#36 - HOW INSTAGRAM CAN HELP YOUR BUSINESS (BACK TO BASICS)

As we all know, Instagram as the popular app known for taking photos of your smashed avo and healthy chia smoothie (#foodporn #fitnessinspo) as well as the endless hours of scrolling through people feeds, realising 2 hours later, you've been stalking your best friends boyfriend's cousin's dog's profile...oops.

Instagram has proven to be a powerful marketing tool for businesses looking to expand their presence and the visibility of their products and what's the best part? It's completely FREE! So if you have not jumped on the Insta bandwagon yet, you may be doing your business a great disservice.

But the good thing is, it's never too late to jump on! 

We've written up some quick and easy steps to get your Instagram account up and happening from a business point of view. 

First, let's bring it back to the basics:
It's crazy how many Instagram accounts we see that don't have the basics in place, and therefore wont be providing any benefit to the owner!
Here's a checklist to make sure your Insta account has before you do anything else:
  • START: Make a profile for your business! BOOM. It's ok to promote your business page from your personal one to get more followers, but don't use one account for both your personal life and business. A customer looking for services you provide doesn’t need (or want) to see you having that 8th margarita at that hens do. It isn’t relevant to what they are after and may even turn them off. It also means you can follow an aesthetic or feel for the page. (no matter how good your dancing is in the Boomerang video!)
  • NAME: Have an insta with a name and feel that is fitting to your product/service. People should be able to work out from the name the gist of what it is you offer. This can be hard with lots of people being on insta but keep at it! Get creative! If you do Lash extensions you don't need to necessarily have to have 'lashes' in the name, but maybe something like “eye beauty”, etc that can fit around this 
  • PHOTOS: Duh! Get your work up there! When people land on your page they should be able to determine quickly what it is about. So having lots of pictures of your work is a great start. That way people know what you offer, and also the quality of your work.
  • YOUR SERVICE: List what services you provide. People need to know what you offer! 
  • ADDRESS/LOCATION: If someone is looking for lash techs in their suburb and they land on your page with no address then they will just keep looking as the page could be for services in their neighbourhood, another city or Narnia! There is no way of knowing so they will just keep looking til they find one close that does what they want. 
  • CONTACT NUMBER: Or at least another way to get in contact with you other than insta. People especially like to txt about services as its convenient. If you dont want to list your number you could get a cheap phone on another plan just for your business.
  • HOURS OF CONTACT: This helps stop people getting annoyed you haven’t replied to their 2:14am message asking about lash appointments.
  • LINKS: If you have a website or any other links that you'd like to direct your clients to, post it in the blurb so people can see your services, prices etc etc.
  • POST: Post those pretty pics! Insta is all about the aesthetic. Have a look around at other pages you love (doesn't have to even be lashes related) and are inspired by and see what type of theme they go with. Then spend a little time getting the lighting and angles right as it make all the difference! You could also invest in a camera that takes good close up photos.
Here's an example of an account we like (both the person and the account!).                  
 
 
You can see that straight away its got a good catchy name that immediately tells you what its about (taking photos - ie a photographer), its also got the name of the photographer which makes it personable.
Just from this blurb and profile pic you already have a pretty good feel for the type of photos she’s takes; fun, quirky, arty/music-y photos.
It has a link to her website and Gmail so its easy to find more info if you want it.
It has the location! For a photographer they can move around easier than a lash tech so it doesn’t necessarily need to have the suburb too, although id recommend you put in a suburb.

 

You know have the basics!! So what are you waiting for?! 

GO GET IT!! 🔥🔥🔥