For businesses running social media marketing campaigns and influencers looking to build their audience and get clients, just having a popular account is not enough. Instagram tools are an absolute must if you want to gain traction on the platform.
Building a successful social media presence requires both strong analytics to inform your campaigns and powerful automation that keeps your content fresh even if you don’t have the time to create and publish it yourself.
Your business is unique, and so is your audience. Thus, not every business is going to benefit from every Instagram tool on this list. As a matter of fact, your company may only need one or two of these Instagram tools to accomplish your goals.
Regardless of your company’s industry, goals or audience, there are three things you need to focus on, no matter what: consistency, engagement and results.
Consistency
Find out how often your audience likes to see posts — usually at least once a day, but sometimes more — then keep a schedule of posts coming at the pace they expect. This sends the message that your brand is dependable, and it also keeps your company on people’s minds as much as possible. Automated publishing software can help you with this.
Engagement
Your followers want to be heard, and Instagram has some of the most engaged users on the internet. If you’re going to have a successful account, you need to stay engaged. Follow people back, like their posts and mentions, and always reply to their comments on your posts. You can find software on this list that will help you build meaningful relationships with your audience that expand brand loyalty and awareness.
Social media is constantly upgrading and changing. Performance metrics are an important way to discover what your audience loves, how their sentiment is changing, and what to do next. Analytics tools provide data that inform your company’s current and future social media success.
Without further ado, here are the 10 best Instagram tools marketers should be using:
1. SocialFox
Numbers are the name of the game when it comes to Instagram marketing, and SocialFox is a star player in this area. It’s straightforward and ready to help your business grow through a proven data-driven strategy.
Use this analytics tool to uncover facts about your audience, such as what time of day is best to reach them, their favorite content, and even the most popular of your filters. Get ahead of the competition with metrics that show what’s working and what isn’t.
2. Later
Later helps you stay on top of your content with a publishing calendar that posts automatically at the time and day you schedule. You can create all your content for the week (or even month) using Later’s performance-based guidance, then let Later do the rest. This Instagram tool also works on Pinterest, and it’s great for businesses working on a budget.
3. Rival IQ
Keep a close watch on your competitors with Rival IQ. This tool gives you in-depth intelligence that helps get your company to the front of the race and keep it there. Set benchmarks based on your rivals’ metrics, then keep track of how you measure up in real-time.
4. Short Stack
Engagement is pretty much the whole point of using an app like Instagram to reach your audience. Getting your followers engaged by giving them regular incentives is an immediate way of building brand presence and awareness. Short Stack gets people paying attention and talking about your business by automating content management.
5. Phlanx
Phlanx is kind of like Tinder for influencers. When you subscribe to Phlanx, businesses have access to a marketplace of Instagram influencers, and influencers have access to businesses that are hiring. You can check out each other’s stats and profiles. There are contract templates available in Phlanx’s resources. And businesses have all the information they need to choose the right influencers to make their campaigns pop.
When you want to keep an eye on your company’s reputation, find leads, and build hype around your brand, BuzzSumo is the app for you. BuzzSumo is a social listening tool that notifies you when your company is mentioned or when someone links to your site. Linking this tool with your Instagram gives you the ability to join the conversation about your brand right from BuzzSumo’s dashboard, making it easy to grab every opportunity to gain another follower.
7. Revive Social
Revive Social is one of the best Instagram tools for businesses that may have an archive of content, but are running tight on time. If your company is struggling to keep up with its Instagram growth, Revive Social can help in the content-creation department. Set it to automatically search your old posts for relevant, popular content, then repost. This saves you time on content creation, and more people get to see the posts that work for your brand.
8. LastPass
Cybersecurity keeps getting harder and harder, with new challenges arising all the time. Keeping all your social media account passwords straight (and yes, you should have a different, secure one for each) can be a real headache. LastPass has you covered, with its super-secure password creation and storage capabilities that keep everything in one place and away from hackers.
9. IFTTT
IFTTT is among the top Instagram tools because it is so versatile. An acronym for “If This, Then That,” IFTTT joins up with your other applications and software to create mini applets that act autonomously when they are triggered. This means you can set IFTTT to post to Instagram automatically every time you add something to your shop, publish a post to Facebook or even order a pizza. This is one of those fun apps that you just have to see in action to believe.
