With more than nine million monthly active users in Australia, Instagram is a great tool to reach your audience. If you’re already using Facebook for your business, you might think that Instagram couldn’t add much benefit. However, there are several reasons your brand should be on Instagram.
But before we get into that, let’s take a look at what a business account on Instagram is and how it’s different from a personal account.
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Instagram Business Accounts:
An Instagram Business Account, much like a Facebook Page, gives you access to more tools than a personal account. Much like a personal account, a business account lets you post video and photo content as Instagram Posts and Instagram Stories. However, a business account gives you access to analytics, the ability to advertise, tagging products in your posts, etc.
To set up a business account, you download the app, create an account or login with Facebook, go to the settings, and click “Switch to business account.” Then, you can get posting!
Now that you know what a business account is and how to set it up, here’s why you need an Instagram business account.
Benefits of using Instagram for Your Business:
1 – You get access to different audiences:
Facebook and Instagram appeal to different target markets, so an Instagram account will help you reach a wider audience. The most notable difference is age. In Australia, according to Roy Morgan research, Facebook is popular among all age groups, but Generation X (aged 43-58) are the most likely (at 87%) to use Facebook. However, only 32% of Gen X use Instagram. Meanwhile, 68% of Generation Z (aged 14-27) and 52% of Generation Y (aged 28-42) use Instagram. By using Instagram, you gain greater access to younger audiences. Thus, expanding to Instagram gives you access to a wider spread of audiences.
2 – You Can Get Customers Shopping On Your Photos:
By signing up for an Instagram Business Account, you can create posts that let customers click straight through to your products. When you upload a photo, you can add clickable tags for the products featured in the image. For example, if you sell clothes, you can upload a photo of someone wearing your brand’s clothes and tag each item of clothing. The tags are placed onto the image itself. When clicked by customers, these tags take them to the specific product page on your website. Your product can be front and centre of your customer’s Instagram feed, and they can click straight through to your website. Plus, three-quarters of users click through on Instagram Advertising posts. So, Instagram is driving traffic to your website. Overall, it’s an easy way for people to see and buy your product.
3 – Highly Targetable Advertising and Trackable:
Much like Facebook, Instagram is highly targeted and provides analytics. On Instagram, since it’s connected to Facebook, you can target based on demographics, locations, interests, etc. with your ads. Meaning you can reach your new audiences with precision. Also, again like Facebook, Instagram provides tracking and analytics for both organic and advertising posts. You can track leads, sales, customer engagements and more. So, you’ll be able to reach your audience and track how they interact with your brand.
4 – People Like Visuals:
Instagram is a visual platform, so people remember more and engage more. Unlike platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, Instagram focuses completely on photos and videos. Visuals make your brand more memorable because people remember 80% of what they see, but only 20% of what they read. Plus, in our experience, Instagram posts receive more engagements than Facebook. So, using Instagram will get people interacting with your brand, and therefore it will be remembered by your audience.
5 – Watch Consumer and Competition Trends:
Since your not the only one on Instagram, you can watch potential customers and the competition for inspiration. By watching what your consumers are up to, and what holidays and events are on, you can create posts around trending topics. As for the competition, you can check their posting patterns, the content they use, what their followers are engaging with, etc. By checking the competition, you can apply any inspirations to your own strategy.
6 – Hashtags Increase Visibility
Instagram utilises hashtags to categorise content so more people can see your posts organically. Hashtags are description tags that you place in the text or comments of your post. By adding hashtags, people who aren’t already following you, can find you in relevant searches or by clicking on hashtags of other posts. For example, if you post a picture of a cake, with “#cake” in the description, you may be found by anyone interested in the cake hashtag. However, be wary of only using popular hashtags. If you use popular hashtags, there’s more competition to be seen, and although that means more people looking, it also means your post is more likely to disappear amongst the noise.
Regardless, Instagram’s hashtags give you a chance to be seen by more audiences.
Don’t Have Time To Manage Facebook and Instagram?
You may already have a Facebook Business Account or page and not feel like you have the time to manage Instagram as well. The good news is, you can manage both accounts in one place. Facebook owns Instagram, so you can place posts and ads on both using the same platforms. Ads can be placed on both using Ads Manager, and Creator Studio can be used to post organically. You can even cross-post some content to both platforms. However, it’s best to optimise content for each platform where possible.
If you genuinely don’t have the time, as many don’t, you can hire someone to manage your Facebook and Instagram pages. SBIM are experts in managing Facebook and Instagram, and we love it. To get high-quality social media management for your business, contact SBIM today on 07 3325 0505 or at webmaster@sbim.com.au.
