With 1 billion users and 500 million daily active users worldwide, Instagram has been one of the most popular social media platforms for a very long time. It started out as just a platform that people used to share moments with their close friends and families but has evolved into a space that businesses and brands use with 25 million businesses and brands on Instagram. The popular app has helped a lot of businesses and there is even a store on Instagram where businesses can sell products. If you are new to the Instagram realm and want to use it for business but aren’t sure if you should, here are a few things that you should know about this very popular social media platform
The Social Network
Instagram is a social media app that allows you to share content such as images and videos with your followers. It was launched in October 2010 In in San Francisco and has since taken the digital world by storm. How it works is simple. If you take it back to basics, you follow an account that interests you, and then their content will appear on your feed. You will have the option to ‘’like’’ and ‘’comment’’ on the content that interests you and other users can do the same by following your account and having your content appear on their feeds. In recent times Instagram has evolved and developed features such as Instagram stories which allow you to upload images and videos in chronological order, there are even reels which are short videos accompanied with music that you can upload onto your feed or your stories. Instagram started out only allowing you to post 60-second videos onto your feed but now there is something called IGTV that allows you to post a series of videos longer than the original 60 seconds. Businesses can market and advertise their products and services through paid advertisements that Instagram offers and you can even shop on the app at various Instagram stores and boutiques. Many companies have been started to help users to gain followers, such as Growthoid, an organic growth service for followers. Instagram is truly a world of its own.
Massive audience
Instagram is a huge online space with 1 billion users worldwide and 500 million daily active users. 130 million Instagram users are from the US. 67% of US adults aged 18-29 use the app and 89% of the users are outside of the US. Globally 293 million Instagram users are between the ages of 18-24 years old and 338 million users are aged 25-34 years old showing that the majority demographic on Instagram is the youth. Additionally, 43% of Instagram users are female and 31% are male, the rest are unidentified. With so many people on the app, there is a lot of potential customers. Instagram consists of different niches from food to nature to fashion to beauty and people on the app are of age to buy and support businesses and brands on Instagram.
Free organic marketing
One perk of Instagram is that it offers free organic marketing which is marketing that does not require you to use money through promotions. It uses social media tools that are free to build and engage. Instagram also gives you access to user-generated content which is any form of content that is uploaded by a user onto their various social media platforms. The benefits of user-generated content include:
- Not having to create content yourself.
- More reach.
- Insight into what the audience likes and engages with.
Engage with customers
Possibly the greatest aspect of Instagram for your business is that it allows you to engage with your customers, and doing this is one of the best ways to increase your Instagram followers. You can do this through comments, direct messages, hosting polls, and having questionnaires on Instagram stories. The benefits of engaging with your customers are that you build a relationship with them, you create brand loyalty, Instagram will also favor you in the algorithm because more engagement means more people will be exposed to your content. Through interacting, you can gain more followers as well as more followers.
So there you have it Instagram in a nutshell. It is not hard to see why businesses love using it to grow and connect with their customers. It is an ideal space!
