5 Ways to Improve Customer Satisfaction with Instagram Polls

Running a business is not easy. You must be creative enough to attract new customers, but you also have to make a proper balance and satisfy the needs of loyal consumers. The latter is even more important because 80% of the future profit will come from just 20% of your existing customers.

If you know that the probability of selling to an existing happy client is up to 14 times higher than the probability of selling to the new client, it is clear that you need to focus on growing a loyal fan base. But how exactly can you achieve it?

The answer is simple – ask your consumers for feedback and do whatever it takes to Improve Customer Satisfaction with Instagram Polls. They are the ones who actually use your products and pay for it regularly, so their opinions really matter.

Improve Customer Satisfaction with Instagram Polls

Instagram Stories polls allow you to ask a question and see results from your followers as they vote. It’s an interactive poll sticker that you can place anywhere you want within posts, while you can also write out your own question and even customize the poll choices.

What makes Instagram such a convenient customer service channel? There is a bunch of reasons, but we will only present you the most impressive stats:

• As of June 2018, Instagram gathers 1 billion monthly active users and you can probably find the vast majority of your customers over there.
• More than 400 million accounts use the Stories feature every day.
• Three-quarters of Instagram users take action after visiting a post, which means opinion polls can give you highly credible information about your business.
• User-generated content on Instagram has a >5% higher conversion rate.

With all that being said, it is time to check out 5 Ways to Improve Customer Satisfaction with Instagram Polls.

Let’s take a look!

 

1.     Ask Yes or No Questions

A “Yes or No” question is the easiest way to engage your followers because it gives them the opportunity to influence the final decision. It’s essentially a simple psychological trick since people love to play the role of a decision-maker.

Dave Clarkson, a customer service manager at Best Dissertation, explains the logic behind this type of Instagram polls: “In case of Yes or No questions, you create an atmosphere of contest and competition, thus giving users the feeling of excitement. You also give them the power to decide, which means a lot because they are in charge”.

You can ask your fans a number of different things:

• Do you like…?
• Would you buy…?
• Have you seen…?

Besides showing that you care for their opinion, you also receive valuable business insights. You can use data to make future strategy-related decisions or enhance parts of the customer journey.

2.     Ask For a Product Choice

Choosing the right product for the target audience has never been easier. Using Instagram Stories polls, you can ask followers one simple question – do you prefer this or that? It’s a genuine engagement magnet and a nice tactic to create buzz around the brand.

It’s easy to design a poll like this. You can make an image of two items next to each other and backed by product specifications. The question is – which one do you prefer? Now you only need to monitor user feedback and acquire meaningful conclusions out of it.

At the same time, Instagram polls including product choices allow you to tell more about each item. This way, followers can get acquainted with your products and make more rational decisions eventually. And since the poll is very clear and straightforward, your feedback will be just the same.

 

3.     Let Them Rate Products

Instagram Stories polls don’t have to end with Yes or No answers. On the contrary, you can replace standard answers with emojis to enable product ratings. Choosing one of your emoji options, users can express their opinion about different products or services.

Emojis proved to inspire user engagement and this is the main reasons why annual emoji usage in marketing messages grows by almost 800%. Instagram polls with emojis, unlike their two-option counterparts, give customers the opportunity to express themselves more comfortably and really explain their choices.

In such circumstances, customer service analytics becomes more accurate. You can delve deeper into the mind of an average consumer and figure out the way to adjust your products.

4.     Inspire Followers to Share Opinions

The next phase in the Instagram Stories polls evolution is to let followers share their opinions. As soon as you really give consumers a chance to talk freely, they will be more than glad to speak their minds. It only takes a timely opinion poll and a trendy topic that your followers care about.

A poll doesn’t have to be focused strictly on products. You can also run Instagram quizzes, test their skills and knowledge, or simply encourage users to share niche-related stories. The purpose is to inspire Instagram engagement and prove that you care for your customers. Once you’ve done that, the ultimate goal is to raise awareness and strengthen Brand Loyalty and Improve Customer Satisfaction with Instagram Polls.

 

5.     Utilize Clickable URLs to Gain More Insights

As much as Instagram polls can help businesses to understand their audiences better, they are often insufficient to provide you with an all-encompassing result. It means you need to take that one last step and use opinion polls as a channel that leads to the full-time survey.

Here’s how to do it:

• Publish a Story asking a simple Yes or No question.
• Add a special URL to the Story to inspire followers to learn more about it.
• Conduct a thorough customer relations survey to gain more insights.

Keep in mind that surveys have to be highly relevant and in connection to the post you publish. Anything else will be considered a cheap trick. Besides that, link adding is only allowed to Instagram accounts with more than 10 thousand followers. It may sound like too much, but let it be an extra incentive for you to increase the number of followers.

CONCLUSION

As a highly interactive platform, Instagram has the potential to become one of the most important customer services tools in your arsenal. Stories polls are the new feature that enables you to ask for follower feedback and use their suggestions to Improve Customer Satisfaction with Instagram Polls and improve your business in general.

The tool offers you valuable real-time metrics to analyze poll results, so you can concentrate on participants who are always willing to engage with your content. These are the people who likely represent a loyal customer group, which means their votes matter the most.

We trust you have learned how to Improve Customer Satisfaction with Instagram Polls. Feel free to give them a try and let us know in comments what you think about it!

