Many small business startups have risen from their starting blocks because of social media platforms. Businesses that relied on traditional marketing methods to create awareness about the brand and their offerings can testify how their campaigns were costly, required a larger human capital, and required a lot of planning and time.
Today, technology has given birth to a new era of marketing that is less costly and fast to implement. Instagram is one of the popular digital marketing methods that is a true gift to companies. The social media platform saves time and money, has a wider audience, provides instant feedback, and much more.
Since Instagram is a leader in the marketing field, here are additional facts about the platform and why you should promote your business.
What is Instagram?
Basically, Instagram is a photo and video-sharing platform with more than 1 billion active users. More than 81% of users search for products or services on this site before visiting their retail websites. As a result, 200 million-plus businesses have an Instagram account which they use to promote their offerings. With an appropriate Instagram growth service it is very much possible to get success rapidly.
Marketers use the Facebook-owned platform to create temporary Stories that comprise 15 seconds videos that last 24 hours. The platform reigns supreme because it’s easy to use, has greater engagement and target market penetration.
Instagram Terminology
Knowing Instagram terminology helps you get the most out of this social media platform. The following are common Instagram terms.
Bio: It stands for the biography section where businesses can use to write a call to action in their profile.
Hashtag (#): Instagram hashtags are similar to Twitter. They are text captions used to index phrases or words of any post shared on Instagram. You will see other posts with a similar hashtag when you click on them. A hashtag is preceded by #.
Stories: These are pictures and videos that disappear after 24 hours.
Feed: The place where your Stories appear on your followers’ profiles when you share them. Your photos and videos will appear at the top of the feed when they open their Instagram and refresh their feed.
Posts: These are photos and videos shared on Instagram.
Filters: These help you give your photos a unique or artistic look.
Followers: These are people who like your content and, as a result, see your pictures on their timelines whenever you post them on your profile.
Tag: You can add someone in an Instagram story or a caption by putting @ before their name. However, you should tag someone before posting the picture.
How to Use Instagram to Promote Your Business
Sell Products and Services: The addition of the Shop tab helps potential customers to discover and purchase products directly from brands using an app. However, you must provide personal details such as your email address, name, shipping address, and billing information in order to complete a transaction. You can pay using PayPal, Discover, American Express, MasterCard, and Visa. Facebook retains this data for future transactions.
Add Photos: Use the social media platform to share visually pleasing content. You can take your products photos and edit them in order to create a cohesive grid on Instagram. Personalize your posts using the available options, add filters, add a location, write a caption, and tag others users. Further, you can click on the advanced settings to turn off comments on your page.
Instagram Stories: Post short videos and photos that disappear within 24 hours in order to keep your followers engaged. Use this popular feature for marketing your products and services to busy users to read your regular Instagram posts appearing on their feed. Marketers use Instagram Stories to post texts, focused photos, music, boomerangs, live videos, or recorded videos. You can also add user tags, hashtags, location, and temperature stickers. Some companies add stickers for questions, polls, and sliding bars to help them interact with users as well as get feedback.
Stream Live Videos: Other than posting videos on Instagram Stories, you can stream live videos that will eventually disappear. You can create a video to give your customers a live look at what happens behind the scenes, answer live questions, or show products. However, you can upload a video that remains on your feed by shooting and posting it through the app. This also allows you to add filters as well as change the cover.
Advertise: Businesses can use Instagram to advertise in three ways.
- Photo ads are similar to regular photo posts, but they have a Sponsored label on top of the image. Further, the photo has a Learn More button placed in the bottom right corner.
- Video ads have a Sponsored label on top even though they’re similar to regular video posts.
- Carousel ads are identical to photo ads but feature multiple photos that your Instagram users can swipe through.
These ads appear on the home feeds of your users and support mass awareness, click-throughs to your website, video views, and mobile app installations objectives.
Interact With Your Followers: Businesses can engage and interact with their followers on Instagram in the following ways.
Liking: It involves liking a photo by hitting the heart button under the post.
Commenting: The comment button follows the like button. The app directs you to the comment page when you click on it and gives you a text box where you can type what you want to say and tab Post to complete it.
Direct Messaging: The feature allows you to send private instant messages, videos, or photos to other users. You and your recipients can continue to message back and forth. Users who are not yet your followers will be required to follow you before viewing your DM.
Tagging: You can add tags before sharing your photo or posting content. You can type the person’s name when searching for their profile. Users can see those tagged on the photo when they click on it.
Mentioning: Like the Twitter platform, you can tag others on your post captions or comments using @ symbol.
What Makes Instagram the Best Social Media Platform?
A Wide Audience
Instagram has more than 1 billion active users. Over 500 million of them visit this platform every day, and with a dedicated Instagram marketing strategy, you can grow your sales and build your audience.
This is an important place for businesses of all sizes. They can use the platform to raise brand awareness and build an audience base. Keeping your audience engaged by posting a post a day can help your business to thrive. In fact, brands like Adidas and Coca-Cola are thriving on Instagram because of using the platform effectively.
Partnering with Influencers
Social media platforms have regular users and influencers. The latter group comprises online celebrities that promote brands and their offering to their large follower base.
People tend to listen to influencers, so they influence their followers’ choices and purchasing decisions. A dependable influencer can grow your sales and reach a wider audience. They can publicize your brand, products, and the company to a large audience with just a few posts.
Increase Your Visibility Using Hashtags
Competition can be intimidating to both new and established businesses. However, you can separate your brand from your rival using hashtags. In fact, multinationals that use hashtags for marketing their products on Instagram have become more popular and recognizable. Likewise, you can use hashtags to make your business stand out from the herd.
Keep an Eye on Your Competitors
You can follow your competitors on Instagram to see how they interact with their followers. You can also see what they post and interact with their followers. Use the information to refine your personal marketing strategy.
Rich in Features
The feature enables you to showcase your brand, products, or services to potential customers. Indeed, Instagram Stories gives your business a face. You can also use other app features such as live posts and stories to make an impression.
You can use live stories and videos to show your audience what happens behind the scenes, the people behind your business, or how you make your products. Further, you can hold live Q&A sessions with your audiences to increase brand awareness or interact with them.
Hones Your Social Media Marketing Strategy
A good Instagram marketing strategy provides you an opportunity to sharpen your skills as well as gather insights about your followers. Further, the strategy helps you to see how the content is performing. You can use this pertinent information to improve your future marketing campaigns.
Some of the information that you can gather on Instagram includes the gender and age of your followers, their location, and the time they are active. You can also see how each post performs and the best time to publish them.
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