Could Instagram Help you to Grow your Brand?
CommPRO Editorial Staff
As the high street and traditional retail changes due to the pandemic, ecommerce is increasingly becoming important for businesses. Even companies that still sell most of their products through land-based shops require an internet presence these days.
One of the best and least expensive ways to build brand awareness is through social media. Out of all the tips to help you grow your brand, using platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter is one of the better ones.
Instagram is one of the biggest social media platforms and has proven itself as an excellent marketing tool when used correctly. If you need to grow your brand, create awareness, and market your products then this might be the answer.
Why use Instagram to grow your brand?
One of the reasons that Instagram can help you with your business and visibility is that it has a huge active user base. Around 1 billion people actively use Instagram every month and the biggest age groups are also the same people that buy products online.
More than 50% of Instagram users are made up of 18-34 year-olds, and this is also one of the biggest groups of digital buyers, that is, people who purchase online. Assuming your business sells products online then Instagram is a fertile ground for growing your brand. It is also perfect for engaging with an age group that embraces ecommerce.
How can you grow your brand with Instagram?
You will need to gain followers to increase your audience and there are many ways you can help yourself. Write quality, interesting, and relevant content regularly. You want your audience to be interested in your posts, share them, and interact too.
Following over relevant Instagram accounts can also lead to them following you, along with some of their followers. Here are some ideas for growing your brand and your following:
- Post good content
- Interact with your audience
- Follow other accounts
- Use an organic growth service
- Post exclusive promotions for followers only
- Give away freebies
- Use hashtags
- Optimize your profile/bio
People love freebies and offering these to followers only will help you to gain a bigger audience. Hashtags used well will raise visibility for your brand and bring you more followers.
Another way to increase your following and therefore grow your brand is to use a growth service.
Using an Instagram growth service for more followers
When you start to grow your brand it can be very tempting to ‘cheat’ and pay for extra followers. This is problematic on many levels. Firstly, these followers have no interest in your brand and won’t help you to grow it, and are highly unlikely to buy anything. Also, they may be bots or automated tools rather than real people.
Fortunately, there is a legitimate and more productive way to gain new followers and that is by using an organic growth service. By engaging the services of a company such as Growthoid you will have access to an account manager who will interact and engage with relevant accounts to grow your fan base.
You will still need to provide unique, relevant content and post regularly but you won’t need to worry so much about how you will get new followers.
What proven case studies are there that social media grows brands?
Major brands on Instagram have huge followings. Nike for instance has nearly 150 million followers and Wendy’s, 1 million.
One of the biggest social media marketing success stories was when Instant Pot decided to forgo traditional advertising and instead use bloggers and influencers to help market their product. This guerilla marketing technique saved the company millions in advertising, gained them 500,000 Instagram followers and sales of over 50 million in the US alone.
Although Instant Pot didn’t use Instagram exclusively it does display the power of social media, blogging, and of course, Instagram influencers.
How can influencers help you grow your brand?
As your following increases, you could also help your brand to grow by engaging with some Instagram influencers. Influencers such as Huda Kattan have large, sometimes massive, followings, and if your product interests them you may be able to use them to your advantage.
An influencer can bring instant growth to your brand, help with your reputation and increase engagement across the platform.
Summary
When you are getting started with your social media marketing campaign you will need to produce unique, quality content for your accounts to make them interesting to your current audience and attract new followers. This takes time and many businesses will employ someone to run this area alone and use guest posts too.
While all your focus is on producing content and marketing campaigns it will be hard to find the time to grow your followers so it may pay to use an organic growth service. With a combination of quality content, good products, and an ever-increasing following, your brand will continue to grow with Instagram.
