Business

How to Use Instagram to Increase Brand Reach?

Published

3 years ago

February 14, 2022

Today, Instagram has over 1 billion active monthly users. Can you imagine how your brand would be popular by reaching all those people? As a marketer, you need to explore all tools that expand your reach. With that huge number of followers, Instagram presents you with a big marketing opportunity to reach your potential buyers.

With over 500 million Instagram followers use Instagram stories every day. Besides, the users spend about an average of 28 minutes on the platform daily. To stay relevant to your current Instagram followers, you have to post the right content. Valuable Instagram stories and reels will help attract more followers to your platform.

While it may be hard to determine the posts that work best, you can use the tips below to reach a greater audience on Instagram. The more followers engage with your brand content, the more likely you will convert them into loyal customers. But ensure to post engaging content. You can create brand videos that your Instagram followers can not skip using a video maker.

Easy Ways to Boost Your Instagram Brand Reach

Understand and Use Hashtags

Your brand hashtags can go viral within a short time, which increases engagement. If you want even those, who are not your followers to see your photos and Instagram reels, ensure to use hashtags. That helps expose your content to a larger audience, making your brand popular.

When using Instagram, you do not mind the number of hashtags to use. Hashtag stuffing is allowed on Instagram, unlike other platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter. Therefore, you should be afraid to upload any relevant hashtags that your target audience might follow.

With Instagram, you can add to 30 hashtags per photo. On the other hand, you are free to use about ten hashtags on Instagram stories. Among the benefits you will enjoy using hashtags are strengthened brand image and uniquely reaching your target audience.

Be Consistent in Posting

You will achieve great results with your marketing campaigns through consistent messaging. And that is true even in growing your Instagram audience. Research indicates that Instagram users with huge followers post 3-7 times a week. That shows that you have to increase posting frequency to gain more followers and reach more audiences for your brand.

Instagram allows you to post different content types. Today, even if you want to post videos, you can create them quickly through an online video maker. Whatever content your followers love, make sure you upload it consistently. Many people come online to look for solutions, and you should not keep them waiting for long.

While consistency is vital, do not post low-quality content to maintain consistency. Quality is paramount if you want to attract more followers to watch your Instagram stories and engage with your brand content. Make sure to post what your audience wants to watch and read.

Host Photo Contests

Everyone would love to win a reward. An Instagram contest helps to grow your audience. You only need to plan and implement a photo contest, and you will bring more followers to your site, engage them and expose your brand. However, ensure your reward is good enough to attract participants.

You can begin a contest with specific hashtags dedicated to your contest. That will make it easy for your followers or non-followers to enter a contest. Hashtags make it easier for you to manage the contest. As you conduct the contest, request visitors to comment and tag their friends to join the contest. Doing that will increase your contest’s reach and brand reach, which helps create awareness about your brand.

Use Instagram videos

When using Instagram, you can connect with users beyond static pictures. Every internet user wants to watch something. And through Instagram videos, you can reach a rare audience for your brand. Instagram allows live videos and IGTV, which helps deliver your content to many online viewers. With a good video maker like InVideo, you can easily craft attractive Instagram videos.

While videos are popular, you still have room to grow with increasing demand. You can be sure to be ahead of the curve using video on your Instagram as it becomes mainstream. Videos will help gain website traffic and create brand awareness for millions of people watching online. However, you should ensure to post the most engaging Instagram reels to capture viewers’ attention to click your site.

Find Your Community

Have you begun building your Instagram following? You can improve your brand reach further by exploring the existing communities on social networking platforms. Instagram has groups out there who have an interest in anything. So, you can easily connect with them.

Once you find communities relevant to your brand, you can appeal to them by posting great Instagram reels and images. When looking for the right Instagram community, ensure to pay attention to influencers, tactics used to engage the followers, and hashtags. That helps to reach the right audience for your brand. What is more, joining such online groups widens your brand reach on Instagram.

Cross-Promote Your Posts

After creating engaging Instagram brand content, you can share it on other social platforms. Whether you are engaging on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter, you may encourage your followers to check what you post on Instagram. That way, you have a chance of grabbing more of their attention.

Though you do not copy and paste all your Facebook followers into your Instagram, it can help boost your Instagram following. Remember, many online users incline towards social media groups with a huge following. And posting your Facebook followers into an Instagram account gives you an initial boost that acts as social proof.

You may also share your popular Instagram reels and photos with your followers on other social platforms. That increases exposure to your brand content. However, you should share every post. Only use it as a way to draw attention to vital posts that convince more followers who see your brand to be part of your fan base.

Importance of Timing

When do you post on your Instagram? That matters a lot as you seek to enhance greater audience reach for your brand. The number of comments and likes your Instagram stories or pictures get right after posting will determine if Instagram pushes your post higher in the feed for your followers to see.

So, you need to spot the right time to post on your Instagram. Even if you do not have a business account, Instagram insights enable you to know when your followers are more active. Then, you can upload your content for the audience to engage with.

