Its going to get harder and harder to think of Instagram as nothing more than a simple tool for sharing a filtered version of your life with family and friends as this social media platform is fast becoming a marketing machine.
Now, businesses can set up a profile that contains a “contact” button that allows prospective buyers to call, email, or text a seller without ever having to leave the app. That grill making your mouth water? Call and make a reservation at the restaurant.
There is also the new Insights feature which promises to give businesses actionable information about ‘who their followers are and whose posts resonate better than others.’ By learning more about the behaviour and demographics of your audience, one can create more relevant and timely content.
Sellers will be able to promote posts, turning well-performing posts into ads right within the app. A business simply has to select an existing post, add an action button, and then select a target audience (or let Instagram suggest an audience on its behalf). From there, you will have an ad ready to run for as long as you’d like. The whole world will be able to access these tools by the end of the year.