June 21, 2018

Using Instagram for Business

It may seem as though Instagram is an app solely geared toward adolescents who share photos and videos with each other. However, for a number of reasons, Instagram is becoming significantly more beneficial to businesses. Here’s why Instagram can augment your company’s advertising and marketing strategies.

You Can Create a Business Instagram Profile

Instagram allows users to create free business profiles, as opposed to a personal profile, which includes special features that will help promote your company. In order to create a business profile, you must connect the account to your business’s Facebook page. The business profile features include analytics, or “Insights,” a contact button and advertisements.

You Can Track Analytics

The “Insights” feature allows you to gather specific follower and post data, which will help you to create more relevant and relatable content for your specific niche audience. For example, “Insights” provides you with details about the demographics of your audience, such as their gender, location and age. “Insights” also tells you which posts are more popular than others, and which posts reach the greatest number of people.

The Contact Button Will Give You More Business

Business profiles also include a contact button allowing consumers to quickly and easily reach your firm by phone or email, as well as obtain directions to your firm’s location(s). In today’s technologically advanced society, people are typically more willing to go out of their comfort zone and learn something new if little effort is required. The contact button is the easy solution for consumers to communicate with your company without having to do any extra research.

Advertisements Will Fit Seamlessly Into Feed

Another facet of Instagram’s business profiles includes the opportunity to create and buy advertisements. Instagram offers four different types: photo ads, video ads, carousel ads (you can swipe to see multiple photos/videos in one ad), and stories ads (those that appear on Instagram Stories). Buying ads on Instagram will expose your company’s name to a wide range of consumers who are interested in your brand’s specific image. The ads will also appear fluidly in people’s feeds, as opposed to the unavoidable pop-up ads that disrupt people’s focus and views of their screen. According to Instagram’s business website, “2 million+ advertisers worldwide use Instagram to share their stories and drive business results.”

Aesthetically Pleasing Photos Will Grab Attention

Instagram stands out from other social media platforms because of its emphasis on “artsy” and aesthetically pleasing photos. Professional and colorful photos are necessary to attract consumers. People scrolling through Instagram are more intrigued by visual content than written information. Therefore, short and concise captions are crucial.

As one of the trendiest social media platforms, Instagram has the ability, just like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, to contribute to the growth and success of your business. Taking advantage of the full-range of opportunities to advertise your company will only increase awareness of your brand. An integrated marketing technique should be executed so that your goals, messages and designs are unified and fused together, resulting in consistency throughout each of your business’s social media accounts. No one can describe the purpose of Instagram’s business side better than the social media platform itself: “Instagram is a place where visual expression from business inspires visible action from people around the world.”