Instagram for businesses. What you need to know. Here are some useful tips on how to open a tourism business page on Instagram and what kind of content you should post.
Basic business use of Instagram for businesses
Introduction to the tool
- It is almost the same as a normal account but it lets Instagram know that you are using the platform for marketing. Also using it for business enables features such as post boosting, adding links to your stories, access analytics, having shoppable posts (for selling directly from your Instagram page), several CTA’s for driving people to your website.
How to start using it
- Setting up a business account on Instagram is not that hard. You go into settings and scroll down to the option of “Sign up for a Business Profile” and Switch to a Business profile.
- After you sign up for a business profile, you can choose to link your existing Facebook page and provide contact information.
- Once those steps are done, you can select a category that is best represents your business and that will help people find you.
- Based on your business, Instagram offers you a big amount of CTA, it can be for example to help your clients make bookings online or order food.
Of course, there can be several steps to follow up on the presented ones, but those are the basic steps for setting up your Instagram business account. For more information, you can check Business Instagram in order to get a more detailed overview of the next steps you can take to make your Instagram account successful.
How to use Instagram in a tourism business
Instagram has quickly become one of the most popular social networking platforms among users of all ages. It’s also where brands go to communicate with their existing and potential new customers on the internet.
For most marketers, selling on Instagram is a major priority these days. We can see why by looking at the numbers.
It’s a terrific area to start building your consumer base because the platform has over 1 billion active members. Around 25 million of them work for well-known corporations or brands.
Even more thrilling, once a month, 130 million Instagram users click on a shopping post.
We all know that Instagram has changed the way individuals choose their next holiday destination and social experiences, especially in the travel and tourism industry. The platform has been demonstrated to have a significant impact on travel behaviour, with over 600 million posts using the hashtag #travel. While we believe Instagram can benefit any business, its potential for tour and activity companies is enormous.
Target group
In January 2022, over 31% of global Instagram audiences were between the ages of 25 and 34. Over two-thirds of total Instagram audiences were under the age of 34, making the platform especially appealing to marketers.
Instagram is notably popular in India and the United States, where there are 201 million and 157 million Instagram users, respectively
What type of content on your Instagram feed
These are simple rules to follow to start a tourism business (travel agencies, tour operators, DMCs, DMOs) on Instagram. Using the right content is essential – but what are they?
Create A Well-Curated Feed And High-Quality Content
Use high-resolution photos and photo-editing software to improve them. The goal is to grab the attention of the audience.
Utilize themes or filters to ensure that your material stands out. To enhance your brand voice, curate your feed around a colour scheme or theme.
Guide Your Audience About Destinations, Hotels, homestays And Experiences
To educate and advise your audience about a trip, use Instagram photographs and videos. You may also use Instagram posts and stories to promote your hotel/homestay or experiences.
Complement pictures with engaging subtitles that are both instructive and participatory. The goal is to grab people’s attention with your visual content and then hook them on your brand with engaging and crucial facts and information. The easier it is to engage your audience, the more distinctive and fresh your material is.
Give Your Audience An Interesting Virtual Experience
Apart from posting photographs of stunning scenery and delicious street cuisine, Instagram allows you to practically transport your audience to such locations.
Give your audience a visual tour of trips and experiences with Instagram Stories, Live, and IGTV. Create virtual experiences that attract your target audience to perform the action you want them to take.
Run UGC campaigns
Including user-generated information in your feed, such as tagged images and other geotagged content, may be beneficial to your business. User-generated content gives your brand a sense of trust and authenticity. Furthermore, peer reviews are effective and encourage your audience to learn more about what you have to offer.
In case you want to read more about the best Instagram content and how to use them, you can visit this blog.
How to communicate with the followers
To strengthen the relationship with your customers and connect with new ones, Instagram gave the following tips on how to communicate with your followers:
- The easiest and fastest method to communicate is to like the comments underneath your post
- Reply to the comments with quick and short replies or emojis
- Remember to reflect your business personality in your conversations
- Post frequently to stay in your followers’ minds. Remember to not overdo it, no one wants to see multiple posts per day from the same account
- Take a look at your metrics and determine when your customers are online. Posting when the followers are active will make it easier to start a conversation and to see quick reactions
- Use questions as your captions to start a conversation underneath your post
- Use simple language to reply to your followers. You don’t want to confuse anyone
- If you see a comment that you want to discuss privately, take it to the direct messages
- Use the “quick replies” function to answer quickly to frequently asked questions.
What kind of metrics does Instagram offer?
Instagram is offering business accounts multiple metrics to provide a clear insight into how the company is doing.
- Impression: The number of people who saw your post even if they did not like or comment on it. The “Impression” insight can help you to determine how well the promotion of your content is going.
- Engagement rate: It is based on the likes, shares, comments and saves of either your entire account or a single post. It might be useful to indicate how to improve your marketing strategy
- Follower growth rate: How the name already clarifies, it shows how many followers you are gaining or losing. Instagram also provides insight into the age, sex and location of your followers.
