When Instagram began, its purpose was to maintain contact with existing friends through sharing small images thumbnails. It’s 2022, and Instagram has expanded into one of the most powerful branding tools for businesses and content creators. Due to the nature of the internet, when I started researching how to use the powerful app as a marketing tool, I was very distracted (so many exciting profiles!) and overwhelmed (how do I use this thing?). I had a personal account that I used to have fun with and post about my day-to-day life, but the account was taken down after a cryptocurrency scam (long story and good learning lesson). Fortunately, I had two versions that featured photography that I would do as a side hustle, and I decided to apply some newfound knowledge as I began to learn about branding through the app. By sharing details about learning social media, I discovered that many of them had the same interest in it as I did. These business owners knew how powerful a marketing tool it was but were also quite apprehensive about using it for themselves. I’m going to use this blog as a tool to help myself as I continue to learn about social media marketing. I also want to help others break down these apps into tiny bite-sized pieces that anyone can implement to help them gain a larger audience for their businesses.

So here is step one of creating your brand. Have a professional-looking headshot or logo for your profile picture. Depending on your budget, you can hire a photographer or graphic artist to make these for you. But do not rush this process. Journal and think about how you want your brand to look before investing a great deal of money. If you don’t have the finances right away, using a cellphone and having a clean, colored background is an easy way to look professional. Canva and Kapwing are great websites to help you with this! And if you are still scratching your head feel free to email me, and I can help you with this process!