Instagram For Business For Dummies

Jenn Herman (jenns_trends) is a social media consultant, speaker, and globally recognized Instagram expert. Eric Butow (ericbutow) is the author of more than 30 books. Corey Walker (coreycwalker) is the owner of The Marketing Specialist in El Dorado Hills, California.

Introduction 1


About This Book 1


Foolish Assumptions 2


Icons Used in This Book 2


Beyond the Book 3


Where to Go from Here 3


Part 1: Creating Your Profile 5


Chapter 1: Installing Instagram 7


Moving Instagram to the Launch Pad 8


Installing on a Computer 9


Installing on a Windows PC (sort of) 9


Installing on a Mac (sort of) 11


Installing on Instagram’s Native Platform 13


Installing on an iPhone 13


Installing on an iPad 14


Instagram Has Android Covered, Too 15


No App? No Problem: Instagram Is on the Web 16


Starting to Gram Instantly 18


Starting Instagram on a computer 19


Starting Instagram on a mobile device 20


Chapter 2: Setting Up Your Profile 21


Professional Profile Practices 21


Choosing a name and username for your business 22


Choosing a profile photo that attracts customers 25


Writing a Bio That Draws in Followers 26


Deciding what information to include 26


Formatting your bio 28


Using a call to action to drive website traffic 29


Choosing a website link that encourages clicks 30


Taking Advantage of a Business Profile Upgrade 31


Connecting to a Facebook page 32


Navigating your business profile 33


Chapter 3: Hitting Your Target Audience 35


Organizing Your Marketing Goals and Roles 36


Assembling your Instagram team 36


Determining your brand voice 37


Envisioning your look 38


Gathering Post Ideas 41


Researching your competition 41


Determining post content 43


Creating a content calendar 44


Evaluating third-party scheduling and analytics platforms 46


Part 2: Creating Your Narrative 49


Chapter 4: Taking and Posting Great Photos 51


Taking Your Best Shot 52


Improving Your Best Shot 53


Applying a filter 53


Tweaking with the editing tools 55


Saving your changes (or not) 58


Enriching Your Photo 59


Describing your photo 59


It’s good to have options 60


Posting Your Photos: Ta Da! 63


Uploading Photos from Your Camera Roll 63


Uploading Multiple Photos to One Post 65


Selecting multiple photos 65


Applying filters and adding photos 66


Editing photos individually 67


Adding information and sharing your photos 67


Chapter 5: Recording and Posting Great Videos 69


Recording Your Day 70


Filming with a smartphone or tablet 70


Recording multiple video clips 72


Deleting video clips 72


Checking out your video 73


Improving Your Video 73


Applying a filter 74


Changing the cover frame 74


Adding details 75


Posting Your Video 75


Uploading a Stored Video 76


Uploading Multiple Videos from an iPhone or iPad 77


Part 3: Planting Your Garden 79


Chapter 6: Commenting and Direct Messaging 81


Before You Share, Stop and Think 81


Sharing on Other Social Media Sites 82


Copying and pasting a link to another social network 83


Embedding your photo or video on a web page 83


Sending Photos and Videos Privately 86


Replying to a direct message by sending a photo 86


Starting a new conversation by sending a photo 87


Starting a new text conversation and adding a photo 88


Resuming a previous conversation 89


Garnering Comments 90


Including a caption 90


Mentioning your followers 90


Reviewing Your Comments 91


Deciding to respond or delete 92


Reporting Commenters When All Else Fails 94


Reporting a commenter 95


Blocking a commenter 96


Chapter 7: Finding People to Follow 97


Where Are My Peeps? 98


Finding your Facebook friends 98


Syncing your contact list 99


Finding New Friends 100


Exploring the Explore function 100


Searching the Search feature 101


Letting Instagram suggest users to you 102


Following Your Industry 103


Watching your competition 103


Getting noticed by big brands 104


Deciding Whom to Follow Back 106


Viewing and following your followers 106


Reciprocating a follow or not 107


Finding Your Insta-Tribe 108


Finding or creating a community you vibe with 108


Deciding whether Instagram pods are beneficial 110


Chapter 8: Wielding the Power of the Hashtag 113


Investigating Hashtags 113


Following Hashtag Best Practices 115


Placing hashtags so you don’t annoy people 115


Knowing how many hashtags are best 116


Popular hashtags and when to use them 117


Storing hashtags for later 118


Tracking hashtag analytics 119


Researching the Right Hashtags 121


Checking out the competition 121


Picking up on related hashtags 123


Discovering what the cool kids are doing (influencer hashtags) 125


Creating a Branded Hashtag 126


Hashtag your promotion or contest 126


Gathering user-generated content 128


Part 4: Making Your Garden Grow 129


Chapter 9: Sharing with Instagram Stories 131


Checking Out Instagram Stories 132


Getting Started 133


Creating an Instagram Story in the app 133


