Great news: millions of small businesses, startups, freelancers are successfully using Instagram to sell their products and services. As diverse as handmade embroidered gifts, plant table cards, wedding merchandise, or custom painted stationery, businesses are growing audiences by sharing their stories.

The truth is, there are real and easy ways to crack it big. Check out three broad ways to get started. If you have a working laptop and a stable internet connection, you are ready to go.

But before that, let’s briefly look at why Instagram is an absolute giant force to reckon.

Instagram: World’s Greatest Platform

No kidding. Not Facebook, not YouTube, not even Twitter or Snapchat. De facto, Instagram is the world’s most powerful social media platform to make money.

On engagement metrics, Instagram is better than Facebook. On influencer marketing, it gets more billing than YouTube. Moreover, compared to YouTube, Instagram supports multiple content formats. Instagram has posts, brand stories, promotional posts, IGTV videos, testimonials, live videos, etc. Even as a news source, Instagram has a leg up over Twitter. What’s more, if you compare Instagram with emerging Snapchat, advertisers and marketers still put their faith in Instagram for its reach and impact.

Let’s also look at some fascinating data points that not many are aware of.

Unlike any other platform, the gender mix on Instagram is 51% female against 49% male. It makes Instagram an ideal, fertile ground to sell the most diverse range of products and services.

What’s more? Unlike any other platform, a massive two in three people interact with brands here. Even more impressive is that a whopping 90% of users follow at least one business account, while two in three visits come from non-followers.

Considering millions of business accounts sit idle, with basic planning and little initiatives, you can grow your reach quickly, in a few months if not weeks.

Let’s get to the three musketeers of the Instagram world that would help you generate more engagement, drive more traffic and stimulate more sales.

Create a Business Account

It seems pretty straightforward, right? Wrong! For not setting up and not optimizing their business account, business owners score low-quality points, can’t get their ads approved or run them as they wish. They neither get access to analytics nor can add links to stories or tag products. What’s worse, they can’t even schedule or boost a post.

Completing a new business account or switching to one from personal is easy. Just visit your account settings, switch to a professional account, select the business account, select your type of business, and you are done. The best part? It’s free. How to advertise and promote.

Quick Takeaways

• Connect Instagram business accounts from Facebook or vice versa for ease of ad management.
• Manage multiple Instagram accounts from one brand. Helpful to serve niche product lines, geographies, etc.

Advertise on Instagram

Now get as many likes, comments, and engagements as you want. Boost any post. Select your audience. Allocate your budget. Add links, clickable buttons, catalogs, photos as required. Then schedule and release. It’s as easy as that. Your ad will now appear across users’ feeds, stories and reels. The advanced advertising tool offers curated ad formats to sail you through design challenges. It also helps you track the performance of the campaigns.

Quick Takeaways

• Got two ads from the designer? Not sure which one will lead to more sales? Test which ads perform better with free tools from Instagram.
• Control your ad, budget, design, text anytime, even after the campaign is launched. Run the ads long if they perform well, or hold on to them if they aren’t.

Engage with Influencers

Instagram and influencers go arm-in-arm. Though celebrity and mega influencers grab the limelight, their cost versus return mostly leaves a lot to be desired. However, due to Instagram’s favorable “creator” policy, nano and micro-influencers generate high engagement and conversions. And, a variety of small businesses love them.

Small businesses cannot afford top influencers like Virat Kohli or Deepika Padukone. Throwing millions at celebrity influencers cannot guarantee results these days, and there might be product-personality conflict or issues with influencers overshadowing the brand. There might be product-personality conflict or issues with influencers overshadowing the brand. Thankfully, top influencers don’t promote everything under the sun.

Instead of traditional ad placements, sponsored placements are organic, trusted, and score well on engagement metrics. Reels, stories, Messenger, or IGTV, a sponsored post can be a great fit across all the content features.

Though influencers’ remuneration varies, here is a ballpark figure for a rough estimate. According to a report on NDTV, an average micro-influencer with 5,000 followers and 25 sponsored posts a year can make Rs. 50,000 a year.

Quick Takeaways

• Should you invest in influencer marketing? Considering content creation consumes time, labor, skill, and production costs, you may begin with nano and micro-influencers. How about Rs. 5000 a post to start with?
• Niche, friendly and relatable voices command a strong level of intimacy with their followers. By engaging with them, small and medium businesses can make the most of their precious budgets.

Conclusion

With over 1 billion users and 200 million businesses, Instagram is the most influential medium of our generation. By getting their business started on Instagram, merchants, freelancers, startups, SMEs can explore a world of opportunities. To make your presence felt and help you make money quickly, make use of the top three strategies for you that we have rounded up.

The post How to Successfully Grow a Business on Instagram? appeared first on PayU Blog.

