According to statistics provided by emarketer, Instagram will generate an estimated £385 Million in mobile and advertising revenue worldwide in 2015. Predictions are also forecasting that Instagram’s global mobile advertising revenue will reach nearly £2 Billion by 2017.
Driven by high demand for the social network’s new advertising products, Instagram has grown almost 50% in the past 9 months and is now actually bigger than Twitter in terms of active users worldwide.
With Instagram now dubbed the latest social media craze, our Cheshire web-design team will take a unique look at the photo-sharing platform and review how small businesses can take advantage inside our blog.
Introduction to Instagram
Instagram is a free online mobile photo-sharing, video-sharing and social networking service that encourages users to take pictures and videos easily. Instagram allows both private and business users find people to follow based on similar interests and be part of a larger community.
First launched in October 2010, Instagram is available to download through the Apple App Store, Google Play, and Windows Phone Store.
Five ways any small business can grow with Instagram for free
- Connect with all social media platforms
- Use #Hashtags
- Humanize your brand
- Take advantage of video
- Measure success instantly
Connect with all social media platforms
What’s really cool about Instagram is that it is so easy to connect your Instagram account with your Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and more business accounts. Simply share your image or video on Instagram and it will automatically add your post to your other accounts.
This is a great way to promote your business across numerous social media platform so you can not only save time, you can also monitor clicks, likes or comments and gain more followers across more social media platforms
Use #Hashtags
Much like Twitter, hash tags are a great way to promote content to users or other businesses that may be searching for that relevant hash tag! By adding simple hastags to your images, small businesses can extend their reach to more than just followers which can encourage brand interaction such as clicks, comments, shares or followers.
Humanize your brand
Posting pictures such as behind the scenes, before and after a product, or even a business event all help humanize your brand to customers. Potential customers are far more likely to follow and engage with your business if they feel they are gaining an inside look into your brand.
Instagram users are statistically more likely to comment on pictures and videos than any other social media so businesses can take advantage and interact with customers via comments and provide one-to-one interaction.
Instagram added the capability for its users to upload up to 15-seconds of video. With video quickly becoming the preferred content type, it is to your advantage to utilize this option. Luckily, you don’t need expensive equipment or software to make a great video. All you need is a little creativity and decent editing skills.
Ayla Rose – An example of one of our clients on Instagram
Take advantage of Video
Back in 2013, Instagram introduced the capability of uploading video of up to 15 seconds for its users, so take advantage of it! Video offers a different content approach and is usually the preferred method to draw more impressions and comment interaction than pictures.
Video doesn’t need to be a cost at all, simply record something from your phone and it’s there in seconds. For a little more creativity, video is a great way to promote brand awareness with before and after or of your product in action.
Measure success instantly
Instagram doesn't have any analytical information that Twitter or LinkedIn possess. Instead, small business Instagram users can calculate all the data they need by viewing the amount of Instagram ‘Likes’ (Shaped like hearts), comments and impressions to better understand your audience.
You can use the number of likes & comments to measure interaction.
onsider it almost like market research, if you post images with different filters or videos, you can see which followers must interact and engage with.
The Conclusion
With more and more social media users seemingly jumping to Instagram, it would be foolish to not take advantage, especially when it is free to use and not time consuming at all. What I would suggest is weighing up to see if Instagram is suitable for your business. If you have a niche market, or don’t really have the need for pictures or video, there are social media platforms out there that may be more suitable to put your time into.
We are a Cheshire web-design agency who specialise in the art of growing your small business website. If you would like to discuss Instagram or any other social media platform for your business, we are only a phone call away. Why not give our team a call on 01565 653616 or keep up to date with our latest news, reviews and tips on twitter and Google+