Why You Want To Use Instagram For 2018

What can Instagram do for you?

Each popular social media platform has something unique about them. And everyone has their strengths and weaknesses.

Instagram is no different. Unlike Facebook and Twitter, it's more difficult to generate traffic back to multiple sites. Instagram only allows one clickable link in the bio back to your desired URL. Of course, there are always ways around it, but it's not as effective as Facebook.

With that being said, you need to understand Instagram's strengths and what you want to achieve with this platform.

If brand awareness is important to you, then Instagram is what you want to use whether it's for personal or for business.

Data has revealed that sites with an established and trusted brand have a higher conversion rate. Using Instagram can help you increase trust and brand awareness that leads to the ultimate goal of conversion.

Interesting facts about who’s on Instagram

I wasn't always a data guy. But with the rise of social media, I learned to understand data. More importantly, having higher success rate by analyzing data properly, I've learned to LOVE DATA!

So a few facts:

• 2017, Instagram has 700 million monthly active users (that’s over double the monthly active users of Twitter and three times as much for monthly active users on WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.)
• 51% of users on Instagram are Male; 49% are Female.
• 70.7% of US Businesses Are Using Instagram in 2017
• 80% of Users Follow At Least One Business on Instagram
• Instagram Expects to Accrue $4 Billion in Mobile Ad Revenue in 2017
• Instagram Stories Has More Than 250 Million Active Daily Users
• 70% of Instagram Posts Don’t Get Seen

So with a few data points, I hope I was able to convey the message that there are a lot of eyeballs on Instagram! But, with the last data that 70% of posts don't get seen means you need to know your space well.

Once you understand the people on the receiving end of your posts in relation to your target market, then you can better craft your posts for maximum exposure.

Whether it's your personal brand, small company, mid company, large company, Instagram can help raise awareness.

I may have rambled on too much about the importance of Instagram, so here is Why!

It's Fun! Seeing growth is fun!

There are already plenty of stats online, so I'll get straight to the point.

This is my personal Instagram page I created for fun. This is not a page I intended to grow. I shared my interest in traveling, food, fitness, nature and my work life. Eventually, the page started to grow organically and began attracting like-minded people.

If you know about Instagram stories, I'd post up clips of me when I was visiting factories in China, working with my design team, and other work-related activities that my followers could see. This also helped me provide some credibility.

Seeing growth was fun. But what was even more fun was connecting with other people and building relations with them. I've met plenty of editorials that helped provide exposure to my businesses. Connected with other successful business owners, CEOs sharing ideas or collaborating with their businesses. Forming relations with other influencers to grow our businesses. And this was just playing around with my personal page.

Getting the most out of your profile

Your bio on Instagram is there for the world to see. You only have room to write 150 characters in your bio, so make it count!

Use this space to share enough information on why people should care about your company, tagline and website link you want to drive the traffic to. As a retailer, you can add little buy points like the purse image you see above for customers to shop.

Make it fun! Show beautiful images of your customers using your products. As your page and audience build up, you'll feel the excitement from seeing firsthand how others are also excited about your company.

You can finally be real! People are so tired of ads and companies selling to us a salesy commercial. Ads are the new "used car salesmen" we hate. So how do we avoid that? We provide insight, real live videos that aren't overly fixed up. As you can see, Starbucks includes fun videos in their feed as well as their top highlighted stories. Even though these are ads, the feel is different. Companies are showing their personalities through Instagram.

And the fun part is the data!!! When you see your business grow, doesn't it make you happy?

If you are doing this right, you will not only see your followers and like increase, but they will also convert over to your business growth as well!

With the new Instagram Insights API, you can expect more robust Instagram Analytics tools to come in 2018, like Instagram Stories Analytics, and you won’t be limited to viewing your analytics in the mobile app.

2018 is shaping up to be a major year for Instagram, and especially Instagram Stories! I am so excited to see what Instagram surprises the world with next. I'm having too much fun using social media to grow my personal brand, my businesses as well as my client's businesses. Everyone is happy!

I've recently created a facebook page where people can get together and share different business ideas, growth hacks, and life. Feel free to join here.