What Is Instagram, What Is It For And What Are The Advantages Of This Social Network?

Still don’t know what Instagram is and what it’s for? Don’t worry, just like you, there are thousands of people who are still unaware of the advantages of including this social image platform in their digital marketing strategy.

It is mainly for this reason that today I want to define for you, in as much detail as possible, what Instagram is and how it came to be one of the most important social platforms in the world.

Plus, I’ll show you why you should use it right now in your digital strategy, if you’re not already:

What is Instagram?

Instagram is a social network and a mobile application at the same time, which allows its users to upload images and videos with multiple photographic effects, such as filters, frames, retro colors, etc., to later share those images on the same platform or on other networks. social.

This application or network is currently one of the fastest-growing in the world.

A Bit Of History – What Were The Origins of Instagram?

The story of Instagram is really impressive, since four years after its launch, it was already considered the most important photography social network in the world.

Instagram was developed in San Francisco by its founder, Kevin Systrom, a university classmate of Mark Zuckerberg.

Kevin created a photo tool tailored to the iPhone 4 camera. The product was launched in the Apple Store on October 6, 2010, dubbed Instagram.

In 2011, the already-famous “hashtags” were added to help users find images on the same theme.

The first photograph uploaded to Instagram was taken by its founder as a first test of the App.

In 2012, the public Android version was released and achieved more than 1 million downloads in less than 24 hours.

That same year, the company was bought by Facebook for $1 billion.

In 2013, it gave in to user demands and introduced the ability to tag people and brands in any published photo. That same year, she introduced Instagram Direct, a way to send private, direct messages with photos or videos.

In 2015, Instagram was number one in the ranking “The 100 best iPhone apps” created by Mashable, which highlighted that it was “one of the most influential social networks in the world”.

What is Instagram for?

This social network, with more than 2,000 million active users, is used to share images and videos, apply filters, and thus turn a photo taken with a mobile phone into a professional image.

The procedure is very simple.

The user takes a photo or records a video on their mobile, applies a filter or photographic retouching (light, saturation, etc.), and shares it with their community, choosing whether to do so temporarily or make it permanent on their wall.

Currently, Instagram offers several sections to explore: feed, reels, videos, guides, and tags or mentions.

You also have different formats: image only, video, reels, stories, carousel…

This way, you can play around with your grid, experimenting with different formats and ways of presenting your content.

What are the Advantages of Using this Platform in Your Digital Strategy?

Once we know what Instagram is and a bit about its origins, let’s see why I highly recommend using this App in a professional way:

Advantages of Instagram to boost your personal brand

If you are an independent professional and what you are interested in is promoting your brand, this social network is the best option

But why? 40 % of people respond better to visual information than to text.

Photographs and videos are the types of content that get the best response on social networks, so this data is more than enough for you to integrate into your Brand strategy.

If you also add that this platform has more than 1 billion users, as I mentioned before, you will begin to understand why you should create an Instagram account as soon as possible, if you do not already have one.

Increased engagement

This is a platform where it is relatively easy to get visibility.

It is currently the social network with the highest engagement in most sectors, as I have already made clear to you.

This means the level of user interaction with the content is among the highest on other networks.

Important! And do not forget the hashtags: choose the ones that are most successful and related to what you do.

Increased traffic to your Blog

To get users who visit your profile to reach your website or blog, I recommend you take different actions:

• Add your website URL to your profile bio
• Add a watermark to your images with the name or URL of your website
• Add images of your articles or services

You will further humanize your Brand

Your personal brand is you, a person… yet I see hundreds of “personal brand” profiles that don’t show a single image of themselves and act like they’re just a business.

We all have a story to tell, and we all have professional passions and hobbies that motivate us.

When you work on your personal brand, you need to tell your story.

Human beings are curious by nature. Your followers want to know who you are and what you do.

Don’t worry, you don’t need to show EVERYTHING you do, but I do recommend showing your most human side and expressing how much you enjoy your job.

Show your daily personal and professional actions that have to do with your work or services.

Record videos explaining what you do and what you offer.

From time to time, show small details that evoke empathy in your followers; by sharing your hobbies, you may gain new followers.

Do you have a dog? Present it! Have you made a great cake? Show it!

Advantages for your company or business

• It is an important platform for your business’s digital transformation.
• Increased visibility of your company.
• Create engagement with your users.
• Humanize your business.
• Generate brand traffic to your website.
• Promote your products visually outside your website.

How Does Instagram Work? Professional Use Guide

After explaining the advantages, let me guide you through a few simple steps so that your business account is 100% optimized.

