Ben Givon presents: 5 Ways to Humanize Your Instagram Business Account
Except for old fogies still stuck on Facebook, Instagram is THE social media platform. Sure, it’s time too will pass, but for now, and for millennials, this is where people get updated about their friends, where they share what’s new in their own lives — and also, of course, where they are open to buying into your particular brand or business.
Used right, it can put a human face on your business, and form an emotional bond which transcends cold dollar and cent calculations with potential customers. But how do you humanize a business site on a platform that is all about visual impressions?
Well, Ben Givon says, you don’t need to look much further than Nike to get an idea about what humanizing a business means. Nike makes shoes from leather and glue and plastic — but that’s not what it sells. No, it markets, and sells us an image of the people who wear Nike. People like us — or at least people we would like to be.
Humanizing is critical to overcome the protective barriers potential clients have reacted against online business propositions. The hard sell, hype and intrusive sale techniques have lost their luster and don’t impress them much. What they value is a feeling of authenticity, caring, and at the end of the day feeling satisfied and validated by their choices.
So that’s the challenge — to show why your business, your brand, your product, is genuine, authentic and fills a human need other than filling your own bank account. How can this challenge be met?
Ben Givon’s 5 Tips to Humanize Your Instagram Business Account.
Tip #2: Tell them what you believe in — and how your businesses’ ethic code embodies it.
What does your business believe in? what does it stand for? Besides making a lot of money of course, that’s a given. Do you believe in promoting health consciousness, being cool, or inspiring the masses? Then share to show that you really care!
The best part? Sharing what you care about will naturally tend to draw in precisely the people you want to do business with!
Tip #3: make them laugh!
Like, this is Instagram, get it? this isn’t your CV or even a LinkedIn profile. A funny story or photo isn’t just permitted — it’s mandatory! At least it is if you want to get loyal followers.
Tip #4: Don’t back away from being authentic
That said the important thing to remember about Instagram is not to be the coolest, or the funniest, or the guy with the most professional-looking photos. It’s to be yourself. To be authentic.
This is true regardless of how big or small your brand is. Get in touch with the inner self of that brand — and project it consistently. Consistency is key term here — if followers see a kaleidoscope of disconnected quotes or photos they will conclude, and conclude rightly, that you are not a credible, authentic business.
To thy own self be true — all else will follow.
Tip #5 — being human
This is the most important tip of all — you need to give your followers more than a snazzy brand to follow. You need to show them vulnerability. You need to show them genuine humanity behind the business. That, more than anything else, is what people are yearning for in this digital age — something to bond to. Give them that, and you have their loyalty.
