social media marketing

instagram for business

Show Not Tell: When to Use Instagram for Your Business

by Melanie Wolske May 19th, 2017

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes, 31 seconds.

Social media apps are an increasingly vital part of successful marketing campaigns—they can spread a brand’s message quickly and broadly. Now that more people are searching online on their smartphones than on their computers, reaching out via mobile apps that allow users to easily browse social media can be immensely effective.

One of the most popular social media apps these days is Instagram, which has also been catching marketers’ attention more and more in recent years. In fact, ad impressions on the platform multiplied more than 13-fold from 50 million in August 2015 to 670 million in December 2016. 1

About Instagram

Instagram is a social network that allows the mobile sharing of photos and videos. Launched in 2010, Instagram’s popularity has soared rapidly.

  • By December 2014, the platform counted over 300 million users, surpassing social media giant Twitter. 2
  • Facebook acquired the service in April 2012 for approximately $1 billion in cash and stock. 3
  • While Facebook grew by 3% in the following year, Instagram expanded by a whopping 23%.
  • The company’s COO Emily White credited “the sophistication of cameras on smartphones” for the app’s remarkable rise, citing the ubiquity of smartphones at fashion shows as an example. 4
  • In 2013, Instagram introduced sponsored post advertising for U.S. users with promotional ads by fashion brand Michael Kors. 5

Instagram: Sharing Moments Instantly

Instagram’s success essentially lies in making it really easy for people to do what they already love doing—taking and sharing pictures. In addition,
Instagram offers a vast number of photographic filters that can be applied to uploaded photos and videos, making photo sharing creative and fun. Any uploads may be accompanied by hashtags or geotags. Users can also leave comments below posts.

In 2013, Instagram added the “Direct” feature, which allows users to send photos and videos to others directly. Instagram accounts can be linked to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Flickr. The app is distributed through the App Store, Google Play, and Windows Phone Store. Even though users can only upload pictures and videos through mobile devices, users may also access their feed on a desktop computer.

In May 2016, Instagram introduced several big changes, including an algorithmic newsfeed. Three months later, the platform added a new feature called “Instagram Stories,” which lets users create short videos (and add text, drawings, filters or stickers) that are deleted after 24 hours, ostensibly responding to Snapchat’s immense success. Shortly after its launch, the “Stories” feature had already garnered 100 million daily views. 6 In late 2016, Instagram added a live video streaming future similar to Periscope or Facebook Live.

Is Instagram Right for Your Business?

Given Instagram’s wild success, it is no surprise that countless brands have joined the network to promote their products and services. According to Simply Measured, more than half of the world’s leading brands have an Instagram account. Instagram, however, also has plenty of marketing opportunities to offer for small businesses.

Real and Personable Applications

The photo- and video-sharing platform can help you add authenticity and warmth to your brand. While visually driven industries like fashion or food are perhaps most commonly associated with the network, all kinds of companies can benefit from Instagram’s enormous user base and easy-to-use application.

Simple and Easy to Use Anywhere

First of all, Instagram is extremely accessible. You simply download the free app, take a picture, make some edits, add a caption, and share with your followers. In order to increase your reach, include a geo-location and a number of relevant hashtags. For instance, if you are a local pet groomer, you might post pictures of freshly coiffed pups, use popular hashtags like “DogsOfInstagram,” and make sure that your business information is complete and accurate.

Let Your Brand Story Shine

If your product or service is not exactly visually enthralling, you can still make your brand more personable by sharing fun office moments or showcasing your community engagement. Loyal Instagram users follow business accounts because they are interested in that particular industry and because they like the type of content the company is sharing.

Evaluate How Instagram Can Enhance Your Marketing

Instagram is one of the perhaps most accessible social media platforms, but it’s still worth considering whether Instagram is an appropriate channel for
your social media marketing strategy. Just because it is a popular platform does not necessarily mean that it is the right one for you. A common mistake businesses make is treating social media as an afterthought. Failure to develop a thorough social media marketing plan can easily result in a waste of time and money. Determining the ROI of social media campaigns is already a difficult undertaking, so maximize your chances of success by carefully evaluating if and how Instagram can meet your marketing goals.

Examine your business’ needs and ask yourself these questions:

  1. Can you create magnetic visual content?
  2. Do you want to reach a wide audience?
  3. Do you have the time to post regularly?
  4. Can you express a strong brand identity/aesthetic?
  5. Are you willing to engage your community?

