In this Social Channel Selection for Revenue growth series, we are dissecting each major social channel to help you assess whether it is the best place to position your business to connect with customers and grow your revenue.
Time is at a premium for the average Entrepreneur, you need to be strategic about where you invest your resources whether that be time, money, or staff. Joining every available social channel is counterproductive and leveraging the wrong platform poorly can harm your brand reputation and image. Whether you run an Etsy Store, an e-commerce website, a service business, or all of the above, you need to be strategic about how you select your social channels.
Is Instagram the right social channel for my business?
The Stats:
Instagram continues to climb in popularity rankings among users, with 64% of Instagrammers logging into the app daily. This figure is second to Facebook who has 74% of users accessing the site each day.
Age & Gender
25% of teens list Instagram as their favourite app, 34% listed Snapchat and 29% picked TikTok.
43% of women use Instagram while 31% of men use it
75% of 18–24-year-olds use Instagram
57% of 25–30-year-olds use Instagram
47% of 30–49-year-olds use Instagram
23% of 50–64-year-olds use Instagram
8% of 65+-year-olds use Instagram
Regional breakdown
Instagram is highly popular as a global social platform with 116 Million users in the US and 28 Million in the UK.
33% of Instagram users lived in urban areas, 37% in the suburbs and 43% live in rural places.
Education & Income
In terms of Education, 33% of those with high school education or less use Instagram
37% of those with some college education use Instagram
43% of those with more than college education use Instagram
35% of those making less than $30k use Instagram
39% of those making $30k–74,999 use Instagram
42% of those making more than $75k use Instagram
Devices & Usage
The highest levels of engagement occur on weekdays during daylight hours on Instagram, weekends provide far less engagement as usage drops
91% of Instagrammers use the app to follow at least one of their interests.
These interests include travel (45%), music (44%) and food and drink (43%).
The most followed topics are Fashion (36M followers) Athelisure (22M followers) and Cosmetics (15M followers).
Carousels have overtaken posts and videos as the most engaged with types of content.
Source: (Sprout Social, Pew Research & businessofapps.com, CNBC.com).
What can Instagram do for my business?
Instagram is the king of visual content and this is a highly appealing space for brands looking to show off their product in an engaging way.
Targeted advertising allows you to appeal to the large user base
The rise of video content on the platform specifically IG Lives empowers entrepreneurs to leverage themselves or other thought-leaders to appeal directly to customers in an impactful way.\
Huge young person base so IG is undeniably one of the absolute go-to's for the teen and young adult market
It is created for mobile so ensure your website and other digital offerings are optimised for this platform, prioritise this over desktop
Metrics can create confusion as people mistake followers for engagement and this is not the case, this can lead to goose chases centred around driving up follower count instead of nurturing few followers to generate genuine interest and sales.
As there is so much content and competition it is a heavy lift when it comes to content creation and posting, successful IG pages recommend posting several times a day every day, this doesn't include the need to engage with your community in comments, IG Lives and likes, as well as posting content in the form of videos, Reels, Stories, Guides and the list goes on.
Now that you've got some insight into Instagram, you should assess whether this works for your business. Think specifically about your audience and customer. Do the above demographics match up and does it sound like it can help you meet your specific business objectives.
And finally, how do I select an impactful channel?
Narrow down which social channels you chose to be a part of, be selective about what channels serve your business best.
Avoid copying competitors and peers using whatever channels they use.
Play to your strengths and think about what channels you can create the best content for. If you're a great writer and your brand has a strong tone, perhaps you can leverage text-based posts on a word centred platform the best.
Go strictly where your customers are, do proper market research (surveys, reports) to find out the truth around this, then prioritise the channels they are most active on.
Don't simply join the most popular or trendy social channels, or the ones people seem to be talking about the most. Again, prioritise where your audience goes to be entertained, informed, shop, connect and learn.
Unsure about where to go from here?
Here at Superlative we've worked with hundreds of businesses, just like yours. We specialise in helping them to take their business online and generate more revenue than ever before. Speak to us about Consulting and coaching, Web design and Marketing Strategy services or try our Courses and Workbooks to empower you and your staff to generate more revenue than ever before.
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