To be honest, we weren’t giving Instagram much attention as a business growing tool. But recently, we’ve stepped up our game and grown our audience more than 40% (woo-hoo!). We’re so excited because (if the article title didn’t give it away), Instagram for business is finally here.
Now you can switch your company profile to an official business profile — which includes a new “contact” button and insights. We’ve already taken advantage of the switch and we think you should, too! After a bit of research and our own trial-and-error, THIS is why: If you’re not familiar with Instagram, it’s a mobile-based photo and video sharing social network. In other words, it’s all about pictures and videos.
500 million people are on the social media platform each month — making it the second MOST active platform next to Facebook. Instagram is exclusively mobile –and you may or may not have heard that the rate of which people use are using mobile has quickly outpaced users of desktop devices.
So if you’re ready to start using Instagram to grow your real estate business (law firm or title agency), here are some tips for utilizing Instagram Business:
- Build your brand – don’t try to sell your product
It’s about building your brand — less about promoting your actual product or services. People on Instagram are looking for visually appealing (note: pretty) behind-the-scenes look of what you do and who you are as a company. So, think of it more as a communications and public relations tool.
- Use plenty of #hashtags – but keep them relevant
Hashtags will put your post in front of more eyes and certainly get you more followers. But what’s the right amount? According to Buffer, using 11 or more hashtags gets the most interactions for accounts with 1,000 or less followers (that’s probably most of us in the Florida real estate or title industry.) 11 hashtags sounds like a lot — don’t sweat it if you can’t come up with that many — it’s important to keep them relevant to your post to avoid being “spammy.”
- Follow those that follow you
A lot of businesses make the mistake of merely trying to gain followers and never follow back. Following those who follow you (barring obvious fake accounts) gives you a chance to comment and like on the posts of the people who are engaging with you — which is really the whole point of social media: to build and maintain relationships.
Ready to get started? Here are some super helpful resources:
- Instagram Business Profiles: How to Set Up and Analyze Your Activities
- How to Use Instagram for Business: A Beginner’s Guide
- Instagram for real estate: 5 ways agents benefit by incorporating social media tool into their business
- 3 Steps to Make Your Biz Stand Out on Social