- Clicks: Gives you insight into how many customers clicked on the link inside your bio to connect to your website.
- Unique views: Determines how many people are seeing your story
- Completion rate: Shows the number of people who watched your entire story
- Direct messages: The number indicates how many people sent a direct message as a reply to your story
In case you want to read more about Instagram metrics and how to use them, you can visit this blog.
Special tips for business Instagram
To make your new business account even more attractive to your followers, here are some special tips just for you!
- Use hashtags! It is an easy method to reach a wider audience and increase your impression score. You can either make up your own hashtag or use already existing ones.
- Give your posts a consistent style to be instantly and easily recognizable to your followers.
- Make your posts aesthetic.
- Remember, Instagram is much more than just photos. You can create Reels, Stories and IGTV as well.
Examples of best practices
- Provide a steady stream of high-quality graphics. When it comes to Instagram, the aesthetic aspect is crucial. It’s not going to be enough to have a poorly taken image or a poorly created graphic. Businesses need high-quality photographs and videos that stand out and grab their audience’s attention right away.
- Keep up with Instagram’s changes and improvements. Because Instagram is continuously changing, marketers must keep up with the newest trends and features. This will offer them the foresight they need to take advantage of these changes and improvements before their competitors do.
- Pay attention to what your target market wants. The business audience’s behaviour and actions may tell the company a lot about what they want to see, even if they don’t express it clearly. Using data from their social media analytics to determine what kind of content people prefer to connect with.
Find more Best Practices to build an Instagram audience for your business.
Conclusion
Experimenting and learning as you go has always been a part of social media. So it is good to have an open mind and never pass up the chance to see how new formats affect the platform.
Links to tutorials
Below you can find some links to tutorials if you want to make your business the most of Instagram.
How to Use Instagram for Business: A Practical Step-by-Step Guide
Video:
Hey,
Thank you for this very detailed and thoughtful post, it was very informative!
You used a lot of links, pictures, and videos to get further information, but you also included everything important. You used a professional tone of voice but it was still airy and easy to read. Also, it is obvious that you have a good understanding of the topic, and you have experience using business profiles on Instagram, which must have been very helpful while writing the blog post.
I also liked the special tips that you included, especially about the importance of aesthetic posts with consistent style, because I also think it is very important. You also could have added some more details on how to do that, for example, by using the same fonts, colors, and layout, and it is also possible to add your logo to your posts if you have one.
If you accept a little advice from me, I feel like you are a bit confused on how to capitalize the headings, here is a link for you 😀
https://www.webucator.com/article/how-to-capitalize-headings-and-titles/
Anyways, very useful post, good job!
Thank you for a very instructive and comprehensive look into this social media giant. You emphasised its huge potential for the tourism market, which is undeniable considering its popularity and target group.
I read that there are some disadvantages to a business Instagram account because posts have less visibility and less organic reach, plus there are other limitations, which can easily be googled. This made me think that small and micro-sized companies might want to weigh the pros and cons before making the switch early on. I know it’s easy to switch back and forth between account types, but it’s something bear in mind.
I thought I would mention the above because my own experience with getting an Instagram business account working with shoppable posts and Facebook integration was quite frustrating. Admittedly, this was several years ago, so I’m sure they have ironed out those wrinkles by now 🙂
Thanks for the introduction on Instagram! As an Instagram addict, I still learned new things when reading this post! I believe that the possibilities to communicate with followers and the metrics the app offers for business accounts can really motivate the content provider!
On Instagram, I really like the features of stories: the quick replies, questions, quizzes, and polls as well as the possibility to add music are my favorite. 😀 As you wrote about the app’s several different metrics, businesses can use these in different ways beneficially in marketing!
The text was easy to follow and the language was clear and very informative, well done! 🙂
Great job at creating an informative introduction to Instagram!
Hi,
Your blog is so detailed! I learnt a considerable amount of knowledge.
Honestly, I have never used Instagram before, let alone for business. I know Instagram as a visual social network, it’s interesting to be able to convey messages to customers with “talking” photos.
Thanks for the informative blog post!
Hi there,
This was a very interesting read about Instagram. I got to learn quite a lot (especialy on a business perspective) even though i’m already familiar with this specific tool, so thank you for that! The usage of numbers and percentages gives us a clear view on who uses Instagram the most and how many members use it in total.
I like the overall look you guys gave to your blogpost and it is quite easy to read.
Good job!
Thank you for a very informative and educational post! It is very clear how the selling and marketing potential of this app increases daily. You proved in your post that every business and particular tourism business should have their products and services on Instagram. There are many useful tricks and tips for companies to look at before starting using the app for marketing campaigns and customer engagement.
The text itself is easy to follow, entertaining and informative at the same time. You used great videos, pictures, and links that can give the reader a better understanding of the subject.
I think you did a great job writing this blog post!