Why Your Business Needs Instagram

With over 800 million monthly active users, 500 million daily active users, and over 2 million advertisers, Instagram is a social media juggernaut. Some think of Instagram as a vanity platform for Millennials, but this couldn't be farther from the truth. Instagram is an ever-expanding and ever-changing platform that piques interest in the best way possible: Through pictures and videos.

As humans, we're naturally drawn to things that are visually striking or pleasing. That definition may change from person to person, visual content performs 4.4 times better than text-based content.

Why? Because 65% of our population are visual learners which lends itself perfectly to social media. We are more likely to remember the information we see than information we hear. This is how Instagram and its advertising strategies have been so successful.

It's the photogenic nature of Instagram that draws us in and has us scrolling for hours and hours on end. In fact, Instagram boasts 58 times more engagement per follower than Facebook and 120 times more than Twitter! That means more people are commenting, following, and most importantly liking your posts on Instagram, and we all know that the more eyeballs that see your content and see your brand, the better.

But it's not just as simple as snapping pictures with your smartphone and uploading them to the platform. Instagram users' content is very curated to match their respective brands. The point is to become so visually recognizable that your posts become synonymous with the view of your company.

There's one word to keep in mind when it comes to Instagram: aesthetic. The aesthetic is the overall look, layout, and narrative or story of your account as seen in your posts.

Depending on your business or your personal brand, you'll need to find what sort of "look" you're going for. It wouldn't make sense for a construction company to have pictures of baked goods, flowers, and other "soft" looking images. That doesn't make sense for their brand or for what they do.

An appropriate aesthetic would be photos of the equipment, their worksites, and employees to further drive the idea of what their company does.

Sometimes that means having a certain color palette like alexandrazee. Her Instagram is very warm-feeling and utilizes lots of browns and earth colors to accent her photography and her aesthetic, which is very home-y and nature based.

Aleks' Instagram is the perfect example of having a "look" to your Instagram without having a brand. While her Instagram is beautiful and stands out because of its cohesiveness, it would be hard to see a single image from her Instagram and know that it's hers and hers alone.

Aesthetic can also mean that there's a certain how and why to your posts. In the case of Gary Vaynerchuck, his Instagram makes him look powerful, which makes complete sense since his brand is based on empowerment and being a positive, go-getting influence.

Even if you saw only one of his photos, as long as you know his brand, you would also know where the photo came from.

The contrast of the photos is both bold and eye-catching, whereas the Instagram account from Aleks was more pleasing and soothing.

Both of these approaches work to their owners' advantage because they both have very different audiences.

If you look on Hyperchat Social's Instagram, @hyperchatsocial, you'll see that our account has a very particular and very curated appearance as well. All of our posts consist of either a motivational quote, a social media tip, or some call-to-interaction with our followers. We use bright colors to draw the eye to our posts, and make sure that all of our photos are dynamic and interesting.

As a company, we portray ourselves as being upbeat, helpful, and excited about social media (because we are!), and our Instagram reflects that. We also use bright colors to convey to our audience that social media is fun! It wouldn't make sense for us to have photos that are uniformly black and white, because that doesn't fit our brand or our company.

It can be difficult to find and stick to a certain "look" when you first start out, but it comes with practice and time. Look for companies that are similar to yours or at Instagram accounts you enjoy.

How do their posts look? Are they clean, crisp pictures that follow a certain theme? Is there a certain color they use in their posts?

Take note and if it makes sense, try to apply it to your Instagram too!

Hyperchat Social can help you get started with creating your own Instagram aesthetic. Go ahead and schedule a demo with Hyperchat to learn more!