It's tricky navigating the path of social media, particularly when the digital age moves so swiftly with new features and functions to figure out. Jessica Power provides you with a compass.
One media platform that is performing increasingly well is Instagram – and here's why you should be on it.
The figures speak for themselves
Although Facebook is a still a useful tool for providing information about your business such as location, opening hours and customer testimonials, Instagram has emerged as a much more effective platform for businesses to engage with customers. According to social media experts Social Sprout, brand engagement on Instagram sits at an average of around 4.21 per cent on a per follower basis. Facebook and Twitter ranked 58 times lower at just 0.1 per cent.
It's not just youngsters using Instagram
That's right. You don't have to be Kim Kardashian to boost your presence on Instagram. Sprout Social analysed user demographics on the platform to reveal that 25 per cent of Instagram users are aged between 30-49 and 11 per cent are 50-64 years old.
It's still growing
Data company Simply Measured revealed that over the past two years, the average engagement rate per post on Instagram has quadrupled to 416 per cent.
So what are some tips and tricks to establish your business on Instagram?
- Make use of the @mention function to tag businesses and customers to heighten engagement. Data collated by Simply Measured suggests that posts that include an @mention receive a 56% higher engagement. (Hint: @mention means tagging a brand, business or person the caption of your post. For example, “We love reading @paintandpanel for all the latest industry news.”)
- Hashtags are vital for connecting with other brands, businesses and customers. Just remember to keep it simple. For example, the hashtag #smashrepairs has only accumulated 766 posts. More generic hashtags create a larger community such as #cars with 15,874,773 posts and #automotive with 931,687 posts.
- Tag your location. If you're using Instagram to boost your business, let your customers know where you are! Much like Facebook, adding your location will allow customers to tap through to Google Maps and see where you're located – which is always handy.
- Make your content customer-centric. Have a customer who's pleased with your work? Take a snap with them as a customer testimonial.
- Utilise your youngsters. When there's also Twitter and Facebook in the mix, juggling social media with the day-to-day operations of your business isn't smooth sailing. Enlist one of your younger staff members to take on the role of social media ambassador to teach you the ropes and run Instagram as their own personal project. It promotes greater responsibility and it's second nature to digital natives.
It's important to remember that Rome wasn't built in a day, but there is value to be leveraged off of for small businesses using Instagram.
Aside from all the technicalities and tapping into digital trends, it should act as a fun way to engage with customers, tell your story and celebrate your business.
Get on it!