This is a guide to Instagram marketing in South Africa for businesses, it will discuss everything you need to know about Instagram and how to harness it promote your business. Instagram is a bit different from other social media platforms. While running ads is the best way to advertise on other platforms, that’s not really the case with Instagram.
Instagram is a photo sharing app with over 800 billion active users. The app has millions of users from South Africa. It is still not as popular as Facebook or Twitter in South Africa but it’s getting there. Advertising on Instagram benefits more businesses than it does others. If you are in the B2B space then Instagram is not that great of an option to advertise your business in South Africa.
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1) Understanding why people use Instagram
There is no social media platform that ticks all the boxes, some are simply better than others. Facebook focuses on connecting you with your friends and family, Instagram focuses on content. People go to Instagram primarily to consume their favourite content, be it cars, luxury, fitness, lifestyle, travel etc. It is more of a hobby site. This is why many plumbing companies don’t have a lot of followers but Travel pages and other hobby-based pages have millions of followers.
So, if your business in the B2B space; you won’t do that well on Instagram. You will do incredibly well if your business sells directly to consumers and offers content that people would generally want to consume. For example, I run a web design agency, there are very few people who go to Instagram to see cool photos of websites (seriously?). For that reason, I don’t have an Instagram page for my agency but I work as a managing director in another company that deals with clothing and fashion. People love fashion, they love browsing through photos of the latest fashion trends so hell yeah.
2) Understanding who are the key players on Instagram
People are likely to buy something if it’s recommended by someone they trust. More and more people are becoming immune to ads. This is why you will find that your ad got clicked more than a thousand times and you were only able to convert less than two percent of those leads into customers. Some people click on your ad just to check out whatever it is that you are offering and immediately bounce.
The key players on Instagram are influencers, you can get more value by using an influencer than signing up for traditional ads. Which one do you think has more psychological impact on people between seeing a traditional ad or seeing someone they admire recommend a product? The product recommended by someone they admire will sell way more than traditional ads. Instagram influencers are people who have amassed a huge amount of following and totally dominate their niche.
3) Setup an account
This article is about Instagram marketing in South Africa for business, I won’t spend a lot of time focusing on how to setup your Instagram account. Instagram makes it incredibly easy to open an account, all you need is a username name and an email to begin with. You have to add a bio and some important details for your business like your company website.
Upgrade your account to a business account soon after setup so that you can get access to important analytics and data.
4) Content
Instagram is the UEFA champions league of all social networks; you have to bring your A game. You can’t afford to post poor content; all your videos and photos should be of high quality. A phone with a good quality camera should do just fine. Your photographs have to be very appealing, you can’t afford to post blurry photographs or pictures that are no awesome. Remember, people go to Instagram to consume their favourite content, make sure your content is appealing.
5) Use hash tags to promote your business
Hash tags can drive a lot of people to your page, people who are actually interested in your content. Instagram allows people to search using hash tags, in fact when you start typing a search on Insta, relevant hash tags immediately appear next to it. A lot of people search using these hash tags, they discover all the content associated with those hash tags. Try to caption your content with all the relevant hash tags. E.g. if you are a photographer based in Cape town you can caption your pictures with “#Capetownphotography”.
Everyone who is searching for photos of Cape Town or Cape Town photography will likely see your content as well. People who click through on your pictures are usually interested in finding what more you have in store for them and that’s how you gain followers.
6) Using Influencers to market your business on Instagram
You can hire out influencers to market your business. Most influencers get at least 5 000 likes on their photos, with some getting 30 000 likes. That’s more likes than some celebrities. Using influencers to advertise your business on Instagram is the equivalent of using celebrities to advertise your business.
Influencers have just as much power, however in South Africa most influencers are focused on the lifestyle and fashion niche. That’s good for any business, like clothing brands and any business that targets basically to everyone. Here is a guide on how to use Instagram influencers to market your business. Instagram influencers charge incredibly cheaper rates while providing you with a good ROI, one that can’t be matched by ads.
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