Ways To Get More Instagram Followers

Getting followers on Instagram is not tedious if you follow the right ways. And here, we have curated a list of things that you can do to increase the number of your followers:

1. Post at a Consistent Time

Your posts will drive more traffic if you are consistent with the timing you post the content. This way, people will know when you are most likely to post the content and can look forward to it. You can use a social media scheduler to time your content and match it with your other posts. 

2. Optimise Your Account

One that looks good sells more. If you want people to trust and follow you, you must optimise your Instagram account. It would help if you had a concise but catchy bio, a profile image that describes you best, and a link to your brand’s homepage. Also, try not to keep your username too complex. It should be simple and search-friendly.

3. Promote Your Account

How will people know that you have an Instagram account until you tell them? Promoting your account comes top and foremost in the list of ways to increase Instagram followers. You can add social media buttons to your website. Or you can also promote your account via other social media sites. It will give you more acknowledgement and drive traffic to your account.

4. Know The Best Time To Post Content

Posting at the best time can change the statistics of your account completely. If you post at the best time, you can outsmart the algorithm of Instagram, and your content will get live on the top of your follower’s home feed. In addition, it will help you garner more attention from people all over the world.

5. Avoid Fake Followers

Although it seems like an easier way to buy off the followers, fake followers will decrease the credibility of your account. On the other hand, if you have an account with thousands of followers but zero activity, people will deem your profile fake. And either way, you are not going to receive any ROI from the fake followers. So, why do it and risk the trust of your possible real followers? Instead, try and increase Instagram followers organically. 

6. The post What Your Followers Like

If you want to increase Instagram followers fast, you need to learn what type of content your followers like. You can do it by observing the views and likes of your content. For example, post more content like that if any of your videos get more views. It will keep your followers interested and also bring traffic to your profile.

7. Be Specific With Your Hashtags

So many content creators don’t give importance to hashtags, which is not a good practice. Hashtags help your post get discovered by more and more people and garner attention to your profile. Make sure that the hashtag that you are using is not too congested, or your post will get lost in between the ocean of other posts.

8. Create Engaging Content

If there is more activity on your profile, more people will notice it and then follow you. So, create contents that encourage people to comment, share, or like. For example, you can create a poll or ask a question in your story that will prompt your followers to react. 

Conclusion

Getting Instagram followers is the milestone to getting your small business or startup successful. It will extend the recognition of your brand or content to a wide range of people and garner their attention. So, you must extend your social reach to make your business visible.

Also read: How To Successfully Grow A Business On Instagram?

Frequently Asked Questions

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When you hear the term ‘best time,’ it is referring to the time on which if you post on Instagram, it will have more chances of getting likes and being among the first posts on the Insta Feed of your follower. Posting at this time increases the probability of your post gaining attention. And if you manage to hold that attention, your followers will increase. So, let’s find out what are the best times to post on Instagram and why it is important.

Why Is Timing Important for Instagram Posts?

Instagram is a huge social media platform. Billions of users are using it, and they receive a substantial number of posts every day. So, in these situations, if you don’t post on Instagram at the best time, your post might get lost in the ocean of other posts that go live daily. And even if you are posting some of the best content in the world, you might not receive the attention that you deserve. So, it is very vital for every content creator who wants to be known to the world to post at the best time.

What is the Best Time to Post on Instagram 2023?

There had been several observations carried out on this view. At first, people used to think that the best time to post on Instagram today is the time when the majority of people are online. If you post when your followers are online, then it will gain more attention from them, right? No, wrong. Even though it is a factor that decides whether your post will garner more eyes or not, it’s not the only one. Especially not the dominant one. 

Instead, soon people realised that the Instagram algorithm was more lenient towards the posts that came live in the early hours of the morning. That means if you want more views on your posts, you need to exercise the strategy of “rise early and post.” You will be able to outsmart your competition this way and garner the attention of your followers. 

• Best Time to Post on Instagram on Monday

On Mondays, the best time to post is 11 am IST. Other than that, you can also post at 10 pm IST. The worst time to post on Instagram on Mondays is around 11 pm IST. If your goal is to be known by more and more people, avoid posting at this time.

• Best Time to Post on Instagram on Tuesday

On Tuesdays, try to post around 10 am IST. Other than that, you can also post around 2 am, 6 am, and 9 am IST. Avoid posting around 11 pm IST.

• Best Time to Post on Instagram on Wednesday

11 am and 1 pm IST are the best times to post on Instagram on Wednesdays. You can set your posts with a social media scheduler to go live at your decided time so you don’t miss the possible traffic on your account. 

• Best Time to Post on Instagram on Thursday

On Thursdays, the best times are 11 am to 12 pm IST.  And the worst time to post is 11 pm IST.

• Best Time to Post on Instagram on Friday

The best times to post are 7 am, 11 am, and 1 pm IST. Avoid posting around 10 pm IST on Fridays.

