Social media giant Instagram has announced a suite of new tools to help businesses make the best of the platform.
A Desire to Do More
‘With so many companies using Instagram, and many people on the platform interacting with them, there was a desire from our business community to do more,’ the company said on its blog. ‘So
we listened. And, after hundreds of interviews with businesses, three key needs became clear—stand out, get insights and find new customers.’
Helping Businesses Stand Out: Business Profiles
Instagram found that many companies wanted a way for customers to email questions, as they found it time-consuming and difficult to sort through comments for customer queries.
Instagram’s business profiles are a new free feature that will allow businesses to identify their account as business-based and choose how they prefer customers to contact them, either by phone call, text or email via the contact button. The profile will also include directions and unlock access to insights and promotional tools.
Social Media Analysis and Insight: Instagram Insights
Responding to businesses who find analytics overwhelming and difficult to apply to their marketing, Instagram has launched Insights to give businesses a clear overview of who their followers are and which posts are most successful, allowing them to ‘create more relevant and timely content.’ This can be done directly from the mobile app.
Finding Followers: Turning Posts Into Instant Ads
Businesses also told Instagram they wanted to reach out and gain more followers and customers. They can now turn high-ranking posts into ads from within the app by simply picking a successful post and adding a call to action button – either selecting a target audience or allowing Instagram to do the targeting for them, and selecting a length of time for their advert to run.
Unfortunately, though, UK-based business will have to wait a while to make use of these new Instagram tools. According to the Instagram business blog, they will be ‘rolling out in the US, Australia and New Zealand first – but will be ‘available in all regions globally by the end of the year.’