Why Use Instagram to Promote Your Business

Instagram has come a long way since it originated in 2010. The application for sharing beach photos and “selfies” now attracts marketers of the largest brands. This social network has grown a lot lately: in January 2013, the number of monthly active users was 90 million, but by June 2018 it had increased to 1 billion, and the number of daily active Instagram users is now equal to 500 million. Impressive, right?

Businesses have started to react more and more to this rapidly growing platform, and if you analyze the top 100 brands in the world, 90% of them have an Instagram account.

But not only big brands use this app for promotion. There's no doubt that Instagram has become the place for small local businesses to show off their products to the world—especially in culinary, arts and crafts, and hospitality spaces.

Thankfully, Instagram is aware of this and has been making network changes that add functionality for small businesses. One of the most recent examples of this is the recent introduction of Instagram local pages. These are Google My Business style pages that local businesses can update with hours of operation, an address, and more. And usually, creating a business profile on Instagram helps increase sales and the number of customers.

Still think you don't need an Instagram account for your business?

Let's see what the statistics say:

1. With a billion monthly active users, it comes as no surprise that Instagram is the second most engaged social network (Emarketer, 2018). The first spot being secured by Facebook. However, with 500 million daily active users, Instagram is considered more popular than Twitter (36 million active users), Snapchat (150 million) and Pinterest (250 million).

2. 71% of the billion monthly active users on the Instagram app are under the age of 35 (Statista, 2019). This statistic provides information on the distribution of Instagram users worldwide as of January 2019. The single most popular age range is users between the ages of 25-34, followed by users between the ages of 18-24.

3. People spend almost as much time on Instagram as they do on Facebook. The amount of time Android users dedicate to Instagram is approaching that of Facebook — In June 2018 Facebook users’ spent an average of 58 minutes per day on the platform compared to Instagram users’ 53 minutes per day (Recode 2018).

4. In August 2016, Instagram launched Instagram stories. This game-changing feature allows users to take photos or videos which disappear after 24-hours. After launching this feature, people started sharing way more on Instagram. 500 million Instagram accounts use Instagram Stories every day (Instagram, 2018). Not just that but 1/3 of the most viewed IG stories are from businesses.

5. 83% of Instagrammers say they discover new products and services on Instagram (Facebook, 2019). This means that they are using Instagram as a channel to take inspiration from. The same study also reveals that by simply being on Instagram, brands can make a positive impression on potential shoppers.

6. 50% of Instagram users follow at least one business (Mention, 2018) meaning that businesses have a great opportunity to increase their reach through Instagram.

7. We’ve already gone over the impact of Instagram for brands, but let’s take it a step further. Instagram helps 80% of Instagrammers decide whether to buy a product or service (Facebook, 2019).

If you haven't started using Instagram for your brand yet, why not?

Maybe you think that you will not find your audience there, or maybe you don’t know what to post. Whatever your arguments, push them aside and try. When your account grows to a certain number of subscribers, your posts will receive more likes and get to Top Posts for various hashtags. If you select the right promotion strategy, the subscribers number will only increase in the future, bringing tangible benefits to your business.