Next Step: Acquaint Yourself with Instagram’s Features

If you confidently answered these in the affirmative, you will want to familiarize yourself with Instagram’s features and practices. Six years after its
introduction, Instagram has expanded its features immensely, giving you a multitude of possibilities for channeling the app’s marketing potential. To develop an effective Instagram marketing strategy, you can now begin to think about Instagram best practices to enhance your campaigns.

Additional Sources:

1 – http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/267898/instagrams-popularity-pushes-brands-toward-more-v.html
2 – http://mashable.com/2014/12/10/instagram-300-million-users/
3 – http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/technology/2012/04/facebook-buys-instagram-for-1-billion/
4 – http://wwd.com/globe-news/digital/instagrams-emily-white-talks-engagement-in-a-mobile-world-7255132/
5 – http://thenextweb.com/facebook/2013/11/01/fashion-designer-brand-michael-kors-becomes-first-run-ads-instagram-screenshot/
6 – http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/instagram-stories-views/

twitter and pinterest analytics

Pinterest and Twitter Announce New Social Analytics Platforms

by SEO Savvy September 6th, 2014

In recent weeks, two major social media players announced new analytics tools for their platforms. Pinterest unveiled sharper and more in-depth customer tracking options for its business users, and Twitter announced that its existing analytics platform, which had previously only been open to advertisers and verified users, will now be open to all Twitter users.

It is certainly exciting to hear two new analytics options announced around the same time. Now, small businesses and social media marketers have a few more tools in their toolbox. Receiving more information about your customer base never hurts. Read on to find out more about what these two analytics tools have to offer.

More visibility is a good thing

First of all, it’s beneficial for anyone with a social presence to find out more about how their social media posts perform—small businesses, artists, independent contractors, and whoever else wants to grow their social media reach. In the early days of the industry, marketers were able to determine that there were some practices that worked better than others, but on the whole, finding out what worked and what didn’t work was more about trial and error than it was about actually understanding the way customers operated. Then, Google and Facebook analytics started changing the game with in-depth tracking and statistics.

Now, Pinterest and Twitter have upped their ante. Hopefully, with these added features, marketers, small businesses and content creators can gather a little more insight into how well they’re attracting their audience’s attention.

Pinterest Analytics for Business Accounts

pinterest social media marketing

Pinterest analytics is available for business accounts only. The company just announced that their new analytics platform is meant to provide “meaningful insights” about what customers are interested in. How are they doing this? Here are some of the features Pinterest hopes business users will get excited about:

  • Track traffic on your Pinterest profile.
  • Find out how much traffic comes from the Pin It button.
  • Gather insight into the types of people Pinning your content.
  • Learn how people interact with your content from different devices.
  • Find out which Pins perform the best.

While Pinterest isn’t spilling all the details about their new analytics platform, it seems like it will help business users paint a clearer picture of who their users are, which content performs well, and what kind of traffic the Pinterest profile is getting. This can help content creators craft new Pins with their users’ preferences in mind, launch related campaigns, and continue coming up with new and better ways to engage with their audience.

Twitter Analytics for All Users

twitter social media marketing

Twitter doesn’t offer the same sort of personal, in-depth information that marketers love from social media giants like Facebook, but the 140-character platform is continuing to grow in popularity. In the last few months, Twitter has added 14 million active monthly users; as more people start using Twitter, the company hopes to attract more businesses into the mix, and one way they are doing this is by opening up their analytics dashboard to all users. Twitter’s new analytics platform could be an enticing factor for those who want to reach a whole new audience.

Twitter Analytics isn’t new, but it had previously been available only to users with paid Twitter Ads accounts. Recently, at the end of August, Twitter announced very subtly through just one single Tweet that the analytics tools would be available to all Twitter users. Accordingly, astute Internet marketers picked up the news and spread it like wildfire. So how can Twitter Analytics benefit business accounts?

twitter-analytics-marketing

The dashboard is fairly user-friendly. It shows how many people are viewing and interacting with created content over time. Twitter analytics tracks both impressions—how many times a Tweet is viewed—and engagements—retweets, replies, favorites and follows. You can also export data files for further analysis. This sort of information about Tweet performance and user activity can help businesses understand what sorts of Tweets are successful so they’re better able to hone their social media output, rather than just shooting in the dark. Small businesses, whose priority list might not have included Twitter before this, may have more incentive to sign up and start Tweeting. Now, there’s no reason not to.

The two analytics platforms mentioned in this post are available at:

Why Your Business Needs to Be More Social

by Rebecca Bleznak July 15th, 2014

More and more businesses are staking out their claims in social media. According to a survey by Manta.com, about 55% of all businesses say they have social media profiles. But, more than half of those say that they have not yet seen a return on their social media investment. The problem isn’t social media, but the way that it’s used. The key: using social media to get more social.

