What is Instagram Marketing

1
What is Instagram Marketing?
2
About Instagram

• Instagram has taken the world by storm since its
  launch in 2010. It seems like everybody is on the
  stage, along with their puppy. The U.S. has 130
  million Instagram users. Behind Facebook,
  Instagram is the second most-viewed network. On
  average, users browse for 53 minutes a day. On
  Instagram, at least 25 million company profiles
  exist. Instagram is no longer just for personal
  use, be it for you or your dog. It is now a
  global forum that makes it possible for brands to
  humanize their content, employ new talent,
  highlight goods, and empower their audience.
  Approximately 60 percent of the active users of
  the website visit the site daily, and 21 percent
  say they update it weekly. Instagram can also
  help you grow the popularity of your brand and
  launch fresh items. Based on what they learned on
  the site, 80 of Instagram users have made a
  purchase. Instagram helps you to advertise your
  brand and services to your customers in a fun,
  honest way without hard selling.

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How to Create an Instagram Business Account

• Its important to remember that Instagrams
  intension is for in-the-moment content before we
  start. Youll need to spend the time needed to
  post frequently to remain popular amongst your
  audience. Holding your Instagram profile up to
  date is the perfect way to keep your fans
  interested. Below, we will look into how a good
  Instagram profile can be created and maintained

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Setting Up Your Instagram Account

• You will have two options to build your account
  when you open the Instagram app, such as Log In
  with Facebook or Phone or Email Sign Up. So that
  your Instagram profile is not connected to your
  personal Facebook account, be sure to sign up
  with a business email. First, enter the
  information on your account. Enter your real
  company name under Full Name so that your profile
  is visible to tourists. This name is what is
  showing on your profile for those Twitter folks,
  its not your account username (or handle). The
  username is a name that is exclusive to your
  profile and helps your brand to connect with
  other accounts. The username of HubSpot is
  _at_HubSpot. Select a recognizable and easy-to-find
  username. Try to keep the first part of your
  business name in your username if your business
  name is stripped away. Note Later in your
  account settings, you can refresh your username,
  so dont worry if you want to change it in the
  future.

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Optimizing Your Instagram Account

• Now its time for the right profile image to be
  selected. For new guests, your profile picture is
  your first experience. Keep your image aligned
  with your branding and visual indicators for this
  purpose. Consider using the logo or another
  familiar symbol. Instagram profile images are
  cropped into a circle automatically, so leave
  space around your images corners. Next up, your
  bio from Instagram. Instagram bios have a limit
  of 150 characters, so a direct, succinct overview
  of who you are and why individuals should follow
  you is your objective here. Using a hint of
  personality, tell your audience about your
  business. Instagram bios are not searchable, so
  dont worry (which we discuss below) about
  keywords or hashtags. You may inspire users to
  take a particular action in your bio, such as
  using a particular hashtag or visiting your
  website. The only location where you can feature
  a clickable URL and push traffic to an external
  site in your bio. For this reason, updating their
  featured URL to conform with their most recent
  post is popular for companies. Be sure to use a
  link shortener like HubSpots Tracking URL
  builder or a tool such as Bitly, Goo.gl, or
  Linktr.ee to prevent your profile from looking
  cluttered if you plan to add a link. Tracking
  URLs also helps to better understand the amount
  of traffic to your website. For future changes,
  to change your photo, name, username, bio, and
  URL, click the Edit Profile button on your
  profile.

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Managing Your Instagram Settings

• Finally, lets review your settings for the
  account. In the upper right-hand corner of your
  profile, click the three stacked lines, and at
  the bottom of the window, click Settings. (Youll
  see a few connexions under your username, which
  well discuss below.) Youll be able to do things
  like changing your password inside your settings,
  see posts you like, allow notifications, and much
  more. Here are a few things you can immediately
  find out. Story settings, where you can monitor
  who your Instagram stories can see and answer to
  (which were addressing below). To improve brand
  interaction, we suggest allowing all your
  followers to see and respond to your posts. To
  access your Story Controls from your settings,
  click Privacy gt Story. (This can also be reached
  when posting a story by clicking on the gear icon
  in the top left corner.)

