It's been nearly a year since Instagram added advertising as an offering to brands on its platform, and following on from the success of this, a new layer has now been added to the photo sharing social platform: a contact button.
Although this may seem a bit primitive to talk about, it's actually big news for marketers. Why? This move brings users one step closer to their preferred brands, namely by clarifying which accounts are owned by businesses but also by bridging the gap in allowing them to show a direct interest in the brand too. Creating a channel for two-way dialogue on the platform means that users can reach out to brands with queries, for which the brand can choose whether the button directs to a phone number or email address when setting up its account.
In addition to being able to create a business profile, brands can make better use of user data thanks to the new Insights tool. Not only does the tool offer data on audiences, it allows businesses to understand what kind of posts are performing best based on this data. Once top content has been identified, brands can then 'Promote' their posts to push them to the top of feeds to make them stand out better.
These new features have been developed off the back of feedback from businesses that wanted Instagram to offer smarter options and insights for them, all from their mobile devices. This helps bring the search cycle full circle for brands; wherein a user may encounter a brand thanks to an ad, then want to learn and explore more about it and possibly reach out to the brand for any further information.
The contact button and the suite of Insights were made available on Monday 15th August, so there's no better time than now to get your business set up to start learning more about your core audience and get involved in conversations with them.
