We all know the power of Instagram. It’s filled with big corporations competing for the attention of millions of Millennials, and members of Generation Z. Small businesses will be intimidated by big corporations with unlimited marketing budget, large following and quality content. But this is the beauty of social media. Though all of these things can seem like deterrents at first, they are also the reason why you must give Instagram a try. But how can you use Instagram for small business? Instagram can be a great way to promote your brand, connect the physical world with the online world and launch a new product or service. What you use and how you use it will depend on your goals and your organization.

Instagram has about 800 million active daily users, Instagram is the fourth-most downloaded app in the US. So, if you are a business owner intimidated by entering such a crowded platform, keep in mind that capturing even the smallest percentage of your audience is still a significant amount of people. As a social media platform Instagram is unique because it’s all about visuals and aesthetics. All you need is your smartphone camera, and an idea of how you would like your brand to be represented. Instagram is also reported to have higher levels of interactivity between customers than other social media platforms. In other words, a smaller number of Instagram followers are more likely to share your content than a large group of Facebook follows. If you are running a business that targets customers based on lifestyle or income, as opposed to age, this works in your favor. With Instagram the chances of all members of your audience seeing your content increases as well. Because Instagram allows you to share your Instagram posts on Facebook automatically, your Facebook followers will be exposed to your Instagram content as well.

Instagram has its share of benefits. However, it is important not to have a same objective for all social media platform. Instagram is not Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Snapchat, or any other platform you are using. Its goal is to drive interaction with customers, website traffic, and sales through appealing visual content. So if you are a small business owner, unsure about how to use Instagram effectively, here are a few things to look out for.

1. Visuals

   Visuals are the main currency of Instagram. Be relevant! Post compelling content your followers won’t be able to find anywhere. such as, business and industry-related material. Feel free to post staff pictures, behind-the-scene pictures of how your product is created, relevant quotes, community events etc. Whatever your brand image may be, create visual consistency. There should be a clear idea of brand and messaging. This is important. Having this nailed down with what your brand represents is key before undertaking any social media outlet. An example can be to Use the same filter for every post. this allows you to establish a style that becomes recognizable to your followers. One of your goals on Instagram is to get users to stop scrolling when they get to your image. You want followers to like or leave a comment, which means your visuals have to be compelling and recognizable. If you have a strong driven mission you can post visuals that embody this as well. You also don’t have to be a graphic designer to have visually appealing content. Affordable platforms such as Canva are easy to use and offer great quality work.

1. Hashtags

   Creating a hashtag for your business is a must. Encourage your customers to post pictures of your products with this hashtag. To increase customer interaction, have hashtag sharing contests and ask your business partners to use it through cross-promotion. Don’t be afraid to include other hashtags relevant to national holidays or mainstream news. This can drive new customers to your page. You will be intimidated at first but don’t be! You can Check out what similar businesses are posting and the hashtags they are using. Having this information will make your page noticeable to the right people who need your product or service.

2. Followers: Of course, having many followers is beneficial. However, at your early stages focus on having the right followers, as opposed to the number of followers. Some businesses have opted to buy Instagram followers. While this may be appealing at first, there are no long-term added benefits. This means no added interaction, exchange, or purchases just money that could have been spent elsewhere. The goal is to increase the conversation rate, not just the amount of followers. So make sure you follow and interact with your targeted followers, business partners and industry leaders.

3. Consistency: Consistency works hand-in-hand with timing. This does not mean you have to post every day. Posting often and at the right time is key. Posting when your audience is likely to be online is best. Of course, this depends on your industry and customers. Posting quality content a few times a week is better than posting every day for the sake of meeting a quota.

4. Effectiveness: There are several free platforms and metrics used in order to measure the effectiveness of the way you are using your platform. Other than the number of likes and shares, Iconosquare and Sumall are a few sites that can measure your effectiveness for free!

We hope this helped you shed some light into Instagram. Think of it as an affordable way to continue interacting with your audience. There is little to lose and much to gain. Worst case, you realize the platform isn’t for you. Even so, you learned a valuable lesson about your business along the way.

