Social media could hold a whole lot of potential that you may never have considered before. If you have a small business of your own, in fact, it could prove to be the best venture that you invest in yet!
We’re all familiar with social media. A lot of the time, it’s something that we associate with the younger generations. We find ourselves rolling our eyes as teens and young adults obsess over the number of likes that they’re getting on each picture and feel concern at the overexposure of their personal lives to the world. But the truth is that social media is extremely popular and it’s most definitely something that we’re going to get used to. In fact, members of older generations are even getting involved. Now, we’re not saying you immediately have to get a social media page of your own and start sharing images of your breakfast with every person you know and a whole bunch of strangers too. But what we are saying is that social media could hold a whole lot of potential that you may never have considered before. If you have a small business of your own, in fact, it could prove to be the best venture that you invest in yet! So, let’s take a moment to look at all of the benefits that social media could provide for your small business! For now we’ll focus on the ever-popular image sharing app, Instagram.
A Way to Make Your Brand More Desirable
Perhaps the most powerful outcome of social media usage is the illusion of popularity. The more followers and likes a page has, the more popular it appears. This is perhaps why it’s so popular amongst generations who feel a need for constant validation and appreciation. But this could be used to your brand’s advantage too. By having numerous followers and likes on your business’ Instagram page, you give it a sense of validation. The more followers and likes you have, the more desirable your goods will become. After all, if someone sees that tens of thousands or perhaps hundreds of thousands of people are liking something, they’re more likely to want it themselves. Now, gaining these followers and likes in the first place isn’t exactly easy. So you might want to consider automatic Instagram likes. These will automatically appear on your posts, boosting your reputation and encouraging more real individuals to follow and like what you’re posting.
An Online Catalogue
You can use Instagram as a form of online catalogue. The way that the app works allows you to upload multiple pictures, which then form a grid of 3 pictures across on your page. People accessing your page can then scroll through your posts, picking out which ones to click on and see large. In this way, Instagram can essentially act as a free form of online catalogue. There are new features for businesses where you can tag the products that are featured in each image. When users click the tag, it comes up the product name and price. They can then click this to be redirected to your web store where they can add the products to their basket and checkout!
A Means of Advertisement
Another benefit of Instagram is a means of advertisement. Instagram has around 800 million users, so by engaging with this site, you are opening up the doors to a huge market of potential customers. Though your page itself could be considered a form of advertisement, you can actually take further steps with advertising through the app. Your first option is to advertise through Instagram directly. This means that you choose one of your posts that you think will hold the most appeal, then Instagram will add it to the feeds of individuals who don’t even necessarily follow you or may not have ever clicked on your page before. This comes at a price, but it’s a great investment and a good way to get your posts into a larger number of people’s feeds. Another option is to collaborate with “Instagram influencers”. Instagram influencers are simply the “it” people of Instagram. They have a large number of followers, meaning that their posts are seen by large numbers of people. You can often contact them directly using the “direct message” feature or they may have an email address listed in their Instagram bio. Once you get in touch, you can often negotiate a way for them to post a picture with your products. If they like your goods, they may settle for the free goods that they use for their picture. Others with larger numbers of followers and a more profound presence may demand a fee of sorts.
A Point of Communication
A final benefit of Instagram that we’ll focus on for now is as a point of communication between you and your customers or potential customers. Now, chances are that you have some sort of business email address that people will usually contact you through, or you may have a contact form embedded into a contact page on your site. But many consumers will not check their email accounts regularly. Instead, they may prefer to contact you through social media applications that they check regularly when looking at feeds and checking the likes and comments on their own pictures anyway. As briefly mentioned earlier, Instagram has a “direct message” feature. This is a form of inbox where people can send you messages. They may have questions about the products that you’re selling, they might want to know whether you have a brick and mortar store that they can visit, they may want further information on shipping or returns… there are a whole bunch of inquiries that they might want to make and this is an easy way for them to get in touch with you. Instagram also allows users to comment on your pictures, so as you post, people might use this as another place where they can ask questions. Some will also tag their friends in the comments of your posts, if they think that the products you’re selling might appeal to them.
So, there you have it! Social media really does hold a lot of potential for small businesses as long as you use it in the right way. Instagram is just one piece of proof!
