Best Practices for Your Business Instagram

EMMA FOGT

MBA, MS, RDN, LDN, FAND

NE MENTOR

Instagram (IG) was launched in 2006 and now has one billion active users� With a new business account platform, it’s no wonder that more than 25 million companies are using Instagram for business with more than 200 million users visiting one business profile each day�¹

Personal IG accounts have been around for a while, but the new Business IG was recently launched in March 2019�² In general, Instagram accounts have evolved from posting favorite taco recipes and dog pictures to now having creative and fun features� A profile page, public reach, visual grid and ability to post videos on Stories, IGTV and Reels are now a part of both Personal and Business IG accounts�

Having all these features on both platforms then begs the question: Why should you consider having a Business IG account? The Business IG account has four features (for now) that can help augment your followers’ reach and boost your audience engagement to consequently grow your business� For the sake of simplicity let’s call these Business IG tools RISP� RISP stands for Reels, Insights, Swipe-Up and Promotions�

REELS

Reels are a great way to make 15- to 30-second video clips on Instagram� These mini-movies have music, text and effects to make them highly entertaining� The advantage of Reels is that your videos are front and center and can make maximum impact in just a few seconds� Once you make your Reels live, they can be shared on your Stories for 24 hours, housed on the Reels tab or found on the Explore page� The advantage of a Business IG Account is that it is public, so Reels have the chance to be seen and discovered by the wider Instagram community in the Explore field� If you share your Reel in the Feed tool, then the Reel will be shared with your followers� In November 2020, Reels were encouraged to go front-and-center with product tags that can be promoted as ads as well� Thanks to interoperability, Instagram Reels may be coming to Facebook�³

INSIGHTS

Instagram Insights provides a breakdown of your Instagram performance by various metrics� This includes new followers, profile views, impressions, number of posts, reach, website clicks and email clicks� The data is extremely valuable to be able to define your market, track comments and video views, and even get a handle on your demographics� You can literally find data about your followers, such as gender, age, location and activity peaks� From this data, you are able to build excellent content for your target audience and ideal client� You can see which posts perform best and strategize to repost similar posts� While most people focus on follower count, you’ll learn more about what your Instagram marketing is doing for your business by looking at profile views, reach and website visits�

SWIPE UP (FEATURE AVAILABLE WITH OVER 10,000 FOLLOWERS)

Business profiles with over 10,000 followers have the ability to include a Swipe Up feature in Instagram stories� This feature has many benefits like driving traffic to your homepage, including an affiliate link to earn commission, or pointing your audience to any direct call-to-action you may wish for them to take� I love to watch colleagues with over 10,000 followers use their Swipe Up in creative ways - from advertising their next IG Live interviews to posting promos, prizes and new product offers, from adding recipes to connecting to other links from external websites� This feature is very powerful and clearly a beneficial feature for a group of skillful and proficient NEDPG IG influencers�

PROMOTIONS

Business IG Promotions is another word for advertisements� This business IG feature provides a way to buy ads so you can promote your post to your followers as well as people whom you do not follow� Promotions can be in the form of videos, photos,

slideshow, carousels or stories with specific campaign objectives to choose from� 4 In addition to paid ads, influencers or accounts with impressive follower count and competitive engagement can make money on posts that are sponsored� Many companies want to get their brands in front of influencer audiences, and in return, influencers can make a commission on brand products� If you are an influencer posting contentsponsored brands, or an affiliate marketer selling others’ products, or you want to sell your own products, think about Promotions and how you would like to work that into your social media strategy and Business IG� 5

Table 1 summarizes some of the similarities and differences between a Personal and Business IG�

Overall, using a Business IG allows for effective use of the RISP features to optimally engage your audience� No matter which platform - Business IG or Personal IG - it is clear that social media allows nutrition entrepreneurs to share high-quality content in a consistent manner for business growth as well as build powerful and effective relationships and brand loyalty�

GLOSSARY

y Visual Grid: The grid-like layout of Instagram accounts� y Stories: Instagram Stories allows users to upload content created (videos and photos) for a period of up to 24 hours on their “story�” These stories can then be housed in a highlighted section of the IG account - like a file system for users to see accumulated posts by category� y IGTV: IGTV and YouTube are similar video applications�

IGTV can be promoted through

Instagram Newsfeed with a oneminute preview� If the content is compelling, your audience can click “keep watching” for the full video� Videos can be up to 15 minutes from a mobile device� y Tag: IG tag is to place a @ before a username� This is a direct way to interact and gain the attention of a person or brand� y Profile: Where you tell people on

IG who you are and call to action�

TABLE 1: COMPARING BUSINESS TO PERSONAL IG

FEATURES

PLATFORM BUSINESS IG PERSONAL IG

Visual Grid Stories Reels IGTV Tag Profile Page Promotions Insights Visual Grid Stories Reels IGTV Tag Profile Page No Promotions No Insights

Public Public or Private

FACEBOOK LINKS One

USERS

Business Many

Influencers & Business

REFERENCES:

1 later�com/blog/instagrambusiness-profile/ 2 perfectsearchmedia�com/blog/ brief-history-how-instagramsbusiness-features-have evolved

3 business�instagram�com/blog/ announcing-instagram-reels 4 shopify�com/blog/instagram-ads 5 hootsuite�com

Emma Fogt, MBA, MS, RDN, LDN, is the owner of a digestive wellness practice called The Biome Kitchen� Emma was past chair of NE in 2013 and recipient of NE’s 2018 Outstanding NE Award