People are generally more active on Instagram these days compared to other social media platforms, making it a viable choice for brand-building. The platform helps you build a strong brand and boost your reach.
You can generate awareness about the solutions you offer, connect with the right audience, and convey your message. However, random posting won’t do you any good.
You should know your target audience, understand the platform’s mechanics, and publish relevant content consistently to keep the needle moving. You must also have an optimized profile, as it helps with brand discoverability.
Many brands struggle with their brand-building initiatives on Instagram because they lack this fundamental knowledge or poorly implement it.
We have created a comprehensive guide for you that will walk you through the process of building a strong brand presence on Instagram. We’ll help you learn about the platform’s algorithm and talk about engaging content formats that you can leverage to engage the intended audience.
Let’s start by understanding why Instagram stands out as the preferred choice among social media platforms for brand building.
What Makes Instagram Special for Brand Building?
There are many things that make Instagram stand out from alternative social media platforms. It packs a variety of features that can help you tell your brand’s story and engage your target audience.
It takes 13 milliseconds for our brains to comprehend visuals. This fact alone justifies Instagram’s popularity among the masses.
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The platform makes it easier for you to grab your audience’s attention and leave a strong impression. People are more likely to recognize your brand if you’re active on Instagram.
Instagram makes audience interaction easy. You can respond to people’s comments, reply to their direct messages, or share public announcements through your stories.
Two-way communication is important to build meaningful relationships, and Instagram provides you with all the right tools to ensure it. You’ll know more about this when we talk about how the platform’s algorithm works.
How Instagram’s Algorithm Works
You can’t grow your brand on Instagram without knowing about its algorithm. There’s no compromise on content relevance. The algorithm favors content that resonates with the interests of your followers. So, what you post must align with your niche. It’s how you get more engagement.
Instagram monitors how your audience interacts with your posts. When someone reacts to your posts or leaves a comment, the algorithm considers it a positive sign and starts showing your posts more.
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The performance of your posts depends not just on content quality but also on your relationship with your audience. The more meaningful interactions you have with your followers, the better your content performs.
The freshness of your content matters a lot. You naturally acknowledge more engagement when you cover the latest trends or topics. The time at which you post your content plays a huge role in generating traction for you.
When you time your posts with the active hours of your audience, you’ll see an engagement boost. It leads to the algorithm favoring your content, and your posts get more visibility.
We just talked about how Instagram’s algorithm works. Let’s explore the content types now.
Content Formats to Engage Your Audience
It goes without saying that Instagram favors visual content. There are different content formats you can leverage to engage your followers. Let’s discuss them and talk about the different use cases they serve.
Images
Images are the most commonly used content formats to generate traction on Instagram. You can use this content format to showcase your offerings and generate awareness about them.
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You can also share other images as long as they serve a purpose and align with your goals. For example, you can post infographics to educate your target audience.
Videos
Sometimes, you strive to engage your audience by covering complex topics or want to show your products in action. Videos help you here. You can post tutorials or product demos, educating your audience and displaying your product’s functionalities.
Even though your topic is complex, your video script should be simple. Your content should be easy to consume. Never forget that.
Reels
Instagram reels are best for sharing useful tips or covering trending topics. However, following trends blindly may prove to be a fatal mistake. You must make sure that your reels offer value and align with your audience’s interests.
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You can grow your reach exponentially with this content format when you carefully plan it out. You only get a few seconds to grab your audience’s attention. So you should make every single one of them count.
Stories
Instagram stories are best for sharing time-sensitive updates. You can share the latest news or make product announcements. You can also tell your audience about potential collaborations or upcoming partnerships.
You can share your content in the form of images, GIFs, short videos, and even creative text-based posts. Stories disappear after 24 hours. So, even if something goes wrong, it won’t have a lasting impact on content consistency.
Live
Interacting with your audience in real time is always helpful. You build a relatable brand identity this way. Live sessions are ideal for hosting Q&As and special announcements. You can also use this feature to host giveaways or contests to get more eyeballs and grow your followers.
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Live sessions take interactive experiences to a whole new level and help you build a personal connection with your followers on Instagram. Your direct interaction with your followers builds trust and makes you more approachable.
User-Generated Posts
User-generated content helps you build trust and build a positive brand image. People always share their experiences with brands on social media. All you have to do is utilize that content to create your posts, be it images, videos, stories, and so on.
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You must encourage your followers to share their experiences with you. It not only helps you get more eyeballs but also enables you to be consistent at sharing fresh content on your feed.
People trust people more than branded content. So, posts curated from the experiences of your audience help build credibility for your brand.
Behind-the-Scenes Content
It’s an excellent way to gain your followers’ trust. People like knowing how you carry out your operations. So, catering to their curiosity may prove to be an excellent engagement strategy.
When you share a glimpse of your workflows, you are being transparent with the world about how you do things. It may prove to be a useful tactic to earn your audience’s trust and grow your brand’s reputation.
How to Get Started with Brand Building Using Instagram
You need a solid start to ensure seamless brand-building workflows. A lot of people get even the basics wrong when getting started with Instagram and setting up their page. And it often leads to poor engagement or reach.
To make sure you don’t repeat the same mistakes, we’ve laid out the steps for you.
