Since its inception in 2010, Instagram has taken the world by storm. During its infant years, not many would have imagined the kind of scope and influence it would have. Fast forward to 2018, Instagram is carving out its niche as the ideal sharing and social marketing site. Here are some reasons your business should be on Instagram in 2018.
Wide audience and reach
Today, there are about half a billion Instagram users with most of them logging in on a daily basis. With such a wide and active user base, Instagram posts receive much more engagement compared to other social media postings. This also works well for you if you are using Instagram to market a brand. You get to reach more potential clients and in the process, increase your conversion rates.
For instance, the same image was shared on both Facebook and Instagram for one of our clients to promote their brunch. The image on Instagram not only reached 220 more people, it received 61 more engagements than the Facebook post.
The value of visual messages
People relate better to visual messages than they do to written messages. As such, they can remember a visual message for much longer. Visual messages, such as videos shared on Instagram, have a sense of practicality to them. This works well for businesses hoping to educate a target audience on a specific topic. The audience is able to decode and apply the information better.
Check out this Instagram post from Ben & Jerry’s showing how to make an incredible smoothie. Not only does the video teach their audience something in a highly visual way, it goes on to reinforce their brand.
Ease of sharing information and using hashtags
Instagram has taken information sharing to a whole new level. With well-thought hashtags, you can reach your target audience with ease. Hashtags enable you to increase post-exposure and subsequently post engagement with your target audience. Tagging businesses that are relevant to your niche allows a more personalized approach to your potential clientele. Additionally, if the businesses you tag, share, or like your post, you may reach and even wider audience. The ease of sharing information is making Instagram a priceless social media marketing tool for individuals and businesses.
According to our friends at AgoraPost (who ran an amazing test on Instagram Hashtags you can check out here) posts with hashtags resulted in a 70.14% increase in Likes compared to those without hashtags.
Connecting to millennials
According to data from online polling company CivicScience, 34% of US millennials are likely to be daily users of Instagram. They regard it as much more fun and intuitive social media site where they can push their creativity to the limits. If you are looking to engage this demographic on a product or information, then Instagram may be the way to go. With a single post coupled with creative hashtags, you can capture their attention and effectively communicate with them.
Excellent branding tool
Instagram allows you to portray your brand in a more fun and engaging manner.
Instagram is defining the social media space and this trend has no indication of changing in the near future. It is therefore vital for businesses to get on Instagram and leverage the benefits the platform offers. With more and more users joining the platform, adding Instagram to your social media strategy now is the smart move to make.
