According to studies, 67% of the world’s top brands actively use Instagram as a marketing tool. From Taco Bell and Pizza Hut to Ford and General Electric, these brands have built a devoted following on the photo-based social media platform. Here are some ways that you can follow in their footsteps:

1. Show, Don’t Tell.

Sometimes it’s difficult to get your audience to engage with text, especially if that text is more than 140 characters long. Fortunately, a picture is worth a thousand words, and Instagram proves that. Pictures are much more likely to engage a potential customer or client than words ever could, particularly a picture with a great, vintage filter.

2. Share the real you.

Customers like to know that your company isn’t just a faceless corporation that it’s run by real people who care about their work and their products. And what better way to show them than by giving them a look behind the scenes? Fun photos of a day at the office, a smiling co-worker, even a silly coffee mug, are often enough to build a level of trust between your potential customer and you. And don’t forget to engage! Comment on your photos and reply to others to show that you are interested in their feedback.

3. Tag it!

With 30 hashtags permitted per photo post, there’s a lot more room to describe what’s going on in your image than on, say, Twitter and, as such, you can spread the love much further by appealing to customers with a huge variety of interests. For example, if you own a restaurant and you upload a photo of this week’s special dish, not only can you tag it with #foodie for the food junkies and #pasta for fans of Italian food, but with #vegan or #glutenfree for those with special dietary restrictions looking for a new place to eat out. You can even tag the photo with your location to attract locals, for example #NYC or #LA.

It’s time to jump on the bandwagon.  Start an Instagram for your business today and see your patronage soar.  So what are you waiting for?

Okay, we know what you are waiting for.  You know that a steady social media presence will be highly beneficial to your business, but you are already overwhelmed with 78 1/2 other things to do in the next 20 minutes.  So how can you learn how to do this right, and then commit to staying consistent, day in and day out?

Relax. Schedule a time to chat with us, and we’ll show you how we can take away all that stress. You can get all the benefits of a high-level social media presence – with none of the overwhelm.  NONE!

We look forward to chatting with you.