 

 

Short bio:

Warren’s lifestyle is full of hiking adventures. When he’s not busy with his guitar or enjoying sunny days outside, he excels at blogging skills and scrolls through social media. You can meet him on Twitter and Facebook.

Originally posted 2018-08-01 09:25:52.

The post 5 Ways to Improve Customer Satisfaction with Instagram Polls appeared first on BuySellShoutouts.

source https://www.buysellshoutouts.com/blog/5-ways-to-improve-customer-satisfaction-with-instagram-polls

6 Ways to Change the Buying Decision Process on Instagram

 

If you look into Instagram statistics, you’ll be surprised, to say the least. Here are 6 Ways to Change the Buying Decision Process on Instagram that might interest business owners:

• 72% of Instagram users say they’ve bought beauty-, fashion-, or style-related products after seeing someone brag about them on Instagram.
• Social media users say that Instagram is the platform that has the greatest influence over their purchasing decisions.

Keep in mind that those stats are from the summer 2017 season. Now, with links put directly in stories and with the Instagram Live feature becoming more popular by the day, we can safely assume that this platform is even more important for informing people about products and services and leading them towards purchasing decisions.

Do you need more data? As it turns out, 80% of Instagram users follow at least one business on the platform. Instagram users are 60% more likely to buy a product if they get a chance to buy it on the social network itself. Instagram leads to much higher engagement than all other platforms, including Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.

So how do you do it? How do you use Instagram to guide people towards buying your products or services?

We’ll list 6 Ways to Change the Buying Decision Process on Instagram:

1. Polish Out Your Business Profile

You should start seeing your Instagram profile as the new homepage for your business. Since an increased number of people turn to Instagram when they want to search for brands, the logical thing for you to do would be to polish out the profile. This is what the perfect business profile on Instagram should look like:

• It should provide relevant information about the type of business, as well as the link to the main website.
• The motto! Instagram gives you a chance to write a brief “bio” and that’s exactly what people first see at the top of the page. Use that space to write the company’s motto. If you check the profile of MAC Cosmetics, that’s exactly what you’ll see. A brief description of the business, followed by their motto and a link to the website.

The perfect business profile needs a good profile photo, which represents the brand. Your logo is the simplest way to go, and it works. It conveys your brand’s identity, and it’s recognizable enough when people see your posts in their feeds.

• Don’t forget to include a clickable link in the bio section! It should lead your customers to the main website, where they can buy your products or services.
• The visual content is what matters the most. You need a strategy for this! If you check out the profiles of the most successful brands, you’ll see they maintain a specific vibe throughout their photos. Such a strategy makes the brand recognizable.

2. Don’t Sell Products; Sell Solutions

Instagram is not a webstore. It’s mostly a platform where people come to see beautiful visual content. That’s their main interest. If they are interested in a product, they will buy it not because you’re directly selling it to them, but because your content convinced them it was exactly what they needed.

Olivia Clifford, part of the marketing team at UKBestEssays, explains: “When you use Instagram to influence people’s purchasing decisions, you must focus on the experience; not the product. It’s the story that matters. Visual content gives you tons of opportunities to tell a story, and that’s exactly what you should do.”

Let’s take another successful Instagram page as an example: Yakima Racks. They show real users of their products through the photos they post. It’s not just about the product and all its awesome features. It’s about the experience the product provides. The fact that the brand often collaborates with influencers to tell the stories is a huge bonus. They take over the account and bring the followers along with their adventure.

 

• Lifestyle photography is exceptionally effective. It makes people want that experience, so their instinct tells them they need the product, too.
• Storytelling works well on Instagram. People actually read the captions there, so make them great!

3. Share Content by Actual Users

The example with Yakima Racks brings us to another important point: business pages on Instagram should post user-generated content. That inspires more users to tag your brand in their posts, so they will get shared on your profile. When you create such a community around your product, more people are attracted towards it.

Just check out the profile of Vitamix and you’ll see what we mean. They feature user-generated content from food bloggers, but from regular users as well. You’ll still notice that all photos are carefully selected, so the brand can maintain the unique vibe of their profile.

We’re not talking about influencers here. We’ll get to that point a bit later. We’re talking about normal users of your products. They don’t have to have many followers on their profiles. If their content is good and it presents your brand in the best light, feature it on your profile.

• Whenever you notice that an Instagram user tagged your brand, check out the post and react on it. Like and comment; we all love that! You’ll show your appreciation and you’ll boost the chances of turning this person into a returning customer.
• If the content is good, ask for their permission to feature it on your profile.
• When you do feature user-generated content, don’t forget to tag the Instagram user who created it.
• To get more user-generated content, run contests! Invite your followers to share moments when they use your products. The rules should involve tagging your brand and using a specific hashtag. The best participants will get an attractive prize, which you’ll clearly provide. If your target audience is international, then make the contest international, too.

4. Use Instagram Ads to Reach a Greater Target Audience

A huge percentage of businesses already use Instagram for promotional purposes. What does this mean for you? You’re entering a very competitive environment. Due to that fact, you might have to invest in advertising.

No matter how great your social media marketing budget is, you can reach people on Instagram with it. You’ll limit the budget on the ads, so you won’t spend more than planned. At the same time, you’ll reach a targeted audience of people interested in buying your products or services. Instagram lets you monitor the results of the campaign, so you can keep working on it to make it more effective.

