The Coronavirus Has Left Millions Of People Unemployed Around The World As Corporate Revenue Levels Have Plummeted. Some Companies Have Used A Not-So-Interesting Staffing Policy To Make Up For The Budget Deficit, Or Have Been Forced To Telecommute Specialized Staff. 

Educational institutions, like companies, have switched to online education and various classes on social platforms to maintain health protocols.

Fortunately, users have welcomed the infrastructure and social networks. As a result, people who, for various reasons, could not attend work or have become unemployed in some way decided to earn money from social networks.

Instagram is one of the main ways to earn money for users worldwide, especially in Iran. Users ask various questions about Instagram, how to create a page (page) on Instagram and make money through it, why our income level has decreased from Instagram or how to use Instagram to market a product?

To use Instagram, you need to be familiar with an important concept called Instagram Marketing.

Creating a Business Account

If you have a regular account with active followers and content suitable for business applications, converting a traditional version to a trading account is better. It allows you to gain business-specific account capabilities without losing your current audience.

If you still do not have an account on Instagram, follow the steps below to create it:

Create a simple account

First, install the Instagram app on your mobile device.

Please open it and click Sign Up to open the registration fields.

Enter the email address and touch Next. If you want your Instagram account linked to your business Facebook page account, use the page manager’s email or the login Facebook option.

Select your username and password and complete your account profile information.

Touch the Done button.

You now have an account that is ready to become a trading account.

Convert regular account to commercial

Follow these steps to convert a regular account to a commercial one:

Open the Instagram app and log in to your account.

Touch the icon with three lines on top of each other and select Settings from the bottom of the page to enter the settings.

Find the account section and select the Switch to Professional Account option at the bottom of the page.

Two Creator and Business options appear. Select the second option and touch the Continue button at the bottom of the page.

Select a category that fits your business type and touch the Next button.

Next, you need to add the contact information. The Instagram business account must include an email address, phone number, or current business location. After entering the mentioned information, touch the Done button.

second stage

Implement an accurate and consistent marketing strategy with Instagram

Preparing a proper and long-term plan on Instagram requires going through the following steps.

Define the target audience

• Before deciding on the type of content that should publish on Instagram, you should first identify the people who will view the content. That’s why you need to place your current audience, use social media analytics tools, get accurate information about competitors, and identify the content or services you will offer. Once you’ve identified your audience, you need to explore what kind of content your audience is interested in in that field.

Specify your purpose for using Instagram

To use Instagram properly, you need to have a clear business goal to determine your Instagram -based marketing strategy. Understanding goals prevents you from wasting your energy on lesser things. Marketing professionals use the SMART framework to identify goals. This framework includes the following concepts:

• Specific: Specific
• Measurable: Measurable and tangible
• Attainable: Realistic and achievable
• Relevant: Relevant and relevant
• Timely: Timed

When looking for an audience and marketing through Instagram, your goal should not be limited to the number of likes or increase in followers. Still, it would help if you looked for policies that are consistent with the fundamental goals of the business.

Focus on the proper performance metrics

Business performance metrics are not the same, but you should generally focus on the Customer Journey Map metrics. Simply put, your goals should be in line with one of the four stages of a customer journey. These four steps are as follows:

• Awareness indicators: refers to metrics such as brand scope, the growth rate of several followers, and the number of visits to posts.
• Interaction indicators: refers to metrics such as the amount of interaction (according to the number of likes) and the amplification rate and sharing.
• Conversion Indicators: Refers to conversion rate, click-through rate, and bounce rate metrics. If you use paid advertising, you should consider indicators such as cost-per-click or display.
• Customer Indicators: Refers to metrics based on customer actions, such as writing positive feedback.

Set a regular schedule for posting on Instagram

Note that when publishing content, you should intelligently point to the target brand to be visible to the audience and encourage them to visit the brand. Once you attract visitors, these people expect to see your posts regularly. However, it would help if you did not exaggerate in this regard or publish aimless and miscellaneous posts. It will cause the followers to drop.

When publishing posts, pay attention to two essential points, how many posts should be published each week and what hours and days are suitable for posting? It depends on the brand and the product it offers. For example, the best time to send mail is around noon in the food and beverage industry. As a general rule, posts should be published when the target audience is online.

Instagram Insights section indicates the time online of followers by day and hour by gender. To get this information, you need to click on the three-line icon of the Instagram app and select the Insights option. Then click on the Audience tab and scroll to the bottom of the page to see content similar to the one below.

