Harnessing The Power of Instagram In Your Business.
Sometime in 2004 Facebook was launched. Remember?
It was the best thing that happened to people online. It was revolutionary.
Families could finally stay in touch with each other, friends found each other after 10+ years, old schoolmates re-united and the list goes on.
It was the rave of the internet. Everyone turned to their smartphones and many of our parents began to come online to keep in touch with their kids.
Dumbphone users tossed their phones and started using smartphones because everyone wanted to be informed, feel among and get the gist of what was going on in the lives of people they hated, liked and loved. Honestly, this really happens.
Everyone fell in love with Facebook and it quickly became the leading social media platform of all times.
The simple reason for this was that most people began to understand that they could get almost all the information they needed on different issues on social media.
They got answers on Facebook, Instagram, Google, Youtube, etc and since customers always had their phones in their hands, the best place for many businesses to be was on the internet, on these social media platforms.
Over time, pictures took over text. Instagram began to war with Facebook numbers so they came to a compromise. In 2012, Facebook bought Instagram, the social media platform that helped many businesses become creative and increase their brand awareness.
So we can say, it was a Win-Win for both social media platforms.
Instagram still remains the social media jewel because everyone is looking for attention, either as a person or a brand. In a short while, you will understand the power of Instagram to your business.
Let’s focus on Instagram stats for a bit…
Instagram has one of the highest engagement rates than other social media platforms.
Today, over 32% of internet users use Instagram for business.
Traffic from Instagram has lower bounce rates than other social media platforms.
It’s one of the strongest community-building tools for your brand.
Now speaking of building your brand, let’s look at how you can do that with Instagram. You should also have a goal for your business using the relevant social media platform you have decided on. It could be owning a community or increasing brand visibility.
In today’s world, where most people have their eyeballs on their phones, businesses have become aware of that and are looking for smart ways to place themselves in front of their target audience. The fastest way to do this is by creating a business profile for your business on Instagram.
With the business profile, you get the following:
- A Contact button – The fact that someone can call, text or email you is awesome so you want to take advantage of that button.
- Industry listing – Put the industry you work in to help you rank better in IG search.
- In-app analytics – So Facebook is Instagram’s big brother. It’s a pretty great idea to connect your Facebook page to your Instagram Business Profile. You also have the opportunity to view the engagement on each piece of content. This lets you in on what information your viewers are consuming and what problems they need a solution to.
- Boost posts – this simply means that you can promote a particular post to get either of these 2 actions. It’s either you want to make a sale on a particular product so you lead them to a checkout page or you want more brand awareness to increase followership.
- No negative impact on the Algorithm. – Great news, Instagram doesn’t have the problem of algorithms changing on you to reduce ad performance… at least not for now. A few may disagree but really nothing affects the ads just yet.
Now, I’m going to take you through 5 Key Factors in setting up your actual business profile on Instagram.
◦ Name & Username
There are two searchable parts of your Instagram accounts. That’s your Name and Username. When people type in a search keyword in the explore tab, Instagram goes round looking for pages with names and usernames that correspond with the search terms. Hence, your name and username should be something your target audience finds easy to remember.
For the Username: It should have a keyword that is associated with your industry. Every industry has a relevant set of keywords that are used as search terms by your target audience. So you need to find and list them out and come up with a perfect combination as your username that best describes your business.
A good example of a username in the weight loss industry can be weightlossexpert, weightlossmentor, etc.
Another example of a username in the marketing industry can be marketingforbusiness, marketingforsmes, etc.
For the Name: It’s basically the same as the above. If you want your page optimized for search then your name must be set up effectively. So instead of putting your name here, use keywords that best describes what your business is about.
The shorter, the better. Try as much as possible not to have dots and underscores in your name only if it’s very important to use that name with either of the two mentioned above.
◦ Profile Photo
If you are a business, your logo is a preferred choice to put up but as a personal brand, your personal picture is preferred. The reason is, people want to know who the person behind the scenes, so putting up a gorgeous headshot gives a clear picture of the person behind the brand.
◦ Bio Description
Do NOT take this for granted. It should contain who you are, what you do and who you serve. This is what stands you out from the competition in your industry so you want to say what people aren’t saying about what you really do. It’s your first impression selling point, like a sales letter. It should be written in a way that will attract your ideal followers to your business. Truth is, anyone who likes your bio and follows you is a quality follower.
- Another important thing to have here is a call-to-action. People do what they are told to do so make sure the action you want them to take is clear. Don’t assume they know to click. Tell them to click the link in bio to get more information about your business.
◦ URL
The only place to put up a link is in the bio so it needs to be well optimized. A simple tool that achieves this for you is a link tree URL. On linktree/handle, you get to put up different links that house your content and information. It helps to display to your target audience these different links and gives them the choice of where to go to and what to do there. It could be your website URL, a link to your sales page or a link to a free resource. So make sure you optimize your bio by putting up a relevant link and telling them what to do when they get there.
◦ Contact info
Your digits are the fastest way for your audience to reach you on Instagram. Please make sure the numbers are correct and you have the right hours included so your prospects can reach you at the right time.
The last important thing we are going to cover in this article is:
4 benefits of an Instagram business profile.
For many of the readers that are not convinced that owning a business account on Instagram is the way to go, I hope a list of a few benefits will change that opinion.
1. Instagram Insights.
This feature is only available to business accounts. It gives the marketing rep. or business owner a total view of the business’ performance on the social platform. Instagram analytics can track the amount of traffic that comes to your page, website clicks, reach, and even overall content engagement.
2. Instagram ads.
This feature is also exclusive to users with a business profile on Instagram. In case you needed yet another platform to advertise your products and services on apart from doing it on Facebook or even Google, advertising on Instagram is made easy for even the learners.
3. Contact-buttons.
This can be implemented into a business profile. With this feature, those visiting your business profile don’t need to leave the page to get in touch with you. Instead, they can simply choose from the contact information you provide them and reach out quickly. Customers would rather remain in the app if they always have the option to send an Instagram DM. or click a phone number to ring you up.
4. Links in Instagram Stories.
This is feature is also available on the business account but for businesses with more than 10,000 followers. This is another great way to drive traffic to your site (preferred link) right from your Instagram business profile.
The next thing you want to know is, so I get that I should create a business profile, what do I put on the page?
Watch out for more information on Instagram Growth Strategies for your Business.
Let me know your thoughts on setting up and using an Instagram Business Account to attract more potential clients to your business.