• Keep the content fun and the message straightforward. If it’s a video, Instagram users won’t give it a chance if it doesn’t capture their attention from the very first second. If it’s a photo with a caption, they won’t read it unless something indicates it’s important for them.
• Don’t forget the call to action! The ad should tell people to follow your page, visit your website, or directly shop for your products.
• Speaking of Instagram ads, don’t forget the influencers. They already have a large base of followers. When you collaborate with them, you get great exposure. As it turns out 78% of influencers prefer Instagram for brand collaboration. So reach out to the most prominent influencers from your niche and make an offer they can’t refuse.

5. Use the Potential of Instagram Stories

Stories are yet another opportunity for brands to reach a greater audience. When you turn your stories into full-screen ads with clickable calls to action, you can naturally expect greater engagement from your followers. Just check how Kino MacGregor uses that opportunity:

 

Instagram story ads are great because people see them even if they use ad blockers on their browsers. Plus, you can pay for story ads that will show up to Instagram users who don’t even follow you. They will see the ad between the stories of the people they follow.

You can engage users through your usual stories, too. Just use the “Swipe Up” feature, and they will directly come to your website.

6. Create the Sense of Urgency

If you check out Kino MacGregor’s story above, you’ll notice her offer lasts for a limited period of time. When you’re after the greater engagement, it’s important to create that sense of urgency.

If you actively sell on Instagram, your followers will clearly expect promotional offers. Of course, you’ll give such opportunities to them, but you’ll make them time-sensitive. An offer with a deadline pushes them towards a quick decision and instant action.

That’s a nice way to get immediate benefits from your Instagram advertising campaign.

 

Instagram Has Great Sales Potential; So Start Benefiting From It!

The Instagram community is pretty welcoming towards brands. The marketing approach, however, mustn’t be too aggressive. Remember: it’s all about the stories; not the products. It takes a lot of planning and strategizing to develop the perfect Instagram marketing campaign, but you can do it. If you follow the tips we provided above, you can start making the first steps today! Get cheap Instagram followers from BuySellShoutouts and save money which you can invest in other things for your business.

Short bio:

Warren’s lifestyle is full of hiking adventures. When he’s not busy with his guitar or enjoying the sunny day outside, he excels at blogging skills and scrolls through social media. You can meet him on Twitter – twitter.com/_warrenfowler/ and Facebook – facebook.com/warren.fowler.5015.

Originally posted 2018-07-31 10:47:05.

The post 6 Ways to Change the Buying Decision Process on Instagram appeared first on BuySellShoutouts.

source https://www.buysellshoutouts.com/blog/6-ways-to-change-the-buying-decision-process-on-instagram

Interview with Abhishek Yadav Founder of Baclinc Ventures

Abhishek Yadav

Steve Wetmore – Abhishek Yadav welcome to InstaVIP Podcast.

Abhishek Yadav – Thanks for having me.

Steve Wetmore – Would you please talk a little bit about who you are, what you do at your agency and touch on credibility relative to do you belong to any local or national associations? And some highlights on your accomplishments.

Abhishek Yadav – My name is Abhishek Yadav and Steve introduced me correctly as digital marketing agency owner of Baclinc in Mumbai and we are serving digital marketing clients locally and internationally for the past year. Our agency has been running for the past three years established. Three years ago we started with blogging and produced our own content to run our blogs. We got really good at SEO in the process. And SEO came to us like a byproduct of creating content. And that’s how we learned SEO with my team. So currently, we are using all our tactics and serving our clients here in Mumbai. And so far, I personally started doing all of this back when I was in ninth grade, and I’m 21 right now. So it’s roughly about five years of experience I have in SEO. My team is quite young and we are all talented people who have learned marketing on our own. Our clients are quite happy and every single client we have gained from referrals. We also have a lot of personal websites that generate Amazon affiliate commission and Google AdSense revenue. And yeah, that’s also the magic of SEO.

Steve Wetmore – I’m talking to somebody that learned how to do it for himself first, and now you’re offering the same services to clients. So that’s a great way to start in my opinion. Can you talk a little bit about what you see as emerging trends going into 2020? And and what I really want to know is what you’ve learned doing the actual work. Can you share that with our listeners?

Abhishek Yadav – This is the right time for me to answer these questions, because just yesterday, we finished mapping the next quarter for 2020; what’s going to be our approach or our strategy. Starting out SEO in 2020 is going to be exciting. And also, it’s going to be a very important year for SEO, because some things are going to change, and they’re not going to change for good. It’s going to affect all of us marketers in a bad way. So what I mean by this is, in 2020, Google is going to be very strict with us. And we are going to be seeing some decline in traffic, because Google is trying to show all the results and solve all the user queries right on the first page of Google, and they are decreasing the amount of clicks, according to reports and studies. So that’s happening and that’s some bad news for us to start with.

Steve Wetmore – So you’ve seen evidence of that already?

Abhishek Yadav – Yes, we have. So we work across multiple clients and are from multiple different niches? In many niches like health and medical, you already have the Google card that shows you everything from the symptoms to the cures, and there is no logical reason for the user to click on the very first website. I’m sure all of the listeners know that what a competitive niche health and wellness is, in terms of SEO to Rank. Google is already using all the real estate for itself and not letting us get on the first page. That’s happening a lot more these days. If you remember, it started back in the day with the end of Linux websites. There used to be these websites where we gave out song lyrics and we would get clicks and views on ads. Now Google just shows lyric search results on its first page. This was two years ago, now it’s going to go full on and just disrupt industries for SEO guys like us. But there’s also good news. And there’s also ways and loopholes that we can use to get ahead of Google. That’s all we try to do all the time, basically. What’s going to work in 2020?