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Switch to a Professional Account

• Switching to a Professional Account enables you
  to define as a business profile your profile. The
  Business Tools role of Instagram makes it easy
  for users to reach you, gives you in-depth
  insights, and helps you to promote your content.
  Your company must have a Facebook business page
  to turn to an Instagram business profile. To
  access these features from your settings, select
  Account gt Turn to Professional Account. Choose
  this setting to turn to a business profile, log
  on to Facebook, and allow Instagram to manage
  your accounts. To link to your Instagram profile,
  pick a Facebook page. (To connect the two
  networks, you have to be a Facebook page
  administrator.) Instagram automatically imports
  related information for you to edit from your
  Facebook profile. You now have a company profile
  on Instagram. Be sure to review your insights and
  account settings for your profile!

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Private Account

• Instagram will automatically make your profile
  public, and we do not suggest changing it! As a
  brand, without any barriers, you would want users
  to see your posts and follow your brand. Tap
  Privacy gt Account Privacy in your settings and
  make sure that its disabled. Comments, which
  allows you to use certain keywords or phrases to
  conceal comments. To do this, you must enter into
  your Instagram settings the specific words and
  phrases and turn on the feature. Its exciting
  and rewarding to receive feedback, but that
  feedback can go against brand values or annoy
  your audience. To change these, press Privacy gt
  Comments under your settings

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Adding Additional Instagram Accounts

• Adding additional Instagram accounts, where you
  can add up to five accounts without logging in
  and out, and move between them. This role also
  allows you to log multiple individuals into an
  account at one time. Click the Add Account button
  at the bottom of your settings to add an account.
  Enter the account username and password that you
  would like to include. To switch between
  accounts, go to your profile, and, at the top of
  the page, tap your username. Choose the account
  to which you want to turn.

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Types of Instagram Posts

• Its time to begin posting amazing content now
  that youve built and configured your Instagram
  account. You can post many types of content,
  including images, videos, and stories, using
  Instagram. Lets talk about the various forms of
  Instagram posts and some best practices to
  encourage interaction.

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Images

• A picture post is the most prevalent post on
  Instagram. Share several photos when sharing
  pictures. The variety will illustrate that your
  brand is versatile and will involve your
  supporters in numerous ways. It is also important
  to note that Instagram users, not overt ads, are
  searching for authentic posts from brands. With
  lifestyle shots and behind-the-scenes looks, aim
  to capture the corporate culture. Avoid sharing
  too many pictures of your brand.

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Behind-the-Scenes Posts

• These posts give a peek into the part of your
  organization that people usually dont see. They
  mustnt look staged-authenticity is necessary!

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Reposts From Employees

• Great content can be right in front of you on
  the Instagrams of your employees. (Just be sure
  to tag or credit the original poster.) Reposting
  images from your employees is a simple way to
  curate authentic content and humanize your brand.
  Your audience will not only interact with your
  brand, but they will begin to bond with your
  employees as well.

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Educational Posts

• Snackable tips on how to do or make anything are
  offered by educational blogs. Typically, the
  images or videos show the instructions in a way
  that is quick and simple to follow.

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Influencer Posts

• To endorse your brand, influencer posts use the
  fame of a celebrity or a well-known public
  figure. A picture of the influencer using or
  engaging with your product is also included in
  these articles. Gaining the focus of another
  viewer is one of the key advantages of influencer
  articles.

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Motivational Posts

• A motivational post blends a simple image with a
  quotation or uplifting text that is superimposed.
  These posts support your audience and amplify the
  values of your brand. Try to post these sparingly
  while being effective, to avoid looking cheesy.
  Apps such as Quipio and Typic will help you add
  text to images in a way that is compliant with
  the guidelines for your brand.

