Instagram for Business: One Tallahassee Company Doing it Right

Sharing life’s big (and small) moments is easier than ever with the popular phone app Instagram. Whether it’s a photo of your lunch, or a beautiful sunset, it only takes a few seconds to share these images with your friends and family. With the launch of the iPhone iOS 7, you can now take square photos from your iPhone camera app to make Instagramming that much easier. Once you take the photo from your phone camera, you can then upload it through the app and add filters to make your image pop.

This idea of photo sharing brings up an interesting question for businesses – where do they belong in this avalanche of posted images? The answer is right in the thick of it. Instagram, which is free and easy to set up, is a great tool for businesses of all shapes and sizes to connect with their audience and share their brand’s personality. Take the Tallahassee business Sweet Blue for example, which is a jewelry and gift shop located in the affluent far northeast section of town. Sweet Blue currently has more than 1,300 followers and 444 posts (photos), and has done a great job of using Instagram to promote its business. Here are five reasons why:

1) They are current. It’s easy for any business to create a social media account and then let it just kind of sit there. This isn’t going to do you any good. You need to be constantly uploading images and interacting with your followers. Sweet Blue has a post almost every day displaying new arrivals and specials they are offering.

2) They have varying content. If you are scrolling through a feed and see the same type of photo over and over again, are you going to pay attention to it the next time? Probably not. It’s important to have different types of images because it keeps your followers interested. Sweet Blue has done a great job of doing this by taking photos of behind-the-scenes content, memes and products.

3) They have high quality images. While Instagram does have filters, you shouldn’t rely on them for the quality of your photo. You probably would not show up to a meeting in sweat pants because it would be a poor representation of the company.  The same can be said about posted photos — they represent your business, so make them count. Like “they” always say, a picture is worth a thousand words. Sweet Blue’s photos always look crisp and professional.

4) They are creative. Instagram is a great way to get creative with your images. For example, Sweet Blue will take upcoming events and create eye-catching ads to promote them. Instead of posting something plain, they have shown their individuality by making images that use cool colors and interesting graphics. This is much more effective in a newsfeed because you have a split second to grab the follower’s attention.

5) They have contests. Like many other companies using Instagram, Sweet Blue holds contests where you have to repost a photo to win. This works in two ways; first it creates interaction between the business and the customer, and second it gets the word out about the contest and the business in general. The persons’ friends now also see the image in their feeds.

Sweet Blue has done a great job using Instagram to promote their business. How can you do the same?