The photo-sharing platform, which was acquired by Facebook in 2012, has exploded in popularity over the last number of years which in turn has made it an essential platform for business owners to market their goods & services.
In fact, there are now over 200,000 companies who use the app on a regular basis to reach out to their customers with the figure expected to rise considerably over the next number of years.
However, there was a limit to what business owners could do in terms of promoting their brand on the platform…until now. Through a feedback exercise featuring hundreds of businesses from all sectors, Instagram determined which needs were underserved and what areas could be improved. With these insights in mind, Instagram set about developing the following tools….
This will be a free feature for users who wish to have their account recognised as an existing business. With a thin profile, a business owner can now choose exactly how they want their customers to reach them (call, text, email) through a contact button. There will also be an option to provide directions to the physical location of the business.
One major drawback for businesses using Instagram was the lack of an in-app feature to determine which posts were performing the best, making the most impressions and the type of users who were engaging with the account.
Now with Instagram’s account insights, business owners can learn a lot more about the behaviours, preferences and demographic of their general audience. This will allow for the creation of more relevant & engaging visual content. The tool will also allow businesses to pinpoint exactly which time the audience is most active and the most appropriate time to post.
How many times have you seen an Instagram post take off significantly over the course of a day only to disappear into obscurity after 24 hours? Now businesses will have the option to turn these high-performing posts into adverts by adding a call-to-action button such as “Shop now”.
This will allow for greater connectivity with a wider customer base. Due to Instagram’s link to Facebook, the tool will also allow for time scheduling & budget allocation and detailed interest targeting based on data from the user’s Facebook profiles.
The new tools are expected to be rolled out in the United States, Australia & New Zealand over the coming months with worldwide availability by the end of the year.
Interested in using Instagram for your business? call in the experts here at Matrix!
By Iñaki Castellet Hernández
By Jeff Sheridan
By Matrix Internet