Steve Wetmore – We did talk about no click results, which is what SEOs are calling this. Can you share some strategies on how you work around no click search results?

Abhishek Yadav – So to tackle with no clicks, does, I mean, see now, if a door said that sat down, we also have a few more doors open for us. So like, Google has the data News the number of like, clicks like yeah, no clicks, no clicks are coming in. So Google has started to index podcast. So that’s a good thing. And that’s, that’s something that nobody’s paying attention to. And so we can use interactively, no user interaction methods like podcasts and videos and images. Okay, so Google image is like extremely underrated for SEO. And people don’t even realize how much traffic do like big websites derive from it. And being being at the lake at the first part for the right kind of images can get you huge lake amount of traffic with a lot of earnings as well. So yeah, Google Images is something that you can focus on. So what I mean by that is, like, try to make a tiny infographic like the landscape infographic, not a long one that can just be that just serves the purpose. So let’s say you search for any medical term, and I don’t want to take any names of any diseases that can be sensitive, but yeah, you If you take any medical term, and you just try to answer the query within an image with the right kind of infographics, then yeah, that might solve it. Because technically, that’s what Google is also pushing. Google is going to show you a Google card like for know, for showing all the relevant information on its own, then I’ll show a few ads. And there might be some images. So yeah, images can drive huge traffic. Also, podcasts are huge in 2020. podcasts are, they have just started to be indexed in Google search results. And if you, if you make a perfect podcast, and you transcribe it, and uploaded to your website, Google is going to see it and Google is going to love more of it. Because there is no content. There’s no podcast content about everything. As of now. Text is totally saturated. websites are totally saturated. But podcast is still new, and we can still bank on podcast.

Steve Wetmore – How does Google index audio?

Abhishek Yadav – I won’t get into the technicalities of it. Recently, around two months back, September this year, I saw an update by Google to index podcasts. So any podcast that you publish on your website? As a post, or else you embedded in your website, Google is going to read it. And Google is going to see like, and it’s always the best to have the transcription of the podcast in the form of a post on your website. So that doubles up. So you have the content covered in text, as well as audio. So yeah, that is like I’m not giving away too much. But that is something if you guys pay attention to this, and if you guys like really hone down to trying to understand how you can make bank.

Abhishek Yadav – Another thing that I’d like to share real quick, is that is that possible? So so whatever I’ve shared so far, is this like a negative for SEO guys like us? But if you really want to make it work, there are three words for you. Again, you really need to pay attention. And the very first one is Authority. So you have to build your authority in 2020, multi niche websites are going to take a hit. And if you’re going to talk about 10 things on one website, which are completely not unrelated to each other, it’s going to impact your website. So please make your website and authority make it relevant to your content. And not only this content, your backlinks also have to be relevant. topical relevancy is the key for ranking in 2020. So make sure that you have authority, you have authority and you are relevant to the content and the backlinks that you’re generating for your website. And ultimately, brand building always helps. So just keep these three things in mind and you will be good to go.

Steve Wetmore – Good advice. And that all comes about from the Google update called Medic where they started talking about your life, your money. And creating authority is very important. I’ve had some interesting conversations on that. And so it’d be interesting to see how that all plays out in 2020 – Can you share with us? So, let me let me just save you some time. for everybody. All agencies seem to be using AHREF’s, Moz and SEMrush. So, let’s not talk about those three tools. What we’re really interested in is uncovering what some agencies are using that’s different from others. Do you have anything, any tools or anything that are different?

Abhishek Yadav – So actually, yeah, I mean, you’ve taken away the key snake from my from my head, give it to the internet. But yeah, I still continue. I have tons of other tools which are helping me a lot. So the very first tool, I’m sure it’s a quite famous at this point, and I’m sure you’re aware about it. It’s called Keywords Everywhere. Okay. So this is a tool that actually like shows you the search results right under the search box. I mean, I’m sorry, let me rephrase. It shows the number of search results. Yeah, the number of search results right under the Google search box. And it also shows you the cost per click, and competition and other relevant data. But like every basically every Google search that every term that you type in Google, you instantly get the search data for, it’s a Chrome plugin.

Abhishek Yadav – So Okay, so the next one that I’m going to speak about is definitely like, nobody must have mentioned it earlier, because it’s fairly new. It’s being used by a low key set of marketers. And actually, there’s this YouTube channel that I follow. It’s called develo. Mark, and the founder of the channel is actually an agency owner, and he’s doing great and he has built his own Chrome plugin for you. So the this tool is called Search Trends. It’s developed by Ron Marino if I remember his name correctly, and what it does is on the right hand side, when you search from a laptop on the right hand side, where the You see the Google ID card, that it shows you the Google Trends, for that particular keyword. And this is specific for the US. So it shows you like Statewide data that let’s say in Washington has the most number of searches for this particular keyword. And it will show you a yearly trend Lake from for the past year. What is the trend of this keyword? So it’s really helpful. Because if you have the right number of searches and a keyword is trending, then it’s good to go. I mean, you should carry on, with your SEO campaign, or else, if you don’t have if your keyword is on a dime train, it can really impact your performance. So that’s why you must not miss Search Trends and I will share this link and yeah, shout out to Ron for making this awesome app.

