Obviously, you need an account before you can start growing your business on Instagram. It is easy to get started. Download the app from the Google Play store or Apple store. You can sign up using your current Facebook account or email. You can set up either a personal or business profile. It is recommended you create a business profile, since Instagram provides some marketing and behavior tracking tools for business profile account holders.
Your first opportunity for marketing comes when you decide on a user name.
Instagram’s search engine works pretty much like that of Google, Bing and other Internet search engines. It is text-based, and you have a better chance of someone finding you if your user name has a keyword or two that is relevant to your business. People search on Instagram for topics that refer to the photographs and videos they want to see. Someone may search for “monster trucks”, so if you had a relevant business, you may want your user name to be MonsterTruckAccessories.
Don’t waste too much time sweating over your user name, as you can change at any time.
If you sign up through Facebook, you will be asked if you want to follow your FB friends that are already on Instagram. If you don’t want to do this now, skip this step, and you can always come back to it later. You want to customize your profile by adding your name, link to your site or blog, a short and lighthearted biography and of course a photo. Add all of your contact details as well, so people know how to get a hold of you.
Buying an Existing Instagram Account
If you want an extremely quick way to have access to thousands of people on Instagram, this method may be attractive to you. On eBay and elsewhere on the web, you can purchase current and active Instagram accounts. This is a great way to go from zero followers to 5,000, 10,000 or even 20,000 overnight. Understand that prices will vary, and you could pay as little as $50 or more than $500 for an existing account.
Unfortunately, some accounts are created with fake likes and fake followers. These fake accounts can look pretty good, but obviously will do nothing for your business since the followers do not exist. There are a few things you should look for if you decide to purchase an Instagram account.
Take some time to look through the list of followers. If the majority of the followers of an account have profile pictures and look like normal people, you are probably looking at a valid account.
Make sure any account you decide to purchase has more than 100 posts.
Look at the followers. Are they commenting? Are the comments in-depth and “normal-looking”? Many fake accounts have little or no comments, and when comments are posted, they are extremely short.
If purchasing from a seller on eBay, check the persons selling history. Simply click on the user name to see if there is any negative feedback.
When you make the purchase, use some type of buying medium that protects you. PayPal and other payment services have tools in place that refund your money if you are dissatisfied with the transaction. On eBay there is buyer protection, so think about buying an account there rather than someplace else that is not as secure.
As soon as you purchase an Instagram account, immediately change the biography details, contact information, password and any other sensitive information.
Optimizing Your Biography
You only have 150 characters for your biography. This means you have to put on your marketing hat. Be direct, concise and informative, but still engage your audience. Add a hint of personality, and encourage users to take a specific action. This is a great place to add a link to an opt-in squeeze page where you give away a free gift in order to build your email list.
Use a link shortener such as Bitly or Goo.gl so your link doesn’t take up too many valuable characters. Those link shorteners also have free reporting tools that keep track of just how much traffic your Instagram biography is sending to your squeeze page.
You can also use industry-related keywords so the Instagram search engine can start sending you interested users.
Your profile picture should be a picture of you, if you are the main focus of your brand. If the page is more of a brand that isn’t tied to a specific person, then you can use your logo or a high quality picture that matches your niche and attracts attention.