One dental office found that their new patient inquiries increased six-fold since they began marketing with videos, Twitter, blog posts and other social media. Seventy-five percent of all new inquiries come from their online presence. Customers found the information provided in their posts helpful, which built considerable trust. By being there for your customers online, you can increase engagement and drive profits.

Remember That Social Media Is a Two-way Conversation

More than one company has tried to take traditional marketing’s top-down approach and apply it to social media marketing. This is a mistake that results in social media disasters like JP Morgan’s disastrous #AskJPM hashtag or the McDonald’s #McDStories.

Where both of those companies went wrong is thinking they could control the conversation. Instead of jumping straight in, remember the first key to being a great conversationalist: listen more than you talk. Tools such as Mention app allow you to see when and how your company and your competitors are talked about online, and in what context. Use this information to tailor promotions, products and more. By offering what people are looking for, you can earn their business.

Make Your Presence Online About Your Customers

According to TheNextWebPinterest now has over 70 million users. Businesses ranging from small Etsy stores to major magazine publishers have found new customers by sharing great pictures, curating other posters’ content and drawing attention to exciting developments. Retailer Target, for example, takes time to greet new followers and to respond to comments. The result is a warmer, more human relationship.

Use Social Media to Help

JetBlue responds to almost every single customer complaint that comes their way on Twitter. In many cases, they provide answers to questions within the hour. Not only does this save the customer a phone call; it doubles as public relations.

To make your brand more social, you should always remember to think from your clients’ perspective. They want ways to make their lives easier and more fulfilled; in other words, their focus is on what your brand is doing for them. When you can use your presence online to meet their demands, it doesn’t just build a relationship with one person – it can be some of the most powerful marketing you can do for your brand.

The Generation Gap: Social Media By The Numbers

by Rebecca Bleznak June 24th, 2014

According to Media Bistro, the number of social media users continues to grow, which means plenty of opportunity to get your message out to users looking to share unique, valuable content with their network of friends, family, and professional associates. But the use of each platform varies depending on a variety of factors, including the age of the user. While adults are now the primary Facebook audience, teens and young adults are spending more time Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat. Depending on your brand’s target demographics, you’ll want to pay more attention to certain social media platforms than others to ensure that your marketing efforts are reaching potential customers.

Code-switching Kids

If you’re looking to market your product or service to a younger demographic, social media marketing may seem like an obvious fit. Preteens, teens, and young adults are using social media on a daily basis, but don’t let the apparent quantity of these interactions obscure the quality of this demographics’ attention. Teens, according to several researchers, use different social media platforms for different purposes. NPR reports on a recent book that revealed the importance of context for young users, making clear that kids will carefully cultivate public personas while simultaneously connecting to the things they care about most.

A piece on HuffPost concurs; today’s teens are reportedly better equipped to use the Internet to research potential friends, employers, and yes, brands. Facebook is where teenagers will reportedly put on their most public face; this is where you can expect them to “like” only peer and parent-friendly brands with trusted reputations. The news feed and timeline features allow their friends to see every action they take, and, rather than attempt to “hide” these actions from their parents, they find themselves spending less time on Facebook.

On sites like Twitter, however, teens appear to show less hesitation, as every one of their actions isn’t so obviously on display. There, they are cultivating more personalized identities and will be more willing to seek out and “follow” newer, up-and-coming brands. Cultivating a Twitter and Instagram presence is vital should teenagers be a part of your core demographic.

Capturing the Older Market

While Facebook started off with a college market, it quickly became a coveted space for teenagers post-Myspace. However, once these young adult users grew up, and Facebook opened its doors to all, it became a place to share wedding announcements, baby photos, and other adult milestones. In fact, a reported 72% of all adults are using at least one platform, and Facebook is the most heavily populated. In other words, if your target audience is 25+, Facebook is likely your go-to social media marketing tool.

However, though Facebook still dominates the majority of online interaction for adults, there are other sites that will continue to gain popularity. According to recent data from the Pew Research Center, only 1% of all teens online use Pinterest, while 15% of all adults do. Pinterest has amassed young adult and adult users (33% of which are women) in the 18-49 age bracket, making it the right place for a product with an adult market.

And if your target demographics fall into the older age range, fear not. The data shows that while the majority of adult users fall into the 30-49 year old range (78%), 43% of all adults over 65 are using at least one form of social media. You can reach your audience with powerful social media marketing campaigns, but it’s worth paying attention to the numbers in order to make sure your message doesn’t fall through the generation gap.

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