Also, if you want to expand your knowledge of this network and use it professionally, I leave you this guide to use Instagram like a pro.

Instagram offers you many possibilities, but it also has its rules. Do not abuse certain techniques to grow faster or you may be shadowbanned.

Optimize Your Profile

You will help your users to find you more easily if you add a link to your website and add a phone number.

In addition, you must geolocate your business. This will boost your Local SEO within the platform.

It is also very useful that you explain clearly and concisely what your company does and what it offers.

Use the Appropriate Hashtags

Your business will be easier to find if you use the most popular hashtags for your business.

You have many tools to find the right Instagram hashtags for your sector. These labels, in addition to increasing your reach, help you monitor your competition.

Make a list of hashtags large enough to be able to choose the right ones in each post.

Do not choose those that have millions of searches because you will hardly appear in the feed. Try to use medium-sized tags of 500,000 searches for the below, and occasionally, more popular hashtags.

Combine hashtags that help you build your brand universe:

• Let them define your business: #digital marketing
• That involves your target audience: #masterdemarketing
• Context (seasonal, local, etc.): #Christmas, #sale, # Madrid
• Own or brand: #socialatoz

When you make a publication, you only have to copy the hashtags that most interest you according to the type of image and the objective you have in mind when publishing it. I advise using between 10 and 15 hashtags per post.

Take good photos

Earlier, when we defined what Instagram is, I think we made the essence of this social network clear: the quality of the images is essential, and they are, therefore, a new showcase for your company.

Do not post any photos; it is a social photo network. It seems obvious that the images must be high quality and original.

Show the human side of your company

If it is very important to show your most human side in posts to boost your personal brand, it is even more so when you try to generate engagement with your business account.

It is very good that you post images of your products or services, but users also want to see the most human part of your company.

Show your team; make videos of important events at your company; take photos of your facilities, etc.

Sell Sensations

Storytelling is very important; it will help you a lot in developing a creative strategy.

Look at the ads for Ikea, Audi, and Coca-Cola: they don’t sell you their products; they sell you the feeling you’ll have when using them. Users are tired of being “sold products”.

Use Instagram Stories

We cannot leave stories behind, 24-hour content that you can take advantage of to generate traffic to your profile, your website, or blog (it already allows you to insert links), to interact with your community, etc.

When a user posts an image or video to Stories, their photo, surrounded by Instagram colors, appears at the top of the history for everyone who follows their account. This allows you to get more visibility.

In addition, you can take surveys or ask questions to encourage interaction from your followers.

In this sense, also take advantage of the featured stories to categorize and save your best stories.

Take advantage of the potential of the Reels

Reels are a very popular format that directly competes with TikTok short videos.

These are short, dynamic pieces of content in a vertical format that let users play with filters, audio, and various effects.

Direct beam

Instagram Live is another social network format that allows you to broadcast live videos with a maximum duration of 4 hours and up to 4 live participants, including the host.

Therefore, you can perform live shows with guests or be the protagonist of the story.

The beauty of this format is that viewers can interact with you live and ask questions, so it’s a great way to build community and engagement.

Create valuable content

You can create short tips to address doubts about your target, as if it were a mini post.

You can also create a short video tutorial that explains the functionality of your products.

Do not do the same as others; your company must differentiate itself from the others.

Interact

As in all social networks, you must interact with the people who are interested in following you.

Filter by hashtags and follow the accounts that you find interesting, so that they notice you, give a “like” to their posts, or make a comment.

It is very possible that they will follow you back.

Do contests

Contests or giveaways are a great tool to retain your followers, gain visibility, and attract new followers.

They are very easy to make, and they work really well.

Use Geolocation

Geolocation has reached Instagram, and it is a very interesting point, especially for those who have a local business.

In the search engine, you will see the location icon at the top right.

There, you can select the area and see accounts that share that geolocation. In addition, it puts you in a kind of category-based search engine: restaurants, places of interest…

So if you have a physical business, this functionality is perfect for working on your local positioning.

Extra Bonus: Analyze!

It is important that you analyze how the content you publish works.

What interaction have you had? What scope? How have the hashtags worked?

In addition, Instagram statistics provide you with very valuable information about your community: gender, age, location… As well as knowing the best times to post on Instagram.

You will find all this information in the Instagram Insights.

Conclusion

Now that you know what Instagram is, what it’s for, and how you can include it in your digital strategy, I hope you follow the steps I’ve given you, whether you want to work on your personal brand or promote your company.

I am sure that these tips will help you to start using this powerful social network, if you are not already doing so.