What you need to consider for business on Instagram. "Business on Instagram": How to start making money on your account What business to open on Instagram

18.10.2021

Leah Canary

Why you need to create an Instagram account right now

You can only link your Facebook and Instagram accounts if you have administrator rights on your Facebook business page. If they are not there (or there is no brand page), then you can link it to a personal page.

To link your FB and Instagram accounts, you need to go to "Settings" - "Account" - "Linked Accounts":

Select Facebook and enter your login details:

You will now see the name of the page you linked your Instagram to:

You can skip these steps if you already linked your account to your company's Facebook page in the first step.

After that, you can configure a few more important settings.

For example, disable commenting on your posts. To individual photos / videos or to all posts at once.

If anything, remember - you can always complain about spam right in the comments:

By the way, Instagram is seriously concerned - as Kevin Systrom puts it ( CEO and co-founder of the photo network) - the "psychological comfort" of its users. So owners of private (closed) accounts can delete any subscribers without notice. And soon it will be possible to send anonymous messages about users who urgently need medical and psychological support. A sort of disturbing buttons for Self-Injury Posts (literally: posts of self-torture).

Stage 2. Description, link and avatar: we make out the account correctly

Profile description.

In the profile description, place important information about your company: USP, short description the nature of the services. Do not fill the description with hashtags, a lot of emojis (smilies). Be aware of the 150 character limit.

To track traffic from Instagram, you can put a UTM tag at the end of the link in the profile description. But Google Analytics has been a bad friend to Instagram until recently. Traffic from the application in GA reports was attributed to the source - direct (direct traffic). However, some of the traffic from the application may still not be recognized in GA. This problem is solved with a redirect.

To address like https://site.ru/?utm_source=instagram&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=bhphotovideoaccount did not embarrass users, we make a link of the form http://site.ru/instagram(or similar) and add it to our profile. And then we set up a 301 redirect to a UTM link that will lead to our site. When a user clicks on such a link in your Instagram profile, the added parameters will be sent to Google Analytics - and the corresponding data will appear in your reports. Plus, Instagram considers such links more reliable than shortened ones. Attention! Google Analytics is case sensitive: utm_source=Instagram and utm_source=instagram will show up as different traffic sources

Link to your site.

If you want to make multiple links on your Instagram, use a service like taplink - this one is an internal app, for example. That is, a URL like taplink.cc does not lead away from the social network, but can serve as an information business card and a store. Classic content on the free plan would look something like this:

Stage 5. Pay attention to hashtags

hashtag Always must match the topic of the post.
Make at least 5 hashtags per post. Yes, the more hashtags, the wider the reach. However, 30 hashtags for one post will be placed on the screen so poorly that they can distract the subscriber from the main thing - the picture itself. Don't make posts look like spam.
Remember that the most popular hashtags in the search you quickly go down.
Make a custom hashtag and keep experimenting.
Mistakes are sometimes incredibly attractive. Typos can become a feature if you try. So there was a domain and the name of one of the agencies in Moscow, for the registration and approval of advertising signs. The Reglama variant delighted my customer. Registration and a deliberate mistake in the word advertising, you know?

Remember that not only usefulness and diluted photos from the studio can sell, but also trash and humor:

Style will help you stand out, there will always be grateful users

Nature itself will help to emphasize the mood of the brand:

Let's move on to the video. Previously, videos in the Instagram feed were limited to a 15-second interval, today the maximum time for a video post is 1 minute. Now it’s safe to say that posts with videos get a lot more reactions than photos.

And at the end of 2016, Instagram launched a new feature - live video broadcasts. Live broadcasts can now be saved and shared with other users. Be sure to try working with live broadcasts: we told you how to launch them and make them watch.

But the laurels of YouTube certainly haunted the developers of the social network, so Instagram in 2018 launched a new video platform IGTV, which is designed for long vertical videos.

Remember that the use of video should be justified by your brand's digital strategy and pursue specific goals. Development, filming, video editing is not the cheapest expense item, so decide in advance exactly what tasks you want to solve with it. Competent video marketing will allow you to stand out from your competitors and make your content diverse and attractive.

If you don't know where to start, I've put together for you best ideas brands to inspire:

Make a social video. Social advertisement from PornHub is the best thing that could be done to draw attention to environmental issues. So the video service for adults outlined its position on the problem of ocean pollution.

Modern Instagram is not just a social network about photography. This is an Internet space that allows you to learn more about the world, meet new people and, of course, gain popularity. But for many, Instagram is a way to build a business. Developing your business account on Instagram allows you to become more of a media personality or page. You will receive an exhaustive answer to the question “how to make a business on Instagram” in this article.

How and where to start creating a Business account

Getting started with a business profile on Instagram is rightfully called the most difficult. This stage includes such a large amount of action that it is almost impossible to manage it alone quickly. Therefore, we advise you to be patient or find a team of like-minded people.

Let's make a list of the main rules that are mentioned when working with a developing page.

Fill out your account

Statistics show that pages filled with high quality have more subscribers, likes, views and other activity than pages without descriptions.

A potential subscriber trusts users with a filled header more. Select .

Remember that it must be optimized: the fewer characters, the better.

When filling out the “About Me” section, do not write a lot, it is better to indicate the most important information. Refrain from cliches.

