Recently, Forbes published an article talking about the current state of Instagram as a marketing platform for businesses. The social media network has been a staple in digital marketing for years now. Brands of different sizes from different industries are successfully using it to promote their products and services.
But despite its power, Instagram is not the only platform capturing the attention of millions around the world. Moreover, Instagram itself is changing–and brands need to recognize these changes to stay ahead of their competition. Here’s everything you need to know about the state of Instagram marketing today.
TikTok’s power and Instagram’s Reels
As mentioned above, Instagram is not the only social media platform that is popular nowadays. TikTok has risen to power very quickly and is now pulling a lot of traffic from younger audiences, particularly those spending time on the platform instead of Instagram. Here are just some statistics to show what kind of influence TikTok already has:
- Since its launch, TikTok has been installed over 2.6 billion times worldwide.
- TikTok was the second most downloaded iPhone apps in 2020. It was also the most popular overall app downloaded globally that same year.
- US TikTok users spend over 850 minutes on the app every month. 69% of US teenagers are regular users of the platform.
- TikTok is currently available in over 150 countries and is particularly popular in Asia countries like China, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, and others.
- Compared to Instagram and YouTube, TikTok has the highest engagement rates per post. Both micro-influencers and macro-influencers get the most engagement on TikTok (17.96% and 4.96% for TikTok respectively, 3.86% and 1.21% for Instagram respectively, and 1.63% and 0.37% for YouTube respectively).
- Back in February 2020, TikTok reached a total lifetime user spending of $300 million in Google Play and the App Store.
As you can see, the numbers speak for themselves. TikTok has become so popular that many brands are now using it for marketing. Seeing just how big TikTok had become, Instagram even introduced its equivalent to TikTok’s short-form videos–the Instagram Reels feature.
Indeed, Instagram Reels is pretty much identical to the kind of videos posted on TikTok. Allegedly, Instagram is even trying to replicate the algorithm used on TikTok to promote the videos posted on Instagram as Reels. This could potentially allow Reels to work similarly to TikTok and make content go viral on the platform.
It’s no wonder then that YouTube has also introduced its own version of this feature called YouTube Shorts. The feature is a relatively new one and is still being tested. However, many YouTube creators have already taken advantage of it. Only time will show whether the feature can become just as popular as its older counterparts.
For now, it’s not worth switching completely to TikTok just because of the way content is consumed there. Instead, businesses need to take advantage of Instagram Reels and integrate the feature into their marketing strategy. After all, Reels are meant to emulate the way TikTok functions while giving you access to the same users that view other content on Instagram.
Following trends and finding originality
Speaking of your Instagram marketing strategy, one of the biggest mistakes many businesses tend to make nowadays is blindly following trends and doing what everyone else is doing. There is a lack of originality in current Instagram campaigns and in brand content on the platform as a whole.
Instead of experimenting, trying new approaches, or innovating their strategy, businesses tend to stick to what works and don’t try to reinvent themselves in any way. Of course, it’s important to understand what will make your campaign a successful one. However, only doing what works will lead to stagnation. For example, you need to be creative with captions, because now people don’t want to read uninteresting information, so if you have any problems with this, you can check top essay companies to improve your writing for posts.
Trends are born and die extremely quickly, though some of them do stay for longer than others. And every time a new one emerges, all kinds of brands jump onto the bandwagon and try to replicate the success of the content that already exists within the trend. But simply copying something won’t make your efforts effective.
To really master Instagram marketing, you need to be bolder, take risks, and experiment. Don’t be afraid to follow trends–you can take them as a foundation and give them an original spin from your perspective. But on the other hand, you should also be the one who starts new trends and does something new and original.
Think about the ways your content can stand out from the crowd and be easily recognizable among all the other posts created by your competitors. You need to make a personal connection with your audience which can only be done if your audience recognizes you when they see the content you put out.
Likewise, you can still create a safety net for yourself if you are afraid that your experiments in marketing could fail. Don’t go all out with something you want to try. Rather test it on a smaller scale before you decide to integrate this new technique or method into your strategy. This way, you can have a taste of what you could achieve with this particular approach without having to worry about risking everything.
Working with influencers efficiently
Influencer marketing is unarguably one of the most widely used techniques in Instagram marketing and even beyond it in social media marketing as a whole. Brands both big and small collaborate with micro-and macro-influencers to promote their products through promotional content, giveaways, collaborations, and other methods.
But even though influencer marketing is well-established as a marketing technique, its popularity is actually the reason why it is partially becoming ineffective. Influencer fatigue is something that has been gradually growing on Instagram and not many businesses know about this issue.
Jessica Wright, an expert from the custom writing site Trust My Paper, explains, “To put it simply, users keep seeing the same influencers promoting the same products again and again. Sometimes the products aren’t the same, but they are very similar despite coming from different brands. No matter the case, users get tired of seeing such repetitive advertisements, and thus such campaigns become ineffective.”