Steve Wetmore – So do you have three you have a third one that no one uses? Or no?

Abhishek Yadav – Yes, actually, I do. So like all my tools are just being Within the Google search results what it allows me to do is I just type in a keyword. And I’m able to extract so much data just from entering this, like entering the search term within Google. And I see everything so these these awesome tools helped me do so. So first time shared with is keywords everywhere. And second is search strength by one and and the third one is called SEO Quake. So this tool shows you relevant information for every single search result. So let’s say YouTube was ranking first for a particular keyword. So it will show you the alexa rank for YouTube and will show you data from SEMrush to show you the age of the website to show you the Whois information and that usually helps a lot.

Steve Wetmore – Well, I gotta tell you, three out of three tools that is not on anyone’s radar screen. So kudos to Abhishek . And thank you so much for that great information. Abhishek, thank you.

The post Interview with Abhishek Yadav Founder of Baclinc Ventures appeared first on BuySellShoutouts.

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Secret Instagram Features? (hidden gems)

Secret Instagram Features?

Well not really but hardly anyone uses them.

Read on and learn to use Instagram like a pro!

Link Social Network Accounts for Automation

So look at you with your shiny new Instagram account. You have all this new and original content and you want to share it.

As discussed in our Blog there are some highly effective methods of sharing your content in Twitter and Facebook like Hootsuite, which is awesome (we use it for it’s scheduling feature).

Ok so follow these simple instructions; tap the “gear” icon located in the upper right hand corner of your profile and in “Settings” scroll down to “Linked Accounts” tap and you will see a screen showing you options for Tumblr, Flickr, Swarm, Weibo, Ameba, ミクシィ/Mixi, and VKontakte.

Choose which accounts you want to add and input your credentials one social network account at a time.

When you post your next image you will see these accounts as options to share.

This automates the posting function so that your content is automatically shared across your social networks!

 

 

Hyperlapse App

This is an App developed by Instagram to create time lapse videos.

This App uses the Instagram in-house stabilization feature.

The beauty of this App is that you can create time lapse video’s without the use of expense and bulky tripods and camera equipment.

If you want to look like a pro and really stand out from the crowd invest some time learning how to do this!

Click the link and download for free from iTunes.

 

Layout App

I bet you thought you needed to buy an App to do this?

Nope it’s free from Instagram – this is one of the hidden gems – Secret Instagram Features.

This App was developed by Instagram to create interesting photo layouts.

It is a method of mixing your photo’s in a collage to create a more entertaining post.

You can use up to 9 different photos from your “Camera Roll”.

You can use the “Faces” tab to find pics with people in them.

Use the Instagram filters and creative editing tools to show off your genius.

Click the link and download for free from iTunes.

 

 

Boomerang App

Again I bet you though you had to pay big bucks for an App like this – no it’s free from Instagram.

Create looping videos that are tremendously entertaining.

In fact there is only one button to operate this App – which makes it very simple to use.

Tap it and take a selfie video – it shoots a burst of 10 photos and converts them to video.

Go ahead and share it with all your social networks when you are done.

 

These 4 Secret Instagram Features? (hidden gems) are free and will keep you entertained for days!

Enjoy!

Build you account with Real Targeted Niche Instagram Followers (aka Real Instagram Followers) learn HOW here!!

Readers that found this article useful took advantage of these free eBooks  

 

Free eBook download “Instagram A New Marketing Frontier” – Reap your own reward from this Billion-Dollar Deal. 

This is a complete step by simple step blueprint that will take you by the hand and show you exactly how you can model the success of world-class companies, like Starbucks, Audi and Victoria’s Secrets, to create your very own Instagram success story. So you can look forward eagerly to increased traffic, sales and profits. 

Remember when YouTube was bought by Google? 

They certainly knew, long before anyone else, that text was going to be usurped by images and that images were going to become the new language of the internet. 

And, boy, were they right? Because videos are now the top search medium, with images a close second and poor old written text trailing a long way behind in a miserable third place. 

And now it’s set to happen all over again – confirming Google’s original foresight about the ‘visual revolution’… 

This time the visionary is the mega-traffic social site, FaceBook, who recently paid ONE BILLION dollars – cash – for photo sharing site, Instagram. 

And if history teaches us anything it’s this: a business paying out these sorts of eye-watering sums isn’t goofing around, because they haven’t got much of a sense of humor – not where money is concerned! 

So if we want to make serious money on line, we need to jump on the Instagram bandwagon – just as the folks who jumped on the YouTube bandwagon early enough benefited big. 

And, if that hasn’t convinced you Instagram is for real, then allow me to tell you that world class brands as diverse as Starbucks, car maker Audi, Sharpie, and Victoria’s Secrets have entire departments devoted to sourcing, creating and putting a constant stream of tantalizing images on Instagram, promoting their products like gangbusters. 

And, like FaceBook and every other top flight business they wouldn’t be spending big bucks if it wasn’t bringing home the bacon in the form of new, profitable business. 

But – as heartening as that is… there’s a problem 

Because it’s one thing to know the planet’s best brands are already profiting big time from hiring expensive skilled photographers and technicians, all dedicated to Instagram marketing. But – when you’re running a relatively small internet business – you simply can’t afford to tap into that high end level of expertise. 

So how are you ever going to know what you need to do to compete – let alone how to do it? 

