Choosing the right social media platforms for business can be tricky and, unless you can afford to pay someone to run your social media accounts, will take time. When it comes to choosing the best social media platforms for your business, quality is definitely better than quantity. Some companies dismiss Instagram as a pretty, vacuous sharing space, but we think they are wrong to do so. Here are 4 reasons we believe your business does need an Instagram account.

Instagram is a fast growing platform

In the two years between June 2016 and June 2018, the number of monthly active Instagram users doubled from 500 million to 1 billion (1,000 million). While this doesn’t come near to Facebook monthly user numbers (over 2,000 million mid 2018), Facebook’s growth rate is not as fast and the platform is losing consumer trust.

The millennial market likes Instagram

In the United States (and there is no reason to presume that the UK would be different), around 50% of Instagram users are in the millennial age bracket. These young generation Y adults rely on collaboration with peers to help them spend their disposable income. Instagram is their platform of choice and, as this generation currently make up the biggest proportion of people on earth, it would be a foolish choice to ignore.

Instagram is top for visual marketing

You only have to look at online news websites to realise how important visual representation has become to communication. More and more marketers are turning to Instagram because it offers by far the best image and video presentation and manipulation opportunities of all of the social media platforms. Your target audience now expects to see products and services as well as read about them. Disappoint these potential customers at your peril.

Instagram can do most marketing jobs

Not only is Instagram a great visual marketer, these days it also allows for more detail to be added to posts through an increased character count. With around 400 words available it is possible to use carefully directed hashtags and provide a mini-blog with each post. The great news however, if you are short of time, is that Instagram’s flexibility makes regular posting as quick or as slow as you want it to be.

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