While Instagram appears to be a social media platform made for photographers, the truth is, you don’t have a fancy camera or eye for photography to have a successful account. Realistically, all you need is a modern cell phone and you’re already ahead of the game.

These days, most smartphones are equipped with cameras capable of taking sharper images better than what your digital camera would have over a decade ago. The best part? Some of these smaller cameras built into your phone can actually focus on what you’re trying to capture and include different settings ranging from profiles to panoramas to 3D imaging. Don’t even get me started on all the apps you can download to edit and add special effects as well; they’re practically endless.

In keeping with the basics, say you have an average smartphone with a decent camera. You’re good to go. I know taking photos for Instagram might still be intimidating in terms of getting that “artsy” shot or something you think followers and viewers might like. Honestly, once you familiarize yourself with the app’s editing properties, hashtags and high-frequency posting times, you have just as much a shot as anyone else. These things aren’t very difficult to grasp, and if you’re a first-time user, the app will likely walk you through the tools, filters, and more to clean up or enhance your photo.

After downloading the app, it is essential to pick or develop a style in which you would like to present your business to the public. I say this because unlike someone’s personal account who might have a variety of different kinds of content and videos ranging all types of subjects, your business has to reflect itself, like looking into a mirror. However, this could be as easy as posting your content with the same filter each time making the posts look universal, factoring in multiple posts to make a large image on your profile, or even text-based posts to break up your content.

Another neat thing about Instagram is that you can “repost” other content too. For example, say you own a sporting goods store and want to incorporate landscapes for camping or hiking products, and you happen to follow a photographer who takes rather candid shots in nature. With the right app, you can report the image, credit the user, and create a win-win for both you and them. This is just one way of attaching your name or your business to other entities.

In most cases, however, users tend to lean on the use of post- or business-related hashtags to get their content noticed. These could be things as simple as: #camping, #campinggear #adventure #gohiking (If we’re sticking with the sporting goods model here). The cool thing? Instagram gives you up to 30 hashtags to attach with any image! So not only are you given enough characters to curate your own business blurb or special, but you can also include the hashtags at the bottom of the post or comment them in the following message. From this point, unless you use a social media managing system, you’ll want to explore and test what types of posts seem to get more attention, what hashtags and even what times you post are showing the most results in regard to likes, follows and engagement.

For additional information on how to leverage your Instagram page, check out our blog page or reach out to the Media Pulse team on how we can assist you!