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User-Generated Content

• User-generated content (UGC), similar to employee
  reposts, is curated content from the fans and
  followers. An excellent source for UGC is your
  tagged posts and posts with your brand hashtag.
  Not only does posting the images of your fans and
  supporters make the original poster feel
  comfortable, but it also shows that you care for
  your customers. Only make sure the original
  article is credited with a tag or in the caption.
  To repost user-generated content, screenshot and
  crop the original post or use a reposting
  software like Repost for Instagram.

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Newsjacking (Trending Holiday Posts)

• User-generated content (UGC), similar to employee
  reposts, is curated content from the fans and
  followers. An excellent source for UGC is your
  tagged posts and posts with your brand hashtag.
  Not only does posting the images of your fans and
  supporters make the original poster feel
  comfortable, but it also shows that you care for
  your customers. Only make sure the original
  article is credited with a tag or in the caption.
  To repost user-generated content, screenshot and
  crop the original post or use a reposting
  software like Repost for Instagram.

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Capturing and Editing Instagram Photos

• Now that weve studied what you can post on
  Instagram, lets look at some ways to ensure that
  your content is successful. Instagrams
  simplistic profile layout, unlike other social
  media sites, forces you to concentrate on the
  quality of content not the quantity. Although
  this is perfect for interaction, it also implies
  that bad content will not be concealed. To use
  high-resolution images on your Instagram stream,
  do your very best. 1080 x 1080px should be square
  pictures. Landscape photos should be 1080 x
  566px, and 1350 x 1080px should be profile
  photos. Regardless of what size you upload, in
  your profile feed, every picture will be
  displayed as a square

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How to Take a Great Photo With Your Smartphone

• The technology of the phone camera has become so
  advanced that it now challenges thousand-dollar
  cameras. Here are some tips for driving the
  creation of followers and Instagram interaction.
  Switch on the lines of your camera grid to
  instantly boost your picture composition. At the
  intersection of one set of vertical and
  horizontal lines, aim to position your subject.
• In each frame, you come across a single subject.
  By cropping them out or finding a clean backdrop
  to aim against, eliminate distractions.
• The space around your subject is a negative
  space. Leaving negative space around your subject
  will attract attention to your images desired
  emphasis and stop it from appearing crowded.
• People are accustomed from eye level to seeing
  the globe. Use shots from various angles to
  produce fun and fresh images. To catch a birds
  eye view or a worms eye view, change your
  shooting perspective. To discover different
  perspectives on familiar sights, play with
  distinct angles.
• The human eye is drawn to symmetrical shapes and
  objects naturally. Its better to break the rule
  of thirds occasionally and focus the scene in
  your frame. Another more precise type of symmetry
  that draws the eye into the picture is leading
  lines. People are attracted to patterns as well.
  A design, such as a tiled floor, or natural,
  could be created by man, such as petals on a
  flower or vines on a wall. Break up the pattern
  with your subject to make it very interesting.
• Use gentle, natural light wherever possible to
  prevent this from occurring. Try taking pictures
  next to a window, and the half-hour just before
  sunset and after sunrise also provides the most
  striking lighting for outdoor shots, when the sun
  is low on the horizon.

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How to Add Filters and Edit Photos

• It only takes a few minutes to edit images and
  can have a huge effect on the quality. Editing
  images is very easy, thanks to Instagrams
  built-in tools and philters. To make the picture
  of your homemade lunch look like a culinary
  masterpiece, follow these tips. Start with a
  great photo (using our tips above) first. If they
  have poor composition or lighting, no amount of
  editing will repair the images. To edit a
  picture, consider using other applications.
  Snapseed is free editing software that allows you
  to apply, as well as change brightness, contrast,
  and saturation, effects such as HDR and tonal
  contrast. With various free philters that mimic
  common film stocks, VSCO is also another common
  editing app.

