Should your business be on Instagram?

July 08, 2020

Everyone is doing it. Take a look at your competitors website or advertisements. Odds are you’ll find a row of icons or text that reads: ‘Follow us on Facebook, twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, etc.’

If you actually follow said links you may notice that there are some accounts that receive more attention than others. Should you do the same? Should you be on all platforms posting the same content on all, or should you focus on a few?

Short answer, it depends on your goals.

As a small business owner you probably should not be on all platforms at all times. Your time is valuable. Focus on one or two platforms and do them well. Make a schedule and follow it. Set goals. It is possible to manage the social media with little effort as long as you designate time for it. Before you know it, you will automatically post and come up with a system that works for you.

We recommend that you don’t open an account just because everyone else has one.

A lot of businesses just copy and paste what they have on one platform to all others, but that may not necessarily work well on all platforms. That’s because you may have placed links to your website, however, Instagram does not allow links to go outside the app. Do you want to spend the time on a platform that doesn’t send your posts directly to your webpage or product? If the answer is no, then don’t bother with Instagram as much. You have priorities as a business, dedicate to making a profit where you can get results.

As platform, Instagram is more a visual platform and nothing else. Think of it like traditional advertising on the local newspaper or television. You can’t click a link to your site there, but businesses can make a return on their investments when done right. If you’d like to put in the time to get your name recognized, then it’s something you should definitely be focused on. Plus, unlike TV, radio or print, you don’t need any money to get started.

Can you Sell Your Product?

This is probably the most important factor for any small business. Short answer, yes! However tracking can be a bit difficult depending on the platform. Facebook, Twitter, and Linked in will allow you to place links you can track. Instagram, on the other hand is very greedy when compared to other platforms. Links are almost useless on Instagram since they are not active. You can post them, but it requires people copy and paste the link on a web browser. Let’s face it, not everyone want to copy a link, paste it in a browser. Viewers on Instagram tend to stay on the platform. So if you’re expecting direct sales with every post, then maybe Instagram is not for you.

A good rule of thumb is to be where your ideal customers are. Your competitor’s Facebook page may have daily/hourly posts while that same company’s Instagram hasn’t had a post in weeks. Why ask people to follow you to a dead end? The difference between an inactive account and not running one is showing your customers that you don’t care to update the empty account. Don’t disappoint your customers.

Full disclosure, Top Hat Central offers social media content service. If you would like custom content contact us here. This page was designed to address common questions we encounter. Whether you choose to use our services or not, we hope you continue to pursue your online goals.