With the enhancing competitiveness in the contemporary world, the main focus of every startup is to leave their footprints in the market and build effective brand authority. Moreover, realizing the massive popularity and cost-effectiveness of social media, you might also be convinced that to sustain yourself in the market, you need social media.
To continue, out of all the online mediums such as Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook, and Reddit, Instagram seems to be the new best friend of startups assisting them in enhancing their brand authority.
To validate, as per statistics, there are over 25 million businesses that are currently active on Instagram, out of which a vast majority are small businesses.
However, now the question is how exactly can new businesses utilize Instagram to enhance their brand authority. Hence, if you are also a new startup owner looking for effective strategies to build up your brand authority on Instagram, this blog is your one-stop solution.
7 Effective Strategies To Build Brand Authority on Instagram
1. Sell directly through Instagram
Keeping in mind the post-crisis impact on businesses, Instagram launched its own shop allowing businesses to directly pitch and sell their products to their target audience.
In fact, according to an Instagram for Business survey, 44% of people use Instagram weekly to shop using features like shopping tags and the Shop tag.
This opens up a wide opportunity for new businesses to promote and attract the target audience directly. The main perk of this feature is that it allows your target audience to directly purchase out from your page rather than taking the long route of going to the website and then making a purchase.
This feature will contribute to providing a seamless experience of your new business to your potential leads. Further, this hassle-free experience will contribute to a positive customer experience.
This will assist in retaining your consumers for a long period of time. This positive experience for your consumers will assist you in building your brand authority on Instagram.
2. Leverage UGC content
As a new business, it is really crucial to gain audience trust in order to build your brand authority. Without gaining the trust of the audience, you can never build your business in the competitive market.
Out of all the forms of content, UGC is one of the most trusted forms of content across all social platforms. Firstly, to define, UGC is an acronym for user-generated content that refers to brand-centric content created by consumers explaining their experience with the brand. Further, that content is used by businesses to attract new consumers.
As per statistics, User Generated photos are 5x more likely to convert customers vs. non-UGC. So if you want to convert your audience using your Instagram, UGC is the best option for you.
Moreover, UGC will also assist you in giving the key areas of self-improvement through generating feedback from your customers.
Along with this, UGC is a social proof that assists in convincing your target audience that other people are also purchasing from you. You can create UGC in various formats of content such as
- Testimonial videos
- Photos
- Reviews
- Ratings
- Blog posts
Moreover, UGC as a social proof will also prove your brand authenticity which will encourage your target audience to make a purchase from you. Along with this, if they like your product they will also share your business with their family and friends.
This will also increase your reach and engagement of your business which will further contribute to enhancing the brand authority of your business.
3. Create captivating video content
We all are very well aware of the fact that videos are already proving themselves the king of hooking the target audience. To substantiate, 96% of consumers increased their online video consumption. Moreover, 9 out of 10 people said that they want more videos from businesses and brands. So what are you waiting for?
As a new business, videos are the best way to hook your target audience through engaging content. You can create multiple formats such as
- Explainer videos
- How-to tutorials
- Advertisements
- Expert interviews
One of the major advantages of video is that it is easily shareable. Hence, if you get successful in creating a video with enough engaging content, it will easily get shared contributing to building your brand authority on Instagram.
To validate, video content has 2x higher engagement on Instagram. Hence, if you want to build your authority on Instagram, start working on creating your videos today.
4. Use hashtags
Instagram hashtags are the most underrated feature to build engagement. Right hashtags will assist you in enhancing your reach and engagement with your right target audience based on your niche.
Did you know that if your post on Instagram has even one hashtag, it will get 12.6% more engagement? So if you are still not working on Instagram hashtags, then we don’t think you are serious about building your brand authority.
Moreover, as a new business, if your main focus is reaching a wide range of target audiences, then hashtags will effectively help you in successfully attaining the same.
Instagram now even allows users to follow their favorite hashtags, this opens up a wide opportunity for you to reach your target audience. The more you reach your target audience, the more brand authority you will be able to build.
5. Collaborate effectively
Collaboration is the latest buzzword on Instagram and this is why it is our last but not the least strategy that can assist you in building your authority on Instagram. Collaboration can be done in two forms on Instagram.
It can be either done with other businesses or the popular influencers on Instagram. To substantiate, 93% of brands use Instagram for influencer marketing.
Using both ways of collaboration will assist you in pitching your product to their target audience. However, you need to make sure that it does not matter whether you go for influencer collaboration or business, it should only complement your business. That way only you will be able to increase your brand authority on Instagram.
Moreover, as a new business, if you manage to get a collaboration done with big brands or brands that already have the authority on Instagram, it will assist in making your business reliable. This will further assist in enhancing your brand authority on Instagram along with the attainment of your SMART goals.
6. Utilize Instagram live streaming
In the above points, we discussed social proof, making how-to tutorials, and influencer marketing collaborations. There can be many possible ways to execute these strategies and one of them is executing all these live to your target audience.
Moreover, going live on Instagram is another efficient feature of Instagram that can help you in enhancing the brand authority of your new business.
Going out live on your Instagram pages will give you a fair chance to interact with your target audience and tell them about your products and services.
Along with this, Instagram has also launched a recent feature that allows you to take questions in the live sessions. This will give your new business an opportunity to clear the queries and doubts your target audience may have in their minds before purchasing your product.
Clear communication and live interaction with your audience can influence their purchasing decisions.
Moreover, getting live and discussing with your target audience will assist you in building your authenticity and personal connection with your target audience. Hence, all this together will contribute to enhancing your brand authority on Instagram.
7. Employ carousels
You might have observed that you can post almost 10 pictures together on Instagram in a single post, this is called an Instagram Carousel. This feature of Instagram can also assist your new business in gaining brand authority on Instagram.
To elaborate, when you post almost 10 pictures containing a large amount of information in a single post, it enhances the time a user spends on your post. This will contribute to keeping the Instagram algorithm satisfied by boosting your engagement rate.
Moreover, a high engagement rate will assist in boosting your reach, contributing to an enhanced online presence.
Hence, you can create different carousels posting various
- How-to tutorials
- Storytellings
- Befores and afters of your product implementations.
This will assist in engaging your target audience effectively and boosting the brand authority of your new business on Instagram.
To encapsulate, there is no doubt that Instagram is a great platform to build the brand authority of your business. Hence, the above-given strategies will effectively assist in enhancing the growth of your business on Instagram.