Create a Business Account
Creating a business account is the prerequisite for growing your brand through Instagram. With a business account, you will get all the right tools to convey your message to the intended audience.
You can easily monitor your content performance, see how your followers interact with your posts and evaluate your brand-building initiatives. With easy access to the analytics, you can easily pivot when your strategies don’t perform as you expect.
Optimize Your Profile
You must pick a simple username and set your brand’s logo as your display picture. Your profile should contain all the necessary information for your followers, especially your contact details. Your bio must contain your website’s URL.
You should also use keywords aligning with your niche and relevant hashtags to optimize your profile. It improves your findability on social media.
Know Your Audience
You can’t effectively interact with your audience and engage them without knowing what they want. You must know their questions to provide them with the right answers.
If you have a customer base, you can easily segment your audience based on their demographics and psychographic characteristics using available information. If you’re just getting started, thorough research and careful analysis of your competitors’ pages may help you learn about your target audience.
Knowing your audience makes it easier for you to create engaging content and capture more mind share.
Develop a Content Strategy
If you think you can grow your brand without a solid content strategy, you’re gravely mistaken. Without it, you’ll probably end up sharing random posts. And they won’t get you anywhere.
You must always create content around topics that align with your niche. Your content should answer questions in the minds of your followers and facilitate their access to useful information.
You can leverage a mix of diverse content formats to avoid monotony. However, you must maintain a consistent brand voice across all your posts. Your every post must showcase your brand’s personality.
Schedule Your Posts
No matter how good your content strategy is, without consistency, it won’t get you promising results. You can’t be active the first few days of the week and then disappear. You won’t be able to build a strong presence or engage your audience with random posting.
You must plan your posts through your content calendar. It helps you maintain a steady posting flow. This way, you never run out of ideas. Moreover, posting your content manually can be a tedious activity. So, automating social media scheduling may ease things out for you.
You must always publish your content when your audience is active on Instagram. Trial and error may help you figure out the ideal timings. Posting content during peak activity hours helps your content perform better and makes it easier for you to engage your audience.
Brand Building Best Practices
Growing your brand on Instagram isn’t rocket science. But it’s not that easy either. We’ll share some proven practices with you so you can make your brand stand out on the platform.
Be a Consistent Poster
Posting your content consistently on Instagram helps you stay connected with your followers. You don’t have to share posts every day. Just make sure that you follow a proper posting schedule.
Post three times a week if that’s how you can manage things better. Trust us when we tell you. People always prefer quality over quantity. However, this doesn’t mean that you share a post and then disappear for days.
Interact with Your Followers
People reach out to you by leaving a comment on your post or sending direct messages. Please don’t leave them hanging.
Two-way communication is a must. So just talk to people. Show them that you care about what they have to say and that their opinions matter to you.
You step up your brand-building initiatives this way. Valued followers are likely to become advocates for your brand.
Leverage Relevant Hashtags
Hashtags boost your content’s reach by improving its discoverability. A common mistake many make here is that they just use popular hashtags with more search volume. It may help you cast a wider net, but your message won’t reach the right people.
So, always use the ones that resonate with your niche. There’s no point interacting with people who have nothing to do with what you offer.
Collaborate with Influencers
Instagram is home to influencers representing different parts of the world. Collaborating with them may prove to be an excellent strategy to grow your brand. You can use their reach and followers to improve your brand’s visibility.
Just make sure that you collaborate with influencers who can relate to your brand’s values. Plus, their followers and your target audience must share similar characteristics.
You don’t necessarily have to reach out to mega-influencers. Sometimes, working with micro-influencers gives you better results. Plus, it won’t make a massive dent in your wallet.
Host Contests or Giveaways
People love freebies or winning prizes. You can use it to your advantage and generate traction for your brand. Hosting contests or giveaways is an excellent strategy to get more people talking about your brand and increase its visibility. Plus, when you offer free stuff to your followers, it makes them feel special.
You must set simple rules for participation and encourage people to take part. Asking potential participants to follow you, like your posts, and mention their friends should do.
Analyze Your Performance
Instagram facilitates your access to useful data. Use this information to optimize your content strategy and come up with better ways to connect with your audience.
You shouldn’t just post content on your Instagram page and forget about it. Look at how people react to it. Identify the content types that give you the best results. It’s how you consistently create engaging posts.
Track Algorithm Changes
Instagram’s algorithm has evolved over time, and it’s still constantly changing. What worked for you last year may not give you the same results this time around. The best way to tackle this situation is to keep an eye on algorithm changes and pivot your branding strategy.
You can do this by following Instagram’s official announcements and being active in relevant social media marketing groups. You must also A/B test your content consistently. You can’t be sure about the change in the algorithm. However, experimentation helps you figure out what works.
You’re All Set
If you’ve been wondering how you can grow your brand through Instagram, now you know. It may be a super popular social media platform for branding-building. Yet, many struggle to find success when leveraging it.
We covered all the necessary details that can help you with your brand-building efforts. We told you about the platform’s algorithm and how it works. We also talked about different content formats that you can consider to engage your audience.
We laid out the steps that can help you get started and recommended the best practices you need to embrace to get optimal results.
What we covered will help you build a stellar content strategy for Instagram and a smart post-scheduling plan.
