Whether you’re just starting to gain more attention from customers or taking baby steps with your business, taking advantage of all digital platforms available can be an excellent opportunity to reach out and connect with prospective customers. One way to achieve this is by creating an Instagram account, engaging your followers with images and videos showcasing your products and services.
However, some business owners may not know that they can have even more features if they switch their regular account to a Business profile. This type of account opens the doors to business owners and their marketing teams to connect with their audience through the platform directly and engage with potential new customers. We would like to share some insight on how to make your Instagram Business profile look more professional and credible, whether you’re just starting to worry about your brand image online or you’re trying to step up your efforts in social media management.
Show your Business’ Website and Working Hours
A crucial aspect of running a successful Instagram Business profile is to ensure people know that the account they’re looking at belongs to your business. Many people are wary of scam accounts trying to profit off renowned brands and offering wild discounts or promotions in exchange for personal information or other sensitive data. One way to prove credibility to an average user that your account is legitimate at a single glance is by adding essential information such as your company’s address, phone number, working hours, and website.
Some business owners aspire to get their accounts verified and obtain the blue checkmark next to their username. However, keep in mind that Instagram doesn’t provide a public form to submit a request to do so, unlike other social media platforms, and most people rely on the black market to achieve theirs. Don’t get your mind obsessed over this, and focus on different ways to improve your profile’s credibility.
Build an Activity Calendar for your Profile
Keeping your audience engaged with your content while still delivering professional, credible content requires careful planning. Whether you have a marketing team or you’re in charge of the account, having a schedule with ideas and topics for specific days throughout the month should be a top priority. Credible businesses take care of their brand image, and having a continuous flow of well-curated content will keep the company’s name in your followers’ feed. You may initially benefit from automatic Instagram likes if you wish to kickstart your posts and videos published and get them under your follower’s radar. Otherwise, deciding when to publish something on the go can lead to brackets without any posts or stories uploaded, leading to a decrease in follower engagement.
Monitor and Answer Messages from your Followers
People will try to know more about your services or products, and the fastest way to do so is to send a direct message to your Instagram profile. Either assign someone from your team to answer these inquiries left in your inbox or through comments, always addressing the user respectfully and professionally, and you can include Instagram stories asking for feedback on your services or products. Creating an honest, transparent image is a bidirectional effort between you as the content creator and the audience engaging with your posts and videos. Note that you should always keep an eye out for hateful and offensive comments. These shouldn’t be accepted or encouraged in your profile. Taking a proper stance against unconstructive, aggressive feedback should also be part of your strategy when planning your social media marketing strategy.
Establish a Unified Brand Image
If you have already created a website showcasing your company, you may already have a specific aesthetic to represent your business’s culture and image. The logo, colors, website composition, and images all work to deliver a visual message, and you should take the same approach with your Instagram Business profile. Choosing a color palette and font for every media piece you upload to the account and learning how to shoot and select good photos when launching new products should combine into creating a harmonious grid the user will contemplate and understand at a single glance.
Using your Instagram account to its full potential can be a great way to increase engagement with your customers, either by peaking prospect buyer’s attention with images and videos of your services or products or rewarding long-time followers with exclusive benefits and early releases. Having access to the Business profile can open the doors to a wider audience reach that can help boost your company’s sales and reputation in the long term if you know how to play your cards well.
