Business owners love social media as it is a free marketing platform and an excellent avenue to expose a brand to new audiences. One of the best platforms for social media marketing is Instagram. This popular social media outlet provides multiple different features, from profile posts to story snapshots that startups, small businesses, and big-name brands can use to their advantage.
According to Bryn Carden, founder of Styles for Smiles and co-founder of BF Hats, Instagram has proven to be a beneficial marketing tool for gaining new customers and boosting sales when using the correct marketing strategies. The young social entrepreneur shares five effective methods to market a business efficiently and get results with Instagram.
Strategy #1. Make a Content Calendar
Business owners stay on top of their social media goals with a content calendar. Organizing a content calendar helps with planning posts ahead of schedule and keeping up with marketing research. Before planning posts, entrepreneurs should know their target audience, who their competitors are, what their competitors are doing, and what message they want to send through their branding. Next, a business needs to identify its content pillars. These are a few focal themes chosen to guide content planning for the year
Strategy #2. Find Inspiration from Bigger Successful Brands
When creativity has left the room, entrepreneurs should look to their favorite successful brands and check out what those brands are doing on Instagram. Using more prominent brands who have found a lot of success and have a high following with many audience interactions are excellent platforms for finding inspiration. Entrepreneurs can compare posts to see which ones were more aesthetically pleasing to viewers based on the post’s number of likes.
Strategy #3. Partner with Purpose
“When your business brings awareness to a greater purpose, your motivation as an entrepreneur is less likely to run dry,” said Bryn Carden.
The entrepreneur and philanthropist founded her organization Styles and Smiles around supporting the Smile Train Organization. The other organization she helped co-found, BF Hats, is a design brand that contributes to the Ronald McDonald House of Dallas. Entrepreneurs who partner with other charitable organizations can also collaborate on social media to reach more significant audiences.
Strategy #4. Hashtag Campaigns
Hashtags are great for spreading awareness about a brand through Instagram. Create a hashtag campaign and pick a cause, message, or problem that runs parallel with what a brand already represents. Hashtags are also great to start through Instagram and to feed through Twitter and Pinterest too. They can act as a marketing tool to get audiences engaged and pass on the word surrounding a specific brand.
Strategy #5. Engage with Others
It is critical always to include continuous and consistent engagement with others in any social media marketing strategy. Getting others involved in any conversation about a brand or interacting on other audiences’ or brand’s profile pages will only elevate brand exposure levels. Conversing with others and observing others’ interactions on a business’ Instagram profile or others is a proactive way to gather data through consumer and brand interactions.
About Bryn Carden
Bryn Carden is a versatile young entrepreneur with a deep sense of compassion and the desire to help make the world a better place. In 2017, she founded Styles for Smiles – a company selling bracelets to support the Smile Train Organization. The proceeds from selling Bryn’s designs have already helped fund cleft palate repairs for 16 children in developing countries. BF Hats, another design brand Bryn is engaged in, donates a portion from every purchase to Ronald McDonald House of Dallas – combining Bryn’s passion for style and philanthropy.
