As a small business owner or marketing professional, you have a lot on your plate. Making matters more complicated is the fact that you only have so much time in your day. And when you add in other responsibilities, such as getting started with Instagram marketing, it's easy to lose your mind.
Of course, just because you are running low on time doesn't necessarily mean you can forgo new ideas and strategies. If you do this, you may never make the progress you want or reach the top of your industry - and that's never something you'll be okay with.
On the plus side, there are many things small businesses can do on Instagram to better reach their audience and make up ground on the competition. For example, you should click here to view Instagram followers packages, as this is one of the better ways to grow your following without having to spend much time doing so. Instead, you hand off all the heavy lifting to a service that can do the work for you.
Even if you have some basic knowledge of social media, you may not know the first thing about getting started on Instagram. Here are some of the basic steps you can take in the early days to get on the right track:
1. Create a Content Calendar
As you grow your Instagram account, it becomes more and more difficult to keep track of everything you are doing. This is where a content calendar can save you.
On your calendar, you can track the details of each post, such as when it went live, the subject, and even the type of engagement it has received.
The more you use your content calendar, the more you'll understand what is most important to you. You can then adjust it to meet your needs.
The best way to get started is to create a Google Sheet. This will give you full control over your calendar, along with the ability to share it with others, which comes in handy if you're going to work on your account alongside someone else.
2. Decide What Type of Content You Want to Share
You don't have to make this decision upfront, but it's good to have a basic idea of the type of content you will share with your audience. Do you want to post selfies, for the most part? How about travel pictures? What about behind the scenes photos of your business?
If you have a basic understanding of the type of content you want to share, it becomes much easier to take action when necessary. This is better than killing yourself to come up with an idea every time you want to share a new post.
3. Find Help on Your Team
If you are looking for help, there are two places to turn. You can hire someone with the idea that they will help you with nothing more than Instagram marketing and other social media needs. Or you can find someone who is already on your team to assist you.
You may assume you can do everything on your own, but once you have someone helping you it becomes clear that your job has become much easier. You can ask this person to assist with tasks including but not limited to the following:
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Taking photos
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Creating and tracking posts on a content calendar
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Engaging with your audience, such as by responding to comments
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Assisting with hashtag research
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Helping you find services that sell Instagram followers
According to https://viralrace.com/, don't look down on the idea of handing off some of your Instagram responsibilities to someone on your team. It's not always easy to give up control, especially with something as important as Instagram marketing, but it could be just what you need to inch closer toward reaching all your goals.
4. Check Out the Competition
Regardless of your niche, you can be rest assured that you will run into some stiff competition. But you shouldn't look at it like that. Your competitors are not out to take market share away from you on Instagram. There is enough space for everyone, and the quality of your marketing strategy will have a lot to say about the success you have.
The best way to check out the competition is to simply spend some time browsing Instagram. See what is out there, what other brands in your niche are doing, and how you can outperform them.
5. Set Goals
When you first get started on Instagram, you may set the goal of simply getting your first few posts live. However, as you begin to grow, you'll realize that you want to accomplish way more than this. This is particularly true after you have a little bit of success.
You can set any goal imaginable, but it makes sense to be reasonable with yourself in the early days. You may dream of obtaining 100k followers over the next month or two, but it may not be realistic for this to happen. It'll take a lot for you to reach this number.
So, set goals that are attainable but also a bit outside of your comfort zone. When you take that approach, you'll continually push yourself to reach new heights. And as you knock goals off your list, you can then make new ones to strive for.
Final Thoughts
There is a lot that goes into getting started on Instagram, but the good thing is that you can kick things off within a matter of minutes. Sure, it takes more than that to reach your goals, but you have to start somewhere.
Once you are on the right track, you can adjust your Instagram marketing strategy according to your early results.
What are your thoughts on using Instagram to market a small business? Have you done this with success in the past? What steps did you take to make progress? Use the comment section below to share your thoughts and guidance with everyone else.
* This is a contributed article and this content does not necessarily represent the views of realtytoday.com