Age, city, language, country are the least of interest to users. Forget about in large numbers emoji.

Think content

Each of your photos should fit into the overall concept of the account. But more than that, you should like it. All content is best created in advance.

For convenience, develop a plan for uploading photos and video files (content plan).

Photo and video captions matter. Work out the system, put them wisely.

Tags can lead content to increase visibility and interactions.

Write poems under photos, ask provocative questions, and ditch digital emojis almost entirely.

In case of emergency, replace them with outdated hand-drawn emoticons that take up no more than two characters - ":) (:: with with:" they will show more emotions than multi-colored bright mini-pictures.

Please note that users do not want to see in the news feed.

Such information includes:

all negative content;
pornography and other parts of the content spectrum.

This can interfere with the transition of Instagram to business. In fact, all posts in your account must be linked.

Therefore, do not post photos with erotic content on family pages.

Don't lose sight of your target audience. There should be only three things in your head - the question of the amount of content, the question of the target audience and the question of. And at the first stage, the answers should be to the first two questions.

Create original content

Uniqueness is encouraged by users. To create, take your phone and go out into the yard, onto the streets of your hometown, into the forest or any store.

Our world is too beautiful and diverse not to find something beautiful and new in it. Take pictures and shoot everything that catches your eye. Play with light, scale, colors, shadows.

Any photo can later be processed, cleaned. Users are more likely to interact with unique content that can only be seen by a specific author.

This increases the buzz around your account and will be a free answer to the question of how to promote a business on Instagram.

Communication with subscribers

Another working tool for developing your Instagram is rightfully called communication with subscribers. The audience always responds to interaction.

These interactions include , marks, . Replies to comments under your posts, including increasing the interest of users.

For proper communication, you need to communicate with already recruited subscribers, and using the “Recommendations” tab, like and comment on posts of groups or accounts with similar topics. This will make it possible to attract new users, interest them and increase the popularity of your Instagram.

Let the user look beyond

If your work or life is unique, if you have the opportunity to communicate with interesting people- share it with your followers. Everyone who subscribes to you is a person who is interested in taking from the world the largest amount of information available only to him.

Draw the attention of society to something that many of its members have not even begun to think about.

Create content that is not just interesting and beautiful, but expands the boundaries of knowledge of at least one social group- your subscribers.

From this, the interest in working with educational Instagram is formed.

Launch all the novelties on the network

This is especially true for owners of offline and online stores:

Announce the start of sales;
Let's give some vague but intriguing information.

This can attract the attention of a larger human mass. And, as you know, the larger the human mass, the more solvent users among it.

And the growth in the number of solvent users unprecedentedly increases sales, which is required. Spend more time writing a post about new caps in your store, and then sell those caps in packs to young and not very interested customers.

Reward Your Subscribers

Make it a rule every a certain amount of time to please subscribed users not only with content, but also in other ways. These levers include:

drawings of valuable prizes;
contests;
liketimes.

For example, if once every two weeks between users who liked a certain post and subscribed to your page, play good book, then the number of subscribers will increase dramatically.

Pay special attention to thematic prizes.

Instagrams about comics can give paraphernalia, owners of pages about computers can offer computer mice, rugs, and so on as a gift. In a word, there would be a fantasy, and the rest will surely follow.

Run auctions

This item, again, has an impact mainly on store accounts. But solo users can also develop a personal auction system.

To conduct an auction, it is enough to warn subscribers about this in advance, select the "lot", the initial cost and the step.

Some "shops" do not specifically warn subscribers about the auction, but start it suddenly.

They do this to maintain the constant interest of users in the store account.

This method works in 90% of cases. Particularly stand out in the list of successful auctions - auctions, the lots of which are very valuable things: expensive clothing, cosmetics.

These auctions also amaze the page owners themselves - such a stir is created around this or that page.

The “factory” purpose of Instagram is to give people the opportunity to freely share photos and videos. We agree that this is quite a good act of communication, especially since 1 billion (!) people can confirm this. Yes, that’s exactly how many people dived headlong into this application, the figure was reached in June 2018.

If we dig deeper, we will see that Instagram is much more than a "like-follow". With its help, you can upgrade your aesthetic, intellectual abilities, master (at least on a whim) the skills of a photographer and videographer, and simply look at others and show yourself. Also, in general, it is useful. Moreover, all this is free, stylish, with a user-friendly interface. No wonder Instagram is so popular.

The most advanced users quickly realized that Instagram can be an excellent platform not only for self-presentation, but also for promoting a business. The application itself immediately went forward: it provided users with the opportunity to register both a personal and a business account.

We talked about the basics of using Instagram as a platform for business promotion in our last article. Read if you haven't read it yet, and remember the basics if you've forgotten. In the meantime, we will go on a trip on the novelties of this social network.

Source of Eternal Life: Creating a "Relevant" Section on Instagram

Stories "live" only 24 hours? Now there is no. Stories can live forever if you move them to the "Relevant" section.

Why does your business need it? In the BIO field, even with a very strong desire, you will not be able to competently fit all the information about your company. In an attempt to "shove the unpushed" you will only clog it. It is much more convenient to put some items in the "Actual" section. What can be put there:

It’s easy to design the “Actual” section on Instagram.

