With over 1 billion Instagram users worldwide, this social media platform can be an important tool in promoting your business. By establishing a strong visual presence you can reach new customers, grow your audience and engage with existing clients.

Here are a few tips and tricks to help you maximize your social presence on Instagram.

Set Up Your Account & Page Properly

Whether you’re setting up an Instagram account from scratch or you’re looking to update an existing account, it’s important to set it up properly. For starters, you should set it up as a business account. The benefits of using a business account include:

• Insights and metrics about how your followers interact with the content you share with them through posts and stories
• Added features such as a contact button, business hours, location and phone number.
• Ability to take advantage of sponsored content and Instagram ads
• Ability to add links to your Instagram stories

It’s also important to make sure that your account links back to your website, and that all other social channels have consistent and cohesive messaging.

Once your page is set up, deciding what to do next can be challenging. Do your research! Browse through pages of other businesses within your industry to see how they’re doing things, but keep in mind that some of these things may or may not be working for them – social media comes with some trial and error as its algorithms are always changing!

What Kind of Content Should You Be Posting

Knowing what kind of content your audience wants to see can be tricky. A good starting point would be to include a variety of posts but not overwhelm your audience. It’s important to remember that quality is more important than the consistency. You don’t need to be posting every single day just to be getting a post out. Make sure that your posts are meaningful and have a purpose. Some content ideas might include:

• Introducing yourself and outlining your services
• Showing your expertise
• Showing your services in actions
• Testimonials and success stories

Now that you’ve determined the kind of content that you’ll be posting, create a content calendar to give you a starting point as well as something to hold you accountable as you get started. Content calendars are a great way to map out when you’ll be posting what, and help to keep things organized. It’s especially helpful to remember important dates and deadlines!

There are plenty of templates available online to help you get started, or you could create your own! There are also resources such as Hootsuite, Later, and more that allow you to schedule posts in advance. This allows you to schedule the content so that you don’t have to worry about posting it on the right day and time.

You’ve Started Posting… Now What?

Now that you’ve created and scheduled your first few posts, it’s time to start engaging with your community! This includes liking and commenting on any engagement on your posts, as well as the posts of others in your industry, network or accounts that you’d like to build a relationship with. Expanding your engagement helps to increase your followers and create brand awareness.

Remember, good things take time. You aren’t going to end up with 10K followers and partnerships or giveaways overnight! You have to start slow, keep things manageable and not give up when you don’t see the results of your efforts right away.