4 New Features to Market Your Business on Instagram

When it comes to marketing your business on social media, Instagram has a lot to offer. Not only did the social media giant achieve a major milestone by reaching 1 billion users worldwide earlier this year, but an impressive 80% of those users follow at least one brand on the platform. Over the last year, Instagram has focused on rolling out a series of business-specific features, which stand to benefit businesses, big and small. Here are our picks for the four most beneficial when it comes to marketing your business:

Shopping on Instagram

84% of online shoppers in the U.S. review at least one social media site before completing a purchase, making it a no-brainer for Instagram to introduce shopping capabilities to their platform. The new shopping feature provides a visual storefront for users where they can explore products, in both their feed or the Shop tab, and within a few taps, make a purchase.

To enable shopping, businesses are required to have an Instagram business account that is connected to a Facebook catalog and they must be approved for the shopping feature by Instagram. Once approved, businesses can begin adding shopping posts by simply tagging products in their posts. Users can then tap the tag, which will display product information – including a description and pricing – as well as a link to the business’ website where the purchase can be completed. Once nine shopping posts have been created, the Shop tab will become active for the business profile.

Shopping posts can also be created in Instagram Stories using stickers.

The latest addition to the shopping feature is still in a testing phase, but includes a Shopping channel on Instagram’s Explore tab. Currently, the feature generates for users who have shown an interest in browsing shoppable products. They are also testing a “save” function, which allows users to create a collection of items to revisit at a later time.

Story Highlights

Instagram Stories launched in 2016, allowing users to create short videos that disappear after 24 hours. For businesses, this feature has always been a great way to highlight interesting, fun aspects of their brand. However, the time constraints sometimes meant followers missed out on Stories. That’s where Story Highlights come in.

Highlights allow businesses the option to select multiple Stories, both while they’re being created or from the Story Archive and feature them on a business profile with a cover photo and label. The Highlights remain visible until they’re removed, and videos/photos can be added at any time. Using this feature, businesses can create Highlights of various products, tutorials, branded content, feature user-generated content, and more – the options are endless.

IGTV

Instagram rolled out IGTV this summer, a new app that allows for long-form video. These videos can be viewed within Instagram or the IGTV app. Businesses simply need to create an IGTV channel for their business profile, then they’ll have the ability to upload videos in horizontal or vertical formats. With long-form video, businesses can continue to build an authentic brand allowing them to better connect with their audience.

Action Buttons

Instagram began rolling out action buttons earlier this year, which allow users to initiate transactions with select Instagram partners, like OpenTable, Fandango, and Yelp Reservations, within the app. Users can Get Tickets, Reserve, or Book without ever leaving Instagram. To utilize these features, businesses must have an existing relationship with a supported partner. If that’s you, here’s how to add the new call-to-action button to your Instagram business profile.

At Business House we specialize in data-driven digital marketing solutions for businesses, like yours. If you’re interested in learning more about our social media services or anything else, contact us for a free consultation today.