Instagram is something that many companies have, but neglect to use simply because they don’t know how to properly capture the attention of their userbase. It’s true that every social media platform has a different set of ‘rules’ or best practice in order to grab attention and encourage users to engage with the brand, and whilst marketers have generally gotten the hang of Facebook and Twitter, Instagram remains an underused and under-appreciated resource for local SMEs simply due to lack of understanding.

This is something that needs to change, as Instagram have (relatively recently) started to allow advertisements on their site, and the results of this have been overwhelming, with Instagram ads ‘consistently’ coming up cheaper than Facebook ads as well as delivering ‘nearly identical click through rates’. Following this, with Instagram’s follower growth and engagement rate dwarfing that of industry giants Facebook and Twitter, now has never been a better time to start properly using Instagram, whether with the aim of generating organic or paid interactions.

We’ve spoken before about the importance of images in social media to help engage your audience, and it should be of little surprise that a platform that revolves solely around images and videos creates such a high amount of interest, engagement and CTR. If you ensure that your brand is posting relevant and aesthetically pleasing pictures to your Instagram, your followers are far more likely to engage with this content! However, don’t forget to properly tag anything you upload so that you can reach a wider audience than just your followers, and reach out to people who previously may not have known about your brand.

With active Instagram users only set to rise in future, now’s the best time to start learning how to use this social media platform. Of course, it won’t fit in with the image of every company out there, and you shouldn’t create an Instagram account just for the sake of having one, but if it’s appropriate for your brand then the sooner you take a crash course in marketing on Instagram, the better!

How’s your Instagram engagement compared to your Facebook and Twitter? Do these findings support what you’ve seen in your own experience? Be sure to drop us a comment and let us know!