Instagram for Business Part 6

How to Regram Others’ Posts on Instagram

“Regramming” is the equivalent of sharing a friend’s post on Facebook or retweeting a post on Twitter. For instance, you might want to regram photos that customers have taken at your business, or share entries you received to a photo contest. Unlike those other social platforms, however, Instagram does not make it easy to share others’ posts.

 There is a manual workaround: Simply use your phone to take a screenshot of the photo you want to regram, then post it to Instagram from your phone’s photo library. Whenever you regram someone else’s post, make sure you give them credit in the caption by including their Instagram user name with the “@” symbol (e.g. @caretta_workspace).

There are also apps available to streamline this process, such as Repost for Instagram, which you can download from your app store.

How to Engage Followers with Comments on Instagram

As with any social media platform, Instagram isn’t a megaphone. It’s a conversation. You should listen to your followers, respond to their comments and comment on their photos. Look for notices that your account was tagged in a post, and regularly search for uses of your hashtag, so you can like and comment on customer photos taken of your business.

It seems simple, but you need to do more than just post pictures and expect people to engage with you. You have to start conversations, make comments, reply to questions and compliments and like what other people are posting. Not only will staying engaged with your Instagram following help to build it, you will see that your followers become very loyal to you as well.

Make sure your comments are sincere and relevant to your business. Don’t mindlessly like and comment on irrelevant posts. Like and comment on posts and accounts that relate to your content. You own a small surf shop? Find similar accounts and posts while searching through #surf hashtags.

You can also start conversations on Instagram by asking your followers to respond to your posts. Interesting or provocative questions tend to create a lot of interactions, and try to mix that with showcasing our work and services. It’s a very supportive and highly interactive platform. 

What are Instagram Ads?

Advertising gives small business owners the opportunity to expand their reach on Instagram and add measurable calls-to-action to their posts. Instagram ads can be photos, videos or carousels of multiple images. Instagram Ads can support multiple objectives:

  • Clicks to Website, to generate traffic to your site
  • Website Conversions, to prompt a specific action on your site
  • Mobile App Installs, to generate downloads of your app
  • Mobile App Engagement, to get activity on your mobile app
  • Video Views, to tell a story using video
  • Page Post Engagement, to get users to engage with your ad
  • Local Awareness, to reach potential customers near your business

By promoting posts on Instagram, small business owners can expand their reach and drive more results. Thanks to the powerful targeting tools, you can connect with specific audiences based on age, gender, location and interests.

Instagram is a perfect place to run ads to highly targeted users because Instagram is owned by Facebook and it shares powerful targeting options inside of Facebook’s Ad Manager. Whether a small business’s social media objectives are to enhance brand awareness or drive sales and revenue, Instagram ads can be effective at any budget.

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