New Updates For Instagram & How The Platform Can Help Your Brand
Photo-sharing social media platform Instagram most recent update just made social media marketing a much easier for in-house marketers and agencies alike. Previously, managing multiple accounts meant logging out of one, and into another – and going through the motions of setting up specific sharing permissions each time. Not only was this inconvenient in terms of time, but it often causes issues with password resetting and access as most people tend to stay logged into platforms like Instagram without having to put their information in each time. While other platforms like Twitter and Facebook have long had this multi-account option, this update is long overdue for Instagram – and they expect to see a surge in users since the change’s announcement. With the new update, it’s not possible to add up to 5 additional accounts to your Instagram profile and seamlessly switch between them to post different things; an ideal situation for online marketers for whom Instagram is an important part of their marketing strategy.
It’s important for brands to take into consideration just how useful platforms like Instagram can be to growing their business – especially now with recent updates as well as the ability to now buy ads and sponsored posts on the app. It’s important to make sure your brand is on Instagram, especially considering how visual most consumers are. Nearly any type of product, service, industry, and niche can benefit from visual content as part of their social media marketing strategy.
According to Forbes magazine, most online users spend the bulk of their social network time on Facebook and Instagram use is a close second; placing it above all the other types of social media networks out there. A lot of this is due to the fact that it’s a platform best experienced on mobile and other handheld devices and most consumers are constantly on the go – looking for content that is visually interesting but not full of too much copy and ad text.
Visual content in social media, unsurprisingly, is the best way to encourage consumer engagement in the form of shares, likes, comments and clicks as well as conversions. Instagram actually has one of the best conversion rates across social media, as consumers are always interested in seeing useful, information and creative content from brands they trust or are doing research on. One of the great things about Instagram is that it doesn’t have a filtered feed. Some platforms only show you a portion of the information that’s shared on your feed – based on your previous likes, habits and views. While the “give the people what they want” rhetoric behind it makes sense, it also makes it possible to miss something that may have actually been of interest to you. With Instagram, you see anything that was posted within the timeframe of you being online and you have the ability to scroll back as far as you want to catch what you may have missed without any algorithmic restrictions.
Creating short video content or Instagram is also a great way to get shares and likes on Facebook, making it possible to increase sharing on both platforms in the process. While sharing videos on Instagram can be trickier, bridging the gap between it and Facebook helps to drive traffic not only the the Instagram video itself, but also your profile on both platforms.
For more information on Instagram, Instagram for Business and social media management, contact us today at (647) 350-0357.