Your mother is shown here and there! Exploring Instagram TV

A new promotion tool, which many still treat with distrust: how can it help business development? First, let's figure out what Instagram TV is.

Instagram TV is a channel that you can create based on your profile and post videos there. But not in 15-second excerpts, as in stories, but in a full-fledged tape up to an hour long. True, there is a small remark here: only advanced accounts can afford hourly videos. But more modest profiles still have a place to roam - they can freely upload 10-minute videos to Instagram TV.

How is this useful for promoting your account? First of all, there are not so many competitors there yet. In the future, you can be rewarded with an increase in the number of customers if you are one of the first to use the new product and experiment with content on Instagram TV.

Search by keywords not yet available, but the developers promise that this is temporary. So for now, you can watch channels only in the following sections:

For you. This includes what may be of interest to a particular user. The data is formed on the basis of his interest in certain posts and profiles.
Subscriptions. Everything is obvious here: you look at what the people you subscribe to have uploaded to the channel.
Popular. This category is collected based on what generated the most interest across Instagram.
Look beyond. In this section, you can continue watching the video that you watched earlier.

Even if you are walking to the moon before reaching the top on Instagram TV, you should not ignore this novelty. Increasing customer loyalty has not been canceled. There you will be able to keep in touch with your subscribers, talk about your business, conduct tours of your store, present a new collection, tell and show your "behind the scenes" life. In general, it all depends only on your imagination. The main thing to remember is that polluting the air of your audience with information that does not carry a semantic load is at least ugly, and at the maximum it threatens to reduce the number of subscribers.

How can you hear me, reception: we are broadcasting live on Instagram

No duplication or editing. You will really be on the air if you select and launch the appropriate mode in the recording section of the story.

Consider the practical benefits of live broadcasting:

With it, you will remind subscribers about yourself, because they will immediately receive a notification that “account N” has started a live broadcast.
You will be able to increase the loyalty of the audience, because you will enter into a direct dialogue with it. During the broadcast, your subscribers will be able to ask you questions.
You will show that you are a living person)). As a rule, we devote most of the posts to our products, completely forgetting that there is a person behind them. In general, do not forget to show yourself at least sometimes, live broadcast is a great opportunity for this. Prove to the audience that you are "not a bot".
Just like on Instagram TV, you will be able to show your store's new products to your subscribers, take a tour, and talk about the intricacies of production. Backstages always go with a bang if they are properly presented. Deciding on such a format, adequately assess your strengths. Subscribers are unlikely to like it if you can’t really tell and show anything. The share of artistry and competent speech definitely will not hurt. Write a script and rehearse well to reduce the risk of a bad performance.
You should not bypass the format of training videos if your product or service allows you to demonstrate your working kitchen to the audience. For example, you are engaged in handmade, so why not show your subscribers how you can make yourself a nice piece of jewelry from improvised means?
If your company periodically holds seminars, trainings, receptions, holidays and other events, then the announcement of the event can be submitted via live broadcast in a lively, friendly manner. For example, you have received a long-awaited new collection of clothes and you decide to arrange a show for your customers. We press "Live broadcast" and invite, tell what, when, why and what goodies the guests will receive. Of course, do not forget to duplicate information about the event in your profile and stories.
You can stream live with your partner. This way you will simultaneously reach two audiences: yours and the audience of your “co-host” of the live broadcast. Consider collaborating with a "kindred spirit" brand. There are a lot of options: clothes + accessories, cars + spare parts, gym + sportswear, pizza + sauces.
Of course, not all subscribers will be able to watch the live broadcast. What to do: whoever did not have time, he was late ... Joke)) The live broadcast can be saved in stories - you will definitely collect a couple more dozen (or maybe more) views.

But all these novelties will be largely meaningless if you have a rolling ball in your profile. Content. Unique, interesting, in-demand content is the pillar on which your account rests.

Great post. What to add to your Instagram feed

Content is able to attract and retain your potential customers. Imagine that you see in the profile the products of the store, which are displayed in a stylish and tasteful way, an original and competent story is given about them. We get aesthetic pleasure from such a publication and ... become interested in the store.

But everything is not so simple here: you can’t fill the Instagram feed with a bang. The smart tape algorithm won't like that. In short, a smart feed is an algorithm for screening out those publications that do not arouse public interest. The more likes, saves, comments your posts have, the lower the risk that the smart feed will hide your posts (or the lion's share of them) from the audience. It's simple: friendship with subscribers = friendship with a smart feed.

Okay, everything is clear. And how to be friends with subscribers?

Instagram gives 3 main post formats for the feed:

Image or video + text.
Gallery of images (nested publications) + text.
Collage + text.

None of these formats are superior to the others, their importance to your business account is equally important. The main thing is to remember some nuances:

Instagram cares about its users, so videos in the main feed are played with the sound turned off by default. Obviously we don't always turn it on (wrong place, time, moon phase). Therefore, if you upload a video where the main meaning lies in the sound, make subtitles.
If you choose the format of nested publications, choose the most catchy picture for the header. It is she who should encourage subscribers to scroll through the entire carousel.
You should restrain your creative impulses when creating a collage. It should not become "visual noise", be lurid and loaded. What can be successfully shown in a collage? The formula "before" and "after" or, for example, "front view" and "rear view".

