Everything nowadays has been redefined by the technology and the transformational impact of social media marketing. Beyond Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and LinkedIn the Instagram platform has proven to deliver great business results.
The online mobile photo and video-sharing channel generates impressive engagement today. Conforming to Brandwatch.com Instagram has 400 million active users, over 40 billion photos have been shared, on a daily basis 80 million photos are shared, etc.
Instagram in 2015 accomplished $595 million in mobile ad revenue and by 2017 it is expected to reach $2.81 billion. To improve your chances you need to adhere to professional social media practices and etiquette. For your business to grow you must include a search engine optimization (SEO) plan and integrate it with social media, according to The RealTime Report.
If you have already a SEO campaign and strategy in place it won’t be enough. Remember social media networks like Instagram are search engines by themselves. And Google algorithms are known to account social media into search results. In addition, this includes showing results like social interactions (“likes” on posts, comments, number of Retweets, number of shares, etc.).
Having social media integrated with SEO improves your visibility on Google search results. This means you can get many backlinks that will lead to better SEO rankings. With enough shares on places like Instagram, it will flood traffic to your site. If one or several posts gets featured on an authority site, it is the icing on the cake.
Do not forget to use social media content and include it as part of your keywords into SEO campaigns. This yields greater visibility for your content and brand. And of course do not forget to engage the many conversations that take place with your followers.
Benefits of Instagram for Business and Useful Practices
Aside from the marketing exposure Instagram provides businesses with tangible ways to generate revenue and sales. The infographic below illustrates why your business needs to be active on Instagram:
The number of users and the engagement generated is massive alone. The above visual graphic data compiled indicates that over 80 percent of the Interbreed 100 companies are active on Instagram on a weekly basis. Three out of ten U.S. users are present on Instagram and more than half of the millennials use Instagram on a daily basis.
The engagement rate for a post on Instagram gets a lot of attention. The engagement per post has grown at a rate of 53 percent year-over-year. This means there are plenty of people checking their Instagram. If you craft your message carefully and target content to your relevant audience, transactions will follow along with increasing other key performance indicators (KPIs).
The social platform has a very active audience and brands from various industries have joined Instagram to drum up business. Not only will you promote products on Instagram but gain huge return on investment (ROI) from campaigns, and connect with a vibrant user base.
So what are some of the additional benefits of using Instagram? These next five tactics are strategies that grow brand exposure:
- You can connect with customers across multiple channels
- You can re-use marketing materials
- Attract traffic and engage
- Boost your marketing with user generated content (UGC)
- Do not market blindly and target content strategically
You do not have to limit to just publishing posts on Instagram. You can feature your Instagram feed on your website for example. This is an excellent tip because of the quality of visual content from Instagram. So put your best story-telling skills to work and provide compelling images.
When you have an existing social media account you have plenty of data to analyze. You can also use this social media content and repackage it for your traditional marketing plans. You do not have to reinvent the wheel. Put your UGC to work for your brand and business.
Instagram is a traffic-generating social media site. Respond within a reasonable time frame to users following your brand. This helps humanize the brand and do not automate messages because it will send your customers to competitors in a heartbeat.
What has really enhanced the community building in Instagram is that exchange between the users. You do not have to build the next iPhone or create tons of buzz around the next keynote. You can also request permission from users to use their images and in return offer perks. This helps build relationships and gives points of authenticity to any brand.
Takeaways From Fashion Brands and the US Presidential on Instagram
Businesses or brands from the fashion industry have harnessed the importance of Instagram. An analysis from Socialbakers highlights the runaway success from brands in the fashion business. They garner the most amount of engagement and followers. The type of posts that get the job done are exclusive and eye-catching content.
So show more photos and videos that do just that. Offer unique information and customer testimony. Reaching out to influential Instagram users can also help built your brand’s reputation.
And yes the U.S. Presidential election has flooded social networks like Instagram. Unlike the previous two elections, Facebook and Twitter were predominantly used. Instagram as reported by TechRepublic has become an indispensable tool for presidential candidates to spread the message.
All of this information previously provided just stresses the importance of Instagram and how paramount it is to be active there.
Takeaways and Conclusions
Having a website or an ecommerce-based site will not be enough to grow business. Adding an SEO strategy along with social media data will help grow the brand, and be more visible to a larger number of users.
The simplicity of using photos as part of your marketing or storytelling efforts on Instagram is superb. But there is an audience and a culture to understand before launching an ad campaign right away. There are tactics or practices used on Instagram that work. Do not oversell to users because they will unfollow you and go to the next competitor.
The users, brands, or businesses that succeed on Instagram use a simple formula. They offer actionable tips, and tell a story that is thought-provoking. Look at those brands on Instagram that generate engagement. Finally, examine what leading brands use an effective narrative that resonates with Instagrammers.
