Instagram is one of the most used social media after Facebook. And for your information, Instagram is owned by Facebook itself. Instagram started off as a mobile app to allow users to add in filter and post the photos online. It has now become a compelling platform for creating visual content for your internet business.
Instagram is highly effective when it comes to improving your brand visibility and building a community. However, by engaging with your audience on Instagram, one of the side effects is increased traffic to your site.
With more than 300 million active users, Instagram has grabbed the attention of a growing number of large and small brands. If you’ve never considered utilizing Instagram in your overall marketing strategy, here are four unexpected benefits that you should consider.
Benefits of Using Instagram For Your Internet Business
1) Connect And Engage
When it comes to engaging with your prospects, leads and customers, most people think of sites like Facebook and Twitter as the go-to social media platforms to connect with fans. However, you may be surprised to learn that Instagram has one of the most active and engaged user bases of all the social media platforms. There is Insta Stories and even the new IGTV to help you engage your followers. With high engagement, Instagram is the perfect site for your business to connect with them, listen to feedback, and build stable relationships through the photos that you posted.
2) Discover What People Like
Your audience members could already be talking about your business on Instagram. This is especially true if you have a brick and mortar location where customers can visit. How about for internet business? You can see the trend of your niche and learn from photos that people love to share and tag. This way, you are able to discover what they truly like.
3) Reach New Audiences
One of the easiest ways people can discover new content on Instagram is through hashtags. When someone includes a hashtag in their post on Instagram, a link is created. Through this link, you can view all of the photos that have been shared using that particular hashtag. You can also use hashtags to find potential customers. With Instagram’s’ Discover tab, you can see photos and connect with other users that are relevant to your business.
4) Generate Sales
It has never been easier and more affordable to create professional-looking photos to highlight your services and promote your products. As a result, Instagram is doing more than generating engagement; it also helps to drive sales. One report from Shopify found that the average price tag for a sale driven by Instagram is $65, compared to Facebook’s $55 and $46 for Twitter. It is essential, however, that you don’t just fill your feed with product photos with the same caption asking people to buy now. Instead, find creative ways to display your products and let your images speak from themselves.
How You Can Drive Traffic Your Website Using Instagram
Instagram has become a powerful business marketing tool that has been proven to help internet businesses find success. Read on to find out how you can drive traffic to your website in just 3 simple ways.
A) Include Your URL
When people come across your posts on Instagram, they will head to your Instagram bio to find out more about you. This means that your bio is the prime place for you to place your website or blog URL. While your 150 character bio doesn’t leave much room for you to be creative, including your URL should be a priority. Along with adding your URL to your bio, you need to briefly tell people who you are, what you do, and how you can help them.
B) Add a Shortened Version of Your URL in Comments
Unfortunately, links posted in the comment section of Instagram are not live, they become hyperlinked when you share the same photo on Twitter and Facebook. Making sure you leave your URL in comments that you create can help drive additional engagement and traffic. It is important to remember, however, to keep your comments relevant, engaging, and on point, to avoid being flagged as spam. If not, remember ask the viewers to check out the link in your bio!
C) Watermark Your Images
You never know if your images are going to go viral. Don’t take any chances. Make sure that you are watermarking all of your pictures with your website URL. If you don’t know how to place a watermark on your images, you can use iWatermark to stamp your URL on your photos quickly. There are plenty of free app to create watermark for your images.
It is important to remember that you are using Instagram to build brand visibility and give a more personal and authentic feel to your internet business. Utilizing these tips will allow users who want to connect with you via your website the ability to do so.
