Instagram is all the hype, with new features aimed at businesses being introduced frequently; it is the ideal place for you as a company to show off your brand and reach out to your current customers and future ones. With ever growing users out there who are more visual oriented rather than text, Instagram is a very important platform that your international education company should focus on.

With the vast competition out there you need to make your profile stand out; here are tips and tricks on how to get there.

Enhance your profile with design features

A good Instagram bio explains what you do in a few short sentences or bullet points and with it you can target your ideal audience so any new visitors will understand what you and your brand are all about. But that’s what everyone does, you can go to the next level by introducing special fonts and characters to your bio to make sure it POPS. There are plenty of free apps out there for this. Don’t forget to add a link to your website, blog or anywhere else you wish to redirect traffic; don’t be afraid to change it up from time to time depending on what offers or season is on.

Optimization is KEYwords

Optimization is not something that is only for websites. In fact, this function is ideal for any social platform; in the case of Instagram, keywords help you to be picked up by the algorithm. We are not just referring to hashtags in posts here, although those are essential to get noticed, go an extra step and include these keywords in your name and bio in order to promote your profile. Another tip, one which we have already hinted at in our previous Instagram-related article; Instagram does not allow clickable links in a post description, but if you are running an offer you can always tag your profile to drive any viewers there, and for a time period update the link in your bio to direct follows to that offer. You can also add links to your stories if you like, but never to your posts.

Set up Auto Responses 

Instagram allows you to set up auto responses if you are running on Instagram business. This feature allows you to set up some quick generic responses which you can then follow up in more detail at a later stage. It works in the same way as the auto-responder on Facebook. You can assign keywords to each quick reply, and all you have to do is type in that keyword in the comment box and it will automatically generate the full response, saving you precious time.

Keep an eye on competition through preferences

Like in any marketing campaign, keeping abreast with what your competition is doing is always a good option; not only will you know what offers and services your competitors are coming up with, but you can also check what content they are publishing and what responses they are getting from followers in order to get ideas for your next post. With Instagram preferences, you can up the ante in your spy game. Go to any profile you wish to be updated on, click on the bell icon and you can choose to get notified when that user adds, posts, stories, reels etc. and voila, any time that user adds any content you will be notified.

Stories and Highlights

We all know the benefits that stories bring to your content strategy; adding highlights to your profile is a way to get all those stories easily accessible and lasting far longer than the normal 24 hour set-up. As always, audiences like variety, so in order to keep them on their toes, switch up the order in which the highlights show, remember that only the first 4 show up automatically the rest need to be scrolled for, shuffle them according to the current seasons or occasions. You can also update the profile pic for each highlight to keep your audience guessing.

Many of Instagram’s features are there to help you enhance your brand presence. With these tips and tricks you are now more proficient on how to make your profile shine, keep up to date with all the content your industry is posting and having more ways for you to engage with your customers which is essentially the best way for your to ensure customer loyalty. However, as we always say, if you need any help boosting your Instagram, or checking whether you are on the right track with your Instagram or Social Media Marketing strategy, do not hesitate to get in touch with us by sending an email on [email protected] and we'll happily jump into a call with you.