Seven tips to help your brand dominate Instagram

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What does this indicate? Obviously, Instagram can also be a great platform for those who want to promote their brands effectively. However, many small businesses still report difficulties in mastering Instagram as opposed to platforms like Twitter or Facebook.

Here are some of the best tips to help your brand dominate Instagram.

1. Cultivate a following

If you want to dominate Instagram, the first thing you have to do is try to have a following. For this, you can try to connect your Facebook account to your IG account, utilise relevant and popular hashtags, and try to socialise by following others, liking, and commenting on their photos.

You can also cross-post selected images to your Facebook page and utilise hashtags that are related to your brand image and campaign. This can help people find your brand.

2. Use trends (and hashtags) to your advantage

Could you remember the days when there's still a #followfriday on Twitter? What can you say about it? Well, in Instagram, users are allowed to use different hashtags as a way to become part of the visual community storytelling.

Aside from that, are you even aware that Instagram has put a limit on the number of hashtags you can use in a single photo?

For most IGers, the golden rule when it comes to hashtags is that, it shouldn't be more than five. The reason behind is that, five hashtags is more than enough to tag the most vital elements and to ensure that the photo description is clear and understandable. You can also use a tool like Hashtagify to do a hashtag research and see what's working in your niche and industry.

Also, the more hashtags you use, the more chances of getting plenty of likes on the photos you have uploaded.

3. Use analytical tools

There's a plethora of tools that can help you and your Instagram strategy, such as the following:

• Schedugram: This app will allow you to schedule your Instagram post on the most perfect time frame.
  
• IconoSquare - Insights, analytics, and relevant information can be viewed here.
  
• Webstagram: This will help you determine the best hashtags that will allow you to reach your target audience.

4. Optimise your profile

Just like their famous counterparts, like Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms, it's important to include the brand information in a number of ways. So, don't forget to complete your profile with all the relevant information your customers might need as a way to find you and your business. Here's an easy to use infographic from Gerry Moran which shows where everything goes on your Instagram profile page.

5. Showcase your customers, employees, behind the scenes

One of the best ways to encourage brand engagement is to appeal to people's vanity. For instance, Benefits Cosmetics have turned to IG as a way to find images of real people using their cosmetics.

Plenty of fans have submitted more than 11,900 selfies using the given hashtag and this has increased the brand awareness.

Then, you can also try increasing your fans' intimacy with your brand by giving them a glimpse of what they can expect from your company. You can share photos and videos of what's happening behind-the-scenes of your brand. See how Tim Sykes, an entrepreneur and trading expert, engaged his audiences to build a 350K+ follower base in a relatively short time in his Huffington post article here.

Furthermore, you can also show images or videos of your employees while they're doing their respective tasks. This can be a way to show how much you acknowledge them.

6. Post on the right days and time

Aside from using relevant hashtags, as well as the best filters available, it's also important that you should also pay attention to when you're going to post your updates.

One of the best approaches is try to analyse what has not worked for you in the past. You can visit IconoSquare's optimisation section and you'll receive a detailed analysis of your posting history as well as engagement.

7. Respond to all posts!

You don't have to be a slave of the popular "like" trend, what is important is that you know how to acknowledge your audience. What we're trying to say is that, you should know how to respond to them positively and make them feel that they're very important and special.

There you have it. These are just some of the best ways on how you can dominate Instagram and enjoy positive results through it. Give it a try and see which ones work best for you.