Why should you promote your Instagram account across different social platforms?
The better question is, why not? You have everything to gain and nothing to lose:
- Grow your Instagram. More social exposure on your Instagram posts means they will get more interaction and your page will gain more followers.
- Improve your image. Chances are, your Instagram photos are some of your most aesthetic photo assets. Spreading that around certainly doesn’t hurt.
- Lower social costs. Generating new content for social is expensive. Cross-promoting means you can reuse some of the same content, lowering costs while delivering equal results.
How to Cross-Promote Using Instagram
These are the top five ways to use Instagram in conjunction with your other social media accounts. You may decide to use one, some, or all of them, depending on what you envision for your social presence.
Use Instagram as content source for other accounts
Sign up to a service like Hootsuite or IFTTT (If This Then That). When you post on Instagram, that post will be carried over to the other accounts you have set up (Facebook, Twitter, etc.).
Since everyone likes photos and Instagram posts must contain a photo, you can feel safe using this as a source of new content across your different accounts, which can reduce production costs and increase your social interaction levels.
Link to Instagram-only videos
Post a video on Instagram and promote it with your other accounts. But, make the user navigate to Instagram to view the video. Sending traffic to your video will increase your view count on the video and your follower count overall. The increased activity will also help you gain exposure within Instagram through Instagram’s new algorithmic timeline.
Link to Instagram contests
Everyone likes to win free stuff. When you do a contest of any kind, promote it through your other social media accounts. Followers will be forced to follow you on Instagram if they wish to participate in the contest. It’s an easy way to increase the impact of each contest you run.
Take advantage of photo association to introduce something on another network
You can do it the other way around, too. Use Instagram to promote something on another account. For example, if you write a note on another account aimed at informing the public, link to that note on an Instagram post, and use a photo that conveys the same message as your note.
Using your “About” sections to your advantage
Finally, sweat the small stuff. You can only really use one link effectively in your Instagram bio. But in your “About” section on other platforms like Facebook and Twitter, you have room for multiple links. Be sure to include your Instagram link to introduce a steady trickle of traffic and followers to your page.
Your social following is spread over your different accounts, but you can cross-promote between accounts to send followers to and from Instagram with ease. Use the guidelines above to cross-promote effectively and grow your Instagram more quickly and in a more substantial way.
If you are involved with e-commerce, make sure to install Have2Have.it so your increased reach translates to real sales once you successfully cross-promote.