How to use Instagram to build your company's reputation

One question many marketers have today is how to build your corporate reputation on Instagram? How can you build a good employer brand to make your business attractive to job seekers, other businesses and customers? It is, after all, a potential range of 800 million people. 

Most people have seen how some of the world's greatest superstars perform on Instagram. You can read about sky-high records of likes, comments and shares. Their profiles have millions of followers and a huge potential for reaching out to, and impact, their followers.

It may be easier said than done and requires some work in order for you to be successful. Here are our tips on how to get started with Instagram for your company. 

3 tips on how to build your corporate reputation on Instagram

1. Tailor the content to your personas 

If you already work with inbound, this will be no secret to you: Personas are key to reaching out to the people you want to attract. Your buyer persona (or several of them) are your "virtual" friends that you know are interested in your company and what you have to deliver.

Your very first step should, therefore, be to define the personas you want to reach out to on Instagram. This way, you’ll quickly identify what will be relevant to share and what kind of content your persona isn’t interested in. By doing this, you’ll see that your target audience finds you – not just the other way around.

If you tailor your content to your personas, you’ll be able to offer them the content they want whenever they want it. This will to a greater extent guarantee you attention, more likes and followers. 

2. Photos and videos are your currency 

What is Instagram, if not pictures?

Start by creating your company logo as a 110x110 round image. You can use this as a profile image for your corporate Instagram account to create added value.

Furthermore, the quality of the images and a consistency between the images will be essential for Instagram success. Due to "the mere exposure effect" (we humans like things that are familiar), it will be worth your time focusing on keeping the content consistent. Lack of this in your photos and videos can be fatal – harsh but true.

Although images have played a huge role in our lives for many many years, Instagram Stories, which came in 2016, opened up to a whole new level for engaging and connecting with followers and customers.

Instagram Stories are now a strong rival to SnapChat with more than 250 million users. By using this tool, you can let your followers come closer to your business and make the user experience more personal.

If you use quality images and videos with topic tags and location features at the same time, you will be able to spread your message wider and get promoted on the “explore page”, topic pages and location pages.

3. Open up for the ability to link pictures and videos 

You should aim to get over 10,000 followers for your company. Why? Because this opens up the opportunity to link images and videos. The links can be placed in your company's "Bio", under pictures or directly on videos.

By placing links in videos you will be able to optimise your user experience by making the experience more seamless and providing a valuable way forward for your audience. You do not need to place the actual link on the video, but rather hyperlink words that fit in and are more subtle.

Likewise, you also have the opportunity to give the followers a unique opportunity for immediate actions by either clicking on your links or swiping up to get directly to the page they want to see.

A hot tip would be to use these kind of features to offer your audience some added value or as Instagram expert Hilary Rushford once said: "Give them some Champagne for coming to your profile and following you". Take the opportunity to get that email address in exchange for a glass of Champagne by linking to a landing page with a form.

In other words: it is absolutely possible to build the corporate reputation on Instagram in the same style as superstars. However, do keep in mind that such results don’t come overnight. It will require you following a strategic process on a consistent basis.  

Therefore, start implementing the necessary activities and wait patiently for the followers to come. Good luck!