How to Use Instagram to Gain Brand Recognition

Instagram is a new way for social media savvy companies to showcase their brand in a creative way. By downloading the mobile app on your smart phone, users can upload images and alter them by using pre-selected filters, borders and other effects to make them look more professional and trendy.

The good thing about Instagram is that it’s pretty straightforward to use and has convenient posting features. You follow other users and gain followers while ‘liking’ and commenting on pictures.

SyncShow hopped on the Insta bandwagon a few months ago and fell in love. Now we’ve incorporated it into our daily social routine.

Here are a few reasons why companies should consider using Instagram:

1. Instagram is its own social network

By simply sticking to photo sharing, Instagram is it’s own niche in the social media realm. With functions to follow or unfollow, post, like, comment and tag other users, it creates a sense of community amongst users.  It utilizes hashtagging, which is most commonly used on Twitter. So when you hashtag a word or phrase that relates to your photo (#tacotuesday, for example), that hashtag becomes searchable throughout Instagram. You also have the ability to search hashtags and find out what kinds of photos are trending. The more you hashtag, the more users will see your photos.

2. It’s a good way to integrate other social platforms

When we post a new photo to our Instagram account, we also share it on our other social media pages. Instagram has a cool feature where you can connect to your Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr and Foursquare so that once you post a new photo it will automatically share to those social media pages you are connected with. We’ve also learned it’s a good habit to practice so that the people that follow/like you on your other pages who don’t have Instagram can still get a chance to see it. Your new photo might gain more attention on Facebook then it did on Instagram!

3. It gets your company’s creative juices flowing

Posting pictures to Instagram has become a new hobby for everyone on our team. It’s common to hear someone shout out “We need to Instagram this!” at any given point in time around the office. And no, we don’t go around snapping pictures of our chairs and laptops, but when we see a good photo opportunity, something funny happens, or we’re engaging in an activity that represents our company culture, we try to capture the moment. Our team also gets really into choosing the “perfect” filter for our photos and we get excited whenever we get likes or comments (#nerdstatus). A good rule of thumb is that it’s about quality, not quantity.  There really isn’t a rhyme or reason to it, but posting a dozen pictures within 15 minutes might make you look like a spammer.

4. Instagram Helps tell the story of your company without brand blasting

We have an awesome company culture and Instagram is a great way of showing our professional side as well as our fun and quirky sides. Users who follow companies don’t necessarily need to see photographs of their products to be satisfied. Gaining brand recognition socially is key. Instagram is a unique way to show followers what goes on “behind the scenes” or give sneak-peeks and teasers into future events – pretty much anything your company finds interesting!

The bottom line with all social media outlets is to have fun with it. At SyncShow, if something can make our team laugh, bring us together and help us get creative, we’re all for it. So if you haven’t already, try it out!

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