10. Bitly
Bitly allows you to customize and brand your links, making them easy to recognize and remember. When you share them on your Instagram profile — or any other place — they are marked for tracking, and you always have access to their performance metrics in real-time. You never have to wonder if your links are working when you keep track of them with Bitly.
2021 is already shaping up to be quite a year, and with the continued pandemic and political frenzy, it’s more important than ever to cut through the noise on social. Use these tools to stand out and set your content apart from the endless memes and viral videos.
By: Rotem Gal / Entrepreneur Leadership Network Contributor / CEO of Insights-Beyond
Instagram can be challenging for marketers when searching for the right kind of tools.
Here’s an attempt to help you improve your Instagram marketing efforts, with a collection of tools for scheduling, editing, content management, curation, measurement and more…
CYDigital/marteq.io’s insight:
Not big on Instagram for B2B, but this is a great collection.
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With so many targeting options for Facebook and Instagram advertising, figuring out which is right for you can be hard. These are all the targeting choices to help you find your ideal audience.
CYDigital/marteq.io’s insight:
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Today I have some Instagram apps to help make your mobile marketing strategy more successful. Here’s four links with tips and tricks to kick start your work week. Instagram is at the top of the social media marketing list when it comes to sharing images and videos with your audience. Use this platform to drive […]
Instagram marketing is the shiny new toy, especially for consumer brands. Should you use Instagram marketing and how do you implement it are our topics.
Having just hit 150 million active users, Instagram has become a marketing channel too significant to ignore. However, many B2B brands have remained hesitant to engage in a platform dominated by latte art and puppy pictures.
When it comes to social media, most business owners tend to have a fairly firm grasp on how to handle Facebook and Twitter, but Instagram still appears to challenge many small businesses. With Instagram gaining one new user every second it is no doubt that it can be advantageous for your business to be on this social networking platform. Here are 8 things you should do to effectively promote your brand on Instagram:
Every online marketer knows that social media is here to stay, and that it’s practically a requirement for an effective Internet presence. However, with so many social networks out there, it’s hard to know what will work for your business.
Even Facebook isn’t a guaranteed channel choice any more. A recent report from iStrategy Labs, a digital marketing strategy company, found that over the last three years, more than 3 million users in the 13-24 year old demographic have left the reigning social media platform.
So where should you focus your social media marketing efforts? If what you’re doing right now isn’t working, you might want to consider giving Instagram a shot.
Instagram management tools for planning & scheduling content
Instagram tools for measurement and analytics
Instagram account management and growth tools
Instagram marketing software for ecommerce stores
The rest of the best Instagram marketing tools
CYDigital/marteq.io’s insight:
Too many to scoop, so please CT.
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With hundreds and thousands of brands hiring professional marketing teams to market their product, Instagram marketing can become quite a difficult Task. These 5 tips will allow you to take your Instagram to the next level!
Start maximizing your company’s presence on Instagram by learning 20 tips you need to adopt, 10 things to avoid, and the best business Instagram accounts you need to follow.
Maximise ROI on your video by splitting it into mini edits Video posts on Instagram can be up to 60 seconds long, so one way to get ROI on your video is to plan it with social media in mind. If your video is longer than 60 seconds never fear! Think about natural breaking points in your promo video so that it can divided into mini edits, therefore creating multiple social media posts from one video!
With over 150 million active users worldwide, Instagram has become such a successful marketing tool for many brands. Like Facebook and Twitter, Instagram is also a leader when it comes to social media marketing, but with the added personal touch to its followers. In addition, it’s mobile, simple and very easy on the eyes since Instagram is primarily composed of images shared by numerous users. It’s common for brands to think that social media apps like Instagram can be used to sell. Though this is true, users on Instagram are more sensitive to the hard sell tactic, and this is one of the main reasons users may stop following a brand on Instagram. So the question remains: How do you build your audience through Instagram marketing?
I think everyone’s looking at Instagram’s new videos the wrong way. What will make Instagram successful in video isn’t some specific product. Rather, it’s the way Instagram videos play well on Facebook.
The Featured PresentationEveryone’s comparing Instagram to Twitter’s Vine app. Both allow users to take short video clips. And so it’s easy to tick off a list of explicit product features—max video length, stabilization, filters, and so on—without considering which ones people will really use.
Instagram Live is one of the latest additions to one of the most popular social media networks today. Instagram already boasts hundreds of millions of users. The live format is one that several social media networks (including Instagram’s parent company, Facebook) have been exploring.