Times when the chart shows taller columns are suitable for posting. After determining the best time to post, prepare a content calendar and submit content based on that.

som stage

 Optimize the profile you create

Most users enter basic information when creating a business account, but you should complete the profile for the best results. To do this, do the following:

Complete and optimize your Instagram profile description

• The Bio section of the profile page is intended to describe users or businesses but is limited to 150 characters. This section shows the first-time visitors to your page, your brand, and how your business benefits them. Marketing professionals in the bio sector use clickable hashtags, an excellent way to refer to product content. Others use appropriately optimized emojis and provide information to the audience in character. Also, to improve the readability of the text, it is better to use space and place the texts in different lines.

Use a suitable profile picture.

• The profile picture for ordinary users reflects the individual personality and information they provide. The profile picture for businesses is the symbol of their business—the same symbol used on its website. The Instagram profile picture is displayed in 110 by 110 pixels but is saved in 320 by 320 pixels. So it is better to use an image of at least 320 pixels so that if Instagram changes the profile image, you will not face any problem. Also, note that the profile picture is displayed in a circle.

Complete your Instagram profile information

Necessary fields should not be left blank to succeed in Instagram marketing. For this reason, you must complete the following:

• Name and username: The above two fields allow users to find you through a search on Instagram. Users can easily find you using the same username on all social networks. So you have to fill in these two fields carefully. It is better to use the actual brand name with various shapes.
• Website: Use the above field to link to a website, blog, active marketing campaign address, or Instagram landing page.

Use the unique features and capabilities of Instagram business profiles

When you use Instagram to improve your business, parts are enabled for your profile not available on regular accounts. These functionalities are as follows:

Contact Information: This section is for entering your email address, phone number, and business location address so that users can contact you. By adding contact information, related buttons such as (Email, Call or Get Directions for routing) appear in the profile.

• Type of business categorization: Business categorization appears under the business name on the profile page and describes the kind of services you provide to your audience.
• Call to action buttons: These buttons allow you to buy tickets and similar items through your Instagram profile. To activate these buttons and display them in the profile, you need to go to Edit Profile> Contact Options> Add an action button and select the desired button.

The figure below shows a page that has used all the features available in the Instagram business profile. The address is shown in a blue link, the category is specified, and the Shop button is used.

The fourth step

 Start sharing content

After activating the account and completing the profile in the next step, you should publish the content. Of course, note that the content posted on Instagram is different from other social networks and has its principles.

You should pay attention to the following when posting:

• Choose the suitable theme for your content: Instagram is an image-driven social network, so you need to have a unique visual identity to be effective. Content production has a specific routine for some businesses, such as clothing.
• However, if you want to advertise specific services, you should use other methods to showcase your products or services. For example, you can share customer posts marked with a particular hashtag or their comments about their services or prepare short pictures or videos from behind the scenes for business people to become familiar with it.
• Once you have chosen the suitable theme, you should publish all the posts based on a unified visual style and context. In this regard, you should use different colors, filters, and components so that the audience can easily understand which posts belong to a particular brand when browsing the Instagram feed.

Use attractive and different posts.

• Instagram users typically welcome various promotional, motivational, educational, and business posts other users post with the business. Note that the variety of positions is essential. In the long run, the repetition of a particular content will make users tired because the videos allow more information and attract more attention in terms of content. If you plan to use video, the video should be concise and valuable because Instagram usersMost users are mobile and rarely spend more than 10 to 15 seconds per post. In general, bright images perform better than dark images. A blank or white background is more effective. Images whose predominant color is closer to blue perform better than images that use red. Photographs in which contrasting textures are used are more popular with users.

Use high-quality and attractive photos.

For Instagram marketing to be effective, you have to use beautiful and unique images in the posts. Most users use a mobile phone to take pictures, allowing the image to be broadcast directly.

Pay attention to the following points when shooting:

•  Use natural light. A flashlight makes the fatter parts of the face brighter and creates less attractive shadows on the nose and cheeks. The same goes for product photography. Natural light makes shadows softer, colors more realistic, and images more beautiful.
•  Do not shoot in bright light. Late afternoon is the best time to hit. Cloudy weather is also better than clear sunny weather in the middle of the day.
•  Do not forget the rule of thirds. You can easily follow the above limitation by activating the Grid or Table feature in the phone’s camera settings. Just place the subject at one of the intersections of the table lines to get an image that looks balanced, even though the issue is not in the center.
•  Experiment with different angles. Take a photo from the bottom of the top and try different angles to get the best picture.
•  Use mobile photo editing apps like VSCOcam or Enhance, which offer more features than Instagram, to publish a professional photo.

Use the story feature in Instagram marketing.

