Instagram doesn’t have lots of things going on at the same time, such as in Facebook and it is much easier to navigate. It’s all about photos and short videos, no memes etc. There are limitations with how you can interact with other accounts but engagement tends to be higher than that of other social media apps.

If you’re not using Instagram for your small business yet then you’re potentially missing out on a lot of opportunities.

1. Make sure you have an account specifically for your business. Keep your family pictures and videos for your personal account. Use your business account to create and build engagement among your followers. Instagram is a great way to build and extend your brand.
   
   
2. Be Active. This doesn’t mean constantly posting random photos but instead posting photos and videos that are relevant to your brand and that your followers will be interested in. The best posting frequency is one that you will be able to keep up with consistently, whether that’s 4 times a day or once a day.
   
   
3. Hashtags. It’s now possible to follow hashtags so your posts could now show up in the feeds of potential new followers. Use hashtags that are relevant to your business/ brand and audience and avoid hashtags that are solely trying to gain followers such as #followme as these attract spammers, bots and users who are not looking to engage with you. Research what hashtags your competitors are using, it may give you ideas of hashtags to use for yourself. Make a list of ideas and think about what you are trying to achieve.
   
   
4. Try Short Video Clips. Video will help personalise your brand which in turn will increase engagement. Short video clips can be created easily using apps such as Boomerang. There are loads of things you can video to promote your brand and increase engagement; filming messages to your followers, announcing any promotions or special offers, testimonials from customers, videos of you working in your office etc.
   
   
5. Share your Instagram filtered pictures on other networks. It makes sense to share your pictures and videos to your other social network accounts and Instagram allows you to configure your account so that your photos are posted to Facebook and other networks.
   
   

Once you’ve got your Instagram account up and running you should make sure to set up notifications on your app so you don’t miss any interactions. Using Instagram can introduce you to potential new customers and promote your brand in a way that is not pushy or sales focussed. It’s different to Pinterest because the photos and videos you share should give a more personal and authentic impression of your business where Pinterest is more about curating pictures. Make your Instagram account part of your daily marketing checklist!

Follow Creative Remedy on Instagram here: Creative Remedy ​

1. Social Media
Pick a new social platform that you have never tried and make it your new year goal to become a digital guru for that network and add another string to your bow.

2. Video
If a picture paints 1000 words what does a moving image do? Create one piece of moving digital media to promote your business. It could be a slideshow, animation, interview, or panoramic video. This can be delivered on your website or shared on social media. Don’t forget to measure the response.

3. Landing Pages
We are all knowledgeable about your products or services, give away some FREE information via a landing page which asks for a potential customers details in exchange for this FREE helpful information.

4. Email Marketing
Be brave and try something you have never done before. Add that video you created, start a referral program, run a competition or celebrate a milestone. Contacting potential customers even once a month may just be enough put you in the forefront of their mind.

5. Existing Customers
We all know it’s easier to get more business from an existing customer rather than finding a new customer. Go through your contact list and find one reason to contact each customer, nothing sales based… ask them how your existing service is working for them, or maybe just to see how their Christmas and new year went and see where the conversation leads.

Tip 1
Don’t forget to use #hashtags in your tweets. For example, if your tweet is about jewellery, consider hash tagging that keyword (#jewellery or the @brand) in the tweet to make it searchable.

Tip 2
Retweet, participate and start conversations with people and businesses by asking simple questions. See where it takes you!

Tip 3
Shrink your URLs to create more space to have your say, you can now have slightly more than 140 characters. More here > Twitter now lets you post longer tweets after 140-character limit relaxed (Google URL Shortener)

Tip 4
Use @companyname or @personsname to tweet someone directly. This is public and alerts them you have mentioned them in a tweet.

Tip 5
On Friday, people like to thank special followers for that week and you can do that by using #FF or #FollowFriday then the name(s) of your followers you want to mention. It's also good to say a reason to follow that person too.

If you are new to Twitter… don’t be bogged down with buzz words like strategy, engagement, ROI… give it a try and see where your strengths lie.

Are you on Twitter? Is there anything you struggle with or need to know? Tweet us here > @Creativeremedy

​Common questions asked by small business owners new to Facebook, ‘How to Fall in Love with Facebook’ is designed to answer a few of these.

Falling over the post at the front door on Feb 14th!
If you don’t use Facebook because of all of the notifications and requests… take control of your Facebook, block app requests and notifications. Don’t post messages complaining about them!

To post or not to post…
Stop apps posting on your behalf, e.g. retweets from Twitter may make no sense to Facebook users, and users wont be able to follow a conversation easily but something like Hootsuite is great for different social media platform management.

Love for life or business?
Which is best… a personal or business Facebook page? There are pros and cons to both (more info here: www.facebook.com/help/217671661585622) and if you work directly with a customer e.g. if you are a therapist, there is nothing wrong with having both types of pages to maximise your reach. I would ask ‘What business do you run?’ and ‘What would you like to achieve from your presence on Facebook?’, the answer is usually in there.

Scared to get Engaged?
Scared you wont be able to manage when you plunge into Facebook if you get lots of engagement? Use a Facebook mobile app to keep on top of activity on the move. If it gets to the point where you are too busy, outsource… and a specialist will manage your strategy and often come up with ideas you won’t have thought of.

The secret is great communication!
In all relationships the secret is great communication! Watch your language and gear it towards your target audience. We all hear timing is everything… and it is, test different times of the day to gain maximum exposure. Less is often more with fast paced technology and use images where possible (appropriate ones of course!). Don’t hard sell and most importantly be yourself, people will end up loving you because of it!

Marketing
Googles focus has been on good, relevant and up-to-date content, this is set to continue making it even more important for you to find your voice through rich content including video, infographics, blogging and social media. Landing pages and email marketing might just be your route to funnelling catching customers them through your web.

Design
Pantone Greenery (15-0343) has been named the colour of the year for 2017, a refreshing and revitalising shade, according to Pantone, greenery is symbolic of new beginnings.

Images
Originality has always been key for fresh new designs. We may see more bespoke illustrations and design. The use of SVG’s (scalable vector graphics), this means simple flat designs with the use of a couple of vibrant colours to keep intrigue and originality in the forefront.

Websites
More brands are adopting a mobile first presence and bigger implementations of responsive design. Late last year Google revealed they were introducing Mobile-first indexing, stating “we will eventually primarily use the mobile version of a site’s content to rank pages from that site”. More on: Mobile-first indexing

Social Media
Video streaming with Facebook Live was a big hit last year, I think we will continue to see a rise in video content with in-app add-ons and features that make it much easier to create this type of content. More apps and app features that reiterate Mobile-first, and paid content growing in popularity to ensure users see your content and the growing of your followers.

My predictions for 2017…
In an information and technology rich world… keep things simple, less complicated design structures and no more video backgrounds (I don’t know about you but these make me nauseous!). Say what we need to say and communicate in fewer words with perhaps bigger bolder type. The colour blue has always dominated the web as a popular colour choice, it would be great to see more vibrant colour choices.

What do you think we will see that is new in 2017? Have you spotted any design, marketing or online trends already?