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A guide to building a strong brand on Instagram

Are you an influencer, entrepreneur, business owner, or blogger who wants to build a strong brand on Instagram? If so, then this guide will teach you how to build a strong brand on Instagram. We will cover everything you need to know about creating a strong presence on the world's most popular photo-sharing platform.

You'll learn how to develop an aesthetic that speaks to your audience, create engaging content, and use hashtags and other strategies to get your photos seen by the right people. So whether you're just getting started on Instagram or you're looking to take your brand to the next level, this guide is for you. Let's get started!

Define your target audience and what kind of content they engage with

Knowing your target audience is super important when it comes to crafting engaging content. A good place to start is to define what that target audience looks like: Who are they? What kind of demographics and interests do they share? Where do these people most frequently hang out online?

Taking the time to identify who your target audience is can provide valuable insight into the type of content you should be creating, from their favourite graphics and video formats to types of stories that they're likely to share or comment on. With this knowledge, you can tailor your content production strategy and make sure it resonates with them in the best way possible.

Let's use an example. Shall we? Let's say that you want to create a brand on Instagram as a makeup artist. How do you go about it? The first step would be to pinpoint your target audience. You might think that since you're already a makeup artist, anyone could be your customer. However, can you get even more specific? It's important to get detailed here.

The next step is to study other successful make-up pages within your niche and locality. Look at what they are doing right, wrong, and differently. Try to construct a blueprint of sorts by taking the best aspects of each strategy and adding your own personal touch. What posts on these verified profiles receive the most engagement? What videos go viral? Keep track of everything you find interesting or useful, this will give you guidance as Instagram success!

Focus on delivering value to your audience

Creating high-quality posts and videos that deliver value to your audience is essential for cultivating a strong presence on Instagram. To ensure your content resonates with your target audience, it should be crafted with care and precision.

When creating posts and videos, take the time to research popular topics in your niche or related areas of interest. It's important to stay up-to-date with the latest trends and developments so that your content is relevant and engaging for your target audience.

Most of all, ensure that your content is aimed at delivering value to your ideal audience. Work towards building your own voice within your niche and locality. Educate people with short tutorials and tips, and engage with them by answering their questions.

There are several tools that you can use to speed up your workflow and create high-quality, value-filled, and visually pleasing posts. The most popular one by far is Canva. Quickly create stunning posts and videos in just a few clicks, leverage the existing library of templates and speed up your workflow for content production.

Optimise your hashtags, captions, and stories

Hashtags, captions, and stories can be a great way to promote your brand on social media. Not only does it allow you to get more eyes on your content, but it also helps establish an identity for your business that people can recognise.

The one thing most small businesses forget is to continuously optimise their content, hashtags, captions, and stories. Never leave anything to chance.

Track your insights and analytics to see what works best. See which of your competitor's posts are going viral and replicate that while making it unique to you. If something is working well, do more of it.

There are several tools that can help you keep track of your analytics. The most popular ones include SproutSocial and IconoSquare.

Engage with other users on the platform — like and comment on their posts

Engaging with other people on the platform is a great way to build relationships and stay connected with them. It's super easy to do — just like and comment on their posts. All it takes is a few seconds, but those interactions go a long way in building relationships and showing your appreciation for them.

Keep up with the competition by regularly engaging with their most active followers. By interacting with these people, you're more likely to get noticed yourself and attract new customers to your business.

To put this into perspective, let's use an example. Let's say you're an interior designer located in Vancouver who specialises in contemporary interiors for residential units. The first step would be to compile a list of 10-20 competitors who are within the same geographic area and have a similar focus as yours. After that, take note of their most active followers (the ones who write the most comments or like all their posts). Finally, develop a habit of regularly engaging with this target audience list.

Host giveaways and contests to increase followers and engagement

Hosting giveaways and contests on social media is a fantastic way to connect with your followers, build brand loyalty, and generate more engagement. Whether it’s a contest for tickets to an event or a giveaway of a product related to your brand, lots of people will be eager to participate if there’s something they stand to gain.

Offer something with real value and create easy rules that everyone can understand —That way you make sure that your followers feel good about taking part in the contest. Be creative with it too, have special criteria for eligible entries which can draw out more participation. It might feel like extra work but it will be worth it for all the extra engagement you’ll get.

Build social proof

Starting from scratch on any social media platform can be super demotivating. And, one of the things that you'll quickly realise is how the psychology of social proof will work against you. With almost no followers, your conversions will be super low.

It makes sense that people are more likely to follow an account with 10k followers than one with 100 — after all, social media is a popularity contest. The same goes for posts- ones with hundreds of likes are much more appealing and thus get engagement while those with few do not.

If you're looking to give your brand a kickstart, consider building social proof by purchasing followers and likes. You might be surprised to learn that this is common practice for many brands, especially at the beginning stages. Larger companies with bigger budgets often spend millions of dollars on ads specifically designed for 'social proof', pay celebrities to serve as the face of their company, or partner with PR firms for exposure.

However, if you have a smaller business or brand, the quickest and most affordable solution is simply to buy some followers and likes so your profile appears more attractive and appealing.

There are several companies that provide such services, with Famium being the most popular by far.

Conclusion

Building a strong brand on Instagram is much easier with a clear set of goals and a strategy. We hope this blog post gives you insights that help you grow your brand and generate more sales on Instagram. With the combination of engaging content, community-building initiatives, and leveraging social proof tactics, you can develop a successful and sustainable presence on Instagram.

— Simranjit Raina is the content strategist at Hiptoro