Instagram seems to be in the social media favourite at the moment, with 400+ million daily active users that share 80 million pieces of visual content daily. But is Instagram right for your business?
Instagram is considered to be important for brand building; it’s even overtaken Facebook and YouTube as celebrities consider it to be the ‘most influential social marketing tool’.
For those businesses that aren’t in the know about Instagram, it’s an online photo-sharing social networking service that is beginning to play an effective sharing platform role in marketing strategies. In fact Forrester has named it the ‘the king of social engagement’.
instagram for business
So here are 10 reasons to consider Instagram for business
1. High engagement – Forrester research found Instagram delivered brands 58 times more engagement per follower than Facebook, and 120 times more engagement per follower than Twitter.
2. Engagement goals – to make Instagram work for your business be clear about what you want to achieve; increase sales or traffic to your website, increase brand awareness or branded mentions.
3. More actions – Instagram delivers more sales and consumer actions than other other social platform according to a study which documented the 15 biggest biggest influencers on consumer behaviour.
4. Most responsive – Millennials were found to be the group most responsive to posts on the image sharing app, with 68 per cent of 18-24 year-olds saying they more likely to purchase an item if someone they followed on Instagram shared it.
5. Brand voice – it’s vital to have an authentic brand voice that is consistent and cohesive across all images, use your company name for SEO and your Instagram visual style can build on your brand strength
6. Videos – limit to 3 – 15 seconds, make sure you tell a story with your caption to give it context, encourage engagement and conversation through sneak peeks and offer behind the scenes looks.
7. Polls – you can initiate polls to canvass opinion and you can track performance to see if the poll is resonating with your community, you can also see which images are performing better than others, Iconosquare is good for this.
8. Popular sectors – this photo sharing app is already considered important for publishers, retailers, restaurants, or travel companies and brands such as Red Bull, GoPro Starbucks, Ford and NFL use it too.
9. Community building – Instagram is a hub where like-minded people share inspiring images, you can also consider a strategy to collaborate with a popular instagrammer or influencer in your sector
10. Content strategy – if you decide to use Instagram for your business, develop a content strategy by outlining how often you will post, what time of day, defining content themes.
Remember if you develop an Instagram social media account; integrate it into your marketing channels, using it as an opportunity to build a wider presence. If you start it, commit to it. Share your Instagram for business thoughts below or on Twitter.
