Instagram, which has 1 billion monthly users and 25 million corporate profiles, is where advertisers are putting their toes in the water in an effort to achieve and retain momentum with their key audiences. Because of its visual and dynamic nature, the platform is attracting an increasing brand of interest from brands and agencies who are eager to explore its economic potential.
If you don’t use Instagram, you might miss the occasional video of a cute animal or your friends’ Oslo-filtered holidays, but your business could be losing out on the 60% of Instagram users who discover new products or services thanks to the platform.
This article will assume that you have an existing Instagram business page with a complete and up-to-date bio and are posting regularly (at least once per day), and will discuss some cutting-edge and effective tools and strategies that will improve your followers’ Instagram experience and attract more people to your brand. By “followers,” I mean customers who are interested in learning more about your company.
IGTV is a great place to preserve your long-form videos.
After the much-needed introduction of video in 2013 and stories in 2016, Instagram finally debuted Instagram TV, a long-form, vertical video answer to every company, art, craft, and query ever posted on the channel!
Many advertisers have long desired a solution like this, and now they have one. Because there is no search bar on IGTV, your branded content will be more likely to show up in the feeds of viewers who are likely to be interested in it. Several technical considerations must be made, including
In a similar vein, brands have showed extraordinary enthusiasm for this tool. Chipotle’s “What’s for Lunch” film, produced in collaboration with One-day Agency, was among the first pieces of content developed for IGTV; Everlane’s #DamnGoodDenim pictures, converted from their original Instagram feed to match the TV format, followed shortly after.
Now that long-format vertical videos can be seen without leaving the main Instagram app, marketers are excited about their potential.
Use Shoppable Posts to earn money off your images.
Instagram and Shopify have been working together to test out this feature for some time now. This makes excellent sense, considering that 80% of Instagram users follow at least one business profile. The time it takes from product discovery to purchase has been substantially reduced now that businesses can effortlessly direct clients from product photographs to checkout.
“People come to Instagram every day to discover and buy products from their favourite businesses,” said Jim Squires, Instagram’s Head of Business. Our goal is to ensure that your time with us is stress-free. Instagram has facilitated the direct purchase of goods from independent retailers, such as those specialising in the sale of handcrafted goods, flowers, and clothing.
Explore – it’s more satisfying than ever
At Facebook’s F8 developer conference in May 2018, the social media giant demonstrated the revamped Explore tab for Instagram. The algorithm will provide content to users based on factors such as their interests, the current status of the social network, and their own behaviours. If increase your followers like what you’ve posted, it may show up in their friends’ Explore feeds.
Having 100 likes from 1,000 followers is more amazing than having 1,000 likes from 1 million individuals who don’t follow you. The Explore page has been called “the realest page on the internet” by Wired, in part because of the granularity with which users can categorise and locate their tales.
Users who consistently post on Instagram will be rewarded. Many businesses recognise this as a chance to increase client exposure to their content. In order to give its fans a more personalised experience with the brands they follow, Instagram has just stated that over 400 million accounts consistently utilise Stories as their favourite feature. Swipe ups, polls, stickers, locations, hashtags, and questions are just some of the ways you may boost the frequency and depth of your viewers’ participation with your content.
Instagram’s Explore tab now prominently features Shopping tags from stores you follow. In June, the concept of topic channels was introduced, allowing users to simultaneously investigate several themes. For those times when you just want to explore for pleasure, there is a new channel called “Shopping,” where you may find postings from stores you already know and love as well as companies you might like.
Finally, Instagram has high hopes for the next year. Market saturation has occurred due to the constant stream of upgrades and new features. The Explore tab has been so successful that it has spawned several updates and additions, including as a more comprehensive call-to-action (CTA) button, Question stickers, emoji sliders, interactive narrative components, polling stickers, typing mode, and clickable hashtags and links in the bio.
Instagram has recently updated its privacy controls and implemented a new, more secure security algorithm, demonstrating the company’s commitment to creating a safe space for its users. Business owners and marketers that want to connect with today’s youth must be present on Instagram. Get a load of this!