Does My Business Need To Be On Instagram?

Let’s start with a quick checklist of why your business may need to be on Instagram.

1. Does your business sell a product?  If yes, Instagram may be a good fit as a social media network.

2. Does your business have a demonstrably unique culture?  Again, if your answer is “yes” Instagram could be perfect for you.

3. Does your business sell services, on the other hand?  It’s okay!  If your business is service oriented but: heavily involved in community and/or non profit/social events, has a large staff or provides a service that lends itself to visually compelling images (like architecture, for example), then Instagram is likely just fine for you too.

It’s obvious our checklist is faulty--because Instagram can be ideal for almost any business/brand when it’s used the right way!   And what the heck does that mean?  We’re so glad you asked.

What’s The Worst Thing A Business Can Do On Instagram?

We Geeks spend far too much time online.  From social media and responsive web design to research and data analytics, you’d be hard pressed to find a consulting firm with a breadth of knowledge about the latest and greatest.  And, as we’ve written before, we can’t keep up!  However, some things are just common sense and not talking about yourself ALL THE TIME is one of them.  Here are some other “don’t do” items:

1. Don’t post nothing but pictures of your products.  See Red Bull.  If this company had nothing but images of Red Bull cans, do you think it would have 741,865 Followers?  (And that’s just the number of Followers for the main Red Bull Instagram.  There are many other Red Bull accounts.)

2. Don’t post irregularly.  If you’re a brand/business and you’ve decided IG is for you, you need to post regularly.  Once per day is recommended.  Twice per day won’t hurt.  Never skip more than one day and NEVER EVER skip several days.  Your audience here is younger than that of Facebook’s.  Stay in their fresh little faces.

3. Don’t assume your followers on IG are the same ones you’re targeting with your other social media networks, (at least not yet).   We’re not claiming there isn’t overlap.  We’re saying that overlap is statistically very small if/when you’re correctly using IG.  The younger demographic can’t get away from Facebook fast enough.  It stands to reason then that images on IG that receive good engagement, may not necessarily do the same thing on Facebook, Twitter or elsewhere.  Don’t get us wrong.  They could.  But there’s no reason to think they WILL.  Your own data will assist you in making these decisions but the migration to IG by the 35+ demographic has yet to really begin.

4. Don’t skip the hashtags.  If you think the Twitter rules about hashtag overuse apply to IG, think again.  IG is hashtag central.  You can’t use too many (although some may disagree).  You can go back and add more!  Your Followers will add them too!  Hashtags are one way your company can increase its Followers.  If you don’t use them a lot (and properly) you’ll quickly find your IG account stagnating.

5. Don’t ignore all the little IG themes days and content driven hashtags.  Throw-back Thursday and all the other IG community centric happenings are an important part of the IG culture.  Just as you had to learn the etiquette of Facebook, so too will you need to learn IG’s.

There is so much more to deciding whether or not your company needs to be on Instagram.  One thing we would suggest, don’t tackle it unless you’re committed to it.  As with any social media endeavor, once started, the worst thing a brand can do is poorly execute on it.

#instagram #instgramdonts #dontdothat #badstuffoninstgram #geekspeakonIG #IGbadstuff #geeklygroup #andwecouldjustkeepaddingmore