Instagram is one of the top social media platforms with over 700 million monthly active users. Instagram mostly caters to younger demography.
Statistics found that nearly 60% of Instagram users are under the age of 34 years.
The young demography spends a monthly average time of 11.32 hours on the platform. This has made Instagram the 4th most widely used social media platform.
Users post & share their photos and videos, create stories, create reels which are essentially short videos of less than 60 seconds, live streaming, and much more.
Instagram has proved to be a powerful tool for businesses looking to expand their presence and product visibility among customers. It is an excellent social media marketing tool that showcases innovative and interesting products and services to users. Apart from Instagram ads or other social media marketing strategies, organic growth helps companies build credibility and customer loyalty.
How Instagram helps businesses bring traction?
- Photos and Videos – “Pictures are worth a thousand words”. Initially, the key differentiating factor between Instagram and Facebook was visuals. Facebook allowed people to post long articles, stories, or other written content.
Whereas, Instagram was meant to be visuals-centric. It encouraged people to post photos rather than wordy posts. Hence visually appealing content is still preferred on this platform and aesthetically pleasing business posts attract audiences better.
- Captions – The visuals paint a story but an engaging caption prompts the viewer to take action. Hence enticing caption helps businesses to catch the attention of the audience.
- Collaborate with Influencers – Influencers, as the name suggests, are people who possess the ability to influence the purchase behaviour of the audience or create a mass opinion about a brand or product.
People often rely on these influencers for guidance, analysis or information about any brand or product. According to research by Nielson, 92% of consumers trust recommendations from friends or family, also known as earned media.
The research further states that online customer reviews are the second most trusted source of brand information and messaging. It indicates that consumers trust online messages, such as the power of influencer marketing.
Hence, this type of marketing effort helps companies benefit greatly in terms of increased sales.
- Instagram stories and highlights – Stories are the best way for businesses to show the behind-the-scenes as a part of an engagement strategy. Businesses can add a sneak peek of their new product or service. The advantage of highlighting the story is it won’t disappear after 24 hours like Instagram stories normally do.
Why should businesses use Instagram?
Surely, we know the answers to that question now. Businesses can make use of Instagram to engage with users, advertise their products or services, and build awareness of their business. Implementing relevant Instagram strategies will help businesses grow their audience, increase their sales potential and achieve their business goals.
Understanding the evolving social media market trends requires a deep understanding of the digital marketing industry.
MIT School of Distance Education (MITSDE) is one such institute that understands the current skills gap in the market and strives hard to reduce it. For this purpose, MITSDE brings to you PG Certification in Digital Marketing (PGCM Digital Marketing). This course covers the latest concepts, gives hands-on training on the latest tools, and teaches you to create a virtual brand, analyse market trends, and design campaigns.
