Kevin Systron, the founder of Instagram, is known to have taken its very first photograph. This was in the year 2010 in Mexico. Though Instagram has proved to be a big hot for pet photos, we know it is much more than that.
Today, Instagram is the number one app created for photo sharing in the US. There are 95 million active users of the app in the US alone, growing at the rate of 100 million every year globally since 2014. Worldwide there are over 814 million active Instagram users now. This is precisely the reason why many big businesses are attracted to Instagram.
This time we are with question for business owners from four different continents on how to grow their business using Instagram. Given below are some of their tips on how to get your Instagram followers to help you to grow your business.
Ibrahim from Qatar
Founder of the luxury brand for handbags, Fursan, Ibrahim Al-Haidos is based in Doha in Qatar. He has over a million followers (162,000). Ibrahim feels that Instagram has become a tool for marketing businesses in the Middle East. It is a popularly used social media platform. Many businesses in Qatar use Instagram to tell their business stories in a manner that is visually very appealing to the viewers and customers-to-be.
Ibrahim’s tips for using Instagram are as follows:
- Write out your complete bio and a good description of the business.
- This should be consistent with the rest of your social media profiles.
- Your logo, with the correct colour, font size and style should be the display picture.
- Photos taken should be professional.
- Once in a while, take your audience to behind-the-scene operations. Take pictures of these instances and share with your other Instagram followers. They will feel more belonged to your brand.
- Ensure that you touch base with bloggers and influencers that work in the same niche.
Oliver Isaacs from the UK
Oliver Isaacs from the UK has more than 3 million Instagram followers. Instagram is a good means to which you can increase your brand identity. Many businesses seem to be adopting this method both in Europe and UK on a daily basis, he says.
Most of the traffic these days is to the mobile phone instead of to the desktop. Instagram is, therefore, the right app to have on the mobile. Oliver’s specific business deals with cryptocurrencies and the blockchain technologies. He opines that many startups in the blockchain sector that deal with investing in cryptocurrencies in his country use Instagram to create the exposure that is required for their ICOs or Initial Coin Offerings.
Blockchain companies have also set up Telegram groups with links to their corresponding Instagram pages which are used to generate viral content of endorsements from celebrities, influencers, or other public figures.
Oliver’s Instagram Tips:
It is a good idea to be consistent with the stories and content, whatever be the niche or business. This kind of consistency on Instagram helps to build up a loyal following that is always duly engaged with your Instagram account. This will also help to build a following of higher quality in the same niche as yours from Facebook groups, Telegram apps, etc.
It is a good idea to get hold of ‘power’ likes, that is, likes from much bigger account owners whose pages have more than a million followers. This requires that you must build solid relationships with these influencers to be able to get their likes. This can give a boost to the number of followers for your account and help your Explore page to go viral.
Adel De Meyer from Australia
Adel (@adeldmeyer) from Australia is the founder of Adedemeyer.com. Base in Gold Coast, Australia, she has close to 15000 followers on Instagram. The usage of social media has been very consistent over many years now in Australia with YouTube and Facebook being very popular social media platforms. However, in the last couple of years, Instagram has started to make inroads and so also the growth of Twitter and Snapchat has been on the rise.
A majority of Australian businesses spend a lot of money on website improvement and betterment of content. They then allocate budget spends on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn and also look out for influencer marketing campaigns. Snapchat has seen some bigger brands try and reach out to millennials in Snapchat.
Meyer’s tips for improving Instagram following:
For brand building, it is important to find out the exact type of content that people crave for. The next step is to find your niche. It is tough competition on Instagram and therefore it is important to be consistent over periods of time and deliver quality content. If these are not present, it is difficult to get noticed. First of all decide on a solid strategy, get the content replacement calendar ready and be ready to allocate funds for ad spending.
Luana Soares from Brazil
Luana has more than 12000 Instagram followers. She is based in Brazil. She feels that Brazil is one of the countries which has the largest number of bloggers and YouTubers. Any brand is aware that they should be on Instagram to remain competitive. Businesspersons use this medium to stay connected with their prospective customers and loyal followers. Brazil is a very social country too.
Luana Soares’s Instagram Tip
Many businesses are only now learning the importance of using Instagram to communicate with young users. These days, retail businesses are directly selling through Instagram. It is a good idea to know about Instagram’s latest features to make the best use of the app. In this context, it is a good idea to follow their official blog. The best part is that you can learn about it right from the mobile in your hand. If you have this knowledge, your account will be much sought after and you can stay ahead of the competition.