Conclusion

Instagram provides a fantastic way to interact with your audience and enhance brand reach. Ensure to create the right posts that engage your followers and influence them. The tips outlined above will help promote your brand and enhance your marketing efforts. That way, you will win more followers and convert them into customers.

Business

Japan’s SoftBank returns to profit after gains at Vision Fund and other investments

Published

6 hours ago

November 12, 2024

Anne Joseph

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.

Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period.

Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion).

SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications.

The results were also helped by the absence of losses related to SoftBank’s investment in office-space sharing venture WeWork, which hit the previous fiscal year.

WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June.

SoftBank has benefitted in recent months from rising share prices in some investment, such as U.S.-based e-commerce company Coupang, Chinese mobility provider DiDi Global and Bytedance, the Chinese developer of TikTok.

SoftBank’s financial results tend to swing wildly, partly because of its sprawling investment portfolio that includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba, and artificial intelligence company Nvidia.

SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together in a series of Vision Funds.

The company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, is a pioneer in technology investment in Japan. SoftBank Group does not give earnings forecasts.

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Yuri Kageyama is on X:

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Business

Trump campaign promises unlikely to harm entrepreneurship: Shopify CFO

Published

7 hours ago

November 12, 2024

Anne Joseph

Shopify Inc. executives brushed off concerns that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump will be a major detriment to many of the company’s merchants.

“There’s nothing in what we’ve heard from Trump, nor would there have been anything from (Democratic candidate) Kamala (Harris), which we think impacts the overall state of new business formation and entrepreneurship,” Shopify’s chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister told analysts on a call Tuesday.

“We still feel really good about all the merchants out there, all the entrepreneurs that want to start new businesses and that’s obviously not going to change with the administration.”

Hoffmeister’s comments come a week after Trump, a Republican businessman, trounced Harris in an election that will soon return him to the Oval Office.

On the campaign trail, he threatened to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on imports from China and roughly 10 per cent to 20 per cent on goods from all other countries.

If the president-elect makes good on the promise, many worry the cost of operating will soar for companies, including customers of Shopify, which sells e-commerce software to small businesses but also brands as big as Kylie Cosmetics and Victoria’s Secret.

These merchants may feel they have no choice but to pass on the increases to customers, perhaps sparking more inflation.

If Trump’s tariffs do come to fruition, Shopify’s president Harley Finkelstein pointed out China is “not a huge area” for Shopify.

However, “we can’t anticipate what every presidential administration is going to do,” he cautioned.

He likened the uncertainty facing the business community to the COVID-19 pandemic where Shopify had to help companies migrate online.

“Our job is no matter what comes the way of our merchants, we provide them with tools and service and support for them to navigate it really well,” he said.

Finkelstein was questioned about the forthcoming U.S. leadership change on a call meant to delve into Shopify’s latest earnings, which sent shares soaring 27 per cent to $158.63 shortly after Tuesday’s market open.

The Ottawa-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported US$828 million in net income for its third quarter, up from US$718 million in the same quarter last year, as its revenue rose 26 per cent.

Revenue for the period ended Sept. 30 totalled US$2.16 billion, up from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.

Subscription solutions revenue reached US$610 million, up from US$486 million in the same quarter last year.

Merchant solutions revenue amounted to US$1.55 billion, up from US$1.23 billion.

Shopify’s net income excluding the impact of equity investments totalled US$344 million for the quarter, up from US$173 million in the same quarter last year.

Daniel Chan, a TD Cowen analyst, said the results show Shopify has a leadership position in the e-commerce world and “a continued ability to gain market share.”

In its outlook for its fourth quarter of 2024, the company said it expects revenue to grow at a mid-to-high-twenties percentage rate on a year-over-year basis.

“Q4 guidance suggests Shopify will finish the year strong, with better-than-expected revenue growth and operating margin,” Chan pointed out in a note to investors.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:SHOP)

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Business

RioCan cuts nearly 10 per cent staff in efficiency push as condo market slows

Published

7 hours ago

November 12, 2024

Anne Joseph

TORONTO – RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says it has cut almost 10 per cent of its staff as it deals with a slowdown in the condo market and overall pushes for greater efficiency.

The company says the cuts, which amount to around 60 employees based on its last annual filing, will mean about $9 million in restructuring charges and should translate to about $8 million in annualized cash savings.

The job cuts come as RioCan and others scale back condo development plans as the market softens, but chief executive Jonathan Gitlin says the reductions were from a companywide efficiency effort.

RioCan says it doesn’t plan to start any new construction of mixed-use properties this year and well into 2025 as it adjusts to the shifting market demand.

The company reported a net income of $96.9 million in the third quarter, up from a loss of $73.5 million last year, as it saw a $159 million boost from a favourable change in the fair value of investment properties.

RioCan reported what it says is a record-breaking 97.8 per cent occupancy rate in the quarter including retail committed occupancy of 98.6 per cent.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:REI.UN)

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