Instagram has found a place in the lives of big and small companies to leverage the platform for achieving business objectives. As the platform evolves, three key needs have become clear that Instagram has focussed on in a new addition of business tools — stand out, get insights and find new customers.
Businesses want the ability to stand out on Instagram. Many companies indicated to the platform that it would be easier for customers to email questions because comments are hard to track and take time to sift through. Second, businesses want a simple way to get insights because analytics can be overwhelming and hard to apply to marketing. And third, businesses want to reach even more customers.
Instagram’s new business tools — revolving around creating business profiles, providing insights and promoting — are created with these insights in mind. Business profiles are a free feature for accounts wanting to be recognized as a business on Instagram. Insights on Instagram give businesses actionable information about who their followers are and which posts resonate better than others — all from within the mobile app. The ability to promote lets a business turn well-performing posts into ads right within the app.
The tools are immediately rolling out in the US, Australia and New Zealand in the coming months, and will be available in all regions globally by the end of the year.
