Instagram really stepped up their game in 2018. They rolled out so many new Instagram features, and several of them can be leveraged by businesses to supercharge their social media presence. Read on to find out what features you need to be paying attention to.
Instagram Features to Help Brands Supercharge Their Social Media Presence
Use the Live Video Feature
Going live is becoming increasingly popular because it’s a quick and easy way for brands to connect with their audiences and build authenticity and brand loyalty. Instagram also promotes your brand when you go live because every user that follows you gets a push notification alerting them that you are going live if they are currently using the Instagram app. Live lets your followers interact and comment on your content in real time, giving you instant feedback on whatever you are promoting or talking about.
Add Hyperlinks to Your Bio
Add your branded hashtag to your Instagram bio and encourage your followers to use the hashtag whenever they post any content related to your brand. If you have a suite of brands, you can also hyperlink their Instagram usernames in your bio as well. This creates cohesion among your brands and more recognition and transparency among your followers.
Encourage Your Followers to Activate Push Notifications
To make sure your followers never miss any of your content and essential updates, encourage them to activate your push notifications. To do this, go to your profile and click on the three dots in the upper right-hand corner. This will pull up a menu of options, and at the bottom, you can select “Turn on Post Notifications” and “Turn on Story Notifications.”
Create a quick tutorial on your Instagram Stories showing your followers how to do this, so they never miss a post. And make sure to ask your followers to activate notifications for your brand. Users who enable push notifications are three times more engaged than those who do not. The potential of having users with push notifications on for your business is huge for your ROI.
Turn Existing Instagram Posts into Ads
Use the Facebook Ads Manager and Power Editor tools to turn your organic posts into ads. You no longer have to use the in-app Promote button on Instagram. Be sure to select your most popular posts since they’ve already been vetted by performing well. You will be able to choose from a few goals, including Brand Awareness, Post Engagement, Reach, and Video Views.
How do you plan to implement the new Instagram features into your brand strategy? Tweet me @lorenridinger.
