How to Build a Brand on Instagram, as a Business

Your brand represents the identity and ambitions of your business. Branding isn’t exclusive to big corporations with a large reach, either. In some ways, it is more beneficial for small businesses to establish a brand that consumers can stand behind.

In order to truly build your brand, you must have an online presence. One of the best ways to do this is by using social media platforms. Platforms such as Instagram will help you promote your brand and connect with consumers. Let’s take a look at how to establish your brand and build it on Instagram.

Establishing a Brand for Your Business

The goal of establishing a brand is to create a personalized identity for your business. Consumers, employees, and business partners want to know who you are and what you stand for. By establishing a brand, you create a personality for your business that will help you build lasting relationships.

Create Your Brand

Branding goes beyond a cool logo and catchy color pallet. Your brand should appeal to your target audience. It’s your way to connect with them and meet them at a personal level. It is important for your brand’s identity, voice, and mission to all be in agreement with each other.

Your business’ success starts with you. If you’re looking to hone your internet marketing skills, then business development courses may be a great option for you. REDC at Yavapai College offers a wide variety of business and career development courses that will help you get your brand off the ground and connect with customers sooner.

Encourage Consumer Interaction

Establishing your brand will help you earn recognition from prospective consumers. This encourages consumers to pick you over a competitor. Small businesses in particular will benefit from a strong brand to help them stand out in saturated markets. When it comes to small businesses, trust is a huge factor when determining what business the consumer will choose. By having brand recognition, you create a baseline of trust with the consumer before you even interact with them.

Build Your Brand on Instagram

Instagram is a great marketing resource for small businesses to reach a large audience. It has experienced above average growth over recent years, and that isn’t expected to change anytime soon. Instagram stands out from other social media platforms, because it is highly visual. This makes it a great way to establish and build your brand.

Instagram Features

Instagram offers a ton of built-in features that you should add to your arsenal to promote your brand. Some of the features include:

• Going “live”

• Scheduled live events

• Shoppable posts

• Hashtags

• Instagram Insights

• Instagram stories

If you’re new to Instagram, you should know that it is important to differentiate your account as a business account. This will open you up to features that aren’t accessible to personal accounts. One of the most important features allows you to view the analytics of your posts. By knowing the statistics of how well your posts are doing, it will allow you to make important changes to better reach your target audience.

Strategy: Consistency is Key

The key for building your brand on any social media is posting frequently and consistently. Developing a strategy will help you create posts that resonate with your targeted audience and keep you track. When forming a strategy, it is important to keep posts creative while also staying on topic and structured.

Experiencing writer’s block? If you’re having trouble coming up with new and creative ideas, REDC at Yavapai College offers a Creativity and Innovation development course that will teach you how to think outside the box.

A great way to make sure you’re not missing posting opportunities on Instagram is to create a posting calendar. Planning and scheduling your posts will allow you to develop your brand in a controlled and methodical way. This will make sure your brand’s messaging is consistent, on topic, and focused. You should use analytics from previous posts to help tailor your future posts.

Connect With the Community

Building your brand isn’t only about you. Engaging with your followers opens up a direct line of communication with your target audience. To engage with the community on Instagram, you can:

• Comment

• Respond to follower’s comments

• Like your followers posts and comments

• Ask questions

• Connect with peers and influencers

It is important to share your social media profile on other platforms too. The goal of this is to drive followers to your Instagram page through external sources. A great way to do this is to have links to your Instagram page on other platforms and your business’ website. Having your platforms interconnected shows brand consistency, and it will help promote your brand’s visibility.

Connecting with the community on Instagram will help you build long term relationships with consumers. Getting the most out of your Instagram page involves taking part in silly trends, using trending hashtags, and actively communicating with your followers and the community.

Related: Want to stay in touch with the REDC on social media? Connect with us on our Instagram account!

Share Your Brand

Instagram is an invaluable resource to share your brand. Once you have your brand established, it’s time to share it with the world. Remember, the key to your brand’s success on Instagram is consistency. As long as your brand's messaging is clear and consistent, you should see the growth you’re hoping for.