Social media is the new ‘pamphlet’ of today’s world. It is widely used for advertising and making your thing viral. There are various social media tools nowadays. But the show stealer in today’s world is none other than Instagram.

Yes fellows, instagram is the hottest medium, to market your business if your product or service is more visually oriented. This popular photo sharing app is growing like a fire in today’s world. The app is simple and serves as a platform for you to share your business with the world through images and videos.

Read on to find some tactics to boost your marketing plan with Instagram.

Images and images : Instagram majorly follows image sharing. So, here you can share as many images as you want with your followers. Summarizing your business from the scratch through images is a real fun and is interactive too. To read is good, but to see is even better and Instagram has made this possible for you to show the real raw thing of your business to the world.

Instagram Videos : Along with images, Instagram also provides video sharing. Video sharing is not as much popular as image sharing, but video sharing serves great benefits. Like images, filters and editability tools are also available for videos to enhance its quality. And, same as Instagram images, the videos can also be easily re-shared to other social media sites. Some of the best ways to utilize Instagram videos can be as product information, new product announcements, how-to videos, behind-the-scenes and to get a bit personal with followers, greetings or personal messages will also work. Another way around to use Instagram with videos is by embedding the Instagram video onto your website which will spur your website visitors to visit and follow your Instagram account.

Hashtags : Basically, hashtags are the words or phrases preceded by the hash (#) symbol, it helps to make it easy for your target customers to find you.The right hashtag will act as a magnet between you and your customers even if they are from distant places. Adding hashtags together in a group that are more specific to your industry will help you even more. Hashtags really matter a lot in developing and maintaining your brand when it comes to Instagram. Your Instagram marketing success and failure is defined by the use of most pertinent and potent hashtags.

Send direct messages : Another great feature on lnstagram is to send direct messages. You can send a photo message to any individual or a group (up to 15 people at once). This direct messaging feature can be used to offer exclusive discounts to VIP customers. And you can also take customer service issues through this direct message feature and resolve them privately.

Connecting Instagram to Facebook : Facebook is also being used by many business houses to promote their brand. Another cool thing, you can do is to link your Instagram account with your Facebook account so that you can blend the followers. Instagram’s simple features make it easy for you to share your images to Facebook, and other social media platforms like Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, and Foursquare, which could be a great trick to get some extra exposure. By sharing your Instagram posts on Facebook and other social platforms, you will attract more followers to your Instagram.

Create a Photo Contest : Photo contest is a great way which helps in branding and also to build community. Instagram hashtags make it easy for you to collect photos from followers around a theme, and many brands have had success and fun using this capability to host photo contests. Photo contests can be a fun, free way to attract, interact with and convert potential customers into consumers. To keep followers coming back day after day, pick daily or weekly winners and reward them with prizes.