Yash Chawlani April 12, 2021 Instagram is one of the largest social media platforms for your brand to consider using as part of your marketing strategy. Consumers love to look at and interact with it, and brands love to be a part of it.
According to Hootsuite, 1 billion people use Instagram every month, and it’s the sixth-most visited website.
You’re likely aware that other platforms out there, such as Facebook and TikTok, exist as well. The good news is that if you do Instagram right and well, you can transfer much of what you do and the same workflow over to these platforms.
Now that you know you need to be engaging with consumers on Instagram, learn five surefire ways to increase your brand awareness with this platform.
Put more time and effort into it, and you’re likely to be rewarded for your hard work and ensure the right people know about your brand and feel motivated to want to interact with you.
1. Understand and define your brand’s persona
If you wish to increase your brand awareness on Instagram, your first order of business is to understand and define your brand’s persona. There are several ways to perform a target audience analysis and ask questions about your brand to understand it better.
Target audience analysis is a primary component of any marketing strategy. It gives you an in-depth view of who your audiences are, what they are not, and as equally important, audiences your brand could be reaching out to with a few modifications to your approach and strategy.
Try making an elevator pitch about your brand and see what comes from this exercise.
Include the key points and what you deem as the most important and valuable information. If you can’t simplify, maybe the definition of the brand isn’t enough.
You should also work on personifying your brand. A brand persona is a collection of personality traits, attitudes, and values that your brand regularly demonstrates to connect with a specific audience segment.
By personification, you can understand some elements of your visual style, color palette, content tone, and create more definition. Research suggests that personifying a brand and giving it distinct human qualities will help people connect with your company.
2. Use Instagram’s Tools
The best part about Instagram is that it has so much more to offer than just posting an image with a caption. There are tools that you can use to help you increase your brand awareness on the platform.
Don’t be afraid to experiment with them and see what sticks you find the most useful for your brand marketing and what your followers respond to the most.
For instance, reels are the ability to jump on popular hashtags.
It’s a new feature for users to create 15-second video clips set to music and share their stories, explore feed, and the new reels tab on a user’s profile.
Therefore, make sure you research your hashtags before you use them and get in on the conversation.
Instagram stories let users and business accounts post photos and videos that vanish after 24 hours. You can use stories to boost your brand’s reach and engagement. There are also fun stickers you can include, or you can type out text on your stories.
You may also want to use the feature to conduct a poll to your audience. Your options are fairly limitless.
There are a few best practices to follow, such as posting between one to seven stories per day, posting them at the optimal time. By posting consistently, you can better build a one-on-one relationship with your audience.
Most notably, they provide your brand the opportunity to boost reach, engagement, and conversions.
If you deal with music or are in this type of industry, you may also be interested in knowing that you can use this Instagram tool to get promoted on music pages. You may also want to use live videos to engage with your fans and increase your brand awareness with the platform.
Regardless of the type of business you’re running or the industry you’re in, your number one focus must be to create and post quality content.
Make your content as high-quality as possible and ask yourself if you’d reshare it before you put it out there. Make a note of which posts and content get the most attention, and try to mimic this approach in the future.
3. Post strategically
It’s also wise to use strategic posting if you’re going to increase your brand awareness with Instagram. You want to be present and be noticed when people are looking at and using the platform.
Therefore, schedule your posts at the optimal time and have them ready to go, so you don’t have to remember or think about doing it.
There are a few tools that may help you with this goal, such as Kontentino, Hootsuite, or Later. You can get your posts all set and ready to go and schedule them out so you can ensure they go out when you desire.
You don’t want to remember these details in your head and then forget to hit publish when the right time rolls around. Use these tools to help you manage your time and workload.
You may also want to cross-post with different platforms to help you increase your brand awareness.
Cross-posting is the act of sharing the same post across various social media platforms. It keeps you active on the channels, saves time, and ensures your content is widely available. It may also help you to broaden your reach and attract more followers.
If there’s one rule of thumb you should follow for working with and on Instagram, it’s not to post too much or too little content. It can be a big turn-off for your followers.
You must find a balance and hit the sweet spot if you’re going to be successful and increase your brand awareness and reach using this platform. Being overactive or not around enough may cause you to lose followers and trust with consumers.
4. Look Into Sponsorships
Another surefire way to increase your brand awareness with Instagram is to look into sponsorships.
The keyword research you perform when understanding and defining your brand’s persona can help identity hashtags and influencers you want to use and work with.
Don’t just use any kind of influencer. Pick people who make the most sense for promoting your brand and have a high reach. Create and sign a sponsorship agreement before getting started to secure your rights and the influencer’s rights as well.
You want the relationship to be authentic and believable so take your time selecting the right people for the job.
Once you can identify the influencers you wish to work with, then approach the “sweet spot” influencers for sponsorship.
You may be willing to offer money or something in exchange for them mentioning and talking about your brand on Instagram. Be prepared to give them content they can use that’s authentic and will draw the right kind of attention to your brand.
5. Engage With Followers and Communities
Finally, you must also commit to engaging with followers and various communities. Instagram hashtags allow you to effectively create niche communities that you can interact with and become a part of.
One idea is to use social media listening tools to find people who mention your brand, competitors, or ideas and concepts you’re involved in within your niche community.
You can also engage more on the platform by sharing other user’s posts. Follow people who you find interesting and share what posts you like the most. You’ll have a much greater chance of them sharing you if you’re out there interacting with various consumers and communities.
Be willing and make time to engage with your customers on the platform to increase brand awareness.
Have them share your brand as a communication mechanism with you. It’s an additional way for them to get support, and it helps with the algorithm to promote your brand.
Make sure your bio and profile are filled out and up to date if people want to check out your page and are considering following your account.
Be consistent and use your creativity to take your captions to the next level to get lost in the mix.
These are a few surefire and practical ways to increase your brand awareness with Instagram. Take advantage of the tools the platform offers, post consistently and be sure to engage with your followers and consumers actively.
It all begins by you first understanding your brand persona better and defining it in detail. Leverage the tools and other users or influencers to help you reach your social media goals.
Be proactive and involved in the platforms you choose to use, such as Instagram, because once you begin to interact with your followers, they’ll expect you to be present and share relevant, timely, and high-quality content.
Be sure to track and measure your results to know what’s working and where you need to make changes to your strategy and approach.
Be patient because it may take some time before you’re on a roll.
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