- Use visual marketing. Photos are more than likely going to be the content type that reaches your audience most powerfully. Not only do they give you control over how much text is included with each post. (and thus allow you to create a visually appealing message) Photos also connect emotionally with your followers more quickly than other forms of marketing content.
- Searching is the new clicking. Although Instagram doesn’t have any official paid search functionality yet, you can do some creative geotagging to target your audience down and zero in on the best times and places to be posting your photos.
- Create a custom hashtag for your brand. You can create unique hashtags for every product line or every new photoshoot featuring your products, but it’s probably better to just come up with one hashtag that covers all of these things. This way, you can pull everything together into one stream and use third-party tools like RiteTag (mentioned next), which will help you keep track of when people are using this hashtag.
- Find your followers on other networks. Since Instagram’s API is still in its infancy, we haven’t begun to see the full power of this platform yet. One promising trend we’ve already seen is third-party applications like RiteTag and Iconosquare, which can help you manage not only your messages but also find new people who might be interested in what you have to offer.
- Think about how your pictures will look when shared on other sites. Instagram has been a game-changer for eCommerce because it allows us to share product photos (which, let’s face it, don’t exactly scream ‘share me’) with our customers. But Instagram itself isn’t the end goal - Your content needs to be optimized for being shared on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and anywhere else you want it to go.