By Sparkian Shruti Raval
Contributory Author for Spark Igniting Minds
Are you a business entity or a professional or an entrepreneur and want to grow your business? Then you must look forward to enhancing your online presence.
Wondering why and how? We all know India is digitally evolving since the last 5 to 6 years. Businesses are building brands on online platforms and getting a good amount of leads from social media platforms. So one must match this pace. Especially after the COVID - 19 crisis, we saw the strength of online platforms and its immense usefulness.
We as a consumer tend to check out the Social Media / Web presence to evaluate the services given by a particular business, which itself speaks a lot.
It was a couple of weeks ago when I launched my IGTV channel Winning Hearts.
After seeing my channel, I got the message from one of my friends asking how did you learn everything and asked me if I can share some guidelines. Though I have learned the same by watching videos or with inputs from my sister, I thought of writing my experiences.
This article of mine is an outcome of my conversations and will help the reader to create his own account and build the same. So from a consumer's point of view, I can tell you that your active and effective online presence is of utmost importance. Here are some useful ways in which you can enhance your online presence.
Profile Picture: To begin with the Instagram account profile pic, it should be eye-catching and it should stand out in the context of its design and color. Let me give you an example. If you will type cake shop on Instagram, multiple pages will pop up and chances are high that you will click on the account which has the most attractive profile pic. Business Account: Instagram provides so many useful and interesting features for business accounts. So needless to say that if you are a business entity then you need to convert your Instagram account into a business account. There are multiple benefits involved in doing this. It enables you to promote a post from your profile through which you would reach out to thousands of people at a time in a single day. However, it's a paid thing but it's worth giving a chance. A business account also helps you to understand your consumers, their likes, and dislikes through a feature on Instagram called insights. You may also add payment gateway and your contact info on a business account. Instagram Profile Bio: Your Instagram bio best describes who you are and what you do in minimum words possible. So frame it short and understandable. Growing the Community: Here it means the number of followers. You can buy the followers but it's not the right thing to do in the long run. I am sure you want to form genuine connections right! Hence community engagement is the key here. For instance, You can send a THANK YOU NOTE to your followers once in 3 months stating that you are glad they are still connected and wish them well. Trust me this is the best thing to do. They should always feel like a member of your community not like a MERE FOLLOWER. If possible follow them back to never unfollow. This will build trust. Form a good rapport with them. Send them good vibes and pray that those who really need your products or services, find you.
DONT FIND, BE FOUND. The Blue Tick Mark: If you manage to get the Instagram verification mark for your brand it would be like a cherry on the cake. It's not that easy but one must aim high in life. Learning from others: There might be few brands and businesses in your niche that have managed to reach, where you want to reach. You need to appreciate their work and learn from them. You can frequently visit their Instagram profiles to get some insights. However, it's not at all a good idea to copy because in doing so you might lose your originality. So learn from everyone and copy no one. Using the right hashtags: This might sound odd but if you want to grow the Instagram community, using correct hashtags become important because just the way Google and Youtube operate on keywords, Instagram operates on hashtags. Design and Content: When someone visits your Instagram page, the first thing that they will notice is the design and how the page is looking overall. They will definitely not look into details. They will not read the captions that you have wrote. Just as we don't know what is in the gift but we become happy and mesmerized just by looking at its outer covering, the same way when someone visits your Instagram page for the first time they should feel like WOW. If you are not that good at designing or content creation then ask for help from those who have a good command and skills in these areas. If it suits your budget you may opt to hire someone for this purpose. Calculated Growth: You need a goal as to how many followers you want and keeping them is a different story. But let's say if you want 2020 people to know you and your business by the end of 2020 then what is the target for each month. This way you can achieve it by sending requests or by business account promotions and ads etc. Calculated and target-oriented marketing is very important. Bonus point: There is a page on Instagram called Instagram for business. You may follow this page for a better understanding of Instagram as a business platform.
I hope this article gave you some valuable information. I wish and pray for the financial abundance of one and all.
Let's start fresh.
Let's help India’s economy grow by genuinely supporting each other's businesses.
Let's move towards a new beginning.
About the Author
Miss Shruti Raval is an Advocate by profession. She is a core team member with Gyan Paradise and an upcoming social entrepreneur.
Writing is her passion.
She truly believes in the power of words. She is a voracious reader who has a real zest for life.