The small business guide to Instagram | Heart Internet Blog – Focusing on all aspects of the web

In case you missed it, we recently launched the Heart Internet Instagram channel after customer requests for more office, people and event photos. Instagram was originally set up as a network for people to share personal photos, so using it as a business channel requires a clear strategy combined with a bit of creativity. With that in mind, here’s our guide on how to make Instagram work for your brand, regardless of whether you’re a solo freelancer or a team of fifty.

Does my business need to be on Instagram?

This is likely to be your first question, and you’re the best person to make a call on that. If you don’t already use more common channels such as Facebook and Twitter, you’re better off starting there first. If you’re a social media junkie, ask yourself if you have enough time and resource to dedicate to another channel (for tips on managing multiple channels, check out Making social media work for your business).

You also need to consider the nature of Instagram. As an image-based channel, if you always forget to take photos, think you’d find it impossible to keep inspiration going, or prefer to keep your business solely within the boundaries of the web, then Instagram probably isn’t for you. However, if your target customers are relatively young, visual people, then it’s a great way to reach them and generate more positivity and awareness of your business as a result.

One of the biggest advantages of Instagram is that there is less competition compared to other channels and there’s more of a religious following of hashtags, which means it can be a lot easier to build up a following of people who will actively engage with your content. It also has the bonus of being pretty low maintenance; you can post a couple of pictures a month if you want to, and it can be used to supplement one of your main channels (such as Twitter) very easily, and can save you time if you upload and/or edit a lot of photos.


Signing up for Instagram

Instagram began life as an app, and is still very much geared towards a mobile audience. You’ll need to upload your photos from a smartphone or tablet, and many settings and notifications are only available through the app itself. It’s possible to take photos of photos to get around this if you really need to, and Websta is great, but if you’re used to sitting at a desk to manage your other social channels, this can be a bit of a culture shock. Moreover, if you have multiple Instagram accounts, it can be easy to accidentally post to the wrong one, so double check before you hit ‘Post’!

To get started, you’ll need to download the free Instagram app from your particular app store, then follow the instructions to install and sign up. If possible, choose a username that’s consistent with your website and other social network names. If you’re unlucky and your business name isn’t available, you may want to consider a short suffix or prefix such as ‘try’ or ‘team’.

Sign up is a quick and easy process, so once you have your strategy down, you can get started straight away. 


1. Developing a strategy

One of the advantages of Instagram is its simplicity. As long as you have good ideas for pictures and use captions and hashtags effectively, it’s hard to go wrong. To make sure you’re clear on the whys, hows and whats, it might be helpful to answer the questions below.

Questions to answer

  • What do you want to get out of being on Instagram? Are you looking for followers, conversions, traffic etc.?
  • How will you direct people on Instagram towards these goals (e.g. your website)?
  • How will you measure this success?
  • What will your tone be? Conversational? Salesy? Dependent on the photo? Different to your website and other social networks or the same?
  • How will you manage customer expectations? E.g. answering sales questions, balancing your time so potential clients don’t think you spend all your time taking Instagram photos and so on.
  • Do you already have a personal Instagram account? If so, will the business one have links to it or be entirely separate? If not, is there a chance you might have a personal one in the future?
  • Where will your account sit? Will it directly accompany your business? Will it be somewhere between personal and business? Will it be complimenting your personal brand or business brand more?
  • How often will you post?

2. Ideas for images

Contrary to popular belief, Instagram isn’t (just) about posting photos of your dinner. Planning is vital to ensure you maintain high quality, interesting images that will keep people following you and interacting with your posts. It doesn’t have to be anything time-consuming; even just a list of ideas for images will save time and hassle in the long run.

If your business is based around virtual products and services rather than physical ones, it’s a bit more challenging but still very workable. Your photos could include:

  • Your desk, and any other areas you work.
  • Relevant events you attend.
  • Seasonal photos, e.g. Halloween decorations, Christmas cards.
  • Images relating to your niche that target customers are likely to find appealing, for example if you design a lot of wedding websites, ideas for favours.
  • Any promotional goods you’ve had made/requested samples of, e.g. pens and USB sticks.
  • New/favourite gadgets and electronics.
  • Any print goods you have or have created for clients, e.g. business cards or letterheads.
  • Photos+ of your monitor or mobile device showing your website or a client’s website.
  • Client locations, especially if they have physical businesses or interesting offices.
  • Thank you cards and gifts from clients.
  • If you travel for clients, do talks, or similar, the odd pic of different places/cities tends to go down well, and is also great for integrating geographical hashtags to drum up further business.
  • Go through your existing photos on devices and social networks to identify any resources you already have and for inspiration moving forward.

These are just a handful of ideas; pick out any you like and then kickstart your own brainstorming thinking about images specific to your business and how you work.

 

A photo posted by Chris Allwood (@_cdja) on

It’s dangerous to go alone

If you’re using any photos of your clients’ businesses, products, websites or similar, always ask permission from them first…it’s also a great way to highlight the fact that you’re interested in what they do and you’re happy to give them a bit of extra promotion.

Trading photos can also work well with non-conflict-of-interest businesses. For example, if you know someone who offers print services, photography services, or something from any other complementary field, you could post an interesting image from/of their work and they could post one of yours in return.