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Videos

• You can also post videos on Instagram, as long as
  they are a minute or less in length. You can
  download videos that have been professionally
  edited from your computer or videos that you have
  edited from a smartphone app. Splice is a free
  editing app that allows you to cut together
  several clips and add transitions, names, and
  music. Instagram videos are played without sound
  by default. Because of this, make sure that no
  sound is required to understand at least the
  first few seconds of your images. You can turn
  the sound on with your caption or prompt viewers.

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Boomerangs

• Open your Instagram and press the camera icon on
  your home screen in the upper left-hand corner.
  This is the in-app camera. By swiping right on
  the phone, you can do this, too. On the bottom,
  note the settings. You can note that the first
  set to the right is Boomerang, which takes three
  seconds to play forward and backward looping
  images. Boomerangs make it possible to put a
  quirky twist on a typical video. Using a burst of
  photos and stitching them together for a short,
  repetitive video, Boomerangs were made. For
  situations like jumping, toasting cups, or
  high-fiving, these kinds of posts are fun. To
  have a separate place to catch boomerang images,
  you can also download Instagrams Boomerang app.

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Hyperlapse

• Have you got a video for Instagram thats too
  long? Check out Instagrams Hyperlapse, which
  enables you to condense long videos into shorter,
  post-able content. With built-in stabilization,
  it produces smooth, time-lapse images. Download
  the app and grant it access to your camera to
  make your Hyperlapse videos. To stop and resume
  your recordings, tap the circle once. You can
  select a replay speed of between 1x and 12x once
  youre finished recording. To upload later, save
  the final Hyperlapse video to your camera roll.

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Instagram Stories

• Instagram Stories allow users to post without
  overposting and clogging your main feed at a
  higher frequency. Stories typically feature
  less-polished images and videos that are more
  organic. Your Instagram story disappears after 24
  hours, like Snapchat Tales. Stories are all about
  genuineness. Use the function to give your brand
  a look behind the scenes or highlight the culture
  of your company. Will you have an office thats
  dog-friendly? Post your story with pictures and
  videos of the dogs. Stories are also a useful
  tool to highlight live events held or attended by
  your organization, as this role is far more
  time-sensitive.

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How to Post to Your Instagram Story

• Instagram provides three posting options for your
  story. In the upper left corner, you can tap the
  camera, tap Your Story above your feed, or just
  swipe right to reach the camera. Type Generates
  a post with text
• Music Match a music video of your choosing to a
  photo or video
• Live Captures and publishes live videos for
  your fans to watch on Instagram
• Superzoom Applies a zoom animation to a frame
• Focus Concentrates on a subject and blurs the
  meaning
• Hands-Free Allows video to be recorded without
  holding the record button
• The thunderbolt icon controls the flash, like
  your standard phone camera, and the arrow icon
  changes the view of the camera between the front
  and the forward side. The app has recently
  introduced philters that you can reach by tapping
  the smiling face next to the arrow icon (like on
  Snapchat).

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Instagram Story Highlights

• In the tiny circles under an Instagram biography,
  you will find the Instagram story highlights.
  Story Highlights are a brilliant way to present
  your best stories and add them to your account
  for your fans to see semi-permanently. They are
  also useful ways to display goods, programs,
  promotions, and more, as links to external sites
  can be included in your highlights. Instagram
  Story Highlights can also act as a sort of menu.
  Many Instagram companies use Story Highlights to
  share their working hours, new deals or sales,
  information about team members or shop locations,
  footage behind the scenes, and more. The app also
  allows you to add highlight covers to demonstrate
  your story highlights and keep your profile
  on-brand (at 2000 x 2000 px and an aspect ratio
  of 11).

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Instagram Live

• Instagram has a live video feature, as we talked
  about above, which allows you to share content in
  real-time. Open the Instagram camera to start a
  live video stream, swipe to the Live environment,
  and then press the Start Live Video button. If
  you initiate the live video, a notification that
  youre life will be sent to any followers
  currently on the app. Using the built-in chat
  feature, live viewers can also comment on the
  live video. To highlight entertaining, real-time
  material or engaging moments such as QAs or
  disclosures, the live video should be used
  sparingly.