Fear not… 

Instagram Dominator 5.0 – Finally The Ultimate Guide to building and marketing your business with Instagram – Click here to download 

Originally posted 2018-07-29 10:40:32.

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source https://www.buysellshoutouts.com/blog/secret-instagram-features

4 Innovative Instagram Story Strategies for All Businesses

Instagram has proven to be an exceptional marketing tool for most of today’s businesses but to get “seen” you must use Innovative Instagram Story Strategies. Try to add personality to your stories. By doing so, you’ll strengthen the connection with your Instagram followers while improving your brand reputation.

 

Whether it’s a small local business or an entirely online business, this social media network could be the perfect opportunity to skyrocket your website’s traffic and performance.

4 Innovative Instagram Story Strategies for All Businesses

Instagram, like most big social platforms, evolves on a consistent basis. What makes this platform ideal for most businesses are the various features that keep getting better and better, making Instagram’s marketing campaigns more effective than ever.

In today’s post, we’re focusing on the 4 innovative marketing uses of Instagram stories, this feature being probably the most interesting and challenging options for today’s webmasters and Instagram marketers.

 

1.    Create Urgency by Pushing Exclusive Offers

Instagram’s stories allow for a message to be seen for up to 24H time, which means that there’s a sense of urgency that this feature’s meant to create.

Now. If you complete that urgency with another urgency created by your marketing message, you will surely grab the attention of your audience.

Mark Cuban, a talented Marketing Strategist from aussiewritings.com, advises that:

The best way to make people pay attention is to offer something exclusive, limited, unique, and hard-to-get.Using Instagram stories to point the viewer’s attention toward a coupon, discount, or limited-time­ offer is ideal when you want to do that. The story must clearly emphasize the fact that the offer must be accepted now, or before the 24-hour lifespan is over.

Indeed, creating a sense of urgency will prompt people to take action. Marketing pros know the “fear of loss” is one of the KEY motivators to take action.

 

2.    Showcase Your Team and Results

Another brilliant way of leveraging Instagram stories for business is to showcase aspects of your team and company that have never been seen before.

Normally, you wouldn’t publish pictures of your team members or small results that your employees have achieved on your website. However, Instagram is the perfect place the lower your guard and become more personal.

Post short videos and insightful pictures that show your team working on a project. Also present some of the important results that your company has achieved.

3.    Leverage Location Hashtags

Adding hashtags to Instagram stories is an interesting practice that could lead to both amazing and terrifying results.

For example, it’s best that you use branded hashtags throughout stories. Primarily to develop a buzz around something: an event, content, web presentation, product, or a service.

Moreover, you should try leveraging location tags. This feature will put your Instagram’s story in front of a wider audience.

Location-based stories appear on the Explore page. So everyone who’s “exploring” stuff based on a specific location will probably come across your story too.

 

4.    Split Your Blog Posts into Mini-Posts

The content you’ve written in the form of blog posts could be turned into something that could really grab attention. Take a big post and cut it into pieces.

The idea is to turn those big posts into several pictures (or gifs) that you put into your Stories section. This way, the user who that sees your Instagram’s story immediately gains access to quality how-to guides, did-you-know facts, or other useful information.

Obviously, you at the end of your mini-posts series, you should provide a link to the full content. This is one of the best ways to attract quality, free, and targeted traffic through Innovative Instagram Story Strategies.

 

Takeaways

Marketing your business on Instagram is both an art and a skill. It’s the art stepping out of your comfort zone and developing unique marketing copy communicated through innovative Instagram story strategies that attracts the eyes of the majority.

It’s the skill of leveraging the right content, visuals, and audience selection in a balanced way. Instagram stories are totally worth exploring, so go ahead and become a master at it.

 

About author: Olivia is an independent journalist and passionate explorer. She likes to write about everything that can positively affect people’s life. When not searching for a new topic to write on, Olivia prefers to take a camera and enjoy the beauty of nature. Find her on Facebook – facebook.com/OliviRayRay and Twitter – twitter.com/OliviRayRay.

 

Readers that found this article useful took advantage of these free eBooks  

Free eBook download “Instagram A New Marketing Frontier” – Reap your own reward from this Billion-Dollar Deal. 

 

This is a complete step by simple step blueprint that will take you by the hand and show you exactly how you can model the success of world-class companies, like Starbucks, Audi and Victoria’s Secrets, to create your very own Instagram success story. So you can look forward eagerly to increased traffic, sales and profits. 

 

Originally posted 2018-07-25 08:30:06.

The post 4 Innovative Instagram Story Strategies for All Businesses appeared first on BuySellShoutouts.

source https://www.buysellshoutouts.com/blog/innovative-instagram-story-strategies

10 Myths of Instagram for Entrepreneurs

Instagram is a powerful marketing tool but over the years many Myths of Instagram for Entrepreneurs has limited effectiveness.

Perhaps it sounds like a cliché, but it’s not. Buy followers Instagram from BuySellShoutouts and see the impact on your Instagram account.

The platform gathers over 1 billion accounts, which is enough to convince more than 70% of the US companies to use it as part of their business strategies.

At the same time, as much as 200 million Instagram users actively visit business profiles every single day.

Some serious business-related activity is obviously taking place on Instagram, so it’s not the question of whether you should join the game or not but rather how to do it effectively.

But before you make the first move, you need to be aware of common misconceptions that make a lot of people confused.

This post will show you 10 myths of Instagram for entrepreneurs.

