How to Increase Credibility for Your Business With Instagram

How to use instagram for business
Taking pictures of your process, staff, and customers help establish credibility for your business.
How to use instagram for business
Taking pictures of your process, staff, and customers help establish credibility for your business.

Many businesses thrive on the integrity and credibility of their owner and his/her employees. Credibility is hard to come by when you’re on a tight budget. Sure, you can interact with customers face-to-face, but what about building digital credibility?

You can’t afford to not to have credibility. It’s what drives revenue. When people know, like, and trust you, they buy from your company.

One of the best ways to build knowledge, trust is through pictures. After all, pictures do speak louder than words.

Taking pictures? Really? Yes. It may sound like a waste of time, but in this social century, everyone is taking pictures. From Instagram to Flickr, Pinterest to Snapfish, pictures are the new fad.

So how do you take advantage of the picture wave and use it to build your company’s credibility?

Here are five easy solutions:

1. Show Your Faces

This is the most important one on the list because it literally puts a face to your business. The human connection is never stronger than when you’re small. As you grow, it’s tough to maintain, so take advantage of it while you still can. Show your team making your product, selling your product, on a delivery, etc.

2. Show Your Process

Have you always wondered what goes into making t-shirts or producing granola? Your customers have. Just look at the popularity of shows like How it’s Made on the Discovery Channel – they show fascinating processes in each episode for things like toilets and bike helmets! This means your process has got to be interesting, too! Don’t manufacture anything? Take pictures of exciting shipments, new products, or beautiful store displays. Anything that shows customers how you do business.

3. Show Your Customers

If you’re customers aren’t already taking pictures of themselves with your product, they might start. If you’re at a trade show, fair, or other industry event, snap a couple shots of your customers using your product. They can be funny or serious. Whatever emotion you choose, it’s associated with your brand image, so choose carefully.

4. Show Your “Other life”

What happens when you’re not working the 9-5 grind? Did you just grab breakfast at the local cafe or see a great show at the local theatre? Showing customers you’re not always business says you’re willing to openly display the human side of your business.

5. Show Behind-the-Scenes Pictures

Customers love exclusivity. They enjoy having access to something other people don’t. If you post a picture of your new product line, packaging, or office space, your customers feel like they have exclusive access to that information. It makes them a part of your company. When your customers become more involved, they become loyal to your product. And loyal customers almost always spend more money over time than new customers.

Photos are going to remain a social experience, as they have for nearly 200 years. Instagram isn’t going away (I mean, they were just acquired by Facebook for $1B.) and photo startups are launched every day. With these tips, I hope your business is able to embrace the photo-sharing movement and make it work for you.

By Michael Adams

Author Bio: Michael Adams is the Marketing Manager at Fourtopper, a provider of websites for restaurants. See how they’re bringing more to the table for restaurants, cafes, and bars. Plus, follow the team on twitter for industry updates.

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