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IGTV

• Instagram TV, or IGTV, is the newest video
  offering for Instagram. Users will view
  long-form, vertical videos from Instagram owners,
  available to watch via the Instagram app, or the
  standalone IGTV app. Think videos for cooking,
  celebrity interviews, product reviews, and
  tutorials This is usually the material youll
  find on IGTV. Between Instagram Live and IGTV,
  whats the difference? IGTV uploads videos,
  giving users the ability to edit their video and
  fine-tune it.  To start posting, download the
  IGTV app, create a channel, and upload a
  15-second-to-10-minute video. Verified accounts
  will make videos run for up to an hour. 

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Hashtags

• On Twitter, hashtags have taken over. Hashtags
  refer to keywords or phrases of keywords which
  are spelled without spaces and prefaced with a
  symbol of a pound (). In general, they are used
  to reference activities, gatherings, pop culture,
  television, or recurrent themes and are a perfect
  way to make the content more accessible.
  Hashtags, originally popularised by Twitter, are
  now on numerous social networks.

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Instagram Marketing Strategy

• On any social media site, several organizations
  feel forced to be present and they forget about
  strategy. Dont make a mistake here. Since
  Instagram is very distinct from other common
  social media, a separate marketing strategy is
  needed. Start creating your brands distinctive
  style here.
• 1. Set your goals for Instagram
• Ask yourself (or your team) one question before
  you begin posting on Instagram Why are you on
  Instagram? As common as the site is, the response
  should not be, because everyone else is. To
  be successful in the long run on Instagram, you
  need to have a defined objective and objectives
  so that the time, energy, and monetary commitment
  can be justified. Here, there is no right answer.
  You may want to use your Instagram feed, like
  Anthropologie, to post and sell your goods to
  customers.
• 2. Determine your Instagram audience.
• Before you begin marketing on Instagram, decide
  the audience you want to enter. If you have other
  marketing techniques in place, to keep your
  efforts consistent, draw on those. Dont forget
  to consider variables such as age, location,
  gender, income, desires, motives, and points of
  pain. Dont you know where you should start?
  Monitor common events and hashtags of interest
  relating to your company. See who uses and
  communicates with these hashtags and look at
  their profiles. You should also take a look at
  the followers of your rivals. Instagram makes
  identifying your audience simple.

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• 3. Conduct a competitive analysis.
• Do a comparative study to see what other
  advertisers in your industry are posting after
  you assess your Instagram audience. Start by
  analyzing their Instagram profiles if you already
  know your top competitors. If not, to find
  similar accounts, look for words specific to your
  company and industry. To see what posts are
  getting the highest interaction, what common
  hashtags they are using, what their captions are,
  how often they post, and how quickly they are
  rising, perform a fast audit of related accounts.
  When you begin growing your account, this data
  will serve as a benchmark. When auditing the
  material of your rivals, take note of any
  possibilities they may have overlooked. The
  addition of unique content to the mix would help
  your organization stand out from the rest.
• 4. Configure an editorial calendar.
• On average, on Instagram, brands post about six
  photos a week which is over 300 posts a year!
  At that pace, keeping track of what you need to
  post and whats already posted can be hard.
  Creating an editorial calendar will help save you
  time and control your presence on Instagram. With
  some Instagram post forms listed earlier, fill in
  your calendar and schedule your captions,
  hashtags, and posting times in advance.   Your
  editorial calendar is also a perfect way to
  document any important events to highlight, such
  as new product releases or promotional deals, on
  your Instagram account. With an editorial
  calendar, instead of scrambling for last-minute
  articles, you can keep an eye out for real-time
  opportunities.
• 5. Build a consistent brand on Instagram.
• Your audience is confused by random or disjointed
  content which can cause you to lose followers.
  Maintain a clear brand aesthetic on your
  Instagram account to avoid this. Determine what
  this looks like by thinking about the personality
  of your brand. What are your principles as a
  brand? How will your brand be described by your
  clients and staff? Bold, playful, rough, or
  adventurous, are you? The brand personality of
  Apartment Therapy is light, clean, and
  structured, and all three of those
  characteristics are reflected in its account.
  Ideally, brand aesthetics make the brand
  identifiable, ensuring that anyone will see the
  image in their feed and recognize its yours
  immediately without seeing the name.
• 6. Grow your Instagram follower base.
• It takes significant time and energy to grow your
  following. You could be tempted to go the easy
  way out and buy supporters dont do this!
  Buying followers wont drive interaction, which
  is really what you need to make sure that your
  posts are seen. (Also, recent API updates to
  Instagram will delete those followers
  automatically!)
• 7. Convert your Instagram followers into
  customers.
• You can start turning those followers into paying
  customers once you create a dedicated follower
  base. Here are several techniques.