So, we took a photo according to all the canons, posted it and that's it? Not really. Under the photo we need text. You do not leave the image "to the mercy of fate"?

Text and visuals should work in tandem, and not be dissimilar elements. Beat the photo with text, make a whole publication, and only then it will work. In the case of Instagram, the image catches attention, but it is the text that keeps the user.

Here are some topics for posts in the main Instagram feed:

And, as we know, if there is a “how to do it”, there is also a “how not to do it”. Something is just a bad idea, and something is already out of fashion. In general, we will try to avoid the following:

Collages with a lot of photos that don't fit together. More than four photos is already too much. Images will be slurred and fuzzy. You will most likely just force the subscriber to strain their eyes (and brain) to consider something. And no one likes to be stressed.
Wise quotes. No, if your products are closely related to the philosophy of Nietzsche, then there are no questions. In other cases, if you, for example, are engaged in sewing bow ties, then thoughtful, and even more so beaten, worn out quotes are unlikely to help increase the engagement of subscribers.
Filtermania. Remember that the filter can both "save" the photo, and completely ruin it. Don't overuse filters, age the image too much, or add too much sharpness to it. Try to use the filter to give a true, but slightly improved appearance your product.
Full text. And it seems that the picture is delicious, and the first lines of the text beckon to unfold it ... But we look at the publication in full and are frankly frightened by the long canvas of text that has opened up to us. Break text into paragraphs, use emojis and bulleted lists. So, your subscribers will not be afraid even of a long read.

But, as we know, there are exceptions to the rules. All these "bad tips" can be used, but only if there is a competent concept or subtle humor behind it.

Do you want to order the promotion of your profile on Instagram?

Comprehensive business promotion on Instagram: from creating a profile to setting up ads.

From 15 000 rub.

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Superheroes from 1PS are already to the rescue!

Leave a request, and our specialists will contact you in the near future - they will answer any question, help you choose a tariff and tell you about all the nuances.

Do business accounts need stories, and what to add to them

To promote a business on Instagram, you can do everything that is not prohibited)). Once the function exists, it must be used. Therefore, stories should not be ignored, because they are especially good because they do not fall under the sanctions of the smart feed, and your subscribers will see them much more likely than publishing them in the feed.

What to add to stories:

So if you are serious about promoting your business on Instagram, you should not ignore the main feed and stories. Also, do not ignore such important nuances like hashtags and geolocation.

One, two, three, four, five - I'm going to look for you! Set hashtags and geolocation

What is this mysterious word with a lattice and why is it needed? A hashtag is a specific #tag that allows Instagram users to find publications on a specific topic. A hashtag can play into the hands of business accounts and bring subscribers for free.

There are 4 types of hashtags:

Branded - #service1ps
Thematic - #flower_delivery
Local - #new buildings_of moscow
Personal - #weddings

If with the first three types of tags, as a rule, there are no questions, then with the fourth, one will definitely appear: how can this type of hashtag help in promotion?

First, by coming up with your own personal hashtag, you will make life easier for your followers. So, they will be able to navigate by your products: #companyN_new products, #companyN_discounts.

Secondly, you can turn your company into an insta brand. For example, launch a raffle, where a post with a special hashtag will be a prerequisite. For example, #companyN_generous_soul, #friend_with_companyN, etc. So, there is a chance that your hashtag will become viral over time. This can lead to you a new interested audience.

When putting hashtags, keep in mind that they do not work on the principle of "the more the better." Optimal quantity marks - 10. Why?

More hashtags will simply repel users. It looks unaesthetic and in some cases even stupid. For example, when you put hashtags “neither to the village nor to the city”, that is, completely unrelated to your topic.
Instagram itself is not happy when posts are clogged with a large number of off-topic tags. Such users, who are very eager to show their post to as many people as possible, Instagram “punishes” for greed by reducing coverage.

Relatively recently, the application gave users the opportunity to subscribe to the hashtag they are interested in. This feature is useful, because, for example, your customers can subscribe to your personal hashtag and always be up to date with current events. In addition, if you use themed hashtags, they can play into your hands when a user views related tags. For example, subscribers of the hashtag #manicure_moscow will see you. They saw - became interested - subscribed - used your service. Such a development of events is quite real.

How to choose the right hashtags for your account? Please note the following rules:

The number of uses of a particular label can be automatically found out when you put a hashtag. For example, we write #manicure. Instagram itself shows us that this tag has been used millions of times! So, you can experiment with signatures, learning along the way how many times they have been used. Too rare hashtags (except for your personal ones) are not recommended. It is also not recommended to put on too popular ones, such as the same #manicure. Neither one nor the other tags will take you to the top. It is better to focus on the average number of uses - 3-40-100 thousand, depending on your subject.
You can also choose the optimal set of hashtags through special services. For example, InstaTag or WEBSTAGRAM. Here you have a database of hashtags by category, and just lists of relevant and popular hashtags. But here, as they say, trust, but verify. Hashtags that will offer you services should be evaluated for semantic load. It is not worth adding everything to the publication.
If instead of ideas on hashtags you have a complete void, you can peep what your competitors are putting up. We go through the tags, see how many times they are used, under what posts they are placed. We take something into service and test it.