Take a look at how other people are using Instagram, including:

  • Companies in your industry
  • Businesses of a similar size to yours
  • Industry leaders
  • People/companies you admire or who you think are likely to be using it well
  •  A company or person entirely different to you in every way (can be a surprising source of inspiration and ideas).

How do you find these people? There are a number of different avenues you can try, for example Twitter hashtags and searches, going through your bookmarks, feed reader and browsing history for websites you visit regularly that are likely to be on Instagram, companies and providers you use, importing contacts, googling for the best/most popular Instagram photos, using Websta, and so on.


3. Making the most of your pictures

Learning the basics

Just because you’re using your phone or tablet doesn’t mean it’s not ‘proper’ photography. There are tons of tips and tricks out there to help you take better pictures. If you’re a designer you’ll probably already be aware of things like the Rule of Thirds, but be careful you don’t blanket apply everything you know about design to photography because some things are worlds apart (lens flares are cool, for example). You may also want to read up on lighting and composition basics.

It’s also important to go back to the most basic thing of all: your camera itself. Chances are it has hundreds more settings, features and options than you’ve ever explored, particularly if it’s a newer phone or tablet. It’s worth experimenting with photos, editing your settings, trying different modes, and seeing what editing tools are available to you before you even get around to opening Instagram.

Using filters

The genius of Instagram lies in its selection of filters, which can hide a million sins and make anything look better. Pretty much the only thing you won’t get away with is obvious blur or graininess (although these can sometimes be improved with clever use of the Tilt Shift tool and adjusting contrast and shadowing).

When it comes to choosing a filter, go with your instinct. There’s no one size fits all rule, and very often it will depend on the subject of your photograph. Don’t forget that when you apply a filter, you can also increase or decrease its strength for more versatility.

Check out this infographic: What your Instagram filter says about you to get an idea of some of the trends. It’s best to use a wide range of filters rather than sticking to the same one or two so that your profile looks varied and colourful.

Boosting your virtual appeal

You can make virtual products and websites more interesting by giving them real world framing. Examples include putting a website screenshot on an iMac, using a box to present software, and showcasing notes and prototypes within old-school Polaroids. Best of all, there are plenty of cheap and free mock ups available on the web so you don’t have to worry about staging environments yourself (or cleaning your desk!)

Creative Market has hundreds of high-quality options; try desk mockups, Polaroid mockups and general mockups.

Going beyond photos

The humble photograph is by far the most popular type of image on Instagram…but there’s no rule saying that’s the only thing you can upload. Sticky notes, whiteboard brainstorming, sketches, flow charts, handwritten tips, printed how-tos and even Photoshop and Illustrator creations can all play a part. In fact, it’s always beneficial to include a mix of media to make your profile page interesting and vibrant right from the very first glance.

 

A photo posted by Heart Internet (@heartinternet) on


4. Promoting your Instagram account & photos

Once you’ve created your account, determined your strategy and uploaded a few photos, it’s time to promote your new Instagram presence.

External promotion

Treat promoting your Instagram channel just as you would anything else, and create a checklist so you don’t miss anything. Things to think about:

  • Posting it on your other social media channels; be creative, especially with other visual channels or from your personal Instagram account.
  • Writing a blog post.
  • Updating your email signature and business cards to include a link.
  • Directly mentioning it to customers/asking them if they’re on Instagram.
  • Sending an email to your visitors/customers (especially if there’s something in it for them, such as a free download, contest, or exclusive discount code).
  • Create something complimentary that’s of value; we chose to create this guide, but a set of image tips, an infographic, round-up blog post, resources etc. would work well too.

Integrating into your website

There are plenty of options for this, particularly if you have a WordPress website. As well as embedding photos directly in pages or posts, you can display your latest images easily with Instagram Feed. If you have social media icons on your website, for example in your sidebar or footer, it’s worth adding an extra Instagram icon.

Using hashtags and captions

As we mentioned at the beginning of this guide, hashtags are huge on Instagram and an essential for getting more likes and followers. Choose hashtags based on what people are likely to search for, e.g. ‘#webdesign’ rather than using them for humour or emphasis. But don’t just rely on hashtags to get the job done; a thoughtful caption goes a long way towards creating a story by providing context. Instagram is based around personality and human interest, so short anecdotes tend to go down well and take the guesswork out of the image.

Promotions

If you have budget available, a contest or small paid advertising campaign can help generate interest in your new account as well as increasing awareness. Straightforward giveaways work well, but if you have the time and audience interest, caption contests, ‘guess the number of X in a jar’, and blurry ‘guess the image’ photos are worth exploring.

Heart things you’re interested in

Every time you like someone else’s photo, they’ll get a notification about it, so take some time to search hashtags relevant to your business to see what the competition’s doing, get potential leads, and make yourself known to your target audience.


5. Keep it going

Instagram is a fantastic network for creating an ongoing flywheel of interest, so try to post at least a few pictures a month to keep interest up. Integrating a plan or list of image ideas and photos that you revisit on a regular basis will help you stay organised and prevent your channel getting stale.

Do you use Instagram for your business? Let us know your top tips in the comments!

Comments

Please remember that all comments are moderated and any links you paste in your comment will remain as plain text. If your comment looks like spam it will be deleted. We're looking forward to answering your questions and hearing your comments and opinions!

Got a question? Explore our Support Database. Start a live chat*.
Or log in to raise a ticket for support.
*Please note: you will need to accept cookies to see and use our live chat service