With over 600 million users by December 2016 (Instagram, 2017), it can be said that Instagram has become a successful social platform. However, just how well does this ‘free’ service provide a network for businesses to advertise?

Instagram can be used free of charge for a personal or business user to upload pictures as a way of expressing themselves; you do not need to pay Instagram for their services. Therefore, businesses could use Instagram by uploading a ‘selfie’ or images showing their merchandise. The user can gain followers and there is no limit to how many pictures can be uploaded per page. For businesses, they can use it to their advantage and use it as a way of free advertising.

As Social media has become popular and continues to grow, it is changing the business landscape and redefining how business communicate across their channels of distribution and with their customers (Rapp et al, 2013). I have seen over the years the shift in businesses communicating through social media to give out certain messages or to visually attract people to view their profile, content or products.

One way I have noticed the use of businesses promoting their page or certain products is by the use of the ‘re-post’. This is the business uploading an image to Instagram with a message stating something like ‘First 50 people to re-post wins a big giveaway’ or something similar. This engages with personal users, and for me, it is a way to attract new customers. In my experience, even if I did not know the business nor their products, I still participate because I want the free ‘giveaway’ or prize equivalent.

Here is my own personal experience from a ‘re-post’. I saw this on my friends instagram profile as she had re-posted. I re-posted this myself even though I was not familiar with the brand as it had an attractive prize. This may have been a strategy for the business to entice people like me, to re-post their picture, regardless of our interests.

Studies show that similar interests are shared between groups of friends (Telegraph, 2010). This could be a strategy that marketers have as they are aware of the number of users on Instagram and know how easy it is for friends to view each others profiles. This happened to me, with the re-post above so it shows just how effective an Instagram post can be.

Understandably, businesses, especially start-ups or small businesses need to build a reputation. This is crucial for a business enterprise risk management (Arnold, 2006). By businesses posting exciting content, it can allow them to gain followers and entice them to buy their products (if they sell products) or to just become familiar with the business.

How can businesses maximise the use of Instagram posting?

• Post regularly to engage other users
• Be creative
• Encourage users to re-post
• Upload particular posts that have worthy content

Social media marketing has been proven to have a high conversion rate along with 83% of all marketers actively pursue social media marketing initiatives. (Aberdeen, 2016) (Source: https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics#Social%20Media). This shows just how successful it can be to use a social platform to attract customers.

With around 80 million pictures being uploaded to Instagram everyday(Instagram, 2017), businesses need to be smart with what they share on their page.

However, If a business does post ineffectively, this could damage the company and may even decrease their number of followers.

Reasons for posts being ineffective:

• Too frequent or infrequent
• Content not being relevant to the company or their followers
• Deemed inappropriate or offensive
• Boring content or feed

With Instagram having such a large network, businesses could ruin their marketing strategy if they decide to post unappealing content. I have followed businesses before where they no longer attracted my attention so I did not need to follow them anymore.

Ineffective posts could be on the rise for businesses if they feel under pressure to upload content because other companies are. They may want to be noticed on such a large social platform that they will not consider the content they post. This is something, in my opinion, that businesses need to examine as a marketing technique, as Instagram can be powerful, both negatively and positively.

One interesting link I found was expert opinion on Instagram marketing tips including the use of pictures and videos and the quality of the pictures. This may help conceal how Instagram can be very effective. Click here to read the article.

Click here to also read another interesting article on how to build Instagram followers.

Lessons Learnt:

• It is important to use social platforms for both small and large businesses as the amount of users are on the rise
• Social media can have both a positive and negative affect on your business depending how you use it
• There are concrete techniques to attract followers

Thanks for reading!

Leila

References

Arnold, M. (2006) CEO’s respect importance of reputation, Haymarket Media Inc: New York.

Hubsot (2016) [Online], Available: <https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics#Social%20Media&gt;

Instagram (2017) [Online], Available: <https://instagram-press.com/&gt;

Rapp, A., Beitelspacher, L.S., Grewal, D. & Hughes, D.E. (2012) Understanding social media effects across seller, retailers, and consumer interactions, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. Vol. 41, No. 5, p547-566.

Telegraph (2010) “Shared interests key to friendship,” 1st December. Available: <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/8171136/Shared-interests-key-to-friendship.html&gt;