Instagram has matured a lot since 2010. With 500 million monthly active users, the Facebook owned company is now refining its service to attract more advertising revenue.
They’ve opened up their API to advertisers, applied a Facebook-esque algorithm to the photo feed and even got a spiffy new logo. Most recently, Instagram announced the introduction of business profiles, which are now gradually rolling out across the platform. With some helpful new features and a new suite of analytics, the changes look poised to help businesses level up their Instagram marketing.
Certainly good news for businesses, but how will it effect influencers? To get a better idea, let’s first take a deeper look at the changes.
AN OVERVIEW OF THE CHANGES
The new business profiles can be broken down into three key new additions.
1) Business Profiles
Up until now, there was no distinction between a business or personal account on Instagram. Now, those wishing to be seen as a business can register for a business profile. This enables you to add a contact button with your preferred method of contact (call, text or email) plus the option to add a map to your place of business. Though simple, these changes streamline the path to purchase experience and reduce friction.
2) Insights & Analytics
Perhaps the biggest advantage of the business profile is the analytics that come with it. Businesses are now able to analyse the number of impressions, reach, clicks and follower activity for a post. Though not revolutionary as far as analytics go, they are the first step in helping businesses get more professional with their Instagram marketing. It also opens the door for paid promotion.
3) Promote Posts
Instagram has made it easy to promote posts into ads from within the app. You can select a target audience, add a CTA button and choose the length of time to run the ad. This makes advertising more accessible and attractive to small businesses. In addition to earlier additions such as mobile app installs and conversion link ads, the solutions for businesses are clearly expanding.
But how do these new features actually benefit businesses?
WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR BUSINESSES?
Any business with a physical location will benefit from making it easy for customers to find them. And something as simple as a contact button, makes converting interest to action more seamless. These are basic additions that make a big difference.
The analytics will make it easier for businesses to understand how their posts are performing, which makes Instagram marketing more accessible for small businesses. Which should attract more small business advertising dollars. A big plus for Instagram.
Which also explains the desire to make it easy to promote posts. The easier advertising is to test out, the more businesses will try it. And when they begin to see success, they will continue to use it. Thus more ad revenue.
Time will tell exactly how these features impact businesses, but expect a gradual increase in Instagram advertising across the board.
But how what does all this mean for influencer marketing?
HOW WILL IT EFFECT INFLUENCERS?
As Instagram becomes a more effective and popular marketing channel, businesses will explore how else they can use the channel to improve results. And influencers are an attractive proposition to do just that.
Fortunately, simultaneous to these changes to Instagram, the influencer marketing industry is changing too. New self managed influencer marketing platforms are designed to make it easier to setup and run influencer campaigns. With that ease comes opportunities to attract new users.
So how will all this effect influencers themselves?
Business profiles open up an interesting door for influencers. The basic question is… will influencers apply for business profiles?
They would benefit from analytics. It would give them insights into their post performance and help make more informed decisions about content. It would give them the ability to promote posts, which could be particularly appealing as the new algorithm begins limiting the exposure of organic posts.
On the flip side, being recognised as a ‘business’ may have a negative impact on their status.
As to whether it’s even possible for influencers to get a business profile, Instagram themselves are ambiguous. The Instagram business blog says they are for “accounts wanting to be recognized as a business on Instagram.”
It’s still early days and we will soon see how it unfolds, but what is clear is that marketing on Instagram is set to grow. And as influencer marketing platforms make running and managing influencer campaigns easier, influencer marketing is likely to grow with it.