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5 Popular Misconceptions about Using Instagram for Customer Engagement.

Over the years, Instagram has grown as a major platform of social media used for brand promotion. It provides an opportunity for the brands to expand their content so as to increase their online reach. However, there are many misconceptions about the usage of Instagram for businesses. Below are mentioned some of the common misconceptions among the people.

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Instagram for Big Brands

There is a common belief that only big brands with a significant marketing budget should opt for Instagram. However, it is not true. There are many start-ups and smaller names in the market which are using Instagram despite lower budget and are doing reasonably well in their domain. Not only businesses, even self-employed individuals and vendors are also using Instagram to increase their sales and stay ahead in the competition. The Instagrammers try to analyze the competitor’s marketing strategies so that they can incorporate it into their business. So Instagram is the best platform which all the brands can use as a part of marketing strategy.

Only Visual Products Work

People understand that Instagram works well if your brand is selling visually appealing products. They believe that being a service provider you cannot use Instagram for promotion. However, service providers can use it in a more creative way to gain their business dimension.

The brand’s goal is to generate appealing and entertaining images which they can share with the audience for better results. But the question is what these companies can show on Instagram if they can’t show their products. Such companies can use pictures of the employees to rank well on social media.

This way you can instill faith in the future customers. Another way is to share the photographs of the customer’s goodwill which show that their employees are considerate towards society. Show the celebrations happening in the office premises.

Outcome is Immeasurable

The usual misconception is that the results of social media campaign results cannot be measured. Nowadays, it has become a standard to monitor and track social media activity on various platforms. People think that there is no insight tool for Instagram which can use track their social media activity and they need to do it manually.

The reality is certain analytical tools are present which helps you to evaluate the social media activity. In order to assess the brand’s performance, the Instagrammer should track the account to analyze the brand’s performance. The various web tools aid in monitoring the presence of the brand over social media platforms.

Only Photos are posted

Even top-notch brands think that Instagram can only be used for posting photographs. There are many other ways to use Instagram for your brand to enhance customer engagement. However, one of the drawbacks in comparison to other social media platform is you cannot use content to attract the customers.

However, the advantage of using Instagram is that it offers a two-way mode enabling the brand to utilize user-generated content with the help of photo competitions and specially designed campaigns. Ensure you design hashtags specific to the brand for the contest so that the number of customers participates in the competition. The brands should design a compelling strategy to promote your hashtags and relevant campaigns. It also gives an opportunity to the brands to share good content allowing the brand to use it again.

You can sell photos

Many people believed that according to the new terms of Instagram they can sell photos to the third party. Later, Instagram reworked on their terms making it clear that Instagram is not a platform to sell your photographs.

These are some of the biggest misconceptions about using Instagram for their business. Social media provides one of the biggest platforms to start doing impressive things enhancing their business verticals.

Comments (8)

  • Good point on content Vishwajeet. I post oodles of videos on IG; fun tool for boosting engagement.

    Reply
  • Hi Vishawajeet! I’ve seen you around, great to finally talk to you.

    My baby product company has utilized Instagram heavily, moreso for brand awareness than for direct sales. I especially like your tip on user generated content because I can attest to its power.

    We’ve gotten a lot of pictures to reshare on our own page just from asking people to tag us in their photos. Some of these photos have been so great that we’re now even utilizing them on our sales pages!

    Great stuff man. Thanks for sharing this!

    – James Mcallister

    Reply
  • Hi VISHWAJEET,

    Nice read.

    Since I created my Instagram account, I haven’t done much of marketing.

    Though, probably because I don’t want to spread myself too wide that I might get little from my overall content marketing resources.

    Before reading your article, I also have that believe that Instagram marketing might be exclusive effective for big brands with a big marketing budget.

    Now I know that even small businesses/individuals can compete on the platform with other big brands outhere.

    Thanks for sharing.

    Reply
  • Hi Vishwajeet

    Instagram is so popular now, but I’ve used it very lightly.

    I’ve shared many of these misconceptions, especially that only visual products work.

    And it’s such a chore sometimes to come up with something visual to represent my content.

    But I’m seeing that video is becoming a bigger part of Instagram, too, so I might try that out as well.

    -Donna

    Reply

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