The Changing Face of Marketing with Instagram

By CIOReview | Monday, April 22, 2019

When Instagram first took the screen space in 2010, it was like any other social platform: filled with selfies, animals, and food pictures. The transition from a simple photo-sharing app to a full marketing channel has taken only less than a decade. Instagram has released dozens of advanced data analytics tools, businesses for marketers and these have changed the outlook of marketing.

To increase brand recognition and loyalty, marketers use social networking. Social networking helps promote the voice and content of a brand because it makes the company readily accessible to new customers and more recognizable to existing customers. A frequent Instagram user, for example, can hear about a company through the news feed and decide to buy a product or service.

The highly visual format of Instagram offers enormous opportunities for e-commerce companies to showcase their products, whether through regular photos, videos or Instagram stories. Moreover, millions of companies have learned that building a visual presence on Instagram can complement their e-commerce marketing enormously.

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Instagram has announced API changes to personal profiles. An API is an interface that allows tools to “talk” and communicate information to a platform. For example, a tool like Agorapulse could tell a platform like Instagram to post a particular image and caption at any time. This means that direct changes to the platform cannot be made; instead, those changes have to be made through API.

The benefits of having a business account with Instagram include getting in-app analytics and the action buttons that allow direct conversions from Instagram. The third-party integration action button that partners with a social platform can help order or book directly from the Instagram account.

Changes are all about protecting personal users’ privacy and interests. Fortunately, Instagram has pointed out that some of these features that are not part of the new API such as a basic reading of the profile and media of the user will one day be available. Instagram aims to support companies, and therefore, such changes make a lot of sense. If a user chooses to comment on a business post, the company is certainly entitled to see the comment and the person who posted it.

The latest Instagram changes have made digital marketing much simpler, and these changes are indeed a boon to the marketers.

MarTech Companies: Bayshore Solutions, Bidtellect, DemandGen, FMG Suite, UE.co, Unbiazed LLC