Keep them in mind and you’ll avoid making beginner-level marketing mistakes.

 

1.     Instagram Marketing Doesn’t Require a Strategy

The first myth on our list is so obvious that it actually hurts.

Can you begin any kind of task or project before making a plan?

You can, but the outcome won’t be nearly as satisfying as you may have imagined.

The same goes for Instagram marketing.

Rachel Miles, a social media specialist at Careers Booster, recently noted: “If you want to generate results, you have to create a sustainable strategy and decide what to do when, how, and why.

There is nothing random about content creation, so don’t fall for this trick and engage in Instagram marketing without a proper plan”.

2.     It Takes Too Much Time to Grow

All good things in life and business require patience and so does Instagram promotion.

However, it’s not true that you need too much time to grow the number of followers.

Depending on your objectives, you can reach the desired level within months or even weeks.

However, you do need to invest a lot of time in content creation.

This is the tricky part because your posts need to be appealing and interesting enough to grab the attention of the target audience.

 

3.     Instagram Works for Product-Based Companies Only

This social media network generates by far the best results in case of product-based companies.

The reason is simple – such businesses sell physical stuff and they can present it easily via Instagram.

Contrary to popular belief, service-focused organizations can also leave a good impression by posting analytics, testimonials, client-related photos, freebies, or behind the scene details.

This kind of promotion proved to be highly productive for some service-based companies, so why would you run away from it?

4.     The Platform Can’t Get You Leads

This is the common statement among entrepreneurs who don’t know how to handle Instagram marketing.

Okay, the platform doesn’t allow you to add URLs everywhere, but you can still do miracles using the website link.

You can play with it and change it a few times a month.

You can leave the new landing page link.

This is a great way to generate leads through Instagram, you just need to be persistent and clever about the URLs you share.

 

5.     You Need Professional Images

Brightness and colors really do play a major role here, but it doesn’t mean that your images have to be strictly professional.

Even amateurs can now take great photos using smartphones.

Mobile devices have become so good that they easily adapt to background light, adjust focus and exposure, and do all sorts of other tricks.

Of course, we don’t recommend you publish amateur photos on all occasions.

Instagram marketing is an investment, which means you should accumulate a certain budget to hire professional photographers from time to time.

This way, your account will look even more impressive and compelling.

6.     Post Once a Week

You can often hear business people saying it’s enough to post one photo a week.

Before you accept it as the ultimate truth, let’s see what statistical findings tell us.

According to the reports, users publish 95 million photos and videos on a daily basis!

If you really think anyone will notice your sole weekly post among thousands of other photos published simultaneously, you are making a huge mistake.

 

7.     Lots of Images Guarantee Engagement

On the other side of the spectrum, we have entrepreneurs who strongly believe that posting dozens of images a day will bring them user engagement.

Needless to say, this is also an awkward misconception. Instagram users prefer quality over quantity.

Therefore, you need to make a balance between the two elements to make your followers truly interested in your work.

8.     Once You Post, You Are Done

Speaking of user engagement, let us remind you that your own engagement makes the other side of the coin.

A common myth suggests that once you post on Instagram, you are done with it.

But this is often where the real job begins as you need to monitor user feedback and respond accordingly.

Business accounts on Instagram need to show the human side of the story and strengthen the bonds with their followers.

In such circumstances, interaction becomes crucial and you cannot afford to leave user comments unanswered.

 

9.     Follow To Get Followed

Gone are the days when you could simply follow someone and expect to get followed back immediately.

Today, Instagram users are picky and they don’t want to bother seeing too many business accounts.

For this reason, your strategy should not be “follow to get followed”.

You need to publish quality content instead and wait for the target users to follow you.

Rest assured followers will come to you in case you can provide them with informative and entertaining content.

10.    You Can’t Measure Results

Businesses would never invest money in Instagram marketing if there wasn’t a way to measure results.

As the matter of fact, there are dozens of useful metrics to check out here: follower growth rate, link clicks, engagement per follower, etc.

Your only job is to determine metrics that really matter to your business and analyze them regularly.

 

CONCLUSION

Although a lot of businesses use Instagram to promote products or services, some still can’t figure out how social media really functions.

It creates terrible misconceptions and Myths of Instagram for Entrepreneurs that can easily confuse and chase them away from this platform.

In this post, we revealed 10 myths of Instagram for entrepreneurs.

Did you already know about these misconceptions?

Do you have other myths to share with our readers?

Feel free to let us know about it in comments – we will be glad to see more Instagram myths debunked!

 

Short bio:

Warren’s lifestyle is full of hiking adventures. When he’s not busy with his guitar or enjoying the sunny day outside, he excels at blogging skills and scrolls through social media. You can meet him on Twitter and Facebook.

Originally posted 2018-07-20 12:56:28.

The post 10 Myths of Instagram for Entrepreneurs appeared first on BuySellShoutouts.

source https://www.buysellshoutouts.com/blog/10-myths-of-instagram-for-entrepreneurs

IGTV – Why Instagram Will Soon Be Better Than YouTube

Why Instagram Will Soon Be Better Than YouTube? Instagram recently launched IGTV, a new platform that allows video producers to post longer videos on the platform.

 

Previously, users were only allowed to post 15 seconds long Instagram stories and 60 seconds for the regular videos. IGTV enables users to upload up to 60 minutes long of video content.

The launch of this product brings a new player into the video sharing space that seeks to challenge established companies such as YouTube and Snapchat.

