Leslie Whitney Homes & Living: Tips on Instagram for Business.

Is Social Media important for businesses? Yes it is, and maybe soon people will stop asking that question. By now it should be a part of all marketing, advertising and PR plans.

Importantly, if your business is marketing to Gen Y or Millenials (those with birth years starting in 1980s to early 2000s), Instagram is an easy way to reach this audience and should be included in your business marketing strategy.

Is Instagram here to stay? Who knows, maybe not. But for now it's here and it's big with over 200 million users worldwide. So get on board.

Here's a quote by writer Lisa Hoover McGreevy from her article on "How to Rock Instagram."
"In a recent study of how users interact with brands’ social media posts, Forrester Research found that when it comes to engagement, Instagram is far superior to any other social network. While six of the seven social networks Forrester studied had an engagement rate of less than 0.1%, Instagram’s engagement rate was 4.21%."

The audience reach with Instagram can be huge. Some celebrities have over 12 million followers each, (@justinbieber and @kimkardashian, for example). Major brands such as @starbucks and @adidas have 2 or 3 million followers.

What Is Instagram. Instagram is an online photo sharing, video sharing social media platform. You can use filters on the pictures to create all sorts of effects, put comments on pictures, tag people your pictures, and use hashtags. You "follow" accounts and get followed by others. You can comment on or "like" other people's pictures and videos, and you can share them too across other media outlets, such as facebook and twitter. It's fast moving in that people are uploading multiple pictures all the time. In Instagram time, yesterdays picture could be old news. There's a hashtag for that, #latergram.

For just pure fun use, Instagram is easy and can be very entertaining. However, using Instagram effectively for your business takes some planning and thought.

Here are some basic steps that will help you get started:

Complete your profile. Your profile tells the world who you are and what your business is. Yes, you can write cute stuff here, but be sure include the important things such as your website, your phone number and your location. Instagram is global. Not everyone knows where "Your Town" is. Also use an appropriate profile picture, something that you want people to recognize your business with. Usually that is a logo.

What to post. You should post images relevant to your business of course, but general interest pictures are also a good way to engage your followers. For example, if you are a chair manufacturer, don't only post images of chairs. That can get old after a while. One idea is to use "behind the scenes" content. Post pictures of what goes on in your chair factory, behind the scenes. Where does the wood come from, how are designs created, what are your employees like? The beauty of social media is getting a glimpse behind the curtain of peoples lives, or businesses.

@Oreo, the cookie, is often used as an example of a company that does its Instagram marketing well by "telling a story", using their brand in a million different ways. Their message is not just "here's an Oreo cookie", but it's shows all the different ways their cookie is in our lives. Their Instagram profile says, "OREO, see the world through our OREO Wonderfilled lens."

Post Frequently. Schedule your postings, if you have to. Find what works, the more you post the more traction and publicity you'll get. Remember, not everyone is viewing Instagram all the time, so your can get lost in the hundreds of other images on every one's feed. Don't hesitate to repeat a post; Chances are many of your followers didn't catch it the first time around and now maybe they will.

Write a caption for each image you post. A picture might be worth a thousand words, but it's better if you use some words. It's your first chance to write something about what you are showing. Don't let your clients/customers guess what you are posting about.

Use hashtags wisely. Hashtags are used for searching out topics and categorizing each post. If you're a realtor or a real estate agency and you keep using #oaklandrealestate for relevant posts, chances are, a potential client might find you when they search for "oakland real estate" in Instagram. So while #thisweatheriscraycray might be cute, it doesn't really serve any function to promote your business. Always use a hashtag for your product name or any relevant words for your business and/or tag your business name in your own post.

Take a good picture. Instagram is pretty amazing in that it can transform almost any bad picture into a work of art. But it can only do so much. Make sure your product is clearly visible and in focus. Many of the filters Instagram provides will actually brighten up your picture significantly, making it pop.

Give photo credit. If you use someone else's picture, give them credit by tagging the photo or at least giving their name in the caption. It's an important courtesy that is easy to forget about.

Respond to comments. It is "social" media after all, so be social and interact with your followers whenever you can. Try to be interactive with others and always respond to direct questions, promptly. Depending on how busy your account is, you can also respond to non question comments. Use the "@" when responding so that the commenter knows you have responded to him or her. The beauty of social media is that customers can get an immediate response from you, and all the other viewers can see your interactions.

Get more followers. The more followers you have, the bigger your audience is. You can pay to get followers or you can get them naturally. Following others will help you get followers. Apparently #followforfollow is the most commonly used hashtag of all hashtags. Follow those that compliment your business and those that interest you personally. If you are a realtor, you might want to follow architects, stagers, developers, home inspectors, other realtors, restaurants, etc. Often if you follow someone, they will automatically follow you back. If you comment on other accounts, all those followers see your account. This increases your own account visibility and allows you to get more followers.

Here are my own favorite Instagram pictures that I have posted on my account @lwhitney25: