In the world of internet marketing, businesses of all sizes are always looking for the next method to reach their audience. Facebook and YouTube have been a great way of reaching out to customers with video, but content slips down a timeline quickly. Competition for attention in the form of likes and shares is fierce. There is one potential answer to social media saturation in Instagram.
It’s All About Images and Videos
We know that images and videos are powerful marketing content so the next natural step is to use a platform that shares only that type of content. Videos are especially powerful, representing less than 5% of content on the web but over 95% of viewed content. On Instagram, videos receive double the engagement of images. That makes it a powerful medium. Unlike other social media, your high-quality video content won’t get lost in the sea of shared text posts, family updates and news media as it is elsewhere. It also won’t slip down the feed as quickly.
It’s Ideal for Short Promos
Promotional videos are shorter than ever. It used to be that you had 15 seconds to grab the attention of your potential audience. Now, audiences expect promotional videos no longer than 15 seconds; the shortest promotional videos are just 6 seconds; they record surprisingly good engagement levels. Instagram is the ideal place for that content length, arguably better than YouTube. On Instagram, viewers want to view content, engage with it and move on quickly. The shorter your content, the higher the likelihood of engagement will be.
Few Business Users are on Instagram
The business community has been slow to take up using Instagram as a promotional tool. Most still use YouTube and Vimeo for their video promotion and Facebook for their text promotion. There may be many reasons for this including not understanding how it works. Although those platforms offer most of what you might need, Instagram offers simplicity in a streamlined service. Like Twitter, you can use hashtags to capture the right traffic at the right time.
You Can Connect with Your Other Channels
Interconnectivity is an important part of your social media marketing. Luckily for Instagram, it is easy to connect to your other social media services such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+. This maximizes your audience stream and channels them back towards Instagram as part of your social media outreach. The broader your outreach, the better your chances of receiving positive engagement will be.
Using Instagram Stories to Your Advantage
Released in the middle of 2016, Instagram Stories is a great new feature. Rather than going into your regular feed, you are able to put up a post that will stay on the site for just 24 hours. There is also the option for greater creative flexibility with special filters, helping your audience see your special offers (such as giveaways) at the optimal time. Instagram Stories is a way of delivering your audience fresh content and showing them how active you are.
