Now that most of us have finally figured out how to post on Interest, here comes Instagram. Instagram is a mobile app that is the brainchild of Mark Zuckerberg’s college friend Kevin Nystrom

Instagram is a free social media photo-sharing website launched on October 6, 2010. It allows users to upload photos, manipulate them with digital filters, and share them with other users they are connected to. Instagram has been a huge success since its inception. As of December 2010, they have over a million users. As of April 2012, 30 million users have uploaded more than 150 million photos to Instagram. Also in April, Instagram became available for Android users. Seeing its social media dominance threatened, Facebook quickly neutralized its newest competitor. In April, Facebook bought Instagram for a billion dollars.

How can local small businesses use Instagram?

 First you need to register. You must have a local page to register your business. To create a location page for your business, you must create a foursquare account. Foursquare is a location-based social media site for mobile users. Instagram uses four square’s location database to tag a photo with that location. If your location isn’t already in the foursquare database, you can add it by following these recommended steps on the Instagram website: Go to the Manage tab and find the name of the location you want to add

Click “Add this location”.

Once you’ve added a location to the foursquare database, you’ll need to find and select it from the Instagram location screen and tag your photo where it was taken.

Upload your photo, then click the location name above the photo (in blue text) to see the location page you’ve created with your photo and be tagged with that location in the future. All photos are displayed once you’ve created Foursquare, create your Instagram account:

Sing with your brand name.

Add a profile picture, company information and a link to your website .Link to other social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.).

Now that your account is created, you can start building your Instagram presence. Strategies used are e.g. Share interesting content. Where did you hear that before? Anyone who has followed inbound marketing, search engine optimization, and building an online presence knows that it all starts with content. Don’t be afraid to experiment with your photos. Ask your followers for comments. What do they like the most? How about at least?

Use hash tags to find more followers and share your photos.

 Be careful when using hash tags. This will help you find like-minded people who are more likely to be interested in your product or service. So say instead of car. Try to get people who are directly interested in your product. See what other companies in your industry are doing. They can use ideas that you have forgotten.

Share photos on other social media. instagram downloader makes it easy to share photos to Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter, when these users see your image, they visit your website or follow you on Instagram.

Make sure your photos tell the story you want to tell. Posting pictures of that amazing steak dinner you’re about to eat won’t help if you own a tire shop. Be true. Your users can see if the photos you post are authentic or not