Instagram has developed from a simple photo-sharing app into a marketer’s dream — a virtual shopping venue and forum for services. Photos and videos shared by real people illustrate products and experiences offered by a broad range of businesses. Consumers feel these media are more authentic than “traditional” ads. With more than a billion users viewing its images and videos, half of whom are following brands, Instagram planning is vital as part of your comprehensive social media strategy.
Nothing is more expected on business social media platforms than continual evolution. Keeping up with the changes and challenges is the best way to maintain and even increase viewer engagement rates. An annual review of your approach is a prudent idea. As you move into the new year, here are some practical ways to enhance and profit from your Instagram practice.
Work On Growth
As with any other marketing program, allowing your Instagram presence to stagnate risks becoming irrelevant in your industry. You need to leverage your influence with a growing pool of followers. Moreover, it is not enough to collect just anyone as a follower. Instead, a business must work hard to appeal to individuals who genuinely are intrigued with your band and have a use for your services or products. Investigate growth tools that offer ways to grow your follower base organically, rewarding you with a group that likes, shares, and buys what you are selling.
Choose Influencers Wisely
Research any Instagram influencers to find those who will prove to be authentic. Credibility is essential when you consider collaboration with an influencer. Tools exist to help sift through the data, validating the engagement shown by their followers, and reviewing the look, feel, and success of joint campaigns they undertook with other brands. Nothing positive comes from partnering with a superficial or untrustworthy influencer.
Tell Your Story
Instagram Stories pop up everywhere currently. Leads transform to customers when you post engaging and authentic images and videos explaining and celebrating what your business offers. Facebook Ads Manager is the portal for creating and publishing Instagram Story Ads. With 400 million users viewing Stories daily, brands look forward to direct messages from viewers and a much higher click-through rate.
Archive Your Favorites
Here today and gone tomorrow — the typical 24 hours of Instagram fame can feel discouraging, not to say a waste of time, to a marketing team. Fortunately, Stories Highlights permits your brand to retain selected stories for future viewing. Promotions, events, and informative Stories all provide valuable content your potential, and loyal followers can access.
Experiment With Innovations
Keep an eye on the creative lengths other Instagrammers take to differentiate their content. A recent innovation gaining traction is cinemagraphs, still images with a touch of motion. Give your Instagram team free rein to tweak the platform. Having fun and pushing the envelope a bit is a way to keep content fresh and your team engrossed. The unexpected is likely to spark engagement among those followers you want to convert to customers.
Vertical Video
IGTV arrived in the summer of 2018, a way for Instagram to share brief and even longer videos in a portrait 
format. This new format has many options for marketers. Videos can be educational, informative, or just for fun. For a generation that learns and plays easily on-screen and online, this latest Instagram feature fits right in and is destined to engage followers more deeply.
Streamline The Sale
Remove the hurdles and let your followers buy directly from the Instagram platform. The Shopping Feature allows social media users to skip the click to your website, closing the deal instantly on the channel they view your product or service. Take advantage of this quicker conversion, a benefit for both your brand and your customer.
Partner With Third Parties
Providing the option of interactive content is an energizing method of promoting your brand and encouraging customers to join the partnership you forge with other brands, celebrities, causes, and the like. In the last year, Instagram has rolled out Augmented Reality filters for use in Stories. Users expand the reach of your branding by employing simple tools to add the custom filters to their posts.
Instagram postings and creative use of methods and tools that are always evolving is the name of the game. As part of an integrated social media blueprint, the images and videos you devise on Instagram are trending. The platform’s flexibility begs for your brand to take the lead.