Key performance indicators, also known as KPIs, are measurable values that showcase how effectively a company is achieving business objectives. Businesses set benchmarks early on and use KPIs in order to determine if they are achieving the goals they set out. KPIs can either be high-level or low-level. In other words, they can encompass the company as a whole, or focus on departmental goals. Monitoring KPIs is crucial for measuring progress and making necessary modifications to your business strategy. However, the focus should not be on the KPIs themselves. It should be on their significance and knowing their impacts. Let’s review some of the KPIs that are important for founders to thoroughly understand for strategic purposes. Please note that not all KPIs are relevant to all types of businesses.

1. Customer acquisition cost (CAC):

CAC is the amount of money you need to spend on sales, marketing and related expenses, on average, to acquire a new customer. This tells you about the efficiency of your marketing efforts, although it’s much more meaningful when combined with some of the other metrics below, and when compared to competitors’ CAC.

2. Customer Retention Rate

Acquiring new customers is one thing, but retaining them is even more important. Your customer retention rate indicates the percentage of paying customers who remain paying customers during a given period of time. The converse to retention rate is churn (or attrition), which is the percentage of customers you lose in a given period of time. When we see high retention rates over an indicative time period, you know the company has a sticky product and that is keeping its customers happy. This is also an indicator of capital efficiency.

3. Lifetime value (LTV)

LTV is the measurement of the net value of an average customer to your business over the estimated life of their relationship with your company. Understanding this number, especially in its relation to CAC, is critical to building a sustainable company. Consider the ratio of CAC to LTV to be the golden metric. This is a true indicator of the sustainability of a company.

4. Cash Flow

Cash flow will give founders indication on the state of their sales and margins. In order to determine your cash flow forecast you have to add the total cash your business has in its savings to the projected cash value for the next four weeks. Then, subtract the projected cash-out for the next four weeks. Cash flow forecasts allow entrepreneurs to notice issues with cash flow at early stages and make the appropriate modifications.  Understanding your revenue and monthly expenses (fixed and variable) enables you to calculate the company’s monthly burn. If the company starts the month with $100,000 in cash and ends the month with $90,000 in cash, its burn rate is $10,000. If a company’s monthly net cash flow is positive, it is not burning cash. A keen focus on runway is critical to the survival of any startup. Runway is the measure of the amount of time until the company runs out of cash, expressed in terms of months. Runway is computed by dividing remaining cash by monthly burn.

5. Inventory Turnover-

Inventory turnover is a ratio that shows the amount of times a company’s inventory is sold and replaced over a given period. This is especially important in the retail industry. Basically, it is how fast a company is selling their products. This is then compared to the industry average. Inventory turnover is important because it indicates the quality of your inventory planning methods and controlling techniques. Additionally, by improving inventory turnover a retailer can easily increase its profitability by carrying fewer inventories.

6. Accounts Payable Turnover-

Accounts payable turnover is the ratio that measure how quick a company can pay its suppliers. When the turnover rate declines, it means that the company is taking longer to pay its suppliers. This may imply deteriorating financial situation. It can also mean a change in payment terms with suppliers. If a company seems to be paying fairly quickly this can be due to suppliers’ demand for fast payment, or that a business is taking advantage of early payment discounts.

7. Revenue Growth Rate-

Having an understanding of how fast your company is growing is critical for analysis. There are many accounting rules that apply as to when and how you should declare revenue. As an entrepreneur understand that your actions as a businessperson can have direct effect on how your business is portrayed. You can control when contracts are signed, how the contracts are structured, in order to affect how much revenue is declared in a given quarter.

8. Market share-

Market share is main tool used in order to determine the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns compared to the competition. More specifically it can be calculated with shares of unit sales, share of customers served, share of total industry revenue, share of dollar volume, etc. Market share is important because it ranks you with your competitors. It gives you the most tangible indication of market growth, the quality of your CRM programs and branding initiatives. Make sure to also determine the value of your market share as well. For instance, having 60% market share in an industry that is slowly deteriorating is a red flag.

KPIs, like metrics, are crucial for business owners to monitor. Different companies monitor different KPIs, depending on their business goals. However, these KPIs should be understood by all business owners. Though you may not be dealing with technical accounting, understanding how these affect the way your business is perceived is of priority.