INSTAGRAM IS THE SILVER BULLET!

Instagram is today the single most important avenue for marketers. It packs the advantages of facebook but still has the sparkle and flexibility of the service before facebook took over Instagram.

In this ‘HOW TO’ user manual I will show you the basic operations of how to use Instagram for marketing. More details later in “INSTAGRAM COOKBOOK”.

Be patient, this road may look simple but it does go somewhere!

1. FIRST STEP IS TO CREATE AN INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT

The first step is to create an Instagram account. You can have as many accounts as you like, as long as you have a fresh email account for each. Unlike facebook accounts, Instagram accounts can be in the name of your cat or dog as well ☺ 

She has an Instagram account too!

2. SHOULD I UPGRADE TO ‘INSTAGRAM BUSINESS’ ?

Sure enough you will be prompted to upgrade to ‘Instagram Business’. This means linking your Instagram account to your Facebook account essentially, with all the headaches it entails including periodic demands from Facebook to see your passport, your photograph, your driving license and similar intrusive and ‘stazisque’ demands. And then the inevitable ‘your account is suspended’, ‘your advertising is disabled’, and similar aggravating and INEVITABLE and downright DEMEANING and humiliating fun stuff from Facebook. My advice? Keep life simple, keep your tactics low cost and simple, but consistent and do something every day to market your product or service. 

A grasshopper from my garden: simple is great!

3. BRAND NEW INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT:

Without much ado, let us get started: Click the “+” to add a new post on your Instagram. Ideally you should already have your images all ready to go. Plan on making around 5 posts per day. Almost everything in life goes well if you do it in moderation. Avoid extremes of anything, and that goes for Instagram too.

The rule to remember is that the images you post should be ‘SHAREABLE’ meaning it should have at least one or ideally more than one of these qualities: 1) Amusing 2) Entertaining 3) Shocking 4) Inspiring… Of these, the easiest to do is INSPIRING. If you take a beautiful image and add an inspirational message to it, it becomes an inspirational post.

4. GRAB AN IMAGE FROM YOUR COMPUTER

You can use any image you have prepared. Do not simply use a raw image. Add some ‘value’ to it. It could be something as simple as a picture on an ant on your window sill. Add some text into every image you post, and if you are trying to promote a product or service to your audience, add the image of that product into the image itself, in a non-intrusive, un-offensive manner. Remember what coca cola does. They are everywhere. You go to the post office, there is a giant coca cola bottle parked outside. You buy a doll, and the doll has a coke bottle lol! The idea is simple, increase the visibility of your brand or product, but if it is something unknown (everyone knows coca cola is a drink and not a car) , make sure your ad message makes it obvious as to what it does.

5. YOU COULD USE PHOTOSHOPPED IMAGES OR YOU CAN USE AUTO-GENERATED CONTENT-OGRE IMAGES:

What is ContentOgre? Like the inventor says, it is a ‘nasty piece of software’ lol.. You feed it a folder of background images OR videos and (optionally) a folder of foreground images, a text file full  of captions or slogans or witticisms or zitate, and your product image or logo and (optionally) your list of keywords for your niche, click RUN , check quality, and click PRODUCTION, and in a few minutes you have a folder full of images or videos, all ready for a VIRAL CAMPAIGN. The same images and videos if you were to manually make them it will take you a couple of weeks to do. Minutes vs Couple of weeks, it is a no-brainer. So get this nasty little software FREE and run it for your next social media blitz.

6. TAG THE IMAGES!

On the next screen, if you click on the newly loaded image, it will give you the option to tag it. Tagging means these images will show up in the feeds of those whom you tag. Tag a few accounts (make sure they have some followers and some posts at least, so that when your image shows up in their feed, it is likely that lots of folks see it.

How do you find those accounts? More on that later. But for now, if you start typing in the name of a person or town, or even a business, that name will pop up in the options, and click to select them.

YOU CAN TAG UPTO FIVE PEOPLE / ACCOUNTS

You can tag upto 5 accounts in each image that you post. Do not tag more than that, it is considered spammy.

Tread softly and you will go far. Don’t be the damn “elephant in the china shop” (or a bull) and you won’t get banned and you won’t get a shoe thrown at you..

Do not be in a big hurry. Instagram has AI that can detect any kind of spammy activities. For the same reason, if you can help it, do not use bots. Spend FIVE MINUTES a day uploading FIVE PICTURES and tagging FIVE persons in each image.  That is already 25 people, and if you do this 25 days a month, that is already 625 people. And if your images are SHAREABLE , that should be more than enough to get a lot of traffic!

7. NOW ADD A COMMENT IN THE TEXT SECTION, AND HASHTAGS!

Where can we find great #hashtags? Glad you asked!

Here is a great tool to find the hashtags you need https://toolzu.com/hashtag-generator-for-instagram/

Hashtags like I said makes sure that your post shows up on the feeds where that hashtags are in use. This greatly expands your reach.

Again, do not overdo it. Use around three hashtags per post. Go slow and steady, and you will win!

When you are all set, click SHARE! 

Now Rinse and Repeat !! FIVE POSTS A DAY ! Watch your Instagram account grow, you will be surprised at how well it will go!

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

Multiply your outcome by hitting the other BIG CHANNELS :

TIKTOK (videos), PINTEREST (images) FACEBOOK (images and video)

Again, go slow and steady. Like they say, Rome was not built in a day..

Get your copy of CONTENT OGRE. And take my advice, just pay the darn one-time fee and get rid of that pesky watermark.

Here is a 20% coupon, if that helps!  https://contentogre.com

OGER20

(enter this code when checking out, it was valid the last time I checked but these discounts generally have expiry dates)

Content Ogre generates videos and images, so if you are thinking on a campaign on all fronts, tiktok +Instagram + pinterest + facebook, this is your weapon of choice...