Although we mark our region of work on hashtags, it is not superfluous to indicate it in the geolocation section. This is a geographic tag that is placed above the post, the photo for which was taken in one place or another. You can set geolocation both in the main feed and in stories.

A geographical tag will be relevant and necessary for almost everyone: restaurants, shops, fitness clubs, beauty salons... It will not be superfluous to ask your subscribers to put your geolocation in their posts if they take a photo of you. So, your company will form its own database of photos by geo, and your potential customers will be able to “get to know you better”.

But what if the tag you need is not there yet? For example, you want to put down your address Lenin, 58, but the search returns nothing. We take matters into our own hands and help Instagram find us. To do this, from the phone, go to the business page on Facebook and in the posting section, look for the "Mark visit" button. Enter your address and select "Add new location". We click, create and use geolocation on Instagram.

Geographic tags are searched in the same way as hashtags. And the benefits, in general, from geolocation are the same - attracting new subscribers. By the way, with the help of the tag you can also find out what customers think about your company. Often, users post photos from an establishment, such as a restaurant, mark its location and write their impressions. In general, you have the opportunity to learn about your strengths and weaknesses. Naturally, we increase the strong qualities, we eliminate the weak ones.

Now we look:

High-quality content in the main feed - yes ✔

We make stories wisely and do not overwhelm the audience - it's ready ✔

With hashtags and geo - sorted out ✔

Section Actual - completed ✔

Live - conducted ✔

Channel on IGTV - created ✔

Now, subscribers will fall like manna from heaven! But... wait. Why is the audience growth not at the desired frantic pace, but at a teaspoon per hour? Not so simple. No matter how interesting and high-quality your profile is, the main impetus for development will be the promotion of your business account, that is, its advertising.

Ale-op! See how I can: attract an audience to a business account on Instagram

We stand exclusively for legal methods of advertising on Instagram (and on other sites too), since risk is a noble cause, but unjustified. They will be thrown into the ban and you will have to start all over from scratch. Therefore, it is better to do everything according to GOST from the very beginning.

Illegal methods of promotion

Mass following and mass liking. The bottom line is simple - by geo and hashtags we are looking for users of interest to us, we start liking and subscribing to them in the hope that they will respond in kind. You can do this manually or with the help of special services. But if Instagram recognizes that you are very often and suspiciously actively following accounts, then - hello, blocking! At first, of course, it will be temporary, for educational purposes. But if you don’t learn the lesson and continue to use mass following and mass liking, then eternal blocking of the profile is just around the corner. There is a risk of losing both your content and, more importantly, your subscribers.
Bots cheat. The most useless and unwanted way to promote your business account. Of course, when you first create a profile, you don’t want to see rolling stones instead of subscribers, but believe me: bots are much worse)). They can only influence your promotion in a negative way, worsening your reputation and not giving any activity.

Semi-legal methods of promotion

Legal methods of promotion

If you are determined to attract subscribers as efficiently and effectively as possible and are ready to pay for it, set up targeted advertising without hesitation and doubt.

Targeted advertising on Instagram

Targeted advertising. Officially recognized promotion method by the application. You can set it up in two ways: directly through the application itself or through the Ads Manager ( advertising cabinet Facebook). We recommend choosing the second option as it gives you access to more targeting tools.

Ads Manager is divided by goals:

After you have chosen the goal, we go directly to the exit to the target audience. It should be borne in mind that parsers do not work on Facebook (respectively, and on Instagram). If you have already worked with an advertising account on VKontakte, then you know that you can snatch an audience from the community there, filter it out according to certain parameters and send an advertising offer to them. On Facebook, targeting is different:

Geography collection. This parameter can work not only for cities, but also for specific addresses.
Collection according to socio-demographic characteristics. These include: gender, age, marital status, religion, etc.
collection of interests. The algorithm "reads" the interests of users based on the posts that attract their attention.
Behavioral collection. These include: what gadgets we use to access the network, whether we travel, make online purchases, etc.
Retargeting and look-alike. You can put a pixel on your site that will "gather" those users who visited the site. Later, you upload the received data to the advertising account and target the already “warm” audience that has shown interest in you. Another option - if you have a database of email addresses, phone numbers of your customers, you can upload it to the advertising account. The system will process the data and find the owners of these email or phone numbers on Instagram in order to show them ads. By the way, you can set up a look-alike on this base - an algorithm for finding an audience that is similar to your original one.

So, for the purpose of the advertising campaign, we decided, the audience parameters were set - we launch the advertising post itself in the form of a circular gallery, one photo / video or a slide show. You can post it both in the main Instagram feed and in stories. In both cases, it will be submitted marked "advertising" and with a link to your website or Instagram profile.

If you decide to promote your business account on Instagram through targeted advertising - bravo, this is a good decision. But be prepared for the fact that it is not cheap. Adequately assess your financial capabilities and remember - in the case of targeted advertising, the game is worth the candle.

Business promotion on Instagram: what's the bottom line?

Instagram is a job. Everything we've covered in this article may seem easy in theory, but it's more difficult in practice. The lack of ideas for posts, the difficulty with self-configuring advertising, and the banal - there is simply no time!

