Instagram has done it again! Earlier this year they launched an algorithm that placed the most individually relevant content at the beginning of each user’s feed. Now, Instagram has introduced a suite of business services to further solidify its standing as legitimate and in-demand advertising business platform. Regardless if you’re a micro business or a business Goliath, the need and opportunity within Instagram is significant:
“According to Instagram, about half of users now follow a business on the platform and even more—around 60 percent—say they’ve learned about products on Instagram.”
Instagram is a growing community and users now rely on it as a source of new products, businesses, and inspiration for their various needs. As the trends have shown, social posts that include pictures or videos are exponentially popular compared to text or link-based posts, so it comes as no surprise that businesses would want access to this platform.
With the constant updates being made to various social media platforms, it’s hard to keep up. We’ve distilled Instagram’s business offerings and summarized how to use them for optimum benefit to your business. Read on for a guide to Instagram for businesses.
Business Profiles
Instagram created profiles specifically for businesses. For those companies that have an existing Facebook for Business page, they can easily set up a business profile on Instagram. Specific criteria are required to register for a business profile, and the Facebook for Business credentials match those criteria. What’s so wonderful about a business profile? Its format offers several bonus buttons, which allow users to easily contact and connect with the business all from the profile page.
There is a contact button that when tapped, pulls up the options to call, send an email, or get directions to the business.
Image courtesy of Later
By selecting the Get Directions button, your business location shows up on a map, so the consumer can navigate to your business or find its proximity to them.
Image courtesy of Later
Categories have also been added to the business profiles. Categorization is a quick way to inform users of your industry and help them make a decision about your business’s relevancy to their search.
Image courtesy of Later
All three features showcase your business in a professional way that confirms it is a valid business, provides an efficient way for users to process your information, and most importantly, contact you at the click of a button.
Insights
The account insights, or analytics, offered by Instagram are similar to Facebook insights. They report critical information about post engagement and follower demographics so businesses can develop more applicable posts for their audiences.
Business profiles include follower demographic analytics, which track the location, gender and age of its followers. Location information provides users’ time zones so you can post during peak times based on where your audience lives. The gender and age information further breaks down your followers’ demographics in order to show who makes up your active audience. Again, these kinds of analytics allow businesses to make decisions about content types and messaging based on age brackets and gender categories. An engaging post for 55 year old man looks and sounds very different than a compelling post for a 25 year old woman. These metrics can guide your overall content strategy and assist your business in reaching your social media goals.
Image courtesy of Mashable
Another valuable metric is impressions per post. Businesses can see which posts were the most popular and engaging over a seven and 30 day period, as well as click on individual posts to see the specific impression numbers. This data is an important factor when developing new content as it signals to specific trends and preferences. From this information, businesses can distribute the most enticing posts, pictures and videos to its audience.
In fact, when a business finds a high performing post, it can swiftly convert it into an ad within the mobile app. The business can designate the desired audience based off of demographic data and the length of the ad run. If you’re uncertain of the target audience, audience suggestions are available during this process. Target audience profiles can also be saved so it can be quickly referenced without starting from scratch each time the business produces an ad.
Image courtesy of TechCrunch
For a complete overview of the new Instagram business offerings, check out the video from AdWeek below:
What does this mean for your small business?
This is fantastic news for small businesses! With these integrations, small businesses can now better compete for customers and followers because ad creation is so simple. The insights present vital reports about their audience and post engagement, so they can tweak campaigns and create new ads on the fly. This is a major opportunity to small businesses to grow their audiences and convert viewers into customers without much additional effort on their end. As Jim Squires, Director of Marketing Operations at Instagram, told AdWeek:
“The way I envision this is there are a lot of businesses on the platform that may be new to advertising, or not advertising yet, and this is a straightforward, easy way to start advertising on the platform.”
Whether you’re a novice or seasoned advertiser, you can benefit from Instagram’s business tools.
These offerings also stimulate increased brand equity for small businesses. Before now, Instagram was primarily a beautiful picture gallery for businesses and those images generated followers, but not necessarily brand awareness. Now, people are drawn to your page because of your visual posts, but then are able to evaluate and assess your business through accessing the contact options, and visiting your website all from your business profile. Making your basic business information easily accessible to viewers reinforces your level of authenticity and credibility. Having an Instagram business profile has the potential to drive traffic to your site, promote engagement, and generate sales.
There’s no doubt that further improvements and features will be made available in the near future given how rapidly Instagram is positioning itself in the digital marketing and advertising space. We can’t wait to see how small businesses take advantage of this new advertising outlet and claim more market share through Instagram.
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