Each functionality that makes up Instagram can be optimized to greatly improve your marketing efforts, and when all of those optimizations are combined you’ll have a really powerful strategy for using Instagram for business. Let’s take a look at some habits that experts recommend you adopt as part of your Instagram strategy:

Choose A Color Theme

“Instagram is a visual platform and users want to see aesthetically pleasing content. Choosing a theme and color palette for Instagram and sticking with it creates a brand identity and makes it more attractive to users.” –  Anna Segova, Communications Manager @2hats.

Research Your Hashtags Thoroughly

“Hashtags are how you get seen on the platform and by using the correct ones, you can drive much more traffic to your page. It’s all about choosing hashtags that are the correct size (for example, #cute has 337 million posts in it – you’d have to be a Kardashian to rank there) and using hashtags that match your content. If you’re a food brand and you’re using the hashtag #fitness, that doesn’t work because all of the popular photos in that tag are of people flexing muscles. So your food photos won’t rank there either! When looking at hashtags, check to see if your content matches AND it’s small enough for you to rank (get in the top 9) in. This is precisely what I did to get my account from 5k to 10k.” – Talia Koren, Instagram Growth Specialist at TaliaKoren.com

Repurpose Your Instagram Content

“One way we work to increase awareness for an Instagram page is to embed posts into our client’s blog content as either a replacement or in addition to static images. It’s a great way to increase engagement on posts and repurpose your social content.” – Brian Jensen CEO of Congruent Digital.

Make Sure it’s a Business Account

“If your small business has not created a business account, you’re missing out on limitless exposure and powerful customer relationships. By letting your customers tag your business in their post, it can direct their followers and network to your business and give them more information. This can even increase the traffic to your website, and all of this will help boost the number of customers your business will have. Additionally, set up the “contact” settings so that customers can email or call your small business directly, either with questions or partnership inquiries.” – David Mitroff, Ph.D., CEO and Founder of Piedmont Avenue Consulting.

Use People In Your Images

“One tip I have for businesses that sell products is to use people in their images. I found that people are much more engaged in our posts when the picture is of a person is when the picture only shows a product. Showing people in posts can help your brand convey emotions and connect with your followers on a deeper level.” – Chandler Sterling, Founder of California Beard Company.

By taking the tips that are applicable to you and combining them with what you’re already doing, you should be able to significantly increase the benefit that your company gets from using Instagram for business. There are a lot more ways that people can improve their Instagram strategy, let us know in the comments what has worked for you!