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TIPS TO CONVERT YOUR INSTAGRAM FOLLOWERS INTO
CUSTOMERS

• Promotions For your Instagram audience,
  promotions, discounts, BOGOs, and other offers
  are a fantastic way to boost first-time sales. To
  receive the bid, be sure to include what your
  followers need to do and mention a deadline to
  build a sense of urgency.
• Contests What better way than making them try
  your product to make somebody a customer? Run
  contests that involve anyone with a hashtag to
  follow your account or post to join.
• Charity 81 of millennials want corporations to
  contribute to charity publicly. Doing so can
  develop brand affinity and help turn consumers
  into followers. Gap has collaborated with the
  Global Fund, for instance, to help fight AIDS in
  Africa. It has helped raise over 130 million
  since 2006.
• Teasers Before theyre available, Instagram is a
  great place to offer your audience insights into
  new items. Although you dont want to flood the
  feeds of your followers with just product images,
  a few pictures will generate excitement.
• Live Launches  Consider using Instagram Live to
  showcase a new product or service. Then, drive
  users to buy by providing a connexion to buy in
  your bio.

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Instagram Analytics

• Instagram, like Facebook, does not have an
  integrated, in-depth analytics platform yet.
  You get access to some restricted analytics when
  you move to a Business Account, such as the
  growth of followers, views, scope, and
  interaction. Access these by clicking below your
  uploaded images and videos on the View Insights
  choice. Via Facebooks Ad Manager, you can also
  monitor Instagram views, spending, and
  interaction on ad campaigns. These metrics, while
  helpful, are restricted to individual posts and
  campaigns. Using third-party tools, you can view
  more in-depth Instagram metrics. Iconosquare and
  Simply Calculated allow you to monitor additional
  metrics over time, optimum post time based on
  previous posts, and performance relative to
  selected competitors, such as followers and
  interaction. While both platforms require you to
  pay to use them, to see if their analytics
  solutions are right for you, you can start with a
  free trial. Depending on your objectives, the
  individual metrics that you monitor on Instagram
  can vary, but you can still keep an eye on
  interaction (likes and comments) and your number
  of followers over time. Your account will slowly
  gain followers and interest if you are posting
  useful material. If you have the budget for more
  in-depth analytics tools or not, track these
  simple metrics to ensure that your account
  develops and performs well.

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Instagram Marketing Helps You Grow Better

• There is no denying Instagrams strength and
  scope, with 700 million monthly active users.
  What used to be a simple picture sharing app has
  become an interactive social experience that
  enables users to discover the visual identity of
  an organization. High-quality content is
  respected by Instagram users. Build graphics that
  provide insightful insight for your audience or
  highlight your brand in a fresh, creative way.
  Optimize the material by writing fun and engaging
  captions. It can seem daunting to build and
  sustain a website that captures the visual
  identity of your brand, but Instagram makes it
  fun and simple. To make the most of your
  Instagram marketing campaign, follow our guide,
  and get motivated.