Uploading a photo or video from your camera roll 135


Saving Your Story 136


Using Direct Messages to Send a Story 137


Determining the Best Content to Share 139


Talking to your audience 139


Providing before-and-after and series shots 139


Peeking behind the scenes 141


Showing your travels 141


Advertising Your Story 142


Chapter 10: Making Your Story More Fun 143


Creating Graphics for Stories 143


Adding Text and Username Tags 146


Drawing on Your Story 148


Stickers and Tags 149


Adding a Link to Your Website 151


Using Boomerang to Keep Fans Coming Back 152


Making Funny Faces with Face Filters 153


Using Instagram LIVE 154


Getting started with LIVE 155


Developing a game plan 156


Alerting your fans 157


Acknowledging LIVE followers 158


Saving and repurposing LIVE broadcasts 158


Chapter 11: Planning a Winning Ad 159


Selecting the Right Ad Type 159


Photo ad 161


Video ad 162


Carousel ad 162


Stories ad 163


Using an Effective Ad Strategy 164


Design requirements 164


Selecting your target audience 165


Choosing ad images wisely 166


A caption can speak (less than) 1,000 words 169


Chapter 12: Creating an Effective Instagram Ad 171


Using the Instagram Mobile App to Create an Ad 172


Using Facebook to Create an Ad 173


Creating a photo, video, or carousel ad in Ads Manager 174


Running an Instagram Stories ad in Ads Manager 178


Running an ad in Power Editor 179


Monitoring your Instagram ad 183


A/B Testing 183


Measuring Your Ad Results 185


Viewing Insights via Instagram 185


Viewing Insights via Facebook Ads Manager 187


Chapter 13: Creating a Winning Contest 189


Exploring the Benefits of Hosting Instagram Contests 189


Following the Rules and Restrictions for Running Contests 190


Listing the official contest rules 191


Releasing Instagram of any involvement 192


Planning a Successful Contest 192


Stating your contest goals 193


Choosing a prize 193


Establishing entry requirements 194


Defining the rules or conditions 195


Determining the contest’s length 195


Figuring out the promotion schedule 195


Choosing a hashtag 195


Designing contest images 196


Crafting post captions for the contest 197


Deciding how winners will be chosen and notified 198


Outlining who will respond to contest engagement 198


Executing a Winning Contest 199


Following Up 200


Chapter 14: Connecting Your Marketing Dots 203


Incorporating Instagram in Your Marketing Mix 203


Connecting Instagram to Other Social Networks 204


Including Instagram on Your Website 206


Linking your website to your Instagram page 207


Allowing others to share your content via Instagram 208


Embedding your Instagram feed on your website 209


Promoting Instagram on Printed Materials 210


Incorporating Instagram into an Event or Promotion 211


Monitoring Your Instagram Stats 214


Using Instagram’s native analytics 215


Best third-party apps for Instagram analytics 216


Part 5: Why Isn’t This Working? 221


Chapter 15: Insta-Diagnosing Instagram 223


Installation Issues 223


Dealing with compatibility issues 224


Checking your space 225


Unfreezing an installation on your iPhone or iPad 227


Finding a missing app on your iPhone or iPad 227


Resolving issues on an Android device 227


Log-In Difficulties 227


Checking your username 228


Fixing password issues 228


Dealing with a disabled account 231


Finding Relief for Common Problems 231


Instagram won’t share 231


Getting Instagram to notify you 233


Nothing Is Working . . . Now What? 234


Reporting a problem on your iPhone or iPad 234


Reporting a problem on your Android smartphone or tablet 235


Getting Rid of Error Messages 235


Can’t add a comment 236


Can’t delete comments 236


Can’t refresh feed 237


Can’t follow anyone else 237


Chapter 16: Insta-Help Is on the Way 239


Taking Advantage of Instagram’s Help 239


Accessing Help Center 240


Visiting Privacy and Safety Center 242


Viewing Instagram Business web pages 243


Tapping Social Media 244


Sending a message on Facebook 245


Tweeting and being tweeted 245


Reading the Instagram blog 246


Visiting the Instagram Business blog 248


Joining a Community 249


Joining other Instagrammers in an InstaMeet 249


Starting an InstaMeet 250


Visiting Reddit and Topix 251


Part 6: The Part of Tens 255


Chapter 17: Ten Brands Killing It on Instagram 257


GoPro 257


Yellowillow 258


Sugarandcloth 259


RPMItalian 259


EmilyJoyRosen 260


TheLoveBombCo 260


The.Book.Report 261


LaJollaMom 261


TSA 262


GeneralElectric 263


Chapter 18: Ten Places to Find Inspiration 265


Investigate the Explore Page 265


Review Hashtag Searches Related to Your Brand 266


Spy on Your Competitors 268


Get Inspiration from Local Businesses 268


Check Out Your Favorite Products 269


Look to Photographers 270


Get Inspired by Bloggers 271


Find Big Brands That Are Being Creative 272


Learn from Instagram and Marketing Experts 272


Follow the Instagram for Business Account 273


Index 275