Social Media Marketing - 31 Jan 2020

Instagram: A Modern Market for Business

Just when you think that you’ve caught up to technology, technology throws something new (well not really new, but new to you) your way. You finally set up that Facebook page only to find customers turn around and ask for your Insta handle. If you just said “What?” it’s probably time that you look into creating an Instagram account for your business.

Instagram 411

The creation of social media platforms has opened up a whole new way for business to attract and interact with potential customers. Where Facebook is a platform geared towards sharing information and content, whether it’s original posts or posts and shares about other information and content that may be of interest, Instagram is a platform to share original, creative visual content that captures a moment and shares a story.

Instagram as a Modern Market for Business

You may already be familiar with using Facebook to help promote your business through the sharing of information and content, targeted advertisements, promoted posts, sponsored stories, and hosting contests. These methods have all proven themselves to be successful means of raising interest and awareness in your business and should remain part of a larger marketing effort. However, the next best thing is always just around the corner. Enter Instagram. Instagram is a much more personal way to communicate with users and potential customers. Rather than sharing information, Instagram offers businesses an opportunity to tell and share personal visual stories. Where a customer may visit your business’ Facebook page to search for location and store hours or to see if any important updates such as events have been posted, Instagram is about engaging users.

Making Instagram Work for Your Business

Instagram can be a little more difficult to use as a promotional tool than Facebook, as the content must be original, interesting, and creative, rather than information based, in order to generate likes. One key area to focus on is your business’ bio page. Here you have 150 words to describe your business, what you do, and why users should care. Unlike other social media platforms, Instagram is a place where you can be less formal; show your business’ personality, utilize humour, and be original. Utilize hashtags to your advantage, create one that is business specific but also tells users what your business does. For example, if you own a hair salon you could use your business name as well as #Purplehairdontcare. There are no limits to how many hashtags you can include and when users search a key word that is included in one or more of your hashtags, it increases your businesses odds of turning up in the search. Just don’t overdo it, as too many hashtags can be off-putting and distracting.

When it comes to using social media platforms as a means of business marketing, there is no single best option, the trick is to know your users and understand what type of content works best on which platform.