The Live space opens up the network to a different type of content—a combination of videos (which we already know have high engagement numbers) and the allure of getting a glimpse into someone’s personal life. While this feature tends to be more popular with individuals, brands can capitalize on it, too, with a bit of research and strategizing.
To help, these 12 members of Forbes Business Council discuss some of the creative ways they see businesses using Instagram Live to grow their brand presence and reach out to customers.
1. Schedule Q&As
People love reality TV and the use of live videos in business can provide instantaneous connection with customers. Integrating this tool in your business can maximize exposure and profits. Schedule Q&As to bring viewers online, update on new offerings and showcase team members’ personality and quirks. The more regular you do lives, the more connections you’ll be making and the more raving fans you’ll create. – Coraline Dufroux, Innova Services Group
One way businesses can increase their brand awareness using Instagram Live is through the collaboration feature. Companies can use it to partner up and cross-promote with other brands and influencers by going live on campaigns together. This way, both brands can engage with their respective viewers on Instagram Live and potentially gain new quality followers. – Amy Bourne, Brad’s Deals
4. Leverage Guest Appearances
With the shift to a remote work lifestyle, a lot of brands have started using Instagram Live for collaborations and guest appearances. This gives guests an opportunity to share their knowledge and speak about how the work they are doing relates to the brand’s audience. This kind of content helps brands grow because it attracts a new audience and is different from the content they usually produce. – Emma Rose Cohen, Final
5. Host Employee Interviews
One idea is to host an interview with one of your employees on Instagram Live. This is an opportunity to share your organization’s culture and add a human touch to your business, both of which can improve customers’ engagement with your brand. Let customers watching the Live ask questions as this will pique interest and add transparency. – Adam Harvey, Proofed
6. Create Interactive Live Demos
One creative way businesses can use Instagram Live to grow their online brand and presence is by providing live demonstrations that are interactive rather than only educational and content-based. During this time particularly, individuals want information that they can immediately benefit from, e.g., meditation, yoga, cooking and other wellness-related activities. – Dr. Jaquel Patterson, Fairfield Family Health
7. Engage In Bilateral Conversations
Studies indicate that millennials and Gen Zers want brands to engage them online. Consumers want experiential, not simply promotional videos. Instagram Live empowers brands to engage in bilateral conversations versus the standard one-way megaphone. Consumers also want to be heard, not told. Use Instagram Live not to broadcast, but to engage in a meaningful way to build customer loyalty and retention. – Scott Amyx, Astor Perkins
8. Use It As A Storytelling Platform
It’s a great storytelling platform as it has no time limitations and allows you to receive real-time feedback. Viewers can comment during the broadcast, so it’s a fantastic way to get a read on your audience. It’s also casual, so no need for fancy production. Just point and shoot! Consider using this option to expand your brand story, promote upcoming events and test new kinds of content. – Jessica First, Kilter
9. Enhance The Connection With Clients
Now is an excellent time to utilize Instagram Live more than ever before. Most companies are working remotely during this time, and creating human connection has become an essential daily need in all of our lives. Instagram Live is a great way to enhance the connection with clients and customers. Connecting with your customers through avenues like this organically grows your presence and brand. – Brittany Harrer Dolin, The Pocketbook Agency
10. Increase Engagement With Followers
When customers tune into a live video on Instagram, they are choosing to interact with the streamer. It’s important for companies to recognize this opportunity to engage by sparking discussions with the viewers. One way to do that is through rewarding valuable feedback communicated by fans with exclusive offers and coupon codes. Building communities and creating enthusiastic and loyal customers. – Ibrahim Ibrahim, iBoostReach
11. Share Your Journey
Being vulnerable and sharing your journey as a business owner makes your audience turn into loyal customers through the empathy they feel and the connection they have with your real business journey. For example, you could talk about manufacturing challenges or design decisions on social media marketing or about landing a huge contract and all the “feels” you’re going through. It’s priceless! – Silvia Mah, Ad Astra Ventures
12. Showcase Your Personal Life
Part of the brand is personality. We had a lot of success promoting an off-Broadway play with actors using Instagram Live to show fans their morning commute and work outside of the theater. You don’t need to be an actor with this approach. CEOs and other leaders can showcase their personal life with similar IG Live situations. Let your customers connect with your leaders via personal stories. – Mark Macias, MACIAS PR Check out my website.
