Most of the major social media sites have rolled out versions of their products specifically for businesses, and now you can add Instagram to the list!
Users who have created Instagram profiles for their business have long been asking for more features – mainly an analytics dashboard. Business profiles deliver that as well as the ability to promote/boost posts right from Instagram. This makes sense, as Instagram is owned by advertising powerhouse Facebook.
The analytics dashboard, which is called Insights, shows you the best time to post, your following over time, when your customers are online, and specific information about your posts and how many people engaged with them. The ad platform allows for the same kind of detailed targeting as Facebook, with an extra perk. Instagram has a feature where they suggest a target area for you. We feel like Facebook will follow with this feature soon, and we also wonder how long it will take before advertising becomes as necessary on Instagram for businesses as it is on Facebook.
The new business pages also allow you to choose your preferred contact method.
Our first tip for success with Instagram for business? Switching over your profile. So, how do you switch from a personal profile to a business profile? Instagram may prompt you to switch on its own.
If not, simply go to Settings and click “Switch to Business Profile.”
It’s that simple, but it could have a big impact for your business in terms of tracking and analytics.
Our second tip? Really focus on using hashtags that will get your posts seen. At Crystal Media, we use a great apps to find hashtags called LetsTag. You simply type in a hashtag you know fits your business, like #retail, and the app brings up related tags that you can use to build a list and then copy over to Instagram. The LetsTag app is for Android devices, but Tagomatic is a similar app for i0S devices.
Once you’ve moved over your profile, let us know! Share your Instagram URL or Username in the comments of this blog post, we’d love to follow you! You can follow us, we’re @HeyCrystalMedia.
Thanks for the tips! https://www.instagram.com/skatellsjewelers/
Thanks Amy!
Instagram username @covereddowntown
Thanks @Covereddowntown!
touchebountiful
overthemoonbountiful
Thanks Tamara!
question…we have our Instagram posts automatically go over to Facebook. We then take out the hashtags. We usually boost our posts on Facebook that automatically then also boost the posts on Instagram. Should we now not do this? Boost in Instagram or Facebook? Very confusing now.
I’d recommend promoting Instagram posts through Instagram now, not through Facebook. When you promote through Facebook, it creates a new post for Instagram instead of promoting an already published post. And definitely continue to keep hashtags off Facebook but on Instagram!
If you switch to a business profile, will instagram reduce your reach to your followers as was done on facebook, where only a tiny amount of people see your posts unless you pay to boost them?
Instagram already put an algorithm in place (just like Facebook). All social sites have an algorithm to help deliver content users will care about/enjoy. With this being said, doesn’t matter if you have a personal or biz page, currently both are being processed through the same algorithm. And since there is now an algorithm, you’ll want to consider advertising to get more of your posts seen, which is much easier and effective through a business profile than a personal profile.
@ladyuniqueboutique3
Thanks, just set up our business profile! Username: @thesalvagedboutique