There is no doubt that if your digital marketing agency has an online presence that you will already be using social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. But have you considered Instagram? No? Well it wouldn’t be a bad idea to start doing so.
Newsfeed Posts
There is a fair chance that if you are on Facebook, there is no guarantee that your customers are seeing any of your updates or comments. Fans can follow as many pages as they want, however, with Facebook’s algorithm EdgeRank they may not necessarily see the posts on the pages that they follow. Facebook charges for marketing so it’s getting harder and harder for an agency to compete with bigger brands. With Instagram you won’t have this problem because 100% of your posts will appear on your customer’s newsfeeds. This means that your brand will get the exposure it deserves with your photos and content.
Smartphones Are Everywhere
Information has never been more accessible and this is largely due to the advent of smartphones. Before this people relied on computers or a laptop to surf the internet, but this has drastically changed over the last five years. It is now estimated that 89% of activity from mobiles come from the use of apps and this is only a good thing for those agencies who are using Instagram already. The advantage it has over Facebook and Twitter is that you can only access it through an app thus increasing its convenience with consumers and agencies alike.
Two Hundred Million Users, And Counting!
Instagram became one of the most popular apps once Facebook acquired them in 2012. In the following six months, Instagram grew to 50 million new members and it continued to grow in 2013 as they reached two hundred million users. That was enough to surpass Twitter in terms of user accounts.
Daily Usage
To give you an idea of just how popular Instagram is with its users, there are about 30,000 images posted every minute. This means that there are over one million images posted in an hour and almost 40 million photos every day. But more importantly, traffic is a big driver for the app. About 70% of Instagram users log in at least once a day, and a further 38% will log in multiple times a day.
This offers a lot of potential for your business to get in front of the right people and start selling.
Online Presence and SEO
To increase your online presence, and to be easily found on the search engines, your content needs to be available on different channels. It is important that your business shows up on the first three listings on the first page of Google. If it doesn’t, you’re pretty much dead in the water. If you’re wanting to rank high on SEO, then you need to have multiple channels to build that all important online presence. Facebook and Twitter are important, but the activity on your Instagram account are helpful in boosting that presence.
If You Have Got It, Why Not Flaunt It?
When in business, it’s no secret that you need to maximize every dollar that you spend. However, if you are a small digital marketing agency then you’re always going to struggle to compete with the bigger agencies when it comes to all things customer related. Fortunately for these small agencies, Instagram allows them to compete and flaunt what they have to offer. By using photos and hashtags, you can build your business’s online presence from people all over the world. Take for example a company such as Sheridyn Swim (http://sheridynswim.com.au). They are an Australian owned swimwear brand who have 93,000 followers on their account that is full of engaging pictures and content that sells their product. They are using their Instagram account in such a powerful way that they can connect with people on a large scale and amplify the brand in such a massive way with minimal investment.
It’s a pretty simple equation – the more people that know who you are and what your business has to offer, the more revenue you can generate.
Targeted Marketing
A popular feature of social media is the use of hashtags. They are important because you are able to target your marketing to people who you know will be interested in your product or service. I would suggest searching for trending hashtags that relate to your business and find the people who are interested in your product or service. By using the relevant hashtags you can directly target these people and not waste time on people who aren’t interested.
Customer Interaction
Once you have connected with new customers, Instagram allows you to interact with them by commenting on their photos, tagging others, search hashtags and so much more. This will let your business generate more attention and be easily seen when people start looking for a product or a service that you provide.
Gaining New Customers
In addition to the last point, the more attention that your business receives, the easier it will be for new customers to find you. If someone is searching for a trending topic related to their interests and they happen to come across your Instagram account, they are likely to start following you and keep coming back for more information provided you have something of value to offer.
While Facebook and Twitter have been at the front of social media marketing, Instagram is now changing the way that businesses market their products and interact with customers. This is why it has become so important that you have a presence on Instagram as it is a highly effective platform that offers many marketing benefits.