But if you are uncompromisingly determined to become an Instagram promotion guru, then sign up for our online course for beginners. Once again, we will discuss all the points, tell and show on our fingers, give live examples and answer all, all questions.

And if, nevertheless, eternal time pressure does not allow you to delve into this creative and exciting, but in some places difficult process of maintaining an account, we will always come to the rescue)). We will find your target audience, wherever they hide, figure out how to attract their attention, and provide you with a detailed report (even with numbers). You can find out more about our Instagram promotion service.

Instagram has 22 million Russians. On average, a user visits the social network 16 times a day. Over 60% of Instagrammers check for updates daily. The application on mobile devices allows you to be within walking distance from your account. The level of banner blindness is less than in other networks. Ideal conditions for promotion if you are aware of how to open a business on Instagram. Are you aware of the possibilities of social networks? Where to start a business, how soon the budget will pay off and what to expect in the future. Let's take a look at our article.

Instagram opportunities for business

Knowing about the possibilities of Instagram will help you achieve your goals. What tasks can be solved:

increase in conversion;
increasing brand awareness;
maintaining the reputation and promoting the atmosphere of the company;
warming up interest in offers;
increase in engagement: likes, reposts, comments.
a story about the product and its benefits;
informing about company news and much more.

Instagram clearly separates personal accounts from business profiles. IN last version you can view free statistics and run ads using the Facebook account for flexible settings. For beginners, a simple promotion of posts will do for the first time. Of the minuses: there are few goals and functions for selecting audiences.

Instagram for business: where to start

Choose a niche based on your interests. Analyze what you are great at and be able to talk about it. Do not rely on other people's preferences - in most cases, you will abandon the work you have begun.
Once the list of interests is in front of your eyes, it's time to check how successful competitors in these areas are doing. What are they doing to attract an audience? What business strategies are being used? Choose the most realistic way for yourself and start planning.
The business should not only be loved, but also bring money. How to understand that the chosen niche will not just steal the invested budget? Enter its name into the search bar and see how many ads you get in return. If there is a lot, goods and services are in demand.
Analyze who you are going to sell to: gender, age, interests. The right choice of the target audience will save the budget and increase the chances of successful business promotion.
Focus on direction. Choose not too wide, otherwise there will be problems attracting advertisers. Too narrow is also not worth it - there may not be enough ideas for permanent content. In the future, you can expand and add new product lines, but it’s better to start with one thing.
Set up a schedule to keep your content up and running. Remember that the lifetime of a post is 4 hours and making more than one entry during this period does not make sense. We wrote about how to choose hours and days for publication in the article "".

With experience, skills are fixed and mistakes that occur at first will not be an obstacle.

About the target audience and where to find it

Determine who your customers are: how old they are, what their income is, what they are interested in. In the future, you will invest in targeted advertising to attract buyers.

Find out what people think good goods and who is an authority in your field. What do subscribers not like, what do they avoid or who are they ridiculed? A preliminary analysis will be needed to post promo posts with bloggers or in cool communities. The pleasure is quite expensive, but it brings the maximum effect: advertising looks like native and enjoys high audience confidence.

Types of business promoted on Instagram

Instagram is based on the perception of visual content, on the feelings of people. Therefore, sales with a preliminary long preparation are poorly promoted.

What topics are popular:

cloth;
gadgets;
accessories for women;
sport;
trips.

The average amount of goods in the check is 5,000 rubles. The best product to implement is visually catchy, bright and beautiful.

How Instagram works for business

Sales begin after about three months of active profile maintenance: daily posts, contests, communication with subscribers, advertising.

If your product is original and unique, and the blogger has managed to convey the benefits of the product to the audience, then success is guaranteed. Instagram will work like word of mouth - one shared a photo, the other wanted to too.

In other cases, when the product does not have originality, there are two options: abandon Instagram and concentrate on regular advertising, or tell subscribers a personal story. Why exactly? The social network is built on visual content. To convey emotions and feelings with an image is the main task, and the text complements, telling and explaining. Subscribers are interested in how you live, goals, dreams - everything that you discover in your story. Bring the product to life, invent stories, participate in them and share with the world, and it will reach out to you.

Ask readers what kind of story they have on the topic. With comments, the post has a larger audience reach. The feed is not based on chronological order, but on the level of engagement of other users. Instagram algorithms select the most interesting posts for the user and show them first.

Use comments not only to increase engagement, but also to communicate. People understand that you are one touch away, be sure to answer, even if the cue or emoji does not imply feedback. Followers begin to trust, which is important in business development. It is not enough to wind up subscribers who will be silent. We need an integrated approach to interact with the audience and content.

How much to invest

Business development on Instagram involves the presence of advertising. Moreover, not only you will earn on it by renting to another ad. At first, you will have to look for platforms to promote your posts.

It is best to buy ads from pages with thousands of followers. And this means that you should also have several thousand live followers. There are special tools for identifying and screening bots. To gain 10,000 subscribers on average will cost 20-40 thousand rubles. However, the numbers are average, because various factors are taken into account: the quality of the sites where you leave the publication and the content of the post itself.

31 Instagram business ideas

Ideas will help start a business through Instagram. You can take them from your head, from successful blogs, from everything that surrounds and inspires. Here are some ideas that showed the results.

