IMU Guide to the 3 new Business Tools of Instagram
Well it is official! After months of speculation and leaked information over the announcement of Instagram offering new capabilities to business specific accounts, all business accounts on Instagram are now officially able to promote themselves as a business and start using cool new features.
A business account is not suitable for everyone doing business marketing on Instagram however, and here is why. Not all business owners fall into the categories that are suitable to these new changes. For most small business owners, a personal account that is set-up and designed for business will suit you just fine and achieve the desired results of traffic and profit. Learn more about how to setup a personal account for business with the IMU Master Class.
“We’ve grown to 200,000 active advertisers on Instagram, and the vast majority of those are small to medium businesses,” says Instagram’s Global Head of Business and Brand Development, James Quarles, explaining the need for a specialized set of tools for business owners. Plus, he adds, “fifty percent of people follow a business on Instagram, and sixty percent learn about products and services on Instagram.” (TechCrunch.com)
For a business to qualify for an Instagram business account, several different factors must be in place, including a Facebook business page among other criteria. If you happen to be the recipient of an Instagram Business account invitation here are the business tools you can look forward to using.
#1 Instagram Business Tool: Business Profile
Having a business profile will unlock several doors for your business. Your profile can now include your phone number, maps or physical address of your business location if applicable, and email or text capabilities.
#2 Instagram Business Tool: Insights (analytic measurements)
Whether you qualify for a business account or not, it is apparent that all Instagram marketers would love to have insight (analytic tracking) capabilities! Unfortunately, only the small handful of businesses who have been granted a business account have access to their insights at present.
Business accounts who have access to the Insights tool are able to monitor and analyze which posts are doing well. Insights also gives the user greater insight into the demographics of their audience.
The great news is Instagram has confirmed it is testing the insights tool out with some verified accounts and may release the analytics tracking tool to a wider audience in the future. For now, you can still use paid services such as Iconosquare.
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#3 Instagram Business Tool: Promoted Posts
For business accounts who have access to post analytics through Insights, they can easily use the mobile ad creation for promoting well performing posts.
Mobile ad creation will allow the business to effortlessly choose a budget and audience demographic that they want to target the post to. Marketing managers can also save custom audience information and target these groups specifically. Unlike Facebook, the Instagram mobile ad creation will not allow to the user (at present) to utilize pixels, tracking information etc. Instagram is trading speed and ease for more complicated audience tracking and targeting measures. With Instagram’s connection to Facebook, you should expect to see greater advertising capabilities in the future. Similar to Facebook’s ‘boosted post’ advertising, we can expect to see a similar option inside of Instagram.
“We would love to get to a place where we partner with [businesses] to try and track the traffic… a place in the future where we know someone has actually visited the store,” says Quarles. (TechCrunch.com)
(credit: LinkedIn.com)
You can expect to see more business profiles showing up throughout the close of this year and into the next. You may or may not be targeted to have a business account, but if it is something that you truly feel your business should be a part of, make sure you have a Facebook business page setup, designed, and optimized for business (Take IMU’s 3 week Facebook for Business Master Class to make sure you get it right the first time!)
If you are not included into the chosen business accounts, we recommend you make a personal account into a highly functioning business marketing account. After all, using personal accounts for business is what has worked flawlessly for years, there is no reason you should not have an optimized account. Not sure how or where to even start? Check out the IMU Instagram for Business Master Class.
So let us know, have you received an Instagram business account yet? If not, how are you using your current account to market? We would love to hear from you in the comments below.
