Leveraging Instagram In Your Interior Design Business

Instagram is celebrating its 12th birthday in 2022, and it has absolutely exploded in recent years, reigning as the premier platform for eye-catching photography and graphics, but there’s more to it than just pretty pictures. Instagram is a platform to showcase your work, connect with consumers, the design industry, influencers and suppliers. It’s a place to learn what’s hot in the world of interiors, to stay abreast of consumer trends, and market your brand.

In short, if you’re an interior designer, you should be active on Instagram. Here’s why, and how to use it to grow your business.

Some Stats:

As a business owner, you’ve surely done your consumer research, which makes the following stats particularly interesting. Per Hootsuite, Instagram enjoys 1.2 billion users each month, with 18- to 34-year-olds making up 60 per cent of this cohort, followed by 18-to-24-year-olds. Here’s another interesting stat: 90 per cent of Instagram users follow at least one business. Furthermore, 50 per cent of Instagram users use this platform to discover new businesses, products or services. Are you taking advantage of this? With the right content and social strategy, you could be!

How to Use Instagram to Promote Your Interior Design Business

Here are some helpful tips, courtesy of Izood.net:

1. Set up an Instagram profile. Consider getting a “business profile,” which offers some additional features such as access to analytics and the ability to run paid proportions. Choose a username that reflects your business name, and consider using your logo or brand colours in your profile pic. Your bio should include “interior designer” as a keyword, and be sure to add a link to your website to your profile. Make your profile “public” so users and potential clients can find and follow your page.

2. Start posting. Ensure your content is “on brand.” As an interior designer, your followers have an expectation of inspirational, aspirational and beautiful interiors. Your followers don’t care about your political views or off-topic opinions. If you do choose to post some personal pics or videos, find a way to tie them back to your business. Always stay on topic.

3. Tout your style. Do your interior designs lean toward a particular colour palette or visual aesthetic? Post content that reflects your signature look. From time to time, evaluate your “grid” of photos and videos and ensure everything posted is cohesive and harmonious.

4. Show your face. Humanize your brand by sharing photos of yourself, your team and when possible, your happy clients in their space.

5. Use hashtags. Branded hashtags bring consistency to your posts, and they also make your content easy to search – and find! Other relevant hashtags also categorize your content by topic and niche, such as #kitchens, #bathrooms, #luxury, #furniture, and so forth. Use between eight and 20 hashtags per post.

6. Use locations and @mentions. Adding these to your posts helps to further humanize your brand while showing a little love to suppliers and retailers you work with. Doing this also encourages others to tag your page, which increases its visibility.

7. Engage with other Instagram users. Instagram’s algorithm favours active posts and accounts, meaning they will appear in more people’s feeds with greater frequency. So, “like” and comment on other posts as a way to reach new customers, design peers, new suppliers and design media. In turn , this will have positive impact on your own account.

8. Post good content. Yes, the number of posts matters, but only if they’re good and reflect what your followers want to see. Ensure photos and videos are crisp, have good lighting, and are on brand. Try posting three to seven times per week, and be consistent. Don’t let your Instagram page go dark. If you’re challenged for time or are planning to be away for a period of time, consider using a scheduling app that lets you load your content and drip it out at a steady pace.

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