• Best Time to Post on Instagram on Saturday

The best times for Saturdays are 6 am and 11 am. And the worst time to post is around 4 pm.

• Best Time to Post on Instagram on Sunday

The best times to post on Sundays are 6 am and 8 am. And the worst time to post is around 6 pm.

Conclusion

It is vital for the people aiming to garner more attention from Instagram users to post at the best time. It increases the chances of your post being on the top of your follower’s home feed. Try posting at the best time and avoid posting anything around the worst time.

Also read: Top Tips To Increase Your Instagram Followers

FAQs

The post The Best Time To Post On Instagram | 2023 appeared first on PayU Blog.

However, one thing that you should also know is that you need to do a lot of quality posting on both these platforms to increase your followers and get a verification badge.

You need to write content that is relevant to people and attracts them. For this, you may want to have a content marketing strategy in place! Here, A Step-By-Step Guide to Do Content Marketing Right In 2019 will tell you how to create, distribute and re-purpose content for your readers!

In this post, we will tell you how you can get your business or individual account verified on both Facebook and Instagram, easily. But, first, let’s check the advantages of having a verification badge.

Benefits of Facebook and Instagram Verification

• Brand Credibility – It creates brand visibility. Your customers know that this is your authentic profile page as it has a verification badge. They can connect with you on the page, without any fear.
• Increase Reach – It shows that your account is of public interest, and hence more people will be interested to know about it. Also, the audience will be able to find it easily with the verification badge.
• Rank higher in search engines – This helps in attracting more visitors.
• Builds Trust – The audience knows that the information is 100% correct if it is being shared on a verified page. You can post about various schemes, promotions and give business updates, on your verified business page.

Grey Tick or Blue Tick? Facebook Provides 2 Verification Badges:

1.Grey Verification Badge: This confirms the location of a business and is easy to obtain. Global brand Apple has a grey verification badge!

2. Blue Verification Badge: This provides a confirmed authenticity of the brand, media organizations or public figures. PayU’s official page is verified, for instance!

Instagram, on the other hand, provides only blue badge to their verified users.

Basic Requirements for Facebook and Instagram Verification:

1. Comply with Facebook’s terms of service.
2. Activate “Subscribe” for a blue badge on Facebook!
3. Make sure your profile picture, cover picture, name, link to the website, contact information, and content – all are authentic and updated on both platforms.
4. For Instagram users, you must also be popular on the platform with people searching for you quite often. Also, you must follow Instagram’s Terms of Service and Community Guidelines.

Tip: In case of an individual profile, click on “public figure” category in the “About” section of Facebook and Instagram. This will increase your chances of getting verified.

Step by Step Guide to Get a Verification Badge on Facebook

To Apply For A Blue Badge:

1. Submit a request for a blue badge by filling out this form.

2. In case you want to verify a page, select your business page from the drop-down. In the case of an individual, enter your Facebook profile URL.

3. Attach a photo of your ID – driving license or passport if the account is of an individual. In case if it is a business page, attach a photo of any document that has seal/watermark of your business i.e. organization’s phone bill, etc.

4. In the end, fill a good answer on why you think your account should be verified. Click on “Send”.

To Apply For A Grey Badge:

1. Click “Settings” at the top of your page.
2. Click on “page verification”.
3. Choose “verify this page” and “let’s go”.
4. Enter your country, language and the official contact number of your company.
5. Click on “call me now”. Facebook will then give you a four-digit verification code over the phone.
6. Enter the code and click on “continue”.

Note: If you don’t see “page verification” tab on your page, it is because Facebook hasn’t rolled out this feature to all its users yet.

How Much Time Does Facebook Take To Give a Verification Badge?

You’ll receive a notification once Facebook starts reviewing your verification request. It can take anywhere between 2 days or 2 months for a verification badge. If Facebook denies a verification badge in the first attempt, you can again submit a new request after 30 days.

Step by Step Guide to Get a Verification Badge on Instagram

1. Go to your profile and click on the menu bar.
2. Now, click on “Settings”.
3. Click on Account and then click on “Request Verification”.
4. Fill out the form and “Send”. 

Instagram takes a few weeks to take its decision on providing you with a blue badge. If it refuses you in the first attempt, you can try again after 30 days.

Read here to know How To Promote Business On Instagram & Drive Sales

Conclusion

Don’t worry even if Facebook and Instagram refuse to give a verification badge to you in the first go. You can expand your community and reach out to more people by increasing your marketing efforts. And when your reach and popularity grow, you can again apply for verification.

With all your marketing efforts in place, it makes sense to provide your customers with a seamless checkout experience. PayU is India’s leading online payment solution provider. For more details,

The post How to Get a Verification Badge on Facebook and Instagram! appeared first on PayU Blog.