Top 8 Benefits of Using Instagram for a Small Business

Posted on 28 Mar 2016 09:09 in Small Business Hacks
by Rahul Chowath

Over 300 million active users each month post 70 million photos per day, and collectively distribute 2.5 billion likes. Engagement on Instagram is seven times higher than on Twitter and Facebook, and also leaves Google+, Tumblr, Pinterest in the dust.

As the advent of social media grows, the shift to visual content is becoming more prominent by the day. It has become elementary for businesses, big and small, to communicate through photos and videos with their fans, followers and customers. Instagram is the biggest hit as a photo sharing application. It just makes Instagram indispensable to leverage the power of this shift. This leverage is very much visible which can be seen through the following benefits:

 

1. Engagement 101
Instagram has proven to be THE destination for the most engaged and active user base. An active Instagram account goes a long way to tap into this mother lode. The quintessential aspect of social media marketing is this very criteria and Instagram provides you with a plethora of opportunities for that. These insane levels of engagement can very efficiently be converted into prospective customers through trendy and creative posts. The following point goes a long way into proving that.

 

Fun Fact: Research has confirmed that Instagram content generates 58 times more engagement per follower than Facebook and 120 times more than Twitter.

 

2. Premier Post Visibility
Your every single post is visible to all your followers. The reason being that there’s no algorithm like Edgerank running in the background selectively showcasing your posts as is the case in Facebook and Twitter. The latest update allows users to give preferential treatment to specific accounts wherein their posts are ranked high up in the user feed. All in all, every post is out there for the visual treat.

 

3. Product and Service Marketing
Photo displays are the in-thing in today’s social media strategies. You get to control user interest and generate exposure by giving a sneak peek into your product before release. The ulterior motive is to attract comments, likes, and shares by using the given filters and editing options which are abundant in Instagram.

 

Take the example of restaurants. People share photos of food they like and thus unknowingly giving the outlets unprecedented publicity. In fact, restaurants have begun to incorporate this upper-hand into their Instagram outreach.

 

4. Personal touch to Business
Different kinds of social media provide you with various ways to build your outreach (YouTube through videos, Twitter through concise, appealing tweets). Instagram gives you the best possible photo sharing platform and any business can capitalize on the thought that “A picture is worth a thousand words.” You get to post behind-the-scenes photos of your venture during product releases, or while working on promotional material or candid snapshots of employees at their relaxed best. The whole process is aimed at appealing to the emotional and personal side of a customer through user interactions and comments. Because in the end, how can any company be built without customer loyalty and trust.

 

5. Brand Building
In every business, it’s the small things that count. Be it great discounts, latest offers and promotions, events for targeted sales – a company needs to build upon these foundational bricks. Instagram provides you with the podium to stage all of this in the most innovative, captivating way as possible. When the dust settles, a company is nothing without the brand personality that it has created for itself.

 

6. Exclusive Target Market
The age group of 20-30 is highly active on Instagram. 37% of this range isn’t a small number. Companies targeting this age group can mint in the money through influential, focused posts. Other companies can also make a firm footing in Instagram as other age-groups are sure to catch up in the next few years.

 

7. Competitive Advantage
Instagram is a new player in the social media marketing scene, and the 2% of small businesses invested in Instagram goes to prove that. In the long run, every enterprise will attempt to exploit the clear-cut benefits of photo marketing. Moreover, platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have been saturated for businesses, and you might as well jump into the Instagram pool while you still have the competitive edge.

 

8. Instagram Contests
Contests are always a great way to promote popularity and brand awareness without directed advertising. Your online following and prospective customers can expand massively depending on the quality of the prize. By asking the entrant to do more than simply like and share creates a greater brand engagement and generates more interest.

 

Instagram is easy-to-use, catchy, visually appealing and everything else to get any user hooked on. The most important thing to take out of all this is that Instagram is fun – pure and straightforward. Businesses and users, both alike can enjoy the entire experience and further their goals at the same time. Work and play never got in sync better than this.

 

If your small business owner, start sharing your stories, behind the sense photos, celebrations, product launches on Instagram. Website built with Budo, make it further easy to share your moments on Instagram. Signup today and create your own website with Budo.

 

By Rahul Chowath



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Rahul Chowath  



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