Branding your business is not always easy. In fact, we originally branded ourselves as “cheap” and “fun” but we’re finding out that being “small business” has proven to be the most effective and powerful part of our brand. When battling the Vistaprints, Zazzles and Next Day Flyers, there may be no better way to share our brand through pictures than Instagram.

What is Instagram?

Instagram is a free photo sharing application that allows users to take photos, apply a filter, and share it on the service or a variety of other social networking services, including Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Tumblr, Flickr , and Posterous. The application is compatible with any iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch.

How we’ll use Instagram.

As a small business, any free marketing opportunity is welcome. But like any other social network, we try to provide a unique experience for each we participate in. We already use Flickr to show off our printing samples, so now we’re going to try Instagram to share pictures of our daily activities, favorite prints, internal meetings and much more. It seems like a fun way to further support our small business atmosphere. We just need to make sure we’re taking interesting pics to stay…well…interesting.

If you try Instagram for your business, you’ll need to know some basics to gain followers. A few good articles I’ve read include 6 Effective Ways to Get More Instagram Followers, and How to Get Followers on Instagram. Below, I offer a quick list on how to gain followers.

As a blogger, I opened Instagram accounts for each website I own. I run a variety of travel sites and blogs and each one deserves a separate Instagram account. People following my print company (@printkeg) may not be interested in Myrtle Beach (@lovingmyrtlebeach).

16 Ways to gain Instagram followers.

1. Make sure you share your photos on every social network offered. These include Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Tumblr, Flickr , and Posterous. If you don’t have accounts for those social networks, start one up today.

2. Check that the “Photos are private option” if off. It should be by default.

3. Invite friends. This is a no-brainer. Invite your friends, customers and followers of other social networks. You can do this through Instagram. These are the people most likely willing to follow you or your business. We now invite a handful of customers each day.

4. Only post your best pics. Quality is better than quantity. Try to make each picture interesting, engaging, mysterious, colorful, with unique angles or just plain funny.

5. Thoroughly describe your images. You can comment on each picture so put some time into the writing.

6. Use hashtags, especially popular ones. Popular tags include #sky, #cat, #dog, #flower and #sunset. Tagging your photos with these hashtags, when appropriate, can increase the odds of your images being seen by others.

7. Engage by following others and commenting/liking. By engaging with others, you will likely attract some followers, especially if your photos are interesting. Commenting on a persistent basis will help tremendously in attaining followers. Commenting on popular photos works very well, but be authentic with your comments and not advertorial.

8. Like hashtags, geotagging provides another data point that can be used to categorize and display content. On Instagram, each defined location has its own page, which includes a map of the location and any photos taken there.

9. Post on Facebook or email blast letting customers know you’re now on the photo sharing app. Do the same on Twitter if you have a large following.

Update: The following are more tips I’ve added after using Instagram for awhile.

10. Keep up with Instagram’s blog and participate with the numerous photo contests. One person to follow in particular is by Instagram team member, Jessica Zollman ( @jayzombie) who holds a contest every weekend where everyone tries to snap a photo concerning a specific hashtag.

11. Don’t be afraid to comment on popular photos by celebrities, but be genuine with what you say. If you have nothing to really say, then don’t.

12. Use “like” a bunch! People will return the favor and possibly start following you. You can use “like” liberally, but don’t get crazy with it or people may actually stop following you.

13. Only follow iphoneographers you care about or enjoy. I promise that you will enjoy Instagram more this way, and you’re more likely to continue participating and building your own circle of friends if you’re having fun.

14. Sign up with followgram.me to make it even easier for people to find and follow you.

15. Follow “Suggested Users” by clicking “@(YourAccountName)” tab and selecting “Find Friends” then ”Suggested Users”. Following users that have similar interests as you may encourage them to follow you in return.

16. Be genuine. Instagram is my favorite social network right now so I ask everyone to be genuine, have fun and snap away!