The problem isn’t just the fact that it’s the same group of influencers and the same or very similar products being promoted. It’s also the fact they are promoted identically. The ads become generic over time, even if they seemed fresh at some point. This is precisely what leads to influencer fatigue.
So, how exactly can brands avoid getting trapped by influencer fatigue when using influencer marketing as a part of their strategy? Perhaps the best solution is to recognize all the nuances of influencer marketing. Here are the most important tips to follow:
- Do your research influencers properly. Check how their content performs on other platforms and how this compares to their content on Instagram. Analyze who their audience is and whether marketing to these users is worthwhile.
- Prioritize long-term relationships with influencers instead of short-term ones. You need to connect with your audience on a personal level, and that is impossible if your potential customers see that you are partnering with random influencers. Treat influencers somewhat like your brand ambassadors instead of one-time promoters.
- Value quality over quantity. Rather than promoting through as many influencers as possible, select a few of them but make sure that the content they post to promote your products is of the highest quality.
Instagram’s features for marketing
One of the best things about social media marketing is that most social media platforms provide a variety of business tools that help brands and marketers to use these platforms to their fullest. Obviously, Instagram is no exception to this. Moreover, it also became one of the first platforms to introduce social commerce tools that can also aid businesses a ton.
That being said, despite all the advantages of Instagram’s marketing features, using them incorrectly will only hold you back from getting truly outstanding results with your campaigns. Therefore, it is incredibly important to really understand how these features work and to integrate them well into your overall Instagram strategy.
One of the biggest priorities on Instagram’s behalf is the increase in transparency. The platform is constantly striving to introduce more features that allow brands to get invaluable data and insights into the performance of their content, their audience, and so on. “Considering how willing Instagram is to innovate and provide businesses with more capabilities, it is only expected that you take advantage of these features and use them efficiently”, – says Will Peterson, the head of the marketing team at Supreme Dissertations writing company.
Here’s a list of the most important Instagram updates throughout the years that influenced the way businesses can market on the platform:
- 2010: Instagram launched on October 6
- 2011: Hashtags (January)
- 2013: Tagging (May), video sharing (June), embedding (July), sponsored posts (November), direct messaging (December)
- 2014: Insights (August)
- 2015: Ads (June), video ads (September)
- 2016: Account switching (February), engagement-based algorithm (March), analytics (May), instant translation (June), comment moderation (July), Stories (August), Live (November)
- 2017: Carousels (February)
- 2018: Muting (May), IGTV (June)
- 2020: Business inbox (January), Guides, Shops, and IGTV monetization (May), comment pinning (June), Reels (August), Live Shopping (September)
- 2021: Professional Dashboard for performance tracking (January), cross-app messaging and Live Rooms (February), Stories Caption Sticker (April), Reels and Live Insights (May)
Though this list doesn’t include every single update Instagram has ever introduced, it does showcase the process of how the platform became what it is today. Some features that everyone is used to now (such as hashtags) weren’t there from the start. Likewise, some newer features (like Reels) have become extremely popular in no time.
Instagram is constantly developing and new features are being introduced every year. This means that businesses should always keep an eye on the latest news to know which innovations they can start using as a part of their strategy. The earlier you start using them, the more of a competitive edge you will have in your niche.
Not everything is a competition
Last but not least, there’s still one thing that many businesses seem to be forgetting about Instagram. No matter how much you try to outperform other brands, you should understand that not everything is a competition. Being ahead of the game indeed takes a lot of effort and foresight, but you can’t excel in everything all the time.
It’s okay to look up to your competitors for inspiration and examples of what you can do with your own Instagram marketing. Find brands you admire and see what they are doing. Don’t try to copy them completely because that can backfire. However, definitely learn from their successes and failures.
At the same time, make sure to study industry trends when they emerge. Even if you don’t actually end up using any of them, knowing what’s going on in your field will allow you to predict future developments. Moreover, understanding trends will also help you use Instagram more effectively in general.
For instance, it can help you curate content better and to find specifically the kind of content that will resonate with your particular audience. Finding such content is essential for developing deeper, meaningful relationships with your audience. Remember that you are trying to grow a loyal, dedicated follower base instead of just reaching as many users on the platform as possible.
When setting goals for your Instagram campaigns, try to have a more varied selection of these. You need to have goals for the number of followers you get and the conversions you generate through your Stories links. However, you should also have goals for engagement levels and returning customers. In other words, think about your revenue, but also think about your customers as people and the relationships you have with them.
Final words
All in all, Instagram as a platform is still an incredibly powerful tool that every business should be using. However, to fully realize its potential, you need to understand the bigger picture and be willing to reinvent your strategy where needed. Use this article to help you get started and begin using Instagram more effectively.