Branding makes your business stand out. From your logo, theme, and the entirety of your brand’s appeal– branding allows you to be distinguished among your competitors.
According to Instagram, as of early 2021, there are already more than 200 million business accounts on the platform. It ranges from the biggest corporations to thriving small businesses. With this huge number, the competition is already tough. But knowing how to make smart moves will give your brand the edge.
Instagram branding is both challenging and fun for most businesses. While it allows you to channel your personality and creativity, it requires strategic planning. Curating your IG profile and bio are essential steps for great branding. But here’s how you can do better.
Set Your Goals Straight
Before starting anything else, you should clearly define your goals. It can save you time and effort on planning, but it also utilizes your resources.
Your IG branding goals should align with your business’s current status– may it be directed towards brand awareness, scaling, or customer acquisition. You can use these goals to plan your next steps in curating your account.
For this process, you can follow the SMART goal setting. It guides your objective to be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. Using this can give you a clearer view of your vision and a realistic action plan for your brand.
Craft the Perfect Bio
The first few steps are about your brand’s basic information in setting up your account. Your name, display photo, and a 150-character bio should be utilized well.
Your name and profile photo are the most recognized parts of your account. And you want your followers to remember it well. Use the right profile picture– a unique representation of your brand. When it comes to IG handles (usernames), it should most likely be the same as your company’s name or a shortened version of it. This allows your audience to identify you even outside social media.
Under your displayed full name is the IG bio. With a 150-character limit, you can put as much information about your brand as possible. You can include your brand description, services, and links to your website. Make sure to write a copy that perfectly describes your brand and is engaging enough to attract prospects. Also, take advantage of that free space and use it to display your seasonal offers or featured products.
Develop a Theme and Stick with It
IG is a visual platform, and you should use it to your advantage. This can be your creative space to showcase your brand’s personality and aesthetic. It includes a similar look and feels in terms of content, a consistent tone in captions, and the overall look of your IG feed.
First, your content may vary according to your offers and branding goals. Creating your strategy will help in a more consistent posting. You can create a content calendar, use tools to schedule posts, and even repurpose content from your website.
IG captions help provide context to your posts. It can also include questions, polls, and other engaging content. Make sure to set a tone that matches your brand’s personality. Your captions can be informative, creative, or interesting– or maybe all of it simultaneously.
Next is visual appeal—the theme, colors, and even letter fonts matter. Be consistent with the ‘feels’ you’re trying to show your audience. Stick with a pleasing color palette that matches your brand.
Lastly, take advantage of the Instagram feed. The grid format gives you a chance to create specific patterns, mix and match colors, or section them according to the year’s season. The possibilities are endless. You can also draw inspiration from other brands that you follow. But keep in mind to stick to your branding guide.
Utilize IG’s Features and Tools
Instagram has many built-in features that you shouldn’t sleep on. Aside from the built-in editing tools to improve your photos and videos, other features can enhance brand visibility when used well.
You can create a branded hashtag specific to your account to have your own space. Using this on your posts can improve brand recall. Encouraging your followers to use it can help you track your engagement and enhance your visibility. Along with this, you can also use popular hashtags to appear to a broader audience.
Instagram live is another feature that you can use to increase engagement among your followers. It encourages first-hand interaction with your brand, which can help with building a better connection. You can also use this to show the company’s behind-the-scenes happenings or teasers for your future offers. It allows your audience to know you and your brand better.
Schedule and Publish Quality Content
Publishing content regularly increases your brand visibility. Part of IG’s algorithm is increasing your visibility on the accounts that regularly interact with you and those that post consistently. But posting alone will not work. As a brand, you should provide value to your audience.
There’s no fail in giving valuable content to your audience. It makes your brand a reliable source of information in your chosen field/industry. Having this kind of credibility encourages your followers to trust your brand. To consistently appear in their feed, you have to post regularly or, if possible, within a schedule.
It will help if you plan and schedule your content. Social media is not the only thing you will do. And even if you hired a social media manager, scheduling gives you more leverage in the coming days. It can also save you energy in curating your content, as you can do it ahead of time. You can do more important things while ensuring you can still provide quality content.
Leverage trends and be social
Social media users are always driven by following trends. It’s a way of staying in touch with the digital world and keeping users updated with profound changes.
Use this opportunity to stay in touch with your audience and see what they like. Keeping your brand updated to the latest trends shows that you care about what they are into at the moment. Participate in challenges, use relevant templates, and you can eventually create your own.
Final Words
Starting as a social site, Instagram grew and developed the potential for business platforms. It allows businesses and customers an improved interactive experience. Creating a cohesive Instagram presence shouldn’t be as hard. It is a strategic process that can be fun, too! Choosing realistic and practical steps in branding can help you turn your vision into reality in no time. Start channeling your creativity and watch your brand shine.
