When it comes to marketing your company to prospective clients and consumers, you want to be certain that you’re reaching out to the right demographics through proper channels. Social media plays a huge part in this, and for companies trying to market themselves on social media, Instagram might be the tool for you!
Know the Numbers
If you’re looking to get visuals of your product out there, both in freeze-frame and in action, Instagram is the way to go. As of September 2016, Instagram has 500 million users; 300 million of those users are using the app daily for an average of 20 minutes. This makes Instagram the second largest social media platform on the market (topped only by Facebook).
Know your Target Audience
It’s no secret that Instagram is largely populated by the younger crowed, but the numbers might be more startling than you’d think:
- 55% of Instagram’s users are between 18 and 29 years’ old
- 28% are between 30 and 49.
- This leaves a mere 17% dedicated to “others.”
This is wonderful news for anyone whose target audience is millennials, who are thriving on Instagram. As a bonus, there is generous opportunity to snag a peripheral target audience of Gen-Xers.
The good news is that Gen Xers and Millennials are also extremely active on Facebook. If cross-platform promotion is your goal, Instagram does give its users the option to easily upload their images to other social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.
Know the App
There’s more to Instagram now than there was 6 years ago. With their 2011 rollout of hashtag capabilities, 2013 roll out of video services, and then their 2016 debut of “Instagram Stories” (a new take on Snapchat’s disappearing content), Instagram seems to know how to keep up with the changing demands of their audience.
While the concept seems easy enough to grasp (Take a picture, add a filter, say a few words, and BAM! Instagram.), businesses need to be mindful about how they go about using such a platform.
One of the most popular ways to draw attention to your posts is through hashtags. This is so popular, in fact, that posts with at least one hashtag average 12.6 percent more engagement than those without.
Creating a company-centric hashtag for your business or product and then including similar, more broad-scope hashtags alongside your company-centric hashtag will draw in more followers who are searching through the already existing hashtag database.
Is It For You?
Instagram provides an excellent opportunity for businesses to visually engage current and potential customers. With so many different social media channels to choose from, there can often be pressure to populate all platforms at once.
For businesses without a dedicated social media team, being everywhere at once isn’t always a possibility. Each social media channel has their strong points, and for Instagram the point is in the visuals.
If engaging your audience visually is the plan, Instagram is the place to be.
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