Set the frequency and publish posts with questions to subscribers. Be interested in their opinion, answer in the comments, in Direct. So you not only increase brand awareness and reputation, but also get inspired by activity. And one of the followers can throw an idea for a new post.
Search online for the most common questions people in your field ask. This will be a guideline, what kind of content plan to write, what to educate people about and how to get to the point.
Take a photo of the product in the hands of a celebrity. Inspiration and respect for subscribers is guaranteed: the star will not advise bad.
Tell us about the team and outstanding employees. Small stories cheer up and motivate colleagues, and followers see the activity of the company. Shed light on how certain colleagues came to you, what they have achieved in life and what they aspire to.
Create a storefront from your account. Photos are a quick way to find out the product and the price. And the text will help fill in the remaining information about delivery, timing, etc.
Conduct a master class. Subscribers love to learn something new, and when they offer to do it themselves, it's even better. Let it be a useful life hack or a decorative thing. The main thing - on the theme of the brand.
Post relevant content. Follow the news in the world, research in your field. Be sure to choose interesting to you, it can become new topic for discussion.
Check competitors in your area. What topics do they write about? Tell about the same, but in more detail, so that the reader gets the maximum information. Do not copy any of their material. Be unique.
Do not know where to find competitors and partners for cooperation? Use a tricky trick: ask your subscribers what they read. If you don't want to take risks, follow the hashtags and reviews.
Diversify your content. For example, on weekends use funny pictures for fun, and on Tuesday-Wednesday talk about serious numbers. Periodically send posts with quotes from famous people.
Follow what subscribers say under the post. Look for interesting comments, mark them. Find the best one, put its topic in a separate post, whether it is a serious expert opinion or an entertaining material. You will encourage attentive readers and develop a new discussion thread.
What makes people surprised and want to pick it up faster? Free product/service. You can assign certain hours or days when subscribers will be eligible or for some condition: the first five, the author of the best comment, or randomly.
Tell us about the brand. What do you do behind closed office doors? What meetings, conferences do you attend? What cool people do you meet? Or maybe you have changes in the manufacturing process of the goods? Share with readers, they will support.
Study your analytics. Share your ups and downs.
Play the game. Optionally for prizes, you can offer to write an opinion on a quote or continue an unfinished sentence. Fantasy is in your hands. A little distraction is useful in the evenings or weekends when everyone is off work and ready to play or joke.
Communication also takes place in Direct. Take a screenshot of the dialogue with the permission of the interlocutor and comment on it in a separate post. Perhaps these are frequently asked questions, a wish for the future, feedback on the work done, or just a phrase that reflects the style of the company.
Sell not just text, but poetry or even haiku. Mark all the characteristics and indicate the prices in an unusual format. Use various literary devices: comparisons, exaggerations. Give the product or service a creative description: readers remember vivid images.
Create a rubric of the best or most popular posts of the week. You give your posts a second life and give your readers access to material they may have missed.
Post positive photos that make readers feel good. You can deviate from the theme, but it is important to keep the style so that the page is designed in a consistent style.
Come up with a branded hashtag. Check that it is easy and beautiful to hear and write. Correct typos or errors and publish it under each post. Soon you will be able to track people's feedback not only on comments, but also on their posts with the content of your hashtag.
Thank the audience. Find a reason: for support, for increased activity, for growth, for inspiration. The main thing is to be sincere.
Share links to resources on your subject: articles, audio and video. Users love any additions to the text. Help them find useful sources and they will remember you.
Use live streams to meet with experts. Ask for their opinion and answer audience questions.
Show not only the process of how you create a product, but also the stages of manufacturing or providing a service. Photos can be combined into one post with a carousel or publish several posts.
Don't forget about Stories: in addition to advertising, you can talk about discounts, new arrivals, contests, and announcements of the next posts.
Come up with a flash mob for subscribers and a separate tag for it. Don't forget to participate by showing great photos.
What heights does your brand aspire to? Set a goal and talk about your successes or failures towards it.
Create rubrics where subscribers can leave reviews. Encourage them and post the best ones. From the negatives, find qualities to work on, from the positives, strategies for moving forward successfully.
Add photos of followers with your product. You can find them by hashtags or arrange a contest. Ask permission first.
Share how your company relaxes: in addition to possible meetings and conferences, upload photos from a corporate party or a joint trip.
Another way to start a discussion is to post a photo and ask them to come up with a title for it.

Follow the comments and encourage the involvement of the audience: it can tell a lot about you and throw new ideas.
Be sure to get a notebook and write down your business ideas, later you will not forget and implement them on Instagram.

Instagram tools for business

Doing business on Instagram means having tools that facilitate processes and improve the quality of content. We have selected the main programs and services that help attract customers and earn their trust.
Tools you already have:

Let's start with a free built-in service familiar to every Instagrammer - Instagram Direct. Why is it important? This is an analogue of private messages in any other social network. People communicate with companies with one touch. In addition to working with comments, it is important to reply to messages in Direct: you may be one step away from receiving a new regular customer. Sharing information increases conversions and trust. Encourage your audience to communicate. Interested in offers. Business profiles have a handy feature: you can mark messages as important and customize answers to frequently asked questions. Save time, money and attract customers.
Use free statistics for business profiles. It is useful when you want to know which posts are the most engaging for your audience: where are the most likes and comments. Based on the information received, you will find out the successful criteria for publications and adjust the content plan. Get to know your target audience through statistics and fine-tune ad targeting.
The feed is another tool to attract the attention of subscribers. Moreover, we can talk about both targeted advertising that is shown to potential customers, and about posts created by the company. In any of these cases, focus on the creativity and interests of customers. Find "pain" - what people are interested in - and provide a solution in the form of your product.
Instagram Stories are popular among users: more than 300 million use them daily. They will be useful for informing about discounts, promotions, competitions and just company news. Stories are stored for only 24 hours and then deleted. A good way to talk about limited offers.

