Are Instagram’s new features going to help your business?

EARLIER this week, picture-sharing platform Instagram, announced changes to the Instagram Graph application programming interface.

As a result, businesses on Instagram will now be able to schedule organic posts, view public posts that they have been either mentioned or tagged in, as well as view other business profiles.

The new update comes after the many requests of Instagram business users for a feature that allows them to better manage their posts.

“Scaling efficiently is critical for marketing teams looking to drive business results with social media. As companies and brands continue to expand their content and reach with Instagram, the ability to schedule and publish posts on the platform has been the number one request from our 16 million customers. We are excited to be a preferred partner with Instagram to make this happen,” Roger Graham, senior director of Growth and Marketing, APAC Hootsuite, tells Tech Wire Asia.

Last November, Instagram announced that 25 million businesses were now using its platform, which launched globally in 2016.

It’s not hard to see why so many businesses are choosing to switch to a business account, due to the many benefits that can be reaped through the popular platform.

Getting found

Prior to the launch of Instagram Business, the only way your audience could engage with your brand was to follow a link to your website on your profile.

But now with a business Instagram account, you can add your business contact details. This enables users to simply click on the Contact button on your profile to get in touch with you via email, phone, or a GPS location on the map.

Business insights

With a business account, you can use Instagram’s business analytics tools to gain an insight into how your Instagram content is working for you.

You can view analytics for things such as impressions and reach of your content, as well as valuable follower data giving you a breakdown in gender, age range, location, and most active hours or days.

Instagram ads

With the use of an Instagram business account, ad creation is easy. Users can promote any post by simply clicking on it and selecting the Promote button.

From here, you can choose a specific audience, set your budget, and choose how long you wish to run your ad.

With 80 percent of users following a business they like, getting an Instagram Business account is a crucial tool to help grown your business.

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