As a small or medium size business owner, have you been thinking about using Instagram for Business? Should you?
Before you jump onto the Instagram bandwagon, consider whether social media marketing on Instagram makes sense for your business. Ask yourself these five questions to decide.
Instagram is a photo sharing site.
The first question to ask is:
If you’re a hair dresser, interior designer, realtor, or restaurateur, you can easily take stunning photographs that help you achieve your business goals. Hair dressers and designers can showcase “before” and “after” photos. Realtors can display the exterior and interior of listings. Mouthwatering images of food can drive patrons to a restaurant.
Another question to ask is:
A marketing strategy is your business’s overall game plan for reaching people and turning them into customers. We recommend an integrated strategy with a mix of interrelated marketing tactics that form your marketing plan. Because resources of time and budget are limited, not every marketing tactic can nor should be implemented.
What is a social media strategy?
A social media marketing strategy is a type of marketing strategy. It’s a plan to engage prospects and/or customers through content that users share. The purpose of a social media marketing strategy is to increase brand awareness and customer/prospect reach. It does not necessarily generate leads. It tends to be early in the buyer’s journey. Contrastingly, if you have a loyal brand following, it can also be used to engage customers.
Your strategy answers the question, why am I doing this marketing activity?
Just because Instagram is the right tactic for someone else’s business, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the right choice for yours.
A third question to ask:
If your answer is yes, keep reading. A brand does not make a good impression if it’s an abandoned ghost town of a profile page.
If you or your staff members don’t have the bandwidth or the expertise, ask yourself this fourth question:
A startup cost and a monthly retainer may be a better fit for your business than trying to rely on internal resources. Furthermore, if you’re not very adept on a smart phone, but Instagram is the right choice for your business, you may want to hire a digital agency to help you.
Finally, ask yourself:
If your main target audience for customers and prospects is retirees, Instagram might not be the best channel to reach them. We created the infographic below to showcase the latest demographic research regarding Instagram use.
Pew Research data indicates that about 37% of US adults over age 18 are on Instagram. It skews slightly toward women. It also skews urban (vs suburban or rural) and with higher household income levels.
Mostly Instagram users tend to be younger. A whopping 75% of 18- to 24-year-olds are on Instagram. In the next demographic, 25- to 29-year-olds, 57% are on Instagram. In the older than 65 age bracket, just 8% are on Instagram.
What’s more, Instagram users tend to be college-educated and have higher household income levels. Blacks and Hispanics are active on Instagram with 40% and 51%, respectively, of the adult US population in those groups. At the same time, only 33% of white adults are on Instagram.
In summary, if you want to reach college-educated millennials with disposable income in an urban area, Instagram may be the perfect tool for your business.
(Don’t be misled by these age data, however. Instagram is growing. Parents are now following their millennials to Instagram in droves.)
If you answered yes, to all the above questions then…
Instagram for Business has been around since 2010. Today, more than 25 million businesses are on Instagram. A profile is free.
Unlike a personal Instagram account, it allows you to see analytics. It also gives you the opportunity to run ads. Further, you can include a contact button. (If you have a whopping 10,000 followers, you can also include a link in your stories. More on stories later.)
According to 2019 Instagram Tweets:
“What shows up first in your feed is determined by what posts and accounts you engage with the most, as well as other contributing factors such as the timeliness of posts, how often you use Instagram, how many people you follow, etc.”
The Tweet continues,
“…we never hide posts from people you’re following – if you keep scrolling, you will see them all. Again, your feed is personalized to you and evolves over time based on how you use Instagram.”
It is a myth that Instagram’s algorithm favors stories over posts. It is also a myth that Instagram’s algorithm favors video over photos.
HOWEVER, Instagram may prioritize videos, stories, or Instagram Live if it believes that users prefer them.
Hashtags and location tags can help your post appear in more search results. Furthermore, Instagram does not favor users or businesses. What’s more, it doesn’t down-rank people for posting frequently. However, people may un-follow you if you overshare.
All in all, the most important activity to enhance your business’ exposure on Instagram is to get engagement. And that means generating great content that your followers want. More on that after a review of Instagram’s basic features.
A hashtag is a word (or words) preceded by a hash (#) symbol, previously known as the pound symbol or number symbol. Phrases do not include spaces, and may or may not have initial caps. These hashtags can be seen as identifiers—like an indexing tool that describes your post and others with similar themes.
On Instagram, you can use up to 30 hashtags. Expert opinions vary on whether you should use all 30. Many do with good results. It’s available. And since it can be used to search terms, may help your post to get found. In one study, however, SproutSocial found the optimal number of hashtags in an Instagram post was nine.
Research hashtags that describe your post, your brand, and your company by going to the search window and typing sample hashtags. Small businesses and those just getting started with Instagram should aim for hashtags that have search volumes from about 2,000 to 75,000.
Why? On the one hand, you won’t get as much attention if few (<2000) use a hashtag. On the other hand, the algorithm will likely favor larger, more established brands for the extremely popular hashtags (>75,000).
Instagram uses posts, stories, and live video. Each has its own unique features.
Instagram posts are great for any images or videos you want to share with your prospects or customers. Make sure to use high-quality, well-thought out images. Because these will appear in your grid, you’ll also want to showcase your brand look and feel.
Why in the world would a business want to spend time, effort, and budget to pay for stories that will disappear in 24 hours? First, stories are growing in popularity and more Instagram users are turning to them. Second, a study from Hootsuite showed that story ads got more clicks (while post ads had a less expensive cost per acquisition).
Third, and perhaps surprising to many traditional marketers, there are times when stories are most useful. These might include:
Instagram Live has business applications as well. These might include:
You can start a business Instagram account in one of two ways:
If your current personal Instagram account represents your brand, AND you don’t want to manage a separate account, you’ll want to choose this option. This also will allow you to keep your current followers. Here’s how to convert a personal account to a business account.
If you have never used Instagram, you’ll want to set up a new Instagram for business account. If your personal profile does not represent your brand, you’ll also want to log out of your account and log in using a different email address.
Once you’ve established an account, you’ll want to first create your business profile. Look at other business profiles to get ideas about what to include. You’ll want to:
Your name and your user name are searchable. Currently, these are the only two features in your PROFILE that can be searched. Therefore, it makes sense to use your 30 characters of your name in a way that is different from your username.
For example, your Username may be your brand name, such as “Johnny’s Place” but your “Name” might be a generic name “Chicago Restaurant.” This would cover multiple search queries and help to optimize your profile.
Your Bio is 150 characters. Here is some information you might want to include in your Bio in Instagram for business.
Include a consistent NAP, name, address, and phone as you do on your website, other social media sites, and across the internet.
In the final analysis, to get your business found and keep prospects and customers engaged, you need to generate great content.
Remember the algorithm favors your content if people engage with it:
With that you should have a better understanding of:
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