Instagram is used by more than one billion people every single month and more than 90% of people usually end up following more than one business. Within the last 10 years, Instagram has grown from a simple photo-sharing app to being a hub of business activity. Brands can easily run fundraisers with their Instagram Live Broadcasts, open shops for their profiles and lets people book reservations easily from their accounts. In this blog, we will take a closer look at understanding everything there is to know about utilizing Instagram for Business.
Business Profile on Instagram?
Instagram rolled out its business profile in 2016 and more businesses have switched to a business profile from a personal account. Instagram is a great extension of Facebook, primarily because it emphasizes the visual element especially in the case of business accounts and advertising. A business usually runs its Instagram account in showing different aspects of their lives to their friends and family and helps build an audience along with gaining customers.
Businesses run Instagram accounts in building an audience and successfully gaining customers which is the end goal. Just remember that you will lose out on two features when you convert to a business profile which are:
- The ability to make your posts private
- The ability to link multiple Facebook profiles and being able to connect Instagram account to the business’s Facebook page
Next, let us look into the major benefits of Instagram for Business.
Benefits of Instagram for Business
Instagram for Business offers a vast variety of different benefits. Some of the major benefits of Instagram for Business are:
Access to Instagram Insights
Instagram insights help businesses with all the essential data that they need to know about their account and how the posts perform. It offers critical information on what kind of posts work and what doesn’t and will also give you more information about your followers in helping build a picture of those who take an interest in your business.
Ability to add a Contact Button
Adding a Contact Button to your Business Profile is vastly important and setting up the clicks on the button, it is possible to do so and they can easily email/call/dial a telephone call to your business. It is also possible to sync public contact information with your Facebook page and it means that people who have to update their information in syncing both to the page and Instagram account.
Your Industry Will Show On Your Profile
It is important to select the industry under which the business operates and in connecting the Instagram Business Profile for your Facebook page, information crosses to the Instagram profile. It is possible to information directly with Instagram that you need in the future.
Ability to Add Links to Instagram Stories
Instagram story is a great option for using Instagram accounts which involves the ability to add a URL to an Instagram story. Adding a business profile with 10,000 followers before Instagram helps you access the feature and it is great in qualifying for swiping up feature along with a verified badge.
Ability to Advertise on Instagram and Make Promoted Posts
Promoting Instagram posts and advertising on the platform, there will always be a need for operating a Business Profile. It is a great place to look into understanding where your ad will need to be placed. Some of the different options that Facebook gives you are Facebook and Messenger.
Ability to Verify Age
Businesses with an Instagram profile helps you set up a minimum age, and it is important to show content for potential customers.
Steps to Create Business Instagram Profile
It is important to create a business Instagram profile and it is very important for you to get started with creating a Business Instagram profile:
- Go to your profile and tap in the top right-hand corner.
- Tap Settings. For some accounts, the Switch to professional account option will be listed directly under Settings.
- Tap Account.
- Tap Switch to professional account.
- Tap Continue.
- Select a category for your business and tap Done.
- Tap OK to confirm.
- Tap Business.
- Tap Next.
- Add contact details and tap Next. Or tap Don’t use my contact info to skip this step.
- If you’d like, you can follow the steps to connect your business account to a Facebook Page associated with your business. This step is optional, and will make it easier to use all of the features available for businesses across the Facebook family of apps. At this time, only one Facebook Page can be connected to your business account.
- Tap X in the top-right corner to return to your profile.
Steps to Switch to Business Profile on Instagram
It is important to convert your personal profile to a business profile on Instagram and it is possible to access features that can help grow your business successfully. Here are some of the different steps that you can take to switch to your business profile on Instagram:
To switch your profile to a business account:
- Go to your profile and tap in the top right-hand corner.
- Tap Settings. For some accounts, the Switch to professional account option will be listed directly under Settings.
- Tap Account.
- Tap Switch to professional account.
- Tap Continue.
- Select a category for your business and tap Done.
- Tap OK to confirm.
- Tap Business.
- Tap Next.
- Add contact details and tap Next. Or tap Don’t use my contact info to skip this step.
- If you’d like, you can follow the steps to connect your business account to a Facebook Page associated with your business. This step is optional, and will make it easier to use all of the features available for businesses across the Facebook family of apps. At this time, only one Facebook Page can be connected to your business account.
- Tap X in the top-right corner to return to your profile.
With a business account, you’ll be able to access insights that can help you understand who is engaging with your business on Instagram. You’ll also have access to the professional dashboard, where you can track your performance, access and discover professional tools and explore educational information curated by Instagram.
Steps to Use Instagram for Business
Here are some of the different ways that you can Instagram for your business:
Step 1: Getting an Instagram Business Account
You must first start out with an Instagram business account and it is possible to do so by switching over from a personal account. It is the first step in learning how to get started with Instagram.
Step 2: Creating a winning Instagram strategy
Having a good social media strategy is important as it involves a good understanding of an audience. With Instagram’s audience demographics it is possible to get a sense of who uses the main platform. There are certain metrics that we can use in clearly defining the marketing strategy such as determining who already buys from you, checking analytics on social media channels in learning from you and finally conducting competitor research and conducting how different your audiences vary.
Step 3: Optimizing the Instagram profile to do business
There are different ways of optimizing your Instagram profile in doing business such as writing out a great bio, optimizing your profile pic, using our link in our bio wisely, adding relevant contact info and configuring action buttons.
Step 4: Sharing high-quality content
It is important to share high-quality content by creating a visual aesthetic for your brand, take thumb-stopping photos and using tools to help edit photos easily. Next, you need to focus on writing compelling captions in making the photo more compelling to the user.
Step 5: Growing and engaging with your audience
It is possible to grow and engage your audience by responding to comments and mentions, using the right hashtags, promoting your Instagram business account on other channels and collaborating with Instagram influencers.
Tips for Instagram for Business
There are seven main tips that you need to follow in successfully mastering Instagram for business which are:
- Showing what you do in a creative manner
- Creating a winning profile for your business
- Taking your audience behind the scenes
- Expanding your overall reach with hashtags
- Collaborating and mentioning others
- Building anticipation and offering exclusivity
- Analyzing your success and building up on it
Thus, Instagam for Business is a crucial part of your social media and marketing strategy. By following these steps it is possible to get the best results possible for your business. By following these tips it is possible you can ensure that your business gets great results in improving your audience and overall reach of the business.
tion
