As one of the most popular social media platforms, Instagram (IG) has gained a large user base over the past few years. This makes it a go-to virtual marketing platform for brands, marketers, and influencers. Initially, users used IG to display pretty pictures and connect with people from different walks of life. Recently, businesses have been using this platform to their advantage, reaching a large customer base and increasing brand awareness.
With other social media platforms like TikTok on their heels, Instagram is rapidly unwinding new and integrated features you can use to market your business. All these features are focused on helping you grow your online brand and attract new loyal customers. Below is an outline of eight distinct Instagram features and how you may incorporate them into your marketing strategy:
1. Instagram Stories And Stickers
Instagram (IG) stories are one of the most interactive features you may consider integrating into your marketing strategy. They’re short content presented as clickable circles at the top of your target audience’s feed. Consequently, IG stories are short-lived and disappear after 24 hours.
You can view them individually and respond, react, or respond to them. You can also share them as your own from a public account. Instagram Stories are relevant to your brand because they create traffic and new followers. Additionally, you can promote your Instagram on UseViral or any other website to increase story views, followers, and likes. Use this Instagram feature to share your brand’s story and reach a larger audience.
2. Instagram Carousels
Carousels are among the best IG features you can use to ensure your content reaches a large audience. It’s a format with many photos that allows you to effectively present your business to potential customers. This feature will enable you to create conversational content and share insights about your products. It helps boost brand awareness, educate followers, and increase your revenue.
3. Geo-Tag Features
This Instagram feature enables you to pinpoint your physical location. When a follower clicks on a location, you will take them to a location library containing all photographs and information created at that particular location. The advantage of this feature is that you can create your Instagram location via Facebook, attach location stickers to your content, and add a spot to your stories, posts, and hashtags.
When you use geo-tag to pin your location, you enable your customers to attach your brand’s location to their stories and photos. Thus, they assist you in building brand recognition among their followers. Additionally, they see more than just the photos you upload to your account.
4. Live Sessions
Live sessions are the new trend on Instagram, and influencers, businesses, and brands use them extensively. They are similar to videos, but they are filmed and streamed live. You can go live to tell users about your products, describe their benefits, and share any other information you like. These sessions can be saved as recorded videos for future reference.
5. Instagram Videos
Since Instagram’s launch, users and businesses have favored the video format. Using the Instagram video feature is one of the most effective ways to advertise your business, enabling you to introduce your brand and establish credibility with your audience. The key to attracting a huge audience to your videos is to make the initial few seconds as captivating as possible. Initially, these videos lasted for only 60 seconds, but with the launch of Instagram TV, they can last up to one hour.
Instagram TV (IGTV) is an in-app feature on the explore page. It’s the best video marketing tool on Instagram, allowing you to upload lengthy videos. These videos are automatically displayed anytime a follower explores the IGTV tab. The videos appear on your followers’ feeds depending on their interests and activities. With this feature, you can promote your content by uploading videos that last for an hour.
Alternatively, you can also opt to buy Instagram views from reliable sites, as featured in EarthWeb, to instantly boost your brand’s credibility for an affordable price.
6. Add-Yours Stickers
Chances are you’ve come across this feature on your IG account, but you have no idea how you can use it to market your brand. Add-yours is a recently developed sticker feature you could use for your stories. All you need to do is write a prompt and share it. Your followers will then respond to your feed, and when you click on the sticker, you’ll see what they have to say about your post.
Add-yours increases interactions with your audience, allowing access to customer feedback and thoughts about your brand. It also helps you start conversations and build rapport with your customers and showcase your creative side.
7. AR Filters
Augmented Reality (AR) is used across many social platforms, including Instagram. This technology applies computer-generated virtual effects to actual photos and images. You can use these Instagram filters, which are commonly known as face filters as imaginative overlays to your Instagram videos and photos.
In addition to the standard filters, using AR filters in your brand’s marketing plan will allow customers and users to try on and identify the most suitable products before making a purchase. Additionally, individuals can only access your filters if they’re brand followers.
8. Instagram Analytics
Instagram also offers in-app analytics. It is a statistical tool that gives accurate information on your consumers, allowing you to evaluate your performance. With such data, you can identify the stories and posts your followers find more engaging and generate compelling content based on this information. This Instagram analytics displays information like:
- Audience: It shows details of your audience, their age range, ethnicity, languages, active time, and top locations.
- Activity: This shows all the activities related to your posts, website clicks, impressions, email, profile visits, reach, and calls.
- Content: Instagram analytics shows you how many accounts took action based on your posts, comments, engagement, and viewers, among others.
Conclusion
Instagram is a popular social media platform with a large number of users. You can use this to your advantage, gain access to generate more followers, and convert them into loyal customers. With the rising competition from other platforms, IG launched new and improved features to help you market your brand. Integrating some or most of the IG features mentioned above with your marketing strategies will take your brand to a new level.