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Best Home and Office Shifting Services in Dhaka unb.com.bd – Today[…] Also read: A pandemic Christmas: Services move online, people stay home What is more? Thinking out of the box, thi […]4
Lapid jets back from US after pre-election parley with Democrat advisers | The Times of Israelhttp://www.timesofisrael.com – Today[…] The timing of the visit to the US was strange not only due to the coronavirus pandemic, which has largely grounded air travel, but also because it comes during what is seen as a critical […] Lapid plans on attempting to recreate the Democrats’ success in getting out the vote despite the pandemic, making use of door-to-door campaigning and small outdoor meetings, in person and virtually, i […]0
What Is Web Accessibility? The Basics to Get You Started blog.usablenet.com – Today[…] WHY IS WEB ACCESSIBILITY IMPORTANT? As the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic continues pushing the boundaries of online communities and society, the internet has become […]2
IIT-Delhi to come up with many big inventions soon : Director telugustop.com – Today[…] Rao tells in an exclusive interview to IANS how the institute has endeavoured to fight coronavirus pandemic and what the situation vis-a-vis job placements and new courses in the IIT is […] Q: Coronavirus pandemic affected the whole world.It has been the biggest pandemic reported in the last 100 years […] 2020 but kept the laboratories open for students who wanted to work in areas related to coronavirus pandemic — be its treatment, diagnostics or research work related to prevention of the disease […]0
What other countries can learn from China’s lockdown policies theconversation.com – TodayPitting authoritarianism against democracy has become common during the pandemic, with the former often being painted as a more effective regime type in handling COVID-19 […]0
James Bond has been delayed yet again – here’s why this is such a blow to the franchise theconversation.com – Today[…] But the pandemic has changed the debate somewhat […] As one of the first major releases to shift its release schedule due to the pandemic, Bond, which is distributed by MGM and Universal, has become the canary in the coalmine for th […] Box office revenue has been hit heavily by the pandemic across the board, and more studios are likely to experiment with digital releases now that there is […]0
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Instagram is currently testing a new feature that would hide “Like” counts on your page. Rumors have spread around for a while since a tester leaked screenshots of the news update, but it was officially announced at the Facebook F8 Developers Conference and will be rolled out in Canada as early as next week.
A few weeks ago, screenshots were acquired by Jane Manchun Wong, who uncovered the app was currently testing a prototype of the feature.
tweets
twitter, wong
“We want your followers to focus on what you share, not how many likes your posts get,” Instagram says in one of the screenshots from Wong. “During this test, only the person who shares a post will see the total number of likes it gets.”
With the test, Instagram plans to remove the total number of likes from photos and videos on that show up on the main feed, profiles and permalink pages. Only the account user will be able to see the number of likes a post receives. It will show a couple profile photos next to a call out of a few names who have liked the photo, as it does now, but will no longer show the exact count of people who liked the post.
Instagram says the reason for this update test is to have users concentrate on their posts and interacting with the app rather than likes. Many users will delete photos that do not get “enough” likes. Many studies have been conducted on the culture surrounding social media and the unhealthy obsession with “likes” and comparison to others online. A recent report from UK’s Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) and the Young Health Movement looked at the impact of different social media platforms on mental health. While there were some positives about accessing health information, the opportunity for self-expression and a feeling of community, the negative factors were heavy. Things like anxiety, depression, loneliness, sleep quality and negative impact on body image were all reported.
The hope is by getting rid of the liking part of the app it could reduce some of these negative effects about getting enough likes on a post and eliminate the competition to have the most “likable post.” This could increase authenticity across posting and could be a benefit for many.
While a benefit for many, some influencers have expressed concern about their feed rankings in the algorithm and their source of income. There are currently no plans to hide follower counts on profiles, which are the main source for sponsorships for influencers. Developers will most likely need to update the algorithm to reflect the inability to publically see likes and find a new way to curate content feeds based on the popularity of a post, such as engagement through comments.
There are other updates that were found in Wong’s test such as chat thread stickers for Direct messages, augmented reality filters for Direct Video calls, simultaneous co-watching of recommended videos through Direct, karaoke-style lyrics that appear synced to soundtracks in Stories, emoji reactions to feed posts and a shopping bag for commerce.
While it is starting in Canada, it is not certain if they will begin to test in other places. Like many tests, they will have to see an increase in positive interactions and user engagement to expand. If it is successful on Instagram, it could spread to other platforms like Facebook in the hope to create a healthier social media environment for all.
