Beginners Guide to Instagram Business

We get it. Maybe you think that Instagram is just a place to post selfies and cute photos of your dog. But we’re here to let you in on a little secret; for business owners, it has the potential to be so much more. 

With over 500 million users, Instagram has quickly become a key marketing tool for businesses of all sizes and industries. With the right approach, you can use Instagram to communicate and engage with your current audience and reach a wide variety of potential clients.

It can be slightly intimidating to dive into a new social platform, but don’t worry! That’s what we’re here for. Admittedly, this platform isn’t for everyone. If you don’t have visual-centric content, you should have a conversation about how to translate your brand and marketing message into photos. It may take a little more effort and planning, but once you master Instagram, your business will go further than ever before. 

In this post, we’ll guide you through how to begin conquering the world of Instagram in three segments: how to set your profile as a business, how to analyze insights, and the importance of aesthetic appeal.

Let’s get started!

How to Set Your Instagram as a Business Account

 Let’s begin with the set-up of your business profile. Don’t worry – this is the easiest part! While anyone can create an Instagram profile, you now have the option to designate that profile as a business. This will allow you to feature your website URL, contact info, and other features not available on “personal” accounts. Not to mention, you’ll be able to link it to your Facebook business page. So, let’s get started… 

Step 1:  Set up your account.

Step 2:  Now it’s time to switch to a business profile. Go to settings and click on the account tab. At the bottom of this page, click Switch to Professional Account.

Step 3:  Instagram will then ask if you a creator or a business. Click on business and then choose the category that best describes your business.

Step 4:  Now it is time to review the contact information that will be associated with the account. Be sure that this contact information is the same info you use everywhere else for you marketing (other social media channels, your website, etc). This will ensure SEO (search engine optimization) and establish consistency for your audience.

Now your Instagram is officially ready for business!

An Overview of Instagram Insights

Instagram provides insights for business accounts so that businesses can learn more about their audience. Reviewing analytics and stats are the most powerful tool in any marketing strategy – make sure you take advantage of this! 

Instagram insights is divided into three sections: content, activity, and audience.

The Content section shows an overview of content posted in the last seven days. From here, you can also click on the posts you have made and view the post reach, number of profile visits the post resulted in, likes, comments, shares, and saves. This allows you to see what has resulted in the most engagement so that you can continue to make more similar content. Review what’s working, and repeat it! 

The Activity section provides discovery and interaction data. Discovery data measures how many accounts your business has reached in the past seven days, breaking this down into daily stats. Comparatively, interaction data measures the actions people take when they engage with your page. This includes things like profile visits, website clicks, and asking directions to your business.

And finally, you can see an overview of your Audience. This page will show your profile growth, what cities your followers are located in, the age range and gender of your followers, and the hours of the day your followers are most active. This is a powerful tool in that you have an opportunity to adapt your content to best suit your audience. 

So how often should you be looking at insights? We recommend looking over these stats weekly so you can analyze how well your posts are doing, and what kind of posts receive the most engagement from your followers. Adapt your marketing approach from here, and move forward with great content!

Your Instagram’s Aesthetic Appeal

The nature of Instagram lends itself towards very visual-centric posts. After all, it is essentially a feed of images only. 

To that end, every account has its own “curb appeal” which is determined by the photos/videos that are posted. In order to successfully conquer the world of Instagram, your account must be visually appealing. This concept is commonly referred to as the aesthetic of your Instagram. The aesthetic is important because it is the first thing users see when they visit your businesses profile. If the aesthetic is scattered and non-cohesive, users will be less likely to understand your brand. If there is no cohesion, that confusion leads to drop offs instead of sales. 

The best way to create a good Instagram aesthetic, is to first decide on a tone you want to impart to your viewers. You can then use this tone to develop a color scheme and filter that you will use consistently on your profile. Always use high quality images, as blurry or out of focus ones will not perform as well and makes your business look unprofessional. Lastly, keep your content varied. Your Instagram should have a good variety of different types of posts that all stay in that same theme you developed. Your Instagram feed should act as a visual extension of your brand. 

Check out these feeds of some famous businesses and see how they’ve done it:

Instagram is a fun and useful platform that can help your business market itself to a whole new audience. When utilized correctly, your Instagram profile is a powerful tool that allows your business to promote your brand, engage with your audience, and reach more potential clients.