebook into what it is today.

While they used to enjoy close to 40 million photos being uploaded to the service on a regular day, today that number has exploded to 4 billion and counting, user interaction that is just absolutely off the charts. Combine that with the fact that 8500 likes and 1000 comments explode onto the service each and every second of the day, and you have one of the most active social media basis of all of the different platforms available out there.


The tight integration with Facebook only proves that things are just beginning to skyrocket

These gigantic leads forward cannot be all attributed to the purchase by Facebook, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand the impact that this tech giant is going to have on the smaller social media network in Instagram. You have to believe that there are gigantic plans for this incredibly easy to use, ridiculously fun, and very friendly service – or it never would have warranted the gigantic price tag that it.

One has to believe that there will be more integrations upcoming, as the mobile app has already been fine-tuned with all kinds of new innovations from a parent company that literally never rests or sleeps. This is exciting news for businesses and entrepreneurs, as they’ll be able to enjoy a tremendously exciting and active social media network user base that has been proven time and time again to be very responsive and open to advertising and marketing.

Luckily, it’s relatively simple and straightforward to get started with Instagram – something you’ll want to do just as soon as you possibly can.

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Labels: Instagram, Social Media