Instagram and Snapchat are the two undisputed front-runners of visual social media. These apps currently take a significant part of the users’ screen time on both iOS and Android devices. Whatapp is better for your business in 2019? How to reach out to your target audience on Instagram and Snapchat effectively? Learn it from this post.
To Each Their Own
Scrolling through social media is second nature for smartphone users. Social media apps are places where customers and brands meet. Instagram and Snapchat have millions of visitors daily, and each service attracts different audiences. Some businesses wonder how to create a social media app of their own and stake a claim from the social media rage
Instagram for Business
Instagram boasts of 1 billion monthly active users, and the numbers are going up. It’s the second most popular social media app globally, after its owner, Facebook. The majority of Instagram users are under 35 years old. What business wouldn’t like to reach out to such a huge audience with the help of handy Facebook ad tools? Since Facebook purchased Instagram, the service started getting more and more brand-friendly. Currently, all kinds of businesses use this social network as an effective marketing and sales tool. To succeed on Instagram, you need to start thinking in a new way. Your Instagram strategy needs to differ from your strategy for any other channel. One of the effective strategies you can try is by using Social Scrape on your Instagram.
How to Use Instagram for Business?
- These are the tips that can help you shape a successful Instagram marketing strategy:
- Create original visually appealing content
- Develop a signature profile style
- Write a short bio that will attract your target audience and encourage them to follow you
- Communicate with your audience in post comments, stories, and live videos
- Interact with your subscribers with the help of featured posts, giveaways, contests, and quizzes
- Use Instagram to share unique content that your audience cannot find anywhere else
- Advertise your products/services in a visually appealing way
- Never spam your subscribers with irrelevant images and content, avoid publishing several posts in a row
Also read: Instagram Tips to Improve Your Overall SEO
Pros and Cons of Instagram for Business
Advantages:
- Instant access to a global audience
- New marketing and sales channel that is not oversaturated yet
- Visual social network lets you promote your business in a fun and less formal way
- Interactiveness and instant feedback
- Instagram Ads
Disadvantages:
- High community standards and strict rules
- Changing algorithms
- Instagram ToS prohibit to use the service for promoting pharmaceutics, arms manufacture, and some other businesses
- Follow, unfollow, text and hashtags limits
- A little percentage of older middle-aged users
- Posting and direct messages can be accessed only from a mobile device so far
Instagram is a valuable social media tool you can use for your business. This app can give you unique opportunities to reach out to your target audience in new and effective ways. Of course, there are some limitations, but the opportunities are worth dealing with them.
Also read: Strategies for Travel Brands on Instagram
Snapchat and Business
Snapchat is one more social media giant that is all the rage. Currently, Snapchat has over 188 million daily active users. It’s so different from any social media app that you’ve seen before that it may take a while before you adjust to it. One of the greatest and the trickiest things about Snapchat is that you can’t have a history there – Snapchat posts live for 24 hours and disappear for good afterward. This peculiarity of Snapchat can work in your favor when you are starting to master this social media channel.
How to Use Snapchat for Business?
What posting strategy can help you get the attention of your target audience? Here are the basic tips for businesses that begin to explore this social network.
- Create exclusive visually appealing content
- Make Snapchat posts more personal and less formal
- Don’t spam your followers with a load of information. According to stats, the majority of users spend about 10 seconds on one snap. Therefore, it is unnecessary and frowned upon
- Create personal content that is available exclusively on Snapchat
- Use Snapchat to show your corporate culture, your working process and the people behind the products/services you offer
- Pros and Cons of Snapchat for Business
Advantages:
- Opportunities for interactive and insightful communication with your audience
- Innovative marketing opportunities
- Ephemeral posts
- Opportunity to humanize your brand and show some “behind the scenes”
- Sponsored Lenses as a brand awareness boost tool
- Snapchat Ads
Disadvantages:
- Snaps are temporary and last 24 hours
- Different from any other social media platform; requires getting used to
- Limited ad targeting
- A little percentage of older middle-aged users
Final Thoughts
Currently, social media apps are great tools that can help you raise brand awareness and grow your business. Every social networking app has its peculiarities that should be considered before launching a marketing campaign. Try using Instagram or Snapchat for your business to see how many opportunities these visual social apps have in store for you.
| About the Guest Author: Maria Redka
Maria Redka is a Technology Writer at MLSDev. It is a web and mobile app development company in Ukraine. Our focus area includes a full range of services in mobile and web app development as well as design, consulting and testing.