Nicole Martin is the owner of NR Digital Consulting and host of Talk Digital To Me Podcast. She has worked in many different industries on customer journeys, website management, social media, and content strategy. Starting out as a journalist, Nicole has a BA in Print Journalism from Penn State University and an MA in Journalism & Mass Communication from Point Park University. After working with multiple publications, she saw the industry rapidly changing to digital and decided to change career directions to focus on digital marketing in the new market. She taught English 420: Writing for the Web at Penn State University as an Adjunct Professor and is also an avid public speaker and presenter. Nicole recently did a TEDx Talk on Personalization and the Privacy Paradox and currently works as the Digital Marketing Manager at Sonic Healthcare USA in Austin, Texas. She is now using her knowledge in the field combined with her writing background to share information about technology, digital marketing, data, and innovation.
According to a Business Insider investigation, Instagram has been allowing a San Francisco-based marketing agency, HYP3R, to flout its rules and collect information from millions of users. That includes physical locations, stories, photos, and bios, which were used to create a database of user profiles. In fact, according to HYP3R itself, the marketing firm scrapes as many as one million posts a month.
Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, has largely avoided many of the privacy scandals and scrutiny that have plagued its parent company. This revelation, however, puts that scrutiny in an entirely new light as the company seems to do little to actually enforce privacy protections designed to prevent the sort of behavior.
In Instagram’s defense, it took swift action once it was presented with Business Insider’s reporting, issuing a statement that it had banned HYP3R from its platform, and making a change that would prevent other companies from taking advantage of its API in the same way.
“HYP3R’s actions were not sanctioned and violate our policies. As a result, we’ve removed them from our platform. We’ve also made a product change that should help prevent other companies from scraping public location pages in this way,” the company told Business Insider through a spokesperson.
HYP3R is a “Facebook Marketing Partner,” meaning this isn’t some rogue firm acting outside the lines. It’s one of Instagram’s preferred partners, and though there are policies against this type of behavior, there were apparently no actual limitations on the access the marketing firm had to your private data via the API it created.
In a response to my request for comment, an Instagram spokesperson provided me with the same statement as above and stressed to me that the data scraped by HYP3R was publicly available and that HYP3R wasn’t able to access private user account information.
Despite Instagram’s response, it’s more than a little concerning that there weren’t actual technical protections that would have prevented this kind of activity. And, of course, there’s the fact that this is just one more in a long list of episodes involving a Facebook-owned app and “privacy problem” in the same headline.
In no uncertain terms, we are at the point where Facebook needs an all-hand-on-deck response to what can only be described as a five-alarm fire. Any amount of trust that Facebook still had with its users is burning to the ground. Sure, the company is still profitable, but that’s the problem.
These practices and lack of care with users’ information largely feed that profit engine, leaving the company little incentive to do anything different. Facebook, as a platform, is fundamentally unable to protect its users’ information– because it literally exists to exploit that information.
You could argue that it’s impossible to fully police the activity of the countless number of advertising and marketing partners the company has on its platforms. That may be true, but if it is, then it’s time to shut the whole thing down. Seriously.
Where else is would we say it’s okay to gather a bunch of hens into a hen house, promising them a safe place to hang out, and then invite a bunch of foxes over to come and play? There’s no scenario where that ends well for the hens.
Friends, we are the hens. And while we’ve known for a while that there was something wrong, it turns out it’s a much bigger problem than we thought.
All of this is a reminder, though I’ve written it many times, that trust is your brand’s most valuable asset. What you do to guard that trust, or betray it, makes all the difference in whether or not you get the benefit of the doubt when bad news comes.
And, as a final thought, regardless of the impact on your company’s brand, there’s also a more global principle of “do the right thing.” Do the right thing for your customers, even when it isn’t the most convenient thing for you. Protect their privacy, even when it means sacrificing some easy profits.
Do the hard work of thinking through the implications of your business practices and policies so that you don’t find yourself in a situation where those practices end up in a headline about just another scandal or major problem.
It turns out that “do the right thing,” usually leads to trust anyway.
Editor’s Note: The article has been updated to include a response from Instagram.
The best way to super-charge your earnings from Instagram is to show your posts to an army of followers as soon as you post them. This is because the Instagram algorithm determines who will see what on their newsfeeds – and “followers” are always at the top of the queue. Ever wondered why those who have lots of followers receive top bucks as highly paid influencers? It’s because their posts get seen by their legions of followers. Read more…
Not big on Instagram for B2B, but this is a great collection.
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