Best practices for telling your brand story using Instagram

Instagram is a great tool not only for personal use, but also for businesses.  By creating hashtags, Instagram is an amazing tool for telling a story and showcasing a brand in a visual way. 

Current Instagram statistics show that there are 200 Million monthly active users on the platform. There are 20 billion photos shared in total, around 1.6 Billion likes, and 60 Million photos shared every day. Going even deeper, we know that Instagram has the highest following worldwide in the GCC, with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE in the top 3 countries using the platform, worldwide. 

One of the main reasons for the huge response to the platform was due to the #MyDubai campaign, where the rulers of Dubai made use of Instagram by encouraging people to share their experiences and to consider the city as their own.  To date, there is a total of 1,999,014 images uploaded with #MyDubai. 

Instagram for business allows you to give your clients not only behind the scenes glimpse of how products are being created, but it also gives your brand a personal touch.  It conveys that you are care not only about your bottom line, but also about your employees, your customers, and other stakeholders.

Instagram Do’s and Don’ts:

Do’s: 

• Keep your Twitter and Instagram usernames in sync
• Show your social side
• Make your feed interesting
• Use popular filters
• Add hashtags wisely
• Type out interesting captions for each post
• Tag users and locations to explain the posts better

Don’ts:

• Beg for follows
• Go on a liking spree
• Use those DSLR photos
• Overdo content on your feed
• Take horizontal photos
• Post only your content
• Use #latergram frequently (something you post on instragram at a "later" time)