How to capitalize Instagram for your business efforts

Social network Instagram has a come a long way since its inception. It went from a photo-snapping app to a platform with tangible business opportunities. Single users to brands and businesses are very active in targeting their products and services to generate a profit. Instagram is a billion-dollar social channel and has viable potential if you know how to market yourself strategically.

Social media has transformed the rules of the game for some time. There, consumers used to receive an offer, and it was a one-way communication. A lot has changed since most brands need to develop content tailored to Instagram users.

Instagram has generated quite the amount of revenue in marketing. Specifically, the social network for 2017 brought in $1 billion for influencer marketing. According to Later, influencer marketing is a very important resource on Instagram because it is easy, inexpensive and effective to grow the business.

Create or upgrade to a business account on Instagram to expand your brand

As an entrepreneur, startup, business or a large enterprise, it makes sense to be present on Instagram. Its parent company, Facebook, has really transformed the platform into a powerful marketing hub since acquiring it because businesses can use it to boost their presence and help them with their marketing.

E-commerce experts at Oberlo explain how you can capitalize on Instagram and generate sales for your business. A paramount step to going in the right direction is to upgrade to a business account. This allows you to access additional tools, and one of importance is analytics. The other feature that helps list your services is integrating with Shopify.

In addition to upgrading your account, you can convert your account for free; the above post includes concrete brands that succeeded with their business ventures. You can research in greater detail case studies from brands like BeardBrand, RadLimeShop, SoAestheticShop and others that executed successful campaigns.

Instagram stories increase your number of followers, making your products more known to a wider scope of audience. (Source)

Harnessing the benefits of Instagram Stories

The year 2017 proved that Instagram stories were a powerful tool and feature. It is true that the rollout of this feature was taken from another social channel and competitor named Snapchat. It has possessed this functionality on its mobile app. Since Instagram added this feature, the platform’s active user count quickly grew to over 300 million.

In 2018, it is essential for anyone present on Instagram to exploit the benefits of its Stories feature. According to a HubSpot report, exactly 64 percent of businesses plan to create more Instagram Stories. In other words, this added benefit for businesses has proven that it works and is generating success.

What helps business accounts get ahead of the pack is having a substantial number of followers. Accounts with 10,000 followers or more can add Instagram Stories links. This, of course, helps make products and services more visible to a wider audience. Nevertheless, you can still optimize your Instagram account to attract engagement.

You should upgrade to the business account as a priority. The other step is to fill out relevant information concerning your business and what you offer. Include a brief summary that explains what you specialize in. Furthermore, you can include the URL to where you are housing your website with products or services. Finally, include a few and relevant hashtags for others to discover your posts.

Takeaways and conclusion

When you are going to advertise your efforts on Instagram, it will ultimately come down to the quality of your content. Meaning, you have to make sure you promote your services in a way that integrates original storytelling and being able to effectively respond to user comments or questions. This is where you make or break your chance to generate leads.

Make sure to include a variety of posts. Nowadays, it is about posting more visually appealing content. This is true for videos. You can live stream your videos featuring your products and services. If you are unsure how to get started, look at your competitors and brands to see how they are creating their posts. This should give you more or less an idea of how to move forward.

Success will not happen overnight unless you happen to have a video or a post that goes viral. Applying the above processes and creating content that previews your services will turn into a winning formula for you and your brand.

(Featured image by DepositPhotos)

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DISCLAIMER: This article expresses my own ideas and opinions. Any information I have shared are from sources that I believe to be reliable and accurate. I did not receive any financial compensation for writing this post, nor do I own any shares in any company I’ve mentioned. I encourage any reader to do their own diligent research first before making any investment decisions.