With more than 1 billion active monthly users and more than 500 million active daily users, Instagram has come a long way since it originated in 2010, and companies are beginning to take care of it.

Mark Zuckerberg (News - Alert), CEO of Facebook, saw so much promise on the site and the advantages of Instagram that he bought it for $1 billion just 18 months after it was launched, and the site has continued to expand since then with many people trying to buy Instagram likes.

As has been proven by some of the top brands in the world (as well as by some of the small to medium-sized companies that LYFE Marketing works with!), there are several clear-cut methods to generate sales, leads and more via Instagram.

However, Instagram is also a comparatively young medium (compared to other social media sites) and new product changes are being carried out all the time. So how do you stay updated and capitalise on all of the new features? What are all the benefits of Instagram and how can you make use of them?

Here we have offered some tips on the same:

1. Optimize your Instagram Account

Now it's time to pick the correct profile photo. Your profile picture is your first impression of new visitors. For this reason, keep your image consistent with your branding and visual markers.

Consider using your logo or other recognisable illustration. Instagram profile images are automatically cropped into a circle, so leave space around the corners of the pic.

Next up — your bio Instagram. Instagram bios have a limit of 150 characters, so your objective here is a direct, succinct description of who you are and why people should follow you. Say the audience about the company with a touch of personality. Instagram profiles are not searchable, so don't worry about keywords or hashtags.

In your bio, you can promote users to take particular action, like using a specific hashtag or going to visit your website. Your bio is the only place where you can display a clickable URL

1. Manage the Settings

Finally, let 's look at your account settings. Click on the three stacked lines in the upper right corner of your profile, then click Settings at the bottom of the window. (Under your username, you'll see a few links that we'll cover below.)

Inside your preferences, you'll be able to do stuff like update your password, see posts you've enjoyed, allow updates, and much more. Here are a few things you need to check out right away.

Story Settings, where you can manage who can see and answer your Instagram Stories (which we discuss below). We propose that you encourage all your followers to see and react to your storeys in order to maximise their brand participation. Click Privacy > Story to activate your Story Controls from your settings. (You can also do this by pressing the gear icon in the top left corner while uploading a story.)

Switch to a Professional Account that helps you to define your profile as a company profile. The Instagram Business Tools feature makes it easier for users to reach you, presents you with in-depth insights, and helps you to market your content.

1. Understand the App

This is important no matter what type of marketing you make. You may want to make the most stunning Instagram content in the world, but if it doesn't cater to your target customer, what's the point?

Take the time to figure out who your real audience is, and ask about who you want them to be. Since you're using Instagram for ads, you need to know whether they're future customers or can help you develop your brand in any way.

The tool gives some insightful insights (hence the name) into the people who track and connect with your account. This include the following:

• Impressions: How many times the post has been seen
• Achievement: cumulative number of specific accounts that viewed a piece of material
• Clicks on the website: How many clicks the connect in your company profile has earned
• Follower activity: How often your followers are on Instagram every day.
• View of video: How much the video material has been watched

1. Make use of Listening Tools

Social listening tells you discussions on social media. This includes the Instagram. A strong listening tool will tell you what people think about your Instagram brand or your business.

If you're going to cater to new users on Instagram, you need to know what makes them tick. Instagram monitor for keywords that matter to you. This may mean hashtags that you or your rivals have produced, or other words that directly apply to your business.

Look for photographs and content types that have been seen to be common and suggest creating similar content.

What's important is that you know what Instagram users are reacting well, so that you can make winning content yourself. This allows social listening apps like Mention a must-have marketing software for Instagram.

1. Run a Hashtag Competition

Use an Instagram contest app like Wishpond to create a wonderful hashtag contest for your brand. Wishpond is amazing because it instantly makes the competitions mobile-friendly, which is a must-have for an Instagram contest.

Create your website beginning from one of Wishpond 's amazing models and bring together a terrific reward bundle and a few attention-grabbing posts-and some advertising, if you have a budget-to spread the news about your contest.

Entrants post images to Instagram with a sponsored hashtag of your choosing, and these images will immediately feature in the gallery on your contest page, where users will vote on photos and see photos from other entrants.

Enable voting on your contest page helps you to gather email addresses, which are crucial when it comes to creating your email list and generating revenue from email marketing.

This is by far my number one Instagram marketing tip-it 's something you need to do if you haven't already done so.

Conclusion

If you're one of Instagram's 800 million active monthly users, you'll know how strong the social network is as a marketing tool.

It's a perfect way to sell your products, communicate with your clients, and reach out to new audiences in your target market. Everyone else does it, but the question is: will the company be successful? And how is that? Make sure you go through the above article to find out.