Yesterday we were lamenting the exposure (or lack of) businesses receive on Facebook and suggested exploring Instagram. I don’t want it to seem like we’re promoting Instagram over Facebook. In fact, Instagram was acquired by Facebook in 2012. It’s just that Instagram doesn’t use the same algorithms limiting exposure to followers as it’s parent company, so we want to examine its uses in business.

Instagram makes it easy to create and share visually appealing content such as photos and videos. With more than 150 million monthly active users it has become a great platform to market your business. I told you we’re going to tackle this is small bites. The first one is to create an account. This will take about 300 seconds.

Instagram must be accessed through an iPhone, iPad, Windows Phone, or Android device. I pulled these instructions directly from the Instagram site:

1. Download the Instagram app for your iPhone/iPad from the App Store, your Android from Google Play Store or your Windows Phone from the Windows Phone Store.
2. Once the app is installed, tap to open it.
3. Tap Register with Email to sign up with your email address or Register with Facebook to sign up with your Facebook account.
4. If you register with email, create a username and password, fill out your profile info and then tap Done.
5. If you register with Facebook, you’ll be prompted to sign into your Facebook account if you’re currently logged out.

Since this is a business Instagram account, choose a user name to reflect your store name.

If you want to experiment with taking photos, using filters, cropping, etc., by all means. Have fun. And if you already use Instagram for business, thanks for your patience. We’re going to move slowly… 5 minutes at a time.