Instagram, with more than two billion active users, is a marketing force that is difficult to ignore. This is especially true if your target market includes younger consumers. The visual social media platform is a favorite of the under-40 crowd and can help you connect with new segments of the marketplace. How do you get started? We have a few suggestions.
Using Instagram to Market Your Small Business
Sure, Instagram users share images with their friends and family on the platform, but 81% of users say they also use it for researching buying decisions. That should be reason enough for you to create an account and build your profile. However, that’s just the beginning.
Spend a few minutes on your profile and review it periodically
Your business profile is where interested parties go to learn things like your location, your business hours, your contact information, your parking and your return or payment policies. It’s not glamorous, but you want to make sure you have all the facts that potential customers need. As platform features change frequently, you’ll want to review your information periodically to make sure it’s still accurate and that you’re taking advantage of all of the platform options.
Use Instagram’s Stories and Highlights features
The Stories feature allows you to showcase something about your business for a short period of time. Highlights give you the option to take evergreen stories and link them to your profile page, so readers can access them longer.
Use Guides to consolidate posts
The Instagram Guide feature lets you take multiple posts and combine them in a single post. This makes it easier for readers to find older posts on a single topic.
Keep an eye on your stats
Instagram offers great reports that let you monitor who’s looking at your posts, where they are coming from, and a host of demographic information about your readers. While you don’t want to watch your stats at the exclusion of your other business tasks, this information can be invaluable to planning your business forecasting.
Instagram is more than just a picture-sharing app for teenagers. The average age of the platform’s more than two million users is creeping up. Using this platform for your marketing can help you appeal to whole new demographics. If you don’t already have one, create an account, build a profile, and start using Instagram’s many features and tools to your advantage today.
Looking for Help?
If you’d prefer someone else manage your posting for you, talk to the experts at CleverLight Media today. We offer a set-it-and-forget-it content marketing plan called the BOSS Program that includes monthly posts on your social accounts.
