Getting Started with Instagram

As with all social media sites, your starting point will be a great profile. Linking your Facebook account for your social login is a good idea, so you don’t have to remember lots of passwords and connect to the Facebook Ad Platform as and when needed. Be sure to link your business Facebook account, not your personal one. To learn more about business handling, check out https://www.paystubs.net/.

• Your thumbnail image – Once you are linked, it should carry over your thumbnail image.
• Your description – Add your description.  Use keywords to make it more discoverable.
• Add a URL – Include a URL. It will be visible right in your profile and can be clicked directly so visitors can learn more about your business right away.

Note that for some reason, Google Analytics can’t track traffic from Instagram on mobile.  Consider creating a custom URL in bit.ly for the link to your landing page.  Analytics can track it and help you see how much of your traffic is coming from your account.  You can also track the traffic in the bit.ly interface as well.  Use your Facebook account to create a free bit.ly account.  Click on the top right.  “Create Link” and add the URL you want to track. Copy the shortened bit.ly link onto your profile page and save.

Lead Generation

In order to generate leads, use your custom URL to send them to a landing page for a free e-book or e-course that would have wide appeal to the people in your niche.

For example, if you are in the pet industry, consider giving them an e-course on how to train a new puppy or deal with common behavioral issues such as chewing, barking, and so on.  Once they are on your email marketing list, you will be able to develop a relationship with them and market products and services

Sales

The most obvious use for Instagram is to show off your products and services. Add a link in the “blurb” section under your image, and they will be able to click buy.  Include an image of every product you sell, and add new images when you launch a new product.

Don’t worry if you are just starting out and don’t have any products of your own to sell yet.  Keep growing your list.  Become an affiliate and post your specially coded links on Instagram and in your emails to your marketing lists.  Each time someone buys from the link, you will earn a commission.

Posting your content

The key thing to remember in terms of your images is that they have to be square.  You will need to edit your images on your desktop using the free Paint program, for example, to crop, resize and so on.  Some people will just add a square background to a rectangular image rather than re-size everything.  For example, if you are selling books, the book cover will be in the portrait orientation.  You can lay your cover in the center.

If your image is longer length-wise than height-wise, you would center it in the middle top to bottom.  However, beware of exceptionally wide images.  it might be best to re-size them.  The recommended image size is 1080×1080 pixels.

Note that if you are posting via desktop, it will not allow you to delete the images.  If you want ot delete through the mobile app, click the three dots on the upper right-hand corner and click “delete”.

If you are posting directly from your phone, keep a couple of things in mind.  Remember the image has to be square, so try to position the main object of interest in the picture as close to the middle as possible.

Editing Your Images

You can crop, edit, or adjust as needed in the Edit menu within the app.  You can also apply various filters to make the image look more attractive. Here’s how.

Remember, a picture can be worth a thousand words so keep in mind what your images say about yoru business.

Cross Posting on Instagram

Use hashtags to post your images on relevant topic boards.  Create your own custom hashtags as well to track your response on certain images.  Then you can see how much buzz you are creating.

Cross Posting on Other Networks

Posting on Instagram can also mean cross posting on a number of other networks including Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.  This handy shortcut will keep your accounts fresh and up to date.

Following Others

Search for people with similar interests so you can follow them.  Increase your visibility by liking and commenting.  Just click on their name and you will be able to learn more about them.  Once they post content, you will be able to see it in their feeds.

Getting followers

Include keywords in your profile and your image blurbs/descriptions to make it easy for people to find and follow you.  Once they follow you, they will be able to see your content in their feeds.

Connecting with others

Once you use Facebook to set up your account, click on the heart icon in the upper right of your screen and it will make suggestions as to who you might wish to connect with.  Follow them if you think their content will match what your target audience will wish to see.  Don’t follow too many non-niche- related people, however, as your feed can get very cluttered and you will have to do a lot of scrolling to find what you want to like, comment on, and share.