How to grow your business on Instagram through other tools:

Aviary. At the initial stage, you can not do without a photo editor. Learn to create high quality photos, follow the trends in processing. Aviary has numerous stickers and decals. It is available on Windows, iOS, Android.
PicFlow - application for easy slideshow creation. On Instagram, in addition to static photos, videos are relevant that show images after a certain interval of time. All you need to do in the program: select pictures, their duration and audio file: music or voiced text. The paid version gives you access to transitions between images and can remove watermarks.
Crowdfire. The tool will show all the analytics on subscribers: who unsubscribed, subscribed. You can create black and white lists, analyze followers by company interests and find potential customers. It has 1 free tariff and 4 costing from $10.
Adobe Spark. A powerful tool that supports various templates for filling Instagram content. It adds brand attributes, creating personality in every design. Available in mobile and web versions. Ready entries are added to the social network and, if necessary, downloaded to a computer.
Hootsuite. Works with several social networks and can publish posts simultaneously in different ones. Prepare publications in advance, analyze audience engagement and monitor brand mentions. For the first 30 days, a demo version is available, and then - tariffs to choose from.
Canva. The developers took care of creating templates for Instagram Stories. Design, customize as you see fit, and don't be afraid to push the limits. The constructor works with fonts, graphics, photos, combining them into one masterpiece. Able to align images, crop, adjust text. Work with transparency, brightness, saturation and contrast of your photos.
Storiesads. By the name, you can guess that the service is designed for Stories. A video editor with built-in templates creates individual videos, depending on the task. There is a free trial period.

This is not the whole list. At the first stages, focus on the quality of the content in order to form the style and schedule of publications. Choose relevant hashtags, change them periodically and monitor the effectiveness of posts using analytics systems.

Summing up

We covered a few points on how to use Instagram for business. The social network has helped many companies to tell about themselves, you can start too. Decide what kind of business you want and can promote. Think over the presentation of content to the audience and set up targeted advertising. Calculate the forces and budget. At first it will be difficult and almost no one will know about you, and only after a few months will the first clients come. The main thing is to keep moving forward.

The functionality of Instagram allows you to form a large audience in a short time period. Its representatives constantly look through publications and photos. They are solvent and ready to make emotional purchases. The social network is an indispensable trading platform for entrepreneurs whose activities are focused on the sale of real goods, the sale of which requires a dialogue with customers.

Business on Instagram

Benefits of an Instagram store

Placement of cards with characteristics and description of goods on trading platform Instagram is profitable and effective, which is due to the convenient social network console and low costs for account promotion. Using it for business purposes is easy to inspire confidence in potential consumer promoted products, since all customers of the store have the opportunity to freely comment on their impressions of cooperation. Before transferring money for a purchase, buyers have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the previously left reviews of users who have already used the service.

To open a clothing store on Instagram, you do not need to invest in creating, setting up and designing an online store website. Product cards can be uploaded to a social network server without the need for additional software.

A large number of people use social network for entertainment and shopping. With the correct presentation of advertising information, all of them can become potential buyers. After posting a publication informing about promotions or about the appearance of a new product in the store, all subscribers are notified about the event.

It is worth noting that they do not always log into the store account to see the seller's offers. Users may not even remember its existence, but the advertising post will not go unnoticed and will most likely receive a response in the form of purchases from their readers. The more subscribers a seller's account has, the easier and faster it is for them to spread the word.

How to open a store on Instagram: step by step instructions

To launch the service, you need to create an Instagram profile and decide on a niche of activity. In order for trade to be conducted in an uninterrupted mode, it is necessary to find a reliable supplier who always has the right product in stock at an affordable price. Before opening a business, you need to evaluate its prospects, which is possible by comparing the size of the investment for a startup and the potential value of profitability.

Choosing the direction of trade

The direction of trade should be related to the personal interest of the entrepreneur and his ability to get favorable price subject of sale. You can check its relevance by evaluating the activities of competitors. By entering a niche name in search engines, you can analyze the level of competition that will have to be overcome. The more advertising will be on demand, the greater the coverage of the niche, and the more funds will need to be invested in promoting the project. It should be noted that niches for which there are no advertising campaigns may not be required.

Create an account

You can create an Instagram profile on a computer or through a mobile application. Business account is opened with functionality Facebook or by adjusting your regular profile settings. Registration via a computer is carried out according to the standard scheme, for the implementation of which you will need e-mail. The procedure is carried out from a personal account on Facebook or with home page social network.

To create a profile via phone, you must first download the application. Registration can be done by phone number or address Email. Actions can also be carried out from Facebook.