USING INSTAGRAM IN YOUR BUSINESS

By Nur Halik –(F)empowered Communications

Do you remember a time before social media?

Can you recall how people in small, rural communities shared news, or information about important events?

I grew up in a regional community (Port Hedland) and I remember either getting carefully folded pieces of paper in the mailbox inviting us to some community event, or piles of flimsy catalogues with the latest sales or new products. It was pretty exciting to be honest, and as an adult, I’ll still check the mailbox occasionally in case someone has decided to send me a flyer made up on Word or Publisher, and hand-folded with the precision of an army drill sergeant.

I don’t quite remember when social media became a ‘thing’ in our town. I remember the exact date I joined Facebook (end of 2006, when my American flatmate asked to connect with me on Facebook, and laughed when I said I’d never heard of it), and I remember my incredulity when a friend of mine told me Instagram was all the rage (2012).

But I don’t know the exact point that our community, and I’m sure many other small communities like ours, became obsessed with social media and deemed it to be the new town crier. Do you?

Love it or hate it, social media is an important part of communication, and community building in small communities. It’s how new people to town make friends, it’s how residents sell their old furniture when they’re leaving town, and it’s how the vocal minority amplify issues that may or may not be important to the rest of the community.

From chatting to a number of small business owners living in regional or rural communities, Facebook is the preferred choice of digital communication. So more often than not, they choose to ignore building their business on Instagram which I think is a huge oversight.

As a social media manager living in a regional town, and working with other small business owners in my region, I like to remind them that Instagram still has value in their marketing plan. While it may not have the countless public Facebook groups for you to promote your products or services, the one thing Instagram does have going for it is its ability to build genuine, intentional relationships with your online community and customers.

I don’t know about you but I find Facebook completely devoid of all human emotion. Even videos which are designed to give you the warm and fuzzies, still leave me feeling a bit cold because I know it’s for pure clickbait, and also, I don’t even know the person who created this video so why on earth should I connect with it?

Instagram on the other hand, is built to encourage conversations in comments or DMs (direct messages), and with new features like notes in your messages, and engagement stickers in Stories, it’s never been easier to connect with other people in your industry or niche, or with people who have a genuine interest in your and your brand.

Another benefit of Instagram is how the content itself is presented. Unlike Facebook, where if you visit someone’s page you have to scroll through just to see what they’ve posted, and even then, it’s a bit of a mess. I personally HATE having to scroll through countless posts just to get a feel about who they are as a brand, and understand what they do; and I’m sure I’m not alone.

Whereas on Instagram, everything is presented so neatly in a beautiful grid, which by the way, you have complete control over how it looks, plus the highlights section means people can easily access information without having to spend time trying to find that info in posts that are 6 months old.

First impressions are everything, and I find that Instagram has nailed it.

And you know what? There’s so much information out there about how to succeed on Instagram, that you don’t need to spend hours trying to figure out how to make your content stand out amongst your competitors (if you have any in your area!).

I find it harder to make organic (unpaid) content to stand out on Facebook, because of the sheer number of ads that are on there, and often get prioritised ahead of organic posts. And unfortunately, unless you can build that consistent engagement and presence on Facebook, which takes a lot of time and more often than not a team or outsourced agency, you have to rely on those annoying little Facebook groups to get the word out.

That’s the beauty of Instagram. While they still do push ads and suggested posts, the algorithm (AI) is pretty good in that it will show you highly relevant content based on your behaviour, not based on whatever parameters someone has put into their ad. I enjoy my experience on Instagram far more than Facebook, probably because I don’t have to see every post in the world just because a friend commented ‘lol’ on it.

So if you’re on the fence on whether you should join the Instagram community, take it from me: it’ll be one of the best business decisions you’ll ever make. And if you need advice and help, I’m just one Instagram follow away.

Nur Halik is a social media strategist based in Port Hedland, in Western Australia’s extremely sunny North-West. With over 15 years experience in marketing and public relations in a range of fields, and an obsession with Instagram, she is your go-to gal for your social media needs. She runs (f)empowered communications, a social media management company, servicing small business owners in the Pilbara, offering complete social media management and free workshops in partnership with the Port Hedland Chamber of Commerce.

Her approach is all about collaboration - she’s not there to take over or tell you what to do, but listen to what you need and work with you to create a solution that you are comfortable with and able to contribute to. Though based in the North-West of WA, she works with clients across Australia.