Creating Your Business’ Instagram Profile
So you've just created your business Facebook page. Well now it's time to complete the second half of that equation, and that is to set up an Instagram profile. These two social platforms go hand in hand, so follow along to see how to create an account.
Creating Your Instagram Profile
There are a couple of ways you can create a new Instagram profile.
From your Facebook page. Just go to “Settings” in the top right corner of your FB page, then “Instagram” on the left navigation bar to either login or create a new Instagram profile.
Download the Instagram app to your smartphone and create your account in the app. Then link your FB page by following the steps above.
Upload the same profile/logo picture as you did for FB. This keeps everything consistent.
Syncing Posts Across Instagram, Your Facebook Page, And More
Instagram allows you to post to Facebook simultaneously. You can also automatically post to Twitter and Tumblr as well.
To do this, login to your Instagram account from your smartphone and tap the gear icon at the top. Under “Settings,” tap “Linked Accounts.” There you will be able to log into each platform of your choosing. Now you can post to those platforms directly when creating a new post on Instagram.
Instagram also allows specific apps to be directly linked an “Order Now” or “Shop” button. For example, you can link food delivery services such as GrubHub or links to your E-commerce store.
You can enable this by going to your Instagram Settings > Edit Profile > Contact Options.
With your accounts automated this way, Instagram is quite an invaluable tool.
Strategies And Tools
Now that you have created a FB page and Instagram profile, you can start posting. As with any marketing effort, posts need to be strategic and consistent. Keep reading to find out how to make it time efficient.
If you set up everything correctly, you wouldn't need to spend more than 30 mins a week posting and maintaining your social media marketing efforts, but you’ll need to do this consistently to really see results. That means posting at least 2-3 times a week and interacting with users that comment on your posts.
One key skill however that needs to be honed is knowing how to take nice pictures of your food/products. Instagram is all visual. If your pictures are dull, poorly lit, or not mouthwatering, no one will care. Photography can be easy, you just need to understand the basic elements of it. To help you, we created a whole course that teaches you how to take beautiful photos.
Once you understand the basics of food photography, your craft will get better with time and you’ll get more followers as a result.
Now, to get your beautiful posts in front of the right eyes, you’ll need to understand how to add hashtags to your posts.
What Is A Hashtag?
A hashtag is the “#” sign (or hash) followed by one or more words (if more than one, make sure there are no spaces between words).
Hashtags allows you to organize content and track discussion topics based on those keywords. So, if you wanted to post about your newly created cocktail, you would include #Cocktails in your post to join the conversation.
You can add up to 30 hashtags in one Instagram post.
For the cocktail example, you could add #Cocktails, #Rum, #Happyhour and so on. What you want to add as hashtags are what is relevant to the post and the kind of audience you want to attract.
Also, since Instagram limits 30 hashtags per post, you can always post that many to make the most use out of it.
It is also best to add all your hashtags in the first comment of your post and not the description of the post. The tagging effect is no different where the hashtags goes, but your post will have a better aesthetic, as it won't look cluttered with your description.
Final Thoughts
Marketing on social media doesn't have to be expensive or daunting. In fact it can be one of cheapest, easiest, and most effective ways to get your name out there. The key is doing it consistently while following these best practices.
Growth on social media tends to be slow at first. However, if you keep it up, you will be glad you did it.
