Gone are the days when businesses used to insert advertisements in newspapers or spend huge amounts booking advertising spots on television. Most target customers of big and small businesses now spend more time on the internet than on reading newspapers or watching television. That is why companies have moved on from marketing to digital marketing and use a variety of virtual tools to promote their brands of products or services. In the digital marketing arsenal of any business, social media occupies almost as important a position as the website of the business. Of all the social media apps, Instagram has emerged as the most popular for businesses to market themselves. Let us look at Instagram in a bit more detail in the context of a business, to understand how exactly Instagram can help in the marketing activities.
Business Account
Just like in its parent company Facebook, an Instagram user can open a business account on Instagram. From the point of view of a business trying to promote itself, this type of account offers several benefits to the user, including allowing followers to get complete contact details of the business. A business user can also schedule posts in advance when he has a business account.
Paid Advertising
A business user would have his followers for Instagram, but on top of that, he also has the option of going in for Instagram advertising which generates richer impressions and more callbacks. Owing to the humongous number of Instagram users (around 800 million and counting) as compared to other social media including Facebook, the reach of this advertising is much greater.
Longer videos
As compared to a 15-second spot that was earlier allowed on Instagram, which used to be just like a TV advertisement clip, business users are now allowed to upload videos of up to 60 seconds long. This allows them greater flexibility in presenting more detailed videos, each of which could highlight a particular aspect of business – manufacturing facilities, products, customer service, customer testimonials and many more.
Instagram Stories
Many users are wary of uploading too many pictures or videos in their feeds, and with good reason. Followers tend to feel overwhelmed when they get too many pictures on their feed. That is why Instagram Stories is a great option which allows the business user to upload a group of pictures and videos independently, which carry a narrative. Say a new variant of a brand has been launched, and the company can upload a set of pictures and videos detailing a backstory about why that variant was introduced and what its special features are.
These are some of the reasons why more and more businesses are jumping on to the Instagram bandwagon. Instagram allows business users to tell their story in pictures, without having to worry about writing detailed copy.
Author Bio: Bert Grant is a blogger, consultant and author of several books on the ways of harnessing social media for promotional activities. He advises a long list of clients about how to get more followers for Instagram.