Hundreds of millions of users view Instagram stories every day. Statistics show that 30% of people are more interested in a product or brand after seeing it in the story. Also, one-third of the most-visited stories are published by businesses. Story means story. A story is an excellent place to tell a story. This story can be objective and related to the brand or fantasy mode. Be creative with story slides and make them attractive enough for your audience to get used to watching the story over and over again.

 Instagram stories offer the following features:

• The story allows you to ask your audience to participate in a survey of goods or services or to ask them to produce content.
•  It is possible to share the content produced by the audience in the story.
•  Because the story space is not formal, it is possible to interact more with users.
•  Use the live streaming feature and communicate directly with users. Holding Q&A sessions, talking about a particular topic, or inviting a guest or influencer for an interview and posting a video in the story allows users who have not been able to watch the live broadcast to view it at the appropriate time.
•  It is also possible to save it permanently in the profile with the heart highlight icon at the bottom of the page.

Use attractive titles for posts.

• Instagram is an image-driven network, but one should not overlook the attractive titles under the posts. The tags of the posts allow storytelling that allows the images to have a special meaning.

Step Five

Try to follow activists related to your field of activity on Instagram.

Social networks cater to different interests and tastes. All you have to do is find these different tastes. One of the best ways to do this is to engage with the people and brands that are pursued by the community. Following hashtags related to your field of activity and posting comments on Instagram posts related to your work area allow you to connect with others in a friendlier way.

 Use the appropriate hashtags.

Using hashtags makes posts easier to see and find. Note that Instagram post titles do not appear in search results, but hashtags do not. When users click on a hashtag or search for it using the Instagram search section, they will see all the hashtag posts. The above technique is an excellent way to show content to people who are not following you. In addition to existing hashtags, you can create hashtags or hashtags for your brand. These hashtags represent your brand and motivate followers to share images. To improve the results obtained from the hashtags, pay attention to the following points:

•  Put your brand hashtags in the profile description section.
•  Put the most attractive hashtags at the top of the list of post hashtags to increase their chances of being seen.
• The limit on the number of hashtags per post is 30, but evaluations suggest that it is best to use 8 to 11 hashtags per post.
•  Use a variety of hashtags to make posts look better. Using different hashtags prevents your business account from being recognized as spam.

Reply to comments

• Instagram marketing is different from other social networks, and you should not be indifferent to the social dimensions of this network. For this reason, you should respond to the comments below the posts and mentions to encourage users to interact with your brand. Some robots do this, but their performance is not engaging. So it’s better to spend time responding to people.

Interact with Instagram influencers

• Influencer marketing is one of the most effective ways to reach active Instagram users. It is done by interacting with influencers whose followers are relevant to your business. Big and small brands gain a lot of followers by interacting with these people.

Use Instagram ads system.

• Instagram can attract a lot of customers to a brand. By spending a little money on the Instagram advertising system, the produced content can be available to a broader range of target audiences. While expanding the scope of access to content, Instagram ads contain call-to-action buttons so that the audience can access their website or business location in a shorter time.

Test your Instagram Shopping system

• In its sales system, Instagram offers unique capabilities to increase and facilitate the sale of approved commercial accounts. Various infrastructures such as Shapfa provide the possibility of product tags in the post and story for the brand so that the user can purchase without referring to the brand profile link. The seller can put the product tag in the center and its sticker in the story using the above feature. Then, by touching the product in the post or story, the user can receive more information and refer to the seller’s site for purchase. Simply put, this feature provides a faster and more integrated shopping cycle.

Evaluate the results and apply the changes

In this step, review the marketing results on Instagram and implement the required changes. To do this, follow these steps:

Check marketing results on Instagram using analytics tools

When you decide to use Instagram to improve your business, you need to constantly monitor the progress of the work to achieve the desired goals. In this regard, you should check the status of individual posts, ads, stories, and the general level of the Instagram business account. Many analytics tools in this area, including Instagram Analytics, can provide comprehensive information in this area (Figure below). To use the above means, you must select the three-line icon of the Instagram application on the profile page and select the Insights option. The above tool provides the following information:

•  Total number of profile visits;
•  Total number of clicks on the website link (website clicks);
• The total number of accesses (number of unique user accounts that have viewed your mail);
•  The Total Impression: (number of times the posts are considered);
•  The performance of each post, including the degree of engagement and impression;
•  A total number of views for stories.

last word

Instagram is one of the robust infrastructures many internet businesses use in marketing and sales. By preparing a comprehensive program, you will have the opportunity to turn marketing on Instagram into one of the turning points of your business or, as an active Instagram user, earn money from this social infrastructure.