If you’re in business – as an entrepreneur selling a service or product – you’re probably well aware that you should ‘do it for the Gram’ as a key element of your business strategy. You might also be aware that Instagram has more than 2 billion active users engaging on its platform every single month and that the Instagram app is downloaded more than TikTok. With that in mind, you definitely don’t want to miss out on the brand building and sales opportunities that it offers.
Instagram was originally intended to be a simple photo sharing site, but it’s evolved. Now, more businesses than ever use it to communicate with an audience drawn to high-quality visuals, clever graphics, and responsive communication.
And even if you’re already doing it for the Gram, you’ll know just how much time and effort it can take to just get noticed and to turn likes into sales.
4 Important Instagram Tips For Newbies
If you’re new to the Instagram fam, you can easily become overwhelmed at the apparent scale and complexity required to launch your business properly. Being seen is the goal, and you’ll want to build solid follower numbers – ideally of potential customers!
There are 4 key components you should always bear in mind:
- The first thing to remember when you do it for the Gram is that not everybody is your target audience. You should already have a clear understanding of the demographic and psychographic makeup of your ideal customers so you can tailor your content accordingly.
- You’ll also want to build brand recognition by establishing a ‘look and feel’ that will instantly make your posts recognizable. Have a brand palette, a color and style guide, and other standard tools to make sure you promote your brand identity in every post.
- Consistency is incredibly important, so you’ll want to organize a content calendar with clear visibility objectives and marketing campaigns. On the Gram, out of sight is out of mind.
- It’s a great idea for you to form strategic relationships. By following and engaging with related or likeminded accounts, you’re much more likely to increase your brand’s visibility to their customers, too.
More is Not Always Better
In the beginning – or even if you’ve been doing it for the Gram for some time – you might be tempted to post as much content as possible. It’s not the best approach, though. Why? Because by posting a constant flood of content, you’re creating audience fatigue, just like spammers do.
Instead, you need to be posting content selectively and smartly. You’ll want to build value into your posts – elements that are useful or informative to your potential customers. Timing plays a role here, too, and for most small and medium businesses, posting 1-2 times per day delivers optimum reach and engagement.
Of course, you’re faced with another potential challenge: who has time to create 14-20 high quality Instagram posts every week? Here, you may want to look at outsourcing as the most cost-effective solution.
Visual Gold in a Virtual World
Instagram is all about arresting imagery. You need to post crisp, imaginative, and compelling images that attract people to your brand or product.
Now, you might have the time and talent to do it yourself – but creating stunning Instagram content can literally be a full-time task. As a result, you’re faced with a tradeoff: create passable content yourself but fail to stand out in the crowd, or alternatively, get skilled help and build an amazing Instagram presence. Here, making use of a creative virtual assistant can be one of the best ways to produce brilliant images, infographics, and video content for your brand.
Using a Virtual Assistant to Do it For The Gram
Creating brilliant visual content is only the first step toward Instagram success. The real magic lies in how it is used. Ideally you want someone skilled and experienced to handle this for you.
An Instagram virtual assistant is a highly cost-effective option – without the added expense of overhead, employee benefits, or paid time off. In fact, you’re getting the services of a highly skilled professional, while only paying for the time worked.
Take a moment to see exactly how an Instagram virtual assistant can help you:
Different Types of Instagram Virtual Assistant
There are 3 different ways in which a virtual assistant can do it for the Gram as part of your brand-building strategy:
- Content creation. This is a full-service role. Your Instagram virtual assistant will help with sourcing and creating images, producing great copy, and basically doing everything for you. From start to finish.
- Content curation – here, your virtual assistant will primarily find and collate usable content from other parts of the web. This can work, but it’s more difficult to maintain originality and a consistent brand appearance.
- Content support. Your virtual assistant will primarily respond to comments, tagged content, and interact with your audience.
What Can an Instagram Virtual Assistant Do For You?
Your Instagram virtual assistant can fulfill a range of functions for you:
- Create unique Instagram stories that link to your website and make your audience aware of your product or service.
- Curate and publish comments for hashtagged posts.
- Extend likes to strategically allied accounts or hashtags.
- Follow individuals or businesses who make use of targeted hashtags.
- Contact influencers to negotiate collaborations, mentions, or product placements.
- Manage your Instagram calendar and post & caption campaign content correctly.
- Function as a ‘hashtag hunter’, identifying trends and using them to increase your brand’s visibility by allying with trending topics.
- Building a hashtag library focused on the most popular recurring trends – food, fitness, lifestyle, health, travel, and more.
- Create and monitor competitions and other engagement tools designed to engage your audience.
- Compile and edit music for your Instagram stories.
- Integrate Instagram in your website using widgets or plugins.
- Deal with customer communication.
- Liaise with Instagram support to resolve technical issues or disputes.
And of course, there’s more. But you can quickly see why hiring a virtual assistant to do it for the Gram makes so much sense.
Want to find out more?
Book a discovery call today and we’ll show you how an Instagram virtual assistant can save you time, grow your audience, and help increase your customer count.