Another key feature of this app is users can watch videos vertically making it easy to use for mobile phone users.

Videos posted are easy to discover especially if a user follows the content creators.

According to Instagram officials, the release of IGTV comes at a time when the public is watching less TV and opting for digital platforms for videos.

The app seeks to eat into YouTube’s market share, but this is no easy task.

YouTube is an established brand with loyal customers who are already accustomed to it. IGTV realizes this and has come up with some features that rival those of its competitor, they include:

 

1. Automatic Video Play

Unlike YouTube, IGTV will automatically start playing videos once you log in.

It eases the struggle one goes through to search for footage as it appears automatically on your timeline.

The application will play videos from those that you follow the most and love to watch their videos.

The success of Instagram’s live broadcasts and Insta stories played a part in this decision.

Insta stories of those you follow and watch appear at the corner of your timeline, and you click on the one you want.

An automatic play feature allows users to log in and enjoy videos from their favorite content creators.

 

 

2. It Uses Swipe Navigation

It is a feature that allows you to use swipe gestures rather than interrupting the full screen mode with navigational control icons.

You only need to swipe to see the next video while remaining on the same screen mode.

When you swipe, it switches to a new video that plays automatically.

It is an improvement from having to go back to your homepage and selecting another video manually.

Swiping sideways either takes you back to previous videos or next videos.

Swiping up will produce tabs Following, Popular, For You and Continue Watching.

A search bar also appears when you swipe up.

 

 

3. Boosts Creativity

Currently, IGTV does not allow advertisements so content creators cannot earn from their videos.

It sounds bad, but it allows creators to come up with creative content that attracts followers and also sponsors for their channel.

Having a huge number of people watch a video won’t cut it here.

Websites such as EduBirdies also give guidelines on how to boost your creativity.

Your video needs to be either informative, entertaining or educative to attract sponsors.

It’s important to note that sponsors approach you directly and IGTV has no part in it.

You may market their products in your videos and earn in this manner.

The creators say they are first seeking engagement with users before rolling out a monetization platform.

 

 

4. Continuous Watching

Unlike most video streaming platforms, IGTV lets you continue watching a video from where you left off.

The frustration of having to wait for a video to load up to the point you were at has been taken care of with this feature.

There is a scrub bar on the videos, so if you miss a part, you wanted to see you go back to that particular moment.

 

 

5. You Can Use the Original App to Access Videos

If you do not want to download the IGTV app, it is okay.

Your main Instagram app allows you to watch the videos.

There is an icon at the top of your account; you will find a button next to stories highlights that allows you to access this videos.

It is a plus for users since they can add this new feature without alienating other audiences or themselves.

Another key aspect of this app is it has integrated smoothly with other features that Instagram already had.

You can still share videos via messages, use filters and share to IGTVs parent company Facebook.

 

 

6. Vertical Format

Facebook launched Facebook Watch, but it has not picked up as anticipated.

IGTV, however, stands to work better for Instagram since most of its users already shoot and watch videos vertically.

Platforms such as Snapchat receive over 30 million views per month indicating that people have an appetite for vertical videos.

 

 

7. YouTube Is Facing Challenges

YouTube has in recent days experienced numerous hurdles from its monetization policy to offensive content from content creators.

Those that use YouTube in their day to day have been seeking a different alternative where they can share their content.

YouTube is regularly altering its advertising guidelines affecting how most channels earn money.

These shifts in policy are giving YouTubers anxious nights with some at the brink of suffering a breakdown as YouTube is their source of income.

IGTV has an opportunity to take these creators from YouTube and settle them in their platform.

Most of this people have a huge number of followers who will likely follow them to their new home.

Logan Paul also caused a public outcry with his insensitive video which YouTube took time before pulling down.

Child exploitation videos and concerns on monetization are some of the issues facing the company currently.

IGTV now has the opportunity to address all these issues and give its users a guarantee in its terms of use and privacy policy.

 

 

8. Available on Android and iOS

IGTV application is both available on Android and iOS systems.

It ensures that users on both platforms can enjoy watching videos from this app.

Mobile phone users can enjoy IGTV content without worrying about which operating system they run on.

 

 

9. Instagram Has 1 Billion Users

IGTV’s main partner Instagram currently boasts of over 1 billion monthly users.

It is an attractive platform for creators who wish to reach a massive audience.

A billion users ensure that content uploaded already has users waiting to consume it.

For creators, getting a ready market such as this, mainly dominated by youngsters, is a goldmine for them and may even boost them to global recognition.

 

 

Conclusion

IGTV has increased the length of a video one can upload from a minute to one hour. Instagram is targeting a whole new generation who are already handy with video cameras and smartphones.

Although they currently do not allow advertisements, IGTV will soon enable it for creators to be able to generate revenue from their content.

Now Instagram influencers can earn a living by partnering with brands.

YouTube uses a horizontal format for viewing videos, and by choosing the vertical format, IGTV appeals to mobile users as well, and they make up a larger percentage. The possibilities in the video world have expanded greatly.

 

About the Author:

Richard Nolan is a professional educator and team building coach, sharing his experience in spheres

Originally posted 2018-06-26 08:18:13.

The post IGTV – Why Instagram Will Soon Be Better Than YouTube appeared first on BuySellShoutouts.

source https://www.buysellshoutouts.com/blog/igtv-why-instagram-will-soon-be-better-than-youtube