After Facebook, YouTube and What’s App, Instagram is the fourth most-used social media platform in 2021, as per the reports by Hootsuite. Why is this important? Well, if you’ve not included Instagram in your business social media strategy, then be ready to face some competition.
In another report by SproutSocial, 70% of shoppers look to Instagram for their next purchase. This is one of the reasons why more and more businesses, irrespective of their target audience, are turning to Instagram. If you’re new to it or are wondering how you can use Instagram for businesses, then this piece is for you.
Listed below are some amazing tips to use Instagram for business in 2022. So, let’s dive deep into it, shall we?
Why Use Instagram for Business?
Instagram started as a photo-sharing app that lets its users share amazing photographs with the world. These were made visible to the masses with some hashtags and followings. However, over the years, it has emerged as more than just this.
One can share short videos (Reels) and long-form videos (IGTV) along with just photographs. Reels has picked up since its launch last year. This year, Instagram hinted that it will be pushing video content to its audience. Moreover, there has been a constant rise of influencers on the platform.
Instagram is constantly evolving and trying to make it better for its users. Now, why would you, a business, need all of these features for your business? For three prominent reasons – to drive sales, increase visibility and connect with your customers.
#1 Drive Sales
1 in 2 people have used Instagram to discover a new brand; that’s 50% of the audience. In a world where competition is getting tougher with every clock click and getting discovered is the primary motive of a brand, Instagram seems an effective platform.
With the constant increase in Instagram followers, it can be an excellent platform to reach audiences beyond your reach and get their due attention. Wider the visibility, the larger the audience, higher the chances of increased sales.
#2 Visibility
Most companies struggle with social media marketing. With the blast of the internet and the evolution of technology, boundaries vanished and the world turned into one market. It’s been quite a challenge for companies to not only increase but maintain their visibility.
What could be a better platform than Instagram, one which is constantly rising? Opening Instagram daily and regularly is turning into a habit for most. With its algorithm getting smarter and better, the chances of your brand visibility are increasing. Having a presence here will effectively pay off, only if the platform is leveraged correctly.
#3 Connect with Customers
In the pre-social media era, companies made efforts to connect with audiences through various offline mediums. Today, that effort is all online. Companies aim at increasing their followers on platforms, like Instagram, to witness the communication and gather all the in-depth analysis from here.
Various features of Instagram can be put to use to gather customer analysis and feedback. These can be reactions to stories, quizzes, comments on posts, shares, likes, direct messages and profile visits, to name a few. It’s easy, smooth and instant.
How can businesses make the most of Instagram?
Step 1 – Setting up a business account
Yes, Instagram allows you to set up a business account. This adds up some special features to check analytics, know about your customers’ behaviour and other important details you must know.
To begin with, use your brand’s logo as your profile pic, smartly choose the Contact Us button and put up a short description. You can also use third-party link collectors like Linktree to list down all essential services or resources in one place as Instagram allows only one link.
Step 2 – Importance of Hashtags
Instagram’s algorithm highly relies on hashtags. This is how you’re able to discover more photos and videos. Thus, ignoring it is not at all recommended. Moreover, mismanagement of hashtags can restrict your visibility.
How can you beat it? By identifying hashtags that your business can relate to and put them into your posts. In case you’re confused about which one to use, seek the help of third-party hashtag generators. Make sure your posts have high-performing hashtags.
Step 3 – Quality Content
Content is an undefeated king, what may come. People are always drawn to excellent content. On Instagram, photographs and videos are the content as that’s what draws people to your post. So, whilst you’re working hard to get all the attention of your audience, focus on quality content.
Make sure that you always stand out through a collection of photographs and videos. Make them attractive and relatable. When your audience can relate to them, that’s when they’ll share it with their network and that’s how you’d gain popularity. Simple!
Step 4 – Theme
What’s your theme? What makes you stand out from the rest? What’s your brand communication? What is your voice? These are equally essential as great content. Even if you’ve got great content but you’re losing the brand voice, you’re like the rest.
You’ve to focus on building your identity and voice. This includes not only the voice but the colour coordination, post types, a concise choice between photographs or graphics or both, and the overall presentation. This way, you’ll attain brand recall value in thousands of posts one may see in a day.
Step 5 – Stories
As mentioned earlier, Instagram is evolving and is including a lot of interesting features in its platforms, as we speak. One of those amazing features is Instagram stories. Well, it’s not just a feature to share your posts, but an interesting way to interact with your audience.
What all can you do in stories? Well, you can have quizzes, trivia, and questions, direct them to your amazing content by sharing the link in the story, and bring them back to your profile by intimating them about the recent post. This is not it, the list is endless. So, make the most of it.
Step 6 – Live
We all know Instagram allows you to go live, just like Facebook. Now, except for influencers, many just don’t use this feature for their benefit. As a business, you can get an amazing audience and can enjoy real-time interaction with your audience.
Foremost, the moment you go live, your followers are intimated. They come online to have direct interaction with you. Trust us, every customer is willing to interact with brands they follow. Even if it’s not an interaction, you can make them a part of your event through this feature, which eventually will improve your branding.
Step 7 – Sell
In November 2020, Instagram introduced a shopping tab. It is highly recommended to use this feature smartly. What does it do? Well, it lets your audience discover and buy your products right from this app.
You must have a product catalogue in your account. Tag your products and create a post. Moreover, all the products listed must comply with Instagram’s merchant agreement and policies. It also allows you to use Facebook, BigCommerce or Shopify to create your catalogue.
Conclusion
Instagram is getting popular amongst the younger generation and is slowly catching up with its competitors. As a business, you can’t ignore it otherwise you’d be lost. The aforementioned steps are a must follow to make sure you’re still in the market. Try these out for yourself and do let us know about your success.
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Pankaj Jangir
Max Therry
Walter Moore